CHAPTER I. COLLECTORS AND COLLECTING 1

" II. BLOCK-BOOKS 19

" III. THE INVENTION OF PRINTING--HOLLAND 32

" IV. THE INVENTION OF PRINTING--MAINZ 44

" V. OTHER INCUNABULA 59

" VI. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRINTING 83

" VII. EARLY GERMAN AND DUTCH ILLUSTRATED BOOKS 100

" VIII. EARLY ITALIAN ILLUSTRATED BOOKS 123

" IX. EARLY FRENCH AND SPANISH ILLUSTRATED BOOKS 143

" X. LATER FOREIGN BOOKS 165

" XI. FOREIGN ILLUSTRATED BOOKS OF THE 16TH CENTURY 180

" XII. PRINTING IN ENGLAND (1476-1580) 204

" XIII. ENGLISH BOOKS PRINTED ELSEWHERE THAN AT LONDON 224

" XIV. ENGLISH WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS 250

" XV. ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATIONS 267

" XVI. MODERN FINE PRINTING 297

BIBLIOGRAPHY 309

INDEX 319

LIST OF PLATES

I. Deucalion and Pyrrha repeopling the world. From Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, Paris, 1767 _Frontispiece_

TO FACE PAGE II. An author (Caxton?) presenting a book to Margaret of Burgundy. Fifteenth century engraving inserted in the Chatsworth copy of the _Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_ 1

(From the plate made for the Bibliographical Society's edition of Mr. Seymour De Ricci's _Census of Caxtons_.)

III. The "Bona Inspiratio angeli contra vanam gloriam." From a smaller version of the _Ars Moriendi_. Block-book from the Lower Rhine, _c._ 1465 26

IV. Leaf 3a of a fragment of the _Doctrinale_ of Alexander Gallus. One of the so-called "Costeriana" 32

V. Beginning, with printed capital, of the _Rationale Diuinorum Officiorum_ of Gulielmus Duranti. Mainz, Fust and Schoeffer, 1459 44

VI. Leaf 7b of the first book printed at Cologne, Cicero, _De Officiis_, Ulrich Zel, not later than 1466 60

The space left in the sixth line from the foot stands for the words _ab ostentatione_, which the printer apparently could not read in his manuscript. The word _vacat_ at the end was inserted to show that the space in the last line was accidental and that nothing had been omitted.

VII. Leaf 41a of Cicero's _Rhetorica_, Venice, Nicolas Jenson, 1470, showing spaces left for a chapter heading and capital 84

VIII. Part of leaf 4a, with woodcut, from the _Geschicht von dem seligen Kind Symon_ of Tuberinus. Augsburg, Gunther Zainer, about 1475 100

IX. Woodcuts of Saracens and Syrians from Breidenbach's _Sanctae Peregrinationis in montem Syon atque in montem Sinai descriptio_. Mainz, Erhard Reuwich, 1486 114

X. Woodcut on leaf 1b of the _Egloga Theoduli_. Leipzig, Conrad Kachelofen, 1489 116

XI. Page (sig. H 8 verso) from the _Psalterium Beatae Mariae Virginis_ of Nitschewitz, showing the Emperor Frederick and his son Maximilian. From a press at the Cistercian Monastery at Zinna, _c._ 1493 118

XII. The Harrowing of Hell, with text, from leaf 4a of the _Belial_ of Jacobus de Theramo. Haarlem, Bellaert, 1484. (Size of the original, 7(1/4)" X 5") 120

XIII. Woodcut of the Betrayal. From leaf 14b of the _Meditatione sopra la Passione del Nostro Signore_ attributed to S. Bonaventura. Venice, Geronimo di Sancti, 1487. (Size of original, 6(3/4)" X 5(1/4)") 124

XIV. Woodcut, De Atheniensibus petentibus regem, illustrating Fable xxii. in the _Aesop_ printed at Naples, by Francesco Tuppo, 1485 126

XV. Woodcut of Lorenzo Giustiniano preceded by a crucifer, from his _Della vita religiosa_. Venice, 1494 130

XVI. Page with woodcut of the Procession to Calvary, from the _Meditatione sopra la Passione del Nostro Signore_ attributed to S. Bonaventura. Florence, Ant. Miscomini, _c._ 1495 138

XVII. Titlepage of _La Festa di San Giovanni_. Florence, Bart. di Libri, _c._ 1495 140

XVIII. Leaf 5a, with woodcut of Death seizing an Archbishop and a Chevalier, from the _Danse Macabre_. Paris, Gui Marchant, 1491. (Size of original 8(3/4)" X 6(1/4)") 144

XIX. Leaf 2a, with woodcut of Adam and Eve, from a _Bible en Francoys_. Paris, Antoine Verard, about 1505. (Size of original, 9(3/4)" X 7") 150

XX. Page (sig. C 6 verso), with woodcut of the Massacre of the Innocents, from the _Grandes Heures_. Paris, Antoine Verard, about 1490. (Size of original, 7(7/8)" X 5(1/4)") 152

XXI. Page (sig. U 7 verso) from the edition of _Terence_, printed by J. Trechsel at Lyon, 1493 160

XXII. Titlepage from the _Improbratio Alcorani_ of Ricoldus. Seville, Stanislaus Polonus, 1500 162

XXIII. Hroswitha presenting her plays to the Emperor Otto I, leaf 4b of the _Opera Hrosvite_. Nuremberg, Sodalitas Celtica, 1501 180

XXIV. Titlepage of Jornandes _De rebus Gothorum_. Augsburg, 1515 186

XXV. Page (leaf 246b) of a _Missale Romanum_, printed at Venice by Gregorius de Gregoriis, 1518 194

XXVI. Title-cut from _Les dix premiers livres de l'Iliade d'Homere, Prince des poetes, traduictz en vers Francois, par M. Hugues Salel_. Paris, Jehan Loys for Vincent Sertenas, 1545 200

XXVII. Page from the _Fifteen Oes_. Westminster, Caxton, about 1490 204

XXVIII. First page of text from the first edition (left incomplete) of Tyndale's _New Testament_. Cologne, 1525 224

XXIX. Part of sig. K 5 recto, with woodcut of Christ raising the Centurion's Daughter, from the _Speculum Vitae Christi_ of S. Bonaventura. Westminster, W. Caxton, about 1488 250

XXX. Titlepage of Bishop Fisher's Funeral Sermon on Henry VII. London, W. de Worde, 1509 254

XXXI. Woodcut of the translator presenting his book to the Duke of Norfolk, from Alexander Barclay's version of Sallust's _Jugurtha_. London, R. Pynson, about 1520 256

XXXII. Portrait of the Author, from John Heywood's _The Spider and the Flie_. London, T. Powell, 1556 260

XXXIII. Woodcut of Queen Elizabeth hawking, from Turberville's _The Booke of Faulconrie_, 1575 264

XXXIV. Engraving of Christ in a mandorla from Bettini's _Monte Santo di Dio_. Florence, Nicolaus Laurentii, 477. (Size of original, 10" X 7") 268

XXXV. Last page of preface, giving the arms of the Bishop of Wurzburg, from the Wurzburg _Agenda_. Wurzburg, G. Reyser, 1482 270

XXXVI. Titlepage of the _Dialogus_ of Amadeus Berrutus. Rome, Gabriel of Bologna, 1517 274

XXXVII. Engraved portrait of the Author by Theodore de Bry after J. J. Boissard, from the _Emblemata_ of Denis Le Bey. Frankfort, De Bry, 1596 280

XXXVIII. Page 22 from the _Hieroglyphikes of the Life of Man_ by Quarles, the engraving by W. Marshall, London, 1638 286

XXXIX. Page, with engraving after Eisen, from Dorat's _Les Baisers_, La Haye et se vend a Paris, Lambert, 1770 292

XL. Engraving by W. W. Rylands after Samuel Wale, from Walton's _Compleat Angler_. London, T. Hope, 1760 296

FINE BOOKS