Part 75

"Just as the house of Aldus waned and expired, that of the great Dutch printers, the Elzevirs, began obscurely enough at Leyden in 1583. The Elzevir's were not, like Aldus, ripe scholars and men of devotion to learning. Aldus laboured for the love of noble studies; the Elzevirs were acute, and too often 'smart' men of business. The founder of the family was Louis (born at Louvain, 1540, died 1617). But it was in the second and third generations that Bonaventura and Abraham Elzevir began to publish at Leyden their editions in small duodecimo. Like Aldus, these Elzevirs aimed at producing books at once handy, cheap, correct, and beautiful in execution. Their adventure was a complete success. The Elzevirs did not, like Aldus, surround themselves with the most learned scholars of their time. Their famous literary adviser, Heinsius, was full of literary jealousies, and kept students of his own calibre at a distance. The classical editions of the Elzevirs, beautiful, but too small in type for modern eyes, are anything but exquisitely correct. … The ordinary marks of the Elzevirs were the sphere, the old hermit, the Athena, the eagle, and the burning faggot. But all little old books marked with spheres are not Elzevirs, as many booksellers suppose. Other printers also stole the designs for the tops of chapters, the Aegipan, the Siren, the head of Medusa, the crossed sceptres, and the rest. In some cases the Elzevirs published their books, especially when they were piracies, anonymously. When they published for the Jansenists, they allowed their clients to put fantastic pseudonyms on the title pages. But, except in four cases, they had only two pseudonyms used on the titles of books published by and for themselves. These disguises are 'Jean Sambix' for Jean and Daniel Elzevir, at Leyden, and 'for the Elzevirs of Amsterdam, 'Jacques le Jeune.' The last of the great representatives of the house, Daniel, died at Amsterdam, 1680. Abraham, an unworthy scion, struggled on at Leyden till 1712. The family still prospers, but no longer prints, in Holland."

_A. Lang, The Library, chapter 3._

"Though Elzevirs have been more fashionable than at present, they are still regarded by novelists as the great prize of the book collector. You read in novels about 'priceless little Elzevirs,' about books 'as rare as an old Elzevir.' I have met, in the works of a lady novelist (but not elsewhere) with an Elzevir 'Theocritus.' The late Mr. Hepworth Dixon introduced into one of his romances a romantic Elzevir Greek Testament, 'worth its weight in gold.' Casual remarks of this kind encourage a popular delusion that all Elzevirs are pearls of considerable price."

_A. Lang, Books and Bookmen, chapter 6._

ALSO IN: _J. H. Slater, Book Collecting, chapter 8._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1622-1702. The first printed Newspaper and the first daily Newspaper in England.

"Up to 1839 (when Mr. Watts, of the British Museum, exposed the forgery) the world was led to believe that the first English newspaper appeared in 1588." Mr. Watts "ascertained that 'The English Mercurie,' which Mr. George Chalmers first discovered on the shelves of the British Museum, and which was said to have been 'imprinted in London by her highness's printer, 1588,' was a forgery, for which the second Earl of Hardwicke appears to be answerable." As to the actual date of the appearance of the first printed newspaper in England, "Mr. Knight Hunt, in his 'Fourth Estate,' speaks confidently. … 'There is now no reason to doubt,' he says, 'that the puny ancestor of the myriads of broad sheets of our time was published in the metropolis in 1622; and that the most prominent of the ingenious speculators who offered the novelty to the world, was one Nathaniel Butter.' As the printing press had then been at work in England for a century and a half, Caxton having established himself in Westminster Abbey in 1471, and as manuscript news-letters had been current for many years previous to 1622, one cannot help wondering that the inventive wits of that age should have been so slow in finding out this excellent mode of turning Faust's invention to profitable account. {2594} Butter's journal was called—'The Weekly Newes,' a name which still survives, although the original possessor of that title has long since gone the way of all newspapers. The first number in the British Museum collection bears date the 23rd of May, 1622, and contains 'news from Italy, Germanie,' &c. The last number made its appearance on the 9th of January, 1640; a memorable year, in which the Short Parliament, dismissed by King Charles 'in a huff,' after a session of three weeks, was succeeded by the Long Parliament, which unlucky Charles could not manage quite so easily. … It was nearly a century after 'The Weekly Newes' made its first appearance, before a daily newspaper was attempted. When weekly papers had become firmly established, some of the more enterprising printers began to publish their sheets twice, and ultimately three times a week. Thus at the beginning of last century we find several papers informing the public that they are 'published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning.' One of the most respectable looking was entitled 'The New State of Europe,' or a 'True Account of Public Transactions and Learning.' It consisted of two pages of thin, coarse paper … and contained altogether about as much matter as there is in a single column of the 'Times' of 1855. The custom at that period was to publish the newspaper on a folio or quarto sheet, two pages of which were left blank to be used for correspondence. This is expressly stated in a standing advertisement in the 'New State of Europe,' in which the names of certain booksellers are given 'where any person may have this paper with a blank half sheet to write their own private affairs.' … The first number of the 'Daily Courant' [the first daily newspaper in England] was published on the 11th of March, 1702, just three days after the accession of Queen Anne. … As regards the form and size of the new journal, the 'author' condescends to give the following information, with a growling remark at the impertinence of the 'Postboys,' 'Postmen,' 'Mercuries,' and 'Intelligencers' of that day:—'This "Courant" (as the title shows) will be published Daily, being designed to give all the Material News as soon as every Post arrives, and is confined to half the compass to save the Publick at least half the Impertinences of ordinary Newspapers.' In addition to the Prospectus we have quoted, the first number of the 'Daily Courant' contains only nine paragraphs, five of which were translated from the 'Harlem Courant,' three from the 'Paris Gazette,' and one from the 'Amsterdam Courant.' They all relate to the war of the Spanish Succession then waging, or to the attempts making by diplomats to settle the affairs of the Continent at some kind of Vienna or Utrecht Conference. After adhering for several weeks to the strict rule of giving only one page of news, and those entirely foreign, the 'Courant' begins to show certain symptoms of improvement. The number for April 22, contains two pages of news and advertisements. … The alteration in the getting-up of the 'Courant' was owing to a change of proprietorship. The paper had now come into the hands of 'Sam Buckley, at the Dolphin, Little Britain.' … Mr. Samuel Buckley, who continued to publish and conduct the 'Daily Courant' for many years, was a notable man among London publishers, as we find from various references to him in the fugitive literature of that age."

_The London Daily Press (Westminster Review, October, 1855)._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1631. The first printed Newspaper in France. Dr. Renandot and his "Gazette."

"The first Frenchman to found a printed newspaper was Dr. Théophraste Renaudot, who obtained the King's privilege for the 'Gazette de France' in 1631. … He was a shrewd man, born at London in 1567, brought up in Paris, but graduate of the Faculty of Montpellier. In 1612, being then twenty-six, he returned to the capital, and somehow got appointed at once doctor to the King. But there was no salary attached to this post, which was in his case purely honorary, and so Renaudot opened a school, though the fact that he, a mere provincial doctor, had obtained a medical appointment at court, was very sore to the Paris Faculty of Medicine, who began to annoy him from that moment. Renaudot, however, was a man far ahead of his contemporaries in sagacity, patience, learning and humanity. Petty spite did not disturb him, or at least it did not deter him from executing any of the numerous plans he had in mind for the welfare of his contemporaries. … This extraordinary man not only inaugurated in France an Estate, Professional and Servants' Agency, as well as an office for private sales and exchanges, but further laid the basis of the Poste Restante, Parcels Delivery, Post-Office Directory, Tourist's Guide and Money Order Office; besides affording an outlet to troubled spirits like those who correspond through the agony column of 'The Times.' It is not surprising that his office in the Rue de la Calandre should soon have been all too small for its multifarious duties and that his original staff of six clerks should, in less than three months, have swelled to fifty. Richelieu, in sheer admiration at the man, sent for him and thanked him for the services he was rendering the King's subjects. He also offered him money to extend his offices, and this Renaudot accepted, but only as a loan. It was his custom to levy a commission of six deniers per livre (franc) on the sales he effected, and by means of these and other receipts he soon repaid the Cardinal every penny that had been advanced to him. But he did more than this. Finding that his registers were not always convenient modes of reference, by reason of the excessive crowds which pressed round them, he brought out a printed advertiser, which is almost the exact prototype of a journal at present well known in London. It was called 'Feuille du Bureau d'Adresses,' and appeared every Saturday, at the price of 1 sou. Opinions differ as to whether this paper preceded the 'Gazette de France,' or was issued simultaneously with it. Probably it was first published in manuscript form, but came out in print at least six months before the 'Gazette,' for a number bearing the date of June 14th, 1631, shows a periodical in full organisation and containing indirect references to advertisements which must have appeared several weeks before. At all events this 'Feuille' was purely an advertisement sheet—a forerunner of the 'Petites Affiches' which were reinvented in 1746—it was in no sense a newspaper. … It is clear that from the moment he started his 'Feuille du Bureau d'Adresses,' Renaudot must have conceived the possibility of founding a news-sheet. … The manuscript News Letters had attained, by the year 1630, to such a pitch of perfection, and found such a ready sale, that the notion of further popularising them by printing must have suggested itself to more than one man before it was actually put into practice. {2595} But the great bar was this, that nothing could be printed without the King's privilege, and this privilege was not lightly granted. … Renaudot, who had no wish to publish tattle, had no reason to fear censorship. He addressed himself to Richelieu, and craved leave to start a printed newspaper under royal patronage. The politic Cardinal was quite shrewd enough to see how useful might be to him an organ which would set information before the public in the manner he desired, and in that manner alone; so he granted all Renaudot wished, in the form of 'letters patent,' securing him an entire monopoly of printing newspapers, and moreover he conferred on his protégé the pompous title of Historiographer of France. The first number of the 'Gazette de France' appeared on Friday, May 30, 1631. Its size was four quarto pages, and its price one sol parisis, i. e. ½d., worth about l½d. modern money. … The first number contained no preface or address, nothing in the way of a leading article, but plunged at once in medias res, and gave news from nineteen foreign towns or countries, but oddly enough, not a line of French intelligence. … The bulk of the matter inserted was furnished direct by Richelieu from the Foreign Office, and several of the paragraphs were written in his own hand. … The publication of the 'Gazette' was continued uninterruptedly from week to week but the press of matter was so great that Renaudot took to issuing a Supplement with the last number of every month. In this he condensed the reports of the preceding numbers, corrected errors, added fresh news, and answered his detractors. … At the end of the year 1631 he suppressed his monthly Supplement, increased the 'Gazette' to eight pages, and announced that for the future he would issue supplements as they were needed. It seems they were needed pretty often, for towards the beginning of the year 1633 Renaudot published Supplements, under the title of 'Ordinaries and Extraordinaries,' as often as twice, and even three times in one week. In fact whenever a budget of news arrived which would nowadays justify a special edition, the indefatigable editor set his criers afoot with a fresh printed sheet, shouting, 'Buy the "Extraordinary," containing the account of the superb burial of the King of Denmark!' or, 'Buy and read of the capture of the beautiful island of Curaçoa in the Indies by the Dutch from the Spaniards!' Renaudot understood the noble art of puffing. He dressed his criers in red, and gave them a trumpet apiece to go and bray the praises of the 'Gazette' on the off days, when the paper did not appear. … On the death of Renaudot, he was succeeded by his sons Eusèbe and Isaac, who in their turn bequeathed the Gazette' to Eusèbe junior, son of the elder brother, who took orders and consequently left no progeny. After this the 'Gazette' became Government property. … In 1762 the 'Gazette' was annexed to the Foreign Office Department. … The 'Gazette de France' continued to appear under royal patronage until May 1st, 1792, when its official ties were snapped and it came out as a private and republican journal with the date 'Fourth Year of Freedom.' The 'Gazette' has flourished with more or less brilliancy ever since, and has been for the last fifty years a legitimist organ, read chiefly in the provinces."

_The French Press (Cornhill Magazine, June, 1873)._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1637. Archbishop Laud's Star-Chamber restriction of printing.

On the 11th of July, 1637, "Archbishop Laud procured a decree to be passed in the star chamber, by which it was ordered, that the master printers should be reduced to twenty in number; and that if any other should secretly, or openly, pursue the trade of printing, he should be set in the pillory, or whipped through the streets, and suffer such other punishment as the court should inflict upon him; that none of the master printers should print any book or books of divinity, law, physic, philosophy, or poetry, till the said books, together with the titles, epistles, prefaces, tables, or commendatory verses, should be lawfully licensed, on pain of losing the exercise of his art, and being proceeded against in the star chamber, &c.; that no person should reprint any book without a new license; that every merchant, bookseller, &c., who should import any book or books, should present a catalogue of them to the archbishop or bishop, &c., before they were delivered, or exposed to sale, who should view them, with power to seize those that were schismatical; and, that no merchant, &c., should print or cause to be printed abroad, any book, or books, which either entirely or for the most part, were written in the English tongue, nor knowingly import any such books, upon pain of being proceeded against in the star chamber, or high commission court. … That there should be four founders of letters for printing, and no more. That the archbishop of Canterbury, or the bishop of London, with six other high commissioners, shall supply the places of those four as they shall become void. That no master founder shall keep above two apprentices at one time. That all journeymen founders be employed by the masters of the trade; and that all the idle journeymen be compelled to work upon pain of imprisonment, and such other punishment as the court shall think fit. That no master founder of letters shall employ any other person in any work belonging to casting and founding of letters than freemen and apprentices to the trade, save only in putting off the knots of metal hanging at the end of the letters when they are first cast; in which work, every master founder may employ one boy only, not bound to the trade."

_C. H. Timperley, Encyclopœdia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote, page 490._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1647. Renewed ordinance, in England, against the printers.

"An ordinance of parliament passed the house of lords on this day [September 30, 1647], that no person shall make, write, print, sell, publish or utter, or cause to be made, &c., any book, pamphlet, treatise, ballad, libel, sheet, or sheets of news whatsoever (except the same be licensed by both or either house of parliament,) under the penalty of 40s. and an imprisonment not exceeding forty days, if he can not pay it: if a printer, he is to pay a fine of only 20s., or suffer twenty days' imprisonment, and likewise to have his press and implements of printing broken in pieces. The book-seller, or stationer, to pay 10s., or suffer ten days' imprisonment,—and, lastly, the hawker, pedlar, or ballad-singer, to forfeit all his printed papers exposed to sale, and to be whipped as a common rogue in the parish where he shall be apprehended. {2596} Early in the following year, the committee of estates in Scotland passed an act prohibiting the printing under the pain of death, any book, declaration, or writing, until these were first submitted to their revisal. … One of the consequences of these persecutions was the raising up of a new class of publishers, those who became noted for what was called 'unlawful and unlicensed books.' Sparkes, the publisher of Prynne's Histriomastix, was of this class. The presbyterian party in parliament, who thus found the press closed on them, vehemently cried out for its freedom; and it was imagined, that when they ascended into power, the odious office of a licenser of the press would have been abolished; but these pretended friends of freedom, on the contrary, discovered themselves as tenderly alive to the office as the old government, and maintained it with the extremest vigour. Both in England and Scotland, during the civil wars, the party in power endeavoured to crush by every means the freedom of the press."

_C. H. Timperley, Encyclopœdia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote, page 506._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1654-1694. Freedom of the press under Cromwell. Censorship under the restored Stuarts. Roger L'Estrange and the first news reporters.

"During the Protectorate of Cromwell the newspaper press knew … what it was to enjoy the luxury of freedom. The natural result was that a very great increase took place in the number of new political journals. Most of them, however, had only a very brief existence. Many of their number could not boast of a longer life than six or seven months—nay, many of them not so much as even that term of life. But, as might have been expected, from what was known of the antecedents of Charles II., the freedom of the press, which previously existed, came to an immediate end on his ascending the throne. Hardly had he done so, than an edict was issued, prohibiting the publication of any journal except the London Gazette, which was originally printed at Oxford, and called the Oxford Gazette,—the Court being then resident there on account of the plague raging in London at the time, 1665, when it was commenced, and for some time afterwards. This was an act of pure despotism. But Government at this time reserved to itself the right —a right which there was none to dispute—to publish a broad sheet in connexion with the London Gazette, whenever they might deem it expedient, which should contain either foreign or domestic matters of interest,—of the knowledge of which some of the King's subjects might wish to be put in early possession. … The newspapers of the seventeenth century were permitted, until the time of Charles II., to be published without being licensed by the Government of the day; but in the reign of that despotic sovereign, a law was passed [1662] prohibiting the publication of any newspaper without being duly licensed. … Sir John Birkenhead, … one of the three men whom Disraeli the elder called the fathers of the English press, was appointed to the office of Licenser of the Press. But he was soon succeeded by Sir Roger l'Estrange."

_J. Grant, The Newspaper Press, volume 1, chapter. 2._