Chapter 6

The natural result, moreover, of this decline was, in the following century, followed by what practically amounts to extinction; and the few exceptions to which we shall refer, and which are to some extent selected at random, prove the truth of that theory. Thomas Creede, 1588-1618, whose shop was at the sign of the Catherine Wheel, near the Old Swan in Thames Street, was one of the prolific printers of the period, and his most common Mark is a personification of Truth, with a hand issuing from the clouds striking on her back with a rod, and encircled with the motto, “Veritas virescit vulnere.” Among the numerous books which he printed was Henry Butte’s “Digets Dry Dinner,” 1599, for William Wood, a bookseller whose shop was at the sign of Time, St. Paul’s Churchyard, and whose Mark was an almost exact copy of one employed by Conrad Bade, a sixteenth century printer of Paris and Geneva (who had apparently adopted his from that of Knoblouch of Strassburg, which we give on another page): it represents a winged figure of Time helping a naked woman out of what appears to be a cave, with the motto, “Tempore patet occulata veritas”; this Mark follows the introductory matter in the above-named work. Making a leap of over half a century, we come across another ambitious Mark, which in the present instance served the additional purpose of a frontispiece; it was employed by John Allen of the Rising Sun, St. Paul’s Churchyard, and is dated 1656; it is rather a fine device of the sun rising behind the hills, with a cathedral on the left-hand side, and the inscription “Ipswiche” and a coat-of-arms, apparently of that city. Although not exactly a printer’s or publisher’s Mark, the charming little plate, engraved by Clark, which John Walthoe, Jr., inserted on the title-page of “The Hive: a collection of the most celebrated Songs,” 1724, is sufficiently near it to be worth reproducing here. T. Cox, a bookseller of “The Lamb,” under the Royal Exchange, Cornhill, was fortunate enough to have a Mark (see page 46), in which John Pine is seen at his best: Cox was not only an eminent bookseller, but was also an exchange-broker. Of much less delicate workmanship, but appropriate nevertheless, is the Mark which we find on the title-pages of the books printed for R. Ware, at the Bible and Sun in Warwick Lane, one of whose books, Dr. Warren’s “Impartial Churchman,” 1728, contains at the end of the first chapter another Mark, an exceedingly rough sketch of a printing-office, with the motto, “vitam mortuis reddo.” On books intended more or less for particular schools, the Printer’s Mark usually takes the shape of the arms of the schools themselves, as in the case of Westminster and Eton; and the same may be said of books printed at Oxford and Cambridge, in the former case a very fine view of the Sheldonian Theatre usually appearing on the title-page of books printed there. John Scolar is an interesting figure among the very early printers of Oxford, and from 1518 he was the official printer of the University; in one of the books he issued there is cited an edict of the Chancellor, under his official seal, enjoining that for a period of seven years to come, no person should venture to print that work, or even to sell copies of it elsewhere printed within Oxford and its precincts, under pain of forfeiting the copies, and paying a fine of five pounds sterling, and other penalties. Scolar’s Mark is one of the very few in which a book appears. John Siberch, the first Cambridge printer, apparently had two Marks, one of which--the Royal Arms, which was the sign of the house he occupied--appears on four of the eight books printed by him at Cambridge in or about 1521; of the second we give a facsimile from his first book, Galen, “De Temperamentis.” The Mark of the majority of eighteenth century booksellers and printers consisted of a monogram formed either with their initials or names. During a portion of his career Jacob Tonson used a bust of what purported to be Shakespeare, partly from the fact that for many years the copyright of the great dramatist’s works belonged to him and partly because one of his shops had for its sign, “The Shakespeare’s Head.”

The earliest Printers’ Marks of Scottish printers are not of the first importance, but they are sufficiently interesting to merit notice. Walter Chepman and Andro Myllar were granted a patent for the erection of a printing-press at Edinburgh on September 15, 1507, the former finding the money and the latter the knowledge. Each had his distinctive Mark, both of which are of French origin--a theory which is easily proved so far as Myllar’s is concerned from the fact that it displays two small shields at the top corners, each charged with the _fleur-de-lys_. Myllar’s device, in which we see a windmill with a miller ascending the outside ladder, carrying a sack of grain on his back, is an obvious pun on his name, and was, perhaps, suggested by the Mark of Jehan Moulin, Paris. Chepman’s is a very close copy of that of Pigouchet, Paris, the male and female figures being carefully copied even to the small crosses on their knees; the initials W C are elegantly interlaced. Thomas Davidson is a very interesting figure in the early history of Scottish typography; he appears to have been the first king’s printer of his country, and one of his earliest works is “Ad Serenissimum Scotorum Regem Jacobum Quintum de suscepto Regni Regimine a diis feliciter ominato Strena,” _circa_ 1525; about ten years later came a translation of the “Chronicles of Scotland,” compiled by Boece, and “translatit be maister Johne Bellenden;” Davidson’s Mark is of the same character as Chepman’s, but is, if possible, even more roughly drawn and engraved; whilst Bassandyne copied the device of Crespin of Geneva, with the initials T. B. instead I. C. Arbuthnot’s device of the Pelican, which he used in two sizes, and the Marks of Thomas Vautrollier, have been already referred to. Coming down to the last twenty years of the sixteenth century, we find the few books of Henry Charteris of considerable and varied interest, and his Mark, if by no means carefully drawn and engraved, has at all events the merit of being fairly original.

[Decoration]

SOME FRENCH PRINTERS’ MARKS.

It is rather a curious fact, all things considered, that the introduction of the printing-press into Paris should have only antedated its appearance in this country by four years; such however is the case. It was at the commencement of the year 1470, the tenth of the reign of Louis XI., that Ulrich Gering, Martin Krantz, and Michel Friburger commenced printing in one of the rooms of the College Sorbonne. They had learnt their art at Mayence, and at the dispersal of the office of Fust and Schoeffer had settled down at Basel. They were induced to take up their residence at the Sorbonne by Jean Heinlin and Guillaume Fichet, two distinguished professors of that place. The first book printed at Paris was the “Letters” of Gasparin of Bergamo, 1470, which contains the following quatrain at the end of the work:

“Primos ecce libros quos hæc industria finxit Francorum in terris ædibus atque tuis; Michael, Udalrichus, Martinusque magister Hos impresserunt, ac facient alios.”

By the end of 1472 the three companions had issued thirty works, apparently without indulging in the luxury of a Mark, but their patrons separating they had to leave the Sorbonne. Their new quarters were at the sign of the “Soleil d’Or” in the Rue St. Jacques--the Paternoster Row of Paris. Here they remained until 1477, when Gering was the sole proprietor. He was joined in 1480 by George Mainyal, and in 1494 by Bertholt Rembolt, and died in August, 1510. Within thirty years of the introduction of printing into Paris, there were nearly ninety printers, who issued nearly 800 works between 1470 and 1500. Rembolt, who succeeded Gering and preserved the sign of his office, was one of the earliest, if not the first to adopt a Mark, of which indeed he used four more or less distinct examples. We reproduce one of the rarest; his best known is a highly decorative picture, and has a shield (carrying a cross with the initials B. R. in the lower half of the circle which envelopes the foot of the cross) suspended from a vine tree and supported by two lions. Of this Mark there are at least two sizes; another of his Marks consisted of an enlarged form of the cross to which we have referred.

After Rembolt, the interest of the Printer’s Mark in France diverges into a number of directions. The most prolific printer was, perhaps, Antoine Vérard, who, dying in 1530, issued books continuously for about forty-five years: he was also a calligrapher, an illuminator, and a bookseller; his Books of Hours led the way for the beautiful productions of Simon Vostre, whilst his chief “line” consisted of romances, of which there are over a hundred printed on vellum and ornamented with beautiful miniatures. He had two Marks, one of which, consisting simply of the two letters A. V., is accompanied by the lines:

“Pour proquer la grand’ miséricorde, A tous pescheurs faire grâce et pardon, Antoine Vérard humblement te recorde.”

Of the second we give an example on p. 21. Among his publications may be mentioned “L’Art de bien Mourir,” 1492, which Gilles Couteau and J. Menard printed for him, whilst the punning Mark of the former is reproduced in our first chapter (p. 4). François Regnault, who printed a large number of books during the first half of the sixteenth century, had six Marks, chiefly variations on the one here given. He usually placed at the bottom of his books: “Parissis, ex officinâ honesti viri Francissi Regnault”; the accompanying reduced facsimile of one of his title-pages indicates the prominent position allotted at this early period to the printer’s Mark. A very remarkable and elaborate Mark of this family of printers was that of Pierre Regnault, who was putting forth books during nearly the whole of the first half of the sixteenth century. The Marchant family existed in Paris as printers for over 300 years (1481-1789). The first of the line, Guy, or Guyot, who printed books for Jehan Petit, Geoffrey De Marnef, and others, had as Mark four variations of the _chant gaillard_ represented by two notes, sol, la, with one faith represented by two hands joined, in allusion to the words, “Sola fides sufficit,” taken from the hymn, “Pange lingua.” Beneath his Mark he placed the figures of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, patrons of the leather-dressers who prepared the leather for the binder, in which capacity Marchant acted on several occasions for Francis I. As was the case with his contemporaries, Marchant’s earliest books possessed no mark, and one of the first of the publications in which it appeared was the “Compost et Calendrier des Bergiers,” 1496. The De Marnef family also make a big show in the annals of French typography, particularly in the way of Marks, the various members using, between 1481 and 1554, nearly thirty examples, including duplicates, several of which were designed by Geoffrey Tory. Nearly all these Marks had the subject of the Pelican feeding her young as a centre piece. Jerome, however, used a Griffin among his several other examples, of which the two finest of the whole series are those numbered 746 and 812 in Silvestre, and are the work of Jean Cousin at his best. The founder of the family, Geoffrey, used the accompanying device in two sizes. The Janot family, of which the founder, Denys, was the most celebrated, were issuing books in Paris from the end of the fifteenth to the middle of the eighteenth century, and the more noticeable of their Marks contained the device: “Amor Dei omnia vincit--amour partout, tout par amour, partout amour, en tout bien” (see p. 15). The Macé family, which makes a good show with eleven Marks, was also a long-lived one of over 200 years, many of the members residing at Caen, Rennes, and Rouen, besides Paris. The same may be said to some extent of the Dupré or Du Pré family, 1486-1775; the two first, Jean or Jehan and Galliot, were the most celebrated. Of the dozen Marks employed by this family, the most original, it being the evident pun on his name, has a _Galiote_, at the head of the mast of which is the motto, “Vogue la Guallee,” or sometimes “Vogue la Gualee” (see p. 5). Jehan Du Pré the Lyons printer, used the accompanying Mark formed of his initials. The first as well as the most noted member of the Le Rouge family of printers was Pierre, who resided at Chablis, Troyes, and Paris, and who was the first to take the title of “Libraire-Imprimeur du Roi,” ceded to him by Charles VIII., and used in “La Mer des Histoires,” 1488. Appropriately enough, Michel Le Noir, whose motto we have already quoted, may be here referred to. He issued a large number of books, the most notable, perhaps, being “Le Roman de la Rose,” 1513. He was succeeded by his son Philippe in 1514, one of whose most noticeable publications was “Le Blazon des Hérétiques” (a satirical piece attributed to Pierre Gringoire), the figure or effigy at the head is signed with the monogram of G. Tory. The five Marks of father and son differed only in minor details, and the above example of Philippe will sufficiently indicate the character of the others. Philippe Pigouchet, who was an engraver as well as a bookseller and printer, contented himself apparently with one Mark. He is distinguished for the extreme care with which he turned out his books, particularly the Books of Hours which he undertook to produce in partnership with Simon Vostre; some of his works are freely copied by the publishers of to-day, and might with advantage be even more generally utilized than they are, for they possess all the attributes of beautiful books. Thielman Kerver, a German, was another printer who worked for Simon Vostre, one of his most important productions being a “Breviarium ad usum Ecclesiæ Parisiensis,” 1500, in red and black. His shop was on the Pont St. Michel, at the sign of the Unicorn, which, as will be seen, he adopted as his Mark, and of which there are two, which differ from one another only in minor details. Of Simon Vostre himself, a whole book might be compiled. From about 1488 to 1528 he devoted himself exclusively to the publishing of books, and employed all the best printers: it was by his energy combined with Pigouchet’s technical skill that the two produced, in April, 1488, the “Heures à l’Usaige de Rome,” an octavo finely decorated with ornaments and figures; the experiment was a complete success. It is generally assumed that the engraving was done in relief on metal, as the line in it is very fine, the background stippled, and the borders without scratches: wood could not have resisted the force of the impression, the reliefs would have been crushed, the borders rubbed and badly adjusted. The artistic connection of Pigouchet and Vostre lasted for eighteen years, and with them book production in France may be said to have attained its highest point. By the year 1520 Vostre had published more than 300 editions of the “Hours” for the use of different cities; he had two Marks, of which we give the larger example on p. 103.

In many respects Jean or Jehan Petit is one of the most remarkable of the early French printers, whilst from the time he started to the final extinction of his descendants as printers covers a space of 336 years--a record which is probably unrivalled in the history of typography. Jehan Petit kept fifteen presses fully employed, and found a great deal of work for fifteen others. The family as a whole makes a good show with their marks, in which the founder is more extravagant than any of the others, having used, at one time or another, at least half-a-dozen more or less different examples. In addition to reproducing one of the finest, we give, on p. 9, also a reduced facsimile of a title-page of a book, the joint venture of Petit and Kerver; the combination of the two names on one title-page is distinctly novel and curious. He was on several occasions associated with others in producing a book, his connection with Josse Bade extending from 1501 to 1536. Of Bade or Badius it will be necessary to give a few particulars. He was born at Asche, near Brussels, and was a scholar and a poet as well as a printer. About 1495-7 he was engaged as a corrector of the press for Treschel and De Vingle at Lyons. He left about 1500 for Paris, where he started a press in 1502, which he called “Prelum Ascensianum.” In reference to this term, “the Ascension Press,” the word “prelum” was applied to the ancient wine presses, after which, in fact, the earliest printing presses were modelled. His Mark, which he first used in 1507, is the earliest picture of a printing-press. Thirteen years after, he adopted another device with the same subject, but differing in many important particulars. In the second, the composing-stick used by the figure in the act of setting type is changed from the right to the left hand; the press shows improved mechanical construction, indicating greater solidity and strength. In the latter example also the figure sitting at the case on the right side of the engraving is intended to represent a woman, instead of a man as in the earlier illustration. Contemporary with both Petit and Bade, Gilles or Gillet Hardouyn, 1491-1521, was both a printer and a bookseller, and used two Marks, of which we give the more striking. Germain Hardouyn, possibly a son of the preceding, confined himself more particularly to selling books during the first forty years of the sixteenth century.

Geoffrey Tory resembled many others of the early printers in being also a scholar; but he was also an artist and an engraver, taking up and carrying on the great work inaugurated by Vostre and Vérard. He was born at Bourges in 1480, and one of his earliest works, which was published by Petit and printed by Gilles De Gourmont, was an edition of the “Geography” of Pomponius Mela, 1507, and between this time and his death he produced a number of Books of Hours, the decoration of which can only be described as marvellous. One of the most beautiful is undoubtedly the “Heures de la Vierge,” executed for Simon De Colines. What interests us most, however, is the Mark which he adopted when he entered into business as a printer and bookseller; it is perhaps the most elegant that had been up to that time designed. This Mark of the broken pitcher, with the motto “Non plus,” first appeared at the end of a Latin poem issued in 1524, is regarded as a _memento_ of the death of his little daughter in 1522, and is thus explained: the broken pitcher symbolizes her career cut short; the book with clasps her literary studies; the little winged figure her soul; and the motto “Non plus,” “Je ne tiens plus à rien.” He gives his own interpretation of this Mark, however, in that curious medley of poetry and philosophy which he called “Champfleury,” 1529. It may be mentioned that on some of the bindings of his quarto volumes the broken pitcher is transversed by the wimble or _toret_--an obvious pun on his name.