Chapter 9

If it could be proved that “Het boeck van Tondalus visioen” was, as has been stated, printed at Antwerp in 1472, by Mathias Van der Goes, the claim of Antwerp to be regarded as the first place in the Low Countries in which printing was introduced would be irrefutable. Unfortunately there is very little doubt but that the date is an error, although Goes is still rightly regarded as having introduced printing into Antwerp, where he was issuing books from 1482 to about 1494 in Dutch and Latin. He had two large Marks, one of which was a ship, apparently emblematical of Progress or commercial enterprise, and the other, a savage brandishing a club and bearing arms of Brabant,--the latter, from “Sermones Quatuor Novissimorum,” 1487, is here given. Rolant Van den Dorp, 1494-1500, whose chief claim to fame is that he printed the “Cronyke van Brabant,” folio, Antwerp, 1497, had as his most ambitious Mark a charming picture of Roland blowing his horn; on one of the shields (suspended from the branch of a tree) is the arms of Antwerp, which he sometimes used separately as his device. Contemporaneously with Van den Dorp, 1493-1500, we have Godefroy Back, a binder who, on November 19, 1492, married the widow of Van der Goes, and continued the printing-office of his predecessor. His house was called the Vogehuis, and had for its sign the Birdcage, which he adopted as his Mark; this he modified several times, notably in 1496, when the monogram of Van der Goes was replaced by his own. In the accompanying example (apparently broken during the printing) the letter M is surmounted by the Burgundy device--a wand upholding a St. Andrew’s cross. We give also a small example of the two other Marks used by this printer. Arnoldus Cæsaris, l’Empereur, or De Keysere, according as his name happened to be spelt in Latin, French, or Flemish, is another of the early Antwerp printers whose mark is sufficiently distinct to merit insertion here. His first book is dated 1480, “Hermanni de Petra Sermones super orationem dominicam.” Michael Hellenius, 1514-36, is a printer of this city who has a special interest to Englishmen from the fact that “in 1531 he printed at Antwerp an anti-Protestant work for Henry Pepwell, who could find no printer in London with sufficient courage to undertake it.” Hellenius’ Mark is emblematical of Time, in which the figure is standing on clouds, with a sickle in one hand and a serpent coiled in a circle on the left. The Mark of Jan Steels, Antwerp (p. 19), 1533-75, is regarded by some bibliographers as the emblem of an altar, but “from the entire absence of any ritual accessories, and the introduction of incongruous figures (which no mediæval artist would have thought of representing), it would appear to be merely a stone table.” Jacobus Bellaert, 1483-86, was the first Haarlem printer, one of his earliest works being “Dat liden ende die passie ons Heeren Jesu Christi,” which is dated December 10, 1483. Bellaert’s name does not appear in it, but his Mark at the end permits of an easy identification, it being the same as that which appears in his Dutch edition of “Glanvilla de Proprietatibus Rerum,” 1485: the arms above the Griffin are those of the city of Haarlem. One of the most famous printing localities of the Low Countries was Leyden (Lugdunum Batavorum), where the art was practised so early as 1483, Heynricus Henrici, 1483-4, being one of the earliest, his Mark carrying two shields, one of which bears the cross keys of Leyden. The Pelican is an exceedingly rare element in Dutch and Flemish Printers’ Marks, one of the very few exceptions being that of J. Destresius, Ypres, 1553, the motto on the border reading “Sine sanguinis effusione non fit remissio.”

It will be convenient to group together in this place a few of the more representative examples of the Marks of the Dutch and Flemish printers of the sixteenth century. Of Thomas Van der Noot, who was printing at Brussels from about 1508 to 1517, there is very little of general interest to state, but his large Mark is well worthy of a place here. Picturesque in another way also is the Mark of J. Grapheus, Antwerp, 1520-61; the example we give is a distinct improvement on a very roughly drawn Mark which this printer sometimes used, which is identical in every respect to this, except that it has no borders. It is one of the few purely pictorial, as distinct from armorial, Marks which we find used at Antwerp in the earlier half of the sixteenth century. One of this printer’s most notable publications is “Le Nouueau Testament de nostre Sauflueur Iesu Christ trãslate selon le vray text en franchois,” 1532, a duodecimo of xviii and 354 folios, a rare impression of Le Fèvre d’Etaples’ Testament as it had been issued by L’Empereur, in 1530, who had obtained the licence of the Emperor and the Inquisition for this impression. Henri Van den Keere, a book-seller and printer of Ghent, 1549-58, had four Marks, all of which resemble more or less closely the rather striking and certainly distinct example here given. Of the Bruges printers of the sixteenth century, Huber or Hubert Goltz, 1563-79, is perhaps the most eminent, not so much on account of the typographical phase of his career, as because of his works as an author and artist. The “Fasti Magistratum et Triumphorum Romanorum,” is one of his books best known to scholars, whilst to students of numismatics his work on the medals from the time of Julius Cæsar to that of the Emperor Ferdinand, in Latin, of which a very rare French edition appeared at Antwerp in 1561, is well known, and the original edition of his works in this respect is still highly esteemed, although, as Brunet points out, Goltz has suffered a good deal in reputation since Eckel has demonstrated that he included a number of spurious examples, whilst some others are incorrectly copied. His interesting typographical Mark is given on p. 51. J. Waesberghe, of Antwerp and Rotterdam, had at least three Marks, of which we give the largest example, and all of which are of a nautical character, the centre being occupied by a mermaid carrying a horn of plenty; in the smaller example of the accompanying Mark, the background is taken up by a serpent forming a circle. The Mark of M. De Hamont, a printer and bookseller of Brussels, 1569-77, is worth quoting as one of the very few instances in which the subject of St. George and the Dragon is utilized in this particular by a printer of the Low Countries. Rutger Velpius appears to have had all the wandering proclivities of the early printers; for instance, we find him at Louvain from 1553 to 1580, at Mons from 1580 to 1585, and Brussels from 1585 to 1614: he had three Marks, of which we give the largest. Of the Liege printers, we have only space to mention J. Mathiæ Hovii, whose shop was “Ad insigne Paradisi Terrestris” during the latter half of the seventeenth century, and whose Mark is of rather striking originality and boldness of design.

The two most distinguished names in the annals of Dutch and Flemish printing are unquestionably Plantin and the Elzevirs. A full description of the various Marks used by Christophe Plantin alone would fill a small volume, as the number is not only very great, but the varieties somewhat conflicting in their resemblance to one another; all of them, however, are distinctly traceable to three common types. Some are engraved by Godefroid Ballain, Pierre Huys, and other distinguished craftsmen. His first Mark appeared in the second book which he printed, the “Flores de L. Anneo Seneca,” 1555. His second Mark was first used in the following year, and bears the monogram of Arnaud Nicolaï. Of each of these examples we give reproductions, as also of the fine example designed for Plantin’s successors either by Rubens or by Erasme Quellin, and engraved by Jean Christophe Jegher, 1639, Plantin having died in 1589. The most famous of all Plantin’s Marks is of course that with the compass and the motto “Labor et Constantia,” which he first used in 1557. Plantin explains in the preface to his Polyglot Bible the signification of this Mark, and states that the compass is a symbolical representation of his device: the point of the compass turning round signifies work, and the stationary point constancy. One of the most curious combinations of Printers’ Marks may be here alluded to: in 1573, Plantin, Steels and Nutius projected an edition of the “Decretals,” and the Mark on this is made up of the three used by these printers, and was designed by Pierre Van der Borcht.

Nearly every volume admittedly printed by the Elzevir family possessed a Mark, of which this family, from Louis, in 1583, to Daniel, 1680, used four distinct examples. The founder of the dynasty, Louis (1583-1617), adopted as his sign or mark an Eagle on a cippus with a bundle of arrows, accompanied with the motto, “Concordia res parvæ crescunt”--the emblem of the device of the Batavian Republic--and as the year 1595 occurs on the primitive type of this Mark, it might be concluded to date from that period. But Willems points out that no book published by Louis in the years 1595 and 1596 carries this Mark, which (he says) figures for the first time on the Meursius, “Ad Theocriti idyllia Spicelegium,” 1597. In 1612 Louis Elzevir reduced this Mark, and suppressed the date above mentioned. For some time Isaac continued the use of the sign of his grandfather, and even after 1620, when he adopted a new Mark--that of the Sage or Hermit--he did not completely repudiate it. Bonaventure and Abraham scarcely ever used it except for their catalogues.

The second Mark, which Isaac (1617-25) adopted in 1620, it occurring for the first time in the “Acta Synodi Nationalis,” is known as the Solitaire and sometimes as the Hermit or Sage. It represents an elm around the trunk of which a vine, carrying bunches of grapes, is twined; the Solitaire and the motto “Non solus.” The explanation of this Mark is obvious, and may be summed up in the one word “Concord;” the solitary individual is symbolical of the preference of the wise for solitude--“Je suis seul en ce lieu être solitaire.” This Mark was the principal one of the Leyden office, and was in constant use from 1620 to 1712, long after the Elzevirs had ceased to print.

The third Elzevir Mark consists of a Palm with the motto “Assurgo pressa.” It was the Mark of Erpenius, professor of oriental languages at the University of Leyden, who had established a printing-press which he superintended himself in his own house. At his death the Elzevirs acquired his material, with the Mark, which occurs on the Elmacinus, “Historia Saracenica,” and on the Syriac Psalter of 1625, on the “Meursii arboretum sacrum,” 1642, and on about seven other volumes.

The fourth important Elzevir Mark is the Minerva with her attributes, the breastplate, the olive tree, and the owl, and the motto “Ne extra solus,” which is from a passage in the “Frogs” of Aristophanes. It was one of the principal Marks of the Amsterdam office, and was used for the first time by Louis Elzevir in 1642. After Daniel’s death this Mark became the property of Henry Wetstein, who used it on some of his books. It was also used by Thiboust at Paris and Theodoric van Ackersdyck at Utrecht.

In addition to the foregoing, a number of other Marks were employed by this firm of printers, the most important of the minor examples being the Sphere, which occurs for the first time on “Sphæra Johannis de Sacro-Bosco,” 1626, printed by Bonaventure and Abraham; and from this time to the end of the period of the operations of the Elzevirs, the Sphere and the Minerva appear to have equally shared the honour of appearing on their title-pages. Among the other Marks which we must be content to enumerate are the following: a hand with the device of “Æqvabilitate,” an angel with a book, and a book of music opened, each of which was used occasionally by the first Elzevir; and one in which two hands are holding a cornucopia, of Isaac; the arms of the Leyden University formed also occasionally the Mark of the Elzevirs established in that city.

The Mark of Guislain Janssens, a bookseller and printer of Antwerp, at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century, is both distinct and pretty, and is worth notice if only from the fact that artistic examples are by no means common with the printers of this city.

[Decoration]

PRINTERS’ MARKS IN ITALY AND SPAIN.[1]

The _incunabula_ of Italy offer very little interest so far as regards the Marks of their printers, and the adoption of these devices did not become at all general until the early years of the sixteenth century. Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz, who were the first to introduce printing from Germany into Italy, first at the monastery of Subiaco, near Rome, in 1465, and to that city in 1467, appear to have had no Mark; and the same may be said of several of their successors. We give the earliest Roman example with which we are acquainted, namely, that of Sixtus Riessinger, and George Herolt, a German, who printed in partnership at Rome in 1481 and 1483. One of the books produced by this partnership was the “Tractatus sollemnis et utilis,” etc., which contains “full-page figures of the Sybils, fine initials, and an interlaced border to the first page of text, all executed in wood engraving.” The next Roman typographers who used a Mark were, like Herolt, “Almanos” or Germans, for as such Johann Besicken (1484-1506) and Martens of Amsterdam describe themselves in the colophon of “Mirabilia Romæ,” a 24mo. of 63 leaves, 1500. This work contains ten woodcuts, of which that on “the reverse of leaf 36 has at the bottom the words ‘Mar’ and ‘De Amstdam’ in black letters on white scrolls, and ‘ER’ immediately beneath the latter, in white letters on a black ground, showing that Martin of Amsterdam, one of the printers, was also the engraver. On the woodcut on the reverse of leaf 25 also, there is a shield with the initials of both printers, ‘I’ and ‘M’ interlaced, in both large and small letters.” Andreas Fritag de Argentina (or Strassburg), 1492-96, is another early Roman printer who used a Mark. The four foregoing Marks are given on the authority of J. J. Audiffredi, “Catalogus ... Romanorum Editionum saeculi XVI.,” 1783. Among the early sixteenth century printers of Rome, one of the most distinguished was Zacharias Kalliergos of Crete, 1509-23, who had started printing at Venice in 1499, and of whom Beloe has given an interesting account in the fifth volume of his “Anecdotes of Literature.” A miniature of his device is given at the end of this chapter.

[Footnote 1: The reader will find on page 25 a series of thirty reduced reproductions of Marks used for the most part by the Italian printers. These are given after Orlandi (“Origine e Progressi della Stampa,” 1722) and Horne (“Introduction to the Study of Bibliography,” 1814), but several of the names are open to question from the fact that the former author has given no account either of the places at which they worked, or of the books which they printed.]

Printing was introduced into Venice by Johannes de Spira in 1469, and, as showing the extent to which it was quickly carried, Panzer reckons that up to the end of the fifteenth century, no fewer than 189 printers had established themselves here, and had issued close upon 3,000 works. From 1469 to 1480, over sixty master printers were found within the precincts of the city. The first of the superb series of early printed books produced here is the folio edition of Cicero, “Epistolæ ad Familiares,” 1469, although the honour of being the most magnificent production appears to be equally divided between the Livy and the Virgil, 1470, executed by John of Spira’s brother and successor Vindelinus. So far as we know, neither of the two brothers, nor Nicolas Jenson, 1470-88, many of whose beautiful books rivalled the De Spiras’, used a Mark.

Erhardus Ratdolt may be regarded as one of the earliest, if not actually the first Venetian printer to adopt a Mark. From 1476 to 1478 he was in partnership with Bernardus Pictor and Petrus Loslein de Langencen, but from the latter year to 1485 he was exercising the art alone. (It is not altogether foreign to our subject to mention that this firm printed the “Calendar” of John de Monteregio, 1476, which has the first ornamental title known.) In 1487, Ratdolt was at Augsburg, and perhaps his claims as a printer are German rather than Venetian, but as his best work was executed during his sojourn in Venice, it will be more convenient to include him in the present chapter. Like so many others of the early printers, he regarded his own performances with no little self-complacency, for in his colophons he describes himself, “Vir solertissimus, imprimendi arte nominatissimus, artis impressoriæ magister apprimè famosus, perpolitus opifex, vir sub orbe notus,” and so forth. To him is attributed the credit of having invented ink of a golden colour; and he was the first to employ the “flourishes,” (“literæ florentes”) or initial letters formed of floral scrolls and ornaments borrowed from the Italian manuscripts, and sometimes printed in red and sometimes in black. Joannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis, 1480-1516, and Gregorius alone, 1516-28, make a very good show in the way of printed books, one of the most notable being the first quarto edition of Boccaccio, 1516, and another the “Deutsch Römisch Brevier,” 1518, which is printed in black and red Gothic letter with numerous full-page woodcuts and borders. Contemporary with these two brothers and also famous as a prolific printer comes Ottaviano Scotto, “Civis Modoetiẽsis,” 1480-1500, and his heirs, 1500-31, of whose Mark we give an exact reproduction. Baptista de Tortis, 1481-1514, also issued a number of interesting books, more particularly folio editions of the classics, copies of which are still frequently met with, and of whose Mark we give a reduced example on p. 25; and the same may be said of Bernardinus Stagninus, 1483-1536. The Mark, also, of Bernardinus de Vitalibus, 1494-1500, is sufficiently distinct to justify a reduced example. Bartholomeus de Zanis, 1486-1500, was not only a prolific printer on his own account, but also for Scotto, to whom reference is made above. The Marks, on a greatly reduced scale of Dionysius Bertochus, 1480; of Laurentius Rubeus de Valentia, 1482; of Nicholas de Francfordia, 1473-1500; and of Peregrino de Pasqualibus, 1483-94, who was for a short time in partnership with Dionysius de Bertochus, are all interesting as more or less distinct variations of one common type (see p. 25). Of Petrus Liechtenstein, 1497-1522, who describes himself as “Coloniensis,” and whose very fine Mark in red and black forms the frontispiece to the present volume, it will be only necessary to refer to one of his books, the “Biblij Czeska,” 1506, which is the first edition for the use of the Hussites. Of this exceedingly rare edition, only about four copies are known. It is remarkable in not having been suppressed by the Church, for one example of its numerous woodcuts (which are coloured) at once betrays its character, viz., the engraving to the sixth chapter of the Apocalypse, in which the Pope appears lying in hell. As illustrative of some of the more elaborate and pictorial Marks which one finds in the books of the Venetian printers during the sixteenth century, we give a couple of very distinct examples, the first being one of the Marks of the Sessa family, whose works date from 1501 to 1588; and the second example distinguishing the books of the brothers Paulum and Antonium Meietos, who were printing books in 1570.