Part 36
COLOGNE. The first printer at Cologne was Ulric Zell. He was an industrious printer for more than forty years, but he never printed a book in German, nor did he adopt any of the improvements of the printers of Italy. He adhered rigidly to the severe style of his master, Schœffer, printing all his books from three sizes of a rude face of Round Gothic types. He was not a skillful nor even a correct printer, but he was a shrewd publisher, and accumulated a large property. Madden supposes that he went to Cologne in 1462, and [p495] was engaged by the Brotherhood of the Life-in-Common at Weidenbach, near that city, to assist them with his new art of printing in their pious task of making books.[347] His name appears for the first time in a book dated 1466, which date may be accepted as indicative of the time when he left the monastery and began to print on his own account in the city.
At the close of the fifteenth century, twenty-two printing offices had been established at Cologne. Among them was that of Arnold Ter Hoorne, who, despite his occasional bad presswork, deserves special notice as one of the first printers who made use of Arabic figures.
NUREMBERG. Henry Keffer, who appeared as a witness for Gutenberg in the suit at law in 1455, is supposed to have established himself as a printer at Nuremberg about 1469. His name appears, for the first time, in the imprint of a book dated 1473, from which it seems that he was hired by John Sensenschmidt, a wealthy man of that city,[348] who aspired to be a publisher. In 1473, Anthony Koburger began to print at Nuremberg. In a few years he acquired great reputation as printer and publisher: he had twenty-four presses at Nuremberg and offices at Basle and at Lyons. Lichtenberger says that he printed twelve editions of the _Bible_ in Latin and one in German. That he merited his honors is implied by the testimony of Jodocus Badius, his rival at Paris, who frankly said he was an honest merchant and the prince of printers. The success of Koburger did not materially interfere with the [p496] prosperity of his rivals, for there were seventeen master type-printers and many block-printers at Nuremberg before 1500. Koburger’s most curious book is the _Nuremberg Chronicle_ of 1493, a large and thick folio, edited or compiled by Hartmann Schedel, as a summary of the history, geography and wonders of the world. It contains more than two thousand [p497] impressions[349] of wood-cuts, “made by Wolgemuth and Pleydenwurff, mathematical men, and cunning as designers.”
AUGSBURG. The practice of typography was brought to Augsburg in 1468 by Gunther Zainer of Reutlingen, who is supposed to have been taught at Strasburg. He was the first printer in Germany who printed a book in Roman characters. [p498] He and his rivals, Bamler, Schüssler and Sorg,[350] illustrated their books so freely with wood-cuts as to provoke the remonstrance of the fraternity of block-printers of Augsburg.[351] This opposition may have caused Zainer’s retirement from business in 1475, but it did not check the business of the others.[352] There were twenty master printers at Augsburg before 1500.
IN THE NETHERLANDS.
UTRECHT. It is probable that the unknown printer of the four notable editions of the _Speculum_ was at Utrecht before the arrival of Ketelaer and De Leempt in 1473.[353]
LOUVAIN. John of Westphalia came to Louvain in 1472, with some matrices of Round Gothic and Roman types which he had acquired in Venice, and began to fit up a printing office. In 1473, he published his first book. During the twenty-two years he was in business, he printed 120 works. Many were editions of the classics, and all were selected with reference to the requirements of the University, from which he received the honorary title of Master of Printing. John Veldener, who began to print at Louvain in 1473, received a similar title. He boasted that he was expert in all branches of the graphic arts, but his skill was that of a mechanic. As [p499] a publisher, he could not compete with John of Westphalia.[354] Thierry Martens, of Alost, was employed by John of Westphalia, probably as editor, soon after he arrived at Louvain. After receiving suitable instruction, Martens was allowed to print some little books at Alost in 1473. He began to print at Alost in his own name in 1487. Necessity or the love of change compelled him to move his printing office many times between Louvain and Antwerp. In 1529, he forsook printing and retired to Alost, where he died in 1534, at the age of eighty-eight years. In his business life of almost sixty years he printed, beside many other works, about 150 books in Greek, Hebrew and Latin. He had a critical knowledge of six languages, and his ability as an editor was acknowledged by many scholars who were his friends and correspondents. Erasmus wrote his epitaph, and the town of Alost has put up a statue to commemorate his worth.
BRUGES. The name of Colard Mansion, a calligrapher of high merit and afterward the first typographer at Bruges, is found in the records of a corporation of book-makers, between the years 1454 and 1473. As his name does not re-appear before 1482,[355] it is supposed that he abandoned the guild and learned printing. In 1476, he printed a little book in a new face of type in the French style. He was a skillful but not a prosperous printer, for he was obliged to eke out his scant income as a printer by occasional jobs of illumination. Soon after 1484, he left Bruges. It is not known where he went or when he died. John Brito, who succeeded Mansion, was for many years the only typographic printer at Bruges. This neglect of printing in a city renowned for the elegance of its manuscripts and the skill of its calligraphers shows that the professional book-makers regarded printing as an inartistic and mechanical method of making books. [p500]
GOUDA and ANTWERP. Gerard Leeu, the most industrious[356] printer of his time, began to print at Gouda in 1477, but he went to Antwerp in 1484, where he continued to print until his death in 1493. Imitating Verard of Paris, he gave his later years to the translation and printing of romances and popular books. In 1493, he began to print Caxton’s _Chronicle of England_, in English and obviously for sale in England, but he died before the work was finished.[357]
IN ITALY.
This is the order in which printing was established in Italy:
Place. Printer. Date. Subiaco Sweinheym & Pannartz 1465 Rome Sweinheym & Pannartz 1467 Venice John de Spira 1469 Milan Anthony Zarot 1470 Foligno John Nummeister 1470 Trevi John Reynard 1470 Verona John of Verona 1470 Treviso Gerard de Lisa 1471 Bologna Balthazar Azzoguidi 1471 Ferrara Andrew Belfort 1471 Naples Sixtus Riessinger 1471 Pavia Antonio de Carcano 1471 Florence Bernard Cennini 1471 Fivizano Jacobus and others 1472 Padua Balt. de Valdezochio 1472 Mantua Pietro Adam de Michael 1472 Mondovi Antonio Mathiae, _et al._ 1472 Jesi Frederic Veronensis 1472 Cremona Paravisinus, _et al._ 1472 Parma Andrew Portiglia 1473 Brescia Thomas Ferrandus 1473 Messina Henry Alding 1473 Vicenza John de Reno 1473 Como De Orcho, _et al._ 1474 Turin Fabri and John de Petro 1474 Genoa Matthew Moravus, _et al._ 1474 Modena John Vurster 1475 Trent Hermann Schindeleyp 1476 Palermo Andrew de Wormatia 1477 Ascoli William de Linis 1477 Lucca Bart. de Civitali 1477 Casal William de Canepa 1481
Cotton, in his _Typographical Gazetteer_, specifies thirty-seven other places in Italy in which printing was done before 1500. [p501]
SUBIACO and ROME. Conrad Sweinheym and Arnold Pannartz, two printers from Germany, set up a press in the monastery of Subiaco, near Rome, and there produced in 1465 the books first printed from types in Italy. To please the tastes of their Roman readers they made a new font of Roman types. It was not a successful effort, for the traces of Gothic mannerisms are noticeable in almost every letter. Not meeting with the encouragement they desired, the two printers removed to Rome in 1467. They began to print on a grand scale, making new fonts of Roman, Greek and Round Gothic types, enlisting the services of Bishop John Andrew as reader and corrector, and undertaking the publication of many large classical works. They did not prosper. In the year 1472, they petitioned the pope for relief, setting forth that they had printed 11,475 copies of twenty-eight works, a very large portion of which had not been sold, and that they were in great distress. In 1473, Sweinheym withdrew from the partnership, and began to engrave on copper maps for an edition of _Ptolemy’s Geography_. He died before the book was published, in 1478. Pannartz died in 1476.
Ulrich Hahn, a printer of Bavaria, went to Rome in 1465, and began to print there in 1467. His first book was in Round Gothic types, but his Italian readers induced him to make for his second book a rude form of Roman types. He employed Campanus, an eminent scholar, as reader and corrector, and associated himself with Simon Nicholas de Lucca, who acted as editor and publisher of his books. At this time there were in Rome many printing offices, and the number increased, notwithstanding the complaints of Sweinheym and Pannartz, and also of Philip de Lignamine, that more books were printed than could be sold. Before the year 1500, there were or had been thirty-seven master printers at Rome.
VENICE. John de Spira, so called from Spire, the city in which he was born, was the first typographer at Venice. He began in 1469, by the publication of the _Letters of Cicero_ in types of Roman form. Soon after, he published an edition in [p502] folio of the _National History of Pliny_, which is regarded as one of the finest specimens of the printing of the fifteenth century. Proud of his fine work, but fearing competition, De Spira solicited and obtained from the senate, September 18th, 1469, exclusive rights as a printer in Venice for five years. The privileges seem to have been forfeited by his death in 1470; but his printing office was managed with ability by his brother Vindelin, who succeeded to the business.
Nicholas Jenson, the “man skilled in engraving,” who had been sent to Mentz in 1458, and who, according to Madden, had thoroughly qualified himself in the monastery of Weidenbach, seems to have been the first of several printers who hastened to Venice to profit by the forfeiture of De Spira’s privilege. In 1471, he published his first book,[358] the _Decor Puellarum_, in neat light-faced Roman types on Great-primer body. His experience at the mint of Tours as an engraver gave him a decided advantage over all his rivals. Roman types had been made before by Sweinheym, De Spira and Hahn, but never before had punches been so scientifically engraved, nor types so truly aligned. It is not surprising that the efforts of his predecessors should pass for naught, and that Jenson has ever since been regarded as the introducer of Roman types. But Jenson discovered, as Hahn and De Spira had done, that, to secure buyers in Germany, it was necessary to print books in Gothic characters. With this object in view, he cut several fonts of Round Gothic, one on Bourgeois and one on Brevier body, the smallest sizes of types made in the fifteenth century.
As a printer, Jenson is entitled to high praise. None of his competitors showed so much taste and skill in the details of book-making. It is noticeable in every feature—in the tint and texture of his paper, in the glossy blackness of his ink, in the clearness and solidity of his impressions, in the [p503] uniformity of register and of color on every page. Jenson’s merits were recognized by Pope Sixtus IV, who, in addition to other marks of favor, bestowed upon him the title of count palatine. He died in 1481. His printing office passed into the hands of an association of which Andrew Torresani of Asola was the manager. In time, Aldus Manutius, a partner in this association, married a daughter of Torresani, and got control of the office, the reputation of which he increased by his scholarship, by his numerous editions of the classics, and by his introduction of Italic types, but not by superior skill as a typographer. As a type-founder, printer and ink-maker, Jenson had no rival and left no proper successor.
At the close of the fifteenth century, Venice took the lead of all cities, not only in the number of its printing offices, but in the beauty of its types and printing. Printers in other countries knew that they would secure for their types the highest commendation by announcing them as the true Venetian characters. Santander specifies 201 master printers who had been in business at Venice before 1500. Bernard estimates the number of books then and there printed at two million volumes.
FLORENCE. Bernard Cennini, an eminent goldsmith of Florence, began to print with types at that city in the year 1471. He said that he and his sons Peter and Dominic made the tools and types and did all the work without instruction, but the exact manner in which Cennini describes the cutting of punches and the founding of types makes this statement doubtful. Cennini never earned any reputation as a typographer, for it does not appear that he printed any book after 1471. Santander names twenty-two master printers at Florence before 1500. The most noticeable of the number is Dominic de Pistoia, an ecclesiastic who founded a printing office in 1474, which is known in history as the Ripoli Press. Dominic was the abbot of a monastery, but he proved an active and intelligent publisher. He deserves notice chiefly for his care in keeping his accounts, which give us our most [p504] trustworthy information concerning the materials and usages of the early printers.[359]
MILAN. Anthony Zarot began to print at Milan in 1470 or 1471, having been hired by Philip de Lavagna, who seems to have been a capitalist and a publisher. In 1472, Zarot persuaded four citizens of Milan to unite with him in a new association for the printing and publishing of books. The articles of agreement are curious, and deserve preservation.[360] The association seems to have been remarkably prosperous, for in 1472 it had seven presses at work. In 1473, the [p505] publisher Philip de Lavagna and his new partner Montanus made an agreement with Christopher Valdarfer, another printer at Milan, for the exclusive use of two presses.[361]
There was no part of Europe in which so great an enthusiasm was shown for printing as in Italy.[362] The only open opposition which the new art encountered was made in 1472, by the copyists of Genoa, who complained that the typographers were greedy, and that they deprived the copyists of their livelihood by undertaking to print little books.
IN FRANCE.
Place. Printer. Date. Paris Ulrich Gering, _et al_ 1469 Lyons Buyer and Le Roy 1476 Angers De Turre and Morelli 1477 Chablis Pierre le Rouge 1478 Poitiers J. Boyer and G. Bouchet 1479 Toulouse — 1479 Caen Ferrandus and Quijone 1480 Vienne Pierre Schenck 1481 Promentour Loys Guerbin 1482 Troyes Guillaume le Rouge 1483 Chambery Antonius Neyret 1484 Bréand-Loudéhac R. Foucquet 1484 Rennes Pierre Belleesculée 1484 Abbeville Dupré and Gerard 1486 Rouen Guillaume le Talleur 1487 Besançon — 1487 Hagenau Henry Grau 1489 Dol Peter Metlinger 1490 Grenoble — 1490 Orleans Matthieu Vivian 1490 Dijon Peter Metlinger 1491 Angoulême — 1491 Cluny Michael Wenssler 1493 Nantes Etienne Larcher 1493 Limoges John Berton 1495 Provins G. Tavernier 1496 Tours Matthieu Lateron 1496 Avignon Nicol Lepe 1497 Treguier — 1499 Guienne — 1500 Perpignan J. Rosembach 1500
PARIS. About the close of the year 1469, Ulrich Gering, Michael Friburger and Martin Crantz began to print at Paris. To please the classic tastes of the doctors of the university who had invited them, their first book appeared in types of Roman form. They were not skillful printers, for Chevillier says that letters half formed and half printed are noticeable [p506] in their earlier works, but they were industrious publishers. Like Jenson, they found it expedient to cut and cast types of the Round Gothic fashion, for the Roman character was most admired by scholars. In 1477, Crantz and Friburger abandoned printing, but Gering continued to print until his death in 1510. He willed a large property to the university.
In 1473, Peter Keyser and John Stol, after a three years’ service with Gering, set up a rival printing office, the result of which was a reduction in the price of books.[363] This competition did not prevent other printers from founding offices in Paris, but it did compel some to improve the quality of their work, and to seek a new class of readers. Antoine Verard in 1480, and Phillipe Pigouchet in 1484, founded a new school of printing, when they undertook to make prayer-books and romances in imitation of the style of the miniaturists.[364] Thielmann Kerver, who commenced to print in 1497, was almost as famous as a printer of ornamental books. The growing taste for fine books did not prevent the publication of solid literature. In 1495, Jodocus Badius, a printer of great learning, who had been proof-reader for his father-in-law, Trechsel of Lyons, established an office at Paris, and began to print for men of education. In the following year came the famous Henry Stephens, first of a long line of printers eminent for their scholarship and diligence as editors and publishers of classical and critical text books. Before the year 1500, there were, or had been, sixty-nine master printers in Paris.
LYONS. Lyons must have offered unusual inducements to master printers, for there were forty printing offices in that city before the year 1500. The printers of Lyons were busy [p507] publishers, and their competitors in Italy complained with reason of their piratical editions. They made liberal use of engravings on wood and copper-plate illustrations. They were also the first printers to sell cheap books in showy bindings.
IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
Place. Printer. Date.
Barcelona N. Spindeler 1473 or 1478 Valencia Cordova and Palomar 1474 Saragossa Matthew Flandrus 1475 Seville A. Martinez, _et al._ 1476 Segorbe — 1479 Tolosa Henry Mayer 1480 Burgos De Basilea 1485 Salamanca — 1485 Soria Eliezar ben Alanta 1485 Xerica — 1485 Toledo John Vasquez 1486 Murcia Juan de Roca 1487 Tarragona John Rosembach 1488 Lerida — 1488 San Cucufute des Valles — 1489 Lisbon R. Samuel Zorba 1489 Pampeluna — 1489 Zamora — 1490 Leiria Abraham Dortas 1492 Grenada Meynard Ungut 1496 Madrid — 1499 Montserrat John Luchner 1499
IN GREAT BRITAIN.
The first book printed in English, the _Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_, a stout folio of 351 leaves, does not contain the date of printing, nor the name and place of the printer, but it appears from the introduction that it was translated from the French by William Caxton between the years 1469 and 1471. When and where it was printed is a vexed question.[365]
The monogram which was exhibited by Caxton in his later books—‹f›s W. 74. C. c‹/f›—is interpreted by Madden as _William Caxton, 1474, Sancta Colonia_. It is an indication that a notable event in his life was represented by the year 1474 and the city of Cologne, and it seems to authorize the conjecture that at this time and place he published his first book. In 1475, Caxton printed, in the office of Mansion at [p508] Bruges, _The Game and Playe of the Chesse_. In 1477, he was “in the abbey of Westminster, by London,” and then and there published _The Dictes and Sayings of Philosophers_. He was then a very old man, but he did good service as a printer before his death in 1491. Blades estimates the entire product of his press at 18,000 pages, nearly all of which were of folio size. Compared with his great rivals on the Continent, Caxton cannot be accorded high rank as editor or publisher, but there was no printer of his time who labored more diligently.
In 1480, Lettou and Machlinia began to print at London. Wynken de Worde, Richard Pynson, Julian Notary and William Faques were also printers of that city before 1500.
In 1480, Theodoric Rood, of Cologne, printed at Oxford. In the same year, an unnamed printer, known to bibliographers as _The School-master of St. Albans_, was at Saint Albans.
The first printing press in Scotland was put up at Edinburgh in 1507; the first in Ireland at Dublin in 1551.
* * * * *
Printing was first practised in the New World in the city of Mexico, by Juan Cromberger, or his agent Pablos, between 1536 and 1540.[366] The second printing press in North America was put up by Stephen Daye at Cambridge, in 1638, and the first work printed on it, the _Freeman’s Oath_, was dated 1639.
The German origin of printing is fairly shown by the names, unquestionably German, of nearly all the men who introduced printing in Southern Europe. The workmanship of these men leads to the same conclusion, for the expert will see in their books evidences of the use of the punch, [p510] mould, press, and frisket. Whether done well or ill, printing was done with the tools and by the methods of Gutenberg.