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diff --git a/65847-0.txt b/65847-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d11f957 --- /dev/null +++ b/65847-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8404 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 65847 *** + + Transcriber’s Notes + + Text elements printed in italics have been transcribed _between + underscores_, small capitals have been changed to ALL CAPITALS. + + More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text. + + + + +EARLY WOODCUT INITIALS + + + + + EARLY + WOODCUT INITIALS + + CONTAINING OVER THIRTEEN + HUNDRED REPRODUCTIONS OF + ORNAMENTAL LETTERS OF THE + FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH + CENTURIES, SELECTED AND + ANNOTATED BY + OSCAR JENNINGS, M.D. + + MEMBER OF THE + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY + + [Illustration] + + METHUEN AND CO. + 36 ESSEX STREET + LONDON + + + _First published in 1908_ + + + + + I DEDICATE THESE PAGES TO + MY WIFE + AS A SLIGHT RECOGNITION OF + HER CONSTANT PATIENCE + AND DEVOTION + + + + +PREFACE + + +From the number of works that have been published within the last few +decades on early printing and the decoration of early books, it is +evident that an increasing interest is taken in these subjects, not +only by those whose studies have specially fitted them to appreciate +such researches, but also by the general educated public. + +There is, however, one variety of engraving that has hitherto attracted +but little attention, and the importance of which, both from artistic +and documentary points of view, is still unrecognised, and it may even +be said unsuspected by the great majority of students. Whilst every +engraving that may technically be termed a cut or an illustration +is catalogued and recorded in the different monographs on special +printers, those which take the form of initial letters, often of equal, +if not superior merit, are represented much more sparsely, and as +having a secondary importance only. + +In a monograph on fifteenth-century printing in a certain German town, +for instance, the writer, a professional bibliographer, gives about +ten or twelve initial letters, whereas the extent of the material upon +which he might have drawn may be judged from the fact that a more +recent authority, in his history of one printer only of this town, has +been able to reproduce more than fifty specimens, many of which are +quite equal in interest to illustrations proper, some of them having +been recently pointed out by a London expert as constituting the chief +attraction of a volume[1] with both initials and illustrations which +came under his hammer. + + [1] The initials in the _Leben der Heiligen Drei Könige_ of + Knoblochtzer. + +The above lines, written ten years ago, when I first began to collect +material for this volume, are perhaps no longer as true absolutely +as when first penned. Besides the works of Butsch, Reiber, and Heitz +which were already in existence, Ongania’s book on Venice bibliography +contains a great many initials; Heitz has devoted a volume to those of +Holbein and other artists of the school of Basle, and others to certain +initials of Strasburg and Hagenau; and Redgrave, Haebler, Claudin, +Schorbach, Spirgatis, and Kristeller give a certain prominence to +initials in their respective monographs. + +I still think, however, that a special work on the subject is needed +to do justice to the richness of artistic material available in this +special matter. + +The woodcuts in early books are often merely illustrative, that is to +say explanatory of the text, and were not designed as ornaments; but +the initials were intended to be decorative, and one can see in them a +real artistic effort and sentiment. + +Quaritch, indeed, has recently called attention to this fact, of the +superiority in some early books of the initials over the woodcuts, and +it is beginning to be recognised also by several great booksellers, +whose catalogues contain increasing numbers of reproductions of +ornamental letters in preference to other specimens of early engraving. + +Unfortunately, circumstances have prevented my completing my first +programme, and what I offer here can only be considered as a general +introduction to the subject. But such as they are, these fragmentary +notes will not, I hope, be found entirely devoid of interest. + +In conclusion, I have to express my thanks to Mr. A. W. Pollard, the +amiable and indefatigable secretary of the Bibliographical Society, for +help in seeing this volume through the press, and for many valuable +suggestions and criticisms. + + OSCAR JENNINGS. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + PREFACE, vii + + INTRODUCTION, 1 + + CHAP. + + I. BLOCK-BOOKS: THE INVENTION OF PRINTING: THE PSALTER OF + MAYENCE, 6 + + II. AUGSBURG, 14 + + III. ULM AND NUREMBERG, 22 + + IV. BASLE AND ZURICH, 29 + + V. LÜBECK AND BAMBERG, 39 + + VI. STRASBURG AND REUTLINGEN, 43 + + VII. COLOGNE AND GENEVA, 51 + + VIII. VENICE, 55 + + IX. OTHER ITALIAN TOWNS, 64 + + X. LYONS, 73 + + XI. PARIS, 82 + + XII. FRENCH PROVINCIAL TOWNS, 90 + + XIII. SPANISH TOWNS, 96 + + XIV. EARLY DUTCH INITIALS, 101 + + XV. LATER GERMAN INITIALS: HAGENAU, MAGDEBURG, METZ, OPPENHEIM, + INGOLDSTADT, ETC. ETC., 103 + + XVI. ENGLISH INITIALS, 108a + + REPRODUCTIONS OF INITIALS, 111 + + INDEX, 281 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The ornamentation of books dates probably from the time of their +invention, that is to say, it goes back to a very remote antiquity. +From Greece, where the book-trade was flourishing at an early period, +it passed into Italy, extending thence to the provinces of the Empire, +to Gaul and Spain, where book-lovers became more and more numerous, +and as civilisation became more refined, increasingly particular about +bindings and ornamentation. + +The verse of Tibullus, + + ‘Indicet ut nomen littera picta tuum,’ + +shows the extent of the embellishments to which bibliophiles had then +become accustomed, requiring the titles of their favourite authors to +be engrossed in coloured or illuminated letters.[2] + + [2] Numerous passages might be quoted from Latin writers to show how + great an interest they took in books, and how valuable rare, and what + might be called original, editions had even then become. It would + seem, too, that they even knew the pleasures of book-hunting, for + Aulus Gellius relates how, having a few hours to spare after landing + at Brindisi, he spent his time looking through the contents of an + old book-stall, and was lucky enough to discover a very old work on + occult science. + +Besides the title, the headings of chapters and the initial letters +were also distinguished in the same way from the rest of the work, +a custom which passed from the Roman copyists to those of the Lower +Empire, and in course of time became generally adopted in the +preparation of manuscripts. But this was not all. It is now recognised +that book illustration was known to the Romans, and that the +miniatures of the mediæval manuscripts only followed the fashion of the +rich and sumptuous volumes transcribed by the copyists of Athens and +Rome. The fourth-century Virgil, for instance, one of the treasures of +the Vatican, which has been so well described by M. Pierre de Nolhac, +is an example of this, containing as it does a large number of figures. +Like all manuscripts of the time, it was written exclusively in +majuscules, very similar to those used in Roman inscriptions.[3] + + [3] Pliny speaks of a marvellous, almost divine, invention by which + pictures were added to the book of _Imagines_ of Varro--no doubt + printed by stamping. + +The taste for luxury spreading from the third century, Byzantium became +the centre of the most extravagant and costly elegance in all its +manifestations, and books of that origin have come down to us written +on purple parchment in letters of gold. It was not until several +centuries later that a reaction took place, when Leo the Isaurian, in +741, considering such refinement as sinful, put an end to it by burning +the public library, together with its staff of _bibliothecarii_ and +copyists, the survivors finding a refuge for their art in the western +cloisters and monasteries. + +The intelligent protection and encouragement and hospitality afforded +to men of letters by Charlemagne was a great contrast to the bigotry +of Leo the Byzantine. Interesting himself warmly in all questions +relating to instruction, he took a special interest in the copying +and transcription of manuscripts, inviting to his kingdom the Irish +and Anglo-Saxon monks, who from the sixth century had made a special +study of calligraphy, and were celebrated all over Europe for their +miniatures and historiation. + +In consequence of the patronage of Charlemagne and of Charles the +Bald, son of Louis the Débonnaire, artists of all nationalities, but +more particularly Germans and Italians, who had come from Oriental +schools, received a warm welcome. At first in the sixth century the +initial letter was of the same size as the others, only distinguished +by the difference of colour, being in minium or cinnabar. A hundred +years later, under the Byzantine influence, the letter grows larger, +until it occupies the whole page, at the same time being painted with +the most vivid colours according to the fancy and caprice of the +artist. Little by little the Byzantine style first introduced became +modified, and assumed by degrees a national character. The decoration +of the initials took the form of interlaced chequer-work or of +historiated arabesques, resembling the mosaics of enamelled specimens +of Gallo-Frank jewellery. + +Then come figures of animals, in which the imagination of the artist +runs riot, as in the alphabet of which Montfaucon has given a specimen +in his _Origins of the French Monarchy_. + +To quote the opinion of a contemporary writer, there was nothing +under heaven or earth that had not served as a model for designers of +ornamental letters. + +Towards the fourteenth century this exuberance of decoration quiets +down. Fancy is by no means excluded, but it becomes more regulated and +more sure, to the advantage of art itself, which speaks through the +skill of the painters, whose names, however, with but few exceptions, +unfortunately remain unknown to us. + +Paris was renowned at an early period for the excellence of its +manuscripts, and the talents of its copyists and illuminators. Richard +de Bury, Bishop of Durham and Chancellor of England, speaks in his +_Philobiblion_ of the five libraries he had seen in that town, and the +magnificent books that he had been able to buy. + +In England, illumination had flourished from before the twelfth to the +fourteenth century, but by the middle of the fifteenth art was dead, +and when handsome miniatures or other decorations were required for +books, it was to French artists that it was necessary to apply. + +In Italy, the influence, as regards book ornamentation, of French art +may be judged from the passage of Dante, who, speaking to a miniaturist +of his profession, is obliged to use a periphrase to design it: + + ‘. . . di quell’ arte + Ch’ alluminare è chiamata in Parisi.’ + +The dawn of printing was at hand. Manuscripts, whether handsomely +embellished or copied simply without ornament, were expensive luxuries +which only the rich could purchase. With the revival of learning, for +students in general, for the poorer classes, for school children, cheap +books costing as little as possible, but serving the same end as the +manuscript, were necessary, and the xylograph came at its hour.[4] + + [4] It should be mentioned that block-books are now considered by + some authorities to have come later than the invention of printing + with movable type, _i.e._ about 1460. + +From the earliest times copyists had used stamps[5] and copper +stencillings in order to apply initials that recurred frequently, a +practice which contains in it the first germ of printing. Playing-cards +were printed by the same process and afterwards illuminated. + + [5] Passavant. + +Picture-books came next, with text and illustrations cut on the same +block, the leaves being printed on one side only, and afterwards gummed +back to back. + +Such was the book known as the _Biblia Pauperum_, ‘Figurae typicae +veteris atque antitypicae novi testamenti,’ a short pictorial history +in forty leaves of the Old and New Testament. Another of these +block-books is devoted to the history of St. John the Evangelist and +his apocalyptic dreams, of which there are six different editions, +with texts in Flemish, Saxon, and German. The _Ars Moriendi_, or +temptations of the dying, with terrifying pictures, shows a moribund +man assailed by devils,[6] but, as in all similar productions, the +terrible is relieved by a touch of the grotesque. The _Speculum humanae +salvationis_ is remarkable for being printed partly from blocks +and partly with movable characters. This shows the transition from +xylography to printing proper. The printer of this work, in order to +economise the composition of twenty-seven leaves, used the blocks he +possessed, and printed them together with twenty-seven others composed +with movable type. The example is not unique. + + [6] See, under ‘PARIS,’ the representation of one of these + death-scenes in an initial of Chevallon’s. + +A last variety of xylographic impressions is known under the generic +name of ‘Donatus.’ This is a little primer of Latin grammar first +compiled by the grammarian Aelius Donatus, by whose name it was +afterwards known. + +We have mentioned the xylographic publications, because in a certain +number of them ornamental initials are to be met with. These, as +would naturally be supposed, are of the same style as those found +in manuscripts of the same period. It may be observed here, that +whilst books of price were embellished with expensive work, the less +valuable manuscripts were left either without initials at all, or with +ornamental letters of a few stereotyped patterns, that experience had +shown to be most harmonious to the written text. Of these patterns +the most popular is the Maiblümchen, or lily of the valley design, +constantly seen in manuscript books, and adopted by many of the early +printers. This design will be seen in many of the first initials of the +Augsburg printers, and especially of Rihel of Basle. + +Historiated initials are less frequent in the block-books, the only +one we have found being the S of an _Ars Memorandi_, of which a +reproduction is given. + +We have noted briefly the successive changes in the manuscript book, +the different phases of its evolution towards its final formula and +expression as an impression from movable type. + +This brings us to the invention of printing, but it must be noted +that printing, which revolutionised in so many ways the world, did +not immediately put an end to the professions of the rubricator and +illuminator. Some printed works of the end of the fifteenth and the +beginning of the sixteenth centuries are embellished with miniatures of +the very highest merit and illuminated letters of the greatest beauty. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +BLOCK-BOOKS: THE INVENTION OF PRINTING: THE PSALTER OF MAYENCE + + +Printing, with the discovery or invention of which the name of +Gutenberg is intimately associated, goes back to the year 1454, or, if +we accept the recent discovery of an almanac which can only refer to +1448, some six years earlier. + +This is not the place to relate its general history, which is to be +found in all the special works on the question. We shall set down here +only the facts which concern our subject more particularly, and show +the evolution of ornamental letters in books of the first period after +the discovery of the new art. + +It is known that Gutenberg, after the expensive experiments that had +crippled his resources, had borrowed money from his fellow-citizen +Fust, for the purpose of developing his new discovery. + +His methods were, however, incomplete, and, according to one of many +conjectures, it was not until two or three years later that Peter +Scheffer, presumably a workman in Gutenberg’s office, perfected it +by the invention of punches and matrices, so discovering a means of +founding the type for which he devised a more suitable alloy instead of +engraving each letter. This brought Scheffer into favour with Fust, who +gave him his daughter in marriage. A quarrel with the original inventor +ensued, and Gutenberg, nearly ruined, was forced to retire, leaving +the two others in possession of the field. + +The object of the first printers was no doubt to imitate the manuscript +book as closely as possible. Gutenberg in his Bible had only attempted +to copy the letterpress proper. The two partners gave in 1457 as +their diploma piece an edition of the Psalter with two hundred and +eighty-eight capitals in two colours, besides the great initial B, the +whole forming a perfect imitation by the press of a highly decorated +manuscript. + +At the present time an expert could see at a glance that this book is +printed, instead of being written. But in 1457, and until the invention +of printing had become generally known, no one could have guessed that +it was anything but what it appeared, a beautifully finished manuscript. + +Of the letters, which are mostly in red and blue, the handsomest is +the initial B at the beginning of the first psalm, which is surrounded +by arabesques, continued along the margin. Besides these ornaments, +figures of a dog and bird are stencilled, as it were, in white on the +red ground of the letter. + +Writers are by no means agreed as to the way in which these initials +were executed, but until recently the explanation most generally +accepted was that of _emboîtement_, each part of the letter being inked +separately and afterwards joined. According to Mr. Gordon Duff, it is +impossible to determine exactly how they were produced, but in one +edition, that of 1515, the exterior ornament has been printed, while +the letter itself and the interior ornament have not. This shows that +the letter and ornament were not on one block, and that the exterior +and interior ornaments were on different blocks. Mr. Blades thought +that the design was not printed but impressed in blank, and afterwards +filled in with colour by the illuminator. The last opinion, that of Mr. +Weale, is that the letters were not set up and printed with the rest +of the book, but subsequently to the typography, not by a pull of the +press but by a blow of the mallet on the superimposed block. + +It is not, perhaps, without interest to note that the white ornaments +which have been already mentioned are reproduced on one of the initials +of the Bamberg missal. Whether or not this lends additional likelihood +to the Bamberg printer having been a workman of Gutenberg, the reader +must judge for himself. + +We have said that the object of the first printers was to produce an +imitation manuscript. It has even been suggested that Scheffer tried to +palm off some of the copies of the Bible as, and at the price of, the +manuscripts. + +Gabriel Naudé, in his addition to the history of King Louis XI., is +responsible for this accusation, which has been reproduced without +investigation by several historians. The passage is too long to quote +here, but he states positively that Scheffer sold the first copies +_pour manuscrites_ at seventy-five _écus_ a copy, selling others +afterwards at from twenty to thirty. Those who had paid the higher +price brought an action against him for _survente_, and he had to fly +from Paris to Mayence, where not being in safety he took refuge at +Strasburg, living for a time with Messire Philippe de Commines. + +The story is charmingly circumstantial but hardly convincing. At any +rate, it is certain that no sharp practice could have been attempted +after 1457, as the colophon of the Psalter states the volume ‘Venustate +capitalium decoratus rubricationibusque sufficienter distinctus +adinventione artificiosa imprimendi et characterizandi; absque calami +ulla exaratione sic effigiatus.’ + +It has also been said that Scheffer was not the first to use the +Psalter initials, which formed part of the stock which Gutenberg was +compelled to relinquish in payment of the money he had borrowed of Fust. + +Fischer at the beginning of the last century published the description +of a Donatus of 1451 with some of these initials, of which he gave a +facsimile, and which he attributes to Gutenberg, but this book is no +longer to be found, and it is supposed that he was the victim of a +hoax.[7] The only copy now known with these initials has come down to +us in the shape of a fragment which is preserved in the Bibliothèque +Nationale. The catalogue gives the date as 1468, but Hessels and many +other good judges place it at 1456. It is printed in the type of the +forty-two line Bible, with thirty-five lines to the page. In the +colophon Scheffer makes use of the expression ‘_cum suis capitalibus_,’ +which Hessels translates ‘with his capital letters,’ a rendering, says +Mr. Gordon Duff, which is surely impossible. + + [7] According to M. de Laborde, ‘Bodman archiviste de Mayence, + tourmenté par Oberlin, Fischer et tous les bibliographes du temps + pour leur trouver quelques nouveaux renseignements sur Gutenberg, + n’imagina rien de mieux que d’en fabriquer.’ Fischer in his _Essai + sur les monuments Typographiques de Jean Gutenberg_ declares that he + found two leaves of a Donatus, which was printed by Gutenberg with + the same initials as were afterwards used by Scheffer. These leaves + were in the cover of an account-book dated 1451, which was discovered + in the Archives of Mayence by Bodman. These leaves have since + disappeared. + +Two other questions remain to be considered: Why Scheffer should have +used the initials frequently until 1462, and then (with the exception +of successive editions of the Psalter) have given up their use +entirely? Who was their author? + +For the first there was a combination of several reasons. The +opposition of the Formschneiders may have had something to do with it. +On the other hand, Scheffer may have got tired of always using the +same initials which had been cut for him by an exceptionally clever +engraver, of whom he had afterwards lost sight. In the third place, the +sack of Mayence in 1462, which led to the dispersion of his workmen, +may have been partly the reason, but that he did not lose his material +is proved by the initials appearing in the antiquarian reprints of the +Psalter. + +In our opinion the second reason is most probable, and it is supported +by the testimony of Papillon as to the identity of the artist, which +seems to have escaped recent bibliographers. + +According to Heineken, a certain Meydenbach is mentioned in Sebastian +Münster’s _Cosmographia_, and also by an anonymous author in +_Serarius_, as being one of Gutenberg’s assistants. Heineken on these +grounds considers that he accompanied Gutenberg from Strasburg to +Mayence, also that he was probably an engraver or illuminator, and Von +Murr thinks he was the artist who engraved the large initials. + +Fischer is convinced that they were engraved by Gutenberg himself, ‘a +person experienced in such work, as we are taught by his residence in +Strasburg,’ which Jackson declares teaches no such thing. + +Papillon’s history is too long to be related here _verbatim_, but +in substance it is as follows: A German who was making the _tour +de France_ applied to him for work. He stated that his name was +Cocksperger, and that he was descended from Peter Cocksperger who had +engraved the initials of the Psalter of Mayence. Papillon only saw +him three times in 1737, when he showed him some of his work, which, +although somewhat coarse, was well cut, of a pretty taste, and not +common. His ancestors had lived in Mayence, Cologne, and Nuremberg. +One of them, Peter, had worked with Fust and Scheffer at their first +impressions, and it was a tradition in the family that he was a scribe +and miniaturist, and also engraved neatly on wood. He had been engaged +by Scheffer, who lodged him in his house, to design and engrave on wood +large initials embellished with ornaments like those he was in the +habit of drawing and painting. Also that one of his brothers, Jacques, +together with a friend named Thomas Forkanach who also engraved on +wood, had helped him to engrave the initials for Scheffer’s Psalter. +He showed Papillon a book of ‘figures of the mass,’ a xylographic +tract printed _au frotton_. Not being able to get acceptable work, +he left Paris. ‘This man,’ says Papillon, was ‘_franc et de très bon +caractère_,’ he had means to live quietly at home, had not _l’envie de +voyager_ made him leave Germany.[8] + + [8] Papillon, _Histoire de la gravure sur bois_. + +We have not seen any references to Cocksperger in modern works, but +Dibdin in one of his books quotes Papillon’s account of him. It would +be curious to know whether there was really a family of this name in +Mayence at the date Papillon gives, and whether there is any trace +there of such a tradition. + +Besides the initials used in the different editions of the Psalter, +and in some other publications such as the _Rationale Durandi_, which +has the same subscription as the Psalter, but with the date changed to +1459, Scheffer had a splendid bichrome T for the _Canon of the Mass_, +considered by many as quite equal to the B of the Psalter. + +Later in the century polychrome initials, as these letters in two +colours are somewhat incorrectly termed, are said to have been used in +early Dutch impressions. Humphreys in his _History of Printing_ gives +the reproduction of a Q in two colours from the _Dyalogus Creaturarum_, +printed at Gouda in 1480 by Gerard Leeu, which he supposes to be +printed, and which he considers, as we think erroneously, to be quite +equal to Scheffer’s B. + +Initials printed in one colour are not uncommon. They are to be found, +for instance, in the _Etymologicum Magnum_ of Callierges, and sometimes +in missals, such as the Missale Olumucense of Bamberg and the Rouen +Missal, ‘ad usum insignis ecclesie Atrebatensis.’ + +It has been said that the Psalter letters ceased to be used in 1462. +Whatever may have been the reason for this, and it is possible after +all that it was simply from motives of economy, Scheffer’s example, +as regards the suppression of ornament, was followed by the other +printers, and with the exception of Pfister, whose impressions from +movable characters have every appearance of xylographic productions, +for some years no books were issued with typographical embellishments. + +It is probable that, for the two years during which he flourished, +Pfister’s illustrated publications were tolerated because they were +generally supposed to be block-books, and that he was compelled to +stop operations by the Guilds, as soon as they found out that he was +in reality one of the hated printers. For it was not only as craftsmen +that the Formschneiders were hostile to the members of the new trade. +The engravers had become the printers of the xylographic books, then a +new and profitable industry, and they were afraid of the sale of their +own productions being interfered with by the illustrated works of the +type-printers. + +From the point of view of ornamental initials there is little to say +about the xylographic impressions. + +Before the invention of printing, the copies of block-books were +obtained, as has been already mentioned, by what is known as the +_frotton_ process, the paper being placed over the engraved block and +rubbed with a special pad. The ink in the originals is of a brownish +yellow. After the invention of the press, certain popular treatises +continued to be struck off from xylographic cuts, but by impression, +like ordinary books. One of these, the _Mirabilia Romae_, a guide-book +to Rome at the end of the fifteenth century, has a large historiated S +at the beginning. It is remarkable from the fact that the letterpress, +of which a specimen is given with the initial, is not cut in imitation +of type, but, as can be seen in our reproduction, of ordinary +hand-writing. + +Another specimen of this kind of printing is the P, which we reproduce +with a border, from a Donatus, the first and eighth leaves of which +were preserved for centuries in an old binding. + +This Donatus, of which the only leaves remaining belong to the Leipsic +Museum, was printed by Dinckmut. There is another xylographic fragment +with a colophon bearing the same name in the Bodleian Library. The +initial itself represents a schoolmaster surrounded by his pupils, a +subject frequently met with as a frontispiece to books of this class, +and it is prolonged into a border which frames the page. + +When the initial of a Donatus does not represent a pedagogue and his +class, the subject is often the Virgin and Holy Family. J. Rosenthal +has an extremely valuable edition with the Virgin, the Child, and St. +Catherine. Amongst our specimens of Cologne is a Donatus without name +of printer or date, but no doubt printed by Quentell towards 1500, in +which, besides the Virgin and Child, there are grotesque profiles in +the two left corners which look as if copied from the same source as +one of the Bämler initials, and the initial with grotesques in the Bâle +Psalters.[9] + + [9] The Donatus, always being in demand, was generally one of the + first books printed at a new press. It was the first work issued by + Pannartz and Sweynheim when they started at Subiaco. + +During the remainder of the fifteenth century there was very little in +the way of initial ornamentation in books published at Mayence, where +Scheffer, who was always the chief printer, seems to have exhausted his +possibilities in this direction with his first experiment. + +There is, however, a fine large historiated D in a German translation +of Æsop--_Das Buch und Leben des Fabeldichters Æsop_--without printer’s +name or date, but attributed to Scheffer, towards 1480. This initial +has already been reproduced in Muther’s _Bücher-Illustration_, and +more recently in a bibliography of incunabula and books printed before +1501, by Ludwig Rosenthal. The only other interesting ornamental letter +we are acquainted with of Mayence origin before 1500 is the G at the +commencement of Erhardt Reuwich’s _Breidenbach_. + +During the first two decades of the sixteenth century there is the same +dearth of anything like ornament in Mayence books, but towards 1520 +John, the grandson of the first Peter Scheffer, has several alphabets, +one of very large letters with arabesques of flowers, foliage, and +birds, used first in his Livy of 1518, published under the patronage +of Brandeburg, Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mayence. There is also a +smaller one with the most varied subjects, besides a few letters with +children on a black ground, and one or two linear initials also with +children, copied from Venetian models. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AUGSBURG + + +From what has been already said, it seems evident that the aim of the +first printers was to produce by the new art as perfect as possible an +imitation of the manuscript. + +Scheffer printed books with ornamental letters in the manuscript style. +The other printers left them to be added by hand, which produced the +same effect. It was not until the beginning of the seventies that the +printed book assumed its definite form, and that it was recognised that +new methods and new processes were necessary. The printed book was +henceforth to be a printed book, and not an imitation manuscript. It +was no longer to pass, for accessory embellishment, through a number of +successive hands, but to be finished at a single impression. + +It would not be exact to say that it was Günther Zainer who +relinquished the fiction of a printed manuscript, and who recognised +that, in virtue of the economic principle of which the press itself is +a manifestation, text and ornamental embellishments should be produced +as simply as possible. + +The alteration was brought about by the Augsburg printers generally, +rather than by any one in particular, and was a matter of evolution +rather than of sudden change. + +It was hindered, too, to a great extent by the opposition of the Guild +of Engravers, who saw in the innovation a menace to their privileges, +and who brought an action against Zainer and Schussler in 1471 to +prevent them using wood-engraving in their books, and even opposed +their admission as burgesses. It was only at the intervention of +Melchior Stanheim, Abbot of St. Ulrich, that the matter was arranged, +on the understanding that they should insert in their books neither +woodcut pictures nor letters, a prohibition that was only withdrawn +after a new arrangement which bound the printers to employ only +recognised members of the Formschneider Guild. + +As an example of the jealousy with which these privileges of +corporations were maintained, it may be mentioned that Albert Dürer was +compelled to pay four florins to the Society of Painters of Venice for +working at his profession during his stay in that city. + +Günther Zainer’s first woodcut initials, if they can be called +‘woodcuts,’ are merely outline letters without any kind of ornament. +They were intended simply as a guide to the rubricator. + +In the next stage we have a framed initial with an ornamental +groundwork, but the composition is less effective in black and white +than when the letter itself is picked out in red. A good example of +this is in the alphabet of the Zainer German Bible, afterwards used in +the _Summa Confessorum_ of J. Friburgensis. In these initials, what +a contemporary authority on lettering calls a ‘friskiness’ of the +design leads to a difficulty of distinguishing between the ornamental +prolongation of the different parts of the letter, and the very similar +decorative groundwork,--so much so, that even the rubricator was +sometimes mistaken, the colour being left unapplied where needed, and +_vice versâ_. + +Finally we come to initials, of which the specimens that have come +down to us are coloured as often as not. These are more effective when +not so treated, and were probably intended to be left as printed. The +reader can judge from the specimens reproduced. + +Butsch (_Bücher-Ornamentik_) mentions the _Gulden Bibel_ of +Rampigollis, the _Belial_ of 1472, and the _Glossae_ of Salemo, as the +earliest works of G. Zainer with woodcut initials. The _Belial_, he +says, has a large ornamental initial of arabesque design. + +Our first selections are from the _Summa Confessorum_; the large P is +from the _Margarita Davitica_ of 1475. + +The new plan was soon adopted by the other Augsburg printers, and +spread thence to other towns and countries. + +As far as Augsburg is concerned, it should be noted that the same +letters were often used by different printers, and they are therefore +as much illustrative of the town and period, as of any one particular +press. Ludwig Hohenwang, for instance, uses the same initials in his +_Gulden Bibel_ of 1477, as does J. Pflantzmann in his _Glossa_ of +Salemo of the same year. The two specimens given of these printers +might have been taken from either volume. + +Our other examples are taken from works published by Sorg, Keller, +Bämler, and Schönsperger. + +The Bämler selection is exceedingly curious as presenting probably +the first example, if our date is correct, of what was afterwards so +common--the grotesque profile. + +Unfortunately we are unable to give their exact origin, as they form +part of a collection of initials, cut from early books, but if the +attribution ‘Bämler, 1475,’ is correct, they are of the same date as +the Rihel Bible of 1475, in which there are two initials with profiles, +but neither of them grotesque.[10] + + [10] There are two pictorial letters in the fifth German Bible (see + the reproductions of both at pp. 118, 119), in which the border is + formed partly of a grotesque profile. + +The five specimens given are selected from the thirteen letters +comprised in the collection, and need no description. The others +consist of a D, which is in reality the same as our C but reversed; +a G, two L’s, an R, a T, and a V. One of the L’s has a sun with +full face, and the T, besides being of an unusual pattern, has also +a grotesque profile. Unfortunately it has been daubed over by a +rubricator too badly for reproduction. The S with the two human figures +occurs several times in Rihel’s Latin Bible, and was given by us in +a former essay[11] as a specimen of Basle woodcuts. We now class it +provisionally with Augsburg. + + [11] ‘On Some Old Initial Letters.’ _The Library_, January 1901. + +Of Sorg, our earliest specimens are of the pure Maiblümchen pattern, +the S without any trace of historiation being from a copy of St. +Ambrosius on St. Luke of 1476. Other letters of this type are to be +found in his _Breidenbach_ and other works, but later on they become +almost identical with those of Keller. Compare the A and the H from the +_Valerius Maximus_ of Sorg of 1480, with the E and V from the Keller +edition of Aristotle’s _Opera Nonnulla_ of 1479. The S with a grotesque +profile at each end and the letters G I A dates from 1480, and is the +first initial we have met with in which the fool, so popular in the +imagery of the period, here complete with cap, ass’s ears, bells and +cockscomb, is represented. + +Schönsperger’s initials, of which four reproductions are given, are a +little later, 1489. + +We come now to pictorial initials, and in this respect the printers of +Augsburg had been anticipated by those of Ulm and Nuremberg. + +It was in 1473 that the fourth German Bible was published at Nuremberg. +It was probably the success of this edition that induced Günther Zainer +to bring out the magnificent folio classed as fifth, which may truly, +from its size and solidity, be considered as a typographical monument. + +Zainer’s first edition (the fifth German Bible) was undated, but was +published either in 1474 or 1475. It succeeded so well that another +edition, this time dated and in two volumes, was published in 1477, +with small ornamental initials at the beginnings of the chapters, as +well as the large pictorial letters previously used at the commencement +of each book. + +The difference between the Augsburg and Nuremberg initials can be +seen in our reproductions, the former being taller and surrounded +with accessory ornaments. In the Nuremberg Bible, Corinthians 1 and +2, Ephesians, Philippians, Thessalonians 1 and 2, Timothy 1 and 2, +Titus and Philemon, all have the same initial. Hebrews has no initial +at all, nor has Galatians. In the Augsburg edition the letters are +all different; Galatians has its initial, and Hebrews begins with a +pictorial Z. + +In Sorg’s Bible of 1477, the only large historiated letter is the B at +the beginning of the dedicatory epistle, with bishop and cardinal in +a cell which, as can be seen in the corresponding Nuremberg initial, +looks like a third-class railway compartment. There is a smaller D, not +worth reproducing. The different books of the Bible are mostly preceded +by small engravings. + +But Sorg’s best historiated initials, in fact the only ones with which +we are acquainted (for the B in his Bible is a copy of Zainer’s), are +to be found in a work by Henricus Suso, ‘dictus Amandus,’ published +in 1482: _Das Buch das heisset Der Seusse_, a translation of his +_Horologium aeternae Sapientiae_. + +This book contains a number of engravings on Biblical subjects, which +are most often painted over beyond the possibility of reproduction. +Such is the case with the copies both in the British Museum and in the +Paris National Library. + +Besides these illustrations there are three large pictorial initials, +C, R, and S, of which the C alone occurs twice, representing, the C an +angel appearing to a woman, the R a saint with a crozier, and the S an +eagle, the background being filled up with Maiblümchen. + +Towards the end of the century Ratdolt, who had returned from Venice, +was the chief printer at Augsburg. + +Amongst his other productions, Ratdolt printed a number of liturgical +works, the most beautiful that we have seen being the folio Breviary of +1493. The type is admirable, and those pages which begin with the large +letters, such as the C with the Pope, or the H (All Saints), printed as +they are with the brilliant black ink of the period, are particularly +effective. The B at the beginning of the Psalter is used again in the +smaller Psalter of 1499, as are several of the smaller initials. The +_pars aestivalis_ begins with the U. The C with St. Urban is at the +commencement of the section _De Sanctis_. + +Two of the smaller initials occur in the larger Psalter, which are not +in the smaller one. A D representing a kind of Indian with a club and +feathers is the fool referred to in the opening words of the Psalm +_Dixit insipiens_. Another D has Jesus kneeling to His father (_Dixit +Deus Domino meo_). On the other hand, the crucifixion initials of the +Psalter of 1499 are not in this edition. + +The Psalter of 1499, _Psalterium cum apparatu vulgari familiariter +impresso--Lateinisch Psalter mit dem teutschen nutzlichen dabey +gedruckt_, has not the imposing appearance of the earlier folio volume, +but like all Ratdolt’s work is well printed. This would appear to have +been taken as a model for Psalters in the Vulgate. There are several +editions of different towns with the text framed, as it were, by a +translation in the vernacular in smaller type. The Psalter of Furter +has the same disposition, the initial letters, although different +in treatment, corresponding almost exactly with those of Ratdolt’s +Psalter. Knoblouch has a similar Psalter, but with non-historiated +initials. In the Metz Psalter of Hochffeder, otherwise on the same +plan, the only initial is on the title-page. + +In the Missal of Frisingen of 1492 there are no historiated letters, +and the ornamental initials in the Venetian style are unfortunately +most outrageously coloured in the only copy we have seen. Amongst +other letters there is in it an extremely curiously designed S which +is difficult to describe, but which we would recommend to students +of lettering. In the D, which is in the shape of a Gothic German +Q reversed, and the P, there is a branch-work pattern starting +tangentially from a central circle and ending in trifoliated ornaments +altogether graceful and harmonious. Ratdolt’s mark is on the last page, +and above it: + + ‘Erhardi Ratdolt felicia conspice signa, + Testata artificem qua valet ipse manum.’ + +Ratdolt continued to print liturgical works for some part of the +sixteenth century, but the only other volume of the kind that we +have had at our disposal is the _Pars Aestivalis_ of the _Breviarium +Constantiense_. Ratdolt, Aug Vindel, 1516. In this book there are four +pages with borders, one of which is reproduced, and on the opposite +sides are full-page engravings. There are eight initials, which we +reproduce, and which are also, we believe, to be found in his Ratisbon +Breviary. + +Hitherto, with the exception of the last-mentioned work, we have +had to do with what may be called the first style of engraving, in +which designs and pictures drawn by the artist were executed by the +wood-cutter in linear reproduction only. + +With Albert Dürer, however, came a new epoch, and it became the +custom for artists not only to design but also to engrave their own +work. This practice, which was commenced by Dürer, who served a long +apprenticeship to the celebrated Wohlgemuth, was continued by most of +his pupils, and new technical methods were naturally the consequence. +Henceforth the more liberal use of shading, and the invention of +cross-hatching, enabled effects to be produced which had been before +impossible. + +The results may be seen to this day in the magnificent engravings by +the great artists of the beginning of the sixteenth century, which, +notwithstanding the difficulties under which they laboured, have never +been excelled.[12] Their productions, even when it comes to initials, +are real compositions with a personal character. + + [12] At this time the wood employed for engraving was pear, and + the surface of the block was parallel to the fibre. This made + cross-hatching most difficult of execution, and in consequence of the + extreme care and attention necessary, it is said that the work took + eight or nine times as long as at present. It is only since the days + of Bewick that boxwood has been used, and the blocks cut with the + fibre of the wood perpendicular to the surface. + +To mention those only who designed initial letters, and of whose works +we shall give specimens, there were Albert Dürer, Hans Burgkmair, +Hans Holbein, Hans Schauffelein, Anton von Worms, Lucas Cranach, Hans +Baldung Grün. + +We have here to speak of the initials generally attributed to Hans +Burgkmair, but which, according to Dr. H. Röttinger, ought to be +assigned to Hans Weiditz, one of his pupils. + +These initials are to be met with for the most part in the publications +of Heinrich Steyner in 1531 and the following ten or eleven years, +and come mostly from German translations of classical authors. The +influence of Albert Dürer, of whom Burgkmair was himself the pupil, is +clearly seen. Different treatises and different editions of Cicero +were published in 1531, 1535, 1540; of Herodianus in 1531; Justinus, +1531; Boccaccio, 1532; Cassiodorus, 1533; Plutarch, 1534; Petrarch, +1542, in all of which we meet with specimens of these letters. + +The Z with a fox trying to get at the poultry in the market-woman’s +basket is from the German _Cicero_. The C (bagpiper) and the N +(caricature with big head and small legs) and the P with a peacock are +from the _Magni Aurelii Cassiodori variarum libri xii_. The E with the +monk and nun, and the C and H in a different style, are from the German +_Petrarch_. The other initials are from one or other of the volumes +mentioned. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ULM AND NUREMBERG + + +Most writers on early bibliography, amongst others Bodemann and Muther, +who both give reproductions of the initial border at the beginning of +the Latin Boccaccio, quote J. Zainer as the first printer in Ulm to +use woodcut initials. The date of the Boccaccio is 1473. In addition +to the initial border it contains a complete alphabet,[13] of which we +give several specimens. From a decorative point of view this alphabet +is not very remarkable, the letters being of small size, but the book +is interesting on account of the very large historiated initial at the +beginning, which is prolonged along the side and upper margins into a +floro-foliated border in imitation of the more elaborate decoration +of the old manuscripts. The subject represents that very unfortunate +incident in the history of the first woman which was the cause of all +the subsequent unhappiness of mankind. Eve, who is the heroine of the +first chapter of this book on celebrated women, is represented in the +act of receiving the apple from the arch deceiver, who is ensconced in +the branches of the fatal tree with his tail twisted into the letter S. +Above, in the branches of the tree, are small personages emblematic of +the seven deadly sins. In a German edition of the same book of the same +year, the initial becomes a D, and contains the arms of the noble to +whom the work is dedicated, with winged angels at the corners, being +prolonged into borders along the two adjacent margins. In these two +instances the initial letter forms part of the general composition. + + [13] Copied from a manuscript of the fifteenth century, the + ‘Evangeliare of St. Udalrich.’ + +In another style of border the initial is merely placed in +juxtaposition, and the same design is thus able to serve for any book +with any letter. + +There is a remarkably vigorous folio-floral border with the head and +shoulders of a fool with his cap, bells, and other insignia, at the +angle of the two margins in the _Liber Biblie Moralis_, 1474. The same +composition is used in the _Alvarus Pelagius_ the year before.[14] + + [14] In church architecture, and in early book ornamentation, which + reflects so well the ideas and customs of the time, the fool did + not make his appearance before the middle of the fifteenth century. + Wright, in his _History of Caricature_, mentions as early instances + some sculptures of this date in churches of Cornwall, and it was + about the same time that this personage is first seen in manuscript + decoration. + + The idea, however, was much older, springing from that taste for + the grotesque which characterised the Middle Ages, and the relics + of which are seen in so many artistic remains of the period. From + the tenth century and even earlier, companies of fools existed in + all large towns, and on certain occasions Mother Folly and the Lord + of Misrule reigned supreme. The cult of the ass, whose ears were to + become later part of the fool’s insignia, was another outcome of this + love of the burlesque. + + In printed books, the first engraving we are acquainted with of a + fool is in the border to the _Liber Biblie Moralis_ of 1475. In + initial letters, as far as we have been able to ascertain, this + subject was not used before 1480, when it is to be found in specimens + both of Augsburg and of Strasburg. A remarkable portrait of a fool + is contained in an O in Schott’s _Plenarium_, printed, as is stated + in the colophon, at ‘Strospurg,’ in 1481. Knoblochtzer’s large S, + for the _Dyalogus Solomonis et Marcolfi_, gives a fool with another + personage at full length, and at last the typical fool, with a + marotte and all other accoutrements, is met with in initials of + different Psalters, being well seen in that of Fürter of Basle. + + Henceforth, with a face characterised by leering cunning, the type + is to remain unchanged, and Brandt, Erasmus, and Holbein only add to + its popularity, without modifying the general conception. There is a + little pictorial initial by Quentell, in which the usual expression + is replaced by one of extreme _finesse_, but coarser cunning is + the rule, and it is under this aspect that the fool is depicted by + Holbein in the R of the alphabet of Death. + +In the _Quadragesimale_ of Gritsch there is a similar border, but the +fool is replaced by a personage with a doctor’s bonnet. The letters +accompanying these borders belong to the alphabet, of which we give +several reproductions, and which is the most frequently used in J. +Zainer’s works.[15] + + [15] Reiber in his _Art pour Tous_ gives a similar alphabet of the + Augsburg Zainer, which, he says, is copied from a manuscript of the + tenth century. + +Another great work from the Ulm press is the _Cosmographia_ of Ptolemy, +printed by Leonard Holl, in which there is an alphabet of initials not +unlike those of Schönsperger already given. Those of L. Holl ought to +have been preferred as illustrations, inasmuch as they are earlier than +the others, 1482, but they are almost invariably painted and unfit +for zincotype reproduction. The chief interest, moreover, in the book +is in its two large historiated initials on the first two pages, the +first showing the printer offering his book to the Pope, the second +representing probably Ptolemy himself. + +Our last specimen of J. Zainer’s engraving is the F which begins the +dedicatory epistle of the Latin Bible of 1480, and which is a curious +example of the peregrinations of woodcuts through different workshops, +and of the incongruous uses to which they were put. + +In the Ulm Bible the letter is much fresher and the border-line very +little broken, but our reproduction is from an impression made when it +was much the worse for wear, and had passed into the hands of Hupfuff +of Strasburg. It has been used by him without any kind of _apropos_, +not as an initial but as a frontispiece to a tract published in 1507 +with the following title: _Canon Sacratissime Misse una cū; Expositione +ejusdem ubi in primis praemittitur pulchra contemplatio ante missam +habenda de Cristi pulchritudine_.[16] + + [16] On the title-page of a little pamphlet entitled ‘Deploration sur + le Trepas de tres noble Princesse Madame Magdalain de France Royne + Descoce,’ of which only one copy is known, the frontispiece is a B + showing the Queen holding up a dagger, and with the motto ‘Memento + mori.’ + +Every student of bibliography has met with instances of the use of +illustrations having no reference to the text, simply to fill up +a space and because nothing more suitable was at hand. Cuts, for +instance, from Brandt’s illustrations to Grüninger’s Virgil are to be +found in some volumes of Geyler’s Sermons. The same indifference to +the reader’s opinion was often displayed in connection with ornamental +letters. When the letter is simply ornamental it does not much matter: +a C turned over becomes a D, and _vice versâ_. An M at a pinch serves +reversed as a W, an N on its side does for a Z. But when, as is +sometimes the case, the letter taken liberties with is pictorial or +historiated, the resulting effect is far from artistic. + +Here there is, of course, no absolute incompatibility between text +and illustration, which was probably considered a very satisfactory +makeshift for the cut which often adorns the recto or verso of +contemporary title-pages, representing the author presenting his book +to a patron. + +In 1496 J. Reger published books with initials, of which we have +selected the M, the C, and the S. They come from the _Obsidionis +Rhodie Urbis descriptio_ of Caoursin, a work very much sought after on +account of its full-page woodcuts, some of which represent incidents +in the siege, others the entertainment of an ambassador by the Grand +Master. The M and the C are the only letters with animated subjects; +the others, R, H, N, and G are simply foliated, and the proofs are too +inferior for reproduction. + +The same printer has another book of the same date about Rhodes, the +_Stabilimenta Rhodiorum militum_, with three interesting initials, an +F, a boy with a dog, an O, a naked winged babe, and an X, a bird with +foliage. + + +_Nuremberg._--If Zainer at Augsburg was the first to introduce woodcut +letters printed in black ink, the practice was adopted very soon +after at Nuremberg, if indeed, setting aside the outline initials +already mentioned, Nuremberg has not the priority as regards genuine +ornamental woodcutting. For whereas the _Belial_ of 1472 is the +first work mentioned by Butsch with woodcut letters at Augsburg, at +Nuremberg, where J. Müller of Königsberg (Regiomontanus), as is stated +by Panzer, settled in 1471, his first publication, the _Theoricae Novae +Planetarum_ of Georgius Purbachius, is embellished with eight initials. +These are interesting as affording another example of the fact that the +earlier designs were generally taken from manuscripts, for Olschki, in +his _Monumenta Typographica_, gives the reproduction of a manuscript +initial which is of the same size and of the same pattern as the S we +have given from the _Theoricae Novae_, and which contains besides eight +smaller initials, D, L, M, O, P, Q, S, V, measuring 2·4 centimetres. + +There is a Q of the same style and size in the _Astronomicon_ of M. +Manilius, published by Müller in 1473. + +Müller, or Regiomontanus, as he styles himself in his colophons, was +not only a printer, but one of the most learned mathematicians of the +day. In 1471 he printed a Calendarium of his own with many astronomical +figures and woodcut initials. + +In 1476 Ratdolt and his partners printed an edition of this with a +charming border and initials at Venice, and in 1496 it was published by +J. Hamman de Landoia. + +In 1473 appeared the first German Bible with large pictorial initials, +the Nuremberg Bible of Frisner and Sensenschmidt, known as the fourth +German Bible. In our opinion the work on these initials is amongst the +best of the time, and often much superior to what is to be found in +ordinary illustrative cuts of the same date. The subjects are the same +as in the Augsburg Bible, but the initials differ in being wider than +tall in the Nuremberg edition, and in the absence of the Maiblümchen +decorative border which is a feature of the others. + +After the German Bible, we know of no initials of very great interest +in Nuremberg books for some years. Koberger, who reigned supreme in +this town, did not favour their use.[17] + + [17] In a recent catalogue of thirty-seven works published by him, no + woodcut initials occur in any. + +In 1489 a book was published, generally attributed to G. Stuchs, which +is interesting in many ways.[18] The title, which is xylographic, runs +as follows: + + ‘_Versehung leib sel er unnd gut_,’ + +_anglicé_: ‘The way to preserve body, soul, honour, and means,’ and on +the verso is a remarkable engraving of a sick person in bed surrounded +by attendants, which evidently suggested the cut representing the sick +fool in Brandt’s celebrated _Navis Fatuorum_. At the end of the volume +is a great typographical curiosity, which constitutes, when completed +by hand, an _ex-libris_. This is a woodcut engraving occupying nearly +the whole of the page, with a shield in blank and two scrolls. On one +of these are engraved the words, _Das Puch und der Schild ist_, the +corresponding one being intended for the owner’s name, and the shield +for his coat of arms. + + [18] Proctor ascribes this work to either Conrad Zeninger or Peter + Wagner. + +In our copy this book-plate remains in its original condition, but we +have seen another that was filled up at the time, and which has been +the means of rescuing the name of a worthy monk from oblivion. In it, +the first part of the sentence is completed by the addition of the +words, _des Closters zum Parfusen hat Eundres Gewder gemacht_, the +whole forming an _ex-libris_ of the Monastery of Barefooted Brothers +of St. Francis, and testifying to the skill of the ‘bibliothecarius,’ +Andrew Gewder, who engrossed and illuminated it. + +There are two specimens of this page also in the Franks collection of +book-plates at the British Museum. In one of these the space is blank, +in the other it is filled up with the name of a nun, Barbara. + +The chief interest of this volume, however, resides in its initial +letters, after the designs which are preserved at the Pinacothek at +Munich, of Israel von Mecken. Many of them are repeated a great many +times, there being altogether between seventy and eighty impressions; +but these represent only eight different letters of the alphabet, +A, D, E, H, I, M, P, S. Of these the E, which we give, is the only +letter which is both engraved and printed perfectly, the A being the +next best. Nearly all the others are flat, often wanting in depth and +relief, besides being badly printed. + +Altogether this book is one of the most interesting relics of early +typography, and is especially noticeable as being the first volume +illustrated by a known artist. + +In the early sixteenth century, works published at Nuremberg were not +as a rule well supplied with ornamental initials, the complicated +calligraphic letters that became so common in German books, and +that were little used elsewhere, taking their place. Butsch in his +reproductions of alphabets of this period does not give any specimens. +This is all the more remarkable in that Nuremberg was the home of +Albert Dürer and the great centre of the wood-engraver’s art. The few +examples, moreover, that we have seen, are very primitive both in +design and in execution, as the reader can see from the reproductions +taken from the _Missale Pataviense_, printed by Jodocus Gutnecht, 1514. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BASLE AND ZURICH + + +Printing was introduced into Basle before 1468, having been preceded, +as in most other towns of the upper Rhine, by xylographic publications. +No Basle book bears a printed date earlier than 1473, but the absence +of such printed date does not prove that the introduction of printing +into Basle did not take place earlier, and a note of the purchase in +1468 of a copy of St. Gregory’s _Moralia in Job_, printed by Berthold +Rodt or Ruppel of Hanau, shows that he must have been at work at that +time. + +From the point of view of initial letters we will pass over Berthold +Rodt and Michael Wenssler, to come to the publications of Bernard +Richel, the most interesting of which are his _Sachsenspiegel_ of +1474 and the Latin Bible, which had several editions, these appearing +in 1471-75-77. In describing this work, Panzer in his _Annales +Typographici_ remarks that the woodcut initials do not occur in all +the copies. In some of them their place is left blank. This is another +evidence of the early printer’s reluctance to adopt printed ornaments +as the definite formula, and if any further proof is necessary it will +be found in the fact that even where woodcut letters are used, they are +often more or less enlivened with colours. + +We have already alluded to these initials in describing those of +Bämler, and we have touched upon the point as to who was the first +to make use of the historiated S which has a certain analogy with +the xylographic letter mentioned in a former chapter, from the _Ars +Memorandi_. + +There are in this Bible four different sets of letters, but of none +of these is there a complete alphabet, although but few letters are +wanting of the largest. The next nearly complete is the second in size. + +Of the four different sets, the second in size is of a special design, +different to anything we have met with. The others are pure specimens +of Maiblümchen ornamentation, and amongst the best of the kind. + +The three different-sized initials with human faces are the only +letters in the volume with any trace of historiation. + +Several Psalters were published either at the end of the fifteenth or +at the beginning of the sixteenth century, of exactly the same size and +general disposition, two of them with initial letters that correspond +in subject although very different in treatment. These are the Psalters +of Basle and Augsburg. + +The latter has been dealt with in a previous chapter. The Basle Psalter +was published by Furter in 1501, and the initials of the two volumes +can be contrasted and compared with those that have just been dealt +with. + +In these letters, the fool who saith in his heart there is no God +(_Dixit insipiens_), is represented in the D which begins the Psalm as +a jester, which is not quite appropriate. In the Mallermi Bible, where +there is instead of an historiated letter a little cut, the rendering +is more correct. The fool is there, a man with dishevelled hair, and +having every appearance of having lost his reason. The C with Absalom +hanging by his hair is reproduced as an example of Basle woodcutting in +Muther’s _Bücherillustration_. + +There is amongst these initials a nondescript kind of letter which is +an example of the carelessness that sometimes occurred in the workshop. +It was intended for an E, but the draughtsman forgot that the drawing +would be reversed in the printing, and the printer has arranged matters +in the text by turning the letter upside down. + +In a former essay (_The Library_, 1901) we gave three specimens--S, +T, and V--from a book entitled _Liber Decretorum sive panormia_, etc. +etc., as examples of Furter’s ornamentation. Letters of this alphabet +occur also in an extremely rare book unknown to Hain, without date +or name of printer, but undoubtedly printed at Basle, the _Decreta +Consilii Basiliensis_. It is, however, certain that they were used in a +work printed at Besançon some ten years before the _Liber Decretorum_, +and although the fifth volume of Claudin’s _Histoire de l’Imprimerie en +France_ in which this work was to be described has not yet appeared, we +have reason to believe that they are to be attributed to this town, and +were to be given in the chapter in which it is mentioned. + +We shall have to refer later to the frequency of the repetition in some +volumes of the same initial. In the German Bibles, for instance, the +different books most often begin by the word ‘Der,’ and consequently +by an initial D. In a book of sermons by that extraordinarily fertile +writer, Geyler von Kaisersperg, not only does every section commence +with the letter D, but with the same identical initial. In this volume, +the _Christianliche Bilgerschaft_, printed by Adam Petri in 1512, the +preface begins by a floral letter of no consequence. After that the +D, with a pilgrim and a cross on his shoulder, is repeated at the +commencement of every chapter, possibly thirty times. The title-page +has an illustration by Urs Graf with the same subject. + +The last years of the fifteenth century had passed away, but the +German printers, including even Ratdolt, who had returned to Augsburg +from Venice, still resisted the influence of Renaissance art. In +the _Narrenschiff_ of Brandt of 1493 we can see the science of the +draughtsmen excellently interpreted, but the Gothic _facture_ still +holds good against the encroachment of more modern artistic tendencies, +and it is not until towards 1512 or 1513 that the new ideas begin to be +more generally accepted. + +But as a modern writer has said: ‘Dès que la Renaissance lumineuse +a paru, traînant derrière elle l’admirable cortège de ses maîtres +délicats, fils de la Grèce antique qui moulaient la feuille divine de +l’acanthe sur le sein d’une vierge endormie, le vieux monde s’écroula +et l’ornement gothique fit place à la triomphante et poétique arabesque +devenue l’aurore nouvelle.’ + +It is in the _Ritter von Thurn_, published by Furter in 1515, that we +see first this influence in the form of a title by Urs Graf, copied +from the Venetian original, and ornamented with dolphins and acanthus. +Besides a great many titles, Urs Graf also engraved a certain number of +alphabets, inspired to a great extent by those of Tacuinus de Tridino, +but wanting in originality, and generally inferior to the originals. +The reader can compare the two kinds of initials. + +But it was the arrival of a young artist of genius that completed the +revolution at Basle in the ornamentation of books. This is not the +place to discuss the merit of Holbein as a painter, nor to study the +long series of title-pages, borders, friezes, and printers’ marks which +he composed for different printers of Basle and elsewhere. + +We are concerned here only with his alphabets; and of those which +bear more particularly the mark of his genius, the alphabet of Death +occupies the first place. + +This as a composition is a _chef d’œuvre_, and it was engraved on wood +by an artist of the very highest merit, Hans Lützelberger. + +These initials, notwithstanding their small dimensions, about +twenty-four millimetres square, can well bear comparison with the +larger engravings in _Les Simulachres et Historiées Faces de la Mort_ +which was to appear several years later at Lyons, in 1538, _chez les +frères Trechsel Soubz l’escu de Coloigne_. The alphabet is composed of +twenty-four letters, and several of the original proof-sheets are to be +found in different Continental museums. Basle and Dresden each possess +one. + +The letters of this alphabet may be met with in different works +published by Bebelius, such as the New Testament in Greek of 1525, +that of 1531, the _Galen_ of 1538, and particularly in the two folio +volumes of Aristotle which appeared in 1532. In the five first, A to E, +the body of the letter is in white. In the others there is a double +outline which softens their appearance and reduces their size. Each of +the letters merits a separate description, but the reproductions given, +as far as they go, obviate all commentary, permitting the reader to +judge for himself, and to appreciate the justice of the praise that has +been lavished upon them by art critics. + +The subjects in the alphabet of Death are the same as in the celebrated +Basle frescoes. In each of these scenes, men and women of all sorts +and conditions are invited to accompany him by Death, who will take no +refusal nor hear of any previous engagement; from B and C the Pope and +Emperor, to V the merchant, from the Hermit full of years W, to the +child in its cradle V, the Last Judgment Z, finishing the series. + +The Latin alphabet (for there are some Greek initials) contains two +subjects not to be found either in the frescoes or in the larger +illustrations for the well-known satire, V the horseman with Death +sitting behind like black care, and S the courtesan. In the Greek +alphabet of inferior execution, certainly not the work of Lützelberger, +of which we give three specimens, there are also two other subjects, +the Σ and the Ω, a peasant and a smith. + +Curiously enough, an enlarged copy of this alphabet, but of much +inferior merit, was used more than ten years before by Cephaleus of +Strasburg, who also had a smaller series in the same coarse engraving. +Some of the letters are given for comparison. + +A very curious alphabet, which although not equalling Lützelberger’s +is of more than average execution, can be but little known to +bibliographers, for as far as we have ascertained it only occurs in a +few books published at Stella, in Spain. The scenes are selected from +the _Simulachres_, and each letter is a complete little picture. + +Besides these alphabets a certain number of Dance of Death letters are +to be found in other books of Basle, of which the V, with Death on +horseback with an hour-glass, will serve as an example. They are also +to be met with in books of Cologne. + +The Dance of Death, although intimately associated with the name +of Holbein, was not his creation, the subject having always been a +favourite one in the Middle Ages, and having been treated also by +Albert Dürer. It was the general rule to represent Death, who although +a skeleton was endowed with motion, with withered muscles. In an +extremely precious book, printed by Meydenbach at Mayence, _Der Doten +Tantz mit Figuren Clage unt Antwort schon von Allen Staten der Welt_, +which is illustrated with forty-one curious cuts with the same subjects +as Holbein’s alphabet, Death is thus represented, and the same thing is +seen in other German editions of this work of the fifteenth century, +and in the numerous French editions of the _Danse Macabre_ which +appeared about the same time. Holbein, however, preferred to suppress +these, and in so doing exhibited his ignorance of the anatomy of the +human frame. Not only are the shoulder-blades and pelvis wrongly drawn, +but the arm and thigh are represented each with two bones, whilst the +fore-arm has only one. + +These mistakes have frequently been pointed out before, but the fact +that they furnish an argument in the controversy about Holbein’s +possible sojourn in Italy seems to have been less noticed. There is no +positive evidence on this point, but arguing from a change in Holbein’s +style after a certain period, in which the influence of Mantegna and +Leonardo da Vinci is manifest, it is said by some of his biographers +that he must have studied under these masters. It must be remembered, +however, that in Italy at this time there were regular schools of +painting, and it is difficult to suppose the masters above-named to +have been as ignorant of anatomy as must have been the case had Holbein +been their pupil. If his knowledge was derived, on the contrary, from +contemporary German books, his mistakes become more comprehensible. + +The peasants’ alphabet, also composed of twenty-four letters but of a +different character, is another of his best compositions. The museums +of Basle and Dresden possess proofs of this alphabet. + +The letters are to be found in the publications of Froben, Cratander, +and Bebelius, and Voltmann in his Bibliography of Holbein has given +some specimens of them. Butsch reproduces the whole alphabet, as indeed +he does several others, including that of the Dance of Death. The +realistic scenes depicted in some of the letters, taken from life, are +not always edifying, but this is the fault of the models rather than +that of the artist. + +In A, we have musicians playing on their instruments, B to K show some +couples dancing, L is a love-scene, M a fight with swords, O a boy +holding a girl, while another boy is cooling his ardour by throwing +water over him. In P the water is being offered to a girl from a pail, +V shows a bowling ground, with a game of nine-pins, W the ride home. + +Our three specimens are taken not from this alphabet but from letters +with similar subjects in the _Galen_. + +Of the same size as the peasants’ is the children’s alphabet, which +is treated with the same happiness and talent of observation. Holbein +must have been especially fond of children, for they figure in a great +many of his compositions, titles, borders, and printers’ marks, and he +paints them with a grace that Lützelberger, for it is probable that +he engraved them, has caught most happily. The different incidents +of juvenile life, chiefly games, are rendered with great realism. +Sixteen letters of this alphabet can be found in the _Lactantius_ of +Cratander and Bebelius of 1532, others in various Basle works. In a +larger alphabet, children are engaged in all sorts of trades--forging, +cooking, baking, building, carpentering, fishing, playing at coopering, +at being bath-keepers and tanners. The W, which is rarely met with, +represents a boy taking off a doctor with spectacles on his nose, +whilst another is reading a book, and the third preparing some physic. + +This playing at adult occupations has been taken as a subject for +alphabets by other artists, the best being that of J. van Calcar, to be +mentioned presently. + +Holbein composed two sets of initials for Valentin Curio, whose name +appears on publications which are often on philological questions. + +These letters, also with children, are to be found in volumes often +ornamented with pictorial borders by the same hand, our reproductions, +C, D, O, Q, being taken from the Strabo of Walder, and others being met +with in the _Enchiridion_ of Erasmus. From a smaller set by the same +printer we select A, I, N, Q, V, X, Y, Z. The A, C, D, D, H, I, O, P, +Q, V, with animals and personages, are also from the same press. + +Of the many other initials we will mention the Greek capitals of the +_Lexicon Graeco-Latinum_ of René Gelli, published by Froben in 1532, +found also in the _Lexicon Graecum_ of J. Walder, 1539, in which the +Δ represents a young woman struggling as she is carried off by Death. +This letter is of singular beauty. This leads us to speak of the +four large Greek initials which we give from the _Galen_ of 1538, of +Bebelius and Cratander, remarkable from every point of view. The Δ +represents Silenus on a pig, the Θ Samson with the jaw-bone of the ass, +the Π the prodigal son eating at the same trough as the swine, the Ω a +child sailing on a shell. + +Besides these four beautiful letters, of which there are only five +proofs in the work, one at the beginning of each of the five folio +volumes, the Θ occurring twice, there are numerous initials from other +alphabets scattered through its pages, such as the series of which we +give a Π with a child and a ram, and some specimens of the alphabet +engraved on metal, of which we reproduce the F representing the Deluge, +Noah’s Ark being dimly perceived through the rain, the M Jacob’s +ladder, and the Q Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. These initials, although +generally in very bad impressions, are to be met with in volumes of +Bebelius and others, and were even copied abroad. They are to be found, +for instance, in the _Commentaires sur l’Histoire des Plantes_ printed +by Jacques Gazeau in 1549. + +An alphabet, of which we give the B, I, and M, is found in the +_Cyprianus_ of Froben of 1521, and in many of his later impressions. +The I with the three children, the front one with the basket on his +back, is generally by itself, that is to say, not with initials of the +same size and character. + +The O, also with three children, belongs to one of the alphabets in +the same style, which are no doubt imitated from Venetian models. +We must mention the alphabet of the Master I F on a black ground in +publications by Froben after 1518, the first letters of which represent +the labours of Hercules, the following ones different scriptural and +classical subjects. The B with a child in its cradle, and the E (a +winged child on a sea-horse), are samples of the initials from Basle +books of the time, which are possibly by Ambrose rather than Hans +Holbein, as are the K and Z with children and grotesques, on a black +ground with stars. + +But, however interesting the work of Holbein, however varied and supple +his genius, we cannot do more than give specimens of the whole. The +reader who is desirous of fuller documentation can refer to Woltmann’s +_Holbein und seine Zeit_, Leipsic, 1872; to the _Bücher-Ornamentik_ +of Butsch, or to the more complete collection of Holbein’s Initials, +recently published by Heitz. + +Holbein’s alphabets and initials were soon adopted by all the printers +of Basle, and with few exceptions until 1545 there is nothing to note +of any other artist. It was in this year, the date of Holbein’s death, +that the Basle edition of Vesalius’s _De Corporis humani fabrica_ was +printed, a work that may be considered as one of the most remarkable +products of the German Renaissance. + +This book had been previously published at Venice, and its success was +so great that it was shortly after pirated at Cologne. Vesalius, in +his preface to the Basle edition, alludes to the want of international +copyright, to the dishonesty, and particularly to the vandalism, +of publishers who substituted detestable copies for the wonderful +originals of his anatomical plates, which he would have preferred +to lend them. Besides these plates, which have never been surpassed +in beauty, there is the admirable frontispiece by J. van Calcar +representing a lesson on anatomy, and two series of initial letters +depicting children, who, with inimitable seriousness, are acting as +medical consultants. In a later edition Van Calcar’s initials are +replaced by a much inferior set by another hand. + + +_Zurich._--There are several interesting alphabets in the books +published by Froschouer of Zurich, the most important of which is +illustrated with scenes from the Bible. The two A’s, the D, the +reversed D that serves as a C, and the F, are said to be by N. Manuel, +the S with Jesus overturning the money-changers’ tables in the Temple +by Ambrose Holbein. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LÜBECK AND BAMBERG + + +Lübeck is represented here by two printers, Lucas Brandis and +Bartholomew Ghotan. In one of his recent catalogues J. Rosenthal has +given the reproduction of an alphabet from a Herbal, but the letters +are of very little interest, being about the same size as those of the +Ulm Boccaccio and with the same kind of ornamentation. As the first +letters used in the town of Ulm, and one of the first sets used by any +printer, and so showing the evolution of typographical ornamentation, +the Ulm initials have a certain interest, but they would not have been +worth reproducing from a book dated almost twenty years later. + +Lucas Brandis published two immense folios, the _Rudimenta Novitiorum_, +the Latin original of the _Mer des Hystoires_, the other the History +of the Jews by Josephus. The first, which appeared in 1477, is a kind +of History of the World, and, like the Nuremberg Chronicle, is full +of cuts representing towns, kings, philosophers, and other subjects. +These, however, are much less interesting than the initials, which are +the first examples of what are called _passe-partouts_, the central +picture being removable at will and adaptable to any frame. Some of +them are special to one or other volume, but most of them are to be +found in both. + +The most curious is perhaps the I at the beginning of the volume on +page 3, of the purest manuscript character, and entirely different +from anything we have met with elsewhere. + +The Q of the _Quinta Ætas_, with a battle-scene, is a favourite one for +reproduction. Dibdin, who gives it in the _Bibliotheca Spenceriana_, +considers it to be ‘the most remarkable’ of a ‘very splendid and +noteworthy book,’ and it has lately been reproduced in a monograph on +Lübeck printing, but a quarter only of its right size, giving no idea +whatever of how it looks in the original. + +On page 289 is a C with the Virgin, unfortunately too badly daubed +over in the Bibliothèque Nationale copy to permit of reproduction. The +interior, the Virgin and Child, is given as a cut by itself without the +letter, on the verso of the same page, and in other places. + +Of our three other specimens Mr. Pollard has already given one, the +‘Knight Templar,’ in an essay on the subject now reprinted in a volume +called _Old Picture-Books_. + +The Rudimenta itself was one of the great picture-books at the end of +the fifteenth century, and as in the Nuremberg Chronicle, the same cuts +often did duty for more than one subject. On the verso of p. 404 is a +picture representing a few buildings with a windlass behind a wall, +with a gate in it from which a man is emerging; and in the foreground +an imposing draped figure giving directions to three little fellows, +who are severally trundling a wheelbarrow, carrying a flask, and +flourishing an adze. This is at the beginning of the chapter ‘Turris +confusionis Babel.’ On p. 107 the same cut is the foundation of the +kingdom of Assyria. On p. 117 it serves for the Constructio Treveri, +and successively for Spires, Lüneburg, and Wismaria. Athenodorus and +Philo Judaeus have the same cut, and the same counterfeit presentment +does for Demosthenes, Pericles, Parmenides, Aristides, and Xenophon. +Another series represents indifferently Crato, Cicero, Cato, Virgil, +Simonides, Plotinus, Theophrastus, Menander, Paulus, and Archephilus. + +The little D would appear to be a first attempt at book ornamentation, +and was used at the beginning of the _Leben des heil. Hieronymus_ by +Bartholomew Ghotan in 1486. Our other Lübeck initials are taken from +the 1493 edition of the Meditations of St. Bridget by the same printer, +in which there are altogether ten or a dozen different ornamental +letters, one of them being repeated twice, another three or four times. + +This book is chiefly esteemed on account of the engravings, +representing the miracles of the saint, some of which are full-page +size. + +Like all works of the kind, it was very popular in its day and went +through many editions, but the Lübeck impression is the most rare, most +of the copies having been destroyed by accident before the book was +published. + + +_Bamberg._--Independently of accessory ornamentation, the missals +printed at Bamberg by J. Sensenschmidt, either by himself or with a +partner, have always been considered by bibliographers as models of +beautiful letterpress. Lippmann gives amongst his reproductions of +early typographical monuments a page of the _Missale Olumucense_ with +one of the large red initials used only in these Bamberg missals. + +The first in which they occur is the _Missale Freysingense_, printed +in 1487 by Sensenschmidt and Heinrich Pelgensteiner; here the initials +would seem to be slightly smaller than in the succeeding volumes. + +It was in the following year that Sensenschmidt published the _Missale +Olumucense_,[19] in 1489 the _Liber Missalis Bambergensis_. Mr. +Weale[20] mentions two other editions from this press in the two +following years. The letters reproduced here were taken from the copy +in the Bibliothèque Nationale, in which there are ten of these special +red initials, beginning with the A of the opening line of the mass (_Ad +te Dominum_), and comprising one of each of the following: B, C, D, E, +P, R, S, and two different varieties of the T. There is besides a large +historiated T, in black, representing the sacrifice of Abraham, at the +commencement of the Canon of the Mass (_Te igitur_). This is the only +volume that we have been able to examine personally, but we have seen +a G in a collection of initials with a different text on the verso, +which probably comes from one of the other editions. + + [19] See also in Burger, _Monumenta Germaniae et Italiae + Typographica, Deutsche und Italiänische Inkunabeln_. + + [20] _Bibliotheca Liturgica._ + +Of other Bamberg missals with other ornamental letters, the most +interesting is that of Johann Pfeyl, the initials being entirely +different in style to any that we have seen elsewhere. The colophon +has it: ‘Missale speciale divinorum officiorum secundum chorum alme et +imperialis ecclesie Bambergensis,’ and states that it was printed in +1506 ‘by the industry and exact diligence of that “disert” and expert +master Johann Pfeyl.’ In the splendid full-page engraving on vellum, +which in many missals is the chief attraction to collectors, there is a +view in the distance of the town of Bamberg. + +The initials are so curious that we have reproduced them all. One or +two are repeated; the G, representing Jehovah crowning a martyr, serves +for three different saints. The somewhat smaller linear T, of the Canon +of the Mass, is a reduced copy of the corresponding initial in the +Sensenschmidt missals. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +STRASBURG AND REUTLINGEN + + +With Knoblochtzer, Schott, and Prusz, the first commencing in 1477, +Grüninger and Hupfuff at the end of the fifteenth century, we have +printers who made a liberal use of initials. Knoblochtzer has been +thoroughly explored by MM. Schorbach and Spirgatis, and a monograph +upon Strasburg book-illustration has been published by Dr. Kristeller. +Although many of our specimens were known to these bibliographers, a +few of them, and these by no means the least interesting, have escaped +their observation. + +One of them, the splendid A representing Jesus washing the feet of +a disciple, is what one might expect to find at the beginning of a +thirteenth- or fourteenth-century manuscript, and the artist in cutting +it has managed to make it retain this appearance. + +It is to be found in an undated volume without name of printer, but +identified as having been printed by Knoblochtzer in 1478, and entitled +_Thomas (Ebendorfer) de Haselpach: Sermones dominicales super Epistolas +Pauli_. This A at the beginning of the first volume is the only +typographical ornament in the book, and seems to have been entirely +unknown to either of the Strasburg bibliographers. + +The D, with two armed figures and the two coats of arms, is given by +MM. Schorbach and Spirgatis as the earliest specimen of Strasburg +ornamentation. It occurs for the first time at the beginning of +Knoblochtzer’s _Burgundische Historie_, in which there is no other +woodcut. It represents the Duke René of Lothringen and Charles the +Fearless of Burgundy with their shields at their feet, and was cut +specially for the History of Burgundy, although it occurs several +times also in the _Schachzabelbuch_ of Jacobus de Cessolis. The latter +volume contains also the large S, with two personages, one in a fool’s +cap, which also ornaments the first page of the _Dyalogus Salomonis et +Marcolfi_. + +Another handsome initial from the Knoblochtzer press, and especially +well engraved, is the I, with an angel with outspread wings above, +Samson forcing open the lion’s mouth below, and branching ornaments on +either side. It is to be found on the first page of the _Belial_ of +1483, and several times in the _Leben der Heiligen Drei Könige_; also +in the chess-book of De Cessolis already mentioned. + +In the last two volumes there are eleven of the twelve initials +representing the months of the year, which are to be found complete +in a Deutscher Kalender, having the form of a little volume. There +is a calendar printed probably at Nuremberg, on a single sheet, with +the whole of the alphabet, but the letter for January is replaced by +one having the Nativity as its subject, the general disposition being +much the same as in the initials of Geneva or of Bamberg similarly +historiated. These calendar letters are to be met with in a great many +Strasburg publications, as, for example, in the _Tractatus clarissimi +philosophi et medici Matheoli perusini de memoria augēda per regulas +et medicinas_. They also occur in the _De valore et utilitate Missarū +pro defuntis celebratarū per sacre theologie professorē Jacobū ordinis +cartusiensis edita_. This little tract, which contains amongst other +initials the calendar D representing a man trimming the vines, is +dated 1493, and as Knoblochtzer ceased to print in 1485, making over +his material to Mathias Hupfuff, it is to the latter that it must be +attributed. + +The two P’s, one with a doctor, the smaller with a king, are at the +beginning, the first of a _De secretis mulierum_, the second of a tract +entitled _De ritu et moribus Indorum_. The letter itself, in the +smaller initial, is entirely white, but in the copy from which it was +reproduced it is painted in blue and red. + +The anthropomorphic letters are to be found in many of the publications +both of Knoblochtzer, Schott, and others. These letters are reduced +copies of a very celebrated alphabet known as the alphabet of the +master E. S. of 1464, specimens of which are given in several works on +early engraving. The British Museum has a somewhat similar alphabet, +but with the personages in different attitudes, printed originally _au +frotton_. Some letters of this were given by Jackson, and the whole was +reproduced a few years since by the trustees of the Museum.[21] One of +our reproductions, the one with a man holding up a dog by the tail, +is from the _Vier und Zwanzig Gulden Harpfen_. The D with a saint is +the only initial in an _Albertus Magnus_ of Knoblochtzer; the three +others were reproduced from two impressions of Hupfuff, a Melusine +and a Boethius of 1500. In the latter is an I of this alphabet which +we have not seen elsewhere, but of which the impression is slightly +defective.[22] + + [21] Grotesque Alphabet of 1464, with an Introduction by Campbell + Dodgson. + + [22] The six other initials, the M with two dragons, the S with the + letters P, A, and a fool’s head with cap and bells, and the four + smaller ones, are from different publications of Knoblochtzer. + +The M and the P, the Crucifixion and the Nativity, are also taken from +a work without date or name of printer, and have hitherto remained +undescribed, as far as we know. The work is entitled _Commentarius +Sancti Johannis Episcopi Constantinopolitani cognomento Crisostomi in +epistolam Sancti Pauli Apostoli ad Hebreos_. The letters would appear +to belong to the same alphabet as the C, representing saints and others +being put to the torture, which is used by Schott sometimes as a D. +This latter is to be found twice in a rare book, the _Scriptum in +primum librum Sentenciarum Venerabilis inceptoris fratris Guilhelmi de +Ockam_, dated 1483, but without printer’s name, and it occurs as a D in +an undated _Secreta_ of Aristotle. + +The three letters, comprising amongst them the N with the rabbit, and +the O with a fool, are from a _Plenarium_ of which we have only seen a +fragment, without printer’s name or date, but said to be of Strasburg. + +The rabbit occurs again in the _Plenarium_ of Urach of 1481, with +floral letters somewhat larger than those given here, and also in the +_Stella Meschia_ printed at Esslingen, the first book published with +Hebrew characters. It has also two full-page illustrations. + +The six large historiated initials which follow are taken from a +Psalter without date or printer’s name. Van Praet in his catalogue of +books printed upon vellum belonging to the King’s Library, says that it +‘comes from a German Press.’ + +Mr. Weale attributes it to Basle, and it is interesting to compare +these initials with those which illustrate Furter’s Psalter of 1501-3. +It would seem, however, that it is to be attributed to J. Prusz, and +that it was printed in 1499 or 1500. + +Two of our reproductions are from the copy in the Bibliothèque +Nationale. For the others, which are defective in this copy, we are +indebted to M. Jacques Rosenthal, who considers that the volume was +printed in 1480. In our own opinion the later date is more probable. + +The four initials, of uniform size and style, A, C, E, and S, the E +with the Nativity being certainly one of the prettiest we have seen, +have every appearance of being taken from a missal. We cannot affirm +for certain that they have no such origin, but the book from which +they were reproduced is an edition of Pogge, printed by Knoblouch in +1513. Two of them, the E with the Nativity and another, occur in an +_Interpretatio Sequentiarum_ of the same year. Other printers used +them, however, before this. We are unable to give exact references for +the whole series, but the E had served already in a volume of sermons +of Geyler von Kaisersperg, published by Matthias Schurer in 1505. In +this, with the exception of a floral V on the second page, it is the +only woodcut initial. + +There is a Psalter of Knoblouch of 1513 of the same size as those of +Augsburg, Basle--and Metz--_Psalterium cum apparatu vulgari firmiter +appresso_. Like the Metz Psalter, it has an initial on the title, this +being ornamented with a moth and dragon-fly and bunches of leaves and +flowers. Below is a cut of David with his harp, the Almighty looking +down, and a German castle in the background. There are two strips of +border, one on each side of the cut, but descending lower, one of +a conventional foliated pattern, the other with strawberry leaves, +flowers, and fruit. The initial B is of the same design; the other +letters have dragon-flies or butterflies, a D has a geometrical pattern +something like the Maiblümchen. + +Grüninger began to decorate his publications with ornamental letters +at the end of the last decade of the fifteenth century. They are of a +very special kind, and the only other printer who occasionally used +them was Quentell of Cologne.[23] Some of them occur in a small folio +by Braunschweig--_Liber Pestilentialis de venenis epidemie_, 1500, with +pictures on nearly every page, manufactured according to the system +he adopts in many of his illustrated books of bringing three factors +of the picture together, and so obtaining variety with an economy of +engraving. The centre of a picture on one page, for instance, will +be found a few pages later with the two outer thirds replaced by +different blocks, the variety introduced into the general appearance +being sufficient for it to pass as a different composition. A few pages +later, it is the centre that is replaced with the same effect. Such +pictures are to be seen in the different editions of Braunschweig’s +_De Cyrurgia_, in which there are only insignificant nonhistoriated +initials. + + [23] An M with a bear’s tooth, and two others, a D representing a + saint sitting on the desert with what looks like a monkey (perhaps + St. Roch and his dog), and an O with an angel with large wings, + are to be found in the _Tractatus Consultatorii Venerandi Magistri + Henrici de Gorychum_, printed by Quentell, ‘anno supra Jubileum + tertio.’ These initials are generally too smudgy to be copied. + + In this same book, the chapter ‘De Observatione Festorum’ commences + with the O with a fool’s head. + +Grüninger’s finest picture-book is probably his splendid edition of +Virgil, with engravings by Brandt, the author of the _Ship of Fools_. +In this work he makes use of nearly all the letters of this smaller +historiated alphabet, which are also found afterwards constantly in +his impressions, and particularly in the publications of the reformer, +Geyler von Kaisersperg. In these, many of the initials, as is only +appropriate, represent religious subjects--David and his harp, St. +Sebastian full of arrows, and in a slightly different style, St. +Laurence carrying his own gridiron. Two of them are framed. One of +these represents Adam and Eve; the other, a D with a charming little +love-scene, would seem frequently to have excited the reprobation of +devout readers, for in three different works we have found this initial +defaced almost beyond recognition. A larger initial of the unframed +series, representing a swordsman, we have only met with in the 1501 +edition of Boethius, _De Philosophico consolatu sive de consolatione +Philosophiae_, etc., with commentaries of St. Thomas. + +Grüninger’s largest letters would appear to have been reserved +exclusively for Geyler’s publications. We have seen them in a great +many of his books of sermons and nowhere else. They are most numerous +in his _Evangelia_, where there are between thirty and forty different +varieties, but even then they do not constitute a complete alphabet, +as Geyler’s sermons most often commence with the word _der_ or _die_, +the letter D occurring as frequently as all the others together, and +several other letters much more often than the remainder. + +Geyler and Grüninger were evidently made to write and publish for one +another, for whilst the preacher often loses the thread of his subject +in amusing but not always relevant anecdotes, the printer would seem +to have set up his copy much on the same principle, embellishing +the sermons with illustrations, many of which, inserted apparently +at haphazard, are entirely foreign to the subject. In one of these +collections, for instance, there are a number of cuts from the +Virgil.[24] + + [24] Geyler von Kaisersperg was one of the most curious figures of + the fifteenth century, a precursor of Luther, a ‘free preacher,’ and + for the first twenty years of the sixteenth century his sermons were + published by nearly every printer in Strasburg, as well as by many + others in Basle and other towns. + + Luther has a more extensive bibliography, but with Geyler each item + means a volume, whereas the sermons of the great reformer were + published as a rule separately, and as soon as they were preached. + Like the celebrated Maillard, he did not hesitate to denounce the + selfishness of the rich, the extravagance and coquetry of women, and + the licentiousness and corruption of the clergy. + + From a documentary point of view, Geyler’s sermons are most + interesting, for in reprobating the follies of his time he gives a + number of details concerning the manners of the period, which would + be difficult to find elsewhere. On the verso, for instance, of the + initial B, with David and his harp, there is a fragment of one of his + discourses on ‘bathing,’ which gives a good idea of ecclesiastical + proprieties at the end of the fifteenth century. + + ‘Is it,’ says Geyler, ‘allowable, balnea intrare, on Sunday?’ + + ‘Dico,’ he replies, that ‘pro voluptate’ and ‘pro luxuria,’ it is + forbidden at all times, but it is allowed on necessity. + + By ‘voluptas’ he says, he understands ‘superfluous delectation,’ + which is a sin but not mortal. By ‘necessity,’ honest and opportune + recreation. He next asks, ‘Liceat clericis vel religiosis + balnea intrare?’ Again he replies, ‘Dico, yes, upon necessity’; + but necessity not only means infirmity, but also any lawful + ‘refocillatio’ of the body. The apostle John, he says, ‘ingressus est + balnea gratia lavandi.’ The first line of his _tertio_ starts with + the question as to whether it was licit to take a bath with a Jew, + but here the cutting ends. + + It must be remembered that in the fifteenth century, hot air and + vapour baths were most popular, but they had anything but a good + reputation. It is probable that the prohibitions of Geyler were + directed rather against the place of evil resort, than, as would at + first seem, against cleanliness. + + But the most amusing of Geyler’s publications is a series of + sermons, ‘Navicula sive speculum Fatuorum,’ an imitation of Brandt’s + celebrated satire on Fools, which had recently appeared. In the + earliest edition, each section begins with an initial representing + a fool’s cap with large bells. In that before us, each sermon is + preceded by an apposite illustration from the work in question, + but there are no ornamental initials. The first concerns foolish + aspirants for mitres and birettes. The second, which is illustrated + by the well-known cut representing a spectacled fool in his + library--in the original, the fool who collects books he does not + read--here deals with bad judges and senators. + + The best section, and that giving the best idea of Geyler’s manner, + is that which treats of the sick fool. Beginning with the quotation + ‘Stultorum infinitus est numerus,’ the picture shows the disobedient + patient in bed, in the act of kicking over a table, whilst the nurse + is looking on in astonishment, and the doctor seems to be reflecting + as to what should be done under the circumstances. + + These fools, says Geyler, are foolish in the first place because + they despise medicine: ‘sunt qui medicinam prorsus contemnunt et + abjiciunt’; ‘clearly fools,’ says Geyler, ‘stulti plane’! ‘Nescientes + quia scriptum est, eccles. xxxviii., Altissimus creavit de terra + medicinam, et vir prudens non horrebit eam. Notate verba--signate + mysteria. Vir prudens non horrebit eam! Non horruit eam beatus + Augustinus de quo legitur: quod egrotante eo neminem admiserat, nisi + medicos.’ + + It will be too long to quote the whole sermon, but Geyler has a + word to say about those fools, ‘sunt quædam fatuelle,’ who, out + of curiosity, tried to catch their doctors at fault, ‘quas sola + curiositas impellit et titillat ad explorandum peritiam medici.’ But + they catch nothing but their own purses, and it is the doctor who is + most tickled, for he pockets the fee. ‘Tales se decipiunt et bursam: + quod medicus accipit pecuniam.’ + + He tells here the tale, so often related since, of the patient who + in answer to the doctor’s question as to what was the matter with + him--where he was in pain--how long he had been ill, ‘respondit + nescio,’ and again and again, ‘respondit nescio.’ + + ‘Bene,’ replied the doctor; ‘under these circumstances, this is my + prescription: “Recipe nescio quid: repone nescio ubi: et sanaberis + nescio quando.”’ ‘Magna stultitia,’ remarks Geyler, ‘nolle obedire + medico quem queris: aut non quesivisses, et sic pecunie pepercisses.’ + + The fifth and sixth follies are to seek help from empirics, + magicians, and Jews, which is expressly forbidden (if any one else is + available) by the Decretals. + +The large series, two specimens of which are given, invariably deals +with Biblical subjects. The letters are generally attributed to Hans +Schäufelein. + +Besides the initials already enumerated, Grüninger has a few +historiated letters on a black ground, of intermediate size and +different complete foliated or floral alphabets, all of them uniformly +uninteresting. + + +_Reutlingen._--The large S, with a personage in a doctoral bonnet, is +taken from an Albertus Magnus, _Secreta mulierum et virorum_, in the +Paris Bibliothèque Nationale (Res. 826), described in Mlle. Pellechet’s +_Catalogue des Incunables_ under No. 372 as being without typographical +indications. It also occurs at the commencement of a _Physiognomia_ of +Michael Scotus, which is stated by Mr. Proctor to have been printed +by M. Greyff at Reutlingen, the date being probably 1482. We have not +seen this volume, but thanks to the courtesy of Professor Ferguson of +Glasgow, who sent a photograph of the initial, we have found that it is +identically the same. + +The reproduction does not render exactly the peculiar impression +of the ink, which gives the initial the appearance of having been +drawn in fusain. Another initial, the P with the Pope, is taken from +a volume printed at Reutlingen by Greyff--the _De ritu et Moribus +Indorum_--which has exactly the same typographical disposition as the +edition printed by Knoblochtzer at Strasburg, a P at the beginning with +the Pope, and a border on the margin of the front page. + +It may be noted here that in previous chapters no attempt has been made +to distinguish between metal-cut initials and those cut on wood. Many +printers, such as Grüninger, Gering, and Rembolt, etc., undoubtedly +used soft metal, but this was cut in the same way as wood, the blocks +were inked in the same manner, and printed in the same way with the +type, so that for all practical purposes they belong to the same class. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +COLOGNE AND GENEVA + + +The early printers at Cologne do not appear to have made much use +of woodcut initials, the first known to us being the R of a missal +by H. Quentell of 1494. This, although cut somewhat roughly, shows +considerable vigour. It is highly probable that the splendid P with +the Virgin and Child and grotesque profiles in two of the corners is +of the same or earlier date. The book in which it occurs is an undated +Donatus, which J. Rosenthal, to whom the volume was submitted, thinks +was printed by H. Quentell towards the end of the fifteenth century. It +looks at first sight as if a missal or Psalter letter had been used, as +was so often the case at the time, because it happened to be in stock, +but the Donatus, as has been said, often began with an initial of the +kind. We have not been able to trace this P to any other press or +publication. + +The D with a fool’s head in cap and bells is to be found frequently in +Quentell’s books. The specimen from which it was copied is in a book +already mentioned, the _Tractatus Consultatorii Venerandi Magistri +Henrici de Gorychum_, printed _anno supra Jubileum tertio_. It is to be +found at the beginning of the chapter, _De observatione Festorum_. + +On the title-page of a treatise called _Quodlibeta_, by St. Thomas +Aquinas, is a curious black U. This is also by Quentell. + +Another class book, a Latin verse primer, entitled _Sequentiarum et +hymnorum Expositio_, etc. etc., printed by Herman Bumgart de Ketwyck in +1501, has the strangest initials that can be conceived. The book was a +very well known one, and other editions exist with a similar cut on the +title-page, representing a master at his desk surrounded by scholars. + +But Cologne, like other German towns, was now to feel the influence +of the Renaissance, and adopt for book ornamentation such artists as +Albert Dürer, Holbein, and Anton von Worms. In the case of Holbein, +such ornamental letters as appeared in Cologne books were copied from +models that had been used previously at Basle, in the same way that +the letters of other artists were copied from books of Hagenau and +elsewhere, but Dürer and Anton von Worms’s designs were printed first +in works of Cologne. + +Of the initials attributed to Albert Dürer, the finest are those +comprising the alphabet used by Eucharius Hirtzhorn, who latinised his +name to Cervicornus. These initials, which are the largest of their +kind, represent children playing and romping sometimes with animals, +such as horses and monkeys, and make up a very remarkable set. It +is highly probable that Albert Dürer, as is generally admitted, was +the designer of this alphabet, but there is no positive proof, and a +writer on this special question in _Le Livre_, M. Glucq, gives it as +his opinion that these letters were designed by Hans Burgkmair, and +instances the treatment of the horses’ heads in borders by the latter +as being identical with the heads in some of the letters. + +This alphabet was often copied by printers of other towns, particularly +Lyons, and by Hubert de Crooce of Bruges, but the copies are always +greatly inferior in execution, and can be distinguished also by having +a wavy linear, or _criblé_, groundwork instead of a black one. + +The reader can compare the initials given here, which comprise the most +interesting of the set, with those by H. Weiditz, described in the +chapter on Augsburg. For comparison between the Cervicorn initials and +the borders alluded to, reference can be made to the _Bücherornamentik_ +of Butsch. + +The smallest of the Cologne children’s alphabets is to be found almost +complete in different works by J. Gymnicus, and was designed by the +painter Anton von Worms. The C with a child playing with a snake is an +example. The D and O, from a somewhat larger alphabet, are principally +found in the works of Melchior Novesianus, as are also those imitated +from Holbein’s alphabet of Death. The largest Q, the S with the +bishop and the symbols of the Apostles in the corners, also by Anton +von Worms, and the Q with the death’s head, all come from volumes by +Quentell. The three smallest letters belong to an alphabet used by +Melchior Novesianus. + + +_Geneva._--Genevan incunabula are of the very greatest rarity, and very +few initials of that town are mentioned by bibliographers. Of very +large letters the most curious are two of the calligraphic L’s that are +so popular on the title-pages of French impressions, and the larger of +which is evidently inspired by a Paris or Lyons L of the same general +design. Our reproduction comes from the _Doctrinal de Sapience_, +printed in 1493, no doubt by Bellot, as the book has two impressions +of the C of his alphabet. This composition is greatly superior to +the French original, known as the January and May initial, and if +the artist has intended to represent innocence and cunning, he has +succeeded to perfection. Compared with it, that which may be found on +the title-page of Verard’s edition of the _Doctrinal de Sapience_ and +in many other works, is insipid. + +The letter with a hooded dog, or perhaps a monkey holding a book, +with a clerk below, is accompanied on the title-page by a border +representing the birth of Eve. + +As regards the volume itself, which is entitled _Les Fleurs et Manières +des Temps passés_, it is without date or printer’s name, but at the +beginning of the front page after the title is a Bellot A, whilst on +the verso of the title is the mark of Loys M. Cruse. + +A still earlier _Doctrinal de Sapience_ of 1488, also without printer’s +name or date, has a C on the second page of comparatively little +interest, which has been reproduced by Humphreys in his _History of +Printing_. The C reproduced here is at the beginning of the fourth +page. A _Kalendrier des Bergers_ of J. Bellot, 1497, has a Q with a +cock in the Lyons style, a curious U, and the P of his fine alphabet. + +Initials are occasionally met with in which the printer’s mark is +worked into the design, as, for instance, a D of Kobel of Oppenheim. +In a treatise on the right way of preaching, by that _sacratissimus_ +doctor of the Christian Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, L. M. Cruse +of Geneva in 1485 uses capitals which he embellishes with his own +initials. Sorg and some Strasburg printers have ornamental letters with +initials on them, but not corresponding to their own names--most likely +to those of the artists. + +Better known than the large historiated letters just described is the +alphabet of which we give the M, the N, and the T. These letters occur +in many of Bellot’s publications, but in the _Dialogus Creaturarum_ it +is nearly complete. + +This is one of the most decorative alphabets of the time, but good +proofs of the Wagner alphabet of Nuremberg, in which the same design +had already been used, are even more effective--compare this M, N, or T +with the Wagner E. Unfortunately, very few of the latter, which are on +a black ground, print well. The Avignon initials given further on are +also of this pine-cone pattern, as are those also in the _Psalterium +Virginis Marie_ of Alanus de Rupe, printed, it is stated, in the most +Christian kingdom of Sweden, _cum initialibus ligno incisis_, in 1498. +It is quite possible that the later printers copied from Wagner, but +the design they all use is one that is frequently met with in old +manuscripts, and, like most other fundamental patterns, there is no +doubt that this was its origin. + +Our last Geneva specimens are taken from the very rare missal printed +by Bellot. The M is from the title-page. The other initials are +somewhat in the style of the Lyons _Catalogus Sanctorum_, but they are +even more like those of a Troyes missal printed by Lecoq. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +VENICE + + +It was at Subiaco, not far from Rome, that printing was first +introduced by the Germans, Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz, who +commenced operations most probably in 1464, their first book being +a Donatus. The second was a Lactantius, the earliest book in which +legible Greek characters were used, for those which appeared in a few +words in the Offices of Cicero, printed at Mayence in the same year, +were mingled with Roman letters, and with so many errors, that it +must have needed a clever reader to guess the meaning. The Lactantius +was finished on the 25th of October 1465, ‘_in venerabili Monasterio +Sublacensi_.’ + +After Subiaco, presses were established successively in different +towns of Italy, first at Rome, where Ulric Han or Hahn of Ingoldstadt, +in Bavaria (Gallus in the latinised form of the name), commenced +operations in 1467. Sweynheim and Pannartz also removed to Rome at that +date, where they printed for about ten years, dying respectively in +1477 and 1478. + +The next comers were George Lauer of Würtzburg and Giovanni Filippo +di Lignamine, whose celebrated _Cronica Summorum Pontificum +imperatorumque_ contains interesting information about the first +printers of Mayence, Strasburg, and Rome. + +But books with initials printed at Rome before the end of the +fifteenth century are not common, and even when met with, if we except +some handsome ones used in some of their books in 1470 by Sweynheim and +Pannartz, the ornamental letters of this town are relatively of but +little interest. + +It was at Venice that this branch of typographical art was to reach its +highest perfection, especially in the use of beautiful initials, and +was to make its impressions renowned throughout the world and sought +after by collectors in future days. + +John of Spire celebrates his arrival on the shores of the Adriatic in +the following lines, which are to be found at the end of his first +production in that town, _The Letters of Cicero_:-- + + ‘Primus in Adriaca formis impressit aenis + Urbe libros Spira genitus de stirpe Johannes. + In reliquis sit quanta vides spes, lector, habenda, + Quom labor hic primus calami superaverit artem. + MCCCCLXVIII.’ + +John of Spire was succeeded by his brother Vindelin. + +It was in 1470 that the first book appeared with the name of Nicolas +Jenson--the _Preparatio Evangelica_ of Eusebius--and this was followed +soon by other works which are justly considered as _chefs-d’œuvre_ of +typographical art. + +According to a story which has passed current for a century and a +half, though its authority is now questioned, Jenson had been formerly +an engraver at the Mint of Tours, and had been sent to Germany by +the French king to investigate the truth about the discovery of +Gutenberg. On his return, Charles VII. having died, Jenson met with +no encouragement from his successor, Louis XI., and decided to go to +Venice. Here he published books by himself for ten years, taking as a +partner in 1480, the year before his death, John of Cologne, who had +come to Venice about the same time as himself. + +Even in his own days Jenson was justly celebrated, Andrea Torresano +stating with pride in the colophon of the _Lectura in I. et II. +Decretalium_ that he had printed it ‘_inclytis famosisque characteribus +optime_ (sic) _quondam in hac parte magistri Nicolai Jenson gallici +quo nihil prestantius, nihil melius, nihil dignius_.’ + +This Andrea Torresano was the head of the new firm ‘J. de Colonia, N. +Jenson, sociorumque,’ and he afterwards married his daughter to Aldus +Manutius. + +So great was the success of printing in Venice at this period, that +more than one hundred and fifty presses were established during the +last thirty years of the fifteenth century, and upwards of fifty were +in full work in the year 1500. + +Aldus had come to Venice with the intention of publishing works in +Greek, but this did not prevent him printing in Latin and Italian. +His most famous book in the latter language was the _Hypnerotomachia +Poliphili_, which besides the most beautiful woodcuts that have +ever been printed contains also some ornamental initials generally +considered to be in the best taste. An edition of Aristophanes from the +same press also contains large interlaced letters, which are given by +Ongania. + +With reference to these initials it is to be remarked that, although +in the best taste and admirably suitable to the work they embellish, +they are less interesting when seen by themselves, that is to say +independently of the text, than many others. + +Our earliest specimens are taken from the works of Ratdolt, whose +books are also renowned for their beautiful borders, which in some +cases match in style the initials that accompany them. This style +is even more effective in the border than in the letters, as can be +seen by reference to his Appianus of 1478, the first page of which is +reproduced in Butsch’s _Bücherornamentik_. + +The three outline initials, much more artistic in our opinion than the +interlacing letters of Aldus, are from Ratdolt’s first alphabet in the +_Calendarium_ of J. de Monteregio of 1476. The border of this book is +frequently mentioned in the earlier monographs upon the first printers +as being composed _literis florentibus_, the initials being of the same +design. It is supposed by Passavant that these letters were designed by +Ratdolt’s partner, Bernard Maler or Pictor, _i.e._ Bernard the painter, +and executed by another German engraver. + +Ongania, in his work on Venetian printing,[25] has also reproduced +four of these initials, the whole alphabet, as far as it is complete, +in Ratdolt’s impressions, being given in a monograph on Ratdolt by Mr. +Redgrave.[26] Later on we find this printer preferring larger sized +initials with a white pattern on a black ground, smaller letters of the +same general design being used in some volumes. The later publications +being also more frequently met with, these large black initials are +also more commonly known and are more characteristic of Ratdolt’s work +than the others. They became one of the recognised types for Venetian +typography, and were imitated more or less by other Venice printers, +in the same way that the Maiblümchen pattern was adopted as one of the +most suitable for the early German press. + + [25] _L’art de l’Imprimerie à Venise._ + + [26] ‘Erhard Ratdolt and his Work in Venice’--_London Bibliographical + Society_. + +In a volume by Jacopo Publicio called the _Oratoriae artis epitomata; +ars memoriae, ars epistolandi_, and which has numerous other cuts, +there is a curious alphabet in which each initial is represented by an +emblem serving to fix the letter on the memory. As far, however, as +we know, this alphabet, which is engraved on one block, consists of +specimens of letters useful in mnemonics, but which have never served +in books as ornamental initials. They are only mentioned here as a +typographical curiosity. + +Subsequent printers adopted a design with white leaves on a black +ground, the white ornament standing out very sharply, and often with an +exceedingly brilliant effect. In other initials, in white on a black +ground, we have children playing at all sorts of games by themselves +or with dogs, monkeys, dragons, lizards, and dolphins; sometimes +there is a large bird looking like a wild goose. In some cases there +is a combination of the two last mentioned compositions, such as a +child playing with a dog, with a foliated background. There is a very +effective F of this kind, and an O with a child making a dog sit up +and beg, in the _Epigrammata_ of J. B. Cantalycius, printed by Matteo +Capcasa. + +The brothers De Gregoriis used various kinds of initials. The large A +and V are from their Herodotus, the first page of which is ornamented +with a magnificent border, which has often been reproduced. Several +other initials in different styles are from books by these printers, +amongst others the large outline P and the smaller A and E. An +interesting alphabet, most of the letters of which represent children +playing with different kinds of animals, is taken from a small treatise +on Geography by Zacharius Lilius, entitled _Orbis breviarium_, etc., +printed at this press. + +Sessa, whose mark consists of a cat with a mouse in her mouth on a +crowned shield with the initials I B S, has some of the letters just +described. + +Ongania gives amongst others, as coming first from a 1496 edition +of Marco Polo’s _De le Maravigliose cose del mondo_, the D with two +children and a dog, the P with the children and bird, and a P with the +portrait of a man, here printed in red, but which is found elsewhere, +like all the other letters, printed in black. The very small initials, +mostly with heads, the H with a rabbit and the T with rabbits dancing, +are also to be found in Sessa’s impressions. + +Several very large letters, two more particularly, the M and the S, +were used by Bernardinus Benalius and Matteus Capcasa in 1498, and +often printed in red. They were afterwards adopted by the Paris printer +Josse Bade. + +Of the linear initials used in the missals, the beautiful B +representing Mary Regina cœlorum amongst others, appeared for the +first time in the _Missale Romanum_ of 1499 by George Arrivabene. Our +reproductions are taken from missals and breviaries of Lucantonio di +Giunta, himself especially a printer of music, but who edited a great +many liturgical works. + +The largest in size of all our initials are from another missal of +Giunta, the _Missale Vallisumbrose_ of 1503. The first letter of +this series has been given by Mr. Pollard in an essay on ‘Pictorial +Initials.’ + +An alphabet of large letters of an interlacing pattern is to be met +with in several works, first in Plutarch’s _Lives_, translated by +Guarino of Verona and published by Melchior Sessa and Petrus de +Ravenis in 1505. They have been described as of great elegance and +finished beauty, but they are as a rule badly printed and do not look +well in reproduction, as can be seen by reference to Ongania. + +The alphabet of children already mentioned is more or less completed by +letters from different works published by Tacuinus de Tridino, amongst +others the Euclid of 1517 and several earlier volumes. The C with a +child on a dolphin, the L with one child riding another, and the N +with children and dog; the grotesque O, the P also with children and +a dragon, are one from the 1517 Euclid, others from a Justinian, the +remainder from works of Horace by the same printer. + +The C with a child on the back of a horse is first met with in a +_Practica_ of Serapion by Bonetus Locatellus, ‘mandato Octaviani +Scoti,’ the outlines C, P, and S with children or _amorini_ having the +same origin. + +An alphabet, remarkable from the fact that it is generally found +complete, by Bernardino Vitali, serves as a rule in publications of +Sessa to initial the index. It is to be found serving this purpose at +the beginning of this printer’s edition of the _Lives_ of Plutarch and +also for the index to the works of Pliny. + +Pliny’s _Natural History_ was a popular book at this time, and two +editions of it have the large interlaced initials used in the Plutarch. +In a third, in Italian, by Sessa and Petrus de Ravenna in 1516, there +are a number of ornamental letters with children: a P, with child and +dragon, precedes the eighth book; an S, with a child above and a bird +below, the tenth and thirty-second books; the thirty-first having +what at first appears to be the same, but which is really a copy. The +letters C, G, R, N are also with children, either by themselves or +with birds or dogs. As an example of the indifference to appearances, +a historiated A is used upside down as a V, in Tacuinus de Tridino’s +Homer of 1503. A fine V with children does duty as an A, and an E all +the way through as an F, in the Justin of 1508 of the same printer. + +The L with a satyr, and the very handsome G, are from the same +book. The P with a child and bird is repeated eleven times in this +volume, and from the dilapidated condition the block is its chief +disfigurement. In the Horace of Guglielmo Fonteneto Monteserrati, we +find it at the beginning of the ode ‘Phoebe silvarumque potens Diana,’ +but the bird is changed into what is apparently a goose. The children +have older faces, and there is a slight difference in the ornament. + +In their original condition, these children initials are most +decorative, but many of the copies are greatly inferior. These are to +be found not only in Venetian impressions by other printers, but also +in some books printed in provincial towns, and they evidently inspired +many of the children’s alphabets that were used afterwards in Basle, +Cologne, Hagenau, and one or two initials we have given of Paris. + +At Turin some of them were used in the _Epistole Heroidum_ of Ovid +published by F. Silva in 1510, in which we find that the L with the +satyr, the P with a bird, the T with children playing with a skipping +rope, an M with an eagle, the N with a child and dolphin, and the G, +but of much coarser execution than the original. From a documentary +point of view these letters are perhaps not so interesting as the +alphabet used currently half a century later by Giolito and other +Venetian printers, in which the games then in vogue are represented in +linear engraving upon a white ground. But the introduction of animals +in the earlier alphabet is not entirely fanciful, and the classical +student will no doubt be able to understand many of the allusions. + +The A, for instance, with a boy riding upon the back of a dolphin, +is a case in point and no doubt refers to the tale of Arion told by +Herodotus, and more fully by Ovid in the _Fasti_.[27] + + [27] In the eighth chapter of his ninth book, Pliny speaks of a + dolphin that had conceived a wonderful affection for the child of a + poor man. At whatever hour of the day he might happen to be called by + the boy, he would instantly fly to the surface, and sportively taking + him up on his back, he would carry him over a wide expanse of sea to + the school at Puteoli, and in like manner bring him back again. Other + instances of the same kind are related, which he says give an air of + credibility to the one that is told of Arion. + +We give a somewhat numerous selection from a work which has hitherto +remained but little known to bibliographers, by a printer whose +publications are far from common, the _Vita di Sancti Padri vulgare +historiada_ of Otino da Pavia de la Luna, 1501. In an earlier edition, +also very rare, the initials are insignificant, and the chief interest +of the volume is in the little cuts which precede the lives of the +different saints. The edition from which our initials are taken is on +the contrary a perfect storehouse of interesting ornamental letters. +At the commencement of each book there is a half-page engraving +representing an incident in the life of the first saint whose history +follows, and this is surrounded by a handsome ornamental border which +sometimes surrounds the whole page. Each book commences by an initial +of larger size than the others. Some of these are given--the C with +a saint holding a bag to another, the D with a dog, the L with four +ecclesiastics, and two U’s, one with a monk tempted of the devil in +the form of a beautiful woman. The smaller letters, of which there are +sometimes as many as three or four on a single page, also represent +incidents in the lives of the different saints, the devil being often +the subject of the picture. The title-page has on it the mark of Otino +da Pavia de la Luna in black and red. Some of the initials of this +volume afterwards found their way into the possession of Bernardino +Vitali, who used them in an _Omiliario quadragesimale_, published in +1518. We have not seen this volume, but Ongania gives reproductions of +its principal typographical ornaments, amongst them a P and a U from +the Otino da Pavia de la Luna alphabets. + +Of the initials not yet mentioned, the D and the Q, the former with a +monk wearing spectacles, are from a treatise on animals by Aristotle, +printed by Sessa. The curious L, with a personage in a turban, looking +at a castle on the walls of which are the heads of three of its +defenders, comes from an edition of the _Legendario de Sancti_ of +Jacobus de Voragine, printed by Nicolo è Domenico dal Gesu. We are +almost sure, however, that we have met with it in an earlier missal, +and it was subsequently used in at least one impression of Lyons. The +remaining letters are by different printers. + +The two large initials with portraits of a much later date represent +respectively--the C, Cosmo de Medici; the P, Pius Romae Pontifex. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OTHER ITALIAN TOWNS + + +_Rome_ + +We have alluded in the preceding chapter to the paucity of woodcut +initials in early works printed at Rome, and it is well known that +the opinions of the clergy were divided with respect to the propriety +of adding decorative embellishments to books. Some church dignitaries +considered it a pious occupation, whilst others, who looked upon the +copying of manuscripts as a sure way of attaining salvation,[28] were +entirely against book ornamentation. It is probably on account of some +such hostility on the part of the ecclesiastical authorities that +ornamental initials are so seldom met with in books of the early Roman +printers. In a list, for instance, of seventy-nine works published +by Planck, only one, a _Pontificale_ of 1485, is mentioned as having +woodcut initials; in the same list, of thirty-nine books by Eucharius +Silber, there is one only with ornamental letters. Lastly, of one +hundred and seventy-eight other works by seventeen known and six +unknown printers, only two are reported as being so embellished. Of +the earlier printers, Sweynheim and Pannartz used some very handsome +initials in a few of their publications after 1470, the D reproduced +being from their Suetonius, _Vitæ Cæsarum_. We give also a P from one +of E. Silber’s publications, and a C with the portrait of Ariosto from +a work published by Jacobus Mazochius, 1515. + + [28] A propos of manuscript copying, there was an anecdote current + in _Scriptoria_ concerning a brother who had sinned very constantly + whilst in the flesh, and who was challenged by St. Peter at the Gate + of Paradise. The tally at first seemed to go against the applicant, + but at last it was found that he had been for some time a scribe; + written letters were checked against sins, and the frater was found + to have a small but sufficient balance in his favour. + +Siennese impressions are anything but common, and as the early +typography of this town still awaits a historian, a short account of +a few works from its chief press will not be out of place. The most +important is no doubt the Datus, printed by Simeon Nardi in 1503. The +title consists of two lines in small Gothic characters, _Augustini dati +senensis opera_, and underneath come three sonnets by admirers of Datus +(for the name is spelt indifferently, Datus or Dathus), in each of +which he is compared to Cicero. ‘Read through,’ says Angelus Fundius, +‘this venerable volume of the facund Dathus, but take care I advise you +to glance first at the title page.’ ‘Nam si forte vagus legeres, mihi +crede putares non esse hoc Dathi sed Ciceronis opus.’ The others are +equally complimentary. The volume is a folio collection of speeches and +essays on all kinds of subjects, and consists of fourteen preliminary, +followed by two hundred and ninety numbered leaves, or twice as +many pages. There are sixty lines to the page of small, clear Roman +type, pleasantly relieved by curious little capitals. The colophon +gives ‘Impressum Senis ex Architypo per Symeonem Nicolai Nardi, Anno +salutis MDIII Sexto Kal Novembris,’ and on the verso is Nardi’s mark +representing a child holding a banneret astride a wolf, which is +suckling another child beneath. The whole is surrounded by a highly +ornamented border. + +The most interesting feature, however, of the book is its series of +large initials, which, taking into consideration the two different +states of the Q, are fourteen in number.[29] The most characteristic, +and perhaps the most effective, are those on a black ground, but the +others are equally free and vigorous in treatment. One of them, the R, +has the same subject (Romulus and Remus with the wolf) as the printer’s +mark, a subject which is used in other volumes as a pictorial +title-page. The reason of this is explained in the motto at the bottom +of the mark in another book, + + ‘ROMAE QUE ORIGO SENAE INSIGNIA.’ + + [29] In some of the proofs the Q is a white letter, the original + block being cut away. + +Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the impressions are not all +equally good, but it is easy to see that where anything is wanting, it +is the fault of the printing and not of the artist. + +The letters of this series were much used in subsequent publications, +but with the exception of an ornamental M of the same style which +comes from a book of poetry published by Simon Rubeo in 1513, and an +I in a tract by Marcellus Beringhuccius not of the same merit, we +have not seen any Sienna letters that are not in the Dathus. It is +to be remarked that the volumes which have an ornamental title-page +have no printer’s mark, and _vice versa_, the first not occurring in +publications before 1539. + +Two of the Nardi initials, the P and the C, are to be met with in +a quarto volume, ‘C Plinio de li homini illustri in lingua senese +traducto et brevemente commentato,’ which is printed in the _Inclyta +& Excelsa citta di Sena_ by that accurate man Symeone di Nicolao +Carrolaro Senese, 1506. The mark is different in some details, although +practically the same as in the Dathus. + +The _Vespertinæ lectiones_ of Marcellus Beringhuccius has the H and +some others. The printer’s name varies again, being given as ‘Impressum +per Calistrum Symeonis Senen. Ad instantiam Ioannis Alixandri Libraio +1511.’ The title is surrounded by a border of oak leaves and acorns. On +the verso of the first page the dedication to Cosmo de Medici begins +with the handsome H, and is followed on the next page by an interesting +cut representing the burial of Christ. The text on the verso of this +page begins with the L. The second part of the book, ‘For the comfort +of those who wish to live well, etc.,’ begins with the historiated N, +‘Impresso in Siena per Calisto Francese di Simeone Bindi, 1541. Ad +instantiam d’Giovanni di Alisandro Libraio.’ + +Another volume of _Vespertinæ lectiones_ of the same author was +published in 1539, the printer’s name being given in the same way, and +the same bookseller being mentioned. It has the N and the D, as well as +a new I, mentioned above. The book, published on the 5th of March, has +a title-page with a border of foliated branches that spring below from +a common trunk and meet together above. The lower third is occupied +by the Siennese wolf and children, with a town in the distance. Two +tracts of Marcus Antonius Belarmatus on legal subjects were published +by Symeon Nicolai in 1539, with the same ornamental border. In one +of them the only large initial is the N. In the other, the title is +printed in black, and the D and the Q of the white variety complete its +ornamentation. The last book chronologically in which we have met with +the Nardi initials is a _Life_ by Feo Belcari of Beato Columbini da +Siena, ‘fondatore del ordine di poveri giesuati.’ + +Like so many of the Venetian ornaments, the borders and initials of +Fossombrone are mostly with a black ground, but this is _criblé_ in a +special manner. + +The most important book of this town, where printing was introduced in +1513 by Ottaviano dei Petrucci, is a treatise by Paul de Middelburg +with beautiful borders and initials, _On the right way of celebrating +Easter, and the day of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ_, a work of +great rarity and filled with singular researches for fixing Easter Day, +and the date of the death of our Saviour. + +The initials have branching ornaments, and children playing with one +another, one holding up a mask, or with birds. One of them can be seen +in Butsch. + +The principal printer of Pavia, at the beginning of the sixteenth +century, was Jacobus Paucidrapensis de Burgofranco, whose books have +very handsome ornamental and historiated initials, the latter with +portraits of celebrated men. His _Hyginus de Stellis_, published in +1513 at the expense of the heirs of ‘that late nobleman Octavianus Scot +and his associates,’ has several. The D given here is from this volume. +The O with another portrait, and the four other letters F, L, N, P, +are also specimens of this press, but we have not been able to identify +them more particularly. + +J. de Burgofranco also uses a smaller alphabet in the same style of +ornament. + +Printing was introduced at Como in 1521, the seven initials given +being taken from the first book printed there, the treatise of +Vitruvius on Architecture. In this remarkably handsome volume, full +of architectural diagrams and plans, there is, amongst others, an +‘elevation’ of the cathedral of Milan. Como had long been celebrated +for the beauty of its situation, for the colophon, after giving the +names of the ‘magnificent’ and ‘noble commentators,’ ‘emendators,’ and +‘castigators,’ states that the volume was printed by Gotardus de Ponte +in the _Amoena & delecteuole citate de Como_. In one of the initials, a +D, there is a view of a lake with sailing boats in a shower of rain, no +doubt intended to be Como. + +The U with the Crucifixion and the O representing St. Jerome are our +only specimens of the press of Guillaume le Signerre, a Rouen printer +who set up at the beginning of the sixteenth century at Saluzzo. + +The book from which they are taken is an extremely handsome edition +of the _Aureum Opus_ of Vivaldus, so often reprinted, and it has a +full-page engraving with St. Jerome, the same subject as in one of the +initials, and on another page the portrait of Le Signerre’s patron; at +the end the printer’s mark. The colophon states that it was printed +at Saluzzo by the most deserving brothers, Le Signerre of Rouen, at +the expense of that most illustrious and clement prince, Lodovicus, +Marquis of Saluzzo, and viceregent of Naples. With the exception of +an insignificant floral letter at the beginning of the preface, the +two initials given are the only ones in the book, the T with the +Crucifixion occurring twice. The brothers Signerre would appear to +have tried their fortune elsewhere before going to Saluzzo. In 1496 +they were printing at Milan, giving the _Practica Musice_ of Franchini +Gafori, with fine borders and initials. + +_Ferrara,[30] Milan, etc._--One of the most celebrated books of its +day was the _De plurimis claris selectisque mulieribus_ of Philip +Bergomensis, described as being revised and ‘castigated’ with great +diligence by that ‘great doctor in theology, Master Albert de Placentia +and brother Augustinus de Casili maiori,’ _Ferrarie impressum opera et +impensa magistri Laurentii de Rubeis de Valencia_. + + [30] Ferrara is known to art students in connection with initial + letters by the alphabet of Fra Vespasiano Amphiareo, a Renaissance + calligraphist, which is often reproduced in works on manuscript + ornamentation. + +For the general student this work, which took rank at once as one of +the most artistic publications of the time, is chiefly interesting +on account of the portraits of the celebrated women whose histories +it relates, but besides these there is a nearly complete alphabet +of initials which harmonise perfectly with the woodcut engravings. +Although different in treatment, the design is very similar to that +used by Regiomontanus of Nuremberg, but with the addition of an +occasional mascaron, or head of a dolphin. Very decorative, although +simple, on the printed page, they lose some of their effect when +brought together as an alphabet. + +The volume begins with a linear M representing the Virgin and child. + +The other set of initials, of an entirely different kind, is taken from +the _Missale Carthusiense_, printed by the monks at their monastery at +Ferrara in 1503, and generally known as the Missal of Ferrara. _Missale +secundum ordinem Carthusiensem. Impressum in Monasterio Carthusie +Ferrarie Diligenter emendatum per Monachos ejusdem Domus Regnante +Excellentissimo D.D. Duce Hercule Esten. Anno a nativitate domini +MCCCCCIII._ + +In many of the other Italian towns, although printing was established +at an early date, the ornamentation of books was comparatively +neglected, and there are few or no initials of interest to be mentioned. + +Foligno, for example, was one of the first places where the art +of printing was introduced. J. Neumeister, one of the workmen and +associates of Gutenberg, published there in 1470 a superb folio, +_Leonardi Aretini Bruni de bello italico adversus Gothos_. + +At Milan, Philip of Lavagna gave a small quarto, the _Miracoli de la +Gloriosa Verzene Maria_, dated 1469; but this date is a mistake, and it +was really in 1474 or 1479 that the tract appeared. + +Zarotus was printing at this town in 1471, and three years later +Christopher Valdarfer began operations. + +When initials occur in the books of these printers they resemble +somewhat those of Venice, but they are of unequal merit, some being +coarsely cut and merely curious, others of the highest artistic +excellence. Of the first, the M and T from the _Opus auree et +inexplicabilis bonitatis et continentie_, printed by Joannes de +Castellione in 1513, will serve as an example. + +The six other letters are from works by Gotardus de Ponte, and are to +be found also in a book called _Calipsychia_ of 1511; in the _Life of +Saint Veronica_ by Isidorus de Isolanis, of 1518; also in an _Opus +auree_ which seems to have been printed everywhere, dated 1513. + +The Q with a very black border, a circle of white dots, an ornament in +each corner, and a saint with crozier looking to the right, comes from +the _Sermons of St. Bernard_, Milan, Leonard Pachel, 1495. + +The smallest series is from a volume of Decretals by Ulric +Scinzenzeller. + +At Florence printing was introduced in 1471 by Bernardo Cennini, who +commenced at once the composition of the Commentaries of Servius on +Virgil, which was published the following year. + +To Giovanni Tedesco we are indebted for editions of the _Philocolo_ +of Boccaccio and the _Trionfi_ of Petrarch. But the most celebrated +Florence printer of the fifteenth century was Nicolo di Lorenzo +(Nicolaus Laurentii) of Breslau, the publisher of the celebrated Dante +with engravings of 1481. + +Books printed at Verona at the beginning of the sixteenth century are +not common, and woodcut initials are even more seldom met with, but +we have been able to find one or two in a tract printed by Lucas +Antonius, or Luc Antonio Giunta, of Florence, in 1504, which is +extremely curious in many ways. The text on the title-page is arranged +in the form of a cross, and runs as follows: _Delitiosam explicationem +de sensibilibus deliciis paradisi a D. Celso Mapheo Veronense Canonico +regulari editam hoc libello lector agnoscere poteris et ipsa plurimum +oblectari valebis._ On the verso of the last page is a very fine mark +of Lucas Antonius. The ornamentation of the book is completed by +numerous woodcut initials of various sizes, but mostly as badly cut as +printed. There are several letters of an interlaced pattern, but the +two we have selected are the most interesting, the C with the gladiator +and lion occurring at the beginning of the first chapter, the Q being +repeated twice. There is also a historiated P with a child, a little +smaller. + +Books of the beginning of the fifteenth century published at Brescia +have a few good initials, more or less in the Venetian style. An S, +with a winged child with bow and arrows, probably a Cupid, is to be met +with in several impressions. The P, with a saint in the same style, and +a somewhat larger P, prolonged as a border, have the same origin. + +The very wide C, with a monk at a latticed window, is from a volume of +Brescia, in which there are also three or four insignificant floral +initials in the style of Grüninger’s least interesting letters, +an engraved title-page with the portraits of celebrated men in +compartments, and on the verso of the last page a Virgin and child with +irradiating flames. The title, _Theophrasti Natalii Cychuthoe Teutonici +Invectivae_, _Maxima cum diligentia Brixiae impressum_, it is said, but +without giving the printer’s name. + +At Vicenza initials were also mostly in the Venetian style, but +inferior as a rule to the originals. In one volume, a _Catalogus +Sanctorum_, printed by Henricus de Sancto Urso in 1493, there are two +typographical eccentricities which, as they have to do with initials, +are worth pointing out. In some early volumes ornamental initials +are occasionally met with of such primitive execution, that the only +possible explanation is, that the necessary letter being wanting, +it was cut on the spur of the moment by an entirely unskilled hand. +Amongst the initials which occur the least often at the beginning of +Latin paragraphs are the B and G, and of course such letters as X, +Y, Z. It is probable that when this _Catalogus_ was being set up, +there was no G amongst the ornamental alphabets available, for no +other paragraph in the book begins with this letter. To meet this +contingency, the required initial was cut forthwith, the result being +the G in question, roughly representing a human face. The other +singularity is an instance of the transposition of letters, of which +examples have been already given, but here, instead of turning an A or +a C upside down to serve as a V or a D, it is an F that does duty both +for an F and an E. At the beginning of the eighth book there is an E +for St. Ezekiel, which has evidently been made from an F, the lower +transversal part having been cut afterwards, as can be seen by the +rough execution and the disturbance of the general ornamentation. But +the transposition of an F into an E is a thing that often occurs. The +peculiarity here is that at the tenth book, which begins with the feast +of All Saints, _Festivitas omnium Sanctorum_, an F being required, +the same block is used as for Ezekiel, the letter being restored to +its first condition by a plug, but showing clearly traces of its +transformations. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +LYONS + + +By its geographical situation, by its proximity to Basle, by its +condition as a free town, and through the fairs that attracted within +its walls the merchants from other parts of France, as well as from +Germany, Italy, and Holland, Lyons became at once a typographical +centre of the first importance, even preceding Paris as regards book +illustration. In 1473 Barthelemy Buyer, a rich Lyons merchant, founded +the first press with the help of William Leroy, publishing first the +_Compendium_ of Lotharius, then _La Legende Dorée_, six months before +the appearance of the _Chroniques de Saint Denis_ at Paris. Ornamental +letters occur for the first time in the _Mirouer Hystorial_.[31] The +specimens given were used by Leroy in 1479, and are known as _lettres +tourneures fleuronnées_. On the title-page of the _Prestre Jehan_ of +the same publisher is a historiated P showing the three companions +travelling in the land of Prester John, arriving before a castle of +the ‘paynims.’ The text begins with a smaller initial, also a P with +a serpent’s head which forms part of the alphabet of the _Statuta +Lugdunensia_, and takes the place of the larger initial on the +title-page of a later edition. The initials of the _Statuta Synodalia_ +are very much like those occurring in the _Quatre Fils Aymon_ and +in the _Dechier de Nobles Hommes et Femmes_, a translation of the +_De casibus illustrium virorum_ of Boccaccio (Mathieu Husz and Jean +Schabeler, 1483), and, although differently treated, the same subjects, +grotesque profiles, are to be found in the first Paris letters of Dupré +and Vérard. For the other letters of these early alphabets, of which +specimens are not given here, the reader is referred to Claudin’s +great work on the History of Printing in France, unfortunately left +incomplete by the death of the author, but of which the third volume, +the first of the two intended to relate to Lyons, is finished. + + [31] Mr. Pollard speaks of an edition of ‘Beaudoin, Comte de + Flandres,’ of 1478, with rude printed initials. + +It is chiefly in the French books of this period that we meet with +those large calligraphic initials for title-pages, generally taking +the form of the letter L in the style of the tenth century, which are +said by Claudin to be known as _lettres de forme, dites cadeaux_. The +two largest are to be found in the _Mer des Histoires_, printed first +by Le Rouge in 1488, the initials of which were copied by Dupré in +1491. They exceed the dimensions of this page, and are consequently +too tall for reproduction here. M. Thierry Poux in his _Origines de +l’Imprimerie en France_, and Claudin (_op. cit._), have given good +copies. They represent knights in armour, probably St. George or St. +Michael spearing the dragon, with different accessory ornaments along +the margin. + +The most common of all these initials is the one which occurs on +the title-page of the _Doctrinal de Sapience_, and of this we have +preferred the Geneva copy. The French composition which is known as +the January and May L, and is much more insipid, would appear to have +been most popular, recurring in a great many books both of Paris and +Lyons. Another L frequently seen, of which Mr. Pollard in his _Early +Illustrated Books_ gives a copy, was first used for the _Livre du +Faulcon_; the top of the letter curves down to end in the head of some +imaginary bird, between the two grotesque profiles. In some books this +part has been removed, the letter presenting the appearance of having +been cut down. + +Of our selections, the L with two heads on the left and a collection of +dragons on the right, one of which is disgorging a fool complete with +cap, bells, and _marotte_, is from the title-page of a Melusine, but +is met with in other books. The letter with the two heads, a monkey and +two birds, which occurs also in other publications, was taken from the +_Somme Rurale_ of Pierre Boutellier. The L with only one human head +and a bird separated by the head and neck of an imaginary reptile can +be seen in _Demandes d’Amour_, _Le Cordial_, _Les Quinze_, _Joies de +Marriage_, _Le Doctrinal des Femmes mariées_. As to the initial with +Eve, it is to be found on the title-page of the _Livre des Marchands_, +of the _Legende Dorée_, as well as on some others. + +As a last example of these large calligraphic letters, we give the +large L with three profiles. + +In an entirely different style is a magnificent Q on a black ground, +representing St. George and the Dragon, from an edition of the _Mer des +Hystoires_ by Michel Topie, without doubt one of the most effective +of the Lyons initials. There is a well-cut A at the commencement of +Breidenbach’s _Sainct voyage de la cité de Hierusalem_, which Claudin +attributes to Gaspard Ortuin. This book contains the first specimens of +Arabic characters printed in France. + +We now come to a series of letters from the missal of Pierre Hongre of +1500, some of which had been used in the missal of Uzès, published by +Jean Neumeister and Michel Topie in 1497. This lending or hiring of +typographical ornaments was very common amongst Lyons printers, as can +be seen by a comparison of the books of different publishers, and as is +proved by an agreement of the time, between Michel Topie and an Angevin +printer, discovered by the Abbé Requin amongst some old notarial deeds. + +The letters of Pierre Hongre’s missal represent, as usual, Biblical +scenes, and although of an archaic type, the attitudes are true, and +they are animated by a sincere and artistic sentiment. The subjects of +the different letters speak for themselves. The T, as usual, is the +sacrifice of Abraham; the C the martyrdom of St. Stephen; the D the +Nativity, etc. + +Many of these are to be found afterwards in other missals, such as the +missals _Narbone_, _Aquensis_, _Matisconensis_, etc. + +The historiated initials from the Saccon Missal, also of 1500, all of +the same type, are interesting from the fact that we are able to give +the name of the engraver. In our collection of cut initials there is, +amongst others, the S with several personages, and from the same book +from which it is taken, and in the same type as on the verso of this +initial, is a ‘dixit’ of five lines which speaks for itself:-- + + ‘Petrus Bertorius edidit + Lambertus Campester illustravit + Joannes Cobergerus erogavit expensis + Jacobus Sacconius expressit + Amor veritatis persuasit.’ + +Good missal initials are to be found also in the _Missale secundum +ordinem Carthusiensem_ of Simon Bevilaqua, 1517, such as the C (saints +with a palm-leaf), and the D (the Good Shepherd). The _Missale secundum +ordinem fratrum predicatorum_ of Moylin, 1515, has also interesting +ornamental letters. + +Of the two large A’s, one is from a missal, the other from a _Catalogus +Sanctorum_ of Saccon. The G and the smaller P are both from Lyons +missals. + +The three little pictures, one of which represents the expulsion +of a devil, the two others the Apostles in a boat, are in reality +ornamental initials with the letter, an I, in the right border, and +belong to a volume of homilies printed by J. Poullet in 1505, in which +every paragraph begins with the same letter. The fourth is one of +those little cuts that are sometimes used in missals in the place of +pictorial initials, and which, according to Dibdin, are to be classed +with initials. + +It is not often that we meet with complete alphabets from single +books, except in the case of works arranged by alphabetical order and +dictionaries. Such is the case with the _Catholicon_, of which J. +Wolff published an edition in 1503. Unfortunately the alphabet is not +uniform, either in size, style, or subject, and some of the letters +are of minor interest. We have selected the most curious and most +uncommon. The four initials of the same kind, the halberdier U, the +standard-bearer O, the page P, and the king D, are sometimes found +in other volumes--in the _Aureum Opus_, for example. It is from the +prologue of an edition of this work, printed for Gueynard in 1505 by +De Vingle, that we have taken the very interesting Q of St. Jerome, +which is also the subject of the first initial in the Saluzzo edition. +We only know of one other letter of this size in the style of the +_Catalogus_ series. As can be seen from our reproduction, it represents +the Virgin, and is to be found at the beginning of a very rare and +curious plaquette entitled ‘Plusieurs gentillesses pour faire en toutes +bonnes compaignies. Et aussi plusieurs bonnes et utiles receptes +esprouvées par Maistre Symon de Millan. On les vend a Lyon en la maison +de feu Barnabé Chaussard.’ + +The two curious L’s are from the title-page and from the beginning of +one of the chapters of a Lyons _Proprietaire_, wanting the last page, +but of which we have not seen any other copy. The L with a profile and +crowned lion is from the title-page. The other letters, D, H, M, are +from the treatise on men and women at the end of the volume, arranged +according to the signs of the Zodiac. The M shows the author meditating +the effect of his opening remarks. The D and the H are at the beginning +of a paragraph referring to Virgo and the Gemini respectively. + +The two large letters C and D, representing the Viaticum and the +Nativity, with the seven smaller ones, are to be found in an edition +of the _Regimen Sanitatis_, with comments by Magnini, attributed by +Claudin, on the strength of an initial on the title-page with a bird, +to Fradin, 1505. This is no doubt correct, for the large C (a priest +carrying the host), with several of the smaller letters, is to be found +in an undoubted edition by that printer of Platina’s _De Honestate +Voluptate_ of 1505.[32] + + [32] The G, C, and I, with profiles and grotesques, were used two + years before in a Lyons edition of the _Rommant de la Rose_, by G. + Balsarin, 1503. + +From a technical point of view, from the elegance of the design and the +delicacy of the execution, the series taken from works by Blanchard +and others, with masters and scholars in costumes of the time of Louis +XII., is particularly interesting, the S with pope and cardinals being +quite remarkable. + +The children’s alphabet was used by Fradin and four or five different +printers, perhaps by more. A certain number of children’s letters, but +enlarged to the size of the initials of Cologne of Albert Dürer, are in +the _Graduale Viennense_ of 1534. One of them, the R, is a coarse copy +of the same Dürer letter, and has been given under Cologne for the sake +of comparison. The others, eleven in number, although not exact copies +of the smaller letters, are very much like our smaller reproductions +and are treated in the same manner, but the best proofs we have seen of +the specimens we give are in a copy on vellum of the Narbonne Missal of +Fradin of 1528, from which the P with the Nativity, the smaller P with +a saint about to be beheaded, and the R with Death, are also taken. +There is a very similar set in the German Psalter of Nuremberg, printed +by J. Petreius in 1525. + +The F with a portrait of St. Ambrose is from a translation of St. +Jerome by Erasmus, of whom an excellent portrait is also seen in +another initial. + +Two of the most characteristic sets of Lyons letters are those taken +from the _Biblia cum Summariis et cum Concordantiis_, printed by John +Moylin for Stephen Gueynard in 1516, and from the _Catalogus Sanctorum_ +of Saccon of 1514. The Bible letters represent necessarily scenes in +Scripture history, often being inspired by the initials in the Bibles +of Nuremberg and Augsburg. + +The initials used in the different books of Lives of the Saints, the +chief of which were the _Golden Legend_, the _Catalogus Sanctorum_, and +the _Lives of the Holy Fathers_, are miniature pictures, and, although +of small size, they contain quite as many details as the larger +engravings that illustrate some of the more pretentious editions. It +may be noted that when there are historiated letters, there are no +pictures properly so called, but, as the numerous editions testify, +those with pictorial initials, which the unlearned were able to +understand, as well as the illustrations proper, were amongst the most +popular of the publications of the beginning of the sixteenth century. + +In an edition of the _Golden Legend_ now before us, printed in 1514 for +Martin Boillon, by Gilbert de Villiers, the same year as the _Catalogus +Sanctorum_ of Saccon, of which we give the letters, the text begins +with a large A, representing the Advent of Christ, of the same size +as the Bible initials. A little further on, another A stands for St. +Andrew with his cross. Next comes an N, for the patron of children, St. +Nicholas, who is depicted with three of them apparently in a pickle +tub. As the letters nearly always correspond to the saint’s name, +the historiated initials, for those who knew their alphabets, were +even more useful than the large engravings, which required for their +comprehension a competent knowledge of the attributes of the saints. + +Proceeding further, an N with an ass, a cow, a child in a cradle, and +a star, stands for the Nativity. Saint John the Evangelist has an I, +with his eagle. Another I, with three soldiers, one of them stabbing +a child, and a woman with another child on her lap, represents the +Massacre of the Innocents, and both for composition and execution it is +superior to the larger cuts of the illustrated volumes. + +St. Paul the Hermit, and St. Remy, may be recognised by the bird which +is bringing them a ring. The M with a naked saint shows St. Macarius +in the desert, where for killing a gnat ‘nudus sex mensibus in deserto +mansit et inde a scabronibus totus laceratus exivit.’ The first letter, +with the saint kneeling down, and a soldier about to wield an immense +sword, is an F, for St. Fabian, and this subject with variations +recurs frequently, St. Longinus, St. Gregory, and many others being +so represented. In the B of St. Basil we see for the first time the +Father of Evil in the shape of a dog-faced monkey, so often depicted +both in the architecture and in book ornamentation of the period. He +is disputing with St. Basil about the kneeling child, but of course +gets the worst of the argument. The same B does for St. Benedict; the +A with two devils with hair standing on end is for St. Amandus. The +same initial does for St. Ambrosius. George of England is shown on +horseback with the slaughtered dragon. An S, with a number of people +lying down, is for the seven sleepers. In another S, what looks like +a crowd of students illustrates the section ‘De septem fratribus +qui fuerunt filii beati felicitatis’; St. Christine is looking at +what appears to be a house on fire. The M of St. Macarius recurs +to illustrate the nakedness of St. Mamertinus, who is left in that +condition by robbers, and the N of the Nativity does again for the +Nativity of the Virgin. + +The two medical saints, St. Cosmo and St. Damian, are shown together +as usual in a C, one of them holding in his hand a flask of special +shape. Of the remainder, the most interesting are the M of St. Michael +the Archangel, who is attacking with his sword a devil with horns and +a very pointed nose; St. Denis, who is carrying his head in his hand; +a P, for the ten thousand martyrs, two of whom are shown with swords +coming through their bodies from underneath, just as in one of the +Schott initials of Strasburg. In the initial for the eleven thousand +Virgins, one girl is about to be beheaded whilst two others are +looking on. St. Eustace is at his anvil, with fire and bellows in the +background. St. Martin is shown, with his cloak, on horseback, and St. +Elizabeth of Hungary with a castle in the background. The last with a +pictorial initial is St. Bernardinus, to whom the Virgin and Child are +appearing in a vision. + +There is another edition of the _Catalogus Sanctorum_ with only one +large introductory initial, but in which the different chapters are +preceded by little woodcuts. In one of these, which is repeated several +times, the saint is shown with an instrument for execution on the same +principle as the modern guillotine. Of Saccon’s many other alphabets +the two outline initials, two Q’s, one a monkey riding a monster, the +other an owl, five other letters with heads, and the little black +animal letters, must serve as examples. + +The L with two peasants looking at an angel in the clouds is to be +found in a Bible and on the title-page of a _Liber Cathonis_. + +An amusing little set comes from a printer whose name is unknown to +us, the book being entitled _Morale Reductorium Petri Berthorii_. The C +is probably a convent cellarer, whilst the N is a study in contemporary +costume, and remarkable for the number of details that have been +condensed into so small a space. + +The C with the Crucifixion is an example of the extraordinary +incongruity that is sometimes seen between ornaments and text. In a +book of devotions we sometimes meet with the most scabrous subjects; +here the reverse is the case, this reproduction, whatever may have been +its origin, being taken from a military treatise published by Jacques +Modernes, _Vallo, Du Faict de la Guerre et Art militaire_. The other +letters in the work are from worn-out blocks from the stock of Saccon. + +Although of later date than the majority of our reproductions, our +remaining initials are so frequently found in Lyons books that they are +representative, as it were, of Lyons ornamentation. + +There are several different-sized alphabets of philosophers, but the +one given is by far the best in execution. Our reproductions are as +good as possible, but the proofs in the original are of a greyish +colour which, taken together with the clear way in which they are +printed, is most ornamental. + +The mythological letters are from a book of Italian poetry, ‘Stampato +in Lione, per Jacopo Fabio. Appresso Bastiano di Bartholomeo Honorati, +1556,’ and, with the exception of the S, which is signed with the +initials H F (Hans Frank), the other letters are attributed to the +Petit Bernard. The three large _lettres parlantes_, D for Diana, etc., +are from Lyons impressions of about the same time. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +PARIS + + +As with Lyons, the material upon which one could draw for Paris is +almost inexhaustible. Dibdin considers the initials of this town to be +the finest that can be found, and gives the letters of Josse Bade with +branches growing out of the heads of the personages as examples. As +regards book illustration, however, Paris was behind Lyons, where the +earliest attempts at decoration were made in 1478. + +The first book printed in Paris with ornamental letters was the _Vies +des Anciens Sainctz Pères of Dupré_, which appeared in 1486, that is +to say, eight years later. Mr. Pollard thinks that these initials, of +which there are only eight, five of which we reproduce, afforded the +first hint for the first calligraphic initials used for title-pages, +of which several have been given under Lyons. Dupré was one of the +printers who worked for Vérard, who was chiefly a publisher. An +alphabet of small calligraphic initials was frequently used in the +volumes printed for him by the Lerouges of Paris and Troyes, and is to +be found complete in the _Jardin de Santé_. Pen-letters, as they are +called, of this type, are of frequent occurrence in manuscripts. + +Of the large calligraphic initials a sufficient number of specimens +have been given under the heading of Lyons, and, as a rule, they are +more quaint than those used by Paris printers. + +The huge initials already spoken of in the _Mer des Hystoires_ are too +large for our _format_. In the same work is a serpentine S equally +out of proportion to this volume, an I with a picture of Christ, and +a P of similar size in the style of those that often occur in works +of Vérard, representing a scribe at work, and recalling the cuts so +often seen on the verso of title-pages. For these initials, which are +too large for reproduction in this volume, the reader is referred to +Claudin’s _History of French Printing_ and Monceau’s monograph on the +Lerouges. Of those more moderate in size, the January and May initial +on the title-pages of the _Doctrinal de Sapience_, the _Quinze Joyes +du mariage_, and many other works by Vérard, Trepperel, and Lenoir, +is the best known (see under Geneva). The _Livre du Faulcon_ has an +initial with two grotesque profiles, also very frequently met with on +other title-pages. This, together with the L with three monkeys, is +reproduced by Mr. Pollard in his _Early Illustrated Books_, to which +the reader is referred. + +Shortly before the end of the fifteenth century, in 1497, Bocard +published an edition of Robert Gaguin’s _De origine et gestis +Francorum_, with a few large grotesque initials, and a very pretty +one of the Virgin of the same size, as well as an alphabet of smaller +letters. The first leaf of this book begins with an initial which is +badly coloured in the only original at our disposal, but which is +interesting as forming at the same time an _ex-libris_. The letter in +question is an F, and in each of the segments (separated by the central +bar) is a scroll, in which an early owner of the volume had written his +name. + +In the _Nef de Santé et Condemnacion des Banquetz_ of Trepperel are +some other grotesques, found also in others of his publications. + +About the same time the use of ornamental initials was commenced by +Rembolt and Gering. Gering, who was one of the earliest German printers +to settle in Paris, published with his partner, in 1499, a book +entitled _Divi Augustini in sacras Pauli epistolas Interpretatio_, with +the large P, representing, no doubt, St. Augustine preaching to his +followers, which occurs at the beginning of almost every chapter, and a +number of smaller ones. + +It is in the smaller initials of Gering and Rembolt that we have some +of the best examples, as far as historiated letters are concerned, +of those compound animals so often met with in the ornamentation +of the fifteenth century. If we look at the records of antiquity, +such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, Roman medals and pottery, and other +artistic remains, it will be seen that from a very early time it was +considered humorous to represent animals carrying on the occupations +of men, or doing the duties of other animals. By a natural extension +of this idea, men were depicted in the roles of animals who had +usurped their supremacy, and who are represented as treating their +tyrant in the way that they themselves were accustomed to be treated. +Wright and Champfleury in their Histories of Caricature have given +numerous examples. In an Egyptian papyrus, a cat is seen walking +erect and driving a flock of geese, a fox is carrying a basket and +playing the flute, and the lion and the unicorn are playing at chess. +In a thirteenth-century tile, a rabbit going a-hunting is riding his +hereditary foe the dog, and in a manuscript of the fourteenth, a dog +with his paws tied is being conveyed in a cart drawn by two rabbits and +led by a third, towards a hill on which a gallows has been prepared for +him. In a carving of the same period, another example of ‘the world +turned upside down,’ four geese are shown hanging their old enemy the +fox. Roman statuettes still exist, in which the personages represented +are satirised by their heads being replaced by those of animals, such +as rats or wolves. + +These fancies, which are said to have come from Greece, led to the +creation of such beings as the Sphinx, the most celebrated of the +compound animals of antiquity, and later on to the Chimerae and Grylli, +which were the predecessors of the innumerable fantastic hybrids +that the imaginations of the artists of the Middle Ages called into +existence. These creatures have already been represented in our Lyons +initials. In one of Saccon’s letters there is a kind of armadillo +with a human head, and amongst the reproductions from the _Regimen +Sanitatis_ there are two copied from Gering and Rembolt originals, +which are also given. + +In these latter the R, with a monster with a neck ending in a human +head, is particularly noticeable, as it occurs frequently in the +borders of the same printers, and the Books of Hours of other presses. +It is to be remarked that the belief in the existence of these +unnatural monsters was quite general. Wright quotes Giraldus Cambrensis +as describing animals in Ireland, some half bulls, half men, others +half stags, half cows, others half monkeys, half dogs. The dog-faced +monkeys had always been worshipped in Egypt, and for this reason +possibly had become an object of suspicion to the mediæval clergy, who +made them figure as devils both in church architecture and manuscript +decoration. It is in this rôle that they are constantly represented in +woodcut initials. + +The following year the first edition of the _Cornucopia_ of Perottus +appeared, the first part of which has one of the larger initials on +every twentieth or thirtieth page. Towards the end of the volume they +become much more frequent; not only are they to be met with on every +page, but on some there are half a dozen or more. Another edition of +this work, which was often printed, was published by Rembolt in 1507, +mostly with the same initials, but the P with the Nativity was not used +in the second edition. + +The two armorial initials are from a French translation of the _History +of Denmark_ by Saxo Grammaticus, published by Josse Bade in 1514. +Besides these there are three others in the same style, a D, an I, +and a P. The D is like the N in general arrangement, but without the +supporters, and the legend ‘Arma regis Dacie’ is in scrolls with the +letters C. P. and C. L. In the I the central shield is suppressed, and +the shields are framed by banderolles with the legend: ‘Arma regis +Dacie Swecie Norvegie, sclavorum gottorumque anno domini MDXIIII.’ The +P is similar to the two others in being without supporters, and the +legend is slightly modified: ‘Arma regis Dacie Swecie Norvegie.’ These +initials were particularly admired by Dibdin, who calls attention to +their beauty. + +Amongst the publications of Trepperel are several editions of the +_Jardin de Santé_, which, in the Latin _Hortus Sanitatis_, is a thick +folio dealing first with birds, beasts, and fishes, and finishing +with an alphabetical account of medicinal plants, and finally stones +(minerals). A treatise, _De urinis_, completes the whole. + +Vérard’s edition already mentioned was of the same proportions, but +Trepperel published his as an octavo on plants only. The initials are +not always well printed, rather the reverse. The best are given in our +illustrations. A few of these letters are to be found in a small folio +with woodcuts, entitled _Les œuvres de Justin, vray hystoriographe sur +les faictz et gestes de Troge Pompee_, etc. etc., in much better proof. +In this same book is the L with a harpy, which, together with the M, +the only other letter of the kind we have seen, is to be frequently +met with in the _Chroniques de France_ and in a great many other books +by Philippe Lenoir, finally in a Paris _Missale Carthusiense_. The +two letters with children, inspired by Venetian initials, with the +linear R of the same size and the big ‘philosophus’ Q, are taken from +a work on the Logic of Aristotle by Jacobus Stapulensis, published +by H. Estienne in 1510. In other works the same initial occurs, but +the word ‘philosophus’ is replaced by ‘Aristoteles,’ or by some other +philosopher’s name. We have met with several varieties. The smaller +letters are to be found also in books printed by J. Petit, H. Estienne, +and Josse Bade. + +It may be here observed that the Paris printers had quite a specialty +for missals, and in some of them initial letters of the most +varied origin are mixed together. In one of them, the _Missale ad +consuetudinem insignis ecclesie Parisiensis_, by Wolfgang Hopyl, in +1504, the initials belong to different alphabets. The best are the A +(Annunciation), the P (Nativity), another P (the Circumcision), an E +(visit of the wise men), S (Pentecost), C (a priest saying mass), and +when the proofs are perfect it would be difficult to imagine anything +more effective. But the handsomest set is in the _Missale Leodiense_, +also printed by Wolfgang Hopyl, in 1513. These initials are used in +other missals, but are here in their best condition. Some of them +are to be found in the 1526 edition of the Liége missal by Marnef and +Hopyl, and again in the _Missel de Chartres_ of Kerver, 1529. + +In most works of this kind the subjects of the _histoires_ are of a +Biblical nature, particularly incidents in the lives of the saints, +although relieved sometimes by a touch of the grotesque. + +In other missals the grotesque reigns supreme, showing how intimately +it was associated with the idea of Church Art, as is well seen in the +beautiful Books of Hours by Philippe Pigouchet and others, in which the +borders are a mixture of the grotesque and the macabre. + +One of the books most frequently reprinted at this period was the +_Propriétaire_, the translation of the work of Bartolomæus de +Glanville, _De proprietatibus rerum_, which was the book on which +Caxton worked at Cologne. It is a kind of general encyclopædia, +beginning with a disquisition on the Trinity, and ending with a chapter +on Astrology. It is from this work that we have reproduced the twelve +letters, amongst others the Q with a bagpiper, and an L representing a +person in a fool’s cap giving a baby pap. These occur in a great many +other works of Philippe Lenoir. + +In the treatise ‘On Men and Women,’ the different sections are preceded +by initials which correspond to the signs of the Zodiac, as in the +Lyons copy, of which we have given specimens. But in the Paris edition, +curiously enough, the first two sections, Aries and Taurus, have no +initials, although ornamental letters with a ram and bull respectively, +and entirely inappropriate anywhere else, are to be found in other +books published by this printer, such as the _Chroniques de France_ and +the _Saint Graal_. + +The two large initials, one of them with a portrait, formed part of the +alphabet of Vascosan, used in, amongst other books, the work of Oronce +Fine, or Finée, as he is variously called. The vignette of the O is +said to be his portrait. It is authenticated by the initials O. F. + +Josse Bade has some large initials in the Venetian style, with +intertwisting bands and no historiation, generally described in +book catalogues as ‘magnificent ornamental letters.’ We admit to a +predilection for initials with personages, and prefer to give here some +of the smaller set, sometimes printed in red in the original, which +particularly excited Dibdin’s admiration, and which are graceful, even +when not historiated. They are to be found in a great many of this +printer’s productions, as well as in those of Simon de Colines and +others. + +The missal letters of two sizes, beginning with an A representing the +Trinity, are considered by experts to have been designed by Geoffroy +Tory or members of his school. They form part of a fragment consisting +of eight or nine pictorial pages, such as are to be met with in the +missals. Several have the Crucifixion surrounded by an ornamental +border, in one of which is the mark of Tory’s _atelier_--the cross of +Lorraine. On these leaves, which have not been identified--they were +perhaps only proof-sheets--the letters did not serve as initials, but +were placed end to end, to form a compartment border. + +In two instances where initials were used at the beginning of the text, +they came from an alphabet of one of the missals given above. + +The smaller of the two remaining sets, with the little D dated 1526, +was used in the publications of Simon de Colines and others. + +A similar initial used by Chevallon at the beginning of a treatise of +diseases of women by Hippocrates is dated 1524, but after 1545 the date +is replaced by the letters C. G., the initials of Chevallon’s widow, +Charlotte Guiard. + +In a large folio edition published by Chevallon in 1528 of the _Digesta +seu Pandectae Juris Civilis_, most of the initials are too badly +printed for reproduction. One of them, however, is of good impression, +and besides that is supremely interesting, as it forms a little picture +representing a scene from one of the xylographic _Ars Moriendi_. It is +the only letter of the kind we know, and this is the only time we have +met with it. In the original the initial is of the smaller dimension, +but it is so interesting that we have had it enlarged. In the block +books, scrolls are generally seen emerging from the mouths of the +devils, with the suggestions printed on them by which they attempt +to turn aside the dying soul from thoughts of piety. This miniature +composition is too small for such insertions, but the attitude of the +arch fiend shows that he is ready to seize any opportunity that may +present itself. + +There are a great many more alphabets of Paris printers that we should +have liked to reproduce, had it been possible to multiply our examples +indefinitely--amongst them that of Kerver, of which we give the C with +a knight in armour. The three others, B, C, and L, are coarse copies of +Kerver letters used in England, these being taken from a medical work +by Bullein. Of the next three, the L with a saint is a copy of the same +letter of Rembolt, the two others from Philip le Noir both recurring +frequently in his impressions. + +The P with a master and pupils is from the press of N. de la Barre. + +The three little pen letters are from the same source. + +We cannot bring this short selection of Parisian letters to a close +without mentioning the Royal letters designed by Geoffroy Tory and +used by Robert Estienne in a Bible and in other books after 1536. +Independently of the accessory ornamentation, the letters themselves +have since served as models of proportion. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +FRENCH PROVINCIAL TOWNS + + +Of provincial French towns after Lyons the most important as regards +the history of printing are Troyes and Rouen. In the former the chief +printers using initial letters were the Lerouges and J. Lecoq. The five +large letters, C, C, D, L, S, with Chinese-looking dragons and birds, +together with the B of an entirely different character representing +David and his harp, no doubt the initial letter of some Psalter, were +used in the impressions of the Lerouges, and were taken from one of +their finest books, _La thoison d’or_. + +These printers worked for Paris publishers, particularly for Vérard, +and the calligraphic alphabet of the latter, given above, formed part +of their material. + +Of Lecoq we give two sets. The specimens, with grotesque profiles, are +from a monumental _Graduale Trecense_ in which there are altogether +between twenty and thirty different varieties, from the _Vie de +Monseigneur St. Bernard_, printed for Macé Panthoul, and from a +_Statuta synodalia_ of the ‘State and Diocese of Troyes,’ printed by +order of the Reverend Bishop Odard Hennequin. The I, the Q with a +fool and his accoutrements, the S with a profile on each side and a +bird’s head and upper beak above, the larger F and the V also with two +profiles and a face with porcine snout on the top, are only to be found +in the _Statuta Synodalia_. + +It may be here observed that it has been our constant practice to +reproduce our specimens exactly as they appear in the original, in +order to give them the documentary interest that they lose when +retouched. In this case these initials were too badly daubed over with +paint for gillotype reproduction, and the first nine were obtained by +photographing on wood and then engraving. They are good facsimiles of +the originals, but without what may be called their _patine_. It was +subsequently ascertained that the colour in most instances was easily +removable, and the other five letters were copied in the usual way. The +reader can compare the results of the two processes. + +The smaller alphabet, engraved also on wood, is complete in the _Vie +de Monseigneur St. Bernard_, but occasional letters are to be met with +in many of Lecoq’s later impressions. Amongst these may be mentioned +an excessively rare little Latin primer on the plan of the Donatus, +with Lecoq’s _marque parlante_ on the title-page, and with the E of +this alphabet at the beginning of the title, which runs as follows: +_Epithoma sive breviarium octo partium orationis gramaticalis adiectis +grãmatice principiis ad completam grammaticam introductoriũ_. + +Rouen was an important centre of printing at the beginning of the +sixteenth century, a great many publishers in other towns and countries +having the works which they edited printed in this city. This was +often the case with books apparently of Caen. We shall have to +speak of a _Histoire de Commines_, supposed to have been printed at +Paris, but really printed at Rouen. The earliest work from which we +have made reproductions is an exposition of the Psalms by Petrus de +Harentals, with a very long title beginning _Psalterii expositio Petri +de Harentals viri religione clarissimi_, etc.; at the end ‘Impressum +in officina Laurentii Hostingue et Jameti Loys,’ 1504. It is stated, +moreover, to be sold at Paris by J. Petit and Robert Macé, the large +mark of the latter occupying the verso of the last leaf. From this book +the series of letters with heads, curious little animals, and compound +monstrosities are taken. The large P with a man holding up his hand is +on the title-page. In another volume, the _Singularissimum et eximium +opus universis mortalibus sacratissimi ordinis Seraphici patris nostri +francisci_, etc., printed by Martin Morin in 1509, are the I with two +dragons, the H corresponding to it, and the second H with a woman in a +Norman bonnet such as the peasants wear to this day. + +The only remaining initial we have met with of this style and size, +the P with a man with a pointed cap and tassel, is to be found on the +first page of the text of a _Coustumier de Normandie_, belonging to Mr. +Quaritch. + +The large calligraphic M with the arms of Normandy adorns the +title-page of the missal of Arras, _Missale Atrebatense_, and also +that of the _Missale Noviomense_ of 1506, both of which were printed +by Martin Morin, and the twelve initials in red comprise most of the +ornamental letters distributed through the two volumes. There are +also some grotesque lettrines similar to those found in many Rouen +impressions, and such as have been given from the Psalterium of +Harentals. + +Another large calligraphic initial, and nine smaller ones, are from a +Rouen edition of the _Propriétaire_, printed for Francis Regnault by +Jacques le Forestier, which, unlike the Lyons and Paris editions of the +same date, 1520-30, is without the series of twelve Zodiac letters that +precedes the paragraphs of the little treatise ‘On Men and Women’ at +the end of the volume. + +The three smaller initials of the same size, A, B (David and his harp), +and R, the two somewhat larger--a D with a compound animal with a +long snaky neck, and a P with a grotesque, together with the P with +a schoolmaster armed with his birch and about to operate, are from +another edition of the _Coustumier de Normandie_ of 1523. + +The A, surmounted by a crown with a saint below, with the D, a swan, +and the S with two animals, are met with also in other books, but were +reproduced from the _Opera Guilelmi Monachi Valladii_, without name of +printer or date, but printed at Rouen by Hostingue in 1505. The M is +the same as in the missals of M. Morin, and there is the same P as in +Harentals’ Psalter, but in very bad proofs. + +Our last specimens are from the alphabet of Jacques Forestier, or +rather of Jacques le Gentil. Most of the letters are to be found in +a 1525 edition of _Commines_ which had always, on the authority of +Brunet, passed for having been printed at Paris. Claudin, however, +noticed that the verso of the last page had the arms of Rouen and the +mark of Jacques Forestier, and the recto says ‘Imprimé par J. G.’ This +J. G. was Jacques le Gentil, son-in-law to J. Forestier, to whose +business he succeeded, using for a time his father-in-law’s mark. + +In the _Commines_ there are sixteen different initials, but neither of +the two with profiles, D and G. These, with some of the others, are to +be found in the _Grand Coustumier du Pays et Duché de Normandie_ of +1523, already mentioned, and in a book entitled _Divi Gregorii Magni +et ecclesie doctoris precipua opera_, printed at Rouen in 1521 at the +expense of that most honest man and most famous bookseller, Francis +Regnault of Paris. + +From a typographical point of view Avignon is interesting on account +of the claim that has been made for it as the birthplace of printing +by the Abbé Requin. This is based upon notarial records of 1444, but +the invention, in the opinion of the late M. Claudin, was in reality a +primitive form of typewriting. + +The chief printer there at the beginning of the sixteenth century was +Jean de Chauny, and our specimens of initials are from two volumes +printed by him for Jehan François de Saint Nazaire, otherwise called +De Ripa. The first is a small quarto with a curious ornamental +title-page, _De Peste libri tres_, dedicated by the ‘celeberrimus +atque acutissimus’ author to the citizens of Avignon; the other, +_Interpretationum et responsorum acutissimi atque clarissimi +jurisconsulti dōmi Joan francisci de Sancto Nazario cognomento de Ripa +libri tres_, is a very large quarto printed in 1527. Like most books +of the kind, both volumes commence by complimentary verses, the carmen +‘Jacobi Meigroni Novensis, ad studiosos legum juvenes,’ being a good +specimen of the punning panegyric of the period. + +In a similar composition mentioned under the heading ‘Sienna,’ Dathus +is preferred to Cicero. According to Meigronus, De Ripa is more +reliable than the Delphic oracle. + +Of the larger Avignon initials two only occur in the larger volume, the +F reproduced in the text at the beginning of the privilege, and an S at +the beginning of the third book, which is somewhat imperfectly printed. +The smaller letters are much more numerous, especially in the _Libri +Interpretationum et responsorum_. + +A very important work[33] has been devoted to the early printing of +Poitiers, one volume of which consists chiefly of facsimiles. As a rule +the initials are devoid of interest, but there is a large grotesque +L from a _Costumier de Poitou_ printed by J. de Marnef, a P from a +missal, and a few with human faces, such as the one that we reproduce. + + [33] _Monuments de l’Imprimerie à Poitiers_, par A. Claudin. + +Later in the century a legal work was published with a nearly complete +alphabet representing the different occurrences that might happen to an +accused person, such as the stocks and the rack. They are, however, as +a rule, too poorly printed, and the copies we have seen are not worth +reproducing. + +In books printed at other French towns we have discovered but few +initials. There is a large but uninteresting one at the beginning of a +Chambéry edition of the _Roy Modus_. + +On the only leaf that has come down to the present time of a Limoges +missal, and which forms the subject of a memoir by M. Claudin, is an R, +with the Resurrection. + +In an early Albi edition of Æsop, with cuts, in what is called the +_manière éraillée_, which look as if executed by scratching the block +with a rusty nail, there are some initials of which the N will give an +idea of the _éraillée_ manner. In a later tract, _La vie et légende de +Mme. Ste. Petroine_, there is an A, which may possibly have been used +first for a missal. + +In the chapter about Basle, mention has been made of an alphabet which +is nearly complete, used by Furter in his _Liber Decretorum sive +Panormia_, and which also occurs in a much rarer book without date or +printer’s name, the _Decreta Consilii Basiliensis_. This alphabet, it +now seems, was used in 1488, at Besançon, in the _Speculum Humanae +Vitae_ of Rodoricus Zamorensis. Sotheby, in his _Typography of the +Fifteenth Century_, has given a reproduction of one of the pages on +which there is the very characteristic serpentine S, which is here +given with the T and the V. + +Printers in the other towns would seem to have been supplied with the +worn-out initials of the Rouen and Lyons presses. + +In the few books with ornaments printed at Caen, Rouen letters are +found; whilst in those published in the south of France, there are +chiefly the floral initials from the presses of Saccon, De Vingle, and +other Lyons printers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SPANISH TOWNS + + +‘Spanish books,’ says Mr. Pollard, ‘are distinguished by the excellence +of their initial letters, which are always as plentiful as they are +good, the great majority of books after 1485 being fully provided with +them.’ + +Our own experience confirms this statement, but we have found that they +are as a rule ornamental rather than historiated, and that there is, +moreover, a certain sameness about them. + +For this reason we shall only give six specimens of the first variety, +but these will serve to give an idea of the initials of this kind +usually met with in Spanish books. The C and the M are taken from +a volume printed by G. Castilla at Valencia, the E from a _Comento +di Eusebio_, printed in 1522 by order of the Reverend Archbishop of +Toledo, at the noble town of Salamanca, by Hans Gyffer Aleman di +Silgenstat. The origin of the three others, L, P, U, is uncertain, but +is referred to further on. The seven smaller initials, or ‘lettrines,’ +as they are called, are taken from the Eusebius. + +Our historiated specimens are much more numerous. The first set of nine +letters is taken from a work of the very greatest rarity, to which +Mr. Pollard has called attention, the _Compilacion de Leyes_, printed +at Zamora in 1485. This consists of eight different sections and a +preface, each of which is preceded by one of the initials. + +In the I, which is the first in the book and precedes the preface, +there is amongst others a personage with a black rod, probably +symbolising the dignity of the Court. On the first page of the text +is a P with the King and Queen, Ferdinand and Isabella. ‘The first +section of the laws,’ says Mr. Pollard, ‘treating of the _Santa Fé_, +has an initial E showing God the Father upholding the Crucified Christ; +the second section sets forth the duty of the King to hear causes two +days a week, and begins with an L in which he is unpleasantly closely +pressed by the litigants. Two knights spurring from the different sides +of an S head the laws of chivalry; a canonist and his scholars in A +preside over matrimony; money-changers in a D over commerce; while a +luckless wretch being hanged in the centre of a T warns evil-doers what +they may expect under the criminal law.’ + +We may add that in the other E there is a representation of what is +probably a prison. Unfortunately, the proofs of these initials in the +British Museum copy, from which we have reproduced them, are most +defective. As Mr. Pollard says, ‘They must have been designed and +executed by clever artists whose work is so fine that the printer +in most instances has failed to do justice to it.’ In some of these +letters there is in parts only the faintest impression of the design, +and it has been necessary in this case to have them retouched. + +Of our other historiated specimens, some have been reproduced from a +collection of initials, some photographed by ourselves, and some are +from books no longer at our disposal, and not having been able to refer +always to the volumes from which they were taken, we give some of their +origins _sous toutes réserves_. + +Such is the case with the E and P with Biblical scenes, which, +notwithstanding the nature of the subjects, come from a medical book, +with another pair of initials with Biblical scenes A and E, the P with +a portrait, and the three ornamental letters of the same kind, L, P, +U, given above. We can only say that the two first and three last come +from one or other of the following books:-- + +The _Epilogo en Medicina y en cirurgia conveniente a la Salud_, +Pampelune, 1495; the _Libro di Medicina llamado_, etc., Cromberger, +Seville, 1517; and the _Medicina y cirurgia_ of Burgos, 1495. + +The large E with the initials S. M. (St. Mark) is from a book printed +by Juan de Varila at Seville; the G by J. Alvera of Coimbra. Of the +five others, the S and the T each representing the Almighty, the L with +a child on a branched groundwork, and the A and U of the same size with +saints, we can only affirm the Spanish origin, without being able to +give fuller particulars. + +The large P with a scribe at his desk is in the Eusebius of Salamanca +already mentioned, the only historiated initial in the four large +volumes. + +The A with a king kneeling, the N with a doctor exhorting a student, +and the T, are from two books printed in the same type, but only one of +them has the name of a printer. This, the _Libellus de beneficiis in +curia vacantibus_, from which the N is taken, was printed at the most +noble and loyal city of Seville by Jacob Cromberger, in 1512. The two +others are from a work with a long title beginning _Clarissimi cesarei +juris doctor ac in studio Salmantino primarii regentis Didaca de Segura +solemnis et elegantissima repetitio_. It is curious as containing a +warning on the title-page to dishonest booksellers and printers against +infringing the author’s rights: _Cautum est a Serenissimis principibus +nostris ut nemo avidus Bibliopola nec quicunque alius audeat imprimere +sub poena in privilegio contenta_. + +The four letters from an alphabet of Death occur in several books +printed in the town of Stella. According to different authorities, +Stella corresponds to what is now known as Estella. Deschamps says +‘Voyez Flavonia,’ and under this heading ‘Flavonia (Merula Cosmograph). +Compostella (Mariana) Santiago di Compostella. St. Jacques di +Compostella, town of Spain in the dependence of La Carogne (Galacie).’ +This information is not very explicit, but it is supplemented by +the statement that Stella was celebrated amongst other things by a +book published in 1693 against the abuse of _escatados_, that is +the fashion amongst ladies of cutting their dresses low between the +shoulders. + +The alphabet of which the E, F, N, and V form part, is a copy not of +Holbein’s alphabet of Death, but of the little pictures that illustrate +his _Simulachres_ or _faces historiées de la Mort_. Some of them +occur in a book entitled _Series totius historiae sacri Evangelii +autore Petro Trurozqui Navarro_ (Stellae, Adrian Anverez, 1557), which +contains also most of the letters of an alphabet copied from the +Biblical series of Froshover of Zurich, mentioned in its place. + +Another book without printer’s name, but dated 1555, in which they +occur, merits from us a more particular description, inasmuch as +it consists almost entirely of initial letters. The title of this +typographical curiosity is _Libro Sotilissimo y provechoso para +deprender a escrevir y contar el qual lleva la misma orden que lleva +un maestro con su discipulo en que estan puestas las cinco reglas mas +principales de guarismo y otras cosas sotiles y prouechosas_. Each page +of the little volume is surrounded by a woodcut border. On the verso of +the title, the notice to the reader begins with the M of the Dance of +Death alphabet. The two succeeding pages have little pictures of the +saints. + +On the verso of the fourth page begins the same Biblical alphabet as +in the other volume, the first letter, A, representing Eve and the +tempter with the Tree of Knowledge, the alphabet, the letters of which +are used as illustrative cuts and not as initials, being continued one +letter per page with about five lines of text underneath; B (Abraham), +C (Jacob), D (David), E (Absalom), and so on. When the Biblical +alphabet is finished, the Dance of Death letters take its place, two +on a page with a _cul de lampe_ underneath the border, but no text. +They are twenty-three in number, occupying twelve pages, the last being +accompanied by the A (Eve and the Tree of Life) of the other series. + +Then come the remaining letters of the first alphabet, this time two by +two, one under the other, without any text, but with a woodcut border. +The last page but one has two little cuts of saints on each side, the +last one having four still smaller on the recto which entirely fill it, +but nothing on the verso. + +In the language of typography the town of Alcala de Henares was styled +Complutum, and one of its chief printers was Arnaldus Guilelmus +Brocart, who, before coming here, had been established at Pampeluna, +where he printed, amongst others, liturgical works. + +The two large linear initials are taken from a book of this kind, the +_Passionarium cum Lamentationibus Jeremie atque Benedictione cerei +Paschalis_, published in 1516. They are the only letters of the size +in the volume, the P recurring thrice. There are some smaller initials +in the same style, but not of much interest, besides a number of the +pen-letters with more or less grotesque profiles in the style, although +coarser, of the alphabet of Vérard. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +EARLY DUTCH INITIALS + + +The early typography of the Low Countries has been made the subject of +a most interesting monograph by J. W. Holtrop, chief librarian at the +Hague, _Monuments Typographiques des Pays-Bas au Quinzième Siècle_, and +it is from this work that we have reproduced most of the initials in +this section. + +The first specimen given by Holtrop is the G of the _Fasciculus +Temporum_, printed at Utrecht by J. Veldener in 1480--an immense +initial more than eight centimetres square. The page is surrounded by a +folio-floral border in the same style. It has also been reproduced by +Bodemann. + +In the _Summa Experimentorum sive Thesaurus Pauperum_ of Thierry +Martens, who printed at Alost and afterwards at Antwerp, is the large A +with a profile. + +Passing over the initials of Ludovicus de Ravescot of Louvain, the next +printer mentioned by Holtrop is G. Leeu of Gouda, who published in 1481 +a _Dyalogus Creaturarum_ with illustrative cuts, a very black S, not +unlike the large one reproduced, and an ornamental border. + +The thirteen smaller initials of the same type are from an impression +by Godfrid de Os of Gouda, and furnished Caxton, who copied from +different continental sources, with the models of some of his initials. +Mr. W. Blades, in his _Biography and Typography of W. Caxton_, gives +a plate of woodcut initials from Caxton’s books, two of which are of +French origin--Dupré and Vérard--the A of the _Order of Chivalry_, +Italian in style, whilst an O with a grotesque face is the Q given in +our series with the tail cut off. There is also an H with a profile on +the left, evidently inspired by the P given here. + +Of our remaining reproductions, the large S is to be found in books +published by Jacob van der Meer of Delft. The P of nearly the same +size belongs to a series of five large initials which comprises also +the profile A, already mentioned, of Thierry Martens. These letters, +together with a smaller alphabet in the style of the letters of Godfrid +de Os, are to be found in editions of G. Leeu at Antwerp, as is also +the D of pine-cone pattern copied from the alphabet of Israel von +Mecken. The large initial with a portrait, which is said by Holtrop to +be that of Philip le Bel, is by Godfrid Back of Antwerp. + +The P representing the miracle of St. Veronica is to be found in a +book by an unknown printer of Schiedam, _Johannis Brugman Vita almae +virginis Lydwinae Sciedammitae_. The G given here with the same +subject is evidently copied from this letter, and ornaments a leaf of +an early black-letter English prayer-book, found in the binding of a +sixteenth-century volume. + +Louvain initials of any interest are extremely rare, and the only +historiated one that we have seen is an N of a fifteenth-century +missal, all the other capitals of which are painted by hand. + +The calligraphic G and the H, both with grotesque profiles, are early +specimens of initials of Antwerp from the title-pages of books. The G +is from a Belial, _circa_ 1500, the H from a small Leyden tract of the +same date. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +LATER GERMAN INITIALS + + +Hitherto we have devoted each chapter to special towns and their +printers. In this, the final one, we shall deal with German initials +that have not found a place elsewhere. Before, however, proceeding to +their enumeration, we wish it to be understood that if certain towns +or presses have not been given, it is because we have not wished to +go beyond a certain limit. And for this reason we have preferred +using the documents at our disposal to reproducing specimens of these +presses from other sources. Were it otherwise, and had this _recueil_ +of initials been intended to be entirely representative, we should have +considered it necessary to give specimens of the large letters used by +Johann Scheffer in his Livy, of those designed by Cranach for Luft of +Wittemberg, and of those used by Kobel of Oppenheim and of many others. + +It should be said, moreover, that the greater number of what may be +termed representative alphabets--those that occur most frequently in +the publications of the time--have been already reproduced in works on +Renaissance book ornamentation, whereas our initials have been selected +because less generally met with, and consequently less known. + +We have already given specimens of initials printed in red, which +nearly always are found in missals; the three following are taken +from the Missal of Spires, printed at the expense of that honest +‘dominus Peter Drach,’ and dated 1500. In the copy of the _Bibliothèque +Nationale_ there is a fine engraving, before the Canon, of the +Crucifixion with the date 1516, but these pictures were often added +afterwards. + +Although a comparatively small town, Hagenau towards the end of the +first quarter of the sixteenth century had become an important printing +centre, two printers at least making use of typographical ornaments. +Those used by Heinrich Gran are not of the very first merit, as can be +seen by reference to Butsch, who reproduces one of his title-pages. +Thomas Anselm de Bade, on the contrary, has title-pages and initials +from two different sources of the very greatest interest, as our +reproductions show. + +The nine very large letters, with the very much smaller E, are met with +in several missals published after 1518, the most important of which +is known as the Benedictine Missal, the _Missale Bursfeldense. Missale +denuo diligentissime castigatum et revisum ordinis sancti Benedicti +reformatorum nigrorum Monachorum Bursfeldensium._ As the reader can +see, they differ in character from those found in any other missal, and +have been attributed to Hans Baldung Grün, who also designed Anselm’s +printer’s mark. + +Nothing can be more charming than the little E with the children which +commences so appropriately the verse beginning _Ex ore infantium_, and +which gives still another example of the alliance so frequently met +with between the serious and the grotesque. There is another set of +initials in the same style, slightly smaller, in which the incidents on +the T are reversed, the sacrifice of Abraham being on the left. They +are to be found in the Strasburg Missal of Hagenau of 1518. + +Another very good Hagenau series is the children’s alphabet used by the +same Thomas Anselm in his _Plinius_ of 1520, and said by Weigel in his +_Altdeutsches Holzschnittalphabet_ to have been designed by the elder +Heinrich Vogtherr. It is on a somewhat smaller scale than the Dürer +alphabet, and about the same size as that of Urs Graf. Artistically it +occupies a middle place between the two. + +These letters, which nearly form a complete series, were almost at once +copied by Franc Birckmann of Cologne, the only difference being that +the M and the R are on a black instead of a white ground, as in the +Hagenau original. + +Some of the letters were used in books published by Lucas Alantius of +Vienna. + +In the M, which is reproduced from a Vienna copy, there are some +further modifications. The shield under the child’s left arm has been +added, and there would appear to be a monogram between the pendent +grapes and tassel not in the original. + +The five letters, C, E, I, M, and O, the last representing the Massacre +of the Innocents, belong to a collection where they are classed as +coming from the missal of Magdeburg, which we have not been able to +verify. They are said to be the only ones in the volume of this size, +and are accompanied by a small ornamental series in the style of +Cranach, who may very likely have designed the larger letters. + +In the missal of Posen (_Posnaniense_) of 1524 there are only five +ornamental letters, of which three are given, the T being a picture of +the cathedral of the town as it was at the time. + +The two Apocalyptic initials are typical specimens of the style of +Cranach, and come from the _Missale Evangeliare_ of Luther, printed by +Lufft of Wittemberg in 1525. + +We have mentioned above the alphabet of Cranach which is given by +Butsch in his _Bücher-Ornamentik_. There are several smaller alphabets +in the same style, in one of which is an initial representing a donkey +sitting up with spectacles, no doubt a satire on the doctors of the +church with whom Cranach had often to do. Wittemberg was one of the +chief centres of the Lutheran controversy, and inundated Europe +with tracts on the subject. A great many of these have ornamental +title-pages, many of which were designed by Cranach in a style quite +different from his initials. Those with children, which equal anything +of the period, are particularly charming. + +Nothing could be more fantastic than the subjects in the series of +initials, seven or eight altogether, of which the C, L, and T are +specimens. What, however, they mean exactly we do not pretend to say. +In the T there are apparently two Satyrs dancing a saraband, but +the personage in the C would appear rather to be one of those weird +creations that grow out of foliage under the pencil of the artist. + +These letters are to be found no doubt in other publications of the +same press, but those given here were taken from the _Elegantiae_ of +Laurentius Valla, printed in 1522 by Lazarus Schurer of Schlestadt. +The complete series is known as the alphabet of Pilgrim ‘le maître aux +Bourdons,’ Waechstein. Besides the C, L, and the T there are seven +others in the _Elegantiae_; an H with a lion’s head, an I, two winged +children; P and Q each with a child, R and S in the same style as the +C, the latter having the head of a fantastic animal. There is also a +smaller D with an extraordinary kind of winged satyr, and a Q with a +couple of children. + +Chronologically, we should have mentioned before the _Missale +Pataviense_ of Vienna, printed by J. Winterberger in 1512, which has +initials of several dimensions, but most of them too indistinct for +reproduction. Those chosen, C, P, S, T, are the best of the smaller +series. + +We have described in their proper places the Psalters of Ratdolt of +1499; of Furter of 1501-3; and of Knoblouch ten years later, all of +them exactly uniform in size and arrangement, the two latter with +German commentary framing the text. In all of these, ornamental +initials are used occasionally, those in the two first-named volumes +having exactly the same historiation, whilst in the Strasburg Psalter +they are simply ornamental. The Psalter of Metz, printed by Caspar +Hochffeder in 1513, is on the same general plan, but without any +woodcut initials in the body of the volume; on the title-page, however, +is the P given here, which is the only initial of this origin that we +have been able to discover. + +The four initials, comprising an O with the portrait in costume of a +young girl, an outline T representing a money-changer’s office, and two +others, are from a Pogge by Knoblouch, who printed several works of +this author. + +We have already had occasion to remark about the incongruity between +certain books and the initials that embellish them, and the two D’s, +one with a personage magnificently costumed, the other with a mandoline +player, afford another example of this peculiarity. The volume from +which they are taken is the Magdeburg Bible of 1542, printed by H. +Walther. In this edition the different books of Scripture are preceded +by initials of the same size as the reproductions, but nearly always +with Biblical subjects corresponding to the text that is to follow. In +Genesis, Adam and Eve are being chased by an angel with flaming sword +from Paradise, and so on. The chapters of the books begin by smaller +initials, with children romping and playing, in one letter torturing +a cat, in another fighting a cock; whilst in a third a child is armed +with a pewter squirt, apparently in no way different to the squirt of +fifty years ago. Besides initials, this Bible is embellished with cuts, +in some of which German castles of the fifteenth century serve as a +background to Biblical scenes, and Jews and infidels sometimes wear +costumes of the same period. + +Scheffer’s large ornamental letters have been mentioned at the +beginning of this chapter. In 1518 he was using a small alphabet in +some of his publications, and a few initials of intermediate size, four +of which are given by Butsch. There is an A with a naked woman sitting +on the ground, two C’s with children, and an S, also with children, +one of whom is playing on a kind of horn. The B, reproduced in the +same style, not given by Butsch, is less frequently met with, Latin +paragraphs rarely beginning with this initial. + +Ingoldstadt is known to bibliographers chiefly by the _Astronomicon +Cesareum_ of 1540, a folio volume with movable astronomical diagrams. +On the verso of the title are the arms of Charles V. and Ferdinand, +to whom the book is dedicated. The last page is entirely covered +by the arms of the printer, P. Apianus, which serve as his mark. +Throughout the volume are the geometrical initials designed by +Michael Ostendorfer, of which we give the best specimens, some of +them occurring only once, others two, three, and four times, the C +occurring on ten occasions. There are twenty-two different letters in +all, including a Greek Φ. + +Another smaller alphabet of children occurs chiefly towards the end, +to which set belongs a compound double initial, much wider than it is +tall, which contains the letters Q, U. Besides these, there are four +I’s with the four Evangelists, each one with his special symbol. + +Although undoubtedly a pictorial initial, the C with which we terminate +our German selection is not reproduced from a book, but was taken from +a document of which we have seen several copies, a licence to marry +within prohibited degrees. In this document the body of the text is +printed in ordinary black-letter characters, with blanks for the names +of the persons wishing to contract marriage. Above the text is a line +of ornamental ‘bullatic’ letters, as they are termed, preceded by the +C here given, which form together the word ‘Collegium,’ the meaning +of the historiation being no doubt that St. Peter with his key has +delegated his power to open the Paradise of Matrimony. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ENGLISH INITIALS + + +With very few exceptions the decorative and pictorial initials +reproduced from foreign books on the preceding pages have been chosen +from works printed before 1525, and in most cases before 1500. In +Germany, Italy, France, and the Netherlands, schools of cutters +and engravers in wood and soft metal with strongly marked local +characteristics came into existence before 1490--in Germany some twenty +years earlier--and during the last decade of the century numerous +finely illustrated books were issued from the chief continental +presses. The good work of one country or town might be imitated, +slavishly or freely, in another; here and there also the work produced +was quaintly or stupidly bad, and good designs were often spoilt by +clumsy cutting. But despite all such individual failures, there was +abundance of originality and executive skill, and this is true also, +though in a less degree, of Switzerland and Spain. When we turn our +eyes homewards, we find a totally different state of affairs. The few +English illustrated books of the period with which this monograph +is mainly concerned have been divided by specialists into three +groups:[34] those with cuts borrowed outright from the Netherlands +or France (_e.g._ Caxton’s Horae cuts, the illustrations in Pynson’s +edition of Lydgate’s _Falls of Princes_, etc.); those slavishly +copied, mostly, but not always, very badly, from foreign originals +(_e.g._ Caxton’s _Aesop_, the editions of the _Castell of Labour_, +_Art of Good Living and Good Dyeing_, the _Ship of Fools_, and most +of the odd single cuts); lastly, a scanty residue of native origin, +illustrating books like the _Canterbury Tales_ or _Morte d’Arthur_, +for which no foreign models could be found. Some of these are almost +incredibly bad, others merely wooden, a very few, like the cut to +Fisher’s funeral sermon for Henry VII., fairly neat. But, again +speaking generally, it is evident that English printers could enlist +the services of no designers of any skill and of few woodcutters able +to rival the average journeyman-work in foreign books. + + [34] Consult an extremely interesting paper on this subject, + ‘Initial Letters in Early English Printed Books,’ by Charles Sayle. + _Bibliographical Society’s Transactions_, 1904. + +Good initials demanded little less skill from their designers, and +certainly no less from their cutters, than the larger forms of +book-illustration. The great continental centres of printing prove +abundantly that good initials are the natural accompaniments of good +illustrations, and thus there is no room for surprise that in England, +where there was no competent native school of book-illustration, there +was also no competent native school of initial-cutters. + +Of the fact there can be no doubt. Caxton possessed only one initial +of any size, the A shown among our facsimiles, which he used in one or +two of his later books. His contemporaries possessed none at all. After +Caxton’s death in 1491, for the next half-century and more the history +of English initials is as the history of our book-illustrations--they +are imported from abroad, copied from foreign originals, or of no +artistic value. An early instance of importation is the large grotesque +H, shown in facsimile, which De Worde acquired early in his career from +Govaert van Os when the latter was moving to Copenhagen; in the same +way Julian Notary obtained a few letters from André Bocard. Though it +may be thought churlish to look outside England when we find a rebus +on an English name, it can hardly be doubted that the initials cut for +Pynson’s Morton Missal, of which specimens are given, were made for +him in France. Certainly no one could claim these letters as starting +an independent English school, and most of those subsequently used by +Pynson and De Worde are direct copies, or imitations, from the French. +Thus it is only by transcending our bounds that we can offer a few +examples of English initials which have at least more independence than +these early ventures. It, perhaps, shows some rashness to include among +them the excellent H from Grafton’s edition of Halle’s _Union of the +two Houses of York and Lancaster_ (1548), for this may perchance have +been inspired by those in the Paris edition of the _Historia Danica_ +of Saxo Grammaticus (see pages 85 and 230). Nevertheless the book is +important, because it was on heraldic lines that some of the best later +work was produced. Much of this may be connected with the name of that +excellent printer John Day. The pictorial initial to the Bible of 1549, +showing Edward Becke, the promoter of the edition, presenting a copy to +Edward VI., is full of life, and the portrait initial of Elizabeth from +Foxe’s _Book of Martyrs_ is excellent work. Between these two books Day +had issued, in 1559, a fine edition of Cunningham’s _Cosmographical +Glasse_, and this is adorned by an admirable heraldic D with the arms +of the Earl of Leicester, and by some pictorial initials connected +with the subject of the book, the authorship of these being still +undiscovered, despite the letters IB, IC, ID, found on some of them. At +a later date work of the same style appears in his edition of Ascham’s +_Schoolmaster_. + +It is a pity that Day, not being the royal printer, could not be +entrusted with printing the Bishops’ Bible of 1568, which came from the +press of Jugge and Cawood. But his patron, Archbishop Parker, had, of +course, a large share in its superintendence, and some of the heraldic +initials in the volume are almost as good as the Leicester D. That +which has been chosen as a sample shows the arms of Archbishop Cranmer, +a pleasing compliment from Parker to his predecessor. + +The ornamental title-page to the Bishops’ Bible is not woodcut but +engraved on copper, and the fact is significant. Under Day’s guidance +English printing and book-illustration lifted up their head, but the +effort came too late. After about 1580 woodcuts became unfashionable, +copper engravings gradually took their place, and the change was fatal +to the production of fine initials, of which no more were produced. + + + + +REPRODUCTIONS OF INITIALS + + +ULM + +[Illustration] + +INITIAL WITH BORDER FROM THE XYLOGRAPHIC DONATUS OF DINCKMUT + + +INITIALS FROM BLOCK BOOKS + +[Illustration] + +FROM AN ‘ARS MEMORANDI’ + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MIRABILIA ROMAE’ + + +MAYENCE + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ÆSOP OF SCHEFFER + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE BREIDENBACH OF ERHARDT REUWICH + + +AUGSBURG + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM G. ZAINER’S SIXTH GERMAN BIBLE AND J. FRIBURGENSIS’ ‘SUMMA +CONFESSORUM’ + +[Illustration] + +FROM G. ZAINER’S ‘MARGARITA DAVITICA’ + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF SORG + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF KELLER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF HOHENWANG AND PFLANTZMANN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF SCHÖNSPERGER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF BÄMLER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM G. ZAINER’S GERMAN BIBLE + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM G. ZAINER’S GERMAN BIBLE + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM SORG’S ‘SUSO DICTUS AMANDUS’ + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM RATDOLT’S BREVIARY, 1491 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM RATDOLT’S BREVIARY AND PSALTER, 1491-1499 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM RATDOLT’S CONSTANCE MISSAL, 1516 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS BY HANS WEIDITZ IN DIFFERENT WORKS PUBLISHED BY STEYNER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS BY HANS WEIDITZ IN DIFFERENT WORKS PUBLISHED BY STEYNER + + +ULM + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM J. ZAINER’S BOCCACCIO + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +OTHER INITIALS OF G. ZAINER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE COSMOGRAPHIA OF PTOLEMY--LEONARD HOLL, 1482 + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ULM BIBLE, 1480 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF J. REGER, 1496 + + +NUREMBERG + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF PETER WAGNER, 1489 + +[Illustration] + +INITIAL OF J. REGIOMONTANUS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE FOURTH GERMAN BIBLE OF FRISNER AND SENSENSCHMIDT + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE FOURTH GERMAN BIBLE OF FRISNER AND SENSENSCHMIDT + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE FOURTH GERMAN BIBLE OF FRISNER AND SENSENSCHMIDT + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MISSALE PATAVIENSE’ OF J. GUTNECHT + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MISSALE PATAVIENSE’ OF J. GUTNECHT + + +BASLE + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM RICHEL’S LATIN BIBLE, 1475 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM FURTER’S PSALTER, 1501 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS BY URS GRAF + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘CHRISTIANLICHE BILGERSCHAFT’ OF ADAM PETRI + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF ‘DANCE OF DEATH’ BY LÜTZELBERGER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +GREEK ‘DANCE OF DEATH’ INITIALS + +[Illustration] + +‘DANCE OF DEATH’ INITIAL + + FROM ALPHABETS BY HANS HOLBEIN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +STRASBURG COPIES OF THE ‘DANCE OF DEATH’ ALPHABET + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF PEASANTS FROM THE ‘GALEN’ OF BEBELIUS AND CRATANDER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM CHILDREN’S ALPHABET IN ‘LACTANTIUS’ AND OTHER WORKS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM LARGER CHILDREN’S ALPHABET + + FROM ALPHABETS BY HANS HOLBEIN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF VALENTIN CURIO, FROM ALPHABETS BY HANS HOLBEIN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF VALENTIN CURIO, FROM ALPHABETS BY HANS HOLBEIN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘GALEN’ OF BEBELIUS AND CRATANDER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE GREEK LEXICON OF RENÉ GELLI + + FROM ALPHABETS BY HANS HOLBEIN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +OTHER INITIALS BY HOLBEIN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS BY HOLBEIN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS FROM ALPHABET BY AMBROSE HOLBEIN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS BY VAN CALCAR FROM VESALIUS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS BY VAN CALCAR FROM VESALIUS + + +ZÜRICH + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS USED BY FROSCHOUER + + +LÜBECK + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘RUDIMENTA NOVITIORUM’ AND JOSEPHUS OF LUCAS BRANDIS, 1475 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘RUDIMENTA NOVITIORUM’ AND JOSEPHUS OF LUCAS BRANDIS, 1475 + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘LEBEN DES HEIL. HIERONYMUS’ BY BARTHOLOMEW GHOTAN, 1484 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MEDITATIONES SANCTÆ BRIGITTÆ’ BY BARTHOLOMEW GHOTAN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MEDITATIONES SANCTÆ BRIGITTÆ’ BY BARTHOLOMEW GHOTAN + + +BAMBERG + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MISSALE OLUMUCENSE’ OF SENSENSCHMIDT, 1489 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MISSALE OLUMUCENSE’ OF SENSENSCHMIDT, 1489 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM A BAMBERG MISSAL + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE BAMBERG MISSAL OF J. PFEYL, 1506 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE BAMBERG MISSAL OF J. PFEYL, 1506 + + +STRASBURG + +[Illustration] + +FROM T. DE HASELPACH’S ‘SERMONES’ + +[Illustration] + +FROM ‘BURGUNDISCHE HISTORIE’ + +[Illustration] + +FROM ‘DIALOGUS SALOMONIS ET MARCOLFI’ + +[Illustration] + +FROM ‘BELIAL’ AND OTHER BOOKS + + FROM VARIOUS BOOKS PRINTED BY KNOBLOCHTZER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘DEUTSCHER KALENDER’ AND OTHER BOOKS + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘DE SECRETIS MULIERUM’ + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘DE RITU ET MORIBUS INDORUM’ + + FROM VARIOUS BOOKS PRINTED BY KNOBLOCHTZER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +ANTHROPOMORPHIC LETTERS USED BY VARIOUS PRINTERS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS FROM THE ‘SCRIPTUM’ OF G. DE OCKAM, AND THE ‘COMMENTARIUS +SANCTI JOHANNIS,’ PRINTED BY G. SCHOTT + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +LETTERS FROM THE ‘PLENARIUM’ + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +OTHER STRASBURG INITIALS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM A PSALTER BY J. PRUSZ, 1498 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM KNOBLOUCH’S ‘POGGE,’ 1513 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM VARIOUS BOOKS PRINTED BY GRÜNINGER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM VARIOUS BOOKS PRINTED BY GRÜNINGER + +[Illustration] + +FROM ‘SERMONES’ OF GEILER VON KAISERSPERG + +[Illustration] + +FROM ‘SERMONES’ OF GEILER VON KAISERSPERG + + +REUTLINGEN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM BOOKS PRINTED BY G. GRYFF + + +GENEVA + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘DOCTRINAL DE SAPIENCE’ OF 1488 + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘DOCTRINAL DE SAPIENCE’ OF 1493 + +[Illustration] + +FROM ‘LES FLEURS ET MANIÈRES DES TEMPS PASSÉS’ + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘DIALOGUS CREATURUM’ + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM A MISSAL OF BELLOT + + +COLOGNE + +[Illustration] + +FROM QUENTELL’S MISSAL, 1494 + +[Illustration] + +FROM A DONATUS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM ‘SEQUENTIARUM ET HYMNORUM’ EXPOSITIO BY BUNGART DE KETWYCK + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +OTHER INITIALS BY QUENTELL + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +BY MELCHIOR NOVESIANUS + +[Illustration] + +BY J. GYMNICUS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM ALPHABET OF ALBERT DÜRER IN BOOKS BY CERVICORNUS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM ALPHABET OF ALBERT DÜRER IN BOOKS BY CERVICORNUS + +[Illustration] + +A LYONS COPY + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +MACABRE INITIALS + +[Illustration] + +COPIED FROM THE VENETIAN ‘BREVIARUM ORBIS’ OF LILIUS + + +VENICE + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS OF RATDOLT, 1476 + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM MISSALS AND BREVIARIES BY GEORGE ARRIVABENE AND LUCANTONIO DI +GIUNTA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM MISSALS AND BREVIARIES BY GEORGE ARRIVABENE AND LUCANTONIO DI +GIUNTA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM MISSALS AND BREVIARIES BY GEORGE ARRIVABENE AND LUCANTONIO DI +GIUNTA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM A BOOK PRINTED BY BONETUS LOCATELLUS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM BOOKS BY MATTEO CAPCASA, TACUINUS DE TRIDINO, BONETUS LOCATELLUS, +AND OTHERS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM BOOKS BY MATTEO CAPCASA, TACUINUS DE TRIDINO, BONETUS LOCATELLUS, +AND OTHERS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MISSALE VALLISUMBROSE’ OF GIUNTA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MISSALE VALLISUMBROSE’ OF GIUNTA + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MISSALE VALLISUMBROSE’ OF GIUNTA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM A VENETIAN IMPRESSION + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM AN EDITION OF ARISTOTLE BY SESSA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘VITA DI SANCTI PADRI’ OF OTINO DA PAVIA DE LA LUNA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘VITA DI SANCTI PADRI’ OF OTINO DA PAVIA DE LA LUNA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS BY SESSA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘BREVIARIUM ORBIS’ OF ZACHARIUS LILIUS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM A VENETIAN IMPRESSION + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM WORKS BY VARIOUS PRINTERS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS BY DE GREGORIIS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS BY DE GREGORIIS + +[Illustration] + +PORTRAIT OF COSMO DE MEDICI + +[Illustration] + +PIUS ROMAE PONTIFEX + + +ROME + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘VITÆ CÆSARUM’ OF SUETONIUS BY SWEYNHEIM AND PANNARTZ, 1471 + +[Illustration] + +E. 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CROMBERGER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM A MEDICAL BOOK + +[Illustration] + +FROM A BOOK PRINTED AT BURGOS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +ORIGIN UNCERTAIN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +DANCE OF DEATH INITIALS FROM THE ‘LIBRO SOTILISSIMO’ PRINTED AT STELLA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘COMENTO DE EUSEBIO’ OF H. GYFFER, SALAMANCA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘PASSIONARIUM’ OF BROCART, COMPLUTUM + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘EPILOGO IN MEDICINA’ + + +EARLY DUTCH INITIALS + +[Illustration] + +USED BY JACOB VAN DER MEER OF DELFT + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +USED BY GODFRID DE OS OF GOUDA + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘LIFE OF ST. LYDWINNE’ PRINTED AT SCHIEDAM + +[Illustration] + +ENGLISH ADAPTATION OF THE PRECEDING + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +USED BY THIERRY MARTENS + +[Illustration] + +USED BY G. LEEU OF ANTWERP + +[Illustration] + +FROM AN EARLY LOUVAIN MISSAL + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF A ‘BELIAL’ OF ANTWERP + +[Illustration] + +FROM A LEYDEN TITLE-PAGE + +[Illustration] + +PORTRAIT OF PHILIP LE BEL, FROM A WORK PUBLISHED BY GODFRID BACK OF +ANTWERP + + +LATER GERMAN INITIALS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE MISSAL OF SPIRES BY PETER DRACH + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE BENEDICTINE MISSAL OF HAGENAU + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE BENEDICTINE MISSAL OF HAGENAU + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE BENEDICTINE MISSAL OF HAGENAU + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE BENEDICTINE MISSAL OF HAGENAU + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE BENEDICTINE MISSAL OF HAGENAU + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM AN UNIDENTIFIED (? MAGDEBURG) MISSAL + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MISSALE POSNANIENSE’ + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MISSALE EVANGELIARE’ OF LUTHER, BY KRAFFT OF WITTEMBURG + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS USED AT DRESDEN + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS BY PILGRIM IN THE ‘ELEGANTIAE’ OF LAURENTIUS VALLA, BY +SCHURER, SCHLESTADT + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘MISSALE PATAVIENSE’ OF WINTERBERGER, VIENNA + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM WORKS PRINTED BY KNOBLOUCH + +[Illustration] + +FROM A METZ PSALTER BY CASPAR HOCHFFEDER + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM PLINIUS OF HAGENAU, USED AFTERWARDS AT COLOGNE + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM A MAGDEBURG BIBLE + +[Illustration] + +BY SCHEFFER OF MAYENCE + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘ASTRONOMICON CESAREUM’ OF APIANUS + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM THE ‘ASTRONOMICON CESAREUM’ OF APIANUS + +[Illustration] + +FROM AN ECCLESIASTICAL DOCUMENT + + +ENGLISH INITIALS + +[Illustration] + +CAXTON’S ‘A’ + +[Illustration] + +WYNKYN DE WORDE’S BORROWED ‘H’ + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +FROM PYNSON’S MORTON MISSAL + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +INITIALS USED BY JOHN DAY + +[Illustration] + +INITIAL WITH ARMS OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER, FROM THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE + +[Illustration] + +INITIAL WITH ARMS OF HENRY VII., FROM GRAFTON’S EDITION OF ‘HALLE’S +CHRONICLE’ + +[Illustration] + +INITIAL WITH ARMS OF THE EARL OF LEICESTER, FROM DAY’S EDITION OF +CUNNINGHAM’S ‘COSMOGRAPHICAL GLASS’ + +[Illustration] + +PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH FROM DAY’S EDITION OF FOXE’S ‘BOOK OF +MARTYRS’ + + + + +INDEX + + + PAGE + + Æsop, initial from Scheffer’s edition, 112 + ---- initial from Albi edition, 95, 252 + + Albi, initial in the _manière éraillée_, from Æsop printed at, 95, 252 + + _Alvarus Pelagius_ of J. Zainer, border used in, 23 + + Alvera, J., initial used by, at Coimbra, 253 + + Ambrose, St., portrait initial of, 211 + + Antwerp, initial from title-page of book printed at, 102, 262 + ---- initials used in books printed by G. Leeu at, 102, 261 + + Apianus, P., initials from _Astronomicon Cesareum_ printed by, 107, + 274 _sq._ + + Apocalypse, different editions of the block-book, 4 + + Arion, initial representing the adventure of, 61 + + Aristotle, _Opera Nonnulla_ printed by Keller, 17 + ---- initials in editions of, by H. Estienne, 232 + + Arrivabene, George, initials from missals printed by, 59, 171 _sqq._ + + _Ars Memorandi_, historical initial in the, 5, 112 + + _Ars Moriendi_, the block-book, 4 + + _Astronomicon Cesareum_ printed by P. Apianus at Ingoldstadt, 107, + 274 _sq._ + + Augsburg, 5 + ---- initials used by printers, 14, 113-122 + + _Aureum Opus_, initials from edition of, by De Vingle, 77, 208 + + Avignon, initials from volume printed at, 93, 251 + + _Aymon, les Quatre Fils de_, initials used in Lyons edition of, 195 + + + Back, Godfrid, initials used by, 262 + + Bade, Josse, armorial initials in History of Denmark printed by, 85, + 230 + ---- ---- other initials of, 238 + + Bamberg, initials from missal of Johann Pfeyl of, 41, 152 _sq._ + ---- initials from _Missale Olumucense_ of, 41, 150 _sq._ + + Bämler, Johann, initials from works printed by, 16, 117 + + Basle, initials reproduced from books printed at, 134-145 + ---- psalter of 1501 by Furter, initials from, 30, 135 + + Bebelius, Joannes, initials of Holbein in works published by, 33 + + Bebelius and Cratander, initials of Holbein in works by, 36 + + Bellot, Jean, initials from volumes printed by, 53 + + Benedictine missal printed at Hagenau, initials used in, 104, 264 + _sqq._ + + Bernard, le Petit, initials attributed to, 81 + + Berthorius, Petrus, initials from _Morale Reductorium_ of, 81, 222 + + Besançon, printers of, use same initials as Furter of Basle, 95 + ---- initials of, 252 + + Bible, initials from G. Zainer’s editions of, 15, 24, 113, 115, 118 + _sq._ + ---- Latin, of Basle, initials from, 29, 134 + ---- initial from Ulm edition, 1480, 127 + ---- initial from a Lyons, 211 + ---- German edition, pictorial initials of the fifth, 17, 118 _sq._ + ---- fourth edition by Frisner and Sensenschmidt, 26, 129 _sq._ + ---- initials from Nuremberg edition, 129 _sq._ + ---- the Bishops’, initials in, 108_c_, 279 + + Bibles, Augsburg and Nuremberg, compared, 17 + + _Biblia cum Summariis et Concordantiis_ of Jean Moylin, initials of, + 78, 212 _sq._ + + _Biblia Pauperum_, the block-book, 4 + + Birckmann, Franc, Hagenau initials copied by, 105 + + Blanchard, remarkable initials used in works by, 77, 210 + + Block-books, initials from, 110 + + Bocard, André, initials in books printed by, 83, 108_b_ + + Book-hunting in time of Aulus Gellius, 1 + + Book-plate forming part of early Nuremberg impression, 27 + + Brandis, Lucas, initials from _Rudimenta Novitiorum_ and _Josephus_ + of, 39, 146 _sq._ + + Breidenbach, Bernard von, initial from Reuwich’s edition of his + _Peregrinationes_, 75, 112 + ---- initials from Ortuin’s Lyons edition, 198 + + Brescia, initials from works printed at, 71, 189 + + Bridget, St., _Meditationes_, initials used in Lübeck edition of, 148 + _sq._ + + Brocart, Arn. de, initials used by, 259 + + Bumgart de Ketwyck, initials used by, at Cologne, 165 + + Burgofranco, J. P. de, initials in _Hyginus de Stellis_ printed by, + 67, 188 + + Burgos, initial used at, 256 + + Byzantium, books of, on purple parchment, 2 + + + Calcar, J. van, initials of, in Anatomy of Vesalius, 37, 144 _sq._ + + Calligraphic initials from Paris title-pages, 83 + + Capcasa, Matteo, initials from works published by, 58, 174 _sq._ + + Cassiodorus, initial from works of, by Steyner, 21 + + Castilla, G., initial used by, at Valencia, 253 + + _Catalogus Sanctorum_ of Saccon, 76, 214 _sqq._ + + _Catholicon_ of J. Wolff, selected initials from, 76, 206 _sq._ + + Caxton, W., initials used by, 108_b_, 277 + + Cervicornus or Hirtzhorn, Euch., initials in works published by, 52, + 168 _sq._ + + Charlemagne invites Irish and Anglo-Saxon monks to his kingdom, 2 + + Charles the Bald welcomes foreign artists, 2 + + Chauny, Jean de, initials from works printed by, 251 + + Chevallon, Claude, initial representing scenes from _Ars Moriendi_ + in work published by, 88, 238 + + Children, initials with, used by Venice printers, 61 + ---- copied by printers of Basle, Cologne, and Hagenau, 61 + + Cicero, initials from German edition of, by Steyner, 21 + + Cocksperger, Peter, and the Mayence Psalter initials, 10 + + Coimbra, initials used by J. Alvira of, 98, 253 + + Cologne, initial from Donatus of, 51, 165 + ---- other initials used at, 165 _sq._ + + Como, initials of _Vitruvius_ printed at, 68, 187 + + _Compilacion de Leyes_, initials from Zamora edition, 255 + + Complutum (Alcala de Henares), initial used in liturgical works + printed by Brocart at, 100, 259 + + _Cosmographia_ of Ptolemy, initials from, 24, 127 + ---- of Sebastian Munster, account of Psalter initials in the, 9 + + Cranmer, Archbishop, initial with his arms, 108_c_, 279 + + Cromberger, J., initials used by, 256 + + Cross-hatching, invention of, 20 + + Cunningham, William, initials in his _Cosmographical Glasse_, 108_c_, + 279 + + Curio, Valentin, initials used by, at Basle, 36, 140 _sq._ + + + _Dance of Death_ alphabets used at Basle, 137 + ---- ---- alphabet, Strasburg copies of, 33, 138 + ---- ---- alphabet in books published at Stella, 98, 257 + + Dante, praises French miniaturists, 3 + + Day, John, initials used by, 108_c_, 278 _sq._ + + Delft, initial used by Jacob van der Meer at, 102, 260 + + _Deutscher Kalender_, initials from, 44 + + Dinckmut, Conrad, initial and border from _Donatus_ printed by, 12, + 111 + + _Doctrinal de Sapience_, initial from title-page of, 53, 163 + + Donatus, Aelius, Latin primer of, 4 + ---- initial from edition of, by Quentell, 12 + ---- with Psalter initials attributed to Gutenberg (1456), 9 + ---- initial from xylographic impression by Dinckmut, 12, 111 + + Drach, Peter, initials in red from missal of Spires printed by, 103, + 263 + + Dresden, initial used at, 270 + + Dupré, Jean, ornamental letters in the _Vies des Anciens Saincts + Pères_ of, 82 + + Dürer, Albert, makes innovation in engraving, 20 + ---- ---- ornamental letters attributed to, 52, 168 _sq._ + + + Elizabeth, Queen, portrait-initial of, 108_c_, 280 + + English copies of initials by Kerver, 241 + + Erasmus, Desiderius, initial with portrait of, 78, 211 + + Esslingen, initials in works printed at, 46 + + Estienne, H., initials from work published by, 86, 232 + + _Etymologicum Magnum_ of Callierges, coloured initials in the, 11 + + _Eusebio di Comento_, initials from Salamanca edition of, 96, 288 + + _Ex-libris_, initial forming, from book printed at Paris, 83 + + + Fabio, Jacopo, mythological letters in works published by, 81, 225 + + Ferrara, alphabet of initials from work of Joh. Philippus Bergomensis + printed at, 69, 190 + ---- initials from _Missale Carthusiense_ of, 69, 191 _sq._ + + Finé, Oronce, initial with portrait of, 87 + + Fool, first engraving of a, in a woodcut border, 23 + ---- first example of the, in woodcut initials, 17 + ---- in church architecture and early book ornamentation, 23 + + Forestier, Jacques, specimens of alphabets used in a _Commines_ + printed by, 93, 248 + + Formschneider, opposition of, to the use of woodcut initials, 15 + + Fossombrone, initials in work published by Ottaviano dei Petrucci of, + 67 + + Foxe, John, portrait-initial of Queen Elizabeth, in his _Book of + Martyrs_, 108_c_, 280 + + Fradin, François, children’s alphabet used by, 78, 211 + ---- initials from the _Regimen Sanitatis_ of Magnini printed by, 77, + 209 + + Frank, Hans, initial signed by, 81 + + Friburgensis, Johann, _Summa Confessorum_, Augsburg, G. Zainer (1476), + initials used in, 15, 111 + + Frisner and Sensenschmidt, initials from fourth German Bible by, 26, + 129 _sqq._ + + Froben, Johann, initials of Holbein in works by, 37 + + Froschouer, Johann, initials in books printed at Zurich by, 38, 145 + + Fürter, Michael, initials from books printed by, 31, 135 + + Fust, Johann, association of, with Scheffer, 6 + + + _Galen_, initials from Basle edition of, 139, 142 + + Gelli, René, initials in Greek lexicon of, 142 + + Geneva, large calligraphic initials from books printed at, 53, 163 + ---- other initials used at, 164 + + Gering, Ulrich. _See_ Rembolt and Gering. + + Ghotan, Bartholomew, initials used by, at Lübeck, 40, 147 _sqq._ + + Giunta, Lucantonio di, initials from missals and breviaries printed + by, 59, 171 _sqq._, 176 _sqq._ + + Gouda, initials used by Godfrid de Os at, 101, 108_b_, 260 + + Graf, Urs, initials by, 136 + + Gregoriis, G. and J. de, initials from Herodotus and other works + printed by, 59, 183 _sq._ + + Grotesque, the, in book ornamentation, 87 + ---- profiles, earliest example of, 16 + + Grüninger, Johann, initials from works printed by, 46-47, 48, 160 + _sq._ + + Gutenberg, Johann, invention of printing by, 6 + + Gutenberg Bible sold by Scheffer as a manuscript, 8 + + Gutnecht, Jodocus, initials in _Missale Pataviense_ of, 28, 132, 133 + + Gyffer, Hans, of Silgenstat, initials from works published at + Salamanca by, 96, 288 + + Gymnicus, J., alphabets in works printed by, 53, 167 + + + Hagenau, initials of Benedictine missal printed at, 104, 264 _sq._ + ---- initials from Plinius printed by Thomas Anselm at, 104, 273 + + Halle’s Chronicle, initials in, 108_c_, 279 + + Harentals, Petrus de, initials used in an _Expositio Psalterii_ by, + 245 + + Heineken, C. H. von, attributes Psalter initials to Meydenbach, 9 + + Henry VII., initial with his arms, 279 + + Heraldic initials. _See_ Initials, Armorial. + + Hochffeder, Gaspard, initial from Psalter of Metz printed by, 106, 272 + + Hohenwang, Ludwig, initials used by, 116 + + Holbein, Ambrose, initials by, 144 + ---- Hans, alphabets of, 32, 139 _sqq._ + ---- ---- children’s alphabet by, 35, 139 + ---- ---- _Dance of Death_ alphabet by, 32, 137 + ---- ---- initial of, in books by Valentine Curio, 36 + ---- ---- mistakes in anatomy, 34 + ---- ---- peasants’ alphabet by, 35 + ---- ---- the four Greek initials from the _Galen_ of 1538, 36 + + Holl, Leonard, initials in work printed by, 24, 127 + + Holtrop, J. W., early Dutch initials copied from works published by, + 101 + + Hongre, Pierre, initials from missal of, 202 _sqq._ + + Hopyl, Wolfgang, initials used by, 86, 232 _sq._ + + Hostingue, L., and J. Loys, initials from work published by, 91, 250 + + Hupfuff, M., initials in works printed by, 45 + + Husz, Mathieu, initials used by, at Lyons, 197, 199 + + + _Imagines_ of Varro, described by Pliny, 2 + + Ingoldstadt, initials of M. Ostendorfer used at, 107 + + Initials, anthropomorphic, of Strasburg printers, 45 + ---- armorial, 85, 108_c_, 230, 279 + ---- coloured, used by Roman copyists, 1 + ---- from the _Libro Sotilissimo_, a typographical curiosity printed + at Stella, 99 + ---- large calligraphic, on title-pages of books printed at Lyons, 75, + 200 + ---- mythological, 224 _sq._ + ---- in minium or cinnabar of sixth century, 2 + ---- of chequer work, 3 + ---- resembling Gallo-Frank jewellery, 3 + ---- vagaries in use of, 24 + + Israel von Mecken, initials by, 27 + + Italy, influence of French art in, 3 + + + Josephus, initials from Lübeck edition of, 146 + + Josse Bade. _See_ Bade. + + + Kaisersperg, Geyler von, initials in works of, 46, 49, 161 _sq._ + + Keller, Ambrose, initials from works printed by, 16-17, 115 + + Kerver, Thielmann, initials by, 241 + + Knoblochtzer, Heinrich, initials from works printed by, 43, 155 _sq._ + + Knoblouch, Johann, initials in works printed by, 46, 189, 272 + + + Lecoq, Jean, alphabet from _La Vie de Monseigneur St. Bernard_ by, 91, + 244 + ---- letters with grotesque profiles from different works printed by, + 90, 243 + + Leeu, Gerard, initials used by, 102, 261 + + Leicester, Earl of, initial with his arms, 108_c_, 279 + + Lenoir, Philippe, initials in works published by, 87, 234, 237, 241 + + Leo the Isaurian burns the public library, 2 + + Lerouges, les, initials from _La Thoison d’Or_ printed by, 90, 242 + + Leroy, Guillaume, initials used by, 73, 195 _sq._ + + Le Signerre, Guillaume, initials used by, at Saluzzo, 189 + + _Lettres parlantes_ in Lyons impression, 81 + ---- _tourneures fleuronnées_ used by Leroy in 1479, 73 + + _Liber Biblie Moralis_ of J. Zainer, initials in, 23 + + Lilius, Zacharias, initials from the _Breviarium Orbis_ of, 182 + + Limoges, initials from missal printed at, 94, 252 + + Locatellus, Bonetus, initials used in works printed by, 60, 174 _sq._ + + Louvain, historiated initial from fifteenth-century missal printed at, + 102, 261 + + Lübeck, initials from works published at, 39, 146 _sqq._ + + Lufft of Wittemberg, initials used by, 105, 270 + + Lützelberger, Hans, _Dance of Death_ initials engraved by, 137 + + Lyons, initials from books printed at, 194 _sqq._ + + Lyons missals, initials used in different, 75 + ---- copy of Cologne initial, 169 + + + Macabre initials used at Cologne, 170 + + Maiblümchen or lily of the valley design in early books, 5 + + Mainz. _See_ Mayence. + + _Margarita Davitica_, initial of G. Zainer from, 16, 114 + + Marriage licence, pictorial initial from, 108, 276 + + Martens, Thierry, initials used by, 102, 261 + + Mathieu Husz and Jean Schabeler, initials used in Boccaccio of, 74 + + Mayence, initial in Erhardt Reuwich’s _Breidenbach_, 13, 112 + ---- initial in Scheffer’s _Æsop_ printed at, 13, 112 + ---- later Scheffer initial, 273 + + Mazochius, Jacobus, portrait of Ariosto in work published by, 65, 185 + + Medici, Cosmo de, initial with portrait of, 63, 184 + + _Meditations of St. Bridget_, initials from Lübeck edition of, 40 + + Meer, Jacob van der, initials used by, at Delft, 260 + + _Melusine_, initials from Lyons edition of, 199 + + Milan, initials from works printed at, 70, 192 _sq._ + ---- initials from works printed by Joannes de Castellione at, 70 + + Miniatures in books of Athens and Rome, 2 + ---- in mediæval manuscripts, 2 + + _Mirabilia Romae_, historiated initial of the, 12, 112 + + _Missale Atrebatense_, initials from, 246, 247 + ---- _Bambergense_, initials from the edition by J. Pfeyl, 152 _sq._ + ---- _Benedictinum_, initials from Hagenau edition of, 264 _sqq._ + ---- _Evangeliare_ of Wittemberg, initials from, 105, 270 + ---- _Olumucense_, coloured initials of the, 11-41, 150 _sq._ + ---- _Pataviense_, pictorial initials from, 132 _sq._, 271 + ---- _Vallisumbrose_, large pictorial initials from, 59, 176 _sqq._ + + Missals printed at Lyons, initials from, 201 _sqq._, 205 + ---- printed at Paris, 232 _sqq._ + ---- printed at Rouen, 247 _sq._ + + Modernes, Jacques, curious initial in work on Military Art printed by, + 81, 222 + + Monks, Irish and Anglo-Saxon, celebrated for miniatures and + historiations, 2 + + Montfaucon, alphabet of animals of, 3 + + Morin, Martin, calligraphic initial from missal printed by, 92, 246 + ---- ---- initials from other works published by, 92-93, 246 _sq._ + + Morton, Archbishop, initial with his rebus, 108_c_, 277 + + Moylin, Jean, initials from his Latin Bible, 78, 212 _sq._ + + Müller, Johann, or Regiomontanus, works by, 25 + + Murr, C. G. von, and the artist of the Psalter initials, 10 + + + Nardi, Simeon, initials from _Datus_ published by, 65, 185 _sq._ + + Naudé, Gabriel, accusation against Scheffer, 8 + + _Normandie, Coustumier de_, curious initials from a, 92, 250 + + Novesianus, Melchior, imitations of Alphabet of Death in works printed + by, 53 + ---- ---- other initials used by, 167 + + Nuremberg, curious work attributed variously to Stuchs, Zeninger, and + Wagner published at, 26, 54 + ---- initials from books printed at, 128 _sqq._ + + + Ornamentation of early books, 1 + + Oronce Finé. _See_ Finé. + + Ortuin, Gaspard, initial from Breidenbach’s _Peregrinationes_, 75, 198 + + Os, Godfrid de, initials used by, 260 + + Otino da Pavia de la Luna, initials in the _Vita di Sancti Padri_ of, + 62, 179 _sq._ + + + Pachel, Leonard, initials used by, at Milan, 193 + + Papillon, J. B. M., testimony of, concerning the artist of the Psalter + initials, 10 + + Paris, renowned for its manuscripts and copyists, 3 + ---- initials used at, 226 _sqq._ + + Pavia, initials used at, 188 + + Peter, St., portrait initial of, 276 + + Petrarch, initials from German translation of his _De remediis + utriusque fortunæ_, by Steyner, 21 + + Petri, Adam, repetition of same initial in books printed by, 31 + ---- ---- pilgrim initial used by, 136 + + _Petroine, La vie et légende de Mme. Ste._, initials from, 95, 252 + + Pfister, Alb., impressions of, resembling block-books, 11 + + Pflantzmann, J., initials from books printed by, 16, 116 + + Philip le Bel, portrait initial of, 262 + + Philosophers, alphabets of, 81, 223 _sq._ + + Pius II., Pope, portrait initial of, 184 + + Playing-cards, method of printing, 4 + + _Plenarium_, initials used in Strasburg edition of, 158 + + Pogge, J. F., initials from edition of, printed by Knoblouch, 46, 159 + + Poitiers, initials from books printed at, 94, 251 + + Polychrome initials in early books, 11 + + Ponte, Gotardus de, initials from Vitruvius printed by, 187 + + Poullet, J., initials used by, 204 + + _Prestre Jehan_, historiated initial from title-page of, 73, 195 + ---- ---- initials from Paris edition of, 237 + + _Propriétaire_, initials from Rouen editions of, 92, 249 + ---- letters from Lyons edition of, 77, 208 + + Prusz, Johann, initials used by, at Strasburg, 46, 158 + + Psalter of Mayence initials, Bodman hoaxes Fischer concerning, 8 + ---- initials from Furter’s Basle edition of, 135 + ---- initials from edition by J. Prusz of Strasburg, 46, 154 + ---- initials said to have been used by Gutenberg, 8 + ---- opinions as to the initials of, 7 + + Ptolemy, initials from Ulm edition of the _Cosmographia_, 24, 127 + + Pynson, Richard, initials from his Sarum Missal, 108_b_, 277 + + + Quadragesimale of Gritsch, pictorial border of the, 23 + + Quentell, Heinrich, initials from volumes printed by, 53, 165 _sq._ + + + Ratdolt, Erhard, initials from _Calendarium_ of J. di Monteregio + (Johannes Regiomontanus) by, 57, 171 + ---- ---- initials in _Brevarium Constantiense_ of 1516 by, 19, 123 + ---- ---- initials in breviary by, 18, 121 _sq._ + ---- ---- initials in psalter of 1499 by, 18-19, 122 + ---- ---- Latin couplet on, 19 + + _Rationale Durandi_, ornamented with some of the same initials as + Psalter of Mayence, 11 + + Reger, Johann, initials in works printed by, 25, 128 + + Rembolt and Gering, initials from volumes printed by, 83-84, 228 + _sqq._ + + Reutlingen, initials in works printed at, 49, 162 + + Richard de Bury praises libraries of Paris, 3 + + Richel, Bernard, initials from Latin Bible of, 29 + + Rome, initials used at, 185 + + Rouen, initials used at, 11, 245 _sqq._ + + Royal letters designed by Geoffroy Tory for Robert Estienne, 89, 240 + + _Rudimenta Novitiorum_, initials from Lübeck edition of, 146 _sq._ + + + Saccon, Jacques, initials in _Catalogus Sanctorum_ of, 78, 214 _sqq._ + ---- ---- different initials in works printed by, 80, 201, 205, 209, + 222 + + Salamanca, initials used at, 258 + + Saluzzo, initials in _Aureum Opus_ of Vivaldus printed by Le Signerre + at, 68, 189 + + Sarum missal, initials from Pynson’s edition of, 108_b_, 277 + + Saxo Grammaticus, armorial initials from History of Denmark by, 85, + 230 + + Schabeler, Hans, initials used by, at Lyons, 197 + + Schäufelein, Hans, initials by, 49 + + Scheffer, Peter, association of, with Fust, 6 + ---- ---- initials used by, 107, 112, 273 + + Schiedam, initial used by unknown printer of, 102, 261 + + Schlestadt, initials of Pilgrim, from book printed by Lazarus Schurer + at, 106 + + Scinzenzeller, Ulr., initials used by, 192 + + Schönsperger, Johann, initials from works printed by, 16, 116 + + Schott, initials in works printed by, 45, 157 + + Sessa, different initials met with in impressions by, 59, 181 + ---- initials from Aristotle printed by, 62, 178 + + Seville, initials from books printed by Jacob Cromberger at, 98 + ---- initials from book printed by Juan de Varila at, 98, 253 + + Sienna, initials in books published at, 65-66, 185 + + Silber, Eucharius, ornamental letter from book published, 65, 185 + + Sorg, Anton, historiated initials from _Das Buch das heisset der + Seusse_ of Suso, 18, 120 + ---- ---- initials from works printed by, 16-17, 115, 120 + + Spanish initials, 253 _sqq._ + + _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_, a transition from xylography to + printing, 4 + + Spires, initials used at, 263 + + Stamps used for applying initials by early copyists, 4 + + _Statuta Synodalia_, alphabet used in the Troyes edition of, 73, 243 + + Stella, copies of the Alphabet of Death used by Adrian Anverez at, 99, + 257 + + Steyner, Heinrich, initials in works published by, 20, 124 _sq._ + + Strasburg, initials used at, 154 _sqq._ + + _Summa Confessorum_, initials of the, 15-16, 113 + + Suso, Henricus, initials from _Das Buch das heisset der Seusse_, 120 + + Sweynheim and Pannartz, initial from the Suetonius of, 65, 185 + + + _Theoricae Novae_, initial from, 25 + + Tibullus quoted, 1 + + Topie, Michel, initial from _Mer des Hystoires_ of, 75, 198 + + Tory, Geoffroy, initials from missal attributed to, 88, 235 _sq._ + ---- ---- royal letters attributed to, 240 + + Toulouse, initial used at, 252 + + Trepperel, Jean, grotesque initials in books published by, 83, 227 + + Trepperel, initials from _Jardin de Santé_ of, 86, 231 + + Tridino, Tacuinus de, initials in works published by, 60, 174 + + Troyes, initials used at, 242 _sqq._ + + + Ulm, initial with border from Donatus printed at, 12, 111 + ---- initials from other works printed at, 126 _sqq._ + + + _Valerius Maximus_ of Sorg, initials from, 17 + + Varila, Juan de, initial used by, 253 + + Vascosan, Michael, initials by, 239 + + Venice, initials from works published at, 55, 171 _sqq._ + + Vérard, Antoine, calligraphic initial from the _Jardin de Santé_ of, + 82, 226 + + Verona, ornamental letter from book printed at, 70, 189 + + Vesalius, initials of Van Calcar in Anatomy of, 37, 144 _sq._ + + Vicenza, example of typographic eccentricities in work printed at, 71, + 189 + + Vienna, initials from _Missale Pataviense_ printed by J. Winterberger + of, 106, 271 + + Virgil, the Vatican copy described by M. Pierre de Nolhac, 2 + + _Vita di Sancti Padri_, initials from the, of Otino da Pavia de la + Luna, 62, 179 _sq._ + + Vitali, Bernardino, alphabet by, used in publications by Sessa, 60 + + _Vitruvius_, initials from Como edition of, 187 + + + Walther, H., initials from Madgeburg Bible printed by, 107, 273 + + Weiditz, Hans, initials attributed to, by Dr. H. Röttinger, 20, 52, + 124 _sq._ + + Winterberger, of Vienna, initials used by, 271 + + Wittemberg, apocalyptic initials from the _Missale Evangeliare_ + printed at, 105, 270 + + Wohlgemuth, M., his new technical methods, 20 + + Worde, Wynkyn de, initial used by, 277 + + Worms, Anton von, children’s alphabets designed by, 53 + + + Zainer, Günther, first used woodcut initials at Augsburg, 15 + ---- ---- examples of his letters, 113 _sq._, 118 _sq._ + ---- Johann, of Ulm, initials in Boccaccio of, 22, 126 + + Zamora, initials from _Compilacion de Leyes_ printed at, 96, 255 + + Zarotus, Antonius, initials used by, at Milan, 193 + + Zodiac, initials representing the signs of the, 87 + + Zurich, initials in books published by Froschouer of, 38, 145 + + +FINIS + + + [Illustration: EDINBURGH: T. AND A. CONSTABLE + PRINTERS TO HIS MAJESTY: MCMVIII] + + + + + Transcriber’s Notes + + + The spelling, capitalisation and hyphenation of the source document + have been retained (including those of proper names and book titles), + except as listed under Changes made below. + + Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text, not all + elements may display as intended. + + The book appears to contain several contradictions between the + descriptions given and the illustrations. These have been retained as + printed in the source document without further correction or comment. + + Page 61, “At Turin ... we find that the L with the satyr,”: as printed + in the source document; the sentence appears to be incomplete, or “we + find that the L ...” might have to be corrected to “we find the L...”. + + Page 238, “Original size” and “Enlargement”: Based on a quarto book + size of around 29 cm, the “Original size” would be around 4.1 × 4.1 + cm (1.6″ × 1.6″). + + + Changes made + + Some obvious minor typographical and punctuation errors have been + corrected silently. + + Footnotes have been moved to under text paragraphs. + + Page 39: “LUBECK” changed to “LÜBECK”. + + Page 92: “Psalterum of Harentals” changed to “Psalterium of + Harentals”. + + Page 99: “(B Abraham)” changed to “B (Abraham)”. + + Page 137: “LUTZELBERGER” changed to “LÜTZELBERGER”. + + Page 142: captions “FROM THE GREEK LEXICON OF RENÉ GELLI” and “FROM + THE ‘GALEN’ OF BEBELIUS AND CRATANDER” interchanged. + + Page 252: “BEZANÇON” changed to “BESANÇON”. + + Page 282: “Zamara” changed to “Zamora”. + + Page 284: “Leo the Isaurian burns the public” changed to “Leo the + Isaurian burns the public library”. + + Index: some page numbers corrected or inserted to conform to the text. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 65847 *** |