^- Lia 7 / PRINTING TYPES THEIR HISTORY, FORMS, AND USE PRINTING TYPES THEIR HISTORY, FORMS, AND USE A STUDY IN SURVIVALS BY DANIEL BERKELEY UPDIKE WITH ILLUSTRATIONS '^ A''unca han tenido, ni tienen las artes otros enemigos que los ignor antes'''' VOLUME I CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1922 COPYRIGHT. 1922, BY HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS First Printing, August, 1922 Second Printing, January, 1923 I). B. L'PDIKE, THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON, U. S. A. PREFACE THE Lectures on which this book is based were delivered as part of a course on the Technique of Piinting in the Graduate School of Business Ad- ministration of Harvard University, during the years 1911 — 1916, and since then I hove recast the material into a form suitable for publication. Each season that the talks were given I saw the necessity for amplifcation and abridgment of mat- ter, and for modification of judgment, the results of which have been incorporated in these volumes; and now that my task is finished, I realize that further emendations could be continued with profit almost indefinitely. But while such a book can never, in any strict sense, be complete, it must be completed, though even the measure of perfection hoped for may not have been reached. It has been wiitten in town and in country, amid the interrup- tions of business and in intervals of leisure — and ''''in time of war and tumults'^'' that at moments made its subject, and all like subjects, seem trivial and valueless. The chapters on Spanish printing are new — not having been part of the series of lectures. Outside Spain, little attention has been paid to its typography, and what has been written is devoted chiefiy to the period of the incunabula. From 1500 to 1800 its typographical history is, to the general student, ''terra incognita'*''; so these pages may give some information not here- tofore available to the English reader. Other chapters dealing with this period — especially those upon French and English printing — have been amplified and virtually rewritten in the light of new material, or in an effort to improve the examples vi PREFACE of pniitiiig selecttd — a field that affords endless oppor-timity for rei'ision. Mr. Rudolph Ruzicka ofA'ew York, Dr. Charles L. Nichols of jrorcester, and Mr. John Bianchi have read my manuscript and given we the benefit of much helpful criticism. I am indebted for suggestions and corrections in certain chapters to Mr. irUliam Addison Diuiggms, Miss Alice Bache Gould, Mr. S. Byington, Mr. Ansel mo Bianchi, Miss Ruth S. Gran- niss. Librarian of the Gwlier Club, Neiv York, and Pmfessor E. K. Rand of Harvard University. To Mr. J. TV. Phinney, Mr. H. /v. Bulleii, and to many other friends and associates who hai'e aided me in many 7vays^ I am most grateful. The chief part of the illustrative material has been taken from books in Harvard College Library, to the officials of which I am under particular obligation for the assistance and privileges they have so freely given me. Illustrations have also been reproduced from books and broadsides in the Boston Public Library and the Boston Athenxum; the John Carter Bwivn Li- brary, Annmar-y Brown Memorial, and Public Libr'ary, Prvvi- dence; tlie American Antiquarian Society, Worcester; the Li- Ijrary of Congress, Washington ; and tlie Tyfwgraphic Library of t lie American Type Founders Company, Jersey City. I have to thank the officials of all these libraries for their generous cooperation. To Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan I am indebted for permission to reprvduce pages from his remarkable Caxtons and from other exceedingly rare Ijooks in his library ; and to Mr's. J. Montgomery Sears, *Dr. Charles L. Nichols, Mr. C. E. Ixturiat, Jr., and Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Company, who have placed at my disposal Ijooks that could not readily be PREFACE vii found elsewhere. More detailed acknowledgments are made in the list of illustrations. Where no credit is given^ the illustra- tions are from books in my oxvn collection. The index is the work of Mr. George B. Ives. In some early researches., Mr. George L. Harding^ now of Tacoma, helped me effectively; and a member of our staffs Mr. W. H. Smallfield., has been of the greatest assistance in the exact- ing task of seeing the work through the press. But perhaps the students who listened to the lectures^ and who^ by their interest and questions^ encouraged — or obliged — me to better them., are those whom I should hold in most grateful remembrance ; for they have most suffered for the truth^s sake! D. B. Updike The Merrymount Press, Boston May-day, 1922 TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME I p^^^ INTRODUCTION xxvii I. THE INVENTION OF PRINTING: THE CUTTING AND CASTING OF TYPES IN RELATION TO THEIR DESIGN 3 II. A FONT OF TYPE AND ITS CASE: THE TYPOGRAPHICAL point: POINT-SET AND LINING TYPES 15 III. THE LATIN ALPHABET AND ITS DEVELOPMENT UP TO THE INVENTION OF PRINTING 38 IV. TYPES OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN GERMANY 58 V. TYPES OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN ITALY 70 VI. TYPES OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN FRANCE 82 VII. TYPES OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN THE NETHER- LANDS HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 93 VIII. TYPES OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN SPAIN 99 IX. TYPES OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN ENGLAND 113 X. THE ALDINE ITALIC 125 XI. A WORD ON TYPE SPECIMENS 133 Xn. GERMAN types: 1500-1800 I. EXAMPLES OF GERMAN PRINTING 139 § 1. XVI CENTURY 139 § 2. XVII CENTURY 146 § 3. XVIII CENTURY 147 II, GERMAN FOUNDRIES AND SPECIMENS 149 xii ILLUSTRATIONS 13. Type of 36-line Bib/e, Mainz^ not later than 1461 62 From Die Buchkunst Gutenbergs und Sch'Cffers 14. Type of 42-Iine Bib/e, 3Iainz, c. 1455 ' 62 From a co/iy in the Library of Mr. J. Pierfiont Morgan, jYew York- is. Type used in Latin Psalter: Fust and Schoeffer^ Mainz., 1457 62 From Druckschrifteti des XV bis XVIII Jahrhunderts 16. Advertisement issued by Koberg-er., Nuremberg-^ c. 1480 64 From Facsimiles from Early Printed Books in the British Museum 17. Round Gothic Type of Catholicon: Gutenberg., Mainz 1460 64 From a copy in the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, Rhode Island 18. Type prefiguring Schwabacher., used in Hortus Sanitatis: Peter Schoeffer^ Mainz, 1485 64 From a co/iy in the library of Mrs. J. Montgomery Sears, Boston 19. Pointed Gothic Type: Baemler., Augsburg:, 1474 64 From Burger^ s IMonumenla (iermanix et Italiae Typografihica 20. Gothic Types used by Koberger at Nuremberg in {a) Bible o/' 1483; {b) Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493 66 21. Semi-Gothic Type: Mentelin., 'S'trassburg., 1460 66 From Burger's Monumenta GermaniR', et Italife Typographica 22. First Poman Type used in Germany: Rusch., S'trassburg:, c. 1464 66 23. Transitional Roman-Gothic used in Ptolemy's Cosmo- graphia: Holle, Ulm, 1482 66 From a co/iy in (he John Carter Brown Library, Providence 24. First Type used in Italy: Shveynheym and Pannartz., S'ubiaco, 1465 72 From a co/iy of Lactantius of 1465 in the ylnnmary Brmvn Memorial Library, I^oi'idence ILLUSTRATIONS xiii 25. Second Type of Szueyjiheym and Pamiartz^ Rome^ 1467 72 From a cofiy of S/ieculum Hwnanse Fitx of 1468 in the Ann- mary Brmvn Memorial Library, Providence 26. John and Wendel'in de Spire's Roman Type^ Venice^ 1469 72 From a cofiy of De Civitate Dei of 1470 iri Harvard College Library 27. JensorCs Roman Type used in Eiisebius^ De Praeparatione Evangelica^ Venice^ 1470 74 From, a copy in the collection of Dr. Charles L. JVichols, Worces- ter, Massachusetts 28. Page of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: Aldus^ Venice^ 1499 76 From a copy in Harvard College Library 29. RatdoWs Gothic Type., from his Specimen 0/^1486 78 From Burger's Monumenta Germanise et Italiae Typographica 30. RatdoWs Roman and Greek Type., from his Specimen of 1486 78 From Burger's Monumenta Germanix et Italise Typographica 31. Part of a page of Horace: Miscomini., Florence., 1482 80 From a copy in Harvard College Library 32. First Roman Type used in France: Freiburger., Gering., and Kranz., Paris., 1470 83 From a copy of Phalaridis Epistulae in the Annmary Brown Memorial Library, Providence 33. First Gothic Type used in France: Freiburger., Gering., and Kranz., Paris., 1473 85 From a copy of Manipulus Curatorum of 1473 in the Annmary Brown Mejnorial Library, Providence 34. Type used for first Bible printed in France: Freiburger., Gering., and Kranz., Paris., 1476 86 From Claudin's Histoire de P Imprimerie en France au XV*^ et an XFP SiMe 35. Roman Type used in Virgil by Gering., Paris., 1478 86 From Claudin's Histoire de f Imprimerie en France au XV^ et au AT/e Steele xiv ILLUSTRATIONS 36. Lettre Batardc used infrst book printed hi French: Bon- fiomme^ Paris^ c. 14-77 88 /-Vo.-w Ciaudin's Histoire de P Imfiriynerie en France an XVe el au Xyi<= Steele 37. CoJidensed Gothic Type used by B'otticher, Paris, 1481 88 From C/audin'a Histoire de rim/irimerie en France au XV^ et au XVF SiMe 38. Page from Book of Hours in Transitional style 88 39. First Roman Type used at Lyons: Du Pr^, 1490 92 From Cloudings Histoire de V Imfirimerie en France au XV^ et au Xri" SiMe 40. Two pages of an Abecedarium 94 Frojn Holrrofi's Monuments Tyfiographiques des Pays-Bas au Quinzieme Siecle 41. Gothic Type used by Printer of the Speculum, c. 1471 94 From a vellum leaf of Doctrinale of Alexander Gallics in the Library of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, JVhiv York 42. Mansion's Ajicienne Batarde, Bruges, 1484 96 From Druc/cschriften des XV bis XVIII Jahrhunderts 43. Lettre Batarde used by Brito, Bruges 98 From HoltrofCs Monuments Tyfiographiques des Pay-Bas au Quinzieme Siecle 44. Black-letter used by Bellaert, Haarlem, 1485 98 From a cofiy of Bartholomseus jinglicus, Van den F^ofirieteyten der Dinghen, in the Library of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, .Vcnv York 45. Fifteenth Century 'Saint Augustin Flaniand: Enschedt'''s Proef van Letteren^ Haarlem, 1768 98 From F.nschedc's Fonderies de Caract^res et leur Materiel dans Ics Pays-Bas du XV^ au XIX« Siecle 4G. Fifteenth Century Gros-Romain Flamand : Ensched(f\s Proef van Letteren, Haarlem, 1768 98 From Ensc/udf's Fonderies de Caract^res et leur Materiel dans U» Paya-Bas du XVe au XIX^ SiMe ILLUSTRATIONS xv 47. John of Westphalia s Roman Type^ used at Louvain 98 From a cofiy of /Eneas Sylvius, Efiistulx Familiar es, in Har- vard College Library 48. Fifteenth Century Roman Type attributed to Schoeffer 98 From Enschede's Fonderiea de Caract^res et leur Materiel dans les Pays-Bas du XFe aii XIX'^ Siecle 49. First Roman Type used in Spain: Palmart^ Valencia, 1475 105 Fro?n a copy of Johannes, Comprehensorium, in the Library of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, J^few York 50. Spindeler''s Roman Type, Valencia, 1500 108 From Haebler's Typographic Iberique du Quinziime Siicle 51. Fadrique de Basiled' s Roman Type, Burgos, 1499 108 From Haebler's T\/pografihie Iberique du Quinzieme Siecle 52. Roman Type used by Ungut and Stanislaus, Seville, n.d. 108 From Haebler^s Typographic Iberique du Quinzieme Siecle 53. First Gothic Type used i?i Spain: Palmart, Valencia, 1482 108 From Haeblcr^s Typographic Iberique du Quinzieme Siecle 54. Brocars Round Gothic Type, Pamplona, 1499 108 From Hacbler's Tyfiographie Iberique du Quinzihne Siecle 55. Gothic Type used by Pablo Hunts, Saragossa, 1496 110 From Haebler^s Typographic Iberique du Quinzieme Siecle 56. Title-page of Gordonid' s Lilio de Medicina: Ungut and Stanislaus, Seville, 1495 110 From Haebler^s Early Jointers of Spain and Portugal 57. Title-page of Leyes del ^laderno, Salamanca, c. 1496 110 From a cofiy in the Annmary Brcnvn Memorial Library, Prox'i- dcnce 58. Title-page of Aureum Opus: Diego de Gumiel, Valencia, 1515 112 From a copy in the Boston Public Library :,vi ILLUSTRATIONS 59. Caxtons Type 1. From The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye: Caxton and Mansion^ Bruges^ c. 1475 115 /-Vow a co/iy in the Library of Mr. J. Pierfiont Morgan, jYew York 60. Caxtons Type 2. From The Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres, Westminster., 14r77 116 61. Caxton's Type 3. Used in his Handbill., Westminster., c. U77 118 J'Yom Burger's Buchhdndleranzeigen des 15. Jahrhunderts 62. Caxton's Type 4. Frorn Godfrey of Boloyne., Westminster., 1481 ' 118 Frotn a copy in the Library of Mr. J. Pierpont ^Morgan, J^few York 63. Caxton'' s Type 5. From The Doctrinal of Sapience., West- minster, c. \4&9 118 From a copy in the Library of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, JVew York 64. Caxton'^s Types 6 and^. From Tretyse of Love., Westmin- ster, c. 1493 118 From a copy in the Library of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, A'civ York 65. Caxton' s Type 7- Used in Indulgence, Westminster, 1489 118 From De Kicci's Census of Caxtons 66. Gothic Types used by Wynkyn de Worde, Westminster, 1499 121 From Gordon Duff's Early English Printing 67. Lettres dc Forme used by Notary and Barbier, Westmin- ster, 1498 122 From (iordon Duff's Early English fainting 68. Transitional Gothic Type used in Andrere Antonius, ^upstiones super Duodedm Libros Metaphysicx Aristo- telis: Lettou, London, 1480 122 From a co/ty in the Library of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, J^ew York ILLUSTRATIONS xvii 69. Lettre Batarde used in The Fall of Princes: Pynson^ Lon- don, c. 1494 124 From a cofiy in the Library of Mr. J. Pierfiont Morgan, JVew York 70. Lettre de Forme used by Pynson, London, c. 1495 124 From Gordon Duff\<i Early English Printing 71. Greei Lype used in Philostratus : Aldus, Venice, 1501 128 72. Aldine Italic as used in Juvenal and Persius: Aldus, Venice, 1501 128 From a cofiy in the John Carter Brown Library, Providence 73. Type used in Diurnale : Sch'dnsperger, Nuremberg; 1514 139 From Druckschriften des XV bis XVIII Jahrhunderts 74. Type used in Teuerdanck: Schonsperger, Nuremberg, 1517 140 From a copy in the Library of Congress, Washington 75. Title-page of Fundamentbuch: Jobin, Strassburg, 1579 142 From Druckschriften des XV bis XVIII Jahrhunderts 76. {a) Alphabet of Fifteenth Century Fraktur used by Neu- meister, Mainz, 1479. {b) Alphabet of Sixteenth Century Fraktur used by Feyerabend, Frankfort, 1566 142 From Druckschriften des XV bis XVIII Jahrhunderts 77. Cursive and Schwabacher used by Froschauer, Zurich.^ 1567 142 From Druckschriften des XV bis XVIII Jahrhunderts 78. Types used by Hentzsken, Berlin, 1578 142 From Druckschriften des XV bis XVIII Jahrhunderts 79. Roman Type used in De Unitate Ecclesise Conservanda: Schoeffer, Mainz, 1520 142 From a cofiy in Harvard College Library 80. Roman Type in Erasmus'' s Adagia: Froben, Basle, 1526 144 From a copy in Harvard College Library 81. Italic in Erasmuses New Testament: Froben, Basle, 1521 144 From a cofiy in Harvard College Library xviii ILLUSTRATIONS 82. Specimen of J. Petri, Basle, 1525 146 From facsimile issued by K. Burger 83. Title-fiag-e of K/ofistocJd's Messias: Halle, 1749 148 J-'rom KoTinecke's Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen .VationaUiteratur 84. Title-page of Winckelmaivi' s Kiinst des Alterthums: Dresden, 1764 148 From Konnecke's Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen .VationaUiteratur 85. Pages of Jacohi" s Iris, Diisseldorf 1775 148 From Konnecke's Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen .^ ationalliteratur 86. Title-page of first edition of Faust: Goschen, Leipsic, 1790 150 From Goschen'' s Life of George Joachim Goschen 87. Title-page of Wilhelm Meister: Unger, Berlin, 1795 150 From Konnecke's Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen .Yationalliteratur 88. Fraktur, Schxvabacher, and Cursive, as shown by Four- nier le jeune 150 89. Title-page of Pater'' s Dissertatio, Leipsic, 1710 152 From a co/iy in the Providence Fhiblic Library 90. Types from Pater's Dissertatio, Leipsic, 1710 152 From a cofiy in the Providence I*ublic Library 'Jl. Fraktur and Schxvabacher Types: Pater'* s Dissertatio, Leipsic, 1710 152 From a co/iy in the Providence Ihiblic Library 92. Typographical Ornaments, probably from the Endters Printing-house, Nuremberg, 1721 154 From Frnesti^s Die Wol-eingerichtete Buchdruckerey 93. Fraktur Types from Breitkopfs Schrift- Probe, Leipsic, 1739 156 From Grnnncr'a Buchdruckerkunst und Schriftgiesaerey ILLUSTRATIONS xix 94. Roman and Italic Types: Breitkopfs Schrift- Probe ^ Leipsic^ 1739 156 From Gessner'a Buchdruckerkunst unci Schriftgiesaerey 95. Schwabacher and Fraktiir : Trattner\'i Abdruck dererjeni- gen Deuischen iSchriften^ etc.^ Vienna^ 1760 158 From a copy in the Library of the American Type Founders Company, Jersey City, JVetv Jersey 96. Ornaments: Trattner^s Abdruck von denjenigen Roslein^ etc.^ Vzentia^ 1760 158 From a copy in the Library of the American Type Founders Company, Jersey City 97. (a) Neue Deutsche Lettern and {b) Ornaments : Ung-er\s Schriftproben^ Berlin^ c. 1791 158 98. UiJger's and Didot's Modifications of German Fraktur^ 1793 158 From Enschede^s Fonderies de Caractires et leur Materiel dans les Pays-Bas du XV^ au XIX'' SiMe 99. Page of Ovid: Gorgonzola^ Milan^ 1509 160 100. Gothic Type in Opera of Boethius: Giunta, Venice^ 1536 161 Fj'o?n a copy in Harvard College Library 101. Italic in Dante'' s Commedia: Marcolini^ Venice, 1544 162 FroJH a copy in Harvard College Library 102. Opening of Paolo Giovio^s Historiarum sui Temporis: Torrentino^ Florence^ 1550 162 From a copy in Harvard College Library 103. Types of FasarVs Fife: Torrentino, Florence, 1550 162 From a copy in Harvard College Library 104. Italic in Nogarola''s Dialogus: Gryphius, Venice, 1552 162 105. Types in Dante: Sessa, Venice, 1564 164 From a copy in Harvard College Library 106. Page from Decamerone: Giunta, Florence, 1573 164 From a copy in Harvard College Library XX ILLUSTRATIONS 107. Italic in Nanninfs Considerationi Civili, Venice^ 1582 164 From a co/iy in Harvard College Library 108. Roman Tijpes of Morosini's Historia Veneta: Pinelli^ renter, 1623 166 From a copy in Nan>ard College Library 109. Address to the Reader: Stamperia Faticana Indtce de Caratteri, Rome, 1628 168 From a cofiy in Harvard College Library 110. Canon Grosso: Stamperia Vaticana Indice, Rome^ 1628 168 From a copy in Harvard College Library 111. Ascendonica: Stamperia Vaticana Indice^ Rome^ 1628 168 Fro7n a copy in Harvard College Library 112. Corsivo Grosso: Stamperia Vaticana Indice^ Rome^ 1628 168 FYotn a copy in Harvard College Library 113. Roman Capitals: Stamperia Vaticana Indice^ Rome, 1628 168 From a copy in Harvard College lAbrary 114. Alphabet of Greek Capitals: Stamperia Vaticana Indice^ Rome, 1628 168 From a copy in Har-vard College Library 115. Plain-Son^: Stamperia Vaticana Indice^ Rome^ 1628 168 From a copy in Harvard College Library 116. Plain-Song-: Stamperia Vaticana Indice, Rome, 1628 168 From a copy in Harx'urd College Library 117. Type used for Missals: Stamperia Vaticana Indice, Rome, 1628 168 From a copy in Har-i'ard College Library 118. Page from La Clori: Pignoni, Florence, 1626 168 From a copy in Harvard College Library ILLUSTRATIONS xxi 119. Roman and Italic Types shormng '"''modern'''' tendency^ used in MagalottVs Soggi di Naturali Esperieiize^ etc. : Cecchi^ Florence^ 1691 170 120. Type imitating ancient Manuscript^ used in Virgil: Manni^ Florence, 1741 172 From a cofiy in the Boston Public Library 121. Types of Arrighi\s Life of Moros'ini: Comino, Padua, 1749 172 From a cofiy in HaTvard College Library 122. Page showing light types, openly set, in Versi Sciolti di Tre Eccellenti Moderni Autori: Fenzo, Venice, 1758 174 From a copy in Harvard College Library 123. Italic in Dedication of Gerusalemme Liberata: Albrizzi, Venice, 1745 174 From a copy in Harvard College Library 124. Page of Gerusalemme Liberata: Albrizzi, Venice, 1745 174 From a copy in Harvard College Library 125. Pages from Gerusalemme Liberata: Zatta, Venice, 1787 176 From a copy in Harvard College Library 126. Types showing '"'' modern'''' feeling, used in SardinVs Stor'ia Critica di Nicolao Jenson: Bonsigfiori, Lucca., c. 1796 178 127. Types showing '''' modern'''' feeling, used in PoggialVs Storia Lettereir'ia di P'lacenza: Orcesi, Piacenza, 1789 178 From a copy in Harvard College Library 128. Testo and Palestina from BodonVs Fregi e Majuscole, Parma, 1771 185 129. Ornaments from BodonVs Fregi e Majuscole, Parma, 1771 186 130. {a) Ornamented Letters, (b) Initials. From BodonVs Fregi e Majuscole, Parma, 1771 186 xxii ILLUSTRATIONS 131. (a) Page from Sag-gio T'lpograjicQ. {b) Reverse of half- title of Fregi. From BodonVs Fregi e Majuscole^ Parma, 1771 186 132. Ti//)fs from Zatta's Saggi dei Caratteri, Venice, 1794 186 133. 'Wot/ern"' Types from Zatta's S'uggi dei Caratteri, Venice, 1794 186 134. Borders from Zattd^s Saggi dei Caratteri, Venice, 1794 186 135. Lettres de Forme, Lettres de Sotyime, and Ancienne Ba- tarde, shown bij Fournier lejeune 188 136. Portion of page from Torifs Champfeury : Paris, 1529 194 From a copy in Harvard College Library 137. Music Types combined xvith Lettre de Forme, used by Attaingnant, Paris, 1532 196 From a copy in the Boston Mhenaeum 138. Roman of RueVs De Natura Stirpium: De Colines, Paris, 1536 198 From a copy in Harvard College Library 139. Italic of Preface of RueVs De Natura Stirpium: De Co- lines, Paris, 1536 198 From a copy in Harvard College Library 140. Page of Songe de Poliphile: Kerver, Paris, 1546 200 From a copy in Harvard College Library 141. Types used in Oronce Fine''s De Rebus Mathematicis : Vascosan, Paris, 1556 200 From a cofiy in Harvard College Library 142. Granjon''s Civility, used in Sommaire des Singularitez de Pline: Breton, Paris, 1559 202 From a copy in Harvard College Library 143. Old Civility from Lamesle*s Epreuves GM^rales des Car- acteres, Paris; 1742 202 ILLUSTRATIONS xxiii 144. Roman of Cousiii's Livre de Perspective: Le Royer^ Paris ^ 1560 202 From a cofiy in the Boston Public Library 145. Italic in Cousin'' s Livre de Perspective: Le Royer^ Paris^ 1560 202 From a cofiy in the Boston Public Library 146. Robert Granjon's Italic used in La Vita et Metamorfo- seo d''Ovidio: De Tournes^ Lyons^ 1584 204 147. Moreau's Calligraphic Types used in Les Saintes Meta- morphoses^ Paris^ 1644 208 From a copy in Harvard College Library 148. Old Italics from Sanlecque''s Epreuves des Caracteres^ Paris ^ 1757 213 149. Seventeenth Century Types for Liturgical Books^from Sanlecque\'i Epreuves des Caracteres^ Paris ^ 1757 214 150. Old Music Types from Sanlecque''s Epreuves des Carac- teres^ Paris ^ 1757 214 151. Seventeenth Century Ornaments from Lamesle^s Epreuves G^ne'rales des Caracte res ^ Paris ^ 1742 214 152. Early Types {oeil maigre): Delacolonge' s Caracteres et Vignettes^ Lyons ^ 1773 214 153. Early Types {peil gras): Delacolonge' s Caracteres et Vignettes^ Lyons ^177^ 214 154. Old Style Types used in De La Motte''s Fables Nouvelles: Coignard^ Paris^ 1719 220 From a co/iy in the Boston Athenseum. 155. Fournier le jeune''s Types used in CEuvres de Jean-Bap- tiste Rousseau: Didot^ Paris^ 1743 222 From a cofiy in Harvard College Library 156. Fournier le jeune''s Types and Ornaments used in Col- lection des Auteurs Latines: Barbou^ Paris^ 1759 222 From a copy in Harvard College Library xxiv ILLUSTRATIONS 157. Founiierlejeiines Music Types used in A/ithologie Fraii- coise ou Chcnisons Choisies: Barbou^ Paris^ 1765 224 From a co/iy in Harvard College Library 158. Roman in •Sciint Lambert's Saisons^ Paris, 1775 226 159. Jta/ic in Saint Lamberfs Saisons, Paris, 1775 226 160. Roman Types used in Gc'orgiques de Firgile: Didot raini\ Paris, 1782 226 From a cofiy in Harvard College Library 161. Page employing Firmin Didofs Italic Type, from Didof s Epitre sur les Progrcs de V Imprimerie, printed by F. A. Didot, Paris, 1784 226 162. Types used by F. A. Didot i?i Prospectus of Peintures Antiques, Paris, 1782 228 163. Caractere Maigre used in CEuvres de FMelon: F. A. and P. Didot, Paris, 1787-92 228 From a cofiy in Harvard College Library 164. Caractere Gras used in Aventures de TeUmaque: Pierre Franqois Didot, Paris, 1787 228 From a cofiy in Harvard College Library 165. Baskerville's Types used in Voltaire'' s La Pucelle^ Kehl, 1789 230 166. Types of folio Horace: Pierre Didot, Paris, 1799 232 167. Page of folio Horace: Pierre Didot, Paris, 1799 232 168. Garafnond\s- Caracteres de P University, c. 1540, used in Richelieu's Les Principaux Poinds de la Foy Catho- lique Dtfendus: Imprimerie Royale, Paris, 1642 236 169. Roman Type (Garamond?) used in Giovio''s Vitx: Rstienne, Paris, 1549 236 From a copy in Harvard College Library 170. Garamond\s Grecs du Roi {three sizes) used in Greek edi- tion of Appiani Alexandrini Romanarum Historianim: Fstienru; Paris, 1551 238 ILLUSTRATIONS xxv 171. Page of Grec du Roi from Greek edition of Appiani Alex- andrini Romanarum Histor'mrum: Estien)u\ Paris., 1551 238 172. Garam07id''s Roman arid Italic Types used in Richelieu'' s Les Principaux Poincts de la Foy Catholique Difendus: [mprimerie Royale^ Paris^ 1642 240 173. GrandjearC s Romain du Roi used in Medailles sitr les Principaux Evdnements du Regne de Louis le Grand: hnpnmerie Royale^ Paris ^ 1702 242 From a copy in the Boston Athenxum 174-. Grandjean^s Romain du Roi (italic) used in Cuivres de Cochin destines a VHistoire de Louis j^V par Mddailles: Imprimerie Nationale^ Paris., 1889 244 175. Luce's Types PoHiques compared tvith Old Style Types of Imprimerie Roy ale 244 From Luce's Fssai d'une JVowvelle Typografihic, Paris, 1771 176. Luce'' s Types Po^ti<jues {romaii and txuo versions of italic) 246 Frotn Fssai d'ujie JVouvelle Tyfiografihie, Paris, 1771 177. Luce^s Ornaments 246 From Fssai d'une JVouvelle Tyfiographie, Paris, 1771 178. Luce's Employment of his Types and Ornaments 246 Page from Fssai d'une JVouvelle Tyfiografihie, Paris, 1771 179. Page of Cours de principaux Fleuves et Rivieres de P Eu- rope, composed arid printed by Louis XV zvhen a Child: Paris, 1718 248 180. Title-page of Fournier le jeune''s Modeles des CaractereSy Paris, 1742 252 181. Roman and Italic from Fournier lejeune''s Modeles des Caracteres, Paris, 1742 252 182. Use of Typographical Ornaments in Fourn'ier le jeune''s Modeles des Caracteres, Paris, 1742 252 xxvi ILLUSTRATIONS 183. Fournier le jeunes Types PoHiques (cic^ro^ roman and italic) 263 From Manuel Tyfio^afihique 184. Fournier le Jeune^s Types dans le gout Hollandois (cict'ro^ roman and italic) 264 From Manuel Tyliografihique 185. (a) Fournier lejeune's Italique modeme and Italique an- cienne. {b) Fournier s Shaded Letters 264 From Manuel Tyliographique 186. Fournier lejeune's Ornam.ental Capitals used in Desor- meaux's Histoire de Louis 11^ Prince de Condd: Lottin^ Paris, 1768 264 187. Fournier le jennets Vignettes de Fonte 264 From Manuel Tyfiografihique 188. Batarde Types shoxun by Fournier 266 From Manuel Typographique 189. Financiere: Delacolonge' s Caracteres et Vignettes^ Lyons, 177 S 268 190. Method of Displaying Ornaments: Briquet'' s Epreuve des Caracteres, Paris, 1757 270 191. Franqois Candors Italique, goilt nouveau, cut in 1754: Epreuves des Caracteres, Gando, Paris, 1760 272 192. Title-page of Caracteres de V Imprimerie de M. Pierres, Paris, 1785 274 INTRODUCTION THE purpose of this book is to supply a basis for the intelligent appreciation of the best printing types through the study of their history, forms, and use. As a preliminary we consider briefly the invention of printing, the cutting and casting of type, a font of type and its case, the measurement of type ; supplementing this by a short account of the Latin alphabet and those manu- script book-hands which most influenced type-forms. This brings us to a study of the chief varieties of type in use in the fifteenth century, and from 1500 to 1800, in Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and England. Com- ing to the nineteenth century, the types of Bodoni, Didot, and Wilson are discussed; the English and American re- vival of older type-forms, and the influence of this revival on printing at the present time. We now have a foundation for a reasoned judgment of type-design, and the practical application of this judgment is developed in suggestions as to the choice of types for a composing-room. Finally, some of the excuses made for not printing better to-day are — it is hoped — demolished in a paper on industrial condi- tions in the past. It is a good thing to know about the ingredients of an- cient and modern type-metal; about the old manner of mak- ing types, and to what degree their manufacture has been improved; about the names and relative proportions of early types and the development of the system of nomenclature and measurement in use to-day. But it is also needful to have a knowledge of the effect of types on the eye — of how their shapes originated, were elaborated or simplified, were improved or deformed, why these changes were made, and, in short, the reason for types being in the forms that xxviii INTRODUCTION thev now are. Bv the time these pages have been read, and the books alhided to have been examined, one should be able to distinguish the various great type-families from one another, with the ease with \\hich we recognize English, French, or Italian, when printed; and to choose intelligendy the form of letter which, allo\\'ing for diversity in taste, is the most suitable to employ in any particular kind of print- ing; and should have, too, some knowledge of the skill and learning which, in successive centuries, men have devoted to this subject — a conception of how much there is to know, and an idea of how to know it. The subject of type and type-forms follows a narrow path, a kind of "watershed" between biography and bibli- ographv. I have not attempted to supply lives of printers or tvpe-founders in any complete way, but merely to touch on those points in their careers which throw light on their types, and explain in part why they were what they were. This is equally true of books, which I do not try to describe bibliographically, but allude to only in so far as the types which were used to print them, or the manner of their use, illustrates my point. For, as Reed says of English types, "the Catena on Joh^ Walton's Polyglot, Boyle's Irish Tes- tament, Bowyer's Selden, rank as type specimens quite as interesting as, and far more valuable than, the ordinary letter-founders' catalogues." While access to all the books that I have mentioned will not I)e possible to all readers, most of them will be found in any great library. Only by having the books in one's hands and examining their types can a thorough training be ac- cjuired; for my illustrations, numerous as they are, merely show landmarks in the field under discussion. I have gen- erally reproduced types in their actual size, composed in sentences, their exposition in alphabets and description of INTRODUCTION xxix minute changes in letter-forms being intentionally avoided. Interesting as successive variations in the design of indi- vidual letters may be, it is the eft'ect of these variations upon type in mass that is important for my purpose. I have treated the technical side of my subject as briefly as is consistent with giving a clear idea of what is described. The historical, literary, and artistic aspect I have accented, in order to suggest to the student that immense mass of facts related to typography, without some knowledge of which it can only be imperfectly understood — and to serve as a counterweight to the vast amount of technical instruction and mechanical description given in most treatises on type and printing."! prefer no claim to originality," said William Blades in one of his treatises, "but rather rest the utility of what I have to say, upon the advantage of bringing to one focus a number of facts hitherto scattered through a num- ber of books, and by consequence but partially known." That is what I have tried to do in these pages. In spite of the increasing interest in the history of print- ing, and the attention paid in many quarters to the work of famous typographers, a knowledge of standards among the rank and file of printers is still greatly lacking. To the aver- age printer of to-day, type is type, printing is printing — it is all about alike ; and he concerns himself only with alleged labour-saving contrivances, or new type-faces that ensure convenience at the expense of proper design. In a more advanced class is to be found the printer who, knowing something of the historical side of printing and realizing intellectually that there is a standard of excellence, yet has never considered the question as applying in any practical way to himself or his work. What he has heard or seen of people who profess to hold such standards seems to him, XXX INTRODUCTION sometimes very rightly, faddish and impractical; and this helps him to dismiss the subject with a plausible gener- alization on the impossibility of doing successfully to-day what (for unexplained reasons) was somehow easy in the past. Lastly, there are printers who are seriously in earn- est, but w ho permit themselves to be discouraged by the indifference of their fellows, or who with their idealism do not combine that uncommon thing — common-sense. It is precisely because all these groups of men are constantly told, and ^\ ill no doubt constantly continue to be told, so much about the advantages of modern mechanical contrivances, that I lav stress upon the artistic and idealistic side of the subject in an endeavour to show that the best printing can be done only when a man is familiar with standards to which the best printers have always adhered. Tvpographv is closely allied to the fine arts, and types have alwavs reflected the taste or feeling of their time. The charm of the early Italian t^-pes has perhaps never been equalled; and the like is true of the Renaissance manu- scripts on which they were based — and of many other de- partments of art in that same wonderful time. Note, too, the relation of the French manuscripts and tvpes of a slightly later date to the manuscripts and the types of the Italian Renaissance. It is very much the relation of French work in the fine arts of that period to Italian work of a little earlier date. There is about the French characters, as in design, a certain excess of elegance \\hich makes them seem weak in comparison with the more sturdy and classical qualities of earlier Italian types. If this is at all true of French and Italian types, it is even truer of English types used in the middle of the eighteenth century and those used at the end of it. The mid-eighteenth century English types, of w hich Caslon u as the designer, had precisely those honest, INTRODUCTION xxxi somewhat heavy, but workmanlike qualities exhibited in the early furniture of Chippendale and the architecture of Vanbrugh. The types of Baskerville (the influence of which subsequently found expression in the work of Bodoni and Didot) possess a fragile and affected elegance, which culmi- nated in the light, clear, delicate characters used from 1780 to 1820 — types reflecting, in their elegance, thinness, and weakness, the distinguished but fragile decorations and fur- niture introduced into England at the end of the eighteenth century by Robert Adam. For the same reason that one fears to use Adam furniture, one is afraid to use late eigh- teenth century fonts ; for both seem in danger of breaking to pieces! Within the recollection of some of us, heavier types were revived by Mr. William Morris, and they were nearly contemporaneous with furniture forms rendered in lumber — "Mission" furniture, so "sincere" in trying to es- cape the imputation of fragility that it made "spring house- cleaning an affair of the derrick and the wrecking-crane ! " The latest development in architecture seems to be a revival of Georgian or early American architecture and ornament, and a movement toward what is somewhat absurdly called, nowadays, "period" decoration. This is reflected in printing by a return to the Georgian or early nineteenth century types for the greater part of contemporary printing, and the appearance of "period" types — reproductions more or less accurate of styles of type famous at different epochs. Thus type, which one thinks of merely as the characters compos- ing a printed word, does, when examined as design, reffect to some degree the tendencies current in other departments of contemporary art. Just as the music of great masters like Palestrina makes some familiar compositions seem thin and trivial, so, by xxxii INTRODUCTION studying the monumental characters of early typography, do we learn to place in true perspective our types to-day. This means the study of types from a fresh point of view, and no study is ever a wholly amusing process if it is to be a serious training. Those who seek ivill find; but to the reader skeptical of results and critical of the value of any detailed consideration of type-forms, such a survey will seem either beside the mark or destructive. None the less, such studv is the only way I know to establish a stand- ard of taste in type-forms, or to contribute to the progress of printing as an art. For " the Arts have no real enemies except the ignorant." PRINTING TYPES THEIR HISTORY, FORMS, AND USE PRINTING TYPES CHAPTER I THE INVENTION OF PRINTING: THE CUTTING AND CASTING OF TYPES IN RELATION TO THEIR DESIGN THE invention of movable metal types in Europe, as we all know, has been generally attributed to Gutenberg — just as the invention of the steam- enginehas popularlybeen considered that of Watt. But Watt did not invent the steam-engine; he perfected it, however, so highl}' as to make it almost a new invenUon. This is, I conceive, what Gutenberg did for printing; he was the first man to put typography on a practical and scientific basis. Before his day, printing from movable types was practised by the Dutch, and there is, perhaps, reason to believe that a man named Coster was the inventor of this process. Whether or no Coster was the first man to employ movable types, there certainly existed in Holland before Gutenberg's time, a series of books of primitive workmanship printed from type, and the roughness of the typography of some later printers — like Caxton — is considered one proof that a group of men were under the influence of this Dutch school of printing. It has always puzzled the casual student of ?';?- cimabula to account for the perfection of the books printed by Gutenberg; but if it be true that Gutenberg did not ori- ginate printing from movable types, but simply greatly im- proved the whole practice of making them, then we can see that the early and crude typography of Holland was merely the sub-structure on which Gutenberg so splendidly built. As William Blades said of the Coster-Gutenberg contro- versy, " The evidence on each side may be enlarged in the course of years, but so far as it goes at present it is strongly 4 PRINTING TYPES in favour of a first rude invention of movable types in Hol- land bv some one who may have been Coster. The claim of Gutenberg ujjon the respect of posterity rests on his great impro\ ements — so great as to entitle him in a sense to be deemed the inventor.' . . . Just as astronomers ha\e been unable to explain certain aberrations of the planets without surmising a missing link in the chain of their knowledge, so is it w ith early typography. That such finished works as the first editions of the Bible and Psalter could be the legitimate predecessors of the Costeriana, the Bruges, the Westminster press, and others, I cannot reconcile w^ith the internal e\ idence of their ^^•orkmanship. But admit the ex- istence of an earlier and much ruder school of typography, and all is plain and harmonious. Side by side, the weakest gave place and the fittest survived, and soon, as in all sur- vivals, the existence of the former became traditionary."' Endless discussions have arisen on this question, which has a whole literature to itself. Roughly speaking, the situation to-day stands much as it did in Blades's time. Later dis- coveries of early printing have been made, some new his- torical facts have come to light ; but these have not much changed the theory that although there was an earlier Dutch school of unskilful printing, it W'as in Germany that print- ing as we know it to-day was first practised.^ " We may take our stand," says Mr. Pollard, "on the distinction drawn by the Cologne Chronicle of 1499 between the Invention made at Mainz and the Prefigurement(Vurbyldung) which 'Hlades's Books in Chains, I^ndon, 1892, p. 200. 'Ibid., pp. 157, 158. ' 'Die paper by Heinrich Wallau, Gutenberg Techniker und Kiinstler, pub- lished l)y the (iiitenberg-Gesellscliaft ( Vierter Jahres-Bericht, Mainz, 1905) , may be consulted for study of (iutenberg types. Seymour de Ricci's valua- l)le Calaloi^ue Raisonne dcs J-'retnicres Jnifivcssions dc A/oycnce (1445-67) , puljlishc-d by tlie same society in 1911, tliough primarily bibliographical, is useful to the student of types of tliis class. THE INVENTION 5 he places elsewhere, or if it be preferred, on that subtler dis- crimination lurking in the w ord 'adinuentiones' applied to the achievements of Mainz, with its possible suggestion of earlier 'inuentiones' of another origin. Invention or Adin- vention, whether that which was not first discovered at Mainz had been discovered at Strassburg or in Holland, it was in Germany and at Mainz that the Printed Book as the ambitious rival of the Manuscript first came into being."' Gutenberg's invention consisted, apparently, in making brass moulds and matrices by w^hich type could h^accuratdy cast in large quantities. As Mr. De Vinne reminds us, relief printing, paper, wood-engraving, printed books, even the printing-press, and perhaps the idea of movable types were not attributable to Gutenberg. These had all been thought of already. Gutenberg availed himself of the different ex- periments of his predecessors and made something which, however it has been improved upon in detail to-day, has not been improved upon in theory. The first type-cutters and type-founders were merely somewhat servile imitators of the manuscript letter-forms to which they were already accustomed. We can understand little about the design of our present printing types, if we are not familiar with the characters in the black-letter and Humanistic manuscripts which just preceded, or were con- temporary with, the invention of printing." There appears to have been no thought in the minds of early printers other than to reproduce manuscripts quickly and inexpen- sively; and although many early printed books were very beautiful, both in type and arrangement, because modelled on * See Introduction to Catalogue of Books firinted in the XFth Century now in the British Museum, London, 1913, Part m, p. ix. ' This is developed in the chapter on the Latin Alphabet. 6 PRINTING TYPES fine manuscripts, I doubt if fifteenth century printers so con- sciously intended to make their books beautiful as is com- monly supposed. What an early printer ivas intent upon doing was to produce a printed book which resembled a manuscript as closely as possible ; and that such a man failed to recognize any great divergence in theory between a book in manuscript and a printed volume is shown by his ob- ^■ious endeavour to follow in type the written letter of the manuscript.^ Because of this aim, the first printers made certain errors in designing and cutting types, which have profoundly influenced typography, and not always \\ith hai)py results. Intent upon imitating manuscripts, they felt obliged to reproduce the kind of letters that a reader had been accustomed to in volumes written by hand ; and thus they had neither time, opportunity, nor desire to consider ■what types were, or to realize that they could never success- fully reproduce in metal all the forms derived from the pen. In other words, to the first type-cutters printing was merely an evolution, and did not appear a new invention in the sense that it obliged them to decide what forms of letter were best adapted to the new medium they had to employ. If these craftsmen had but thought of the whole subject from a fresh standpoint, some of the calligraphic black-letter types would never have existed, and italic and Oreek types, so far as imitative of hand\\riting, \A'Ould have been corrected. Instead of a long series of endeavours which have not yet entirely adjusted type-forms to the medium ' "Almost invariably the style of the early i^rinted book follows the contem- porar)' ms. style of its place of production. In consequence we find strongly marked national styles, though these were soon modified by the international tnide in books and especially by the influence of new classical texts distrib- uted from Italy. In scjme places and in some other classes of l)ooks, local consenatism was stronger." Syllabus of lecture on Early Printed Books, by C;.H. Palmer. Ixindon, 1913. CUTTING AND CASTING 7 in which the type-cutter has to work, we should then have had characters designed a\ ith closer relation to the mate- rial from which the}^ were fashioned. Ever since the sixteenth century, elaborate diagrams have been published to show how letters should be drawn, as we shall learn from some accounts given of men who sug- gested new methods of designing them. Generally a dia- gram of minute squares was first made, and on this the design and dimension of each letter were determined. Jau- geon, who was appointed by the Acadhnie des Sciences of Paris in the last years of the seventeenth century to sup- ply a scheme or series of directions by which type should be cut, began by stating that "the eye is the sovereign ruler of taste." The rules which he set forth were extremely complicated — every Roman capital was to be designed on a framework of 2304 little squares. Grandjean, the first type-cutter \\\\o attempted to follow them, is said to have observed sarcastically, that he should certainly accept Jau- geon's dictum that "the eye is the sovereign ruler of taste," and accepting this, should throw the rest of his rules over- board ! In casting type the two schools of typography spoken of on an earlier page — one experimental and crude, the other sure and perfected — had probably different methods.^ One cast letters in moulds of clay or sand ; the other under- stood something of the punch, the matrix, and the adjust- able mould, which they slowly perfected into much the kind of appliance we have now. The roughness of either form of type-casting no doubt accounts for the variation in appear- ance of the same letter in old books. The result of an acci- dental impression of a piece of type in a book printed in the last quarter of the fifteenth century is shown in the illus- * Reed's Old English Letter Foundries, p. 29. 8 PRINTING TYPES tration {Jig. l). This makes it clear that in appearance the earHest types much resembled those of to-day, though their heights w ere Aery irregular. While the quantity of type that was needed by any one printer was probably small, the different characters in a font were very many on ac- count of the contractions, abbreviations, etc., then consid- ered necessary. All early types were cast by hand, and even down to the in fequcntite: fed 5ui^;:at auttntico;^ ^^^5 pagma Atvba fitieUtci: cUK\lpt)ne^ (7 |X)ti(rtmru nifi qn alium ^dcoitm noiat \© p^oims vetfc^ jlatim feqwuttl\«tba h\ tnc*q2 ip& pttm^ vitemp coitct; mgtpi 1 . Impression of a piece of Fifteenth Century Type found on a fiage of JVider^s Li/ire Morale, firinted at Cologne about 1476 first part of the last century hand type-moulds were in use. Into such a mould hot metal was poured, and the type-caster tlien gave it a quick shake, which forced the metal into all the crannies of the matrix. By practice it became appar- ent that some letters involved a different sort of motion, and were more difficult to make than others, so I suppose that the variations just spoken of between different impressions of the same letter in early fonts may also be attributable to the varying skill of the individual workman. In an account of an English foundry, where the use of ancient hand- moulds survived well into the last century, mention is made of the uncouth movements and swaying figures of a group of gray-haired type-casters, who appeared as if demented to any one who did not know what they \\ ere about. Hand- CUTTING AND CASTING 9 casting was a slow and tiresome process, and according to Moxon^ only about four tliousand such letters could ordi- narily be cast in one day. In all probability lead, tin, and pewter were among the materials used for fifteenth century types. Where refer- ences are made in old books to the use of copper and bronze in type-casting, they may apply to the punches or matrices rather than to the types themselves. Steel, brass, copper, tin, lead, and iron wire were used as early as 1480 in Italy, as is distincdy stated in the "Cost Book" of the Ripoli Press ^ at ' Joseph Moxon, the first ELnglish writer on type-founding, was bom in York- shire, in 1627. He was a maker of mathematical instruments and dabbled in all kinds of mechanics. He himself said tliat he had never been properly taught the art of type-founding, but had taken it up solely tlirough his interest in the subject — as was tlie case with many celebrated type-cutters before and since. He issued a specimen sheet as early as 1669, showing characters which were not particularly good. In his book on the rules for the formation of letters ("useful for writing masters, painters, carvers, machinists, and for those who were lovers of curiosity," and dedicated to Sir Christopher Wren), he advises, as did Tory before him and Jaugeon after him, that letters should be first designed on a framework of minute squares. In 1667 he began a series of fourteen treatises in monthly numbers on the trades of the smith, joiner, carpenter, etc., and a second series, which comprised twenty-four numbers, was devoted entirely to printing, letter-cutting, and type-casting. This second volume appeared in 1 683 and was inscribed to Dr. Fell (among others) , bene- factor of the Oxford University Press. M.oxon' s JHec/ianick £jrercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works is the first English book on type-founding, and tlius a classic in the literature of printing — though a very dull book. ' The Ripoli Press was in a Dominican monastery, originally founded at Piano di Ripoli and later moved into the neighbouring city of Florence. This press is interesting to the student of typography because it fiimishes an early in- stance of the employment of women in composing-rooms; but specially be- cause its treasurer kept very careful accounts of its expenses, which give valuable information about the materials employed in the work of the press, the cost of production, etc. The press had sevei-al faces of roman and black- letter type cut for it, as well as ornaments, initials, etc. It was most miscel- laneous in its output. (See De Vinne's Motable Printers of Italy in the Fif- teenth Century, p. 127, with facing plate.) Portions of the Ripoli "Cost Book" were edited in 1781 by P. V. Fineschi, under the title JVotizie Storiche sofira la Stamfieria di Ri/ioli, and a monograph by M. P. Bologna, entitled La Stamfieria Fiorentina del Monastero di S. Jacofio di Ripoli e le sue edi- zfoni, was published in tlie Giornale storico della Letter, /to/.. Vols. XX, XXI. 10 PRINTING TYPES Florence — w hich throws a good deal of light on the condi- tions of fifteenth century printing-houses. Reed thinks that steel and brass were used for the mould, steel for the punches, copper for the matrices, lead and tin for the type, and iron wire for the mould or perhaps for stringing type together. An alloy was introduced later by adding tin and iron to the lead. In the fifteenth century the discovery of the properties of andmony gave the types their required hardness. The chief ingredients of type from the earliest times have been lead and tin, and these have been hardened either with iron and bismuth, or antimony. In cutting type by hand to-day, the first thing a type-cutter does in following his design, or that supplied him, is to make a counter-punch. This consists in cutting out the spaces inside of certain letters, such as O, or the upper part of an A. This counter-punch is sunk into the end of a bar of steel, and when this is done the inside of the model letter is finished. The outlines of the model letter are then cut until it assumes its proper shape, numerous "smoke-proofs" meanwhile having been examined to see that the letter fol- lows the form which the designer intends. After the punch is completed, the steel is hardened, and it is then punched into a bar of cold rolled copper, producing what is called a "strike." In this state it is really an unfinished matrix. It is then " fitted" so that it will cast in the proper position on its body. When this matrix is square on its sides, holds its letter in the same position as do the matrices of other letters of the new alphabet, and has the same depth throughout from the surface of the bar, it is finished. This is, roughly sj)eaking, the process by which hand-cut punches and their matrices are produced. But all type is not cut by hand to-day; in fact, quite the CUTTING AND CASTING 11 contrary. The theory of the pantagraph, understood as early as the seventeenth century, was adapted (in the second qimr- ter of the nineteenth century) to producing wood type, which had hitherto been cut by hand. This invention required but one model alphabet, and from it an unskilled workman could cut on wood, on which nothing had been drawn, va- rious sizes of letters. The principle was very naturally ap- plied later to cutting metal punches. Benton of Milwaukee in- vented such a punch-cutting machine, thereby at once enor- mously simpHfying the cutting of punches, as well as cheap- ening their production. At first sight it would appear that this was a wholly admirable invention; and it would be, if it did not tend to mechanize the design of types. But a design for a type alphabet that may be entirely successful for the size for -which it is drawn^ cannot be successfully applied to all other sizes of the same series. Each size is a law unto itself, and is often bettered by modifications in the original design made by the feeling and taste of the designer. To a trained eye, looking over impressions of a series of modern machine- cut types, it is often possible to tell which was the size origi- nally designed because it stands out as the most harmonious and successful. In this particular size the designer's eye had most modified his rules, and in all others the necessary modi- fications proper to the varying sizes had not been so carefully made. An authority tells us that (ideally) a new model de- sign should be made for every two sizes of type. It was because the punches for the older types were cut for each size by their designers with Jaugeon's maxim consciously or unconsciously in mind, that most old fonts were so pleas- ing in effect. Conversely, one reason why modern types are less mellow and agreeable to the eye is because, Avhen cut from a model alphabet by machine, there is too much rule and too little taste. "Even with strict instructions and with 12 PRINTING TYPES best intentions," says Mr. Bruce Rogers/ "it is difficult for the habitual user of a very accurate machine not to insensi- blv smooth out what he has ah\ays been taught to consider 'imperfections' and to make as mechanically perfect a let- ter as is possible. ... I have come to believe that perhaps onlv hand-cut punches, cut by the designei' of the type^ can preserve the real feeling of the design ;" and he adds that the design should be drawn as nearly as possible to the exact size of the desired font. In modern practice this is exactly -what is not done by machine. Sizes from 6-point to 120-point, or as large as de- sired, are often cut from the same model letter ; although contractions and expansions in either dimension of letter- design can be made when necessary to correct certain opti- cal illusions.^ I have sometimes questioned whether a ma- chine can be so managed that it will ever produce those fine and almost imperceptible qualities of design given to it by the hand of a clever type-cutter — which mean so much to the appearance of type in the mass, and which vary in nature and degree in different sizes of the same series of characters. In point of fact, the first types produced by punch-cutting machines did seem to show a certain rigidity from the point of view of design. That there has been an improvement of late in type cut by machine is undeniable, and yet there has been practically no change in its mech- ' In a letter to the author. There are many optical illusions which must be guarded against in cutting an alphabet, the secrets of correcting which are still among tlie " mysteries and art of printing." If you have ever seen an inscription cut on stone in capi- tal letters, where the v's or w's did not descend below the base of the other capitals, you will have experienced an illusion of this sort. In very lai^ge sizes of type it is necessary to make the o's descend below other letters as much as a sixteenth of an inch, to produce the effect of an even line. Round lower- case lettci-s must extend above square lower-case letters as well as below, to appear to align. CUTTING AND CASTING 13 anism.This improvement,! learn, has come to pass through a more sympathetic and subtle manipulation of the machine itself, and by modifications of rules by the eye of the work- man who operates it. And so, after all, it seems to be the eye and the hand that determine the excellence of the product of a machine, and it is only when a machine is as flexible as the hand that it is as good as the hand. In the final analysis we come back to the eye as the great factor in the success- ful operation of a punch -cutting machine. For Jaugeon was right. Nowadays most type is cast by machine. The difference, however, between early hand type-casting and modern me- chanical type-casting is not so great as one would suppose, and is nothing more than the substitution of the movement of a machine for manual dexterity. The modern type-cast- ing machine has the advantage of infinitely greater pro- duction; and as much more care is taken in examining the types produced and discarding those with imperfections, its product is more uniform and perfect than in earlier fonts cast by hand. The modern type-casting machine is not,how"- ever, employed for everything. Hand-moulds are still used for casdng small and special sorts of characters. Some de- tails in the production of kerned letters are more success- fully managed by hand than by machine. Many script types cannot be cast by machine at all. The ingredients of modern printing types are, roughly speaking, lead, tin, antimony, and sometimes a little copper ; these vary in proportion, according to the size of the type being cast. The end aimed at in type-metal is to obtain a material which shall be dense, ductile, and fusible at a low temperature. Lead is too soft to be used alone; antimony is therefore introduced to give it hardness ; as are copper and tin to give toughness, the last having the property of 14 PRINTING TYPES cementing metals which fuse at different temperatures. This amalgam of metal does not rust, has the advantage of shrinking less than any other alloy, and fills the mould and matrix very perfectly. As to the wearing qualities of type, small faces of type, with lines more delicate and closer together, wear less well than large faces, and the counters in small faces, being shallow, fill more easily. Types also wear out because of careless handling, and by constant setting, distributing, correcting, and planing down ; and therefore much depends upon good workmen A\ho handle their types carefully and, abo\e all, keep them clean. Certain printing papers cause tvpes to wear much more than others. Such are many of the interesting hand-made papers; especially rough-surfaced papers when printed dry. So it is not alone important that tvpes should be made of proper ingredients and should be made well, but they should be carefully handled and thoughtfully employed.^ ' For detailed accounts of tlie processes of ancient t\'pe-cutting and type- casting, see Reed's Hintory of Old Knglish Letter Foundries, Introductory Chapter, and Moxon's Mechankk Ejcercises. For modern t)pe-cutting and tvpe-casting, see De Vinne's Plain Printing Tyfies, and Ix;gros and Grant's 'Jy/iografihical Printing- Surfaces. Tlie last is especially valuable for its diagrams. CHAPTER II A FONT OF TYPE AND ITS CASE: THE TYPOGRAPHICAL POINT: POINT-SET AND LINING TYPES TYPE is defined as a right-angled, prism-shaped piece of metal, having for its face a letter or char- acter, usually in high relief, adapted for use in letter-press printing ; and type in the aggregate is described as an assemblage of the characters used for printing. In a single type the chief points to be described are the face, counter, stem, hair-line, serif, beard or neck, shoulder, body or shank, pin-mark, nick, feet, and groove. Pin Mark Face Body or Shank Niclc 2 , Diag-ram of Type Stem- Serifs Hair-line /R1 ^^ Sh Counter ■Beard or Neck ld( ouiaer 3. Plan of its Face The accompanving diagram of a piece of type {Jig. 2) shows its face, body, nick, groove, feet, and pin-mark ; and the plan of the face {Jig. 3) shows the stem, hair-line, serif, counter, beard, and shoulder. The body (or shcmk) of a piece of type is the metal be- tween the shoulder and the feet (described later), and the 16 PRINTING TYPES term "body" is also used to denote the size or thickness of types, leads, etc. The pin-mark is an indentation on the upper part of the bodv, made by the pin in casting. The ?i2ck is the groove across the lower part of the body of the type, and is a guide to the position in which it is to be set up.^ The Jeef are the projections on each side of the groove on which the tvpe stands, the groove being the hollow left be- tween the feet w here formerly was the jet. The Jbce of a type is the letter on its upper end which carries the ink to be impressed upon the paper ; the counter is the cavitv left by the surrounding lines of the face. The stem is the thick stroke or line of the letter ; the hair-line is the thin stroke of the letter. The serif \s a short cross-line which occurs at the ends of the unconnected lines in the type-face.^ The beard, sometimes called the neck, is the slope between the outside edge of the face and the shoulder, the shoulder being the fiat top of the body which supports the neck or face. A standard font or fount of letters consists of all the char- ' In American, Englisli, and German types, the body carries the nick on the front, but in French and Belgian type on the back. Besides showing tlie posi- tion for setting, this aids both founder and printer in distinguishing the differ- ent faces of the same type-body — by the number, kind, or situation of tlie nick on the bodies of the various faces. An extra nick is sometimes cut on small capitals — o, s, v, w, x, and z — to distinguish them from lower-case letters. Small capital i is so marked in old style faces to distinguish it from the arabic figure. ' The serif is an important feature in type-design and usually varies by the st\le of its attachment to the body strokes, according to the face of the type. In old style lower-case letters it is a sort of blunt spur; in many modem French and Italian types it is a delicate hair-line; in modem "Scotch- face" it is curved or bracketed on the inside where it meets the main line. But the design of tyjjes is not absolutely determined by the shape of the serif. The stems of letters in the great type-families, and jiarticularly the swellings and depressions in the forms of their lower-case letters, are also important to tlie design of a type-face and yet independent of tlie shajje of the serif. Serifs, taken by tliemselves, may resemble each other in quite different type- faces. A FONT AND ITS CASE 17 acters usually needed in composition, and is made up of the following sorts: ROMAN Capitals: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, &, M, CE. Small capitals : ^ a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, &, ^, (E. Lower case: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, 1, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, V, w, X, y, z, ae, oe, ff, fi, fl, ffi, ffl." Accented letters: a, a, a, a, e, e, e, e, i, i, i, i, 6, o, 6, o, u, i^i, u, il. Figures: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. Marks of punctuation : - , ; : . ? ! — '[]()• Marks of reference: *, f, t §, II, \ l^^' ITALIC Capitals : J, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, /, /, JC, Z, M, JV, 0, F, Q, i?, &\ r, u, F, rr, x, r, z, ^, js, (e. Lower case : a, b, c, f/, <?,/, g, h, i,J, k, /, m, n, o, /?, ^, r, s, t, u, V, w, X, y, r, as, oe,f,f,f, #,# Accented letters : a, a, «, a, e, ^, e, e^ 1, 2, z, ?, 6, d, 6, o, u, u, u, il. Figures : 1, 2, 3, 4, S, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. Marks of punctuation : - ^ ; : . ? ! (). Spaces: en quadrat, and 3 to em, 4 to em, 5 to em, 6 to em, and hair spaces, used to separate words. ' There are seldom any italic small capitals. " A greater number of ligatured letters occur in Caslon's fonts, viz. : <?, long/ in its combinations yZ-jy^,/, Jk, Jl,Jf, ft,Jfi,JJl, both in roman and italic. Some other old faces or their reproductions — i.e., the Garamond italic — show as, is, us, il, fr, U, Sp, J?, tt. ' Note references, except in rare instances, are the same for roman and italic. 18 PRINTING TYPES Quadrats: em quadrats, and three sizes of large quadrats, viz., 2 em, 3 em, and 4 em, used chiefly to fill out lines. Miscellaneous: braces in different lengths, dashes, leaders, fractions, mathematical signs,^ degree marks, commercial signs (such as $, @, 1j^), and so forth. Occasional Characters: Hturgical signs, ^, I^^ and >J< (for the sign of blessing), characters denoting contractions (such as ^, q, 6, d", i^ p), unusual fractions, etc. The characters which make up a complete font of type fall into six classes, which Mr. De Vinne tabulates as : "(l) Full-bodied letters, like Q and j, that occupy the entire body of the type; (2) Ascending letters, like A, b, d, h, that occupy the upper three-fourths of the body; (3) Descend- ing letters, like p, y, g, q, that occupy the lower three- fourths of the body; (4) Short letters like a, o, that occupy about one-half of the body in the middle part ; (5) Small capitals, that are sometimes in height more than one-half of the body, but not as high as the ascending letters; (6) Ir- regular characters, like the *, that have no arbitrary height, but do have a definite position." In a type of "modern" face, the figures all belong to the second class, but in "old style"' fonts they are variously short, ascending, and descending. As far as is known, the mathematical signs + and — were first used by Wid- mann in a book j)iiblished at I^ipsic in 1489, though he does not speak of them as if they were a novelty. Robert Recorde first employed them in an Eng- lisli book. In The Whetstone of JVitte (1557) Recorde employed = as tlie sign of equality (chosen because "noe two thynges can be moar equalle" than two parallel straight lines) , though this sign had long before appeared in mediae- val manuscripts to represent the word est. William Oughtred showed the x or sign of nuiltiplication in his Clavis Mathematica, issued in 1631 . See Franz ^icfCcns^s Pa/eoffra/t/iie iMtine. 125 Facsimiles en fihototyfiie acomfiagnesde Iranscri/itions et (rexfilications, avecun exfiose systematique de V histoire de Pecriture /atine. Treves and Paris, 1910. Edited by Remi Coulon and translated into French from thcsecond (.itrman edition oi Lateinische Faleografihie, p. xl. ' To understand the terms "old style," " modem face," and "modelled " letter, it must be remembered that the earliest roman and italic types were A FONT AND ITS CASE 19 A "sort," understood in connection with printing, is one of the pieces in a font of type considered in reference to supply or lack. To be " out of sorts " is to lack some of the necessary types in a case. To "order sorts " is to order more of the kind in which the font is deficient. The term " out of sorts," therefore, means destitute or without equipment. The word " ampersand " is a corruption of " & per se = and," meaning the character & by itself.^ In some italic ampersands the letters e and t are easily distinguished, as in the examples shown, ^_5 , ©, ^, ^. The Arabic numerals have an interesting history. The best forms to employ are mentioned on a later page. Arabic figures are not cast in italic except in very modern fonts. Types have much better appearance when composed in certain languages than in others. Latin is an ideal tongue for type composition, no other language having anything like the same dignity and monumental appearance when well composed in fine type — probably one reason w^hy Latin quotations have so long survived in specimen books. This is due to the many u's, m's, and n's, the lack of y's, and the paucity of other descending letters. A page composed in Latin and a page composed in English, placed so that the lines of type are perpendicular to the eye, will at once show the difference in effect between them. It was an early custom to display black-letter types in of much more uniform line throughout than now. In time they began to show increasing differentiations of weight between the stem and connecting lines. The earlier form of letter, with slighter differences in conti-asting weight of stroke, we now call "'old style ; " the much later form, exhibiting greater contrasts of thick and thin lines, constitutes a " modem face " letter. And the greater the variation of weight of line in the design of a letter, the more it may be called " modelled." ' The /ler se was used with A, O, and I, to indicate that the letter, standing by itself, made a word. This led to the term a/ier se, to denote what we should call now, A No. 1. For instance, "London, thowe arte of townes A per se." 20 PRINTING TYPES the words of the Pater Xoster or sometimes (as in Ratdoh's fifteenth centurv specimen sheet) of the Ave Maria. Classi- cal (juotations were used to show oft' roman type. No doubt the familiar opening of Cicero's oration, '"''Quousque tandem abutere^ Catilina^'' has had (since Caslon's time^) consid- erable influence on the shape of the capital letter Q ; for this sentence became so consecrated to type-specimens that most eighteenth century type-founders felt it necessary to employ it, and in order to outdo each other, they elongated the tails of their Q's more and more. I do not say that Q's have long tails because Cicero delivered an oration against Catiline ; but that the tails of some Q's would not be as long as they are if the oration had begun with some other word ! Ultimately the tail became so long that many capital Q's with their companion u were cut as logotypes, ?>., Qu. In casting a font of type, the proportion of its letters varies according to the language for which the type is to be used. Latin and French require more of the c, i, 1, m, p, q, s, and v than English. This variation of proportion applies to almost all modern languages in different degrees. It is easy to see that in English many more letters of one sort are needed than of another. Indeed, the arrangement of type-cases is a hint as to the proportion used. This leads us to the considera- tion of the printer's case, which has some points of interest. A case is a wooden tray divided into various compart- ments or "boxes" of different areas but of a uniform depth of about an inch, and a printer's font of type ordinarily re- quires two of these trays, one placed above the other on frames or sloping desks. The higher tray is called the upper case ; the lower tray is called the lower case ; and it is from these trays and their position that the characters are de- scribed as upper-case and lower-case letters, a term which Caslon appears to have been the first letter-founder to employ this quotation. A FONT AND ITS CASE 21 is merely descriptive of the relation of the cases to each other and to the compositor {Jig. 4). The ordinary upper case has 98 equal-sized boxes and contains capital letters in order from A to Z, except for the omission of J and U, which follow the Z. The remaining Upper Case 4. A Pair of Printer's Cases boxes on the right hand are occupied by commercial signs, dashes, braces, diphthongs, the ampersand, and the lower- case ffl. The left-hand side of the upper case contains small capitals, arranged like the capitals on the right-hand side, and the other boxes are filled with fractions (sometimes replaced by accented letters), reference marks, such as the asterisk, dagger, section mark, etc., diphthongs for small capitals and lower case, the small capital ampersand, brackets, and parentheses. 22 PRINTING TYPES The lower case, \vhich has 54 boxes or compartments, is laid (for that is the term used in speaking of placing type in a case) on the principle of placing the letters most needed nearest the hand of the compositor. Of these, e comes first, ha\ ing the largest compartment allotted to it of any char- acter ; and the next commonest letters are: c, d, i, s, m, n, h, o, u, t, a, and r, together with 3 em spaces and quadrats. The third class of letters, of which about half as many are required, comprise the remaining letters of the alphabet (except j, k, q, x, and z), to which add the comma and em and en quadrats. Lower-case j, k, q, x, and z, the ligatured letters, figures, and the rest of the marks of punctuation, and 4 em, 5 em, 6 em, and hair spaces, occupy small boxes along the edge of the case. They are, in a sense, suburban letters, and live in a small way in outlying districts ; ^^•hereas the more popular letters live in the middle of the town ; like a city in ^^■hich — unlike most cities — the busiest inhabitants live in the best and largest houses!^ In early times the capital letters U and J did not exist, V being used for U,and I for J. From the eleventh to the seven- teenth century the letter I represented both the vowel sound of I and the consonant sound of J.^ Its likelihood of being ' The cases described are intended for book work. For job work — that is, for circulars, advertisements, etc. — a different case is required. Tliis "job case" is a single case somewhat varied in its arrangement from tliat used for book composition. ITie lower-case i and j were first differentiated in Spain, where (when print- ing was introduced) j was used for the consonant and i for the vowel. At first the capital I stood for both I and J, as it now does in German type, and should in all black-letter — although some very strange J ' s have been made by modem tyi)e-founders to supply a black-letter variant. The capital J appearc^d in Spanish before 1600. Louis Elzevir, who worked at Leyden be- tween 1595 and 1616, is supposed to be the first printer who made the dis- tinction of u and v, i and j, lower case. T\\e capital letters U and V began to be differentiated by printers in A FONT AND ITS CASE 23 confounded with one of the strokes of some letter near it led to various efforts in writing to keep the two sounds distinct by a differentiation in the character, and from this effort came the curve of the j, though the dot of the i survived in the lower-case letter when the tail was elongated. When these two new capital letters were first rendered in type, it is obvious that printers had become accus- tomed to an upper case arranged without them. To intro- duce them in their proper places, i.e., the J after I and the U after T, proved an inconvenience to the printer who had been trained to cases in which there were no such letters. At any given moment, it would have caused too much trouble and confusion in a printing-house to make this re- form, and by this vis inertiae the J and U still follow the Z in the upper cases, as they always have, and probably always will. Efforts at improved arrangement of cases have been many. Lord Stanhope invented a case which varied from that described, by discarding some of the double letters, which he considered logotypes, and by introducing some new combinations. He also modified the height of the front partition of each box, in order to facilitate the compositor's work. But while his invention may have induced improve- ments in the arrangement of cases, it was considered rather Italy as early as 1524. In England, although various attempts were made in the sixteenth century to introduce u and j, their use was by no means general until 1630. At first V continued its double function as a capital, but subse- quently U was adopted, — derived from an uncial form of V dating from the third or fourth century. This kind of capital U was employed up to the end of the seventeenth century, when it ga^'e way to the present form. The mod- ern English use of U u for the vowel and V v for the consonant dates from about 1700; but tlieir interchangeable use survived until well into the nine- teenth century. Words beginning with U are still entered under V in the catalogue of the British Museum. In Chambers' Mncyclofiedia of 1786, words beginning with U and W are placed under V. 24 PRINTING TYPES too radical/ Lefevre, author of the classical Guide du Com- positeur^ who was "prote" (or foreman) to Didot, also ar- ranged a case which, by an elaborate series of calculations, he shows would save twenty-three days' time in a period of three hundred working days.^ In some of his proposals he foreshadowed the present idea of simplification of effort and movement as an important factor in economical production.^ There must be a variation in cases used for foreign languages. In general, European languages employing the Roman letter have cases differing slightly from one another, while cases for Greek and languages employing non-Roman characters have a great divergence. Greek cases vary in dif- ferent establishments ; and a model of a Greek case, with the simplifications proposed by Lefevre, may be consulted with profit.* The names given to the various sizes of types in current use in England in the seventeenth century were as follows: French canon, two-line English, double pica, great primer, English, pica, long primer, brevier, nonpareil, and pearl; and small pica was also occasionally used. Half a century later, two-line letters of double pica, great primer, and pica were added ; and paragon, small pica, bourgeois, and minion were to be found in most printing-houses. Pica, equivalent 'For illustrations of Lord Stanhope's proposed cases, logotypes, etc., see Savage's Dictionary of the j4rt of Printing, London, 1841, p. 102. LefSvre's Guide Pratique du Comfiositeur, Paris, 1883, p. 556, and facing plate. Of late years much has been said in regard to "scientific management," and much unused or wasted energy has been liberated or saved by it. But tlie effects of scientific management, pushed to an extreme, on the trades in which elements of fine art or personal tiiste are factors, would often lead to artistic inefficiency . I^f^vre, ]). 242 ; for plans of cases for various languages, see plates in the same work. A FONT AND ITS CASE 25 to 12-point, was the standard English and American body and common unit of measurement for types, leads, etc., until the adoption of the point system. The irregular bodies like small pica and bourgeois origi- nated through the widespread use of Dutch fonts by Eng- lish printers. This predilection for Dutch material forced English founders to supply types cast to the Dutch stand- ard. Some of the Dutch body -sizes were almost the same as English regular sizes, and were consequently called by the usual English name, which would thus come to stand for two or more slightly different bodies. But when a new font was imported, or cut by an unskilful English work- man, which would not fit any regular English body, it was cast on an irregular body and given a new name.' The names of the old type-bodies varied in different countries. Although they are practically abandoned to-day, it is useful to know what their original names were — a part of the literary history of type which explains many allusions in early books on printing that would be other- wise unintelligible. At first the name was descriptive of both body and face. Later it was applied to the body only. For instance: English was the name used to describe one size and all faces of hlack-letter type ; and thus some speci- men books display black-letter of 14-point size under the heading "English English." Indeed, until about the end of the eighteenth century an "English" face was understood to be black-letter. The old names of the chief English, To confess the truth, ' ' says Rowe Mores, * ' the irregular bodies owe their origin to the unskilfulness of workmen, who when they had cut a fount which happened to vary from the intended standard gave it the name of a beauty, and palmed it upon the printers as a purposed novelty — such are Paragon, N'onfiarnl, Pearl, Minion, Robyn and Diamond.^' Dissertation ufion English Ty/wgra}ihical Founders and Founderies, I^ndon, 1788, p. 20. 26 PRINTING TYPES French, German, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish types with their approximate equivalent in points are shown in the accompanying lists/ That the sizes of ancient type-bodies were arbitrary was deplored bv writers as early as Moxon. In his Mechanick Exercises he gives tables showing the number of squares of a certain body which should make up an English foot. For instance, 184 squares or ems of a pearl body, or 17^ of the great-canon body, were comprised in one English foot. The relation, however, of these types to one another was extremely irregular. Dominique Fertel, of St. Omer, in his Science Pratique de Vlmprimerie^ written in 1723, alludes to the lack of precision and uniformity in sizes of type current in his time. It was to remedy this that Pierre Simon Fournier^ formulated his "point system" in the tractate issued at Paris in 1737, en tided Tables des Pro- portions qiHil faut observer entre les caracteres; describing and developing it further in the preface to his Modelesdes Car- acteres de V Imprimerie of 1742 ; and finally gi\'ing an elab- orate description of his perfected scheme of the "typo- graphic point" in his Manuel Typographique of 1764. 1 do not know how the scheme of proportion of type-bodies pro- posed in the original formulation of 1737 compares with that proposed in 1742, but the latter is neither as complete nor as practical as is the plan finally de^'eloped in 1764. In the Modeles Fournier took for his unit of measurement a line * For names of types in French, English, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, and Magyar, see lists in Vocabulaire Technique de VFAiteur en Se/it Languea, licme, 1913, p. 303. The. derivations of these names are of considerable in- terest, and are treated at length in Reed's Old Kngliah Letter Foundries, pp. 35-40; also in De Vinne's Plain Printing- 7\///f«, pp. 62-68. Commonly called Founiier le jeune. He sometimes styled himself S. P. Fournier, as in the Table des Profiortions repro<luced on a later l)age. o U U Oh -2 C Oh h ■« rt o •r rt 7 rt ; « ct; O c <: ^ M cq 0 2 2-5 rt S c a, c 2 t^ o 3 ^^ w *>^ O 'y "■' *** r Oh S- t^ — S S 6 .S O rt r! ^ ^ to O h S Z q! c o ^ 3 3 2 < QJ QJ CL) ^ _Q ^ ^ iH o C O tJ .'H H rS C rt .''^hij^,:;^ ram Z,^^^'^~'-'001^ajO-'i s fcS ^ C "^ •:? Oi 1"! U u ^ O -S ^ .S <u (U C o a^ B t>^ O fc^ Q e< h cj a 1^ ° S , .. bi) t^ i: rt ^ O I u .s p; Q O H Oh cS O §S o 3 ^ o. h O fc«i o M u S.a< u 2 rt O ,0; 3 Cl, o -a CO c ?i S __ O OJ "J cx;p^H<; Q ^h^ j^L' w re <Li •S S S S ^§ :§ .2 a .2 & 1 1 ^ 6o a, •= jj Pl, ^ D 2 bO rt .y o i! c .y Ph Q O W O, _^ 5 qj qj tu (u 'n c S S .= c 3 rt -7 -7 -7 ^ O CJ N N N N Q — Kr, W) ■i <l> .^ h-1 pq pq 000000 CUi O, Oh CU Oh 0-, .2 .S .S .S .S .S .S .S .S S 'So o 'o '0 '0 'o 'o 'o "0 OhOh o. OHOHO.OHa.o.OH Goo •+ N«OC>\oot^VO 28 PRINTING TYPES of six points, and a 10-point type would therefore be meas- ured as one line and four points — a plan somewhat cum- brous and inconvenient [Jig. 5). But in the Manuel oi 1764 he did away with the line and took the point as his unit — a much simpler plan, and one w hich by its practicality com- mended itself to printers then, as it has done ever since. His description of the first successful endeavour to place the measurements of types on a rational basis is quoted on a later page. Before Fournier began experiments with the typographic point, there had been already some regulation of the height of French types; and a standard measurement of type-bodies had been proposed as early as 1733. But the standard to which types A\ere to conform was set arbitrarily by some characters which happened to be found in one particular office, and the regulations which were issued at the time, not having any fixed principle of universal application, were useless. The idea was that one type should be equal to the body of tw o other types, but what the form of those two other bodies was to be was not decided. Of course, so ill- defined a plan ended in nothing. Fournier describes his invention as something "new and unknown." "I give it a place here," he says in his Manuel^ "in order to explain the new proportions which I have applied to type bodies by the fixed measures which I call typographic points, . . . introducing in this department of typography an orderliness which it has never before had. Through the invention of typographic points, I think I have been fortunate enough to succeed with an exactness and precision which leave nothing to be desired. The typo- Mannrl Tyfirjirrafihic/ue, Utile aux Gens clc litres, iS" a ceux qui exercent leu difft-rentcH fiardcH de P Art de r Imfirimerie. Par Fournier le jeune. Paris, 1764. Tonic I, ))]). 125 ct ftrr/. 5? TABLE DES PROPORTIONS DES DIFFERENS CARACTERES DE L'IMPRIMERIE Par S. P. Fo urniesl , GraveHr & FonJeur de Cara^eres d' Imbrimcrie. m n •4 DtUX roUCES. PARISIENNE. NOMPAREILLE. MIGNONE. PETIT-TEXTE. GAILLARDE. PETIT-ROMAlN. PHILOSOPHIE. CICERO. SAINT-AUGUSTIN. GROS-TEXTE. GROS-ROMAIN. PET1T-PAR.ANGON. GROS-PARANGON. PALESTINE. PETIT-CANON. TRISMEGISTE. GROS-CANON. DOUBLE-CANON. TRIPLE-CANON. GROSSE-NOMPA- REILLE. ». Pamsiennes — — I. P.irificrmc , i. Nompareillc. — — 1. NoMPAREiLLES. II I . Parificnne , i. Mignone. I. MiGNONES. II I. Nomrareille, i . Pecic-Texte. — — I. Petits-Textes. II I . Parif. I . Philofophie. i i.Nompareil. I. Petit Remain. I i . Mignone , i : G.iillarde. II i . Parif. i . Nomp. — — 1. Gaillardes. I 3. Nompareillcs. II i. Nomp. i. Cicero. | 1 . Mign. I. Philofoph. 1 i . Pet. Text, i . Pet. Rom. 11 i. Parif. i . Pet. Text, II I . Parif. i . Nomp. i . Mignone. i.Petits-Romains. I 4. Parifienncs. II i.Nomp. i.S.iint-Au- gufbn. I I. Pet. Text. i.Cic. I i.Gaill. i. Philofoph. || 1. Parif i. Pet. R<>m. I I.Nomp. I, Pet. Text. I t.Mign. i.Nomp. 11 i. Parif] I.Nomp. i.GaiU. 1 i." Parif ^, Mignon. i. Pet. Text. —^ z. Philosophies, 11 i.Nomp. i.Gros-Textc. 1 i. Pet. Text. Saint-Aug. I i. Pet. Rom., i. Cic. il z. Parif i.Cic. I i.Nomp. i. Pet.Rom. 1 1. Mien. i.Pet.Texc. 1 1. Pet. Text. i.Nomp. 11 i. Parif I.Nomp, I, Philofoph. 1 i,Nomp. i.Mign. i.Gaill, 11 i. Parif 1. Nomp. I 3. Parif i, Mignon. — — i.CiCERos. I 3.Petits-Textes. 1 4. Nomparcilles. 11 i.Nomp. I . Gros-Romain. I i. Pet. Text, i . Gr. Text. I i . Pet. Rom. i . Sain^ Aug. II 1. Parif I.S.Aug. | i.Nomp. i.Cic. 1 2. Mignon. i.Per. Rom. 1 I.Gaill. i.Nomp. 11 i. Parif i.Mign. i.Cic. 1 i. Parif r. Gail!. I, Pet. Rom. 1 i, Nomp. i.Mign. i. Philofoph. 1 i.Nomp. I. Pet. Text. I. Pet. Rom. 1 i. Migt>. i- Pet. Text, i, Gaill, 11 1. Parif i.Mign. I 3. Parif i.Gaill. 1. Saints-Augustins. I 4. Migrtones. II i.Nomp. i. Gros- Parangon. I i. Pet. Text. i. Petit-Parangon. I i. Pet.Rom. i. Gr. Rom. I I.Cic I. Gr.Text. 11 1, Parif i.Gr. Rom. 1 i.Nomp. 1. Gr.Text. j i.Mign. i.S.Aug. 1 i.Pet.Text. i.Cic. 1 i.GaiU. 1. Pet.Rom. I 1. Pet, Rom. i. Pet. Text. 1 1. Philofoph. i.Nomp. 11 1. Parif. 1. Gaill. I 1. Nomp. i. Pet. Text. I 1. Parif 3. Nomp. I 3. Nomp. I. Pet. Rom. I 4. Parif i. Pet, Text. 11 i. Parif i.Mign. I. Gr.Text. 1 i.Nomp. i.Pet.Text. i. S.Aug. 1 i. Parif i.Gaill. i.S. Aug. I I. Parif. i. Philofoph. i.Cic. 1 i.Nomp. i. Pet. Rom. I.Cic. I I.Mign. i.Gaill. i.Cic. II i.Nomp. i.Mign. i.Gaill, 1 I. Mign. I. Nomp. i. Pet. Text. 1. Gaos-RoMAiNS. I 3.Cic^ros. 1 4. Gaillardes. 1 6. Nom- pareillcs. II I.Pet.Text. I . Petit-Canon. 1 i.Cic. r. Paleftine.'l i. S. Aug. I . Gr. Parang. 1 i . Gr. Text, i . Pet. Parang. ( On ptut tnure au^mfntn df bttitcouf rajffmiU^e tie c* Corfl t!f dtl fitiv»nt, ) — — 1. Gros-Parangons. I 4. Philofophies. 11 i. Pet. Text. i. Trifm^gifte. I i.Gr. Text, i. Pet. Canon. I i . Pet. Parang, i . Paldline, ■^^— 1. Petits-Canons. I 4. Saint-Auguftins. 1 8. Mignones. 11 I.Cic. i.Gr.Canon. 1 i.Pqt. Parang. i.Trifm^g. i.Trismegistes. I 4. Gros-Romajns. I 6. Cic^ros. I 8. Gail- lardes. I II, Nomparcilles. II i. Gr. Text, is Doubl-Canon. 1 i. Pet. Can', i, Gr. Can. — — 4. Palestines, I S.Cic^ros. ) 1 1, Petits-Te^^tes. 1 ifi.Nom- parcilles. ii i.Paleft. i. Triple-Canon, Tom Ics Caradires doivent avoir dix lignes & dcmic gco- mctriques dc hauteur en pa- pier , fuivanc les Rcglcmcns ; ou onze lignes trois points , mcliire dc I'EcbcUc Les Caraftera dc t'Imprimtrie n'nyam foint eii jufquk frefent d'ordre purfait, ( Its Corps eu/it plus funs tu plus foiblts ,futvint les Imprimeries) je leur dottne ici iin corps fxe dr u«e corrcjpondinct ghinlc ; en cenfcrvunl , iiutiint que j'ai pi , Us forces de corps ordinaires : ce qui a iti approuiie des perfonnes les plus exptrimentees dans tArt.Et pour. I'exlcution , j'ai fait une Echelle queje divife en deuxpouces , lepouce en douzt lignes , cf U liene en fix points ; oil il faudra prendre exaClement U mmhrc de lignes (§■ de points que je marque pour chaque Corps. 5. Fournier's Table of Proportions of Bodies of Different Types From Modules des Caracteres de rimfirimerie. Paris, 1742 (^reduced) THE TYPOGRAPHICAL POINT 29 graphic point is nothing but the division of the type body into equal and definite degrees which are called Points. By this means any one can know exactly the degree of differ- ence and the relation of type bodies to one another. One may combine them as numerals are combined; two and two make four; add two and you will have six; double this and you get twelve, etc. So a Nonpareille, Avhich is six points, with another Nonpareille would make a Cicero, which is twelve points. Add still a Nonpareille and you would have eighteen points, or a Gros-Romain. Double this total, which would make thirty-six points, and you have the Trisme- giste, and so on with the others, as you will see by the table of proportions. . . . "To combine the bodies it is sufficient merely to know the number of typographical points in each. To do this, these points or given units should be invariable, so that they will serve as standards in printing-offices, like the pied du roi, the inch, and the line in geometry. To this end I have fixed the exact size which the points should have, in a scale which is at the head of my Table of Proportions, and to insure invariable exactitude in casting types, I have devised an instrument which I have called a prototype. . . . "The invention of these points is the first tribute which I rendered to typography in 1737. Obliged since then to start on a long, difficult and laborious career by engraving all the punches necessary to the establishment of my foundry, I found no rule to guide me in fixing the body of the char- acters which I was obliged to make. I was therefore forced to formulate my own principles, which I have done, and which I have rendered comprehensible by the following table {portions shown hy Jigs. 6 and 7). " At the head of the table is a fixed and standard scale which I have divided into two inches, the inch into 12 lines, THE TYPOGRAPHICAL POINT 31 general relation between all bodies of types, as will be shown by the following combinations. "This scale contains in its totality twelve bodies of Cice'ro. After printing this same table, which I published in 1737, I perceived that the paper in drying had shrunk the proper dimensions of the scale a little, and in the present table I have forestalled this fault by adding what should be allowed for the shrinkage of the paper." Fournier's general table of proportions of the different bodies of characters is interesting. His idea of correcting the lack of system in casting types was excellent, but in the exact plan which he was proposing it was risky to make merely a rough and ready allowance for shrinkage of the paper on which his table was printed, if he intended to ar- rive at any exact result. Books at that period were printed on wet paper, and its shrinkage was very variable. It is perfectly possible, therefore, that the elaborately introduced scale, with its 144 points, varied by at least a point in dif- ferent copies of Fournier's Manuel. His prototype was of metal, a large measure of 240 points, something like a com- posing-stick, and was intended to correct this fault ; but the prototype itself was probably subject to slight variations in manufacture, and was in no sense an instrument of pre- cision. In the succeeding steps by which the present point sys- tem was arrived at, the next advance was made by Fran- gois Ambroise Didot, of the celebrated French family of typographers. Realizing the weakness of Fournier's basis of measurement, he adopted as his standard the authori- tative pied du 7vi^ containing 12 French or 12.7892 Amer- ican inches. He preserved Fournier's subdivisions, mak- ing 72 points to the French inch. Nor did he find it dif- ficult to adjust the smaller sizes of type to his new sys- 32 PRINTING TYPES tern. With large bodies, Didot was less fortunate. Cicero, which was, like our 12-point or pica, the standard for de- termining sizes, he changed from twelve to eleven points, which proved rather disastrous in its ^^•orking out. The traditional names of types he threw over, substituting for them (with French lucidity) the number of points which the tvpe-body covered, as we do to-day; and this uas perhaps the \'aluable feature of Didot's performance. At the loss of a certain historical and picturesque nomenclature, it placed type sizes upon a basis comprehensible to the meanest intelli- gence. The introduction of the Didot system of points was not made without confusion, however; for many printers, es- pecially in the French provinces, persisted in using the sys- tem of Fournier — a persistence continued until late in the last century. The Didot point is used in most of the foun- dries of Austria, Asia Minor, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Rumania, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey. Fournier's point is scarcely used nowadays, except in Belgium. At the time that the Didot system was introduced the French metric system had not been adopted, and it is only fair to say that until a type system is formulated which is in full and regular accordance with the metric system, per- fection will not be attained. But the advance made has been very great and has infinitely simplified type-setting, the facility with which the numerical nomenclature indicates the sizes of types as compared with one another, being a by-product of a still greater mechanical advantage. In this country, George Bruce of New York formulated, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, a plan based on the theory that bodies of types should increase by arith- metical progression — that small pica should be made as much larger than long primer as bourgeois was larger than THE TYPOGRAPHICAL POINT 33 brevier. This system, which De Vinne calls ingenious and scientific, was not adopted except in Bruce's own foundry. Further advances were made, in which western type- founders took the lead. Marder, Luse & Co. of the Chicago Type Foundry began to produce types on point bodies about 1878. Influenced by this, in 1886 the United States Type Founders' Association named a committee to consider the point system. It was found that the pica body selected as a standard could be made to accord (irregularly) with the metric system, 83 picas being equal to 35 centimetres. The unit was gained by dividing the pica into 12 equal parts, each part being called a point. As in France, the old names were discarded, great primer becoming 18-point, pica becoming 12-point, long primer, 10-point. This was very much the system of Foumier and of Didot ; the only difference being that the pica selected was of a slightly different body from their standard body. It is known as the American point system, and many American printers proudly suppose that it is called so from having been wholly invented here! The common measure for all bodies of type was de- cided by the Tjq^e Founders' Association to be 35 centi- metres or 83 picas in length. To gain a standard for de- termining the height of type it was proposed that this same standard of 35 centimetres should be chosen, and 15 type- heights were to build up to the 35 centimetres. There is a slight difference here between the old standard of ^ of an inch and the new standard. The difference amounts to only about ^ part of an inch, but this is sufficient to make it impossible to use types of the old heights in combination with those of the new. The Type Founders' Association also considered the ad- visability of adopting the Didot point ; but this, which had a 34 PRINTING TYPES great advantage in permitting the interchange of types be- tween France and America, Mould have involved too much of a departure bv American founders, and was thought im- practicable. It is not fair to expect from the adoption of the Ameri- can point system that all difficulties will be overcome. Trouble in tvpes may still be caused by defective moulds, by the overheating of the metal, or by careless dressing ; and types of the same bodies from different foundries cannot always be used together with safety. There is still the great obstacle of a lack of uniformity in the height of the types themselves.^ But in spite of all this, typographical practice has been enormously simplified by the "point" system. It was adopted in England in 1898, though it had been in use by her nearest continental neighbour for well over a hun- dred and fifty years! The adjustment to units of the width or set of types, as well as their height-to-paper and their body, has also been considered. In 1883 Mr. Linn B. Benton took out a patent for types made to units both in body and width — called "self-spacing" type. In 1894 a western firm introduced this system of self-spacing types, every type in their entire out- put being placed on a body the width of which was equal to an even division of the standard "pica em." Later the more logical unit of a point was adopted — hence the term "point-set." This was to result theoretically, as indeed it did practically, in each line ending evenly, and for the work- man trouble in spacing was avoided; but the shapes of letters and the space around them were arbitrarily rearranged by Tlie dimension of a type as to height is measured from the face to the foot, and is termed "lieight- to-paper." 'Die standard height-to-paper is 0.918 incli. Types exceeding or falling short of this measurement are termed re- spectively " high- to-paper " and " low-to-paper." POINT-SET AND LINING TYPES 35 such a method. Types have definite shapes already deter- mined. The bodies on which they are cast cannot be wid- ened or narrowed merely to aid mechanical convenience, with successful typographical results. In comparing fonts cast according to the old system of irregular sets and those cast on the point-set system, we find that the older font had more than ninety different sets, while the latter has but from thirteen to twenty. Something suffers when ninety different adjustments are reduced to from thirteen to twenty, and the "something" that suffers is the effect of the type. Point-line — another so-called improvement — was intro- duced by the same western house in 1894; and has been so generally adopted by American and English foundries that it is now known as the Standard Lining System. There are mechanical advantages inherent in this scheme, but they are attained at the expense of the correct proportion of certain letters. The convenience of being able to align different sizes of type by the use of 1 -point leads or their multiples is no doubt appreciated by the compositor ; but to make this possible, types below 18-point are arranged, so far as "line" is concerned, in but three groups: in the first are 5 and 6-point types; in the second, 7 to 10-point types; and in the third, 11 to 1 6-point. Taking the second group for illustration, the "descenders" of g, j, p, q, and y can be no longer in a 10-point than in a 7-point face; and as they are none too long in 7-point they become much too short in 10-point. This disregard for proportionate length of descenders of types of different sizes pervades the whole scheme ; and consequently no size of type (excepting pos- sibly 7-point and 11-point) which is cast on Standard Line can have descenders of adequate length ; while in some sizes they are so "chopped off" as to produce real deformity. It is fair to say, however, that a few series of roman and italic 36 PRINTING TYPES types have been arranged on Standard Script Line, which permits descenders of proper length in all except small sizes. The shortened descender is objectionable from two points of view. In the first place, if the type in mass (especially in larger sizes, and when leaded) is not to present a squat and rolling appearance, the ascenders and descenders must be of adequate length to counteract this tendency. And in Eng- lish, especially, the slanting and vertical lines of descend- ers are particularly required to offset the preponderance of round, short letters. With the descenders shortened the page loses that texture or "woven" look which is an inte- gral part of elegance in typography. It is objectionable, sec- ondly, because the legibility of a letter has a direct connec- tion with its form; and to disregard this, for mechanical or any other reasons, makes type less "friendly to the eye." One convenience of the lining system is that all faces of a given size, \vhatever their character, line with one an- other. This enables the compositor to give emphasis to a certain word in the body of a page by using hea\y-faced type, without the necessity of "justification." A good typog- rapher seldom, if ever, wishes to give emphasis to a word in the middle of a sentence by setting it in heavy type; nevertheless there are cases, especially in catalogue work, where it is necessary to use some heavy-faced type to pick out a title or some saHent feature akin to it. But a so-called advantage which offers facilities for wretched typography is that any italic will line with any roman — which has hith- erto been difficult and "would to God were impossible!" In these point-set and lining types (offered to the printer on the ground of laix)ur-saving and economic advantages) care about distortion of the shape of letters, ill-fit to bodies or mixture of faces, or the effect which all this results in, was cast to the winds. Instead of being combated by larger foun- POINT-SET AND LINING TYPES 37 dries, both point-set and lining schemes were at once fol- lowed for business reasons. But the lining system was not adopted without some objection from printers, which is now making itself distinctly felt, and type-founders are again offering fonts with long descenders — a movement that has extended to the makers of type-setting machines. Shortened descenders are nothing new. Italian printers used such deformed types in the fifteenth century, but they had no lasting vogue. The Elzevirs used them in the seven- teenth century, — one reason why Elzevir books as reading editions now are failures, — but they did not survive. In the eighteenth century Caslon showed them as variants to his famous fonts, and Fournier possessed such types ; but they went the way of all flesh. The shortened descender tried in our day is again going out of use ; for no type-founder or machine-maker can permanently "buck" the proper pro- portions of letters. A lining system which mutilates descenders, and self- spacing or point-set schemes which involve either lateral distortion of letters or too much space between them, may for the moment seem clever, convenient, lasting, and money- saving " improvements," but they are merely unintelligent, temporary, and inartistic expedients. The reason that such schemes met at first with instant success is attributable to that lack of standard on the printers' part to which I have alluded before. Their waning vogue has come from a little study and education. Men must show their faith by their works ; and it is of litde use to admire early typography when one is willing for money-making reasons to destroy, or permit the destruction of, the elements which made it ad- mirable. But apart from all this, the fundamental trouble with these schemes is, that they make types hard to read. CHAPTER III THE LATIN ALPHABET AND ITS DEVELOPMENT UP TO THE INVENTION OF PRINTING IN the preceding chapter we considered how type was made, the sizes of types, and the systems w hich have been devised for their measurement. We must now learn something about the history and design of type itself. Whence are derived the shapes of the characters in which you read the sentence before you ; and whence comes the tvpe in which this sentence is printed? The type of this book is a font trarmtional bet\\een the "old style" types of the school of Caslon and the English equivalent of the pseudo-classic types made at the beginning of the nineteenth century under the influence of Didot of Paris, Bodoni of Parma, and Unger of Berlin. These pseudo-classic types were modifications of that old style type (as we should now call it) which was in use in Ejigland and throughout Europe in the middle of the eighteenth century. The English old style types of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were chiefly derived from Dutch models of the middle of the seventeenth century ; and these seventeenth century types in turn were modelled on earlier roman^ types com- mon in Europe which were introduced into Italy at the time of the Renaissance. Any one familiar with the earliest print- ing will note that many of the early types were black-letter characters derived from manuscripts, and at first sight it is a little perplexing to know where Roman characters come from. But the Roman characters of the Italian Renaissance were a revival, along with the revival of antique learning, of the lettering in which antique learning had been pre- ' In this book tlie words Roman and Gothic, when describing handwriting, manuscript, style, form, etc., are capital izcti. But when denominating print- ing types, they are not. THE LATIN ALPHABET 39 served at the period of Charlemagne ; and this antique lettering, preserved in the calligraphic revival of the ninth century, was in part a return to the early Roman characters which go back to a period coeval with the Christian era. Thus the type of this page is tied historically to the written characters of the Romans. In tracing the ancestry of any modern type-form, it is by no means sufficient to limit our research to the earliest types, for it cannot be too clearly understood that the ^r^^ printed books (as has before been said) were nothing more than imi- tations of late manuscripts. " The discovery of typographic printing did not all at once produce, it is to be understood, a radical change in the general aspect of the book. The first works which left the hands of the printers were astonish- ingly like the manuscripts of the same period, especially up to about 1475; so exactly indeed that at first sight one cannot always say, whether one has before him a piece of early printing, or a manuscript. . . . The letters of the printed text present the same characters as those w^hich were written by the calligraphers. . . . The same abbreviations, the same ligatures, and the same punctuations are found as in the manuscript. The disposition of the printer's text is the same as that of the manuscript text."^ So it is clear that we can have no knowledge of the types of to-day and their history without knowing the history of types back to the invention of printing, and that we can have no knowledge of the first types or their relative place in the scheme of things unless we know how earlier calligraphers formed the letters of their manuscript book-hands. Nor can we tell how the letter-forms themselves came to be unless ' See Leo S. Olschki's /ncuncWe* illustres imitantles Manuscrits. Le fxassage dii manuscrit au livre imfirime, Florence, 1914, p. 5. See also the illustra- tions of illuminated incunabula. 40 PRINTING TYPES we kno^v the history of the alphabet, of the various forms of Latin writing, and its vicissitudes in different countries up to the invention of printing. Alpliabetic writing had generally five successive stages. It began w ith ideograms, which were pictures, represent- ing to those who made them either : (1) objects; (2) thoughts.^ Then came phonograms, which were merely ideograms by which sounds had come to be signified instead of things, and of these there were three sorts : (3) signs which stood for words; ^ (4) signs which stood for syllables; (5) alphabetic signs which stood for the elementary sounds which constitute the syllable. This last is what our alphabet is now; its letters being "phonograms which by the process of long continued detri- tion have reached an extreme stage of simplicity both as regards form and value. If the history of any one of our * The Roman numerals are supposed by some to be ideograms — I, II, III rep- resenting the fingers of the human hand, and V representing the hand open, and signifying 5. Again IV = 1 less finger than a hand, represents 4. VI = 1 more finger than a hand, gives us 6. X was a picture or ideogram of two hands = 10. In fact, we call these figures digits = fingers. The zodiacal and planetary signs used by astronomers are also ideograms. The symbol $ is the caduceus of Mercurj' entwined by two serpents; $ is the mirror of Venus, with its handle; and S is tiie shield and spear of Mars. I'he symbol 2/ , which denotes Ju])iter, resolves itself into an arm grasping a thunderbolt; wiiilc h , which stands for Saturn, is a mower's scytlie. Among other ideograms which we em])loy may be enumerated tlie crown and the brcjad arrow, sundry trademarks and armorial bearings, together ■with sevenil ])rinter's signs, such as ^~ ; ! , and = ." Taylor's The Mfiha- bet, London, 1883, Vol. I, pp. 7, 8. Such symbols as £,, s, d, though alphabetic in their origin, are now used simply as convenient phonograms, standing for the words "pounds," "shil- lings," and " pence." Ibid. Also such signs as $, tb, cwt. (c = 100, wt. = weiglit), etc. THE LATIN ALPHABET 41 alphabetic symbols be traced backwards, it will be found to resolve itself ultimately into the conventionalized picture of some object." ^ The next question is, Where does our alphabet come from ? We derive our Latin alphabet from the Greeks and the Greeks received theirs from the Phoenicians, but from whom the Phoenicians derived their alphabet we do not know. Sixty or seventy years ago it was supposed that it could be historically connected with the Egyptian hieratic writing, but this theory is either erroneous, or at the present moment out of fashion. The Greek alphabet had a close relation to the Phoeni- cian, or (as perhaps it is more properly called) the Semitic alphabet. In the first place, the forms were in many cases very much alike. The word "alphabet," which gives a clue to the connection, is derived from alpha and beta., the names of the first and second letters of the Greek alphabet. "The names of the Semitic letters," Sir Edward Maunde Thompson tells us, "are Semitic words, each describing the letter from its resemblance to some particular object, as, aleph^ an ox, heth^ a house. When the Greeks took over their Semitic letters, they also took over their Semitic names." ^ Both the names of the letters and their order in the two alphabets are the same. This alphabet was employed by the Phoenicians, by the Jews, and by the Moabites, and from early inscriptions, the primitive Phoenician alphabet, con- sisting of twenty-two letters, can be made up. * Taylor's The Jlfihabet, Vol. I, p. 8. See Sir E. Maunde Thompson's Introductiov to Greek and Latin Palaeo- grafihy, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1912, p. 1: referred to henceforth as Thompson. It is not to be confused with the same author's Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeografihy, published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. in their Lnternational Scientijic Series, first issued in 1893 and since republished. 42 PRINTING TYPES The Greeks learned the art of writing in the ninth cen- tury B.C. — perhaps earlier. The primiti\ e Greek alphabet was generally kno\vn as the Cadmean alphabet, and it had many yarieties. The alphabets first in use were written from right to left; then the houstrophedon method of writing came into yogue, in which the lines ran alternately from right to left and from left to right, like the furrows of a plough ; and finally writing all ran from left to right as it does to-day. The Latin alphabet had twenty letters of the Greek western alphabet and three letters in addition, G, Y, and Z. Our English alphabet has tuenty-six letters, the additions being (as we know) J, an alternate form of I ; U, which is a similar form of V ; and W, \\hich is simply two ligatured V's equivalent to a double U. Manuscripts in the Latin alphabet go back to the first cen- tury of our era, and the history of Latin writing is divided into five periods, each distinguished by its characteristic group of handwritings. These, according to Steifens's ^ con- venient divisions, are as follows: i writing of the Roman period ; ii national handwritings ; iii the Carolingian minuscule ; iv the Gothic minuscule; v Humanistic writing and modern Gothic hands. Under each epoch there were many subdivisions. For instance, the writing of the Roman period was of several kinds, namely : (rt) a capital letter hand (further subdivided); {Ij) ancient Roman cursive handwriting ; Steffens's (Franz) , Paleografihie Latine. 125 Fac-similcH en phototyfiie acom- fiagnea de tranacrifitioTiH et cVex/ilications, avec un ex/wse sy.itt'maticjuc de P/iiatoire df rccriture latine. Troves and Paris, 1910. (l-xlited by Renii Cou- lon and translated into French from tlie second German edition of Lateiniache Paleofp'afihie. ) THE LATIN ALPHABET 43 (c) uncial letters; {(I) later Roman cursive handwriting; (e) a half-uncial letter. These belonged to the Roman period of writing alone. It is not necessary to describe all these variations here, except to say that there were at a very early period different kinds of handwriting intended for special purposes; just as later certain types were employed to print special classes of books. For instance, in the writing of the Roman period we find there were two forms of capital letters, which are called the square capital (or capita/is guadrata, e/egans, or scnp- tiira monumentaUs)^ and the rustic capital, which is called capitalis rustica or scriptiira actuaiia.' The former is a square, rigid, formal letter used for inscriptions and more stately kinds of manuscripts ; the latter — the rustic — is some- what freer, though employed for fine manuscripts as well. The works of the great poets were written in these styles — for the edition de luxe of books by celebrated authors is a very ancient institution.^ What the difference is between these two forms is plain. Rustic letters were easier to make and could be written more rapidly than the formal, square hands, but both forms of capitals were intended for manuscripts of books. Now it is not to be supposed that letters, accounts, re- ceipts, and scribblings were written in these hands. The Romans had, as we have, a current running handwriting which they used for commercial and ordinary purposes, and which they called scriptura cursiva^ or littera epistolaris, to distinguish it from the straighter book-hand, which was ^ Paleografihie Latine, pi. 12; or Thompson, fac. 82. * Paleografihie Latine, pis. 10, 19; also Thompson, facs. 84, 85, 86. This difference appeared also in inscriptions in stone. See Votive Inscrip- tion on marble, in square and rustic capitals, reproduced in Steffens's Paleo- graphie Latine, pi. 7 . 44 PRINTING TYPES called scriptura erecta, or lihraria} This old Roman cursive, while it was cursi\e, was a cursive of capital letters^ and in course of time these letters began to show certain ligatures as well as inequalities in their height.' In the history of any art or craft there is constant development ; and it was so in the history of writing. Letters were all the time evolving special characteristics. The capital book-hands, for instance, fell under the influence (especially in rustic forms) of cursive capital handwriting coexistent m ith them ; and inversely the cursive capital hands, as they progressed, became mod- ified bv the influence of literary book-hands of capital letters familiar to the same scribes. So the next step in the writ- ing of capital hands showed itself in a development of what was called the uncial letter, which we shall hear a good deal about. The uncial was distinguished from the capital of the book-hands by the round character of certain letters ; the chief characteristic "test-letters" being A, D, E, H, and M.* In other words, the old informal, cursive capital hand had broken into the square capital, formal hand, and pro- duced these uncial capitals, M'hich, because they were much easier to write, follo\\'ed cursive rather than square capitals in shape. This uncial hand began to show itself as early as the third century, but was in its heyday in the fifth and sixth centuries. By the eighth century it greatly degener- ated, although there was an attempt to revive it for certain ornamental purposes.* * Paleografihie iMtine, pi. 9. ' Ibid., pi. 13; also Tables of Latin Cursive Alfihabcts, in niompson, pp. 335-337. * Strange's Alfihabets, I^mdon, 1898, pi. 2. * Sec Paleoip-afihie Inline, pis. 15 (showing both early and later uncials), 17, 18; or Tliompson, facs. 87, 88. THE LATIN ALPHABET 45 The later or new Roman cursive hand which succeeded the older cursive, like it was characterized by flowing liga- tures between letters and by characters of unequal height; but these became much more frequent and striking. The style of the letters showed that their forms had changed through the effect of rapidity and freedom of execution. Ligatured letters became more common and more varied, and from this kind of writing the black-letter ft ultimately is derived. But a chief distinction was the marked difference between tall and short letters ; and from this hand, thus de- veloped, the first minuscule alphabet — the beginnings of a printer's "lower-case" alphabet — is derived. The first square capitals were drawn as if they were between two par- allel lines. The more cursive capitals and uncial capitals showed some tendency to break through these lines, and a certain number of characters actually did so. The later Roman cursive appears as if arranged between yowr parallel lines. The short letters are compressed between the two middle lines, the bodies of other letters still coming between these two lines, but ascending and descending letters touch almost the first and fourth line of the four imaginary lines alluded to just as they do in type to-day.^ Finally, there was also a half-uncial letter which differed from uncial writing in this way — that while uncial writing was composed of capitals with a fcAv intrusions of minus- cule (or as a printer would say "lower-case") letters, the half-uncial was generally based on minuscule (or "lower- case") forms, with occasional intrusions of capital letters. This style of handwriting was revived as a part of that calHgraphic reform in which the abbey of St. Martin at Tours played so important a part in the ninth century.^ ' Paleografihie Latine, pi. 22; Thompson, facs. 110, 111. ■ Tliompson, facs. 98, 99, 100 ; or Paleografihie Latine, pi. 20. 46 PRINTING TYPES Here we have a fuller development yet of our present "lower-case" alphabet. It has been said that Latin writing was divided into five classes, viz : i writing of the Roman period; ii national handwritings; iii the Carolingian minuscule; iv the Gothic minuscule; V Humanistic writing and modern Gothic hands. We have so far touched solely on the handwriting of the Roman period and the five classes into which that was sub- divided; i.e. (a) the capital letter-hand, (Z') the old Roman cursive handwriting, (c) the uncial letters, (cl) a later Roman cursive, and (e) a half-uncial letter. What is learned thus far? Merely from this we see whence Me derive capital letters, whence we derive certain uncial forms of capital letters with which we are familiar in black-letter types, and whence we derive our lower-case alphabet. Furthermore, we learn that there were three forms of writing — a formal, less formal, and informal; and perhaps it may be said that in type, capitals answer to the formal square capital hands, lower-case letters to the less formal half-uncial letter, and italic to the informal later Roman cursive hands. The square capital, the old Roman cursive, the uncial, and especially the later Roman cursive and half-uncial hands, are the sources from which we derive our present type alphabet. From what has been said only of the Roman period, the importance of all the different epochs of the history of Latin writing, in their effect upon letter-forms, may be guessed. But we are not considering the history of all stages and variations of Latin writing except as they have to do more directly with printing types, explain the shapes which these have taken on, and the uses to which they have been THE LATIN ALPHABET 47 put. We need, therefore, only touch on the remaining four great groups of manuscript hands: ii the national hands; iii the Carolingian minuscule; iv the Gothic minuscule; V Humanistic writing and modern Gothic hands; — ^hands which had either an enormous influence on the let- ters of our present alphabet, or else actually survive in types in daily use. During the existence of the Roman Empire diiferent west- ern countries continued to employ Roman cursive writing. But on its fall, while at first the handwriting of the pro- fessional scribes preserved more or less the old traditional forms of uncial, half-uncial, etc., the cursive characters employed for literary scripts slowly took on, in various countries, changes analogous to those which the Latin tongue underwent in the Romance languages. In Italy there was an old ItaHan cursive, a Curiale, an old Italian man- uscript hand, and the better-known Beneventan writing. These were all Italian hands, but were all derived from later Roman cursive writing. They were also all minuscule hands. In France their equivalents took on a diiferent de- velopment into what was called the Merovingian letter, a French national hand originally derived from Roman cur- sive characters but with marked, though slowly developed, French peculiarities. The Visigothic writing was nothing more than the Roman hand isolated and changed by the national genius of Spain into its characteristic Spanish form. What were called the Insular hands — i.e., Anglo- Saxon and Irish — had, too, whatever their origin, a charac- teristic development within themselves and formed a partic- ular style of writing entirely distinguishable from French, Italian, or Spanish. The student may see what these hands 48 PRINTING TYPES were by consulting facsimiles of Visigothic, Merovingian, Franco-Lombardic, and Pre-Carolingian writing.^ "In the ^^isigothic hand," says Thompson, — and the same is true of other national book-hands, — "there is the national char- acter inherent in the script, which, quite independently of any peculiar forms of letters, reveals the nationality of a handwriting as clearly as personal handwriting reveals the individual." It will be seen later that this is true of the na- tional printing types which succeeded these national man- uscript-hands. Roughly speaking, all these forms of letter were what in type we call "lower-case," though in them some capital forms were included. These national hands pro- foundly influenced the earliest type-forms in their respective countries ; as, for instance, in certain sorts of well-known black-letter types in use to-day, which are directly derived from English and French manuscripts. In all books on early writing, Carolingian minuscules are mentioned: a term that is readily comprehensible if it be remembered that "minuscule" may be taken for our pur- poses as meaning merely a lower-case letter, and that "Caro- lingian" indicates the epoch of Charles the Great, otherwise Charlemagne. This ruler, in the revival of learning that marked his reign, not alone collected manuscripts preserv- . ing works of antiquity, but in copying them desired that the form of letter adhered to as a model by scribes should be the most beautiful that could be found. This was eifected by a partial return to the letter-forms of Roman manu- scripts.^ As has been happily said of the revival of classical forms in ornament of Louis XVFs time: "We can see its ''lliompson, facs. 115-131. * It should be said, however, that the revival of classical literature under Cliarlemagne was jjreceded by classical studies in Ireland, where the priest- hfxxl showed an instinct for tlie preservation of classical literature. Their spread as missionaries all over Europe played a large part in the preserva- THE LATIN ALPHABET 49 inspiration taken from the classic which it wished to re- produce, together with its fortunate inability to do so, and its consequently successful creation of something entirely original but yet filled with classic spirit." "The reign of Charlemagne," says Thompson, "is an epoch in the history of hand-writings of Western Europe. With the revival of learning naturally came a reform of the writing in which the works of literature were to be made known. A decree of the year 789 called for the revision of church-books; and this work naturally brought with it a great activity in the writing schools of the chief monastic centres of France. And in none was there greater activity than at Tours, where, under the rule of Alcuin of York, who was abbot of St. Martin's from 796 to 804, was spe- cially developed the exact hand which has received the name of the Carolingian Minuscule. . . . The general prac- tice followed in the production of fine mss. in this school, and no doubt in other contemporary schools also, which set the fashion for the future, was to employ majuscule letters, either capitals or uncials, for titles and other ornamental parts of the volume ; for the general text, minuscule script ; but for special passages Mdiich it was desired to bring into prominence, such as tables of chapters, prefaces, and intro- ductory sentences or paragraphs of sections of the work, a handsome style of writing was reserved which was adapted from the old half-uncial script of the fifth and sixth centuries."^ This last served the purpose of what a printer would to-day call "display type."^ "The immense services rendered by tlie Carolingians to the Latin classics consist, therefore," says Hall, "not in their tion of ancient manuscripts. The monasteries of Bobbio, near Pavia, and St. Gall, near Lake Constance, were both founded by Irish priests. Manuscripts executed at these monasteries are important in the history of paleogi-aphy. ^Thompson, p. 367. ^ Paleografihie Latine, pi. 47. 50 PRINTING TYPES attempts at recension which could never be systematic, but in the accuracy with which they copied the good man- uscripts which were still accessible, and in the legibility of the script in which they copied them. The last service is equally important with the first. At Tours, Fleury, Micy, and elsewhere in France, there was e^•olved from the ugly Mero\'ingian script, with its numberless ligatures and con- tractions, and from other sources, the handwriting known as the 'Caroline minuscule.' This clear and beautiful alpha- bet, in A\ hich every letter is distinctly formed, spread rap- idly over the whole of Europe, and is the parent of the mod- ern script and print which is still used by the majority of the Western nations. The difficulty of the earlier hands such as the uncial and half-uncial had often been severely felt. . . . If a difficult handwriting such as the Irish had been widely adopted in early times the havoc wrought in Latin texts by slovenly monkish scribes during the later period would have been much greater. Even the painstaking schol- ars of the Renaissance v^trt completely at a loss when they were confronted with the Irish hand or the Lombardic {e.g. in Tacitus). The soundest texts — with the exception of the few fragments of greater antiquity that are preserved — are those which are attested by manuscripts of the ninth and tenth centuries. The succeeding centuries witness only an increase in corruption."^ The "Carolingian Reform" is important to us because the letter then adopted furnished a model for the types which we use in printing; for this Carolingian minuscule spread throughout France, had a profound influence in Italy, Spain, and England, became the dominant handwriting of western Europe, and superseded all these national hand- writings except that of Ireland. It was introduced into Eng- ' V. W. Hall's Com/ianion to Classical Texts, Oxiovd, 1913, pp. 89, 90. THE LATIN ALPHABET 51 land in the tenth century, but at first, apparently, only for Latin texts/ It was generally adopted in England after the Norman Conquest, and became common in Spain in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Its characteristic was also — for Tours — to banish cursive forms, to make letters inde- pendent of each other, to avoid ligatures (or if ligatured, the ligature made slight changes in form), and to spread the letters. It is obvious that these tendencies adapted themselves to movable types when the time came to make them.^ But the time had not yet come. "Even with this wide- spread use of the reformed hand, uniformity of character could not be ensured. National idiosyncrasies show them- selves as manifestly in the different scripts of different people as they do in their mental and moral qualities ; and although the Carolingian minuscule hand formed the basis of all mod- ern writing of Western Europe, which thus started with more chance of uniformity than the old national hands . . . yet the national character of each country soon stamped itself upon the adopted script. Thus in the later Middle Ages we have again a second series of national hands developed from the Carolingian minuscule and clearly distinguishable from each other." ^ This second national development began in the twelfth century. "It is the period of large volumes, with writing on a large scale, and adorned with initials and borders of bold de- sign. With the increasing diffusion of literature, mss. rapidly multiplied, and now the book-hands of the several countries of Western Europe, all now derived, as we have seen, from DiflFerentiations were made between the kind of books for which these va- rious hands were used. Analogously, in the beginnings of typography certain types were used for one kind of book and others for another — not merely as a matter of taste but as a matter of tradition. * Paleografihie Latine, pis. 47, 51, 52, 60, and Thompson, facs. 132, 133. Thompson, p. 403. 52 PRINTING TYPES the Carolingian minuscule, exhibit their individual charac- teristics ; each one developing its own national style and, in course of time, diverging more and more from the rest. The Mss. of the northern countries of Western Europe are now to be distinguished from those of the south; the book-hands of England, France, and the Low Countries being modelled on one pattern, and, especially at first, bearing a family re- semblance to each other; and those of Italy, Southern France, and the Peninsula being of a type which was the creation of the Italian scribes. The German script, whi6h belongs to the northern group, rather holds a place by itself, being gener- ally of less graceful character than the others." ^ The Gothic minuscule of the Middle Ages was nothing more than an angular form of lower-case black-letter, the intermediate result of this second national development. It is distinguished by its pointed shape, by letters Avhich are taller than they are wide, and by their closeness to each other. "This form of writing," says Steffens, in a passage which is full of interest, "developed little by litde, and in- sensibly, at the precise period at which, in architecture, the round arch gave place to the ogee." He adds that "just as Gothic architecture had in each country certain special characteristics, so did Gothic ^^Titing receive everywhere a national impress. In the fifteenth century the humanists returned to the Carolingian writing, and it was they who gave to pointed writing (as they did to the Ogival style of architecture) the name of Gothic ; that is to say, barba- rous."^ In these various forms of writing are the precursors of black-letter types which we shall meet later on."* It cannot Tliompson, p. 436. This supi)orts what has been already suggested — that typogmjihy and cal- ligrajjliy are closely related to the decoi-ative and arcliitectunU feeling of their time. * Paleogra/ihic Latine, pis. 101, 104, 106, 109 (Cicero), 111. THE LATIN ALPHABET 53 be made too clear that there was no gap between the earliest types and the Gothic minuscule characters of manuscripts of the time immediately preceding them; and that the reason the earliest German printing types were what they were, was because German manuscripts were what ^A<?y were, and that the same thing is true of the early types of other countries.^ Finally, we come to Humanistic writing and modern Gothic hands ; for from the fourteenth century there were in western Europe these two schools of writing. The Hu- manistic writing was round, and was a revival of the old Carolingian minuscule hand as then understood. The Gothic or black-letter hand was pointed and was a survival of the Gothic minuscule of the Middle Ages. The Humanistic hand was a logical result of the revival of learning at the Renaissance. In their demand for the works of antiquity the Humanists began to revive the Carolingian minuscule in which these works had earlier been copied, and their versions of it furnished the basis of our roman type to-day.^ It was a clear, readable hand, which grew more and * To trace more fully tlie stages by which the mediaeval minuscule book- hand, derived from the Carolingian minuscule, evolved into a black-letter hand, the student is advised to consult Thompson's Greek and Latin Palaeo- graphy, facs. 157-201, noting sfiecially facsimiles 186, 187, 188, 191, 192, 193, 194, 199, for their resemblance to early black-letter printing types. There were two revivals : first, that of Charlemagne in the nintli century; second, that of the Italian Humanists at the Renaissance, "which period," says Hall, "may conveniently be taken to extend from the age of Petrarch and Boccaccio to the sack of Rome by the troops of Charles V in 1527. It is not to be supposed that the classical literatures would have perished but for that revival. Both, however, were at a critical period of their history. Latin might have suffered irreparable losses from the continuance of mediaeval neglect, while Greek literature, which, as far as can be seen, was but little affected by the fall of Constantinople in 1453, might have been gravely impaired by that disaster, had not the study of Greek been ti*ansplanted from Byzantium to Italy at least a century before the final victory of the Turks." (Hall's Com- fianion to Classical Texts, p. 97.) For an interesting account of the vicissi- tudes of Latin and Greek manuscripts from the Age of Charlemagne up to and during the Italian Renaissance, see Chapters IV and V. 54 PRINTING TYPES more in favour, though for a long time used only for secu- lar literature; black-letter alone being considered proper for sacred literature. It had various names, being called in Ital- ian "Antiqua" (the name adopted by printers), although paleographers preferred to call it "handwriting of the Re- naissance" or the "Humanistic hand." Its roundness seemed to be an Italian tendency.^ In the first half of the fifteenth century, the earliest examples of this Italian hand are found; and by 1465,Sweynheym and Pannartz,at the first printing- house set up in Italy, showed the influence of this Human- istic \\Titing in their semi-gothic types, which they soon abandoned for a distinctly roman letter. In this they were followed by many other printers, and thus the roman types spread all over Europe. It must be remembered, however, that in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark these roman types (like Italian handwriting) have been employed only in the course of the last century. In Germany to-day the roman letter is used only for certain classes of literature — that be- ing the only important country where a debased mediaeval book-hand, translated into type, still persists. Humanistic writing \\ as, of course, subdivided into groups, as were all such schools of writing. There was a Humanistic writing for books which was at its best in the fifteenth century, but which, by the sixteenth century, printing type had driven out.^ It is interesting to compare examples of the Carolingian minuscule with the Human- istic hand based upon it."* Then there was a Humanistic cursive — a flowing form of the straighter Humanistic Roman, inclined as in writing,^ and for which there seems Even in Italian Gothic hands of tlie period a mucli greater roundness was preserved than in most other national Gothic texts (Thompson, fac. 194). ' Paleografihie iMtine, pi. 115. ' Ibid. Compare pis. 60 and 115. ' Ibid., pi. 116. THE LATIN ALPHABET 55 to have been no model in the Carolingian minuscule. Spread- ing through Italy as a cursive letter, this later became the common handwriting of all countries which had adopted for books the Humanistic form of Roman letter. Aldus based his italic printing types on this Humanistic cursive letter, and all italic types are based on it. The handwriting which w^e employ to-day and the tasteless, typographical script equivalent thereto, is simply the cursive of our own time and country. Nothing more need be considered, except so-called mod- ern Gothic writing. This modern Gothic writing was a cur- sive form of black-letter. After the invention of printing, the old formal pointed Gothic book-hands were given up by scribes and transmuted into type-forms. Such books as were written, were in a cursive Gothic hand, which, like the na- tional book-hands, developed characteristic national traits. The French iettre batarde^ perhaps the most characteristic of these Gothic cursives, was, however, soon rendered into type; and in England the same letter in coarser form and equivalents of the most popular current English hands were likewise adapted to typography. The close connection be- tween EngHsh Gothic vernacular book-hands^ and the ear- liest English types is obvious if we compare Thompson's reproduction of the page of a Wycliffite Bible, written be- fore 1397,^ and the Iettre de forme used by Caxton in his Boethius.^ Thompson also shows a page of a manuscript Chaucer of about 1400,^ which in writing is very like the types Caxton used in his Ars Monendi!" An early fifteenth ' Thompson, fac. 196. ' Ibid., pp. 472-490. ' Ibid., fac. 209. * DufF (E. Gordon), Early English Printing. A Series of Facsimiles of all the Ty/ies used in England during the XVth Century, etc. I/)ndon, 1896, pi. II. " Thompson, fac. 210. " Gordon DuflF, pi. VII, second type in lower facsimile. 56 PRINTING TYPES century manuscript of Occleve^ also suggests early Eng- lish typography. The Netherland printers' uncouth fonts closely followed the equally uncouth ^\ riting of their locality and time. And as for Germany (as has been said), its pres- ent type is simply a survival of the early German cursive Gothic, in a debased form ;' for in other European countries this cursixe Gothic letter was, fortunately, superseded by Humanistic writing. "If Humanistic writing had not been adopted," says Steffens, "to-day, according to all probability we should have a great number of different national writ- ings, difficult to read, just as in the earh' mediaeval days before the Carolingian minuscule had come to supplant the national hands." ^ To recapitulate : there were in use among the Romans divers forms of writing, which continued, with various de- velopments, until the fall of the Roman Empire. Then these forms developed still further in character, in different countries, according to the national genius. Some of these forms, through their fitness, survived ; others perished. The roman character that we employ to-day is the offspring of a form of letter partly revived from antique days by Charlemagne and partly the creation of its period. The splendid hand of this revival after a time again yielded to the play of national influences. A second time revived at the Re- naissance— a second time revived through this same devo- tion to classical learning — on the invention of printing, this ' Thompson, fac. 212. ' Paleografihie Latine, pi. 121. In addition to the hands employed for books, there were a certain number of Gothic hands employed for documents — such as the French Civilite, etc. {Paleografihie Latine, pi. 119) — which were occasionally rendered into fonts of printing type; but they were uncommon and held much the same position in reference to type tlien, that modem script t\pes hold to other types now. THE LATIN ALPHABET 57 letter was transmuted in-to type and became the roman letter of our modern printin,^/ In ancient times, in the Middle Ages, and in the period immediately before the invention of printing, we can seem, too, to trace three forms of writing : the formal, to which in type our capital letter answers; the less formal, to which our lower-case type is equivalent ; and the epistolary or cursive, which is now rendered into type called "italic." Broadly speaking, all types, like all hand- writings, fall into these classes. What we have now to know, therefore, is about these three great classes of types, at various periods, and in their different forms, down to our own day. * The reader should examine throughout Steffens's Paleografihie Latine, in the French edition cited, and the less conveniently arranged, bnt more avail- able volume, Thompson's Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeografihy. On tliese two works most of this chapter is based. CHAPTER IV TYPE AND TYPE-FORMS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN GERMANY THE next step in the study of type is to learn to recognize the various forms or "tribes" of type and the subde differentiations between varieties of the same general form of type-face. These differences are verv slight ; often to the casual observer no differences ap- pear. There is no way to learn to recognize them except by training the eye. There is no better way to train the eye than to familiarize it with the type-forms common to the fifteenth century in the countries where printing was then practised, and to follow this by an examination of the type-forms of these same countries from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. By the time the end of the eighteenth century is arrived at, one will be fitted to consider intelligendy the nineteenth and twentieth century types in use to-day. For unless we know the history of early type-forms, we cannot choose, nor have adequate reasons for choosing, the good types which should equip a modern composing-room. This is true, because much type to-day which seems desirable to the novice, to a trained eye is merely a corrupt version of older and better types ; and also because unless we know something of the historical and literary associations con- nected with certain type-forms, we shall not have a sense of the fitness of things in their use — that sense which prevents a man from printing the Marseillaise in German fraktur, or the Ode to a Grecian Urn in French l^lack-letter. Then, too, we must learn to know where modern type-forms stand in reference to earlier tvpe-forms, if we are not to give undue importance to various modern types; just as we must know where the earliest tvpes stand in reladon to the manuscripts GERMANY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 59 which preceded them.^ It was Benjamin Franklin who said: "A Calf is a Big Beast, until you see a Cow !" This detailed historical study of type-forms is of such practical value, that I do not hesitate to inflict it upon the reader, although, before he has finished, he will no doubt wonder where he is "coming out ;" and wonder, too, if there be no shorter way of arriving at this knowledge. Less than thirty-five years — from 1454 to 1487 — cov- ered the spread of printing, as we now know the process, throughout Europe. The dates at which it was introduced into the various countries were as follows: about the year 1454 in Germany; in 1465 in Italy; in 1468 in Switzerland; in 1470 in France; in 1473 in Holland — if we except the Speculum and "Costeriana," M'hich were executed before that time; in Belgium in 1473; Austria-Hungary, 1473; Spain, 1474; England, 1477; Denmark, 1482; Sweden, 1483; and Portugal, 1487. The type-forms used in the fifteenth century fall into two classes: Gothic (a corrupt national following of the Carolingianminuscule),whichwas used earliest, and Roman (a fairly faithful return to the Carolingian minuscule), which * As a study in "comparative typography," it is useful to see how the same book was printed at different periods, and any student who will select an early and famous book, like the Inferno or Decameron, in a first edition, and com- pare successive editions with it, will find that the different editions furnish almost a history of typography . Tlie more characteristically national the book, the better it is for pm-poses of comparison of styles in the national typography which it represents. But in comparing the printing of various countries, it is better for the student to choose a classic which belongs to the literature of them all — like the texts of Horace, Virgil, or Cicero. In this way one may study typography both ' ' perpendicularly ' ' and ' ' horizontally ' ' — perpen- dicularly, where we take a given book of an early date and trace its progress chronologically; and horizontally, where we look at its editions in various countries at the same epoch. The special collections of the works of a particu- lar author, found in most large libraries, are veiy illuminating when used in this way. 60 PRINTING TYPES came in later. By Gothic, the mediaeval text or hlack-letter is always meant} Fifteenth century Gothic type-forms may be roughly subdivided into Pointed, sometimes called lettre de forme; Round, sometimes called lettre de somme, and a vernacular Cursi\"e black-letter, like the French lettre batarde. Although our examples are the English lettre de fomne {fig- 8), and the French lett?-e de somme {fig. 9) and lettre batarde {fig. lO), they show the characteristics of these types sufficiently for our purpose. These three type-forms were the black- letter equivalents of the formal, less formal, and cursive manuscript-hands of the Roman period. Between the mem- bers of the Gothic type-families of the fifteenth century there is the same likeness that appears in the manuscripts of the period immediately before the invention of printing; and, too, much the same divergencies. Roman forms of type of this period may be divided into Transitional (from Gothic to Roman) and pure Roman, the precursor of the types we now commonly use. The first type employed in Germany was a gothic or black- letter character. The earliest dated piece of printing from German gothic type known is the Letters of Indulgence, issued at Mainz in 1454. This indulgence was granted by Pope Nicholas V to all Christians who, during three years preceding, had given money to help on the ^var against the Turks. The agents who sold manuscript copies, which were brought out in the early months of the same year (1454), apparently had heard, meanw hile, of printing, and recog- nized its utility for producing leaflets of this sort in quantity. ' Wliat is called "gothic" by type-founders has no relation to any Gothic style; and is purely an arbitrary name — unless it hints at the artistic abili- ties of its inventors. It is nothing but a diagram of a letter — all qualities of design having been left out. Domine omnipotens, Deu0 patrum nogtrorum atitabam, et Isaac ct 31acotJ, et seminis eorum imtU quifecisti coelumet terrain cum omniornatu eorum; qui ligasti maretiertJO praecepti tui; qui conclu0i0ti atjpssum, et 0ignasti eam terribili et lauUabili no= mine tuo; quem omma parent et tremunt a tJuItu tJirtutis tuae, quia importabills egt magnificentia gloriae tuae, et in^ustentaftilis ira comminationis tuae super peccatores; immenga tiero et imoestiga' 8. Lettre de Forme ©omtnc omnipotcn0, ©cua patrum nootronim abraljam, ct Ueaac ct Jacob, ct eeminie corum j'usti, qui fccisti coclum ct tcrram cum omni ornatu corum; qui ligacti mare verbo praccpti tui; qui conclusieti abfsoum, ct aiguaaii cam tcr// ribili ct laudabili nomiuc tuo; qucm omnia pavcut et tremunt a vultu virtutie tua', quia importabilia cat magnificcntia gloria: tua:, ct inouotcntabilie ira com// minationi© tu« super pcccatorco; immcnea vcro et inveotigabilio niiscricordia promi00ioni0 tux: quoniam tu cs Pominu©, altissimuo, bcnignuo, longamtuie, ct multum misericord, et i^xnitcne super malitias Ijominum. %\x, ©omine, secundum multitudincm bonitatis tua: promisisti pccnitentiam ct remiscioncm iis, qui peccavcrunt tibi, ct multitudinc miscrationum tuarum dccrcvisti pocni// tentiam peccatoribus in salutcm. Xu igitur, pomine JDeus fustorum, non posu// isti pccnitentiam fustis, abral?am, ct 3saac ct 5acob, iis, qui tibi non peccavc// runt; scd posuisti panitcntiam propter me peccatorcm, quoniam pcccavi, super 9. Lettre de Somme €>omtne omtripotene, €>eu6 ^aityim xKo^ttotmw Mta^am^ et Jeaac et 3aco6, eteeminie cot:um jueti, qui fecieti cccCnm et tettam cum omni omatn eorum; qui figaeti mate vctBo ptxcepti tiii] qui concCneieti a6p66um, et ei^naeti eam tettiBiii et fau5a6ifi nomine tuo-^quem omnia paventet ttef mnnt a vnUn vittutie tua*, quia impottabiCie eet masnifu centia siovim tnx^ et inmetentaBitie iva comminationie tnx enpet peccatovee; immenea veto et inveeti^abifHe mieeticovbia ptomieeionie tn-^ : quoniam tu ee Oominue, aitieeimm) 6eni^nue, Con^aminief et muftum mieecicore, 10. Lettre Batarde GERMANY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 61 So they ordered copies of the Indulgence in two styles : one set in 30-line form, of which there were three issues — one in 1454 and two in 1455 {Jig. 1 1), the other in 31 lines, of which four issues are known — three dated 1454 and one 1455 {Jig. 12). The gothic tj^pe was of two sizes : the larger and more pointed being used for head -lines and important words, and a smaller, rounder type for the text. Blanks were left to be filled in with names, etc. In the 30-Iine Letter of In- dulgence^ this larger character appears to be the type used in the 36-Iine Bible, printed not later than 1461, at Mainz {Jig. 13). The larger type in the 31 -line Indulgence is very much like that used in the 42-line Bible commonly ascribed to Gutenberg, but printed, perhaps, by Fust and Schoeffer at Mainz about 1455^ {Jig- l^'). This book, which it took several years to complete, was in process, it is supposed, at the time the Indulgences were printed. Nothing can be more pointed or Gothic than this large black-letter Bible type copied from the German manuscriptsof the period. It is the characteristic form of the earliest gothic type-letter of Ger- many.^ The Germans called this kind of letfre de Jorme ^Facsimiles from Early Printed Books in the British Museum, London, 1897, facs. 3, 4, which show Indulgences in complete form. ' Burger's A/oTzumeTzto Germanise et Italise Typogra/ihica, Berlin, 1913, pi. 137, for facsimile of entire page with rubrication. Facsimiles of the types used in incunabula are contained in the Catalogue of Books firinted in the XVth Century nmv in the British Museum. The Li- brary of the British Museum contains about nine thousand books printed before 1500. The work is to be completed in six parts, and four parts are now published: I, Xylographica and books printed with types at Mainz, Sti-ass- burg, Bamberg, and Cologne (with 29 plates showing 240 types) .H, Germany: EJtvil to Trier (30 plates showing 254 types). Ill, Germany: Leipzig-Pforz- heim, German-speaking Switzerland and Austria-Hungary (l8 plates show- ing 1 75 types) . IV, Italy: Subiaco and Rome (13 plates showing 110 tyjies) . The facsimiles in most cases give only a few lines of type; so, as its intro- duction admits, " those who would know the glories of early printing must consult Burger's Monumenta .'' ' But it can be used where Burger is deficient or not available. ^ Paleografihie Latine, 1910, pis. 104, 111. 62 PRINTING TYPES "textur" — because the effect of a page set in it was like a tissue or weave. It afterward was simplified into the type called "fraktur." The smaller type of the Indulgences, which is a rounder black-letter, has certain peculiarities later found in "schwabacher" fonts {Jigs. 11 and 12). A book which shows clearly the form of the early gothic types of Germany is the famous Latin Psalter printed by Fust and Schoeffer at Mainz, August 14, 1457 — the first book to which the printers put their names and date of publication. This monumental volume shows a larger letter than the 42-line Bible, but of much the same pointed Gothic form ' {Jjg. 1 5). The famous decorated initials were probably stamped in after the pages were printed, one stamping be- ing used for the blue and the other for the red impression. The same sort of letter is shown in a Missal printed at Bamberg by Sensenschmid in 1488, in type a size between that of the Mainz Psalter and the 42-line Bible." There are other examples much like it, such as the Missale Salisburg- ej2se printed at Nuremberg by Stuchs in 1492,"* and the Mainz printer Neumeister's edition of Turrecremata's Jl/c-flf- itafionesof 1479.* These all show the pointed, angular black- letter of Germany, the earliest form of type used there. The larger types of this kind were generally intended for folio volumes used in the officesof the Church ; some of the char- acters which appear in the Bamberg Missal of 1481^ being almost three-quarters of an inch high. Such volumes are rough in execution compared with manuscripts, yet never- theless magnificent in effect. ' Druckschriften des XV bis XVIII Jahrhunderts, Berlin, Reichsdruckerei, 1884-87, pis. 61, 62, 63. * Ibid., pi. 25. "Burger, pi. 117. 'Ibid., pi. 76. Rid., pi. 105. The right-hand plate shows a reproduction of part of the Canon of the Mass. Its ordinary pages are printed in a type much more Italian or Spanish than German in character, and of different design. ♦^ «ft ** •• ^ 1^ *v <&» C* ^ :c O C c <r ^« 3 tJ S ? 3 c ^* «S ^4^ '.m ^ c o *^ *^-s ^ O •- « o i<3 uT t> V j^ »g- o 2 c tJ 3 t>|g ^** p i i Pc -lid o C o -5 o e 1^ <2> W X. n O 3 « *-♦ ° c = i5 *^ S rt ■t^ 3 e 5 •^ o g «* «* c J H « ^^ 5 551 H o «rf ip <5 ^* ** 2S * 3 c a H ^ ^ 5 SC3 <*^ 'C S <»> ♦• » #i:l|l "a. S S ^ ^ tc nt atpUmrft aii mto tutm^ rumtftptuffdt rae fubito*fe fill? tint mm 5 am tram Hii^ Duirs;l& au^iutt iuDadnrut^ regit tpt 1 ixitto poitctt uinu'' tm t|cixituu regie : qur mmt m aiiimau «|n)t)ut tnt Dirprc^ fuo teat Jimitus a raftcio ♦ B mm got^as rraflm htle not- turtr nrnim! inumiM.^ qum- bat me itt montibK m Wt: f ugiut i|ti a nobie * Ik turn Dt^ ofaitus rCTctatiiarutttutias in lampi til tdb> mtUbmiroi^ tantiitqui tccrumfta % glaiJio^ non babrtiat'i^ nitrtilt rato gtittiu oaliDatrt lontatuQ % v quitatue iniircuttu rorilttr iin todi ai) prdiu^f^ ait iuDae m> ris qui rtcu ecat* ^t tinmrati^ 13. Type of SQ-line Bihle^ Mainz^ not later them 1461 jCuotr tu auuifla ijauiiKtEfcmiiit in prtfciim.^tliliftiitn autan umimtcs Diffufli funt in ualle rapljaim. Jft ta* fuluit UauiU Dnm 0itEtt0.3>i aftmiB an p!;ilt&i|ra«£t fi tiabis tos i ntanu rata iit tmt Une au Dauiij. jMimte: ifattateno Uabo piiiliBtim in mann tua.Btnit Kffo iianiij aD tealp^ara* fnnrn: jpffcuffit job ibi n timMniin tim inimiros mtos rora nit:fitut tiu uiijuntaqut^ropttita uoratu cno* mtn (oriiHi? baalptjarafnn.ift rdiq* runt ibi fnilptilia fuatq mlit tauiD tt uiri ri?. ft auuiixtunt auiiut pj^ilifti* im nt altmijctentrtt Difftifli Et i xalte rapbaim-lEofuluit auteiiauiu tntm. 5)1 aftmija tott a pljilifttosn ttaija'' £06 in manu0 inras^lDm rnijit. jRo aftrnDas rotra too ftti gira pafl: ttcgu roru:^ umits aD ros aabufo piroru. jEt ru auijiccio ronitQ riainnris tfta* ijimoiratunmpiroi^tutinibisplm: qa tur tgtcaicf tino ate Farit wa: ut 5* 14. Ti/pe of42-Ihie Bible, Mainz, c. 1455 jgiref uftinr, oi| tt lronartr,oi| OmfsfanAcoftr foz^.ozatejnoli Qmra fti'lftona' r^ii l)tm«m,o:ate jgfra maia inagS« ii^i 111 AV W) w o 0^ 15. Type used in Latin Psalter: Fust and Schoeffer MaiTiz, 1457 GERMANY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 63 Koberger of Nuremberg used, about 1480, a type less pointed than the first gothic types, reminding one a little of the early black-letter types of Italyand Spain. The reproduc- tion here shown {Jig. 16) is interesting not only for its type but because it is an example of one of the earliest advertis- ing circulars. In the fifteenth century, printers and book- sellers who did business in a large way put agents "on the road" with a stock of their books, and circulars for distri- bution. This particular sheet advertised a theological work by Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, and its writer, after praising literature in general, says that, theology being the crown of all sciences, the author wrote this monumental Smnma Theologica; that until then, readers could not afford to buy the expensive manuscripts of the work, and printers, owing to its enormous length, had been afraid to publish it. But at last its printing had been accomplished by Koberger and the "long-felt want "(sacred to advertisements) had been filled ! Quite in the modern manner, it is stated that the ad- vertisement is printed in the same type as the book, and that if any one wishes to buy the volume, he can do so at a cer- tain inn, where the agent has lodgings. So it would appear that travelling salesmen and book canvassers are no new thing ! ^ Besides the pointed gothic type, or lettre deforme^ used in Germany, there was a rounder gothic type known as lettre desomme.' Examples are to be seen in the Mainz Catholicon^ printed probably by Gutenberg, in 1460 {fig. 17), and in the Rationale Divinonim Officiorum by Durandus, printed ' For reproductions of similar early advertisements, see Burger's Buchhdnd- leranzeigen des\5 . Jahrhunderts . Leipsic,1907. The earliest printed book ad- vertisement known is that of Heinrich Eggestein of Strassburg, issued in 1466. ' The lettre de somme is said (without much authority) to derive its name from the Summa of St. Thomas Aquinas, for which, as well as for other scho- lastic works, it was early employed. 64 PRINTING TYPES bv Fust and Schoeffer in 1459/ The lettre de somme was copied from less studied and formal book-hands, and was less massi\e in efiect than the pointed lettre de forme. For con- venience it may be called a "round gothic type." In a sense this letter-form was transitional, for by extending its design a little further toward modern ideas of clearness, a resem- blance exists bet\Aeen this round gothic type of the Catholi- con and the gothicized roman invented by those German printers who became influenced by Italian models. In addition to pointed and round black-letter types, Ger- man printers had a vernacular type — intended primarily for printing books in German — later commonly known as "schwabacher." Some elements of this type maybe seen in Koberger's German Bible printed at Nuremberg in 1483, in which we find the looped b, d, h, 1, the tailed f and s, etc., characteristic of schwabacher fonts." We may see it em- ployed in a form which is clearly different from the pointed fraktur, in Peter Schoeffer's Hortus Sanitatis {Jig. 18), printed at Mainz in 1485. It flowered into the type now re- cognizable as schwabacher in the last decade of the fifteenth century. Although intended for books in German, it was used for many Latin books as well. Thus in the fifteenth century there was a tendency in German gothic types toward the forms of letter which we associate with German text of to-day — a tendency show- ing itself in German manuscripts very early and persist- ently. Andreae's Baum der Gesippschaft^ issued at Augsburg by Johann Baemler in 1474, was printed in a pointed letter which shows a form distinctly German as we now under- stand the term {Jig. 19). This is markedly shown, too, in the rounder type-forms employed in Koberger's German ^ Druckachriflen, pi. 41 ; or Burger, pi. 7o. ' Burger, pi. 20. Cupiete0cmerchb:o6infranotatO6DCti<cnt ad bofpO du5fubnotatumJ3encIito:embabitunlargiffimuni. €om plurimop pBop fnCa rit.oCbue in actonite maio:c cura abbibedl elT^.tt oice Upetuitate pflarc pofTim'' : ad bac qui&e p&qndo4Ubet mo:tali8 txnct totxQ x>\tv bu0infudarc.€ldet alTcq pofle.a nfi9 maiozito crebitQ e.-fi fingfia mebitatDniba ogibufqs bonefti fo:a accuratiflTimc pponaf .•feed in bmoi pUmau affectonu gene a nonuUis illullrto oirie.buiufccmoi gfa bwerfo calle qfita cft.na; ab alije pBia nafaUe.DC platoc et areftoKleralijamojal'. ot renecamonulUe poemata.ut fama ' c te bomero n wrgiUo:plerifq3 coa eloqntia.Dt bemoflenc n cicerone. AUjs tO etK bie.ti) puerfaDie aDmiftrabifq} legito.Dt legtf tx Ugurto.folone.ettra^ano impa^ tmernecno tx iuftiniano.q pfufuj tuna co:p'^ in luce rebu)cit.q reductoe gplurea ittnrc6fulti.mte ppetuita^ pfe^arbitrati fut:oeluti €luit''muti'». paurolpian''. mfticp pttrea qa logii ect recefcrcQcp q: tbcologia Ucra oim fciap co:ona e:ma yrimc circa materia q ejngit canoito legibufue fulcita. Cluib? cm pftcit bo ft natu< rali.poeft.eloqntia fug 3ftrauolita6:fi opicitotJf ufcp iurie biuitiae pgregetretia fi Dniuerfu mdm lucre? laia 60 fui Cetrimctii patiaf f S)i j;pm fciscait mcllifluua toctozXatia c.et fi cetera nefcia.Ciuo pmof^oir pftUop clariffim''; biia Antonin'^ dim caufa^ romaefebiapitilTim''; temuarcbiepa flo:etin'^.!feiima egregia i qtu o: ptea biftincta pgefiic: q ut oere oite gpetuitatt pfcq facile poITem''. parte pri^ macreatD:i8imenfita^.crcafeq3buanenobilitatE.afq3 ne abealabozci: biuiale gc fulcita j)du)cit.g?ecuba ptecrimiofaa enozmitatea ql» bo a fua nobilitate etiaj bobie labif ♦•fubiupit.'Cercia pte ftatito uniuerfop facmetalia remebia qto qlibec reftitueref :pfcripfit.6t4rtapte ne recidiuii paceref pfuatiua fitutii.gfap <jbo nop fpulTctircoabiupit.et qz fapictirTimo telle 4 abbit fciamrabbit 1 laboze.pfce tete rriti magno fiiptu q i ppabia nolumibo impcbeb'^erat, otio aut ignauie tcbu ti.oel ab alia fe poti'^opa traftuleft.duop tante nccitati; fme buano artificio:fi^ we biuia ope fubuecii e;Dt iuenta ni^a ecate bac ipzimebi trap facilitate. plencp fe ftubija tedicariit;q puo fiiptu pfima lib:op i)olumia:b:eui tpe piitee.i oiroa da* ro9 euabe nitunf .6t q-uie 13 be magno uoluminii nuero p bap Ifap impffozeep^ fice uoletiii ncfitatipuifu fit:nC'0 tii cop ib nouilTimu Cq6 q: mobernii 1 otilimfi) op'^ejcltegroaggre(re;bct?jTitiCt>topino:)magna cobicuclfap mftitubCe. <\c^ uoluecea igif boc i aio.tbeologie facre quit6 alumni.f ej fatifdigna.«7 tan^ nouia mozbia.nouiaatibotia necelTaria.bac Ifap effigiecbaractcrisataop'^ pfectiiicoz rcctu biligeter eppUcarut.^luare ooletea C futpi'^agnitDejjficere.'z faluti^pimop falub:itBr pfulere;omi conamie curare bebec bmoi fiima Antonina k pence bfe. Cupifttfcp fibi pparc ab bofpitiu fefc recipiat fu bfcriptu Bcbitwe bitur i bcmgnui JntbeoloGia ^ermonee feiimaj Antonini egregia tn qtuo: Difcipulum te tem^ *? fanctt'6 per 5te9birtinct4.t)t fup:a claret. totum annum, pantbeologia id e tota tbeologia. lOugoncj be Drato per totu annu. e^ibliaa amcniflime impflaa. TLconbardu be ^tino be fanctia. ©lofam o:binari33 petri ILombar fiiuabragefimale leobarbi 6 otino. bi fuper pfalterio. €luab:agefimalcgritfcb benuoco: fepecula omcencijqudttto:. rectufib£rlitq?ipnu5boctonee)cim(j '^tem Slitafpacrum 23ocabul3nu Sjalomonia ^uma pifani afe pifanella Docciu te confolatone pbic ft)ecunba fccuntK beati Tbcme. ^SivJTl^^L, 16. Advertisement issued by Koberger^ Nuremberg^ c. 1480 (^reduced) cipicbAt.aii tAmen iOtrm ^vp^cra Oidr.rionnc coi* mcu in pfcnti crat qn rtJufus eft- bomo aizro fuo in ocriurtim tibi. (Tpofirq? a? ^bcciG tci^ibuftrac tauJmuo.trlVdt uroc nioois cius ct qujjlitdtibno aliquA Dinrcmmus.Opinme qvpc .^^bcdc ncc fern pel ncc coocm modo ^bcre animu rAntjir.Aliqn cnim f]3intU0 ,vpbcdc ex plonti tancpt animuj ,p pbctanrirct ex futuro ncquacy ta»7<jit aliqn ucyo ^bcdc rpirimranimu ^bcranrifcx fUmm tan gjt.ct ex j5rcnri non tan(jit,aljqvi ^pbcrantio am mil ex pfonh paritcr ct ex hituro ran(pt.aliquan to autem ex prcriro ct ex pfcnti dtqj ex fictiino. jjjter animufrantji? <vpl^^rantio. aliqn ucro pro pbcde rpirituG ex j5trrim ta»?5it animu^ ncc ran ^r ex hituro, Aiiqvi noro ^bcric fpmtus ran 51 1 ex futuro ncc ran git ex j5teiirD./lliqn wcra jn p (cnti ex ptc ran^it ct ex gte non tangjit./lliquart to ucro rpintwe ^bcac m htturo ex gte tangpt ct ex ptc non tangit.ltcj fcias q> ^bctx? quioaj ex tpximo tan<junm2 atc^ c lon(5inq minimc ran Q^ntur.quiDam ue»t> eangimt elonajinquo ct no tanqi(n(tir ex ^ximo.qujoam ucro ct c longpnq tan^unFct ex <pximo.C|'^l>q»i AUtc^ pmpbcdc rpiritus «i¥>^<^*»5 Occfb nee fcmi3 eo2; mcntib^ pn?f to cnr.qtinuroi bunc non bnt (e.buc co^no/canC cx Cone baberc ai babenr.vnDc bclijeurol Rente funamitc mulicnym a fuis pcoibus p ^eji puz; a uclli ^bibcrcr oixir Oimittr illa.anima cnij eiuft jn amarituoinc eft" ct Cominwrcclauit me ct non inDic\uit n)icbi.7rem amoQ.qz caocm bora qua wquifitus cfir ^bcdc fibi fjp'nitum ocelTc fcnfir OJ fs Mcraater oixit.Uon fum ^pbcra.uc Dixi in ar tncntum.Sic quoqj oi iolcpbat cc ?utu.m rcqni rcret.ct ^bcdc ei fpintus cecnTcc pflxltc Fcdt ap pUcari ut propbcdc ao bunc rpiiittio pcz lauarm pfalmooic OefccnDcrct atqj ciuranimum ar iientu ris rcplcrct.vox ctenim pfalmoDic cCi p intcnco ncm cDJOis aijif.p banc omniporcnti ao cor iccr 17. Round Gothic Type of Catholkon: Gutenberg- Mainz, 1460 Ccamia S;itim*stccc dpm^^ataSicc ^mc" JQct mtiffcv (Ba^icnm intern* vt|»^uc^5C!mitt funpftciS fatmacatiu in ^ccapitc^€iptm*ib eft d^camia (ptic^t bap *?if? fy cin Saiint hc^voc^fct ^ynbct^cm mcvc vB m Cict^ta*vnb bi^ SCcttct vn ^Po/ incnnuncttnantn'ittatmcy ^n'icmBnc^citcainftan^ ^f^ti ^n vn^^ic mdftcv vn fprcc^Cft bc^'^tc^ ^mmt^ f<\Jft vicf (Tat in ctci/ vx<t*ibit {t^i^cn pwftj^tifctrcft bit bTcttct vn ^^omm x>n f^icPcn ba^ ba& ma^ man vtcPi^re &^aft:en: vnwaftta an {yntt naxxxct ibcc tttciflo: P4w?it0 paitbccm vn pPatcanwtJ in ?cm capiteP Ik^amia jprcc^cn 6a^$ 6i^ (p faG: ^n^ctn ix\lm^at vn bmcPcit an^bc attfait^ cc^ anbmx^xat^* Qcvopto fptic^t 6a$ 6i^ pitCucr^u^ fr ^cn 6rc ^0 ^a^n (tKoPiim bmJ (y nt w j?)^ ^^atttx^yn in 6cm ttiu6c» 3 tc bi^ pttfoct:sc(<>ttcnmit^t(]^enwa(]et vttb^eflrtc^cnwo ftc^ cynctQc/ Stant^ait ^n^tvtc^^it^ v^*4bie vcr^attcn cfftebbcr o6ct t^ctfetitteiT 1)0 mitsc(lvt<^cn obcvQcfx&ct mai^ct ftc xvctc^ vnb ^Pictftc^* 'iDnb J>i(|e (^e fa^aifo Sctcytwcvbcn* XXytn ^ai^m$&y a& vic^bn void: Tn mijc§cT<tt vitber^c^ pu&tcte adzamic pVatcatin^ fptic^t^a^ ^ftamia ^a^ a^c bocfent in )?m bic^an ^ait fancfut^ 6mconi^« vn roan man nit ^a&n ma^ a^camiam f> ma^ man an fyn fiat ncmctt 18. Type prefiguring Schivahacher : Peter Schoeffer^ Mainz^ 1485 tDcn bc^on Icibetbcn abgcftotbcn ift/ctbcnb [tin \>attcz vnl niutct-t>rt mbtz voz^axm ob bic aliayn wtlc^benb aup na \)m bc^gtab/bn^attc^X)Otbemanbenn obj^ibatb jnlcbci \»ctcrt ?Onb bie in glcic^citi grab fctnb etbenb gelcicl)/bte va tctltd)cn l)alb \)nb bic mute^licl)en {)alb/t^ic wol it ^al x)ngc- Icid) ift>.Cb abet mit ben vo^gemelten t^o^faren voz \)annbti I tveten bts abgeftotben celi^ leiplic!) btiebet/von vattet t)f mutee /bte etbten mitfamp t vattet vnb mutee/jr ^eglidjs aU I \)il als bas amboz /on wbeefcljaib bes gefcJ)led)t5 xmb vat - I tetlicl)et ^<tcoaUfamxn. (ll^effante 3fl)an toebet auff ftet'genb vozfaztn/no^ ab|te%enb leibs cc - ben voz I)annben femb-©o etbenb 311 etft/bet brubet \)nb bes abgcftotben btu$ Knb/anjts vattets (tat^Oee btu§/fag idy x>nb btilbets Pmb/bievon vautz vnb muti^z^b^ brieber ge== toefen femb/bes etbfcl)afft x^oz })amb<^n ift.xoellid) perfone^ 19. Pointed Gothic Type: Baemler^ Augsburg^ 1474 GERMANY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 65 Bible just mentioned, or in his Nuremberg Chronicleo^ 1493,^ which are easily recognized as German in feeling {Jig. 20). By the end of the fifteenth century and through the six- teenth century, two thoroughly German forms of text letter had developed from the earlier and purer German black- letter characters. But all the type used in Germany was not of Gothic form. Fonts of roman character were employed there by a few printers. Mentelin, the first Strassburg printer, used a gothic type which pointed towards roman in his Biblia Latina, finished in 1460 {Jig. 2l). But the font of the "R Bizarre," as it is often called, was the first roman letter used in Germany {Jig. 22). This ungainly roman type was used by Adolph Rusch of Ingweiden ("the R Printer"), who printed in it an edition of the Rationale of Durandus, at Strassburg, as early as 1464. Rusch married a daughter of John Mentelin, and to his business he later succeeded. Other roman types of early date were used in a Speculum Historiale printed about 1473 by Mentelin,^ and at Augs- burg in 1471 by Zainer, in his Lateinischer Einhlattkalen- dar for 1472,^ who is said to have brought this font from Italy. The 'L2\x\^x type was a fairly pure roman character, as we now understand the term, although the fitting of the type on its body is rather uncertain in effect. Pollard says that but ten fonts of roman were known to him as employed in Germany before 1480. Its use was revived in the last years of the century, when the accumulation of standard ancient literature (chiefly by foreign authors and formerly available only through manuscripts) had been pretty well ex- ^ Also Burger, pi. 258. For further examples see Druckscliriften des XV bis XVIIIJahrhunderts, pis. 72, 53,35, and 26, of books dated respectively 1474, 1485, 1492, and 1494. " Druckschriftcn, pi. 93; or Burger, pi. 91. * Burger, pi. 1. 66 PRINTING TYPES hausted by printers. Then the con temporar}- author began to appear, and roman type began to be used for these modern books as well as for editions of the classics. In Germany roman type is still called "Antiqua" in allusion to its classi- cal origin. There were also semi-gothic types like that used by Mentelin, and puzzling transitional roman-gothic fonts, of Mhich an interesting example is that used by Holle at Ulm in 1482 in his first dated book — the Cosmographia of Ptolemy {fg. 23). The German fifteenth century press A\as conspicuous for its fine editions of law books and its liturgical printing, in both of which departments Fust and Schoeffer stood first. Pictorial and decorative capital letters were used by many of the best printers, and some of the page-borders used in books were fine, though they were not very commonly em- ployed. Large sizes of type were cut, no doubt, mainly to save the expense of printing in two colours in lines needing to be "displayed" — as in the Indulgences. Printers who used roman fonts got over this difficulty by picking out "features" of their books in lines or masses of roman capital letters ; but massed capitals of black-letter — the type chiefly employed in Germany — were almost unreadable. This was possibly a second reason for large sizes of types, which for purposes of convenience were ordinarily made double the size of the text types with which they were used. One reason that the books of the earliest Mainz printers had such an immediate success was that they were such good imitations of the manuscripts with w hich they had to compete. If Ger- man scribes and illuminators had been as clever as those of France or Italy, the divergence between books and manu- scripts would have offered an obstacle to their sale. But this A\'as not so; and bv a happv accident the German manu- ^^cfcS <5 m a n t* J^4rX J^ w 2 Si o-» ot^H^<== ti ^^ !^ - ♦— >^rk ifT ^*^ T'* t^ #^ a>N - *^ '^ j-^ ^^ ?t ts* ^ T^ 'H' ^ TL U. *^-^ « 1 ^■^ *^ ♦^ S S «-. J^ ^^ .^ c t^ u.-' ■^ oq *2s J. >^ "it' ^ <^ ^ H ^ V ^ <-^ ^ .O, eiusabf(^ nnfmcojdia .CLiiia noii azm vltm iiiifercri oonmi ifrl: fcD oblhiionc obUiiifcar coy. . tt Donnu iiioa niifcrebo? : et faluabo eos i oitooeofuorctiiofalimboeos m amictglndio €t I bcUo ct I quis ct i eqiunb^ .*Ct ablacfauit ca que era t abfcp imfeKcordia ♦ Ct cocepi t : ct })cpu filul»6toiptei JVocu itonien ems iioii ppl'us iiieu8.(8Liufi V08 110 ipfus ineusretego iion cro vcfter oeus.Cterit imniems filioru iWcjfi arena mans q fine ineTum eretno nmiicrabiL €t frit "1 loco vbi oicec eis no j:ptu8 mens vos: oicec eisFib] oei viuetis. tt cogregabimt Wij in ' oaetfih] ifrabd })anter*et yomt fibintet caput vnu^tafccDctDeterrar^a uiagnusoies ibejm- *--^^^ iateFratrib^ veftris \^ivi$ JDO Ctel . J^,.^ iiieus :et foron veftre unferico^diaxofe' cuta. "Indicate iiiatre vcftiu iudicarerqtu ipa no vyo? iiiea ret ego no vir eius. 7^ ufemt For - nicacoes fuas a Facie fua •et adultena fua De nie Diovbe;truo;t:neFo2tee^r]X>lieeanuDdetfmtua edfc6m oienatinitatis fue ;et ponaeacjfi foli' tud!ne»et fmtua ea velut terra inuia et mterR- cia ea liti ret Fibo^i illius non nn'fercbo2-qni Filij fo^nicationii fat r quia Fo^mcam eft mater eo^ . Co fttfa e que cocepit eos r <^ oiyit .X'ata pof t amato^esmeosqui oant panes micbi ret aquas meastana mea etlinu jufu oleu meu d^^potu men. "proptbocecceejofepia via tua fpinisr 21. Semi-Gothic Type: Mentelin, Strassburg^ 1460 CJ o *-» w V" T' 'J5 'TS - • C/3 lO TJ 3 <C ***. i- » O lillllliilM S1| cj 5-1 ^ -w s-^ ''*5 vl 3 *5 Pus F £<-!:: u « C ^ g,g a.S a S «;5^H^ a.Q c^ v, .S vS-Snt^ 2 §^-§ § S.5 ^ 5^ 2 8 eI^ •»-. O u '^ *^ U •■ri r- -if 11 r^ nn E "-* *^ Tl '--^ <L> fe-« g?-5 8 S S § « "^'3 = 2-^1:« S S ,S S-3 3 § o.*; 2 « £ 8 °^«,s §i^ S ^E := sj-i-N,. o.i3-;;iS c 2 re S =-Q p?5-n,a o f^ c-i GERMANY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 67 scripts of that day lent themselves very well to typographic rendering. The sack of Mainz in 1462 influenced the spread of typography, for it wiped out commerce there, and the con- sequent lack of money led printers, \\ho were established in a kind of industrial group, to scatter widely. This ac- counts for the German names we find among the earliest printers in other countries throughout Europe. Where these men continued to work in Germany, their difficulties were slight, and this was true where they were invited to set up their presses in some foreign place, and financial support was assured them. But in many cases the wandering printer had to take his chances as to \\ here he might find employ- ment, and to travel into a far country whose language was unfamiliar to him, before he reached an apparently favour- able spot for his enterprise. As books were printed, at first, page by page,^ and galley proofs were unknown, if he de- sired to produce a large book with any speed, a number of presses would be required, and there was the cost of other materials to be counted. So a good deal of courage, inge- nuity, and financial ability to see the undertaking through \v9.s needed, if he was to succeed. Even then it was very easy to make mistakes in the choice of books, or in the way they were printed, and either error might lead to disaster. For these men were obliged to be not merely printers, but publishers ; they had not alone to make their books, but to sell them. Such printers found their chief customers in churches, monastic libraries, the clergy, teachers and their students, lawyers, doctors, and professors of philosophy; and there were, too, general readers and educated lovers of literature. * It was not until between 1470 and 1480 that two pages were printed at the same moment. 68 PRINTING TYPES For monastic libraries printers often supplied books which may be classed among those volumes "which no gentle- man's library should be without," and which so few gentle- men ever read ! Both in France and Germany, many printed service books were required, although in Italy manuscripts for some time held their own as the more orthodox form of liturgical book. "Helps for the clergy," skeletons of sermons, etc., appealed to parish priests, and law-books, school-books, and medical treatises also had their market. Then, too, there were editions of the classics which were, however, mostly produced in Italy for the rest of Europe. As we have to do chiefly with type, the kind of types which these printers made most interests us. Mr. Pollard, in the illuminating paper on Early Printers with which he prefaces the catalogue of the Annmary Brown Memorial library,^ tells us that "At first there were special church types for service-books and Bibles, but these were soon re- served for the large service-books for use in choir, in which the type was necessarily massive and clear, both to avoid mistakes in reading and sometimes also to enable the book to be shared by several singers. Save for a few experiments, roman tj-pes in Italy and gothic in Germany were at first used for books of all kinds, but the tendency was to regard roman as specially appropriate to editions of the classics, to use upright and rather plain gothic for other Latin books, and a more sloping gothic for books in the vernaculars. . . . Besides these subject-divisions of types the local schools of * Catalogue of Books mostly from the Presses of the First Printers shanving the Progress of Printing with Alovable Metal Tyfies through the second half of the Fifteenth Century. Collected by Rush C. Hawkins, catalogued by Al- fred IV. Pollard, and de/iosited in Annmary Bronvn Alernorial at Provi- dence, Rhode Island. Oxford, 1910. Tlie Printers, pages xix et sey.The early printer has been treated with great charm by Mr. Pollard, and I commend his paper in its entirety as indispensable to a clear idea of the subject we are considering. GERMANY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 69 handwriting had great influence on the forms of letters, more especially in the early days of printing, and this ac- counts for the great variety in the founts used before 1480. After about that date, types of the same general character and often indistinguishable in nearly every detail were in use in places long distances apart, in some cases because the later printers found it easier to imitate an already existing type than to adapt written characters to their needs, in others, in all probability, owing to the sale of punches or matrices. "While great care had to be taken in choosing a good design for a type, a single fount often served an early printer for several years. There were no title-pages in these first days, and the printer's business was only to print the text of his book, leaving headings and headlines, as well as or- namental capitals, to be supplied by hand to suit purchas- ers' tastes. As the cry for cheapness grew louder printers found it necessary to leave less and less to be done by the scribes, whose bill for rubricating a book must have added very materially to its cost to the buyer. Special types were then cast for use in headings and headlines and on title- pages, and many printers provided themselves with fine sets of woodcut capitals." Thus we see that the printer's choice of types was almost entirely governed by the kind of manuscript popular in the particular locality of the country in which he found him- self. The design of his type was also dependent on the kind of book to be printed; as various classes of books — I speak of black-letter books — employed particular forms of black-letter. In closing, it may be noted that most Mainz printers went to Italy; none of them, apparently, to Holland. Per- haps this was because they knew that the art of printing, in rudimentary form, was already practised there. CHAPTER V TYPE AND TYPE-FORMS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN ITALY THE popularity of the roman character in Itahan manuscripts was due to the Renaissance revival of classical learning, and it has already been briefly shown to what sources this letter was traceable. Italy being the seat of the Renaissance, printing in roman types very naturally became general there earlier than in any other European country. The best roman types are to be found in Italian books printed before 1500. These, as has also been said, were modelled on Humanistic characters, which were in their turn revivals of the Carolingian book-hands. To see how closely these two forms of writing agreed in general effect, it is only necessary to compare Carolingian manuscripts of the ninth with Italian manuscripts of the fifteenth century. "At the period of the early Renaissance," says Walter Crane, "two streams met, as it were, and mingled, with very beautiful results : the freedom, the romance, the naturalism of the later Gothic, with the newly awakened Classical feel- ing, with its grace of line and mythological lore. The rich and delicate arabesques in which Italian designers delighted, and which so frequently decorated, as we have seen, the borders of the early printer, owe also something to Oriental influence, as indeed their name indicates. The decorative beauty of these early Renaissance books was really, there- fore, the outcome of a very remarkable fusion of ideas and styles. Printing, as an art, and book decoration attained a perfection it has not since reached. The genius of the great- est designers of the time was associated with the new in- vention, and expressed itself with unparalleled vigour in the ITALY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 71 woodcut ; while the type-founder, being still under the in- fluence of a fine traditional style in handwriting, was in per- fect harmony with the book decorator or illustrator." ^ The first press in Italy was set up at the Benedictine Mon- astery of Subiaco, near Rome. Some Germans were mem- bers of this community, and perhaps that was one reason why the German printers, Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz, were welcomed by its abbot, Cardinal Turre- cremata. Sweynheym, a clerk of the diocese of Mainz, was possibly one of Fust and Schoeffer's workmen. Pannartz belonged to the diocese of Cologne. The theory that both men were refugees from Mainz in 1462, that Nicolas Jen- son accompanied them in their flight, and that he cut the font used by them at Subiaco, as well as that subsequently employed at Rome, has been advanced by reputable author- ities.' Be that as it may, a very beautiful type was pro- duced at Subiaco, which appears to us gothic, but which they probably considered roman; for these printers, accus- tomed to gothic types, found themselves in a country where manuscripts in the Humanistic character were the fashion. So, while their type has many details of Gothic design in it, it has roman capitals, and lower-case letters very roman in structure — though their thickness of line gives, in mass, the effect of gothic type. There is, too, a certain amount of white between the lines of type, which results in a clear- ness usually characteristic of books printed in roman fonts.^ While not a roman type as we should now understand the term, it is, in spite of its general effect, a font well on the ' Cmne's Decoratiue Illustration of Books, p. 125. ^For Claudin's account of this episode, see his Histoire de l^ Imfirimerie en France au XFe et au XFIe sitcle, Vol. I, pp. 10 et seq. ^Burger, pi. 45. 72 PRINTING TYPES wav thereto. Three books were printed at Subiaco — Cicero's De Oratore (which, though undated, is generally considered the first one), appearing either at the end of 1464 or the be- ginning of 1465 ; the Opera of Lactantius, printed in 1465 ; and the De Civifafe Dei of St. Augustine, finished in 1467 {Jig. 24). Possibly earlier than all of these was a Donatus, of which no copy exists, but of which there is a record. The end of the year 1467 finds Sweynheym and Pan- nartz in Rome, where they set up a press in the palace of the De' Massimi family. Their first book printed in Rome was Cicero's Epistulx ad Familiares of 1467, followed by the Lactantius of 1468. These were set in a new font which, though far less attractive than the Subiaco letter, was a much more roman type {Jig. 25). Besides the books at Subiaco (four, if we count the Donatus) they printed about fifty at Rome, where they worked together until 1473. A roman type was also produced at Rome in 1468 by Ulrich Han for editions of Cicero's De Oratore and Tiiscularvx, Quxstio7ies, but \vhether it was a roman letter under Gothic influence, or a gothic letter under Roman influence, it is hard to say. In general effect it was certainly greatly inferior to the Sweynheym and Pannartz types.^ In all three fonts, whatever the form of lower-case letter, the capitals were dis- tinctly roman. Many roman types of varying degrees of purity and attractiveness were used by Italian printers of this period. It was reserved for John andWendelin de Spire to show a roman t3^pe which to-day appears roman to us. In the font used in the Venice editions of Cicero's Epistulx ad Familiares and Pliny's Historia JVaturaiis of John de Spire, printed in 1469, and the De Civitate Dei printed in the next year by John and Wendelin de Spire {Jig. 26), this very modern quality can be clearly recognized. 'Burger, pi. 83. ^eJ h^ ol S^S-aS-^. .3 r S s h ^ ^ ^ S >^ o =^ ^E S I i i| ^ ^-s ^, -f I ^ k ^ t: o \u o <n ^ e "TJ vo ^ O ?U ^C »3 CD •^ j« #a *a va -2 S:&»S :^ i-^f Panto -g «5 <5 a 3 >S- J ui 5 S a ? 1 5.-S e|'| §:§:? " § s c 5^ a 5 5- 2 «<f* So e n o o >^ P V3 S fi 5 — «^ C ^ -2^1 '^^ e § § « I "-I ^ tfi ^ fZ 8 ;r: p £ ^ -£> O S- S O 2J « 5-2 g S .- =^^ I '^ y ^ o 5. 3 g ^ 5 g-e ^ :? o 5 8 g o ^ «s ^ o 5 <= ^ i ■^ 'S "^ F^r ^ credendum eH-.quia necc({e: fuic populu dliquado ad ludum conuenire.&^ uoluerunc uc iquic pbilofopbuf derermiaca ee loca ludendi :ne m diuerfcnifpuaafq; locirconucnncula fa cientejj^^bro fa &: conrumeliofa aliqua pcrpetrarenc <C3^LiiLifmodi tcaq? mecbanicc arcefa^ uiuendi genera b^erhfTimc a quofibecboeflia uiro ualenc exercen.Nam &: facra fcpcura bumfmoi neceflanafarcef comendac mquicfm eccIefiaOico- In manu artificifomiropera laudabi^.unufexppbccif aic.t porta regifamficefnegonacur.Auc fi force cece/ rafarcefingenio predirafpcroptaf reltgc nbi hberalef arcef-prerercim quamor ulnmaf quaf macbemaacaf uocanc. que plemnqr magno fplendore bommef eaC fecfbancefillunrrancLcgifbi Sulpiciu GalluaHrro/ nimu plurimu bononf 8^ unlicanfacflulifre romaniC Qui cum bcllo pximt effenc concra parfaftea nodle luna eclipfaca eO. quo figno fhipefac^t romani dcli/ 25. Sccotid Ttfpe of Srvcipihcijm anJ Pannartz^ Iiomt\ lA-67 Ff-om the S/iecultim Hurnariif f'ita' of 1468 .6^'n ^ p ^ 3 U *- c« ^ Q :i ^ - Th'S egos ^ c^ -^ a £ 55 §- ^ e g o-s i ° ^S S « £ S se « n r^ 3 _ 4-t «j Tt: ' - tW rj ^^^ _ _ ri ex. 8 i i S ^ ^ ^ C -J 3 ^ cr bO c ., c» c *j »M o « b <^ ^ C 3 <u vj rr C a <u vj Q- CIS C C- <-' 3 3 « r. 3 o Ql • ^J ^ ^v ^ Pirf *-* *^ * *^ 2 E S :r 5 ° « or ^ 3 - ^^ 3 3 3 esse ^ o "^ ^ cr CL ^ 5-. E c o 3 « '-' o .^ 3 bO o 3 5 Q-, c 5 o o ,. ^ '^'^ 3^5 c? t^ ^ H^ C C ^ o C2 c H a. "-• j2 o 5 c <3 _r 3 >- 2 o ,rra g £«r3 3 O *-» 3 3^ 3 ^ rt O O f' u O ♦-» t'J C *j '-f - +-. ^ O 3 "H o . cu a, 3 s^ g ^ Is ** .. ^ O *^ '-> .3 c c o '^ t: j5 C j^ JZJ j3 n u- 2 c -^ - - 2 nj rs ^ = 3 ■ «J 3 «-> ^ 3 71 3 « C O w o c o i: ^ M C -^3 *Si ^ e 3 = E 5 '^ m O e " j:i 3 - <-^ 3 Oi 3 CO§^ o cr<-3 q3 05 o ^ S 1 ^ ITALY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 73 Nicolas Jenson, whose celebrated roman types are now to be considered, was a Frenchman, a native of Somme- voire, Haiite-Marne, and for some time was mint-master at Tours. The legend is, that Charles VII of France sent Jen- son, in 1458, to Mainz, to inform himself on the subject of the new art of printing and to acquire sufficient knowledge to work in it on his return. But if Jenson ever went to Mainz, he never returned to France, and we find him in 1468 at Venice. The first roman characters, which were used by John de Spire, and for which De Spire obtained an exclusive priv- ilege for five years, have been sometimes attributed to Jen- son. In any case, De Spire's death in 1470 lifted the restric- tions on roman types from other Venetian printing-houses, and Jenson produced in that year his famous roman let- ter {Jig. 27). The tractate De Prwparatione Evangelica of Eusebius is generally considered his first book. If we look at the best Humanistic manuscripts of the period, it is readily seen whence he derived his inspiration. The characteristics of Jenson's font were its readability, its mellowness of form, and the evenness of colour in mass. Analyzed closely, his letter-forms were not very perfect; had they been so, their effect would not have been so good; for, as an authority has said, "a type too ideal in its per- fection is not an ideal type." The eye becomes tired when each character is absolutely perfect. Thus the good effect of the type in mass depends somewhat upon the varia- tions in, and consequent "movement" of, its integral parts. Jenson's roman types have been the accepted models for roman letters ever since he made them, and, repeatedly copied in our own day, have never been equalled. There were other printers in Italy whose types rivalled his, but no other man produced quite so fine a font, or had better taste in the composition of a page and its imposition upon 74. PRINTING TYPES paper.^ The presswork of his volumes is perhaps their weak- est point. Apparently a lighter ink was used for his roman than for his gothic types — for Jenson also used a gothic let- ter." He printed about a hundred and fifty books in some ten years, and as he prospered in the enterprise we may draw from his history the unexpected moral that if only a man does a thing well enough^ it will reward him — in reputation, or in money — perhaps in both. For Jenson in his own day had a great reputation, both as a publisher and printer. He died at Rome, in 1480, \\'hither he went at the invitation of Pope Sixtus IV. Jenson's material passed into the hands of Torresano of Venice, father-in-law of Aldus, who, after the latter's death, carried on the Aldine printing-house. At the head of a broadside advertisement of various classes of books,^ printed (in bold gothic type) by Jenson and his associate and successor, Herbort, and brought out by the latter not many months, it is believed, after Jenson's death, there are some prefatory remarks which were per- haps written by a theologian of a Humanistic turn of mind. We quote them as a testimony to the esteem that Jenson's M'ork enjoyed in its own day : even allowing for the exagger- ation incident to advertising. After an invocation to Christ the Illuminator of the World, it reads : "It has appeared to me to be an undertaking which would redound to the common advantage of all men, that I should in this litde discourse of mine set forth to every people the extreme usefulness of the works printed in the famous city of Venice, especially of those which are from ^ DrucknchrifCcn, pi. 67. ^ Ibid., pi. 34. ^ Discovered in the library of tlie Cai)iirhin Cloister at Burghausen, Upper Bavaria, pasted inside three books jirinted by Jenson in 1478. It is now in tlie State Librar)' at Munich. For facsimile, etc., see Wiegendrucke und Hand- schrifttn. Festgabe Konrad Haebler zuni 60. Geburtstage. Leipsic, 1919, p. 22. qui omnibus ui aquarum fubmeifis cum filiis fuis fimul ac nuri'ous mirabili quodi modo quafi femen liuani generis confcruatus eft:qui unni quafi uiuam quandain imagincm imitan nobis connngat:& hi quidemantedi!uutumfueranc:pol^diluuuimauteinaliiquoruunus altilTimi dei f^ccidos luftitix acpietans miraculo rex iuHus lingua he^ brioru appcUatus eftrapud quos ncc circuncifionis nee mofaicx legis uUa mcntio erac . Quare nee ludxosfpollcris eni hoc nomcn fuit)neq! genn!es:quoniam non ucgentes plurahtacem deorum inducebancfed hcbra:os propne nofamus aut ab Hcbere ucdi(flu cft:auc qa id nomen tranfitiuos fignificat.Soh qppe a creatuns naturali rone k. lege inata no fcnpca ad cogmtioncueri del trafiere;S:uolupcare corporis cotepta ad rccftam uitam pueniffe fcribunc'':cum quibus omibus prxclarus ille tonus genens origo Habraam numeradus efl:cui fcriptura mirabilera iuftitia qua non a mofaica lege(feptima efm pofl: Habraa generacione Moyfes nafatur)red naturali tuit ranone confecutus fuma cum laudc atteftatur.Credidit enim Habraam deo & reputatii efl: ei in luftinam. Quare mulcarum quoq; gentium patrem diuina oracula tuturu:ac in ipT'o benedicedas oes genres hoc uidelicSC ipfum quod lam nos uideiis apcrte pra;dirtum eft:cuius lUe luftitix pertecftioem non mofaica lege fed fide cofecucus eft:qui poft multas dei uifiones legimmum genuit filium:quem pnmum omnium diuino pfuafus oraculo circucidit:£i ceteris qui ab eo nafcerctur tradidit:uel ad manifeftum mulntudinis eorum futura:fignum:uel ut hoc quafi paternsuirtutis ifignefilii re-* tinetes miiores fuos imitan conaret';aut qbufcuqj aliis decaufis.Non cnim id fcrutidum nobis modo cft.Pol^ Habraam films ems Ifaac in pietate fuccellitifoelice hac ha:reditate a parctibus accxpta:q uni uxoii coniunctus quum geminos genuiflet callitatis amore ab uxore poflea dicicurabftinuiffe.Ab ifto natuse lacob qui^pptcrcumulatu uirtutis prouetum Ifrael enam appellatus eft duobus noibus pptcr duplicem uirtutis ufu. lacob efm athleta & exercecem fe latine dicerc poflumus: quam appellatione primii habuitiquu praifticis operanoibus multos pro pietate labores krebat.Quuni aute lam ui(ftor ludando cuafit:&; fpeculanonis fruebat bonis:tLic Ifraelem ipfe deus appcllauit iterna. premia beatitudineq; ukimam qux in uifione del confi'lit ei largiens: hominem enim qui deum uideac Ifrael nomen fignificat. Ab hoc.xii. iudxorum tnbus ^fedlx fut.Innumerabilia de uicaiftorum uirorum forritudine prudencia pietatcq; dici pofl"unt:quoium alia fecundum fcnpturx uerbahiflorice confidcrantur;alia nopologice acallcgorice incerprctat^:de qbus multi cofcripferutiSC nos m libro que infcnpfiils 27. JemoR's Roman Typr used In EusMus, De Prrparalime Emngelira, Venice, 1470 ITALY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 75 the excellent workshop of Master Nicolas Jenson the Frenchman. And in order that what is maimed and imper- fect be not bought and prized as the equal of the best, and that bad printing be not so praised as to cause men to neglect and not purchase what has been printed with the utmost care and painstaking, I made up my mind to com- municate this letter to the public. For the excellent Master Nicolas Jenson employs proofreaders who are skilled in both languages, and he seeks out the most famous men of learning and greater numbers of them, with the result that works published by him have the power of illuminating the entire world, and contain neither too much nor too little, as you will well understand if you will read through his books with the most heedful attention. Furthermore, they contain discussions, on this side and that, by the most com- petent men, in order that the truth may through the va- riety of arguments be revealed. For, as Cicero says in the Paradoxes, 'there is nothing so rough and unkempt that it cannot be glorified by the proper treatment.' But the quality and value of the types that he uses is another marvel to relate, for it ought to be ascribed rather to divine inspira- tion than to human wit, so that all may say and truly, that Master Nicolas easily surpasses all his rivals ; so that men might justly venture to repeat the saying of Virgil in the Bucolics — 'but she bears her head as high among all other cities as any cypress will do among trailing hedgerow shoots.' For his books are no hindrance to a man, nor do they produce weariness, but rather give delight by their exactness and precision; they do not harm one's eyes, but rather help them and do them good. Moreover the charac- ters themselves are so methodically and carefully finished by that famous man that the letters are not smaller or larger or thicker than reason demands or than may afford 76 PRINTING TYPES pleasure: which he could not have done unless filled by some divine inspiration. Hence our debt to that excellent man Master Nicolas Jenson is great indeed : for through his diligence and toil all peoples, barbarous as well as Latin, have in their hands works which before could scarcely be procured : now they have these works printed with correct texts in most excellent, beautiful and agreeable books, so that they deserve praise and reverence in the highest de- gree. I for my part determined to narrate briefly their good qualities, not because of any spite or jealousy toward others, but as I have already said, for the common advantage of all men : on which we ought to insist much more than upon our own advantage: lest men, when they buy, should buy and possess the false instead of the true, the ugly instead of the beautiful, the incorrect instead of the most accurate." Five or six roman fonts were cut for the great Venetian printer-publisher, Aldus Manutius. His first roman letter, in which Bembo's JEtna appeared, was not particularly suc- cessful, but the third roman font, designed by the celebrated Francesco da Bologna (Grifii), who after\\ ard cut the Al- dine italic character, was excellent. This roman type was used in that famous book, Colonna's H ypnewtomachia Poli- phili^ or "The Strife of Love in a Dream," printed by Aldus in the last year of the century. It is remarkable for its de- lightful illustrations, drawn in a line which harmonizes with the tone of the pages of roman letter. From one of these decorations the famous Aldine printer's mark of dol- phin and anchor was derived ; although the original of this design is to be found on a coin which Erasmus says was sent to Aldus by the Renaissance scholar, Bembo. A specimen of this Aldine roman font is shown in the fac- simile from a page of the H ypnewtomachia {Jig. 28). It is distinctly inferior to Jenson's roman characters, and perhaps POLIPHILOINCOMINCIAILSECONDO LIBRO DI LA SVA HYPHEROTOMACHIA.NEL QVALE PO- LIA ET LVI DISEKTABONDI,IN QVALE MODO ET VAKIO CASO NAKKANO INTEPvCALAKIAMEN- TE IL SVO INAMOKAMENTO, NARKA QVIVI LA DIVA POLIA LA NOBILE ET ANTIQYA OKIGINE S VA.ET COMO PER LI PREDE CESSORI S VI TRI VISIO F VE EDIFIC ATO.ET DI QVEL LA GENTE LELIA ORIVNDA.ET PER QVALE MO- DO DISAVEDVTA ET INSCIA DISCONCIAMENTE S£ INAMOROE DI LEI IL SVO DILECTO POLIPHILO. EMIEDEBILEVOCE TALEOGRA ItiofeScdiue Nymphe abfoneperuenerano 5c inconcine alia uoltra benigna audietia , a ualc latcrrifica raucitate del urinante Efacho al fua- 'ue canto dela piangeuole Philomela. Nondi meno uolendo io cum tuti gli mei exilf cona" i,ti del intelledo.&cumlamiapaucula fufficie da di (atiffare alle uoftre piaceiiole petitionc, nonrfflaro al potere.Lequale femota cjiialuque hefitatione epiepiuche ficongruerebbealtronde,dignamentemeritano piiuiberrimo fluuio di eloqiientia,cumtroppopiurotiindaelegaiitia8icumpiuexomatapoli tiira di pronutiato,chein. me per alcuno padlo noii fi troua, di cofeguire ilfuogratiofoaffedo.Maauui Celibe Nymphe&:admealquato,quan. tucheScconfuraScincomptametefringultieteharoinqualcheportiiiiv culagratificatoaflai.QuandouoluntarofaSi diiiota a gli defii uoflri dc poftulato me preftaro piu prefto cum lanimo no mediocre prompto hu-' mile parendo,che cum enucleata terfa.S: uenufta eloqueniia placedo.La f rifca dunqueSc ueterrima geneologia,&: profapia.^ il fatale mio amorc garruIandoordire.Ondegiaeflendoneluoftro ucncrando conucntualc confpedlo,&uedermefterile8iieiunadieloquio8^adtanto prcftatc 8i di uo ceto di uui O Nymphe fedule famularie dil a.cce[o cupidine. Et itan'' to bdnigno SideledeuoleS^facro {ito,di fincere aure &: florigeri fpirami-' niafflatoJo acconciamentecompulfo diaflumereuno ucnerabileaufo, &tranquillo timorededire. Dunqueauanteiltuto uenia datc,o belli(Ii>' meS^beatidimeNympheaquefto mio blafterare &agli fcmelli &rcrri'' geni,8cpufilluli Conati,fiadiiencchcinalchuna parte io incautamentc A 28. Pag-e of Hypnerotomachia Pol'iphUi: Aldus ^ Venice^ 1499 {reduced) ITALY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 77 to those of the Venetian printer, Ratdolt. Besides roman types, Aldus possessed fonts of his celebrated italic charac- ter in two sizes, and several fonts of Greek type. Aldus died in 1515, and when he lay in state his books were grouped about him. He directed in his will that punches begun by a certain cutter should on no account be completed by an inferior hand. One other Venetian printer (and type-cutter) should not be forgotten — Erhard Ratdolt, who came from Augsburg, and began to print at Venice in 1476. His books are the first with decorative title-pages, and he also employed ex- tremely fine borders and initial letters.^ He issued his beau- tiful type specimen-sheet in 1486.^ It is dated Augsburg, April 1, 1486, but was probably printed at Venice, just be- fore Ratdolt left for Augsburg, and was to be used there. In this, the earliest specimen-sheet known, the Ave Mana, in its older form (which begins it with a charming initial A), is printed in a large gothic letter, derived from four- teenth century Italian manuscripts.^ The sheet exhibits ten sizes of excellent gothic letter, four of which are here re- produced {Jig. 29). There are three sizes of roman — all good — and a specimen of Greek letter of excellent early form (Jig. 30). Ratdolt's books were among the most dis- tinguished of the Venetian press. Indeed, by the sixteenth century, Venice was a centre for printing, and had some hundred and fifty printing-houses ; and over four thousand books, of remarkable excellence in workmanship, came from ' De Vinne thinks that Ratdolt's initials were probably cut in high relief on metal, as it was expensive and not particularly practical to cast these ornamen- tal letters in a mould. In books of the period much tliat is considered engrav- ing on wood, especially when of a delicate kind, is really engraving on metal. De Y'mne's Plain Printing Types, New York, 1900, p. 84. * Burger, pi. 5, for entire sheet. * Thompson, fac. 194. 78 PRINTING TYPES its presses. The work of Venetian printers and type-found- ers was considered a model for the rest of Europe. Publish- ers wishing to commend their books announced that they were printed in the carattere Veneio. The attempts of the first Italian printers, Sweynheym and Pannartz, to print in semi-roman types, have led us naturally to consider first the development of these types into pure roman letter ; but gothic types were also used in Italy by Jenson, as has been said, and by many other print- ers. A fine specimen of Jenson's work in gothic fonts is the Codex Deci-etonim of Gratian, printed in 1474.^ The forms of Italian gothic types, while pointed, in the larger sizes were rounder and less compact than the like kinds of German black-letter. In the smaller sizes this attenuated quality is very striking, and makes the character almost a condensed type. A similarly condensed letter was employed in manuscripts of a little earlier date. For head-lines, a large, round gothic letter similar to some Spanish gothic characters was often used ; and sometimes roman capitals. Not merely the types, but their arrange- ment in general, were modelled on manuscripts of the four- teenth and fifteenth centuries. The famous manuscript Virgil, with notes, which belonged to Petrarch (now in the Ambrosian Library at Milan), shows a character of letter and an arrangement of text which were closely followed in many subsequent printed editions of Virgil. The manu- script commentary on the Decretals of Gregory IX (1353) in the Vatican Library is also very much like some books printed from Italian gothic fonts.^ The important series of plates of Italian types issued by the Type Facsimile Society (alluded to more fully later) are * Druckschriften, pi. 34. * Paleografihie Latine, pis. 101 and 106. nia bona, lauftl^ono:: virtuf potetia: ^ Qrmaj;. actio tibi c(?:ifte3mcn* cta/protti&et^tribmtC)eiisomnia nobis*T2):ofidtabrqtteOeo nullum o:bel9bo:. glla placet te!P in qua res parua bea tn^ 0bc facit ^ tcnnc6 liimrianturopes. Sifo2tunavoIetfice t)crl?cro2cconfiil. Six>oIctl?eceat>emfie9Scc6fulcr|?eto:* /©uicquib amo:mflTt no eftc6tct>crc mtu IRegnatain bominos iue Ipabct illc fuos ^ita batac^tcba Data elincfcnerenobis^ ^^uma:necccrtapcrfoIucnt>at)ie* W^as 1 ar0 bocmt quob fapit omnie l>onio 2lrs animo0 frangit -z firman biriim't ^>: bes 3lrte cabunt turres arte leuamr onue 2lrttbu9 ingcnns quefita eft iglona multis 1^:incipijs obfta fero mebiciiia paramr Cum mala per longas conualuere mozas 0et> p:opera ncc te ^>enmra0 biifer in l)o:a9 ^ui no» eft^obie cra0 minus aptus erit. 29. RatdoWs Gothic Type^from his Specimen &/"1486 Eft homini uirtus fuluo preciofior auro: a;n«as Ingenium quondam fuerat preciofius auro. Miramurq^ magis quos munera mentis adornat: Quam qui corporeis emicuere bonis. Si quauirtute nites ne defpicc quenquam Ex alia quadam forfitan ipfe nitet Nemo (lie laudis nimium I^etxir bonore Ne uilis fectus port fua feta gemat. Nemo nimis cupide fibi res deliderat ullas Ne dum plus cupiat perdat &: id quod babet, Ne ue cito uerbis cuiufquam credito blandis Sed fi fint fidei relpice quid moneant Qui bene proloquitur coram (cd poilea praue Hie crit inuifus bina q> ora gerat Pax plenamuimitis opus pax (iimma laborum pax belli exaai priEciiim ellprsEciumqueperxdi Sidera pace uigeiitconfiftuntterteapace N il placitum fine pace deo non munus ad aram f ornina arbitriis tempus dilpen(at ubi Ilia rapit iuuenesilla feritleiies K^icd TcvTSpifH fe ©cxAeiot t8 jOLeAirojuivH Vl r6ps}4)^o^H T^pdTco fe iroAvjULveiot Tovpotvw* ire KcsAAioim OeAu Trpo^epejcmt l$ivcnra cctwy teovc>^5o\/djuLcrpw t^cj. 30. RatdoWs Roman and Greek Type^from his Specvnen of 1486 ITALY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 79 material to be consulted for the general effect of books printed in gothic letter in the last half of the fifteenth century/ Italian transitional fonts merged almost imperceptibly from a distinctly gothic into a fairly clear roman type. Start- ing from the pure gothic types, the first differentiation appears in a wider leading of lines and wider spacing of the type itself.^ The next advance shows gothic fonts with somewhat roman capital letters. This was followed by books in which head-lines and dates were set in pure roman cap- itals. An increasing clearness in cut and further separation of letters and a constant use of roman capitals finally devel- oped into tentative roman fonts. These changes can be in- terestingly traced by looking at the earliest type of Sweyn- heym and Pannartz {Jig. 24), and the improvement in the type used by them only a little later at Rome {Jig. 25) ; or, better still, the four types used by Ulrich Han in the same city.^ These transitional types form the "bridge" between Italian gothic and roman types. Italian printers were not always very particular about the unities, and sometimes mixed gothic head-lines with roman text, while some books (although but few) were set in a roman lower-case letter with gothic capitals. The fonts of Italian roman vary greatly. The finest all have that rich, mellow character which no types before or since have ever had in such degree. While Jenson's type was undoubtedly the best, it was pushed hard by some other roman fonts, such as those employed at Venice by John and Wendelin de Spire and Ratdolt, byMiscomini at Venice and Florence, by Servius at Rome, and others. * Type Facsimile Society. Publications of the Society for the years 1901-09, inclusive. ^ Ibid., pi. 1903m. ' Burger, pis. 23, 84, 83 [l] , 83 [2] , in this order. 80 PRINTING TYPES A page like Miscomini's Florentine Horace of 1482, where notes surround the text, is an admirably practical piece of work. The notes are perhaps a little closely set, but the page is fine and straightforward, and of a pleasant solidity which gives the reader confidence {Jig. 3l). Almost all Italian roman fonts in the last half of the fifteenth cen- tury had an air of "security" and generous ease extremely agreeable to the eye. Indeed, there is nothing better than fine Italian roman type in the whole history of typography. It is not fair, however, to take the finest of these and think of it as representative of Italian fifteenth century type. Only by seeing many examples can one get a general idea of that. And for this purpose, the publications of the Type Facsimile Society, issued in England through the influ- ence of Robert Proctor between 1901 and 1909, are admir- able. If the reader can divide a set of the loose plates into groups of roman and gothic types, and then sort them into groups under each country, in chronological arrangement, he will obtain a conspectus of national type-forms which is invaluable. He has, in fact, but to glance through the gothic and roman Italian types shown in facsimiles thus ar- ranged, to comprehend the general tendency of type-forms in either class of character ; and will realize how high an average of excellence, especially in the roman letters, the fifteenth century Italian printers attained. This publication is rare, and this use of it diverts it from the bibliographical purposes for which libraries cherish it — though it does not divert the librarian ! But for the student I do not know a more valuable work, nor a more valuable way to use it. When we compare even the best early printed books with the Italian manuscripts which they copied, we see how far they fell short of their model. "As compared with other national scripts," says Maunde Thompson, "the high ig-g-^lii "B « « c g^ 2 i s-S^-a - 5 -— ^ a "^ ^< - ■ ^* i? "^ ST^ ^- r^ L4 '^ "•*-' ^;n u /% g«<.^^jm "^ o R S £fo-^'5i P "1 o ,- ,2 •• f^ ^^ 'M z: 'o < cS < 2 Q z CXu (x; H 2 < u 8 ^ ITALY: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 81 level of general excellence maintained by the Italian scribes is very striking. And it was this general excellence that placed them in the position to take the lead at the crucial moment of the adoption of printing in Europe. . . . And when the art of printing was established, and after the early type-cutters had selected their first models in the con- temporary MS. book-hands of their several countries, it is no wonder that, in the end, the type copied from the Italian script prevailed over all others." ^ For the characters em- ployed in the best Humanistic manuscripts are, in their way, among the masterpieces of human endeavour. * Thompson, p. 464. CHAPTER VI TYPE AND TYPE-FORMS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN FRANCE PARIS was the first place in France in which print- ing, as we know it to-day, was practised. But before any press was set up there, essays in typography had already been made at Avignon, as early as 1444, by Waldfoghel, a Bohemian goldsmith of Prague. He had some secret process \\ hich he called the art of writing artificially. He declared under oath upon the Gospels and before wit- nesses, that the said method of writing artificially was real, easy, possible, and useful to those who wished to work in it. In association with a watchmaker, or locksmith, who came from Treves, and with the help of others who supplied money for the project, he set up some sort of a printing establish- ment, the material of which consisted of two steel alpha- bets, two iron forms, a steel instrument called a vise, and other accessories. He also made an alphabet of twenty-seven Hebrew letters, with a so-called engine and accompanying instruments of wood, tin, and iron. It is possible that Wald- foghel had earlier been associated with men who were, in turn, connected with Gutenberg, at Strassburg or Mainz. At the latter place there were men who were experimenting in the art of printing besides Gutenberg. Waldfoghel, though lacking means fully to develop his ideas, seems to have ar- rived at something much like Gutenberg's process. How- ever that may be, his experiments did not continue after 1446. Eleven years later. Fust and Schoeffer's Latin Psalter of 1457 appeared at Mainz — the first dated hook printed from movable types. In Paris, printing was begun in 1470 under the auspices of two men whose origin casts some light on the personnel coafl:ic| afCentiremur habere* (D^ fi uidcmur belli fortuna fccum partiCLpare»'c5^ultius elTe fcitOyOpponccc fe lUis g bumilioiibus dnanK g uirum fcxlum a finibus erigere j ac fe ultco romanis boftes ofteuderc • CBtutus tcallianis . W^'^Vnciatu mibi eft cj menedotius uefter^ J -Kdolobellg inimico meo bofpes A amicuf exiftcnsycffccit^ut intia loca nca caftia mctanf inde abirc no urgere£» d nuc quserit ut intra urbcm cu exercitu recipiat»(Ji^ dolobcU^ p20 deffe tpfe uel guis alius opetatus fit* id mibi molcftu no cft»nec aniaducrtedos cuiufpia ct' tores baftenus cxiftimo»'confiderata amicicia d bofpitalitatc eocum»3cd nc in antea aligd aniaducrfiois dignu ppetcetisApfu mcnedoi^^ e c'luitatc in exilium eiciatis* nro commodo d utilitati profpicientes«cx quo ipfe parda dc/ uendcndo-' fuu dumtaxac commodu quxritat* Hcc| dolobcUam quoc^ pafto recipiatif^fed a finibus ueftas expellatis»(C^ fi rcfifterct-'ui d armis cogatis»(3^uippe ft no parcbitis^non menedori opcca uos dolobellan:! recepiHc^'fcd 32. First Roman Type used in France: Freilntrg-er^ Gei'ing- and Kranz^ Paris^ 1470 FRANCE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 83 of the printing-house (really "a private press for the benefit of public studies") which they established. One was Johann Heynlin, called de la Pieire^ from his birthplace, Stein, in the Duchy of Baden. He had been prior and rector of the Sor- bonne. He was a booklover, and, coming from the banks of the Rhine, was in relation with Mainz printers. Wor- ried by the carelessness of copyists, he succeeded in inter- esting Fichet, professor of belles-lettres and rhetoric at the Sorbonne, in a scheme to import printers to Paris, so that learned works could be more correctly printed — a plan which aroused considerable opposition among the po\verful associations of writers and copyists. The printers for whom he sent were three — Freiburger, a man of education, an old friend of Heynlin, and a former fellow student at the Uni- versity of Basle; and two others, Ulrich Gering and Martin Kranz, both workmen of the higher class. These men reached Paris in the early months of 1470. Before printing anything, they were obliged to manufacture the tools of their trade, to set up a press, and to fit up their workroom. Last, but not least, they were obliged to cut their type — a roman font for which Heynlin furnished a model from the types of an edi- tion of Caesar's Commentaries^ which was printed at Rome in 1469 by Sweynheym and Pannartz. As the prior (who was to correct the proofs of the books to be printed) was near- sighted, a large roman character, which did not tire the eye, was preferred to the Gothic manuscript-letter, at that time generally used in France. The type was awkward in cut, but readable {fig. 32). The first book printed in this font was Gasparini Episfolae^ ' Claudin's Histoirede V hnfirimerie en France auXV^ etau XVI^siMe, Paris, 1900-14, 4 vols., Vol. I, p. 23. See also the same author's First Paris Press. An Account of the Books firintedfor G. Fichet and J. Heynlin in the Sarbonne, 1470-1472. (Biblio- graphical Society's Monographs, No. VI, 1898.) Consult facs., pp. 91-100. 84 PRINTING TYPES a collection of letters by Gasparino Barzizi of Bergamo, which was considered an example of an excellent Latin style. A second book, Gasporini Ortho^-aphia^ — a treatise by the same author on the orthography of Latin \\ords, — was printed in the same type. With a copy of it which Fichet sent as a present to a former pupil, Robert Gaguin, he de- spatched a letter in which is this paragraph : "The printers say here to whoe\er is Avilling to listen to them, that it is a man named John, called Gutenberg, who first invented in the neighborhood of Mainz the art of print- ing, by the means of which books can now be made, not with the aid of the reed, as in old times, nor by the pen as in our days, but with letters of metal, quickly, correctly, and well. . . . Bacchus and Ceres were made divinities for having taught humanity the use of wine and bread, but Gutenberg's invention is of a higher and diviner order, for it furnishes characters by the aid of which all that is said or thought can be written, transmitted, and preserved to the memory of posterity." A Sallust and other books followed, always printed in this same font. This press, as primarily founded, ended its work in 1472. In the next year, Fichet having left for Italy, and Heynlin no longer taking an active oversight of its pro- duction, the printers decided, or were obliged, to leave the Sorbonne and set up their workroom outside it. It has been said that, as an institution, the Sorbonne was active in pro- curing the services of these printers, but this is untrue ; it was merely by the initiative of two men connected with that institution that the printers came to Paris. The press itself, however, was undoubtedly under the roof of the Sorbonne, for such a printing-office, with but one kind of type and a small daily production, took up very little space. The printers then installed themselves at the Sign of the en o *S s-^.s tO'S o f^ g ?5 5 E u-i «- Wl 4J u O 2 C V Q ^ 'i *• c^ a 'C 5 ^ ^ '^^13 = -i"S .-.^ R ni ^ «•• X «« c ^ CO £ 2«J £ ^'-siw , IS tniw ti ti*u ? -u o c£\S£rTP'z^n 6j .t *^ ♦!* -u c ra J: .- ^ ^ r^ c oi 7U 2 xj jj Oi ^T ^* ' — JU W r^ c oi £«o^ £^.|.2tJ^ ■g ra c- § J3 5 2^53 u £J2 3 **^ O ♦♦- .,* f^ 33 ^ 3 *> Ai U« 6?W W 3 Cft n 2 ^ re f^ W u Cm *- g Q 5 '^ r fi • o III ^ u re vj: W 3 E **• JDM 5^ P fe S ^ p. £ p 3^ C 3 .5 5 s s ^ r fc S.3 ff^^.3 r\ ni y 0* ^ *- »w 00:2 - 2 u^ 2. o £ &H re p« S 3 (^ Qri i O 3^ § iflll o (^ ■^ F^ ^ t^ FRANCE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 85 Golden Sun in the Rue St. Jacques, a street consecrated for centuries to the commerce of the book — as indeed it still is. Their next type (employed for a manual for the clergy, called Mampiilus Curatorum^ issued in 1473) was a gothic font of transitional character, more roman, however, than the like types of Schoeffer. This was the first gothic type used in France. In this book it was set in double-column, with the initial letters and paragraph marks put in by hand {fig- 33V A new font, of letters larger in size than any of these previous types, was cut for the imposing Bible which they issued in 1476 — the first Bible printed in France. The type is a heavy, rounded gothic, but capitals are roman, a feature not so inharmonious in effect as would be expected {^jig. 34). The small type used in this Bible was the same as that em- ployed in the first book printed after they left the Sorbonne.^ In 1477 Kranz and Freiburger returned to Germany, leaving Gering alone. Laying gothic fonts aside, Gering cut for himself two new types, both pure roman, though heavy in effect. In comparing these with the Bible type, they appear to be only an evolution of some elements clearly discernible in the earlier gothic character. The throwing back of the dot on the i is a feature to be noticed. In the smaller font Gering printed two theological books ; in the larger, editions of Virgil {.jig. 35) and of Sallust. After 1484 there seems to have been a cessation in his activities, but meanwhile other printers had taken up work in Paris, and had procured new fonts of gothic and roman letter. Later, in association with Berthold Rembolt, a native of Strassburg, he employed in the Breviaire de Paris of 1492 a delicate gothic type. It was cut by Wolf, a printer, who during an ' Claudin, I, p. 63, for full page, rubricated. ^ Rid., p. 77, for full page, rubricated. Publii Vitgilii maronis mantuani uatis clarifTimi Carmen BucoHcum foeliater indpit. Hie deflet meliboBus profugiat quod inique. Titynis aft letus quis contulit oda didt. Melibaus Tityrus f Ityre tu patul^ rccubas f ub tcgmine fagi : Silueftre tenui mufa mediCans auena* Nos patri^ fines et dulda linqmus arua. Nos patria fugim9;tu tityrc letusi libra Formofa refonare docesamaryllida filuas; O meliboeedeus nobis baec oda fedt. Titytus* Nam9 crit ille mihi fcmpct deus;illius aram: Sepe tener noftris ab ouilibus imbuet agnus* Ille meas errare boues(ut cemis)et ipfum : Ludere(qu^ uellem)calamo permiTit agrefti. No cquidc inuideo.miror magis.imdicp totisy Me. Vfcp adeo turbatur agris.en fpfe capellas Protinus eger ago.banc etiam uix tityrc duco. Hi'c inter denfas corylos modo nam^ gemellos; Spem gregis(ah filice in nuda)connixa reliquft; Sepe malum hoc nobis(fi mens non leua fuilTet) Dc caslo tactas memini predicere quercus: Sspe liniQra caua prazdixit ab ilice comix. Sed tamen ifte deus qui fitrda tityre nobis. Vrbem qua dicunt roma : meliboee putaui Ti . Stultus ego huic noftr^ fimilem : quo fsepe folcmus .a.if« S5. Roman Type used in Vlrg-il by Gering^ Pan.f, 1478 FRANCE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 87 quier Bonhomme. This was entirely different from the gothic types used up to that time, and imitated French cur- sive Gothic manuscripts of that day. It is a charming type, characteristically French — nervous and spirited. At first introduced in rather a crude form, it developed into a beau- tiful letter, principally, if not always, used for the printing of French. It was in type of this family that the first book in French printed at Paris, viz., Croniques de France, was produced by Bonhomme about 1477 {fig- 36). Like other early types it was derived from a literary hand, founded on a cursive legal script which was used in the north of France and in some parts of the Netherlands contiguous thereto.^ Besides these characteristically French types, fonts of which to-day form part of the equipment of some French printing-ofiices, condensed gothic types were employed in certain books in small format printed at Paris. The first of these appeared in 1481 — La Confession de frere Olivier Maillard {fig. 37). Gothic type was used with roman cap- itals,^ and other fonts appear that are reminiscent of Italian and Flemish models. There was also a difference in the kind of gothic type employed for Latin and French books, the former being printed in the pointed gothic character, and the latter in various forms oibatarde — following in this use the manuscripts which preceded printing. Some fonts, the provenance of which is puzzling, we find were imported from Basle, from Nuremberg, or elsewhere. Placed on the first page of French books of this period were inscriptions, cut on wood, in very large letters (usu- ally imitative of calligraphy), of a round or pointed Gothic form. These and calligraphic initials, adorned with masks * Thompson, fac. 196. '^ Claudin, I, pi. facing p. 200. 88 PRINTING TYPES or grotesque heads — such as that used in the well-known Mercies Hystoireso^ 1487 ^ — were characteristic of popular French book-making. A particular feature of the French press of the fifteenth century was the exquisite manner in which type and decorations were harmonized and combined. The work produced by Le Rouge, Pigouchet, Verard, Du Pre, Vostre, and Tory shows a delicacy of execution and refinement of taste not hitherto apparent. It was in the Books of Hours produced by this group of men, says Pol- lard, "that the genius of French printers first strikingly evinced itself. For more than a century the decoration of manuscript Horx had invited all the skill of the finest illu- minators of Europe, and it was in France alone that the attempt was successfully made to rival the glories of the scribe and painter by those of the printer and engraver. The names of Antoine Verard, Philippe Pigouchet, and Simon Vostre, as printers and publishers, are inseparably connected with these Books of Hours, which for some quarter of a century from 1488 onward constitute the chief glories of the French press. More than 300 editions were issued altogether, in which some forty different print- ers had a share, Jean du Pre at the beginning of the series, and Geoffroy Tory, as late as 1525, being the most impor- tant after the three already named" {Jig. 38). The use of roman type in the French printing-houses of the fifteenth century was slight, after the first essay in it by the Sorbonne press. It is only toward the very end of the century that the roman letter is again employed, generally in editions of the classics, though Kerver and Tory later used it for Books of Hours. With roman lower-case types, roman capital letters, floriated and ornamented, were combined — as in the work of the second Paris press of Cesar and Stoll. 'Claudin, I, p. 459. CJ O J- v*_ ^ /:> 5 C ^ « ^ ^ i, 3 V 2 ^c- <=^ ^ C <^ fv? ♦ -< r* 4- ^D %* »>^ 2^ «1 ^ b I -^^^ i: li -3 ^ S u 5 g ^cg_ ^ 1* S- ** *^ "^2 c^Oi. c s-J s «3 5? «5 CO •o JS'Wt 5» ?'-^.oj2^v» «^ t^ — -e «:» S.'3 Kg «',s p Sr^-B^ ^ a J il -^ ^ «H ^ 5^ E ^ ^ •^ o JJ c ^ Ji J2" . c: H '-' « ti fer o ^ ^ s £ ^ ^':: 00 3 S E .3 »:* ♦* t> o -~» t* ^ ^ 2 ^ *^ c<3 1 1 5* o fc> til 5 a V- 4J <" ^ ^ — '3 S. Si *^ •- "^ i5 «i o zT c «> V »• •"-• ^ ^" ^ «a tJ b^t: , ^ «i^ s. a 5 R- «< -a P «o ^ '"'"^ '-' rr w STTI'" llJ-i- "5s i^^^^J^^^k^^5k^^ik^?MJt^^^Jk&M!^ f^t^^ (ccn5iflt:^t fafwS facetee tjc/ me ^u;^ monQ tc faiibam^ bme iio(Ict*;Cpttj I ■" J :2(ta5ifipo2ta pec cuan^cun; , .i^ cti6 cfaufa c(I; rt per mar(u»t^'[^ c^L'atia6*l^.pcfI partil i)iro(o ^luio^, fata pcrmanfiftupoff piitt«tt^»^p»__^^^^____ J>ci cjenrtti^ intercede ^ no6^6» 3Pii ^^rat tobicvng fifto : ct fpitrtuifancfo* pofi partutt)* le p:it t icpoua. R^anctabct0c»utn^1)irgorcmpr^^,;f,„^i^^^^^^^^^ maria* l!?t ♦gi^tctcc^c ^ noSte a6 bo^irfut en b:icf Dot muiutt) bcntr) f lofltuti)* "pofitmc e^ '^ '"^ ocmuira. aii8i oMioncn) mca* <Bt damox mc^ lilote^c qticfumuebomfcfa;^ „ mufoetuoe fu6fi5tt6 pacts (r 6catc matic fcmpa Birg^nne pafro;^ ciiute confi5entc6 a mnctie ^oflidue te56e fccuroe .pec bominun^ noftm^ £1^6 tcrtiaiti be ccuce* Sanaclpertb t'ca iui5 gfecuteurau tcplcalafculpo^ uradozer. voyat cci3 fU5 Ic futue- rcntto^oeuly.ct Ialcfirentteina« lemojt finer. ISS^^^^^i^nS^^^ ^^■^^^W^f^f^^T^^TSfW^WTT^ 38. Page from Book of Hours in Transitional style FRANCE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 89 The effect of their quaint forms is less disagreeable than one would suppose.^ Lyons was scarcely inferior to Paris in the number of its printing-houses. By its situation it was one of the centres of fifteenth century commerce, and fairs were held there fre- quented by purchasers from all parts of Europe. The Lyons printing trade was more prosperous, because less restricted, than in Paris, where the theological censorship in particu- lar became extremely active. The products of the Lyons press, which produced popular literature — poetry, histo- ries of chivalry, etc. — show some interesting variations in French typography. In general the same types are used as at Paris, but the type-setting seems rougher and perhaps freer in execution. Many Lyons books were executed in a leitre de forme which recalls the products of early Nether- lands printers. Guillaume Le Roy was the first Lyons printer. His pa- tron was Barthelemy Buyer, to whom he held somewhat the same relation that the first Paris printers did to Fichet and Heynlin. Le Roy's first book, the Compendium Breve of the Cardinal-Deacon Lothaire, issued in 1473, was executed in a heavy, roughly cast gothic type, just mentioned as re- calling that of the Netherlands. He also employed a round gothic font, identical with that used by Wendelin de Spire at Venice in 1473, for his Miroir de Vie Humaine of 1477. Lyons had the credit of producing the first illustrated book printed in France, Le Mirouer de la Redemption^ printed there in 1478 by Martin Husz or Huss.^ The woodcuts for this book came from Basle, and so, in point of fact, did the types. If Lyons printing seems puzzling because of the fre- 'Claudin, I, pp. 124, 131. -Ibid., Ill, pp. 159-164. 90 PRINTING TYPES quent resemblance of its types to those of other countries, the reason is, that types of other countries were so often employed ! Some Lyons fonts can be traced to Nuremberg, others to Basle,^ to Vienna, and to Venice," for Venetian types had begun to have wide vogue. Besides these fonts, the for- eign origin of which is known, there are others evidently of Italian origin or design.^ One of the finest Lyons books produced in lettres de fonne was the Missale secundum usum Lugduui of Neu- meister,of 1487.* Neumeister employed magnificent pointed gothic types, and his Lyons Missal recalls in many ways Gutenberg's work ; quite apart from the fact that he ac- tually came from Mainz to France by the invitation of Cardinal Amboise, and was traditionally Gutenberg's pupil and companion. This Missal was almost equalled by that printed by Hongre in 1500, in a most Italian and also most imposing character, though not especially typical of the French press.^ Besides pointed gothic or lettre de forme^ there were in use at Lyons, as we have just seen, some round gothic fonts. When Lyons printers \\ished to employ such type, they seem to have turned to the Italian form of gothic letter for their models, or else they actually procured it from Italy. Proctor believes that there existed in the fifteenth century, independent of Venetian printers, some Venetian type- foundries, where types not only could be bought, but also could be hired. This transfer of the types of one country to the workshops of another, by purchase or otherwise, is 'Claudin, III, pp. 166, 167. ' Ibid.y facing p. 194, and pp. 195, 196, 215. ^ Ibid., p. 219. * Ibid., J). 360 and facing plate, p. 361, plates between pp. 366 and 367, and plate facing p. 368. ' Ibid., pp. 344, 345. FRANCE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 91 a puzzling feature in any attempt to identify types geo- graphically. The lettre batarde^ the characteristic French gothic letter used in Paris, was also common in Lyons, but, as a rule, in a rougher and less attractive form. Examples of the use of this heavier form of it may be seen in the work of Mathieu Husz and of Du Pre. The latter's Lyons edidon of La Mei~ des Hystoires shows pages in this massive char- acter which are splendid in eft'ect,^ especially when used in connection with such sumptuous woodcuts as those of the Baptism of Clovis and the Battle of Tolbiac.^ A very deco- rative pillar which appears in the centre of this plate forms an ingenious division between its two subjects.^ Many of these Lyons books were arranged with a line of large, round, Italian gothic type at the head of the page ; types several sizes smaller forming the text. Large calli- graphic initials were also features of the Lyons press ; and square initials engraved on wood, with black backgrounds (such as were used by Le Masson and his associates), added brilliancy to somewhat heavy typography.* As the end of the century approached, the popularity of Venetian types increased more and more — a fact which foreshadowed some of the tribulations of Aldus, who, in the next century, found no more unscrupulous imitators of his italic type than Lyons printers. Roman characters were not used in Lyons until 1490, Jean du Pre employing them in his an- notated Latin text of the Satires of Juvenal, issued in the last month of that year. Proctor thinks these types have a ' Claudin, III, pp. 495, 496. * ^ Ibid., p. 498. ^ For a comparison of Le Rouge's Paris edition of this same Ijook, see Claudin, I, pp. 459-463. 'Claudin, III, pp. 232, 233. 92 PRINTING TYPES Gothic look. They appear to be a very fine form of a transi- tional roman character {Jig. 39). French fifteenth century types may be roughly classed as : i transitional roman ; ii pure roman on Italian models; iii pointed gothic or leftre de forme ; iv round gothic or lettre de somme; V contemporary manuscript gothic letter or lettre batarde; vi gothic fonts showing foreign influence, sometimes of foreign source. Of all these French gothic types, the characteristically national or vernacular letter was the lettre batarde^ derived from contemporary French manuscripts. Other gothic types employed are sometimes akin to those of other countries, but the lettre batarde is distinctly French. In fineness of cut and spirited delicacy of design — when at its best — it produces a beautiful effect, especially when used w\\h the decorations so cleverly designed to accompany it. As a whole, French printing was more delicate and dis- tinguished, but less virile, than that of Germany or Italy. The Gallic feeling shows itself in the best fifteenth century French books, in a certain brilliance and elegance which is purely French, Less archaic than the German, less mon- umental than the Italian, the work of the best early French printers, like so much else that is French, is charming.^ ' For a survey of esirly French types, I recommeiKl the student to tlie fac- similes in Thierry-Poux's Premiers Monuments de f Imjirimerie en France au XVe Steele. Paris, 1890. Long:© rufftamierid eftlong^o ambi'fu Ims^Coranumthuncponitpfo eo.qui captaturaemulatione Horati'i. Horatms: Captatorqjdabitrifusnaficacorano. Coram' alterius mcminitMartiaIis:fed hi'cproeo tantiimquicaptatur.^IVlerc tern xracaflromm:id eft quiIocupIetaturfti'pendiis:IaudatlegcmqjfciIicetbo^ na caltrcnlia finttantum f1l10m5.fl' Torquibus itorques militares erantfumpto more a gallj's: unde tor^ AftiIHsquosarmafegunt:8ibaheusambrt. ?tS'fim'toS Quod placitum eft illis pra^ftatur tpus agedi: quae apud Thraces ceic Necres atteriturlongo fufaaminc litis. bratur: Ouxcocytiaac Of- . .rLj-t-t mendidiadicutur.-apud bohspraetereatcftandi multibus lus quos5Cot£hicainitmtn Vi'uo patrc daturrnam qux funtparta labore habucrut.ipam fane Go Militiae:placuit non cfic in corpore ccnfus: O mne tenet cuius regimen pater:ergo coranu Signomm comitemrcaftromq^ aeramerentem Quauis ia treutoptat patef.huc labor aequ^ Prouehit:6i pukhro rcddit fua donalabori Jpfius ccrte ducis hxc referre uidentur: Vt qui fortis erit:fit foeliciflimus idem: Vtlaetiphaleris omnes:8i torquibus omnes* lunii luuenalis Aquinatis Safyraru libri imprefli Lugduni diligentiiTime arte SC in* genio lohanis de Prato* Anno chriftiJM^ cccc*lxxxxXecundadie Dcccmbris: 39. Brst Roman Type used at Lyons: Du Prt^^ 1490 cyn : quae apud edonios coIiturrSC eius infirume tamemoratAefchylus. Hic manibus bombica tomatam tenens digiti's tactile modulos implet. duo ex loco planiieft Aefchilu appellafle Ge^ rerem Gocyn.-quamlu^ uenalisCocyto dixit.na ut teftimoio Ouidiido cuimus coniunftaerant Gereris cum Baccho (ai> cra.cocytiafacra commc morat etfain Porphyrio , CHAPTER VII TYPE AND TYPE-FORMS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN THE NETHERLANDS — HOLLAND AND BELGIUM THE year from which Dutch printing is usually officially dated is 1473, but some sort of printing was done in Holland before that time. The name of the printer of the Speculum Salvationist which is probably the work of the earliest Dutch press, is not known. The first Dutch books of w hich we have any knowledge, which may be called "Costeriana" (z.e., the editions of Coster and his successors), or which may be attributed to the printer of the Speculum, were executed from rough gothic types of the kind known as lettres de fonne. There is in Holtrop's Momiments Typographiques a series of plates^ of type-pages which throw a great deal of light, not alone on printing in the Low Countries, but on the whole subject of its begin- nings. These show that the first books were roughly exe- cuted in a heavy, black, and awkward lettre de forme. On glancing through these plates — for it is impossible, owing to their rarity, to look at the originals — one realizes what Blades meant in his allusions to the crude school of print- ing w hich preceded that of Gutenberg. If we examine the facsimile of a Donatus printed w ith the types of the Ahece- darium^ is it conceivable that the printer of this book could have known anything about the exact methods of making type, or of printing with it, which Mainz printers so well understood? The Abecedarium formerly in the possession Holtrop's Monuments Tyfiografihiques dcs Pays-Bas au Quinziime Si^c/e. La Haye, 1868. Twelve plates beginning 11 [3]; i.e., plate 11 in sequence in the bound book, but plate 3 in sequence of original issue. Tlie references are confusing unless tliis is remembered, for the plates aa bound have no consec- utive folios. 'Holtrop, pi. 11 [3]. 94 PRINTING TYPES of the Enschedes at Haarlem {fig. 40) — what a wretched little book it is! how primary in every sense! While the fragments of other Donatuses are considerably better, the uneven ending of lines, which indicates that no composing- rule was used at the time, is obvious in the facsimiles of the Donatus of 28 lines,^ and in the Voyage de Jean de Manda- ville.' As to the four editions of the Speculum^ these books, rather ambitious from a decorative point of view, call for better typography than that which accompanies their illus- trations.^ Although some impressions are better than others, these plates show printing as an art in its infancy, and hold out very little prospect of its ever growing up ! The Specu- lum may have been executed at Utrecht some time between 1471 and 1473. The other fragments of which Holtrop shows facsimiles are those of books or editions brought out before the latter year, perhaps all from one printing-office, perhaps from different printers.^ In these early fragments and a few complete books, about eight different fonts of type are found ; and with these types perhaps eighty different editions were printed. The gothic types used in these books were the first models of the style of black-letter which we recognize as characteristic of the country {fig. 4l). But the Speculum and its mysterious companions are not the books from which Dutch printing is scientifically dated. Ketelaer and Leempt, who printed two books in Utrecht in 1473, were the first printers in Holland who dated their ' Holtrop, pi. 13 [49] . * Ibid., pi. 121 [4] . 'i&/c^.,pls. 17 [19] -22 [1]. The pictures were printed in brown ink, in one impression, and the type, which was of uneven lieight and indented tlic paper badly, at another print- ing. Two of the four copies are in Dutch prose, two in I^tin verse. Some turned letters in the text show that it is printed from movable types, and is not a block-book. 'Holtrop, pis. 24 [37] -33 [97]. 1 i^ «r¥w "-'^ «-^ M^. Q* "sa - ■ c^ ^ w ^ « ■^ d ^mntittf a lagc tieutto poflina ftcunlr _ ^ ic fciro feflitm rciJtitt tawf (ffltminata milro ffrnnda pbrt will rc^tite gnufam i fotinx ui If ante gco ti ii^m lonja ^ rrb^t 3Di nuUu ti e fii:gi^ foriti ctum fi ir tam5 inlmltO f| ^ct^nc xitgro miflCi -^ ^Dita mum Ico forit tui xitrp fod^ mm ^ ic Ico Gc oico xc fe fonC omtie ccrt^tii <|E t guanto^ mmc olui ts^txitat immgf tum 2 imm trioi^ atolcrr g ibltQ t)plrs ptirt itirei^iti l^upirirp KpinQ im(tddulm0frifi !met$$ mum lea patc^ liic oleorp Iroij^ ctrm tircba leo e xii Eanti abf^ Ciipino rb lolrd luti imm foleoi^aleorp (iupinii i queo bunt? fiadt til in tu plarp vel^W at li^ro nig mm gt fio:tmat xibiQi fiiptnu £: ^i nil (f mouic^ fiad?0 tit ni! (iiga^tf (^ gdpc pa0 la & fe la tol t^o! ag cog ^ a Te atmueo mutS fourolautil fcb amittii $ amtdte font Ibluo uF uobio lat uiii tt km Tume (atfi laua lotS patiai paOtt g ur (O8n(t*0 lat tmm frgdtce frpultii . imeo t^i tat Urn but canntttco i9i |t ^ i mm tantr pcri^ )3OPlt0 nS bmtiam q) ut 0 ri fo It 3) trmauttn:^ ire warn t^tttotttp gro lea uFqueo Fneo otttu 41. Gothic Type used by Printer of the Speculum^ c. 1471 From Doctrinale of Alexander Gallus NETHERLANDS: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 95 books. Pollard, in his series of valuable introductory notes to the national divisions of his Catalogue of the Hawkins Collection, says : "From 1473 onw ards, the history of print- ing in Holland is normal and straightforward, native and German printers being found working simultaneously in the usual \a ay. Presses m ere set up in thirteen places after 1473, — in Deventer, Delft, and Gouda in 1477, in S. Mar- tijnsdijk in Zeeland in 1478, in Nijmegen and Zwolle in 1479, in Hasselt in Overijssel in 1480, in Leiden, Kuilen- burg, and Haarlem in 1488, in 's Hertogenbosch (Bois-le- duc) in 1484, in Schoonhoven in 1485, and in Schiedam in 1498. Seven of these towns \\ere only visited by a single printer. At Utrecht, Delft, Gouda, and ZuoUe there was a moderate output. The only really prolific printers were Richard Paffraet and Jacobus de Breda at Deventer, who must have produced between them over five hundred incu- nabula, though most of these were small educational books. The total Dutch output at present registered may be roughly estimated at between eleven and twelve hundred, its characteristics being akin to those of Germany, but with a much greater proportion of schoolbooks, and strikingly few large folios." "Printing ^a as introduced into seven towns within the limits of modern Belgium in the fifteenth century," says Mr. Pollard in the same volume, "into Alost in 1473; the next year into Louvain, where much excellent work was done by Johann of Paderborn ; into Bruges, by Caxton and Colard Mansion, probably in 1475; into Brussels, by the Brothers of the Common Life, in March of the same year. After a long interval printing began at Audenarde in 1480, and at Antwerp a year later sdll, the rear being brought up by Ghent in April, 1483. Gerard Leeu's work gave disdnction to Antwerp as that of Johann of Paderborn did to Louvain, 96 PRINTING TYPES and these two cities between them account for over two- thirds of the registered output of 'Belgian' incunabula, the total of which is probably somewhat under a thousand. Belgium in the fifteenth century had, of course, no separate existence, nor were the boundaries of Holland those of the modern kingdom. It may be noted, ho\\"ever, that in the 'Belgian' books there is a much greater preponderance of Latin than in the Dutch, though a few printers were tri- lingual, printing in Flemish, French, and Latin." The Netherlands fifteenth century types were chiefly, as has been said, crude iettres deforme^ but later they became more refined. A few types showed the influence of the re- man letter, but pure roman letter was as yet rare. The lettre batarde of France appears in Holland, uncouth, irregular, badly aligned, badly fitted on its body, awkward in cut,^ al- though employed in 1480 by Veldener, who was one of the most distinguished printers of the Netherlands. Thierry Martens of Alost and Antwerp, the first Belgian printer, em- ployed that fine familiar type, the round Italian gothic.^ Three black-letter types used in the Netherlands are interesting. The first is the bold, coarse batarde character used by Colard Mansion at Bruges {Jig. 42). Mansion employed two kinds of type, a batarde, and a sort of very rough transitional lettre de Jbrjne {though sometimes called lettre de somme), which he used in 1477.* His batarde was merely an imitation of the Burgundian writing of the period. It was to Dutch printing just what a letti-e batarde was to French printing — a sort of vernacular type, dependent for its form upon the locality in which it was found, and found there simply because based on the writing which preceded it in that neighbourhood. The earliest of Mansion's impres- ' Holtrop, pi. 125 [30] . ' Ibid., pi. 40 [24] . ' Ibid., pi. 46 [6] . * Ibid., pi. 60, c [l3l] . ^mmt ami ^n^xnt 6;tt& rctjxn^ftcommc jf fern eg a pace (xcCittacou j( c^i;m a pom^^C^ee c^fc© atnft )»€mtfc6 j( eft 6jmpC5 ^ CO? ntCttdct ott pAxmK i^\m ^ w>^m ac^ur omcc *<^( |)ze miewmett^ <m$ iM^<i cc 42. Mansion'' s Ancienne Batarde^ Bruges^ 1484 NETHERLANDS : FIFTEENTH CENTURY 97 sions show lines which were not spaced out to tlie full width of the page. This is one argument for the independ- ence of the Netherlands and Bruges school of typography from that of Mainz ; for it cannot be believed that if a man like Mansion knew how to use a composing rule (as he must have known, had he ever been in touch with Mainz printers), he would have abandoned it. He began to print before 1476, and it was only in 1478 that properly spaced lines appear. The second type to which attention should be paid is that used by Brito at Bruges, and perhaps cast by him, and later by William de Machlinia at London. This type-form somewhat resembles the types used by Caxton. It is another rough form of the batarde letter, but without the charm of the French lettre batarde {Jig. 43). A third type to be remembered is the font used by Bel- laert, to which the English black-letter types, which later became the national English face and size of letter, bear a close resemblance {Jig. 44). There is a very interesting Dutch gothic type shown in the specimen-book of 1768 issued by Enschede, the cele- brated Dutch founder, which it is believed was engraved about the end of the fifteenth century — between 1470 and 1480 — a St. Augustin Jiamand {Jig. 45). It was probably cut by a Dutch printer and type-cutter, Henric of Delft, who called himself, in the colophons to his works, letter- snider, or graver of characters, and who furnished types to sev- eral printers. We have records of this font being employed in Paris printing-offices. A letter much the same in cut, of gros-romain size, may also be seen on the last page of En- schede's specimen of 1768 {Jig. 46). As for fifteenth century roman fonts in the Low Coun- tries, John of Westphalia, at Louvain, employed a very dis- 98 PRINTING TYPES tinguished roman letter, Italian in effect, and evidently de- rived from an Italian source {Jig. 47). Another roman font which is of interest, with a charming quality of pen-work about it, is the St. Augiistin roma'in^ considered by Enschede as older even than the Flemish character cut by Henric the letter-snider. The man from whom Enschede bought it in 1768, Jacques Scheffers (a printer at Bois-le-Duc, where his ancestors had practised their trade for a long time), ^\as, according to tradition, a descendant of Peter Schoeffer of Gernsheim. Enschede, when he bought some sixty matrices from Scheffers, purchased a copy of a book printed by Schoeffer himself; and believed that these punches actually came from Peter Schoeffer. This point cannot be decided ; but the types have great charm. In recent years the Messrs. Enschede completed the defective font, some missing letters being obtained by adding to or subtracting from existing characters, and when this was not feasible, a few new letters being cut in the style of the old ones.^ Our plate shows this reconstitution of the font {jig. 48). The output of the fifteenth century Netherlands press is historically interesting, but artistically monotonous. It is dif- ficult to be enthusiastic over these fonts, which contrast unfavourably with better types of similar style in other countries. But their historical interest is indubitable. They form a link between the Continent and England, and are the starting-point of English typography. ' See Ch. Enschede's Fonderies de CaractiTes et leur Materiel dans les Pays- Bas du XFe au XIX*^ si^cle, Haarlem, 1908, pp. 30, 31, and 32. For a sur- vey of fifteenth century Dutch types this work will be found of great value. Cpi«mi«te«mcnt pout [c^ cttaj T^tcptee qui (t dcgpKeitrifiaftr^ 43. Lettre Batarde used hij Brito^ Brugrs "Si o - 03 S c « H>o p "gii o is StA O 'LJ o *-» o ^ ■^,>S Ck> ~ o J3^ ^^ C3 5 *-> ^-» -iCJ ^ ^ £ C3 o C!3 »^ aM E ^ i:; '-» ^^ S a S es ^ E'^ ^ *-» c »-» n $:* c* o ^ B S v2 s C3 E ^ *C J-» $^ C»* » t£ .12 ir r- CI o >i 2 " c is ^ ^ ■•-» F Ci "T? t: £i c c:«-3 2 -J- p 5& o tZ t— ^'^^ <i^ CO O .13 ..itf >;> C i«. ?? ^ C* O ^^ 122 <^ •I^'T? : .2 .a ^ A «S A^ CI X^CS, .s 03 •■Jii .. e Ca 03 tB v> 2 -» S « toic: o o o t^ ^ 4^ a ,r> s 3 O "S t>> ^5 B s s >Siu ^ rw S jO Ck> i^ «> .« s «»» *- TT «^ S S o C3 O ' ^^ '5 « i « C^ O ^ 'h>» ^ « O C* W ^ Cii £- t^^ ^ fiS o o S *"^ 4^ *»• c^ JO s s ^^ Ck> ».• ■«— » :q>. /!> <i» e •»-» Ci Si — j-» '5 SFE-'C-grg ^^ o jo o ii s ^ J3 *u *SJ *^ *5 c^ s CS rv> C «-» ^ fM ^ O 3 S w A « ^IC s 5^ ^ V % Gothiie Monnikke Letteren. ^^ ^ j.'i 6 Oude HoUandfe Letteren. - ^* i:'^ .H V #§ j^tmtopf^ftocutiolmireolutfltotjolm: ^p 21 ipftcuudm0imi?tiDlmffirti0tJOlmfl0nt* |^ w X i^tttti^ rtt «tMtt«M«<<i «t/k1««<n««(« Mrtl«t/>»«*<'» ni *iVt* x ^ jlHitaocuUDlucrouoIum0tjolumt:iipfc J^ ^1 cu uoUieimt? tjolurt0 ijolut^fnfimtiu mto |^ 4^f immimrgii^limiatee^tigtttotBftofle {Jh- #0 }3tettoBfta^|rfq^ft0tJOlm0^*JPutucatet» $p -^t <g^emOiafi^rtimiialtatbalimt9:t)oleDt0D t^ ^1 leD0 tiolcnOu* f>upint0 caret* ©mim par l^ ^1 tt^um]^abet4^dltiolen0. i^ SI Ce)mi0m^ftrt®onattpumti0 ?)> #? mtecro0attm0titftmctu0:fimt* p^ %l ci3i©eo<$loriar+ Il ^ I Abbreviaturen. 6 ^ Si p;§gpmiat$ii=.ff?fifl?fpgp^tn!t5(rnpa fi^. 4i ¥ftWB^Hi9!q|.^^^4>^i^5tO9pmftffiQ?0. I© ^^i t:los9o^q0!io^f.i7':ftfipi/flcfltp«J9flj0?ep f^ §1 trafli5#9q^ftgBfiS^^fiP9'??6affbiJrt$nt i|! a^i y Deeze Letteren zyntufTchendcJaaren 1470 en 1480 gefncden,deMatryzcnzyn ^ Hj. jj X zeergebrekkelykgejufteert,enwordalleenhiervancenAfdrukvertoond,omde a C» W 0 zeldzaameOverblyfzelen dereerfte Boekdrukltonfttegen deeze tegenwoordige h W jH § Letterproefte vergelyken;nademaal thansde-Lettergieteryalhier in Haarlem, 0 jU. *M V deGehoorteplaatsderBoekdrukkonftjtotdegrootftevolmaaktheidgebragt is. y ?• %\^ ._>§§ 45. Fifteenth Century Saint Augustin Flamand: Ensched^'s Proefvan Letteren^ Haarlem^ 1768 Gothife Monnikke Letteren. Oude HoUandfe Letteren, van 1470 k 1480. onferbeljouOmilTe* + <^ xoit ttt cedjtuaetOirtjrt ut 0 It mefrtie letat frile blencbe alft ttetre m Die etaiglje tvoit beOen* l^itt cm ift Oat it totter leci gbeuele mefrtie Oit boecbljeb aeffe Oartjtte ugaDerelttOe ttjelbe Die gfte neOietleTenleringljeglieue en otf an gbe fellen* |c umoeDe Oatg^een Dmc De mefrtjenuttet isinOefe tc^etuo erDigt)eIeue*Oantebebeneftin fee Ipr fp eouDieie en epgbe mef en*i^ Abbreviatuuren. ^^/e^utti$ogStp0tpntptD:op$untp Deeze Letteren, en voornaanienlyk de Matryzen, zyn ongemeen raar en zeldzaam. 46. Fifteenth Century Gros-Romain Flamand : Enschedd'' s Proef van Letteren^ Haarlem^ 1768 Vi 'E 3 *o c4, I = ^ a ^; ^ " ^ ^ 3 o ^ c y ^ 2 5 P ^3 ^-:= G in fi r^ ,» c8 5 t^ r^ S nj ■ ^ a h in c^ O -^J»-. r-» tl r« O CJ C .. ^> r^ 5 ^ ^ '-S ^"^ ^ 8 _5 /: :^ o L> ^ .^ S ^ ^ S ^o '^r 0 ^- ** :Z i^ - *-" CO ►:; , , ^ ■ C .ii: ^ 4J o S "' S-* 'J ifTi o 13 t-) £ P ^ 5 <^ "I t3 S-, 1: wj fJ 0-.2 ^ ^ P s h «-S:J ^ ^' - ^ r* >3 ^ D bC-P .2 ^ -T3 "* C S 3 n t. ^ r; H ~ Cp (J _« jrr*' CO =5 *^ § ^ -.1 S O — C I; ^ .t:i .« ^ 2 fe ^ §0 i P ^ o .^0 g. ^ O ^ ■^ ^ BERNARDVS NERLIVS PETRO MEDICAE LAVRENTII HLIO.S. Vm doftiffimorum bominum 8^ borum grauiffimof um fen- tentia: gr^cas litteras non folum latinis plurimum omamenti afferre: Sed etiam pemcceflarias efTe animaduerterem: omni ftudio ac labore ad b^c ftudia percipienda me conuerti. Sed cu uiderem non nullos litterarum gr^carum ftudiofos ob inopia5 librorum magno affici icomodo: qd & ipfe una cumilIisexpiebar:oper^prc- rium me fafturum exiftimaui: (i eadem ratione turn borum tum mepncomo ditati occurrerem: qua larinas litteras difcentibus iam pridem confultum efle uidebam, Itaqj ut & de gr^cis litteris bene mererer: & earum ftudiofis aJiquo modo prodeffem: utqj alii copia librorum allefti: ad bee ftudia magis incitare tur: decreui gr^cum aliquem auftorem: qui et apudeos nobiliffimus effet: & nobis difcentibus perutilis foret: imprimendum fufdpere. Quod et fiarduu5 & perdifficile uidebatur: tamen cum ea que ad boc opus conficiudu neceflaria erant: in bac noftra ciuitate concurrerent: eiufmodi occafionem minime pr^ termittendam putaui. Nam ut omittam Nerii fratris liberalitate5:& loannis Accaioli auxilium: Demetriiq; Cretenfisdexteritatem: id inprimismibi opor tunum fuit: maximeqj optatum: quod ad banc rem Demetrium Cbalcondyle Atbenienfem naftus eram: Virum profefto tempeftate noftra doftiffimum: preceptoremq; meum: a quo buiusmodi opusaccuratiffimerecognofcipoffet. Perdifficile enim mibi uidebatur fine eruditiffimo uiro id operis caftigatiffi- 48. Fifteenth Century Roman Type attributed to Schoeffer (as reconstituted by Knschede) CHAPTER VIII TYPE AND TYPE-FORMS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN SPAIN j4 LTHOUGH Spanish typography has not had much / % influence on printing in other parts of Europe, it JL JL. is both interesting and extremely individual. For the most part, the first printers both in Spain and Portugal were wandering Germans, who brought to the Iberian Pe- ninsula, as they did to so many other parts of Europe, their knowledge of the new art. The introduction of printing was, however, rather late, — not until the year 1474, — and for that reason we do not find in either countr}-, as Haebler^ says, "those precursors of the typographic art — woodcuts ac- companied by text more or less ' padded,' nor xylographic books, of which we find so many examples in Germany and the Netherlands." He adds that if Spanish books were some- times rather archaic in appearance, this was due to unskilled workmen rather than to the state of the art when introduced in Spain ; for typography, when brought there, was no longer in its experimental stage, but a developed industry. The Spaniards very early occupied themselves with this new trade, and established workshops quite independently of the German printers ; but the first printer who came to Spain was of German or Flemish origin, and the printing-houses most distinguished for the excellence of their work were either actually directed by Germans or else inaugurated under a German master. The chief output of the Spanish press was, as one might guess, theological, and the clergy played an important part in the propagation of typography. Besides missals and bre- viaries, of which no copies are extant, and which are known Tyfiograjihie Iberique, p. 1. 100 PRINTING TYPES only from existing records, there were a very large number of liturgical books printed in Spain up to 1500, and an enor- mous production of forms for indulgences. Even so, in ad- dition to these, similar books and documents were constantly procured from abroad — and for a long time continued to be — because there were not enough printing-houses in the Peninsula to produce them in sufficient quantities. As in other parts of the \\'orld, monasteries established printing- offices in their precincts, and some of the secular clergy were themselves printers ; while among higher ecclesiastics there were many who bore the expense of printing their own works, or who paid the cost of printing the works of others. Haebler believes that more books were published by the aid of the clergy in Spain than in any other country where printing existed prior to the Reformation. It has just been said that printing was introduced in Spain as a developed art ; and it is for that reason that al- most all Spanish books have "signatures" — a feature which appeared rather late in English typography. Initials engraved on wood are to be found in Spain almost as early as any- where else. And, too, as did the Venetians, Spanish printers enjoyed "privileges" which protected their work. Indeed, Spanish printing-houses profited from almost all the ad- vances made in typography in other lands. In the commerce of legal forms, multiplied by the help of printing, Spain was ahead of other nations. "In spite of the fact that the masters [in printing] were all Germans . . . ," says Haebler, "it cannot be said that the style of their production showed their national origin. On the contrary, the productions of Spanish presses, from a very remote period, have something special about them. At a very early date a Spanish style Mas developed which is readily recognizable even in the production of men who SPAIN: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 101 were newcomers to Spain. For this reason, as we have said, the influence of a particular school of printing cannot be recognized in books printed in Spain. One finds types imi- tated from those employed by the printers of Venice, Basle, and Lyons, and other types which seem to ha\e been used elsewhere. But it is very rare to find a Spanish book which one would suppose to have been printed anywhere else. I know of but one printer who worked in Spain with an out- fit which was decidedly French, namely, Jean de Francour at Valladolid. But even he appears soon to have changed his fonts of type, and to have adopted others of a kind more in accord with Spanish taste. "The Spanish had a marked predilection for gothic characters. The first books printed in Spain, it is true, are in roman characters, but the very master who executed them procured gothic fonts some years later, and employed them to the end of his career. If we were to count up the books printed in gothic characters and compare them with those in roman types, we should find that the majority printed in gothic is enormous. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that the number of roman fonts which, one by one, have been discovered in books printed in Spain, is quite consider- able. It is of course true that only one of all the printing- houses of Spain produced books in quantity printed in ro- man types. This was the anonymous printer of Salamanca, and it is easy to explain this peculiarity : for that estab- lishment was under the influence, perhaps actually under the direction, of Aelius Antonius Nebrissensis, who printed classical texts and his own commentaries on the writers of antiquity, following the lead of the Humanists of Italy. The books of the latter were commonly printed in roman char- acters (which were, on that account, called Italian), which accounts for the isolated fact that so many books in roman 102 PRINTING TYPES characters were printed in this particular city. In the rest of Spain books in Italian characters were uncommon. Almost all printing-houses of importance had one or two fonts of roman. But the number of books printed in those types was exceedingly small; and such fonts were rarely renewed; while gothic fonts (from the very beginning stocked in greater quantities) were renewed and revamped very fre- quently."^ This statement brings up an interesting point, i.e., that in spite of the German origin of printers who came to work in Spain, their style soon became something characteris- ticallv Spanish. In looking through Spanish incunabula, one feels that it is a very special school of typography; rugged yet effectiA e, and reminiscent, to one who knows Spain, of its rough, careless splendour, its grave, sad magnificence. The finest productions of the Spanish press before 1500 are scarcely second to the best contemporary work done in Germany and Italy, and this Spanish quality existed particularly, perhaps, in these incunabula. But it is also extremely apparent at the end of the eighteenth century in the production of the first modern Spanish type-cutters, who somehow, even when copying the ornaments of Bas- kerville and Caslon, and the types and decorations of Four- nier, put into them a Spanish flavour which makes it quite clear that they are Spanish and can be nothing else. Tyfiografihie Iberique du Quinzi^me Sicclc, 1902, p. 2. Haebler's books on Spanish printing are the works most available to tlie European and Ejig- lish student. His Tyfiografihie Iherique du Quinzi^rne Sit^c/e (in Spanish and French) — a work specially valuable for its facsimiles of almost all the types at present known to have been used in Spain and Portugal up to the year 1500 — has a delightfully clear and complete, though brief, prefatory notice of the introduction of tyjjography in the Peninsula. The same author's £or/y Printers of S/uiin and Portn^fcd (Bibliographical Society's Monographs, No. IV, I>ondon, 1897) was written in English five years earlier. It is excellent, though not so conii)rehensive. SPAIN: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 103 Pollard, in his Early Printed Books in the Bntish Museum, takes up the cities in Spain in which printing was estab- lished from the date of its introduction at Valencia in 1474, to the last year of the fifteenth century; and in the notes describing the types of Spanish printers, he constantly al- ludes to the material of presses in other countries which these Spanish types recall. It is plain that many of the types were from foreign sources ; and yet there are some which do not resemble any foreign types and seem to be of Spanish workmanship. These, it is to be supposed, were cut by the early printers, who were, as elsewhere at this period, type- cutters too. But even this does not wholly account for that particularly Spanish quality which crept into so much of the work of men from other nations, often using types derived from other countries. One can explain it only by the influ- ence of Spanish manuscripts and the national school of writ- ing in which they were executed, which were — as was printing — governed by the subtle influences emanating from the soil and skies of Spain itself — the ethos of a coun- try to the last degree individual, which therefore showed itself very markedly even in work which would not appear capable of such impregnation. Many of these early German printers married Spanish women, and in a generation be- came completely merged in the land of their adoption. This was not an isolated instance of such Spanish assimilation. In the third quarter of the eighteenth century large agricul- tural colonies of Bavarians — six thousand of them, grouped in thirteen villages (the chief of which was called La Caro- lina) in the Sierra Morena — w^ere brought to Spain by min- isters of Carlos III. In a comparatively short period these absolutely disappeared from a "national" point of view, and became merged in the Spanish population. Later in the same reign, a great many English, Scotch, and Irish were 104 PRINTING TYPES established in Seville and Madrid to direct or take part in the new manufactories or industries which the Government was establishing. In Madrid these families practically died out, or else were assimilated by the Spanish: for the spirit of the country seems always to have become too strong for the foreigner. The decorative features of Spanish incunabula, too, show, like their types, certain marked Spanish peculiarities. The fifteenth century title-pages are often very magnificent ; and this magnificence of effect is usually arrived at by large and splendid decorations placed above very meagre titles. On the title-page of Vagad's C?vmca de Aragon^ printed by Pablo Hurus, at Saragossa (1499), an enormous decorative woodcut appears above a title in black-letter, consisting of but three words! This was entirely in consonance with the huge decorations and heraldic bearings commonly used in all departments of Spanish art — churches with their entire fronts covered by a coat of arms, the door of the church being as subsidiary to the decoration above it as was a title to the decoration on a title-page. These heraldic emblems were characteristic — cosas de Espana — for, as Ford says, "few countries can vie with Spanish heraldic pride and heraldic literature." What Spaniards did in books was only what they did in architecture — they printed as they built — another instance of the interlocking of the artistic side of printing with the art of a given period. Then, too, in some of the borders to printed pages, we see ornament which is reminiscent of Saracenic or Arabesque design ; and this again seems to reflect — sad stories of the death of kings. In other words, the characteristic of Spanish printing was that it was so essentially Spanish — more obviously "Span- t^ ft 3 ON o u ■U O ON 3 V3 if} O 3 3 jD qj -D U3 -O n3 JD E 6 -o ' ON 3 bO ON bO £ 'bb>5 P »-• ON :i 3 Ti bC nj g J 5^ << o On «tj o 3 3 rn nJ «T) 6 E E «tJ <^3 nj see •W fO <T) <T3 a e £ 6 ii • . "^ -I ?^ •~ ? ^ I ^ 5 o ft SPAIN: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 105 ish," it seems to me, than Italian printing was "Italian," or French printing was "French," perhaps because the nationality of Spain is more intense than that of any other country (or Latin country) of Europe. A friend who read these lines said to me, "What is meant b}^ 'essentially Spanish '?" But like the flavour of olives, "Spanish" cannot be described ! During the latter part of the fifteenth century, Valencia was a great seat of foreign commerce, and, like Lyons, a meeting-place for foreigners ; it was therefore natural that, printing having been brought to Spain by foreigners, the first Spanish press should be set up in Valencia. It was es- tablished by Lambert Palmart, who was probably of Flem- ish origin, and who produced at this press some fifteen books. What is generally thought to be the first book printed in Spain — Fenollar's Obres e trohes — a collection of poems in honour of the Blessed Virgin, though undated, was prob- ably issued in 1474. It was printed in a rough roman type. Five books w^ere printed in this roman font by Palmart, of which the earliest with a date was the Comprehensonum^ issued in 1475 {^fig. 49). He then procured gothic types, in which he continued to print until the end of his career. One characteristic of his work is the extreme leading of the type in some of his books, which gives them an effect not at all consonant with ordinary ideas of fifteenth century printing. When prindng his Biblia Falenciana in 1477-78, a Spanish printer was in association with him, Alonso Fer- nandez de Cordoba, who also printed on his own account. Fernandez de Cordoba was a silversmith by trade, and prob- ably cut the punches of the gothic types employed in the Bible. Palmart died in 1490. The second press in Spain was set up at Saragossa in the autumn of 1475, by a certain Matthaeus of Flanders, 106 PRINTING TYPES who printed the first book in Spain in which its printer's name is given — an edition oi Mampidiis Curatoriim — Pal- mart's books before 1477 being without an imprint. A^ery litde is known of Matthaeus, who thenceforth vanishes from view. The other chief cities out of the twenty-four in which printing was introduced between 1474 (the probable date of its introduction) and the end of the century, were Seville, Barcelona, Salamanca, Burgos, Toledo, Valladolid, and Granada — Madrid having no prindng-press until the Court had its permanent seat there in 1565. The most famous of these Spanish printing-houses were the Burgos press of Fadrique de Basilea (Friedrich Biel of Basle) ; the Saragossa press of Juan and Pablo Hurus of Constance; that at Seville belonging to Ungut and Stanislaus, and the establishment of the Unknown Printer of Salamanca. Ar- nald Guillen de Brocar of Pamplona should be mentioned, although his fame came to him in the next century as printer of the Complutensian Polyglot ; for which he was called to Alcala. Of these presses, those at Seville and Va- lencia were among the most productive. That of Salamanca is interesting for its classical books issued in roman type. Some of the best work was done in the office of Pablo Hurus at Saragossa, where illustrated volumes were brought out; the Officia Qiiotidiana issued in the year 1500 by his successor, Coci, Haebler calls one of the finest specimens of work executed at any time and at any place in the world. The first book printed in Spain was from a font of coarse roman letter, but the rank and file of Spanish work was executed in a round, massive black-letter. This was some- thing like the Italian black-letter of the same period, but had a peculiar Spanish twist to it. It was based on a round Spanish book-hand. The larger sizes of this type were ex- SPAIN: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 107 ceedingly fine, especially in Huius's work; and on tide- pages and for head-lines of chapters, large sizes were used with very imposing effect. There were also many some- what condensed pointed gothic fonts of great richness of colour, almost like the handwriting of a manuscript as con- trasted with rounder and more typically Spanish forms. Except for a few quartos, most of the books were set in double column. By referring to the plates in Haebler's Ty- pogi'aphle Iberique one can get a very clear idea of what fif- teenth century Spanish types and composition were. Many of the volumes to be referred to came from the well-known presses just mentioned. As roman characters were the first used in Spain, though less interesting than gothic types, we will consider them first. The roman type used by the prototypographer Pai- mart at Valencia, in 1475, in the Comprehensorium was, as our plate shows, of a very rough sort ; and another roman font used in the Commentum Ethiconim of Saint Thomas Aquinas, printed by Spindeler and Brun at Barcelona in 1478, also is of an extremely primitive style.^ In Villanova's Rudimenta Grammaticx^ printed by Spindeler at Valencia in 1500, we have a more regular type, better fitted, but of a heavy cut — this heaviness being a mark of many Span- ish roman fonts {Jig. 50). The Unknown Printer of Sala- manca employed a rom.an font with a certain condensed quality, which points to derivation from Gothic charac- ters. This he used in the Grammatica of Fliscus about 1485.^ The very virile roman font employed at Burgos about 1497 by Fadrique de Basilea in the De HispaniaB Laudibus of Marineus Siculus shows a distinct advance in its type-cutting and fitting; but in eifect it is almost as heavy as black-letter.^ This is true of a font used in the ^ Tyfiografihie Iberique, No. 12. "" Bid., No. 34. ^ Ibid., No. 51. 108 PRINTING TYPES same printer's Latin edition of Brant's Stultiferse jXaves, though the massive appearance of such close-set t3pe cer- tainly accords well with the woodcut above it {Jig. 5l). These very heavy roman fonts are evidently Spanish ren- derings of Italian type of that epoch, but renderings "with a difference." In the Ungut and Stanislaus edition of Al- fonso de Palencia's Epistula de Btllo Granatensi (Seville, no date), we have a fine roman font which is even more Italian in effect {Jig. 52). In many of these pages, gothic types, for head-lines, etc., are mixed with roman ; the excessive colour of the roman fonts making this less discordant than would be expected. The gothic types used by Palmart were a somewhat round yet slightly condensed black-letter — but by no means as ivund as some other Spanish gothic fonts. A page from the Cosmographia of Pomponius Mela, printed by Palmart in 1482, is composed in two sizes of this tj-pe {Jg. 53). By comparing this Avith such type as was used in the Espejo de la Cruz by Cavalca, printed by Martinez at Seville in 1486, we see what this gothic type so much used in Spain was in rounder form.^ A splendid example of it appears in the Manuale Burgense^' printed at Saragossa in 1497 by Hums, whose books are among the most workmanlike and interesting of the early Spanish press. An even finer font of round gothic was that employed by Brocar at Pam- plona in the Libros Menores of 1499, shown in our illus- tration {Jig. 54). Small sizes of this character were used in the Carcel de Amor of San Pedro, printed at Burgos by Fadrique de Basilea in 1496.^ More condensed kinds of black-letter (like the French lettre de Jorme) were also employed by the same printer in 1493, in the Introductionum Latinarum, Secunda Editio^ of ' Tyfiografihie Iberique, No. 9. * Eid., No. 75. ^ Ibid., No. 50. Partes g^amn* DSemarof ^iUanoua nauarroin artib^ niagiftri^ct m faaa tbcolo gia bacballari) ruoimenta artie giammaticc pcrutilia mcipiunt. T^aniatica eft-are recte !o qucndi refte(cribcndL're<ftequc fcrlpta flit pnuciandi:dl<^ imtiura fidfundamen tu omnium difciplinarum;poeta^&au tofum leaionib'' obferuata |£ Partes Wramaticac funt Qiiatuor:? Littera^SylIaba^Di<5tio>& Of o fi" Littera cftmiiiima pars vocis conpoitae^vt^a^b^ f[ Di(fta ell aute Iittera quafilegittera^Iegendilterprebcabvei a Ii'tturis-vtquibufdam placet^ plei-nnq» antiqui mce ratis tabulis fcribere folebant:& poflea delere C Alii dicunt a lino diflae Iittcra: 9? inlbribendo illinitur? hoc eft leuiter inducitur atrametum {([Litteras ctiam clementorum nomine afiqui nuncupaucrunt ad Cml Iitudinem mundi eIementorum:qmaij'cut elementa coeuntfa oiiie corpus pcrficmntGcetiam litter ac con iun<ftx Iittera 5: vocem quaC corp^ aliquod conponut ([Inter Iitteras 8C elemeta hoc inter eft ([ ^ eleraefca ppriedicunturipac pronuntiationes* |f Liter«vcro funt notxidC {igna clementomma^pronuntiationum IJ^ Abufiue tamen & elementa plitten's: dC Iitcra: pro dementis vocatur f[Littei'x accidunttria nomen/- figura^ poteftas> |j Nomen litterse eft quo Iittera nominatur^a^b^^ J[ Figura littcraecftqua httcra depingituD j£ poteftas Iitterx eft ipa pnuntiario qua valet. JTLitterarum alis funt vocal es alisc funtcofo nantcs » |L Vocalis eft iictera que p fe voccro gQcit & Vocalis a iji» 50. Spindeler''s Roman Type^ Valencia^ 1500 quod Elemeta Quodaccfduf Litrere Poteftas Iittece Saphaauditionisfahi:^adnaiieftultifa3giKhcnff# tmtes cafte uixerut: no (blii uiGotie fingulare habebut t ueruedl dtabutqiiafidricunouuqddicaeaUomnemopotmtneqpm nus deaudim eiiiCJ^ obiedog[deui(iiaddubitaiierutphi]o(ophi y^de Aulas geliiisdido Ii»v«cap«xv»Vctus atq^ppctua quxftia inter nobiliflimosphilo{bphoraagitatacft*corpiisncfituoxaa afomani*i*incorpor€iuCoip^aiiteftaiiteffidesautj)atij&»Qua definitione Ggnificareuoles Lucretius itafoipfit^ Tagereeni aut tangi nifi corpus nulla potcftres* Alio quo^ modo cofp^ccgra: ddicutttripIicidimefionediftans^Seduoceftoici corpus effeco* toidiitteaqp effedkuntiduaera^PIatoautenonertcuoce corpus {ftitatfNoncninipaiffusinquit aer : {y.plagaip^^ pcraiffio uox eft: no tfi fimplidter plaga acris uox cft^Na aigitus quc)(5 ac» rcmperamt: non itatameuocefadu Scdquanta plaga?,8C uehe* mens 8C txintaut audibilis fiat* Demooitus acdeinde epkurus ex iidiuiduiscorporibusiioccconftaiediamttEamcj ut tpfkeocu 51. Fadrique de Basiled' s Roman Type ^ Burgos^ 1499 proculabfpfa urbefita^Qui'dnon diruiflct illam numerabiiis mulatudotut plurfmu in difcriminibus bellicis exercita c' Mirabitur fortaffc Icfior: ^uis. a uericate calamus nihilo abfcedat^Duceta armatoru milia capiebat intra fcduitas Granatcnfis . Horum uix millc treccncfi equites erant*partim ex induftria ut equis alfmeta no deeffent.partim qm paruus iam cquoru nuerus in drcuuicinis urbibus fupcrat^quu in cogreffionibus diutumis equi no paud ceddiffet^ 6i ex Mauritania nullus iam effet acceffus ad trafue hendos in hifpania equos^Rex igitur Femadus pro culdubio foelidflimusrrem difRdilima aggrcfTus efi: ubi apte cognouit uetercs padioes effluxiffe: iielut i caffum:6c fub diuturna diffimulatione infideles que fiuiffe fibi aliqua fake cofidentia priftinsc libcrtatis* Qua AIphaquilii:acfideu coluiffent profitcbanc^ dcliris hoibus dto affutura • Nam populus ad fuper ftitione prseceps rcpcntc fide adhibuit*& tarn fupbe atcp petulanter extulit fe:ut rex Boadclis iunior ptcr mentc fucrit coaSus uulgi fententia illico coprobarc g> (i forte uel morofiusmrianguidius acccptaflcttfar racenico infultu dilaccratus fuiiTct* I tacj aliud nihil fe (a&wcd cum iureiurado promifitt<| queritare aflu tius oportunitatctqua ualcret chrifticolas longa foe tidtate elates penitus cotercretquii poflet unlus diei ia&ira cxterminare noftrosaam ad populationem agri Granatcnfis intentos: tali clade*ut quecuncj in multis expeditionibusobtinuiffcntrconfcflim amit terencQuibusinfideliu cognitis nouitatibusJUu 52. Roman Type used by Ungut and Stanislaus, Seville, n.d. ^pponii mellc cofnwsrsiphi oe fttu 0rbia^ hhcr pnmua* Kbia (ita otcere aggtepioj ipcDitu^opuo '7 facuDic minimc capajc* •iConflatenim fcregenti urn locoiuqjnominibud ^ C02um pcrplcjco farie c«t>fncjquem pcrfcqui longa eft tnagie $ be nisna matctia:©crum afpici tatnE ccgnof/ dq3 Di^mffimum:'? quoD ft non ope in^enij O2anti0:at ipfa fni conteplationc p:crm ope atrenDcntiu abfoluar.^ica aut^aliae plura n cxactme:Buc aSt vt queqj crunt clatiffi/ maer ftrictim.acpiitnoquio? que fit fosma totiu0:que ma;cfme pattce.quofinguk mo 00 fmtJiPtq^babitemr expeoil-.S>cmoe rur/ fu9 orae omnium crlittoia K^t intra e^ctraq^ funt.atq5 vt ca fubit ac mciiiuit pclagueiao oitis que in natuta tegion.um incolaTumq5 memoranoa funtx^D quo fariliue fciri ppU m atq5 acdpi:paulo altiue fumma xtjpzkL i^unot in quatnor panes biuiiio* 53. First Gothic Type used in Spain: Palmart^ Valencia.^ 1482 3l06 libioe que en eftc volumS fcconcnen fonloe figuientes. <ClC9ton concl lib:o Uiimado c6^ tcro am obja es t)e fat bcmarcio i6lflozetoelqualcorienc fcyepzl cipa lee partes* 2la pjimera cotieneloe articulof &cnueft:rafaiictafc. Ua fegilda losoiej madamt^tos 2Laaitlo6 fiete pecados mojtalcf 2,aquaita lo6 fietc facrafiientos Eaquinta las piitudcs morales trbcologicae. %^,mnoiu y laf cofaf $la mucite Conttene tnaa las quinq? claues Ocla fabiduria colas cmco pjopn' cdadesqueaOetencrel maeftro, Centime las fablasOcl cfopo iCotiene mas los brmnos con o^ tros mucbos que faltauan. iCotienc mas las lectiones § fob conel credo.falue retina* el pater nofter.conelaucmana. 54. Brocar's Round Gothic Type^ Pamplona^ 1499 . SPAIN: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 109 Antonio de Nebrija — very elegant in the smaller size.^ Fine pages set in a still more pointed character were produced by Pablo Hurus at Saragossa in 1496. The latter has that peculiar quality of penwork which keeps cropping up in Spanish printing fonts {fig. 55). Condensation, and this pointed quality in type, varied in degree. An idea of the rich, massive quality of Span- ish black-letter is given by the illustration just referred to and by pages of the Suma de Confesion printed by Hurus in 1499;" in Hagenbach's Toledan Missal of 1500;^ or in the Leyes por la Brevedad de los Pleitos^ printed at Toledo by Hagenbach about 1499.* A peculiarity of composition in some Spanish books, namely, the excessive leading of gothic types, m»ay be seen in the Valencia edition of the Epistolx of Phalaris, printed in 1496 ;^ or the Ecloga of Teodulus, printed at Zamora in 1492.** This was sometimes done to allow annotations or "glosses" to be interlined; hence a small size of Spanish type used for notes is called glosilla. In early Spanish illustrated books, Pollard says that "pic- torial title-cuts are not so common as in those of other countries, because of the Spanish fondness for filling the title-page with an elaborate coat of arms;" adding, how- ever, that "nearly all their early bookwork is strong and effective, and the printer who placed a cut on a title-page nearly always secured a good one."'' Spanish title-pages are interesting, and show certain peculiarities in ornament and arrangement. For instance, white letters on a black back- ground was a very Spanish style of decorative writing — a style splendidly employed later by the calligrapher Juan ' Tyfiografihie Iberique, Nos. 48 and 49. ^ Ibid., No. 77. 'Ibid., No. 132. *Ibid., No. 130. 'Ibid., No. 19. "Ibid., No. 37. ' Pollard's Fine Books, pp. 163, 164. 110 PRINTING TYPES de Iciar/ Ungut and Stanislaus, at Seville, in 1494, cleverly took ad\antage of it, in a wood-block for the title-page of Coliimna's Regimento de los PnncipesJ' There is a similar instance of white lettering on a black background in the well-known tide-page of ObraAllaors de S. Cnstofol^ printed at Valencia by Pedro Trincher in 1498.^ Another book printed by Ungut at Seville in 1495 — Liho de Medicina — has a magnificent title-page ^\ hich is distinctly Spanish in effect — a very important decoration bearing the Avords of the title, with a block of massive round black-letter beneath it {fig. 56). The Salamanca edition of Leyes del Quadenw nuevo delas rentas delas alcavalas z fraquezas^ etc., printed about 1496, with its four lines of gothic text beneath an immense and brilliant heraldic shield, is reminiscent of the huge armorial bearings used in decoration in other branches of Spanish art {fig. 57). Another dde-page in the same style is that of Vagad's Cronica de Aragon, printed by Pablo Hurus at Saragossa in 1499.* Then there was a good deal of work in small format treated in the same way, such as the extraordinary xylographic title-page of Lucena's Repeti- cion deAmoreSy e arte de axedres (Salamanca, 1496), by Hutz and Sanz.* ' Juan de Iciar, Spanish calligrapher, and tlie designer of one of the finest writing-books ever printed. It is entitled Recofiilacion subtilissima : intitu- lada Orthografihia firatxca. Tl\e first edition was pubHshed in 1548, at Sara- gossa. Some of the plates are copies of those in Italian books, but many of them are original with Iciar. Mr. Strange believes that the iiinning hands in the book show certain Moorish influences. The original volume is rare, but ])lates from it are reproduced in most books on calligraphy. There is a short account of Iciar in Sir William Sterling Maxwell's Annals of the Artists of Sfiain, and Mr. Strange' s paper, Writing- Books of the Sixteenth Century (Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, Vol. Ill, ]). 41 ), may also be referred to. ' Early Printers of Sfiain and Portugal, pi. xxiii. l^jjiografihie Jberique, No. 155. * Early /^infers of Sfiain, pi. xviii. '^ Ibid., pi. x. ir^muto^0fo:i a:agonttt:aantiqm§!iouifIimi':vr(^at) feroinanbu iBecunOu rege aragonw i caftcllernunc fdicitcr rcgna rem: vna cu obfcr tiaimje 't t)uab9 cpiftolte: vna quioe fug Diinfionc t>ono^:foUito tnatrt- ttionio:altcrav€roceo3t)itic magiftrat^lufticicaragonii^qm fiicrccot rectirB egrcgiu ooctozc onm jgonoifTaluu garlia Dc fanaa maria: alte- nim e]c vicanjd^uftide aragonm vna en oaDinc tirulora:^ quaf! resto«> ilo:ab coDcm Dno ^onDilTaluorcDito * £ttf )ttflu impenfifqj l^uli |?iinJ0 ;£6ftatiacnf * /Sfmnam'cc nacionisrapuo vzbc Ccfarmigufln: fmprcfli,3iioanatimtm%otit,ia&«cccacv>.okwo«v«mc$Suguil^ 55. Gothic Type used by Pablo Hurus^ Saragossa^ 1496 {reduced) JLo conrcnioocnefre pzcfcnre volumcnoc i5cmar 00 ©ozoonio eo lo fcguicnrc* pnmera mcnrc los fie re libzos que fe mrirulan Eilio oc meoicina^Eo fejii oorHas rablaD oelos mgentos* ilo rcrccro: cl iRegi miero oelas aguons* Eo quarrorel Eracraooodos miios conel iRegimienrp ocl ama* Eo quinro p po fmmeroiEao pzonofticas ♦ 56. Title-page of Gordonio's Lilio de Medicina: Ungut and Stanislaus Seville^ 1495 {reduced) Ec^cs Del iBuaDerno nueuo oclas rentas Dclaa alcauaFas c fraquesar.f ecbo cnla vcga oc ^ranaDa. t>o: el qua! d iRef cla iRq^naiiueftros fifcnoiesreuocantoDasIasotrasIcj^cf^ log otros quaocmos fecbos oe amee. 57. Title-page of Leyes del ^uiderno., etc.^ Salamanca^ c. 1496 (.reduced) SPAIN: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 111 In the Burgos edition of Oiweros de Castilla, printed by Fadrique de Basilea, the page of text with its mass of rich black-letter and decorative picture of an archbishop wed- ding the hero to the daughter of the king of England, is an example of an illustrated edition of a popular romance — the kind over which Don Quixote lost his wits.^ The cal- ligraphic initial, and title in large, round gothic letters, are reminiscent of early French printing. These title-pages, cut on wood, are common in Spanish books of the time. The opening page of another famous story of chivalry, Tirant lo Blanch^ printed at Valencia by Spindeler in 1490, shows a rich border with something Oriental about its decora- tions.^ How the illustrations appeared when placed in the text may be seen in San Pedro's Carcel de Amor (Rosen - bach, Barcelona, 1493) and G. G. de Novarra's Contem- plactones sobre el Rosaiio^ etc. (Ungut, Seville, 1495).^ The initials used in Spanish incunabula were very brilliant in effect. Those employed by the Unknown Printer of Sala- manca in 1498, 1499, and 1500* are fine and characteris- tic examples. Although of later date than 1500, there is one example of Spanish decoration so remarkable in design that I in- clude it here. It is the title-page of a small folio book entitled Aureiim opus regalium prwilegionim civitatis et regjii Valen- tie — being the second part of the Chronicle of Jayme el Conquistador. This fine black-letter book was issued at Valencia "by the art and humble industry of Diego de Gumiel" in 1515 (Jig. 58). It exhibits three very Spanish features: (l) an heraldic design (2) in w^hite on black (3) above very little text; and shows what is meant by "Span- ' Tyfiogra/ihie Iberique, Nos. 52 and 53. ^ Ibid., No. 17. '^ Early Printers of S/iain, pis. ii and xxiv. * Ibid., pis. xi and xii. 112 PRINTING TYPES ish" better than any words can do. It is a very romantic, courageous, and effbctive style of decoration/ Facsimiles, however well reproduced, give very litde idea of the splendour of Spanish incunabula. The books them- selves must be seen. Then only a true idea of their effect is gained. The typography of these books was comparatively simple, the sizes of type were few, the decorations were strong and masculine, and the composition, as a rule, so compact that a page of it looks like some dark weave laid upon a sheet of paper. I am not saying that these books are the finest that were ever printed, but they \\ere in one way among the finest. For if entire unity with the life about it makes great printing, these books were great. ' All the facsimiles in Haebler's two books — Early Printers of S/iain and Portugal, and Ty/iogra/i/iie Iberique du Quinzihne Steele — should be looked through. For a guide to tlie i-arest and most important pi-oductions of the Spanish press, the reader may consult the Saha catalogue, Catdlogo de la Biblioteca de Salvd, escrito /lor D. Pedro Salvd y Mallen. A'alencia, 1872. 2 \ols. It is illustrated and also contains many typographical reproductions (not very well done) of title-pages of tlie more famous works. For facsimiles without bibliographical desci'ijjtions the student ma\' consult Bibliografia Grajica, Refiroduccion en facsimil de fiortadas, retratos, colofones y otras curiosidades, etc. Pedro Vindel, Madrid, 1910. 2 vols. Tlie work contains upwards of 1200 facsimiles of Spanish printing and engraving from the in- troduction of printing to the early years of tlie nineteentli centuiy. It is rich in reproductions of the early woi'k touched on in the foregoing chapter. A guide to some titles of fifteenth century Spanish books is supjjlied by Heniy Tliomas's Short-title Catalogue of Books firinted in S/iain and of Sfianish Books firinted elsewhere in Jiuro/ie before 1601 now in the British Museum. Ixindon, 1921. The Catalogue of the Sfianish Library and of the Portuguese Bfjoka bequeathed by George Tickrior to the Boston Piblic Library, together with the Collection of S/ianish and Portuguese Literature in the General Li- brary may also be consulted for titles of books to be examined. Tliis was pub- lished in 1879, and since that date many volumes ha\e been added to tlie col- lection. It contains a number of books interesting to the student of Spanish printing. 'Hie library of the Hisijano-Amci-ican Society, New York, is the best c/)llection of Spanish typograjjhy which exists in this country. It numbers over 100,000 volumes, and the incunabula (s])lendidly displayed) include many rare and beautiful books. No printed catalogue has been published. The Society has issued a number of the rarest Spanish books in facsimile. WcnmopusrcsalmmpiMc^oiumciuita m tt rcgni Balcntie cum ^ifto:m cnlhamlli 58. Title-page of Aureum Opus: Diego de Gumiel^ Valencia^ 1515 (reduced^ CHAPTER IX TYPE AND TYPE-FORMS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN ENGLAND PRINTING was introduced in England in 1484 by- William Caxton, who owes his fame, however, to more than the fact that he was England's proto- typographer. For he was not only the first of English printers — he was also "the first in a long line of English publishers who have been men of letters . . . and was like- wise one of the earliest in the succession of English mer- chants and men of affairs who have found recreation and fame in the production of literature."^ His services to liter- ature in general, and particularly to English literature, as a translator and publisher, would have made him a com- manding figure if he had never printed a single page. In the history of English printing he would be a commanding figure if he had never translated or published a single book. But with him printing was not the sole aim ; and this ex- plains in part why his printing was not so remarkable as his reputation might lead us to expect. He was a great Eng- lishman, and among his many activities, was a printer. But he was not, from a technical point of view, a great printer. For our purpose, a summary of his life which throws into relief his typographical activities is enough. Born about 1421, and apprenticed to a London merchant who after- wards became Lord Mayor, Caxton some time after 1441 went to Burgundy; being abroad, as he tells us in 1469, "for thirty years, for the most part in the countries of Brabant, Flanders, Holland, and Zealand," and being for some time "Governor to the English Nation" {i.e., English merchants) at Bruges — the seat of the Burgundian court. After hold- *Winship's William Cajcton, Doves Press, Hanimersmitli, 1909. 114 PRINTING TYPES ing this post with success, and negotiating some important commercial arrangements in behalf of the English Crown, he retired from active \\ork, and it \\as then that he began, as a pastime, his translation of the Reciiyell of the H'lsto- ryes of Troye — a French book popular at court, written by Raoul Le Fevre, chaplain to Philip, Duke of Burgundy. Of this he completed but little and laid it aside. In 1469, when attached as secretarj^ to the household of the new Duchess of Burgundy, sister to Edward IV, he happened to mention his English translation, and as the Duchess became inter- ested, he promised her to go on \\ ith it. Taking the work with him on a visit to Germany, he finished his task at Cologne in 1471. The new art of printing \\"as then practised at Cologne, and it is supposed that Caxton visited one of its printing- houses and had a hand in the production of an edition of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Renim. To support this theory, there is the testimony of Wynkyn de Worde, fore- man of Caxton's printing-house and his successor, who savs, in his prologue to an English translation of De Pro- prietatibus^ which he issued about 1495 : And also of your chary tc call to ranembi'aunce The soule of William Caxton first prynter of this boke 111 laten toiige at Coleyn hymself to avaunce^ That every well disposyd man may thereon loke. On his return to Bruges, Caxton gave his completed trans- lation to the Duchess, and somewhat later set up a press to supply the demand for copies of his Recuyell. In an epi- logue to the third part, Caxton says: "Thus ende I this book ^vhyche I have translated after myn Auctor as nyghe as God hath gyuen me connying, to w hom be gyuen the laude and preysing. And for as moche as in the wrytyng of ' i.e., in learning the art. 2 ^ ^ V 9 o ^ <3 «3 ^ 9^^ sU ■0. P '-I ^ ^ cS ENGLAND: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 115 the same my penne is worn, myn hande wery & not sted- fast, myn eyen dlmed with ouermoche lokyng on the whit paper, and my corage not so prone and redy to laboure as hit hath ben, and that age crepeth on me dayly and febleth all the bodye, and also because I have promysid to dyuerce gentilmen and to my frendes to addresse to hem as hastely as I myght this sayd book, Therfore I have practysed & lerned at my grete charge and dispense to ordeyne this said book in prynte after the maner & forme as ye may here see, and is not wreton with penne and ynke as other bokes ben, to thende that euery man may have them attones, fFor all the bookes of this storye named the Recule of the Historyes of Troyes thus empryntid as ye here see ^^'ere begonne in oon day, and also fynysshid in oon day." In this production Caxton had associated with himself Colard Mansion, who had previously been a clever callig- rapher. Authorities differ as to whether Caxton persuaded Mansion to exchange his old industry for that of printing, or whether Mansion, as seems more likely, had, shortly be- fore his connection with Caxton, set up a press of his own. About 1475, Caxton and Mansion also printed at Bruges The Game and Playe of the Chesse. The type of these books differs from all other fonts used by Caxton. It is of rough, angular, awkward design, which shows clearly its relation to current Flemish handwriting, which was rough, angu- lar, and awkward too {Jig. 59). Some authorities have sup- posed its design based on Mansion's handwriting, and that the type was cast by him ; others have thought it came from Veldenerof Lou vain. Its provenance is not clear. "Its general appearance," says Blades, " is more free and manuscript- like than would be thought the case from the square-set figure of each individual letter. This is, to a considerable extent, caused by the great variety of letters, there being 116 PRINTING TYPES only five for which there were not more than one matrix, either as single letters or in combination : for, although the differences between the \'arious matrices of the same letter may be but very slight, we have here the fundamental prin- ciple of freedom, namely, a recurrence of modified same- ness. The execution of the type is good, sharp, and de- cided, with sufiicient differences between the repetitions of the same letter to indicate independence of tracing or me- chanical contrivance ; hence probably the work of one accus- tomed to cut letters." This type was never brought into England, but was employed by Mansion after Caxton's departure. Caxton returned to England in 1476, and set up a press in the Abbey precincts at Westminster — at the Sign of the Red Pale — probably bringing with him some type and equipment. The remaining seven fonts of type that Caxton used fall into two classes : batarde types of the Burgundian school; and lettres de forme more on the model of pointed gothic types of the Mainz school. Caxton's Type 2 and its variant 2*, his Type 4 and its variant 4*, and his Type 6, are all versions of the Flemish batarde character. In his Type 2 he printed at Westminster in 1477 The Dictes or Soyengis of the Philosophres {fg. 60) — the first book printed in England with a date and place of printing. "This type," says Blades, "has a more dashing, picturesque, and elaborate character than type No. l.It is an imitation of the 'gros-batarde' type of Colard Mansion, with some variation in the capital letters, which are extremely irregular, not only in size but also in design, some being of the simplest possible construction, whilst others have spurs, lines, and flourishes." Caxton's Type 3 is particularly interesting to students J^itf? (§ af ^e c&^x: 6 gout (otm«)^f a ^tBc of gout fcmt^ iix( ^ ^ecgaf/ Jf 0? ^ai^mot) fart^/(Wtang a fxm^ ^e i^uMi amon32 <* (^ufanb? 4^r« ^^ OM 6> fe ^^g eoun ^/ ctgaPout/ Jo2 ae fe ^ii (o (^^ (^u fJtf? ftBPe i^g counojgt 6) ^SS^/ij^u maifi af ft t ftGP^ (^g cottnctgfiE 6) mo fcf St gf ^t( & m^j/i^u( fc6e aftSag (^if if)^ oouncttttout^ ^ut i^ (^ fe dre^e^tBtfc^^ntj of ottQ cgpmmcfi^/Q^nt^tKet^c no( affieS5w m euetg ne^ 8g om counctiOPout affon^/ Jf oc font ^gme §1^ &^ue(^ 6> & cotmcegffctij 0g tnang/^Ojr 0aKt ; ntoi) (ai^^/^aatatiOi) of t^}mQt& i« (^^w t^a & mctnp <ttmctg!yout^/(ttoS5 (i^^ :) ^ue Mt^ goSB^of tB^ic^e fbme <^(gc f^ofbj &councciir^t5/(notSffii«3[fta!etB§t^^ cept ?^ f§ ^f efc^Ke^ Jitf? ge ^ af efc^SSe i^ oouncti^gj of fb^e/ J^o: ^aExntO)? fat^§ ta^t no cotmctgf of a f)ol^ 60. Caxtori's Type 2. irow The Dictes or Sayengis cf the Philosophres^ Westminster^ 1477 First book printed i7i England with date and filace of firinling ENGLAND: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 117 of English printing, for it is the type that we have come to know, both in face and size, as English. It is a lettre de formc\ much finer than his batarde types, and not unlike the ancient Flamand type in the Enschede collection {Jig. 46), though not so massive. It w^as used by Caxton for three books : an Ordmcde sen Pica Sarum, in 1477, and a Psalter and Horx ad usum Sarum, both printed in 1480. This ty^t is shown in our illustration {Jig. 6l), which is interesting because it re- produces a copy of Caxton's handbill advertising Pyes of Salisbury Use — probably the earliest advertising leaflet printed in England. The "Pye" was a collection of rules to show how to deal with the concurrence and occurrence of festivals ; pyes of two and three Commemorations possibly being separate portions of the Ordinale sen Pica Sarum of lATil . The type of the advertisement was that used in the Pyes. After Caxton's death. Type 3 passed into the hands of Wynkyn de Worde, who emploAcd it frequently. The vari- ant of Caxton's second type, called Type 2*, appears to have been cast from matrices made from trimmed-up letters of Type 2. Caxton's Mirrourofthe World, printed about 1481, shows the use of this type.^ It has some changes and addi- tions, but is scarcely more attractive than its original. In the Godjreij of Boloyne of 1481 Caxton employed his Type 4, a disagreeable, rough, and more compact letter, resembling some used by Machlinia in his Speculum Chris- tiani about 1486, and that used at St. Albans in 1481. Ugh' as it is, it was apparently a, favourite of Caxton's {Jig. 62). Its variant — Type 4* — is a recasting on a little larger body," and Type 4 and Type 4* may be distinguished by the dif- ferent form of the lower-case w. Caxton's Type 5 is a relief to the eye — a church type of the Flamand school, but not so fine as the large "church" ^ Early English Printing, pi. in. ^ Ibid., pi. v. 118 PRINTING TYPES letter called Type 3, which is considered above. "The large Lombardic capitals used with this font," says Blades, "have a bold and striking appearance. Unlike any former font of Caxton's, they are all cast with the largest face the body will bear, and without the least beard. They are used, more or less, in every book printed with this type. . . . They do not look at all well when used as initials to a word, on account of their size preventing them ranging with the sequent letters." Caxton printed The Doctrinal of Sapience in Type 5, about 1489. It is a good type as Caxton's types go — and very English and ecclesiastical in effect, as we understand Eng- lish "church type" to-day {fig. 63). Type 6, a variant of Type 2, first used in the Ars Mori- endi of 1490, calls for no remark, for it is another of Cax- ton's series of gtvs batarde letters {fg. 64). Caxton's Type 7 was a small size of rough, compact Eng- lish black-letter, and was discovered by Henry Bradshaw, the learned Cambridge bibliographer. In its delicacy it is somewhat French. It was used in an Indulgence brought out in 1489. Blades does not mention this type in his ac- count of Caxton's books, for he was never convinced that it was — as it certainly seems to have been — used by Cax- ton {fg. 65). Type 8, of French origin, is a lettre de forme of the con- ventional type. It appears in the first four lines of the open- ing page of the Ars Moriend'i mentioned above, and in the fourth, fifth, sixth, twelfth, and thirteenth lines of the left- hand column in our illustration {^fg. 64). Caxton's press turned out about a hundred books. Gordon Duff' tells us that "from the time Caxton first started print- ing it is interesting to notice how he gradually introduced various improvements. His earliest books have no head-lines, no numbers to the pages, no catchwords and no signatures; 3< it pkQi ttv^g wan Qjtdtuel oi cnnpjtcl to b^t on^ p^cft oif tvtoo aniirt^tc o[iimmo»si0O6 of (aUCbud )aft mfier in to t^ atmontCc^t at t^ tetli )»te anDs^e (^al liauf t^ 9000 (^i^ps /.* it)plicDfietci^{mla 61. Caxton's Type 3. Used in his Handbill^ Westminster^ c. 14^77 i\ ©etc &3^n€t$ % a?^c 3nfta40^b? €mcG:(5/an^ aCfo of eo^>, ^^ of (J^olb^nc / t^c ^^ic^c fpcact^ of t^c Conqiicfi^ of t^c ^9g Ibnoj of JOccufaCem/contGjin^ns ^luctfc toartco ano no6(^ fa^tm^ of 2li;mco maoc it) ti)c fame (T?o^a«tc/anO it) t^c contrcco o^iaotni 3ln0 aCfo manj) tttctua^a'ouo t^^cr^ce (xi^co? ano? faCTo^ ao ^cC oj) t^i^ f'^cc/C»e tt) t^o patijjce t^ie t^mc Our^ncp / 2ttiD2 ^® (^c 'EaC^ant Ouc <5oocftc^ of ^o^^nccDttquctC)2^it^^5c|S&cto4c C^^cffafic^piitcttcaafi^^® €mcG?6 0ottqiKtO(pctfc an;>^ ^(3^^c Cofo^oc/anO 6:oiis<?^ iij ^ 3§cwfaCcm (§« ^r^ aoffC/ca^ pi^ ^ putno/ toao a sooC)? a^fto^ mat) ano? gouctnouv of t^cmp^tc of (Komc/Qi^ut n? ^10 t^mc Wac^^ wet OaO &2t)^^ic^c ttjao mcffagcr of t^c o?mO 3ltiC)2 ma^ t^c p^pte tw ^ncscrfioticc / t^ai ^c ^ae» a ptop^ctc fctifi? from out (b:cc / 2in t^c t^mc of <bmcC?o ^ae t^c faC0 Ca^c of ma^ C^mct fo^ ari^ fpxa^ aC^oos tt) tttatt^ pavtgce of t§o:^ctit/an^ 62. Caxtori's Type 4. iv'ow Godfrey of Boloyne^ Westminster^ 1481 ■^ i> *^ P. %4-r ^*^ o -i^ o St rrt •**^ s; ^ *5 ^ a ^^ o o ^ a-S Co f^ f^ 1^ «0 s r B & en w ^^ ^ «>2.S o ^ = o S § S h5 O <^ J!t S ';;.. c sv: o ^ _o ^ Q *«.rf ^y ^ >> R 00 o f? H O 8 t3 § ENGLAND: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 119 the ends of the lines are not always even/ and we see in the paper the holes made by the points which kept the paper straight. ... In some of these books printing in red is found, not worked off by a separate impression, but pulled at the same time with the black, a peculiar method of printing used also by Colard Mansion in the books which he printed alone." Caxton introduced signatures in 1480, and began to use woodcut illustrations in about the same year, and very rough they were. Few ornamental initials are found in his books. "Such improvements as Caxton adopted," says Gordon Duff, "were only made from necessity, to keep himself abreast of his rivals." It was unfortunate for early English typography that Caxton lived so long in the Low Countries, and modelled his printing on the work about him, rather than upon that of France or Italy. But unlike his rivals, he was, says Gordon Duff, "the editor or translator of most of his publications, and, unlearned as he calls himself, his labours have made a lasting mark in the history of the English language." Thus ' This was because Caxton, following the pi-actice of the Dutch school of print- ing, at first used no composing-i-ule. As Blades says in his essay on Caxton's printing-office, "Placing rough types ufion rough types admits of very httle shifting or adjustment, and to this fact, I imagine, we must attribute the practice of leaving the lines in early books of an uneven length. An attempt to push along the words of a line in order to introduce more space between them, without some plan of easing the friction, would be certain to break up the line altogether, and so the lines were left just as tliey happened to fall, whether full length or short. Sometimes, when a word would come into the line with a little reduction of the space between the last two words, the space was reduced accordingly; but more often a syllable at the end of the line was contracted, such as ' men ' into ' me, ' or ' vertuous ' into ' vertuo^.' Most often the compositor, knowing the practice to be understood by his readers, would finish his line with just so many letters as his measure would take, and accord- ingly it is common to find words divided thus: — why-i|che th||at w||ymen wlliche m||an. But when once the 'setting rule' was brought into use all tliat was altered, and the various words of a line could be pushed about, and the spaces between them augmented or reduced with ease." 120 PRINTING TYPES the historical significance of Caxton's types, and the interest that attaches to him as a man, must make up for the lack of beauty in his books/ Caxton's material at his death, in 1491, passed to Wyn- kyn de Worde, a native of Worth in Alsace, who had been his assistant. He at first used only Caxton's types ; the fonts he owned being 3, 4*, 6, 7, and 8. These he employed in five books published from 1491 to 1493 ; among them the Golden Legend^ printed in the latter year/ The first type of his own that he used, in a Liber Festivalis in 1493,^ has somewhat the appearance of the French lettre de forme of the period. "It was," says Gordon Duff, "probably formed on a French model, though it retains several characteristics and even a fe^v identical letters of Caxton's founts." Of the variant cap- ital I's, one much resembled that in Caxton's Type 4*. The black-letter in The BokeofSt. Alban's^ printed by De Worde in 1496, was derived from Gotfried van Os of Gouda, from whom, on his departure from Gouda to Copenhagen, Cax- ton bought types and a supply of the rather awkwardly de- signed initials to be found in De Worde's books. This type ^ In De Ricci's j1 Census of Caxtons (Bibliographical Society's Monographs, No. XV, 1909) , Caxton's eight types are reproduced in facsimile, printed on rough paper, and showing full pages of the types. Tliere are also lists of the books printed at Bruges and Westminster, giving the number of existing copies, un traced cojjies, and fragments. A list of the books printed at Paris for Caxton and the books pi-inted by Wynkyn de Worde after Caxton's death, but with Caxton's types, is followed by a list of Caxton's books classified by tyfies; finally, a list of Caxton's books in chixjnological order, showing the types used in each year, is apj)ended. There is also an index of libi-aries which contain or have contained Caxtons. Tliis book is supplenientaiy to Blades's Life and Tyliografihy of William Caxton, London, 1863, 2 vols., which is now made more or less incom- ])lcte by later knowledge ; but Blades's volumes, Goi-don DuflTs Early Eng- lish Printing and Life of Caxton (Caxton Club of Chicago), and De Ricci's Census fumisli a fairly complete equipment to the student. Mr. Winship's delightful paper, William Caxton, should also be consulted. ^ pMrly English Printing, pi. viii. * Ibid., pi. xi (of later editions). ^^efatio in nonumi genera :ffmemopen0Qtticucj!tjit?e0:<?no(imp?oba(Ht ^ctiptatpicmfmkB in tm totaDcoi^ €ttuIiuo^eDajc:qm non^tccatperc lute* ^ua)'potc0/(?rot)i0latttjafenacrcpa^ <^rantmata fulpttii toto relcgcntut in oibc ^tq^cntmp^ectonofttanunemafuo* ^ulpttutrntlamtnopuCculum Degenenlmsnommup^efatto '£)gitantin!il)(^tentanti fepe/.^ curicR/ qu3vi3pofrent;if3ctlm8'niidut9^fi.ccrcpuenmarrcsrat>si*s tic3.conipmiimeftD9cmnccUr»Tib:cu:3 p:cccpt3Tberi' Ulta $ obfaira conferrc3t3(9 cG &e nonunum Dcdmarione a verbo?. cetcrarCJctf -o:atlonirp3rriunicoM(lructioe&uo9 bbi09 compcn0iofo3 nug cMOcrmi. Srt cefTir ttiil^i ocnonnnu sc»enb':i ^e vcrbop ptcrma i fupinit. ( onobiie altja cp0mfcB'volumitjib') fcnbenOi Ubi&o.omtiis ctti pucro?. oifFkailrasin fecdi nahonc gencfe;p Jentis i fupiuio a conftructioc confillit.diua qui t)eni fi eg© iHo0b«uit3tccl3nt3(:ecy cmcaciQpccptozft !cti3U(mm:vit)Cboipict3n mce feci/TefahsratQj nieil3boii0 pmtitm glo:i3 {?abituru0 Somiror nuffiiBioas ctatisljonuneaoiit vcter3noclKt)im3Biftro3l23tic Tibi ^utnciSno afTumps fifrc:m3lm(Tcqjatcj:3iic»riobrcunt3tib^';crroui)U0inibucrea5oIc(centes. •purofancl2bo:t0'fiillTcBtel\itn:3Uqiio0muioilTcmino:ib'':wc3qipi oibtcc rmt t)ifncnltcr;alio0 no m. tioie Ooccrcnt labote tiifcentiQ :nccpolleiie agtiot «^eta^cmcrge^ouvi3■aIlOlUo0 (tanq; rdigioiictn) vcnios cITc mtinjcuta nmtsrc:'; nc apiif gcnf cm Bfiianim ncudium opu0 ntenta fo:ct auctoutate <onfccum:5J.Connnereem onirtC0 upiiDc fugnacaneu irz, Sicjci5b:o tcmpua 1 contenmtallu fotucjrgraniatioe noiut^ilu predpue Ijab^t :iU(i cuolmmt: ttcc alios 3ttinstint:illum pucrts cxplanantitt illo totoo cotcrut t)(c0 fg oifas pulo0i;nrcUce0:BQi»3rcsula:to0itant)o5iccrclirtcr3:!^c)rEtco;;nri etianie]c 5»octis aliquot ^ccipatractarc V£lunvalt)cpcculi3nafarcm- Sc^ quanta ijOfecwnt (vtpacc co?. &i)cmm) tnipmbenti3m3tn pucro© qui' lactc cibtfcp ^I(c4n/rimi0;f3cilifq<foluttoni9alai&irunt:multoflbfintfjco:cibiri:prurt(a3 ^t)urUrmnoriutruiiumalc:rcbt»untautinii3liOo0aticfomic3:autpzopins= t}ibu9(:ursit)O0.*ftnDcbuntillo0f3cihu0aic)i:ant)rt carmen qt^quiocconcin fitt m tnuln0.:rDulti quocQ mcliuo piofant fp c3rmc eOifcut. Scd efto ita qtio DC arte graniatica copiofc -: dare (cnbe carimuibuo pot- Sctar.t mcmonter Sletafi tru.QiJi&'ocmQ pxoficcrc cu non mtcliissnt 7'3ntdlige?Jt ( tnquiunt). pauUtimquoufq^tnttOgO j;«r«w;rt09b quartu:rju;9t> quinjG;ftjrtaye8mwni 66. Gothic Types used by Wynkyn de JVorde, JVestminster^ 1499 ENGLAND: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 121 is the square, Netherlands lettre de forme oi the period/ The lower-case w's of this type are peculiar in shape, and should be examined. De Worde's Speculum of 1494^ was printed from Cax- ton's Type 8, which was a lettre de forme. De Worde had also two other types, both of which he used before the end of the fifteenth century in his Opus Grammaticwn of Sul- pitius {fg. 66). The larger of the two was a text type, the smaller being employed for notes. The first seems to be French ; the smaller has a round quality which is a little like the Italian gothic types of the time. Gordon Duff says that these characters were imported, and that some French printers possessed almost identical fonts. The small type is a charming character and was the work of a very clever founder. De Worde printed about one hundred books before 1500, and nearly eight hundred in all — if new editions and broadsides are included. One of the methods of placing the De Worde books chro- nologically is curious, i.e., from the condition of the wood- cuts. An engraving on wood of the Crucifixion, which was first used in Caxton's Ffteen Oes, was employed so much by De Worde, that in 1498 it began to crack. And in 1499, while an edition of the Mirror of Consolation was in process, the block split in two. The progress of time was thus marked by the fissure in the plate. The types of the printer Julian Notary, who worked in connection with Barbier and another unknown printer, and produced several books for De Worde, are also of the lettre de forme family. His Sarum Missal shows these fine charac- ters admirably composed; for the French elegance in type- setting exhibits itself very clearly in this book, Avhich was printed about 1498 ^fig. 67) ; and also in the Sarum Hor^ ^ Early English Printing, pi. x. ' Ihid., pi. i.x. 122 PRINTING TYPES of 1497. Barbier was of French origin, and probably came to England at De Worde's invitaUon. In the work of John Lettou we see this same mastery of composition; but there is a distinct foreign quality in the letter shown in his Quaestiones Antonii AyidresB. This type, in effect, resembles a form employed at Rome (possibly by the same printer) in 1478-79. It looks like the transitional gothic types which showed the influence of Roman letter- forms {Jig. 68). This book Avas the first volume printed in England in w hich double columns were employed. After its appearance Lettou went into partnership with William de Machlinia, and it was by them jointly that the two types employed in Littleton's Tenores Novel li were used. One was a Burgundian (or "Caxton") sort of batarde letter, the other a pure lettre de forme} After printing some five books in asso- ciation with Lettou, Machlinia carried on the business by himself. A square lettre de forme was used by Machlinia in the Revelation of St. jYic/iolas, and a picturesque condensed gothic type in the De Secretis jYaturse of Albertus Magnus of 1484.^ Machlinia's two remaining fonts were a heavy, square lettre de forme, rather like Caxton 's Type 3, and a coarse lettre batarde famande, identical with types used by Veldener at Utrecht and Brito at Bruges — another proof of the close connection between Netherlands printers and the English fifteenth century press. These were employed in a Speculum Chrlstiani brought out about 1486.^ The printer Richard Pynson w as a Norman by birth. He had two rough forms of transitional lettre de forme (in which he printed Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Dives and Pau- per)* and a more delicate batarde; his remaining types being lettres de fonne. The lettre batarde in which The Fall of ' Early English Printing, pi. xvi. ' Ihid., jjl. xvii. ' Ibid., pi. xvin. * Ibid., pis. xx and xxi. •2 - C g <^ 77 S •^^ o^ Mv ^ ^ g o « e § — 2 2 3 "s «® 3 ^ ii S O J* '4ii^ «3 ."s ♦^ « « S S'oS «1 O 2 Si^ ZI .s «k> ?♦ 'C* -* w p* «S ^^ #^ ^^ 7^ w « H S ^ *^ ' ^ ^ 2a vi-» S.^ s ibi o o o s •^ ^ftw^ JIai* ^^ i_^ f5^ "5 g ^ ^ >w ^s ._, o e O • *?2 2 » t* K^S ^.j «Ji— Ei 3 fc«-» *3 Q-e « S a.,^ >?! •- ,v* o 5 ^ 3 - &"'<^ 'S ■** ti '^^ a ^ :§ o y- n Tg £ ^ g 3 to ^ 3 O ^ ,^ _ ,_ „ _2 — w .IS o S ^ OS'S .8^1 .1-8'^ a,^ ^ 3 V) 3 9 °* »5 "c '2 ?5 e *C ^ •=» S ^ i g t ^ - tJ g o .» «- o ^ S g a ^ .5 g § f^ o ENGLAND: FIFTEENTH CENTURY 123 Princes wsis printed, about 1494 {Jig. 69), is somewhat like the fonts common in France. Pynson's iettres de fonne are shown in the larger type of his Sulpitius of 1494 — a square Netherlandish letter — and in the very handsome lettre de forme which he used with beautiful effect in an Ho}-x ad Usum Sarum of 1495 {fg. 70), and in a Sarum Missal of 1500/ His small black-letter types for notes are rather Ital- ian in feeling. The Sarum Missal of Pynson is a really fine piece of work, which shows taste and ability, though the borders are very rough in execution. Pynson was the most tasteful of the fifteenth century English printers. In addition to the London presses, there were printing es- tablishments at Oxford and St. Albans. Of the seven types employed at Oxford, some narrow, upright gothic types produced striking pieces of typography." The other fonts call for litde comment here. In the St. Albans press(the third place where printing was done in England) we have three different types, and this press also used Caxton's Type 3. Of these three fonts, the type used in the Augustinus Dac- tus is the most interesting.^ Besides the books that were printed in England, a great many volumes were printed abroad for the English market — some at Antwerp, Paris, and Rouen,* others at Basle, Lou vain, and Cologne. These do not concern us in our study of English type-forms, though in passing it may be said that they were more fin- ished than the books printed in England.^ In a final survey of the types used in England in the fifteenth century, they group themselves into three classes * Early English Printing, pi. xxvi. ' Rid., pi. xxix, Cicero. ' Ibid., pi. XXXII. * Ibid., pis. xxxv-xxxviii. * Excellent facsimiles of the types of Caxton and other early English firinters are appended to Gordon DuflPs Fifteenth Century English Books (Biblio- graphical Society's Monograjjhs, No. XVIII, 1917). 124 PRINTING TYPES of black-letter fonts, for the roman character was not intro- duced into England until well into the sixteenth century. The first was a pointed lettre dejbrme much resembling the French. In this the most attractive books were issued; and certain of them are particularly interesting as giving in type the English national letter-form, based on earlier man- uscripts, of which I have spoken more than once. This still survives. The second group is the lettre batarde^ based on the Bur- gundian batarde. Fonts of this appear in all sizes and vari- eties, from the rough and ugly characters used by Caxton down to the refined imitation of French batarde types em- ployed by Pynson. The third group of types is miscellaneous, made up of characters which were imported, and others which may have been copies of importations. None of them are char- acteristic of purely English typography, though they are sometimes better than the native English types. o a. 5»- Si .5 o ^ XI St "^ w s O ^ A. «.> S ^ ^ 2 t© o C « ^ o w s $: *^.« K» "S ~ «s- ^ o ^ Si S "« 'iA !? < ••• 2 Si ^ ^a S: •* Si 2 2 s ^ « ^ «s ^ ^ c* o J o 2 ^ ^ 3 — o tP O o ^ cs r t: ^ «> O o ^ 3 ^ Si 2 S tr « ^ o « «> sr •* A. a-. ^=: o a- ^ o ^ s r* S ^ » S cr o 3 Ji «^ ^ o » S S «> is ^^ ^ *- S-/0 S to tS =i tL o li 5 s o '^ O Si* «^ ^-^ "> « O o 3, -^ o ^ S g* 2» w w Bto -^ sr V ** s «-» ^ « S o ~ m « 2^ . Si « Si -- *^ s o ^ cr vs. a. « ^ 2S « w 1^ ^ ^i^^ o a. ^ &< J §" r\ -s* «\ <^ O *2 ^ ^ s ^ s 2 O 3 «\ 5 s: o 2 J*\ « ^ O «2- s ^ imefa ttinitaB Dirigatme inctUmabHiBbmi^ tas regat me potetca pattis tiuif tcet me tapi^ etttta f(Iu illutmnet mc bittu0 rpu(rctt.3f[(p!|a a^ooDcua^i^omo fitiftabencoictco miljifa^- lU0 ^ p^otectso incternum. ^liinetu 02Bl]^irel>mmre&i)er/fonnc/anD ftol^goofltl)2egfone0 (tone goD 3b]^leueB)itlim^n{)eite(tcDnfeirell)it{j m]^ tnouttf all tl^ari^ol^ cl^urc()e bj^leue- t\)tam ^olded^ of tl^eanti ae moc^easa' SODecat^oI^bcanD ttp&m manoug^ggj _ to ftleanD bj^leueof tlje/ 3lnti 3 piott&tu^^^S^ iimbf(oittl)fmmaftt\im2iibpll ip ^^'''^'^' | ueanD hftin0s faftif anD cont^nueal \ m^l^fe/an&3bnott)legetbem^goD/fa feucr d mabcr of al tin Iboilue* (t me tlip poiecreatute fubger anD fttmmu^m mabeto tbefa^rl^anDbomageofm^bo hft^o!mp(onltiWtbtjl)olbtoftiit mblf as of m^ (buerapn lozDe ant) goD itl)allttiegoDe0naturalfpmtual anD tepoxalltbatjftaue (f tljateucrjftao 70. Lettre de Forme used by Pynson^ London^ c. 1495 CHAPTER X THE ALDINE ITALIC FROM our survey of fifteenth century types it would appear that every country had its formal pointed black-letter; every country, save England, its clas- sical roman type; and every country — except, perhaps, Spain — its cursive vernacular black-letter type, copied from the handwriting of the locality and time. Before 1500 Italy had no vernacular type simply because thie current hand- writing of Italy (which was not of the black-letter school) was only translated into type-forms at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Italic was the Italian cursive vernacular type, and it ultimately drove out all other vernacular types wherever roman letters came into general use. It was pro- duced by Aldus in 1501; but it was modelled so clearly on fifteenth century cursive hands, that it comes within the range of fifteenth century fonts. So to complete our review of the earliest type-forms, we must consider this famous italic. We cannot understand the work of Aldus Manutius and the Aldine printing-office, or the innovation made by books in smaliyor/^2«^ printed in italic type, unless we know some- thing of the intellectual condition of Europe at the time of Aldus, and about an experiment which he made in type- cutting some years earlier. "In 1500, men were thinking of new things," says Pollard. "New editions of many of the old religious and didactic treatises, the old poems and ro- mances, continued to be printed, though mostly in a form which suggests that they were intended for a lower class of readers ; but the new publishers would have little to do with them. Scholarship, which till now had been almost confined to Italy, spread rapidly to all the chief countries 126 PRINTING TYPES of Europe, and, amid the devastation which constant war soon brought upon Italy, was lucky in being able to find new homes. With the new literary ideals came new forms for books, and new methods of housing them. . . . The men for whom Aldus catered wanted books which they could put in their pockets and their saddlebags, and it was not long before the publishers of Paris and Lyons outdid Aldus in the smallness and neatness of their editions." The reasons for the invention of a new condensed type were (like most reasons for things) so simple that they are in danger of being overlooked. Small books had come into vogue — the kind of volume that inspired Dr. Johnson when he said, "Books that you may carry to the fire and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all." It probably occurred to Aldus that simple, compact volumes might be popular, and thus commercially successful ; so for these small books a condensed type was designed, ^\•hich permitted a good deal of matter to be printed on a page. That he meant these 16mo editions of the classics to be in the nature of a "handy-volume" collection is shown by the dedication of the Juvenal, issued in 1501 — the first year of his use of italic — which runs as follows: ^^ Aldus, to his friend Sdpio Carteromachus, Greeting. "We have printed, and are now publishing, the Satires of Juvenal and Persius in a very small yorwo^, so that they may more conveniently be held in the hand and learned by heart (not to speak of being read) by everyone; this we do at a time when every vice has reached a point still higher than had been reached when these Satires were composed — for I do not doubt that Life will here read, and recog- nize, its own Manners and Morals. We send these Satires to you, my dear Scipio, that they may through their brev- THE ALDINE ITALIC 127 ity become once more your intimate friends, as they were formerly during your stay at Rome as a young man, when you possessed them as thoroughly in your memory as your own fingers and finger-nails." The Aldine 16mo books were in reality a sort of Venetian Everyman's Library, and held the same position with re- gard to other books that the various series of books in handy foimat do now ; and they bore somewhat the same relation to other books in their price. In these popular editions Aldus was merely returning to classical usage. So much for the reasons that appear to have suggested these books in small ybrwa? for which the Aldine italic was designed. The adoption of an imitation of a cursive hand by Aldus for his new fonts is not wholly explicable by the wish for a compact type. His italic types were only a development of an idea already put into effect in his Greek fonts. The older Greek manuscripts employed formal, simple characters, sep- arate from each other and with comparatively few ligatures or contractions, which adapted them very well to transla- tion into type;^ but Aldus preferred to imitate the cursive Greek handwriting of his time, which was filled with an immense number of ligatures, contractions, and unneces- ' ' ' We think of the cheap book and the pubUc library as blessings coming direct from the invention of tlie printing-press, and at first tliought we may be inclined to suppose that in Rome, when copies had to be written by hand, books must have been as dear as they were during the Middle Ages. . . . This was not the case. Copyists had been trained to attain such a speed in writing, and slave labor was so cheap, that in the first century of our era, as Martial tells us, the first book of his poems, which contains about seven hundred lines, could be had at a sum amounting to thirty or forty cents, while his Xenia could be sold for twenty cents. At these rates, books did not cost more than twice what they do to-day." Abbott's Society and Politics in ^indent Rome. New York, 1909. * Like the Greek font used in the Complutensian Polyglot (^g. 228) . 128 PRINTING TYPES sary complications.^ Despite their faults, these cursive Greek fonts hit the popular taste {Jig. 71). So when a small, com- pact type was wanted for editions of Latin classics, etc., I suppose it may have seemed to Aldus natural and clever, to do for Latin letter-forms what he had done for old Greek letter-forms. It may be, too, that Aldus adopted a cursive letter for his new font because it suggested the popular and informal character of his projected series. Whatever his rea- sons, the result was the Aldine italic. The punches for these types w^ere cut by Francesco da Bologna (whose name was Griffi, and is not to be confused wuth II Francia), who had already designed roman types for Aldus. Tradition says that he intended to imitate the hand- writing of Petrarch" — too picturesque a fib to give up, though comparison with specimens of Petrarch's handwrit- ing upsets the theory. The high-flung names of Aldus Ma- nutius, Francesco da Bologna, and Petrarch have dazzled us into forgetting that the production of these little books printed in italic was a simple business affair. If Aldus had been named "Brown," Da Bologna "Smith," and Petrarch "Jones," the venture would appear to us more what it ap- peared to the Venetians of that day. The first books printed in the new font were the Virgil and Juvenal of 1501 {Jig. 72). The Aldine italic was founded upon a Humanistic cur- sive Italian handwriting of a somewhat earlier period, of * For some of tlie contractions supplied by ligatured Greek letters, see Sav- age's Z)/crionarj/ o/^Ae./fr;q/'Pri?zr/;2_g-, pp. 300-302. While simplifications of Greek type took place in France under the Estiennes, and still more changes have been made since, theoriginal misunderstanding has never been corrected. ' Probably based on a misconception of the phrase, tolto con sommissima dili- genza dallo scritto di mano medesima del Poeta, occurring in the colophon of the 1501 Aldine edition of Petrarch's Cose Volgari. This means merely that the text of the edition has been carefully transcribed from a manuscript in Petrarch's autograph. The statement is twice repeated, in varying phrase but with identical meaning, in the address entitled Aldo a gli Letlori. ♦ I AOzrpATOY Err ton AnOAAnNlOY TOY TYANEnZ BIOM BTBAION TETAPTON' p^<^^S(i)iv w oeJ^c/Jboc Iv r^sjc/oc Trot ^tA^'vTW U thv z<Pifftif,Cbiio\ S«- you^coj t77 'TT^fltf Ttsa? too; Try V t^^oj/? »^l',«^'«HJ0A0D6o'^/</,of<£♦',<^5(5^- Cov^i^tu^KMC (fhmv Touff iA.oipou^'i(po'nw\i icou 'n^ioj^eiou 'tt^oO' olutov Ik. twv TraAifijv, ^ Hflti TWO' Zju\}pvii{,\cod o,n i^ J^ioiyy bvfc^'ZinnianSt bihim^p^isuq 3 oc(pikicdvu,iipi70 npt^ Tc , iCcuJhUT^ Oi (Aoustu Kga ^^cSitvouocMiiAiSip * Thv fjtZv Jit cO«At|ii' thv nr^ctvi v , 6c)p 'ris^p\nii\^i 7DU ct^sJ nr§oi invi E(pimui cfl<iAix6HtOUX^i:'d^oi awupcc'/insti aMa tuV fjJli olA\a3v^x'nzi-)^v 7^,19" xt3V caJvvcfbc^r^v-0iAomi0iqi. Si fiovn ivf*^ovP\.S(iii>v,f(gucnjdv aic/JooyuJ iiiv ,iJt.i<TK. ^ ttTvirav-o^jfcod'idi ftiTOi^t^'^v Twy EcPKnOiV nr^oct (xJtdi'^oiJh ^- /iOV 7rEetO^«?7I3ii7TW,«M't/HP(/o^*Ta,K9WeOti&a>^t^^ TWMOif .TVLOTd^ elMdb& (^CC'\l' 71. Gree/^ Tl//7e used in Philostratus : Aldus^ Venice^ 1501 IVUri IVVENALTS AQVINA XI5 SATYRA PRIMA. EMPEREGO AVDITOR tantum^nunciufiwmrepotuim $ V exatus tiUcs uua thcjeide Codri ? I mfuncer^ tmhirecitRUirit ille H icel€^s?fWpunedicmcnnfum^fcritin^ns jf elebhiis?aut fivnwi p/fK<t irfw mnrgne lihri N ofa mtjgf w^^ /// doma cp fud , ^f.'^w vnhi lucHs M arUs ,€t £oliis uicijuimrufib'^.s antrmn V w Jfiiw • Q^U rf^wf ucnti^ cfUiU tcY<^HSdt uni hxdi A eacHs,und^ahusfirt]nadcHehat dUYum V elliaiU ^(^Udntas idcuhiurMonychusorncSj P Yontom^Utam^connulf/c^irnarmoYd. cldtnunt S enif>eY,et affiduoYiiptie UdDYCcviu/mrttS' E xbefks cddemdfunDno, minhno'(^,^oeta' E tnos eYnmanum jtYuliC fnlduximui ^tt not C onfdiU'm dedimn SylU,pi}Uiti<s ut dltum D OYnHYet-jbilta c/? clefn€7itid,aim fvt ubiqHe \ dhbus oauYYdi ,j>eYituY£ pdYaYc (h-iYt£ • C UY tamtn hoc libedt potius dcatyYcre atmfo^ V CY c^uem mngnas e(^uos A UYWYicccjicxitdlumms, S iHd(Ut,et ^ddcidiYdtiortemddmitP.Us^edam. C um tttUY uxoYcm duatjfddo , M euid thufcum F i^t d^YVAii^ctnuddtcncdtuendhuLiimwnut^ V atridos omnes o^ibus aim i^roHocct urns, A ii 72. Aldine Italic as used in Juvenal and Persius Aldus ^ Venice^ 1501 THE ALDINE ITALIC 129 which there are endless examples/ As a type it had several particularly distinguishing features: first, originality of character; second, a large number of tied letters, of which there are about sixty-Jive in the Aldine Dante and Virgil ; and third, the use of roman capitals shorter than the ascend- ing lower-case italic letters — indeed, the dot of the lower- case i stands above a roman capital I. In pages of Dante's Purgatorio^ the capital belonging to the first word of the first line of each three-line stanza is set off from the rest of the word, following in this Italian manuscripts of the period. Tied letters were used to produce a cursive appearance. For these tied letters an elaborate case was necessary, and thus composition became much more difficult ; but in the later Aldine editions fewer tied letters were used, without great loss of effect. Aldus employed his italic as a text type for an entire book. It was a character entirely independent of roman. Placing italic fonts on bodies corresponding to roman fonts was the outcome of its later use in connection with roman for purposes of differentiation, emphasis, and for "liminary and preliminary" matter. This Aldine character became the model for all subse- quent italic types. In its own day it had a great success, and, like most typographic successes to-day, was widely and inaccurately imitated ; but although the Venetian Senate gave Aldus an exclusive right to use the character, a patent confirmed by three successive Popes, counterfeiting went on. The Italians called the character Aldino. By others it was called Italic^ either because they did not care to give Aldus so obviously the credit for inventing it, or did not wish to appear to have stolen it from anybody in par- ticular ! A rival printer, for whom Griffi made another set of ^ Paleografihie Latine, pi. 116 a — Brief of Sixtus IV, 1472. 130 PRINTING TYPES punches, published Aldus's own edition of Virgil in this type, so that his literary text as well as his type was pirated. This same edition of Virgil was reproduced at Lyons, with a counterfeit Aldine device upon it. Aldus issued a printed protest, and pointed out mistakes made by the Lyons printer in his reprint. This document was at once used in produc- ing a new and more correct Lyons edition. Several series of these Aldine counterfeits appeared in Lyons, of all degrees of imperfection ; the worst, perhaps, being produced by a sort of Jack-of-all-trades named Bartholomew Trott, who in these volumes described himself (as no one else was likely to do) as "the honest book-seller." The Giunti of Florence also copied the Aldine editions. To the Lyons printers we owe the slanting- italic capital letters now adopted for all italic fonts. Artistically this was not wholly an improvement, as roman capital letters gave a page of italic lower-case type an agreeable perpendicular movement which italic capitals do not supply. So what was generally considered a fault in the Aldine italic was, typo- graphically, one of the best things about it. The Aldine printing-house, however, itself adopted italic capitals about 1560, some fifty years after the death of Aldus. Six differ- ent sizes of its italic type had meanwhile appeared. The Aldine italic is often spoken of as an admirable in- vention, and from certain literary points of view, it may have been. But italic became a workable type for the printer only when precisely that characteristic was discarded which made it most Aldine, i.e., imitation of a cursive hand. Though the character on which Aldus based his italic was more quickly written than the older i)ook-hands, it was far slower to set up as he rendered it in type : and it certainly was foolish to try to imitate written characters by type, when by so doing much useless labour was necessitated. It was not THE ALDINE ITALIC 131 that Aldus did not know about old Greek or the best cur- rent Humanistic manuscripts ; but he did not think his problem out. He appears to have been seduced by the amus- ing trickery of reproducing current handwriting by type ; and that is the reason that in his italic, and still more in his Greek fonts, he was about nine times too clever ! With the Aldine italic, originality of idea in type-forms ceases. The civilite introduced by Granjon at Lyons a few years later was very different in form from italic type, but the idea was the same — it was a type based on a cursive handwriting used in a particular class of documents and of a certain period and locality. The script shown by type- founders now is our version of such types as the Aldine italic and civilite. It is supposed to imitate our best hand- writing, though usually it reproduces the impossibly perfect letters of a writing-book, which if children followed abso- lutely and persistently we should invoke the aid of the rod ! Of every class of type there are many forms, but one or two forms only that are the best. We can learn what these best forms are by knowing what early handwriting and early type was, and what early printers meant to do. Only when we understand their problem can we justly judge how well they solved it. To see what the manuscripts were that they tried to reproduce in type is a step to this know- ledge ; to see how forms produced by a pen were changed when rendered in metal is another. A third step is the real- ization of the influence of history, nationality, scholarship, and custom upon type-forms. We must also have a com- prehension of the evolution of economic problems — how cheaper books were demanded, how that want was met, and what its effect was on types and their use. The ability to recognize all this can be arrived at only by that historical 132 PRINTING TYPES perspective and that training of the eye which is gained by- study and observation. And, too, by examining early types with all these factors in mind, we can finally arrive at some approximation of a canon of taste in types. No person or group of persons can be so opinionated as to assert that their conclusions repre- sent learning and taste, or expect them to be so considered. But any one may arrive at sound conclusions as to types, if he knows thoroughly the history of type-forms, has an eye sensitive to their variations, and has familiarized himself with the ways in which they have been employed by masters of typography. Fifteenth century tjq^es are the classics of type history. We can know very little about the best types if we are not familiar with them. But types of this class can be used only in accordance with certain conventions that often unfit them for the work of to-day. It is for this reason that we must glean from types used in different countries in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, a knowledge of those more modern typographical forms which, in a minor way, are also classic, and yet more related to the printing we have to do. A man may admit that Horace and Virgil are classics, and yet feel the need of other books in his library. So it is with type-forms. We cannot always use "classical" types, but we can ah\'ays use good types. While it may be neces- sary at times to choose types for printing the jEneid, it is quite as important to know what types to select for the kinds of books we print so much oftener nowadays. To this end we must make some study of the best fonts in use in vari- ious countries from the end of the fifteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. CHAPTER XI A WORD ON TYPE SPECIMENS IN describing fifteenth century types it has been neces- sary to consider their manuscript sources ; and in order to find out what types were used, to examine fifteenth century books ; so that up to this point, the printer and his book have been much in evidence rather than his specimen-, sheet or specimen-book, although as we know, Ratdolt is- sued a specimen-sheet at Augsburg in 1486.^ Up to 1480 or thereabouts the early printer was his own type-founder, and not only cast the fonts for his own work, but designed them. The exchange or sale of types between different printer type-founders was not very common. Their collec- tions were usually augmented by the work of their own hands. A printer's foundry was merely an appanage to his printing-office, and the workman in it was socially of a lower class than the printer. But in the last two decades of the fif- teenth century we begin to find type-cutters — and perhaps sometimes type-founders — whose abilities were at the ser- vice of any one who wished to pay for them. These men, however, probably worked — at first, in any case — to or- der, and if they had types for sale, put out no "specimens" of them. It was at this period, too, that the division between printer and publisher first appears. For knowledge of type in use in the sixteenth century one is still chiefly occupied with the printer and the books he made, although a few " type specimens " were issued by founders, and some by printers; such as the sheet of 1525 ' See Burger's Monumenta Germanise et Italise. Tyfiografihica, pi. 5, or Red- gi*ave's Erhardt Ratdolt, and his Work at Venice (Bibliographical Society's Monographs, No. I, London, 1894), pi. 9. This specimen was discovered about 1884 at Munich, in the binding of an old book. 134 PRINTING TYPES showing the types used by Joh. Petri of Basle ^ and the Nuremberg specimen-sheet of 1561 put forth by Valentine Gevssler that Burger alludes to as existing in the Borsen- verein library at Leipsic. Plantin issued in 1567 an Index, sive Specimen Charactenim C hristophori Pla7iti72i^Q,onX.2i\n\T\g in all forty-one yarieties of letter — seven Hebrew, six Greek, twelve roman and ten italic, three scripts and three gothic. Later, one of larger format^ but without a title or date, ap- peared. J. Van Hout of Leyden also published a specimen in 1593. The Typographia Medicea (founded by Cardinal Ferdinand de' Medici to print the Gospels for Oriental peoples) published in 1592 an Arabic alphabet and instruc- tions for the use of Arabic type, though this could hardly be considered a "specimen."" Raphelengius,who was in charge of the Plantin office at Leyden, issued a somewhat similar Specimen Charactenim Arabiconim in 1595. In the sixteenth century there were also men who cut types to the order of printers, but I do not know of "specimens" issued by them. As to seventeenth century specimens, that of the printer Fuhrmann^ was brought out at Nuremberg in 1616, and the interesting specimen-book issued by the Vatican print- ing-office in 1628,* portions of which, containing the sup- posed alphabets of Adam and an inscription in unknown characters found at the foot of Mt. Horeb (suppressed in the Specimen of 1628), may have been published by the Propaganda Fide a little earlier. The Propaganda Fide is- sued, however, throughout the seventeenth century, gram- ' See Burger's Ein Schriftfirobe -vom Jahre mdxxv. Leipsic, 1895. * jlfihabetum ji7-abicum. In Tyfiografihia Medicea [Rome], 1592. * Tyfiorum et Characterum officinw Chalcografihife Georgii Leopoldi Fuhr- manni . . . designatio. Nuremberg, 1616. * Indice de Caratteri, con Plnventori, ^ nomi di essi, essistenti nella Stamfia i'alicana Isf Camerale. Rome, 1628. TYPE SPECIMENS 135 mar specimens of its various alphabets for use in mission- ary work, the Alphahetum Ibericum appearing in 1629, and other alphabets in 1631,1634, 1636, 1637, and 1673.These were continued in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries/ Elzevir at Leyden brought out a specimen in 1658, and Luther of Frankfort, another in 1670. The widow of Dan- iel Elzevir published a specimen-sheet in 1681, and Joseph Athias, who bought the Elzevir foundry, issued his about 1686. The first English specimen was the tiny sheet of Nicholas Nicholls, produced in 1665. Joseph Moxon's spe- cimen of 1669 "(the first English specimen that is dated) and the University of Oxford's specimens of 1693^ and 1695 are among the most notable English seventeenth century ex- amples. In the eighteenth century, we begin to find men who merely furnished types in stock or cut them to order — not artisans so much as business men who employed arti- sans— just as later we find publishers who merely em- ployed printers. When the trades of printer and founder became distinct, and their interests separate, specimen- sheets of types became more common. In a few instances the types in a given printing-house were shown in speci- men-books— which exhibited its equipment for custom- ers to choose from. But almost all type-founders put forth specimen-books and specimen-sheets showing what types they had to sell to their customers, who were the printers. During the eighteenth century, therefore, these were very ' See Catalogus Librorum qui ex Tyfiografihio Sacrse Congreg. de Profia- ganda Fide variis Unguis firodiemint, etc. Rome, 1773. ^Proves of Several Sorts of Letters Cast by Jose/ih Moxon. Westminster. Printed by Josefih Moxon in Russet Street at the signe of the Atlas. 1669. ^ A Sfiecimen of the Several Sorts of Letter Given to the University by Dr. John Fell, late Lord Bishofi of Oxford. To which is Added the Letter Given by Mr. F. Junius. Oxford. Printed at the Theater A.D 1693. 136 PRINTING TYPES often met with — especially in its later years. But although common then, these early books and sheets are now rare. Blades in his interesting little tractate on specimen-books laments their scarcity. "Books such as soon become obso- lete," he says, "have to pass through what, with literal truth, may be called ^ fiery ordeal. That is ^^'hen they become too antiquated to be of any value to the current generation and yet require a century to pass over their heads before they have any merit in the eyes of the antiquarian. Perhaps no class of books is more subject to this unkind destiny than the specimens issued by Type-founders, which soon become so worthless in the very eyes of their own parents, that large editions entirely disappear and 'leave no track behind' even in the very foundries which gave birth to them. I imagine it to be as true of the Continental as it is of the old English foundries, that not one of them can show a copy of their first specimen books." ^ These specimens are among the important "sources" which must be consulted in studying the types of the six- teenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. After the middle of the sixteenth century there seems to be a general and sudden decline in all European countries not alone in the excellence of the types themselves, but also in the way they are used — both suddenly falling away from the high standards of earlier printing. This is because it took, perhaps, a century for the printed book to outgrow the influence of the manuscript ; and this hundred years was over. As a century covers, roughly speaking, the lives of three generations, it is clear that a father, a son, and a grand- ' Some Early Tyfie S/iecimen Books of England, Holland, France, Italy and Germany. Catalogued by William Blades, with exfilanatory remarks. Lon- don, 1875. TYPE SPECIMENS 137 son might very well be influenced by the tradition of the manuscript, while to the fourth generation manuscripts would be simply out-of-date affairs with little direct influ- ence on printing. Furthermore, the class of men who had by this time become interested in printing did not include so many people of education as in the first century of ty- pography. The early printers — more or less educated men — endeavoured to copymanuscripts(and generally fineman- uscripts) not alone in letter-form, but in arrangement, in order to make the printed book as nearly identical with the man- uscript as they could. Soon the spread of literature, through the medium of the press, led to a demand for more and smaller and cheaper books, and printers were obliged, also, to deal with entirely fresh typographical problems, for which the early manuscript was no guide. Then too (as Pollard very truly says), " the enthusiasm with which the new art had at first been received had died out. Printers were no longer lodged in palaces, monasteries, and colleges ; Church and State, which had at first fostered and protected them, were now jealous and suspicious, even actively hostile. Thriving members of other occupations and professions had at one time taken to the craft. A little later great scholars had been willing to give their help and advice, and at least a few printers had themselves been men of learning. All this had passed, or was passing. Printing had sunk to the level of a mere craft, and a craft in which the hours appear to have been cruelly long and work uncertain and badly paid." Thus more books, cheaper books, less cultivated men, new problems which they were not always capable of solving, and forgetfulness of the standards which for three genera- tions had influenced printing, were some of the elements causing this change in typography. It became, indeed, as important for the printer of the latter part of the sixteenth 138 PRINTING TYPES century to realize what the great models in types and print- ing are, as it is for us ; and if his printing then became worse, it is for precisely the same reason that our own is to-dav no better. <Smppimc^omM mittc in at>iut0nummm pv>' pjium (tttgdu glonofiffimu: gota^omibuB inmm mm fcnt)cmemplio:t)tnoit perca mtrement)oiut>ttiO'5lrcban^ gelccteijli'gcrgratia quam 73. 7i//>e z/iW m Dtumale: Sch'dnsperger^ Nuremberg^ 1514 CHAPTER XII GERMAN types: i5oo-i8oo^ IN fifteenth century German gothic or black-letter fonts, a diiferentiation of type-faces began to show it- self, as we have seen, in the last twenty years of the century, between types that were somewhat pointed — like lettre de forme — and a rounder, more cursive gothic letter, with certain peculiarities — the closed a, looped b, d, h, and 1, and a tailed f and s. The first type was called "fraktur." The second — in its original intention a kind of vernacular type, which became very popular from 1490 to 1500 — was ultimately known as "schwabacher." Although there were many variants of these two type-forms, they are the ancestors of the two varieties of gothic character shown to- day in German specimen-books under the same names. Of these two type-families, the first developed with extreme * rapidity, while the second retained more or less its primi- tive features. We are so accustomed to identify styles with periods, that we forget that there is no sharp distinction be- tween the end of one style and the beginning of another; and that the tendency which brings about a change of style exists for a long time before it comes to its hey-day, and survives a long time after it has gone out of fashion. Fraktur — the pointed form of these two types — is the first to be considered. A Diurnale, printed at Nuremberg by Hans Schonsperger in 1514 {Jig. 73), is a splendid example of early fraktur, though the type has too much variety of * This chapter, with others which treat of types from 1500 to 1800, is a guide to a course of exercises in training the eye. The text, however much it abounds in dates, names, or historical facts, is of Uttle importance compared with the study of the facsimiles or examples to which it directs attention. 140 PRINTING TYPES form. The descending fs dwindle to the form of pegs ; flour- ishes on capital letters and the tails to the g's and h's are all too restless, and the eccentric curves in rounded portions of capital letters are in form particularly disagreeable and vul- gar. Special characters were cut for this font, intended for use in the last line of a page, so that their "curly-cues" could project into its lower margin, just as there was a set of let- ters with friskings, intended to gambol over the margin at the top. The classical example of this kind of type is that shown in the same printer's Story of the Knight of Teuer- danck (a poem of chivalry of very indifferent merit), com- posed in honour of the marriage of Maximilian and printed at the Emperor's expense at Nuremberg in 1517 {Jig. 74). It took five years to prepare, and in some cases punches were cut for seven or eight varieties of a single letter, andWhen proofs were first shown, printers could not believe that it was composed from movable characters. Ingenious and splendid as is the effort of the type-cutter to imitate the work of the pen, the result scarcely seems worth the trouble. It was a tour deforce^ and cannot be considered an example of normal type-work.^ In the pages of the Teuerdanck the style of gothic type changed entirely, and the simpler forms of the older frak- tur were twisted into less agreeable shapes. These types are characteristically German — which is, artistically, seldom a compliment ! An idea of sixteenth century fraktur can be had from the Thumier Biich^ printed at Frankfort in 1566 ' Vincenz Rockner, court calligrapher, designed the type for the Teuerdanck, and is supposed to have copied it from a manuscript attributed to Johann Neu- dorfer. At first thought to be printed from wood-blocks, an inverted i in the edition of 1 5 1 7 disposed of this theory. The tyjje (:dso used in the seventeenth centur)') was proljably cut by Hieronymus Andi^ae, who had other sizes in his own printing-house, where he executed books for Diirer. (For whole upper and lower case alphabet, and figures, see Druckschriften, pi. 3). The Teuerdanck was reprinted by Schonsjjerger at Augsbui-g in 1519. sj ric§( k s atttg|>arttactem ^e^ef^art ,9 G^ifc(^m ^te thojtJttttt) bic^r I J V / 74. Tz//»e used in Teuerdanck: Schonsperger^ Nuremberg^ 1517 GERMAN TYPES: 1500-1800 141 by Sigmimd Feyerabend/ a page of Loneissen's Von Zeu- men of 1588- (without place or printer), and the title-page from the Strassburg Fundamentbuch of 1579, printed by Bernhard Jobin ^fig. 75). On this page the third to sixth and eighth to tenth lines are printed from type, the form of which is nearer to German types used three hundred years later, than to those of a hundred years before. It is a distinct decline from the purer gothic letter. In this title-page the decorated letters are cut on wood, but their tormented forms are really Avhat the typographer would have been glad to find in type. Later this ambition was fulfilled. These types commended themselves to the rank and file of German printers, and became the ancestors of the modern German fraktur. The difterence between fifteenth and sixteenth cen- tury German fraktur may be seen in our illustration {jigs. 76 a and 76 b). For the fraktur of the first half of the sixteenth century a good example is shown in Lied auf die Schlacht von Pavia^ printed in 1525.^ By the seventeenth century the fraktur type-form had practically crystallized, and the changes that occur in it are not sufficiently marked to make it w orth while to pursue its history very carefully. Almost any German seventeenth century book shows its usual style. Here we shall leave it, for the moment, to consider the character called schwabacher. There were many kinds of schwabacher type. We find a form of schwabacher used in 1509 by Johann Schoeffer at Mainz in his Reformacion der Stat Franckenfort!' Much the same sort of type — perhaps a little more pronounced in ^ Druckschriften, pi. 45. ^ Ibid., pi. 7'J>. * Gustav Konnecke's Bilderatlas zur Geschichte der deutschen JYationallitter- atur. Eine Erg'dnzung zu jeder deutschen Litter atur geschichte . Marburg, 1895 (second edition, illustrated), p. 125. Druckschriften, pi. 27, smaller text. 142 PRINTING TYPES its schwabacher form — was employed by Chrystoph Fro- schauer at Zurich in 1567 in his Kunstiich Buck {fig. 77). The paragraph in a cursive type imitated the German handwriting of that period — a fussy, resdess kind of char- acter, which is distracting to the eye and has somewhat the appearance of ravelled carpet-threads.^ In Leonhardt Thurneysser zum Thurn's Historia . . . a//er . . . Erdge- xvechssen^ printed at Berlin by Michael Hentzsken {fig. 78), a schwabacher type is used. This last book shows the rate at \\ hich both type and composition went downhill after the middle of the sixteenth century — very far from the sim- plicity of a hundred years before. Pages composed in schwa- bacher have head-lines set in tortured forms of fraktur, and words in italic capitals are introduced into lines of black- letter. Then again, italic is employed for Latin terms and names in the midst of black-letter text, and the notes are a muddle of roman and black-letter characters. Paragraphs are indented, and yet paragraph marks are used. Even the hands and asterisks which mark the paragraphs are ugly in form. Everything about the composition is bad ! As to the sixteenth century roman types used in Ger- many, Johann Schoeffer of Mainz printed in 1520 Ulrich Hutten's De Unitate Ecclesise Conservanda in a heavy roman type of a kind very common at that period, a page of which is reproduced {fig. 79). The same printer in 1525 issued the Canones Apostolorutn in a larger and better roman char- acter, accompanied by a charming italic. While the com- position of the page was too fanciful for so solid a letter, it is an elegant piece of work, and the types are finer than most contemporary roman fonts.^ One city that stands out splendidly in the work of the sixteenth century German press is Basle. The great figure ' Paleografihie Latine, pis. 118, 121. ^ Druckschriften, pi. 94. St O ?> 2^ © "i ^ 6 ^ ^ a ^ ©■ JSP u cr n. ew — ♦ -1-4 US? m IS 5^ o 1^ a ^ o I C •5- O t^ V - V V 'I- I "** ^ J^ ^ t I *° V 1 <^ -tJ^-^ T > JO ^ -sa 14^ l^fi * *: J ^ /Lit s o^ < V v> 50 < ■1^ ^^J V /^ CiO gOL ^ ^ 'O o CL O *^ ^ r^ «L^ >^ ^ o3 ij- <o lr>/> ^ o 3 § j-TPs^^ ^ -t) ^m W *^ -* kUk U 5:j t c ^ P «> ^ "^ t* -s <i fc - N « I Co ^> <5 o .gfc «; « o ♦S ^ «0 St c c p tS) tJ'S ~ 5 *" f« } B x> E e 5 . .£ « £ e § ' 35. C V- E ^ O ** tf± ^ .^ ^ <A -^ . tn a if «^ ^•C- <J C t* ^ s lE^ E tr c ^ S tn jj _ fo Q ^ t?)f^ ® :r ^ siN 5:t,^ 3^ ?2 'O o c^ <ft tt g ?£ P j^ «A ^^ 7? E <J $> tt ^ . - SjwjOitJ STJ ^.o tJ>S % il P tJ) •S c tJ Jft nif§ /:>:^ p Si c o t- Si '^ .* '^ 5 t> e S P <? e ^ .ti ^ -^ ^-g tf> p {» ^ p E DE VNITATE EC CLESIAECONSERVANDA, ET SCHI SMATE, QVOD FVITINTERHENRI CHVM QVARTVM IMP. RO* ET GREGORI VM SEPT. PONT. MAX. CVIVSDAM EIVS TEMPORIS THEOLOGI LIBER AB HVT^ TENO INVENTVS* EMO ASCENDIT IN CAELVM, I nifi qui defcedit dc ex lo filius hominis ^qui eft ' in cacio* Per haec fandi euangelfj uerba comen^ datdommusunitatemeccIenae,quaepercarita temconcordans membrorum unitate colligit fc in caeUim in ipfo redeptore>qui eft caput ec/- clefiae. Sic enim ipk orat ad patrcm pro fideli^ bus fuis , quos praedeftinauit cocordcs fore in uinculo cari'tatis, 6^pacis^Rogoinquies,utomesunum(int>ficuttupaterinme, &ego !nte,ut8dipfi'in nobis unum fin^Ss^dilecfliOjquadilexifti me,in ipfis fit^QCcgo in eis« Vnde fandus Auguftinusin ipfius Cx uangelrjexpofiaone^inunoinqoiteftotejunueftotejunuseftox tCySC uac illis5qui oderut unitatcmecclefiafj prefumentes in homi nibus partes facere* Vtinam uoluerint hoc attendere,qui partes in hominibus fecerunt^utfaciuntfcindentesunitatem ccclefiae* quale flagitiufchirmatiscoftat grauiusefTe^quamfcelus idolola triscjcjuoniamlcgiturinueteriteftamentoidololatriagladiopu nita efte/chifma autem hiatu terraf.Quapropter necclTarium du ximus fcribere aliqua de ftatu huius teporis ecclefiac ♦ quia quif^ quisfcnferitfccireintramaternauifcera ipfius eccIefix,nonpo^ terit ei quando doluerit, no condolere.Diu enim eft quod in re^ gnoRomaniimperijbcllaubic^,6«^feditionesaguntur,quodfi^ lij a matris ecckfiae gremio diftrahuntur, dC cum fuperet in plu^ A rimis 79. Roman Type used by Schoeffer^ Ma'inz^ 1520 GERMAN TYPES: 1500-1800 143 in printing there was Froben (1460-1527), who set up his printing-house as early as 1491 ; but who is now chiefly remembered by his association with Erasmus after 1514. Erasmus Hved with Froben while some of his books were in the press, and this was the great period of the office. Among Froben's foremost achievements were the first pub- lished edition of the New Testament in Greek, with a new Latin translation by Erasmus, issued in 1516, and the edi- tions of Jerome, Ambrose, Tertullian, and Cyprian which Erasmus supervised. Erasmus's own books were also printed by Froben; and a portion of a page from Adagionim Opus D. Erasmi Roterodami is reproduced {^fig- 80). The massive and monumental sort of roman type which Froben used, often combined with splendid, rich borders and initials in close harmony with it, made books of great dignity and style, which scarcely miss — but none the less do lack — real beauty. In the group of distinguished printers there, were Opori- nus, printer for Luther ; Petri, Episcopius, Cratander, Curio, and Bebel. Their editions, especially the folios embellished by brilliant decorations and initials by the Holbeins, Urse Graf, and other designers, will repay study. It is easy to recognize most Basle books of this period by their heavy roman type, very solidly set, and by certain typographical peculiarities of arrangement. There are of course excep- tions, such as the magnificent folio De Humani Corporis Fabrica of Andreas Vesalius, printed by Oporinus in 1553 — a volume not at all of the Froben order, but reminiscent rather of Plantin or some Italian printer. Its noble old style type and delicate italic, delightful initial letters and care- ful anatomical engravings, and a famous title-page "The Anatomical Chamber" (attributed to Titian but by Gio- vanni de Calcar), make up a fine and unusual volume. The 144 PRINTING TYPES closeness of the type-setting is noteworthy and recalls much earlier books, and its presswork is uniformly good. Erasmus's Latin translation of the New Testament, printed in italic by Froben in 1521, in a square 12mo, is an interesting example of one of Froben's small yor;/2«^6', and its brilliant decorations make its little pages almost "sing." The divisions are usually marked by captions in spaced capitals used in Froben's characteristic way. This edition was dedicated by Erasmus to Leo X {Jig. 81). Eras- mus's tractate, Antiharharorum — a small quarto issued by Froben in 1520, printed from roman fonts, with decorations by Holbein — is another example of Froben's smaller books.^ The OJJiciua Isingnniami at Basle was responsible, in 1542, for a wonderful botanical book — Leonhard Fuchs's De Histona Stirpium — which has various features worth notice. For the preface it employs a brilliant Venetian italic {for example^ see jig. 104), which on these folio pages is most eifectively displayed. The indexes of plants in Greek, Latin, and German are set respectively in Greek, roman, and frak- tur types, four columns to a page. The text-pages follow, composed in the characteristic heavy, squarish roman type affected by Basle printers ; the divisions of name, genera, form, place, time, etc., under each plant being set in lines of small spaced capitals. The glory of the book is its de- lightful outline plates of plants, cut on wood by Veit Ru- dolph Specklin, which in freedom and truthfulness are be- yond praise. In some copies these are carefully coloured. A full-length portrait of the author backs the title-page, and a pleasant touch is given at the end by representations of the two designers, Fiillmaurer and Meyer, at work, with ' For some fine titles, etc., from his books, see Rvitsch's B'ucher Ornamentik der Renaissance, I, pis. 40, 41 (Holbein's design), 46 (A. Holbein), 48, 52, 53, and 59 (Holbein's initials). CO Q Q if c 3 3 Q J3 2 55 ^ -^ «^-« I— i^ OS M «M C)^ ♦T3 3 5 45 o *$ c/3 's =« t: <-» rt^ 3 o 7 3 C C/3 C3 ♦^ .S 3 i 3 3 Q^ ^ o ♦^ ^ c o ^ 5 ci: 'S "5 ?rf 'S g cJ g S s 3 S 3 ** r C E?A r^ p S o S -^ s <L> 3 3 CU -» CJ •r: C c« c« C G ^ S - £ 2 -s gja cj v> c^ (LI i^ a^*=^£ 2 t: >• w 5 P C -■» j_ 3 i- •»- ^ ^3 6 CO M7 EPISTOLA PAVLI AD CO/ RINTHIOS PRIMA, AVLVS uocutus dpohoUsleftt ChriBijpcruotuntatem dci ^CT SoSihe nes frdter,ecclejtie dei ,c[U(eeji Corin/ thi yfandificatis per Qhrijium lefum, uocatis fundis ,««4 cum omnibus qui inuocmt nome domini nojlri lefu Chri fti,in <{uouis loco ^uelfuo , ttel noSiro^ GratUuohis O'piixkdeo putre no/ fh-OfO' domino lefu Chrifio,Grjitia5 ago deo meofemper pro uohis dcgrutiit dci,qu£ ddU ejl uohis per Chriflu lefum ,quod in omnibus ditati cflis per ipfumyin omnifermone, cr omni cot gnitione(({uibus rebus tejiimonium lefu Chrijii confirmdttt fuit in uohis) ddeo ^utno dejiituaminiin uUo dono^expe^idtes reuc Utione domini nojlri lefu Chrijii , q cr cofirmabit uos ufq^ Ad fine Jnculpatos in die domini nojlri lefu Chrijii, Tidelis deus,p hThejf,^* ^ue uocuti ejlis i cofortiu filij ippus lefu Chrijii domini nojlri, Obfccro autemuosfratres ypcr nomen domini nojlri left* Chrifii.ut idem loquamini omnes,0'nonftnt inter uos dijjidia, fedfitis integrum corpus eudem mente ,^eadem fententia, Significdtum cjl cnim mihi de uohis fratres mei^kfamiliari bus Chlo<e:>quod content ionesfint inter uos, Bico autem iUud, ^uod unufquifc^ uejhum dicitiEgo quidemfum PauliyCgo uero ApoUo^ego uero Ccphje,ego uero Chri$li,Num diuifus ejl Chri fiustmm Junius crucifixtis eft pro uohis faut in nomine Pauli B. J hdptu 81. Italic in Erasmus's New Testament Froben^ Basle ^ 1521 GERMAN TYPES: 1500-1800 145 flowers before them, while a conceited-looking gentleman — the "sculptor" Specklin — appears to be impatiently wait- ing for them to get through ! A beautiful edition from Henric Petri's press is a work by Henricus Loritus (called Glareanus from his birthplace, Canton Glarus), entitled Dodecachordon. This was written to prove that there were twelve ecclesiastical modes identical with the ancient Greek modes in music. To illustrate this the printer employs some very interesting music types. At the top of the massive pages the title is arranged in a con- densed lower-case Italian letter which gives great elegance to the work. This book (of its kind one of the most distin- guished that I know) was printed in 1547. The rough specimen of Joh. Petri {^fig. 82) shows the kind of roman and italic used in Basle printing-houses, but the successful manner of its use can be realized only by see- ing such books as I have mentioned. Besides three sizes of roman and two of italic (the largest size of each much like SchoeflPer's), the sheet displays a Greek font and some He- brew type. The fraktur at the bottom is very characteristic in its ugliness. Published in 1525, it is, except for Ratdolt's, the earliest specimen-sheet known. At the end of the sixteenth century, the use of roman letter, or "antiqua" as it was, and is, called in Germany, be- came less frequent, and in the seventeenth century it was comparatively little used. By the beginning of the eighteenth century it succumbed to the popular taste for fraktur — though to be revived a little later. By about 1550, both fraktur and schwabacher types had taken on very much the general appearance of their mod- ern German equivalents, except that they were heavier and more masculine in appearance. Luther's German Bible of 1534 shows a title-page set in a heavy, vulgar sort of frak- 146 PRINTING TYPES tur/ and its opening page of the Psalter is set in schwa- bacher types of characteristic form. The Faheln of Burk- hard Waldis, printed in 1550, shows again a typical form of fraktur," as does the text of the same writer's Ursprung und Herkiimen der z wblfersten alten Konig undFursten Deutscher Natiojh The German books of this period are discouraging typo- graphical productions. Their general character may be seen by glancing at the rank and file of German folios in any library which owns a collection of sixteenth century Ger- man books. The curious may investigate perhaps with some profit (but with little pleasure) the Hohenzollern Col- lection illustrative of German history given to the library of Harvard University by Mr. Archibald Gary Coolidge in 1902. But for most people, a glance at the pages devoted to this period in Konnecke's Bilderatlas will be enough. The title-pages in which red is so unsparingly introduced are typographically as tasteless and bad as they can be, and ex- hibit a "frightfulness" which leaves nothing to be said.* As the century went on, the work seems even worse. The His- toria von D. Johann Fausten printed at Frankfort in 1587^ and other editions of the same work are very ugly and very obviously Teutonic. §2 The elaborate specimen of George Leopold Fuhrmann of Nuremberg shows the types in use in the early years of the seventeenth century in a well-known German printing- house. This book was published in 1616. Its introduction gives an account of the origin of printing and its chief pro- moters. The fonts which are shown comprise six sizes of black-letter, ten of roman and italic, two of Greek, and four 'Bilderatlas, p. 141. ' Ibid., p. 144. ^ Ibid., p. 143. *Ibid., pp. 151, 153, 154, 156. "Ibid., p. 160. § S 5-3 S '=»- ^ C o o 6* '0 W o Oi £ c o o o Q- H 4w C as s 3 T3 3 •»H Ut ^ Q O 4-» \j c ^r '5, *S « i3 W ja u 3 C n o a a OS ••-» Js rH t5 O "» « . r *^ «^ H CU 3 2 £ C u u crS ^ SJ^ W s S2 ^ o ^ ♦^ 8 o 2 CO 3 1"^ fe H.32 I •3.2 s:^ 5 «•= s =*M 5 C'^^ E'd.-ci rtS E - a. S5 «^ c •-"■Si '^2 3 = o.^ « a " B-a.^^i; ,C>EBJ 00.5^5 a 2.1 E " ^ E F 3 - S-oEe^ "2 p o .5 •Si . 2 ^ •vj t? si ^ fv S ^ o - ^ t s o « . S 1 1 1 1« o 00 GERMAN TYPES: 1500-1800 147 fonts of music with initials and ornaments. Copies are so rare that I have never had an opportunity to examine one. German seventeenth century printing was not helped by pompous and overcharged copper-plate title-pages, and portraits in elaborate frameworks. These copper-plate title- pages, which took the place of the older red and black titles, were often imposing. There were typographical title-pages as well, but comparatively unimportant affairs, supplemen- tary to the engraved title. The tide-pages in Zeigler's Asia- tische Banise^ Leipsic, 1689,^ show how badly things were going typographically by the end of the seventeenth cen- tury.' §3 In the eighteenth century, the first fifty years show but little change or improvement. Look, for instance, at such a title-page as is shown in the first volume of Broctes's Irdisches Vergnugen in Gott, Hamburg, 1721,^ Gottsched's Critischer Dichtkunst, published by Breitkopf in 1730,* or ^rtiirngtr's Dichtkiinst^ issued at Zurich in 1740 — as taste- less and muddled printing as one can conceive. By the middle of the eighteenth century, a change of fashions in German printing began. Vignettes were intro- duced and a little less matter was put upon title-pages. Anaemic roman types were also occasionally used. The Messias of Klopstock is an example of a book with text printed in vulgar, overblown fraktur types, with very few ^ Bilder atlas, 196. " " The introduction of the copper-plate marked a new epoch in book ilhistra- tion, and wood-engraving declined with its increased adoption. . • . Wood- cuts, headings, initials, tail-pieces, and printers' ornaments continued to be used [in books of the seventeenth century] , but greatly inferior in design and beauty of effect to those of the sixteenth century." Crane's Decorative Elus- traiion of Books, London, 1896, pp. 129, 130. ' Bilderatlas, p. 207. * Ibid., p. 209. ' Ibid., p. 211. 148 PRINTING TYPES words on the title-page {Jig. 83). Such an aesthetic writer as Winckelmann allowed his Geschwhte der Kiinst des Al- terthums to appear (at Dresden in 1764) in a very hideous and typical German character {Jig. 84). If a well-known printer wrote and printed a book about printing, one would certainly expect him to execute it as well as he knew how ; and perhaps Breitkopf did, but his quarto volume Ueber die Geschichte der Erjindung der Buchdnickerkunst^ published at Leipsic in 1779, is printed on miserable paper, in ugly fraktur type, poorly composed — a volume such As to be hated needs but to be seen. At the end of the century, still lighter and weaker types and styles were in vogue. Lessing's JVathan der Weise in 1 779 ^ shows the general feebleness of taste. Herder's Brieje, published in 1793, shows the fraktur types which had come to be the fashion.^ As early as 1775 a general desire for light types had influenced the forms of fraktur itself, as in J. G. Jacobi's /m, evidently imitating — very unsuccessfully — contemporary French printing {Jig. 85). Some of the pale, condensed fraktur used at this period was probably influ- enced by those French condensed poetique types made fash- ionable byFournier and Luce. The attempt to imitate French work was also owing, in some degree, to that fashion for things French encouraged by Frederick the Great, who — after those earlier tentative plans mentioned by Fournier had come to nothing — established about 1767, through his court printer. Decker, a foundry and printing-house, fashioned after the Imprimerie Roy ale de France. The Par- isian founders Gille, Fournier, and Didot, and Bodoni of Parma were among those who supplied, either then or later, much of its material. ' Bilderatlaa, p . 23 8 . ' Ibid. , p . 25 1 . ^et eita^ em lrtt)en0tc&t ^ 21 £ it e, Ut) Sad ^ercmonn J&emmertft 1749* 83. Title-page of Klopstock'' s Messias: Halle, 1749 SoOrtiin 5BindPeImann^, <5JraiiI)enfcn6 Der 5{Iterf^umcr 511 ^om, iinD ©criftorc tier S5aticanifc0cn553i6fiot^eP, SnUgU'ebe J)er ^oni'gf. (Snglifdjcn ©ociVtaf bet liltett^umcv ju ioiibon, ber 9)lalerncabcm(c t>ou <5(. iuca ju SKom, mib btr^cfrun'fd^cii ju Sortonn, teg slKerffmng. &Ut ZUil ~ 84. Title-page of JVmckelmann s Kimst des Alterthums : Dresden^ 1764 {reduced^ 3 eo -5 *tt B ® .^ ^ g s? no »«3 »-k— -^ a =P eo e- ss ^ sc- ^ A 5J s •«5 .a o <«> ;-r Tt s s ^ i St .5 *^ ■en ir Si- 's- 3 -2 ^ ^ .H -J •e ^ 5 S B e s 5? ■- 5 5^5 s a 15 *§ 2 ^ .5 3 i5 ^ «5 >>H 3 cs^ 3 ..> «< .ti Q 3- .5 3 5 rtf> CD 3 C ^ 4 e c c ^ s - *° s 1 "^ ■?> 5 © <P © r> s ^cj- ^ ^ I cr* GERMAN TYPES: 1500-1800 149 The printers and publishers who took a principal role in fostering the incoming taste for lighter types and more open composition which marked the beginning of the nine- teenth century were Goschen and Unger, and perhaps the publisher Cotta of Tubingen, whose imprints figure on many publications of the period. Georg Joachim. Goschen (1752-1828) was the publisherof the first edition of Goethe's Faust, the title-page of which is reproduced (Jig- 86), and which speaks — or "whispers" — for itself. Goschen was a painstaking printer and a learned man; but he is not much remembered nowadays, though he took an impor- tant part in the revival of fine printing as then understood — notably in his editions of Wieland. On such title-pages as his Faust or Unger's fFilhelm Meister{Jig. 87) ue see how little was put on the title-page, how poorly that little was placed there, and in what dejected looking characters it was printed — all that remained of fifteenth century Ger- man fonts after the repeated whittlings of these enlightened gentlemen ! As will be noted, almost all the letter-forms employed in these later title-pages and books were fraktur, the schwa- bacher seeming to be displaced by its less attractive rival, which in turn was giving way before the fashion for Didot roman types, which were carrying everything before them. II WE have a contemporary account of type-founding in Germany and Prussia by Fournier, who in the year 1766 wrote: "Germany, the cradle of Printing, has successfully cul- tivated the art, by establishing several celebrated foundries, which are usually richer in material than those of other countries, because, in addition to the ordinary types com- 150 PRINTING TYPES mon to other foundries, those have been added which are peculiar to that particular country, like the German char- acters called Fracture [sic] and Sch\\'abacher, which it is necessary to have in all sizes {Jig. 88). "At Vienna there are two foundries, of which one brought from Venice belongs to M. Trattener [sic], founder and printer to the Emperor. "At Frankfort-on-the-Main, there are also two; the most important, which is very ampl}- provided with ancient and modern characters, is known under the name of the Lu- theran Foundry, It belongs to M. Luther, descendant of the famous Luther, so well known to the Christian world. It is furnished with sets of matrices by French artists.^ The other, according to the specimens issued in 1714, belonged to Jean Henry Stubenvoll. "At Leipsic there are three foundries; the first and the most considerable is that of M. Jean Gottlob Emmanuel Breitkopf, type-founder and printer. It is the most interest- ing foundry that I know of in Germany, on account of the number and variety of its ancient and modern types, its music types and its ornaments. The better of the two others belongs to M. Hr. Erhardt ; it is fairly well equipped \\ith both Latin and German characters. "At Basle there are two foundries ; the first, which is very noted for the number and variety of its types, of which ' The so-called Lutheran Foundry at Frankfort was the representative of the first printing-office established at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1531, to which a foundry was added. This foundry and printing-office descended thi-ough various liands to Erasmus Lutlier, a relative of Martin, under whom it ac- quired a very great reputation. It supplied many German and Dutch print- ing-offices with their types. Enschede thinks that the Elzevirs of Leyden pro- cured se\eral of tlieir Cireek fonts from this foundry; and that Daniel Elzevir and other celebrated pi-inters bought its types and punches. Toward tlie end of tlie eightecntli century, much of its material went into the Berlin foundry directed by Unger. g a II ft* ^ { n 5 r a <^ m c n t. © 0 e t f) e* 'iiih t c Ql u 5 9 a 6 e. icip J ig, 1790, 86. Title-page offrst edition of Faust: Goschen^ Leipsic, 1790 2 e ^ r j a 1^ r e. ^erausgegeten ton 0 0 e t § e. € r (I c r ^ an 6. S er f i n. Sec ^fo^ann griebcidj linger, '795. 8r. Title-page of W'llhelm Meister: Unger^ Berlin^ 1795 .^ 'V'f V .r .^ ^" "(^ * ^ ^ k> <^ ^ $ 4 <jt ^^ I R C ^ Pi o < < o V5 :ii C<^ 5-i ** »* S o (ft ^ Si 3 C ** s £ • t» ♦^^ » c o ^ ^ ^ ti zl ti 2* <^ ?t o ^ ?$ £ 4^ £ t£ ^ .c ;£i s «> c ^^ <a /D ttl."^ c o o 4» JO f *« c ta^ ^ U •» ■«> '*^ ?^ £i 2"^ #>T .^' tn<i — ^ -j^ ^ »-» i:^ J-< .5 £i <i -5 C f^ S ti Si ^.£> e 'o ^ .H g li S <3 •» tt H ♦♦s o ^ ii t^ . o C ij s^ JO (^ <i> S "^> ei ti> i* ^ CY g ^ H tk> ^ 'ss <» ti ^ o) S ^ ,-, -4-* •'S* M_> rj *• ^■^ a s I t^ GERMAN TYPES: 1500-1800 151 some came from French masters, and of which new speci- mens were issued in 1721, belonged at that date to M. Jean Pistorius, founder and printer. The other, the stock of which is made up of types more modern in cut, belongs to M. Haas, a very celebrated type-cutter. The other German foun- dries are as follows : to wit, two at Halle, two at Nurem- berg, one at Wittenberg, one at Dona, one at Erfurt, one at Brunswick, one at Liineburg, one at Cologne, one at Augs- burg, one at Prague, one at Stuttgart in Wurtemburg." "Prussia had no type-foundry until 1743, when one was brought from Brunswick. It was of little value and was es- tablished in Berlin. This foundry not succeeding, a man named Kanter started another in the same city, equipped with fonts from the Breitkopf foundry at Leipsic and the Zinche foundry at Wittenberg ; its stock has since been increased by other types made by a certain Gallner, a rather tasteless and unintelligent type-cutter. " The King of Prussia, wishing to establish a Royal Print- ing-House at Berlin modelled on that of the King of France, gave orders to procure at Paris the punches, moulds, and matrices necessary for a foundr}^, which was to form the nucleus of such an establishment. M. Simon, printer to the Archbishop [of Paris], being consulted about this under- taking, wrote and printed in 1741 a Projet (Tetoblissement (Tune Imprimerie Royale a Berlin^ which was sent to the King, with a recueil of my types, intended to equip this foundry. This scheme having fallen through, the King brought to Berlin a celebrated type-cutter of the Hague, named Jean-Michel Schmidt, giving him orders to set up a Royal Foundry ; but the wars which have since broken out, and the death of this type-cutter in 1750, have sus- pended its establishment."^ Foumier's Manuel Tyfiografihique, Tome II, pp. xxix-xxxiv. 152 PRINTING TYPES For the types produced we have the "Specimens" shown in works on typography by Pater (1710), Ernesti (l733), and Gessner (1740-45) ; and the specimen-books of Tratt- ner (1759-60) and Unger (c. 1791). The first, a small quarto book in Latin by Paul Pater about printing and printing types, was published at Leip- sic in 1710 by J. F. Gleditsch and Son under the title of De Germanise Miraculo Optimo Maximo^ I'yp^'^ Literanim^ earumque differentiis, Dissertatio. The third chapter treats of the different types then in use in Germany and their names, and shovv^s specimens of capitals and lower-case in roman and italic, in various weights, and in sizes from Grosse Mis- sal-Versal to Nonpareil. These are followed by a variety of fraktur and schwabacher types, Greek, Hebrew, Samaritan, Chaldaic, etc. The book is probably one of the earliest trac- tates on the typographical material of a nation, and gives a characteristic collection of fonts in use in German print- ing-houses at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. Its title-page {fig. 89) indicates what could be done when a German printer took the bit in his teeth. A page of roman and italic types, still retain- ing some good qualities, and another showing fraktur, schwabacher, and roman, are reproduced {figs. 90 and9\). The second book, in which types and printing of the same period are covered even more fully, is J. H. G. Er- nesti's book Die Wol-eingerichtete Buchdruckerey^ a treatise A on printing, published at Nuremberg by the heirs of Johann ' Die Wol-eingerichtete Buchdruckerey, mit hundert und ein und zwanzig Teutsch, iMteinisch, Griechisch, und Hcbr'dischen Schrifften,vielerfrenidcn SpracheTi Al/ihabeten, musicali/schen .N'oten, Kalendcr-Zeichen, U7id Medicin- ifichen Character en, Ingleichen alien iiblkhen Formaten bestellet und mit accurater Abbildung der Erjinder der loblichen Kunst, nebst ciner smnmar- isc/ien A'achricht von den Buchdruckern in JViirnberg. . . . J^iirnberg, gedruckt und zujinden bey Johann Andrea Endters seel. Erben. 1733. An earlier edition appeared in 1 72 1 . D E GERMANIC MIRACVLO OPTIMO, MAXIMO, EARVMQVE DIFFERENTIIS, DISSERTATIO, QVA S I M VL ARTIS TYPOGRAPHIC^ VNIVERSAM RATIONEM EXPLICAT PAVLVS PATER, PP. Proftat L I P S I u£, Apud JO.FRIDER. GLEDITSCH ET FILIVM. As^o M-D C ex. 89. Title-page of Pater's Dissertation Leipsic^ 1710 {reduced) rsxtuatis quadratus: Text Verfal Antiqua Unb Crtpftdf^Ctl. LABORE MONACHORUM MANUALI, TYPIS LITERARUM, NOSTRA ^TATE, MULTA QUO- TIDIE LiBRORUM VOLUMINA In LUCEM PrODEUNT: Bmdem E'liuJem Curfttus : Text t^erfal Curjh. HABEMUS ABUNDANflAM BONORUM LIBRORUM, EOS- QFE PER MANUS IGNORAN- riUM SCRIPfORUM, NEQTE It A MEN VmAtOS. Irithemm. Textuatis antiqvus ^arhar* Text antiq^aa : Stant & augentur commerciis artibus- gue Mechanicis regna^ quse ire in peius 6c minui certumeft, ubi quilibet e po ^ulo icitatur literas: raro mercatorem fe terat^ qui ex literis gloriatur. Gramond. hi/i. GaU. Idem Curfivus harharicta : Text Curjiv, Qvodji clarisjtmorum in'ventorumfoler- tia dtvinitatem oUm quihusdam morfalu hus^ communi gentium confenjlone conci- liavit ; qvo honoris titulo dignos cenfehis^ 90. Types from Pater's Dissertation Leipsic, 1710 ^tac^t; f^in^c^en ncl)men (le db, uiib mulTen Dergd^ett, tt)D dn jcber aus t)em ^6bel mil bcm ©tubirm nac|)^ gef)en : ®enn tt)er |i4) xnfymtt, ba^ txftubittt babe, t^r mirb nicbt leid)t einen J^miffmann abgeben, |^)rei;s bet itnb ttrtf;er(et Gramond, em Svan^6fifd)ci: Hifto- ricus. Wlitttl ^mba^tv. IC/ and) Allctt wdrKcbcrt (Dbirigfeiteft mb (B^ifiUd^m inciufive, fimb gemad)t/ perMandatum,acbtsiibAbejtauf fefc @d)«Iett/ bie ingenia ftupida, obee t^Ip^cbc ^oprfe/ bie ^algff arri'gc Unb Smk ni<bt $« toierirert/ ober sii balreit ; fottbernr jw anberrt ^anbrbicrwngctt unb Ma- mhautm an^uwdfm/^amit t>kSki&Sm md}t QQUn^ bittf bie Seminaria fticbt bcfcbWCret/ IIOcl) blC beneficia Ki*tewwt:bigen£eiiteft mod)tert conferirct wcebert/tinb alfo bcm Publico Uin&d)ab€ohct:&d)mtcvoni\ymn erw<td)je» SBerIm \;)om 8 September be^ 1708. 3a^re^. D ^ttf! ! fcer ni^t^ in 0i^m iiij S)ie ^ivi)t tan in Uimv Srlfi j^ktohm bid) befle^etn SBa^ ac^t ic^ dlatt)''^an^j ^ancckt)/ SBci^ ©c^&ppcnliubl/ wa^@d)relberc);/ 2Bo bit bid) nic^t (df! fcJjm? S)u biflr ber i^mffe Kbnlgfrt/ Sa fe&fl bcr- 5Bclg()clt SJJcijIcrln: ®a§ Sftv^ocarcrt fmb ^e(ef)rr/ ®a§ mart ben §(r^t ()dlt podj imb wcrt!)/ ®ag man t^u £c{)rer licbcr : 91. Fraktur and Schxvabacher Types: Pater's Dissertatio, Leipsic^ 1710 GERMAN TYPES: 1500-1800 153 Andrea Endters — a well-known "printing family" — in 1733. After about fifty introductory pages the specimen- sheet begins, probably from the Endters ])rinting-office, and showing its types in 1721. Here we have ten pages of frak- tur, starting with the shaded "Imperial" letters and ending with pearl — forty-seven varieties of every degree of taste- lessness and, in the smaller sizes, every variety of illegibil- ity, though a few of the latter have some distinction. In cer- tain cases larger types are introduced in lines of another font, quite in the manner of the lining system to-day. The schwabacher letters are fairly good characters and retain their sturdy traditional forms. Twenty-two sizes and varieties of roman and fourteen varieties of italic are