Printers' Marks Part 2

To summarize a few of the less popular designs, it will suffice to give a short list of the vignettes or marks used by the old printers of Paris (except where otherwise stated), alphabetically arranged according to subjects: _Abraham_, Pacard; an _anchor_, Christopher Rapheleng, Leyden, Chouet and Pierre Aubert, Geneva; two _anchors_ crosswise, Thierry Martens, Antwerp, and Nicholas le Rich; one or more _angels_, Legnano, Milan; Henaud and Abel L'Angelier, and Dominic Farri, Venice; _Arion_, Oporinus or Herlist, Brylinger, Louis le Roi, and Pernet, Basle, and Chouet, Geneva; a _Basilisk_ and the four elements, Rogny; _Bellerophon_, the brothers Arnoul and Charles Angeliers; Guillaume Eustace, and Perier, and Bonel, Venice; a _Bull_ with the sign Taurus and the Zodiac, Nicholas Bevilacqua, Turin; a _Cat_ with a mouse in her mouth, Melchior Sessa and Pietro Nicolini, de Sabio, Venice; two _Doves_, Jacques Quesnel; an _Eagle_, Balthazar Bellers, Antwerp, Bladius, Rome, G. Rouille or Roville, Lyons, and the same design--with the motto "Renovabitur ut aquilae juventus mea"--occurs in the books published in the early years of the seventeenth century by Nicolini, Rabani, Renneri and Co., Venice; the personification of _Fortune_, Bertier, J. Denis (an elaborate and clever design in which a youth is represented climbing the tree of Fortune), and Adrian le Roy and Robert Ballard, Berde and Rigaud, Lyons, and Giovanni and Andrea Zennaro, Venice; a _Fountain_, M. Vascosan, the second Frederic Morel (with a Greek motto importing that the fountain of wisdom flows in books), and Cratander, Basle; a _Heart_, Sebastian Hure and his son-in-law Corbon; _Hercules_, with the motto, "Virtus non territa monstris," Vitre, Le Maire, Leyden; a _Lion_ rampant, Arry; a lion rampant crowned on a red ground, Gunther Zainer; a lion led by the hand, Jacques Creigher; a lion supporting a column, Mylius, Stra.s.sburg, and a lion with a hour gla.s.s, Henric Petri, Basle; a _Magpie_, Jean Benat or Bienne; this bird also occurs among Robert Estienne's Marks, and the same subject, with a serpent twining round a branch was used (according to Horne), by Frederic Morel; _Mercury_, alone or with other cla.s.sic deities, David Douceur, Biaggio, Lyons; Jean Rossy, Bologne; Verdust, Antwerp, and Hervagius, Basle; a _Pelican_, N. De Guinguant, S. Nivelle, Girault and De Marnef, C. and F. Franceschini, Venice; Mamarelli, Ferrara; F. Heger, Leyden; E. Barricat, Lyons; and Martin Nuyts and his successor who carried on business under the same name, Antwerp; a _Phnix_, Michael Joli, Wyon, Douay; Leffen, Leyden; Martinelli, Rome; and Giolito, Venice; a _Salamander_, Zenaro, Venice; St. Crespin and Senneton, Lyons; Duversin and Rossi, Rome; a _Stork_, Nivelle and Cramoisy; _St. George and the Dragon_, Michel de Hamont, Brussels; a _Swan_, Blanchet; whilst a swan and a soldier formed the Mark of Peter de Caesaris and John Stoll, two German printers who were among the earliest to practise the art in Paris.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN RASTELL.

Fuit Iohannes Rastell]

[Ill.u.s.tration: GERARD LEEU.]

[Decoration]

SOME GENERAL ASPECTS OF THE PRINTER'S MARK.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FUST AND SCHOEFFER.]

From what has already been stated, it will be seen that the Printer's Mark plays a by no means unimportant part in the early history of ill.u.s.tration,--whether the phase be serious or grotesque, sublime or ridiculous, we find here manifold examples, crude as well as clever.

Although it cannot be said with truth that the Mark as an inst.i.tution reached, like typography itself, its highest degree of perfection at its inception, some of the earlier examples, nevertheless, are also some of the most perfect. The evolution from the small monogram, generally in white on a black ground, to an elaborate picture occupying from a quarter to a whole page, was much less gradual than is generally supposed. The unambitious marks of the first printers were clearly adopted in consonance with the traders' or merchants' marks which began to be so generally employed during the latter part of the fifteenth century.

The very natural question, Which was the first Printer's Mark? admits of an easy answer. It was employed for the first time in the form of the coupled shield of Fust and Schoeffer, in the colophon of the famous Psalter printed by these two men at Mainz in 1457. This book is remarkable as being the costliest ever sold (a perfect copy is valued at 5,000 guineas by Mr. Quaritch): it is the third book printed, and the first having a date, and probably only a dozen copies were struck off for the use of the Benedictine Monastery of St. James at Mainz. It is, however, quite as remarkable for the extraordinary beauty of its initial letters, printed in red and blue ink, the letters being of one colour and the ornamental portion of the other. The Mark of Fust and Schoeffer, it may be mentioned, consists of two printer's rules in saltaire, on two shields, hanging from a stump, the two rules on the right shield forming an angle of 45: the adoption of a compositor's setting-rule was very appropriate. It was nearly twenty years before the introduction of woodcuts into books became general, Gunther Zainer beginning it at Augsburg in 1471-1475. The inception of this movement was naturally followed by a general improvement, or at all events elaboration, of the Printer's Mark, which, moreover, now began to be printed in colours, as is seen in the Fust and Schoeffer mark in red which appears beneath the colophon of Turrecremata's Commentary on the Psalms printed by Schoeffer in 1474. Reverting for a moment to the Psalter which has been very properly described as "the grandest book ever produced by Typography,"

a very curious fact not at all generally known may be here pointed out.

Although the few existing examples with two dates are of the same edition, there are several very curious variations which are well worthy of notice. It will be only necessary, however, in this place to refer to the fact that the beautiful example in the Imperial Library at Vienna--which, from its spotless purity, Heineken calls the "exemplaire vierge"--differs from the others in being without the shield of Fust and Schoeffer, a fact which points to the probability of this copy having been the first struck off.

By the end of the fifteenth century the Printer's Mark had a.s.sumed or was rapidly a.s.suming an importance of which its original introducers had very little conception. Indeed, as early as 1539, a law, according to Dupont, in his "Histoire de l'Imprimerie," was pa.s.sed by which these marks or arms of printers and booksellers were protected. Unfortunately the designs were very rarely signed, and it is now impossible to name with any degree of certainty either the artist or engraver, both offices probably in the majority of cases being performed by one man. There is no doubt whatever that Hans Holbein designed some of the very graceful borders and t.i.tle-pages of Froben, at Basle, during the first quarter of the sixteenth century, and in doing this he included the graceful Caduceus which this famous printer employed. It does not necessarily follow that he was the original designer, although he was in intimate a.s.sociation with Froben when the latter first used this device. The distinctive Mark of Cratander, or Cartander, which appears in the edition of Plutarch's "Opuscula," Basel, 1530, has also been confidently attributed to the same artist: if there is any foundation for this statement Holbein was guilty of plagiarism, for this Mark is a very slight modification on one used by the same printer in 1519, and not only so dated but having the artist's initials, I. F. Those who have the opportunity of examining the "Noctes Atticae" of Aulus Gellius, printed by Cratander in 1519, will come upon several highly interesting features in connection with this Mark, which is emblematical of Fortune: the elaborately engraved t.i.tle-page contains an almost exact miniature of the same idea on either side, and it is repeated in a larger form in the border which surrounds the first chapter. The Mark occurs in its full size on the last page of all. The t.i.tle-page, borders and Mark are all by the same artist, I. F. In the earlier example the woman's hair completely hides her face, whilst in that of eleven years later it is as seen on the opposite page, and the whole design is more carefully finished. Durer had dealt with the same subject. In reference to Froben, however, it should be pointed out that his Marks, of which there were several, show considerable variation in their attendant accessories, and that Holbein could not possibly have had anything to do with the majority of them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: J. FROBEN.

???es?e f?????? ?? ?? ?fe??, Prudens simplicitas amor[que] recti.]

To attempt to identify the designers of even a selection of the best Printers' Marks would be but to embark on a wild sea of conjecture. The initials of the engravers, which occur much more frequently than those of the artists, are of very little a.s.sistance to the identification of the latter. Many of them possess a vigour and an originality which would at once stamp their designers as men of more than ordinary ability. For picturesqueness, and for the care and attention paid to the minutest details, it may be doubted if either B. Picart in France, or J. Pine in this country, has ever been excelled. The examples of the former come perhaps more in the category of vignettes than of Printers' Marks, although the charming little pictures on the t.i.tle-pages of Stosch's "Pierres Antiques Gravees," 1724, the "Impostures Innocentes," 1734, and the edition of Cicero's "Epistolae," printed at the Hague by Isaac Vaillant, 1725,--to mention only three of many--may be conveniently regarded as Printers' Marks. So far as we know, Pine only executed one example,--representing a Lamb within a cleverly designed cartouche--and this appears on the t.i.tle-page of Dale's Translation of Freind's "Emmenologia," printed for T. c.o.x, "at the Lamb under the Royal Exchange," 1729: in its way it is unquestionably the most perfect Mark that has ever been employed in this country. Any rule differentiating the Printer's Mark proper from a vignette is not likely to give general satisfaction; for a writer on the subject of vignettes will unfailingly appropriate many that are Marks, and _vice versa_. The present writer has found it a fairly safe rule, to accept as a Mark a pictorial embellishment (on a t.i.tle-page) to which is appended a motto or quotation. The temptation to persuade oneself that several of these vignettes are Printers' Marks needs a good deal of resisting, especially when such an exquisite example as that of Daniel Bartholomaeus and Son, of Ulm, is in question. The same holds good with several of the dozen used by J. Reinhold Dulssecker, Stra.s.sburg, about the latter part of the seventeenth and earlier part of the eighteenth century; and very many others that might be named.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CRATANDER'S MARK. (Attributed to Holbein.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: T. c.o.x.

I Pine Sculpt]

[Ill.u.s.tration: J. R. DULSSECKER.

DOMINUS PROVIDEBIT.]

It is interesting to note that the Printer's Mark preceded the introduction of the t.i.tle-page by nearly twenty years, and that the first ornamental t.i.tle known appeared in the "Calendar" of Regiomonta.n.u.s, printed at Venice by Pictor, Loeslein and Ratdolt in 1476, in folio. Neither the simple nor the ornate t.i.tle-page secured an immediate or general popularity, and not for many years was it regarded as an essential feature of a printed volume. Its history is intimately a.s.sociated with that of the Printer's Mark, and the progress of the one synchronizes up to a certain point with that of the other. In beauty of design and engraving, the Printer's Mark, like the t.i.tle-page, attained its highest point of artistic excellence in the early part of the sixteenth century. This perhaps is not altogether surprising when it is remembered that during the first twenty years of that period we have t.i.tle-pages from the hands of Durer, Holbein, Wechtlin, Urse Graff, Schauffelein and Cranach. In his excellent work ent.i.tled "Last Words on the History of the t.i.tle-Page," Mr. A. W. Pollard observes "From 1550 onwards we find beauty in nooks and corners. Here and there over some special book an artist will have laboured, and not in vain; but save for such stray miracles, as decade succeeds decade, good work becomes rarer and rarer, and at last we learn to look only for carelessness, ill-taste, and caricature, and of these are seldom disappointed." These remarks apply with equal force to the Printer's Mark, although some exceptionally beautiful examples appeared after that period.

The position allotted to the Printer's Mark may not be of very great importance, but it offers some points of interest. It appeared first in the colophon, in which the printer usually seized the opportunity not only of thanking G.o.d that he had finished his task, but of indulging in a little puff either of his own part of the transaction or of the work itself. The appearance of the Mark in the colophon therefore was a natural corollary of the printer's vanity. It soon outgrew its place of confinement; and when a pictorial effect was attempted it became promoted, as it were, to the t.i.tle-page. In this position it was nearly always of a primary character, so to speak, but sometimes, as in the case of Reinhard Beck, it was almost lost in the maze of decorative borders. But it is found in various parts of the printed book: in some cases, among which are the Arabic works issued by Erpenius of Leyden, we find the Mark at what we regard as the beginning of the book, but which in reality is its end. Sometimes the Mark occupies the first and last leaves of a book, as was often the case with the more important works issued by Froben, by the brothers Huguetan and others. These two Marks at the extreme portions of a book either differed from one another or not, according to the fancy or convenience of the printer. The Mark also appeared sometimes at the end of the index, or at the end of the preliminary matter, such as list of contents or address of the author, and its position was generally determined by several circ.u.mstances.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REINHARD BECK.]

Now and then we have what may be described as a double Mark; that is, of printer and bookseller, the one keeping a sharp look out to see that the other did not have more than his fair share of credit. This is the case with several books printed by Jehan Pet.i.t for Thielman Kerver, Paris, of which an example is given in the previous chapter; Wynkyn de Worde used Caxton's initials for a time on his Mark, but the only motive which could have prompted this was an affectionate regard for his master. Some of the books which Jannot De Campis printed at Lyons for Symon Vincent contained not only the printer's, but two examples of the bookseller's Mark.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HUBERT GOLTZ.

HVBERTAS AVREA SAECLI]

[Decoration]

THE PRINTER'S MARK IN ENGLAND.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WALTER LYNNE.]

The consideration of the Printer's Mark as an inst.i.tution in this country is characterized by extreme simplicity, both as to its origin and to its design. From an entry in one of the Bagford volumes (Harleian MSS. 5910) in the British Museum, we learn that "rebuses or name devices were brought into England after Edward III. had conquered France: they were used by those who had no arms, and if their names ended in Ton, as Hatton, Boulton, Luton, Grafton, Middleton, Seton, Norton, their signs or devices would be a Hat and a tun, a Boult and a tun, a Lute and a tun, etc., which had no reference to their names, for all names ending in Ton signifieth town, from whence they took their names." Even in England, therefore, the merchant's trade device was the direct source of the Printer's Mark, which it antedated by over a century. It will be convenient, first of all, to explain that the first printing-press in England was that of William Caxton at Westminster, whose first book was issued from this place November 18, 1477; the second was that of Theodoricus de Rood, at Oxford, the first book dated December 17, 1478; the third was that of the unknown printer at St. Albans, 1480, and the fourth was that of John Lettou, in the city of London, 1480, the last-named being soon joined by William de Machlinia, who afterwards carried on the business alone. The earliest phases of wood-engraving employed at one or other of these four distinct houses were either initial letters or borders around the page. At Caxton's press, as the late Henry Bradshaw has pointed out in a paper read before the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, February 25, 1867, simple initials are found in the Indulgences of 1480 and 1481; at the Oxford press an elaborate border of four pieces, representing birds and flowers, is found in some copies of the two books printed there in October, 1481, and July, 1482. Of ill.u.s.trations in the text, we find a series of diagrams and a series of eleven cuts ill.u.s.trating the text of the first edition of "The Mirror of the World," 1481; a series of sixteen cuts to the second edition of "The Game of Chesse Moralised," 1483; and two works of the following year, "The Fables of Esop" and the first edition of "The Golden Legend," each contains not only a large cut for the frontispiece, but in the case of the former, a series of 185 cuts, and, in the latter, two series of eighteen large and fifty-two small cuts. At the Oxford press only two books are known with woodcut ill.u.s.trations, in neither case cut for the work; at the St. Albans press the only known ill.u.s.trations in the text are the coats-of-arms found in the "Book of Hawking, Hunting and Coat-Armours," 1486; at the press of Lettou and W. de Machlinia there is no trace of ill.u.s.trations.

These few introductory facts, condensed from Mr. Bradshaw's paper above mentioned, have a distinct interest to us as leading up to the employment of the Printer's Mark. It is certainly curious that at Caxton's press the very familiar device was only first used about Christmas, 1489, in the second folio edition of the Sarum "Ordinale." At first this bold and effective mark was used, as in the "Ordinale," the "Dictes of the Philosophers," and in the "History of Reynaud the Fox,"

at or close to the beginning of the volume. In Caxton's subsequent books it is always found at the end. At the St. Albans press the device with "Sanctus Alba.n.u.s" is found in two of the eight books printed there, "The English Chronicle," 1483, where it is printed in red, and in "The Book of Hawking," etc., 1486; it is formed of a globe and double cross, there being in the centre a shield with a St. Andrew's cross.

So far as regards Caxton's device, it is easier to name the books in which it appeared than to explain its exact meaning. The late William Blades accepts the common interpretation of "W. C. 74." Some bibliographers argue that the date refers to the introduction of printing in England, and quote the colophon of the first edition of the "Chess" book in support of this theory. But the date of this work refers to the translation and not to the printing, which was executed at Bruges, probably in 1476. Caxton did not settle at Westminster until late in that year, and possibly not until 1477. In all probability the date, supposing it to be such, and a.s.suming that it is an abbreviation of 1474, refers to some landmark in our printer's career. Professor J. P. A. Madden, in his "Lettres d'un Bibliophile," expresses it as his opinion that the two small letters outside the "W. 74 C" are an abbreviation of the words "Sancta Colonia," an indication that a notable event in the life of Caxton occurred in 1474 at Cologne. Ames, Herbert, and others have copied a device which Caxton never used: it is much smaller than the genuine one (which, in other respects, it closely resembles) which we reproduce from Berjeau. The opinion that the interlacement is a trade mark is, Mr. Blades points out in his exhaustive "Life," much strengthened by the discovery of its original use. In 1487, Caxton, wishing to print a Sarum Missal, and not having the types proper for the purpose, sent to Paris, where the book was printed for him by G. Maynyal, who in the colophon states distinctly that he printed it at the expense of William Caxton of London. When the printed sheets reached Westminster, Caxton, wishing to make it quite plain that he was the publisher, engraved his design and printed it on the last page, which happened to be blank. Mr. Blades gives 1487 as the year in which this Missal (of which only one copy is known) was printed, but Mr. Bradshaw puts it at 1489. The former enumerates twelve books printed by Caxton in which his device occurs--all ranging from the aforesaid Missal to the year 1491, the date of his death.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILLIAM CAXTON.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ST. ALBANS PRINTER.]

Wynkyn de Worde, a native of Lorraine, who was with Caxton at Bruges or Cologne, carried on the business of his master at Westminster until 1499, when he removed to the sign of the Golden Sun, Fleet Street, London. He had nine Marks, the earliest of which is often described as one of Caxton's, from the genuine example of which, as we have already stated, it differs in being smaller, with a different border, and in having a flourish inserted above and below the letters. The second is an elongated variation of No. 1, with the name Wynkyn de Worde on a narrow white s.p.a.ce beneath the device. The next four devices are more or less elaborations upon that of which we give a reproduction; the seventh is the Sagittarius device in black with white characters: between the sagittarii is seen the sun and flaming stars, and below the initials "W C" in Roman letters, with the name Wynkyn de Worde at the foot; the eighth is a picturesque Mark copied from one belonging to Froben, with the omission of part of the background; it consists of a semicircular arch, supported by short-wreathed pillars, with foliated capitals, plinths and bases: on the top of each is a boy habited like a soldier, with a spear and shield bending forwards; a large cartouche German shield is supported by three boys. The ninth Mark of this printer was a large and handsome one, being a royal and heraldic device which Wynkyn de Worde used as a frontispiece to the Acts of Parliament, in the form of an upright parallelogram which encloses a species of arched panel or doorway, formed of three lines, imitating cl.u.s.tered columns and Gothic mouldings, and two large square shields, that on the left charged with three fleurs-de-lys for France, and the other bearing France and England quarterly, each of which is surmounted by a crown. For a very minute description of these Marks, and their variations, the reader is referred to Johnson's "Typographia," and Bigmore and Wyman's "Bibliography of Printing," the former of whom enumerates 410 books which issued from this press.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WYNKYN DE WORDE.

wynkyn de worde W C]

[Ill.u.s.tration: R. PYNSON.

Rychard Pynson]

[Ill.u.s.tration: R. PYNSON.

R Richard Pynson]

Among the 200 odd books which Richard Pynson printed between 1493 and 1527, we find six Marks (besides variants), of which five are very similar, and of these we give two examples, the smaller being one of the earliest, in which it will be noticed that the drawing is much inferior to the larger example; the sixth Mark is a singular one, consisting of a large upright parallelogram surrounded by a single stout line, within which are the scroll, supporters, shield and cypher, crest, helmet and mantling, and the Virgin and St. Catherine, and in many other particulars differing from the other five examples. Robert Redman, who, after quarrelling with Richard Pynson, and apparently succeeding him in business, employed a device almost identical with that which Pynson most frequently used, and to which therefore we need not further refer. In chronological sequence the next English printer who employed a device is Julian Notary, who was printing books for about twenty years subsequent to 1498, first at Westminster, then near Temple Bar, and finally in St.

Paul's Churchyard. He had two devices (of which there are a very few variations), of which we give the more important. The other has only one stout black line, and not two, and it has also the Latinized form of the name--Julia.n.u.s Notarius. About two dozen different works of this printer are known to bibliographers. In connection with Notary, we may here conveniently refer to an interesting, but admittedly inconclusive article which appears in _The Library_, i., pp. 102-5, by Mr. E. Gordon Duff, in which that able bibliographer publishes the discovery of two books which would point to the existence of an unrecorded English printer of the fifteenth century. One of these has the t.i.tle of "Questiones Alberti de modis significandi," and the other, of which only a fragment is known to exist, is a Sarum "Horae," which is dated 1497. In the colophons of neither does the name of the printer transpire, but his Mark is given in both--in the former book in black, and in the latter in red. This mark is identical with Notary's, with this important exception, that, whereas in Notary's device his name occurs in the lower half of the device, in these the lower half is occupied by the initials I. H., and the upper half by the initials I N B, the I N being in the form of a monogram, and not distinct. In 1498 this same block was used on the t.i.tle-page of the Sarum "Missal," printed by Notary, who altered it to suit his own requirements. We cannot follow Mr. Gordon Duff in his conjectures as to the probability of who this unknown printer may have been, but the matter is one of great bibliographical interest. William Faques, who was the King's Printer, and who is known to have issued seven books between 1499 and 1508, had only one Mark, which is totally different from those of any of his predecessors, as may be seen from the example given on page 16, where will also be found references to the sources of the scriptural quotations on the white and black triangles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JULIAN NOTARY.

I N Iulyan Notary]

The extreme rarity of this printer's books will be best understood when it is stated that there are only two examples in the British Museum; one of these is a "Psalter," 1504. With W. Faques we exhaust the fifteenth century printers who employed marks to distinguish the productions of their presses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: R. FAWKES.