THE
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DECAMERON.
' Now praj' I to hem alle that berkene this tretyse or rede, that yf ther be oiiy thing that iiketh hem, that therof they thanke'HiM of whom procedeth al wit and goodne§. And yf ther be ony thing that displese hem, I praye hem also that they arrette it to the defaute of myn unkonnyug and not to my will, that wold fayn have se^de better if I liadde knowing.'
Chaucer.
THE
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
DECAMERON;
OR,
%tn Ba^s pleasant discourse
UPON
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS,
AND
SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH
EARLY ENGRAVING, TYPOGRAPHY, AND BIBLIOGRAPHY.
BY THE
REV. T. F. DIBDIN.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY W. BULMER AND CO.
AND SOLD BY G. AND W. NICOL, PAYNE AND EOSS, EVANS, JOHN AND ARTHUR AKCH, TRIPHOOK, AND J. MAJOR.
1817.
Gtny CENTER Lmm
FIFTH DAY.
VOL. II.
B
ARGUMENT.
Progress of Printing" in Germany aiid Italy continued. Rise and Progress of Printing in France ; at Paris ; at Rouen ; at Lyons ; at Antwerp, and other Places in the L&w Countries. Progress qf Printing at Venice : theAldine Press, the Presses qf the Giunti, the Sessce, and Gioliti, 8fc. The Presses qf Frohen, Oporinus, i^c. at Basil. Portraits qf Printers. Introduction of Title-Pages; simple and decorative.
ififti) Bap.
ET us now resume our typo- graphical journey. Symptoms of ennui were however occasionally manifested, on the part of the ladies, during the discourse of yesterday ; and I thought I more than once discovered an inclina- tion, on the part of Lisardo, to ibreak the chain of enquiry and research. His impatience will, I trust, be somewhat regulated and subdued during the discussion of to-day ; for we have a world of variety to unfold — and I should be loth to let the effect of my exer- tions be lost by any premature effort to give them an improper direction. So prepare, my worthy friends, to hear of learned and laborious printers, who filled the world with their praises as well as their books ; Avho devoted even theix midnight vigils to give permanency to their works ; and who, discarding the filthy attractions of mere lucre, directed all their energies as well for the benefit of mankind as of
. k iAmIIi ■liHt''ii iMIii )-«ar«
4
FIFTH DAY.
their families. Yes, brave spirits of the immortal dead !. . of Aldus, of Froben, of Oporinus, of the Stephens, and of Plantin ! — methinks I see you, (tho"* it be day-light — and Addison never heard of a morning ghost) hovering over me at this instant, and encouraging me with smiles of more than mortal expression ! I see the adamantine column to which your eyes and hands are occasionally directed, and where your names are inscribed upon scrolls wrought in porphyry which defies decay ! . . . I obey with promptitude your high behest —
LiSARDO. If this be not bibliographical inspiration, tell me, I pray, in what that species of inspiration consists ? I crave pardon for past impatience, and will cease to interrupt in future. But remember Devices * . . the Devices of those
* remember Devices.'] The unknowing in the learning of devices, may read with pleasure and instruction the lit tle quarto volume of Spoerlius, published in 1730, under the title of ' Introductio in Notitiam Insigniitm Typographicorum.' Was it, or was it not, preceded by Draudius's ' Discursus typographicns eiperimentalis, &c. cum indguibus pnecipuorum typographorim, qiicujrontispiciis lihrorum imp-imere consueverunt,' Fi-diicof. 1625. 8vo.? Spoerlius denies its existence; and thinks * the glory of having first collected the devices of piinters,' is due to Roth- SchoUzius — not forgetting, however, the specimens of this kind, few in number, which were exhibited in Orlandi's feeble performance, entitled ' Origine e Progressi della Stampa o siu dell' Arte Impressm-ia,' 1722, 4to. Baiilet had only described a few of them without fac-similes ; and it must be remembered that the fac-similes both of Orlandi and of Scholtz are on a reduced scale. Spoerlius notices the extraordinary collection of this kind which was in the possession of a Nuremberg physician of the name of Roctenbecius ; and we may plume ourselves on the not less extensive similar collection of John Bagford in the British Museum. ' Mult um (says Spoerlius, not untruly) juvat hominem Uteris deditum, libros quoscunque hujus vel illius officinae a se invicem dignoscere posse, Itaque notas variarum officinarum nosse opus est . . . Cum itaque typographi peculiares notas sui characteristicas operibus suis imprimi curaverint, tester heic omnes ingenues homines, annon ii laudem et bonam gratiam mereantur, qui colligendis his notis tempus suum studiuraque commodant? maxime cum nonnisi summo cum labore ex innumeris codicibus colh'gi possint,' p, 13-15.
I may here borrow the emphatic invocation of Spoerlius. ' Hue ergo adeste, qui notitise librorum studetis acquirenda;, et opes iugeniorum in tot diversissima
FIFTH DAY.
5
typographical heroes with whom you have just held such aerial converse —
Lysander. Your words betray or misinterpret your in- tentions. Here is an interruption at the very outset. But I can forgive you. Yes, Lisardo shall have all his devices, and shields, and symbols, and the decorative accompani- ments of the art of printing ... at least, he shall have a reasonable measure of such ornaments — for an Atlas folio would not contain them all.
Lisardo. 'Tis well. I obey ; and anticipate with delight all the marvellous intelligence which you are about to unfold.
Belinda. Whatever symptoms of ennui might have been discoverable yesterday, on the part of our frail sex, I can pretty safely affirm, for Almansa as well as myself, that the sight of all those shields, or marks, or devices, which is pro- mised us by my well-beloved husband, will fully prevent the occurrence of the least portion of nonchalance to day. So pray proceed, my dearest Lysander. Our thankfulness shall keep pace with your endeavours to amuse and instruct.
Lysander. Such encouragement is irresistible, and I proceed to do my best. If I remember rightly, we con- cluded with giving the finish to an account of early printing in Germany and in Italy ; yet I can almost reproach myself for having omitted to notice two very rare and very ancient German printers, who worked in partnership, and with
volumina dispersas, et bonorura librorum characteres, uno quasi oculL obtutu dignoscere addiscite. Quod vinum vendibile sit, ex hedera appensa . . . jam intelligere potestis,' p. 15 : and further observe— what T believe is not appHcable to the labours of my predecessors— that the fac-simhes of the devices, which the reader is here about to see, are, in truth, conformable to the exact meaning and application of the foregoing appellation : in other words, they are, in every respect, conformable to their originals.
6
FIFTH DAY.
whom I have but lately cultivated an acquamtance. Listen to their harmonious appellatives! Christopher Bey am and John Glim.*
Almansa. Frightful beyond compare ! In what does the merit of their printing consist ?
Ly SANDER. In having executed works of an early date. Among them is a Boethius of 1470, and a Manipulus Curatorum, without date, but probably not a twelvemonth later, and the first impression of that once popular work.
* Christopher Beyam and John Glim.] The very rare book, in which the asso- ciated names of these printers appear, is the Manipulus Curatorum of Guido de Monte Rocherii ; witliout date, in folio : but supposed by the conn)iler of the Bologna -Crevenna Catalogue, (vol. i. no. 563) to be the first impression of that once popular work. It is probably executed before the edition of 1476, by Caesaris and Stol, and is considered to have a number of variations as well as an additional chapter ; but upon what authority Vemazza, in his Lezione sopra la stampa, CagUari, 1778, 8vo. (as referred to by Denis, p. 621, and Panzer, vol. iii. p. 4) attributes the execution of it to the Seville press, in the year 1470, is utterly inconceivable. Neither Caballerus, in his Specimen de Prima Typo- graphi(r Hispanicee Mtate, nor Lichtenberger, make the least mention of such an early specimen of the Spanish press. The book in question has been recently obtained by Lord Spencer, from Count Delci ; and is a folio, printed in long lines, without numerals or catchwords, having 34 lines in a full page. The colophon is thus — on the reverse of the 136th and last leaf : beneath the words Deo. Gractas.
Hoc beyamus opus pressit Christoforus altum. Imraensis titulis estat origo sua. Cui Glim cosocius clara fuit arte lohannes Germanam gentem : non negat esse suam
The type is uniformly ronian, except the d ; which is a sharp gothic letter. There are titles to the several sections, chiefly in ronian capitals; and the smaller roman letter may be considered as approximating to that of G unther Zainer, and the Fivizani — the latter, from their Virgil of 1472 — also recently acquired by his Lordship. But the Boethius of 1470, by Glim alone, (1 believe) is on its route to the library of the same Noble Collector. An ancient ms. note, at the end of the copy of the Manipulus, &c. says, ' duesto e un libro hello :' but since the time of such inscription the worms have unluckily become enamoured of its ' beauty,' and have left behind too many proofs of their attachment !
FIFTH DAY,
7
Before ho^vever I bid adieu to Germany, let me entreat you always to pay marks of attention and respect to the productions of the first Printer at Nuremb'^rg — Anthony KoBUEGER : a noble fellow in his way,* and diligent almost beyond competition. His volumes are remarkable for their dimensions, and his ample margins betray a thoroughly well cultivated taste respecting the management of those impor- tant features in a book — hlach and white.
* Anthony Koburger — a noble fellow in his way,'] It may be questioned however whether Koburger, Koberger, or Coburger, (for his name is spelt each way) be the first printer at Nuremberg ; as the earliest Nuremberg book, with a date, (the ' Comestorium Vitiorum ' of Retza, of the date of 1470, see Bibl. Spenceriana, vol. iii. p. 489) is attributed to the press of Creussner ; and it should seem, fiom the Typographical Annals of Panzer, (vol. ii. p. 167) that Sensenschmid and Kefer also preceded Koberger. However, this latter printer may be considered as taking the lead of all his Nuremberg brethi en of the matrix, and his works fully merit the encomium pronounced upon them by Lysander. Mallinkrot (p. 87) has not only himself called Koberger ' inter reliquos . . . facile princeps . . qui seuo suo non illius modo vrbis (Noribergse), sed totius Germanise Typographorum et Bibliopolarum . . . prsecipuus fuit, quod plurima et insignia ab ipso impressa et distracta volumina abunde testantur' — but has directed our attention to the eulogies of a most competent judge, and contem- porary, Jodocus Badius Ascensius; who dedicated a Collection of Epistles of Eminent Men, in 1499, folio, to this very renowned typographer. The language of Ascensius is too delightful in itself, and too congenial with my own feelings, to be here suppressed — as I find it in Maittaire, vol. i. p. 79, edit, 1719. After calling him ' Antonius suavissimus,' he goes on thus : ' Si quidem cum sis Librario- rum facile pruiceps et inter fideles atque honestos mercatores non mferiori loco positus ; nihil principatu tuo diguius censeam, quam hos tantos heroas in regales istos tlialamos, omnis honestatis ac probitatis nimirum penetralia, begnissirae
suscipere Litteratos omnes et colis et foves ; pervigilemque curam ad bonos
Codices vere, terse, ac sine mendis imprimendos adhibes,' &c. ' Ex his (adds Maittaire) Badii verbis licet aestiraare quantum fuerit Antonii Koburger inter ejus 6[^0TS)(y0US raeritum.'
According to the testimony of Neudoerferus, Koburger had not only 24 presses at work, and more than 100 workmen, at Nuremberg, but he was engaged in printing at Basil and Lyons, and had a book-selling establishment at other cities as well as at Nuremberg. Lichtenberger, Initia. Typog. p. 199. He certainly printed the Alcinoi Epitoina Disciplinunim Platonis in the year 1472 ; omitted to be mentioned in the work first above referred to : but see
8
FIFTH DAY.
Lorenzo. Have you not some other favourite places or printers to notice, before you take us into the Land of Devices — France, and the Netherlands, &c.?
Lysander. I shall quickly prove to you that devices did not take their origin in France, however they may have been chiefly exhibited in that country. Yes . . the question of our Host is both opportune and judicious: for let me conduct you, in imagination, as mourners to the burying place of poor Ferandus, of Brescia* — the printer of the
Panzer, vol. ii. p. 169, no. 10. The Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493, both in Latin and in German, is probably the ' magnum opus ' of Koburger ; and however I may have been criticised and scolded for the unwieldiness of the article, which comprises a description of that stupendous tome, I shall, with Mallinkrot on my side, and with the characteristic obstinacy of an enthusiast, continue to think that neither labour nor expense were thrown away upon it.
* the burying place of pom- Ferandus, of Brescia.'] Ferandus was the earliest printer at Bhescia ; and although Cardinal Quirini has devoted a pretty sub- stantial quarto tome to the History of Brescia Literature, 1739, and has described at large the earlier editions of the Roman poets which were printed there, he has wholly omitted the name of Ferandus, and of course of the Lucretius, Juvenal, and Cecco d'Ascoli, printed by the same artist. Mauro Boni, however, ■with more fortunate sources of intelligence, has done ample justice to our Ferandus; observing ' L' uomo benemerito che vi eresse i primi Torchi fu Tommaso Fehrando zelante Cittadino, e non ignobile letterato, come fan fede I'edizioni da lui eseguite, e qualche operetta da lui medesimo composta, che leggesi a stampa.' Ptimi Libri a Stampa, ^c. dell' Italia Supenore,\ enez. 1794, p. Lxxm. cvi. The noble sentiments of Ferandus — who professes .his ' attachment to his Country next to his God' — and his correct estimation of the right use of wealth and literary application — are seen in more than one of the colophons of the Brescia Statutes, printed by him in 1473 : vide Bibl. Spencer, vol. iv. p. 18-21 : although the last of these colophons affords a presentiment of that misery, and failure in business, which afterwards overtook him, and which caused his desertion of his country. The Cecco d' Ascoli and Lucretius are the rarest pieces of Ferandus ; and both are to be found in the most desirable condition in the library of Earl Spencer. It must be admitted, however, that the type and press-work of Ferandus were little calculated to please a fastidious reader — who had been accustomed to the beautiful productions of other Italian cities. A brochure, of some 50 pages, might be well devoted to the name and merits of Ferandus. I conceive his private history to have been exceedingly interesting ; and I feel every possible degree of inclination to become one of the above ' mourners,' and to ' drop a tear upon the grave of poor Ferandus.'
FIFTH DAY.
9
First Lucretius, and of several other works of nearly equal rarity and value. Drop a tear upon his grave, for he died broken-hearted at the ungrateful treatment of his country- men ! Yet his name shall live ' for aye ' in the annals of that immortal art which he practised with so much credit to himself and benefit to literature. I could, to be sure, dwell also somewhat upon early Ferrara printers — and upon the marvellous feats of ' THE Boy Carnerius* — but there is really no time for the indulgence of such dehghtful episodes.
Lorenzo. Bid adieu then to Germany and Italy, and take up the History of Printing in France, the Low Countries, and United Provinces, &c.
Lisardo. I crave pardon; but you know what an irritable temperament I possess. Tell us, I pray, dear Lysander — ^before you bid adieu to Germany and Italy — in what country did Devices make their first appearance ? in other words, where did printers first use those symbols, marks, or shields, which have been just alluded to?
Lorenzo. I will satisfy you as well as I am able. I told you, if you remember, that the earliest appearance of such printer's mark, or device, was in the Bible of Fust and Schoifi'her, of the date of 1462; which device consisted of
* the hoy Camcrius.'] In strict designation, tlie boy 'Augustinus Carnehius see the colophon to the Epistles and Odes of Horace, printed by Carnerius iu 1474: Bibl. Spencer, vol. ii. p. 75-7. Andreas Bellfortis, Gallus, has however the glorious distinction of having put the^rst Ferrara press in motion- yet, as his name imports, he was a Frenchman by birth. In the colophon to the Augustinus Dattus, of 1471, (his second production) he thus designates himself: Impress! Andreas hoc opus, cui francia noraen
Tradidit. at ciuis ferrariensis ego. Herculeo felix ferraria tuta manebat Numine : perfectus cum iste liber fuit. ' Ergo (adds Panzer) per Andream Bellfortis, Galium.' See his Annul. Typog. vol. i. p. 393, no. 2. The Martial of Gallus, (his earliest work) is fully described in the Bibl. Spencer, vol. ii, p. 169.
10
FIFTH DAY.
two shields, in red or in black, that were used even as late as 1531.* Meanwhile, however, the Emperor Maximilian had granted to John SchoifFher (son of Peter) a coat of arms, incorporating, in part, the device of his father, which is thus appended to a variety of John Schoiffher's publica- tions, from the year 1530 to 1540: if not before.
The example of Fust and Schoiffher was not immediately followed by the typographical corps in Germany. Indeed, Ulric Zel, the next German printer in point of antiquity,
* So it appears in Bagford's Collection. Mercier had never seen it later than 1525. Consult the note in vol. i. page 343.
t his own name, which, in German, signifies a sliepherd.1 The first thing, on looking at the above figure, which strikes a graphical antiquary, is, its resemblance to the following figure, in one of the wood-cuts of Albert Duber, introduced in
riFTH DAY.
11
whom you may remember to have been designated as the * Father of the Cologne press," wholly discarded a device ;
the back-ground, in a print of the annunciBtion of the Nativity of Christ to the shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night. Take away the staiF of the former, and you liave nearly the same figure. I make no doubt but that John Schoiffher copied Albert Durer.
In some of the smaller pieces of J. Schoiffher we have the same subject treated en petite;— as thus, at the bottom of an elegant border in the title page of 'Encomium Matrimonii. Encomium Ariis Medicae. Per D. E. Mogunt,' 1522, 12mo.
12
FIFTH DAY.
for what reason is not easily to be imagined. A Cologne printer, however, of the name of Boengart, exhibited an,
There are sundry varieties of the Schoiffheb device. Thus, keeping to the above design, Marchand gives us the following :
Peter Schoiff her (the son of Fust's partner) chose to deviate somewhat from the family device, by turning the stars into roses, thus :
FIFTH DAY.
13
early deviation from the sullen rule laid down by Zel ; for, at the end of a small Latin tract entitled a ' Fruitful Pre- paration for a Christian Man on his Death Bed,' of the
The preceding belongs to a book of great beauty of typographical execution, and of rare occurrence, entitled ' De dulcissimo Nomine Jesu,' dfC. 1318, folio : to be noticed in a subsequent page. All the books of P. Schoiif her, junr. are scarce.
Let me further add about the distinguished family of the Schoiffhers, that John Schoiffher, son of the preceding, and grandson of the great Peter, quitted Mentz, and established a printing office at Bois Le Due in Brabant : in the street of ' the Great Church,' at the sign of the Missal, and (says Marchaud) his descendants have occupied the premises ever since. ' He printed (continues the same amusing author) several books there, of which none are at present known ; and, dying in that town, was buried in the Cathedral Church of St. John. The States General granted him a monument in 1629 ; consisting of a sort of tablet, shutting as it were with double doors, upon one of which is the figure of the printer, upon his knees, dressed in the manner of the times, and having his coat of arms near him, thus — with the subjoined mscription :
John Scheffer, Printer, died the 12th of March, 1565; and Anne, his wife (Daughter of John Bottelmans) died the 14th of March, 1587, &c.
This John had, again, a son of his own Christian name ; who became Royal Printer under Philip Ilnd of Spain. Marchand has a pithy memorandum relating to him ; at page 51 of his Histoire de I'Imprimerie. He died in June, 1614 ; and with his wife, Elizabeth Van be Hoek, was buried in the Cathedral where his father and mother had been interred. I shall conclude this Schoiffher article with the epigram of Naude (from his second book of Epigrams, printed by S. and B. Cramoisy in 1650, 8vo. p. 52) upon the water-mark of the Bull's Head and Horns, as seen in the paper of the earlier publications of the Mentz Pbess :
Ratio cognoscendi Libros editos a Joanne Fausto MoGUNTiNO, inter Artis ab ipso primum inventas 6^ excultae rudimenta
His duo si nescis teneris impressa papyris,
Artificum signo, Vitulinae comua frontis ;
14
FIFTH DAY.
printed date of 1472,* we observe the following barbarous and singular device: partly imitated, however, by subse- quent printers.
The Device of Herman Boengart.
Grandia Chalcograplii referunt miracula Fausti, Qui primus calamis Libros transcripsit alienis, Atque sua terris mirum decus intulit Arte. See Maittaire's Annal. Typog. edit. 1719, p. 23. They are not, however, invariably correct criteria of the early Mentz press. Marchand brings the genealogy of the ScHEFFERS dowD to the year 1720. It is a name justly held in the greatest possible respect.
* of the printed date of The colophon is thus : ' hnp-essum Colonic per
me Hermannii Boigart deket wich ciui: ColonieTi super antiquu forum in opposite
FIFTH DAY.
15
The earlier Venetian printers seemed also to have objec- tions to devices ; for I meet with few or none before those of John of Cologne, and Octavian Scot. That of the for- mer, to the best of my recollection, is at the end of an impression of the New Testament, with the Commentary of Nicolas deLyra, of the date of 1481, in folio;* while that
sancti Martini maioris. p)-oprie tzo den Wylden man. 1472.' The book has signatures throughout ; and I suspect there must be some en-or in the date, as the type is quite of a late character, and there are printed notes in the margin. Beneath a rude wood-cut, in the frontispiece, there is the title of ' Peter de Blois' exposition of the Book of Job, dedicated to the illustrious King Henry of England.' The Latin title to the book, now under description, is ' Preparamentum Saluberrimum Christiani Hominis ad mortem se disponentis, quod collegit Honorabilis vir Magister Wilhelmus Tzewers sacre theologie Doctm- eximius. ac deifere Marie canonicus in maiori ecclesia. regie sedis Aquisgrani,' 4to. It contains P, in fours, with a running title as far as ' Alphabetum xiiij.' In the possession of the Rev. I. M. Rice. The lapse of a century introduced a much purer taste in the style of art observable in the devices, or ffpntispiece-decorations, of the Cologne Books :-r-as the following, taken from the ' SummariaBescriptio CoUoquii inter Casparum Vlenbergiiim et Joannem Badium, ^c. Apud Gervinum Caleniiim et hwredes Quentetios,' Colon. 1590, 4to. may satisfactorily shew.
The same printers used also a fine head of Christ, in profile ; as may be seen in the Partes Catechismi Catholici of the date of 1 568, folio. (Bagford's Collection, Harl. MSS. no. 5914, fol. 53.)
* an impression of the New Testament, with the Commentary of Nicolas de Lyra, of the date of 1481, in folio.'] Some mention (see vol. i. p. 403) has been already made of this impression as exhibiting a testimony of the partnership of Jenson
16 FIFTH DAY.
of the latter is at the end of an impression of the same work, of the date of 1489. These devices are both executed in red ink, as you will see from the following specimens of them :
The Device of John de Colonia,
IN CONJUNCTION WITH NiCOLAS JeNSON.
and I. de Colonia. The New Testament (once in my possession) is only the 4th and last volume of an impression of the Bible, with De Lyra's commentaiy ; and is fully described in Masch's edition of Le Long's Bill. Sacra, vol. iii. p, 373. The colophon runs thus : ' Exactum est Venetiis insigne hoc opus : ac inusitatum opus biblie una cum postillis ueneiandi uiri ordinis minorum fratris Nicolai de lyra: cumque additionibus per uenerabilem episcopum paulum burgensem
FIFTH DAY.
17
The Device op Octavianus Scotus of monsa in the milanese.
editis : ac replicis Mathie doringk ordinis minorum fratris et theologi optimi : charactere vero ipressum habes iucuudissimo : impensaque : curaque singular! optimorum lohannis de colonia Nicolai ienson: sociorumq;: Olympiadibus dominicis : anno milesimo quadringentesimo octnagesimo primo pridie calendas sextiles.' The device above given is at the end of the register, on the last leaf. The interminable commentaries of old Lyra seem to have constantly
18
FIFTH DAY.
Nor should I omit this opportunity of begging of you to hold the name of Octavian Scot in respectful remembrance ; for although a later printer, and of less popularity, than John de Colonia, he was a man to whom the city of Venice (where he printed) Avas deeply indebted;* as well for his love and patronage of learning, as for the number and value
occupied the presses of the more ancient printers. An editor (whose name I have forgotten, but who was about to publish the Lyra Gloss in the xvth century) has this pithy notice respecting the deficiency of paper sufficiently large for such a work : ' Hoc certe tempore sudanti satis mihi in inniienso Nicolai de Lyra super ueteris et novi testaraenti ad litteram glossemate : ab impressoribus nostris que biblie libi os informabant : repente effiagitatus sum ut' quoniam carta maior iilos defecerat : ne officinse eorum uacarent : quod nunquam fit absque uigenti artis dispendio : aliquod minoris voluminis opus iilis commodum expedirem.'
* a man to whom the city of Venice was deeply indebted.'] ' To no one was the city of Venice more bound in gratitude, than to Octavian Scot ; of noble birth, and born in tiie town of Monsa under the jurisdiction of Milan. Establishing himself at Venice, he devoted so much of his wealth to tlie promotion of printing, that a prodigious number of editions, bearing both his name and device, seemed to indicate a new emporium, as it were, of printed books ; and gave ample testimony, from the first productL-n of his press in 1480, [a Latin Bible of that date in 4to. see Masch'sLe Long, vol. iii. p. 128] to the close of the xvth century, with what energy and liberaUty he pursued his laudable career.' Saxius, Hist. Lit. Typog. MedioL p. cxiii. Saxius then quotes the testimony of Maittaire {edit. 1719, p. 139) in pi-aise of Scot ; followed by similar testimonies from La Caille and Chevillier. ' I must further observe (adds he) in order to make a deeper impression upon grateful minds, that, even after tlie decease of Octavian, about the year 1500, liis noble spirit survived to enrich the favourite spot of his resi- dence ; for he bequeathed not only his property, but the materials of liis press, for the benefit of \ enice. Many books, even as late as the year 1530, aiford proof of being executed ' by the command and at the expense of the heirs of the distinguished Octavian Scot, a Citizen of Monsa' — with his device subjoined.
I may just notice that the device above given, is taken from the ivth and last volume ot an impression of the Latin Bible, with she Connnentary of Nicolas de Lyra, of the date of 1489, in folio : ' Uenctijs o, ere el sumptibus Octauiani Scoti Modoetiisis . m . cccc . lxxxix . Sexto Id^ sextilis.' It is at the end ol the register, on the recto of the following and last leaf. J he impression is beautilully executed in black letter; and jVlasch tells thut it is formed, ' according to the edition of 1485, by Paganinus de Paganino,' Le Long's Bibl. Sacra, vol. iii. p. 378. I have seen (I think) three specimens of a similar device, on a smaller scale, but executed in black. Octavian's son or nephew, Jerom Scot, used the device of an anchor,'
FIFTH DAY.
li)
of his typographical productions. We will now return, if you please, to the proposition of Lorenzo, respectir.g the history of printing in France, in the Low Countries, and United Provinces, &c.
As to the first, the diligent and patriotic Chevillier hath filled a comely quarto tome with the ' O rig-in of Printing" at Paris.''* His work is curious and interesting; but as the author of it was early ' a-field' in the subject of which he treats, it would follow that many early printed works have escaped him, and that a few inaccuracies, corrected by the more fortunate researches of subsequent bibhographers, must necessarily mark that production. Yet I know not, upon the whole, where there is a more entertaining quarto volume upon printing than the one which we possess from Chevillier. Let us gossip therefore awhile about early Parisian printers, leaning upon the arm of that said typogra- phical historian. And first, my friends, how comes it to
sometimes (but smaller) with three flukes, between trees ; having, linked together, at bottom, the initials S 0 S j and, above, the following motto : ' In Tenebris Fulget,' But one of the most elegant devices used by him, or indeed by any other printer, is that of a female sitting upon a celestial globe ; holding an olive branch in her right hand, and a line and plummet in her left : above, is the
motto ' FIAT PAX IN VIRTUTE TVA.'
* Origin of Printing at Paris.^ Chevillier's book is divided into the following four parts : i. Etablissement de I'Imprimerie qui fut fait par des Gens de I'Uni- versite, c'est-a-dire, par les soins de la Soci^t6 de Sorbonne ; avec I'histoire d' Ulric Gering le premier Imprimeur de Paris, ii. Reflections sur les Livres imprimez par Gering, et quelques Remarques curieuses touchant les Imprimeurs, et sur la matiere d'Iraprimerie. iii. L'origine de I'lmpression Grecque et H6braique, qui fut ^tablie a Paris par le soin des Professeurs de I'Universite. vi. Les droits que I'Universite a eus sur la Librairie de Paris, devant et apres la decouverte de I'Imprimerie. Par le Sieur Andre Chevillier, Docteur et Bibliotliecaire de la Maison et Society de Sorbonne, 1694, 4to. I have before noticed {Bibliomania, p. 63,) the ' foxy ' tint of almost all the copies of this work. By the kindness of my friend Mr. Bolland, I am in possession of a copy, printed upon what I conceive to be^ne paper : — it is in its original red-morocco binding, with gilt on the leaves ; and together with a similar copy of La Caille (from the same friendly quarter) was, I apprehend, originally, a presentation copy.
VOL. II. C
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pass, that that cunning knight of the puncheon, Nicolas Jenson, a Frenchman by birth, did not, after he had made himself master of the ' art and craft of printing ' at Mentz, or at Rome,* (be it where you please) return to his native soil, and practise the art which he had so successfully learnt ? It is a little singular and inconceivable, that, while a Frenchman of ability leaves his country to establish him- self at Venice, a German Firm, of the names of Gering,^ Crantz, and Friburger, comes to set up the first printing press at Paris, in the House of the Sorbonne l-f
* See vol. i, p. 398.
t Jirst pnuting-press at Paris, in the House of the Sorbonne.^ The patrons of the first prmters at Paris were Fichetus and Lapidanus ; or, as CheviUier calls them, ' Guillaume Fichet Savoyard ' and ' Jean Heynlin de Lapierre AUemand.* Gaguinus and Trithemius (and I dare say Baillet and Fabricius to boot) are loud and uniform in their attestations of the literary merit of Fichetus, — ' the restorer of pure Roman latinity.' Fichetus and Lapidanus established a press in the House of the Sorbonne, or Sorbonne Academy, of which they were the heads or directors ; and the latter invited thither his German countrymen, Ulric Gering, Michael Feiburgeb, and Martin Crantz ; as appears unequivocally from the letter of Fichetus, prefixed to the supposed first production of the Parisian press (' the Epistles of Gasparinus Pergamensis ') given at length by Chevillier, p. 40-1, and extracted in part by Maittaire, vol. i. p. 25, and Lichtenberger, p. 205-6.
This prefatory epistle of Fichetus is perhaps sufficiently interesting to have the greater part of it introduced to the reader in an English dress.
Fichetus to Lapidanus. You have lately sent me, my dear Lapidanus, the delightful Epistles of Gasparinus Pergamensis ; not only carefully corrected by yourself, but executed in a neat and elegant manner by your German printers. Gasparinus is much indebted to you ; since, from your unremitting attention, you have restored to him his legitimate text. All learned men, however, owe you greater obligations ; as it is evident that you are not only intent upon your theological studies, but meditate the glorious task of restoring Latin writers in general to their pristine purity : a task, in every respect worthy of your high reputation — distinguished, as you are, not less by your skilful and successful theses as a Sorbonne Doctor, than by your unwearied efforts in diffusing light upon the darkened state of classical knowledge in our own times. For, to the many grievances attenduig our want of literary information, there was the additional one of having the coirupted texts of ignorant transcribers. Judge therefore of my extreme satisfaction, on finding such a pest far removed, by your exertions, front
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Yes, Lisardo, these Germans first commenced the art of printing at Paris; and conjecture has pretty accurately assigned the date of 1470 to the earhest fruits of their press.
the City of Paris ! The priaters, whom you have brought with you from Ger- many, have executed their task with complete fidelity ; owmg, no douht, to the care and anxiety previously bestowed by you upon the collation of the original MSS. &c. Farewell. Your affectionate Friend ; In haste.' The colophon is also worth a moment's attention.
Vt Sol lumen sic doctrinam fundis in orbem
Musarum nutrix regia Parisius. Hinc prope diuinam tu. quam Germania novit
Artem scribendi. suscipe promerita. Primos ecce Libros, quos haec industria fmxit
Francorum in terris, aedibus atque tuis. MiCHAiiL, Vdalricus, Martinusque Magistri, Hos impresserunt, ac facient alios. There is no date to this book, nor to the Flonis, Sallust, Rhetorics ofFichetus, Epistles ofPhalaris,Epistles of Fichetus, nor of Bessarion, ^c. ^c; but the year 1470 is assigned as that of the execution of at least the first four articles. The colophon of Sallust (B. S. vol. ii. p. 328) clearly shews that book to have been printed in 1470, as it notices the preparations for war (in April and May, 1470) against C. Duke of Burgundy ; and the prefatory epistle of Fichetus, just translated, proves Lapidanus to be a doctor — which he was not till the year 1470.
The preceding works, with the Laurentius Valla, Jacobi Magni Sophologium, and Rodericus Zamorensis, constitute Chevillier's first list of early Parisian books ; yet it is remarkable, that the ' Manuale Confessorum,' &c. of Nyder is the first book in the colophon of which the date (1473) is regularly introduced : see Panzer, vol. ii. p. 273, no. 16.
Care must however be taken not to forget the Terence, in folio, without date, (undescribed by all the continental bibliographers) which is executed in the same type with that of the Florus and Sallust ; and therefore may be considered among the earlier pi'oductions of the Sorbonne press. I well remember the surprise, and even astonishment, expressed by Monsieur Renouard (when examining the Spencer Library) on having this keimelion put into his hands. He had imagined that a fragment of it only, in the Royal Collection at Paris, had been unique ! A complete copy of the Philosophical Works of Cicero, (undescribed by Chevillier, and almost of equal rarity) from the same press, also enriches the same magnificent collection. In regard to the books given in Chevillier's first list, it may be observed, as Panzer, Lichtenberger, and Chevillier himself, have before remarked, that they are all printed upon firm paper of nearly the same tint and texture, with a reman type of precisely the same formation : large, loose, and irregularly
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This worthy Firm continued its labours very amicably and successfully for about eight or ten years ; when death, or some other powerful cause^ produced a dissolution of the
worked. I make no doubt that there were both thick paper, and vellum, copies of all these earlier productions of the Sorbonne press. Chevillier mentions a VELLUM Sallust and a vellum Fichetus {the Rhetorics), and Panzer notices FIVE COPIES of the latter upon the same material. Sir M. M. Sykes has, I believe, an original presentation copy of this latter, upon thick paper ; and a vellum copy of the Sallust adorns the Auctarium of the Bodleian library.
In the year 1473 both the patrons and the workmen of the Sorbonne press changed their residence. Fichetus is supposed to have visited Rome, and Lapidanus to have returned to Germany ; while Gering and his associates, having hired a house in the Rue St. Jacques, at the sign of the Golden Sun, came forth with their first specimen of the black letter ; a pretty accurate fac-simile of which is given in the Bill. Spenceriana, vol. i. p. 29. About the year 1475 (being the date of the second book in Chevillier's second list) the firm of Gering and Co. thus modestly recommended itself to the attention of the public, in the colophon of the ' Summa de Casibus Conscientice' of Bartholoniasus Pisanus :
Hinc tu, qui Famam aeternam cupis cumulare,
SummS, Bartholomiua aspice ue careas, Qum nitide pressam Martinus reddidit, atque
Michael, Ulricus, Moribus unanimes. Hos genuit Germania, nunc Lutetia pascit. Orbis miratur totus eorura Opera. These six verses are given by Naude, but only the latter four by Chevillier ; who makes his second list, of early printed Pans books, extend to the year 1483 ; before which time, however, namely in 1478, the names of Crantz and Friburger disappear, and that of Maynyal or Remboldt is seen associated with Gering. In this same year, 1478, a new and much improved Roman fount was adopted by these printers : as, among other works, may be seen from the description of the ' Margarita Poetica' of Eyb, of the same date, in the B. S. vol. iii. p. 316. On establishing himself in the Rue St. Jacques, in the neighbourhood of the Sprbonne Doctors, Gering associated with these latter upon the most intimate footing, which continued unbroken till his death. As he was a single man he paid them frequent visits, and at length became one of their society. He was in the constant habit of communicating with them respecting the works which he intended to publish, and as constantly presented the college with a copy of every such work. But the liberal printer gave them more substantial proofs of his regard. His purse appears to have been as freely opened as were his ideas of pubfication. In the year 1493, that part or wing of the college, where the library had been deposited, fell down, from its ruinous condition ; and the society not having wheiewithal to rebuild it, Gering presented them with 50 francs: a
>5
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partnership ; and Gering looked out for a new associate : himself dying about the year 1510. It must however be observed that the earlier works of Gering, Crantz, and
considerable sum in those times, and deemed of such importance, that Gering liad, from thenceforth, a knife and fork always laid for him at the table of the worthy Doctors of Sorbonne ; which said knife and fork, I make no doubt, from Che- villier's lively description, the printer did not fail to brandish with all possible gaiety of heart. In short, Gering received certain ' Letters of Hospitality,' from the then ' Proviseur, Bishop of Meaux' (dated May, 1494) in consequence of his liberal and affectionate disposition towards the ' Poor Masters of Sorbonne.' Chevillier, p. 85, has given the original Latin document with a French version; both of which were thought by Maittaire of sufficient consequence to be reprinted. Annul. Typog. vol. i. p. .58-9.
But the benevolence of the Father of Parisian Printing did not stop here. In 1504 Gering made a will, in which appeared, not only his liberal intentions towards his beloved ' Sorbonne,' but no small proofs of attachment towards the ' college de Montaigu' — which two societies he constituted ' heirs of all his property.' The Montaigu establishment, in consequence, became possessed of the village of Annet, upon the banks of the Mame, and converted many houses belonging to it into a foundation for the ' Classes of Grammar,' or Grammar Schools. The portrait of Gering, with a Latin subscription of the date of 1510, (hung up in the Montaigu college) attested, in the time of Chevillier, the extent of that prin- ter's bounty. Does it yet exist ? To the Sorbonne society, Gering gave yet more substantial proofs of his attachment. He left them 8500 livres in ready money, besides the amount of the sale of all his goods and chattels, including the materials of his printing office, and his stock of books in quires, with the sums or debts due to him at the time of his decease. In consequence, the number of fellows of the Sorbonne society was doubled : not however without going to law upon the subject. A brass tablet, in the chapel of the said society, records both the beneficence of Gering and the result of an application to the courts of justice respecting the manner of carrying his bequest into execution : termi- nating on the 13th of May, 1532. See Chevillier's very interesting pages 89, 90. 'The Sorbonne society (adds the same writer) holds this first Parisian printer, and his testamentary dispositions, in equally sacred remembrance. An anniversary commemoration of him is celebrated in the chapel ; which consists of chanting the service of the dead, at vespers, and, at morning, of the IX. Psalms, Lessons, Lauds, the high Mass, with two other low Masses for the Dead. In the sacristy is this necrological memorandum : (23. Aug. 1510) Obitus Vb~ic Gering, Civis ac Typographi Parisiemis, insignis Benefactoris hujus Domus, pro quo Missa solemnis et du<E privata de Defunctis. Die p-mcedenti Vigilia.' L'Origine de Vlmprimerie, ^c. p. 97.
Maittaire calls the type of the earlier books of Gering, &c. ' fat and round ;
\
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Friburger, both in the gothic and roman types, are suffi- ciently repulsive — compared with contemporaneous pro- ductions; but towards the year 1478 they adopted a new roman fount of letter, and became worthier rivals of their Parisian competitors C^sauis and Stol *
printed with a clear and beautiful ink ; upon paper not remarkably white, but sufficiently thick and well sized.' His account of the early Parisian press, under the auspices of Louis Xlth, is borrowed from Naude's Add. a I'Hist. de Louis XL and is rather interesting. Annal. Typog. vol. i. p. 23-5. Whatever were his political faults, Louis cannot be reproached with a want of attention to the interests of literature. He was a very bibliomanical cormorant ; and enriched the Royal Library with a prodigious number of fine books. His passion and taste were probably regulated by that of his librarian, Robert Gaguin, of whom Dubreuil is loud and vehement in his testimonies of approbation. Antiq. de Paris, l\v. iii. p. 10-49. Laurence Palmier, and John Fouquet of Tours, were also engaged in the preservation and decoration (the latter, professedly an illu- minator) of the royal books. Essai Histurique sur la Bibliothtque du Roi, 1782, 8vo. p. 14.
* Parisian Competitors, C;esaris and Stol.] ' It should seem (says the Abbe Mercier de St. Leger) that the same degree of rivalry which distinguished the presses of Sweynhe^on and Pannartz, and Ulric Han, at Rome, marked the operations of those of Gering, and Cassaris and Stol, at Paris : ' Does the former print and publish a book ? — the same work appears in the subsequent year from the press of the latter, Caesaris 1' SuppMment, &c. p. 125. This is lively and perhaps not wide of the truth. Caesaris and Stol were also Germans ; and, according to Chevillier, (but it is a mere gratis dictum) were instructed in their art by Gering. They first lived in the Rue de St. Jacques, < a Venseigne du Soufflet vert;' but towards the close of his life, Caesaris removed his house, in the same street, to the Sign of the Swan and the Soldier. The first production of their press, or rather of that of Caesaris, (in the colophon of which he is called ' Master of Arts ') is the Manipulus Curatorum, of 1473, folio, in the gothic character ; described with tolerable minuteness in the Cat. de la Valliere, vol. i. p. 216, no. 613. In the ' Speculum Vitae Humanae Roderici Zamorensis,' the united names of Caesaris and Stol perhaps appear for the first time, thus :
perfinxit Regia Parisius Presserunt Petrus Caesaris, simul atque loannes Stol, quibus ars quod habet omne retulit eis. Chevillier thinks that the books, where no dates are subjoined, were executed about the year 1474 ; ' and to their presses the public were indebted for the beautiful edition (says he) of the Dialogues of Ochani, of the date of 1476 ; which Naud6, incorrectly, attributes to the Gering press. Chevillier thinks the
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These latter printers, as far as I can discover, first put their press in motion about the year 1475. Their perform- ances are rather favourites with me ; as they uniformly abandoned the ugly Gothic character of Gering, and adopted a roman type at once proportionate and legible. I know not how it is, but the roman letter does not seem to have been a general favourite at Paris till towards the time of Gourmont and Colinaeus : for Verard, Bocard, Bonhomme, Mittelhus, Eustace, Bonfons, Remboldt, and sundry other typographical wights, of eminence in their day, almost in- variably adhered to the Gothic character.
The success of the Jirst German Firm of printers at Paris,
Roman type of Caesaris and Stol inferior to that of the earlier productions of their Parisian predecessors : but he is certainly wrong in such judgment. He adds, that Peter Caesaris lodged at the end of the Rue de St. Jacques (as I have before observed) — and that the Sorbonne doctors, to whom that house belonged, granted him, in the year 1486, a lease for life, which continued till the year 1509 — as may be seen in the Registers of the Proctors of that Company.' p. 56-7". I know of no specimen of the Roman type of these printers before the Epistles of Seneca, of 1475 : which, together with the Solinus, Sallust, (of excessive rarity) Vegetius, and Florus, are in the library of Earl Spencer ; as indeed are nearly all the rarer and earlier pieces of the Sorbonne press. The type of Csesaris and Stol is evidently superior to that of Gering, as used by the latter before the year 1478. Some notion of the peculiar formation of their capital letters may be obtained from the fac-simile given in the Bibl. Spenceriana, vol. ii. p. 344 : which said capitals have inspired the epigrammatic muse of Erhard Windsberg — in certain distichs attached to an impression of the Tusculancs Quastioiies and De Finibus of Cicero, executed by these printers :
Quem si Cephaleis (litteris capitalibus, quibus usi sunt Petr, Caesaris et Joh. Stol) vulgaribus annotavi His libris, veniam, lector humane dabis. See Panzer, vol. ii. p. 279-280 : briefly referred to in Maittaire, vol. i. p. 54, note. It should be observed that, to the best of my knowledge, neither the firm of Gering and Co, nor of Caesaris and Co. used any device. Subsequent Parisian printers (' Galli fere omnes, pauci Germani ' — as Lichtenberger, p. 210, justly observes) made ample amends for such a cold and cheerless termination in the productioas of their predecessors. They were resolved to conclude with 6clat 1
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induced, I apprehend, a second similar Firm, under the names of Higman and Hopyl, to establish a printing office in that city. Accordingly, these two typographical artists commenced business there about the year 1 4S4;* but follow- ing the examples of a host of printers, then beginning to open their offices, they confined themselves chiefly to books of theology, including church-services; and rarely indulged the tasteful reader with an impression of a classical author.
Now that I have got you fast within the capital of the French empire, let me disport myself a little in topics con- nected with early Parisian printing. Be it known, then, that Devices were never used by the Fathers of the French press — but among the Elder Sons of the same press (if you will allow me the privilege of such an expression) few came forward with such a blaze of splendour as Antoine Veeard ;t whether we consider the number, the size, or the
* Higman and Hopyl — commenced business about the year 1484.] John HiGMAN printed the poem ' de quatuor fontibus honestatis' of Mancinus, in 1484, 4to. in the Sorbonne Academy : see Panzer, vol. ii. p. 285, no. 103 : and La Caille, p. 69. His partner ,Wolfgang Hopyl, printed ' Martinus, de Fortitudine,' in 1489 ; but when they first commenced printhig together, I am unable to specify, although the Cat. de la Valliere (vol. ii. no. 2589) says they printed in unison from the first-mentioned period. Their joint names appear in the colophon of an edition of Seneca's Tragedies, without date, in 4to. See Bihl. Spenceriana, vol. ii. p. 350. The device of Hopyl, who printed alone in 1495, may be seen in the work just referred to, vol. iii. p. 298, Chevillier has scarcely any notice of these German artists.
t few came foi-ward with such a blaze of splendour as Antoine Verard.] La Caille is quite eloquent in commendation of the brave Anthony. ' Ce Verard a este un de ceux qui ont le plus imprim6 de son temps, et particulierement des Romans, dont il y a plus de cent volumes imprimez sur du v61in, omez de tres belles migniatures, en imitant le plus soigneusement les manuscrits sur lesquels ils imprimoient, que I'on pent voir en la Bibliotheque du Roy.' De I'Imprim. et de la Librairle, p. 63. Maittaire makes him begin to flourish in the year 1480, and is not less eloquent in his praise: ' quo vix alius Typographus majorem Librorum copiam in lucem edidit. Artem diu exercuit indefessus certe laude, ut paucissimos ex coaevis pares habuerit' . . . ' Libris sermone Gallico iuipriruendis
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populai-ity of his publications. That you may judge whe- ther I speak * without book,' observe in what a bold and almost original manner he introduces his capital letters! Did you ever see such an / and L ?* They are fit for a volume of the amplest Brobdignagian dimensions ! While I am upon the subject of ornaments, let me, before I lay before you the device of Verard, make you acquainted with the style of art in the Engravings usually introduced within the volumes of his printing. The following are among the more curious and elaborate specimens; taken from La Mer des Histoires.
egregiam ac fere totam impendit operam inter quos maximam ei gratiaiii debent Historiarum ficlarum Scriplores. Ingeutia vulgavit ejus fai'raginis volumina de * Seethe accompanying fac-simili.s.
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The type of Verard is uniformly gothic, of a secretary cast ; and has a strong family resemblance to the types of the generality of the Parisian printers of this period. It is of three different founts ; and the largest, when struck off upon VELLUM,* which is not unfrequently the case, has a most
Lanceloto Tristano reliquisque errabuudis Equitibus, quos Amor et laudis cupido varies casus volvere, calenatos labwes adire impulerat.' Annal. Typog. vol. i. p. 36. From the same authority (p. 405) and Denis (no. 837) it seems pretty certain that Verard executed three works in the year 1480.
* when upon vellum.'] From the testimony of La Caille it should seem that VELLUM Verards are not very rare. In our own countiy, or perhaps in any country, the Mirroir Spirituel et Historial of "Vincent Beauvais, in 6 folio volumes, 1495, is probably the noblest existing vellum monument of Verard. The British
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imposing aspect. His productions are almost innumerable : but now for his device ! You have it here with exact fidelity.
The Device of Anthony Verard.
Museum is enriched witli a copy of this magnificent set of books, which had formerly belonged to Henry VII. The Duke of Devonshire possesses La Mer des Histoires, and the Hafod library boasts of the Clironiques de St. Denis and the Prophecies de Merlin (botli from the Paris Collection, and most luxuriantly described in the catalogue of it ; nos. 375, 543,) all upon vellum. But it is in the Royal library at Paris that the vellum- Verard-loving collector must expect to find the fairest and most highly-adorned specimens. More than one book-case
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This induces me to proceed without delay to a selection of some other similar ornaments used by the more popular printers of the day. Come forward, then, ye Marnefs,* Du Pbes, Marchants, Mittelhuses, Pigouchets, Le VosTREs, Le Rouges, Le Noirs, Remboldts, Roches, Eustaces, Bocards, Petits, Kervers, Gourmonts ! —
LisARDO. I crave you mercy! One at a time, dear Lysander.
Lysander. No ; they must be grouped in masses : and then, I beheve, they must only
' Come Uke shadows, so depart.' Proceed we therefore to select the Devices of some of these renowned printers ; for the Annals of the Parisian Press,
is reserved there for these tempting treasures ; and tlierefore, however my friend Hibbert may justly plume himself upon the spirit and taste which prompted him to possess Mr. Goldsmid's fine copy of the first Arthur and Lancelot, of 1488, printed by the said Verard — and obtained at a price proportionabJy joyous-— yet let him read Brunet's notice of two vellum co»ies of the Lancelot of 1494, in the Manuel du Libraire, vol. ii. p. 220-1 (edit. 1814), and let him— not despair- but exclaim, ' my first edition upon paper is better than the second upon vellum!' It is questionable whether Verard did not strike off a vellum copy of every work which he printed : at least I understand the shelves of the royal collection, just mentioned, almost groan benciith the weight of vellum folios fi-om the press of that truly eminent typographical artist. The Bodleian and British Museum collections also contain very numerous vellum treasures from the same quarter.
* Ceme forward then, ye Marnefs.] It is rather probable, than possible, that the reader might like a sort of sketchy detail of the typographical feats of the more celebrated printers, including those above mentioned, which, since the dissolution of the partnership of Gering, Crantz, and Friburger, distinguished the early annals of the Paris press. Some reader, perhaps, of a volatile and aery temperament, may prefer plunging at once amidst the ornaments or devices of printers ; as exhibited in the subsequent pages by Lysander — without condescend- ing to wade through the previous typographical notices. Let him do so, if it please him. The better way, I submit, will be to cast an occasional or prospective glance upon such devices of printers as happen to be here ' discoursed of.' Not that all the devices are displayed.
The Maenefs and Du PREs(or De Pratis) commenced their career in the yeai- 1481. There were three brothers of the former : George, Enguiibert, and John.
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towards the close of the xvth century, if fully detailed, might occupy some good 500 pages of a quarto volume ; ChevilUer having embraced the literary as well as the typographical history of the same press. Panzer, if I remember rightly, devotes nearly 100 pages, pretty closely filled, to his annals of the Parisian press during the last thirty years of the Fifteenth Century — and in this list, satisfactory upon the whole as it undoubtedly is, not only several curious books are of necessity omitted, but many, absolutely described, require a yet more extended description. Indeed I greatly wish that some ingenious French bibhographer would furnish us only with an octavo manual relating to the works even of the printers already described; to which, no doubt, many other names of equal celebrity may be advantageously added: but I despair of the appearance of such a biblio- graphical desideratum . . . Lorenzo. Wherefore ?
Ly SANDER. Because the French bibliographers have
George printed a ti-eatise of Montfiquet ' upon the Presence, in the Sacrament,' in folio, in 1481 : referred to by Maittaire, vol. i. p. 427, and Panzer, vol. ii. p. 283, no. 76 : a copy of which, according to the latter, is in the Royal Collec- tion at Paris. The names of both Enguilbert and George, with their device, (see p. 35 post) appear in the treatise of Isidore, ' de summo bono,' 1491, 8vo. : while in tlie Terence of 1492, printed by Wolf for Pigouchet and Enguilbert de Marnef, the Christian name of George does not appear. See Panzer, vol. ii. p. 297, no. 231 ; p. 300, no. *254. John de Marnef did not probably begin to print before the year 1500 : when ' Le Coutumier de Poitou' came out at this time, printed however at Paris, for John, who lived at Poictiers. ' Hinc (says Maittaire) constat lohannem de Marnef Librarise mercatura; operam dedisseanno 1500.' Annul. Typog. vol. i. p. 736, note 8. In fact, the names of John and J^nguilbert de Marnef, as printers at Poictiers, appear as late as the year j.538, in Le Traversuer's treatise entitled ' Le lugenient poetic de I'honneur feminin et seiour des illustres claires et honnestes Dames,' 4to. On the recto of fol. xcvi. and last, at bottom, in italics, we read ' Imprim^ a Poictiers le premier d'Auril M.D.xxxvm. par lehan ^ Enguilbert de Marnef Freres; ' having, on the reverse, the following device — borrowed from, bbt improved upon, what is given at
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of late shewn even less inclination than our own to researches into the early history of their literature — connected with rare and curious specimens of printing. What a fund of Romance-Literature might the volumes of Verard, and of the typographical tribe just mentioned, alone furnish ? — and why may not the substratum, afforded by Gordon de Percel, in his Usage des Romans , be mixed up with matter of a more attractive nature ? The very ' rich and rare ' gothico- gallicised cabinet of our friend in Portland Place, would of itself supply materials, which, ^in the hands of a Prospeeo or a Palmerin, — or in the hands of its ingenious owner — could not fail to contain a most delectable treat to the lovers of ancient belles-lettres lore.
page 35, post. The curious collection of Mr. Lang contains a choice copy of this desirable volume.
According to La Caille, p. 70, this John and Enguilbert De Marnef were sons of the John before mentioned, and printed at Poictiers almost as late as 1550. La Caille further observes that the initials £ and G, at top of the three batons, or black sticks, in their first device, (vide post) denote Enguilbert and Geoffrey De Marnef; but both Mailtaire and Panzer expressly mention George. There are
FIFTH DAY.
83
Belinda. But these Devices — with which you promised to treat us ! Ladies, you know, love pretty patterns ; and if my sister comport herself with particular kindness and civility towards me, I know not whether the coat-armour of Philip Le Rouge, or Michel Le Noir, may not be worked upon the flounce of her court-gown — against the next birth day ! ?
Almansa. Beware how I take you at your word — LiSARDO. No, my Almansa ; let us quarter them upon
our arms . . . This, at any rate, would be a more durable
mark of respect. But we are rambling.
Lysander. I cannot however — before these patterns for
however some earlier devices v^ith the three initials E I G above the cross batons. After the middle of the x vith century, Jehom de Marnef, the youngest son, if not the grandson of one of the earlier printers of that name, went into partnership with William Cavellat, at Paris; and, among other works, these printers exhibited a most beautiful, and elaborately-bordered device of their Pelican — perhaps not to be exceeded — in an edition of ' Alfonsus a Castro adversus omnes Ha>reticos,' (1564, folio.) Jerom however printed, alone, several pretty little books, with the Pelican very tastefully introduced in the frontispiece. Bagford's Collection, Hart. MSS. no. 5922, p. 222. The fac-simile given in a subsequent page is taken from the ' Illustrations de Gaule' of 1511, folio : ' printed at Paris by Engelbert and John De Mamef, sworn booksellers of' the Univerdty of Paris — and for Peter Viart; ^c. ^c. but it should be remembered that the same device appeared often in the xvtb century ; and, among other works, at the end of a volume of Horw, printed by Pigouchet in 1491, 8vo. : see Bibl. Spenceriana, vol. iv. p. 510 ; and page 31 ante.
Iehan du Pre, or Ioannes de Pkatis, printed a Missal ' after the Church of Rome' as early as the year 1481 : see Maittaire, vol. i. p, 420. His device is executed, a little ui the gothic style, after the manner of those of Verard and Bocard : consisting of two swans supporting a shield, argent, helmet above : below, the monogram of his initials, and his name at full length : the whole com- prised in a square border, with aTfi angel playing on a harp to the left, and another playing on a guitar to the right : beneath, his coat of arms, a chevron between three stars ; and supporters of naked boys. The whole almost entirely in outline.
GuYOT Marchant, or Guido Mercator, was a most indefatigable printer ; and lived ' behind the College of Navarre at the Great Hotel of the Champs Galliart.* He printed as early as 1483, according to Maittaire, vol. i. p. 441,
34
FIFTH DAY.
flounces, or heraldic quarterings, (which you please) are laid before you — forbear submitting one other preliminary remark ; namely, that you will not fail to observe, in the History of the Parisian press, towards the close of the xvth century, the almost total absence of a classical taste in the selection of the authors printed. The excellent example set by the Founder of that press, Gering, was feebly or par- tially followed. Verard, perhaps the most opulent as well as popular printer of his time, has not, to the best of my recollection, favoured us with a single impression of a Roman Classic : although Caesaris and Stol, and occasionally Higman and Hopyl, shewed that such example had not been entirely thrown away upon them. The school of Verard, if I may so speak, (including the Pigouchets, Le Noirs, Kervers, &c.) is chiefly distinguished for French Versions of Authors of the middle ages, for Romances and Church Rituals. The opening of the sixteenth century witnessed a profusion of similar publications, till the purer
note 5 : although La Caille does not mention him before the year 1490. Hist, de la Librairie, p. 66. His device of the Shoemakers, with the galliard chant above, is very whimsical ; and may be seen at page 36, ensuing. His impression of the ' Danse Macabre, & Miroir salutaire pour toutes gens,' &c. of 1486, is much more rare and estimable than the ' Usuardi Martyrologium ad usura Ecclesise Parisiensis,' 1490, of which La Caille speaks. See Cat. de la Valliere, vol. ii. no. 2802-4.
Georgius Mittelhus, whose fantastical device is given at page 37, post, prmted, according to Malluitrot, p. 89 (on whose authority, slender in this instance, Maittaire exclusively relies, p. 452, note 2) a treatise ' de corpore Christi' in the year 1484. La Caille (p. 65) does not notice any thing from his press before the year 1489. Tlie forementianed device is taken from a treatise * De omnibus virtutibus et omnibus officiis ad bene beateque vivendum in 1492, 4to. About the years 1491-5, this printer seems to have bad a great poilion of business.
Of all printers, about this period, few were more distinguished than Philippe PiGoucHET and SibJon Vostre. Their devices adorn pages 38, 39, post. Their Missals, of which I have seen a great number, are oftentimes exceedingly
FIFTH DAY.
35
taste and sounder judgment of Goukmont, Colin^us, and the Stephens, not only laid the foundation, but completed the superstructure, of classical literature in France. Now then for our Devices, Shields, or Coat-Armourso/'Printees: at least for a few only of the more popular ones.
The Device of the De Marnefs.
(See pages 30-33, ante.)
beautifiil, and successfully executed upon vellum. They began to piint for each other as early as the year 1484, or at least in 1486 : and continued, apart, or united, to put forth a number of popular manuals of church services as late as the year 1515. La Caille is unpardonably brief in his account of two such celebrated pruiters : see pages 66-7. Pigouchet, in the naivet6 of the old school, calls his own types ' very beautiful and pleasant.' His device VOL. II. D
36
FIFTH DAY.
The Device of Guyot Marchand.
(See page 33, ante.)
was borrowed, if not stolen, by Iehan Poitevin ; who substituted only the Initials of his name, instead of those of Pigouchet, in the centre of the shield suspended to the tree. I have met with several instances of such saucy theft on the part of Poitevin. This subject has been before noticed : see vol. i. p. 91. As to Simon Vostre, he seems to have been more of a bookseller than a printer ; although there are unquestionably many beautiful volumes which issued from his press. Among other printers, he employed Nicolas Higman (a brother of John and Damian Higman, but he has escaped La Caille) to execute a pretty volume of Hor(E, in the Spanish language, with wood-cut borders, in 8vo. without date; but probably as early as 1515. Lord Spencer possesses a copy of this book, in its original binding. On signature c 8, recto, is a pretty fair impression of the group of figures, upon a wall, mentioned in vol. i. p. 62, note * — viewing St. John in the cauldron of boiling oil. Vostre's merits have been discussed in vol. i. p. 90.
FIFTH DAY.
37
Mr-:
The Devick of George Mittelhus.
(See page 34, ante.)
Premising tliat Caillaut and Mahtineau began to print in 1483, (La Caille, p. 62) and Denis Janot in 1484, (note two tempting copies, upon vellum, of books of this date, in La Caille, p. 62) I proceed, but unavoidably in a hasty manner, to place a wreath upon the brows of that worthy old gentleman Pasquier Bonhomme, ' one of the four principal Parisian booksellers;' who iadeed ought to have received an earlier tribute of respect, and who commenced his meritorious labours with a magnificent (and now rare) impression of Chroniques de France, called Les Chroniques de St. Denis, in 1476, folio, 3 volumes. These were reprinted in 1493 by Verard, in 3 volumes ; and again by Eustace, with additions, in 1514, 3 volumes, in folio : of which two latter impressions the Macarthy collection may justly boast of copies upon vellum: that of Eustace
38
FIFTH DAY.
The Device of Phillipe Pigouchet.
(See pages 34-36, ante.)
having been in the Valliere collection. It remains only to send the reader, if he be in a roving disposition, to La Caille, p. 61 ; the Bibliogr. Instruct, vol. vi. p. 60- 62, and to the Cat. de la Valliere, vol. iii. p. 179-181. Maittaire is more than usually gossipping : p. 360, note 4 ; but why does he refer to the treacherous Orlandi ? The Macarthy copy of Verard's edition wanted the first volume ; but a perfect and stupendous copy, also upon vellura, from Claude d'Urfe's library, was in the Paris collection; purchased by the late Mr, Johnes for 151/. 4*.: see page 29, ante : Cat. de Mc Carthy, vol. ii. nos. 4504, 4506. La CailJe men- tions a brother of Pasquier, of the name of John, who began to print in 1486 j
FIFTH DAY.
39
The Device of Simon Vostre.
(See pages 34-36, ante.)
also one of the bookselling grandees of Paris : see p. 62, 3. I find the name of Matthew Bonhomme (among Bagford's papers) who printed at Lyons, in 1560, ' at the sign of the Golden Key : ' if not before.
What shall we say of Robinet Mace, and Pierre Levet, who each began to print somewhere about the year 1486 ? Examine Panzer, for three minutes only, at vol. ii. p. 287, no. 119, &c. Levet was a particularly active printer. Then again for Pierre le Rouge (or Petrus Rubeus) a brother no doubt of Jacobus Rubeus of Venice — (whose press was put in motion as early as
40
FIFTH DAY.
The Device of Beiithold Remboldt.
(See page 41.)
1474)_what is to be observed of him? See Panzer, vol. ii. p. 288, no. 127; p. 289, no. 142 ; wliere we find him styled ' Uhraire et imprimeur du roy notre sire,' in the first edition of that well known work, I.a Mer des Histoires, 1488, folio, 2 volumes. He began to print in 1487, if not before. I can only take off my hat, ' en passant,' to Messieurs Balligault (whose pretty device of monkeys, executed in red, graces page 346 of vol. iii. of the B. S. ; and who was imitated in such device by lehan Lambert, with the following couplet — being a pun upon the Christian name of Balligault, which was Felix :
Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum
Est fortunatus/e/tx diuesque beatus. or
'Eat felix faustus cui sit fortuiia secunda.
FIFTH DAY.
•il
The Device of the Same.
and George Wolff (each of whom began to print in 1488 or 1489 : the latter, in partnership with Cruczenach in 1494 — see Panzer, vol. ii. p. 291, no. 1G2, &c. p. 305, no. 310, &c.) in order to dwell a little more particularly upon Bertholt Remboldt ; whose devices adorn tlie present pages, and who first printed in partnership with his master Gering in 1489, according to an inference of Maittaire, (p. 505, note 2) supposed to be warranted by the text of Chevillier, p. 98 : but see the parenthetical caution of Panzer, vol. ii. p. 290, no. 148. From 1494 to 1497, the names of Gering and Rembolt appear constantly.
42
FIFTH DAY.
|
P |
|
o
\\\\\
The Device of Michel Le Noir.
(See page 45, 'post.)
together ; but it was not till the year 1507, that Remboldt, then united to Chahlotte Guili.ard, took a separate house, at a rent of 12 livres, (on condi- tion of laying out 600 iivres upon the premises) and thought of commencing business on his own account. In 1509 his nanie first appears alone under his
44
FIFTH DAY.
The Device of Denis Roche.
(See page 47, jiost.)
another printer for a second spouse ■ — under the name of Claude Chevallon, ' qui vint (says the amusing ChevilJier) dc la Dace de Cambray demeurer avec elle au Soleil d'Or, ou il fit toutes ces belles Impressions des SS. Peres de I'Eglise que les S9avans recherclient,' p. 97. Madame Chevallon or Charlotte Cuillard — which ever name be thought the more correct — outlived her second husband ; who died in 154!2. Charlotte however took away the initials of her first husband's name, and substituted those of her own, upon his decease ; which initials continued during the life time of her second husband — and are found, in a beautiful and elaborate device, bearing testimony of her being ' the widow of Claude Chevallon,' and publishing in unison with G. Desboys — in a volume of the date of 1555. In the ibllowing year she died. Her house, according to Chevillier, was long afterwards distinguished as the residence of some printer or other. It may be added that Remboldt's larger device was stolen by P. Gromorsus ; who put his own name at full length below, and his initials in the centre of the shield, above. In a little quarto volume, (from which the smaller
FIFTH DAY. ^ 45
The Device oe the Same.
(See p. 47, j ost.)
device at p. 40, was taken) of the date of 1512, containing excerpts from the ■works of St. Cyprian, I find the worth3' name of Berthold Remboldt in conjunc- tion with ONE wliich of late has thrilled throughout Europe! Read, patriotic reader, what ' hereafter folioweth : ' ' vigiliis et sumptibus magistri Bartholdi Rembolt, et loannis Waterloe calcographorum j}eritissimorum ac veracissimorum collecta et impressa : quorum distinctio f route sequenti notatur.' What a cluster of amusing anecdotes, relating to our ancient printers, might a little research bring together ?
We now approach the Le Noirs — Michel and Philippe : see the fac-similes of their devices at pages 42-3, ante. There is a smaller and prettier device of Michel's, between 3 and 4 inches high, with birds below his shield bearing his initials, having the inscription of
Cest mon desir de Dieu Seruir
Pour acquerir son doux Plaisir. La Caille gives the date of 1489 to Michel's first performance : (' Le Chevalier
46
FIFTH DAY.
j3*3(B30Hq*wiM>aawmoa
The Device op Andreas Bocaed.
(See page 51 , post,)
deliber^ en la inort du Due de Bourgoyne ;') and to liis work (p. 64, copied by Maittaire, vol. i. p. 236) the reader is referred for the epitaph of tlie same printer ; who died in 1520, and left monies for the chanting of Masses for the repose of the souls of himself and his wife Jane Teppere. Philip was one of his children ; and in a French translation of Orosius, of the date of 1526 (in the possession of the Rev. J. M. Rice) he is called ' Libraire et Relieur : ' as indeed were the generality of early Parisian printers. Philip's magnificent device was taken from a copy of Bocace's ' Genealogie des Dieux,' of 1531 ; in the very curious and interesting collection of my friend Mr. Lang. It is not, as La Caille (p, 91) observes, ' the same mark as his father's :'
----- Your pardons I crave. Ye Cahons, and Belins, and Beniauts brave — Ye Maillets, and Laubens, and Treppebels fair, Ye Lamberts, Richards, and Maces debonnair!
FIFTH DAY.
47
The Device of Iehan Petit.
CSee page 52, post.)
if I pass by ye, to pay a few minutes of respect to those distinguished typogra- phical wights, Denis Roche, Guillaume Eustace, Andreas Bocard, Iehan Petit, Pierre and Francis Regnault, and Thiehuan Kerver! The spirit of Udalricus Gering animate and sustain me in these sketches — of men, dear to their country, celebrated in their day, and of a reputation, yet to be more extensively circulated and acknowledged ! First, then, of Denis Roche. He commenced printing in 1490, according to the authority of Le Long, as cited by Maittaire, p. 528, note 8 ; although La Caille first mentions an impression of the later date of 1499. He was a most indefatigable printer ; and his device, as given at page 44, ante, is, I think, among the prettier ones of the period in which he lived.
But of Eustace — how can I speak in adequate terms of commendation? What splendid, what amusing, what truly valuable works are indebted to his press for their existence? Bear witness St. Denis and Froissart — to mention no others'. Of the former, a brief notice will be found at page 29, ante : of the latter, methinks I see, in imagination, upon the sloping piece of mahogany at my
48
FIFTH DAY.
The Device of the Same.
left hand, the lovely and matchless copies, one upon paper, the other upon VELLUM, which adorn the shelves of the Althorp and Hcfod Collections ; over the latter of which, in the silence of remote retirement, the bibliomaniac sighs with more than ordinary mental anguish, when he thinks that the hands, which lately tm-ned over its pages with profit to the world, are now stiffened in death ! No vulgar hands have reposed upon that same vellum copy — it was once De Thou's, and afterwards the Prince de Soubise's ; at the sale of whose library in 1786 (Cat. de Soubise, no. 6818*) it was purchased by Mr. Paris for 2999 livres, 19 sous; and from the sale of whose library, in turn, it was purchased by Mr. Johnes (I need hardly add, the last owner of the Hafod copy !) for 149Z. 2s. A remark in the Paris Catalogue, no. 546, says, ' nothing has been spared in its binding by De Rome :'. . . I wish everything had been spared : at least, tliat
FIFTH DAY.
49
The Device of Thielman Kerver.
(See -page 52, post.)
Monsieur De Rome had never applied his trenchant instruments to sucli a copy — for know, cultivator of bibliographical virtu, that its previous and precious binding was that of De Thou's library— (' Vox faucibus hseret !') mellow-tinted red morocco, with the arms, as usual, of that magnificent bibliomaniacal ' President ' upon the sides — and in such binding it came from the Soubise Collection ! I am sufficiently well acquainted with De Rome's ' trenchant ' propensities to conceive what must have been the amplitude of margin which this unique copy once pos- sessed. But where was the taste of Monsieur Paris ? Of the two, he was surely the greater culprit. Return we now, for a mmute only, to the printer of these delicious tomes. I question if Eustace published any thing on his own account before the year 1498, or 1500. He, and Jehan Maur ana, printed the ' Grands Chroniques de France,' (often called de St.Denis) in 1493, folio, for Anthony Verard ; VOL. II. E
50
FIFTH DAY.
FIFTH DAY,
51
The Device of Francis Regnault.
(See page 54, post.)
of which mention has been made already at p. 29, ante. From the year 1500 to 1520, (as I think) inclusively, the press of Eustace was in constant and most honourable occupation; and let his Crowned Heads and Centaurs, I entreat, (as you see them at page 45, ante) receive no slight homage as you regale yourself, chronicle-searching reader, among the tomes which tell of the ' olden time.'
Advance we now to Andreas Bocahd, ' one of the most skilful printers of his time, as may be seen from the number of books which he printed as well for others as for himself.' La Caille, p. 68. He began to print about the year 1494 j and in his device, given at page 46 ante, he incorporated the arms of France, the arms of the City of Paris, and those of the University of the same city. His first effort was accomplished ' at the expense of Jacques Bezanceau, a merchant of Poictiers:' see Panzer, vol. ii. p. 306, no. *317. He printed frequently for
52
FIFTH DAY.
What say you to these emblematic Representations, Devices, Shields, Coat-armours— call them by what name you please ! ?
DuHAND Gkhlieb ; and both Chevillier (p. 324) and La CaiUe notice the ' very rare book' of the ' Figure Biblicae, &c. Anthonii de Rarapegolis,' of 1497, executed by Bocard for the same bookseller. (Look for one minute at Fabric. BibL Med. et Inf. Mat. vol. i. p. 130, edit. 1754.) Bocard printed also for Gering and J. Petit. His motto may be gathered from the border surrounding his device. His device, however, as well as that of Ioan Trepperel (in the ' Lunettes des Princes' of the latter, of 1504, 4to.) is a close imitation, in the arrangement of ornament and inscription, of the device of Verard; and perhaps the same artist executed both.
About the vear 1495 the Ascensian Press, or the press of the learned loDOCus Badius Ascensius, was established at Paris ; but as that press was quickly removed to Lyons, I shall ' discourse thereupon ' in the account of Lyouese printers. Let us now make room for the illustrious name of Petit. lean Petit appears to have first worked in conjunction with that renowned bibliopolist and typographical artist, Guy Le Marchant ; of whom a good deal (although scarcely a fourth part sufficient) has been already said ; see pp. 33, 36. La Caille assigns the date of 1498 to his earliest attempt, but inaccurately : see Panzer, vol. ii. p. 311, no. 370. At first it should seem that he was rather the publisher than the printer ; as more books of an early date are executed for, than by, him. He was made keeper or syndic of the royal library and printing oflSce ; and in 1516 procured a confirmation of the privileges and exemptions of booksellers and printers as granted them by Louis XL : but it was not till the year 1530 (if La Caille be accurate) that he received the distinction of being « sworn bookseller and printer to the University of Paris :' p. 71. His industry and gains (let us hope the latter, for the sake of his wife Guillemette de la Vione) were perhaps hardly ever exceeded : ' One may say of him (observes Chevillier) that he was the first of his day who kept various presses in motion ; as not fewer than fifteen printers were constantly engaged in his service.' His devices are given at pages 47-8, ante. Among Bagford's papers, I find a work printed by I. Ruelle, with a pretty device of a bird feeding her y gang ones, among vine leaves and fruits, upon a rock, in the sea— with the motto ' In pace ubertas '— having 1. Petit's initials, and bottom-border compartment, beneath : I suppose, executed for the latter. In the same multifarious collection, there is a neatly designed pair of rampant lions, smaller, as the device of Audinet Petit : probably a son of lean. Consult Maittaire, vol. iii. p. 120.
I must again make scanty mention of the associated labours of Higman and Hopyl, (see p. 26, ante) and only call Damian Higman by his name, (noticing the omission of Jiim by La Caille and Chevillier) in order to pay a respectful obeisance to the illustrious name of Thielman Kerver. Yet gaze a moment, tasteful reader, at the very shewy and elegant device of the said Damian
FIFTH DAY.
53
Almansa. T am infinitely delighted with them; but I rust the stock of\)ur Host is not yet exhausted ?
Lysander. Far from it ; as you shall presently see. Let me however pause a moment to inform you, that, hitherto, we have been traveUing exclusively in the Fifteenth Century —
Higman (from Bagford's Collection) which adorns page 72 post. La Caille notices no book of Kerver's printing before the year 1504 ; but Lord Spencer possesses specimens in the years 1497 and 1498 : see the Bibl. Spenceriana, vol. iv. p. 512-514. These are probably among the earliest productions of his press. He married (says La Caille) Yolande Bonhomme, the daughter of Pasquier Bonhomme, and particularly applied himself to the printing of Missals ; m the sale of which he seems to have had an extensive concern, and was almost the only one who used red and black inks.' p. 76. Other printers, however, equally excelled in the variety of inks, as the pages from 87 to 93, of the prece- ing volume of this work, sufficiently shew. La Caille does not notice the distinction which is attached to Kerver's name as being found in the first book printed in the Italic type in France: see vol. i. p. 92. He gives us however some interesting short notices, sufficient to prove how intimately connected the history of the earlier Parisian printers is with that of the State of Arts and of Literature in Paris at the same period. ' Kerver (adds he) made several foun- dations, and to him we are indebted for the large stained-glass window above the door of the church of St, Benedict, finished in 1525, and containing the device (see p. 49, ante) which he introduced in his books. It is distinguished as being one of the finest church-windows in Paris. The same spirited character caused a similar window to be erected over the high altar of the church of RR. PP. Mathurins, where is also seen his device, as upon several other ornaments which he gave to these two churches, and in one of which his ashes repose.' Hist, de Vlmprim, p. 76. I take it that Kerver died not long after the finishing of these wuidows, as his widow put forth an impression of the ' Enchiridion Eccl. Sarisb.' in 1528 : see vol. i. p. 92 — of which book my friend Mr. Neunburg also possesses a copy upon vellum, that had successively belonged to Wanley, Lord Oxford, West, and the late Mr. Pitt — of missal-loving memory, (not, therefore, the late Mr. Pitt of power-loving memory). In this copy Mr. West wrote (as it strikes me, and as I have often written myself) a foolish memorandum : describing it to be ' the finest-printed English Missal on vellum, and the only one of this edition in England.' The memorandum bears the date of 1743. Kerver left behind three children ; John, James, and Tliielman. James, in 1534, used the device of two fighting cocks, very neatly cut in wood ; and was the more active printer of the three. He also used a single, large unicorn, with his paw upon a shield. Consult La Caille, p. 105. So farewell to thee,' — ' peritissimus Calcogea- PHORUM Thielmannus Kerver Confluentinus !' see Panzer, vol. ii. p. 333, no. 595.
1
54
FIFTH DAY.
and are now just about stepping over the threshold to look around us in the early part of the Sixteenth Century — LisARDO. Proceed without fear, and gaze without ennui.
In our way to the Rkgnaults, (Peter and Francis) may we ask who was that David Lauxius, ' Brytannus Edinburgensis,' that printed with Higman and Hopyl hi 1496? See the particularised colophon in Panzer, vol. ii. p. 312, no. 378. (A better account of him will no doubt be given in Mr. G. Chalmers's forthcoming history of Scottish printing.) Let Francis and Peter Regnault have conspicuous places upon those shelves which groan beneath the weight of black- letter lore ! La Caille makes Peter to be the son of Francis, and assigns the date of 1506 (instead of 1500, according to Panzer) to the first book printed by the latter : but here is some mistake. Poter was rather an elder brother, as I con- ceive ; as there is direct evidence of his having caused an impression of one of the books of Ovid's Metamorphoses to be printed in 1496, 4to. see Maittaire, p. 628. In the colophon of that impression he is described as ' of Caen ;' and indeed the second device, in red, given at p. 50, ante, is from a book printed at Caen in 1515; while the first, in black, is from a book printed by him at Rouen in 1500. Yet it should seem, from La Caille, (p. 103) that Francis had a son named Peter, who married Gillette Chevallon the daughter of Claude Chevallon, (see p. 44, ante) and ' who distinguished himself from other booksellers and printers by the quantity of books which he executed in perfection.' His small device, a pretty improvement of his father's, may come m here.
The usual device of Francis Rcgnault is seen at p. 51, an'e. He had however a different one ; a shepherd and shepherdess supporting a coat-armour, with sheep feedinij in the foreground — which is comparatively uncommon. His elephant and castle were imitated by Georgius de Caballis, in 1566 ; and his widow, in 1555, if not before, used the same, reduced, within an elegant border ; having the initials of her maiden name, M. B. (Magdel aine Bouchette) above, and tlie motto ' Sicut Elephas Sto' (a soothing senlimeut for a disconsolate widow !) around it.
FIFTH DAY.
55
Such a prospect should be interminable. Who comes first to arrest our attention ?
Lysander. The Hardouins, Gillet, and Germain,* are among the most ancient and most respectable printers of the period we are about to visit. Their Missals are some- times enchanting ; and their red and hlack. as well as the texture of their vellum, denote the skill and taste of the hands by which they were executed. The following is their Device ; succeeded by a magnificent ornament, bearing the
The Device of the Hardouins.
* The Hardouins, Gillet and Germain.'] Panzer assigns the date of 1503 as the
56
FIFTH DAY.
arms of some grave and potent Seignor; which is frequently found at the end of their Offices and Hours.
OllNAMENT USED BY THE HaRD0UI2^S.
eailiebt of that of any book printed by the Hardouins ; and the collection of a friend supplied him with a volume of Hora, printed by Germain Hardouyn, of the same date. See vol, xi. p. 221 ; vol. vii. p. 507, no. 61. A volume of the
FIFTH DAY.
57
Next come the Go'uemonts (Robert and Gilles)* to claim the tribute of a respectful attention. You may remem- ber to have been told that the public were indebted to these printers, especially to Gilles, for the renewal of the roman letter, which had disappeared since the earher publications
♦ Office of the Virgin,' by Gillet, also of 1503, immediately follows ; which was in the Crevenna Collection. The device, represented by Lysander, served also occasionally for books printed by Eustace, and one of the Du Pr6s ; the usual device of the Hardouins being Hercules rescuing Dej'anira from the Centaur. A brief notice of Gillet is given in vol. i. p. 91-2. They were both unquestionably very beautiful printers ; and maintained a prodigious traffic in the sale of devotional volumes — their productions beuig, upon the whole, fully equal to those of Kei-ver, Pigouchet, or Vostre. German lived at the Sign of St. Margaret — Gillet, at that of the Rose.
* the Gourmonts (Robert and GiZ/es)] Mr. Beloe, in the vth volume of his Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books, has devoted nearly 50 pages to an account of the labours of Gilles Gourraont, the Sabii, the Gryphii, and Colinjeus ; and of these fifty pages, about thirty are apportioned to the mention of Gourmont and the editors of the works which issued from his press. No apology need have been expressed for the * undue length ' of the Gourmont article ; as ' a great deal more of interestuig matter relating to it, presents itself.' p. 159. That addi- tional matter will not be here expected, or at least not given — if expected : as La Caille, p. 80 (brief, and not quite accurate) Chevillier, p. 246-^^64, Mailtaire, vol. ii. p. 95-103 (copious and particular, as far as they go) not forgetting a little gossipping in Clement, vol. i. p. 206-7 (incorrectly referred to by Panzer, vol. vii. p. 526) may be consulted to almost every possible degree of advantage. Yet Gilles de Gourmont shall not be wholly dismissed without having a small chaplet of sweet-briar blossoms (they cannot aspire to the dignity of roses) entwined round his brow. Know then, classical reader, that iEgidius Gourmont was the first PRINTER OF Greek and Hebrew Books — at Paris. Yes, the Gerings, and Stols, and Higmans, had a classical taste ; but their powers, as printers, extended only to founts of the Roman letter: that pretty and playful form of Greek type being entirely unessayed before the time of G. Gourmont, Under Professor TissARD— (whose epistolary prefixes, as extracted by Maittaire, are extremely interesting) the modest, the virtuous, the truly classical Tissard— (and of whom I wish, apparently with Mr. Beloe, that we had even a good thumping volume of biographical intelligence)— under Tissard, Gilles Gourmont did wonders, con- sidering his means. Like a methodical man, he began with a small quarto volume, containing the Greek Alphabet, the Rules for pronouncing Greek, the Sentences of the Seven Wise Men, with the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, and three other similar opuscula. These were published in 1507, under the editorial care
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of Gering, Ca^saris, and Higman. The Gourmonts con- ducted their business chiefly under the direction of the
of Tissard : and of this work I choose to speak roundly, with Clement, that ' no one can dispute it the honour of being classed among rare and remarkable books, when he knows that it is the first Greek book printed at Paris,' vol. i. p. 207 (note 12). The Batrachomyomachia of Homer, the Works and Days of Hesiod, and the Erotemata of Chrysoloras, ' followed hard upon that is, in the self-same year. Illustrious Spirits ! . . ye found the ground parched, or choked by the rank and luxuriant weeds of black-letter romance, rituals, and law glosses — and ye poured your refreshing streams thereupon to produce vegetation of a kind- lier growth, and of a more nutritious fruit! A golden harvest quickly succeeded. In 1508 Gomxiont and Tissard brought out an Hebrew and Greek Grammar ; read Mr. Beloe, vol. v. p. 154-5 : and sigh and wish that you had this grammar, in its original parchment covering, among the ' slim-quartos ' of your glass- efended, satin-wood, book-cases — ye bibliographical Rabbins of the day! Why should Maittaire apologise for his ' Tissardine digression ' (vol. ii. p. 99) in his account of these Hebraic rudiments ?
Tissard is thought to have not long survived this production. He died therefore, phoenix-like, in a blaze of reputation ; — and his grateful printer may have added to the moisture of his own sheets by the tears which he shed on the decease of his patron. The Gnomologia, Aristophanes, and Demetrius Chalcondylas, each in Greek, the latter in 1525-8, are among the last and rarest productions of tlie press of G. Gourmont. It remains only to add, that there was a plentiful sprinkluig of these Gourmonts. Robert, who began in 1498, and who had also a classical taste, (see Panzer, vol. ii. p. 324, no. 494) appears to have been the elder brother. John was another brother ; and Jebom, Benedict, and John, might have been sons; according to La Caille, pp. 117, 142, 169. The device of Gilles de Gourmont, as given above, seems to have been imitated by our Robert Copland ; according to a fac-simile of the latter in the Typog. Antiq^. vol. iii. p. 111. There is Ijowever a comparatively barbarous device of Gour- mont, with St. John and the mother of Mary (apparently) as supporters of a shield, or coat armour, in the lower division of which is a half moon — with an angel above the shield. Bagford's Collection, Haii. MSS. no. 5922, fol. 7. Maittaire observes that Gourmont sometimes used, instead of his common device, (as above) the three Croims of Cologne — occasionally with the Hebrew and Greek text from Psalm xxxvii. verse 25 : —
♦DJpt CDJ >n»'n
tan*? tt^pin mti NscoTepoj hysvofj.sv, xa» yap ly{\pcx.(xa. Kai oJx elSov §/>ca<ov lyxaTaXsAsjjCtjotevoVj ^Ouls TO (TTrspfia aoTOV ^vjTOVV apTsg.
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learned Tissard ; of whom, if I recollect rightly, Chevillier hath spoken largely and liberally. There is some tolerable good taste in this device of the second Gourmont. •
36 ov loingjta le
Let me now request you to cast a transient glance, as it glides along, upon the vessel of Galliot DuPiies :* — a fine
He soinctiines colophonised thus ' sub scuto Coloniensi' (Alphabet, Ling. Sanct. ~ 1532) or ' sub insigni trium. Coronarum Colmiensium^ (Lexic. Gr. 1523.) Consult the A^mal. Typog. vol. ii. p. 103.
* the vessel of Galliot Du Pre.] Galliot was the brother of John and Nicolas Du PiiES : or De Praxis. Of the foimer, who commenced printing in the xvth century, see p. 33, ante. Nicolas does not appear to have began to print till about the year 1505 ; see Panzer, vol. vii. p. 514, no. 127 ; nor our friend Galliot, till 1512 — according to the same authority, vol. xi^p. 299. La Caille gives Galliot
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fellow in his way, and a most indefatigable printer of Ro- mances and Legends. Did you ever see a bark so curiously trimmed and manned ?
rather a flattering character. He says ' he was a sworn bookseller, and com- posed several works, such as prefaces, advertisements, and dedicatory epistles — which appear in the books he has left us.' In the beguining of his ' Grand Coustumier de France,' &c. by Boutillier (in 1514, folio, according to La Caille; in 1524, according to Maittaire ; but wholly omitted by Panzer, vol. x. p. 187-8, p. 272) we observe these pleasant adages :
Le Baillif vandange, le Prevost grappe,
Le Procureur prend, le Sergent happe,
Le Seigneur n'a rien, s'il ne leur echappe.
In 1541 Galliot Du Pr6 joined ColiniEus in his Bible. ' He was (continues Chevillier) one of the greatest printers and booksellers in his time. His device has a ready allusion to his name. He left behind two sons, Pierre and Galliot.' Hist- de I'Imprimcrie, pp. 85, (borrowed also by Maittaire, vol. ii.
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Gl
A very different device was used by Jaques Cousin, a careful printer of Missals of the same period, and whose productions are by no means of common occurrence.
Another printer, also of unfrequent occurrence, and of the name of Granjon, now claims a moment's attention for his device ; in which there is a prettiness of effect somewhat unusual in decorations of this character. He speaks for himself,* as you will directly perceive.
p. 11 1) 150, 157, 185. I have seen a pretty device of Galliot the younger :— two men reaping — of the date of 1576 : in Bagford's Collection. The device represented by Lysander is taken from a volume of ' Ysaie Le Triste' (from the Roxburghe Library : B. R. no. 6206) in the collection of Mr. Lang.
* he speaks for himself.'] He shall discourse somewhat for himself ui the present note : not however that I must venture upon any thing beyond a mere sketchy detail. Panzer (vol. vii. p. 510, no. 90) makes the first efifort of his press to be
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Lorenzo. We are advancing fast towards the family of the Stephens, and Colinjsus — as I guess. But exercise your own discretion, and scold me if I am rudely intrusive.
LiSARDO, Proceed quickly, dear Lysander, to the notice of those renowned printers.
Lysander. I will make a rapid advance towards them ; for they were the very typographical heroes of Paris in their day — especially Henry Stephen the second.
in 1504 ; La Caille, in 1506 ; see p. 79. His device is prettier than his press work; at least if we may judge from an edition of Aulus Gellius of the date of 1518, in 4to. of which I shall have ocasion to speak in the account of the AscENSiAN Press ; and of which the Greek passages introduced shew the barbarous state of Greek typography in Paris at the time of the publication. Granjon's bulrushes have an apt allusion to his own name — gran-joncs : but there is a larger and more elaborate device used by him, of mermaids supportuig the circle or shield upon which his najue is thus inscribed : Iehan Geaion.
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Philemon. This is well ; but I do not wish you to slur over the names of Simon Du Bois, (or rather of his master Geoffeey Tory*) the Wechels, Cobrozet, &c. Remember
* Simon Du Bois, or his master Geoffrey Tory.] The retentive reader may have probably not forgotten the promise contained in the first note of vol. i. p. 98, respecting the meed of justice and praise to be here awarded to the above truly eminent booksellers and printers. But Tory merits a more particular notice tha. Du Bois ; as, if I mistake not, from the imperfect materials which liave come down to us, he was a man of a most singularly ingenious and original turn of mind : behag equally enamoured of philosophy, the fine arts, and printing. He lived at the sign of the Broken Pot (' Pot Cass6') and Du Bois was probably a workman acting imder him. The graphic decorations of the Missal of 1527, the joint publication of Du Bois and Tory, have been copiously described, with fac- sinules, in vol. i. p. 94-7. Tory worked formerly in conjunction with the elder Henry Stephen ; and Maittaire has been delightfully copious respecting Godo- FREDUS ToBiNUs : (as he is called by his Latin name) Annal. Typog. vol. ii, pp. 89-90; 550-.558. La Caille supplied him with a pithy notice, and with Tory's epitaph, which he has reprinted : Hist, de I'Imprim. p. 98-9. De La Monnoye, in the Bib. Franpise of La Croix du Maine, ^c. vol. i. p. 275-6, has a very curious note, relating to our Geoffrey ; wliich shall be presently mentioned. In addition to these authorities, I have consulted Goujet's Bibliotheque Franpise, vol. i. p. 82 ; vol. ix. p. 178 ; vol. x. p. 18 ; and vol. xi. p. 390 ; (the three latter references are given by De La Monnoye, and relate to brief passages in Goujet which shew how necessary it is to let Tory have a place upon our philological shelves) as well as Fournier's Manuel Typographique, vol. i. p. xij.; Peignot's Diet, de Bibliologie, vol. ii. p. 301 ; vol. iii. (Suppl.) p. 303; and Vogt's Cat. Libror. Rarior. p. 244, edit. 1793 — respecthig the famous Champ Fi evry — the ' magnum opus' of Geoffrey Tory; and of which it may be high time now to speak
Maittaire calls this work, as first published in 1529, folio, ' liber notatione dignus et inventu rarissimus.' It merits in every respect such a designation. It was printed by G. Gourmont, who had probably a share in it ; but if Du Bois had executed it, nothing would have been wanting to render it a master-piece of printing as well as of ingenuity. Yet on very many accounts it is a most estimable volume. Its title, as taken from the hook itself (in the possession of my friend Mr. Douce) is strictly thus : ' Champ Fleury. Au quel est contenu Lart <^ Science de la deue ^ vraye Propm-tid des Lettres Attiques, quo dit autremit Lettres A7itiques, vulgairement Lettres Romaines proportionnees selon le Corps <^ Visage humain.' Below, we observe a ' Priuilege pour Dix Ans Par Le Roy nostre Sire. & est a vendre a Paris sur Petit Pont a Lenseigne du Pot Casse par Maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges, Libraire, & Autheur du diet Liure. Et par Giles Gourmont aussi Libraire demourant en la Rue sainct laques a Lenseigne des Trois
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how you were pleased by the specimens of the first named printer, in our Second Day's discourse . . .
Lysander. 'Tis true; and therefore I hasten to place
Coronnes.' This privilege is dated 1526 ; which may have led Fournier and Goujet into the error of supposing that it was published in that year : yet Goujet is right in his first notice of it : vol. i. p. 82 — but see vol. x. p. 19. The small device of the author is beneath the privilege. A summary of the contents of the book, and two interesting prefaces, precede the text of the work. The second of these is noticed by M. De La Monnoye ; in which a passage appears precisely similar to what Rabelais (book ii. chap. 6) puts into the mouth of his scholar Limosin ; although the work of Rabelais was not published at that time ; ' d'ou (adds De La Monnoye) Ton conclut que des-lors il en couroit quelque copie manuscrite.' The passage alluded to by the French critic commences with ' Quand esumeurs de Latin disent' — and concludes with ' de leur mSme personne.'
From the second edition of the Champ Fleury, of the date of 1549, 8vo. (also in the curiously-furnished library of Mr. Douce) I shall beg leave to add a different passage from this same second preface — before we step over the threshold, upon the text of the work itself. It is as follows : prennsing that Tory appears to have plumed himself upon being a great French philologist — ' le treuue en oultre qu'il ya vne autre manieres d'hommes qui corrompt encores pirenient nostre langue. Ce sont Innouateurs et Forgeurs de motz nouueaulx. Si telz Forgeurs ne sont Ruffiens, ie ne les estime gueres meilleurs. Pensez qu'ilz ont vne grande grace, quand ilz disent apres boyre, qui ont le Cerueau tout encorni- matibule, et emburelicoqu^ d'un tas de mirilifiques et triquedodaines, d'un tas de gringuenaudes, et guilleroches qui les fatrouillent incessamment.' Pleasant read- ing, this ! — tender-mouthed reader !* But for the volume itself : — it is full of interest and whimsicality. The author (according to Fournier, repeated by Peignot) derives the letters of the Latin alphabet from the name of the Goddess I O ; pretending that tliey are all formed from an I and an O. Again we may say — ' pleasant reading, this !' However the work is full of marvellous things ; and the style of thought and of composition is sometimes amusing and prepossessing. The Engravings are neat and spirited ; exhibiting, I am persuaded, specimens of the same artist who afterwards executed the Emblems noticed from page 258 to 264 of vol. i. of this work. On the reverse of B iij is a charming cut of ' Hercvles
* Geoffrey Tory has, in turn, been pretty sharply rapped upon the knuckles in the Menagiana, for his affected phraseology and words. In his ' Epitaphia septem de Amorum aliquut passionibus,' printed by Colinaeus in 1530, he pre- tended to consider the following as classical — ' murmurillare, insatiauter, hila- ranter, pederaptim, velocipediter, ajgrimoniosius, avicipes conspergitare, venus- tutulenlissns, vinulentibibulus, apneumaticus, collifrangibulum' — ' mots tres-dignes de Poliphile' — (observes the authority just given), et que, sur sa foi, le bon- homme Catherinot, dans I'Epitaphe de ce Tory, na pas manque de garantir tels.' vol. iv. p. 265; edit. 1716.
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before you the Broken Pot of Geoffrey Tory. You have here specimens of it, as introduced either in the borders, or at the end, of his Missals.
The Devices of Geoffrey Tory.
Gallicus,' repeated on signatures F v, and F vj. This has the express date of 1526, upon a stone, to the left. ' The Triumph of Apollo and the Muses/ and VOL. II. F
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Few Printers were more celebrated throughout Europe than the Wechels; * whose flying horse, or Pegasus,
Bacchus, Ceres, and Venus, led captive,' are in the same style of art. There is a very whimsical Y on the reverse of M iij : displaying ' Envy, Pride, and Lust and another Y, too whimsically minute to be satisfactorily described. The different alphabets are at the end of the work ; which indeed is divided into 3 parts. The first is an exhortation to philological studies ; the second describes the number, forms, and proportions of letters ; the third is very multifarious— upon the elements of languages, &c.
According to Goujet (vol. i. ,p. 81-2,) Tory ti-od in the steps of Jaques Dubois, (called Sylvius) hat had ' more taste, correctness of apprehension, and solidity of reflection,' than that writer. They both however failed in obtaining partisans for their cause : yet Meygret and Pelletier afterwards ventured upon sounding the same trumpet against these ' Ruffiens ' adulterers of the French language— with the same success, or rather failure. Tory was a translator of both the Greek and Latin languages ; and the ' Hieroglyphics of Orus Apollo ' (see -vol. i. p. 260) are among his versions of the former. I consider him to have carried on a most extensive, and I should hope lucrative, business. The privilege prefixed to the beautiful edition of Hora:, &c. before noticed, (vol. i. p. 98, note t) specifies that ' il ha faict, et faict faire certaines histoires et vignettes a Lantique, et pareillement vnes autres a la Moderne pour icelles faire imprimer, et seruir a plusieurs vsages dheures, dont pour icelles il ha vacque certain long teps, et faict plusieurs grans fraitz, mises, et despens.' This privilege is dated the 24th September, 1524. The volume of ' Horse ' appeared in the subsequent year ; and no praise can be too great for the variety, the delicacy, the beauty, and uniform good taste of its border-ornaments. La Caille extends the life of Geoffrey Tory to the end of the xvith century ; but I question if he lived beyond the middle of it.
Did the fanciful divisions and subdivisions of letters, exhibited in this volume, suggest the idea to Giovambattista of publishing his elegant and curious book (in the Italian language) ' upon writing all manner of ancient and modern hands of all countries ' in 1543, 4to. (See ^gn. E vi.) The author styles himself Johannes Baptista Palatinus. The preceding is the first edition of his work, and the richly -furnished library of Mr. Douce contains a most desirable copy of it, in old vellum binding. A fine wood-cut portrait of the author is in the frontispiece. The device of Balthasar de Castolari the printer (a moth flying in the candle) is on the recto of the last leaf. There were two, if not more, succeeding impressions of it ; as a fragment of a copy, in my possession, exhibits the date of 1566, imder the specimen of ' Cancell. Romana formata.'
* Few names more celebrated — than the Wechels.'] The father of this distinguished family of printers was Chrestien Wechel; who, according to Maittaire, (vol. ii. p. 405) began to print in 1520, and carried on a successful business for upwards of thirty years. He published a prodigious number of books, and was remark-
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first commenced his career at Paris about the year 1534, and afterwards became more distinguished at Frankfort and
able for bringing them out in parts, for the convenience (I suppose) of a ready sale and quick return of profit. He was one of those printers, who, after the example of Gilles Gourmont, (in the language of Clievillier) ' excitez par les gens de Lettres de I'Universite, se piquerent d'honneur, et enricherent leurs Impri- meries de Caracteres Grecs, pour ne ceder en rien aux Imprimeurs Etrangers.' p. 255. Bayle, (Diet. vol. iv. p. 490, edit. 1730) upon the authority of Chevillier, p. 141-2, observes, that ' Wechel was so correct in his editions, that, in Burana's Commentary upon Aristotle, 1539, folio, there are only two errata noticed at the end.' His first Greek book was the ' Alphabetum Graecum,' of 1530. Conrad Gesner, in his valuable Pandects, fol. 167, &c., fills nearly 4 pages with a list of Wechel's books, and with the prices for which they were sold, up to the year 1548. This list is preceded by a short epistle to the printer, in which Wechel is thus addressed . ' Tu certe jam olim propter optimos in utr^que Lingu^ apud te natos Libros, quos miro uitore, & incredibili diligentia publicos fecisti, vel prsestantissimus vel inter prasstantissimos non postremus haberi et nunquam non celebrari mereris.' The epistle and list are both very judiciously reprinted by Maittaire, vol. ii. p. 411. Maittaire observes, that he supposes Gesner to have taken his list from ' Wechel's own Catalogue of his Books' published in 1544, 8vo.: but, adds he, ' there are no prices in the copj of Wechel's Catalogue (or ' Index Librorum omnium, quos suis Typis excudit Christianus Wechelus,' &c.) which I have consulted.' Maittaire then subjoins a reprint of this very ' Index,' p. 421 , &c. Read Bayle's long note about the poverty and persecution of our printer in consequence of selling an impious book. Diet. vol. iv. p. 490 (b).
Wechel was a great lover of Hebrew and Greek literature; and printed various elementary treatises, as well as the entire Books of Genesis and Exodus in the former language. ' If (observes Maittaire) he had executed the remainder of the Bible in the same splendid fount of lettei-, and form of volume -r- how would the student of sacred writ have been eternally indebted to him for so grateful and acceptable a gift !' Maittaire subjoins two pleasing excerpts from these first two books of the Pentateuch, published separately in the years 1536 and 1537, 4to. and now of excessive rarity. Wechel is supposed to have died in 1554, leaving a son of the name of Andrew (or Andreas) to continue his business and perpetuate his name. Simon Du Bois sometimes printed for him. Indeed his device of the two Robins (see above) is supposed by Maittaire to have been exclusively that of Du Bois ; and the same authority seems to infer that it was not used after the year 1533, when the Flying Pegasus (the usual Wechelian device) was substituted in its place. Andrew Wechel was a Protestant, and is thought by La Caille to have quitted Paris for Frankfort in consequence of having narrowly escaped the massacre on the eve of St. Bartholomew, owuig to the friendly interposition of Hubert Languet, the Saxon minister then resident at Paris. Bayle thinks that his departure took place before that
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Hanover. These printers however previously used the device of Two Robins in a tree. Let both devices here speak for themselves :
The Devices of Chrestien Wechel.
memorable and ever execrable event — ^yet it should seem, on the authority of A. Wechel hunself (m the dedicatory epistle to the Vandalia Alherti Krantzii, Frankfort, 1575) that he run an extreme hazard on the night of the massacre. Bayle refers to this interesting document. The celebrated Sylburgius was corrector of the Wechel press ; which, in the year 1581, was deprived of the superintendance of its chief director, Andrew, by death. John Wechel, together with John Aubri and Claude Marni, afterwards earned on the business, and became established at Hanover ; and these, in the just and energetic language
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I might dwell somewhat upon the Gryfhii, or Les Griffons* — names, eminently conspicuous in the annals of printing — but that their presses were more particularly
of Maittaire, * have forbidden the name of Wechel to perish.' Consult the Annul. Typog. vol. iii. p. 455—460; where the marrow of La Caille, Chevillier, and Bayle is most judiciously extracted. Both at Frankfort and at Hanover the Wecheis disported themselves with their Pegas'ian Device, in wood or upon copper ; the former, generally coarsely— as the preceding fac-simile testifies : of the latter tliere is no prettier spechnen, in my humble apprehension, than what you here behold, device-loving collector I
* The Gryphii or Les Griffons.] This is not the moment for dilating upon these renowned typographical characters ; as, althougli Francis Gryphiusbelongs rather to Paris than to Lyons, yet the latter place is the undoubted soil in which the
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distinguished when they established themselves at Lyons. They certainly however were rocked in the typographical cradle at Paris. Let us reserve them for that part of our discussion which shall treat of early printing at Lyons.
Belinda. I am delighted with such a corps de reserve. Now, then, for Les Etiennes and Monsieur Simon de Colines!
Lysander. Behnda is absolutely working herself up to a pitch of enthusiasm upon the subject— and yet I dare wager a vellum Colinceus, against a paper Stephens, that she has never read three volumes from the press of either ? !
Grypiiii have taken the deepest root, and produced the more perennial fruits^ There is, however, among the papers of Bagford (Earl. MSS. no. 5922) a very curious advertisement, in French, pubUshed I conceive by one of llie family of these printers, about the middle of the xvith century. To what it was formerly attached, I am unable to conjecture. The reverse is blank, and it is printed, in the italic letter, within an elegant wood-cut border. I consider it a curious spe- cimen of hazar advertising, (to borrow the current fashionable phrase) and peculiarly national : yet may it not be taxed as being a little out of place here? AV GRIFFON.
Griffon, Marchand tenant sa boutique dans la court du Palais, au coin de ta grande parte, devant les grands degrez du May, vend degrandes Esciitoiresfermantes a clefs, de chagrin gamies d'argent ; Escritoires de valises, de tables, de poches, et d'autres fagons, pour mettre sur des Bureaux : Cornets et Poudriers d'argent, et d'autresfafons : Tablette d'Hollandes : Agendas de chagrin, garnis -J'or S/; d'argent : Miroirs de poches de chagrin, gamy d'argent: lartieres a la mode: Boucles d'argent, d'acier et de diamans : Cire d'Espagne de plusimrs couleurs ; Ganifs de Tolose : Plumes d'Hollande tailUes a la petfection ; Papier fin de toutcs grandeurs, cou:p6 et dore : Poudres dorees a mettre sur I'ecriture : Soyes a cachetter : Encre en masse : Cachets d'or et d'argent : lettons nouveaux : Bourses a. lettons de velours et d'autres famous, en broderies d'or et d'argent ; Colliers d'ambre : Estuits a racines de chagrin, gamis d'argent : Racines, et esponges musquies : Poudre de corailpour les dents: Poudres a dessecher, de muse et d'autres sentews : Savonettes de Boulogne : Pate d'amande pour laver les mains : Botttes a poudre ^ houppes de soye: Plumes perpetuelles, d'argent, 4; d'autres fagons : Trebuchets fins : Bougeois de chagrin gamis d'argent, et d'autres famous ; Boutons de diamans : Porte-feuilles : Porte-cedules : Orloge de sable: Porte-crayonS d'argent: Estuits a curs dents d'argent a graver cachets: C^irs-dents d'm', d'argent et d'acier: Tabatlieres de differentcsf aeons ; et quantity d'autres petits bijoux, enrichis d'or et d'argent.
Et en sa chambre rue de la Pelleirie, pres de Saint Barthekmy, ouily a pareilks de sortes -de Marchandises.
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Philemon. Cease such cutting reproaches. Remember Corrozet,* and then for CoHnaeus and Co.
Lysander. My memory happens to be somewhat trea- cherous, just now, respecting Corrozet ; but in heu of him, and of his device, do pray cast a quick and approving eye upon the pretty Greyhounds of Damian Higman ! . . a de- scendant of one in the distinguished firm of Higman, Hopyl, and Co. of whom you may remember some notice was taken
* Remember Corrozet.'] I will endeavour here to supply the treacherous memory of Lysander ; particularly as, in vol, i. p. 256-7, a sort of promise is held out to say a word or two about this said Gilles Corrozet. Maittaire has enriched pages 125, 6, 7, of the third volume of his invaluable Typographical Annals, with a few particulars, selected from Du Verdier, La Croix du Maine, La Caille, and Simler, respecting this ingenious, publisher and printer ; nor am I siu"e, from the catalogue displayed by him of a few of the rarer pieces of Corrozet, that a curious collector can do better than look sharply out for clean copies of these said ' rich and rare' pieces. Corrozet was born at Paris in 1516, and died there in 1568. He had from infancy ' an excellent judgment and marvellous understanding,' says Du Verdier — ' being versed in the Lathi, Italian, and Spanish languages.' He was the author also of several poetical pieces, both as translations and original compositions. A numerous family bewailed the loss of this excellent and ingenious man ; of whom I am well persuaded an amusing volume of A.na might be collected. Sigh, moralising reader, as thou dost peruse
THE EPITAl'HS OF CoRROZET AND HIS Wif E :
Heu ! Heu ! Corrozete, iaces : cor Numina sumant.
Donee terra rosam proferat ista tiiam. Scilicet inuideas, nec parcas,ferrea Clotho:
Permanet in scriptis gloria uiua suis.
L'an mil cinq cens soixante-huit, A cinq heures deuant minuit, Deceda Gilles Corrozet : Aag^ de cinquante-huit ans, Qui Libraire itoit en son temps. Son corps repose en ce lieu-cy^ A Vame Dieufasse mercy.
Cy dessous repose le corps de Marie Harelle, iadis Femme de Gilles Coerozet, laquelle deceda le qua- trieme iour de May 1562. par ladite misericorde de Dieu Vame soit en Paradis.
(Maittaire, by a strange mistake, makes the soul to rest ' at Paris .")
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in the earlier part of this Day's discussion. I own these greyhounds are great favourites of mine.
The Device of Damian Higman.
LisARDO. 'Tis vastly pretty — but we are impatient for old Harry Stephen and his descendants.
Lysander. I begin to be nervous about the result, as your expectations appear to be so ardently raised : yet where- fore should I fear ? Maittaire holds out a lamp* to light me
* Maittaire holds mt a lamp.'] He in fact holds out two lamps, or beacons, for
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across*thls bibliographical Hellespont — and as the winds seem hushed, and the waves are in gentle motion, I plunge in with- out fear or dismay. To drop all metaphorical flourishing. Know, that towards the end of the xvth century, Henry Stephen the Elder, (father of the renowned family which bears his name*) printed in conjunction with Wolf-
this Hellespontic effort. Tbe first is, the Life of Culincens in his ' Historia Typo- graphorum aliquot Parisiensium Vitas et Libros Complectens,' 1717 , 8vo. (of which a choice copy, upon large paper, clad in dark green morocco by that Coryphjeus of book-binders, Mr. C. Lewis, has long adorned my bibliographical cabinet, and cheered many a moment of ennui) and his ' Stephanonim Historia, Vitas ipsorum ac libros complectens,' 1709, 8vo. — His second lamp shines with almost equal radiance and interest in his Annal. Typog. vol. ii. p. 395, &c. wherein ' ijiany things (observes he) either partially, or incorrectly, or not at all before known, are corrected and enlarged.' I consider the preliminary note, (p. 395) in which Maittaire replies to an attack made upon his previous labours by an author in the • Lettres Choisies de Mr. Bayle avec des remarques,' 1714, 8vo., as a piece of elegant and most successful composition ; breathing a spirit equally remarkable for its manliness and modesty. There was however no occasion for Maittaire (like another Teucer under the full-orbed shield of Ajax) to shelter himself behind the aegis of Le Long, or of Prosper Marchand ; as his own works, whether classical or bibliographical, are an ornament to his country, and a monument of imperish- able reputation to his name.
Almeloveen^s work entitled (' De Vitis Stephanorum Celebrium Typographorum Dissertatio Epistolica') v/as published in a small and neatly printed duodecimo Volume at Amsterdam, in 1683 — dedicated to the famous Grsevius. It is a spirited and interesting manual of the biographies of the Stephens, with short catalogues of the books printed by them ; but much inferior, both in import- ance and extent of matter, to the subsequent work of Maittaire. Almeloveen was a distinguished physician at Amsterdam ; and it is pleasing to hear a man, of his occupations and pursuits, talk — as he does, in the commencement of his epistolary dedication — of ' devoting liis winter holidays to the amusenjent afforded him by his library, whilst others are indulging themselves in gaieties, festi- vities, and useless pleasures and expenses.' A pithy and potent panegyric of the elder Robert Stephen, by Scevolas Sammarthanus, happening to catch the inquisitive eye of Dr. Almeloveen, he resolved upon the composition of his ' Dissertatio Epistolica in which are many gossipping and amusing passages, and for which, with Menage, he may receive our best thanks.
* the father of the renowned family which bears his name.J Henry Stephen may justly be so designated. Maittaire says that he began to print in 1502 with Wolfgang Hopyl ; but Panzer has favoured us with the title of a work ('. Jacobi
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gang Hopyl ; and quite at the opening of the xvith century he appears to have commenced business on his own account. He probably took an early aversion to the black letter, as his books are generally executed in the roman character. There is a quiet sober effect about his printing which reminds us of the Basil books — which Gourmont imitated but feebly, and which Colinaeus, and Robert and Henry Stephen (the Son and Grandson of the first Henry) im- proved upon, and carried nearly to perfection. It is singular that Maittaire should have never met with old Henry's device. It is, to be sure, very barbarous, and wholly unworthy of
Fabri Stapiilensis Aitificialis Introductio nioralis in decern libros Ethicorura Aristotelis) of the date of 1496, in which the joint names of Hopyl and H. Stephen appear. Annal. Typog. vol. ii. p. 312, no. 379 ; and Maittaire's Annal. Typograph. vol. ii. p. 87. In his Vita, Siephanunim, Maittaire assigns the date of 1503 as the earliest of that in the Stephanine series. In this latter work, p. 7, he admits that ' of the birth and education of the first H. Stephen, nothing is known with certainty.' It remains only to observe, that Stephen continued to employ, or to work in unison with, many celebrated printers, as well as to print by himself, till the year 1521 , when he died, and was succeeded in his business by Colinajus, who shortly after married his widow. Stephen used the gothic type in conjunction with Hopyl, but rarely on his own account. His roman type is justly said by Maittaire to be ' not inelegant.' It is full-faced, and extremely legible, varied occasionally with red ink, and enriched with whimsical capital initials. His Greek type is of rare occurrence. Some lines of it appear, according to Maittaire, (Antial. Typog. vol. ii. p. 88, note (e) in the Morals of Aristotle, of 1505, in the Politics of the same author, 1506, and more frequently in the well known and well-printed Psalterium Quincyplcx of 1509 ; yet very inac- curately, and destitute of accents and breathings. In the ' De Curatione Gracarum Affectionum <^c. Thcodoriti Cyrensis, 1519, folio, there are yet more numerous Greek passages, and in every respect more correctly executed. Ibid, and see p. 328, note (e). It is extraordinary that Maittaire should have never met with the device exclusively belonging to the elder H. Stephen j as he says, in a note, at p. 87, that ' Stephen always borrowed the Rabbits of Colinasusj' and, in the text, that ' he had no device of his own.' Indeed the work from -which the above fac-simile is taken (^Pauli JEginetoi PrcEcepta saluhria Guilielmo Copo Basiliensi interprete, 1510, 4to.) has wholly escaped him. The device is seen at the end of the book ; which has a well-ornamented frontispiece (a full length of Saint Stephen) and some pretty capital initials, with a fair sprinkle of red printing. In the collection of Earl Spencer.
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what had preceded it among his typographical bretheren : — as you may judge from the following fac-simile of it.
The Device or Henry Stephen the Elder.
This worthy character — the fountain-head of a race which has watered the literary republic with so many beauteous and bountiful streams — was succeeded in his business by
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Simon de Colines; (or Simon ColiNjEUs,*) whom Maittaire designates as ' an active partner ' with Stephen while he was living. This event took place probably in the year 1520, or
* Simon de Colines, or Simon ColinausJ] Colinaeus began to print in 1519-20, in conjuction with Henry Stephen ; and continued his distinguished career till 1546, when he is supposed to have died. In 1550 his heirs succeeded to his business. ' There was none of tlie liberal Arts or Sciences, (observes Maittaire) no man eminent for his erudition at that time, but what appeared still more advantageously from the press of Colinaeus.' ' His office (adds the same typo- graphical critic) abounded with all sorts of well-cut founts of letter-r-French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and even Chaldaic' Annal. Typog. vol. ii. p. 400. His Greek books are few in number; only eight — concerning which consult Mr. Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, &c. vol. t. p. 185-8. Of these, the most distin- guished are the Aristophanes of 1528 (containing 3 pages of errata) and the New Testament of 1534. See the Introd. to the Classics, vol. i. p. 63-4. Mr. Beloe doubts about the ' Galeiius ad Patrophilum,' Gr. without date, given in the work last referred to, upon the authority of Mr. Wodhul. He supposes, from Maittaire's Life of Colinseus, that all the Opuscula of Galen were Latin versions ; but in the Annal. Typog. vol. ii. p. 400, note (f) the ' Galeni Quaed. Opusc' of 1529; and 1530, are placed among the Greek Books. I do not con- sider Colinajus to have been happy in the choice of his Greek character ; which, at first also, (to speak plainly) was most miserably ill prhited : — ' niendose et confuse,' is Maittaire's emphatic condemnation : yet tlie type itself he pronounces to be ' neat.' A specimen of his Hebraic and Chaldaic characters may be seen in the ' Catalogus Hebrjeorum et Chalda;orum Nominum ' subjoined to his edition of the Latin Vulgate Bible of 1541 : Annal. Typog. ii. p. 400 — so that Maittaire was wrong, in his Lii'e of Colinaeus, (p. 13) in saying that he printed only a very few lines of Hebrew in the Colloquies of Erasmus.
The paper of Colinaeus is justly praised by Maittaire, for its ' purity and strength '■— for being ' comfortable to the eye, and for preserving copies by its durability.' ' Hoc est, (says he, in continuation — and I will not mar such a thoroughly conceived and executed biblioraaniacal passage by translation) cur tanta cum voluptate demiremur codices illos antiquissimos Spirte et Vindelini, Conradi Sweynheym et Arnoldi Pannartz, ac Nicolai Jenson iiunquani satis laudati ; (hear, hear!) qui-annis supra binas centurias quinquaginta adhuc superstites vincunt, quicquid nostro hoc aevo jactamus in typographia pulcherrinmm : neutiquam corrupti, aut quavis senectutis not^ ragkve deformati, sed primaevo suae impres- sionis cultu, intacto charactevum nitore, intaminatEi charta, et Integra njarginum amplitudine spectabiles.' Vit. Sim. Colinai, p. 8. Again I say, ' hear, hear !' Maittaire then speaks of the apposite ornamental title-pages of Colinasus's books ; especially of the Clictoveus, (1520), Galen, (1530), and Fernelius, (1526). Many more might be added. The specimen adduced by Lysander, at p. 81, post, is taken from ' R, Britannus Atrebatensis de Parsimonid,' 1532, 8vo.; a thin octavo
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1521, occasioned by the death of Stephen in the latter year. CoHnaeus evinced a more than ordinary sympathy towards the afflicted widow of his partner ; for after the usual time of mourning had passed, he offered her his hand and his heart — as well as a participation of the profits arising from the uses of the puncheon and the matrix. I own I am not a little partial to the typographical feats of Colinaeus. He had not, I grant you, all the splendour, variety, and learning of his son-in-law, and more especially of the son of that son- in-law, Henry Stephen the Younger — as he is usually called — but I consider him to have possessed a pure and well-cultivated taste, as well in the works which he published, as in the embelhshments with which those works are adorned.
of 40 pages, (lately purchased by me for 10s., but originally published at 8 deniers) now in Lord Spencer's library. Coliuaeus's dotted-ground capital initials are very soft and pleasing to the eye ; as may be seen from some specimens given in the ' Preliminary Disquisition on Early Engraving and Ornamental Printing,' p. xl. prefixed to the first vol. of my Typog. Antiq. of Great Britain. Colinffius is not the inventor of the italic type in France ; however Maittaire may think that character, as used by him, ' fatter and fairer ' than the Aldine. See Annal. Typog. vol. ii. p. 401-3 : and vol. i. p. 92, ante ; where the honour of having first introduced such type into France appears unequivocally to belong to Thielman Kerver.
Of his Devices, the earliest and rarest is that of the Three Babbits, as given by Lysander at p. 79. I find it in the ' De Memorab. et Clar. MuUer.' &c. of 1521, 4to. ill the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, and in the Boetii Arithmetica of 1.522, 4to. belonging to Mr. Wodhul. Sometimes these Rabbits, of a smaller size, are made to support a shield, upon which are the initials of the printer's name— without foliage, and with a less pleasing eflfect. The device of Time is the usual one of Colinaus, above varied. Yet, occasionally, as in the Hippocrates of 1534, folio, and perhaps many others, he used a more formidable figure of Time, nearly 5 inches in height, with the motto of the second one above given. This gigantic figure, with the same motto, was also used in tlie seventeenth century, as I find it in the title-page of 'Nautonniefs Mecometrie de L'Eymant, 1 604, folio. Tlie device of Time was indeed used by a multiplicity of printers, and I am not sure that Colinseus has the merit of having first adopted it — as MiCHiEL DE HoocHSTRATE ccrtaiuly introduced it at Antwerp in 1530, in his ' U entree de la tressacre Maiest^ Imperialefaicte en la Ville de Ausbourg le xv. de Juing L'an m. d. xxx, ^c. avec la belle et denote procession faicte lendemain. xvi.
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His title-pages, his press-work, the choice of his letter, both roman and italic, all bespeak the superior talents of the man who adopted them; and I really think that in the publi- cations of Colinaeus we have the first examples of what may be fairly called Classical Printing at Paris. But I see you are impatient for his devices. Take, first, the rarest of
our du diet mois. En laquelle sa Maieste Imperiale a teste nue poitoit une t^rrche de chyre blanche,' 4to. (in the curious collection of Mr. Lang) in the following manner.
It remains only to add that the ' Golden Sun ' was a sort of border-device of ColinsEus. Maittaire has given a fac-simile of the above Three Rabbits, and of the second figure of Time; but each upon copper — and, necessarily, of not so strict a resemblance to the originals as the above are presumed to be. The prices for which many of Colinasus's books were originally sold, may be seen in Maittaire's Annal. Typog. vol. iii. p. 147-204 : — ' lectori (piKo^l^Xco ideo non ingratum fore arbitror' — Maittaire rightly premises — and so, priced-catalogue-loving reader, receive, en bon gre, a very few samples of these said prices :
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them — the Three Rabbits; and secondly, the varieties of his Time ; premising that a much more gigantic figure of the same allegorical personage is oftentimes seen in the title-pages of Colinaeus.
•SDEOOLINES
sous.
Vetus Testaraentum, miuori form^, - - 1525, 12mo. 24
Novum Testamentum, miiiori forma, - 1525, 12mo 6
Horaj ad usum Romanum, majori form^, quibus
elegantiores haclenus non sunt visae, ----- 14 Laccord de la Langue Fraucoise avec la Latine, par
lequel se connoitra le moyen de bien ordouner et
composer tous mots, . - , 1540, 8vo. lOd.
Graecarum Institutionum libelli xi C. Giardo Authore, 1541, 4to. 6 Livres Ecclesiastiques a Vusage de Chartres.
sous. d.
Heures petites, - - - i
Heures gros traict, - - - 1
Breviaries, - - - - 6
Processionnaires, _ . 4
Messelz petits - - - 1 2
Messelz grans - - 25
Graduels, ... - 35
Breviaires notes, ou Antiphoiiels, - T
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As we have said so much about his title-pages, suppose I select the following — illustrative at once of prettiness and tastefulness of effect. You will see also, in the bottom compartment, another of Colinaeus's devices — namely, The
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Golden Sun. I choose to fill up the space with a fabricated title ; preserving the order in which the original lines are placed. Would that such a work existed !
De HENRICI
STEPHANI TYPOG. raphi vita ac mo^ ribus libels lus.
P ARISIIS Apud Simone CoUnasum. 1522
LifiARDO. ' Amen, with all my heart.' Is it too extra- vagant to suppose that such a composition was ever at- tempted ?
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Lysander. I fear so. But prepare now for the remainder of the Stephanine Family. And first for the illustrious RoBEET, son of the Henry whom we have discoursed of,*
* the illustriuus Robert, son of the Henry whom we have discoursed of.] Instead of a hasty and sketchy note, a closely-printed centenary of pages should be devoted to the ' Life, Character, and Behaviour,' of the truly ' illustrious RoBERTus Stephanus, Robert Etienne, or Robert Stephen — take him under which name you please, gallant reader I First, we will say he was born in 1503 ; and up to his nineteenth year (1522), from his own confession, he was a corrector in the printing office of his father-in-law : see the conclusive note (d) in Maittaire's Annal. Typog. vol. ii. p. 403. In 1526 he commenced business on his own account ; and pursued his typographical career, till his death in 1599, with equal glory to himself, to his profession, and to his country. It is difficult to say whether he was more gratified by his monarch's coming to inspect liis office, and by his waiting till he had corrected a proof, or by receiving the parainctical dedication of Conrad Gesner (prefixed to the vth book of his Pandects^, in which he is called ' among booksellers and printers like the sun amidst the stars.' See the rapturous address of old Conrad Gesner, as judiciously extracted by Maittaire, vol. ii. p. 445. We may here however, for three seconds only, touch upon a some- what ' tender strain.' About the time of his setting up business for himself, Robert seems to have cast an anxious eye around him for some fair daughter ' among the sons of men,' who might partake of his cares, of his profits, and Jiis reputa- tion— and who should such fair object be, but a nymph, ' hight' Petronilla, the daughter of Iodocus Badius Ascensius? — a scholar and printer of established eminence at Lyons, formerly of Paris — and of whom, in the subse- quent pages, something shall be said. Maittaire designates the gentle Petronilla as ' uxor litterata conjuge litterato digna.' In 1528 the far-famed Henry Stephen appeared as the fruit of this ' learned' union.
Search, pains-taking reader, the copious pages of Maittaire for a list of the many- tongued volumes which have immortalised the press of the said Robert Stephen. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French — in all classes and departments — you have every thing, from such a source, in the fullest possible state of perfection. Search too the Notices, ^c, des MSS. de la Bibl. du Roi,vol. i. p. Ixxxv. for an account of the Royal Foundery of Greek types, under Francis L, with which Stephen's Greek books, and especially his New Testament of 1550, were executed : Stephen himself having been made 'King's Printer' in 1546. It is impossible to particularise every beautiful work, in every department, put forth by that illustrious printer ; but I cannot easily forget the emotions of delight, and of absolute astonisliraent, with which I viewed his Latin Bible of 1540, in folio, upon vellum, in the Auctarium of the Bodleian library — and the binding, too, of that ponderous and ample tome— antique, rich, and appropriate ! Upon the whole, I am not sure if this be not the finest — to speak safely, I will positively say one of the finest — vellum BOOKS in the world ! I leave Maittaire to fight Stephen's battles of orthodoxy
FIFTH DAY. 83
and the corrector of the press of his father-in-law at the early age of nineteen. He carried the typographical repu- tation of his country at once to its topmost pitch. There was scarcely any department of printing in which he did not excel, as much in correctness as in beauty. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French, his zeal, his learning, his unre- mitting, unwearied, application produced specimens of au- thors, in each of these languages, which charmed and asto- nished his countrymen, and which spread his reputation throughout the whole literary Republic. Equally caressed
with the Sorbonne Doctors, (vol. ii. p. 452-8) and the same writer to supply the reader with poetical attestations of the same printer's extraordinary talents. Exaim'ne also the enlarged catalogue of Books published in the Office of the Stephens, as given by Maittaire, vol. ii. p. 463-542, from original catalogues, with the prices subjoined — ' Hujusmodi Catalog! (Maittaire rightly observes) rarissimi qui- dem nunc occurrunt, nec nisi ingenti pretio redimuntur.' We may, however, assent to the truth of Almeloveen's remark, that, ' it is surprising that R. Stephen never makes mention, in his writings, of his father ; as he was of an age to know him, to converse with him, and to receive from him his instructions respecting his own course of life and study.' Diss, de Vit. Steph. p. 14. The curious reader may probably expect an account of the robbery of the royal matrices and puncheons, and of their conveyance to Geneva, of which our Robert stands accused ; but such a subject is better fitted for the express biography of the printer. Read, however, the pungent notes (B) and (C) in Chaufepi^s Suppl. to Buyle, vol. ii. pt. iii. p. 49 : wherein the deposition of Le Clerc is very strong in favour of such an inference — and Le Clerc speaks from the testimony of his grandfather, to whom the puncheons were engaged by Henry, the son of Robert Stephen. It is certain that these types were not redeemed till the time of Louis XIII. in 1619. Chevillier and Maittaire are worth consulting upon the subject ; but we must not believe Baillet in considering the robbery as a mere fiction — nor in supposing that Robert Stephen was hung in eihgy at Paris, on account of it. Jugemens des Savans, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 22, edit. 1725. He was hung in effigy on account of his supposed heresy, when he quitted Paris for Geneva in 1551, and where he died in 1559. The Sorbonue bickerings and heart burnings have long lain quietly at rest. The productions of Stephen, on the contrary, only increase in estimation with an increase of years.
Let us now say a few words about the Devices of Robert Stephen, The one, first above given, was his earliest. The second gives us the man under the tree ; but of these there were at least two — one of them being of considerable dimen- sions, namely, nearly seven inches and a half in height — and necessarily attached VOL. II. G
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by his sovereign, and admired by the great scholars and critics of the day, Robert Stephen may be considered as among the most splendid characters — ' take him for all in all '—of the period in which he hved. His physiognomy, as ^ven by Maittaire in the second volume of his Typogra- phical Annals, is perhaps a little caricatured ; but I love to gaze upon his long nose and flowing beard — full of cha-
to his folios. I am not sure whether our first Robert did, or did not, use the device which I have given as that of his son Rohert ; and whicli also the elder son Henry used. There are several varieties of these smaller devices. The Twisted Snake appears on a larger scale in the Greek Testament of 1550, and in other works. It was also used by Turnebus, as well as by Charles Stephen. The Portrait ofR. Stephen, given by Maittaire in his life and annals of that printer, appeared first in tlie Icones of Beza, (see vol. i. p. 279) but there are copies of that work in which it is omitted. It was afterwards most barbarously introduced in the biography of Almeloveen ; in the form of a bust. I cannot at this moment recollect where the original is deposited from which these copies (certainly somewhat caricatured, as Lysander intimates) were taken ; and shall now only draw a silken curtain over it, trusting that the fame of the original will live 'for aye.' Let me however request two further minutes of the reader's attention to an impromptu of Marguerite of Navarre, with the response of our well beloved Robert thereto — upon the former's visiting the printing office of Stephen. This pleasant jeu d'esprit appears to have escaped Maittaire, and the French bibliographers ; but it is found in the ^Additions aux] M6m,oires de Castelnau, vol. i. p. 858, edit. 1731.
The Queen of Navarre's Verses.
Art singulier, d'icy aux demiers ans,
Representez aux enfans de ma race.
Que j'ay suivy de craignans-Dieu la trace ;
Afin qu'ils soient les mesmes pas suivans.
The Reply of Robert Stephen. (' Au Nom de I'Imprimerie ')
Princesse que le Ciel de grace favorise, A qui les craignans-Dieu souhaitent tout bonheur, A qui les grands esprits ont donn6 tout honneur. Pour avoir doctement la science conquise.
SHI est vray que du temps la plus brave entreprise, Au devant des vertus abaisse sa grandeur, S'il est vray que les ans n'oifusquent la splendeur, Qui fait luire par tout les enfans de I'Eglise.
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Stephen used also a twisted Snake ; and this, as well as the preceding, was imitated or borrowed by the other branches of his family. The following specimen of it, from the Greek Appian of Charles Stephen, may afford some idea of the taste of such a decoration.
From Robert, let us proceed to his son Henry — the most
Le Ciel, les craignans-Dieu, et les hommes spavans, Me feront raconter aux peuples survivans Vos graces et vostre keur, & loiiange notoire.
Et puis que vos vertus ne peuvent prendre fin, Par vous je deraeurray vivante, a cette fin Qu'aux peuples a venir j'en porte la memoire.
Note ; this impromptn and reply are said to have taken place on the 2ist of May, 1566 : if so, they must have related to Robert Stephen the younger : but it must be remembered, according to Menage, that the father lived near Marguerite, and that both the one and the other favoured the Hugonot party : whereas Robert, the son, was a decided Roman Catholic.
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distinguished of all who bore his name ; * a man of such pro- digious learning and perseverance, as to leave us in astonish- ment how he could have combined the incessant cares and
* his son Henry, the most distinguished of all who bore his name.] If it were ever my good fortune to be ' Master of a Mint' which should produce a surplusage of wealth (for Baron Comyns, in his Digest, vol. v. p. 386, tells us that ' sur- plusage does not prejudice') that surplusage, T verily believe, should be devoted to the erection and exercise of a Press — which should, I also verily believe, be first employed — not in rivalling and outshining other private presses of modern celebrity, in scarce poetical reprints, which ' the elect' only can duly read and appreciate — but in giving a more general currency to the reputation of the Press of the Stephens; and, in these Stephanine Annals, to do ray utmost in encircling the brows of Henuy the Second — .not a Plantagenet, but one of the aforesaid ' Stephens' — with a wreath that might gain the approbation even of the Sepulveu*. of the day ! (Maittaire, vol. ii. p. 400, may furnish a key for the unlocking of this ' submorose' allusion.) As it is, I can do little more here (' Visions of glory spare my aching sight!')
than observe, that Henry Steplien, the eldest son of Robert, employed his later youth, and the earlier years of his manhood, (see Maitt. Vit. Steph. p. 208, &c.) in travelling abroad ; in visiting libraries ; in inhaling and imbibing, with eye, lungs, nostril, and every pore of the cuticle, those bibliomaniacal miasmata — in treasuring deeply and strongly, in his inmost soul, those seeds of ancient and modern lore — which, by a proper cultivation, he knew would, one day, place him at the very head of his honourable profession. The venerable Du Verdier stops short, in his glowing eulogy of the father, (Robert) to except the son — ' none of the present printers (says he) have equalled Robert; I except however his son Henry.' And how does Theodore Janson ab Almeloveen, M. D. (I am as anxious as the Vicar of Wakefield for giving folks their full and due titles) com- mence his brief biography of our typographical hero ? ' Henricus Stephanus, scriptis suis eruditissimis ultra Garamantas et Indos notissiiims, (here follbweth a quiutrain of Latin metre) omues sui stemmatis eruditione, fam;}, diligentia, facile superavit : quanquam ejus parens, Robertus Stephanus, ut jam docuimus, pluribus etiam laudibus ab omnibus meritissimus celebretur.' Vit. Steph. p. 59, edit. 1683. See the same life prefixed to the edition of H. Stephen's Pseac/o-Cicero, ^c. 1737, Hal(e, in 8vo.
To return to the typographical feats of this erudite hero. In 1.554 he pub- lished Anacreon ; not only as the first fruit of his press,but as the first impression of the Poet. In 1556 came forth his magnificent edition of the Greek Heroic Poetics, ^c; of which the copy in the Althorp library is probably the most stately in existence. The years 1572-3 witnessed his Thesaurus and Glossaries of the Greek Language, completed in 5 immense folio volumes — which,
' Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest'
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attentions of his business, with the preparation of materials for the press. He was, without doubt, not only the most
of his works for extent of erudition and immensity of labour. His Herodotus (of 1566), Thyrydides (of 1564), Xenophon (of 1561), Diodorus Siculus (of 1559), and Plutarch's Lives (of 1572) — to mention no more — are at once existing and beautiful monuments of the chxssical taste of ' Henry, the son of Robert Stephen.' To the bibliographer, however, his ' Artis Typographite Querimonia, ' 1569, 4to. and his ' Epislola de sua, Typographice Statu,' &c. (1569, 8vo. each reprinted a score of times, but of which the original impressions are luckily in my own cabinet) are documents too interesting not to be noticed. The former is in verse, and com- plains of ' Illiterate Printers, by reason of whom the Art of Printing comes inta disgrace.' There are numerous ' Epitaphs of Printers ' subjoined ; and among them, are nine upon his Father — indicative at once of his aifection and enthusiasm. In bis epistle upon the ' State of his own press,' he takes occasion to complain of the avarice, as well as of the ignorance, of printers — ' accedit avaritia (says he)— malum in arte typographica magis quam in alia vlla formidandum.' p. 57.* A little before, he sj)eaks in a very gallant and liberal spirit of his own liability to the commission of those errors which he reprobates among his bretheren : ' Absit enim vt sibi quisquam persuadeat, ita me aliorum errata proferre, quasi ipse sim avap-agTvjTOf, et hominem me esse non meminerim, id est, eum cuius sit labi, errare, nescire, decipi. Imd vero me et colloco in hoc numero, et iam nunc, in meo opere esse in quibus lapsum me existimem, ingenue fateor.' p. 39. To this epistle is added a list of books printed in his office up to the period of its publi- cation— ' of which (he observes) a few copies yet remain on hand.'
Henry Stephen, like his father, spent a great part of the latter period of his life at Geneva; the then popular resort of the Calvinistic or Hugonot party. His style of composition became proportionably severe with the asperity of his opposition to the Roman Catholic tenets j and Maittaire regrets, in common with every sensible reader, that these religious animosities should have soured the dis- positions, and interrupted the studies, of such truly eminent characters.' Annal. Typog. vol. iii. p. 483. The death of Henry took place, in his 70th year, at Lyons, in 1598 ; (in 1596, according to Almeloveen) and he may be said to have passed from this world in a blaze of glory — as the period of his decease was irradiated by that of several other printers of nearly equal celebrity. A few months before he died, he visited his son-in-law Casaubon, and promised him some assistance in the notes for his Athenaeus. Justice however requires that we should notice the charge of infidelity, or of carelessness, in collating MSS. and adopting texts, which Boeclerus and Joseph Scaliger have brought against this distmguished printer ; and which charge his son-in-law Casaubon has endeavoured.
* Maittaire seems to have had the same notion. In calling upon the printers of his own times to rival those of antiquity, he is led to observe — ' At quotus quisque omnium nunc invenietur his moribus, quin lucro quaestuque, rion peritiS, et literarum studio, cum iilis veteribus contendat ?' Annal. Typog. vol. iii. p. 1.
t
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learned of his family, but of the printers of his day — if we except, perhaps, Turnebus — and yet I will not, upon recon-
with becoming alacrity, to repel. Consult J. de Almeloveen, p. 96, and Maittaire's Vit. Steph. p. 483, &c. Nor are the arrogance, petulance, and occasional self- adulation of Stephen to be passed over without censure. Verses, almost without end and without number, were written to enshrine the memory and perpetuate the fame of this extraordinary man. Read Maittaire, &c. Of his Portrait, unluckily, I believe no legitimate copy remains. His largest device, peculiarly his own, is given faithfully above. The Library which he left behind is reported by Casaubon (Epist. cxcii) to have been rather select than numerous. It appears, however, from the same authority, that a considerable lapse of time intervened before the son-in-law could ' obtain a sight of it.' The excerpts in Maittaire (Fit. Steph. p. 491) are very interesting.
The character of H. Stephen was far from being amiable. Even the attachment of Casaubon towards his daughter was somewhat embittered by a consideration of the positiveness and occasional morosity of the father. Maittaire, however, (apparently as an antidote to the severity of Mallmkrot's censure) thus places his defects and excellences into the opposite scales, ' At vero si quis varias ejus lucubrationes tum editas tum edendas, et praestitas et promissas, perfectas et imperfectas, quarum passim in vitk, uti fuit occasio, mentionem feci ; si prseterea varias ejus occupationes et itinera perpendat ; tot potiiis et tanta ab eo praestari potuisse mirabitur; repet6tque ssepius epigramma a Joanne Posthio Archiatro Wirzeburgico in Henr. Stephanum compositum.
Et librosfacere, et doctos excudere libros, Longus titerque labor, durus uterque labor,
Huic gemino iiivigilat paritcr tua cura labori,
Henrice. 0 mird sedulitate visum.'' (Almeloveen, p. 94. )
Henrici ingenium (nec enim ejus culpas celabo, ne per earum dissimulationem ejus laudes in dubium veniant) fuit pauld arrogantius et raorosius, qua propter et omnibus non placuit, et sibi ssepe cum viris quibusdam eruditis rixas concivit. Vit, Steph, p. 485. I shall conclude this account of Henry Stephen with a fac- simile of his hand-writing (free and noble as his press-work !) taken from a copy of his ' Thesaurus,' given, (as it imports) to the library of the University of Heidelberg ; and formerly in the possession of Messrs. White and Cochrane. For the fac-simile I am indebted to Mr. David Constable, a young and zealous wooer of all that belongs to sound classical bibliography, and of no mean promise in the profession (bibliopolistic) which he hath chosen for his future eminence.
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sideration, lay a great stress upon such exception. His early love of travel and of observation — especially of every thing in the shape of a MS. or Printed Book — was regulated and matured, as he grew up, by great critical knowledge ; and if he seemed, like the Porson of his day, to have an intuitive tact and perception in the decyphering of MSS., his eager- ness to publish what he found new and interesting led him occasionally to the commission of errors, and to be charged with wilful misinterpretation. His merits however are so transcendant, that, like specks upon a mirror, his errors can never dim the general effulgence of his fame. Contemplat^ now his principal Device, and bid him farewell !
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Lorenzo. Do you say nothing of Francis and Charles Stephen ?
Lysander. Only that they were the brothers of Robert, and consequently the uncles, of the great Henry. Yet Charles, who practised both physic and printing, was no contemptible proficient in the latter art ;* and to Francis we
* yet Charles — was no contemptible proficient in the latter art.] Maittaire dis- patches his hiography in about nine pages : but he adds a very interesting appendix, from which (extracted from Menage's Anti-Baillet, cap. 59) the following may be worth repeating. They are the verses of Antoine Bdif, son of Lazare de Bail, and a former pupil of Charles Stephen :
Je ne fus pas si-tot hors de I'enfance tendre
La parole formant, qu'il fut soigneux * de prendre
Des maitres le meilleur, pour des lors m'enseigner
Le Grec & le Latin, sans rien y ^pargner.
Charles Estienne premier : disciple de Lazare
Le docte Bonami : de mode non barbarre
M'apprint a prononcer le language Romain &c.
En I'an, que I'Empereur Charles fit son enti'ee
Repeu dedans Paris, I'annee desastr^e,
Que Bud6 trepassa, mon pere, qui alors
AUoit Ambassadeur pour vostre aieul dehors I Du Royaume en Almagne, et menoit au voyage
Charles Estienne ; & Ronsard, qui sortoit hors de page :
Estienne Mcdicin, qui bien parlant etoit :
Ronsard, de qui la fleur un beau fruit promettoit. In his Annal. Typog. (vol. iii. p. 119) Maittaire favours us with the following epigram by J. Vulteius, to Charles Stephen ; in which Vulteius unites the names of ColincEus, Robert, Francis, and Charles, in neatly-turned strains of panegyric :
Ad Carolum Stephanum.
Vobis quid Stephanis, Roberto, Francisco, tibi Carole, et trium uni Vitrico facili rudis juventus : Nostro hoc tempore, sseculo hoc beato. Franco principe, diligentias ergo Non debet ? magis ipsa bis duobus Debet mehercule, quam omnibus magistris, Professoribus, atque paedagogis.
* Son pere Lazari de Baif.
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are at least indebted for a device of rather unusual elegance. You shall be convinced that I do not speak loosely. Gaze and admire.
Vestri namque opera et labore factum est, Ut ail nunc habeant libri Latini, Quod non di scare quisque per se & absque Praeceptore queat ; nec est necesse, Nostra ut natio Gallicana posthac Ad scolas properet, vel ut niagistrum Simplex turba, tenella, delicata, Clamantem audiat, audiat tonantem, Aut sceptrnm videat, minasve spectet Doctoris ferulasve murmuraulis. Thesaurus mihi Gallico-Latinus Robert! Stephani, viri elegantis, Certus testis erit ; breves libelli, Perdocti tamen, utilesque nuiltum, Vestes, vascula, naviumque forraae Horti, semina, queis docentur a te, Augebunt etiam fidem : probati Vitrici typus, officina, prtelum, Nec me vana loqui satis loquentur,. Francisci quoque niduli librorum Tersorum, quibus explicatur omue, Phrasis quod capit utriusque linguse (De linguis Latiaque Gallicaque
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Philemon. Is there not also another Robert Stephen, son of the first Robert, and brother of the Henry whom you have just noticed ?
Lysandek. There is so ; and I love his memory, because
Hie fit meiitio) niduli, inquam, abunde
A falso mea vindicare possunt
Isthaec carmina, et auibus putabunt
Nil a me esse datum suis, probe illi.
Qui vos in cute noverint et intus.
Jam cum, Cai ole, quatuor juventus
Nil non Gallica debeat labori,
Sacras quee studet expolire ad artes,
Vobis quid, rogo, quatuor reponet,
H6c pro munere diligentiaque ?
Nil dignum dare, vel potest parare,
Hoc uimm nisi det, paretque, avitum
Nomen quod sonet : ergo det juventus
ViTRico, et Stephanis tribus coeonam.
Hendecasyllab. lib. iv. edit, Colin. 1538, p. 99. It should seem that our Charles was a physician as well as printer — a union of professions, I believe, never since exhibited in the same person. Whether he had ever any glimpse of the • eau medicinale,' I will not take upon me to determine ; but certain it is he appears to have been a successful practitioner in cases of gout : for thus the famous Buchanan caroleth his praise, in his ' arthriticaP elegy — sent to Tastaeus and Tevius in 1544 :
Ssepe mihi medicas Groscollius explicat herbas,
Et spe languentem consilioque iuvat, Saepe mihi Stephani solertia provida Carli
Ad mala prsesentem ti'istia portat opem. Vit. Steph. p. 176.
Charles died in 1564. He printed only two Greek books : a beautiful folio Appian in 1551, (of which no tasteful bibliographer can suffer a sound fair copy to escape him) and a New Testament in 1553, in octavo. See Introd. to the Classics, vol. i. p. 164. Yet this Testament may be doubted ; as it is given in a very questionable manner by Almeloveen, and is so noticed by Menage and Maittaire. He printed however the ' Institutianes Gr. Ling, of Clcnardus' in 1551j 8vo. and some Greek and Lathi excerpts from Prisciau and other authors, in 1554, 8vo. Of Hebrew (of which he is said to have been a great admirer) he printed only the Book of Genesis in 1556, 4to.
PnANCis Stephen, his elder brother, requires a merely brief and passing notice. Maittaire gives only 13 books as having issued from his press ; and of these he places the ' Vinetum' of 1537, 8vo. as the first. I possess a copy of this not incurious work (from which the above fac-simile was taken) and another volume, of the same date, from the same press, not mentioned by Maittaire : accompanied
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he preferred his conscience to the terms upon which he was to possess his patrimony. Whether this decision was con- sistent with sound logic — in other words whether tlie ' terms' which he refused were not wise and judicious, I shall not stop to enquire — as, to our own feelings and judgment, no question can arise respecting the superiority of the Protes- tant faith, as then exhibited at Geneva, to the dicta of the Sorbonne doctors at Paris : who really, I think, upon the whole, comported . themselves with unbecoming severity towards both Henry Stephen and his father. Robert the son, however, appears to have acted conscientiously,* and as such let us view his device with satisfaction. There are, I believe, varieties of it.
with some pretty wood cuts. It is an abridgement of Bajfius ' Be Re Navali,' 1537, 8vo. with the same device. Both works were addressed ' Adolescentulis Bonarum Literarum Studiosis.' The date of 1571 appears to be the latest of any attached to the books of Francis Stephen, the elder.
* appears to have acted conscientiozisly.] Maittaire is uncertain whether Robert was older or younger than Henry, his brother. In 1.563 he was made ' King's Printer ;' and published Gibier's ' Edict, 6ic. faite per le Roy Charles IX.' &c. in 4to. the same year, so beautifully, that ' the learned from all quarters hastened to commit their works to his press.' Tit. Steph. p. 505. His father Robert bequeathed him his property upon condition of his quitting Paris, and returning
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Of the remaining branches of the Stephanine family — Francis, the second son of Henry ; Paul, also a son of the same; Robert, the grandson of Old Robert, and
its latter branches seemed to die away ? * . . . Yet that
to Geneva ; but he preferred his conscience to his patrimony. His French verses upon the death of De Thou are languid and heavy : full however of gentle phrase and courtly compliment — but why did he omit to notice that Library of which many of his own books must have formed a part? He died in 1588. Charles the IXth had a high opinion of him, and sent him to rummage foreign libraries, and select the choicest MSS. and rarest books. The royal mandate, or commis- sion-bearing letter, yet exists : but where is the journal or Diary of Robeii Stephen the Younger, made when he was abroad ? Was it ever printed ? How many Sovereigns must go towards purchasing a copy of it — if peradventure a copy be in existence ? A question, too immense and too momentous for instant solution — and so ' let it pass.'
* the reputation of its latter branches seemed to die away.'] This ' golden- pippin' conclusion— namely, that on the death of the mother-stock the sub- sequent grafts produce adulterated fruit, and in the end the very species itself perishes— seems equally melancholy and severe. But so, I fear, it is. Yet to begin with the SECOND Francis : who was both a reformist and a learned printer at Geneva. He pursued a successful career for about 20 years at this latter place. On returning to Normandy he married Margaret Cave, and had by her two sous, Gervais and Adrian, and one daughter, Adrienne. The sons were booksellers at Paris, and the daughter married into the same fraternity. Yet La Caille observes that he never met with a book printed with the names of either Gervais or Adrian subjoined. Paul Stephen seems to have been rather ' the darling of the family.' He was more robust than his brothers, and was brought up under the immediate eye of his mother. Yet his education was by no means neglected ; and I am not sure whether he does not, of all his brothers, rank directly after his father. Almeloveen says that ' he visited London about the beginning of the xviith century, for the sake of paying a visit to his brother-in-law Casaubon, then resident there : and among the friends and learned acquaintance whom he secured, was John Castell, to whom he inscribes his edition (with additions) of his father's Concordance. At this time probably, says he, he gave his device, the same as his father's, to one John Norton — then bookseller to king James I!' Vit. Steph. p. 121. Paul had several children ; among whom were Anthony and Joseph — ' chosen king's Booksellers at Rochelle ; but who died there, in October 1629, not long after their settlement : being swept away by the plague.'
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day had shone forth with no moderate lustre throughout Europe, which displayed the extraordinary talents of the FIRST Robert, and of the second Henry, Stephen ; and if the sun of that family set in comparative feebleness of splendour, its noon-day radiance was felt, acknowledged, and admired, throughout the whole of the Uterary republic. . . . Where next shall I direct my steps ?
Lorenzo. Finish with the Parisian printers, before you take a trip into the Netherlands or Low Countries. What say you to the Morels, Turnebus, Fezendat,Vascosan, and sundry other contemporaneous wights ? *
There seems, however, to have been another Anthony Stephen : consult Mait- taire's Vit. Steph, p. 537 ; p. 550, &c. who, in his Life of Paul, and of this Anthony Stephen, is more circumstantial and interesting than usual in his minor Stephanine biographies. There is yet a third Robert and a third Henry to notice : each using the family device. This third Robert died in 1645, (Maittaire 541-545) and Henry much about the same period. A Matthew, and a Joachim Stephen yet appear — but ' Ohe jam satis!' I shall conclude, therefore, with the eulogy of Borremansius, in his letter to Almeloveen, p. 128. * Non fuerunt illi Viri, ut vulgus typographorum solet, literarum rudes ; sed ad tantum eruditionis culmen evecti, ut vel principem locum tueri facile possint, in priraos Henricus,' &c. The Device of the Stephens had a host of imitators. Among them, Nicolas Chesneau (1564) and Matthias Hovius(1672) exhibited the most preferable copies which I have seen ; although that of ' Sin plucking apples from a tree,' with a human skull, below, of Hovius, is hardly a copy. The Elzevir's may be considered copyists of the Stephens in the selection of their device; which, however, to speak truly, was both a diminutive and contemptible imita- tion of it.
* the Morels, Turnebus, Fezendat, Vascosan, a>id sundry other contem- poraneous wightsJ] ' Brief let me be ' respecting these typographical heroes ; eminent, beyond all doubt, as they unquestionably were. Maittaire hath devoteij the best part of his Mist. Typog. Aliqiwt Paris. 171 7, 8vo. to an account of them ; and from him, chiefly, the ensuing particulars are collected William Morel gives a very interesting account of his studies in the prefatory epistle to the Chancellor Spifame, prefixed to an edition of ' Cicero de Finibus,' whicii issued from the office of Tiletanus in 1545. This was the first editorial attempt (rf Morel ; and the epistle will be seen at full length in the Annul. Typog. vol. iii. p. 429, &c. In 1548 Morel eagaged himself in the office of Tiletanus. In 1550 he printed with Roigny, Martin, and the Du Puis. About the same time
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Lysander. I can only speak of them in the briefest possible manner : Maittaire having devoted his instructive pages to an ample account of them. But of all the typo- Jacques Kerver did some business for him. In 1552 lie was entered of the society of king's printers, chiefly by the interest of Tumebus, and printed in conjunction with this latter distinguished artist about four years : Tumebus sup- plying the Greek, and Morel the Roman, type. In 1555 he received his diploma of king's printer ; and abandoning his smaller Greek type — ' regios majores et nitidiores usurpavit,' says Maittaire, with becoming emphasis. He then seems to have dropt his first device of a Greek Theta, and adopted the twisted Serpent, as before given. He died at Paris in 1564 ; a victim to his never- ceasing anxiety and application to business. The eulogy of Maittaire is extracted in a note in the Introd. to the Classics, vol. 1. p. 302. His brotlier, Fkeueeick, of nearly equal classical attainments, and a man apparently of a singularly sweet and winning disposition, married Vascosan's daughtei', and inherited the fortune of that printer. Frederick was both printer and interpreter of languages to his Majesty. He died at Paris in 1583, in his sixtieth year : leaving behind three sons, of the names of Michael, Frederick, and Claude. Claude Morel was the father both of Charles and Giles ; and adopted the Fountain, as displayed at p. 101 post ; but being made secretary to the king in 1639, he gave over all the concerns and materials of his printing office to his brotlier Giles, who probably printed as late as the year 1647. Let the Family of the Morels rank next to that of the Stephens in the Annals of Parisian Typography !
Of Adrian Turnebus how can we speak in sufficient terms of commendation, and where is the well-versed classical student and critic who would not exercise all his energies in confessing his obligations to him ? He was born in 1512, and died in 1565 : living in the very vortex of typographical bustle and celebrity at Paris. As a scholar and printer, he yielded to none ; and he has the honour of having been tutor to Henry Stephen the younger. De Thou, Larabui, Scaliger, all the wits, critics, scholars, and eminent characters of the day, showered down upon him, from their well-replenished cormicopicE, flowers of all colours and odours, as testimonies of the high opinion in which he was held by them. And yet what shall we say to the ' scandalous chronicle' of the great Joseph Scaliger ? ! Peruse and pity, chivalrous reader. ' On the day even of his marriage with Magdalen Clement, so ardently devoted was Turnebus to his studies and pursuits, that he stole a few hours from the presence of his beloved, to his — shall I say, more? — beloved books.' See La Caille, p. 129 : (and note, there, the testimonies of Huet and Montaigne respecting Turnebus). Budaeus did the same ' scandalous' thing as Turnebus : Introd. to the Classics, vol. ii. p. 383, note.
I possess the quarto volume, published in the year of Turnebus's death, which is filled with a variety of pieces, chiefly poetical, to the ' illustrious memory' of that distinguished man, and from which Maittaire has contrived to make eo interest-
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graphical geniuses you mention, Turnebus was undoubtedly the most learned and distinguished. His thumping volume of Notes, under the formidable title of Adversaria, has long received its due portion of celebrity. Let the Ladies examine for a few seconds the devices of these distinguished printers ; premising that Turnebus used the twisted snake as before
iug a compilation in his account of the same printer. These pieces are printed by T. Richard and Frederick Morel ; and one of them (in prose, ' qu£e vere exponit obitum Adriani Tumebi Reg. Prof.') gives rather a singular picture of his latter moments. It liad escaped Maittaire. Perhaps he thought it might unnecessarily swell his account of the life of him. Read his sensible remark at page 78 of the Hist. Typog. Paris. Turnebus was buried the very day on which he died ; and neither ' priest nor monk' attended him during his illness. ' His dying request to his beloved wife was, that when his spirit had ceased to animate his body, his interment might take place without the least funeral pomp or expense.' A few sorrowing friends only attended the corpse to the grave.
Michael Vascosan, who ought to have taken precedence of William Morel, receives very handsome treatment at the hands of Maittaire. He began to print in 1532, and concluded probably his earthly, as well as typographical, labours in 1576. He first used the Ascensian Press for his device ; as he married Catherine the daughter of I. B. Ascensius. Maittaire, both in the Hist. Typ. Paris. (p. 17-32) and Annal. Typog. (vol. ii. p. 544, &c.) is quite enthusiastic in com- mendation of him. His latter device was a Fountain ; but very clumsily executed, and much inferior to the pretty fountain used by Comino de Tridino in ] 560, &c, Fezendat is a great favourite with me, from his Virgil of 1541, 4to., most elegantly executed, and which, in the old school of bibliography, of the time of Foulkes and Mead, used to be highly estuiiated, and purchased at a considerable price. Maittaire, vol. iii. p. 121. note (b) discourses briefly but pleasantly about Fezendat and his coadjutor Roheut Granjon — whose device, as given at p. 99, post, in conjunction with Fezendat, was taken from ' Le Tomheau de Marguerite de Valois, Royne de Navarre' 1551, 8vo, in the possession of Mr. Lang. The ' Viper and Finger ' is the eternal ornament of the books of Michael Sonnius ; less elegantly executed, however, than the above.
As to ' sundry other contemporaneous wights,' above alluded to by Lysander, I will not suifer myself to be drawn, by silken and almost imperceptible chords, into an interminable labyrinth of varieties ; and so, good humoured reader, take what I happen just now to have at hand. . . Take, first, the device of ' Gekard MoRRHius, a German;' who printed at Paris (' at the Sorbonne College'} the Greek Scholia of Didymus upon the Odyssey in 1530, Bvo.: a book of rather miusual occurrence. Let us hope too, if mermaids do in reality make their
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exhibited. William Moeel, the eldest of the family so distinguished by that name, in addition to the same snake, used the following device.
The Device of William Morel.
appearance, that such a one as the said Gerard chose to adopt for his device, is also of ' unusual occurrence.' Was a mirror requisite to give double lustre to such beauty ?
As the second, take the device of Matthew David— of equal singularity but of less deformity. He printed ' in via Amygdalina, e regione Collegij Remensis and had for motto ' Odiosa Veritas' — ' qui nous prend (says La Cailie) par nos
vol. il h
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His brother, the first Frederick Morel, adopted a text of Scripture every good tree bringeth forth good fruit') rather happily ; as his motto, in the subjoined device, may testify— a motto, by the bye, which it would be well for the public if printers would always keep in recollection.
f
The Device of Frederick Morel.
propres paroles, nous portant le poignard a la gorge.' Hist, de I'lmp. <^c. p. 124. The ensuing is taken from a small quarto volume containing the Andria, Adelphi, and Phormio of Terence, (the title-page professing to liave ' six plays,') 1547, 4to. Da^ad's books are of rare occurrence. The present is rather prettily executed.
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Claude Morbl, son of the said Frederick, borrowed or improved upon the Fountain of Vascosan. Look at this magnificent display of trickhng streams . . . and wish that, under the shadow of some wide-spreading oak, you sat near, disporting yourself with some duodecimo of old poetry printed upon vellum !
102 FIFTH DAY.
Fezendat used two devices; one, peculiarly his own: the other, in conjunction with Gran Jon. You have them both here, and may prefer which you please.
The Device of Michael Fezendat.
The Device of Fezendat and Gr^n Jon.
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Almansa. These are vastly pretty. I hope we shall yet see a score of them.
Lysander. That will depend upon the collection of our Host. In the first place, let us enter a sort of menagerie of animals of various kinds, to select what appears to be the most deserving of admiration. Do look at this plump barn- door fowl : 'tis the Fat Hen of Cavellat ! * I question if Bewick could have clothed the creature in more characte- ristic plumage ?
The Device of William Cavellat.
* the fat hen of Cavellat.'] Cavellat printed in conjunction with Jerom Mamef, (see page 33, ante) and used in general a different device : his ' Fat Hen ' being borrowed from Richard — who introduced it with the date of 1540 in the cir- cular inscription. This said ' Fat Hen,' however, is the real property of the BiRCKMANS, at Antwerp: Frederick Birckman having published an octavo
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In the second place, how like you the Swan of Amazeur, with the absurd pun upon the celebrated sentence, or motto,
edition of the Latin Bible, as early as 1526, in the frontispiece of which we see the foUowmg ornament and circumscription :
Prostant in pingui gallina, cum Antwerpi/z apud portam Camem, turn Colonia. circa templum Cathedrale. Messrs. Arch have a vastly pretty copy of this bible, in the italic type-' elegan- tissimis typis excusa.' I am not sure whether Arnold Birckman were not the first who kept and • fattened' this ' Hen :' At least his heirs used the followmg device.
CoLONIAE.
Apud H<Eredes Arnoldi Birck- manni. Anno 1562.
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which is supposed to have led Constantine the Great to victory? I own these conceits are mightily foolish.
The Device of Iohn Amazetjr.
Thus have we recreated ourselves with the ' Fat Hen ' of Cavellat. Among the more singular devices of printers, of this period, we may notice that of Peter Haultin ; prefixed to his Greek Testament of 1549, 8vo-
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Pursuing our animal speculations, let me bespeak your commendation of the Tortoise of Cyane and Foucher.
TECVM HABITA. The Device of L. Cyane and I. Foucher.
Lorenzo. There is some point in the motto used by Messrs. Cyane and Foucher. They wish their books, Hke the tortoise, to be stationary in our libraries. Where such a frontispiece is the prelude to innocent recreation, or in- structive sentiment, the tortoise of the said Messieurs shall be my constant household companion. But I suppose there is no end to similar embellishments ?
Lysander. They are doubtless very numerous. Hark ! the very woods around us re-echo as if to the roar of some immense African lion . . .
Belinda. What mean you ?
Lysander. I mean the device of the Lion used by Mylius at Strasbourg . . but no . . we have not yet reached that tremendous animal. Yet I knoAV not whether the more quiet and stately attitude assumed by the Lion of Nicolas Couteau, also a Parisian printer, be not as deserving of respectful admiration. The motto on the scroll purports his paws to be resting upon a shield bearing the arms of Florence.
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The Device of Nicolas Couteau.
LiSARDo. A very model for ' Snug the Joiner ' to exhibit — at the next representation of the Midsummer-Night's Dream ! Let me here however make a remark before you dismiss your Parisian Devices . . . With one exception only, (which concerns Claude Morel) all the devices which you have laid before us appear to be cut vfon wood. Can you
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favour us with no other Copper-Plate representations ? And when did the latter begin to predominate ?
Lysander. I will favour you with two more only; premis- ing that they abounded towards the middle of the sixteenth century — especially at Paris and Amsterdam. Take, there- fore, the Sacrifice of Isaac as used by Louis Vendome, and the Two Storks of Sebastian Cramoisy*. . . It is now, however, time to put an end to the bibUographical recrea- tions of the Day. Methinks you have seen pictures enough for one morning . . . and I am at the close of my Parisian researches. What say the ladies ?
Belinda. The ladies will be influenced by the decision of the gentlemen ; and more especially by that of the Monarch- qftJie Day !
Lorenzo. As Lysander appears to have got through his Parisian printers, he may probably wish to postpone the remainder of his typographical researches till the morrow. There is yet, I perceive, an abundant harvest to be gathered in such a disquisition ?
Lysander. Undoubtedly : although it was my ori^nal intention to have carried you through the Low Countries in the course of this morning. Lyons, Louvain, Antwerp. . .
Lorenzo. Let us travel in those places to-morrow. Our eyes begin to be dazzled by the number of grotesque and extraordinary ornaments which you have already placed before us.
Lysander. It shall be as you wish ; although the clouds seem to be gathermg in the horizon, and I fear we must not set our hearts upon a stroll in the garden before dinner. The
* the Stmks of Sebastian Cramoisy.] See the opposite Plate. The Storks- ■were a common device of the printers in the 16th and 17th centuries. Nutius used them at Antwerp, in : 577, with a serpent j and Sebastian Nivelle had. them» frightfully cut in wood, in 1574.
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BUliard-Table, however, may supply the want of out-door exercise ; and to that diversion I strongly recommend you — premising, that we have no anecdotes of Gering's disporting himself in the like recreation ! While you are occupied with your queues and balls (for I cannot affront the gendemen by supposing the mace to be called into play) I shall make arrangements for travelling to-morrow into the cities just mentioned. A tidy workman keeps his tools in order. I shall therefore replace what has been taken down for your gratification to day, and prepare the materials for your entertainment to-morrow.
So courteous a conclusion drew forth the liveUest marks of approbation. On the morrow, Lysander — having aU his Devices and Portraits, &c. placed before him in the order in which he meant to deliver his typographical lecture — continued in the following manner.
ARGUMENT,
The Jhrtner Subject continued, including some Account of early Printing at Louvain.
N the ornaments which excited so much of yesterday's attention, you could not have failed to ob- servCj upon the whole, a deficiency of correct taste and classical com- position. I admit, however, that to a bibliographical antiquary, or to a bibliomaniaCf if you please, (for Lisardo, I know, prefers the latter appellative) such ornaments cannot fail to be interesting. Even their capri- ciousness secures for them a sort of respect or attachment ; considering that age generally gives a sanction to everything, however in itself destitute of propriety of character. The very snuiF-box, cane, coat, badge of privacy, or of public deportment, which belongs to a character of eminence and celebrity, assumes, by association of ideas, a more than twofold degree of interest ; and we should prefer the jacket which Schoiffher wore, when he worked off the sheets of the first Psalter, to the ermined robe of the judge who awarded
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restitution of the monies due from Gutenberg to Fust. Thus, even a spHnter of the deck of the Victory (the ship in which Nelson fought, conquered, and died) has more charms in our eyes than the most highly wrought piece of ebony or satin-wood, in the repository of the most fashionable up- holsterer in the metropolis . . . and thus Wellington's blue great coat, worn by him at the ever-memorable battle of Waterloo, would, with hearts accustomed to beat to true patriotic impulses, assume a tint of more magical hue than all the splendour even of a Chinese Emperor's wardrobe. So covet, I beseech you, the quaint and queer devices of the Marnefs and Kerveks of ancient days ; and never fancy your copies of the works of those printers complete, unless they possess the banners, as it were, of the chieftains to whom they belong.
We left off, I think, with an account of Parisian printers. The next city, in interest and magnitude, to the metropolis of the empire, is Lyons. Who first, Lisardo, primed and brandished the Prmter's balls there ?. . .
Lisardo. Some ancestors of the well known De Bures — if a late publication be correct.
Lysander. The ' late publication' to which you allude is correct; but the information may be considered incom- plete— although the De Bures have certainly the merit of having patronised the first book printed at Lyons. That book, however, is of the date of 1473 and not of 1 476.* I
* of the date of 1473 mid not of 1476.] In (he Bibl. Spencenana, vol. iv. p. 523, the ' Legende Doree' of 1476, is supposed to be the first book printed at Lj'ons. The autlioi-'ity of Panzer, vol. i, p. 529, seems to countenance such an inference ; but both the authorities are here wrong. Mr. Grenvilie is the fortunate possessor of a small quarto volume, containing five ti'eatises, chiefly theological, of which the last has a colophon subjoined giving us the un- equivocal date of 1473 : — and of an earlier date than this, I believe no speci-
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shall say little or nothing of subsequent efforts of the Lyons press, till we reach the time of Jodocus Badius Ascensius; at once a scholar, critic, and printer. Few characters stood
men of Lyonese printing is known to exist. I shall indulge the curious reader with the quaint title and colophon of this 5th treatise : 1 Spurcksimi Salhane litigationis : rfer
alisqz nequitie procuratoris : Cotra ge
nus humanu Cora domino nostra Ihe
su xpo agitate Beata virgine Maria
eius matre pro nobis aduocata et capa
rite. Liber feliciter incipit. Has title is on the 68th leaf of the volume, and the colophon is on the reverse of the 82nd and last leaf of the same :
Scelestissimi Sathane litigationis Contra genus humanum: Liber feliciter explicit. Lwgdump[er]ma gistrii guillermu regis huius artis Ipressarie expertu : hono rabilis viri Bartholomei bio yerii dicte ciuitatis ciuis iussu <^ suptibus ipressus Anno verbi incamati . M.CCCC.Lxxiii. Quitodeclo Kal ; Octobres
The work is destitute of signatures, numerals, and catchwords ; and is executed in a full-faced, angular gothic type — similar to that of the Legeiide Dor6e — and very irregularly printed. The author of these five treatises was Cardinal Lotliarius, afterwards Pope Innocent VIII. Mr. Grenvilie possesses a reprint of the latter work (which should seem to have been once rather popular) executed at Vienne in Dauphiny in 1478, and the ^rst book also prmted in t/iat place. The type is a close, full-bodied gothic : of a Col(;gne character. The colophon, on the recto of the 14th and last leaf, is thus :
Scelestissimi Sathane litigacionis . Contra genus humanum . Libei- feliciter explicit . Vienne . per magistntm lohan- nem solidi huius artis impressorie exper turn. Anno incarnacionis . M . CCCC . Ixxviif.
The Lyons impression was unknown to Panzer. In regard to the earlier Lyonese pointing, consult the desultory notices of the Abbe Rive in his ' Chasse aux
11«
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upon higher ground than did this distinguished man ; * and his enthusiasm for the Art of Printing" was equally manifested by his selection (the first, I beheve, upon record) of a press
Bibliographes,' pp, 167-9, 243, &c. : and further remark, that he says ' his master possessed a small quarto book printed at Lyons in 1473, of the greatest possible rarity, and for which the English and Germans had often tempted him w ith the offer of 60 Louis : ' but he would not part with it. Can this be any other work than the one possessed by Mr. Grenville ? I|should think not. Further remark . . . respecting the ' Roman de Baudoin/ of the supposed date of 1474, printed at Lyons . . . Gordon de Percel gives the title of this work at length, with the dates of 1474, 1478, as Lyonese publications, Bibliotheque des Romans, vol. ii. p. 222. Marchand follows him in the earlier of these dates : Hist, de Vlmprim. p. 66 : citing Gordon de Percel and the Cat. de la Princ. de Condi, p. 31. Mercier follows Marchand ; doubting the existence of the date of 1474, and calling Lenglet du Fresnoi (who assumed the feigned name of Gordon de Percel) ' a very bad authority in matters of editions,' ^Suppl. p. 66. The Abbe Rive, as usual, pursues Mercier pretty briskly ; and apparently, it should seem, upon the authority of Maittaire's Index, vol. ii. p. 502 — which had corrected a supposed error in the eai'lier volumes, (vol. i. p, 390 ; vol. i. of Index, p. 120) in having assigned the date of 1478 as the^rst of the Roman de Baudoin — believes in the accuracy of the date of 1474, and abuses Mercier for hidirectly censuring Gordon de Percel and Marchand. But neither of these latter authorities, nor Rive himself, ever saw the Romance alluded to with the date of 1474 : nor do I believe such an edition to be in existence.
* this distinguished man.] Maittaire has devoted ' a good round dozen ' of his instructive pages to an account of Iodocus Badius Ascensius : see his Annal. Typog. vol. ii. p. 72, &c. The subject was worthy of such dilation. This eminent printer, scholar, commentator, and critic, commenced his career at Lyons as corrector of the presses of Trkchsell ;ind de Wingle ; and by some felicitous correction, alteration, or composition — call it by what name you please — he after- wards married Tiielif, the daughter of Trechsell, and, on the death of his father-in-law, went to Paris to establish himself as a printer there. ' Some Orations of Politian ' bear evidence of the existence of the ' Ascension Press' as early as the year 1495 at Paris : see Panzer, vol. ii. p. 309, no. ■*o53. Badius at first printed in conjunction with Petit, Bocard, Roche and others ; but quickly afterwards commenced business on his own account. Meanwhile, a son (Conrad) and three daughters were the fruits of his union. Of these daughters, Petroniljla, the eldest and probably the cleverest, (and who understood Latin nearly as well as her native tongue) was united to Robert Stephen : see p. 82, ante : the second was married to Vascosan, and the third to Roigny — so that more thoroughly-professional unions could not have been devised or entered upon.
Ascensius returned to Lyons about the year 1516 or 1518 ; and from that time, to his death in 1535, maintaining a society with the most distinguished literary characters of the day, (especially witli Budaeus and Erasmus, who had
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for his device, by the number of most admirably-useful works which he published, and by eating his Christmas dinner (as we must take it for granted he did) with his three
each an high opinion of him) he put forth a number of editions of the best Latin classics: his Greek fount of letter, both at Paris and at Lyons, being miserably defective. He was a great admirer and imitator of Aldus ; but equalled him only in diligence and perseverance : see the pleasing notes in Maittaire, vol. ii. p. 79. Respecting those who imitated his device, (above given) he always maintained an immoveable neutrality. Indeed his equanimity and amiable feelings seem to have been the delight of his friends, and the envy of many of his contemporaries. As to his literarj' enthusiasm, chance has supplied me with the following animated passage — taken from his Aulus Gellius, printed by Granjon in 1518, 4to. — from which the reader may appreciate the quantity of com- mendation that is due to him. It is from his concluding address, on the reverse of fol. CLxvii : ' Volumina commentariorum ad hunc diem. xx. iam facta sunt. Quantum autem vitae mihi deinceps Dei voluntate erit : quantumque a cura publica, et a re familiari procurandoque cultu liberorum meorum dabitur otium : ea omnia subsiciua, et subsecundaria tempora ad colligendas huiusceraodi memo- riarum delectatiunculas conferam. Progredietur igitur numerus librorum dijs bene iuuantibus cum ipsius uitae quantuli quique fuerint progressibus. Neque longiora mihi dari spatia viuendi volo : quam dum ero ad banc facultatem scribendi commentandique idoneus.' &c. This latter sentence is vehemently and gloriously characteristic !
His decease was marked by numerous epitaphs, of which some are given by Maittaire. Among them, take the following, latinised from the Greek — each by Henry Stephen, the son of Robert,
Hie, liberorum plurimorum qui parens. Parens librorum plurimorum qui fuit, Situs loDOcus Radius est Ascensius. Plures fuerunt liberis tamen libri Quod jam senescens cccpit illos gigncre. iEtate floreus ccepit hos quod edere. Maittaire, in his Fit. Steph. p. 190, gives the following monumental inscription, apparently upon the authority of Chevillier.
L'Epitaphe de Josse Bade, Michel Vascosan, et Frederic Morel a St. Benoist, ou ils sont enterr^s.
Portrait de Jod. Badius.
DD. O. M. B.Q. V. M. S.
Portrait de so Femme Thelif Trechsel,
Viator, artes qui bonas piasque amas, Siste hk. Quiescunt subter illustres viri.
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Sons-in-Law, also printers of eminence, who partook of turkey and quaffed Burgundy by the side of him ! Happy banquet ! , . . where new works of curiosity or of interest were projected ; anecdotes, perhaps of Jenson, Gering, or Froben, imparted ; and avowals of friendship, or of enthu- siastic attachment to the art which they professed, made and re-echoed the live-long night — even till the snow upon the surrounding country became tinged with the pinky light of the morning ! To speak soberly; I told you, if you remember, that Ascensius chose a Press for his Device : but whether first at Paris, where he first commenced business, I am not able to speak with decision. Among the varieties of this ' AscENsiAN Press,' the following, I believe, are of the most frequent occurrence.
The Device of I. B. Ascensius.
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The Device of the Same.
Jacet loDocus hie Baditjs Ascensius Candore notus scriptor et scientiL Gener Iodoci Vascosanus prope situs est, Doctissimorum tot parens voluminum, Socer MoRELLi Regis olim Interpretis : Musarum alumni quae gemuut hie conditum Fceddsque Federici ademptum sibi dolent. Tres cippus unus hie tegit cum uxoribus Lectissiinis et liberorum liberis.
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The Press became shortly afterwards rather a fashionable ornament to the frontispiece of a book_, and was adopted by a number of printers.* Ascensius enjoyed an abundant share of reputation till his death, in 1535; when he was succeeded by his son Conrad, who, together with Robert Stephen, his brother-in-law, retired to Geneva from the religious persecutions of the day, and there carried on their peaceful and profitable labours unmolested,
Hos Christus olim dormientes suscitet Ad concinendum Trinitati almse melos.
I. X. e. Y. c.
Look also at La Caille (p. 72-3) for one minute ; and wish, curious reader, that you possessed the ' Opera Sti. Brunonis CaHhudanorum Fundatoris,' 1524, folio — from the Ascensian Press — with its ' petites figures en bois, qui rend cette Edition tres rare !'
* The press — was adopted by a number of Printers.'] By Vascosan, Roignj^ and others : see note (e) in Maittaire, vol. ii. p. 77. This adaptation was of course tolerated among his relatives ; but they sometimes stole Ascensius's iiame; and in the 'avaut propos' to his ' Calepini Dictionarium,' of 1516, folio, Badius warns his readers ' not to pay attention to works in which his name is surreptitiously in- troduced, but to look well after his device of the Press.' Chevillier, p, 208. It was certainly natural that printers and publishers should adopt so appropriate an ornament in the frontispieces of their books. We see it thus — in ' The Artes of Logike and Rethorike, ^c. by M. Dudley Fenner.' Qvo. without date, but appa- rently at Middleburgh, in the middle of the sixteenth century.
And, perhaps of an earlier date, in ' The Ordenaryfor allfaytltfull Christian, <SfC. Translated out of Doutche into higlysh by Anthony Scoloker. Imprinted at
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I may probably be censured for not noticing various other Lyonese printers, of eminence in their day, during the latter part of the xvth and the beginning of the xvith century — but referring you to the methodical and instruc- tive pages of Panzer,* and just lapng before you the very
Ippeswych by Anthony Scoloker, &c, 1548, 8vo. — where, on tlie reverse of D iij, it is iutroduced as a subject in the text of the work.
This book, both in the embellishments and text work, is of sufficiently barbarous execution. But I must make the reader acquainted with some poetical strains, beneath a similar ornament of a press, of much clumsier execution, which I found in the heterogeneous mass of Bagford's collection, in the Harl. MSS. no. 5915.
Loe here the forme and figure of the presse Most liuelily obiected to thine eye. The worth whereof no tongue can well expresse' So much it doth, and workes so readily : For which let's glue vnto the Lord all praise. That thus hath bless'd vs in these latter daies.;
I know nothing of the date of ' these latter dsaes,' but conjecture the poetry to be of the end of the xvith century. Note further : lohn de Preux used a very neat device of a press, modelled upon that of Ascensius, in 1587. Ibid. Le Preux however printed at least twenty years earlier.
* the methodical and instructive pages of Panzer. J Consult the Annales Typogra- phici, vol. i. p. 529 ; which contain an account of 268 articles printed at Lyons in the
VOL. II. I
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singular device of Huguetan — an early printer in the xvith century — (see how whimsical these ' auncient' printers were) let us proceed to the notice of a family of printers, of no
xvth century ; and among which, the New Testament in French, of the supposed date of 1477, is distinguished for its rarity and curiosity. The Abbe Rive notices this impression of the sacred writ Of the earher Lyonese printers, few, if any, exhibited so much skill as Martin Husz — ' vir diuini ingenii artis sue peritissimus : acri cura ac diligentia impressam et eraendatara ut ulteriori lima non egeat, &c..' This is the language of the colophon in ' Odofred's reading upon the Justinian Code,' 1480, folio. Panzer, vol. i. p. 532, no. 1 9. The Rev. Mr. Rice possesses a copy of the well known Bartholomaeus De Prop. Ber. in French, with the date of 1491, folio : which appears to be printed by Matthew Husz, M. A. I av ng th • d vii e of wild men — and presenting a gothic letter, of the middle size, a o. ,ce sh rj.. n at, and well executed.
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ordinary celebrity in their day. . . I mean, the Gryphii ; * of whom you may remember some slight mention was made in yesterday's discussion. The elder Gryphius, Francis, may be
* The Gryphii.] Bajle has a short (but, as usual, interesting) article relating to Sebastian Gryphius, and to his son Anthony. He adduces the laudatory testimonies of Conrad Gesner, the elder Scaliger, Du Verdier, and Chevillier, to support his own favourable criticism of the eminence of these printers, and especially of Sebastian — ' fameux Imprimeur de Lion an xvi. siecle. II exerfa sa profession avec tant d'honneur, qu'il merita que de fort habiles gens lui en donnassent des louanges publiques.' Dkt. vol. ii. p. 612-3. Maittaire (vol. ii. p. 562-578) follows in the same order: expressly subjoining the testimonies alluded to by Bayle, and adding that of Stephen Boletus, for whom Sebastian printed the famous 'Commentaries of the Latin Language,' 1536-8, folio : of which presently. He concludes with a list of books executed in the office of Sebastian. Nothing can well exceed the testimonies of approbation expressed by the elder Scaliger, Doletus, and Gesner. Learning, ingenuity, celebrity, beautiful and accurate printing — all seem to have been the qualifications and attainments of the elder Gryphius. Ge.sner, who dedicated to him the xiith book of his Pandects, is, as usual, uncommonly frank, interestuig, and enthusiastic in his commendation.
Chevillier is highly complimentary ; and speaks of the excellence of Gryphius in printing Hebrew. L'Orig. de Vim-prim. p. 150, &c. Bayle shrewdly remarks, ' it must not be forgotten that Sebastian Gryphius was learned and he subjoins an anecdote, from an epigram of Vulteius, that ' Robert Stephen corrected books extremely well — Colinaeus printed them with the same degree of ex- cellence— but Gryphius knew both how to print and to correct with equal skill.' Here is the original :
Liter tot norunt libros qui cudere, tres sunt
Insignes : languet ciEtera turba fame. Castigat Stephanus, sculpsit ColinjEus, utrumque Gryphius edocta mente manuque facit.
His accuracy is considered as remarkable; since, in the ' Commentaries' before mentioned, consisting of two large folio volumes, only 8 errors are mentioned in the ' Corrigenda ; ' and what is curious, Sebastian was so anxious to give the reader a notion of the correctness of his Bible of 1550, that he placed the trifling ' errata' immediately after the title page. A physician of Cologne, of the name of Adam Knouf, was one of the correctors of his press. Sebastian died in 1 556, in his 63d year ; and ' Anthony his son, walked in the footsteps of his father, in the same town, worthy of the celebrity of his parent.' Du Verdier has an interesting passage relating to father and son. After telling us that Sebastian restored the art of printing at Lyons, then beginning to decline, and that his founts of Hebrew, Greek, and Roman characters were ' quite new and very beautiful,' he proceeds thus : ' Les Potites de son temps I'ont apell6 I'excellent
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said to belong to Paris; but Sebastian and Anthony must be reserved for Lyons; while a brother, of the name of John, kept up the celebrity of the family name in his publications at Venice. These printers are rather distin- guished for the number of their smaller or dugdecimo pro- ductions, which are executed in the Italic type of a form at once elegant and legible. Their larger type, whether italic or roman, is however extremely handsome and agreeable to the eye; and in their Bible of 1550 they exhibited the largest fount of Roman letter which, at that time, had ever been used. Their device may be considered a sort of pun upon their name. Lorenzo, I observe, has not collected all the varieties of the Lyon-Griffin; but what you here behold
Tryphon de nostre aage duquel Martial fait m^moire. II a este le receptacle des gens scavaiis, diligent et curieux a chercher par tout les bons livres qui estoyent perdus (au moins bien esgarez) par I'injure du temps, pour iceux trouvez les restituer et faire jouir la posterity d'un tant rare tresor, dont le Seigneur Antoine Gkyphius son fils en a encores une bonne partie a imprimer, et comrae son pere n'a rien espargn6 pour les fecouvrer et apres fidelement mettre en lumiere, ainsi 11 n'est chiche et de son labeur et de son bien a les faire sortir en publique.' Anthony is however accused (and very justly) by De La Monuoye, of havmg neglected the later publications of his press, and having used worn types. ' He printed vfdl (continues this author) when he pleased, and has been said to equal his father in erudition!' Jugemens des Savans, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 45-6.
Bayle says there was * a printer at Venice of the name of John Gryphius.' This is true enough ; as the beautiful device, above exhibited by Lysander, is taken from one of two works, published the same year, 1547, in 4to. of which Lord Spencer possesses copies. On the left of it, we read virtvte dvce : on the right, coMiTE FORTVNA. They are small volumes, and hardly of sufficient im- portance to have their titles repeated : but this John Gryphius, who I take to be also a son of Sebastian, is rather an uncommon, as well as elegant, printer ; as his name is not mentioned by Maittaire and later bibliographers. See the Index to Maittaire, vol. i. p. 460. Even Panzer has omitted to notice him, vol. xi. p. 289. Mr. Beloe describes a rare edition of Aristophanes, edited by Canmius, of which John was the printer ; but says he has ' not been able to discover any other work printed by this John Gryphius.' Anec. of Literature, vol. v. p. 182-3. Lysander has justly noticed the prodigious number of books, chiefly of small dimensions, which have issued from the press of the Gryphii. When copies are clean, and the paper happens to be white (a rare occurrence with books from this press) the
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were the most commonly adopted. Beware of the uphfted paw of either of these winged monsters !
The Device of the Gryphii, at Lyons.
effect of the Italic type, used chiefly by these printers, is exceedingly pleasing. In general, however, their boqks liave a coarse and repulsive aspect. A word, in
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Sometimes, however, this formidable griffin or dragon was enshrined in a border, or frame-work, of no incurious texture. But, of this nature, none of the brothers or sons exhibited a more splendid and elaborate specimen than did John, who resided at Venice. I congratulate Lorenzo on the following beauteous sample of Venetian art.
The Device of John Gryphius.
coQclusion, respecting their Device. Francis, whom we have briefly noticed (p. 69-70, ante) as a Parisian printer, used sometimes a most formidable griffin, upwards of 3 inches high. Sebastian, like John, occasionally encircled his griffin in frame-work ; but with less richness and tastefulness of effect. This device was imitated, among other printers, by Giovanni d' Antonio degli Antonij-, at Milan, in 1560 ; by Thomas Boyzola, at Brescia ; by Juan Gracian, at Aleak, in
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What have we here? A rival sample of curious and tasteful composition in the device of Guillaume Rouille,* also a printer at Lyons. I am doubtful however to which to assign the palm, on the score of elegance ; although there is probably more grace and flow of line (as artists call it) in what you here behold. The accessories, it must be confessed, are very gracefully managed. But what will strike you as rather a whimsical coincidence, the eagle, at the summit of the wreath, towards which the serpent seems to pay a respectful deference, is precisely the Eagle of Napoleon Bonaparte — as we see it in the several trophies, deposited
1573 ; and by Leon Cavellat, at Paris, in 1578 — ' rue S. Jean Latran au Griffon d' Argent :' having a fine griffin at tlie end, witli his fore-paws on a shield, and tl)e monogram of N D C. (Bagford's Collection,) A quatrain from G. Paradinus Anchemanus may probably close this ' griffin' discussion with good effect :
In effigiem Clarissimi Viri etjklicis Memori/E Sebastiani Gryphii, Tyjjographi. HfEC oris probitas, auimi ceu teste refulgens,
Indicat ingenu&, fronte quod intus erat : Doctrinam omnigenani, studium de plebe merendi, Candoremque piS. mente, trilingue caput.
Maittaire, Annal. Typog. vol. iii. p. 570. * the device of Rouille.'] The beautiful specimen of the device of Guillaume Rouille, or Rouville, above exhibited, is taken from a rare quarto tract, in the possession of Mr. G. Hibbert ; of which the following is a memorandum, committed to paper some twelve months ago. ' magnificence <le la superbe et triumphante entree de la noble et antique Cit6 de Lyon faicte au Treschrestien Roy de France Henry deuxiesme de ce Nom, Et a la Royne Catherine son Epouse le xxiii. de Septembre. m.d.xlviii. A Lyon, Chh Guillaume Rouille a VEscu de Venice. 1549. 4to. Avec privilege.' The privilege, on the back of the title-page, states the ' inaccurate, lying, and erroneous' previous publications upon this subject. Rouille, ' marchant Libraire de Lyons,' has an exclusive privilege for the present — to print it in Italian or French, in large or small size, with or without cuts. The cuts, representing the shews, &c. are pretty — and that of the Bucentaur vessel (L 2, rev.) is very clever. This is the same printer of whom such honourable mention is made in vol. i. p. 276. His usual device is a small eagle, between two spiral snakes, erect. Of Rouville, read somewhat ' plesaunt' in Maittaire, vol. iii. p. 145.
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in the chapel at White-Hall, which were won in the cam- paigns of the illustrious Wellington !
The Device of Guillaume Rouille.
Hark ! Did I not hear a shriek — as if from some tortured and half-dying human creature ? — or was such sound merely imaginary, on viewing the singular device of the bosom friend of Sebastian Gryphius ? ! Unhappy Doletus !*
* Unhappy Doletus f] In the year 1779 appeared a work entitled ' Vie D'Etienne Dolet, Imprimeur a Lyon dans Le Seizieme Siecle ; avec une notice des Libraires et Imprimeurs Auteurs que Von a pu dtcouvrir jusqu'a ce jour J 8vo. A copy of this unusual book is in my possession ; but there are copies, upon large
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'tis the emblem of thy press which I now behold ! Taste, wit, diligence, and erudition, were all combined in this ex- traordinary character — who equally fell a martyr to his own
paper, in 4to., (so says tlie advertisement prefixed) of which only 25 were printed — ' en faveur des curieux ' — and of which I must at present content myself with hoping to possess one! Yet, it must be frankly owned, after an attentive perusal of the 103 pages of Maittaire, in his vol. iii. p. 9-112 ; of the 21 pages in NiSeron, vol. xxi. p. lOT-fiS ; and of the 10 pages in Goujet's Bibl. Francoise, vol. xi. p. 193-203 — not much remains to be urged in favour of the said ' Vie d'Etienne Dolet,' of which there appear to be 25 copies, on large paper, ' en faveur des Curieux !' Gogue and Nee De La Rochelle were the publishers of this latter work, at Paris; and I suspect had not attentively read the articles which had appeared in Bayle (vol. ii. p. 301, edit. 1730) and La Croix du Maine, and Du Verdier, upon the subject of Doletus — as they quote Goujet concerning the death of that unhappy printer, whereas Bayle is more curious and particular.
What shall we say, then, respecting Estienne Dolet .'' He was born in 1509, and died in 1546 ; a period, too short for highly-gifted talents under the direc- tion of good taste and sound judgment — which, however, Doletus does not ap- pear to have possessed. As to his being a natural son of Francis I., that notion is properly confuted in the 8vo. volume of biography just mentioned. Doletus lived in a perpetual state of mental and bodily activity, — except when the movements of the latter were restrained by the prison-bars of Toulouse ; for he seems to liave been pretty frequently incarcerated there. He was probably rather an unfortunate than a guilty character. Some ill-omened star seems to have always directed his proceedings. He abused Erasmus ; preferring his own style and that of Longolius to the compositions of that distinguished character. Yet he gained the friendship of Budaeus, to whom he laid open his own ' life, cha- racter, and behaviour.' His ' Commentaries of the Latin Language,' published in his 28th year, in 1536-1538, 2 volumes folio, and containing, in the whole, three thousand four hundred and twenty-four closely printed columns, besides 120 pages of preliminary pieces, is unquestionably a most wonderful performance — ' Grvphe (says Gogu6) n'a rien 6pargn6 de ce qui pouvoit contribuer a Ja perfec- tion de la partie typographique de cet ouvrage ; et le titre est decore d'un cadre fort bien grave en hois, ou paroissent les images des plus grands Philosophes et des Savans les plus illustres de I'antiquite,' p. 86. Read Maittaire, and all the subsequent bibliographers, for the verses (beginning
Prima meiE monimenta artis, monimenta juventse
Prima meae, tandem auspiciis exite secundis :) prefixed to the first volume. The work is dedicated to Francis I. (who was always the friend of the author, when he could be so) and to Budaeus : and we are informed that ' the volumes contain an infinite number of anecdotes respect-
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imprudence, and to the unrelenting severity of the religious persecution of the age. Happy . . had the axe which severed the block, divided also the head from the body of him who chose it for his device. Doletus was hung and burnt in his thirty-seventh year ! !
The Device of Stephen Doletus.
iug the author, the leai-ned of his age, and the literary quarrels of the Ciceroniaus against Erasmus.' They are also lull of digressions ; indicative of the enquiring, curious, and ever-agitated mind of the author. The second volume is said to be rarer than the first.
Gogue, p. 48, gives a list of the ' condemned books ' published by Doletus. They seem to be a strange melange, and of very opposite tendencies.