# The Invention of Printing/Chapter 25

XXV
The Spread of Printing.
First Printers of Germany … Mentel at Strasburg … Zell at Cologne … Keffer and Koburger at Nuremberg … Fac-simile of a part of Koburger's Map … Zainer at Augsburg … Fac-simile of Zainer's Birth of Eve … John of Westphalia and Martens at Louvain … Mansion at Bruges. Gerard Leeu at Antwerp … First Printers of Italy … Sweinheym and Pannartz at Rome … De Spira at Venice … Jenson's Types … Venice famous for Printing … Cennini at Florence … The Ripoli Press … Zarot at Milan … Appearance of Publishers … First Printers of France … Gering, Crantz and Friburger at Paris … The Printers of Elegant Books … First Printers in Spain and Portugal … In England … Caxton at Westminster … Printing did not find a general Welcome. Made Popular by the Cheapness of Books … Injudicious Selection of Books for Publication. Demand for Books in the Vernacular … First Check on the Liberty of the Press.
Caxton, 1482.
IN CENTRAL AND NORTHERN EUROPE.
When two rival printing offices had been established at Mentz it was no longer possible to keep secret the processes. Every printer who handled the types and every goldsmith who helped to make the tools must have felt a weakening of the obligation of secrecy. The sack of Mentz was a greater misfortune, for it dissolved all obligations and sent the printers to other cities to found new offices. Not one of these printers has told us when and how he began to print on his own account. All we know about the introduction of printing in many of the large cities has been gathered from the dates of books and the chance allusions of early chroniclers. It is from these imperfect evidences ​that the following tables of the spread of printing have been made up. They are based on the chronological arrangement of Santander's Dictionary, but the names and dates have been collated with those of Cotton's Typographical Gazetteer, and other works of authority, and some alterations have been made.
| Place. | Printer. | Date. | Place. | Printer. | Date. |
| Mentz | John Gutenberg | 1450 | Reutlingen | John Ottmar | 1482 |
| Bamberg | Albert Pfister | | Vienna | John Winterburg | 1482 |
| Strasburg | Mentel and Eggestein | 1458 | Magdeburg | Rauenstein et al | 1483 |
| Cologne | Ulric Zell | 1462 | Stockholm | John Snell | 1483 |
| Augsburg | Gunther Zainer | 1468 | Winterberg | John Alacraw | 1484 |
| Nuremberg | Henry Keffer | 1469 | Heidelberg | Fred. Misch | 1485 |
| Munster in Argau | Helyas Helye | 1470 | Ratisbon | John Sensenschmidt | 1485 |
| Spire | Peter Drach | 1471 | Brinn | Stahl & Preinlein | 1486 |
| Ulm | John Zainer | 1473 | Munster | John Limburg | 1486 |
| Buda (Hungary) | Andrew Hess | 1473 | Sleswick | Stephen Arndes | 1486 |
| Mersburg | Lucas Brandis | 1473 | Frisia | | 1488 |
| Laugingen | | 1473 | Kuttenberg | Von Tischniowa | 1489 |
| Esslingen | Conrad Fyner | 1473 | Ingolstadt | John Kachelofen | 1490 |
| Marienthal | Bros. of Life-in-Com. | 1474 | Hamburg | J. and T. Borchard | 1491 |
| Lubec | Lucas Brandis | 1475 | Wadstein | | 1491 |
| Burgdorf | | 1475 | Czernigov | Tzernoevic | 1492 |
| Blaubeuren | Conrad Mancz | 1475 | Zinna | | 1492 |
| Pilsen | | 1475 | Fribourg | Kilianus Piscator | 1493 |
| Rostock | Bros. of Life-in-Com. | 1476 | Luneburg | John Luce | 1493 |
| Geneva | Ad. Steynschauer | 1478 | Copenhagen | Gothof. de Ghemen | 1493 |
| Prague | | 1478 | Oppenheim | | 1494 |
| Eichstadt | M. and G. Reyser | 1478 | Freisingen | John Schæffler | 1495 |
| Wurtzburg | Dold, Ryser, et al | 1479 | Offenburg | | 1496 |
| Leipsic | Marcus Brand | 1481 | Tubingen | John Ottmar | 1498 |
| Aurach | Conrad Fyner | 1481 | Cracow | John Haller | 1500 |
| Erfurt | Wider de Hornbach | 1482 | Munich | John Schobser | 1500 |
| Memmingen | Albert de Duderstadt | 1482 | Olmutz | De Baumgarten | 1500 |
| Passau | Stahl, Mayer, et al | 1482 | Pfortzheim | Thomas Anselmus | 1500 |
This is but a brief list for the vast and populous country north of Italy and east of France and the Netherlands. Not less remarkable is the fact that some cities now deservedly famous for their printing were among the last to acquire a knowledge of the art, and those that gave it feeble support.
The master printers at Mentz before 1500, not previously named, were: Erhardus Reuwich, whose first book was dated 1486; Frederic Misch, who began after 1490; Jacob Meydenbach (a witness at the trial of 1455), between 1491 and 1496; and Peter Friedburg, between 1494 and 1497. There may ​have been others, whose names are lost, but the printers are few; they cannot be compared, either in number or in influence, with those of many smaller cities during the same period. Long before Schœffer died, Mentz had ceased to be a great school and centre of printing.
Strasburg. The statement of Lignamine, that Mentel printed at Strasburg after 1458, has been corroborated by the recent discovery in the Freiburg library of a Latin Bible in two volumes folio, which is known to have been printed by Mentel, and which contains the subscriptions of the illuminator and the written dates, in one volume of 1460, in the other of 1461. As this book should have been in press at least two years, it may be regarded as evidence that printing was practised here as early as in Bamberg. Strasburg gave greater encouragement to printers than Mentz, for sixteen master printers were working there before 1500.
Cologne. The first printer at Cologne was Ulric Zell. He was an industrious printer for more than forty years, but he never printed a book in German, nor did he adopt any of the improvements of the printers of Italy. He adhered rigidly to the severe style of his master, Schœffer, printing all his books from three sizes of a rude face of Round Gothic types. He was not a skillful nor even a correct printer, but he was a shrewd publisher, and accumulated a large property. Madden supposes that he went to Cologne in 1462, and ​was engaged by the Brotherhood of the Life- in-Common at Weidenbach, near that city, to assist them with his new art of printing in their pious task of making books. His name appears for the first time in a book dated 1466, which date may be accepted as indicative of the time when he left the monastery and began to print on his own account in the city.
At the close of the fifteenth century, twenty-two printing offices had been established at Cologne. Among them was that of Arnold Ter Hoorne, who, despite his occasional bad presswork, deserves special notice as one of the first printers who made use of Arabic figures.
Fac-simile, reduced, of part of Koburger's Map of Europe. [Photographed from Mr. Bruce's copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle.]
[From Heineken.]
IN THE NETHERLANDS.
Utrecht. It is probable that the unknown printer of the four notable editions of the Speculum was at Utrecht before the arrival of Ketelaer and De Leempt in 1473.
Louvain. John of Westphalia came to Louvain in 1472, with some matrices of Round Gothic and Roman types which he had acquired in Venice, and began to fit up a printing office. In 1473, he published his first book. During the twenty-two years he was in business, he printed 120 works. Many were editions of the classics, and all were selected with reference to the requirements of the University, from which he received the honorary title of Master of Printing. John Veldener, who began to print at Louvain in 1473, received a similar title. He boasted that he was expert in all branches of the graphic arts, but his skill was that of a mechanic. As ​a publisher, he could not compete with John of Westphalia. Thierry Martens, of Alost, was employed by John of Westphalia, probably as editor, soon after he arrived at Louvain. After receiving suitable instruction, Martens was allowed to print some little books at Alost in 1473. He began to print at Alost in his own name in 1487. Necessity or the love of change compelled him to move his printing office many times between Louvain and Antwerp. In 1529, he forsook printing and retired to Alost, where he died in 1534, at the age of eighty- eight years. In his business life of almost sixty years he printed, beside many other works, about 150 books in Greek, Hebrew and Latin. He had a critical knowledge of six languages, and his ability as an editor was acknowledged by many scholars who were his friends and correspondents. Erasmus wrote his epitaph, and the town of Alost has put up a statue to commemorate his worth.
Bruges. The name of Colard Mansion, a calligrapher of high merit and afterward the first typographer at Bruges, is found in the records of a corporation of book-makers, between the years 1454 and 1473. As his name does not re-appear before 1482, it is supposed that he abandoned the guild and learned printing. In 1476, he printed a little book in a new face of type in the French style. He was a skillful but not a prosperous printer, for he was obliged to eke out his scant income as a printer by occasional jobs of illumination. Soon after 1484, he left Bruges. It is not known where he went or when he died. John Brito, who succeeded Mansion, was for many years the only typographic printer at Bruges. This neglect of printing in a city renowned for the elegance of its manuscripts and the skill of its calligraphers shows that the professional book-makers regarded printing as an inartistic and mechanical method of making books.
​Gouda and Antwerp. Gerard Leeu, the most industrious printer of his time, began to print at Gouda in 1477, but he went to Antwerp in 1484, where he continued to print until his death in 1493. Imitating Verard of Paris, he gave his later years to the translation and printing of romances and popular books. In 1493, he began to print Caxton's Chronicle of England, in English and obviously for sale in England, but he died before the work was finished.
IN ITALY.
This is the order in which printing was established in Italy:
| Place. | Printer. | Date. |
| Subiaco | Sweinheym & Pannartz | 1465 |
| Rome | Sweinheym & Pannartz | 1467 |
| Venice | John de Spira | 1469 |
| Milan | Anthony Zarot | 1470 |
| Foligno | John Nummeister | 1470 |
| Trevi | John Reynard | 1470 |
| Verona | John of Verona | 1470 |
| Treviso | Gerard de Lisa | 1471 |
| Bologna | Balthazar Azzoguidi | 1471 |
| Ferrara | Andrew Belfort | 1471 |
| Naples | Sixtus Riessinger | 1471 |
| Pavia | Antonio de Carcano | 1471 |
| Florence | Bernard Cennini | 1471 |
| Fivizano | Jacobus and others | 1472 |
| Padua | Balt. de Valdezochio | 1472 |
| Mantua | Pietro Adam de Michael | 1472 |
| Place. | Printer. | Date. |
| Mondovi | Antonio Mathiae, et al. | 1472 |
| Jesi | Frederic Veronensis | 1472 |
| Cremona | Paravisinus, et al. | 1472 |
| Parma | Andrew Portiglia | 1473 |
| Brescia | Thomas Ferrandus | 1473 |
| Messina | Henry Alding | 1473 |
| Vicenza | John de Reno | 1473 |
| Como | De Orcho, et al. | 1474 |
| Turin | Fabri and John de Petro | 1474 |
| Genoa | Matthew Moravus, et al. | 1474 |
| Modena | John Vurster | 1475 |
| Trent | Hermann Schindeleyp | 1476 |
| Palermo | Andrew de Wormatia | 1477 |
| Ascoli | William de Linis | 1477 |
| Lucca | Bart. de Civitali | 1477 |
| Casal | William de Canepa | 1481 |
Cotton, in his Typographical Gazetteer, specifies thirty-seven other places in Italy in which printing was done before 1500.
​Subiaco and Rome. Conrad Sweinheym and Arnold Pannartz, two printers from Germany, set up a press in the monastery of Subiaco, near Rome, and there produced in 1465 the books first printed from types in Italy. To please the tastes of their Roman readers they made a new font of Roman types. It was not a successful effort, for the traces of Gothic mannerisms are noticeable in almost every letter. Not meeting with the encouragement they desired, the two printers removed to Rome in 1467. They began to print on a grand scale, making new fonts of Roman, Greek and Round Gothic types, enlisting the services of Bishop John Andrew as reader and corrector, and undertaking the publication of many large classical works. They did not prosper. In the year 1472, they petitioned the pope for relief, setting forth that they had printed 11,475 copies of twenty-eight works, a very large portion of which had not been sold, and that they were in great distress. In 1473, Sweinheym withdrew from the partnership, and began to engrave on copper maps for an edition of Ptolemy's Geography. He died before the book was published, in 1478. Pannartz died in 1476.
Ulrich Hahn, a printer of Bavaria, went to Rome in 1465, and began to print there in 1467. His first book was in Round Gothic types, but his Italian readers induced him to make for his second book a rude form of Roman types. He employed Campanus, an eminent scholar, as reader and corrector, and associated himself with Simon Nicholas de Lucca, who acted as editor and publisher of his books. At this time there were in Rome many printing offices, and the number increased, notwithstanding the complaints of Sweinheym and Pannartz, and also of Philip de Lignamine, that more books were printed than could be sold. Before the year 1500, there were or had been thirty-seven master printers at Rome.
Venice. John de Spira, so called from Spire, the city in which he was born, was the first typographer at Venice. He began in 1469, by the publication of the Letters of Cicero in types of Roman form. Soon after, he published an edition in ​folio of the National History of Pliny, which is regarded as one of the finest specimens of the printing of the fifteenth century. Proud of his fine work, but fearing competition, De Spira solicited and obtained from the senate, September 18th, 1469, exclusive rights as a printer in Venice for five years. The privileges seem to have been forfeited by his death in 1470; but his printing office was managed with ability by his brother Vindelin, who succeeded to the business.
Nicholas Jenson, the "man skilled in engraving," who had been sent to Mentz in 1458, and who, according to Madden, had thoroughly qualified himself in the monastery of Weidenbach, seems to have been the first of several printers who hastened to Venice to profit by the forfeiture of De Spira's privilege. In 1471, he published his first book, the Decor Puellarum, in neat light-faced Roman types on Great-primer body. His experience at the mint of Tours as an engraver gave him a decided advantage over all his rivals. Roman types had been made before by Sweinheym, De Spira and Hahn, but never before had punches been so scientifically engraved, nor types so truly aligned, It is not surprising that the efforts of his predecessors should pass for naught, and that Jenson has ever since been regarded as the introducer of Roman types. But Jenson discovered, as Hahn and De Spira had done, that, to secure buyers in Germany, it was necessary to print books in Gothic characters. With this object in view, he cut several fonts of Round Gothic, one on Bourgeois and one on Brevier body, the smallest sizes of types made in the fifteenth century.
As a printer, Jenson is entitled to high praise. None of his competitors showed so much taste and skill in the details of book-making. It is noticeable in every feature—in the tint and texture of his paper, in the glossy blackness of his ink, in the clearness and solidity of his impressions, in the ​uniformity of register and of color on every page. Jenson's merits were recognized by Pope Sixtus iv, who, in addition to other marks of favor, bestowed upon him the title of count palatine. He died in 1481. His printing office passed into the hands of an association of which Andrew Torresani of Asola was the manager. In time, Aldus Manutius, a partner in this association, married a daughter of Torresani, and got control of the office, the reputation of which he increased by his scholarship, by his numerous editions of the classics, and by his introduction of Italic types, but not by superior skill as a typographer. As a type-founder, printer and ink-maker, Jenson had no rival and left no proper successor.
At the close of the fifteenth century, Venice took the lead of all cities, not only in the number of its printing offices, but in the beauty of its types and printing. Printers in other countries knew that they would secure for their types the highest commendation by announcing them as the true Venetian characters. Santander specifies 201 master printers who had been in business at Venice before 1500. Bernard estimates the number of books then and there printed at two million volumes.
Florence. Bernard Cennini, an eminent goldsmith of Florence, began to print with types at that city in the year 1471. He said that he and his sons Peter and Dominic made the tools and types and did all the work without instruction, but the exact manner in which Cennini describes the cutting of punches and the founding of types makes this statement doubtful. Cennini never earned any reputation as a typographer, for it does not appear that he printed any book after 1471. Santander names twenty-two master printers at Florence before 1500. The most noticeable of the number is Dominic de Pistoia, an ecclesiastic who founded a printing office in 1474, which is known in history as the Ripoli Press. Dominic was the abbot of a monastery, but he proved an active and intelligent publisher. He deserves notice chiefly for his care in keeping his accounts, which give us our most ​trustworthy information concerning the materials and usages of the early printers.
Milan. Anthony Zarot began to print at Milan in 1470 or 1471, having been hired by Philip de Lavagna, who seems to have been a capitalist and a publisher. In 1472, Zarot persuaded four citizens of Milan to unite with him in a new association for the printing and publishing of books. The articles of agreement are curious, and deserve preservation. The association seems to have been remarkably prosperous, for in 1472 it had seven presses at work. In 1473, the ​publisher Philip de Lavagna and his new partner Montanus made an agreement with Christopher Valdarfer, another printer at Milan, for the exclusive use of two presses.
There was no part of Europe in which so great an enthusiasm was shown for printing as in Italy. The only open opposition which the new art encountered was made in 1472, by the copyists of Genoa, who complained that the typographers were greedy, and that they deprived the copyists of their livelihood by undertaking to print little books.
IN FRANCE.
| Place. | Printer. | Date. |
| Paris | Ulrich Gering, et al. | 1469 |
| Lyons | Buyer and Le Roy | 1476 |
| Angers | De Turre and Morelli | 1477 |
| Chablis | Pierre le Rouge | 1478 |
| Poitiers | J. Boyer and G. Bouchet | 1479 |
| Toulouse | | 1479 |
| Caen | Ferrandus and Quijone | 1480 |
| Vienne | Pierre Schenck | 1481 |
| Promentour | Loys Guerbin | 1482 |
| Troyes | Guillaume le Rouge | 1483 |
| Chambery | Antonius Neyret | 1484 |
| Bréand-Loudéhac R. Foucquet | Bréand-Loudéhac R. Foucquet | 1484 |
| Rennes | Pierre Belleesculée | 1484 |
| Abbeville | Dupré and Gerard | 1486 |
| Rouen | Guillaume le Talleur | 1487 |
| Besançon | | 1487 |
| Place. | Printer. | Date. |
| Hagenau | Henry Grau | 1489 |
| Dol | Peter Metlinger | 1490 |
| Grenoble | | 1490 |
| Orleans | Matthieu Vivian | 1490 |
| Dijon | Peter Metlinger | 1491 |
| Angoulême | | 1491 |
| Cluny | Michael Wenssler | 1493 |
| Nantes | Etienne Larcher | 1493 |
| Limoges | John Berton | 1495 |
| Provins | G. Tavernier | 1496 |
| Tours | Matthieu Lateron | 1496 |
| Avignon | Nicol Lepe | 1497 |
| Treguier | | 1499 |
| Guienne | | 1500 |
| Perpignan | J. Rosembach | 1500 |
Paris. About the close of the year 1469, Ulrich Gering, Michael Friburger and Martin Crantz began to print at Paris. To please the classic tastes of the doctors of the university who had invited them, their first book appeared in types of Roman form. They were not skillful printers, for Chevillier says that letters half formed and half printed are noticeable ​in their earlier works, but they were industrious publishers. Like Jenson, they found it expedient to cut and cast types of the Round Gothic fashion, for the Roman character was most admired by scholars. In 1477, Crantz and Friburger abandoned printing, but Gering continued to print until his death in 1510. He willed a large property to the university.
In 1473, Peter Keyser and John Stol, after a three years' service with Gering, set up a rival printing office, the result of which was a reduction in the price of books. This competition did not prevent other printers from founding offices in Paris, but it did compel some to improve the quality of their work, and to seek a new class of readers. Antoine Verard in 1480, and Phillipe Pigouchet in 1484, founded a new school of printing, when they undertook to make prayer-books and romances in imitation of the style of the miniaturists. Thielmann Kerver, who commenced to print in 1497, was almost as famous as a printer of ornamental books. The growing taste for fine books did not prevent the publication of solid literature. In 1495, Jodocus Badius, a printer of great learning, who had been proof-reader for his father-in-law, Trechsel of Lyons, established an office at Paris, and began to print for men of education. In the following year came the famous Henry Stephens, first of a long line of printers eminent for their scholarship and diligence as editors and publishers of classical and critical text books. Before the year 1500, there were, or had been, sixty-nine master printers in Paris.
Lyons. Lyons must have offered unusual inducements, to master printers, for there were forty printing offices in that city before the year 1500. The printers of Lyons were busy ​publishers, and their competitors in Italy complained with reason of their piratical editions. They made liberal use of engravings on wood and copper-plate illustrations. They were also the first printers to sell cheap books in showy bindings.
IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
| Place. | Printer. | Date. | Place. | Printer. | Date. |
| Barcelona | N. Spindeler | 1473 or 1478 | Murcia | Juan de Roca | 1487 |
| Valencia | Cordova and Palomar | 1474 | Tarragona | John Rosembach | 1488 |
| Saragossa | Matthew Flandrus | 1475 | Lerida | | 1488 |
| Seville | A. Martinez, et al | 1476 | San Cucufute des Valles | San Cucufute des Valles | 1489 |
| Segorbe | | 1479 | Lisbon | R. Samuel Zorba | 1489 |
| Tolosa | Henry Mayer | 1480 | Pampeluna | | 1489 |
| Burgos | De Basilea | 1485 | Zamora | | 1490 |
| Salamanca | | 1485 | Leiria | Abraham Dortas | 1492 |
| Soria | Eliezar ben Alanta | 1485 | Grenada | Meynard Ungut | 1496 |
| Xerica | | 1485 | Madrid | | 1499 |
| Toledo | John Vasquez | 1486 | Montserrat | John Luchner | 1499 |
IN GREAT BRITAIN.
The first book printed in English, the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, a stout folio of 351 leaves, does not contain the date of printing, nor the name and place of the printer, but it appears from the introduction that it was translated from the French by William Caxton between the years 1469 and 1471. When and where it was printed is a vexed question.
The monogram which was exhibited by Caxton in his later books——is interpreted by Madden as William Caxton, 1474, Sancta Colonia. It is an indication that a notable event in his life was represented by the year 1474 and the city of Cologne, and it seems to authorize the conjecture that at this time and place he published his first book. In 1475, Caxton printed, in the office of Mansion at ​Bruges, The Game and Playe of the Chesse. In 1477, he was "in the abbey of Westminster, by London," and then and there published The Dictes and Sayings of Philosophers. He was then a very old man, but he did good service as a printer before his death in 1491. Blades estimates the entire product of his press at 18,000 pages, nearly all of which were of folio size. Compared with his great rivals on the Continent, Caxton cannot be accorded high rank as editor or publisher, but there was no printer of his time who labored more diligently.
In 1480, Lettou and Machlinia began to print at London. Wynken de Worde, Richard Pynson, Julian Notary and William Faques were also printers of that city before 1500.
In 1480, Theodoric Rood, of Cologne, printed at Oxford. In the same year, an unnamed printer, known to bibliographers as The School-master of St. Albans, was at Saint Albans.
The first printing press in Scotland was put up at Edinburgh in 1507; the first in Ireland at Dublin in 1551.
Printing was first practised in the New World in the city of Mexico, by Juan Cromberger, or his agent Pablos, between 1536 and 1540. The second printing press in North America was put up by Stephen Daye at Cambridge, in 1638, and the first work printed on it, the Freeman's Oath, was dated 1639.
Statue of Gutenberg at Strasburg. [From St. Nicholas.]
Printing did not meet with general welcome, but the neglect or opposition it encountered did not come largely from the copyists. The business of the copyist of cheap books was injured, but the only complaint that I have met came from the copyists of Genoa. The calligrapher was indifferent to the growth of the new art, for his skill was never in higher request nor more handsomely rewarded than at the close of the fifteenth century. So far from injuring the business of the calligrapher, printing really improved it, for it largely increased the production of books intended for illumination. The neglect of literary men to note the Bible of 42 lines and the Catholicon of Gutenberg, the delayed establishment of a printing office at Paris, the indifference shown to printing in the great book-making town of Bruges, and the insufficient patronage bestowed on the early printers at Rome, are evidences that there was, in the beginning, a prejudice against printed books much more powerful than that of the copyists. The bibliophiles of the time looked on printed books as the productions of an inartistic trade. The admiration which has been recently invoked for the Bible of 42 lines as a book of nearly perfect workmanship was not expressed by any early book-buyer. It does not appear that any book-lover of that period regarded this work, or the art by which it was made, as of high merit. The error seems pardonable, for the printed book was not as attractive as the manuscript, and no one foresaw the future of printing. Gutenberg may have had a clearer idea than any man living of its capabilities, but it is not probable that he foresaw the wheels within wheels which his types would put in motion, or heard the clash and roar of the innumerable presses for which there should be no night and scarcely a Sunday of rest, or dreamed that books, schools, libraries, newspapers and readers were yet to appear in a world then undiscovered, in numbers so great that they could not be counted.
​The activity of the early printers is remarkable. The task of preserving the literature of the world was fairly done at a very early date. There were not many books that promised to be salable and profitable, and some of them were scarce, and copies were obtained with difficulty—but nearly every valuable book was found and printed. Naudé, the librarian of Cardinal Mazarin, said that, before the year 1474, all the good books, however bulky, had been printed two or three times, to say nothing of many worthless works which should have been burned. The same work was often printed in the same year, by four or five rival printers in as many different cities. The catalogue of Hain very minutely describes 16,290 editions, which, at the low estimate of 300 copies for each edition, represents a total production of 4,887,000 books.
The attention of the literary world was first arrested, not by the possibilities of future usefulness in printing, but by the growing cheapness of books. The early printers offered their books at less than the market prices of manuscripts, but in a few years they were obliged to reduce the prices still lower. The market was soon glutted, and the prices fell rapidly and irretrievably. Chevillier says that, at the close of the century, the price of many books had been reduced by four-fifths. In the preface to a book printed at Rome in 1470, John Andrew, the bishop of Aleria, addressing Pope Pius ii, says:
"It reflects no small glory on the reign of your holiness that a tolerably correct copy of such a work as formerly "cost more than a hundred crowns may now be purchased for twenty; those that were worth twenty, for four at most. It is a great thing, holy father, to say, that in your time the most estimable authors are attainable at a price little exceeding that of blank parchment or paper."
​The failure of many early printers to make their business profitable was largely caused by their injudicious selection for publication of bulky theological writings which cost a great deal of money to print, and were salable only to a small class. It was unwisely supposed that printing would receive its great support from the ecclesiastics. With this object in view, the first printers printed almost exclusively in Latin, and generally in the expensive shape of folio, the books which could be read only by the learned, and bought only by the wealthy. The printers' hopes of profit were rarely ever realized. Only a few like Zell, Mentel and Schœffer became successful merchants of books on dogmatic theology. It was soon discovered that printing could not be supported by ecclesiastics. The printers who had been induced to set up presses in monasteries did not long remain there, nor did the printing and publishing offices which they left prosper for many years. Books of devotion were never in greater request, but books published by the church did not fully meet the popular want.
Nearly all the books printed by Gutenberg and Schœffer were in the Latin language. Whether they overlooked the fact that there was an actual need for books in German, or whether they were restrained in an attempt to print in German, cannot be decided. Other publishers saw the need, and disregarded the restraint, if there was any, to the great inquietude of ecclesiastics, who seem to have had forewarning of the mischief that would be made by types. On the fourth ​day of January, 1486, Berthold, the archbishop of Mentz, issued a mandate in which he forbade all persons from printing, publishing, buying or selling books translated from the Greek or Latin, or any other language, before the written translation had been approved by a committee which should be appointed for the purpose from the faculty of the University of Mentz. The penalties were excommunication, confiscation of the books, and a fine of 100 florins of gold.
In Italy the revival of classical literature opened a new field for the publisher, but the demand for Latin authors was limited. In this country, and in others, eagerness for books in the native language was manifested; for books that plain people could read; for books that represented the life and thoughts of the living and not of the dead. The world was getting ready for new teachers and for a new literature—for Luther and Bacon, for Galileo and Shakespeare.
* ↑ For a table of the chronological order in which printing was established in the Netherlands, see page 323 of this book.
* ↑ The high reputation of Schœffer's office was fairly sustained by his son John, who died in 1531. Peter Schœffer, junior, another son, was equally able, for he printed books in Hebrew, Latin, German and English. He found no proper encouragement at Mentz, and had to establish his office successively at Worms, Strasburg and Venice. His last known work, with date 1542, was printed at Venice, where it is supposed he died. Ives Schœffer, son of Peter, junior, who succeeded John Schœffer in the management of the office at Mentz, was an industrious publisher from 1531 to 1552, the supposed year of his death. Victor, the son of Ives, gave up the business, and the name of Schœffer disappeared from the roll of printers at Mentz. Helbig, Notes et dissertations, etc., p. 47–50.
* ↑ A description of this Bible, with other particulars of importance, was given by Dr. Dziatzko, the librarian at Freiburg, in a letter to Hessels, and by him printed in the introduction to the Haarlem Legend, p. XXII
* ↑ The Brotherhood were forbidden by the vows they had taken to ask for alms or accept gifts, and were required to live by the labor of their hands. They devoted themselves to the duties of teaching school and copying books. At Weidenbach they were remarkably successful. They built a church in 1490 with the money they had made from the sale of manuscript and printed books. Madden says that the monastery of Weidenbach was not only a publishing house, but a prominent school of typography, and that there are reasons for believing that it gave instruction to Caxton, Jenson, Mansion and other eminent printers.
* ↑ This John Sensenschmidt subsequently went to Bamberg, and in 1481 there published the Bamberg Missal, with a text in Pointed Gothic types of five-line pica body, probably the largest text types ever used in a book. It was admirably printed and rubricated.
* ↑ These two thousand impressions were taken from about three hundred cuts—for the cut that served for the portrait of Paris of Troy was used for Odofredus of Germany and the poet Dante of Italy. Wood-cuts professing to represent cities and battles in Greece and Syria were repeated for battles and cities in France and Germany, with an indifference to the anachronisms and a cool disregard of the incredulity of the reader that are amazing. The author had a keen relish for the marvelous—for men with one eye, with immense ears, with enormous legs, and like monstrosities. The Dance of Death, which is reproduced on page 185 of this book, is one of the most meritorious designs, but most of them are of small value. The fac-simile of Koburger's map on the opposite page should be contrasted with the map of Germany in any modern atlas. It is presented as an illustration of the medieval notion of geography, and as one of the first attempts at map-printing.
* ↑ In 1477, Sorg printed the first illustrated edition of the whole Bible; in 1483, a description of the council of Constance, containing nearly one thousand engravings.
* ↑ Representing that the use of wood-cuts by typographers was an infringement on the vested rights of the guild, the block-printers induced the magistrates to pass a law commanding printers not to use wood-cuts. Not deriving the benefits they expected from this restriction, the block-printers proposed to concede to the typographers the right to use as many cuts as they pleased, providing they would agree to use only the wood-cuts made by regular engravers.
* ↑ In 1472, Melchior of Stanheim, abbot of the monastery of St. Ulric at Augsburg, established a printing office in his monastery, buying types and tools from other printers. He bought five presses of Schüssler for 73 florins, and had five other presses made for him by a joiner of Augsburg. The equipment of his office cost 702 florins, which was then regarded as a large sum.
* ↑ See chapter xv and pages 322–325 of this book for a fuller description of the works of this printer.
* ↑ See notes on pages 281 and 322.
* ↑ Many bibliographers say that he went to Cologne in 1473. Madden regards him as a pupil of the monastery at Weidenbach. Blades thinks that he was self-taught, or taught by some unknown printer, and that, as early as 1472, he began his typographic work at Bruges, in which he was assisted by William Caxton.
* ↑ He printed eight books in 1478; seven in 1479; nine in 1480; ten in 1482. In fifteen days he printed three books, one of 85, and another of 305 leaves. During the seventeen years he was in business he printed 150 books. His last book at Gouda was dated June 23, 1484; on the 18th of September, 1484, he published at Antwerp, a book of 400 pages. Fifteen days after, he completed another book. During the first six months of 1485, he published one volume each month. One of these books had 34, and another 76 engravings specially cut for the work.
* ↑ The colophon of this book is a queer piece of mysterious English: … Enprentyd in the duchye of Braband, in the town of Andewarpe, in the yere of our Lord M. CCCC. XCIIII. By maistir Gerard de Leew, a man of grete wysedom in all maner of kunyng: whych nowe is come from Lyfe unto the doth, which is grete harme for many of poure man. On whas sowle God almythy for hys hygh grace haue mercy. Amen. Van der Meersch. Imprimeurs Belges et Néerlandais, vol. I, p. 119.
* ↑ The printed date of this book is m.cccc.lxi. It is a curious circumstance that this exact printer should begin with an error which makes his first publication appear ten years earlier than it was.
* ↑ In 1479, Dominic made this contract for printing a book The publisher Boniface should furnish the paper, and should pay 10 livres for 200 copies of a book of 23 or 24 leaves of royal octavo or ordinary quarto. If he printed more than 200 copies, he should forfeit all claims for work done. In another contract, made in 1480, Dominic agreed to print 100 copies of a book of 100 or 120 pages for 4 florins in gold. The prices for printing seem insufficient, but the cost of labor was small. The compositors of the Ripoli Press were the sisters of a convent.
* ↑ The partnership should be for three years. Zarot bound himself to furnish all the types, Latin and Greek, Roman and Gothic, and to make all the ink. The four associates were to furnish the money. One of them, De Bur go, should advance 100 ducats as soon as they could keep four presses steadily at work. If any partner should obstruct the business, he should lose all his rights. Rent should be paid out of the general fund. Profits should be divided in three parts, of which Zarot should have one part, and the four associates, two parts. Zarot should pay the associates one third the actual cost of the presses and other implements, which should become his property at the termination of the partnership. Current expenses should be paid out of the general fund from the profits of sales. The priest Gabriel (a partner) should be the agent, treasurer and general manager. He should have one copy of every book printed. Books for publication should be selected at a general meeting of all partners. The corrector and the copyists should be paid in printed books. Every workman should be bound by oath to keep the secrets of the partners, and was forbid to give any book to any other master printer of the city. If any partner wished to print a book on his own account, and could not agree with his associates, he would be permitted to have it done elsewhere.—Peter and Nicholas de Burgo immediately asked for the use of three presses or more, for works on common and civil law and medicine, they providing and paying for the presses and for working them, and half the current expenses of the office. They also agreed to give one-fourth of the profits, to pay a bonus of 25 ducats, and one copy of each book, provided the society would not sell it under price.
* ↑ It will be seen that the business of publishing is almost as old as that of printing. Valdarfer agreed to set up the types of the books produced at the rate of 24 imperials (?) for every 20 pages. The wary publishers took the precaution to specify in the agreement that the blank pages should not be counted.
* ↑ The Senate of Lucca, by a vote of 38 to 9, voted to pay the priest Clement, a professional calligrapher and bookbinder (who had applied for the means to go to Venice and get a knowledge of the art), a subvention of two florins monthly, on condition that he should practise his art as a public officer, teaching all who wished to learn. Clement declined the offer.
* ↑ Gering reprinted the books of Keyser and Stol as soon as he could procure copies. Each house boasted of the superior accuracy and greater cheapness of its own publications.
* ↑ In this style the pages were surrounded by narrow pictorial borders in pieces of irregular length. These pieces were repeatedly used on different pages, but always in new combinations, so as to present some feature of novelty. The ground-works of the borders were generally stippled. The large illustrations in the text were in outline, obviously intended for coloring. Red letters were often printed on every page, but the larger initials were painted.
* ↑ Blades thinks that it was printed at Bruges by Colard Mansion and William Caxton, about 1472. Madden thinks it was printed at the monastery of Weidenbach by Mansion and Caxton, who went there about 1474 to learn practical typography. Other bibliographers say that it was printed by Zell at Cologne. The types of this Recuyell are thoroughly French, and are like the larger types used by Mansion. Bernard thinks that these types were made and first used at Cologne, by the order of the Duke of Burgundy for the French edition of the same work.
* ↑ Thomas, in his History of Printing, said that printing was done in Mexico before 1569. The subsequent discovery of Mexican books with earlier imprints has compelled a gradual putting back of the date to 1540, which is that of the earliest existing book. There is a tradition about a Mexican book said to be printed in 1536, but the book is not in existence, and the correctness of this date has not been proved. Harrisse quotes an author who says that printing was taken to Mexico in 1532, by the Viceroy Mendoza, and that Pablos was the first printer. But Mendoza did not go to Mexico until 1535. Pablos was the foreman of Cromberger, who had one office in Seville and one in Mexico.
* ↑ This is Hallam's enumeration of the books printed in large cities before 1500: Florence 300 Nuremberg 382 Milan 629 Leipsic 351 Bologna 298 Basle 320 Rome 925 Strasburg 526 Venice 2835 Augsburg 256 Paris 751 Mentz 134 Cologne 530 Deventer 161 If allowance be made for the books that are lost, these numbers are too small, but the list will give a correct idea of the comparative activity of the early printers at different places. During this period were published 291 editions of Cireco, 95 of Virgil, 57 of Horace, 91 of the Latin Bible and many hundreds of the decretals and digests of canon law.
* ↑ The Bishop of Angers in 1470 paid 40 crowns of gold for a copy of the Bible of 1462. The Catholicon of Gutenberg sold for 41 crowns of gold in 1465. A copy of Mansion's edition of the Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, brought 40 crowns in 1481. A missal was sold in 1481 for 18 gold florins. Bernard notes a sale in which a printed copy brought a higher price than a manuscript. A copy on vellum of the Summary of St. Thomas by Schœffer, was sold at Paris for 15 crowns of gold. A manuscript of similar size was sold for 10 crowns. It is difficult to form just conclusions from these prices, for the bindings of the books have not been described. Hallam says that the florin was worth about four francs of present money, equivalent, perhaps, to twenty-four in commodities, and that the crown was worth rather more. Another estimate allows to the money of the fifteenth century eight times its present purchasing power.
* ↑ The mandate is too long for an unabridged translation, but the following extracts will fairly set forth the reasons for his action:Although, by a certain divine art of printing, abundant and easy access is obtained to books in every science … yet we have perceived that certain men, led by the desire of vainglory or money, do abuse this art; and that which was given for the instruction of human life is perverted to purposes of mischief and calamity. For, to the dishonoring of religion, we have seen in the hands of the vulgar certain books of the divine offices and the writings of our religion translated from the Latin into the German tongue. … Some volumes on this subject, certain rash unlearned simpletons have dared to translate into the vulgar tongue, whose translation … many learned men have declared unintelligible, in consequence of the very great misapplication and abuse of words. … Let such translators, if they pay any regard to truth, say whether the German language be capable of expressing that which excellent writers in Greek and in Latin have most accurately and argumentatively written on the sublime speculations of the Christian religion and the knowledge of things. They must acknowledge that the poverty of our idiom renders it insufficient, … they must corrupt the sense of the truth in the sacred writings … which, from the greatness of the danger attendant upon it, we greatly dread; for who would leave it to ignorant and unlearned men and to the female sex, into whose hands copies of the Holy Scriptures may have fallen, to find out the true meaning of them?This was not the first restriction imposed on the liberty of the printers, for the University of Cologne in 1479 had assumed the right to control the printing of books by Quentell and Winters.