# The Invention of Printing/Chapter 11

XI
Block-Books of Images without Text.
General Appreciation of Pictures … Beginning of the Block-Books … Popularity during the Fifteenth Century … Neglected afterward … Childish in Character … The Bible of the Poor … Its Age as a Manuscript … Its Popularity. The First Edition … Its Designs and Engravings … Explanations of Fac-similes …Description of Printing … Not Printed by the Frotton … Anachronisms in Design. Dissimilarity of the Copies … Blocks destroyed in 1488 … Price of Copies … Description of German Edition of 1470 … The Apocalypse … Description of Illustrations … Probably of German Origin. The Canticles … Description of Fac-simile … Its Anachronisms … Its object … Quality of Engraving … The Story of the Blessed Virgin … Its Object … Description of Fac-simile … Its Absurdities. Exercise on the Lord's Prayer … Description of Fac-simile … Singular Perversion of the Prayer. The Book of Kings … Description and Fac-simile … The Grotesque Alphabet … A Mysterious Book … The Apostles' Creed … The Eight Rogueries.
Preface to the Speculum Salutis.
The sumptuary laws of the middle ages, which were made to restrain common people from imitating the dress and equipage of the nobility, were not extended to the making of books. The copyist or calligrapher was at liberty to decorate books according to his own fancy. There was no occasion for restrictive legislation. The admirable romances and books of prayer upon which the miniaturist had lavished his talents were beyond the skill of the vulgar copyist and beyond the means of the plebeian book-buyer. Only an artist could paint them; only a prince or patrician could buy them. But these books, although far removed from the multitude by price and rarity, were not above the capacity of the ordinary reader. The illiterate man who could find no attraction in a book of letters would readily acknowledge the charm of the pictures ​in a book like the Bedford Missal In this universal appreciation of pictures, some of the early engravers of cards and images saw an opportunity. Men who would not buy books of letters would buy books of pictures. Books of the latter class were not only sure of sale, but they could be engraved on blocks at a comparatively small expense. They could be printed in quantities much more cheaply, and, above all, with more accuracy and uniformity than they could be drawn by hand. They could be painted or illuminated by stencil plates, and made acceptable to men of simple tastes. Here was the beginning of the block-books.
The term Block-Book is used to define the book printed entirely from engraved blocks, in contradistinction to the book printed from movable types. Bibliographers divide the block-books in two distinct classes: books of pictures without text, in which words descriptive of the picture are engraved at the foot of the page, or in cartouches proceeding from the mouths of the principal figures; and books of pictures with text, in which the explanations of the pictures are given in the form of a full page of text, which was commonly printed on the page opposite the picture.
It is admitted by all writers on typography that block-books of both classes were made before and after the invention of typography. That they were manufactured in large quantities by many printers, and in many cities or towns, during the fifteenth century, does not admit of doubt. It is claimed by one bibliographer that there are eight editions of the Ars Moriendi; by others, that there are six editions each of the Bible of the Poor and of the Apocalypse, and four of the Mirror of Man's Redemption. In some instances, the so-called later editions are reprintings, with slight alterations, of the same blocks that were used for the first edition; in other instances, the later editions were printed from blocks newly engraved. The number and variety of the editions are proof that there must have been a very large demand for the books; the alterations in the engravings are presumptive evidence of ​repairs to blocks badly worn by long use; the newly engraved blocks are evidently the replacement of a suite completely worn out; an edition different from the others in design may be accepted as the work of a rival or competing printer.
The few block-books known in the seventeenth century were regarded by bibliographers as prejudicial to the claims of contestants for the honor of the invention of typography. They were annoying facts which could neither be rejected nor accepted without hurt to favorite theories. There was a disposition on all sides to belittle them in number as well as in importance. The first writer who called attention to their value as relics could describe but nine block-books. Sotheby, writing about them in 1858, described in the Principia Typographica twenty-one block-books — not different editions of a few books, but twenty-one distinct works. Even with these additions, the list cannot be considered complete: it is possible that more will yet be found, but it is certain that many have been irretrievably lost.
The neglect of the block-books by early librarians seems almost justifiable when we consider their great inferiority to the typographic books that followed them. From a literary point of view, they were of no importance as works of instruction or authority. They were published during the fifteenth century, but they really belong to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, during which period most of them were composed. The legends that explain their illustrations were written in Latin, but they are adapted to readers in a child-like state of development. It is not strange that they should have been put aside by the world when it had outgrown them. Childish as these books are, they are of high value to those who wish to note the growth of printing. They indicate the attainments of their authors and readers, and the artistic abilities of their designers and engravers. They show the quality of the paper, ink, and workmanship of the period. They prove that the art of printing from blocks was practised by many persons during the second and third quarters of the fifteenth century.
Fac-simile of the Last Page of the Bible of the Poor.
Fac-simile of the Last Page of the Bible of the Poor.
THE BIBLIA PAUPERUM, OR BIBLE OF THE POOR.
This is the most famous and the most creditable specimen of the early block-book. The title, Bible of the Poor, seems to have been used at an early period to distinguish it from the Bible proper, a fair manuscript copy of which was sold in France, in the year 1460, for five hundred crowns of gold. The Bible proper, as then made, in two or more stout folio volumes of fine vellum, was the Bible of the rich; its epitome, in the shape of the book of forty pages of engravings, about to be described, was the Bible of the poor.
The author of the Bible of the Poor is unknown, but the designer of the illustrations was not the writer of the texts that explained the designs. There are frequent incongruities between the words and the pictures, which fully show that the author did not always understand the intent of the artist. It is probable that the illustrations were made first, and that, in the beginning, the Bible of the Poor was a book of pictures only. Some German antiquarians say that the book, in its ​original form, was designed and explained by a monk named Wernher, who was living in 1180, and was famous during his lifetime both as a painter and a poet. Other German authorities put the origin of the first manuscript as far back as the ninth century, attributing the work to Saint Ansgarius, first bishop of Hamburg. It seems to have been a popular manuscript, for copies written before the fifteenth century have been found in many old monasteries. These copies are not alike. Nearly every transcriber has made more or less alterations and innovations of his own; but the general plan of the book — the contrasting of apostles with prophets, and of the patriarchs of the Old Testament with the saints of the Christian Church — has been preserved in all the copies.
At least four distinct xylographic editions — two in Latin and two in German — of the Bible of the Poor have been discovered. Three of them were printed in Germany after the invention of typography. The edition acknowledged as the first, and supposed to have been printed before the invention of types, is in Latin, without date, place, or name of printer. Those who favor the theory of a German invention of printing say that it was printed in Germany between the years 1440 and 1460. Those who believe in the priority of Dutch printing say that it must be regarded as the work of some printer of Holland. This is the opinion of Berjeau, who republished the book in fac-simile. He says that the designs for the original editions must have been made in the Netherlands, probably by Van Eyck, between 1410 and 1420.
​The illustration on the preceding page, which is the exact size of the original, gives a faithful representation of the last page of the first edition of this curious book.
Unlike most of the block-books, the Bible of the Poor was designed with architectural symmetry. An open frame-work divides each page in nine distinct panels or partitions, five of which are devoted to pictorial illustrations, and four to their explanation in words. The three large panels in the middle of the page illustrate historical subjects drawn from the Bible, of which the central panel is, in theological phrase, the type, and is taken from the New Testament. The pictures on either side are known as the antitypes, and are oftenest taken from the Old Testament. The texts that explain the pictures are placed in the corners of the page, or in scrolls near the figures.
To most readers the explanatory text is undecipherable. The obscurity is not only that of a dead language: a trained Latin scholar will always grope and often stumble in attempting to make a translation. All the letters are carelessly drawn and cut; the words are badly spaced, and are deformed with abbreviations. These faults appear more noticeable when the letters are contrasted with the designs. Whoever designed the figures on the wood drew with the bold and free hand of an artist who had proper confidence in his ability. Whoever engraved the figures cut the clean firm line that can be made only by an expert. But the cutting of the letters, although probably done by the engraver of the figures, is really barbarous. It is obvious that the designer, skillful as he was with figures, had no experience in drawing letters, and that the engraver was equally unsuccessful at a new kind of work.
The text and translation appended are the version of Dr. Horne, author of the Introduction to the Study of Bibliography, who has corrected the contractions of the original Latin. It is copied from the Typographia of Hansard.
{{fs90|Each page contains four busts — two at the top, and two lower down; together with three historical subjects. The two upper busts represent certain prophets, or other eminent persons, whose names are ​added beneath them. Of the three historical subjects, the chief type, or principal piece, is taken from the New Testament, and occupies the centre of the page, between the two antitypes, or subordinate subjects, which are allusive to it. The two busts, placed in the middle of the upper part of the page, represent David and Isaiah between two texts of the Bible, with brief explanations. The former of these, on the left of the Prophets, is from the Song of Solomon, Chapter iv, 7:
The second passage, on the right of David and Isaiah, is partly taken from the Book of Revelation, and runs thus:
Under the bust of David, which is indicated by his name, is a scroll proceeding from his hand, inscribed:
Beneath the corresponding compartment containing a bust of Isaiah, is the word Ysaye, and also the ordinal number lxi, referring to the sixty-first chapter of that prophet; and from the hand of the figure proceeds a label containing:
}} Toward the bottom of the plate are two other busts, similar to those at the top, and which represent the Prophets Ezekiel and ​Hosea. From the figure that occupies the left-hand compartment extends a scroll, at one end of which is the word Œzeciel, with a number referring to the twenty-fourth chapter; and in the other part are the words:
The corresponding scroll, attached to the other figure, contains, at one end, Ozee, with a reference to the second chapter; and in the other part are the words:
In the central compartment, between the upper and lower busts, is depicted the Type, or principal subject. It represents the reward of righteousness in heaven; the designer having introduced the Redeemer as bestowing the Crown of Life upon one of the elect Spirits. The antitype, on the left, is the Daughter of Zion crowned by her spouse, with the following leonine verse underneath:
The other antitype, on the right, represents an Angel addressing St. John, having beneath it this verse:
And in the bottom space is this verse:
The first edition of the book contains forty engravings on wood, printed on one side only of the leaf. The prints face each other; two pages of illustrations are always followed by two pages of blank paper. The book was put together in sections of two leaves, a method of making a book contrary to prevailing usage. Manuscript books of that period were usually made up in sections of four double leaves, which were nested together in one section. This deviation from established usage was, apparently, caused through the error of the engraver, who cut, on the same block, the two pages which faced each other. It was, consequently, impossible to nest ​the leaves, or make them up in thick sections. Cracks in the wood block, which have made open seams or white gaps in the print, and which extend in straight lines over both pages, show conclusively that two pages were engraved on one block.
The book is without folios or paging figures to guide the reader, and also without signatures to guide the binder. The proper order of the pages was made manifest by engraving on each page a letter of the alphabet. Pages 1 to 20 are marked in alphabetical order from a to v; pages 21 to 40 have the same letters, but with a dot before and after each, .a. to .v.
The paper of the fifteen known copies of this edition of the book is of variable quality. Of itself, this variability is not sufficient indication that the paper was made by different makers, and printed at different times, but the different designs of the paper-marks lead directly to such a conclusion. Some copies have but one kind of paper-mark; others have two and three kinds; taking all copies together, there are at least fourteen distinct paper-marks. If each decided variation of the same design could be considered the mark of a different maker, the number could be doubled.
That the substance used for these engravings was wood, is clearly indicated by the occasional feathering or flatting out of border-lines, which, when crushed, show the fibres of wood in the impression. It seems that the engravings were cut on flat plates or blocks, that had been sawed or split on a line parallel with the fibres.
The ink is of a dull or rusty-brown color; on some pages light, and on others of darker tint, rarely ever of uniform tint on the same page. It has the appearance of a paste or a thick water color. This unevenness in color was produced by some imperfect method of inking the block — possibly by a hard-faced brush which shed color irregularly.
The shining appearance of the backs of the prints, in all places where the raised lines of the wood-cut have indented the paper, has been considered as sufficient evidence that the impressions were taken, not by a press, but by means, of a ​frotton, or by friction, or by rubbing in some form or other. One writer of rare simplicity has hazarded the opinion that the back of the paper, or the frotton, may have been soaped to facilitate the work. But these methods of printing books are imaginary and entirely impracticable. The shining appearance on the back of the paper does not prove that the prints were made by friction. The gloss could have been produced by any press which gave a hard impression against a harder surface. It could have been produced by rubbing or smoothing down with a burnisher the indentations of the lines on the back of the paper, as is sometimes done by pressmen of this day when they take too hard an impression. Some copies of the book show the results of hard impression. Two of the four copies of the Bible of the Poor in the possession of the British Museum present lines deeply sunk in the paper, as if they had been printed from a press. Jackson, a practical engraver on wood, who had large experience in proving wood-cuts, has unwillingly accepted the unauthorized tradition of presswork by friction, but he has candidly stated its difficulties.
{{fs90|"Considering the thickness of the paper on which the block-books are printed — if I may apply this term to them — and the thin-bodied ink which has been used, I am at a loss to conceive how the early wood engravers have contrived to take off their impressions so correctly; for in all the block-books which I have seen, where friction has evidently been the means employed to obtain the impression, I have noticed only two subjects in which the lines appear double in consequence of the shifting of the paper. From the want of body in the ink, which appears in the Apocalypse to have been little more than water color, it is not likely that the paper could be used in a damp state, otherwise the ink would run or spread; and even if this did not exist, the paper in a damp state could not have borne the excessive rubbing which it appears to have received in order to obtain the impression. Even with such printer's ink as is used in the present day — which, being tenacious, renders the paper in taking an impression by means of friction, much less liable to slip or shift — it would be difficult to obtain clear impressions on thick paper from blocks the size of those which form each page of the Apocalypse, or the History of the Virgin. ... A block containing only two pages [of the History of the Virgin, a block of smaller size than that used for the Bible of the ​Poor] would be about seventeen inches by ten, allowing for inner margins; and to obtain clear impressions from it by means of friction, on dry thick paper, and with mere water color ink, would be a task of such difficulty that I cannot conceive how it could be performed. No traces of points, by which the paper might be kept steady on the block, are perceptible; and I unhesitatingly assert, that no wood engraver of the present day could, by means of friction, take clear impressions from such a block on equally thick paper, and using mere distemper, instead of printer's ink. As the impressions in the History of the Virgin have unquestionably been taken by means of friction, it is evident to me that if the blocks were of the size that Mr. Ottley supposes, the old wood engravers, who did not use a press, must have resorted to some contrivance to keep the paper steady with which we are unacquainted."}}
This last hypothesis of an imaginary contrivance that kept the paper steady, is as untenable as the proposition that blocks were unquestionably printed by friction. The feat which is impossible now was impossible then. There is nothing in the appearance of the presswork of the block-books really inconsistent with the theory, that the books were printed under a rude press which was deficient in many attachments that are needed by the printer. The peculiar appearance of the presswork of this and of other block-books will be most satisfactorily explained by the hypothesis that they were printed on a press. The hypothesis of printing by friction is a conjecture for which there is no good authority. It seems to have been invented for a purpose. If the early chroniclers of printing had not been so anxious to magnify the merits of the early typographers, and to belittle the printers of block-books, we should have heard nothing of printing by friction.
The designs of the first edition have more merit than those of the earlier manuscript copies — more than those of subsequent editions printed by imitators. Neither the rudeness of the engravings, nor the flagrant anachronisms in architecture and in the costumes of the figures, are gross enough to conceal the ability of the designer, whose skill in grouping figures is manifest on almost every page.
​The illustrations have merit, but they are in the realistic and commonplace style of the designers of Germany and of Flanders during the fifteenth century. The want of ideality is painful. The designer certainly had no thought of irreverence, but many of the designs are really ludicrous. Some of the anachronisms are: Gideon arrayed in plate armor, with medieval helmet and visor and Turkish scimitar; David and Solomon in rakish, wide-brimmed hats bearing high conical crowns; the translation of Elijah in a four-wheeled vehicle resembling the modern farmer's hay-wagon. Slouched hats, puffed doublets, tight-legged breeches and pointed shoes are seen in the apparel of the Israelites who are not represented as priests or soldiers. Some houses have Italian towers and some have Moorish minarets, but in none of the pictures is there an exhibition of pointed Gothic architecture. The old Dutch stair-like gable is often delineated, and so is the round arch and latticed window of the Flemish house of the fourteenth century. With all its absurdities, this edition of the Bible of the Poor commanded the respectful attention of great artists like Albert Durer and Lucas von Leyden, who did not scruple to appropriate many of its designs.
One of the most puzzling peculiarities of the first edition of the Bible of the Poor is the dissimilarity of the copies. In some copies the dissimilarity is in the details of the framework; in others, it is in the foliage of trees, but it is, for the most part, confined to a few immaterial points. These differences seem to warrant the opinion stated by Sotheby that there were six distinct editions, each printed from a separate set of blocks; but this opinion cannot be reasonably defended. In all important features the copies are alike. The pages of the so-called different editions have the marks, even in little blemishes, of impressions from the same block — a uniformity which could not have been produced if each block had been re-engraved for each new edition. Why the various copies of the book should be alike in important, and unlike in minor features, cannot be explained. It has been suggested that the ​dissimilarities are the evidences of accident and repair; that when the block was injured, it was plugged, as is frequently done with wood-cuts in our own day, and the newly inserted plug was re-engraved with a new design. The explanation is not plausible. The differences generally appear in the same relative position on every page, and there are too many of them to be attributed to accident; they seem to have been made for some unknown purpose. Irregularities of like nature have been noticed in copies of the typographic books of the fifteenth century which are known to be of the same edition.
We do not certainly know when and where these blocks were engraved, but we do know when they were destroyed. Two books, published by Peter Van Os of Zwoll, in Holland, in 1488 and 1489, contain seventy-seven engravings on wood which were certainly cut from the blocks that had been used to print the original edition of the Bible of the Poor. To get the little cuts he needed to illustrate texts of movable type, Van Os must have partly destroyed the original blocks. In this act of destruction, we have a fact and a date which give a clue to the origin of the book. Copies of the first edition in folio form must have been printed before 1488. At this date, and perhaps for some time before, the blocks in folio form had no mercantile value; there was no longer any demand for the book in the neighborhood in which it had been made. That the country in which this first edition was printed and sold was Holland, seems probable when we find that the blocks were used for the last time, and in a mutilated form, in a town of Holland. This opinion is strengthened by the facts that the Bible of the Poor in folio form was then, and afterward, a salable book in Germany and in other countries, but it was not subsequently reprinted in the Netherlands in any form. The Dutch and Flemish architectural features in the designs, and the legends which attribute the work to Dutch engravers and printers, are of themselves unsatisfactory evidences of the origin of the book; but they cannot be entirely overlooked They lead to the conclusion that the book was printed in ​land, but they do not fix the date of printing, which may have been as early as the year 1425, or as late as 1450.
First Page of the Bible of the Poor as made by Walther and Hurning of Nordlingen, 1470, The size of this print, in the original, is 7 by 10⅛ American inches. [From Heineken.]
THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN.
This is the name of an early block-book almost as famous as the Bible of the Poor, and of which there are at least six distinct xylographic editions. Some of them have fifty, and others have forty-eight leaves, printed upon one side only of the leaf. The dissimilarities in the designs and the engraving of these editions are decided and unmistakable: they are, no doubt, impressions from different suites of blocks, and each edition may be regarded as the work of a different printer.
As a literary production, the Apocalypse has small merit It is not, as might be supposed, the text or an abridgment of the Book of Revelation. It is, in fact, only a book of pictures, and these pictures in many points border very closely on the ridiculous. One cannot shut his eyes to the ludicrous points, but neither can he overlook the fact that the designs of the book are not the work of an ignorant artist. Rudely as they have been cut, and badly as they were printed, there is strong character in the faces, and much artistic skill in the grouping of the figures. The designs are vigorous, but they are unlike the works of Van Eyck, or of the German artists of the period. There is nothing in the costumes or architecture which can be rated as decidedly German or Dutch. Chatto says the designs were probably intended to represent Mahomet as the Antichrist of the Book of Revelation, and that they may have been made by an exiled Byzantine artist who had been driven out of Constantinople after the taking of that city by the Turks in 1453. But this conjecture is not ​approved by careful bibliographers. It is generally supposed that the designs are of an earlier period. Maittaire, who says that it is the oldest of all block-books, calls attention to the singular simplicity of the engraving, which is in almost plain outline. In this particular the Apocalypse is much inferior to the Bible of the Poor, for we see no attempt to give appearance of roundness to the limbs by curved shading lines, nor are there proper marks to indicate the shadows and folds in a dress. But the ruder workmanship of the engraver is more clearly shown in the letters. It may be that they were badly drawn upon the block, but it is plain that the engraver has frequently broken connecting lines. Bad presswork and bad ink have materially aggravated the fault; as printed, the lines of the engraver appear thicker than they were cut.
Each page has two illustrations with explanatory legends. Some of these illustrations represent the visions of St John, but the designer has drawn them with the same disregard of time and place which may be noticed in the wood-cuts of the Bible of the Poor. The architecture is that of Germany in the fourteenth century; the men wear breeches and coats, conical, flat-topped and broad-brimmed hats; the soldiers are in chain or in plate armor, with the helmets and battle-axes of the middle ages. Nor do the improprieties stop here: many of the illustrations represent events in the life of the apostle which the artist did not find in the New Testament.
The illustration on page 213, which is a reduced copy of the first page in one edition of the Apocalypse, seems to have been derived from the fabulous life of St. John, supposed to have been written by Abdias, bishop of Babylon. Drusiana, a ​married lady of Ephesus, and one of the many converts of St. John, is an important personage in this fabulous life and in the illustration annexed. In the upper picture, St. John is represented as preaching to a magnate, whose robe or mantle is held by two attendants. Drusiana stands behind them. This picture is described in the legend:
In the lower picture, St. John is represented as baptizing Drusiana in the Christian temple of Ephesus. Drusiana is judiciously abbreviated to suit the size of the baptismal font Six armed men are before the barred door, endeavoring, by violence, to gain entrance, or to witness the ceremony. The picture is explained by the words:
Fac-simile of the First Page of the Apocalypse. Engraving in the original print is 7⅞ by 10⅓ American inches.
[From Heineken]
In most editions of the book, the ink is of the same rusty brown color that has been observed in the Bible of the Poor. In some copies it is almost gray; in others, nearly black. The first edition has engravings of the greatest merit, but it is badly printed. The paper-mark is a bunch of grapes, similar in design to that of a print in the collection of M. Weigel, entitled The Adoration of the Three Kings, which, it is claimed, was printed about the year 1425. But paper-marks are misleading evidences. We do not certainly know the date nor the country in which any edition of the book was printed. German bibliographers say that it was printed in Southern Germany; Dutch bibliographers say that it was printed in the Netherlands, probably by Coster of Haarlem; but all evidences that have been adduced to establish a certain date for the earlier editions of the book, or to prove that they were done at any time or by any printer, are unsatisfactory. Some copies of the book are interleaved with manuscript explanations, which are sometimes in the Dutch, and sometimes in the German language. The greater part of the copies have been found in Germany, and it is the opinion of the most eminent bibliographers that the first edition of the book, and most of the editions, were printed in Germany.
The catalogue of the library of Dr. Kloss contains the following note under the specification of a ragged copy of the Apocalypse: "At the end of this volume is a short note, written by Pope Martin V, who occupied the papal chair from 1417 to 1431. " This indirect attestation to the age of the book has never been considered as trustworthy.
Another copy of the book, known as the Spencer copy, is bound up with a copy of the Bible of the Poor, and has on the binding an inscription to this effect: "Bound in the year of our Lord 1467 by me, John Reichenbach, in Gyllingen," The inscription is undoubtedly authentic.
​Dibdin alludes to an English clergyman who said that he was once the owner of one copy each of the Apocalypse, the Bible of the Poor, and the Ars Moriendi, all bound in one volume, on the cover of which was stamped an inscription certifying that "this volume was bound for the curate of the church in 142–." The last figure the clergyman had forgotten, but he was sure that the book was in its original binding, and that it must have been bound, and consequently printed, before 1430. The testimony is unsatisfactory.
THE CANTICLES.
This is a block-book of sixteen pages, of small folio size. It is one of the few block-books which may be unhesitatingly pronounced as of Netherlandish origin. In general appearance it closely resembles the books previously noticed. The impressions are in brown ink, and on one side of the sheet; there are two illustrations on each page, and the two printed pages face each other; the explanations of the designs are in Latin, and are engraved in scrolls that surround the figures. According to some bibliographers, there are three editions of the book; according to others, the trifling variations which have been seized upon to justify the existence of a second and a third edition are only alterations or repairs that have been sustained by the original block. One edition contains at the head of the first page an engraved line, in the low Dutch or Flemish language, which may be translated thus: "This is the Prefiguration of Mary, the Mother of God, which, in Latin, is called The Canticles." Explanatory titles in block-books, and even in the earlier typographic books, are unusual. For this reason the genuineness of the inscription has been challenged, but it has been generally accepted as a true part of the original block.
​The illustration opposite is the fac-simile, reduced in size, of the first page of the Canticles. The design is imperfectly explained by the legends in the engraving.
The agriculturists of the upper illustration are in monastic habits: some are cutting and threshing grain; one is pounding the grain in a mortar and another is grinding it in a hand mill. In the open little house before the monk with a pestle, is a desk with two books. In this combination of agricultural work with the emblem or suggestion of study, Harzen sees an illustration of the daily work of the Brethren of the Life-in-Common, to whom he attributes the engraving and printing of this book. The brethren of this order were eminent as students and copyists of books, and had some distinction in the last quarter of the fifteenth century as printers, but their connection with this book cannot be established.
Fac-simile of the First Page of the Canticles.
Engraving in the original print is 7¼ by 10½ American inches. [From Heineken.]
​The engraved letters of this book are much more legible than those of the Apocalypse or the Bible of the Poor. The Dutch final t is frequently introduced. The paper-marks most frequently observed are the unicorn, the bull's head, and the letter P; but no information of value can be derived from the paper-marks, and but little from the designs and engravings.
Although we do not know whether the Canticles was printed in the second or third quarter of the fifteenth century, it may be admitted that it was printed in the Netherlands. We see the last trace of the blocks in the hands of the same printer who destroyed the engravings of the Bible of the Poor. A book, bearing the imprint of Peter Van Os, of Zwoll, 1494, has for its frontispiece the upper half of the first plate.
THE STORY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
This is the bibliographic title of a block-book which may be offered as a proper specimen of the popular religious literature of the fifteenth century. Sotheby mentions four distinct editions of the work. The one that has been most frequently described (whether first or last, is not known) consists of sixteen leaves, with four illustrations on each leaf, and a brief explanatory text in Latin. The designs have no artistic merit; the engraving is coarse, and evidently the work of a novice; the letters are legible, but they betray great inexperience in the use of the graver, and they do not, in any feature, resemble those of the block-books previously described. Some of them have mannerisms like those of Gutenberg's Bible. It is possible that the letters of one edition of the book are those of movable types, or that they were engraved on wood from a transfer taken from an impression of movable types. In all editions the letters have German peculiarities, but there is no edition which has the appearance of a first experiment in ​printing. It is probable that all the editions were printed in Germany, and after the invention of typography.
The edition from which the annexed illustration was taken was roughly printed on one side of the paper, but in a very black ink. In other editions, which were printed from entirely different blocks, differing both in the size of the block and in the positions of the figures, the ink is of the customary rusty brown. The copy in black is supposed to have been printed on a press, and at a later date.
The object of the book is to show the reasonableness of the story of the Incarnation, and to defend the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The bad taste of the author is more signally shown in the text than in the pictures. Arguments in support of the dogma are wrested from sacred history and heathen mythology, and the writings of the fathers of the church. The book is a curious compend of piety and unconscious irreverence, of high scholarship and gross stupidity, as will be more clearly shown by the following translation of the legends that explain the pictures on the opposite page.
Fac-simile of a page of the Story of the Blessed Virgin. Engraving in the original print is 7⅜ by 10½ American inches. [From Heineken,]
One edition of this work contains an imprint in sprawling and almost unreadable characters, which bibliographers interpret as the letters F. W. 1470. The letters F. W. were no doubt the initials of Frederich Walther of Nordlingen.
The quality of the science taught in this History of the Blessed Virgin enables us to form a just idea of the real value of the scholastic philosophy then regarded as the perfection of wisdom. The silly speculations set forth in the book were the husks upon which a devout people were fed.
AN EXERCISE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.
This is the translated title of a thin block-book of ten leaves, which was intended to explain the Lord's Prayer by illustration. The blocks are printed in brown ink on one side of the paper. The Exercise is in the popular form of dialogue.
Fac-simile of the Fifth Illustration of the Exercise on the Lord's Prayer. Engraving in the original print is 7⅛ by 7½ American inches. [From Holtrop.]
THE BOOK OF KINGS.
An Illustration from the Book of Kings. Original is 7 by 8¾ inches. [From Sotheby.]
The book was intended to illustrate the more important events of the life of David as recorded in the books of Samuel, and in the First and Second Books of Kings. The fac-simile on the preceding page illustrates Hannah presenting Samuel to the priests in the house of the Lord, and Samuel called by the Lord out of sleep. Sotheby classifies it with the block-books of Holland, but Falkenstein attributes it to Germany.
THE GROTESQUE ALPHABET.
This is a curious block-book of twenty-four pages, of the original edition of which not one perfect copy is known. The leaves of the copy now on the shelves of the British Museum are 3¾ inches wide and 6 inches high. Sotheby, who has carefully examined its construction, says that the twenty-four pages were printed in sections of eight pages on three sheets of paper, with a thin watery ink of a sepia tint. The margins and blanks have been written on with an ink of nearly the same color as that of the printed cuts.
Another copy of this work has been found at Basle, in which, on the letter A (not found in the London copy), may be seen the date 1464. Another copy, in a library at Dresden, has the same date. Renouvier says that these copies, by German engravers, and of inferior execution, are transfers of the original, which was engraved in the Netherlands.
The history of the book in the British Museum is unknown, but it has many evidences of long use in English hands. The cover or binding consists of a double fold of thick parchment, upon the inside of which, between the folds, is written in large English characters, "Edwardus Lowes." On one side of the last leaf is the rough draft of a letter in the English language. The writing, which is found in scraps all over the book, is of ​the period of Henry viii. Upon a sword-blade in the cut of the letter L is written in small characters the word London. In another place in the same cut are letters which are read by some as Westmistre—by others as Bethemsted, It is full of English writing, but it has not been proved that the cuts are the work of an English engraver. Chatto says of them:
—They were neither designed nor engraved by the artists who designed and engraved the cuts in the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin and the Poor Preachers' Bible. … With respect to drawing, engraving and expression, the cuts of the Alphabet are decidedly superior to those of every block-book, and generally to all' wood engravings executed before the year 1500, with the exception of such as are by Albert Durer, and those contained in the Hypnerotomachia, printed by Aldus at Venice in 1499. … Letter K of Grotesque Alphabet. Original is 3½ by 4⅝ inches. [From Holtrop.]I perceive nothing in them to induce me to suppose that they were the work of a Dutch artist; and I am as little inclined to ascribe them to a German. The style of the drawing is not unlike what we see in illuminated French manuscripts of the middle of the fifteenth century; and as the only two engraved words which occur in the volume are in French, I am rather inclined to suppose that the artist who made the designs was a native of France. The costume of the female to whom the words are addressed appears to be French; and the action of the lover kneeling seems almost characteristic of the nation. No Dutchman ​certainly ever addressed his mistress with such an air. He holds what appears to be a ring as gracefully as a modern Frenchman holds a snuff-box, and upon the scroll before him are engraved a heart, and the words which he may be supposed to utter: Mon ame—My soul.
The real object of this book is not apparent. The figures were not engraved for the purpose of teaching the alphabet, for the designs are quaint, elaborate, and above the comprehension of young children. A Page from the Apostles' Creed. Original is 5⅜ by 8⅛ inches. [From Dibdin.]When the book was first made, the letters had a significance which seems to have been forgotten.
THE APOSTLES' CREED.
This is the title given to a lost block-book, of which only seven leaves remain. The annexed illustration is a reduced fac-simile of the page that tells the story of the Resurrection. The four angels about the circle are sounding the last trump, and the dead are coming forth from their graves. The figures in the lower corners are those of Zacharias and Judas. In this book, and in nearly all the block-books, the subjects most frequently presented are those that illustrate the marvelous and terrible. The designs have merit, but the letters are badly engraved. The pictures are explained by a few lines in German. The ​copy of the book described by Dibdin has on the fly-leaf the written memorandum V. W. 1471, but it is not probable that this writing has any reference to the date of printing.
THE EIGHT ROGUERIES.
This is a small block-book of eight leaves. Weigel places it among the earliest specimens of engraving on wood. The language in which the pictures are explained is High German. A Page from the Eight Rogueries. Original is 4 by 5⅜ inches. [From Falkenstein.]The pictures illustrate the Go-between, the Liar, the Cheat, the Counterfeit Goldsmith, the Cheating Merchant, the Church Robber, the Cheating Rope-maker, the Blacksmith that sells iron for steel. The designs are rude, but they are full of spirit and character, and the cutting of the figures has been done with ability and intelligence. The paper was printed on one side only and in dull brown ink. This book was found in the neglected library of an old South German monastery, in the heart of the neighborhood in which we find the earliest notices of printers and painters of images. As it is the only block-book of a decidedly non -religious character, it may be ascribed to some maker of playing cards, who practised the art of engraving before it was placed under the control of the Church.
* ↑ The engraver or the printer of the book published it, as all other books of this kind were published, without a printed title. It has been described by different authors under these titles: Types and Antitypes of the Old and the New Testament; The Histories and the Prophecies of the Old Testament; The Typical Harmony of the Bible; Typical Illustrations of the Old Testament, and Antitypical Illustrations of the New, or the Story of Jesus Christ as told by Engravers. Chatto calls it the Bible for Poor Preachers, and claims that it was written especially for their use. He objects to the title, Bible of the Poor, as leading to the erroneous opinion that the book was bought by the poor of the laity, who, he says, were unable to read in their own language, much less in Latin, This observation is true, yet Chatto's addition to the old title is not really needed. He overlooks the fact that the charm of the book was in its pictures, which could be appreciated by the poor of the laity as well as by poor preachers. In this sense, it was truly the Bible of the Poor.
* ↑ The British Museum has a French manuscript, entitled Figures de la Bible, in which the illustrations occupy nearly all the page, leaving room for little more than the text that describes the cuts. The same library has two copies in Latin verse of an abridgment of the Bible, in which the text occupies nearly all the page, while the illustrations are in miniature. These manuscripts of the fourteenth century are not Bibles of the Poor, but they show the fondness for books with biblical pictures.
* ↑ 1.An edition in Latin, of fifty pages, and supposed to have been engraved and printed by Melchior Wohlgemuth of Nuremberg, between the years 1450 and 1460. Only one copy of this book is known. 2. An edition in German, of forty pages, by Friedrich Walther and Hans Hürning, at Nordlingen, 1470. 3. An edition in German, attributed to Sporer, at Erfurth, in 1475.
* ↑ Fifteen copies are known of the edition here specified as the first, Heineken, noticing little dissimilarities of design and engraving in many of these copies, says that they prove the existence of five distinct editions. For similar reasons, Sotheby says that there are six editions. The weight of authority favors the classification of these fifteen copies in one edition.
* ↑ Jackson and Chatto, Treatise on Wood Engraving, pp. 78-80.
* ↑ The Bible Of the Poor has always been considered as one of the most valuable of block-books, but copies have been sold at widely varying prices, as may be seen in the annexed statement, compiled from Sotheby's Principia Typographica: Willet copy, 1813 245 guineas, Inglis copy, 1826 36l. 15s. Willet copy, 1833 36l. 15s. Lucca copy, 1848 89l. 5s. Stevens copy, 1849 11l. 12s. Sykes copy, 1824 18l. 17s. 6d. Rendorp copy, 1825 17l. 8s. 6d. Devonshire copy, 1815 210l.
* ↑ Three typographic editions of the Bible of the Poor have been printed:—1. An edition by Albert Pfister, at Bamberg, in 1461. In this edition, the engravings are small and coarsely cut. 2. An edition by Anthoine Vérard, in Paris, about 1500. This edition is a close imitation, beautifully printed, of the first xylographic edition, with explanations in French on the back of the engraved pages and on supplementary leaves. 3. An edition of very different arrangement having 118 small wood-cuts, printed by Giovanni Andrea Vavassore detto Vadagnino of Venice, between 1515 and 1520. Berjeau, Biblia Pauperum, p. 17.
* ↑ The great prices paid for copies of the book seem to show that this is a very general belief. Sotheby has wisely put some of them on record in his Principia Typographica. Gaignat copy 300 francs. La Vallière copy 800 " Crevenna copy 510 florins. Wilks copy, 1847 74l. Brienne-Laire copy 600 francs. Lang copy, 1828 45l. Verdussen copy 240 florins. Corser copy, 1873 (Quaritch), 550l. Inglis copy 47l. 5s. British Museum copy, 1845. 160l. Quaritch's, 1873 200l. Stowe copy, 1849 91l.
* ↑ A section consists of two or more sheets folded together, so that one leaf will be within another, as sheets of folded letter paper are nested. If five quarter quires of letter paper were sewed together, and bound, the book so bound, in binders' phrase, would have five sections.
* ↑ Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. i, as p. 4, as quoted by Ottley, p. 99.
* ↑ This book is sometimes described as The History of the Virgin Mary, or The Prefiguration of the Virgin Mary from the Song of Songs.
* ↑ It is probable that the cowled farmers represent the lay brothers, then very numerous in nearly every thrifty monastery. The farmers, butchers, bakers, carpenters and useful mechanics were often permitted to wear the dress and share some of the privileges of the monks, on condition that they should do the servile work, and accept as a full reward the rich blessings of monastic prayers and masses.
* ↑ These devices give us no certain clue to the engraver or printer of the book, but they are of value in assisting us to ascertain the purpose for which the book was made. There are no old manuscript copies of the book, but there are many evidences that it was designed and produced for the first time in the fifteenth century. It would seem that this pictorial version of the Canticles was designed, not so much to illustrate the prefiguration of the Virgin Mary, as the termination of a great schism which had divided the Catholic church between the years 1378 and in 1449. Christendom had been scandalized by the rule of two, and, for a short period, of three rival popes. It was believed that this schism in the church would have been closed by the action of the Council of Constance, which terminated in 1418; but this result was not accomplished until 1449, when Nicholas V became the only pope. The designer of the pictures has treated the return of Christendom to the rule of one pope as the reconciliation of Christ with the church. To give special significance to the subject, he has introduced the armorial shields of the magnates at the councils. It may be that the engravings were made 1420, but it could be maintained with plausibility that they were made after the dissolution of the Council of Basle in 1448.
* ↑ The full title of the book is, as given by Heineken, The Story of the Blessed Virgin Mary, collected from the Evangelists and the Fathers, and Illustrated by Engravings. Dibdin calls it, The Defense of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
* ↑ The reading should be, Mon cœur avez — you have my heart, — the word heart being represented not by letters, but by a drawing.