Morning journal and courier., 1890-04-29
BOOK EXPERIMENTATION.

1t Began at an Early Period and Ad.
 vaneed With the ArS Of Bookmak-
 ing-Grent Masters Engaged In the
 WOrk-Primitive Decoration.
 Recently, in a lecture upon 'fAlbert Durer and the Beginning of Book Illustration," Mir. Prime expressed the opinion that the early printers were by no means philanthro- pists, but printed books because there was popular demand for them, for which they received ample cash returns. As wood en- eraving and block printing ante-dated the art of Fust and Schoeffer by nearly half century, says the American Bookmaker, 1t is not to be wondered st that book ornamenta. tion began to be adopted at an early epoch in the art of bookmaking, has advanced with that art, and, of course, can have no separ- ate existence
 An examination into the sequence of de- velopment of the interior ornamentation of books disclcses an uninterrupted cycle of evolution. The earliest printing ornaments were initiated from those which were en- | countered in manuscripts, decorative ini- l tials and floral borders, which we still ad- l miro in tho rare books of that class.
 The following period, in which great mas- 1 ters like Holbein and Durer lent their talent ! to the adornment of books, was likewise pro- | life of magnificent and original methods of | ornsmentation. Special copies were printed | on parchment and vellum for princes and
 other patrons of the printers art, and here
 again the ornaments were executed by hand,
 as in the days of the calligraphers and of | those who wrought the incunabul@. At
 other times the still young but rapidly developing art of engraving was em- l ployed in the adornment of the whole edi. tion.
 Copper plate engraved ornamentation was first limited to the title page, which is wholly
 lacking in the oldest books. The engraver
 naturally sought to make the entire sheet \ illustrative or ornamental. In most cases it could not have been difficult to adorn the
 tile page with designs corresponding to the
 onteDts of the book, such as light tendril l work Many such titles, especially of the
 Bible, present proof that the burin was Ruid- l ed by an experienced hand. It was more difficult to compose ornamental borders for such titles, for here patterns and motives
 were lacking. What was more natural than that copper engraving should have had re- oouree to architectural typesi In this way
 were evolved those striking designs of half imaginary, half copied porticos which
 formed school of typographical ornamenta-
 tion.
 in decorative printing, and in a similar man-
 ner were engraved architectonic borders, but it was speedily seen that the true aim of the
 art of the wood engraver was quite foreign
 to this. Exactly as through the altered
 placing of the types in rows were produced
 different large forms, 50 wood engraving in it's creations of artistic supplements to the types adapted itself to the altered forms, and thus arose those borders with which titles
 are framed in on all four sides, and which,
 through different combinations and modi
 fcations, facilitated the use of large forms. These magnificent creations of the wood engraver's art were sorely misussd later 1T the time of the decay of the book printing art. It was not alone that different orna ments and styles were mingled, but print { CTS went SO far as to mutilate those bor , ders in barbario manner, either reducin
 the larger in size or adding to the smaller F Cases are not rare of the complete destruc tion of the effect with regard to borders COT g tainiag figure ornaments through cutting oi ] or mutilating important single figures, or i