Chapter IV (1)

WOOD ENGRAVING IN CONNEXION WITH THE PRESS.

Faust and Scheffer’s Psalter of 1457 -- Printing at Bamberg in 1461
-- Books Containing Wood-Cuts Printed there by Albert Pfister --
Opposition of the Wood Engravers of Augsburg to the Earliest
Printers Established in that City -- Travelling Printers --
Wood-Cuts in “Meditationes Johannis De Turre-Cremata,” Rome, 1467;
and in “Valturius De Re Militari,” Verona, 1472 -- Wood-Cuts
Frequent in Books Printed at Augsburg Between 1474 and 1480 --
Wood-Cuts in Books Printed by Caxton -- Maps Engraved on Wood, 1482
-- Progress of Map Engraving -- Cross-Hatching -- Flowered Borders
-- Hortus Sanitatis -- Nuremberg Chronicle -- Wood Engraving in
Italy -- Poliphili Hypnerotomachia -- Decline of Block-Printing --
Old Wood-Cuts in Derschau’s Collection.

Considering Gutemberg as the inventor of printing with moveable types; that his first attempts were made at Strasburg about 1436; and that with Faust’s money and Scheffer’s ingenuity the art was perfected at Mentz about 1452, I shall now proceed to trace the progress of wood engraving in its connexion with the press.

In the first book which appeared with a date and the printers’ names--the Psalter printed by Faust and Scheffer, at Mentz, in 1457--the large initial letters, engraved on wood and printed in red and blue ink, are the must beautiful specimens of this kind of ornament which the united efforts of the wood-engraver and the pressman have produced. They have been imitated in modern times, but not excelled. As they are the first letters, in point of time, printed with two colours, so are they likely to continue the first in point of excellence.

Only seven copies of the Psalter of 1457 are known, and they are all printed on vellum. Although they have all the same colophon, containing the printers’ names and the date, yet no two copies exactly correspond. A similar want of agreement is said to have been observed in different copies of the Mazarine Bible, but which are, notwithstanding, of one and the same edition. As such works would in the infancy of the art be a long time in printing--more especially the Psalter, as, in consequence of the large capitals being printed in two colours, each side of many of the sheets would have to be printed thrice--it can be a matter of no surprise that alterations and amendments should be made in the text while the work was going through the press. In the Mazarine Bible, the entire Book of Psalms, which contains a considerable number of red letters, would have to pass four times through the press, including what printers call the “reiteration.”[IV-1]

[Footnote IV-1: By the common press only one side of a sheet can
be printed at once. The reiteration is the second printing of the
same sheet on the blank side. Thus in the Psalter of 1457 every
sheet containing letters of two colours on each side would have to
pass six times through the press. It was probably in consequence
of printing so much in red and black that the early printers used
to employ so many presses. Melchior de Stamham, abbot of St. Ulric
and St. Afra at Augsburg, and who established a printing-office
within that monastery, about 1472, bought five presses of John
Schüssler; a considerable number for what may be considered an
amateur establishment. He also had two others made by Sixtus
Saurloch.--Zapf, Annales Typographicæ Augustanæ, p. xxiv.]

The largest of the ornamented capitals in the Psalter of 1457 is the letter B, which stands at the commencement of the first psalm, “Beatus vir.” The letters which are next in size are an A, a C, a D, an E, and a P; and there are also others of a smaller size, similarly ornamented, and printed in two colours in the same manner as the larger ones. Although only two colours are used to each letter, yet when the same letter is repeated a variety is introduced by alternating the colours: for instance, the shape of the letter is in one page printed red, with the ornamental portions blue; and in another the shape of the letter is blue, and the ornamental portions red. It has been erroneously stated by Papillon that the large letters at the beginning of each psalm are printed in three colours, red, blue, and purple; and Lambinet has copied the mistake. A second edition of this Psalter appeared in 1459; a third in 1490; and a fourth in 1502, all in folio, like the first, and with the same ornamented capitals. Heineken observes that in the edition of 1490 the large letters are printed in red and green instead of red and blue.

In consequence of those large letters being printed in two colours, two blocks would necessarily be required for each; one for that portion of the letter which is red, and another for that which is blue. In the body, or shape, of the largest letter, the B at the beginning of the first psalm, the mass of colour is relieved by certain figures being cut out in the block, which appear white in the impression. On the stem of the letter a dog like a greyhound is seen chasing a bird; and flowers and ears of corn are represented on the curved portions. These figures being white, or the colour of the vellum, give additional brightness to the full-bodied red by which they are surrounded, and materially add to the beauty and effect of the whole letter.

In consequence of two blocks being required for each letter, the means were afforded of printing any of them twice in the same sheet or the same page with alternate colours; for while the body of the first was printed in red from one block, the ornamental portion of the second might be printed red at the same time from the other block. In the second printing, with the blue colour, it would only be necessary to transpose the blocks, and thus the two letters would be completed, identical in shape and ornament, and differing only from the corresponding portions being in the one letter printed red and in the other blue. In the edition of 1459 the same ornamented letter is to be found repeated on the same page; but of this I have only noticed one instance; though there are several examples of the same letter being printed twice in the same sheet.

Although the engraving of the most highly ornamented and largest of those letters cannot be considered as an extraordinary instance of skill, even at that period, for many wood-cuts of an earlier date afford proof of greater excellence, yet the artist by whom the blocks were engraved must have had considerable practice. The whole of the ornamental part, which would be the most difficult to execute, is clearly and evenly cut, and in some places with great neatness and delicacy. “This letter,” says Heineken, “is an authentic testimony that the artists employed on such a work were persons trained up and exercised in their profession. The art of wood engraving was no longer in its cradle.”

The name of the artist by whom those letters were engraved is unknown. In Sebastian Munster’s Cosmography, book iii. chapter 159, John Meydenbach is mentioned as being one of Gutemberg’s assistants; and an anonymous writer in Serarius states the same fact. Heineken in noticing these two passages writes to the following effect. “This Meydenbach is doubtless the same person who proceeded with Gutemberg from Strasburg to Mentz in 1444.[IV-2] It is probable that he was a wood engraver or an illuminator, but this is not certain; and it is still more uncertain that this person engraved the cuts in a book entitled _Apocalipsis cum figuris_, printed at Strasburg in 1502, because these are copied from the cuts in the Apocalypse engraved and printed by Albert Durer at Nuremberg. Whether this copyist was the _Jacobus Meydenbach_ who printed books at Mentz in 1491,[IV-3] or he was some other engraver, I have not been able to determine.”[IV-4]

[Footnote IV-2: Heineken in his Nachrichten, T. I. S. 108, also
states that Meydenbach came from Strasburg with Gutemberg. Oberlin
however observes, “Je ne sais où de Heinecke a trouvè que ce
Meydenbach est venu en 1444 avec Gutenberg à Mayence.” Heineken
says, “In der Nachricht von Strassburg findet man dass ein
gewisser Meydenbach 1444 nach Maynz gezogen,” and refers to
Fournier, p. 40. Dissert sur l’Orig. de l’Imprimerie primitive.]

[Footnote IV-3: An edition of the Hortus Sanitatis with wood-cuts
was printed at Mentz, by _Jacobus Meydenbach_, in 1491.]

[Footnote IV-4: Idée Générale, p. 286.]

Although so little is positively known respecting John Meydenbach, Gutemberg’s assistant, yet Von Murr thinks that there is reason to suppose that he was the artist who engraved the large initial letters for the Psalter of 1457. Fischer, who declares that there is no sufficient grounds for this conjecture, confidently assumes, from false premises, that those letters were engraved by Gutemberg, “a person experienced in such work,” adds he, “as we are taught by his residence at Strasburg.” From the account that we have of his residence and pursuits at Strasburg, however, we are taught no such thing. We only learn from it he was engaged in some invention which related to printing. We learn that Conrad Saspach made him a press, and it is conjectured that the goldsmith Hanns Dunne was employed to engrave his letters; but there is not a word of his being an experienced wood engraver, nor is there a well authenticated passage in any account of his life from which it might be concluded that he ever engraved a single letter. Fischer’s reasons for supposing that Gutemberg engraved the large letters in Faust and Scheffer’s Psalter are, however, contradicted by facts. Having seen a few leaves of a Donatus ornamented with the same initial letters as the Psalter, he directly concluded that the former was printed by Gutemberg and Faust prior to the dissolution of their partnership; and not satisfied with this leap he takes another, and arrives at the conclusion that they were engraved by Gutemberg, as “_his_ modesty only could allow such works to appear without his name.”

Although we have no information respecting the artist by whom those letters were engraved, yet it is not unlikely that they were suggested, if not actually drawn by Scheffer, who, from his profession of a scribe or writer[IV-5] previous to his connexion with Faust, may be supposed to have been well acquainted with the various kinds of flowered and ornamented capitals with which manuscripts of that and preceding centuries were embellished. It is not unusual to find manuscripts of the early part of the fifteenth century embellished with capitals of two colours, red and blue, in the same taste as in the Psalter; and there is now lying before me a capital P, drawn on vellum in red and blue ink, in a manuscript apparently of the date of 1430, which is so like the same letter in the Psalter that the one might be supposed to have suggested the other.

[Footnote IV-5: Scheffer previous to his connexion with Faust was
a “clericus,”--not a _clerk_ as distinguished from a layman, but a
writer or scribe. A specimen of his “set-hand,” written at Paris
in 1449, is given by Schœpflin in his Vindiciæ Typographicæ.
Several of the earliest printers were writers or illuminators;
among whom may be mentioned John Mentelin of Strasburg, John
Baemler of Augsburg, Ulric Zell of Cologne, and Colard Mansion of
Bruges.]

It was an object with Faust and Scheffer to recommend their Psalter--probably the first work printed by them after Gutemberg had been obliged to withdraw from the partnership--by the beauty of its capitals and the sufficiency and distinctness of its “rubrications;”[IV-6] and it is evident that they did not fail in the attempt. The Psalter of 1457 is, with respect to ornamental printing, their greatest work; for in no subsequent production of their press does the typographic art appear to have reached a higher degree of excellence. It may with truth be said that the art of printing--be the inventor who he may--was perfected by Faust and Scheffer; for the earliest known production of their press remains to the present day unsurpassed as a specimen of skill in ornamental printing.

[Footnote IV-6: This is intimated in the colophon, which, with the
contracted words written at length, is as follows: “Presens
Spalmorum codex venustate capitalium decoratus Rubricationibusque
sufficienter distinctus. Adinventione artificiosa imprimendi ac
caracterizandi absque calami ulla exaracione sic effigiatus. Et ad
eusebiam dei industrie est consummatus. Per Johannem Fust, Civem
maguntinum. Et Petrum Schoffer de Gernzheim, Anno domini
Millesimo. cccc. lvii. In vigilia Assumpcionis.” In the second
edition the mis-spelling, “Spalmorum” for “Psalmorum,” is
corrected.]

A fac-simile of the large B at the commencement of the Psalter, printed in colours the same as the original, is given in the first volume of Dibdin’s Bibliotheca Spenceriana, and in Savage’s Hints on Decorative Printing; but in neither of those works has the excellence of the original letter been attained. In the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, although the volume has been printed little more than twenty years, the red colour in which the body of the letter is printed has assumed a coppery hue, while in the original, executed nearly four hundred years ago, the freshness and purity of the colours remain unimpaired. In Savage’s work, though the letter and its ornaments are faithfully copied[IV-7] and tolerably well printed, yet the colours are not equal to those of the original. In the modern copy the blue is too faint; and the red, which in the original is like well impasted paint, has not sufficient body, but appears like a wash, through which in many places the white paper may be seen. The whole letter compared with the original seems like a water-colour copy compared with a painting in oil.

[Footnote IV-7: It is to be observed that in Savage’s copy the
perpendicular flourishes are given horizontally, above and below
the letter, in order to save room. In a copy of the edition of
1459, in the King’s Library, part of the lower flourish has not
been inked, as it would have interfered with the letter Q at the
commencement of the second psalm “_Quare fremuerunt gentes_.”
Traces of the flourish where not coloured may be observed
impressed in the vellum.]

Although it has been generally supposed that the art of printing was first carried from Mentz in 1462 when Faust and Scheffer’s sworn workmen were dispersed[IV-8] on the capture of that city by the archbishop Adolphus of Nassau, yet there can be no doubt that it was practised at Bamberg before that period; for a book of fables printed at the latter place by Albert Pfister is expressly dated on St. Valentine’s day, 1461; and a history of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther was also printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1462, “+Nit lang nach sand walpurgen tag+,”--not long after St. Walburg’s day.[IV-9] It is therefore certain that the art was practised beyond Mentz previous to the capture of that city, which was not taken until the eve of St. Simon and St. Jude; that is, on the 28th of October in 1462. As it is very probable that Pfister would have to superintend the formation of his own types and the construction of his own presses,--for none of his types are of the same fount as those used by Gutemberg or by Faust and Scheffer,--we may presume that he would be occupied for some considerable time in preparing his materials and utensils before he could begin to print. As his first known work with a date, containing a hundred and one wood-cuts, was finished on the 14th of February 1461, it is not unlikely that he might have begun to make preparations three or four years before. Upon these grounds it seems but reasonable to conclude with Aretin, that the art was carried from Mentz by some of Gutemberg and Faust’s workmen on the dissolution of their partnership in 1455; and that the date of the capture of Mentz--when for a time all the male inhabitants capable of bearing arms were compelled to leave the city by the captors--marks the period of its more general diffusion. The occasion of the disaster to which Mentz was exposed for nearly three years was a contest for the succession to the archbishopric. Theodoric von Erpach having died in May 1459, a majority of the chapter chose Thierry von Isenburg to succeed him, while another party supported the pretensions of Adolphus of Nassau. An appeal having been made to Rome, the election of Thierry was annulled, and Adolphus was declared by the Pope to be the lawful archbishop of Mentz. Thierry, being in possession and supported by the citizens, refused to resign, until his rival, assisted by the forces of his adherents and relations, succeeded in obtaining possession of the city.[IV-10]

[Footnote IV-8: The following passage occurs in the colophon of
two works printed by John Scheffer at Mentz in 1515 and 1516; the
one being the “Trithemii Breviarium Historiæ Francorum,” and the
other “Breviarium Ecclesiæ Mindensis:” “Retinuerunt autem hi duo
jam prænominati, _Johannes Fust et Petrus Scheffer_, hanc artem in
secreto, (omnibus ministris et familiaribus eorum, ne illam quoquo
modo manifestarent, jure jurando adstrictis :) quæ tandem anno
Domini M.CCCC.LXII. per eosdem familiares in diversas terrarum
provincias divulgata, haud parvum sumpsit incrementum.”]

[Footnote IV-9: St. Walburg’s day is on the 25th of February;
though her feast is also held both on the 1st of May and on the
12th of October. The eve of her feast on the 1st of May is more
particularly celebrated; and it is then that the witches and
warlocks of Germany hold their annual meeting on the Brocken. St.
Walburg, though born of royal parents in Saxony, was yet educated
in England, at the convent of Wimborn in Dorsetshire, of which she
became afterwards abbess, and where she died in 779.]

[Footnote IV-10: A mournful account of the expulsion of the
inhabitants and the plundering of the city is given by Trithemius
at page 30 of his “Res Gestæ Frederici Palatini,” published with
notes by Marquard Freher, at Heidelberg, 4to. 1603.]

Until the discovery of Pfister’s book containing the four histories, most bibliographers supposed that the date 1461, in the fables, related to the composition of the work or the completion of the manuscript, and not to the printing of the book. Saubert, who was the first to notice it, in 1643, describes it as being printed, both text and figures, from wood-blocks; and Meerman has adopted the same erroneous opinion. Heineken was the first to describe it truly, as having the text printed with moveable types, though he expresses himself doubtfully as to the date, 1461, being that of the impression.

As the discovery of Pfister’s tracts has thrown considerable light on the progress of typography and wood engraving, I shall give an account of the most important of them, as connected with those subjects; with a brief notice of a few circumstances relative to the early connexion of wood engraving with the press, and to the dispersion of the printers on the capture of Mentz in 1462.

The discovery of the history of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther, with the date 1462, printed at Bamberg by Pfister, has established the fact that the dates refer to the years in which the books were printed, and not to the period when the works were composed or transcribed. An account of the history above named, written by M. J. Steiner, pastor of the church of St. Ulric at Augsburg, was first printed in Meusel’s Historical and Literary Magazine in 1792; and a more ample description of this and other tracts printed by Pfister was published by Camus in 1800,[IV-11] when the volume containing them, which was the identical one that had been previously seen by Steiner, was deposited in the National Library at Paris.

[Footnote IV-11: Under the title of “Notice d’un Livre imprimé à
Bamberg en CIↃCCCCLXII. lue à l’Institut National, par Camus.”
4to. Paris, An VII. [1800.]]

The book of fables[IV-12] printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1461 is a small folio consisting of twenty-eight leaves, and containing eighty-five fables in rhyme in the old German language. As those fables, which are ascribed to one “Boner, dictus der Edelstein,” are known to have been written previous to 1330, the words at the end of the volume,--“Zu Bamberg dies Büchlein geendet ist,”--At Bamberg this book is finished,--most certainly relate to the time when it was printed, and not when it was written. It is therefore the earliest book printed with moveable types which is illustrated with wood-cuts containing figures. Not having an opportunity of seeing this extremely rare book,--of which only one perfect copy is known,--I am unable to speak from personal examination of the style in which its hundred and one cuts are engraved. Heineken, however, has given a fac-simile of the first, and he says that the others are of a similar kind. The following is a reduced copy of the fac-simile given by Heineken, and which forms the head-piece to the first fable. On the manner in which it is engraved I shall make no remark, until I shall have produced some specimens of the cuts contained in a “Biblia Pauperum Predicatorum,” also printed by Pfister, and having the text in the German language.

[Footnote IV-12: The copy of those fables belonging to the
Wolfenbuttel Library, and which is the only one known, was taken
away by the French and placed in the National Library at Paris,
but was restored on the surrender of Paris in 1815.]

The volume described by Camus contains three different works; and although Pfister’s name, with the date 1462, appears in only one of them, the “Four Histories,” yet, as the type is the same in all, there can be no doubt of the other two being printed by the same person and about the same period. The following particulars respecting its contents are derived from the “Notice” of Camus. It is a small folio consisting altogether of a hundred and one leaves of paper of good quality, moderately thick and white, and in which the water-mark is an ox’s head. The text is printed in a large type, called missal-type; and though the characters are larger, and there is a trifling variation in three or four of the capitals, yet they evidently appear to have been copied from those of the Mazarine Bible.

The first work is that which Heineken calls “une Allégorie sur la Mort;”[IV-13] but this title does not give a just idea of its contents. It is in fact a collection of accusations preferred against Death, with his answers to them. The object is to show that such complaints are unavailing, and that, instead of making them, people ought rather to employ themselves in endeavouring to live well. In this tract, which consists of twenty-four leaves, there are five wood-cuts, each occupying an entire page. The first represents Death seated on a throne. Before him there is a man with a child, who appears to accuse Death of having deprived him of his wife, who is seen on a tomb wrapped in a winding-sheet.--In the second cut, Death is also seen seated on a throne, with the same person apparently complaining against him, while a number of persons appear approaching sad and slow, to lay down the ensigns of their dignity at his feet.--In the third cut there are two figures of Death; one on foot mows down youths and maidens with a scythe, while another, mounted, is seen chasing a number of figures on horseback, at whom he at the same time discharges his arrows.--The fourth cut consists of two parts, the one above the other. In the upper part, Death appears seated on a throne, with a person before him in the act of complaining, as in the first and second cuts. In the lower part, to the left of the cut, is seen a convent, at the gate of which there are two persons in religious habits; to the right a garden is represented, in which are perceived a tree laden with fruit, a woman crowning an infant, and another woman conversing with a young man. In the space between the convent and the garden certain signs are engraved, which Camus thinks are intended to represent various branches of learning and science,--none of which can afford protection against death,--as they are treated of in the chapter which precedes the cut. In the fifth cut, Death and the Complainant are seen before Christ, who is seated on a throne with an angel on each side of him, under a canopy ornamented with stars. Although neither Heineken nor Camus give specimens of those cuts, nor speak of the style in which they are executed, it may be presumed that they are not superior either in design or engraving to those contained in the other tracts.

[Footnote IV-13: Idée Générale, p. 276. Dr. Dibdin in his
Bibliographical Tour says that this work “is entitled by Camus the
ALLEGORY OF DEATH.” This is a mistake; for Camus, who objects to
this title,--which was given to it by Heineken,--always refers to
the book under the title of “Les Plaintes contre la Mort.”]

The text of the work is divided into thirty-four chapters, each of which, except the first, is preceded by a summary; and their numbers are printed in Roman characters. The initial letter of each chapter is red, and appears to have been formed by means of a stencil. The first chapter, which has neither title nor numeral, commences with the Complainant’s recital of his injuries; in the second, Death defends himself; in the third the Complainant resumes, in the fourth Death replies; and in this manner the work proceeds, the Complainant and Death speaking alternately through thirty-two chapters. In the thirty-third, God decides between the parties; and after a few common-place reflections and observations on the readiness of people to complain on all occasions, sentence is pronounced in these words: “The Complainant is condemned, and Death has gained the cause. Of right, the Life of every man is due to Death; to Earth his Body, and to Us his Soul.” In the thirty-fourth chapter, the Complainant, perceiving that he has lost his suit, proceeds to pray to God on behalf of his deceased wife. In the summary prefixed to the chapter the reader is informed that he is now about to peruse a model of a prayer; and that the name of the Complainant is expressed by the large red letters which are to be found in the chapter. Accordingly, in the course of the chapter, six red letters, besides the initial at the beginning, occur at the commencement of so many different sentences. They are formed by means of a stencil, while the letters at the commencement of other similar sentences are printed black. Those red letters, including the initial at the beginning of the chapter, occur in the following order, IHESANW. Whether the name is expressed by them as they stand, or whether they are to be combined in some other manner, Camus will not venture to decide.[IV-14] From the prayer it appears that the name of the Complainant’s deceased wife was Margaret. In this singular composition, which in the summary is declared to be a model, the author, not forgetting the court language of his native country, calls the Almighty “the Elector who determines the choice of all Electors,” “Hoffmeister” of the court of Heaven, and “Herzog” of the Heavenly host. The text is in the German language, such as was spoken and written in the fifteenth century.

[Footnote IV-14: “Outre la lettre initiale, on remarque, dans le
cours du chapitre, six lettres rouges non imprimées, mais peintes
à la plaque, qui commencent six phrases diverses. Les lettres
initiales des autres phrases du même chapitre sont imprimées en
noir. Les lettres rouges sont IHESANW. Doit-on les assembler dans
l’ordre où elles sont placées, ou bien doivent-elles recevoir un
autre arrangement? Je ne prends pas sur moi de le
décider.”--Camus, Notice, p. 6.]

The German words “_Hoffmeister_” and “_Herzog_” appear extremely ridiculous in Camus’s French translation,--“le Maître-d’hôtel de la cour céleste,” and “le Grand-duc de l’armée céleste.” But this is clothing ancient and dignified German in modern French frippery. The word “Hoffmeister”--literally, “court-master or governor”--is used in modern German in nearly the same sense as the English word “steward;” and the governor or tutor of a young prince or nobleman is called by the same name. The word “Herzog”--the “Grand-duc” of Camus--in its original signification means the leader of a host or army. It is a German title of honour which defines its original meaning, and is in modern language synonymous with the English title “Duke.” The ancient German “Herzog” was a leader of hosts; the modern French “Grand-duc” is a clean-shaved gentleman in a court-dress, redolent of eau-de-Cologne, and bedizened with stars and strings. The two words are characteristic of the two languages.

The second work in the volume is the Histories of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther. It has no general frontispiece nor title; but each separate history commences with the words: “Here begins the history of . . . .” in German. Each history forms a separate gathering, and the whole four are contained in sixty leaves, of which two, about the middle, are blank, although there is no appearance of any deficiency in the history. The text is accompanied with wood-cuts which are much less than those in the “Complaints against Death,” each occupying only the space of eleven lines in a page, which when full contains twenty-eight. The number of the cuts is sixty-one; but there are only fifty-five different subjects, four of them having been printed twice, and one thrice. Camus gives a specimen of one of the cuts, which represents the Jews of Bethuliah rejoicing and offering sacrifice on the return of Judith after she had cut off the head of Holofernes. It is certainly a very indifferent performance, both with respect to design and engraving; and from Camus’s remarks on the artist’s ignorance and want of taste it would appear that the others are no better. In one of them Haman is decorated with the collar of an order from which a cross is suspended; and in another Jacob is seen travelling to Egypt in a carriage[IV-15] drawn by two horses, which are harnessed according to the manner of the fifteenth century, and driven by a postilion seated on a saddle, and with his feet in stirrups. All the cuts in the “Four Histories” are coarsely coloured.

[Footnote IV-15: Camus calls it a “voiture,” but I question if
such a carriage was known in 1462; and am inclined to think that
he has converted a kind of light waggon into a modern “voiture.”
A light sort of waggon, called by Stow a “Wherlicote,” was used in
England by the mother of Richard the Second in the manner of a
modern coach. I have noticed in an old wood-cut a light travelling
waggon, drawn by what is called a “unicorn team” of three horses;
that is, one as a “leader,” and two “wheelers,” with the driver
riding on the “near side” wheeler. This cut is in the Bagford
collection in the British Museum, and is one of a series of ninety
subjects from the Old and New Testament which have been cut out of
a book. A manuscript note in German states that they are by
Michael Wolgemuth, and printed in 1491. In no wood-cut executed
previous to 1500 have I seen a vehicle like a modern French
voiture.]

It is this work which Camus, in his title-page, professes to give an account of, although in his tract he describes the other two contained in the same volume with no less minuteness. He especially announced a notice of this work as “a book printed at Bamberg in 1462,” in consequence of its being the most important in the volume; for it contains not only the date and place, but also the printer’s name. In the book of Fables, printed with the same types at Bamberg in 1461, Pfister’s name does not appear.

The text of the “Four Histories” ends at the fourth line on the recto of the sixtieth leaf; and after a blank space equal to that of a line, thirteen lines succeed, forming the colophon, and containing the place, date, and printer’s name. Although those lines run continuously on, occupying the full width of the page as in prose, yet they consist of couplets in German rhyme. The end of each verse is marked with a point, and the first word of the succeeding one begins with a capital. Camus has given a fac-simile of those lines, that he might at once present his readers with a specimen of the type and a copy of this colophon, so interesting to bibliographers as establishing the important fact in the history of printing, namely, that the art was practised beyond Mentz prior to 1462. The following copy, though not a fac-simile, is printed line for line from Camus.

+Ein ittlich mensch von herzen gert . Das er wer weiss
und wol gelert . An meister un’ schrift das nit mag
sein . So kun’ wir all auch nit latein . Darauff han
ich ein teil gedacht . Und vier historii zu samen pra-
cht . Joseph daniel un’ auch judith . Und hester auch
mit gutem sith. die vier het got in seiner hut . Als er
noch ye de’ guten thut . Dar durch wir pessern unser
lebe’ . De’ puchlein ist sein ende gebe’ . Tʒu bambergh
in der selbe’ stat . Das albrecht pfister gedrucket hat
Do ma’ zalt tausent un’ vierhu’dert iar . Im zwei und
sechzigste’ das ist war . Nit lang nach sand walpur-
gen tag . Die uns wol gnad erberben mag . Frid un’
das ewig lebe’ . Das wolle uns got alle’ gebe’ . Ame’.+

The following is a translation of the above, in English couplets of similar rhythm and measure as the original:

With heart’s desire each man doth seek
That he were wise and learned eke:
But books and teacher he doth need,
And all men cannot Latin read.
As on this subject oft I thought,
These hist’ries four I therefore wrote;
Of Joseph, Daniel, Judith too,
And Esther eke, with purpose true:
These four did God with bliss requite,
As he doth all who act upright.
That men may learn their lives to mend
This book at Bamberg here I end.
In the same city, as I’ve hinted,
It was by Albert Pfister printed,
In th’ year of grace, I tell you true,
A thousand four hundred and sixty-two;
Soon after good St. Walburg’s day,
Who well may aid us on our way,
And help us to eternal bliss:
God, of his mercy, grant us this. Amen.

The third work contained in the volume described by Camus is an edition of the “Poor Preachers’ Bible,” with the text in German, and printed on both sides. The number of the leaves is eighteen, of which only seventeen are printed; and as there is a “history” on each page, the total number in the work is thirty-four, each of which is illustrated with five cuts. The subjects of those cuts and their arrangement on the page is not precisely the same as in the earlier Latin editions; and as in the latter there are forty “histories,” six are wanting in the Bamberg edition, namely: 1. Christ in the garden; 2. The soldiers alarmed at the sepulchre; 3. The Last Judgment; 4. Hell; 5. The eternal Father receiving the righteous into his bosom; and 6. The crowning of the Saints. As the cuts illustrative of these subjects are the last in the Latin editions, it is possible that the Bamberg copy described by Camus might be defective; he, however, observes that there is no appearance of any leaves being wanting.[IV-16] In each page of the Bamberg edition the text is in two columns below the cuts, which are arranged in the following manner in the upper part of the page:

+----------------------------+------+----------------------------+
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| 4 | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| Joseph making himself | | The Prodigal Son’s return |
| | | |
| known to his brethern. | | to his father. |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
+----------------------------+------+----------------------------+]

The following cuts are fac-similes of those given by Camus; and the numbers underneath each relate to their position in the preceding example of their arrangement. In No. 1 the heads are intended for David and the author of the Book of Wisdom; in No. 2, for Isaiah and Ezekiel.

[Footnote IV-16: The copy of the Bamberg edition in the
Wolfenbuttel Library, seen and described by Heineken, Idée
Générale, pp. 327-329, contained only twenty-six “histories,” or
general subjects.]

The subject represented in the following cut, No. 3, forming the centre piece at the top in the arrangement of the original page, is Christ appearing to his disciples after his resurrection. The figure on the right of Christ is intended for St. Peter, and that on his left for St. John. I believe that in no wood-cut, ancient or modern, is Christ represented with so uncomely an aspect and so clumsy a figure.

The subject of No. 4 is Joseph making himself known to his brethren; from Genesis, chapter XLV.

In No. 5 the subject represented is the Prodigal Son received by his father; from St. Luke, chapter XV. Camus says that the cuts given by him were engraved on wood by Duplaa with the greatest exactitude from tracings of the originals by Dubrena.

Supposing that all the cuts in the four works, printed by Pfister and described in the preceding pages, were designed in a similar taste and executed in a similar manner to those of which specimens are given, the persons by whom they were engraved--for it is not likely that they were all engraved by one man--must have had very little knowledge of the art. Looking merely at the manner in which they are engraved, without reference to the wretched drawing of the figures and want of “feeling” displayed in the general treatment of the subjects, a moderately apt lad, at the present day, generally will cut as well by the time that he has had a month or two’s practice. If those cuts were to be considered as fair specimens of wood engraving in Germany in 1462, it would be evident that the art was then declining; for none of the specimens that I have seen of the cuts printed by Pfister can bear a comparison with those contained in the early block-books, such as the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, or the early editions of the Poor Preachers’ Bible. To the cuts contained in the latter works they are decidedly inferior, both with respect to design and engraving. Even the earliest wood-cuts which are known,--for instance, the St. Christopher, the St. Bridget, and the Annunciation, in Earl Spencer’s collection,--are executed in a superior manner.

It would, however, be unfair to conclude that the cuts which appear in Pfister’s works were the best that were executed at that period. On the contrary, it is probable that they are the productions of persons who in their own age would be esteemed only as inferior artists. As the progress of typography was regarded with jealousy by the early wood engravers and block printers, who were apprehensive that it would ruin their trade, and as previous to the establishment of printing they were already formed into companies or fellowships, which were extremely sensitive on the subject of their exclusive rights, it is not unlikely that the earliest type-printers who adorned their books with wood-cuts would be obliged to have them executed by a person who was not professionally a wood engraver. It is only upon this supposition that we can account for the fact of the wood-cuts in the earliest books printed with type being so very inferior to those in the earliest block-books. This supposition is corroborated by the account which we have of the proceedings of the wood engravers of Augsburg shortly after type-printing was first established in that city. In 1471 they opposed Gunther Zainer’s[IV-17] admission to the privileges of a burgess, and endeavoured to prevent him printing wood engravings in his books. Melchior Stamham, however, abbot of St. Ulric and Afra, a warm promoter of typography, interested himself on behalf of Zainer, and obtained an order from the magistracy that he and John Schussler--another printer whom the wood engravers had also objected to--should be allowed to follow without interruption their art of printing. They were, however, forbid to print initial letters from wood-blocks or to insert wood-cuts in their books, as this would be an infringement on the privileges of the fellowship of wood engravers. Subsequently the wood engravers came to an understanding with Zainer, and agreed that he should print as many initial letters and wood-cuts as he pleased, provided that they engraved them.[IV-18] Whether Schussler came to the same agreement or not is uncertain, as there is no book known to be printed by him of a later date than 1472. It is probable that he is the person,--named John _Schüssler_ in the memorandum printed by Zapf,--of whom Melchior de Stamham in that year bought five presses for the printing-office which he established in his convent of St. Ulric and St. Afra. To John Bämler, who at the same time carried on the business of a printer at Augsburg, no objection appears to have been made. As he was originally a “calligraphus” or ornamental writer, it is probable that he was a member of the wood engravers’ guild, and thus entitled to engrave and print his own works without interruption.

[Footnote IV-17: Gunther Zainer was a native of Reutlingen, in
Wirtemberg, and was the first printer in Germany who used Roman
characters,--in an edition of “Isidori Episcopi Hispalensis
Etymologia,” printed by him in 1472. He first began to print at
Augsburg in 1468. In 1472 he printed a German translation of the
book entitled “Belial,” with wood-cuts. A Latin edition of this
book was printed by Schussler in the same year. Von Murr says that
Schussler printed another edition of “Belial” in 1477; but this
would seem to be a mistake, for Veith asserts in his “Diatribe de
Origine et Incrementis Artis Typographicæ in urbe Augusta
Vindelica,” prefixed to Zapf’s “Annales,” that Schussler only
printed in the years 1470, 1471, and 1472.]

[Footnote IV-18: Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theil, S. 144.--Zapf,
Buchdruckergeschichte von Augsburg, 1 Band.]

As it is probable that the wood-cuts which appear in books printed within the first thirty years from the establishment of typography at Mentz were intended to be coloured, this may in some degree account for the coarseness with which they are engraved; but as the wood-cuts in the earlier block-books were also intended to be coloured in a similar manner, the inferiority of the former can only be accounted for by supposing that the best wood engravers declined to assist in promoting what they would consider to be a rival art, and that the earlier printers would generally be obliged to have their cuts engraved by persons connected with their own establishments, and who had not by a regular course of apprenticeship acquired a knowledge of the art. About seventy or eighty years ago, and until a more recent period, many country printers in England used themselves to engrave such rude wood-cuts as they might occasionally want. A most extensive assortment of such wood-cuts belonged to the printing-office of the late Mr. George Angus of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who used them as head-pieces and general illustrations to ballads and chap-books. A considerable number of them were cut with a penknife, on pear-tree wood, by an apprentice named Randell, who died about forty years ago. Persons who are fond of a “rough harvest” of such modern-antiques are referred to the “Historical Delights,” the “History of Ripon,” and other works published by Thomas Gent at York about 1733.

Notwithstanding the rudeness with which the cuts are engraved in the four works printed by Pfister, yet from their number a considerable portion of time must have been occupied in their execution. In the “Four Histories” there are sixty-one cuts, which have been printed from fifty-five blocks. In the “Fables” there are one hundred and one cuts; in the “Complaints against Death,” five; and in the “Poor Preachers’ Bible,” one hundred and seventy, reckoning each subject separately. Supposing each cut in the _three_ last works was printed from a separate block, the total number of blocks required for the _four_ would be three hundred and thirty-one.[IV-19] Supposing that each cut on an average contained as much work as that which is numbered 4 in the preceding specimens--Joseph making himself known to his brethren--and supposing that the artist drew the subjects himself, the execution of those three hundred and thirty-one cuts would occupy one person for about two years and a half, allowing him to work three hundred days in each year. It is true that a modern wood engraver might finish more than three of such cuts in a week, yet I question if any one of the profession would complete the whole number, with his own hands, in less time than I have specified.

[Footnote IV-19: Lichtenberger, in his Initia Typographica,
referring to Sprenger’s History of Printing at Bamberg, says that,
besides those four, five other tracts are printed with Pfister’s
types, of which three contain wood-cuts. One of those three,
however, a “Poor Preachers’ Bible,” with the text in Latin, has
the same cuts as the “Poor Preachers’ Bible” with the text in
German. Only one of those other five works contains the place and
date.]

From the similarity between Pfister’s types and those with which a Bible without place or date is printed, several bibliographers have ascribed the latter work to his press. This Bible, which in the Royal Library at Paris is bound in three volumes folio, is the rarest of all editions of the Scriptures printed in Latin. Schelhorn, who wrote a dissertation on this edition, endeavoured to show that it was the first of the Bibles printed at Mentz, and that it was partly printed by Gutemberg and Faust previous to their separation, and finished by Faust and Scheffer in 1456.[IV-20] Lichtenberger, without expressly assenting to Schelhorn’s opinion, is inclined to think that it was printed at Mentz, and by Gutemberg. The reasons which he assigns, however, are not such as are likely to gain assent without a previous willingness to believe. He admits that Pfister’s types are similar to those of the Bible, though he says that the former are somewhat ruder.

[Footnote IV-20: De Antiquissima Latinorum Bibliorum editione
. . . . Jo. Georgii Schelhorn Diatribe. Ulmæ, 4to. 1760.]

Camus considers that the tracts unquestionably printed by Pfister throw considerable light on the question as to whom this Bible is to be ascribed. There are two specimens of this Bible, the one given by Masch in his Bibliotheca Sacra, and the other by Schelhorn, in a dissertation prefixed to Quirini’s account of the principal works printed at Rome. Camus, on comparing these specimens with the text of Pfister’s tracts, immediately perceived the most perfect resemblance between the characters; and on applying a tracing of the last thirteen lines of the “Four Histories” to the corresponding letters in Schelhorn’s specimen, he found that the characters exactly corresponded. This perfect identity induced him to believe that the Bible described by Schelhorn was printed with Pfister’s types. A correspondent in Meusel’s Magazine, No. VII. 1794, had previously advanced the same opinion; and he moreover thought that the Bible had been printed previous to the Fables dated 1461, because the characters of the Bible are cleaner, and appear as if they had been impressed from newer types than those of the Fables.[IV-21] In support of this opinion an extract is given, in the same magazine, from a curious manuscript of the date of 1459, and preserved in the library of Cracow. This manuscript is a kind of dictionary of arts and sciences, composed by Paul of Prague, doctor of medicine and philosophy, who, in his definition of the word “Libripagus,” gives a curious piece of information to the following effect. The barbarous Latin of the original passage, to which I shall have occasion to refer, will be found in the subjoined note.[IV-22] “He is an artist who dexterously cuts figures, letters, and whatever he pleases on plates of copper, of iron, of solid blocks of wood, and other materials, that he may print upon paper, on a wall, or on a clean board. He cuts whatever he pleases; and he proceeds in this manner with respect to pictures. In my time somebody of Bamberg cut the entire Bible upon plates; in four weeks he impressed the whole Bible, thus sculptured, upon thin parchment.”

[Footnote IV-21: Dr. Dibdin says that a copy of this Bible, which
formerly belonged to the Earl of Oxford, and is now in the Royal
Library at Paris, contains “an undoubted coeval MS. date, in red
ink, of 1461.”--Bibliog. Tour, vol. ii p. 108. Second edition.]

[Footnote IV-22: “Libripagus est artifex sculpens subtiliter in
laminibus æreis, ferreis, ac ligneis solidi ligni, atque aliis,
imagines, scripturam et omne quodlibet, ut prius imprimat papyro
aut parieti aut asseri mundo. Scindit omne quod cupit, et est homo
faciens talia cum picturis; et tempore mei Bambergæ quidam
sculpsit integram bibliam super lamellas, et in quatuor septimanis
totam bibliam in pergameno subtili præsignavit sculpturam.”]

Although I am of opinion that the weight of evidence is in favour of Pfister being the printer of the Bible in question, yet I cannot think that the arguments which have been adduced in his favour derive any additional support from this passage. The writer, like many other dictionary makers, both in ancient and modern times, has found it a more difficult matter to give a clear account of a _thing_ than to find the synonym of a _word_. But, notwithstanding his confused account, I think that I can perceive in it the “disjecta membra” of an ancient Formschneider and a Briefmaler, but no indication of a typographer.

In a jargon worthy of the “Epistolæ obscurorum virorum” he describes an artist, or rather an artizan, “sculpens subtiliter in laminibus[IV-23] [laminis] æreis, ferreis, ac ligneis solidi ligni, atque aliis, imagines, scripturam et omne quodlibet.” In this passage the business of the “Formschneider” may be clearly enough distinguished: he cuts figures and animals in plates of copper and iron;--but not in the manner of a modern copper-plate engraver; but in the manner in which a stenciller pierces his patterns. That this is the true meaning of the writer is evident from the context, wherein he informs us of the artist’s object in cutting such letters and figures, namely, “ut prius imprimat papyro aut parieti aut asseri mundo,”--that he may print upon paper, on a wall, or on a clean board. This is evidently descriptive of the practice of stencilling, and proves, if the manuscript be authentic, that the old “Briefmalers” were accustomed to “slapdash” walls as well as to engrave and colour cards. In the distinction which is made of the “laminibus ligneis _ligni solidi_,” it is probable that the writer meant to specify the difference between cutting out letters and figures on thin plates of metal, and cutting _upon_ blocks of solid wood. When he speaks of a Bible being cut, at Bamberg, “super lamellas,” he most likely means a “Poor Preachers’ Bible,” engraved on blocks of wood. An impression of a hundred or more copies of such a work might easily enough be taken in a month when the blocks were all ready engraved; but we cannot suppose that the Bible ascribed to Pfister could be worked off in so short a time. This Bible consists of eight hundred and seventy leaves; and to print an edition of three hundred copies at the rate of three hundred sheets a day would require four hundred and fifty days. About three hundred copies of each work appears to have been the usual number which Sweinheim and Pannartz and Ulric Hahn printed, on the establishment of the art in Italy; and Philip de Lignamine in his chronicle mentions, under the year 1458, that Gutemberg and Faust, at Mentz, and Mentelin at Strasburg, printed three hundred sheets in a day.[IV-24]

[Footnote IV-23: In 1793, a learned doctor of divinity of
Cambridge is said in a like manner to have broken Priscian’s head
with “_paginibus_.” An epigram on this “blunder_bus_” is to be
found in the “Gradus ad Cantabrigiam.”]

[Footnote IV-24: Lichtenberger, Initia Typographica, p. 51.]

Of Pfister nothing more is positively known than what the tracts printed by him afford; namely, that he dwelt at Bamberg, and exercised the business of a printer there in 1461 and 1462. He might indeed print there both before and after those years, but of this we have no direct evidence. From 1462 to 1481 no book is known to have been printed at Bamberg. In the latter year, a press was established there by John Sensenschmidt of Egra, who had previously, that is from 1470, printed several works at Nuremberg.