PART III. FROM THE INVENTION OF PRINTING. CHAPTER I. FIFTEENTH CENTURY CONTINUED. Invention of Printing. Early Printers. First printed Bibles. Book Censors. Indices Expurgatorii. Licensers of the Press. PRINTING appears to be indebted for its origin to the art of engraving on wood, which was probably borrowed from the Chinese, among whom it was in use from the remotest periods. The first attempts at blockprinting, in Europe, were made about the commencement of the fifteenth century, by the manufacturers of playing cards, who, after having employed blocks, or wood-engravings for their cards, began to engrave on wood, the Images of the Saints, which the clergy distributed on certain occasions to the people. Prints of this description, of the same size as the playing cards, representing different subjects of Sacred History and devotion, with a text analogous to the subject, opposite to the figure, are preserved in the library of Wolfenbuttel. But that they also engraved images of a larger size, is proved by the very curious wood-cut of St. Christopher, found by Baron Heinecken, in the convent of the Chartreux, at Buxheim, near Memmingen, and now in the superb collection of Earl Spencer; a fac-simile of which is given in Dibdin's splendid Bibliotheca Spenceriana. From the inscription engraved and printed, at the foot of the print, it is proved to have been executed A. D. 1423. To the images of the saints succeeded historical subjects, chiefly Biblical or devotional, generally denominated Books of Images, with a text or explanation engraven on the same tablet, the fullest account of which is given by Baron Heinecken, in his Idee Generale d'une Collection complette d'Estampes, avec une dissertation sur l'origine de la Gravure, et sur les premiers Livres des Images. Leipsic et Vienne, 1771, 8vo. A judicious abridgment of this work, so far as refers to Books of Images, with corrections and notices of recently discovered works of this description, is contained in the appendix to Horne's Introduction to the Study of Bibliography, and is accompanied with a fac-simile of the first plate of the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, supposed to have been executed between the years 1440 and 1457; and another of the Biblia Pauperum, supposed to have been executed between A. D. 1420 and 1425. Several fac-similes of works of this nature, are engraved from rare copies in the possession of Earl Spencer, in the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, with bibliographical descriptions by the ingenious editor. Of all the Xylographic works, that is, such as are printed from wooden tablets, the BIBLIA PAUPERUM, and the SPECULUM SALVATIONIS, are the most celebrated. The BIBLIA PAUPERUM, which consists of 40 plates of Biblical subjects, with analogous extracts and sentences, is unquestionably a very rare and ancient book. The few copies of it which are now extant, are, for the most part, either imperfect, or in a very bad condition; which ought not to excite surprise, when it is considered that this work was executed for the use of young persons and common people, (whence its name, the Bible of the Poor,) who were thus enabled to acquire at a low price a knowledge of some of the events recorded in the Scrip(1) Heinecken, Idée Generale d' Estampes, pp. 246. 248–251. tures. This will account for the destruction of almost every copy, by repeated use; for in those times, when the present art of printing was unknown, there were but few persons who could afford to give a hundred louis d'or for the manuscript of a complete Bible. A somewhat later edition has fifty instead of forty plates. TheSPECULUM HUMANE SALVATIONIS, oras it is frequently termed, Speculum Salutis, is confessedly, both in its design and execution, the most perfect of all the ancient books of images, which preceded the invention of printing. This compilation, which is in small folio, is a collection of historical passages from the Scriptures, with a few from profane history, which allude to them; and is ascribed by Heinecken (and after him by Lambinet) to a Benedictine monk, named brother John, in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. So popular was this Mirror of Salvation, that it was translated into the German, Flemish, and other languages, and very frequently printed. The preface is printed with fusile types. These Books of Images, chiefly executed in Holland,* though generally regarded as the first attempts of printing, were nevertheless a different art from the modern printting, which consists in the use of separate moveable types; which at first were cut in wood, afterwards in metal, and the art at length completed by the invention of founding types in moulds or matrices. For the invention of moveable types we are indebted to JOHN GUTENBERG, of Mayence, or Mentz, a celebrated town in Germany. HENNE GOENSFLEISCH de Sulgeloch, or Sorgenloch, commonly called JOHN GUTENBERG, was born at Mentz, of noble and wealthy parents, about the year 1400. In (2) Horne's Introduction to Bibliography, II. App, pp. ii. x. * It is probable that many of these Books of Images were printed at Haerlem, and that from hence arose the opinion, that LAWRENS COSTER of Haerlem was the inventor of printing. See Horne's Introduction to Bibliography, I. pp. 145-154; and Classical Journal, XXI. No, 41. pp. 117-137. Lond. 1820. the year 1424, he took up his residence at Strasburg, as a merchant. The Abbé Mauro Boni says, that "stimulated by his genius to discover something new," he travelled in his youth through various countries, where he learned several arts unknown to the Germans. In 1430, he returned to his native city, as is evident from a deed of accommodation between himself and the nobles and burghers of the city of Mentz. A document adduced by Schoepflin, proves him to have been a wealthy man in 1434. Between that period and 1439, he had conceived, and perhaps made some few trials of the art of printing with moveable, and probably with metal types, though his first attempts are supposed to have been with moveable characters cut in wood.* In the year 1441-2, Gutenberg lived at Strasburg, where he continued till about 1443, when he returned again to Mentz, and towards the year 1450, appears to have opened his mind fully to FuST, a goldsmith, of the same place, and prevailed on him to advance large sums of money, in order to make further and more complete trials of the art. Between the years 1450 and 1455, the celebrated BIBLE of 637 leaves, the first important specimen of printing with metal types, was executed between Gutenberg and Fust." This BIBLE, the first ever printed, is an edition of the LATIN VULgate. It forms two volumes in folio, is printed in the large Gothic or German character, and is said to be "justly praised for the strength and beauty of the paper, the exactness of the register, the lustre of the ink, and the general beauty and magnificence of the volumes." It is without date, a circumstance which has * Santander observes, that moveable wooden types could not have been used in printing any work, owing to their fragile and spongy nature, which rendered them liable to be easily broken, as well as constantly subject to contraction or dilation. See Santander, Dict. Bibliographique, I. p. 80, note (47). (3) Dibdin's Typographical Antiquities, I. p. lxxxvii. note. Santander, Dictionnaire Bibliographique choisi du quinzieme siècle. occasioned considerable dispute, as to its priority to other undated editions, executed about the same time. It has been noticed as containing 637 leaves, to distinguish it more accurately from the other editions without date. C. G. Schwarz, an eminent bibliographer, says, in his Primaria quædam Documenta de Orig. Typog. Altorfii, 1740, 4to. part ii. p. 4. that "in the year 1728, in a Carthusian monastery, a little beyond the walls of Mentz, he saw a copy of an old Latin Bible, which was printed in a large character, similar to what is called the Missal type; and that, however a few of the end leaves were cut out, so that the date, place, and printer's name, could not be ascertained, yet, in an ancient MS. catalogue of the same library, an entry, or memorandum, was made, that this Bible, with some other books, (the names of which he had forgotten,) was given to the monastery, by Gutenberg." Copies of this superb work of Gutenberg's, are in his majesty's library, in the Bodleian Library, and in those of Earl Spencer, and Sir. M. M. Sykes, bart. There is also a magnificent copy of this Bible in the Royal Library at Berlin, printed upon vellum, and enriched with a profusion of ancient and elegant embellishments; and in the king's library at Paris, there are two other copies of this most valuable edition, one upon vellum, in four volumes, and the other upon paper, in two volumes. The latter copy has a subscription in red ink, at the end of each volume. That at the end of the first volume, of which a fac simile is given in the Classical Journal, No. 8, p. 481, is Et sic est finis prime partis biblie (4) See Dibdin, On the Vulgate Bible of 1450-1455; inserted in Classical Journal, No. 8. pp. 471-484. |