Transcriber’s Notes

  Text elements printed in italics have been transcribed _between
  underscores_, small capitals have been changed to ALL CAPITALS.

  More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text.




EARLY WOODCUT INITIALS




  EARLY
  WOODCUT INITIALS

  CONTAINING OVER THIRTEEN
  HUNDRED REPRODUCTIONS OF
  ORNAMENTAL LETTERS OF THE
  FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH
  CENTURIES, SELECTED AND
  ANNOTATED BY
  OSCAR JENNINGS, M.D.

  MEMBER OF THE
  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY

  [Illustration]

  METHUEN AND CO.
  36 ESSEX STREET
  LONDON


  _First published in 1908_




  I DEDICATE THESE PAGES TO
  MY WIFE
  AS A SLIGHT RECOGNITION OF
  HER CONSTANT PATIENCE
  AND DEVOTION




PREFACE


From the number of works that have been published within the last few
decades on early printing and the decoration of early books, it is
evident that an increasing interest is taken in these subjects, not
only by those whose studies have specially fitted them to appreciate
such researches, but also by the general educated public.

There is, however, one variety of engraving that has hitherto attracted
but little attention, and the importance of which, both from artistic
and documentary points of view, is still unrecognised, and it may even
be said unsuspected by the great majority of students. Whilst every
engraving that may technically be termed a cut or an illustration
is catalogued and recorded in the different monographs on special
printers, those which take the form of initial letters, often of equal,
if not superior merit, are represented much more sparsely, and as
having a secondary importance only.

In a monograph on fifteenth-century printing in a certain German town,
for instance, the writer, a professional bibliographer, gives about
ten or twelve initial letters, whereas the extent of the material upon
which he might have drawn may be judged from the fact that a more
recent authority, in his history of one printer only of this town, has
been able to reproduce more than fifty specimens, many of which are
quite equal in interest to illustrations proper, some of them having
been recently pointed out by a London expert as constituting the chief
attraction of a volume[1] with both initials and illustrations which
came under his hammer.

  [1] The initials in the _Leben der Heiligen Drei Könige_ of
  Knoblochtzer.

The above lines, written ten years ago, when I first began to collect
material for this volume, are perhaps no longer as true absolutely
as when first penned. Besides the works of Butsch, Reiber, and Heitz
which were already in existence, Ongania’s book on Venice bibliography
contains a great many initials; Heitz has devoted a volume to those of
Holbein and other artists of the school of Basle, and others to certain
initials of Strasburg and Hagenau; and Redgrave, Haebler, Claudin,
Schorbach, Spirgatis, and Kristeller give a certain prominence to
initials in their respective monographs.

I still think, however, that a special work on the subject is needed
to do justice to the richness of artistic material available in this
special matter.

The woodcuts in early books are often merely illustrative, that is to
say explanatory of the text, and were not designed as ornaments; but
the initials were intended to be decorative, and one can see in them a
real artistic effort and sentiment.

Quaritch, indeed, has recently called attention to this fact, of the
superiority in some early books of the initials over the woodcuts, and
it is beginning to be recognised also by several great booksellers,
whose catalogues contain increasing numbers of reproductions of
ornamental letters in preference to other specimens of early engraving.

Unfortunately, circumstances have prevented my completing my first
programme, and what I offer here can only be considered as a general
introduction to the subject. But such as they are, these fragmentary
notes will not, I hope, be found entirely devoid of interest.

In conclusion, I have to express my thanks to Mr. A. W. Pollard, the
amiable and indefatigable secretary of the Bibliographical Society, for
help in seeing this volume through the press, and for many valuable
suggestions and criticisms.

  OSCAR JENNINGS.




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE

        PREFACE,                                                     vii

        INTRODUCTION,                                                  1

  CHAP.

     I. BLOCK-BOOKS: THE INVENTION OF PRINTING: THE PSALTER OF
        MAYENCE,                                                       6

    II. AUGSBURG,                                                     14

   III. ULM AND NUREMBERG,                                            22

    IV. BASLE AND ZURICH,                                             29

     V. LÜBECK AND BAMBERG,                                           39

    VI. STRASBURG AND REUTLINGEN,                                     43

   VII. COLOGNE AND GENEVA,                                           51

  VIII. VENICE,                                                       55

    IX. OTHER ITALIAN TOWNS,                                          64

     X. LYONS,                                                        73

    XI. PARIS,                                                        82

   XII. FRENCH PROVINCIAL TOWNS,                                      90

  XIII. SPANISH TOWNS,                                                96

   XIV. EARLY DUTCH INITIALS,                                        101

    XV. LATER GERMAN INITIALS: HAGENAU, MAGDEBURG, METZ, OPPENHEIM,
        INGOLDSTADT, ETC. ETC.,                                      103

   XVI. ENGLISH INITIALS,                                           108a

        REPRODUCTIONS OF INITIALS,                                   111

        INDEX,                                                       281




INTRODUCTION


The ornamentation of books dates probably from the time of their
invention, that is to say, it goes back to a very remote antiquity.
From Greece, where the book-trade was flourishing at an early period,
it passed into Italy, extending thence to the provinces of the Empire,
to Gaul and Spain, where book-lovers became more and more numerous,
and as civilisation became more refined, increasingly particular about
bindings and ornamentation.

The verse of Tibullus,

    ‘Indicet ut nomen littera picta tuum,’

shows the extent of the embellishments to which bibliophiles had then
become accustomed, requiring the titles of their favourite authors to
be engrossed in coloured or illuminated letters.[2]

  [2] Numerous passages might be quoted from Latin writers to show how
  great an interest they took in books, and how valuable rare, and what
  might be called original, editions had even then become. It would
  seem, too, that they even knew the pleasures of book-hunting, for
  Aulus Gellius relates how, having a few hours to spare after landing
  at Brindisi, he spent his time looking through the contents of an
  old book-stall, and was lucky enough to discover a very old work on
  occult science.

Besides the title, the headings of chapters and the initial letters
were also distinguished in the same way from the rest of the work,
a custom which passed from the Roman copyists to those of the Lower
Empire, and in course of time became generally adopted in the
preparation of manuscripts. But this was not all. It is now recognised
that book illustration was known to the Romans, and that the
miniatures of the mediæval manuscripts only followed the fashion of the
rich and sumptuous volumes transcribed by the copyists of Athens and
Rome. The fourth-century Virgil, for instance, one of the treasures of
the Vatican, which has been so well described by M. Pierre de Nolhac,
is an example of this, containing as it does a large number of figures.
Like all manuscripts of the time, it was written exclusively in
majuscules, very similar to those used in Roman inscriptions.[3]

  [3] Pliny speaks of a marvellous, almost divine, invention by which
  pictures were added to the book of _Imagines_ of Varro--no doubt
  printed by stamping.

The taste for luxury spreading from the third century, Byzantium became
the centre of the most extravagant and costly elegance in all its
manifestations, and books of that origin have come down to us written
on purple parchment in letters of gold. It was not until several
centuries later that a reaction took place, when Leo the Isaurian, in
741, considering such refinement as sinful, put an end to it by burning
the public library, together with its staff of _bibliothecarii_ and
copyists, the survivors finding a refuge for their art in the western
cloisters and monasteries.

The intelligent protection and encouragement and hospitality afforded
to men of letters by Charlemagne was a great contrast to the bigotry
of Leo the Byzantine. Interesting himself warmly in all questions
relating to instruction, he took a special interest in the copying
and transcription of manuscripts, inviting to his kingdom the Irish
and Anglo-Saxon monks, who from the sixth century had made a special
study of calligraphy, and were celebrated all over Europe for their
miniatures and historiation.

In consequence of the patronage of Charlemagne and of Charles the
Bald, son of Louis the Débonnaire, artists of all nationalities, but
more particularly Germans and Italians, who had come from Oriental
schools, received a warm welcome. At first in the sixth century the
initial letter was of the same size as the others, only distinguished
by the difference of colour, being in minium or cinnabar. A hundred
years later, under the Byzantine influence, the letter grows larger,
until it occupies the whole page, at the same time being painted with
the most vivid colours according to the fancy and caprice of the
artist. Little by little the Byzantine style first introduced became
modified, and assumed by degrees a national character. The decoration
of the initials took the form of interlaced chequer-work or of
historiated arabesques, resembling the mosaics of enamelled specimens
of Gallo-Frank jewellery.

Then come figures of animals, in which the imagination of the artist
runs riot, as in the alphabet of which Montfaucon has given a specimen
in his _Origins of the French Monarchy_.

To quote the opinion of a contemporary writer, there was nothing
under heaven or earth that had not served as a model for designers of
ornamental letters.

Towards the fourteenth century this exuberance of decoration quiets
down. Fancy is by no means excluded, but it becomes more regulated and
more sure, to the advantage of art itself, which speaks through the
skill of the painters, whose names, however, with but few exceptions,
unfortunately remain unknown to us.

Paris was renowned at an early period for the excellence of its
manuscripts, and the talents of its copyists and illuminators. Richard
de Bury, Bishop of Durham and Chancellor of England, speaks in his
_Philobiblion_ of the five libraries he had seen in that town, and the
magnificent books that he had been able to buy.

In England, illumination had flourished from before the twelfth to the
fourteenth century, but by the middle of the fifteenth art was dead,
and when handsome miniatures or other decorations were required for
books, it was to French artists that it was necessary to apply.

In Italy, the influence, as regards book ornamentation, of French art
may be judged from the passage of Dante, who, speaking to a miniaturist
of his profession, is obliged to use a periphrase to design it:

                   ‘. . . di quell’ arte
    Ch’ alluminare è chiamata in Parisi.’

The dawn of printing was at hand. Manuscripts, whether handsomely
embellished or copied simply without ornament, were expensive luxuries
which only the rich could purchase. With the revival of learning, for
students in general, for the poorer classes, for school children, cheap
books costing as little as possible, but serving the same end as the
manuscript, were necessary, and the xylograph came at its hour.[4]

  [4] It should be mentioned that block-books are now considered by
  some authorities to have come later than the invention of printing
  with movable type, _i.e._ about 1460.

From the earliest times copyists had used stamps[5] and copper
stencillings in order to apply initials that recurred frequently, a
practice which contains in it the first germ of printing. Playing-cards
were printed by the same process and afterwards illuminated.

  [5] Passavant.

Picture-books came next, with text and illustrations cut on the same
block, the leaves being printed on one side only, and afterwards gummed
back to back.

Such was the book known as the _Biblia Pauperum_, ‘Figurae typicae
veteris atque antitypicae novi testamenti,’ a short pictorial history
in forty leaves of the Old and New Testament. Another of these
block-books is devoted to the history of St. John the Evangelist and
his apocalyptic dreams, of which there are six different editions,
with texts in Flemish, Saxon, and German. The _Ars Moriendi_, or
temptations of the dying, with terrifying pictures, shows a moribund
man assailed by devils,[6] but, as in all similar productions, the
terrible is relieved by a touch of the grotesque. The _Speculum humanae
salvationis_ is remarkable for being printed partly from blocks
and partly with movable characters. This shows the transition from
xylography to printing proper. The printer of this work, in order to
economise the composition of twenty-seven leaves, used the blocks he
possessed, and printed them together with twenty-seven others composed
with movable type. The example is not unique.

  [6] See, under ‘PARIS,’ the representation of one of these
  death-scenes in an initial of Chevallon’s.

A last variety of xylographic impressions is known under the generic
name of ‘Donatus.’ This is a little primer of Latin grammar first
compiled by the grammarian Aelius Donatus, by whose name it was
afterwards known.

We have mentioned the xylographic publications, because in a certain
number of them ornamental initials are to be met with. These, as
would naturally be supposed, are of the same style as those found
in manuscripts of the same period. It may be observed here, that
whilst books of price were embellished with expensive work, the less
valuable manuscripts were left either without initials at all, or with
ornamental letters of a few stereotyped patterns, that experience had
shown to be most harmonious to the written text. Of these patterns
the most popular is the Maiblümchen, or lily of the valley design,
constantly seen in manuscript books, and adopted by many of the early
printers. This design will be seen in many of the first initials of the
Augsburg printers, and especially of Rihel of Basle.

Historiated initials are less frequent in the block-books, the only
one we have found being the S of an _Ars Memorandi_, of which a
reproduction is given.

We have noted briefly the successive changes in the manuscript book,
the different phases of its evolution towards its final formula and
expression as an impression from movable type.

This brings us to the invention of printing, but it must be noted
that printing, which revolutionised in so many ways the world, did
not immediately put an end to the professions of the rubricator and
illuminator. Some printed works of the end of the fifteenth and the
beginning of the sixteenth centuries are embellished with miniatures of
the very highest merit and illuminated letters of the greatest beauty.




CHAPTER I

BLOCK-BOOKS: THE INVENTION OF PRINTING: THE PSALTER OF MAYENCE


Printing, with the discovery or invention of which the name of
Gutenberg is intimately associated, goes back to the year 1454, or, if
we accept the recent discovery of an almanac which can only refer to
1448, some six years earlier.

This is not the place to relate its general history, which is to be
found in all the special works on the question. We shall set down here
only the facts which concern our subject more particularly, and show
the evolution of ornamental letters in books of the first period after
the discovery of the new art.

It is known that Gutenberg, after the expensive experiments that had
crippled his resources, had borrowed money from his fellow-citizen
Fust, for the purpose of developing his new discovery.

His methods were, however, incomplete, and, according to one of many
conjectures, it was not until two or three years later that Peter
Scheffer, presumably a workman in Gutenberg’s office, perfected it
by the invention of punches and matrices, so discovering a means of
founding the type for which he devised a more suitable alloy instead of
engraving each letter. This brought Scheffer into favour with Fust, who
gave him his daughter in marriage. A quarrel with the original inventor
ensued, and Gutenberg, nearly ruined, was forced to retire, leaving
the two others in possession of the field.

The object of the first printers was no doubt to imitate the manuscript
book as closely as possible. Gutenberg in his Bible had only attempted
to copy the letterpress proper. The two partners gave in 1457 as
their diploma piece an edition of the Psalter with two hundred and
eighty-eight capitals in two colours, besides the great initial B, the
whole forming a perfect imitation by the press of a highly decorated
manuscript.

At the present time an expert could see at a glance that this book is
printed, instead of being written. But in 1457, and until the invention
of printing had become generally known, no one could have guessed that
it was anything but what it appeared, a beautifully finished manuscript.

Of the letters, which are mostly in red and blue, the handsomest is
the initial B at the beginning of the first psalm, which is surrounded
by arabesques, continued along the margin. Besides these ornaments,
figures of a dog and bird are stencilled, as it were, in white on the
red ground of the letter.

Writers are by no means agreed as to the way in which these initials
were executed, but until recently the explanation most generally
accepted was that of _emboîtement_, each part of the letter being inked
separately and afterwards joined. According to Mr. Gordon Duff, it is
impossible to determine exactly how they were produced, but in one
edition, that of 1515, the exterior ornament has been printed, while
the letter itself and the interior ornament have not. This shows that
the letter and ornament were not on one block, and that the exterior
and interior ornaments were on different blocks. Mr. Blades thought
that the design was not printed but impressed in blank, and afterwards
filled in with colour by the illuminator. The last opinion, that of Mr.
Weale, is that the letters were not set up and printed with the rest
of the book, but subsequently to the typography, not by a pull of the
press but by a blow of the mallet on the superimposed block.

It is not, perhaps, without interest to note that the white ornaments
which have been already mentioned are reproduced on one of the initials
of the Bamberg missal. Whether or not this lends additional likelihood
to the Bamberg printer having been a workman of Gutenberg, the reader
must judge for himself.

We have said that the object of the first printers was to produce an
imitation manuscript. It has even been suggested that Scheffer tried to
palm off some of the copies of the Bible as, and at the price of, the
manuscripts.

Gabriel Naudé, in his addition to the history of King Louis XI., is
responsible for this accusation, which has been reproduced without
investigation by several historians. The passage is too long to quote
here, but he states positively that Scheffer sold the first copies
_pour manuscrites_ at seventy-five _écus_ a copy, selling others
afterwards at from twenty to thirty. Those who had paid the higher
price brought an action against him for _survente_, and he had to fly
from Paris to Mayence, where not being in safety he took refuge at
Strasburg, living for a time with Messire Philippe de Commines.

The story is charmingly circumstantial but hardly convincing. At any
rate, it is certain that no sharp practice could have been attempted
after 1457, as the colophon of the Psalter states the volume ‘Venustate
capitalium decoratus rubricationibusque sufficienter distinctus
adinventione artificiosa imprimendi et characterizandi; absque calami
ulla exaratione sic effigiatus.’

It has also been said that Scheffer was not the first to use the
Psalter initials, which formed part of the stock which Gutenberg was
compelled to relinquish in payment of the money he had borrowed of Fust.

Fischer at the beginning of the last century published the description
of a Donatus of 1451 with some of these initials, of which he gave a
facsimile, and which he attributes to Gutenberg, but this book is no
longer to be found, and it is supposed that he was the victim of a
hoax.[7] The only copy now known with these initials has come down to
us in the shape of a fragment which is preserved in the Bibliothèque
Nationale. The catalogue gives the date as 1468, but Hessels and many
other good judges place it at 1456. It is printed in the type of the
forty-two line Bible, with thirty-five lines to the page. In the
colophon Scheffer makes use of the expression ‘_cum suis capitalibus_,’
which Hessels translates ‘with his capital letters,’ a rendering, says
Mr. Gordon Duff, which is surely impossible.

  [7] According to M. de Laborde, ‘Bodman archiviste de Mayence,
  tourmenté par Oberlin, Fischer et tous les bibliographes du temps
  pour leur trouver quelques nouveaux renseignements sur Gutenberg,
  n’imagina rien de mieux que d’en fabriquer.’ Fischer in his _Essai
  sur les monuments Typographiques de Jean Gutenberg_ declares that he
  found two leaves of a Donatus, which was printed by Gutenberg with
  the same initials as were afterwards used by Scheffer. These leaves
  were in the cover of an account-book dated 1451, which was discovered
  in the Archives of Mayence by Bodman. These leaves have since
  disappeared.

Two other questions remain to be considered: Why Scheffer should have
used the initials frequently until 1462, and then (with the exception
of successive editions of the Psalter) have given up their use
entirely? Who was their author?

For the first there was a combination of several reasons. The
opposition of the Formschneiders may have had something to do with it.
On the other hand, Scheffer may have got tired of always using the
same initials which had been cut for him by an exceptionally clever
engraver, of whom he had afterwards lost sight. In the third place, the
sack of Mayence in 1462, which led to the dispersion of his workmen,
may have been partly the reason, but that he did not lose his material
is proved by the initials appearing in the antiquarian reprints of the
Psalter.

In our opinion the second reason is most probable, and it is supported
by the testimony of Papillon as to the identity of the artist, which
seems to have escaped recent bibliographers.

According to Heineken, a certain Meydenbach is mentioned in Sebastian
Münster’s _Cosmographia_, and also by an anonymous author in
_Serarius_, as being one of Gutenberg’s assistants. Heineken on these
grounds considers that he accompanied Gutenberg from Strasburg to
Mayence, also that he was probably an engraver or illuminator, and Von
Murr thinks he was the artist who engraved the large initials.

Fischer is convinced that they were engraved by Gutenberg himself, ‘a
person experienced in such work, as we are taught by his residence in
Strasburg,’ which Jackson declares teaches no such thing.

Papillon’s history is too long to be related here _verbatim_, but
in substance it is as follows: A German who was making the _tour
de France_ applied to him for work. He stated that his name was
Cocksperger, and that he was descended from Peter Cocksperger who had
engraved the initials of the Psalter of Mayence. Papillon only saw
him three times in 1737, when he showed him some of his work, which,
although somewhat coarse, was well cut, of a pretty taste, and not
common. His ancestors had lived in Mayence, Cologne, and Nuremberg.
One of them, Peter, had worked with Fust and Scheffer at their first
impressions, and it was a tradition in the family that he was a scribe
and miniaturist, and also engraved neatly on wood. He had been engaged
by Scheffer, who lodged him in his house, to design and engrave on wood
large initials embellished with ornaments like those he was in the
habit of drawing and painting. Also that one of his brothers, Jacques,
together with a friend named Thomas Forkanach who also engraved on
wood, had helped him to engrave the initials for Scheffer’s Psalter.
He showed Papillon a book of ‘figures of the mass,’ a xylographic
tract printed _au frotton_. Not being able to get acceptable work,
he left Paris. ‘This man,’ says Papillon, was ‘_franc et de très bon
caractère_,’ he had means to live quietly at home, had not _l’envie de
voyager_ made him leave Germany.[8]

  [8] Papillon, _Histoire de la gravure sur bois_.

We have not seen any references to Cocksperger in modern works, but
Dibdin in one of his books quotes Papillon’s account of him. It would
be curious to know whether there was really a family of this name in
Mayence at the date Papillon gives, and whether there is any trace
there of such a tradition.

Besides the initials used in the different editions of the Psalter,
and in some other publications such as the _Rationale Durandi_, which
has the same subscription as the Psalter, but with the date changed to
1459, Scheffer had a splendid bichrome T for the _Canon of the Mass_,
considered by many as quite equal to the B of the Psalter.

Later in the century polychrome initials, as these letters in two
colours are somewhat incorrectly termed, are said to have been used in
early Dutch impressions. Humphreys in his _History of Printing_ gives
the reproduction of a Q in two colours from the _Dyalogus Creaturarum_,
printed at Gouda in 1480 by Gerard Leeu, which he supposes to be
printed, and which he considers, as we think erroneously, to be quite
equal to Scheffer’s B.

Initials printed in one colour are not uncommon. They are to be found,
for instance, in the _Etymologicum Magnum_ of Callierges, and sometimes
in missals, such as the Missale Olumucense of Bamberg and the Rouen
Missal, ‘ad usum insignis ecclesie Atrebatensis.’

It has been said that the Psalter letters ceased to be used in 1462.
Whatever may have been the reason for this, and it is possible after
all that it was simply from motives of economy, Scheffer’s example,
as regards the suppression of ornament, was followed by the other
printers, and with the exception of Pfister, whose impressions from
movable characters have every appearance of xylographic productions,
for some years no books were issued with typographical embellishments.

It is probable that, for the two years during which he flourished,
Pfister’s illustrated publications were tolerated because they were
generally supposed to be block-books, and that he was compelled to
stop operations by the Guilds, as soon as they found out that he was
in reality one of the hated printers. For it was not only as craftsmen
that the Formschneiders were hostile to the members of the new trade.
The engravers had become the printers of the xylographic books, then a
new and profitable industry, and they were afraid of the sale of their
own productions being interfered with by the illustrated works of the
type-printers.

From the point of view of ornamental initials there is little to say
about the xylographic impressions.

Before the invention of printing, the copies of block-books were
obtained, as has been already mentioned, by what is known as the
_frotton_ process, the paper being placed over the engraved block and
rubbed with a special pad. The ink in the originals is of a brownish
yellow. After the invention of the press, certain popular treatises
continued to be struck off from xylographic cuts, but by impression,
like ordinary books. One of these, the _Mirabilia Romae_, a guide-book
to Rome at the end of the fifteenth century, has a large historiated S
at the beginning. It is remarkable from the fact that the letterpress,
of which a specimen is given with the initial, is not cut in imitation
of type, but, as can be seen in our reproduction, of ordinary
hand-writing.

Another specimen of this kind of printing is the P, which we reproduce
with a border, from a Donatus, the first and eighth leaves of which
were preserved for centuries in an old binding.

This Donatus, of which the only leaves remaining belong to the Leipsic
Museum, was printed by Dinckmut. There is another xylographic fragment
with a colophon bearing the same name in the Bodleian Library. The
initial itself represents a schoolmaster surrounded by his pupils, a
subject frequently met with as a frontispiece to books of this class,
and it is prolonged into a border which frames the page.

When the initial of a Donatus does not represent a pedagogue and his
class, the subject is often the Virgin and Holy Family. J. Rosenthal
has an extremely valuable edition with the Virgin, the Child, and St.
Catherine. Amongst our specimens of Cologne is a Donatus without name
of printer or date, but no doubt printed by Quentell towards 1500, in
which, besides the Virgin and Child, there are grotesque profiles in
the two left corners which look as if copied from the same source as
one of the Bämler initials, and the initial with grotesques in the Bâle
Psalters.[9]

  [9] The Donatus, always being in demand, was generally one of the
  first books printed at a new press. It was the first work issued by
  Pannartz and Sweynheim when they started at Subiaco.

During the remainder of the fifteenth century there was very little in
the way of initial ornamentation in books published at Mayence, where
Scheffer, who was always the chief printer, seems to have exhausted his
possibilities in this direction with his first experiment.

There is, however, a fine large historiated D in a German translation
of Æsop--_Das Buch und Leben des Fabeldichters Æsop_--without printer’s
name or date, but attributed to Scheffer, towards 1480. This initial
has already been reproduced in Muther’s _Bücher-Illustration_, and
more recently in a bibliography of incunabula and books printed before
1501, by Ludwig Rosenthal. The only other interesting ornamental letter
we are acquainted with of Mayence origin before 1500 is the G at the
commencement of Erhardt Reuwich’s _Breidenbach_.

During the first two decades of the sixteenth century there is the same
dearth of anything like ornament in Mayence books, but towards 1520
John, the grandson of the first Peter Scheffer, has several alphabets,
one of very large letters with arabesques of flowers, foliage, and
birds, used first in his Livy of 1518, published under the patronage
of Brandeburg, Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mayence. There is also a
smaller one with the most varied subjects, besides a few letters with
children on a black ground, and one or two linear initials also with
children, copied from Venetian models.




CHAPTER II

AUGSBURG


From what has been already said, it seems evident that the aim of the
first printers was to produce by the new art as perfect as possible an
imitation of the manuscript.

Scheffer printed books with ornamental letters in the manuscript style.
The other printers left them to be added by hand, which produced the
same effect. It was not until the beginning of the seventies that the
printed book assumed its definite form, and that it was recognised that
new methods and new processes were necessary. The printed book was
henceforth to be a printed book, and not an imitation manuscript. It
was no longer to pass, for accessory embellishment, through a number of
successive hands, but to be finished at a single impression.

It would not be exact to say that it was Günther Zainer who
relinquished the fiction of a printed manuscript, and who recognised
that, in virtue of the economic principle of which the press itself is
a manifestation, text and ornamental embellishments should be produced
as simply as possible.

The alteration was brought about by the Augsburg printers generally,
rather than by any one in particular, and was a matter of evolution
rather than of sudden change.

It was hindered, too, to a great extent by the opposition of the Guild
of Engravers, who saw in the innovation a menace to their privileges,
and who brought an action against Zainer and Schussler in 1471 to
prevent them using wood-engraving in their books, and even opposed
their admission as burgesses. It was only at the intervention of
Melchior Stanheim, Abbot of St. Ulrich, that the matter was arranged,
on the understanding that they should insert in their books neither
woodcut pictures nor letters, a prohibition that was only withdrawn
after a new arrangement which bound the printers to employ only
recognised members of the Formschneider Guild.

As an example of the jealousy with which these privileges of
corporations were maintained, it may be mentioned that Albert Dürer was
compelled to pay four florins to the Society of Painters of Venice for
working at his profession during his stay in that city.

Günther Zainer’s first woodcut initials, if they can be called
‘woodcuts,’ are merely outline letters without any kind of ornament.
They were intended simply as a guide to the rubricator.

In the next stage we have a framed initial with an ornamental
groundwork, but the composition is less effective in black and white
than when the letter itself is picked out in red. A good example of
this is in the alphabet of the Zainer German Bible, afterwards used in
the _Summa Confessorum_ of J. Friburgensis. In these initials, what
a contemporary authority on lettering calls a ‘friskiness’ of the
design leads to a difficulty of distinguishing between the ornamental
prolongation of the different parts of the letter, and the very similar
decorative groundwork,--so much so, that even the rubricator was
sometimes mistaken, the colour being left unapplied where needed, and
_vice versâ_.

Finally we come to initials, of which the specimens that have come
down to us are coloured as often as not. These are more effective when
not so treated, and were probably intended to be left as printed. The
reader can judge from the specimens reproduced.

Butsch (_Bücher-Ornamentik_) mentions the _Gulden Bibel_ of
Rampigollis, the _Belial_ of 1472, and the _Glossae_ of Salemo, as the
earliest works of G. Zainer with woodcut initials. The _Belial_, he
says, has a large ornamental initial of arabesque design.

Our first selections are from the _Summa Confessorum_; the large P is
from the _Margarita Davitica_ of 1475.

The new plan was soon adopted by the other Augsburg printers, and
spread thence to other towns and countries.

As far as Augsburg is concerned, it should be noted that the same
letters were often used by different printers, and they are therefore
as much illustrative of the town and period, as of any one particular
press. Ludwig Hohenwang, for instance, uses the same initials in his
_Gulden Bibel_ of 1477, as does J. Pflantzmann in his _Glossa_ of
Salemo of the same year. The two specimens given of these printers
might have been taken from either volume.

Our other examples are taken from works published by Sorg, Keller,
Bämler, and Schönsperger.

The Bämler selection is exceedingly curious as presenting probably
the first example, if our date is correct, of what was afterwards so
common--the grotesque profile.

Unfortunately we are unable to give their exact origin, as they form
part of a collection of initials, cut from early books, but if the
attribution ‘Bämler, 1475,’ is correct, they are of the same date as
the Rihel Bible of 1475, in which there are two initials with profiles,
but neither of them grotesque.[10]

  [10] There are two pictorial letters in the fifth German Bible (see
  the reproductions of both at pp. 118, 119), in which the border is
  formed partly of a grotesque profile.

The five specimens given are selected from the thirteen letters
comprised in the collection, and need no description. The others
consist of a D, which is in reality the same as our C but reversed;
a G, two L’s, an R, a T, and a V. One of the L’s has a sun with
full face, and the T, besides being of an unusual pattern, has also
a grotesque profile. Unfortunately it has been daubed over by a
rubricator too badly for reproduction. The S with the two human figures
occurs several times in Rihel’s Latin Bible, and was given by us in
a former essay[11] as a specimen of Basle woodcuts. We now class it
provisionally with Augsburg.

  [11] ‘On Some Old Initial Letters.’ _The Library_, January 1901.

Of Sorg, our earliest specimens are of the pure Maiblümchen pattern,
the S without any trace of historiation being from a copy of St.
Ambrosius on St. Luke of 1476. Other letters of this type are to be
found in his _Breidenbach_ and other works, but later on they become
almost identical with those of Keller. Compare the A and the H from the
_Valerius Maximus_ of Sorg of 1480, with the E and V from the Keller
edition of Aristotle’s _Opera Nonnulla_ of 1479. The S with a grotesque
profile at each end and the letters G I A dates from 1480, and is the
first initial we have met with in which the fool, so popular in the
imagery of the period, here complete with cap, ass’s ears, bells and
cockscomb, is represented.

Schönsperger’s initials, of which four reproductions are given, are a
little later, 1489.

We come now to pictorial initials, and in this respect the printers of
Augsburg had been anticipated by those of Ulm and Nuremberg.

It was in 1473 that the fourth German Bible was published at Nuremberg.
It was probably the success of this edition that induced Günther Zainer
to bring out the magnificent folio classed as fifth, which may truly,
from its size and solidity, be considered as a typographical monument.

Zainer’s first edition (the fifth German Bible) was undated, but was
published either in 1474 or 1475. It succeeded so well that another
edition, this time dated and in two volumes, was published in 1477,
with small ornamental initials at the beginnings of the chapters, as
well as the large pictorial letters previously used at the commencement
of each book.

The difference between the Augsburg and Nuremberg initials can be
seen in our reproductions, the former being taller and surrounded
with accessory ornaments. In the Nuremberg Bible, Corinthians 1 and
2, Ephesians, Philippians, Thessalonians 1 and 2, Timothy 1 and 2,
Titus and Philemon, all have the same initial. Hebrews has no initial
at all, nor has Galatians. In the Augsburg edition the letters are
all different; Galatians has its initial, and Hebrews begins with a
pictorial Z.

In Sorg’s Bible of 1477, the only large historiated letter is the B at
the beginning of the dedicatory epistle, with bishop and cardinal in
a cell which, as can be seen in the corresponding Nuremberg initial,
looks like a third-class railway compartment. There is a smaller D, not
worth reproducing. The different books of the Bible are mostly preceded
by small engravings.

But Sorg’s best historiated initials, in fact the only ones with which
we are acquainted (for the B in his Bible is a copy of Zainer’s), are
to be found in a work by Henricus Suso, ‘dictus Amandus,’ published
in 1482: _Das Buch das heisset Der Seusse_, a translation of his
_Horologium aeternae Sapientiae_.

This book contains a number of engravings on Biblical subjects, which
are most often painted over beyond the possibility of reproduction.
Such is the case with the copies both in the British Museum and in the
Paris National Library.

Besides these illustrations there are three large pictorial initials,
C, R, and S, of which the C alone occurs twice, representing, the C an
angel appearing to a woman, the R a saint with a crozier, and the S an
eagle, the background being filled up with Maiblümchen.

Towards the end of the century Ratdolt, who had returned from Venice,
was the chief printer at Augsburg.

Amongst his other productions, Ratdolt printed a number of liturgical
works, the most beautiful that we have seen being the folio Breviary of
1493. The type is admirable, and those pages which begin with the large
letters, such as the C with the Pope, or the H (All Saints), printed as
they are with the brilliant black ink of the period, are particularly
effective. The B at the beginning of the Psalter is used again in the
smaller Psalter of 1499, as are several of the smaller initials. The
_pars aestivalis_ begins with the U. The C with St. Urban is at the
commencement of the section _De Sanctis_.

Two of the smaller initials occur in the larger Psalter, which are not
in the smaller one. A D representing a kind of Indian with a club and
feathers is the fool referred to in the opening words of the Psalm
_Dixit insipiens_. Another D has Jesus kneeling to His father (_Dixit
Deus Domino meo_). On the other hand, the crucifixion initials of the
Psalter of 1499 are not in this edition.

The Psalter of 1499, _Psalterium cum apparatu vulgari familiariter
impresso--Lateinisch Psalter mit dem teutschen nutzlichen dabey
gedruckt_, has not the imposing appearance of the earlier folio volume,
but like all Ratdolt’s work is well printed. This would appear to have
been taken as a model for Psalters in the Vulgate. There are several
editions of different towns with the text framed, as it were, by a
translation in the vernacular in smaller type. The Psalter of Furter
has the same disposition, the initial letters, although different
in treatment, corresponding almost exactly with those of Ratdolt’s
Psalter. Knoblouch has a similar Psalter, but with non-historiated
initials. In the Metz Psalter of Hochffeder, otherwise on the same
plan, the only initial is on the title-page.

In the Missal of Frisingen of 1492 there are no historiated letters,
and the ornamental initials in the Venetian style are unfortunately
most outrageously coloured in the only copy we have seen. Amongst
other letters there is in it an extremely curiously designed S which
is difficult to describe, but which we would recommend to students
of lettering. In the D, which is in the shape of a Gothic German
Q reversed, and the P, there is a branch-work pattern starting
tangentially from a central circle and ending in trifoliated ornaments
altogether graceful and harmonious. Ratdolt’s mark is on the last page,
and above it:

    ‘Erhardi Ratdolt felicia conspice signa,
     Testata artificem qua valet ipse manum.’

Ratdolt continued to print liturgical works for some part of the
sixteenth century, but the only other volume of the kind that we
have had at our disposal is the _Pars Aestivalis_ of the _Breviarium
Constantiense_. Ratdolt, Aug Vindel, 1516. In this book there are four
pages with borders, one of which is reproduced, and on the opposite
sides are full-page engravings. There are eight initials, which we
reproduce, and which are also, we believe, to be found in his Ratisbon
Breviary.

Hitherto, with the exception of the last-mentioned work, we have
had to do with what may be called the first style of engraving, in
which designs and pictures drawn by the artist were executed by the
wood-cutter in linear reproduction only.

With Albert Dürer, however, came a new epoch, and it became the
custom for artists not only to design but also to engrave their own
work. This practice, which was commenced by Dürer, who served a long
apprenticeship to the celebrated Wohlgemuth, was continued by most of
his pupils, and new technical methods were naturally the consequence.
Henceforth the more liberal use of shading, and the invention of
cross-hatching, enabled effects to be produced which had been before
impossible.

The results may be seen to this day in the magnificent engravings by
the great artists of the beginning of the sixteenth century, which,
notwithstanding the difficulties under which they laboured, have never
been excelled.[12] Their productions, even when it comes to initials,
are real compositions with a personal character.

  [12] At this time the wood employed for engraving was pear, and
  the surface of the block was parallel to the fibre. This made
  cross-hatching most difficult of execution, and in consequence of the
  extreme care and attention necessary, it is said that the work took
  eight or nine times as long as at present. It is only since the days
  of Bewick that boxwood has been used, and the blocks cut with the
  fibre of the wood perpendicular to the surface.

To mention those only who designed initial letters, and of whose works
we shall give specimens, there were Albert Dürer, Hans Burgkmair,
Hans Holbein, Hans Schauffelein, Anton von Worms, Lucas Cranach, Hans
Baldung Grün.

We have here to speak of the initials generally attributed to Hans
Burgkmair, but which, according to Dr. H. Röttinger, ought to be
assigned to Hans Weiditz, one of his pupils.

These initials are to be met with for the most part in the publications
of Heinrich Steyner in 1531 and the following ten or eleven years,
and come mostly from German translations of classical authors. The
influence of Albert Dürer, of whom Burgkmair was himself the pupil, is
clearly seen. Different treatises and different editions of Cicero
were published in 1531, 1535, 1540; of Herodianus in 1531; Justinus,
1531; Boccaccio, 1532; Cassiodorus, 1533; Plutarch, 1534; Petrarch,
1542, in all of which we meet with specimens of these letters.

The Z with a fox trying to get at the poultry in the market-woman’s
basket is from the German _Cicero_. The C (bagpiper) and the N
(caricature with big head and small legs) and the P with a peacock are
from the _Magni Aurelii Cassiodori variarum libri xii_. The E with the
monk and nun, and the C and H in a different style, are from the German
_Petrarch_. The other initials are from one or other of the volumes
mentioned.




CHAPTER III

ULM AND NUREMBERG


Most writers on early bibliography, amongst others Bodemann and Muther,
who both give reproductions of the initial border at the beginning of
the Latin Boccaccio, quote J. Zainer as the first printer in Ulm to
use woodcut initials. The date of the Boccaccio is 1473. In addition
to the initial border it contains a complete alphabet,[13] of which we
give several specimens. From a decorative point of view this alphabet
is not very remarkable, the letters being of small size, but the book
is interesting on account of the very large historiated initial at the
beginning, which is prolonged along the side and upper margins into a
floro-foliated border in imitation of the more elaborate decoration
of the old manuscripts. The subject represents that very unfortunate
incident in the history of the first woman which was the cause of all
the subsequent unhappiness of mankind. Eve, who is the heroine of the
first chapter of this book on celebrated women, is represented in the
act of receiving the apple from the arch deceiver, who is ensconced in
the branches of the fatal tree with his tail twisted into the letter S.
Above, in the branches of the tree, are small personages emblematic of
the seven deadly sins. In a German edition of the same book of the same
year, the initial becomes a D, and contains the arms of the noble to
whom the work is dedicated, with winged angels at the corners, being
prolonged into borders along the two adjacent margins. In these two
instances the initial letter forms part of the general composition.

  [13] Copied from a manuscript of the fifteenth century, the
  ‘Evangeliare of St. Udalrich.’

In another style of border the initial is merely placed in
juxtaposition, and the same design is thus able to serve for any book
with any letter.

There is a remarkably vigorous folio-floral border with the head and
shoulders of a fool with his cap, bells, and other insignia, at the
angle of the two margins in the _Liber Biblie Moralis_, 1474. The same
composition is used in the _Alvarus Pelagius_ the year before.[14]

  [14] In church architecture, and in early book ornamentation, which
  reflects so well the ideas and customs of the time, the fool did
  not make his appearance before the middle of the fifteenth century.
  Wright, in his _History of Caricature_, mentions as early instances
  some sculptures of this date in churches of Cornwall, and it was
  about the same time that this personage is first seen in manuscript
  decoration.

  The idea, however, was much older, springing from that taste for
  the grotesque which characterised the Middle Ages, and the relics
  of which are seen in so many artistic remains of the period. From
  the tenth century and even earlier, companies of fools existed in
  all large towns, and on certain occasions Mother Folly and the Lord
  of Misrule reigned supreme. The cult of the ass, whose ears were to
  become later part of the fool’s insignia, was another outcome of this
  love of the burlesque.

  In printed books, the first engraving we are acquainted with of a
  fool is in the border to the _Liber Biblie Moralis_ of 1475. In
  initial letters, as far as we have been able to ascertain, this
  subject was not used before 1480, when it is to be found in specimens
  both of Augsburg and of Strasburg. A remarkable portrait of a fool
  is contained in an O in Schott’s _Plenarium_, printed, as is stated
  in the colophon, at ‘Strospurg,’ in 1481. Knoblochtzer’s large S,
  for the _Dyalogus Solomonis et Marcolfi_, gives a fool with another
  personage at full length, and at last the typical fool, with a
  marotte and all other accoutrements, is met with in initials of
  different Psalters, being well seen in that of Fürter of Basle.

  Henceforth, with a face characterised by leering cunning, the type
  is to remain unchanged, and Brandt, Erasmus, and Holbein only add to
  its popularity, without modifying the general conception. There is a
  little pictorial initial by Quentell, in which the usual expression
  is replaced by one of extreme _finesse_, but coarser cunning is
  the rule, and it is under this aspect that the fool is depicted by
  Holbein in the R of the alphabet of Death.

In the _Quadragesimale_ of Gritsch there is a similar border, but the
fool is replaced by a personage with a doctor’s bonnet. The letters
accompanying these borders belong to the alphabet, of which we give
several reproductions, and which is the most frequently used in J.
Zainer’s works.[15]

  [15] Reiber in his _Art pour Tous_ gives a similar alphabet of the
  Augsburg Zainer, which, he says, is copied from a manuscript of the
  tenth century.

Another great work from the Ulm press is the _Cosmographia_ of Ptolemy,
printed by Leonard Holl, in which there is an alphabet of initials not
unlike those of Schönsperger already given. Those of L. Holl ought to
have been preferred as illustrations, inasmuch as they are earlier than
the others, 1482, but they are almost invariably painted and unfit
for zincotype reproduction. The chief interest, moreover, in the book
is in its two large historiated initials on the first two pages, the
first showing the printer offering his book to the Pope, the second
representing probably Ptolemy himself.

Our last specimen of J. Zainer’s engraving is the F which begins the
dedicatory epistle of the Latin Bible of 1480, and which is a curious
example of the peregrinations of woodcuts through different workshops,
and of the incongruous uses to which they were put.

In the Ulm Bible the letter is much fresher and the border-line very
little broken, but our reproduction is from an impression made when it
was much the worse for wear, and had passed into the hands of Hupfuff
of Strasburg. It has been used by him without any kind of _apropos_,
not as an initial but as a frontispiece to a tract published in 1507
with the following title: _Canon Sacratissime Misse una cū; Expositione
ejusdem ubi in primis praemittitur pulchra contemplatio ante missam
habenda de Cristi pulchritudine_.[16]

  [16] On the title-page of a little pamphlet entitled ‘Deploration sur
  le Trepas de tres noble Princesse Madame Magdalain de France Royne
  Descoce,’ of which only one copy is known, the frontispiece is a B
  showing the Queen holding up a dagger, and with the motto ‘Memento
  mori.’

Every student of bibliography has met with instances of the use of
illustrations having no reference to the text, simply to fill up
a space and because nothing more suitable was at hand. Cuts, for
instance, from Brandt’s illustrations to Grüninger’s Virgil are to be
found in some volumes of Geyler’s Sermons. The same indifference to
the reader’s opinion was often displayed in connection with ornamental
letters. When the letter is simply ornamental it does not much matter:
a C turned over becomes a D, and _vice versâ_. An M at a pinch serves
reversed as a W, an N on its side does for a Z. But when, as is
sometimes the case, the letter taken liberties with is pictorial or
historiated, the resulting effect is far from artistic.

Here there is, of course, no absolute incompatibility between text
and illustration, which was probably considered a very satisfactory
makeshift for the cut which often adorns the recto or verso of
contemporary title-pages, representing the author presenting his book
to a patron.

In 1496 J. Reger published books with initials, of which we have
selected the M, the C, and the S. They come from the _Obsidionis
Rhodie Urbis descriptio_ of Caoursin, a work very much sought after on
account of its full-page woodcuts, some of which represent incidents
in the siege, others the entertainment of an ambassador by the Grand
Master. The M and the C are the only letters with animated subjects;
the others, R, H, N, and G are simply foliated, and the proofs are too
inferior for reproduction.

The same printer has another book of the same date about Rhodes, the
_Stabilimenta Rhodiorum militum_, with three interesting initials, an
F, a boy with a dog, an O, a naked winged babe, and an X, a bird with
foliage.


_Nuremberg._--If Zainer at Augsburg was the first to introduce woodcut
letters printed in black ink, the practice was adopted very soon
after at Nuremberg, if indeed, setting aside the outline initials
already mentioned, Nuremberg has not the priority as regards genuine
ornamental woodcutting. For whereas the _Belial_ of 1472 is the
first work mentioned by Butsch with woodcut letters at Augsburg, at
Nuremberg, where J. Müller of Königsberg (Regiomontanus), as is stated
by Panzer, settled in 1471, his first publication, the _Theoricae Novae
Planetarum_ of Georgius Purbachius, is embellished with eight initials.
These are interesting as affording another example of the fact that the
earlier designs were generally taken from manuscripts, for Olschki, in
his _Monumenta Typographica_, gives the reproduction of a manuscript
initial which is of the same size and of the same pattern as the S we
have given from the _Theoricae Novae_, and which contains besides eight
smaller initials, D, L, M, O, P, Q, S, V, measuring 2·4 centimetres.

There is a Q of the same style and size in the _Astronomicon_ of M.
Manilius, published by Müller in 1473.

Müller, or Regiomontanus, as he styles himself in his colophons, was
not only a printer, but one of the most learned mathematicians of the
day. In 1471 he printed a Calendarium of his own with many astronomical
figures and woodcut initials.

In 1476 Ratdolt and his partners printed an edition of this with a
charming border and initials at Venice, and in 1496 it was published by
J. Hamman de Landoia.

In 1473 appeared the first German Bible with large pictorial initials,
the Nuremberg Bible of Frisner and Sensenschmidt, known as the fourth
German Bible. In our opinion the work on these initials is amongst the
best of the time, and often much superior to what is to be found in
ordinary illustrative cuts of the same date. The subjects are the same
as in the Augsburg Bible, but the initials differ in being wider than
tall in the Nuremberg edition, and in the absence of the Maiblümchen
decorative border which is a feature of the others.

After the German Bible, we know of no initials of very great interest
in Nuremberg books for some years. Koberger, who reigned supreme in
this town, did not favour their use.[17]

  [17] In a recent catalogue of thirty-seven works published by him, no
  woodcut initials occur in any.

In 1489 a book was published, generally attributed to G. Stuchs, which
is interesting in many ways.[18] The title, which is xylographic, runs
as follows:

    ‘_Versehung leib sel er unnd gut_,’

_anglicé_: ‘The way to preserve body, soul, honour, and means,’ and on
the verso is a remarkable engraving of a sick person in bed surrounded
by attendants, which evidently suggested the cut representing the sick
fool in Brandt’s celebrated _Navis Fatuorum_. At the end of the volume
is a great typographical curiosity, which constitutes, when completed
by hand, an _ex-libris_. This is a woodcut engraving occupying nearly
the whole of the page, with a shield in blank and two scrolls. On one
of these are engraved the words, _Das Puch und der Schild ist_, the
corresponding one being intended for the owner’s name, and the shield
for his coat of arms.

  [18] Proctor ascribes this work to either Conrad Zeninger or Peter
  Wagner.

In our copy this book-plate remains in its original condition, but we
have seen another that was filled up at the time, and which has been
the means of rescuing the name of a worthy monk from oblivion. In it,
the first part of the sentence is completed by the addition of the
words, _des Closters zum Parfusen hat Eundres Gewder gemacht_, the
whole forming an _ex-libris_ of the Monastery of Barefooted Brothers
of St. Francis, and testifying to the skill of the ‘bibliothecarius,’
Andrew Gewder, who engrossed and illuminated it.

There are two specimens of this page also in the Franks collection of
book-plates at the British Museum. In one of these the space is blank,
in the other it is filled up with the name of a nun, Barbara.

The chief interest of this volume, however, resides in its initial
letters, after the designs which are preserved at the Pinacothek at
Munich, of Israel von Mecken. Many of them are repeated a great many
times, there being altogether between seventy and eighty impressions;
but these represent only eight different letters of the alphabet,
A, D, E, H, I, M, P, S. Of these the E, which we give, is the only
letter which is both engraved and printed perfectly, the A being the
next best. Nearly all the others are flat, often wanting in depth and
relief, besides being badly printed.

Altogether this book is one of the most interesting relics of early
typography, and is especially noticeable as being the first volume
illustrated by a known artist.

In the early sixteenth century, works published at Nuremberg were not
as a rule well supplied with ornamental initials, the complicated
calligraphic letters that became so common in German books, and
that were little used elsewhere, taking their place. Butsch in his
reproductions of alphabets of this period does not give any specimens.
This is all the more remarkable in that Nuremberg was the home of
Albert Dürer and the great centre of the wood-engraver’s art. The few
examples, moreover, that we have seen, are very primitive both in
design and in execution, as the reader can see from the reproductions
taken from the _Missale Pataviense_, printed by Jodocus Gutnecht, 1514.




CHAPTER IV

BASLE AND ZURICH


Printing was introduced into Basle before 1468, having been preceded,
as in most other towns of the upper Rhine, by xylographic publications.
No Basle book bears a printed date earlier than 1473, but the absence
of such printed date does not prove that the introduction of printing
into Basle did not take place earlier, and a note of the purchase in
1468 of a copy of St. Gregory’s _Moralia in Job_, printed by Berthold
Rodt or Ruppel of Hanau, shows that he must have been at work at that
time.

From the point of view of initial letters we will pass over Berthold
Rodt and Michael Wenssler, to come to the publications of Bernard
Richel, the most interesting of which are his _Sachsenspiegel_ of
1474 and the Latin Bible, which had several editions, these appearing
in 1471-75-77. In describing this work, Panzer in his _Annales
Typographici_ remarks that the woodcut initials do not occur in all
the copies. In some of them their place is left blank. This is another
evidence of the early printer’s reluctance to adopt printed ornaments
as the definite formula, and if any further proof is necessary it will
be found in the fact that even where woodcut letters are used, they are
often more or less enlivened with colours.

We have already alluded to these initials in describing those of
Bämler, and we have touched upon the point as to who was the first
to make use of the historiated S which has a certain analogy with
the xylographic letter mentioned in a former chapter, from the _Ars
Memorandi_.

There are in this Bible four different sets of letters, but of none
of these is there a complete alphabet, although but few letters are
wanting of the largest. The next nearly complete is the second in size.

Of the four different sets, the second in size is of a special design,
different to anything we have met with. The others are pure specimens
of Maiblümchen ornamentation, and amongst the best of the kind.

The three different-sized initials with human faces are the only
letters in the volume with any trace of historiation.

Several Psalters were published either at the end of the fifteenth or
at the beginning of the sixteenth century, of exactly the same size and
general disposition, two of them with initial letters that correspond
in subject although very different in treatment. These are the Psalters
of Basle and Augsburg.

The latter has been dealt with in a previous chapter. The Basle Psalter
was published by Furter in 1501, and the initials of the two volumes
can be contrasted and compared with those that have just been dealt
with.

In these letters, the fool who saith in his heart there is no God
(_Dixit insipiens_), is represented in the D which begins the Psalm as
a jester, which is not quite appropriate. In the Mallermi Bible, where
there is instead of an historiated letter a little cut, the rendering
is more correct. The fool is there, a man with dishevelled hair, and
having every appearance of having lost his reason. The C with Absalom
hanging by his hair is reproduced as an example of Basle woodcutting in
Muther’s _Bücherillustration_.

There is amongst these initials a nondescript kind of letter which is
an example of the carelessness that sometimes occurred in the workshop.
It was intended for an E, but the draughtsman forgot that the drawing
would be reversed in the printing, and the printer has arranged matters
in the text by turning the letter upside down.

In a former essay (_The Library_, 1901) we gave three specimens--S,
T, and V--from a book entitled _Liber Decretorum sive panormia_, etc.
etc., as examples of Furter’s ornamentation. Letters of this alphabet
occur also in an extremely rare book unknown to Hain, without date
or name of printer, but undoubtedly printed at Basle, the _Decreta
Consilii Basiliensis_. It is, however, certain that they were used in a
work printed at Besançon some ten years before the _Liber Decretorum_,
and although the fifth volume of Claudin’s _Histoire de l’Imprimerie en
France_ in which this work was to be described has not yet appeared, we
have reason to believe that they are to be attributed to this town, and
were to be given in the chapter in which it is mentioned.

We shall have to refer later to the frequency of the repetition in some
volumes of the same initial. In the German Bibles, for instance, the
different books most often begin by the word ‘Der,’ and consequently
by an initial D. In a book of sermons by that extraordinarily fertile
writer, Geyler von Kaisersperg, not only does every section commence
with the letter D, but with the same identical initial. In this volume,
the _Christianliche Bilgerschaft_, printed by Adam Petri in 1512, the
preface begins by a floral letter of no consequence. After that the
D, with a pilgrim and a cross on his shoulder, is repeated at the
commencement of every chapter, possibly thirty times. The title-page
has an illustration by Urs Graf with the same subject.

The last years of the fifteenth century had passed away, but the
German printers, including even Ratdolt, who had returned to Augsburg
from Venice, still resisted the influence of Renaissance art. In
the _Narrenschiff_ of Brandt of 1493 we can see the science of the
draughtsmen excellently interpreted, but the Gothic _facture_ still
holds good against the encroachment of more modern artistic tendencies,
and it is not until towards 1512 or 1513 that the new ideas begin to be
more generally accepted.

But as a modern writer has said: ‘Dès que la Renaissance lumineuse
a paru, traînant derrière elle l’admirable cortège de ses maîtres
délicats, fils de la Grèce antique qui moulaient la feuille divine de
l’acanthe sur le sein d’une vierge endormie, le vieux monde s’écroula
et l’ornement gothique fit place à la triomphante et poétique arabesque
devenue l’aurore nouvelle.’

It is in the _Ritter von Thurn_, published by Furter in 1515, that we
see first this influence in the form of a title by Urs Graf, copied
from the Venetian original, and ornamented with dolphins and acanthus.
Besides a great many titles, Urs Graf also engraved a certain number of
alphabets, inspired to a great extent by those of Tacuinus de Tridino,
but wanting in originality, and generally inferior to the originals.
The reader can compare the two kinds of initials.

But it was the arrival of a young artist of genius that completed the
revolution at Basle in the ornamentation of books. This is not the
place to discuss the merit of Holbein as a painter, nor to study the
long series of title-pages, borders, friezes, and printers’ marks which
he composed for different printers of Basle and elsewhere.

We are concerned here only with his alphabets; and of those which
bear more particularly the mark of his genius, the alphabet of Death
occupies the first place.

This as a composition is a _chef d’œuvre_, and it was engraved on wood
by an artist of the very highest merit, Hans Lützelberger.

These initials, notwithstanding their small dimensions, about
twenty-four millimetres square, can well bear comparison with the
larger engravings in _Les Simulachres et Historiées Faces de la Mort_
which was to appear several years later at Lyons, in 1538, _chez les
frères Trechsel Soubz l’escu de Coloigne_. The alphabet is composed of
twenty-four letters, and several of the original proof-sheets are to be
found in different Continental museums. Basle and Dresden each possess
one.

The letters of this alphabet may be met with in different works
published by Bebelius, such as the New Testament in Greek of 1525,
that of 1531, the _Galen_ of 1538, and particularly in the two folio
volumes of Aristotle which appeared in 1532. In the five first, A to E,
the body of the letter is in white. In the others there is a double
outline which softens their appearance and reduces their size. Each of
the letters merits a separate description, but the reproductions given,
as far as they go, obviate all commentary, permitting the reader to
judge for himself, and to appreciate the justice of the praise that has
been lavished upon them by art critics.

The subjects in the alphabet of Death are the same as in the celebrated
Basle frescoes. In each of these scenes, men and women of all sorts
and conditions are invited to accompany him by Death, who will take no
refusal nor hear of any previous engagement; from B and C the Pope and
Emperor, to V the merchant, from the Hermit full of years W, to the
child in its cradle V, the Last Judgment Z, finishing the series.

The Latin alphabet (for there are some Greek initials) contains two
subjects not to be found either in the frescoes or in the larger
illustrations for the well-known satire, V the horseman with Death
sitting behind like black care, and S the courtesan. In the Greek
alphabet of inferior execution, certainly not the work of Lützelberger,
of which we give three specimens, there are also two other subjects,
the Σ and the Ω, a peasant and a smith.

Curiously enough, an enlarged copy of this alphabet, but of much
inferior merit, was used more than ten years before by Cephaleus of
Strasburg, who also had a smaller series in the same coarse engraving.
Some of the letters are given for comparison.

A very curious alphabet, which although not equalling Lützelberger’s
is of more than average execution, can be but little known to
bibliographers, for as far as we have ascertained it only occurs in a
few books published at Stella, in Spain. The scenes are selected from
the _Simulachres_, and each letter is a complete little picture.

Besides these alphabets a certain number of Dance of Death letters are
to be found in other books of Basle, of which the V, with Death on
horseback with an hour-glass, will serve as an example. They are also
to be met with in books of Cologne.

The Dance of Death, although intimately associated with the name
of Holbein, was not his creation, the subject having always been a
favourite one in the Middle Ages, and having been treated also by
Albert Dürer. It was the general rule to represent Death, who although
a skeleton was endowed with motion, with withered muscles. In an
extremely precious book, printed by Meydenbach at Mayence, _Der Doten
Tantz mit Figuren Clage unt Antwort schon von Allen Staten der Welt_,
which is illustrated with forty-one curious cuts with the same subjects
as Holbein’s alphabet, Death is thus represented, and the same thing is
seen in other German editions of this work of the fifteenth century,
and in the numerous French editions of the _Danse Macabre_ which
appeared about the same time. Holbein, however, preferred to suppress
these, and in so doing exhibited his ignorance of the anatomy of the
human frame. Not only are the shoulder-blades and pelvis wrongly drawn,
but the arm and thigh are represented each with two bones, whilst the
fore-arm has only one.

These mistakes have frequently been pointed out before, but the fact
that they furnish an argument in the controversy about Holbein’s
possible sojourn in Italy seems to have been less noticed. There is no
positive evidence on this point, but arguing from a change in Holbein’s
style after a certain period, in which the influence of Mantegna and
Leonardo da Vinci is manifest, it is said by some of his biographers
that he must have studied under these masters. It must be remembered,
however, that in Italy at this time there were regular schools of
painting, and it is difficult to suppose the masters above-named to
have been as ignorant of anatomy as must have been the case had Holbein
been their pupil. If his knowledge was derived, on the contrary, from
contemporary German books, his mistakes become more comprehensible.

The peasants’ alphabet, also composed of twenty-four letters but of a
different character, is another of his best compositions. The museums
of Basle and Dresden possess proofs of this alphabet.

The letters are to be found in the publications of Froben, Cratander,
and Bebelius, and Voltmann in his Bibliography of Holbein has given
some specimens of them. Butsch reproduces the whole alphabet, as indeed
he does several others, including that of the Dance of Death. The
realistic scenes depicted in some of the letters, taken from life, are
not always edifying, but this is the fault of the models rather than
that of the artist.

In A, we have musicians playing on their instruments, B to K show some
couples dancing, L is a love-scene, M a fight with swords, O a boy
holding a girl, while another boy is cooling his ardour by throwing
water over him. In P the water is being offered to a girl from a pail,
V shows a bowling ground, with a game of nine-pins, W the ride home.

Our three specimens are taken not from this alphabet but from letters
with similar subjects in the _Galen_.

Of the same size as the peasants’ is the children’s alphabet, which
is treated with the same happiness and talent of observation. Holbein
must have been especially fond of children, for they figure in a great
many of his compositions, titles, borders, and printers’ marks, and he
paints them with a grace that Lützelberger, for it is probable that
he engraved them, has caught most happily. The different incidents
of juvenile life, chiefly games, are rendered with great realism.
Sixteen letters of this alphabet can be found in the _Lactantius_ of
Cratander and Bebelius of 1532, others in various Basle works. In a
larger alphabet, children are engaged in all sorts of trades--forging,
cooking, baking, building, carpentering, fishing, playing at coopering,
at being bath-keepers and tanners. The W, which is rarely met with,
represents a boy taking off a doctor with spectacles on his nose,
whilst another is reading a book, and the third preparing some physic.

This playing at adult occupations has been taken as a subject for
alphabets by other artists, the best being that of J. van Calcar, to be
mentioned presently.

Holbein composed two sets of initials for Valentin Curio, whose name
appears on publications which are often on philological questions.

These letters, also with children, are to be found in volumes often
ornamented with pictorial borders by the same hand, our reproductions,
C, D, O, Q, being taken from the Strabo of Walder, and others being met
with in the _Enchiridion_ of Erasmus. From a smaller set by the same
printer we select A, I, N, Q, V, X, Y, Z. The A, C, D, D, H, I, O, P,
Q, V, with animals and personages, are also from the same press.

Of the many other initials we will mention the Greek capitals of the
_Lexicon Graeco-Latinum_ of René Gelli, published by Froben in 1532,
found also in the _Lexicon Graecum_ of J. Walder, 1539, in which the
Δ represents a young woman struggling as she is carried off by Death.
This letter is of singular beauty. This leads us to speak of the
four large Greek initials which we give from the _Galen_ of 1538, of
Bebelius and Cratander, remarkable from every point of view. The Δ
represents Silenus on a pig, the Θ Samson with the jaw-bone of the ass,
the Π the prodigal son eating at the same trough as the swine, the Ω a
child sailing on a shell.

Besides these four beautiful letters, of which there are only five
proofs in the work, one at the beginning of each of the five folio
volumes, the Θ occurring twice, there are numerous initials from other
alphabets scattered through its pages, such as the series of which we
give a Π with a child and a ram, and some specimens of the alphabet
engraved on metal, of which we reproduce the F representing the Deluge,
Noah’s Ark being dimly perceived through the rain, the M Jacob’s
ladder, and the Q Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. These initials, although
generally in very bad impressions, are to be met with in volumes of
Bebelius and others, and were even copied abroad. They are to be found,
for instance, in the _Commentaires sur l’Histoire des Plantes_ printed
by Jacques Gazeau in 1549.

An alphabet, of which we give the B, I, and M, is found in the
_Cyprianus_ of Froben of 1521, and in many of his later impressions.
The I with the three children, the front one with the basket on his
back, is generally by itself, that is to say, not with initials of the
same size and character.

The O, also with three children, belongs to one of the alphabets in
the same style, which are no doubt imitated from Venetian models.
We must mention the alphabet of the Master I F on a black ground in
publications by Froben after 1518, the first letters of which represent
the labours of Hercules, the following ones different scriptural and
classical subjects. The B with a child in its cradle, and the E (a
winged child on a sea-horse), are samples of the initials from Basle
books of the time, which are possibly by Ambrose rather than Hans
Holbein, as are the K and Z with children and grotesques, on a black
ground with stars.

But, however interesting the work of Holbein, however varied and supple
his genius, we cannot do more than give specimens of the whole. The
reader who is desirous of fuller documentation can refer to Woltmann’s
_Holbein und seine Zeit_, Leipsic, 1872; to the _Bücher-Ornamentik_
of Butsch, or to the more complete collection of Holbein’s Initials,
recently published by Heitz.

Holbein’s alphabets and initials were soon adopted by all the printers
of Basle, and with few exceptions until 1545 there is nothing to note
of any other artist. It was in this year, the date of Holbein’s death,
that the Basle edition of Vesalius’s _De Corporis humani fabrica_ was
printed, a work that may be considered as one of the most remarkable
products of the German Renaissance.

This book had been previously published at Venice, and its success was
so great that it was shortly after pirated at Cologne. Vesalius, in
his preface to the Basle edition, alludes to the want of international
copyright, to the dishonesty, and particularly to the vandalism,
of publishers who substituted detestable copies for the wonderful
originals of his anatomical plates, which he would have preferred
to lend them. Besides these plates, which have never been surpassed
in beauty, there is the admirable frontispiece by J. van Calcar
representing a lesson on anatomy, and two series of initial letters
depicting children, who, with inimitable seriousness, are acting as
medical consultants. In a later edition Van Calcar’s initials are
replaced by a much inferior set by another hand.


_Zurich._--There are several interesting alphabets in the books
published by Froschouer of Zurich, the most important of which is
illustrated with scenes from the Bible. The two A’s, the D, the
reversed D that serves as a C, and the F, are said to be by N. Manuel,
the S with Jesus overturning the money-changers’ tables in the Temple
by Ambrose Holbein.




CHAPTER V

LÜBECK AND BAMBERG


Lübeck is represented here by two printers, Lucas Brandis and
Bartholomew Ghotan. In one of his recent catalogues J. Rosenthal has
given the reproduction of an alphabet from a Herbal, but the letters
are of very little interest, being about the same size as those of the
Ulm Boccaccio and with the same kind of ornamentation. As the first
letters used in the town of Ulm, and one of the first sets used by any
printer, and so showing the evolution of typographical ornamentation,
the Ulm initials have a certain interest, but they would not have been
worth reproducing from a book dated almost twenty years later.

Lucas Brandis published two immense folios, the _Rudimenta Novitiorum_,
the Latin original of the _Mer des Hystoires_, the other the History
of the Jews by Josephus. The first, which appeared in 1477, is a kind
of History of the World, and, like the Nuremberg Chronicle, is full
of cuts representing towns, kings, philosophers, and other subjects.
These, however, are much less interesting than the initials, which are
the first examples of what are called _passe-partouts_, the central
picture being removable at will and adaptable to any frame. Some of
them are special to one or other volume, but most of them are to be
found in both.

The most curious is perhaps the I at the beginning of the volume on
page 3, of the purest manuscript character, and entirely different
from anything we have met with elsewhere.

The Q of the _Quinta Ætas_, with a battle-scene, is a favourite one for
reproduction. Dibdin, who gives it in the _Bibliotheca Spenceriana_,
considers it to be ‘the most remarkable’ of a ‘very splendid and
noteworthy book,’ and it has lately been reproduced in a monograph on
Lübeck printing, but a quarter only of its right size, giving no idea
whatever of how it looks in the original.

On page 289 is a C with the Virgin, unfortunately too badly daubed
over in the Bibliothèque Nationale copy to permit of reproduction. The
interior, the Virgin and Child, is given as a cut by itself without the
letter, on the verso of the same page, and in other places.

Of our three other specimens Mr. Pollard has already given one, the
‘Knight Templar,’ in an essay on the subject now reprinted in a volume
called _Old Picture-Books_.

The Rudimenta itself was one of the great picture-books at the end of
the fifteenth century, and as in the Nuremberg Chronicle, the same cuts
often did duty for more than one subject. On the verso of p. 404 is a
picture representing a few buildings with a windlass behind a wall,
with a gate in it from which a man is emerging; and in the foreground
an imposing draped figure giving directions to three little fellows,
who are severally trundling a wheelbarrow, carrying a flask, and
flourishing an adze. This is at the beginning of the chapter ‘Turris
confusionis Babel.’ On p. 107 the same cut is the foundation of the
kingdom of Assyria. On p. 117 it serves for the Constructio Treveri,
and successively for Spires, Lüneburg, and Wismaria. Athenodorus and
Philo Judaeus have the same cut, and the same counterfeit presentment
does for Demosthenes, Pericles, Parmenides, Aristides, and Xenophon.
Another series represents indifferently Crato, Cicero, Cato, Virgil,
Simonides, Plotinus, Theophrastus, Menander, Paulus, and Archephilus.

The little D would appear to be a first attempt at book ornamentation,
and was used at the beginning of the _Leben des heil. Hieronymus_ by
Bartholomew Ghotan in 1486. Our other Lübeck initials are taken from
the 1493 edition of the Meditations of St. Bridget by the same printer,
in which there are altogether ten or a dozen different ornamental
letters, one of them being repeated twice, another three or four times.

This book is chiefly esteemed on account of the engravings,
representing the miracles of the saint, some of which are full-page
size.

Like all works of the kind, it was very popular in its day and went
through many editions, but the Lübeck impression is the most rare, most
of the copies having been destroyed by accident before the book was
published.


_Bamberg._--Independently of accessory ornamentation, the missals
printed at Bamberg by J. Sensenschmidt, either by himself or with a
partner, have always been considered by bibliographers as models of
beautiful letterpress. Lippmann gives amongst his reproductions of
early typographical monuments a page of the _Missale Olumucense_ with
one of the large red initials used only in these Bamberg missals.

The first in which they occur is the _Missale Freysingense_, printed
in 1487 by Sensenschmidt and Heinrich Pelgensteiner; here the initials
would seem to be slightly smaller than in the succeeding volumes.

It was in the following year that Sensenschmidt published the _Missale
Olumucense_,[19] in 1489 the _Liber Missalis Bambergensis_. Mr.
Weale[20] mentions two other editions from this press in the two
following years. The letters reproduced here were taken from the copy
in the Bibliothèque Nationale, in which there are ten of these special
red initials, beginning with the A of the opening line of the mass (_Ad
te Dominum_), and comprising one of each of the following: B, C, D, E,
P, R, S, and two different varieties of the T. There is besides a large
historiated T, in black, representing the sacrifice of Abraham, at the
commencement of the Canon of the Mass (_Te igitur_). This is the only
volume that we have been able to examine personally, but we have seen
a G in a collection of initials with a different text on the verso,
which probably comes from one of the other editions.

  [19] See also in Burger, _Monumenta Germaniae et Italiae
  Typographica, Deutsche und Italiänische Inkunabeln_.

  [20] _Bibliotheca Liturgica._

Of other Bamberg missals with other ornamental letters, the most
interesting is that of Johann Pfeyl, the initials being entirely
different in style to any that we have seen elsewhere. The colophon
has it: ‘Missale speciale divinorum officiorum secundum chorum alme et
imperialis ecclesie Bambergensis,’ and states that it was printed in
1506 ‘by the industry and exact diligence of that “disert” and expert
master Johann Pfeyl.’ In the splendid full-page engraving on vellum,
which in many missals is the chief attraction to collectors, there is a
view in the distance of the town of Bamberg.

The initials are so curious that we have reproduced them all. One or
two are repeated; the G, representing Jehovah crowning a martyr, serves
for three different saints. The somewhat smaller linear T, of the Canon
of the Mass, is a reduced copy of the corresponding initial in the
Sensenschmidt missals.




CHAPTER VI

STRASBURG AND REUTLINGEN


With Knoblochtzer, Schott, and Prusz, the first commencing in 1477,
Grüninger and Hupfuff at the end of the fifteenth century, we have
printers who made a liberal use of initials. Knoblochtzer has been
thoroughly explored by MM. Schorbach and Spirgatis, and a monograph
upon Strasburg book-illustration has been published by Dr. Kristeller.
Although many of our specimens were known to these bibliographers, a
few of them, and these by no means the least interesting, have escaped
their observation.

One of them, the splendid A representing Jesus washing the feet of
a disciple, is what one might expect to find at the beginning of a
thirteenth- or fourteenth-century manuscript, and the artist in cutting
it has managed to make it retain this appearance.

It is to be found in an undated volume without name of printer, but
identified as having been printed by Knoblochtzer in 1478, and entitled
_Thomas (Ebendorfer) de Haselpach: Sermones dominicales super Epistolas
Pauli_. This A at the beginning of the first volume is the only
typographical ornament in the book, and seems to have been entirely
unknown to either of the Strasburg bibliographers.

The D, with two armed figures and the two coats of arms, is given by
MM. Schorbach and Spirgatis as the earliest specimen of Strasburg
ornamentation. It occurs for the first time at the beginning of
Knoblochtzer’s _Burgundische Historie_, in which there is no other
woodcut. It represents the Duke René of Lothringen and Charles the
Fearless of Burgundy with their shields at their feet, and was cut
specially for the History of Burgundy, although it occurs several
times also in the _Schachzabelbuch_ of Jacobus de Cessolis. The latter
volume contains also the large S, with two personages, one in a fool’s
cap, which also ornaments the first page of the _Dyalogus Salomonis et
Marcolfi_.

Another handsome initial from the Knoblochtzer press, and especially
well engraved, is the I, with an angel with outspread wings above,
Samson forcing open the lion’s mouth below, and branching ornaments on
either side. It is to be found on the first page of the _Belial_ of
1483, and several times in the _Leben der Heiligen Drei Könige_; also
in the chess-book of De Cessolis already mentioned.

In the last two volumes there are eleven of the twelve initials
representing the months of the year, which are to be found complete
in a Deutscher Kalender, having the form of a little volume. There
is a calendar printed probably at Nuremberg, on a single sheet, with
the whole of the alphabet, but the letter for January is replaced by
one having the Nativity as its subject, the general disposition being
much the same as in the initials of Geneva or of Bamberg similarly
historiated. These calendar letters are to be met with in a great many
Strasburg publications, as, for example, in the _Tractatus clarissimi
philosophi et medici Matheoli perusini de memoria augēda per regulas
et medicinas_. They also occur in the _De valore et utilitate Missarū
pro defuntis celebratarū per sacre theologie professorē Jacobū ordinis
cartusiensis edita_. This little tract, which contains amongst other
initials the calendar D representing a man trimming the vines, is
dated 1493, and as Knoblochtzer ceased to print in 1485, making over
his material to Mathias Hupfuff, it is to the latter that it must be
attributed.

The two P’s, one with a doctor, the smaller with a king, are at the
beginning, the first of a _De secretis mulierum_, the second of a tract
entitled _De ritu et moribus Indorum_. The letter itself, in the
smaller initial, is entirely white, but in the copy from which it was
reproduced it is painted in blue and red.

The anthropomorphic letters are to be found in many of the publications
both of Knoblochtzer, Schott, and others. These letters are reduced
copies of a very celebrated alphabet known as the alphabet of the
master E. S. of 1464, specimens of which are given in several works on
early engraving. The British Museum has a somewhat similar alphabet,
but with the personages in different attitudes, printed originally _au
frotton_. Some letters of this were given by Jackson, and the whole was
reproduced a few years since by the trustees of the Museum.[21] One of
our reproductions, the one with a man holding up a dog by the tail,
is from the _Vier und Zwanzig Gulden Harpfen_. The D with a saint is
the only initial in an _Albertus Magnus_ of Knoblochtzer; the three
others were reproduced from two impressions of Hupfuff, a Melusine
and a Boethius of 1500. In the latter is an I of this alphabet which
we have not seen elsewhere, but of which the impression is slightly
defective.[22]

  [21] Grotesque Alphabet of 1464, with an Introduction by Campbell
  Dodgson.

  [22] The six other initials, the M with two dragons, the S with the
  letters P, A, and a fool’s head with cap and bells, and the four
  smaller ones, are from different publications of Knoblochtzer.

The M and the P, the Crucifixion and the Nativity, are also taken from
a work without date or name of printer, and have hitherto remained
undescribed, as far as we know. The work is entitled _Commentarius
Sancti Johannis Episcopi Constantinopolitani cognomento Crisostomi in
epistolam Sancti Pauli Apostoli ad Hebreos_. The letters would appear
to belong to the same alphabet as the C, representing saints and others
being put to the torture, which is used by Schott sometimes as a D.
This latter is to be found twice in a rare book, the _Scriptum in
primum librum Sentenciarum Venerabilis inceptoris fratris Guilhelmi de
Ockam_, dated 1483, but without printer’s name, and it occurs as a D in
an undated _Secreta_ of Aristotle.

The three letters, comprising amongst them the N with the rabbit, and
the O with a fool, are from a _Plenarium_ of which we have only seen a
fragment, without printer’s name or date, but said to be of Strasburg.

The rabbit occurs again in the _Plenarium_ of Urach of 1481, with
floral letters somewhat larger than those given here, and also in the
_Stella Meschia_ printed at Esslingen, the first book published with
Hebrew characters. It has also two full-page illustrations.

The six large historiated initials which follow are taken from a
Psalter without date or printer’s name. Van Praet in his catalogue of
books printed upon vellum belonging to the King’s Library, says that it
‘comes from a German Press.’

Mr. Weale attributes it to Basle, and it is interesting to compare
these initials with those which illustrate Furter’s Psalter of 1501-3.
It would seem, however, that it is to be attributed to J. Prusz, and
that it was printed in 1499 or 1500.

Two of our reproductions are from the copy in the Bibliothèque
Nationale. For the others, which are defective in this copy, we are
indebted to M. Jacques Rosenthal, who considers that the volume was
printed in 1480. In our own opinion the later date is more probable.

The four initials, of uniform size and style, A, C, E, and S, the E
with the Nativity being certainly one of the prettiest we have seen,
have every appearance of being taken from a missal. We cannot affirm
for certain that they have no such origin, but the book from which
they were reproduced is an edition of Pogge, printed by Knoblouch in
1513. Two of them, the E with the Nativity and another, occur in an
_Interpretatio Sequentiarum_ of the same year. Other printers used
them, however, before this. We are unable to give exact references for
the whole series, but the E had served already in a volume of sermons
of Geyler von Kaisersperg, published by Matthias Schurer in 1505. In
this, with the exception of a floral V on the second page, it is the
only woodcut initial.

There is a Psalter of Knoblouch of 1513 of the same size as those of
Augsburg, Basle--and Metz--_Psalterium cum apparatu vulgari firmiter
appresso_. Like the Metz Psalter, it has an initial on the title, this
being ornamented with a moth and dragon-fly and bunches of leaves and
flowers. Below is a cut of David with his harp, the Almighty looking
down, and a German castle in the background. There are two strips of
border, one on each side of the cut, but descending lower, one of
a conventional foliated pattern, the other with strawberry leaves,
flowers, and fruit. The initial B is of the same design; the other
letters have dragon-flies or butterflies, a D has a geometrical pattern
something like the Maiblümchen.

Grüninger began to decorate his publications with ornamental letters
at the end of the last decade of the fifteenth century. They are of a
very special kind, and the only other printer who occasionally used
them was Quentell of Cologne.[23] Some of them occur in a small folio
by Braunschweig--_Liber Pestilentialis de venenis epidemie_, 1500, with
pictures on nearly every page, manufactured according to the system
he adopts in many of his illustrated books of bringing three factors
of the picture together, and so obtaining variety with an economy of
engraving. The centre of a picture on one page, for instance, will
be found a few pages later with the two outer thirds replaced by
different blocks, the variety introduced into the general appearance
being sufficient for it to pass as a different composition. A few pages
later, it is the centre that is replaced with the same effect. Such
pictures are to be seen in the different editions of Braunschweig’s
_De Cyrurgia_, in which there are only insignificant nonhistoriated
initials.

  [23] An M with a bear’s tooth, and two others, a D representing a
  saint sitting on the desert with what looks like a monkey (perhaps
  St. Roch and his dog), and an O with an angel with large wings,
  are to be found in the _Tractatus Consultatorii Venerandi Magistri
  Henrici de Gorychum_, printed by Quentell, ‘anno supra Jubileum
  tertio.’ These initials are generally too smudgy to be copied.

  In this same book, the chapter ‘De Observatione Festorum’ commences
  with the O with a fool’s head.

Grüninger’s finest picture-book is probably his splendid edition of
Virgil, with engravings by Brandt, the author of the _Ship of Fools_.
In this work he makes use of nearly all the letters of this smaller
historiated alphabet, which are also found afterwards constantly in
his impressions, and particularly in the publications of the reformer,
Geyler von Kaisersperg. In these, many of the initials, as is only
appropriate, represent religious subjects--David and his harp, St.
Sebastian full of arrows, and in a slightly different style, St.
Laurence carrying his own gridiron. Two of them are framed. One of
these represents Adam and Eve; the other, a D with a charming little
love-scene, would seem frequently to have excited the reprobation of
devout readers, for in three different works we have found this initial
defaced almost beyond recognition. A larger initial of the unframed
series, representing a swordsman, we have only met with in the 1501
edition of Boethius, _De Philosophico consolatu sive de consolatione
Philosophiae_, etc., with commentaries of St. Thomas.

Grüninger’s largest letters would appear to have been reserved
exclusively for Geyler’s publications. We have seen them in a great
many of his books of sermons and nowhere else. They are most numerous
in his _Evangelia_, where there are between thirty and forty different
varieties, but even then they do not constitute a complete alphabet,
as Geyler’s sermons most often commence with the word _der_ or _die_,
the letter D occurring as frequently as all the others together, and
several other letters much more often than the remainder.

Geyler and Grüninger were evidently made to write and publish for one
another, for whilst the preacher often loses the thread of his subject
in amusing but not always relevant anecdotes, the printer would seem
to have set up his copy much on the same principle, embellishing
the sermons with illustrations, many of which, inserted apparently
at haphazard, are entirely foreign to the subject. In one of these
collections, for instance, there are a number of cuts from the
Virgil.[24]

  [24] Geyler von Kaisersperg was one of the most curious figures of
  the fifteenth century, a precursor of Luther, a ‘free preacher,’ and
  for the first twenty years of the sixteenth century his sermons were
  published by nearly every printer in Strasburg, as well as by many
  others in Basle and other towns.

  Luther has a more extensive bibliography, but with Geyler each item
  means a volume, whereas the sermons of the great reformer were
  published as a rule separately, and as soon as they were preached.
  Like the celebrated Maillard, he did not hesitate to denounce the
  selfishness of the rich, the extravagance and coquetry of women, and
  the licentiousness and corruption of the clergy.

  From a documentary point of view, Geyler’s sermons are most
  interesting, for in reprobating the follies of his time he gives a
  number of details concerning the manners of the period, which would
  be difficult to find elsewhere. On the verso, for instance, of the
  initial B, with David and his harp, there is a fragment of one of his
  discourses on ‘bathing,’ which gives a good idea of ecclesiastical
  proprieties at the end of the fifteenth century.

  ‘Is it,’ says Geyler, ‘allowable, balnea intrare, on Sunday?’

  ‘Dico,’ he replies, that ‘pro voluptate’ and ‘pro luxuria,’ it is
  forbidden at all times, but it is allowed on necessity.

  By ‘voluptas’ he says, he understands ‘superfluous delectation,’
  which is a sin but not mortal. By ‘necessity,’ honest and opportune
  recreation. He next asks, ‘Liceat clericis vel religiosis
  balnea intrare?’ Again he replies, ‘Dico, yes, upon necessity’;
  but necessity not only means infirmity, but also any lawful
  ‘refocillatio’ of the body. The apostle John, he says, ‘ingressus est
  balnea gratia lavandi.’ The first line of his _tertio_ starts with
  the question as to whether it was licit to take a bath with a Jew,
  but here the cutting ends.

  It must be remembered that in the fifteenth century, hot air and
  vapour baths were most popular, but they had anything but a good
  reputation. It is probable that the prohibitions of Geyler were
  directed rather against the place of evil resort, than, as would at
  first seem, against cleanliness.

  But the most amusing of Geyler’s publications is a series of
  sermons, ‘Navicula sive speculum Fatuorum,’ an imitation of Brandt’s
  celebrated satire on Fools, which had recently appeared. In the
  earliest edition, each section begins with an initial representing
  a fool’s cap with large bells. In that before us, each sermon is
  preceded by an apposite illustration from the work in question,
  but there are no ornamental initials. The first concerns foolish
  aspirants for mitres and birettes. The second, which is illustrated
  by the well-known cut representing a spectacled fool in his
  library--in the original, the fool who collects books he does not
  read--here deals with bad judges and senators.

  The best section, and that giving the best idea of Geyler’s manner,
  is that which treats of the sick fool. Beginning with the quotation
  ‘Stultorum infinitus est numerus,’ the picture shows the disobedient
  patient in bed, in the act of kicking over a table, whilst the nurse
  is looking on in astonishment, and the doctor seems to be reflecting
  as to what should be done under the circumstances.

  These fools, says Geyler, are foolish in the first place because
  they despise medicine: ‘sunt qui medicinam prorsus contemnunt et
  abjiciunt’; ‘clearly fools,’ says Geyler, ‘stulti plane’! ‘Nescientes
  quia scriptum est, eccles. xxxviii., Altissimus creavit de terra
  medicinam, et vir prudens non horrebit eam. Notate verba--signate
  mysteria. Vir prudens non horrebit eam! Non horruit eam beatus
  Augustinus de quo legitur: quod egrotante eo neminem admiserat, nisi
  medicos.’

  It will be too long to quote the whole sermon, but Geyler has a
  word to say about those fools, ‘sunt quædam fatuelle,’ who, out
  of curiosity, tried to catch their doctors at fault, ‘quas sola
  curiositas impellit et titillat ad explorandum peritiam medici.’ But
  they catch nothing but their own purses, and it is the doctor who is
  most tickled, for he pockets the fee. ‘Tales se decipiunt et bursam:
  quod medicus accipit pecuniam.’

  He tells here the tale, so often related since, of the patient who
  in answer to the doctor’s question as to what was the matter with
  him--where he was in pain--how long he had been ill, ‘respondit
  nescio,’ and again and again, ‘respondit nescio.’

  ‘Bene,’ replied the doctor; ‘under these circumstances, this is my
  prescription: “Recipe nescio quid: repone nescio ubi: et sanaberis
  nescio quando.”’ ‘Magna stultitia,’ remarks Geyler, ‘nolle obedire
  medico quem queris: aut non quesivisses, et sic pecunie pepercisses.’

  The fifth and sixth follies are to seek help from empirics,
  magicians, and Jews, which is expressly forbidden (if any one else is
  available) by the Decretals.

The large series, two specimens of which are given, invariably deals
with Biblical subjects. The letters are generally attributed to Hans
Schäufelein.

Besides the initials already enumerated, Grüninger has a few
historiated letters on a black ground, of intermediate size and
different complete foliated or floral alphabets, all of them uniformly
uninteresting.


_Reutlingen._--The large S, with a personage in a doctoral bonnet, is
taken from an Albertus Magnus, _Secreta mulierum et virorum_, in the
Paris Bibliothèque Nationale (Res. 826), described in Mlle. Pellechet’s
_Catalogue des Incunables_ under No. 372 as being without typographical
indications. It also occurs at the commencement of a _Physiognomia_ of
Michael Scotus, which is stated by Mr. Proctor to have been printed
by M. Greyff at Reutlingen, the date being probably 1482. We have not
seen this volume, but thanks to the courtesy of Professor Ferguson of
Glasgow, who sent a photograph of the initial, we have found that it is
identically the same.

The reproduction does not render exactly the peculiar impression
of the ink, which gives the initial the appearance of having been
drawn in fusain. Another initial, the P with the Pope, is taken from
a volume printed at Reutlingen by Greyff--the _De ritu et Moribus
Indorum_--which has exactly the same typographical disposition as the
edition printed by Knoblochtzer at Strasburg, a P at the beginning with
the Pope, and a border on the margin of the front page.

It may be noted here that in previous chapters no attempt has been made
to distinguish between metal-cut initials and those cut on wood. Many
printers, such as Grüninger, Gering, and Rembolt, etc., undoubtedly
used soft metal, but this was cut in the same way as wood, the blocks
were inked in the same manner, and printed in the same way with the
type, so that for all practical purposes they belong to the same class.




CHAPTER VII

COLOGNE AND GENEVA


The early printers at Cologne do not appear to have made much use
of woodcut initials, the first known to us being the R of a missal
by H. Quentell of 1494. This, although cut somewhat roughly, shows
considerable vigour. It is highly probable that the splendid P with
the Virgin and Child and grotesque profiles in two of the corners is
of the same or earlier date. The book in which it occurs is an undated
Donatus, which J. Rosenthal, to whom the volume was submitted, thinks
was printed by H. Quentell towards the end of the fifteenth century. It
looks at first sight as if a missal or Psalter letter had been used, as
was so often the case at the time, because it happened to be in stock,
but the Donatus, as has been said, often began with an initial of the
kind. We have not been able to trace this P to any other press or
publication.

The D with a fool’s head in cap and bells is to be found frequently in
Quentell’s books. The specimen from which it was copied is in a book
already mentioned, the _Tractatus Consultatorii Venerandi Magistri
Henrici de Gorychum_, printed _anno supra Jubileum tertio_. It is to be
found at the beginning of the chapter, _De observatione Festorum_.

On the title-page of a treatise called _Quodlibeta_, by St. Thomas
Aquinas, is a curious black U. This is also by Quentell.

Another class book, a Latin verse primer, entitled _Sequentiarum et
hymnorum Expositio_, etc. etc., printed by Herman Bumgart de Ketwyck in
1501, has the strangest initials that can be conceived. The book was a
very well known one, and other editions exist with a similar cut on the
title-page, representing a master at his desk surrounded by scholars.

But Cologne, like other German towns, was now to feel the influence
of the Renaissance, and adopt for book ornamentation such artists as
Albert Dürer, Holbein, and Anton von Worms. In the case of Holbein,
such ornamental letters as appeared in Cologne books were copied from
models that had been used previously at Basle, in the same way that
the letters of other artists were copied from books of Hagenau and
elsewhere, but Dürer and Anton von Worms’s designs were printed first
in works of Cologne.

Of the initials attributed to Albert Dürer, the finest are those
comprising the alphabet used by Eucharius Hirtzhorn, who latinised his
name to Cervicornus. These initials, which are the largest of their
kind, represent children playing and romping sometimes with animals,
such as horses and monkeys, and make up a very remarkable set. It
is highly probable that Albert Dürer, as is generally admitted, was
the designer of this alphabet, but there is no positive proof, and a
writer on this special question in _Le Livre_, M. Glucq, gives it as
his opinion that these letters were designed by Hans Burgkmair, and
instances the treatment of the horses’ heads in borders by the latter
as being identical with the heads in some of the letters.

This alphabet was often copied by printers of other towns, particularly
Lyons, and by Hubert de Crooce of Bruges, but the copies are always
greatly inferior in execution, and can be distinguished also by having
a wavy linear, or _criblé_, groundwork instead of a black one.

The reader can compare the initials given here, which comprise the most
interesting of the set, with those by H. Weiditz, described in the
chapter on Augsburg. For comparison between the Cervicorn initials and
the borders alluded to, reference can be made to the _Bücherornamentik_
of Butsch.

The smallest of the Cologne children’s alphabets is to be found almost
complete in different works by J. Gymnicus, and was designed by the
painter Anton von Worms. The C with a child playing with a snake is an
example. The D and O, from a somewhat larger alphabet, are principally
found in the works of Melchior Novesianus, as are also those imitated
from Holbein’s alphabet of Death. The largest Q, the S with the
bishop and the symbols of the Apostles in the corners, also by Anton
von Worms, and the Q with the death’s head, all come from volumes by
Quentell. The three smallest letters belong to an alphabet used by
Melchior Novesianus.


_Geneva._--Genevan incunabula are of the very greatest rarity, and very
few initials of that town are mentioned by bibliographers. Of very
large letters the most curious are two of the calligraphic L’s that are
so popular on the title-pages of French impressions, and the larger of
which is evidently inspired by a Paris or Lyons L of the same general
design. Our reproduction comes from the _Doctrinal de Sapience_,
printed in 1493, no doubt by Bellot, as the book has two impressions
of the C of his alphabet. This composition is greatly superior to
the French original, known as the January and May initial, and if
the artist has intended to represent innocence and cunning, he has
succeeded to perfection. Compared with it, that which may be found on
the title-page of Verard’s edition of the _Doctrinal de Sapience_ and
in many other works, is insipid.

The letter with a hooded dog, or perhaps a monkey holding a book,
with a clerk below, is accompanied on the title-page by a border
representing the birth of Eve.

As regards the volume itself, which is entitled _Les Fleurs et Manières
des Temps passés_, it is without date or printer’s name, but at the
beginning of the front page after the title is a Bellot A, whilst on
the verso of the title is the mark of Loys M. Cruse.

A still earlier _Doctrinal de Sapience_ of 1488, also without printer’s
name or date, has a C on the second page of comparatively little
interest, which has been reproduced by Humphreys in his _History of
Printing_. The C reproduced here is at the beginning of the fourth
page. A _Kalendrier des Bergers_ of J. Bellot, 1497, has a Q with a
cock in the Lyons style, a curious U, and the P of his fine alphabet.

Initials are occasionally met with in which the printer’s mark is
worked into the design, as, for instance, a D of Kobel of Oppenheim.
In a treatise on the right way of preaching, by that _sacratissimus_
doctor of the Christian Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, L. M. Cruse
of Geneva in 1485 uses capitals which he embellishes with his own
initials. Sorg and some Strasburg printers have ornamental letters with
initials on them, but not corresponding to their own names--most likely
to those of the artists.

Better known than the large historiated letters just described is the
alphabet of which we give the M, the N, and the T. These letters occur
in many of Bellot’s publications, but in the _Dialogus Creaturarum_ it
is nearly complete.

This is one of the most decorative alphabets of the time, but good
proofs of the Wagner alphabet of Nuremberg, in which the same design
had already been used, are even more effective--compare this M, N, or T
with the Wagner E. Unfortunately, very few of the latter, which are on
a black ground, print well. The Avignon initials given further on are
also of this pine-cone pattern, as are those also in the _Psalterium
Virginis Marie_ of Alanus de Rupe, printed, it is stated, in the most
Christian kingdom of Sweden, _cum initialibus ligno incisis_, in 1498.
It is quite possible that the later printers copied from Wagner, but
the design they all use is one that is frequently met with in old
manuscripts, and, like most other fundamental patterns, there is no
doubt that this was its origin.

Our last Geneva specimens are taken from the very rare missal printed
by Bellot. The M is from the title-page. The other initials are
somewhat in the style of the Lyons _Catalogus Sanctorum_, but they are
even more like those of a Troyes missal printed by Lecoq.




CHAPTER VIII

VENICE


It was at Subiaco, not far from Rome, that printing was first
introduced by the Germans, Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz, who
commenced operations most probably in 1464, their first book being
a Donatus. The second was a Lactantius, the earliest book in which
legible Greek characters were used, for those which appeared in a few
words in the Offices of Cicero, printed at Mayence in the same year,
were mingled with Roman letters, and with so many errors, that it
must have needed a clever reader to guess the meaning. The Lactantius
was finished on the 25th of October 1465, ‘_in venerabili Monasterio
Sublacensi_.’

After Subiaco, presses were established successively in different
towns of Italy, first at Rome, where Ulric Han or Hahn of Ingoldstadt,
in Bavaria (Gallus in the latinised form of the name), commenced
operations in 1467. Sweynheim and Pannartz also removed to Rome at that
date, where they printed for about ten years, dying respectively in
1477 and 1478.

The next comers were George Lauer of Würtzburg and Giovanni Filippo
di Lignamine, whose celebrated _Cronica Summorum Pontificum
imperatorumque_ contains interesting information about the first
printers of Mayence, Strasburg, and Rome.

But books with initials printed at Rome before the end of the
fifteenth century are not common, and even when met with, if we except
some handsome ones used in some of their books in 1470 by Sweynheim and
Pannartz, the ornamental letters of this town are relatively of but
little interest.

It was at Venice that this branch of typographical art was to reach its
highest perfection, especially in the use of beautiful initials, and
was to make its impressions renowned throughout the world and sought
after by collectors in future days.

John of Spire celebrates his arrival on the shores of the Adriatic in
the following lines, which are to be found at the end of his first
production in that town, _The Letters of Cicero_:--

    ‘Primus in Adriaca formis impressit aenis
     Urbe libros Spira genitus de stirpe Johannes.
     In reliquis sit quanta vides spes, lector, habenda,
     Quom labor hic primus calami superaverit artem.
                    MCCCCLXVIII.’

John of Spire was succeeded by his brother Vindelin.

It was in 1470 that the first book appeared with the name of Nicolas
Jenson--the _Preparatio Evangelica_ of Eusebius--and this was followed
soon by other works which are justly considered as _chefs-d’œuvre_ of
typographical art.

According to a story which has passed current for a century and a
half, though its authority is now questioned, Jenson had been formerly
an engraver at the Mint of Tours, and had been sent to Germany by
the French king to investigate the truth about the discovery of
Gutenberg. On his return, Charles VII. having died, Jenson met with
no encouragement from his successor, Louis XI., and decided to go to
Venice. Here he published books by himself for ten years, taking as a
partner in 1480, the year before his death, John of Cologne, who had
come to Venice about the same time as himself.

Even in his own days Jenson was justly celebrated, Andrea Torresano
stating with pride in the colophon of the _Lectura in I. et II.
Decretalium_ that he had printed it ‘_inclytis famosisque characteribus
optime_ (sic) _quondam in hac parte magistri Nicolai Jenson gallici
quo nihil prestantius, nihil melius, nihil dignius_.’

This Andrea Torresano was the head of the new firm ‘J. de Colonia, N.
Jenson, sociorumque,’ and he afterwards married his daughter to Aldus
Manutius.

So great was the success of printing in Venice at this period, that
more than one hundred and fifty presses were established during the
last thirty years of the fifteenth century, and upwards of fifty were
in full work in the year 1500.

Aldus had come to Venice with the intention of publishing works in
Greek, but this did not prevent him printing in Latin and Italian.
His most famous book in the latter language was the _Hypnerotomachia
Poliphili_, which besides the most beautiful woodcuts that have
ever been printed contains also some ornamental initials generally
considered to be in the best taste. An edition of Aristophanes from the
same press also contains large interlaced letters, which are given by
Ongania.

With reference to these initials it is to be remarked that, although
in the best taste and admirably suitable to the work they embellish,
they are less interesting when seen by themselves, that is to say
independently of the text, than many others.

Our earliest specimens are taken from the works of Ratdolt, whose
books are also renowned for their beautiful borders, which in some
cases match in style the initials that accompany them. This style
is even more effective in the border than in the letters, as can be
seen by reference to his Appianus of 1478, the first page of which is
reproduced in Butsch’s _Bücherornamentik_.

The three outline initials, much more artistic in our opinion than the
interlacing letters of Aldus, are from Ratdolt’s first alphabet in the
_Calendarium_ of J. de Monteregio of 1476. The border of this book is
frequently mentioned in the earlier monographs upon the first printers
as being composed _literis florentibus_, the initials being of the same
design. It is supposed by Passavant that these letters were designed by
Ratdolt’s partner, Bernard Maler or Pictor, _i.e._ Bernard the painter,
and executed by another German engraver.

Ongania, in his work on Venetian printing,[25] has also reproduced
four of these initials, the whole alphabet, as far as it is complete,
in Ratdolt’s impressions, being given in a monograph on Ratdolt by Mr.
Redgrave.[26] Later on we find this printer preferring larger sized
initials with a white pattern on a black ground, smaller letters of the
same general design being used in some volumes. The later publications
being also more frequently met with, these large black initials are
also more commonly known and are more characteristic of Ratdolt’s work
than the others. They became one of the recognised types for Venetian
typography, and were imitated more or less by other Venice printers,
in the same way that the Maiblümchen pattern was adopted as one of the
most suitable for the early German press.

  [25] _L’art de l’Imprimerie à Venise._

  [26] ‘Erhard Ratdolt and his Work in Venice’--_London Bibliographical
  Society_.

In a volume by Jacopo Publicio called the _Oratoriae artis epitomata;
ars memoriae, ars epistolandi_, and which has numerous other cuts,
there is a curious alphabet in which each initial is represented by an
emblem serving to fix the letter on the memory. As far, however, as
we know, this alphabet, which is engraved on one block, consists of
specimens of letters useful in mnemonics, but which have never served
in books as ornamental initials. They are only mentioned here as a
typographical curiosity.

Subsequent printers adopted a design with white leaves on a black
ground, the white ornament standing out very sharply, and often with an
exceedingly brilliant effect. In other initials, in white on a black
ground, we have children playing at all sorts of games by themselves
or with dogs, monkeys, dragons, lizards, and dolphins; sometimes
there is a large bird looking like a wild goose. In some cases there
is a combination of the two last mentioned compositions, such as a
child playing with a dog, with a foliated background. There is a very
effective F of this kind, and an O with a child making a dog sit up
and beg, in the _Epigrammata_ of J. B. Cantalycius, printed by Matteo
Capcasa.

The brothers De Gregoriis used various kinds of initials. The large A
and V are from their Herodotus, the first page of which is ornamented
with a magnificent border, which has often been reproduced. Several
other initials in different styles are from books by these printers,
amongst others the large outline P and the smaller A and E. An
interesting alphabet, most of the letters of which represent children
playing with different kinds of animals, is taken from a small treatise
on Geography by Zacharius Lilius, entitled _Orbis breviarium_, etc.,
printed at this press.

Sessa, whose mark consists of a cat with a mouse in her mouth on a
crowned shield with the initials I B S, has some of the letters just
described.

Ongania gives amongst others, as coming first from a 1496 edition
of Marco Polo’s _De le Maravigliose cose del mondo_, the D with two
children and a dog, the P with the children and bird, and a P with the
portrait of a man, here printed in red, but which is found elsewhere,
like all the other letters, printed in black. The very small initials,
mostly with heads, the H with a rabbit and the T with rabbits dancing,
are also to be found in Sessa’s impressions.

Several very large letters, two more particularly, the M and the S,
were used by Bernardinus Benalius and Matteus Capcasa in 1498, and
often printed in red. They were afterwards adopted by the Paris printer
Josse Bade.

Of the linear initials used in the missals, the beautiful B
representing Mary Regina cœlorum amongst others, appeared for the
first time in the _Missale Romanum_ of 1499 by George Arrivabene. Our
reproductions are taken from missals and breviaries of Lucantonio di
Giunta, himself especially a printer of music, but who edited a great
many liturgical works.

The largest in size of all our initials are from another missal of
Giunta, the _Missale Vallisumbrose_ of 1503. The first letter of
this series has been given by Mr. Pollard in an essay on ‘Pictorial
Initials.’

An alphabet of large letters of an interlacing pattern is to be met
with in several works, first in Plutarch’s _Lives_, translated by
Guarino of Verona and published by Melchior Sessa and Petrus de
Ravenis in 1505. They have been described as of great elegance and
finished beauty, but they are as a rule badly printed and do not look
well in reproduction, as can be seen by reference to Ongania.

The alphabet of children already mentioned is more or less completed by
letters from different works published by Tacuinus de Tridino, amongst
others the Euclid of 1517 and several earlier volumes. The C with a
child on a dolphin, the L with one child riding another, and the N
with children and dog; the grotesque O, the P also with children and
a dragon, are one from the 1517 Euclid, others from a Justinian, the
remainder from works of Horace by the same printer.

The C with a child on the back of a horse is first met with in a
_Practica_ of Serapion by Bonetus Locatellus, ‘mandato Octaviani
Scoti,’ the outlines C, P, and S with children or _amorini_ having the
same origin.

An alphabet, remarkable from the fact that it is generally found
complete, by Bernardino Vitali, serves as a rule in publications of
Sessa to initial the index. It is to be found serving this purpose at
the beginning of this printer’s edition of the _Lives_ of Plutarch and
also for the index to the works of Pliny.

Pliny’s _Natural History_ was a popular book at this time, and two
editions of it have the large interlaced initials used in the Plutarch.
In a third, in Italian, by Sessa and Petrus de Ravenna in 1516, there
are a number of ornamental letters with children: a P, with child and
dragon, precedes the eighth book; an S, with a child above and a bird
below, the tenth and thirty-second books; the thirty-first having
what at first appears to be the same, but which is really a copy. The
letters C, G, R, N are also with children, either by themselves or
with birds or dogs. As an example of the indifference to appearances,
a historiated A is used upside down as a V, in Tacuinus de Tridino’s
Homer of 1503. A fine V with children does duty as an A, and an E all
the way through as an F, in the Justin of 1508 of the same printer.

The L with a satyr, and the very handsome G, are from the same
book. The P with a child and bird is repeated eleven times in this
volume, and from the dilapidated condition the block is its chief
disfigurement. In the Horace of Guglielmo Fonteneto Monteserrati, we
find it at the beginning of the ode ‘Phoebe silvarumque potens Diana,’
but the bird is changed into what is apparently a goose. The children
have older faces, and there is a slight difference in the ornament.

In their original condition, these children initials are most
decorative, but many of the copies are greatly inferior. These are to
be found not only in Venetian impressions by other printers, but also
in some books printed in provincial towns, and they evidently inspired
many of the children’s alphabets that were used afterwards in Basle,
Cologne, Hagenau, and one or two initials we have given of Paris.

At Turin some of them were used in the _Epistole Heroidum_ of Ovid
published by F. Silva in 1510, in which we find that the L with the
satyr, the P with a bird, the T with children playing with a skipping
rope, an M with an eagle, the N with a child and dolphin, and the G,
but of much coarser execution than the original. From a documentary
point of view these letters are perhaps not so interesting as the
alphabet used currently half a century later by Giolito and other
Venetian printers, in which the games then in vogue are represented in
linear engraving upon a white ground. But the introduction of animals
in the earlier alphabet is not entirely fanciful, and the classical
student will no doubt be able to understand many of the allusions.

The A, for instance, with a boy riding upon the back of a dolphin,
is a case in point and no doubt refers to the tale of Arion told by
Herodotus, and more fully by Ovid in the _Fasti_.[27]

  [27] In the eighth chapter of his ninth book, Pliny speaks of a
  dolphin that had conceived a wonderful affection for the child of a
  poor man. At whatever hour of the day he might happen to be called by
  the boy, he would instantly fly to the surface, and sportively taking
  him up on his back, he would carry him over a wide expanse of sea to
  the school at Puteoli, and in like manner bring him back again. Other
  instances of the same kind are related, which he says give an air of
  credibility to the one that is told of Arion.

We give a somewhat numerous selection from a work which has hitherto
remained but little known to bibliographers, by a printer whose
publications are far from common, the _Vita di Sancti Padri vulgare
historiada_ of Otino da Pavia de la Luna, 1501. In an earlier edition,
also very rare, the initials are insignificant, and the chief interest
of the volume is in the little cuts which precede the lives of the
different saints. The edition from which our initials are taken is on
the contrary a perfect storehouse of interesting ornamental letters.
At the commencement of each book there is a half-page engraving
representing an incident in the life of the first saint whose history
follows, and this is surrounded by a handsome ornamental border which
sometimes surrounds the whole page. Each book commences by an initial
of larger size than the others. Some of these are given--the C with
a saint holding a bag to another, the D with a dog, the L with four
ecclesiastics, and two U’s, one with a monk tempted of the devil in
the form of a beautiful woman. The smaller letters, of which there are
sometimes as many as three or four on a single page, also represent
incidents in the lives of the different saints, the devil being often
the subject of the picture. The title-page has on it the mark of Otino
da Pavia de la Luna in black and red. Some of the initials of this
volume afterwards found their way into the possession of Bernardino
Vitali, who used them in an _Omiliario quadragesimale_, published in
1518. We have not seen this volume, but Ongania gives reproductions of
its principal typographical ornaments, amongst them a P and a U from
the Otino da Pavia de la Luna alphabets.

Of the initials not yet mentioned, the D and the Q, the former with a
monk wearing spectacles, are from a treatise on animals by Aristotle,
printed by Sessa. The curious L, with a personage in a turban, looking
at a castle on the walls of which are the heads of three of its
defenders, comes from an edition of the _Legendario de Sancti_ of
Jacobus de Voragine, printed by Nicolo è Domenico dal Gesu. We are
almost sure, however, that we have met with it in an earlier missal,
and it was subsequently used in at least one impression of Lyons. The
remaining letters are by different printers.

The two large initials with portraits of a much later date represent
respectively--the C, Cosmo de Medici; the P, Pius Romae Pontifex.




CHAPTER IX

OTHER ITALIAN TOWNS


_Rome_

We have alluded in the preceding chapter to the paucity of woodcut
initials in early works printed at Rome, and it is well known that
the opinions of the clergy were divided with respect to the propriety
of adding decorative embellishments to books. Some church dignitaries
considered it a pious occupation, whilst others, who looked upon the
copying of manuscripts as a sure way of attaining salvation,[28] were
entirely against book ornamentation. It is probably on account of some
such hostility on the part of the ecclesiastical authorities that
ornamental initials are so seldom met with in books of the early Roman
printers. In a list, for instance, of seventy-nine works published
by Planck, only one, a _Pontificale_ of 1485, is mentioned as having
woodcut initials; in the same list, of thirty-nine books by Eucharius
Silber, there is one only with ornamental letters. Lastly, of one
hundred and seventy-eight other works by seventeen known and six
unknown printers, only two are reported as being so embellished. Of
the earlier printers, Sweynheim and Pannartz used some very handsome
initials in a few of their publications after 1470, the D reproduced
being from their Suetonius, _Vitæ Cæsarum_. We give also a P from one
of E. Silber’s publications, and a C with the portrait of Ariosto from
a work published by Jacobus Mazochius, 1515.

  [28] A propos of manuscript copying, there was an anecdote current
  in _Scriptoria_ concerning a brother who had sinned very constantly
  whilst in the flesh, and who was challenged by St. Peter at the Gate
  of Paradise. The tally at first seemed to go against the applicant,
  but at last it was found that he had been for some time a scribe;
  written letters were checked against sins, and the frater was found
  to have a small but sufficient balance in his favour.

Siennese impressions are anything but common, and as the early
typography of this town still awaits a historian, a short account of
a few works from its chief press will not be out of place. The most
important is no doubt the Datus, printed by Simeon Nardi in 1503. The
title consists of two lines in small Gothic characters, _Augustini dati
senensis opera_, and underneath come three sonnets by admirers of Datus
(for the name is spelt indifferently, Datus or Dathus), in each of
which he is compared to Cicero. ‘Read through,’ says Angelus Fundius,
‘this venerable volume of the facund Dathus, but take care I advise you
to glance first at the title page.’ ‘Nam si forte vagus legeres, mihi
crede putares non esse hoc Dathi sed Ciceronis opus.’ The others are
equally complimentary. The volume is a folio collection of speeches and
essays on all kinds of subjects, and consists of fourteen preliminary,
followed by two hundred and ninety numbered leaves, or twice as
many pages. There are sixty lines to the page of small, clear Roman
type, pleasantly relieved by curious little capitals. The colophon
gives ‘Impressum Senis ex Architypo per Symeonem Nicolai Nardi, Anno
salutis MDIII Sexto Kal Novembris,’ and on the verso is Nardi’s mark
representing a child holding a banneret astride a wolf, which is
suckling another child beneath. The whole is surrounded by a highly
ornamented border.

The most interesting feature, however, of the book is its series of
large initials, which, taking into consideration the two different
states of the Q, are fourteen in number.[29] The most characteristic,
and perhaps the most effective, are those on a black ground, but the
others are equally free and vigorous in treatment. One of them, the R,
has the same subject (Romulus and Remus with the wolf) as the printer’s
mark, a subject which is used in other volumes as a pictorial
title-page. The reason of this is explained in the motto at the bottom
of the mark in another book,

    ‘ROMAE QUE ORIGO SENAE INSIGNIA.’

  [29] In some of the proofs the Q is a white letter, the original
  block being cut away.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the impressions are not all
equally good, but it is easy to see that where anything is wanting, it
is the fault of the printing and not of the artist.

The letters of this series were much used in subsequent publications,
but with the exception of an ornamental M of the same style which
comes from a book of poetry published by Simon Rubeo in 1513, and an
I in a tract by Marcellus Beringhuccius not of the same merit, we
have not seen any Sienna letters that are not in the Dathus. It is
to be remarked that the volumes which have an ornamental title-page
have no printer’s mark, and _vice versa_, the first not occurring in
publications before 1539.

Two of the Nardi initials, the P and the C, are to be met with in
a quarto volume, ‘C Plinio de li homini illustri in lingua senese
traducto et brevemente commentato,’ which is printed in the _Inclyta
& Excelsa citta di Sena_ by that accurate man Symeone di Nicolao
Carrolaro Senese, 1506. The mark is different in some details, although
practically the same as in the Dathus.

The _Vespertinæ lectiones_ of Marcellus Beringhuccius has the H and
some others. The printer’s name varies again, being given as ‘Impressum
per Calistrum Symeonis Senen. Ad instantiam Ioannis Alixandri Libraio
1511.’ The title is surrounded by a border of oak leaves and acorns. On
the verso of the first page the dedication to Cosmo de Medici begins
with the handsome H, and is followed on the next page by an interesting
cut representing the burial of Christ. The text on the verso of this
page begins with the L. The second part of the book, ‘For the comfort
of those who wish to live well, etc.,’ begins with the historiated N,
‘Impresso in Siena per Calisto Francese di Simeone Bindi, 1541. Ad
instantiam d’Giovanni di Alisandro Libraio.’

Another volume of _Vespertinæ lectiones_ of the same author was
published in 1539, the printer’s name being given in the same way, and
the same bookseller being mentioned. It has the N and the D, as well as
a new I, mentioned above. The book, published on the 5th of March, has
a title-page with a border of foliated branches that spring below from
a common trunk and meet together above. The lower third is occupied
by the Siennese wolf and children, with a town in the distance. Two
tracts of Marcus Antonius Belarmatus on legal subjects were published
by Symeon Nicolai in 1539, with the same ornamental border. In one
of them the only large initial is the N. In the other, the title is
printed in black, and the D and the Q of the white variety complete its
ornamentation. The last book chronologically in which we have met with
the Nardi initials is a _Life_ by Feo Belcari of Beato Columbini da
Siena, ‘fondatore del ordine di poveri giesuati.’

Like so many of the Venetian ornaments, the borders and initials of
Fossombrone are mostly with a black ground, but this is _criblé_ in a
special manner.

The most important book of this town, where printing was introduced in
1513 by Ottaviano dei Petrucci, is a treatise by Paul de Middelburg
with beautiful borders and initials, _On the right way of celebrating
Easter, and the day of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ_, a work of
great rarity and filled with singular researches for fixing Easter Day,
and the date of the death of our Saviour.

The initials have branching ornaments, and children playing with one
another, one holding up a mask, or with birds. One of them can be seen
in Butsch.

The principal printer of Pavia, at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, was Jacobus Paucidrapensis de Burgofranco, whose books have
very handsome ornamental and historiated initials, the latter with
portraits of celebrated men. His _Hyginus de Stellis_, published in
1513 at the expense of the heirs of ‘that late nobleman Octavianus Scot
and his associates,’ has several. The D given here is from this volume.
The O with another portrait, and the four other letters F, L, N, P,
are also specimens of this press, but we have not been able to identify
them more particularly.

J. de Burgofranco also uses a smaller alphabet in the same style of
ornament.

Printing was introduced at Como in 1521, the seven initials given
being taken from the first book printed there, the treatise of
Vitruvius on Architecture. In this remarkably handsome volume, full
of architectural diagrams and plans, there is, amongst others, an
‘elevation’ of the cathedral of Milan. Como had long been celebrated
for the beauty of its situation, for the colophon, after giving the
names of the ‘magnificent’ and ‘noble commentators,’ ‘emendators,’ and
‘castigators,’ states that the volume was printed by Gotardus de Ponte
in the _Amoena & delecteuole citate de Como_. In one of the initials, a
D, there is a view of a lake with sailing boats in a shower of rain, no
doubt intended to be Como.

The U with the Crucifixion and the O representing St. Jerome are our
only specimens of the press of Guillaume le Signerre, a Rouen printer
who set up at the beginning of the sixteenth century at Saluzzo.

The book from which they are taken is an extremely handsome edition
of the _Aureum Opus_ of Vivaldus, so often reprinted, and it has a
full-page engraving with St. Jerome, the same subject as in one of the
initials, and on another page the portrait of Le Signerre’s patron; at
the end the printer’s mark. The colophon states that it was printed
at Saluzzo by the most deserving brothers, Le Signerre of Rouen, at
the expense of that most illustrious and clement prince, Lodovicus,
Marquis of Saluzzo, and viceregent of Naples. With the exception of
an insignificant floral letter at the beginning of the preface, the
two initials given are the only ones in the book, the T with the
Crucifixion occurring twice. The brothers Signerre would appear to
have tried their fortune elsewhere before going to Saluzzo. In 1496
they were printing at Milan, giving the _Practica Musice_ of Franchini
Gafori, with fine borders and initials.

_Ferrara,[30] Milan, etc._--One of the most celebrated books of its
day was the _De plurimis claris selectisque mulieribus_ of Philip
Bergomensis, described as being revised and ‘castigated’ with great
diligence by that ‘great doctor in theology, Master Albert de Placentia
and brother Augustinus de Casili maiori,’ _Ferrarie impressum opera et
impensa magistri Laurentii de Rubeis de Valencia_.

  [30] Ferrara is known to art students in connection with initial
  letters by the alphabet of Fra Vespasiano Amphiareo, a Renaissance
  calligraphist, which is often reproduced in works on manuscript
  ornamentation.

For the general student this work, which took rank at once as one of
the most artistic publications of the time, is chiefly interesting
on account of the portraits of the celebrated women whose histories
it relates, but besides these there is a nearly complete alphabet
of initials which harmonise perfectly with the woodcut engravings.
Although different in treatment, the design is very similar to that
used by Regiomontanus of Nuremberg, but with the addition of an
occasional mascaron, or head of a dolphin. Very decorative, although
simple, on the printed page, they lose some of their effect when
brought together as an alphabet.

The volume begins with a linear M representing the Virgin and child.

The other set of initials, of an entirely different kind, is taken from
the _Missale Carthusiense_, printed by the monks at their monastery at
Ferrara in 1503, and generally known as the Missal of Ferrara. _Missale
secundum ordinem Carthusiensem. Impressum in Monasterio Carthusie
Ferrarie Diligenter emendatum per Monachos ejusdem Domus Regnante
Excellentissimo D.D. Duce Hercule Esten. Anno a nativitate domini
MCCCCCIII._

In many of the other Italian towns, although printing was established
at an early date, the ornamentation of books was comparatively
neglected, and there are few or no initials of interest to be mentioned.

Foligno, for example, was one of the first places where the art
of printing was introduced. J. Neumeister, one of the workmen and
associates of Gutenberg, published there in 1470 a superb folio,
_Leonardi Aretini Bruni de bello italico adversus Gothos_.

At Milan, Philip of Lavagna gave a small quarto, the _Miracoli de la
Gloriosa Verzene Maria_, dated 1469; but this date is a mistake, and it
was really in 1474 or 1479 that the tract appeared.

Zarotus was printing at this town in 1471, and three years later
Christopher Valdarfer began operations.

When initials occur in the books of these printers they resemble
somewhat those of Venice, but they are of unequal merit, some being
coarsely cut and merely curious, others of the highest artistic
excellence. Of the first, the M and T from the _Opus auree et
inexplicabilis bonitatis et continentie_, printed by Joannes de
Castellione in 1513, will serve as an example.

The six other letters are from works by Gotardus de Ponte, and are to
be found also in a book called _Calipsychia_ of 1511; in the _Life of
Saint Veronica_ by Isidorus de Isolanis, of 1518; also in an _Opus
auree_ which seems to have been printed everywhere, dated 1513.

The Q with a very black border, a circle of white dots, an ornament in
each corner, and a saint with crozier looking to the right, comes from
the _Sermons of St. Bernard_, Milan, Leonard Pachel, 1495.

The smallest series is from a volume of Decretals by Ulric
Scinzenzeller.

At Florence printing was introduced in 1471 by Bernardo Cennini, who
commenced at once the composition of the Commentaries of Servius on
Virgil, which was published the following year.

To Giovanni Tedesco we are indebted for editions of the _Philocolo_
of Boccaccio and the _Trionfi_ of Petrarch. But the most celebrated
Florence printer of the fifteenth century was Nicolo di Lorenzo
(Nicolaus Laurentii) of Breslau, the publisher of the celebrated Dante
with engravings of 1481.

Books printed at Verona at the beginning of the sixteenth century are
not common, and woodcut initials are even more seldom met with, but
we have been able to find one or two in a tract printed by Lucas
Antonius, or Luc Antonio Giunta, of Florence, in 1504, which is
extremely curious in many ways. The text on the title-page is arranged
in the form of a cross, and runs as follows: _Delitiosam explicationem
de sensibilibus deliciis paradisi a D. Celso Mapheo Veronense Canonico
regulari editam hoc libello lector agnoscere poteris et ipsa plurimum
oblectari valebis._ On the verso of the last page is a very fine mark
of Lucas Antonius. The ornamentation of the book is completed by
numerous woodcut initials of various sizes, but mostly as badly cut as
printed. There are several letters of an interlaced pattern, but the
two we have selected are the most interesting, the C with the gladiator
and lion occurring at the beginning of the first chapter, the Q being
repeated twice. There is also a historiated P with a child, a little
smaller.

Books of the beginning of the fifteenth century published at Brescia
have a few good initials, more or less in the Venetian style. An S,
with a winged child with bow and arrows, probably a Cupid, is to be met
with in several impressions. The P, with a saint in the same style, and
a somewhat larger P, prolonged as a border, have the same origin.

The very wide C, with a monk at a latticed window, is from a volume of
Brescia, in which there are also three or four insignificant floral
initials in the style of Grüninger’s least interesting letters,
an engraved title-page with the portraits of celebrated men in
compartments, and on the verso of the last page a Virgin and child with
irradiating flames. The title, _Theophrasti Natalii Cychuthoe Teutonici
Invectivae_, _Maxima cum diligentia Brixiae impressum_, it is said, but
without giving the printer’s name.

At Vicenza initials were also mostly in the Venetian style, but
inferior as a rule to the originals. In one volume, a _Catalogus
Sanctorum_, printed by Henricus de Sancto Urso in 1493, there are two
typographical eccentricities which, as they have to do with initials,
are worth pointing out. In some early volumes ornamental initials
are occasionally met with of such primitive execution, that the only
possible explanation is, that the necessary letter being wanting,
it was cut on the spur of the moment by an entirely unskilled hand.
Amongst the initials which occur the least often at the beginning of
Latin paragraphs are the B and G, and of course such letters as X,
Y, Z. It is probable that when this _Catalogus_ was being set up,
there was no G amongst the ornamental alphabets available, for no
other paragraph in the book begins with this letter. To meet this
contingency, the required initial was cut forthwith, the result being
the G in question, roughly representing a human face. The other
singularity is an instance of the transposition of letters, of which
examples have been already given, but here, instead of turning an A or
a C upside down to serve as a V or a D, it is an F that does duty both
for an F and an E. At the beginning of the eighth book there is an E
for St. Ezekiel, which has evidently been made from an F, the lower
transversal part having been cut afterwards, as can be seen by the
rough execution and the disturbance of the general ornamentation. But
the transposition of an F into an E is a thing that often occurs. The
peculiarity here is that at the tenth book, which begins with the feast
of All Saints, _Festivitas omnium Sanctorum_, an F being required,
the same block is used as for Ezekiel, the letter being restored to
its first condition by a plug, but showing clearly traces of its
transformations.




CHAPTER X

LYONS


By its geographical situation, by its proximity to Basle, by its
condition as a free town, and through the fairs that attracted within
its walls the merchants from other parts of France, as well as from
Germany, Italy, and Holland, Lyons became at once a typographical
centre of the first importance, even preceding Paris as regards book
illustration. In 1473 Barthelemy Buyer, a rich Lyons merchant, founded
the first press with the help of William Leroy, publishing first the
_Compendium_ of Lotharius, then _La Legende Dorée_, six months before
the appearance of the _Chroniques de Saint Denis_ at Paris. Ornamental
letters occur for the first time in the _Mirouer Hystorial_.[31] The
specimens given were used by Leroy in 1479, and are known as _lettres
tourneures fleuronnées_. On the title-page of the _Prestre Jehan_ of
the same publisher is a historiated P showing the three companions
travelling in the land of Prester John, arriving before a castle of
the ‘paynims.’ The text begins with a smaller initial, also a P with
a serpent’s head which forms part of the alphabet of the _Statuta
Lugdunensia_, and takes the place of the larger initial on the
title-page of a later edition. The initials of the _Statuta Synodalia_
are very much like those occurring in the _Quatre Fils Aymon_ and
in the _Dechier de Nobles Hommes et Femmes_, a translation of the
_De casibus illustrium virorum_ of Boccaccio (Mathieu Husz and Jean
Schabeler, 1483), and, although differently treated, the same subjects,
grotesque profiles, are to be found in the first Paris letters of Dupré
and Vérard. For the other letters of these early alphabets, of which
specimens are not given here, the reader is referred to Claudin’s
great work on the History of Printing in France, unfortunately left
incomplete by the death of the author, but of which the third volume,
the first of the two intended to relate to Lyons, is finished.

  [31] Mr. Pollard speaks of an edition of ‘Beaudoin, Comte de
  Flandres,’ of 1478, with rude printed initials.

It is chiefly in the French books of this period that we meet with
those large calligraphic initials for title-pages, generally taking
the form of the letter L in the style of the tenth century, which are
said by Claudin to be known as _lettres de forme, dites cadeaux_. The
two largest are to be found in the _Mer des Histoires_, printed first
by Le Rouge in 1488, the initials of which were copied by Dupré in
1491. They exceed the dimensions of this page, and are consequently
too tall for reproduction here. M. Thierry Poux in his _Origines de
l’Imprimerie en France_, and Claudin (_op. cit._), have given good
copies. They represent knights in armour, probably St. George or St.
Michael spearing the dragon, with different accessory ornaments along
the margin.

The most common of all these initials is the one which occurs on
the title-page of the _Doctrinal de Sapience_, and of this we have
preferred the Geneva copy. The French composition which is known as
the January and May L, and is much more insipid, would appear to have
been most popular, recurring in a great many books both of Paris and
Lyons. Another L frequently seen, of which Mr. Pollard in his _Early
Illustrated Books_ gives a copy, was first used for the _Livre du
Faulcon_; the top of the letter curves down to end in the head of some
imaginary bird, between the two grotesque profiles. In some books this
part has been removed, the letter presenting the appearance of having
been cut down.

Of our selections, the L with two heads on the left and a collection of
dragons on the right, one of which is disgorging a fool complete with
cap, bells, and _marotte_, is from the title-page of a Melusine, but
is met with in other books. The letter with the two heads, a monkey and
two birds, which occurs also in other publications, was taken from the
_Somme Rurale_ of Pierre Boutellier. The L with only one human head
and a bird separated by the head and neck of an imaginary reptile can
be seen in _Demandes d’Amour_, _Le Cordial_, _Les Quinze_, _Joies de
Marriage_, _Le Doctrinal des Femmes mariées_. As to the initial with
Eve, it is to be found on the title-page of the _Livre des Marchands_,
of the _Legende Dorée_, as well as on some others.

As a last example of these large calligraphic letters, we give the
large L with three profiles.

In an entirely different style is a magnificent Q on a black ground,
representing St. George and the Dragon, from an edition of the _Mer des
Hystoires_ by Michel Topie, without doubt one of the most effective
of the Lyons initials. There is a well-cut A at the commencement of
Breidenbach’s _Sainct voyage de la cité de Hierusalem_, which Claudin
attributes to Gaspard Ortuin. This book contains the first specimens of
Arabic characters printed in France.

We now come to a series of letters from the missal of Pierre Hongre of
1500, some of which had been used in the missal of Uzès, published by
Jean Neumeister and Michel Topie in 1497. This lending or hiring of
typographical ornaments was very common amongst Lyons printers, as can
be seen by a comparison of the books of different publishers, and as is
proved by an agreement of the time, between Michel Topie and an Angevin
printer, discovered by the Abbé Requin amongst some old notarial deeds.

The letters of Pierre Hongre’s missal represent, as usual, Biblical
scenes, and although of an archaic type, the attitudes are true, and
they are animated by a sincere and artistic sentiment. The subjects of
the different letters speak for themselves. The T, as usual, is the
sacrifice of Abraham; the C the martyrdom of St. Stephen; the D the
Nativity, etc.

Many of these are to be found afterwards in other missals, such as the
missals _Narbone_, _Aquensis_, _Matisconensis_, etc.

The historiated initials from the Saccon Missal, also of 1500, all of
the same type, are interesting from the fact that we are able to give
the name of the engraver. In our collection of cut initials there is,
amongst others, the S with several personages, and from the same book
from which it is taken, and in the same type as on the verso of this
initial, is a ‘dixit’ of five lines which speaks for itself:--

    ‘Petrus Bertorius edidit
     Lambertus Campester illustravit
     Joannes Cobergerus erogavit expensis
     Jacobus Sacconius expressit
     Amor veritatis persuasit.’

Good missal initials are to be found also in the _Missale secundum
ordinem Carthusiensem_ of Simon Bevilaqua, 1517, such as the C (saints
with a palm-leaf), and the D (the Good Shepherd). The _Missale secundum
ordinem fratrum predicatorum_ of Moylin, 1515, has also interesting
ornamental letters.

Of the two large A’s, one is from a missal, the other from a _Catalogus
Sanctorum_ of Saccon. The G and the smaller P are both from Lyons
missals.

The three little pictures, one of which represents the expulsion
of a devil, the two others the Apostles in a boat, are in reality
ornamental initials with the letter, an I, in the right border, and
belong to a volume of homilies printed by J. Poullet in 1505, in which
every paragraph begins with the same letter. The fourth is one of
those little cuts that are sometimes used in missals in the place of
pictorial initials, and which, according to Dibdin, are to be classed
with initials.

It is not often that we meet with complete alphabets from single
books, except in the case of works arranged by alphabetical order and
dictionaries. Such is the case with the _Catholicon_, of which J.
Wolff published an edition in 1503. Unfortunately the alphabet is not
uniform, either in size, style, or subject, and some of the letters
are of minor interest. We have selected the most curious and most
uncommon. The four initials of the same kind, the halberdier U, the
standard-bearer O, the page P, and the king D, are sometimes found
in other volumes--in the _Aureum Opus_, for example. It is from the
prologue of an edition of this work, printed for Gueynard in 1505 by
De Vingle, that we have taken the very interesting Q of St. Jerome,
which is also the subject of the first initial in the Saluzzo edition.
We only know of one other letter of this size in the style of the
_Catalogus_ series. As can be seen from our reproduction, it represents
the Virgin, and is to be found at the beginning of a very rare and
curious plaquette entitled ‘Plusieurs gentillesses pour faire en toutes
bonnes compaignies. Et aussi plusieurs bonnes et utiles receptes
esprouvées par Maistre Symon de Millan. On les vend a Lyon en la maison
de feu Barnabé Chaussard.’

The two curious L’s are from the title-page and from the beginning of
one of the chapters of a Lyons _Proprietaire_, wanting the last page,
but of which we have not seen any other copy. The L with a profile and
crowned lion is from the title-page. The other letters, D, H, M, are
from the treatise on men and women at the end of the volume, arranged
according to the signs of the Zodiac. The M shows the author meditating
the effect of his opening remarks. The D and the H are at the beginning
of a paragraph referring to Virgo and the Gemini respectively.

The two large letters C and D, representing the Viaticum and the
Nativity, with the seven smaller ones, are to be found in an edition
of the _Regimen Sanitatis_, with comments by Magnini, attributed by
Claudin, on the strength of an initial on the title-page with a bird,
to Fradin, 1505. This is no doubt correct, for the large C (a priest
carrying the host), with several of the smaller letters, is to be found
in an undoubted edition by that printer of Platina’s _De Honestate
Voluptate_ of 1505.[32]

  [32] The G, C, and I, with profiles and grotesques, were used two
  years before in a Lyons edition of the _Rommant de la Rose_, by G.
  Balsarin, 1503.

From a technical point of view, from the elegance of the design and the
delicacy of the execution, the series taken from works by Blanchard
and others, with masters and scholars in costumes of the time of Louis
XII., is particularly interesting, the S with pope and cardinals being
quite remarkable.

The children’s alphabet was used by Fradin and four or five different
printers, perhaps by more. A certain number of children’s letters, but
enlarged to the size of the initials of Cologne of Albert Dürer, are in
the _Graduale Viennense_ of 1534. One of them, the R, is a coarse copy
of the same Dürer letter, and has been given under Cologne for the sake
of comparison. The others, eleven in number, although not exact copies
of the smaller letters, are very much like our smaller reproductions
and are treated in the same manner, but the best proofs we have seen of
the specimens we give are in a copy on vellum of the Narbonne Missal of
Fradin of 1528, from which the P with the Nativity, the smaller P with
a saint about to be beheaded, and the R with Death, are also taken.
There is a very similar set in the German Psalter of Nuremberg, printed
by J. Petreius in 1525.

The F with a portrait of St. Ambrose is from a translation of St.
Jerome by Erasmus, of whom an excellent portrait is also seen in
another initial.

Two of the most characteristic sets of Lyons letters are those taken
from the _Biblia cum Summariis et cum Concordantiis_, printed by John
Moylin for Stephen Gueynard in 1516, and from the _Catalogus Sanctorum_
of Saccon of 1514. The Bible letters represent necessarily scenes in
Scripture history, often being inspired by the initials in the Bibles
of Nuremberg and Augsburg.

The initials used in the different books of Lives of the Saints, the
chief of which were the _Golden Legend_, the _Catalogus Sanctorum_, and
the _Lives of the Holy Fathers_, are miniature pictures, and, although
of small size, they contain quite as many details as the larger
engravings that illustrate some of the more pretentious editions. It
may be noted that when there are historiated letters, there are no
pictures properly so called, but, as the numerous editions testify,
those with pictorial initials, which the unlearned were able to
understand, as well as the illustrations proper, were amongst the most
popular of the publications of the beginning of the sixteenth century.

In an edition of the _Golden Legend_ now before us, printed in 1514 for
Martin Boillon, by Gilbert de Villiers, the same year as the _Catalogus
Sanctorum_ of Saccon, of which we give the letters, the text begins
with a large A, representing the Advent of Christ, of the same size
as the Bible initials. A little further on, another A stands for St.
Andrew with his cross. Next comes an N, for the patron of children, St.
Nicholas, who is depicted with three of them apparently in a pickle
tub. As the letters nearly always correspond to the saint’s name,
the historiated initials, for those who knew their alphabets, were
even more useful than the large engravings, which required for their
comprehension a competent knowledge of the attributes of the saints.

Proceeding further, an N with an ass, a cow, a child in a cradle, and
a star, stands for the Nativity. Saint John the Evangelist has an I,
with his eagle. Another I, with three soldiers, one of them stabbing
a child, and a woman with another child on her lap, represents the
Massacre of the Innocents, and both for composition and execution it is
superior to the larger cuts of the illustrated volumes.

St. Paul the Hermit, and St. Remy, may be recognised by the bird which
is bringing them a ring. The M with a naked saint shows St. Macarius
in the desert, where for killing a gnat ‘nudus sex mensibus in deserto
mansit et inde a scabronibus totus laceratus exivit.’ The first letter,
with the saint kneeling down, and a soldier about to wield an immense
sword, is an F, for St. Fabian, and this subject with variations
recurs frequently, St. Longinus, St. Gregory, and many others being
so represented. In the B of St. Basil we see for the first time the
Father of Evil in the shape of a dog-faced monkey, so often depicted
both in the architecture and in book ornamentation of the period. He
is disputing with St. Basil about the kneeling child, but of course
gets the worst of the argument. The same B does for St. Benedict; the
A with two devils with hair standing on end is for St. Amandus. The
same initial does for St. Ambrosius. George of England is shown on
horseback with the slaughtered dragon. An S, with a number of people
lying down, is for the seven sleepers. In another S, what looks like
a crowd of students illustrates the section ‘De septem fratribus
qui fuerunt filii beati felicitatis’; St. Christine is looking at
what appears to be a house on fire. The M of St. Macarius recurs
to illustrate the nakedness of St. Mamertinus, who is left in that
condition by robbers, and the N of the Nativity does again for the
Nativity of the Virgin.

The two medical saints, St. Cosmo and St. Damian, are shown together
as usual in a C, one of them holding in his hand a flask of special
shape. Of the remainder, the most interesting are the M of St. Michael
the Archangel, who is attacking with his sword a devil with horns and
a very pointed nose; St. Denis, who is carrying his head in his hand;
a P, for the ten thousand martyrs, two of whom are shown with swords
coming through their bodies from underneath, just as in one of the
Schott initials of Strasburg. In the initial for the eleven thousand
Virgins, one girl is about to be beheaded whilst two others are
looking on. St. Eustace is at his anvil, with fire and bellows in the
background. St. Martin is shown, with his cloak, on horseback, and St.
Elizabeth of Hungary with a castle in the background. The last with a
pictorial initial is St. Bernardinus, to whom the Virgin and Child are
appearing in a vision.

There is another edition of the _Catalogus Sanctorum_ with only one
large introductory initial, but in which the different chapters are
preceded by little woodcuts. In one of these, which is repeated several
times, the saint is shown with an instrument for execution on the same
principle as the modern guillotine. Of Saccon’s many other alphabets
the two outline initials, two Q’s, one a monkey riding a monster, the
other an owl, five other letters with heads, and the little black
animal letters, must serve as examples.

The L with two peasants looking at an angel in the clouds is to be
found in a Bible and on the title-page of a _Liber Cathonis_.

An amusing little set comes from a printer whose name is unknown to
us, the book being entitled _Morale Reductorium Petri Berthorii_. The C
is probably a convent cellarer, whilst the N is a study in contemporary
costume, and remarkable for the number of details that have been
condensed into so small a space.

The C with the Crucifixion is an example of the extraordinary
incongruity that is sometimes seen between ornaments and text. In a
book of devotions we sometimes meet with the most scabrous subjects;
here the reverse is the case, this reproduction, whatever may have been
its origin, being taken from a military treatise published by Jacques
Modernes, _Vallo, Du Faict de la Guerre et Art militaire_. The other
letters in the work are from worn-out blocks from the stock of Saccon.

Although of later date than the majority of our reproductions, our
remaining initials are so frequently found in Lyons books that they are
representative, as it were, of Lyons ornamentation.

There are several different-sized alphabets of philosophers, but the
one given is by far the best in execution. Our reproductions are as
good as possible, but the proofs in the original are of a greyish
colour which, taken together with the clear way in which they are
printed, is most ornamental.

The mythological letters are from a book of Italian poetry, ‘Stampato
in Lione, per Jacopo Fabio. Appresso Bastiano di Bartholomeo Honorati,
1556,’ and, with the exception of the S, which is signed with the
initials H F (Hans Frank), the other letters are attributed to the
Petit Bernard. The three large _lettres parlantes_, D for Diana, etc.,
are from Lyons impressions of about the same time.




CHAPTER XI

PARIS


As with Lyons, the material upon which one could draw for Paris is
almost inexhaustible. Dibdin considers the initials of this town to be
the finest that can be found, and gives the letters of Josse Bade with
branches growing out of the heads of the personages as examples. As
regards book illustration, however, Paris was behind Lyons, where the
earliest attempts at decoration were made in 1478.

The first book printed in Paris with ornamental letters was the _Vies
des Anciens Sainctz Pères of Dupré_, which appeared in 1486, that is
to say, eight years later. Mr. Pollard thinks that these initials, of
which there are only eight, five of which we reproduce, afforded the
first hint for the first calligraphic initials used for title-pages,
of which several have been given under Lyons. Dupré was one of the
printers who worked for Vérard, who was chiefly a publisher. An
alphabet of small calligraphic initials was frequently used in the
volumes printed for him by the Lerouges of Paris and Troyes, and is to
be found complete in the _Jardin de Santé_. Pen-letters, as they are
called, of this type, are of frequent occurrence in manuscripts.

Of the large calligraphic initials a sufficient number of specimens
have been given under the heading of Lyons, and, as a rule, they are
more quaint than those used by Paris printers.

The huge initials already spoken of in the _Mer des Hystoires_ are too
large for our _format_. In the same work is a serpentine S equally
out of proportion to this volume, an I with a picture of Christ, and
a P of similar size in the style of those that often occur in works
of Vérard, representing a scribe at work, and recalling the cuts so
often seen on the verso of title-pages. For these initials, which are
too large for reproduction in this volume, the reader is referred to
Claudin’s _History of French Printing_ and Monceau’s monograph on the
Lerouges. Of those more moderate in size, the January and May initial
on the title-pages of the _Doctrinal de Sapience_, the _Quinze Joyes
du mariage_, and many other works by Vérard, Trepperel, and Lenoir,
is the best known (see under Geneva). The _Livre du Faulcon_ has an
initial with two grotesque profiles, also very frequently met with on
other title-pages. This, together with the L with three monkeys, is
reproduced by Mr. Pollard in his _Early Illustrated Books_, to which
the reader is referred.

Shortly before the end of the fifteenth century, in 1497, Bocard
published an edition of Robert Gaguin’s _De origine et gestis
Francorum_, with a few large grotesque initials, and a very pretty
one of the Virgin of the same size, as well as an alphabet of smaller
letters. The first leaf of this book begins with an initial which is
badly coloured in the only original at our disposal, but which is
interesting as forming at the same time an _ex-libris_. The letter in
question is an F, and in each of the segments (separated by the central
bar) is a scroll, in which an early owner of the volume had written his
name.

In the _Nef de Santé et Condemnacion des Banquetz_ of Trepperel are
some other grotesques, found also in others of his publications.

About the same time the use of ornamental initials was commenced by
Rembolt and Gering. Gering, who was one of the earliest German printers
to settle in Paris, published with his partner, in 1499, a book
entitled _Divi Augustini in sacras Pauli epistolas Interpretatio_, with
the large P, representing, no doubt, St. Augustine preaching to his
followers, which occurs at the beginning of almost every chapter, and a
number of smaller ones.

It is in the smaller initials of Gering and Rembolt that we have some
of the best examples, as far as historiated letters are concerned,
of those compound animals so often met with in the ornamentation
of the fifteenth century. If we look at the records of antiquity,
such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, Roman medals and pottery, and other
artistic remains, it will be seen that from a very early time it was
considered humorous to represent animals carrying on the occupations
of men, or doing the duties of other animals. By a natural extension
of this idea, men were depicted in the roles of animals who had
usurped their supremacy, and who are represented as treating their
tyrant in the way that they themselves were accustomed to be treated.
Wright and Champfleury in their Histories of Caricature have given
numerous examples. In an Egyptian papyrus, a cat is seen walking
erect and driving a flock of geese, a fox is carrying a basket and
playing the flute, and the lion and the unicorn are playing at chess.
In a thirteenth-century tile, a rabbit going a-hunting is riding his
hereditary foe the dog, and in a manuscript of the fourteenth, a dog
with his paws tied is being conveyed in a cart drawn by two rabbits and
led by a third, towards a hill on which a gallows has been prepared for
him. In a carving of the same period, another example of ‘the world
turned upside down,’ four geese are shown hanging their old enemy the
fox. Roman statuettes still exist, in which the personages represented
are satirised by their heads being replaced by those of animals, such
as rats or wolves.

These fancies, which are said to have come from Greece, led to the
creation of such beings as the Sphinx, the most celebrated of the
compound animals of antiquity, and later on to the Chimerae and Grylli,
which were the predecessors of the innumerable fantastic hybrids
that the imaginations of the artists of the Middle Ages called into
existence. These creatures have already been represented in our Lyons
initials. In one of Saccon’s letters there is a kind of armadillo
with a human head, and amongst the reproductions from the _Regimen
Sanitatis_ there are two copied from Gering and Rembolt originals,
which are also given.

In these latter the R, with a monster with a neck ending in a human
head, is particularly noticeable, as it occurs frequently in the
borders of the same printers, and the Books of Hours of other presses.
It is to be remarked that the belief in the existence of these
unnatural monsters was quite general. Wright quotes Giraldus Cambrensis
as describing animals in Ireland, some half bulls, half men, others
half stags, half cows, others half monkeys, half dogs. The dog-faced
monkeys had always been worshipped in Egypt, and for this reason
possibly had become an object of suspicion to the mediæval clergy, who
made them figure as devils both in church architecture and manuscript
decoration. It is in this rôle that they are constantly represented in
woodcut initials.

The following year the first edition of the _Cornucopia_ of Perottus
appeared, the first part of which has one of the larger initials on
every twentieth or thirtieth page. Towards the end of the volume they
become much more frequent; not only are they to be met with on every
page, but on some there are half a dozen or more. Another edition of
this work, which was often printed, was published by Rembolt in 1507,
mostly with the same initials, but the P with the Nativity was not used
in the second edition.

The two armorial initials are from a French translation of the _History
of Denmark_ by Saxo Grammaticus, published by Josse Bade in 1514.
Besides these there are three others in the same style, a D, an I,
and a P. The D is like the N in general arrangement, but without the
supporters, and the legend ‘Arma regis Dacie’ is in scrolls with the
letters C. P. and C. L. In the I the central shield is suppressed, and
the shields are framed by banderolles with the legend: ‘Arma regis
Dacie Swecie Norvegie, sclavorum gottorumque anno domini MDXIIII.’ The
P is similar to the two others in being without supporters, and the
legend is slightly modified: ‘Arma regis Dacie Swecie Norvegie.’ These
initials were particularly admired by Dibdin, who calls attention to
their beauty.

Amongst the publications of Trepperel are several editions of the
_Jardin de Santé_, which, in the Latin _Hortus Sanitatis_, is a thick
folio dealing first with birds, beasts, and fishes, and finishing
with an alphabetical account of medicinal plants, and finally stones
(minerals). A treatise, _De urinis_, completes the whole.

Vérard’s edition already mentioned was of the same proportions, but
Trepperel published his as an octavo on plants only. The initials are
not always well printed, rather the reverse. The best are given in our
illustrations. A few of these letters are to be found in a small folio
with woodcuts, entitled _Les œuvres de Justin, vray hystoriographe sur
les faictz et gestes de Troge Pompee_, etc. etc., in much better proof.
In this same book is the L with a harpy, which, together with the M,
the only other letter of the kind we have seen, is to be frequently
met with in the _Chroniques de France_ and in a great many other books
by Philippe Lenoir, finally in a Paris _Missale Carthusiense_. The
two letters with children, inspired by Venetian initials, with the
linear R of the same size and the big ‘philosophus’ Q, are taken from
a work on the Logic of Aristotle by Jacobus Stapulensis, published
by H. Estienne in 1510. In other works the same initial occurs, but
the word ‘philosophus’ is replaced by ‘Aristoteles,’ or by some other
philosopher’s name. We have met with several varieties. The smaller
letters are to be found also in books printed by J. Petit, H. Estienne,
and Josse Bade.

It may be here observed that the Paris printers had quite a specialty
for missals, and in some of them initial letters of the most
varied origin are mixed together. In one of them, the _Missale ad
consuetudinem insignis ecclesie Parisiensis_, by Wolfgang Hopyl, in
1504, the initials belong to different alphabets. The best are the A
(Annunciation), the P (Nativity), another P (the Circumcision), an E
(visit of the wise men), S (Pentecost), C (a priest saying mass), and
when the proofs are perfect it would be difficult to imagine anything
more effective. But the handsomest set is in the _Missale Leodiense_,
also printed by Wolfgang Hopyl, in 1513. These initials are used in
other missals, but are here in their best condition. Some of them
are to be found in the 1526 edition of the Liége missal by Marnef and
Hopyl, and again in the _Missel de Chartres_ of Kerver, 1529.

In most works of this kind the subjects of the _histoires_ are of a
Biblical nature, particularly incidents in the lives of the saints,
although relieved sometimes by a touch of the grotesque.

In other missals the grotesque reigns supreme, showing how intimately
it was associated with the idea of Church Art, as is well seen in the
beautiful Books of Hours by Philippe Pigouchet and others, in which the
borders are a mixture of the grotesque and the macabre.

One of the books most frequently reprinted at this period was the
_Propriétaire_, the translation of the work of Bartolomæus de
Glanville, _De proprietatibus rerum_, which was the book on which
Caxton worked at Cologne. It is a kind of general encyclopædia,
beginning with a disquisition on the Trinity, and ending with a chapter
on Astrology. It is from this work that we have reproduced the twelve
letters, amongst others the Q with a bagpiper, and an L representing a
person in a fool’s cap giving a baby pap. These occur in a great many
other works of Philippe Lenoir.

In the treatise ‘On Men and Women,’ the different sections are preceded
by initials which correspond to the signs of the Zodiac, as in the
Lyons copy, of which we have given specimens. But in the Paris edition,
curiously enough, the first two sections, Aries and Taurus, have no
initials, although ornamental letters with a ram and bull respectively,
and entirely inappropriate anywhere else, are to be found in other
books published by this printer, such as the _Chroniques de France_ and
the _Saint Graal_.

The two large initials, one of them with a portrait, formed part of the
alphabet of Vascosan, used in, amongst other books, the work of Oronce
Fine, or Finée, as he is variously called. The vignette of the O is
said to be his portrait. It is authenticated by the initials O. F.

Josse Bade has some large initials in the Venetian style, with
intertwisting bands and no historiation, generally described in
book catalogues as ‘magnificent ornamental letters.’ We admit to a
predilection for initials with personages, and prefer to give here some
of the smaller set, sometimes printed in red in the original, which
particularly excited Dibdin’s admiration, and which are graceful, even
when not historiated. They are to be found in a great many of this
printer’s productions, as well as in those of Simon de Colines and
others.

The missal letters of two sizes, beginning with an A representing the
Trinity, are considered by experts to have been designed by Geoffroy
Tory or members of his school. They form part of a fragment consisting
of eight or nine pictorial pages, such as are to be met with in the
missals. Several have the Crucifixion surrounded by an ornamental
border, in one of which is the mark of Tory’s _atelier_--the cross of
Lorraine. On these leaves, which have not been identified--they were
perhaps only proof-sheets--the letters did not serve as initials, but
were placed end to end, to form a compartment border.

In two instances where initials were used at the beginning of the text,
they came from an alphabet of one of the missals given above.

The smaller of the two remaining sets, with the little D dated 1526,
was used in the publications of Simon de Colines and others.

A similar initial used by Chevallon at the beginning of a treatise of
diseases of women by Hippocrates is dated 1524, but after 1545 the date
is replaced by the letters C. G., the initials of Chevallon’s widow,
Charlotte Guiard.

In a large folio edition published by Chevallon in 1528 of the _Digesta
seu Pandectae Juris Civilis_, most of the initials are too badly
printed for reproduction. One of them, however, is of good impression,
and besides that is supremely interesting, as it forms a little picture
representing a scene from one of the xylographic _Ars Moriendi_. It is
the only letter of the kind we know, and this is the only time we have
met with it. In the original the initial is of the smaller dimension,
but it is so interesting that we have had it enlarged. In the block
books, scrolls are generally seen emerging from the mouths of the
devils, with the suggestions printed on them by which they attempt
to turn aside the dying soul from thoughts of piety. This miniature
composition is too small for such insertions, but the attitude of the
arch fiend shows that he is ready to seize any opportunity that may
present itself.

There are a great many more alphabets of Paris printers that we should
have liked to reproduce, had it been possible to multiply our examples
indefinitely--amongst them that of Kerver, of which we give the C with
a knight in armour. The three others, B, C, and L, are coarse copies of
Kerver letters used in England, these being taken from a medical work
by Bullein. Of the next three, the L with a saint is a copy of the same
letter of Rembolt, the two others from Philip le Noir both recurring
frequently in his impressions.

The P with a master and pupils is from the press of N. de la Barre.

The three little pen letters are from the same source.

We cannot bring this short selection of Parisian letters to a close
without mentioning the Royal letters designed by Geoffroy Tory and
used by Robert Estienne in a Bible and in other books after 1536.
Independently of the accessory ornamentation, the letters themselves
have since served as models of proportion.




CHAPTER XII

FRENCH PROVINCIAL TOWNS


Of provincial French towns after Lyons the most important as regards
the history of printing are Troyes and Rouen. In the former the chief
printers using initial letters were the Lerouges and J. Lecoq. The five
large letters, C, C, D, L, S, with Chinese-looking dragons and birds,
together with the B of an entirely different character representing
David and his harp, no doubt the initial letter of some Psalter, were
used in the impressions of the Lerouges, and were taken from one of
their finest books, _La thoison d’or_.

These printers worked for Paris publishers, particularly for Vérard,
and the calligraphic alphabet of the latter, given above, formed part
of their material.

Of Lecoq we give two sets. The specimens, with grotesque profiles, are
from a monumental _Graduale Trecense_ in which there are altogether
between twenty and thirty different varieties, from the _Vie de
Monseigneur St. Bernard_, printed for Macé Panthoul, and from a
_Statuta synodalia_ of the ‘State and Diocese of Troyes,’ printed by
order of the Reverend Bishop Odard Hennequin. The I, the Q with a
fool and his accoutrements, the S with a profile on each side and a
bird’s head and upper beak above, the larger F and the V also with two
profiles and a face with porcine snout on the top, are only to be found
in the _Statuta Synodalia_.

It may be here observed that it has been our constant practice to
reproduce our specimens exactly as they appear in the original, in
order to give them the documentary interest that they lose when
retouched. In this case these initials were too badly daubed over with
paint for gillotype reproduction, and the first nine were obtained by
photographing on wood and then engraving. They are good facsimiles of
the originals, but without what may be called their _patine_. It was
subsequently ascertained that the colour in most instances was easily
removable, and the other five letters were copied in the usual way. The
reader can compare the results of the two processes.

The smaller alphabet, engraved also on wood, is complete in the _Vie
de Monseigneur St. Bernard_, but occasional letters are to be met with
in many of Lecoq’s later impressions. Amongst these may be mentioned
an excessively rare little Latin primer on the plan of the Donatus,
with Lecoq’s _marque parlante_ on the title-page, and with the E of
this alphabet at the beginning of the title, which runs as follows:
_Epithoma sive breviarium octo partium orationis gramaticalis adiectis
grãmatice principiis ad completam grammaticam introductoriũ_.

Rouen was an important centre of printing at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, a great many publishers in other towns and countries
having the works which they edited printed in this city. This was
often the case with books apparently of Caen. We shall have to
speak of a _Histoire de Commines_, supposed to have been printed at
Paris, but really printed at Rouen. The earliest work from which we
have made reproductions is an exposition of the Psalms by Petrus de
Harentals, with a very long title beginning _Psalterii expositio Petri
de Harentals viri religione clarissimi_, etc.; at the end ‘Impressum
in officina Laurentii Hostingue et Jameti Loys,’ 1504. It is stated,
moreover, to be sold at Paris by J. Petit and Robert Macé, the large
mark of the latter occupying the verso of the last leaf. From this book
the series of letters with heads, curious little animals, and compound
monstrosities are taken. The large P with a man holding up his hand is
on the title-page. In another volume, the _Singularissimum et eximium
opus universis mortalibus sacratissimi ordinis Seraphici patris nostri
francisci_, etc., printed by Martin Morin in 1509, are the I with two
dragons, the H corresponding to it, and the second H with a woman in a
Norman bonnet such as the peasants wear to this day.

The only remaining initial we have met with of this style and size,
the P with a man with a pointed cap and tassel, is to be found on the
first page of the text of a _Coustumier de Normandie_, belonging to Mr.
Quaritch.

The large calligraphic M with the arms of Normandy adorns the
title-page of the missal of Arras, _Missale Atrebatense_, and also
that of the _Missale Noviomense_ of 1506, both of which were printed
by Martin Morin, and the twelve initials in red comprise most of the
ornamental letters distributed through the two volumes. There are
also some grotesque lettrines similar to those found in many Rouen
impressions, and such as have been given from the Psalterium of
Harentals.

Another large calligraphic initial, and nine smaller ones, are from a
Rouen edition of the _Propriétaire_, printed for Francis Regnault by
Jacques le Forestier, which, unlike the Lyons and Paris editions of the
same date, 1520-30, is without the series of twelve Zodiac letters that
precedes the paragraphs of the little treatise ‘On Men and Women’ at
the end of the volume.

The three smaller initials of the same size, A, B (David and his harp),
and R, the two somewhat larger--a D with a compound animal with a
long snaky neck, and a P with a grotesque, together with the P with
a schoolmaster armed with his birch and about to operate, are from
another edition of the _Coustumier de Normandie_ of 1523.

The A, surmounted by a crown with a saint below, with the D, a swan,
and the S with two animals, are met with also in other books, but were
reproduced from the _Opera Guilelmi Monachi Valladii_, without name of
printer or date, but printed at Rouen by Hostingue in 1505. The M is
the same as in the missals of M. Morin, and there is the same P as in
Harentals’ Psalter, but in very bad proofs.

Our last specimens are from the alphabet of Jacques Forestier, or
rather of Jacques le Gentil. Most of the letters are to be found in
a 1525 edition of _Commines_ which had always, on the authority of
Brunet, passed for having been printed at Paris. Claudin, however,
noticed that the verso of the last page had the arms of Rouen and the
mark of Jacques Forestier, and the recto says ‘Imprimé par J. G.’ This
J. G. was Jacques le Gentil, son-in-law to J. Forestier, to whose
business he succeeded, using for a time his father-in-law’s mark.

In the _Commines_ there are sixteen different initials, but neither of
the two with profiles, D and G. These, with some of the others, are to
be found in the _Grand Coustumier du Pays et Duché de Normandie_ of
1523, already mentioned, and in a book entitled _Divi Gregorii Magni
et ecclesie doctoris precipua opera_, printed at Rouen in 1521 at the
expense of that most honest man and most famous bookseller, Francis
Regnault of Paris.

From a typographical point of view Avignon is interesting on account
of the claim that has been made for it as the birthplace of printing
by the Abbé Requin. This is based upon notarial records of 1444, but
the invention, in the opinion of the late M. Claudin, was in reality a
primitive form of typewriting.

The chief printer there at the beginning of the sixteenth century was
Jean de Chauny, and our specimens of initials are from two volumes
printed by him for Jehan François de Saint Nazaire, otherwise called
De Ripa. The first is a small quarto with a curious ornamental
title-page, _De Peste libri tres_, dedicated by the ‘celeberrimus
atque acutissimus’ author to the citizens of Avignon; the other,
_Interpretationum et responsorum acutissimi atque clarissimi
jurisconsulti dōmi Joan francisci de Sancto Nazario cognomento de Ripa
libri tres_, is a very large quarto printed in 1527. Like most books
of the kind, both volumes commence by complimentary verses, the carmen
‘Jacobi Meigroni Novensis, ad studiosos legum juvenes,’ being a good
specimen of the punning panegyric of the period.

In a similar composition mentioned under the heading ‘Sienna,’ Dathus
is preferred to Cicero. According to Meigronus, De Ripa is more
reliable than the Delphic oracle.

Of the larger Avignon initials two only occur in the larger volume, the
F reproduced in the text at the beginning of the privilege, and an S at
the beginning of the third book, which is somewhat imperfectly printed.
The smaller letters are much more numerous, especially in the _Libri
Interpretationum et responsorum_.

A very important work[33] has been devoted to the early printing of
Poitiers, one volume of which consists chiefly of facsimiles. As a rule
the initials are devoid of interest, but there is a large grotesque
L from a _Costumier de Poitou_ printed by J. de Marnef, a P from a
missal, and a few with human faces, such as the one that we reproduce.

  [33] _Monuments de l’Imprimerie à Poitiers_, par A. Claudin.

Later in the century a legal work was published with a nearly complete
alphabet representing the different occurrences that might happen to an
accused person, such as the stocks and the rack. They are, however, as
a rule, too poorly printed, and the copies we have seen are not worth
reproducing.

In books printed at other French towns we have discovered but few
initials. There is a large but uninteresting one at the beginning of a
Chambéry edition of the _Roy Modus_.

On the only leaf that has come down to the present time of a Limoges
missal, and which forms the subject of a memoir by M. Claudin, is an R,
with the Resurrection.

In an early Albi edition of Æsop, with cuts, in what is called the
_manière éraillée_, which look as if executed by scratching the block
with a rusty nail, there are some initials of which the N will give an
idea of the _éraillée_ manner. In a later tract, _La vie et légende de
Mme. Ste. Petroine_, there is an A, which may possibly have been used
first for a missal.

In the chapter about Basle, mention has been made of an alphabet which
is nearly complete, used by Furter in his _Liber Decretorum sive
Panormia_, and which also occurs in a much rarer book without date or
printer’s name, the _Decreta Consilii Basiliensis_. This alphabet, it
now seems, was used in 1488, at Besançon, in the _Speculum Humanae
Vitae_ of Rodoricus Zamorensis. Sotheby, in his _Typography of the
Fifteenth Century_, has given a reproduction of one of the pages on
which there is the very characteristic serpentine S, which is here
given with the T and the V.

Printers in the other towns would seem to have been supplied with the
worn-out initials of the Rouen and Lyons presses.

In the few books with ornaments printed at Caen, Rouen letters are
found; whilst in those published in the south of France, there are
chiefly the floral initials from the presses of Saccon, De Vingle, and
other Lyons printers.




CHAPTER XIII

SPANISH TOWNS


‘Spanish books,’ says Mr. Pollard, ‘are distinguished by the excellence
of their initial letters, which are always as plentiful as they are
good, the great majority of books after 1485 being fully provided with
them.’

Our own experience confirms this statement, but we have found that they
are as a rule ornamental rather than historiated, and that there is,
moreover, a certain sameness about them.

For this reason we shall only give six specimens of the first variety,
but these will serve to give an idea of the initials of this kind
usually met with in Spanish books. The C and the M are taken from
a volume printed by G. Castilla at Valencia, the E from a _Comento
di Eusebio_, printed in 1522 by order of the Reverend Archbishop of
Toledo, at the noble town of Salamanca, by Hans Gyffer Aleman di
Silgenstat. The origin of the three others, L, P, U, is uncertain, but
is referred to further on. The seven smaller initials, or ‘lettrines,’
as they are called, are taken from the Eusebius.

Our historiated specimens are much more numerous. The first set of nine
letters is taken from a work of the very greatest rarity, to which
Mr. Pollard has called attention, the _Compilacion de Leyes_, printed
at Zamora in 1485. This consists of eight different sections and a
preface, each of which is preceded by one of the initials.

In the I, which is the first in the book and precedes the preface,
there is amongst others a personage with a black rod, probably
symbolising the dignity of the Court. On the first page of the text
is a P with the King and Queen, Ferdinand and Isabella. ‘The first
section of the laws,’ says Mr. Pollard, ‘treating of the _Santa Fé_,
has an initial E showing God the Father upholding the Crucified Christ;
the second section sets forth the duty of the King to hear causes two
days a week, and begins with an L in which he is unpleasantly closely
pressed by the litigants. Two knights spurring from the different sides
of an S head the laws of chivalry; a canonist and his scholars in A
preside over matrimony; money-changers in a D over commerce; while a
luckless wretch being hanged in the centre of a T warns evil-doers what
they may expect under the criminal law.’

We may add that in the other E there is a representation of what is
probably a prison. Unfortunately, the proofs of these initials in the
British Museum copy, from which we have reproduced them, are most
defective. As Mr. Pollard says, ‘They must have been designed and
executed by clever artists whose work is so fine that the printer
in most instances has failed to do justice to it.’ In some of these
letters there is in parts only the faintest impression of the design,
and it has been necessary in this case to have them retouched.

Of our other historiated specimens, some have been reproduced from a
collection of initials, some photographed by ourselves, and some are
from books no longer at our disposal, and not having been able to refer
always to the volumes from which they were taken, we give some of their
origins _sous toutes réserves_.

Such is the case with the E and P with Biblical scenes, which,
notwithstanding the nature of the subjects, come from a medical book,
with another pair of initials with Biblical scenes A and E, the P with
a portrait, and the three ornamental letters of the same kind, L, P,
U, given above. We can only say that the two first and three last come
from one or other of the following books:--

The _Epilogo en Medicina y en cirurgia conveniente a la Salud_,
Pampelune, 1495; the _Libro di Medicina llamado_, etc., Cromberger,
Seville, 1517; and the _Medicina y cirurgia_ of Burgos, 1495.

The large E with the initials S. M. (St. Mark) is from a book printed
by Juan de Varila at Seville; the G by J. Alvera of Coimbra. Of the
five others, the S and the T each representing the Almighty, the L with
a child on a branched groundwork, and the A and U of the same size with
saints, we can only affirm the Spanish origin, without being able to
give fuller particulars.

The large P with a scribe at his desk is in the Eusebius of Salamanca
already mentioned, the only historiated initial in the four large
volumes.

The A with a king kneeling, the N with a doctor exhorting a student,
and the T, are from two books printed in the same type, but only one of
them has the name of a printer. This, the _Libellus de beneficiis in
curia vacantibus_, from which the N is taken, was printed at the most
noble and loyal city of Seville by Jacob Cromberger, in 1512. The two
others are from a work with a long title beginning _Clarissimi cesarei
juris doctor ac in studio Salmantino primarii regentis Didaca de Segura
solemnis et elegantissima repetitio_. It is curious as containing a
warning on the title-page to dishonest booksellers and printers against
infringing the author’s rights: _Cautum est a Serenissimis principibus
nostris ut nemo avidus Bibliopola nec quicunque alius audeat imprimere
sub poena in privilegio contenta_.

The four letters from an alphabet of Death occur in several books
printed in the town of Stella. According to different authorities,
Stella corresponds to what is now known as Estella. Deschamps says
‘Voyez Flavonia,’ and under this heading ‘Flavonia (Merula Cosmograph).
Compostella (Mariana) Santiago di Compostella. St. Jacques di
Compostella, town of Spain in the dependence of La Carogne (Galacie).’
This information is not very explicit, but it is supplemented by
the statement that Stella was celebrated amongst other things by a
book published in 1693 against the abuse of _escatados_, that is
the fashion amongst ladies of cutting their dresses low between the
shoulders.

The alphabet of which the E, F, N, and V form part, is a copy not of
Holbein’s alphabet of Death, but of the little pictures that illustrate
his _Simulachres_ or _faces historiées de la Mort_. Some of them
occur in a book entitled _Series totius historiae sacri Evangelii
autore Petro Trurozqui Navarro_ (Stellae, Adrian Anverez, 1557), which
contains also most of the letters of an alphabet copied from the
Biblical series of Froshover of Zurich, mentioned in its place.

Another book without printer’s name, but dated 1555, in which they
occur, merits from us a more particular description, inasmuch as
it consists almost entirely of initial letters. The title of this
typographical curiosity is _Libro Sotilissimo y provechoso para
deprender a escrevir y contar el qual lleva la misma orden que lleva
un maestro con su discipulo en que estan puestas las cinco reglas mas
principales de guarismo y otras cosas sotiles y prouechosas_. Each page
of the little volume is surrounded by a woodcut border. On the verso of
the title, the notice to the reader begins with the M of the Dance of
Death alphabet. The two succeeding pages have little pictures of the
saints.

On the verso of the fourth page begins the same Biblical alphabet as
in the other volume, the first letter, A, representing Eve and the
tempter with the Tree of Knowledge, the alphabet, the letters of which
are used as illustrative cuts and not as initials, being continued one
letter per page with about five lines of text underneath; B (Abraham),
C (Jacob), D (David), E (Absalom), and so on. When the Biblical
alphabet is finished, the Dance of Death letters take its place, two
on a page with a _cul de lampe_ underneath the border, but no text.
They are twenty-three in number, occupying twelve pages, the last being
accompanied by the A (Eve and the Tree of Life) of the other series.

Then come the remaining letters of the first alphabet, this time two by
two, one under the other, without any text, but with a woodcut border.
The last page but one has two little cuts of saints on each side, the
last one having four still smaller on the recto which entirely fill it,
but nothing on the verso.

In the language of typography the town of Alcala de Henares was styled
Complutum, and one of its chief printers was Arnaldus Guilelmus
Brocart, who, before coming here, had been established at Pampeluna,
where he printed, amongst others, liturgical works.

The two large linear initials are taken from a book of this kind, the
_Passionarium cum Lamentationibus Jeremie atque Benedictione cerei
Paschalis_, published in 1516. They are the only letters of the size
in the volume, the P recurring thrice. There are some smaller initials
in the same style, but not of much interest, besides a number of the
pen-letters with more or less grotesque profiles in the style, although
coarser, of the alphabet of Vérard.




CHAPTER XIV

EARLY DUTCH INITIALS


The early typography of the Low Countries has been made the subject of
a most interesting monograph by J. W. Holtrop, chief librarian at the
Hague, _Monuments Typographiques des Pays-Bas au Quinzième Siècle_, and
it is from this work that we have reproduced most of the initials in
this section.

The first specimen given by Holtrop is the G of the _Fasciculus
Temporum_, printed at Utrecht by J. Veldener in 1480--an immense
initial more than eight centimetres square. The page is surrounded by a
folio-floral border in the same style. It has also been reproduced by
Bodemann.

In the _Summa Experimentorum sive Thesaurus Pauperum_ of Thierry
Martens, who printed at Alost and afterwards at Antwerp, is the large A
with a profile.

Passing over the initials of Ludovicus de Ravescot of Louvain, the next
printer mentioned by Holtrop is G. Leeu of Gouda, who published in 1481
a _Dyalogus Creaturarum_ with illustrative cuts, a very black S, not
unlike the large one reproduced, and an ornamental border.

The thirteen smaller initials of the same type are from an impression
by Godfrid de Os of Gouda, and furnished Caxton, who copied from
different continental sources, with the models of some of his initials.
Mr. W. Blades, in his _Biography and Typography of W. Caxton_, gives
a plate of woodcut initials from Caxton’s books, two of which are of
French origin--Dupré and Vérard--the A of the _Order of Chivalry_,
Italian in style, whilst an O with a grotesque face is the Q given in
our series with the tail cut off. There is also an H with a profile on
the left, evidently inspired by the P given here.

Of our remaining reproductions, the large S is to be found in books
published by Jacob van der Meer of Delft. The P of nearly the same
size belongs to a series of five large initials which comprises also
the profile A, already mentioned, of Thierry Martens. These letters,
together with a smaller alphabet in the style of the letters of Godfrid
de Os, are to be found in editions of G. Leeu at Antwerp, as is also
the D of pine-cone pattern copied from the alphabet of Israel von
Mecken. The large initial with a portrait, which is said by Holtrop to
be that of Philip le Bel, is by Godfrid Back of Antwerp.

The P representing the miracle of St. Veronica is to be found in a
book by an unknown printer of Schiedam, _Johannis Brugman Vita almae
virginis Lydwinae Sciedammitae_. The G given here with the same
subject is evidently copied from this letter, and ornaments a leaf of
an early black-letter English prayer-book, found in the binding of a
sixteenth-century volume.

Louvain initials of any interest are extremely rare, and the only
historiated one that we have seen is an N of a fifteenth-century
missal, all the other capitals of which are painted by hand.

The calligraphic G and the H, both with grotesque profiles, are early
specimens of initials of Antwerp from the title-pages of books. The G
is from a Belial, _circa_ 1500, the H from a small Leyden tract of the
same date.




CHAPTER XV

LATER GERMAN INITIALS


Hitherto we have devoted each chapter to special towns and their
printers. In this, the final one, we shall deal with German initials
that have not found a place elsewhere. Before, however, proceeding to
their enumeration, we wish it to be understood that if certain towns
or presses have not been given, it is because we have not wished to
go beyond a certain limit. And for this reason we have preferred
using the documents at our disposal to reproducing specimens of these
presses from other sources. Were it otherwise, and had this _recueil_
of initials been intended to be entirely representative, we should have
considered it necessary to give specimens of the large letters used by
Johann Scheffer in his Livy, of those designed by Cranach for Luft of
Wittemberg, and of those used by Kobel of Oppenheim and of many others.

It should be said, moreover, that the greater number of what may be
termed representative alphabets--those that occur most frequently in
the publications of the time--have been already reproduced in works on
Renaissance book ornamentation, whereas our initials have been selected
because less generally met with, and consequently less known.

We have already given specimens of initials printed in red, which
nearly always are found in missals; the three following are taken
from the Missal of Spires, printed at the expense of that honest
‘dominus Peter Drach,’ and dated 1500. In the copy of the _Bibliothèque
Nationale_ there is a fine engraving, before the Canon, of the
Crucifixion with the date 1516, but these pictures were often added
afterwards.

Although a comparatively small town, Hagenau towards the end of the
first quarter of the sixteenth century had become an important printing
centre, two printers at least making use of typographical ornaments.
Those used by Heinrich Gran are not of the very first merit, as can be
seen by reference to Butsch, who reproduces one of his title-pages.
Thomas Anselm de Bade, on the contrary, has title-pages and initials
from two different sources of the very greatest interest, as our
reproductions show.

The nine very large letters, with the very much smaller E, are met with
in several missals published after 1518, the most important of which
is known as the Benedictine Missal, the _Missale Bursfeldense. Missale
denuo diligentissime castigatum et revisum ordinis sancti Benedicti
reformatorum nigrorum Monachorum Bursfeldensium._ As the reader can
see, they differ in character from those found in any other missal, and
have been attributed to Hans Baldung Grün, who also designed Anselm’s
printer’s mark.

Nothing can be more charming than the little E with the children which
commences so appropriately the verse beginning _Ex ore infantium_, and
which gives still another example of the alliance so frequently met
with between the serious and the grotesque. There is another set of
initials in the same style, slightly smaller, in which the incidents on
the T are reversed, the sacrifice of Abraham being on the left. They
are to be found in the Strasburg Missal of Hagenau of 1518.

Another very good Hagenau series is the children’s alphabet used by the
same Thomas Anselm in his _Plinius_ of 1520, and said by Weigel in his
_Altdeutsches Holzschnittalphabet_ to have been designed by the elder
Heinrich Vogtherr. It is on a somewhat smaller scale than the Dürer
alphabet, and about the same size as that of Urs Graf. Artistically it
occupies a middle place between the two.

These letters, which nearly form a complete series, were almost at once
copied by Franc Birckmann of Cologne, the only difference being that
the M and the R are on a black instead of a white ground, as in the
Hagenau original.

Some of the letters were used in books published by Lucas Alantius of
Vienna.

In the M, which is reproduced from a Vienna copy, there are some
further modifications. The shield under the child’s left arm has been
added, and there would appear to be a monogram between the pendent
grapes and tassel not in the original.

The five letters, C, E, I, M, and O, the last representing the Massacre
of the Innocents, belong to a collection where they are classed as
coming from the missal of Magdeburg, which we have not been able to
verify. They are said to be the only ones in the volume of this size,
and are accompanied by a small ornamental series in the style of
Cranach, who may very likely have designed the larger letters.

In the missal of Posen (_Posnaniense_) of 1524 there are only five
ornamental letters, of which three are given, the T being a picture of
the cathedral of the town as it was at the time.

The two Apocalyptic initials are typical specimens of the style of
Cranach, and come from the _Missale Evangeliare_ of Luther, printed by
Lufft of Wittemberg in 1525.

We have mentioned above the alphabet of Cranach which is given by
Butsch in his _Bücher-Ornamentik_. There are several smaller alphabets
in the same style, in one of which is an initial representing a donkey
sitting up with spectacles, no doubt a satire on the doctors of the
church with whom Cranach had often to do. Wittemberg was one of the
chief centres of the Lutheran controversy, and inundated Europe
with tracts on the subject. A great many of these have ornamental
title-pages, many of which were designed by Cranach in a style quite
different from his initials. Those with children, which equal anything
of the period, are particularly charming.

Nothing could be more fantastic than the subjects in the series of
initials, seven or eight altogether, of which the C, L, and T are
specimens. What, however, they mean exactly we do not pretend to say.
In the T there are apparently two Satyrs dancing a saraband, but
the personage in the C would appear rather to be one of those weird
creations that grow out of foliage under the pencil of the artist.

These letters are to be found no doubt in other publications of the
same press, but those given here were taken from the _Elegantiae_ of
Laurentius Valla, printed in 1522 by Lazarus Schurer of Schlestadt.
The complete series is known as the alphabet of Pilgrim ‘le maître aux
Bourdons,’ Waechstein. Besides the C, L, and the T there are seven
others in the _Elegantiae_; an H with a lion’s head, an I, two winged
children; P and Q each with a child, R and S in the same style as the
C, the latter having the head of a fantastic animal. There is also a
smaller D with an extraordinary kind of winged satyr, and a Q with a
couple of children.

Chronologically, we should have mentioned before the _Missale
Pataviense_ of Vienna, printed by J. Winterberger in 1512, which has
initials of several dimensions, but most of them too indistinct for
reproduction. Those chosen, C, P, S, T, are the best of the smaller
series.

We have described in their proper places the Psalters of Ratdolt of
1499; of Furter of 1501-3; and of Knoblouch ten years later, all of
them exactly uniform in size and arrangement, the two latter with
German commentary framing the text. In all of these, ornamental
initials are used occasionally, those in the two first-named volumes
having exactly the same historiation, whilst in the Strasburg Psalter
they are simply ornamental. The Psalter of Metz, printed by Caspar
Hochffeder in 1513, is on the same general plan, but without any
woodcut initials in the body of the volume; on the title-page, however,
is the P given here, which is the only initial of this origin that we
have been able to discover.

The four initials, comprising an O with the portrait in costume of a
young girl, an outline T representing a money-changer’s office, and two
others, are from a Pogge by Knoblouch, who printed several works of
this author.

We have already had occasion to remark about the incongruity between
certain books and the initials that embellish them, and the two D’s,
one with a personage magnificently costumed, the other with a mandoline
player, afford another example of this peculiarity. The volume from
which they are taken is the Magdeburg Bible of 1542, printed by H.
Walther. In this edition the different books of Scripture are preceded
by initials of the same size as the reproductions, but nearly always
with Biblical subjects corresponding to the text that is to follow. In
Genesis, Adam and Eve are being chased by an angel with flaming sword
from Paradise, and so on. The chapters of the books begin by smaller
initials, with children romping and playing, in one letter torturing
a cat, in another fighting a cock; whilst in a third a child is armed
with a pewter squirt, apparently in no way different to the squirt of
fifty years ago. Besides initials, this Bible is embellished with cuts,
in some of which German castles of the fifteenth century serve as a
background to Biblical scenes, and Jews and infidels sometimes wear
costumes of the same period.

Scheffer’s large ornamental letters have been mentioned at the
beginning of this chapter. In 1518 he was using a small alphabet in
some of his publications, and a few initials of intermediate size, four
of which are given by Butsch. There is an A with a naked woman sitting
on the ground, two C’s with children, and an S, also with children,
one of whom is playing on a kind of horn. The B, reproduced in the
same style, not given by Butsch, is less frequently met with, Latin
paragraphs rarely beginning with this initial.

Ingoldstadt is known to bibliographers chiefly by the _Astronomicon
Cesareum_ of 1540, a folio volume with movable astronomical diagrams.
On the verso of the title are the arms of Charles V. and Ferdinand,
to whom the book is dedicated. The last page is entirely covered
by the arms of the printer, P. Apianus, which serve as his mark.
Throughout the volume are the geometrical initials designed by
Michael Ostendorfer, of which we give the best specimens, some of
them occurring only once, others two, three, and four times, the C
occurring on ten occasions. There are twenty-two different letters in
all, including a Greek Φ.

Another smaller alphabet of children occurs chiefly towards the end,
to which set belongs a compound double initial, much wider than it is
tall, which contains the letters Q, U. Besides these, there are four
I’s with the four Evangelists, each one with his special symbol.

Although undoubtedly a pictorial initial, the C with which we terminate
our German selection is not reproduced from a book, but was taken from
a document of which we have seen several copies, a licence to marry
within prohibited degrees. In this document the body of the text is
printed in ordinary black-letter characters, with blanks for the names
of the persons wishing to contract marriage. Above the text is a line
of ornamental ‘bullatic’ letters, as they are termed, preceded by the
C here given, which form together the word ‘Collegium,’ the meaning
of the historiation being no doubt that St. Peter with his key has
delegated his power to open the Paradise of Matrimony.




CHAPTER XVI

ENGLISH INITIALS


With very few exceptions the decorative and pictorial initials
reproduced from foreign books on the preceding pages have been chosen
from works printed before 1525, and in most cases before 1500. In
Germany, Italy, France, and the Netherlands, schools of cutters
and engravers in wood and soft metal with strongly marked local
characteristics came into existence before 1490--in Germany some twenty
years earlier--and during the last decade of the century numerous
finely illustrated books were issued from the chief continental
presses. The good work of one country or town might be imitated,
slavishly or freely, in another; here and there also the work produced
was quaintly or stupidly bad, and good designs were often spoilt by
clumsy cutting. But despite all such individual failures, there was
abundance of originality and executive skill, and this is true also,
though in a less degree, of Switzerland and Spain. When we turn our
eyes homewards, we find a totally different state of affairs. The few
English illustrated books of the period with which this monograph
is mainly concerned have been divided by specialists into three
groups:[34] those with cuts borrowed outright from the Netherlands
or France (_e.g._ Caxton’s Horae cuts, the illustrations in Pynson’s
edition of Lydgate’s _Falls of Princes_, etc.); those slavishly
copied, mostly, but not always, very badly, from foreign originals
(_e.g._ Caxton’s _Aesop_, the editions of the _Castell of Labour_,
_Art of Good Living and Good Dyeing_, the _Ship of Fools_, and most
of the odd single cuts); lastly, a scanty residue of native origin,
illustrating books like the _Canterbury Tales_ or _Morte d’Arthur_,
for which no foreign models could be found. Some of these are almost
incredibly bad, others merely wooden, a very few, like the cut to
Fisher’s funeral sermon for Henry VII., fairly neat. But, again
speaking generally, it is evident that English printers could enlist
the services of no designers of any skill and of few woodcutters able
to rival the average journeyman-work in foreign books.

  [34] Consult an extremely interesting paper on this subject,
  ‘Initial Letters in Early English Printed Books,’ by Charles Sayle.
  _Bibliographical Society’s Transactions_, 1904.

Good initials demanded little less skill from their designers, and
certainly no less from their cutters, than the larger forms of
book-illustration. The great continental centres of printing prove
abundantly that good initials are the natural accompaniments of good
illustrations, and thus there is no room for surprise that in England,
where there was no competent native school of book-illustration, there
was also no competent native school of initial-cutters.

Of the fact there can be no doubt. Caxton possessed only one initial
of any size, the A shown among our facsimiles, which he used in one or
two of his later books. His contemporaries possessed none at all. After
Caxton’s death in 1491, for the next half-century and more the history
of English initials is as the history of our book-illustrations--they
are imported from abroad, copied from foreign originals, or of no
artistic value. An early instance of importation is the large grotesque
H, shown in facsimile, which De Worde acquired early in his career from
Govaert van Os when the latter was moving to Copenhagen; in the same
way Julian Notary obtained a few letters from André Bocard. Though it
may be thought churlish to look outside England when we find a rebus
on an English name, it can hardly be doubted that the initials cut for
Pynson’s Morton Missal, of which specimens are given, were made for
him in France. Certainly no one could claim these letters as starting
an independent English school, and most of those subsequently used by
Pynson and De Worde are direct copies, or imitations, from the French.
Thus it is only by transcending our bounds that we can offer a few
examples of English initials which have at least more independence than
these early ventures. It, perhaps, shows some rashness to include among
them the excellent H from Grafton’s edition of Halle’s _Union of the
two Houses of York and Lancaster_ (1548), for this may perchance have
been inspired by those in the Paris edition of the _Historia Danica_
of Saxo Grammaticus (see pages 85 and 230). Nevertheless the book is
important, because it was on heraldic lines that some of the best later
work was produced. Much of this may be connected with the name of that
excellent printer John Day. The pictorial initial to the Bible of 1549,
showing Edward Becke, the promoter of the edition, presenting a copy to
Edward VI., is full of life, and the portrait initial of Elizabeth from
Foxe’s _Book of Martyrs_ is excellent work. Between these two books Day
had issued, in 1559, a fine edition of Cunningham’s _Cosmographical
Glasse_, and this is adorned by an admirable heraldic D with the arms
of the Earl of Leicester, and by some pictorial initials connected
with the subject of the book, the authorship of these being still
undiscovered, despite the letters IB, IC, ID, found on some of them. At
a later date work of the same style appears in his edition of Ascham’s
_Schoolmaster_.

It is a pity that Day, not being the royal printer, could not be
entrusted with printing the Bishops’ Bible of 1568, which came from the
press of Jugge and Cawood. But his patron, Archbishop Parker, had, of
course, a large share in its superintendence, and some of the heraldic
initials in the volume are almost as good as the Leicester D. That
which has been chosen as a sample shows the arms of Archbishop Cranmer,
a pleasing compliment from Parker to his predecessor.

The ornamental title-page to the Bishops’ Bible is not woodcut but
engraved on copper, and the fact is significant. Under Day’s guidance
English printing and book-illustration lifted up their head, but the
effort came too late. After about 1580 woodcuts became unfashionable,
copper engravings gradually took their place, and the change was fatal
to the production of fine initials, of which no more were produced.




REPRODUCTIONS OF INITIALS


ULM

[Illustration]

INITIAL WITH BORDER FROM THE XYLOGRAPHIC DONATUS OF DINCKMUT


INITIALS FROM BLOCK BOOKS

[Illustration]

FROM AN ‘ARS MEMORANDI’

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MIRABILIA ROMAE’


MAYENCE

[Illustration]

FROM THE ÆSOP OF SCHEFFER

[Illustration]

FROM THE BREIDENBACH OF ERHARDT REUWICH


AUGSBURG

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM G. ZAINER’S SIXTH GERMAN BIBLE AND J. FRIBURGENSIS’ ‘SUMMA
CONFESSORUM’

[Illustration]

FROM G. ZAINER’S ‘MARGARITA DAVITICA’

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF SORG

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF KELLER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF HOHENWANG AND PFLANTZMANN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF SCHÖNSPERGER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF BÄMLER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM G. ZAINER’S GERMAN BIBLE

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM G. ZAINER’S GERMAN BIBLE

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM SORG’S ‘SUSO DICTUS AMANDUS’

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM RATDOLT’S BREVIARY, 1491

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM RATDOLT’S BREVIARY AND PSALTER, 1491-1499

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM RATDOLT’S CONSTANCE MISSAL, 1516

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS BY HANS WEIDITZ IN DIFFERENT WORKS PUBLISHED BY STEYNER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS BY HANS WEIDITZ IN DIFFERENT WORKS PUBLISHED BY STEYNER


ULM

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM J. ZAINER’S BOCCACCIO

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

OTHER INITIALS OF G. ZAINER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE COSMOGRAPHIA OF PTOLEMY--LEONARD HOLL, 1482

[Illustration]

FROM THE ULM BIBLE, 1480

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF J. REGER, 1496


NUREMBERG

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF PETER WAGNER, 1489

[Illustration]

INITIAL OF J. REGIOMONTANUS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE FOURTH GERMAN BIBLE OF FRISNER AND SENSENSCHMIDT

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE FOURTH GERMAN BIBLE OF FRISNER AND SENSENSCHMIDT

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE FOURTH GERMAN BIBLE OF FRISNER AND SENSENSCHMIDT

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MISSALE PATAVIENSE’ OF J. GUTNECHT

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MISSALE PATAVIENSE’ OF J. GUTNECHT


BASLE

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM RICHEL’S LATIN BIBLE, 1475

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM FURTER’S PSALTER, 1501

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS BY URS GRAF

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘CHRISTIANLICHE BILGERSCHAFT’ OF ADAM PETRI

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF ‘DANCE OF DEATH’ BY LÜTZELBERGER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

GREEK ‘DANCE OF DEATH’ INITIALS

[Illustration]

‘DANCE OF DEATH’ INITIAL

  FROM ALPHABETS BY HANS HOLBEIN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

STRASBURG COPIES OF THE ‘DANCE OF DEATH’ ALPHABET

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF PEASANTS FROM THE ‘GALEN’ OF BEBELIUS AND CRATANDER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM CHILDREN’S ALPHABET IN ‘LACTANTIUS’ AND OTHER WORKS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM LARGER CHILDREN’S ALPHABET

  FROM ALPHABETS BY HANS HOLBEIN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF VALENTIN CURIO, FROM ALPHABETS BY HANS HOLBEIN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF VALENTIN CURIO, FROM ALPHABETS BY HANS HOLBEIN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘GALEN’ OF BEBELIUS AND CRATANDER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE GREEK LEXICON OF RENÉ GELLI

  FROM ALPHABETS BY HANS HOLBEIN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

OTHER INITIALS BY HOLBEIN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS BY HOLBEIN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS FROM ALPHABET BY AMBROSE HOLBEIN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS BY VAN CALCAR FROM VESALIUS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS BY VAN CALCAR FROM VESALIUS


ZÜRICH

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS USED BY FROSCHOUER


LÜBECK

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘RUDIMENTA NOVITIORUM’ AND JOSEPHUS OF LUCAS BRANDIS, 1475

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘RUDIMENTA NOVITIORUM’ AND JOSEPHUS OF LUCAS BRANDIS, 1475

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘LEBEN DES HEIL. HIERONYMUS’ BY BARTHOLOMEW GHOTAN, 1484

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MEDITATIONES SANCTÆ BRIGITTÆ’ BY BARTHOLOMEW GHOTAN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MEDITATIONES SANCTÆ BRIGITTÆ’ BY BARTHOLOMEW GHOTAN


BAMBERG

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MISSALE OLUMUCENSE’ OF SENSENSCHMIDT, 1489

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MISSALE OLUMUCENSE’ OF SENSENSCHMIDT, 1489

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM A BAMBERG MISSAL

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE BAMBERG MISSAL OF J. PFEYL, 1506

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE BAMBERG MISSAL OF J. PFEYL, 1506


STRASBURG

[Illustration]

FROM T. DE HASELPACH’S ‘SERMONES’

[Illustration]

FROM ‘BURGUNDISCHE HISTORIE’

[Illustration]

FROM ‘DIALOGUS SALOMONIS ET MARCOLFI’

[Illustration]

FROM ‘BELIAL’ AND OTHER BOOKS

  FROM VARIOUS BOOKS PRINTED BY KNOBLOCHTZER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘DEUTSCHER KALENDER’ AND OTHER BOOKS

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘DE SECRETIS MULIERUM’

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘DE RITU ET MORIBUS INDORUM’

  FROM VARIOUS BOOKS PRINTED BY KNOBLOCHTZER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

ANTHROPOMORPHIC LETTERS USED BY VARIOUS PRINTERS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS FROM THE ‘SCRIPTUM’ OF G. DE OCKAM, AND THE ‘COMMENTARIUS
SANCTI JOHANNIS,’ PRINTED BY G. SCHOTT

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

LETTERS FROM THE ‘PLENARIUM’

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

OTHER STRASBURG INITIALS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM A PSALTER BY J. PRUSZ, 1498

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM KNOBLOUCH’S ‘POGGE,’ 1513

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM VARIOUS BOOKS PRINTED BY GRÜNINGER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM VARIOUS BOOKS PRINTED BY GRÜNINGER

[Illustration]

FROM ‘SERMONES’ OF GEILER VON KAISERSPERG

[Illustration]

FROM ‘SERMONES’ OF GEILER VON KAISERSPERG


REUTLINGEN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM BOOKS PRINTED BY G. GRYFF


GENEVA

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘DOCTRINAL DE SAPIENCE’ OF 1488

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘DOCTRINAL DE SAPIENCE’ OF 1493

[Illustration]

FROM ‘LES FLEURS ET MANIÈRES DES TEMPS PASSÉS’

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘DIALOGUS CREATURUM’

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM A MISSAL OF BELLOT


COLOGNE

[Illustration]

FROM QUENTELL’S MISSAL, 1494

[Illustration]

FROM A DONATUS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM ‘SEQUENTIARUM ET HYMNORUM’ EXPOSITIO BY BUNGART DE KETWYCK

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

OTHER INITIALS BY QUENTELL

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

BY MELCHIOR NOVESIANUS

[Illustration]

BY J. GYMNICUS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM ALPHABET OF ALBERT DÜRER IN BOOKS BY CERVICORNUS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM ALPHABET OF ALBERT DÜRER IN BOOKS BY CERVICORNUS

[Illustration]

A LYONS COPY

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

MACABRE INITIALS

[Illustration]

COPIED FROM THE VENETIAN ‘BREVIARUM ORBIS’ OF LILIUS


VENICE

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF RATDOLT, 1476

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM MISSALS AND BREVIARIES BY GEORGE ARRIVABENE AND LUCANTONIO DI
GIUNTA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM MISSALS AND BREVIARIES BY GEORGE ARRIVABENE AND LUCANTONIO DI
GIUNTA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM MISSALS AND BREVIARIES BY GEORGE ARRIVABENE AND LUCANTONIO DI
GIUNTA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM A BOOK PRINTED BY BONETUS LOCATELLUS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM BOOKS BY MATTEO CAPCASA, TACUINUS DE TRIDINO, BONETUS LOCATELLUS,
AND OTHERS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM BOOKS BY MATTEO CAPCASA, TACUINUS DE TRIDINO, BONETUS LOCATELLUS,
AND OTHERS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MISSALE VALLISUMBROSE’ OF GIUNTA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MISSALE VALLISUMBROSE’ OF GIUNTA

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MISSALE VALLISUMBROSE’ OF GIUNTA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM A VENETIAN IMPRESSION

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM AN EDITION OF ARISTOTLE BY SESSA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘VITA DI SANCTI PADRI’ OF OTINO DA PAVIA DE LA LUNA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘VITA DI SANCTI PADRI’ OF OTINO DA PAVIA DE LA LUNA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS BY SESSA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘BREVIARIUM ORBIS’ OF ZACHARIUS LILIUS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM A VENETIAN IMPRESSION

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM WORKS BY VARIOUS PRINTERS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS BY DE GREGORIIS

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS BY DE GREGORIIS

[Illustration]

PORTRAIT OF COSMO DE MEDICI

[Illustration]

PIUS ROMAE PONTIFEX


ROME

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘VITÆ CÆSARUM’ OF SUETONIUS BY SWEYNHEIM AND PANNARTZ, 1471

[Illustration]

E. SILBER, 1507

[Illustration]

JACOBUS MAZOCHIUS, 1515


SIENNA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘OPERA DATHI’ OF NARDI, 1503

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘OPERA DATHI’ OF NARDI, 1503


COMO

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE VITRUVIUS OF GOTARDUS DE PONTE


PAVIA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

INITIALS OF J. DE BURGOFRANCO


SALUZZO

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘AUREUM OPUS’ OF LE SIGNERRE


VERONA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM A WORK BY CELSUS MAPHEUS


VICENZA

[Illustration]

FROM A CATALOGUS SANCTORUM


BRESCIA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘INVECTIVAE’ OF T. N. CYCHUTHOE


FERRARA

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘DE CLARIS MULIERIBUS’

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MISSALE CARTHUSIENSE,’ PRINTED BY THE MONKS AT THEIR CONVENT

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘MISSALE CARTHUSIENSE,’ PRINTED BY THE MONKS AT THEIR CONVENT


MILAN

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

LETTRINES BY SCINZENZELLER

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘OPUS AUREE’ OF ZAROTUS, 1513

[Illustration]

FROM THE ‘SERMONS OF ST. BERNARD,’ LEONARD PACHEL, 1495

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

FROM WORKS PRINTED BY GERARD PONTICUS


LYONS

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‘LETTRES TOURNEURES FLEURONNÉES’ OF W. LEROY, 1479

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FROM ‘LE PRESTRE JEHAN’

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FROM ‘LES QUATRE FILS AYMON’ OF W. LEROY

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FROM THE ‘STATUTA SYNODALIA’ OF W. LEROY

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FROM THE BOCCACCIO OF MATHIEU AND JEAN SCHABELER, 1483

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FROM THE BREIDENBACH OF GASPARD ORTUIN

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FROM ‘LA MER DES HYSTOIRES’ BY MICHEL TOPIE

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FROM A MELUSINE

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LETTRES RUSTIQUES OF MATHIEU HUSZ

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FROM THE ‘LIVRE DES MARCHANDS’

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FROM THE ‘SOMME RURALE’ OF BOUTELLIER

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FROM THE ‘CATHON EN FRANÇOYS’

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LYONS COPY OF AN INITIAL FROM THE BOECE OF VÉRARD

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FROM SACCON’S MISSAL

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FROM THE MISSAL OF PIERRE HONGRE

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FROM THE MISSAL OF PIERRE HONGRE

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FROM THE MISSAL OF PIERRE HONGRE

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INITIALS BY J. POULLET, 1505

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FROM THE MISSAL OF NARBONNE, 1528

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FROM A LYONS MISSAL

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FROM A ‘CATALOGUS SANCTORUM’ OF SACCON

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FROM THE ‘CATHOLICON’ OF J. WOLFF, 1503

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FROM THE ‘CATHOLICON’ OF J. WOLFF, 1503

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FROM AN UNIDENTIFIED ‘PROPRIETAIRE’

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FROM ‘AUREUM OPUS’

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FROM ‘PLUSIEURS GENTILLESSES’ ETC.

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FROM MAGNINI’S ‘REGIMEN SANITATIS,’ BY FRADIN

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INITIALS BY SACCON

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INITIALS BY BLANCHARD AND OTHER PRINTERS

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CHILDREN’S ALPHABET BY FRADIN

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FROM WORKS OF ST. AMBROSE

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PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS

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FROM A LYONS BIBLE

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FROM THE ‘BIBLIA CUM SUMMARIIS CONCORDANTIIS,’ ETC., BY JOHN MOYLIN

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FROM THE ‘BIBLIA CUM SUMMARIIS CONCORDANTIIS,’ ETC., BY JOHN MOYLIN

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FROM THE ‘BIBLIA CUM SUMMARIIS CONCORDANTIIS’

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FROM THE ‘CATALOGUS SANCTORUM’ OF SACCON

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FROM THE ‘CATALOGUS SANCTORUM’ OF SACCON

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FROM THE ‘CATALOGUS SANCTORUM’ OF SACCON

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FROM THE ‘CATALOGUS SANCTORUM’ OF SACCON

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FROM THE ‘CATALOGUS SANCTORUM’ OF SACCON

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FROM THE ‘CATALOGUS SANCTORUM’ OF SACCON

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FROM THE ‘CATALOGUS SANCTORUM’ OF SACCON

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FROM THE ‘CATALOGUS SANCTORUM’ OF SACCON

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INITIALS OF SACCON

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FROM A ‘MORALE REDUCTORIUM PETRI BERTHORII’

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LETTER USED BY JACQUES MODERNES

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ALPHABET OF PHILOSOPHERS

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FROM AN ALPHABET OF PHILOSOPHERS

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MYTHOLOGICAL INITIALS

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MYTHOLOGICAL LETTERS OF JACOPO FABIO


PARIS

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FROM THE ‘VIES DES ANCIENS SAINCTZ PÈRES’ OF DUPRÉ

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CALLIGRAPHIC ALPHABET OF VÉRARD

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FROM THE ‘NEF DE SANTÉ’ OF TREPPEREL

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INITIALS IN BOOKS BY BOCARD

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INITIALS IN BOOKS PRINTED BY REMBOLT AND GERING

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INITIALS IN BOOKS PRINTED BY REMBOLT AND GERING

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INITIALS IN BOOKS PRINTED BY REMBOLT AND GERING

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FROM THE HISTORY OF DENMARK BY SAXO GRAMMATICUS

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INITIALS USED IN THE ‘JARDIN DE SANTÉ’ BY TREPPEREL

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FROM THE ARISTOTLE OF H. ESTIENNE

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FROM THE ‘MISSALE PARISIENSE’ BY WOLFGANG HOPYL

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FROM MISSALS BY WOLFGANG HOPYL

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FROM MISSALS BY WOLFGANG HOPYL

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INITIALS USED BY PHILIPPE LENOIR, TREPPEREL, AND OTHERS

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FROM AN UNIDENTIFIED MISSAL ATTRIBUTED TO G. TORY

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FROM AN UNIDENTIFIED MISSAL ATTRIBUTED TO G. TORY

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FROM A PARIS MISSAL

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GROTESQUE MISSAL INITIALS

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FROM A ‘PROPRIETAIRE’ OF PHILIPPE LENOIR

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INITIALS USED BY JOSSE BADE

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(Original size)

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(Enlargement)

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INITIALS USED BY CHEVALLON

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INITIALS BY VASCOSAN

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INITIALS BY SIMON DE COLINES

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ROYAL LETTERS DESIGNED BY GEOFFROY TORY

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FROM KERVER’S ALPHABET

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FROM DE LA BARRE’S PRESS

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ENGLISH COPIES OF KERVER

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COPY OF REMBOLT

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FROM PHILIP LE NOIR

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PEN LETTERS OF PHILIP LE NOIR


TROYES

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FROM ‘LA THOISON D’OR’ BY THE LEROUGES

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FROM THE ‘GRADUALE TRECENSE’ AND ‘STATUTA SYNODALIA’ BY LECOQ

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LITTLE LETTERS OF THE ‘VIE DE MONSEIGNEUR ST. BERNARD’ OF LECOQ


ROUEN

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FROM THE ‘PSALTERII EXPOSITIO’ OF PETRUS DE HARENTALS

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FROM VARIOUS WORKS BY MARTIN MORIN

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FROM THE ‘MISSALE ATREBATENSE’ OF MARTIN MORIN

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FROM THE ‘MISSALE ATREBATENSE’ OF MARTIN MORIN

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FROM THE ‘COMMINES’ OF J. FORESTIER

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FROM THE ‘PROPRIETAIRE’ OF J. FORESTIER

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FROM THE ‘OPERA GUILELMI MONACHI VALLADII’ BY HOSTINGUE

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FROM A ‘COUSTUMIER DE NORMANDIE’ OF 1523


AVIGNON

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FROM WORKS PRINTED BY JEAN DE CHAUNY


POITIERS

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FROM A POITIERS MISSAL

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FROM A ‘COUSTUMIER DE POITOU’

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USED IN IMPRESSIONS OF POITIERS

 FRANCE

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FROM A LIMOGES MISSAL

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FROM TOULOUSE

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FROM A LIMOGES MISSAL

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FROM THE ÆSOP OF ALBI

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FROM ‘LA VIE ET LÉGENDE DE MME. STE. PETROINE’

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FROM BESANÇON


SPANISH TOWNS

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FROM VALENCIA, BY G. CASTILLA

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FROM SEVILLE, BY JUAN DE VARILA

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FROM COIMBRA, BY J. ALVERA

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ORIGIN UNCERTAIN

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FROM THE ‘COMPILACION DE LEYES,’ PRINTED AT ZAMORA

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INITIALS USED BY J. CROMBERGER

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FROM A MEDICAL BOOK

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FROM A BOOK PRINTED AT BURGOS

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[Illustration]

ORIGIN UNCERTAIN

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DANCE OF DEATH INITIALS FROM THE ‘LIBRO SOTILISSIMO’ PRINTED AT STELLA

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FROM THE ‘COMENTO DE EUSEBIO’ OF H. GYFFER, SALAMANCA

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FROM THE ‘PASSIONARIUM’ OF BROCART, COMPLUTUM

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FROM THE ‘EPILOGO IN MEDICINA’


EARLY DUTCH INITIALS

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USED BY JACOB VAN DER MEER OF DELFT

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USED BY GODFRID DE OS OF GOUDA

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FROM THE ‘LIFE OF ST. LYDWINNE’ PRINTED AT SCHIEDAM

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ENGLISH ADAPTATION OF THE PRECEDING

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USED BY THIERRY MARTENS

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USED BY G. LEEU OF ANTWERP

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FROM AN EARLY LOUVAIN MISSAL

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FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF A ‘BELIAL’ OF ANTWERP

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FROM A LEYDEN TITLE-PAGE

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PORTRAIT OF PHILIP LE BEL, FROM A WORK PUBLISHED BY GODFRID BACK OF
ANTWERP


LATER GERMAN INITIALS

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[Illustration]

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FROM THE MISSAL OF SPIRES BY PETER DRACH

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FROM THE BENEDICTINE MISSAL OF HAGENAU

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FROM THE BENEDICTINE MISSAL OF HAGENAU

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FROM THE BENEDICTINE MISSAL OF HAGENAU

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FROM THE BENEDICTINE MISSAL OF HAGENAU

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FROM THE BENEDICTINE MISSAL OF HAGENAU

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FROM AN UNIDENTIFIED (? MAGDEBURG) MISSAL

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FROM THE ‘MISSALE POSNANIENSE’

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FROM THE ‘MISSALE EVANGELIARE’ OF LUTHER, BY KRAFFT OF WITTEMBURG

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INITIALS USED AT DRESDEN

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INITIALS BY PILGRIM IN THE ‘ELEGANTIAE’ OF LAURENTIUS VALLA, BY
SCHURER, SCHLESTADT

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FROM THE ‘MISSALE PATAVIENSE’ OF WINTERBERGER, VIENNA

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FROM WORKS PRINTED BY KNOBLOUCH

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FROM A METZ PSALTER BY CASPAR HOCHFFEDER

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FROM PLINIUS OF HAGENAU, USED AFTERWARDS AT COLOGNE

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FROM A MAGDEBURG BIBLE

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BY SCHEFFER OF MAYENCE

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FROM THE ‘ASTRONOMICON CESAREUM’ OF APIANUS

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FROM THE ‘ASTRONOMICON CESAREUM’ OF APIANUS

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FROM AN ECCLESIASTICAL DOCUMENT


ENGLISH INITIALS

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CAXTON’S ‘A’

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WYNKYN DE WORDE’S BORROWED ‘H’

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

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FROM PYNSON’S MORTON MISSAL

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INITIALS USED BY JOHN DAY

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INITIAL WITH ARMS OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER, FROM THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE

[Illustration]

INITIAL WITH ARMS OF HENRY VII., FROM GRAFTON’S EDITION OF ‘HALLE’S
CHRONICLE’

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INITIAL WITH ARMS OF THE EARL OF LEICESTER, FROM DAY’S EDITION OF
CUNNINGHAM’S ‘COSMOGRAPHICAL GLASS’

[Illustration]

PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH FROM DAY’S EDITION OF FOXE’S ‘BOOK OF
MARTYRS’




INDEX


                                                                    PAGE

  Æsop, initial from Scheffer’s edition,                             112
  ---- initial from Albi edition,                                95, 252

  Albi, initial in the _manière éraillée_, from Æsop printed at, 95, 252

  _Alvarus Pelagius_ of J. Zainer, border used in,                    23

  Alvera, J., initial used by, at Coimbra,                           253

  Ambrose, St., portrait initial of,                                 211

  Antwerp, initial from title-page of book printed at,          102, 262
  ---- initials used in books printed by G. Leeu at,            102, 261

  Apianus, P., initials from _Astronomicon Cesareum_ printed by,    107,
                                                               274 _sq._

  Apocalypse, different editions of the block-book,                    4

  Arion, initial representing the adventure of,                       61

  Aristotle, _Opera Nonnulla_ printed by Keller,                      17
  ---- initials in editions of, by H. Estienne,                      232

  Arrivabene, George, initials from missals printed by,   59, 171 _sqq._

  _Ars Memorandi_, historical initial in the,                     5, 112

  _Ars Moriendi_, the block-book,                                      4

  _Astronomicon Cesareum_ printed by P. Apianus at Ingoldstadt,     107,
                                                               274 _sq._

  Augsburg,                                                            5
  ---- initials used by printers,                            14, 113-122

  _Aureum Opus_, initials from edition of, by De Vingle,         77, 208

  Avignon, initials from volume printed at,                      93, 251

  _Aymon, les Quatre Fils de_, initials used in Lyons edition of,    195


  Back, Godfrid, initials used by,                                   262

  Bade, Josse, armorial initials in History of Denmark printed by,   85,
                                                                     230
  ---- ---- other initials of,                                       238

  Bamberg, initials from missal of Johann Pfeyl of,        41, 152 _sq._
  ---- initials from _Missale Olumucense_ of,              41, 150 _sq._

  Bämler, Johann, initials from works printed by,                16, 117

  Basle, initials reproduced from books printed at,              134-145
  ---- psalter of 1501 by Furter, initials from,                 30, 135

  Bebelius, Joannes, initials of Holbein in works published by,       33

  Bebelius and Cratander, initials of Holbein in works by,            36

  Bellot, Jean, initials from volumes printed by,                     53

  Benedictine missal printed at Hagenau, initials used in,      104, 264
                                                                  _sqq._

  Bernard, le Petit, initials attributed to,                          81

  Berthorius, Petrus, initials from _Morale Reductorium_ of,     81, 222

  Besançon, printers of, use same initials as Furter of Basle,        95
  ---- initials of,                                                  252

  Bible, initials from G. Zainer’s editions of,    15, 24, 113, 115, 118
                                                                   _sq._
  ---- Latin, of Basle, initials from,                           29, 134
  ---- initial from Ulm edition, 1480,                               127
  ---- initial from a Lyons,                                         211
  ---- German edition, pictorial initials of the fifth,    17, 118 _sq._
  ---- fourth edition by Frisner and Sensenschmidt,        26, 129 _sq._
  ---- initials from Nuremberg edition,                        129 _sq._
  ---- the Bishops’, initials in,                            108_c_, 279

  Bibles, Augsburg and Nuremberg, compared,                           17

  _Biblia cum Summariis et Concordantiis_ of Jean Moylin, initials of,
                                                           78, 212 _sq._

  _Biblia Pauperum_, the block-book,                                   4

  Birckmann, Franc, Hagenau initials copied by,                      105

  Blanchard, remarkable initials used in works by,               77, 210

  Block-books, initials from,                                        110

  Bocard, André, initials in books printed by,                83, 108_b_

  Book-hunting in time of Aulus Gellius,                               1

  Book-plate forming part of early Nuremberg impression,              27

  Brandis, Lucas, initials from _Rudimenta Novitiorum_ and _Josephus_
  of,                                                      39, 146 _sq._

  Breidenbach, Bernard von, initial from Reuwich’s edition of his
  _Peregrinationes_,                                             75, 112
  ---- initials from Ortuin’s Lyons edition,                         198

  Brescia, initials from works printed at,                       71, 189

  Bridget, St., _Meditationes_, initials used in Lübeck edition of, 148
                                                                   _sq._

  Brocart, Arn. de, initials used by,                                259

  Bumgart de Ketwyck, initials used by, at Cologne,                  165

  Burgofranco, J. P. de, initials in _Hyginus de Stellis_ printed by,
                                                                 67, 188

  Burgos, initial used at,                                           256

  Byzantium, books of, on purple parchment,                            2


  Calcar, J. van, initials of, in Anatomy of Vesalius,     37, 144 _sq._

  Calligraphic initials from Paris title-pages,                       83

  Capcasa, Matteo, initials from works published by,       58, 174 _sq._

  Cassiodorus, initial from works of, by Steyner,                     21

  Castilla, G., initial used by, at Valencia,                        253

  _Catalogus Sanctorum_ of Saccon,                        76, 214 _sqq._

  _Catholicon_ of J. Wolff, selected initials from,        76, 206 _sq._

  Caxton, W., initials used by,                              108_b_, 277

  Cervicornus or Hirtzhorn, Euch., initials in works published by,   52,
                                                               168 _sq._

  Charlemagne invites Irish and Anglo-Saxon monks to his kingdom,      2

  Charles the Bald welcomes foreign artists,                           2

  Chauny, Jean de, initials from works printed by,                   251

  Chevallon, Claude, initial representing scenes from _Ars Moriendi_
  in work published by,                                          88, 238

  Children, initials with, used by Venice printers,                   61
  ---- copied by printers of Basle, Cologne, and Hagenau,             61

  Cicero, initials from German edition of, by Steyner,                21

  Cocksperger, Peter, and the Mayence Psalter initials,               10

  Coimbra, initials used by J. Alvira of,                        98, 253

  Cologne, initial from Donatus of,                              51, 165
  ---- other initials used at,                                 165 _sq._

  Como, initials of _Vitruvius_ printed at,                      68, 187

  _Compilacion de Leyes_, initials from Zamora edition,              255

  Complutum (Alcala de Henares), initial used in liturgical works
  printed by Brocart at,                                        100, 259

  _Cosmographia_ of Ptolemy, initials from,                      24, 127
  ---- of Sebastian Munster, account of Psalter initials in the,       9

  Cranmer, Archbishop, initial with his arms,                108_c_, 279

  Cromberger, J., initials used by,                                  256

  Cross-hatching, invention of,                                       20

  Cunningham, William, initials in his _Cosmographical Glasse_,  108_c_,
                                                                     279

  Curio, Valentin, initials used by, at Basle,             36, 140 _sq._


  _Dance of Death_ alphabets used at Basle,                          137
  ---- ---- alphabet, Strasburg copies of,                       33, 138
  ---- ---- alphabet in books published at Stella,               98, 257

  Dante, praises French miniaturists,                                  3

  Day, John, initials used by,                         108_c_, 278 _sq._

  Delft, initial used by Jacob van der Meer at,                 102, 260

  _Deutscher Kalender_, initials from,                                44

  Dinckmut, Conrad, initial and border from _Donatus_ printed by,    12,
                                                                     111

  _Doctrinal de Sapience_, initial from title-page of,           53, 163

  Donatus, Aelius, Latin primer of,                                    4
  ---- initial from edition of, by Quentell,                          12
  ---- with Psalter initials attributed to Gutenberg (1456),           9
  ---- initial from xylographic impression by Dinckmut,          12, 111

  Drach, Peter, initials in red from missal of Spires printed by,   103,
                                                                     263

  Dresden, initial used at,                                          270

  Dupré, Jean, ornamental letters in the _Vies des Anciens Saincts
  Pères_ of,                                                          82

  Dürer, Albert, makes innovation in engraving,                       20
  ---- ---- ornamental letters attributed to,              52, 168 _sq._


  Elizabeth, Queen, portrait-initial of,                     108_c_, 280

  English copies of initials by Kerver,                              241

  Erasmus, Desiderius, initial with portrait of,                 78, 211

  Esslingen, initials in works printed at,                            46

  Estienne, H., initials from work published by,                 86, 232

  _Etymologicum Magnum_ of Callierges, coloured initials in the,      11

  _Eusebio di Comento_, initials from Salamanca edition of,      96, 288

  _Ex-libris_, initial forming, from book printed at Paris,           83


  Fabio, Jacopo, mythological letters in works published by,     81, 225

  Ferrara, alphabet of initials from work of Joh. Philippus Bergomensis
  printed at,                                                    69, 190
  ---- initials from _Missale Carthusiense_ of,            69, 191 _sq._

  Finé, Oronce, initial with portrait of,                             87

  Fool, first engraving of a, in a woodcut border,                    23
  ---- first example of the, in woodcut initials,                     17
  ---- in church architecture and early book ornamentation,           23

  Forestier, Jacques, specimens of alphabets used in a _Commines_
  printed by,                                                    93, 248

  Formschneider, opposition of, to the use of woodcut initials,       15

  Fossombrone, initials in work published by Ottaviano dei Petrucci of,
                                                                      67

  Foxe, John, portrait-initial of Queen Elizabeth, in his _Book of
  Martyrs_,                                                  108_c_, 280

  Fradin, François, children’s alphabet used by,                 78, 211
  ---- initials from the _Regimen Sanitatis_ of Magnini printed by,  77,
                                                                     209

  Frank, Hans, initial signed by,                                     81

  Friburgensis, Johann, _Summa Confessorum_, Augsburg, G. Zainer (1476),
  initials used in,                                              15, 111

  Frisner and Sensenschmidt, initials from fourth German Bible by,   26,
                                                              129 _sqq._

  Froben, Johann, initials of Holbein in works by,                    37

  Froschouer, Johann, initials in books printed at Zurich by,    38, 145

  Fürter, Michael, initials from books printed by,               31, 135

  Fust, Johann, association of, with Scheffer,                         6


  _Galen_, initials from Basle edition of,                      139, 142

  Gelli, René, initials in Greek lexicon of,                         142

  Geneva, large calligraphic initials from books printed at,     53, 163
  ---- other initials used at,                                       164

  Gering, Ulrich. _See_ Rembolt and Gering.

  Ghotan, Bartholomew, initials used by, at Lübeck,       40, 147 _sqq._

  Giunta, Lucantonio di, initials from missals and breviaries printed
  by,                                         59, 171 _sqq._, 176 _sqq._

  Gouda, initials used by Godfrid de Os at,             101, 108_b_, 260

  Graf, Urs, initials by,                                            136

  Gregoriis, G. and J. de, initials from Herodotus and other works
  printed by,                                              59, 183 _sq._

  Grotesque, the, in book ornamentation,                              87
  ---- profiles, earliest example of,                                 16

  Grüninger, Johann, initials from works printed by,      46-47, 48, 160
                                                                   _sq._

  Gutenberg, Johann, invention of printing by,                         6

  Gutenberg Bible sold by Scheffer as a manuscript,                    8

  Gutnecht, Jodocus, initials in _Missale Pataviense_ of,   28, 132, 133

  Gyffer, Hans, of Silgenstat, initials from works published at
  Salamanca by,                                                  96, 288

  Gymnicus, J., alphabets in works printed by,                   53, 167


  Hagenau, initials of Benedictine missal printed at,     104, 264 _sq._
  ---- initials from Plinius printed by Thomas Anselm at,       104, 273

  Halle’s Chronicle, initials in,                            108_c_, 279

  Harentals, Petrus de, initials used in an _Expositio Psalterii_ by,
                                                                     245

  Heineken, C. H. von, attributes Psalter initials to Meydenbach,      9

  Henry VII., initial with his arms,                                 279

  Heraldic initials. _See_ Initials, Armorial.

  Hochffeder, Gaspard, initial from Psalter of Metz printed by, 106, 272

  Hohenwang, Ludwig, initials used by,                               116

  Holbein, Ambrose, initials by,                                     144
  ---- Hans, alphabets of,                                32, 139 _sqq._
  ---- ---- children’s alphabet by,                              35, 139
  ---- ---- _Dance of Death_ alphabet by,                        32, 137
  ---- ---- initial of, in books by Valentine Curio,                  36
  ---- ---- mistakes in anatomy,                                      34
  ---- ---- peasants’ alphabet by,                                    35
  ---- ---- the four Greek initials from the _Galen_ of 1538,         36

  Holl, Leonard, initials in work printed by,                    24, 127

  Holtrop, J. W., early Dutch initials copied from works published by,
                                                                     101

  Hongre, Pierre, initials from missal of,                    202 _sqq._

  Hopyl, Wolfgang, initials used by,                       86, 232 _sq._

  Hostingue, L., and J. Loys, initials from work published by,   91, 250

  Hupfuff, M., initials in works printed by,                          45

  Husz, Mathieu, initials used by, at Lyons,                    197, 199


  _Imagines_ of Varro, described by Pliny,                             2

  Ingoldstadt, initials of M. Ostendorfer used at,                   107

  Initials, anthropomorphic, of Strasburg printers,                   45
  ---- armorial,                                    85, 108_c_, 230, 279
  ---- coloured, used by Roman copyists,                               1
  ---- from the _Libro Sotilissimo_, a typographical curiosity printed
  at Stella,                                                          99
  ---- large calligraphic, on title-pages of books printed at Lyons, 75,
                                                                     200
  ---- mythological,                                           224 _sq._
  ---- in minium or cinnabar of sixth century,                         2
  ---- of chequer work,                                                3
  ---- resembling Gallo-Frank jewellery,                               3
  ---- vagaries in use of,                                            24

  Israel von Mecken, initials by,                                     27

  Italy, influence of French art in,                                   3


  Josephus, initials from Lübeck edition of,                         146

  Josse Bade. _See_ Bade.


  Kaisersperg, Geyler von, initials in works of,       46, 49, 161 _sq._

  Keller, Ambrose, initials from works printed by,            16-17, 115

  Kerver, Thielmann, initials by,                                    241

  Knoblochtzer, Heinrich, initials from works printed by,  43, 155 _sq._

  Knoblouch, Johann, initials in works printed by,          46, 189, 272


  Lecoq, Jean, alphabet from _La Vie de Monseigneur St. Bernard_ by, 91,
                                                                     244
  ---- letters with grotesque profiles from different works printed by,
                                                                 90, 243

  Leeu, Gerard, initials used by,                               102, 261

  Leicester, Earl of, initial with his arms,                 108_c_, 279

  Lenoir, Philippe, initials in works published by,    87, 234, 237, 241

  Leo the Isaurian burns the public library,                           2

  Lerouges, les, initials from _La Thoison d’Or_ printed by,     90, 242

  Leroy, Guillaume, initials used by,                      73, 195 _sq._

  Le Signerre, Guillaume, initials used by, at Saluzzo,              189

  _Lettres parlantes_ in Lyons impression,                            81
  ---- _tourneures fleuronnées_ used by Leroy in 1479,                73

  _Liber Biblie Moralis_ of J. Zainer, initials in,                   23

  Lilius, Zacharias, initials from the _Breviarium Orbis_ of,        182

  Limoges, initials from missal printed at,                      94, 252

  Locatellus, Bonetus, initials used in works printed by,  60, 174 _sq._

  Louvain, historiated initial from fifteenth-century missal printed at,
                                                                102, 261

  Lübeck, initials from works published at,               39, 146 _sqq._

  Lufft of Wittemberg, initials used by,                        105, 270

  Lützelberger, Hans, _Dance of Death_ initials engraved by,         137

  Lyons, initials from books printed at,                      194 _sqq._

  Lyons missals, initials used in different,                          75
  ---- copy of Cologne initial,                                      169


  Macabre initials used at Cologne,                                  170

  Maiblümchen or lily of the valley design in early books,             5

  Mainz. _See_ Mayence.

  _Margarita Davitica_, initial of G. Zainer from,               16, 114

  Marriage licence, pictorial initial from,                     108, 276

  Martens, Thierry, initials used by,                           102, 261

  Mathieu Husz and Jean Schabeler, initials used in Boccaccio of,     74

  Mayence, initial in Erhardt Reuwich’s _Breidenbach_,           13, 112
  ---- initial in Scheffer’s _Æsop_ printed at,                  13, 112
  ---- later Scheffer initial,                                       273

  Mazochius, Jacobus, portrait of Ariosto in work published by,  65, 185

  Medici, Cosmo de, initial with portrait of,                    63, 184

  _Meditations of St. Bridget_, initials from Lübeck edition of,      40

  Meer, Jacob van der, initials used by, at Delft,                   260

  _Melusine_, initials from Lyons edition of,                        199

  Milan, initials from works printed at,                   70, 192 _sq._
  ---- initials from works printed by Joannes de Castellione at,      70

  Miniatures in books of Athens and Rome,                              2
  ---- in mediæval manuscripts,                                        2

  _Mirabilia Romae_, historiated initial of the,                 12, 112

  _Missale Atrebatense_, initials from,                         246, 247
  ---- _Bambergense_, initials from the edition by J. Pfeyl,   152 _sq._
  ---- _Benedictinum_, initials from Hagenau edition of,      264 _sqq._
  ---- _Evangeliare_ of Wittemberg, initials from,              105, 270
  ---- _Olumucense_, coloured initials of the,          11-41, 150 _sq._
  ---- _Pataviense_, pictorial initials from,             132 _sq._, 271
  ---- _Vallisumbrose_, large pictorial initials from,    59, 176 _sqq._

  Missals printed at Lyons, initials from,               201 _sqq._, 205
  ---- printed at Paris,                                      232 _sqq._
  ---- printed at Rouen,                                       247 _sq._

  Modernes, Jacques, curious initial in work on Military Art printed by,
                                                                 81, 222

  Monks, Irish and Anglo-Saxon, celebrated for miniatures and
  historiations,                                                       2

  Montfaucon, alphabet of animals of,                                  3

  Morin, Martin, calligraphic initial from missal printed by,    92, 246
  ---- ---- initials from other works published by,     92-93, 246 _sq._

  Morton, Archbishop, initial with his rebus,                108_c_, 277

  Moylin, Jean, initials from his Latin Bible,             78, 212 _sq._

  Müller, Johann, or Regiomontanus, works by,                         25

  Murr, C. G. von, and the artist of the Psalter initials,            10


  Nardi, Simeon, initials from _Datus_ published by,       65, 185 _sq._

  Naudé, Gabriel, accusation against Scheffer,                         8

  _Normandie, Coustumier de_, curious initials from a,           92, 250

  Novesianus, Melchior, imitations of Alphabet of Death in works printed
  by,                                                                 53
  ---- ---- other initials used by,                                  167

  Nuremberg, curious work attributed variously to Stuchs, Zeninger, and
  Wagner published at,                                            26, 54
  ---- initials from books printed at,                        128 _sqq._


  Ornamentation of early books,                                        1

  Oronce Finé. _See_ Finé.

  Ortuin, Gaspard, initial from Breidenbach’s _Peregrinationes_, 75, 198

  Os, Godfrid de, initials used by,                                  260

  Otino da Pavia de la Luna, initials in the _Vita di Sancti Padri_ of,
                                                           62, 179 _sq._


  Pachel, Leonard, initials used by, at Milan,                       193

  Papillon, J. B. M., testimony of, concerning the artist of the Psalter
  initials,                                                           10

  Paris, renowned for its manuscripts and copyists,                    3
  ---- initials used at,                                      226 _sqq._

  Pavia, initials used at,                                           188

  Peter, St., portrait initial of,                                   276

  Petrarch, initials from German translation of his _De remediis
  utriusque fortunæ_, by Steyner,                                     21

  Petri, Adam, repetition of same initial in books printed by,        31
  ---- ---- pilgrim initial used by,                                 136

  _Petroine, La vie et légende de Mme. Ste._, initials from,     95, 252

  Pfister, Alb., impressions of, resembling block-books,              11

  Pflantzmann, J., initials from books printed by,               16, 116

  Philip le Bel, portrait initial of,                                262

  Philosophers, alphabets of,                              81, 223 _sq._

  Pius II., Pope, portrait initial of,                               184

  Playing-cards, method of printing,                                   4

  _Plenarium_, initials used in Strasburg edition of,                158

  Pogge, J. F., initials from edition of, printed by Knoblouch,  46, 159

  Poitiers, initials from books printed at,                      94, 251

  Polychrome initials in early books,                                 11

  Ponte, Gotardus de, initials from Vitruvius printed by,            187

  Poullet, J., initials used by,                                     204

  _Prestre Jehan_, historiated initial from title-page of,       73, 195
  ---- ---- initials from Paris edition of,                          237

  _Propriétaire_, initials from Rouen editions of,               92, 249
  ---- letters from Lyons edition of,                            77, 208

  Prusz, Johann, initials used by, at Strasburg,                 46, 158

  Psalter of Mayence initials, Bodman hoaxes Fischer concerning,       8
  ---- initials from Furter’s Basle edition of,                      135
  ---- initials from edition by J. Prusz of Strasburg,           46, 154
  ---- initials said to have been used by Gutenberg,                   8
  ---- opinions as to the initials of,                                 7

  Ptolemy, initials from Ulm edition of the _Cosmographia_,      24, 127

  Pynson, Richard, initials from his Sarum Missal,           108_b_, 277


  Quadragesimale of Gritsch, pictorial border of the,                 23

  Quentell, Heinrich, initials from volumes printed by,    53, 165 _sq._


  Ratdolt, Erhard, initials from _Calendarium_ of J. di Monteregio
  (Johannes Regiomontanus) by,                                   57, 171
  ---- ---- initials in _Brevarium Constantiense_ of 1516 by,    19, 123
  ---- ---- initials in breviary by,                       18, 121 _sq._
  ---- ---- initials in psalter of 1499 by,                   18-19, 122
  ---- ---- Latin couplet on,                                         19

  _Rationale Durandi_, ornamented with some of the same initials as
  Psalter of Mayence,                                                 11

  Reger, Johann, initials in works printed by,                   25, 128

  Rembolt and Gering, initials from volumes printed by,       83-84, 228
                                                                  _sqq._

  Reutlingen, initials in works printed at,                      49, 162

  Richard de Bury praises libraries of Paris,                          3

  Richel, Bernard, initials from Latin Bible of,                      29

  Rome, initials used at,                                            185

  Rouen, initials used at,                                11, 245 _sqq._

  Royal letters designed by Geoffroy Tory for Robert Estienne,   89, 240

  _Rudimenta Novitiorum_, initials from Lübeck edition of,     146 _sq._


  Saccon, Jacques, initials in _Catalogus Sanctorum_ of,  78, 214 _sqq._
  ---- ---- different initials in works printed by,   80, 201, 205, 209,
                                                                     222

  Salamanca, initials used at,                                       258

  Saluzzo, initials in _Aureum Opus_ of Vivaldus printed by Le Signerre
  at,                                                            68, 189

  Sarum missal, initials from Pynson’s edition of,           108_b_, 277

  Saxo Grammaticus, armorial initials from History of Denmark by,    85,
                                                                     230

  Schabeler, Hans, initials used by, at Lyons,                       197

  Schäufelein, Hans, initials by,                                     49

  Scheffer, Peter, association of, with Fust,                          6
  ---- ---- initials used by,                              107, 112, 273

  Schiedam, initial used by unknown printer of,                 102, 261

  Schlestadt, initials of Pilgrim, from book printed by Lazarus Schurer
  at,                                                                106

  Scinzenzeller, Ulr., initials used by,                             192

  Schönsperger, Johann, initials from works printed by,          16, 116

  Schott, initials in works printed by,                          45, 157

  Sessa, different initials met with in impressions by,          59, 181
  ---- initials from Aristotle printed by,                       62, 178

  Seville, initials from books printed by Jacob Cromberger at,        98
  ---- initials from book printed by Juan de Varila at,          98, 253

  Sienna, initials in books published at,                     65-66, 185

  Silber, Eucharius, ornamental letter from book published,      65, 185

  Sorg, Anton, historiated initials from _Das Buch das heisset der
  Seusse_ of Suso,                                               18, 120
  ---- ---- initials from works printed by,              16-17, 115, 120

  Spanish initials,                                           253 _sqq._

  _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_, a transition from xylography to
  printing,                                                            4

  Spires, initials used at,                                          263

  Stamps used for applying initials by early copyists,                 4

  _Statuta Synodalia_, alphabet used in the Troyes edition of,   73, 243

  Stella, copies of the Alphabet of Death used by Adrian Anverez at, 99,
                                                                     257

  Steyner, Heinrich, initials in works published by,       20, 124 _sq._

  Strasburg, initials used at,                                154 _sqq._

  _Summa Confessorum_, initials of the,                       15-16, 113

  Suso, Henricus, initials from _Das Buch das heisset der Seusse_,   120

  Sweynheim and Pannartz, initial from the Suetonius of,         65, 185


  _Theoricae Novae_, initial from,                                    25

  Tibullus quoted,                                                     1

  Topie, Michel, initial from _Mer des Hystoires_ of,            75, 198

  Tory, Geoffroy, initials from missal attributed to,      88, 235 _sq._
  ---- ---- royal letters attributed to,                             240

  Toulouse, initial used at,                                         252

  Trepperel, Jean, grotesque initials in books published by,     83, 227

  Trepperel, initials from _Jardin de Santé_ of,                 86, 231

  Tridino, Tacuinus de, initials in works published by,          60, 174

  Troyes, initials used at,                                   242 _sqq._


  Ulm, initial with border from Donatus printed at,              12, 111
  ---- initials from other works printed at,                  126 _sqq._


  _Valerius Maximus_ of Sorg, initials from,                          17

  Varila, Juan de, initial used by,                                  253

  Vascosan, Michael, initials by,                                    239

  Venice, initials from works published at,               55, 171 _sqq._

  Vérard, Antoine, calligraphic initial from the _Jardin de Santé_ of,
                                                                 82, 226

  Verona, ornamental letter from book printed at,                70, 189

  Vesalius, initials of Van Calcar in Anatomy of,          37, 144 _sq._

  Vicenza, example of typographic eccentricities in work printed at, 71,
                                                                     189

  Vienna, initials from _Missale Pataviense_ printed by J. Winterberger
  of,                                                           106, 271

  Virgil, the Vatican copy described by M. Pierre de Nolhac,           2

  _Vita di Sancti Padri_, initials from the, of Otino da Pavia de la
  Luna,                                                    62, 179 _sq._

  Vitali, Bernardino, alphabet by, used in publications by Sessa,     60

  _Vitruvius_, initials from Como edition of,                        187


  Walther, H., initials from Madgeburg Bible printed by,        107, 273

  Weiditz, Hans, initials attributed to, by Dr. H. Röttinger,    20, 52,
                                                               124 _sq._

  Winterberger, of Vienna, initials used by,                         271

  Wittemberg, apocalyptic initials from the _Missale Evangeliare_
  printed at,                                                   105, 270

  Wohlgemuth, M., his new technical methods,                          20

  Worde, Wynkyn de, initial used by,                                 277

  Worms, Anton von, children’s alphabets designed by,                 53


  Zainer, Günther, first used woodcut initials at Augsburg,           15
  ---- ---- examples of his letters,                113 _sq._, 118 _sq._
  ---- Johann, of Ulm, initials in Boccaccio of,                 22, 126

  Zamora, initials from _Compilacion de Leyes_ printed at,       96, 255

  Zarotus, Antonius, initials used by, at Milan,                     193

  Zodiac, initials representing the signs of the,                     87

  Zurich, initials in books published by Froschouer of,          38, 145


FINIS


  [Illustration: EDINBURGH: T. AND A. CONSTABLE
  PRINTERS TO HIS MAJESTY: MCMVIII]




  Transcriber’s Notes


  The spelling, capitalisation and hyphenation of the source document
  have been retained (including those of proper names and book titles),
  except as listed under Changes made below.

  Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text, not all
  elements may display as intended.

  The book appears to contain several contradictions between the
  descriptions given and the illustrations. These have been retained as
  printed in the source document without further correction or comment.

  Page 61, “At Turin ... we find that the L with the satyr,”: as printed
  in the source document; the sentence appears to be incomplete, or “we
  find that the L ...” might have to be corrected to “we find the L...”.

  Page 238, “Original size” and “Enlargement”: Based on a quarto book
  size of around 29 cm, the “Original size” would be around 4.1 × 4.1
  cm (1.6″ × 1.6″).


  Changes made

  Some obvious minor typographical and punctuation errors have been
  corrected silently.

  Footnotes have been moved to under text paragraphs.

  Page 39: “LUBECK” changed to “LÜBECK”.

  Page 92: “Psalterum of Harentals” changed to “Psalterium of
  Harentals”.

  Page 99: “(B Abraham)” changed to “B (Abraham)”.

  Page 137: “LUTZELBERGER” changed to “LÜTZELBERGER”.

  Page 142: captions “FROM THE GREEK LEXICON OF RENÉ GELLI” and “FROM
  THE ‘GALEN’ OF BEBELIUS AND CRATANDER” interchanged.

  Page 252: “BEZANÇON” changed to “BESANÇON”.

  Page 282: “Zamara” changed to “Zamora”.

  Page 284: “Leo the Isaurian burns the public” changed to “Leo the
  Isaurian burns the public library”.

  Index: some page numbers corrected or inserted to conform to the text.