Part 7

After Paris, the next most important town in France, so far as printers and their Marks are concerned, is Lyons. The first book printed in this city is presumed to be “Cardinalis Lotharii Tractatus quinque,” “Lugduni, Bartholomæus Buyerius,” 1473 (in quarto). The same printer also published the first French translation of the Bible, by Julian Macho and Pierre Ferget, which was executed between 1473 and 1474, from which date the art of printing in Lyons increased by leaps and bounds. Panzer notices over 250 works executed (by nearly forty printers) here during the quarter of a century which followed. The most notable among these is perhaps Josse Bade, to whom we have already referred. The former of the two “honestes homes Michelet topie de pymont: & Iaques heremberck dalemaigne,” possessed a Mark which may be regarded as one of the earliest, if not actually the first, employed at Lyons. Topie and Heremberk printed the first edition of the “Chronique Scandaleuse,” about 1488, and Breydenbach’s “Voyage à Jerusalem,” of about the same period--the latter of which contains the first examples of copper-plate engraving in France, the panorama of Venice alone being sixty-four inches in length. Contemporary with these, Johannes or Jehan Treschel deserves notice not only as an eminent printer, but also as the father-in-law of one still more eminent--Bade. Treschel’s illustrated edition of Terence, 1493, is described as forming “the most striking and artistic work of illustration produced by the early French school.” The most generally known of all the Lyonese printers is Etienne Dolet, who, born at Orleans in 1509, distinguished himself not only as a printer, but as a Latin scholar, a poet, and an orator; he was burnt as an atheist in August, 1546. Dolet, as Mr. Chancellor Christie tells us in his exhaustive monograph, adopted a Mark and motto which are to be found in all or nearly all the productions of his press. The Mark and the motto are equally allusive: the former is an axe of the kind known as _doloire_, held in a hand which is issuing out of a cloud. Below is a portion of a trunk of a tree; it is usually surrounded by the motto, “Scabra et impolita ad amussim dolo atque perfolia”; it is often also surrounded by an ornamental woodcut border, as in the accompanying illustration; and in some cases the words “scabra dolo” are printed on the axe.

[Illustration: MERLIN, DESBOYS AND NIVELLE.

HOMO NASCITVR AD LABOREM VADE PIGER AD FORMICAM PROVENIET TEMPVS MESSIONIS NON ODERIS LABORIOSA OPERA]

[Illustration: M. TOPIE.]

[Illustration: J. TRESCHEL.

I T]

[Illustration: E. DOLET.]

Two contemporary Lyonese firms of printers, the De Tournes and De la Portes, appear to have rivalled one another in the number of their Marks. Jean De Tournes, 1542-50, himself had no less than eleven Marks, several of which are exceedingly graceful, one of the largest and best of which represents a sower, and serves as an excellent pendant to the reaper of Jacques Roffet, both of which appear in our first chapter. The seven or eight members of the De la Porte family used at least half a score Marks between them. The family, beginning with Aymé De la Porte in the last decade of the fifteenth century, and ending with Sibylle De la Porte, were in business first as printers, then as booksellers, for just a century; and the punning device apparently originated, not with the first member of the family, but with Jehan, who started a business in Paris about 1508, and in his Mark the shield bears a castellated doorway; the picture of the biblical Samson carrying off the gates was apparently first used by Hugues De la Porte, who was a bookseller at Lyons from 1530; this was superseded for the more pictorial and considerably smaller example, here given, when he entered into partnership with Antoine Vincent about 1559. Although the Du Prés were Parisian printers, Jehan of that family issued several books at Lyons during the last few years of the fifteenth century, and one of his three Marks is given on p. 108. Sébastien Gryphe, or Gryphius, who printed and published a large number of works during the second quarter of the sixteenth century, was also extravagant in the way of Marks, of which there are at least eight, all, however, of one common type--the Griffin, sometimes quite without any sort of decorative attributes or motto, and sometimes as in the example here given.

[Illustration: HUGUES DE LA PORTE AND A. VINCENT.

LIBERTATEM MEAM MECVM PORTO VINCENTI]

[Illustration: SÉBASTIEN GRYPHE.]

[Illustration: JACQUES COLOMIES.

I C IACQVES COLOMIES]

So far as regards the French cities and towns, we have only space to refer briefly to a few of the more important. After Paris and Lyons, Toulouse was one of the earliest places in France in which a printing-press was set up. Although not the first, Jacques Colomies was one of the first, as he was one of the most prolific of the early printers of Toulouse, working from 1530 to 1572. Printing was established at Caen in 1480; but Pierre Chandelier, whose punning Mark we give, did not start work until eighty years after its first introduction. A punning device (p. 7), also is that of Jehan Lecoq, who was printing at Troyes from about 1509 to 1530. The only Rouen printer to whom we shall refer is Martin Morin, who appears to have been at work here as a printer from about 1484 to 1518, and of his Marks we give one example; another is formed of a large initial M, decorated with a variety of grotesque heads, with the surname Morin on the two central strokes of the letter.

[Illustration: M. MORIN.

M M IMPRIME A ROVEN DEVANT SAINCT LO]

[Illustration: PIERRE LE CHANDELIER.

LVCERNIS ACCENSIS FIDELITER MINISTRO.]

[Decoration]

PRINTERS’ MARKS OF GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND.

[Illustration: JACOBI THANNER.

i t]

Although the early history of the Printer’s Mark in Germany is neither extensive in variety nor startling in surprises, there are still very many features of general interest. And if the Printer’s Mark, as we have already seen, had its origin in Mainz, its development is certainly due to the Strassburg craftsmen. As no other city in Germany can show such a varied collection of beautiful Marks, examples of the Strasburg printers will preponderate in this chapter. It is now generally accepted that the art of printing was carried on in Strassburg (Argentina, Argent-oratum), either in 1459 or 1460, by Johan Mentelin, who appears to have continued in the business until 1476; and about six years after he had started, Heinrich Eggestein commenced, and continued until about 1478. Accepting the arrangement of Herr Paul Heitz and Dr. Karl August Barack in their very elaborate “Elsässische Büchermarken bis Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts,” the first Strasburg printer to use a Mark was Johann Grüninger, who, after working at Basel for a year or two, took up his residence in Strassburg at the end of 1482. One of his first Marks appeared in Brant’s “Narrenschiff,” 1494, and of this our example is an elaboration. By the year 1525 he employed no less than five distinct examples, the last of which, in Ptolemæus, “Geographicæ Enarrationes,” 1525, differs completely from all the others, the single letter G occupying the centre of the masonic compass and rule. Grüninger, it may be noted, was the printer of “Cosmographie Introductio,” 1509; the second edition of the famous book in which the name America was proposed and used for the first time. He is further noted for the number of misprints which occur in the books issued by him. The last book which bears his imprint is apparently “Geberi philosophi ac alchimistæ maximi, de Alchimia, libri tres,” March, 1529. Martin Schott’s distinct device is found in at least three books of the date 1498, including Matheolus’ “Ars memorativa,” and was used by him until 1517. It was also used by his son, Johann Schott, about 1541, the same printer using seven or eight other Marks, all more or less distinct, at different periods. The first book bearing Martin Schott’s name is dated 1491, and he continued printing until 1499; while his son was in business from 1500 to 1545. Equally distinct is the accompanying example--one of several--used by Johann Knoblouch, which is found in the majority of the books printed by him from about 1521 to 1526, notably several works by Erasmus (_e.g._ “Moriæ Encomium,” 1522, and the “Novum Testamentum,” 1523). The father started in 1497, and was succeeded by his son, who continued the business until 1558. The Mark, it may be mentioned, is a somewhat atrocious pun on the owner’s name, which is the German for “garlic,” with the seed pods of which the figure emblematically representing Ignorance ascending from darkness into light is encircled; this Mark is generally surrounded by mottoes in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin.

[Illustration: JOHANN GRÜNINGER.

IOHANNES. SANTVS]

[Illustration: MARTIN SCHOTT.

M S]

[Illustration: JOHANN KNOBLOUCH.]

[Illustration: REINHARD BECK.]

[Illustration: REINHARD BECK.

RB]

Although Reinhard, or Renatus, Beck was only in business for about eleven years, 1511-1522, he had several Marks, which differed chiefly in their extraneous ornament, as will be seen from the accompanying examples. Two books, _sine nota_, which Mr. Quaritch assigns to Beck’s press, of the date 1490, are remarkable for the large number of woodcuts which they contain, relating principally to plants, animals, gardening operations, rural architecture, so that the Mark of “ein wilder Mann” is so far in keeping with the nature of his publications. Fourteen or fifteen Marks, several of which are only variations of one type, have been identified as having been used by Wolfgang Köpfel (whose surname sometimes appears in its Greek translation of Cephalæus) between 1522 and 1554: the most remarkable, of which we give a reproduction, appears to have been used very rarely, notably in “Zehn Sermones” of Luther, 1523; a much commoner type is the smaller example, which appeared in various books issued between 1526-1554. Georg Ullricher von Andlau, 1529-36, confined himself to one type (see p. 1), that of the Cornucopia or Horn of Plenty, of which there are seven variants. The more elaborate of the two Marks of Matthias Biener, or Apiarius, 1533-36, appears in Oecolampadius’ “Commentarius” on the Prophet Ezekiel, 1534, and is an evident pun on the printer’s surname. Several of the dozen Marks used by Craft Müller, or Crato Mylius, 1536-62, are exceedingly bold and picturesque, although, with the exception of the Ceres, they are all variants of the leonine type: the Ceres was apparently used only in his first book, “Auslegung oder Postilla des heil. Zmaragdi,” 1536.

[Illustration: WOLFGANG KÖPFEL.

ESTAS HYEMS PROPE LONGE MORS ET VITA]

[Illustration: WOLFGANG KÖPFEL.]

[Illustration: CRAFT MÜLLER (CRATO MYLIUS).

Hostibus haud tergo, sed forti pectore notus.]

[Illustration: MATTHIAS BIENER (APIARIUS).

Ερευνᾶτε τὰς γραφάς, οτι ἐμ ἀυταῖς ζωὴμ ἀιώνιομ ἔχετε. Ioan. 5.

Vrsus insidians & esuriens, princeps impius super populum pauperem. Thre. 3. Prouerb. 28.

Quam dulcia faucibus meis eloquia tua, super mel ori meo. Psal. 118.

Omnia probate, quod bonum fuerit tenete. 1. Thess. 5.]

[Illustration: CRAFT MÜLLER.

Alma Spicifera Flaua CERES. Ni purges & molas non comedes.]

[Illustration: THEODOSIUS RIHEL, JOSIAS RIHEL (UND DEREN ERBEN).]

Wendelin Rihel was the founder of one of the longest-lived dynasties of Strassburg printers, who were issuing books from 1535 to 1639; their eighteen Marks have all the same subject, a winged figure of Sophrosyne, holding in one hand a rule, and in the other a bridle and halter. Of Thiebold Berger, who appears to have been in business from 1551-1584, very little is known, either of his books or his personality; his Mark is, however, pretty, and unique, so far as Strassburg is concerned. Lazarus Zetzner and his successors, whose works date from 1586 to 1648, and whose Marks number nearly thirty, all variants of the example here given: it is a bust of Minerva supported on a short square pedestal, on which is inscribed the words “Scientia immutabilis.” This family printed a large number of works, from a Lutheran Bible to Aretini’s “Historiæ Florentinæ.” As an example of a rare and distinct Mark we give one of two employed by Conrad Scher, 1603-31, which was subsequently used by Johannes Reppius, also of Strassburg. Curiosity is the only feature of the solitary example of David Hauth, 1635.

[Illustration: LAZARUS ZETZNER.

SCIENTIA IMMUTABILIS]

[Illustration: THIEBOLD BERGER.

TIMETE DOMINVM OMNES SANCTI EIVS QVONIAM NON EST INOPIA TIMENTIBVS EVM. PS:34]

[Illustration: CONRAD SCHER.

Prudentia Firma Et Simplex Spes]

[Illustration: DAVID HAUTH.]

[Illustration: J. R. DULSSECKER.

DOMINUS PROVIDEBIT]

But of all the Strassburg printers, there can be no doubt that, from a strictly pictorial point of view, the Marks of Johann Reinhold Dulssecker, 1696-1737, are by far the most beautiful. Indeed, in many respects they are the most charming examples to be found among the devices of any time or country. In some instances they partake much more of the character of a vignette than a tradesman’s mark. His earliest device is composed of his monogram; and his first decorative Mark is the very beautiful little picture of an English garden, in the central pathway of which occurs his initials. This Mark appears to have been used in only one book, “M. Fabii Quinctiliani Declamationes ... ex recensione Ulrici Obrechti,” 1698. A type of Mark very frequently used by him occurs in Schilter’s “Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum,” 1702, with his motto of “Dominus providebit,” and of this Mark we give an excessively rare variant on p. 47. He had eleven Marks, his list includes books of all kinds, in Latin, German, and French.

[Illustration: JOHANN REINHOLD DULSSECKER.

FOECUNDANTE DEO IN VARIOS PRODUCIMUR USUS]

Of the other Alsatian printers we have only room to refer to two examples. Thomas Anshelm (or Anshelmi Badensis) is perhaps the most eminent of the early Hagenau printers, his books dating from 1488 to 1522, the earliest of which, however, were not printed at this place. His Marks all carry the initials T A B, the Hebrew letters in the accompanying example representing the name Jehovah; in his most elegant Mark the same word is supported on a scroll by a cherub, whilst another cherub is supporting a second scroll on which is inscribed the word Jesus in Greek characters. The style and workmanship of this woodcut suggest the hand of Hans Schaufelein, and it is worth noting that in 1516 Anshelm produced “Doctrina Vita et Passio Jesu Christi,” some of the illustrations of which were by Schaufelein. Anshelm issued a large number of books, including the works of Pliny, Melancthon, Erasmus, Cicero, etc. Valentin Kobian, 1532-42, inserted an exceedingly original and striking Mark in the edition of Erasmus’ “Heroicum Carmen,” 1536, the Peacock with one foot on a Cock and the other on a crouching Lion being highly effective.

[Illustration: THOMAS ANSHELM.

[[Hebrew]] יהוה ש T A B]

[Transcriber’s Note: The superfluous word “Hebrew” was included to keep the text display from misbehaving.]

[Illustration: VALENTIN KOBIAN.

Anno M.D. XXXVI. mens: Septem:

Non Aquilæ grandi sociatum turgide Pauum ’ Galle premes tecum mox Leo uictus erit]

[Illustration: A. THER HOERNEN.

¶ Explicit presens vocabulorum materia. a perdocto eloquentissimo [que] viro. dño Gherardo de schueren Cãcellario Illustrissimi ducis Cli uensis ex diuersorum terministar[um] voluminibus contexta. propriis[que] eiusdem manibus labore ingenti cõ scripta ac correcta Colonie per me Arnoldũ ther hoenẽ diligentissime impressa. finita sub annis domini. M.cccc.lxxvij. die vltimo mensis maij. De quo cristo marie filio sit laus et gloria per seculorum secula Amen.]

Printing had not established itself at Cologne until four years later than at Strassburg. Ulric Zell, at the dispersal of the Mainz printers, settled himself in this city, where he was printing from about 1463 to nearly the end of the fifteenth century. He was clearly not an innovator, for he never printed a book in German, and did not adopt any of the improvements of his _confrères_ who had settled themselves in Italy; he “rigidly adhered to the severe style of Schoeffer, printing all his books from three sizes of a rude face of a round gothic type.” It is not to him therefore that we can look for anything in the way of Printers’ Marks, the earliest Cologne printer to adopt which was apparently Arnold Ther Hoernen, whose colophons, of which we give an example, were often printed in red. His Mark is a triangle of which the two upright sides are prolonged with a crosslet; in the centre a star, and on either side the gothic letters T H, the whole being on a very small shield hanging from a broken stump. Herman Bumgart, one of whose books bears the subscription “Gedruckt in Coelne up den Alden Mart tzo dem wilden manne,” and who was in Cologne at the latter end of the fifteenth century, has a special interest to us from the probability that he was in some way connected with the early Scottish printers.

[Illustration: HERMAN BUMGART.

Impressu[m] Colonie sup[er] antiquũ for[um] in Siluestri viro.]

Once started, the idea of the Mark was quickly taken up. Johann Koelhoff, 1470-1500, the first printer to use printed signatures (in his edition of Nyder, “Preceptorium divinæ legis,” 1472), came out with a large but roughly drawn example, the arms of Cologne, consisting of a knight’s helmet, with peacock feathers, crest, and elaborate mantles, surmounting a shield with the three crowns in chief, the rest of the escutcheon blank, and rabbits in the foreground. Koelhoff (who describes himself “de Lubeck”) was the printer of the “Cologne Chronicle,” 1499, and of an edition of “Bartholomæus de Proprietatibus Rerum,” 1481. Several interesting Cologne Marks of the first years of the sixteenth century may be noted. For instance, Eucharius Cervicornus, 1517-36, used a caduceus on an ornamented shield, and printed among other books what is believed to be the earliest edition of Maximilianus Transylvanus’ “De Moluccis Insulis,” 1523, in which the discoveries of Ferdinand Magellan and the earliest circumnavigation of the globe were announced. Like Koelhoff, Nicolas Cæsar, or Kaiser, who was established as a printer at Cologne in 1518, used the Cologne arms as a Mark, which is sufficiently distinct from the earlier example to be quoted here. Johann Soter, 1518-36, is another exceedingly interesting personality in the early history of Cologne printing. We give the more elaborate of the two marks used by him and reproduced by Berjeau: the shield contains the Rosicrucian triple triangle on the threshold of a Renaissance door. During the latter end of his career at Cologne, Soter had also an establishment at Solingen, where he printed “several works of a description which rendered too hazardous their publication in the former city.” Arnold Birckmann and his successors, 1562-92, used the accompanying Mark of a hen under a tree. After Günther Zainer, 1468-77, who introduced printing into Augsburg, the most notable typographer of this city is perhaps Erhart Ratdolt, to whom reference is made in the chapter on Italian Marks. We give the rather striking Mark--a white _fleur-de-lis_ on black ground springing from a globe--of Erhart Oglin, Augsburg, 1505-16, one of whose productions, by Conrad Reitter, 1508, is remarkable as having a series of Death-Dance pictures; Hans Holbein was eight years of age when it appeared, and was then living in his native town of Augsburg.

[Illustration: JOHANN KOELHOFF.

i k]

[Illustration: NICHOLAS CÆSAR.]

[Illustration: J. SOTER.

Του Σωτῆρος]

[Illustration: ARNOLD BIRCKMANN.

VTILIA SEMPER NOVA SAEPIVS PROFERO]

For typographical purposes Switzerland may be regarded as an integral portion of Germany, and it was to Basle that Berthold Rodt of Hanau, one of Fust’s workmen, is assumed to have brought the art about the year 1467. One of the first Basle printers to adopt a Mark was Jacobus De Pfortzheim, 1488-1518, who used two very distinct examples, of which we give the more spirited, the left shield carrying the arms of the city in which he was working. It appears for the first time in “Grammatica P. Francisci nigri A. Veneti sacerdoti oratoris,” etc., 1500. The second Mark is emblematical of the Swiss warrior. The most eminent of the Basle printers was however Johann Froben, 1490-1527, who numbered among his “readers” such men as Wolfgang Lachner, Heiland, Musculus, Oecolampadius, and Erasmus. Very few, if any, German works were printed by him; the first edition of the New Testament in Greek was printed by him in 1516, Erasmus being the editor. Froben’s device (to which lengthy reference has already been made, and into a discussion of the extremely numerous variants of which we need not enter here) led Erasmus to think that his learned friend did indeed unite the wisdom of the serpent to the simplicity of the dove (see p. 43). Two other early Basle printers, Michael Furter, 1490-1517, and Nicholas Lamparter, 1505-19, used Marks one shield of each of which carried the arms of Basle. Henricpetri was a celebrated printer of Basle, 1523-78, and had a Mark of quite a unique character, representing Thor’s hammer, held by a hand issuing from the clouds, striking fire on the rock, while a head, symbolizing wind, blows upon it. To yet another distinguished Basle printer, Cratander, reference is made, and his Mark given, in the second chapter.

[Illustration: ERHARD OGLIN.

E O]

[Illustration: JACOBUS DE PFORTZHEIM.]

[Illustration: HENRICPETRI.]

[Illustration: WILHELM MORITZ ENDTER’S DAUGHTER.

OMNIA LVSTRAT]

The most famous, as he was one of the earliest, if not actually the first, printers of Nuremberg, or Nürnberg, Anthony Koberger, does not appear to have used a Mark. Indeed, the Printers’ Marks of Nürnberg generally do not make anything like so good a show as those of Cologne and other large German cities. The earliest Mark of all is probably that of Wilhelm Moritz Endter’s daughter, which represents a rocky landscape, with a town in the background lighted by the sun. Endter’s books, it may be mentioned, are excessively rare. A much better known printer of this place is Johann Weissenburger, who started here in 1503, and continued until 1513, when he removed to Landshut, and remained there until 1531. He used the accompanying Mark at both places,--the precise signification of the letters H H on one side of the globe is not known. Mr. Quaritch describes a book of Jacobus Locher, published by this printer in 1506, which is remarkable as containing a number of woodcuts “which, in their style and spirit, draw the book into close connexion with the ‘Ship of Fools.’”

[Illustration: J. WEISSENBURGER.]

[Illustration: MELCHIOR LOTTER.

M L]

[Illustration: V. SCHUMANN.

V S L D]