Chapter 21

Fig. 395.—Fac-simile of the Bible of 1456 (1 Samuel xix, 1-5), printed at Mayence by Gutenberg.

The Latin Bible, without date, which all bibliographers agree in considering as that of Gutenberg, is a large in-folio of six hundred and forty-one leaves, divided into two, or three, or even four volumes. It is printed in double columns, of forty-two lines each in the full pages, with the exception of the first ten, which consisted of only forty or forty-one lines (Fig. 395). The characters are Gothic; the leaves are all numbered, and have neithersignaturesnorcatchwords. Some copies of it are on vellum, others on paper. The number of copies which wereprinted of this Bible may be estimated at one hundred and fifty—a considerable number for that period. The simultaneous publication of so many Bibles, exactly alike, did not contribute less than the lawsuit of Gutenberg and Fust to make known the discovery of printing. Besides which, Fust and his new partner, although they had mutually agreed to keep the secret as long as possible, were the first to reveal it, in order to get all the credit of the invention for themselves, when public rumour allowed them no longer to conceal it within their printing-office.

It was then they printed the “Psalmorum Codex” (Collection of Psalms), the earliest book bearing their names, and which fixed, in a manner, for the first time, a date for the new art they had so much improved. Thecolophon, or inscription at the end of the “Psalmorum Codex,” announces that the book was executed “without the help of the pen, by an ingenious process, in the year of our Lord, 1457.”

This magnificent Psalter, which went through three editions without any considerable alterations being made in it in the space of thirty-three years, is a large in-folio volume of one hundred and seventy-five leaves, printed in red and black characters, imitated from those used in the liturgical manuscripts of the fifteenth century. There exists, however, of the rarest edition of this book but six or seven copies on vellum (Fig. 396).

From this period printing, instead of concealing itself, endeavoured, on the contrary, to make itself generally known. But it does not as yet seem to have occurred to any one that it could be applied to the reproduction of other books than Bibles, psalters, and missals, because these were the only books that commanded a quick and extensive sale. Fust and Schœffer then undertook the printing of a voluminous work, which served as a liturgical manual to the whole of Christendom, the celebrated “Rationale Divinorum Officiorum” (“Manual of Divine Offices”), by William Durand, Bishop of Mende, in the thirteenth century. It suffices to glance over this “Rationale,” and to compare it with the coarse “Specula” printed in Holland, to be convinced that in the year 1459 printing had reached the highest degree of perfection. This edition, dated from Mayence (Moguntiæ), was no longer intended for a small number of buyers; it was addressed to the entire Catholic world, and copies of it on vellum and on paper were disseminated so rapidly over the whole of Europe as to cause the belief, thenceforward, that printing was invented at Mayence.

Fig. 396.—Fac-simile of a page of the Psalter of 1459, second edition, or the second copy that was struck off. Printed at Mayence, by J. Fust and P. Schœffer.

The fourth work printed by Fust and Schœffer, and dated 1460, is the collection of the Constitutions of Pope Clement V., known by the name of “Clementines”—a large in-folio in double columns, having superb initial letters painted in gold and colours in the small number of copies still extant.

But Gutenberg, though deprived of his typographic apparatus, had not renounced the art of which he considered himself, and with reason, the principal inventor. He was, above all, anxious to prove himself as capable as his former partners of producing books “without the help of the pen.” He formed a new association, and fitted up a printing-office which, we know by tradition, was actively at work till 1460, the year wherein appeared the “Catholicon” (a kind of encyclopædia of the thirteenth century), by John Balbi, of Genoa, the only important work the printing of which can be attributed to Gutenberg (Fig. 397), and which can bear comparison with the editions of Fust and Schœffer. Gutenberg, who had imitated the Dutch “Donati” and “Specula,” doubtless felt a repugnance at appropriating to himself the credit of an invention he had only improved; accordingly, in the long and explicit anonymous inscription placed at the end of the volume, he attributed to God alone the glory of this divine invention, declaring that the “Catholicon” had been printed without the assistance of reed,stylus, or pen, but by a marvellous combination of points, matrices, and letters.

Fig. 397.—Fac-simile of the “Catholicon” at 1460, printed at Mayence by Gutenberg.

This undertaking brought to a happy termination, Gutenberg, no doubt weary of the annoyances incident to business, transferred his printing-office to his workmen, Henry and Nicholas Bechtermuncze, Weigand Spyes, and Ulric Zell. Then, having retired near to Adolphus II., elector and archbishop of Mayence, where he occupied the post of gentleman of the ecclesiastical court of that prince, he contented himself with the modest stipend attached to that office, and died at a date not authentically determined, but which cannot be later than February 24, 1468. His friend, Adam Gelth, erected in the Church of the Récollets at Mayence, a monument to his memory, with an epitaph styling him formally “the inventor of the typographic art.”

Fust and Schœffer did not the less continue to print books with indefatigable ardour. In 1462 they completed a new edition of the Bible, much more perfect than that of 1456, and of which copies were probably sold, as were those of the first edition, as manuscripts, especially in countries where, as in France, printing did not already exist. It seems that the appearance in Paris of this Bible, (called the Mayence Bible), greatly excited the community of scribes and booksellers, who saw in the new method of producing books,without the aid of the pen, “the destruction of their trade.” They charged, it is said, the sellers of these books with magic; but it is more probable the latter were proceeded against, and condemned to fine and imprisonment, for having omitted to procure from the University authority for the sale of their Bible; such permission being then indispensable for the sale of every kind of book.

In the meantime the town of Mayence had been taken by assault and given up to pillage (October 27, 1462). This event, in consequence of which the printing-office of Fust and Schœffer remained shut up for two years, resulted in the dissemination over the whole of Europe of printers and the art of printing. Cologne, Hamburg, and Strasbourg appear to have been the first towns in which the emigrants established themselves.

When these printers left Mayence, and carried their art elsewhere, it had never produced any book of classic literature; but it had proved by important publications, such as the Bible and the “Catholicon,” that it could create entire libraries, and thus propagate,ad infinitum, the masterpieces of human genius. It was reserved for the printing-office of Fust and Schœffer to set the example in that direction, and of printing the first classical work. In 1465, Cicero’s treatise “De Officiis,” issued from the press of these two faithful associates, and marked, as we may say, thecommencement of the printing of books for libraries, and with so great success that in the following year a new edition of the treatise was published, in quarto.

At this period, Fust himself came to Paris, where he established a dépôt of printed books, but left the management of the concern to one of his own fellow-countrymen. This person dying soon afterwards, the books found in his house, being the property of a foreigner, were sold by right of forfeiture, for the king’s benefit. But upon the petition of Peter Schœffer, backed up by the Elector of Mayence, the King, Louis XI., granted to the petitioners a sum of 2,425 golden dollars, “in consideration of the trouble and labour which the said petitioners had taken for the said art and trade of printing, and of the benefit and utility which resulted and may result from this art to the whole world, as well by increasing knowledge as in other ways.” This memorable decree of the King of France bears date April 21, 1475.

We must mention, however, that about the year 1462, Louis XI., inquisitive and uneasy at what he had heard of the invention of Gutenberg, sent to Mayence Nicholas Jenson, a clever engraver, attached to the mint at Tours, “to obtain secret information of the cutting of the points and type, by means of which the rarest manuscripts could be multiplied, and to carry off surreptitiously the invention and introduce it into France.” Nicholas Jenson, after having succeeded in his mission, did not return to France (it was never known why), but went to Venice and established himself there as a printer. It would seem, however, that Louis XI., not discouraged at the ill success of his attempt, despatched, it is said, another envoy, less enterprising but more conscientious than the first, to discover the secrets of printing. In 1469, three German printers, Ulric Gering, Martin Crantz, and Michael Friburger, began to print in Paris, in a room of the Sorbonne, of which their fellow-countryman, John Heylin, named De la Pierre, was then the prior; in the following year they dedicated to the king, “their protector,” one of their editions, revised by the learned William Fichet; and in the space of four years they published about fifteen works, quartos and folios, the majority being printed for the first time. Then, when they were forced to leave the Sorbonne, because John de la Pierre, who had returned to Germany, had no longer authority over the institution, they set up in the Rue Saint-Jacques a new printingestablishment, whose sign-board was the “Soleil d’Or,” from which, during the next five years, were issued twelve other important works.

The Sorbonne then, like the University, was the cradle and the foster-mother in Paris of the art of printing, which soon attained to a nourishing condition, and produced, during the last twenty years of the fourteenth[61]century, numerous fine books of history, poetry, literature, and devotion, under the direction of the able and learned Pierre Caron, Pasquier Bonhomme, Anthony Vérard, Simon Vostre (Fig. 398), &c.

After the capture of Mayence, two workmen, who had been dismissed from the establishment of Fust and Schœffer, Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz, carried beyond the Alps the secret that had been confided to them under the guarantee of an oath. They remained for a time in the Convent of Subiaco, near Rome, in which were some German monks, and there they organised a printing apparatus, and printed many fine editions of Lactantius, Cicero, St. Augustine, &c. They were soon invited to Rome, and met with an asylum in the house of the illustrious family of Massimi; but they found an opponent in the city in one of their own workmen from the convent, who had come to Rome and engaged himself as printer to the cardinal John of Torquemada. Henceforward sprang up between the two printing establishments a rivalry which showed itself in unparalleled zeal and activity on both sides. In ten years the greater number of the writings of the ancient Latin authors, which had been preserved in manuscripts more or less rare, passed through the press. In 1476 there were in Rome more than twenty printers, who employed about a hundred presses, and whose great object was to surpass each other in the rapidity with which they produced their publications; so that the day soon arrived when the most precious manuscripts retained any value only because they contained what had not been already made public by printing. Those of which printed editions already existed were so universally disregarded, that we must refer to this period the destruction of a large number. They were used, when written on parchment, for binding the new books; and to this circumstance may be attributed the loss of certain celebrated works which printing in nowise tended to preserve from the knife of the binder.

While printing was displaying such prodigious activity in Rome, it was

Fig. 398.—Fac-simile of a page of a “Livre d’Heures” printed in Paris, in 1512, by Simon Vostre.

not less active in Venice, where it seems to have been imported by that Nicholas Jenson whom Louis XI. had sent to Gutenberg, and whom for a long time even the Venetians looked on as the inventor of the art with which he had clandestinely become acquainted at Mayence. From the

Fig. 399.—The Mark of Gérard Lecu, Printer at Gouwe (1482).Fig. 400.—The Mark of Fust and Schœffer, Printers. (Fifteenth Century.)

Fig. 399.—The Mark of Gérard Lecu, Printer at Gouwe (1482).

Fig. 400.—The Mark of Fust and Schœffer, Printers. (Fifteenth Century.)

year 1469, however, Jenson had no longer the monopoly of printing in Venice, where John de Spire had arrived, bringing also from Mayence all the improvements Gutenberg and Schœffer had obtained. This art having ceased to be a secret in the city of the Doges, great

Fig. 401.—Mark of Arnold de Keyser, Printer at Ghent.(1480.)

Fig. 401.—Mark of Arnold de Keyser, Printer at Ghent.

(1480.)

competition arose among printers, who flocked to Venice, where they found a market for their volumes which a thousand ships carried to all parts of the world. At this period important and admirable publications issued from the numerous rival printing establishments in Venice.Christopher Waltdorfer, of Ratisbon, published in 1471 the first edition of the “Decameron” of Boccaccio, of which a copy was sold for £2,080 at the Roxburgh sale; John of Cologne published, in the same year, the first dated edition of “Terence;” Adam of Amberg reprinted, from the Roman editions, “Lactantius” and “Virgil,” &c. Finally, Venice already possessed more than two hundred printers, when in 1494 the great Aldo Manuzio made his appearance, the precursor of the Estiennes,[62]who were the glory of French printing. From every part of Europe printing spread itself and flourished (Figs. 399 to 411); the printers, however, often neglected, perhaps intentionally, to date their

Fig. 402.—Mark of Colard Mansion, Printer at Bruges. (1477.)Fig. 403.—Mark of Trechsel, Printer at Lyons. (1489.)

Fig. 402.—Mark of Colard Mansion, Printer at Bruges. (1477.)

Fig. 403.—Mark of Trechsel, Printer at Lyons. (1489.)

productions. In the course of 1469 there were only two towns, Venice and Milan, that revealed, by their dated editions, the time at which printing was first established within their walls; in 1470, five towns—Nuremberg, Paris, Foligno, Treviso, and Verona; in 1471, eight towns—Strasbourg, Spires, Treviso, Bologna, Ferrara, Naples, Pavia, and Florence; in 1472, eight others—Cremona, Felizzano, Padua, Mantua, Montreuil, Jesi, Munster, and Parma; in 1473, ten—Brescia, Messina, Ulm, Bude,Lauingen, Mersebourg, Alost, Utrecht, Lyons, and St. Ursio, near Vicenza; in 1474, thirteen towns, among which are Valentia (in Spain) and London; in 1475, twelve towns, &c. Each year we find the art gaining ground, and each year an increase in the number of books newly edited, rendering science and literature popular by considerably diminishing the price of books. Thus, for example, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, the illustrious Poggio sold his fine manuscript of “Livy,” to raise money enough to buy himself a villa near Florence; Anthony of Palermo mortgaged his estate in order to be able to purchase a manuscript of the same historical writer, valued at a hundred and twenty-five dollars; yet a few years later the “Livy,” printed at Rome by Sweynheim and Pannartz, in one folio volume on vellum, was worth only five golden dollars.

Fig. 404.—Mark of Simon Vostre, Printer at Paris, in 1531, living in the Rue Neuve Nostre-Dame, at the Sign of St. John the Evangelist.Fig. 405.—Mark of Galliot du Pré, Bookseller at Paris. (1531.)

Fig. 404.—Mark of Simon Vostre, Printer at Paris, in 1531, living in the Rue Neuve Nostre-Dame, at the Sign of St. John the Evangelist.

Fig. 405.—Mark of Galliot du Pré, Bookseller at Paris. (1531.)

The largest number of the early editions resembled each other, for they were generally printed in Gothic characters, orlettres de somme—letters which bristled with points and angular appendices. These characters, when printing was only just invented, had preserved in Holland and in Germanytheir original form; and the celebrated printer of Bruges, Colard Mansion, only improved on them in his valuable publications, which were almost contemporaneous with Gutenberg’s “Catholicon;” but they had already under-gone in France a semi metamorphosis in getting rid of their angularities and their most extravagant features. Theselettres de sommewere then adopted under the name ofbâtarde(bastard) orronde(round), in the first books printed in France, and when Nicholas Jenson established himself in Venice

Fig. 406.—Mark of Philippe le Noir, Printer, Bookseller, and Bookbinder, at Paris, 1536, living in the Rue St. Jacques, at the sign of the “Rose Couronnée.”Fig. 407.—Mark of Temporal, Printer at Lyons, 1550-1559, with two devices; one in Latin, “And in the meanwhile time flieth, flieth irreparably;” the other in Greek, “Mark, or know, Time.” (Observe the play upon the wordstempus, καιρὁς and Temporal.)

Fig. 406.—Mark of Philippe le Noir, Printer, Bookseller, and Bookbinder, at Paris, 1536, living in the Rue St. Jacques, at the sign of the “Rose Couronnée.”

Fig. 407.—Mark of Temporal, Printer at Lyons, 1550-1559, with two devices; one in Latin, “And in the meanwhile time flieth, flieth irreparably;” the other in Greek, “Mark, or know, Time.” (Observe the play upon the wordstempus, καιρὁς and Temporal.)

he used theRoman, which were only an elegant variety of thelettres de sommeof France (Gothic characters). Aldo Manuzio, with the sole object of insuring that Venice should not owe its national type to a Frenchman, adopted theItaliccharacter, renewed from the writing called cursive orde chancellerie(of the chancellor’s office), which was never generally used in printing, notwithstanding the fine editions of Aldo. Hereafter the Ciceronean character was to come into use, so called because it had been employed at Rome in the first edition of the “Epistolæ Familiares” (Familiar Letters) of Cicero, in 1467. The character called “St. Augustinian,” which appearedlater, likewise owes its name to the large edition of the works of St. Augustine, published at Basle in 1506. Moreover, during this first period in which each printer engraved, or caused to be engraved under his own directions,

Fig. 408.—Mark of Robert Estienne, Printer at Paris, 1536.“Do not aspire to know high things.”Fig. 409.—Mark of Gryphe, Printer at Lyons, 1529.“Virtue my Leader, Fortune my Companion.”

Fig. 408.—Mark of Robert Estienne, Printer at Paris, 1536.

“Do not aspire to know high things.”

Fig. 409.—Mark of Gryphe, Printer at Lyons, 1529.

“Virtue my Leader, Fortune my Companion.”

the characters he made use of, there was an infinite number of different types. Theregister, a table indicative of the quires which composed the book, was necessary to point out in what order these were to be arranged

Fig. 410.—Mark of Plantin, Printer, at Antwerp, 1557.“Christ the true Vine.”Fig. 411.—Mark of J. Le Noble, Printer at Troyes. (1595.)

Fig. 410.—Mark of Plantin, Printer, at Antwerp, 1557.

“Christ the true Vine.”

Fig. 411.—Mark of J. Le Noble, Printer at Troyes. (1595.)

and bound together. After theregistercamethe catchwords, which, at the end of each quire or of each leaf, were destined to serve an analogous purpose; and thesignatures, indicating the place of quires or of leaves by letters or figures; but signatures and catchwords existed already in the manuscripts,and typographers had only to reproduce them in their editions. There was at first a perfect identity between the manuscripts and the books printed from them. The typographic art seems to have considered it imperative to respect the abbreviations with which the manuscripts were so encumbered as often to become unintelligible; but, as it was not easy to transfer them precisely from the manuscripts, they were soon expressed in such a way, and in so complicated a manner, that in 1483 a special explanatory treatise had to be published to render them intelligible. The punctuation was generally very capriciously presented: here, it was nearlynil; there, it admitted only of the full stop in various positions; the rests were often indicated by oblique strokes; sometimes the full stop was round, sometimes square, and we find also the star or asterisk employed as a sign of punctuation. The new paragraphs, or breaks, are placed indifferently in the same line with the rest of the text, projecting beyond it or not reaching to it.

Fig. 412.—Border from the “Livre d’Heures” of Anthony Vérard (1488), representing the Assumption of the Virgin in the presence of the Apostles and Holy Women, and at the bottom of the page two Mystical Figures.

The book, on leaving the press, went, like its predecessor the manuscript, first into the hands of thecorrector, who revised the text, rectifying wrong letters, and restoring those the press had left in blank; then into the hands of therubricator, who printed in red, blue, or other colours, the initial letters, the capitals, and the new paragraphs. The leaves, before the adoption of signatures, were numbered by hand.

At first, nearly all books were printed in folio and quarto sizes, the result of folding the sheet of paper in two or in four respectively; but the length and breadth of these sizes varied according to the requirements of typography and the dimensions of the press. At the end of the fifteenth century, however, the advantages of the octavo were already appreciated, which soon became in France the sex-decimo, and in Italy the duo-decimo.

Fig. 413.—Border taken from the “Livre d’Heures” of Geoffroi Tory (1525).

Paper and ink employed by the earliest printer seem to have required no improvement as the art of printing progressed.

Fig. 414—“Livre d’Heures,” by Guillaume Roville (1551), a composition in the style of the school of Lyons, with Caryatides representing female Saints semi-veiled.

The ink was black, bright, indelible, unalterable, penetrating deeply into the paper, and composed, as already were the colours, of oil-paint. The paper, which was certainly rather grey or yellow, and often coarse and rough, had the advantage of being strong, durable, and was almost fit, in virtue of these qualities, to replace parchment and vellum, both of which materials were scarce and too expensive. Editors contented themselves with having struck off onmembrane(a thin and white vellum) a small number of copies of each edition; never exceeding three hundred. These sumptuous copies, rubricated, illuminated, bound with care, resembling in every respect the finest manuscripts, were generally presented to kings, princes, and great personages, whose patronage or assistance the printer sought. Nor was any expense spared to add to typography all the ornaments which wood-engravings could confer upon it; and from the year 1475, numerousillustrated editions, of which an example was found in the first “Specula,” especially those printed in Germany, were enriched with figures, portraits, heraldic escutcheons, and a multitude of ornamented margins (Figs. 412 to 415). For more than a century the painters and engravers worked hand in hand with the printers and booksellers.

Fig. 415.—Border employed by John of Tournes, in 1557, ornamented with Antique Masks and Allegorical Personages bearing Baskets containing Laurel Branches.

The taste for books spread over the whole of Europe; the number of buyers and of amateurs was every day increasing. In the libraries of princes, scholars, or monks, printed books were collected as formerly were manuscripts. Henceforth printing found everywhere the same protection, the same encouragements, the same rivalry. Typographers sometimes travelled with their apparatus, opened a printing-office in a small town, and then went on elsewhere after they had sold one edition. Finally, such was the incredible activity of typography, from its origin till 1500, that thenumber of editions published in Europe in the space of half a century amounted tosixteen thousand. But the most remarkable result of printing was the important part it played in the movement of the sixteenth century, from which resulted the transformation of the arts, of literature, and science; the discoveries of Laurent Coster and of Gutenberg had cast a new light over the world, and the press made its appearance to modify profoundly the conditions of the intellectual life of peoples.

Fig. 416.—Mark of Bonaventure and Abraham Elsevier, Printers at Leyden, 1620.

LONDON: PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., CITY ROAD.

FOOTNOTES:[1]Dorserets, covers to backs of chairs, beds, &c.[2]Richard I., surnamedSans-peur, third Duke of Normandy, was natural son of William I., and grandson of Rollo. He died in 996.—[Ed.][3]Charles le Brun, a distinguished painter of the French school, flourished during the seventeenth century. The son of a sculptor, who placed him under Simon Vouet, the young artist made such progress that at the age of fifteen he painted a remarkable picture, “Hercules Destroying the Horses of Diomede,” which brought him at once into public notice. Le Brun’s patron, the Chancellor Seguier, sent him to Italy, with an introduction to Nicholas Poussin, whose pure and correct taste, however, seems to have had little influence on the French artist, who, though possessing an inventive and somewhat elevated genius, often showed himself a mannerist.—[Ed.][4]“Historical Topography of Ancient Paris in the district of the Louvre and Tuileries.” By Berty and Legrand.[5]Probably an abbreviation, or corruption, of cap-mail.—[Ed.][6]Orbrassarts—pieces to protect the upper part of the arms.—[Ed.][7]This title is not chronologically correct. Henry of Bolingbroke had been created Duke of Hereford nearly a year before his intended combat with Norfolk, at Coventry, in 1398; when the king, Richard II., interfered, and banished both nobles from the kingdom.—[Ed.][8]Anglicè, partisan—a kind of pike or lance.—[Ed.][9]Martel-de-fer—a weapon combining a hammer and pick; used by cavalry in the Middle Ages, to damage and destroy armour. It was generally hung at the saddle-bow.—[Ed.][10]Tassets—parts of the cuirass.[11]Morion—a kind of helmet, usually worn by foot-soldiers.—[Ed.][12]So called, it may be presumed, from its form and make.—[Ed.][13]Latin,Luteus—muddy.—[Ed.][14]Quincunx order is a method of arranging five objects, or pieces, in the form of a square; one being in the centre, and one at each corner.—[Ed.][15]Limousine—a term applied to enamelling, and derived, as some writers assume, from Leonard Limousin, a famous artist in this kind of work, resident at Limoges. It is, however, more probable it came from the province Limousin, or Limosin, of which Limoges was the capital; and that Leonard acquired the surname of Limousin from his place of birth or residence; just as many of the old painters are best known by theirs.—[Ed.][16]Ogivale—a term used by French architects to denote the Gothic vault, with its ribs and cross-springers, &c. It is also employed to denote the pointed arch.—Gwilt’sEncyclopædia of Architecture.—[Ed.][17]This is a literal rendering of the text of M. Labarte; but the artists to whom allusion is made were only two, Niccola and Giovanni, sculptors and architects of Pisa. According to Vasari, Niccola, father of Giovanni (Jean or John), first worked under certain Greek sculptors who were executing the figures and other sculptural ornaments of the Duomo of Pisa and the Chapel of San Giovanni.—[Ed.][18]Andrea di Cione Orcagna.—[Ed.][19]Autochthone—relating to the aboriginal inhabitants of a country: the use of the word here is not very intelligible.—[Ed.][20]Gnomon—literally the upright piece of wood or metal which projects the shadow on the plane of the dial.—[Ed.][21]This clock, as many readers doubtless know, was removed some years ago, when St. Dunstan’s Church, in Fleet Street, was rebuilt.—[Ed.][22]The reader will notice a discrepancy between this description of thechorusand that given in a preceding paragraph. We have retained both, mainly because it is now impossible to determine what the instrument really was: no mention of it appears in any book we have consulted.—[Ed.][23]Nabulum—a name evidently derived from the Hebrew wordnebel, generally translated in the Scriptures as a psaltery.—[Ed.][24]The Welsh or ScotchCrwd.—[Tr.][25]In GermanGeige, “fiddle.”—[Tr.][26]Henry IV., born at Pau, in the Béarn.—[Ed.][27]The English “knave” is only our old equivalent for the Germanknabe, and had originally the same meaning ofservant; it is also nearly similar in sense to the Frenchvalet.—[Tr.][28]Paul, the Silentiary, is so named from holding in the court of Justinian the office of chief of the Silentiarii, persons who had the care of the palace. He wrote a poem on the rebuilding of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, which was translated from Greek into Latin, and published with notes, by Du Cange, of Paris, in 1670. It is this to which M. Lecroix refers in the text.—[Ed.][29]Amandaire—almond-shaped. Strictly speaking, the aureola is the nimbus of the whole body, as the nimbus is the aureola of the head. In Fairholt’s “Dictionary of Terms in Art” is an engraving showing a saint standing in the centre of an almond-shaped aureola—[Ed.][30]Grisaille—white and black.—[Ed.][31]Probably Alfonso is thus designate!.—[Ed.][32]This is obviously a misconception. Lanzi, alluding to the picture, says, “Had Leonardo desired to follow the practice of his age in painting in distemper, the art at this time would have been in possession of this treasure. But being always fond of attempting new methods, he painted this masterpiece upon a peculiar ground, formed of distilled oils, which was the reason that it gradually detached itself from the wall,” &c. And a later authority, Kugler, thus writes: “The determination of Leonardo to execute the work in oil-colours instead of fresco, in order to have the power of finishing the minutest details in so great an undertaking, appears to have been unfortunate.” Distemper differs from fresco in that it is painted on a dry, and not a damp, wall; but in both the vehicle used is of an aqueous, and not an oily, nature.—[Ed.][33]Deacon of the Church at Aquila, and afterwards attached to the court of Charlemagne. Paul, who died about the year 799, was distinguished as a poet and historian.—[Ed.][34]Or San-Gemignano, a small town between Florence and Siena.—[Ed.][35]Giorgione studied under Giovanni Bellini, younger brother of Gentile, and son of Jacopo. M. Lacroix does not even mention Giovanni Bellini, though he is generally esteemed before his father and brother, besides being the master of two of the greatest painters of the Venetian school, Titian and Giorgione; who, however, soon cast aside the antiquated style of their early instructor.—[Ed.][36]The famous picture, an altar-piece, representing “Christ bearing his Cross,” known by the name ofLo Spasimo di Sicilia, from its having been painted for the convent of Santa Maria della Spasimo at Palermo, in Sicily. It is now in the Museum of Madrid.—[Ed.][37]We can find no authority to support this statement.—[Ed.][38]Holbein died of the plague which prevailed in London in 1554.—[Ed.][39]This name is generally written Jeannet, and, according to Wornum’s “Epochs of Painting,” seems to have been applied indiscriminately almost to the two painters, Jehannet or Jehan Clouet, father and son. M. Lacroix appears also to include François under the same general cognomen; which, indeed, appears to have been a species of surname.—[Ed.][40]Buziackis the name by which this old wood-engraver is generally known.—[Ed.][41]The legend which accompanies this engraving is in old Italian; it relates to the famous prophecy of Isaiah as to the birth of Christ (Isaiah vii. 14).[42]We presume this plate to be that commonly known among collectors of prints as “Death’s Horse;” it represents a knight on horseback followed by Death. The best impressions of this plate are prior to the date 1513. It is also called “The Christian Knight,” and “The Knight, Death, and the Devil.”—[Ed.][43]That Marc Antonio studied painting under Raphael, as is here implied, is more than doubtful, though he engraved a very large number of his various compositions, and was highly esteemed by the great master.—[Ed.][44]Giovanni B. B. Ghisi; Giorgio and Adams, his two sons; and Diana, his daughter.—[Ed.][45]This engraver, generally known by the single name of George, usually signed his plates with the surname Peins or Pentz.—[Ed.][46]He was born at Prague, although most of his works were executed in England.—[Tr.][47]Ambons—a kind of pulpit in the early Christian churches.—[Ed.][48]Strasbourg spire is 468 feet in height, the highest in the world. Amiens, the next, a mereflèche, is 422 feet.—[Tr.][49]M. Lacroix uses the wordRomanethroughout, with reference to this style of architecture: we have adoptedNormanas that most commonly associated with it, and because it is a generic term comprehending Romanesque, Lombardic, and even Byzantine.—[Ed.][50]Oculus(eye).—This word is not known in the vocabulary of English architects; but it is evidently intended to signify a circular window.—[Ed.][51]Officers who had jurisdiction over, and were inspectors of, works of masonry and carpentry.[52]The word is derived fromvellus, which merely signifies the skin of any beast, not of a calf only.—[Ed.][53]The word is derived from the Latinuncialis, and is applied to letters of a round or hook-shaped form: such were used by the ancients as numerals, or for words in abbreviated inscriptions.—[Ed.][54]Minuscule.—Less or little. The term is evidently here intended to distinguish small letters from capitals.—[Ed.][55]Palimpsest—a kind of parchment from which anything written could easily be erased.—[Ed.][56]Librarian probably; thoughlibrairemeans only a bookseller,bibliothécairebeing the French for a librarian.—[Tr.][57]Translation: “This is Monseigneur St. Louis’ Psalter, which belonged to his mother.”[58]Antiphonaries—books containing the responses, &c., used in Catholic church-services.—[Ed.][59]“Garni de deux fermaulx d’argent, dorez, armoiez d’azur à une aigle d’or à deux testes, onglé de gueulles, auquel a ung tuyau d’argent doré pour tourner les feuilles, à trois escussons desdites armes, couvert d’une chemise de veluyau vermeil.”[60]Probably this “pilgrimage” refers to some one of the great European Councils or Diets held in the city during the Middle Ages, as were Congresses in later times.—[Ed.][61]Sic; but it should evidently be the fifteenth century.—[Ed.][62]Anglicè, Stephens, by which name this illustrious family of scholars and printers is most popularly known in England. They were ten in number, who flourished between 1512 and about 1660. Anthony, the last distinguished representative of the family, died in poverty at the Hôtel Dieu, Paris, in 1674, at the age of eighty-two.—[Ed.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1]Dorserets, covers to backs of chairs, beds, &c.

[2]Richard I., surnamedSans-peur, third Duke of Normandy, was natural son of William I., and grandson of Rollo. He died in 996.—[Ed.]

[3]Charles le Brun, a distinguished painter of the French school, flourished during the seventeenth century. The son of a sculptor, who placed him under Simon Vouet, the young artist made such progress that at the age of fifteen he painted a remarkable picture, “Hercules Destroying the Horses of Diomede,” which brought him at once into public notice. Le Brun’s patron, the Chancellor Seguier, sent him to Italy, with an introduction to Nicholas Poussin, whose pure and correct taste, however, seems to have had little influence on the French artist, who, though possessing an inventive and somewhat elevated genius, often showed himself a mannerist.—[Ed.]

[4]“Historical Topography of Ancient Paris in the district of the Louvre and Tuileries.” By Berty and Legrand.

[5]Probably an abbreviation, or corruption, of cap-mail.—[Ed.]

[6]Orbrassarts—pieces to protect the upper part of the arms.—[Ed.]

[7]This title is not chronologically correct. Henry of Bolingbroke had been created Duke of Hereford nearly a year before his intended combat with Norfolk, at Coventry, in 1398; when the king, Richard II., interfered, and banished both nobles from the kingdom.—[Ed.]

[8]Anglicè, partisan—a kind of pike or lance.—[Ed.]

[9]Martel-de-fer—a weapon combining a hammer and pick; used by cavalry in the Middle Ages, to damage and destroy armour. It was generally hung at the saddle-bow.—[Ed.]

[10]Tassets—parts of the cuirass.

[11]Morion—a kind of helmet, usually worn by foot-soldiers.—[Ed.]

[12]So called, it may be presumed, from its form and make.—[Ed.]

[13]Latin,Luteus—muddy.—[Ed.]

[14]Quincunx order is a method of arranging five objects, or pieces, in the form of a square; one being in the centre, and one at each corner.—[Ed.]

[15]Limousine—a term applied to enamelling, and derived, as some writers assume, from Leonard Limousin, a famous artist in this kind of work, resident at Limoges. It is, however, more probable it came from the province Limousin, or Limosin, of which Limoges was the capital; and that Leonard acquired the surname of Limousin from his place of birth or residence; just as many of the old painters are best known by theirs.—[Ed.]

[16]Ogivale—a term used by French architects to denote the Gothic vault, with its ribs and cross-springers, &c. It is also employed to denote the pointed arch.—Gwilt’sEncyclopædia of Architecture.—[Ed.]

[17]This is a literal rendering of the text of M. Labarte; but the artists to whom allusion is made were only two, Niccola and Giovanni, sculptors and architects of Pisa. According to Vasari, Niccola, father of Giovanni (Jean or John), first worked under certain Greek sculptors who were executing the figures and other sculptural ornaments of the Duomo of Pisa and the Chapel of San Giovanni.—[Ed.]

[18]Andrea di Cione Orcagna.—[Ed.]

[19]Autochthone—relating to the aboriginal inhabitants of a country: the use of the word here is not very intelligible.—[Ed.]

[20]Gnomon—literally the upright piece of wood or metal which projects the shadow on the plane of the dial.—[Ed.]

[21]This clock, as many readers doubtless know, was removed some years ago, when St. Dunstan’s Church, in Fleet Street, was rebuilt.—[Ed.]

[22]The reader will notice a discrepancy between this description of thechorusand that given in a preceding paragraph. We have retained both, mainly because it is now impossible to determine what the instrument really was: no mention of it appears in any book we have consulted.—[Ed.]

[23]Nabulum—a name evidently derived from the Hebrew wordnebel, generally translated in the Scriptures as a psaltery.—[Ed.]

[24]The Welsh or ScotchCrwd.—[Tr.]

[25]In GermanGeige, “fiddle.”—[Tr.]

[26]Henry IV., born at Pau, in the Béarn.—[Ed.]

[27]The English “knave” is only our old equivalent for the Germanknabe, and had originally the same meaning ofservant; it is also nearly similar in sense to the Frenchvalet.—[Tr.]

[28]Paul, the Silentiary, is so named from holding in the court of Justinian the office of chief of the Silentiarii, persons who had the care of the palace. He wrote a poem on the rebuilding of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, which was translated from Greek into Latin, and published with notes, by Du Cange, of Paris, in 1670. It is this to which M. Lecroix refers in the text.—[Ed.]

[29]Amandaire—almond-shaped. Strictly speaking, the aureola is the nimbus of the whole body, as the nimbus is the aureola of the head. In Fairholt’s “Dictionary of Terms in Art” is an engraving showing a saint standing in the centre of an almond-shaped aureola—[Ed.]

[30]Grisaille—white and black.—[Ed.]

[31]Probably Alfonso is thus designate!.—[Ed.]

[32]This is obviously a misconception. Lanzi, alluding to the picture, says, “Had Leonardo desired to follow the practice of his age in painting in distemper, the art at this time would have been in possession of this treasure. But being always fond of attempting new methods, he painted this masterpiece upon a peculiar ground, formed of distilled oils, which was the reason that it gradually detached itself from the wall,” &c. And a later authority, Kugler, thus writes: “The determination of Leonardo to execute the work in oil-colours instead of fresco, in order to have the power of finishing the minutest details in so great an undertaking, appears to have been unfortunate.” Distemper differs from fresco in that it is painted on a dry, and not a damp, wall; but in both the vehicle used is of an aqueous, and not an oily, nature.—[Ed.]

[33]Deacon of the Church at Aquila, and afterwards attached to the court of Charlemagne. Paul, who died about the year 799, was distinguished as a poet and historian.—[Ed.]

[34]Or San-Gemignano, a small town between Florence and Siena.—[Ed.]

[35]Giorgione studied under Giovanni Bellini, younger brother of Gentile, and son of Jacopo. M. Lacroix does not even mention Giovanni Bellini, though he is generally esteemed before his father and brother, besides being the master of two of the greatest painters of the Venetian school, Titian and Giorgione; who, however, soon cast aside the antiquated style of their early instructor.—[Ed.]

[36]The famous picture, an altar-piece, representing “Christ bearing his Cross,” known by the name ofLo Spasimo di Sicilia, from its having been painted for the convent of Santa Maria della Spasimo at Palermo, in Sicily. It is now in the Museum of Madrid.—[Ed.]

[37]We can find no authority to support this statement.—[Ed.]

[38]Holbein died of the plague which prevailed in London in 1554.—[Ed.]

[39]This name is generally written Jeannet, and, according to Wornum’s “Epochs of Painting,” seems to have been applied indiscriminately almost to the two painters, Jehannet or Jehan Clouet, father and son. M. Lacroix appears also to include François under the same general cognomen; which, indeed, appears to have been a species of surname.—[Ed.]

[40]Buziackis the name by which this old wood-engraver is generally known.—[Ed.]

[41]The legend which accompanies this engraving is in old Italian; it relates to the famous prophecy of Isaiah as to the birth of Christ (Isaiah vii. 14).

[42]We presume this plate to be that commonly known among collectors of prints as “Death’s Horse;” it represents a knight on horseback followed by Death. The best impressions of this plate are prior to the date 1513. It is also called “The Christian Knight,” and “The Knight, Death, and the Devil.”—[Ed.]

[43]That Marc Antonio studied painting under Raphael, as is here implied, is more than doubtful, though he engraved a very large number of his various compositions, and was highly esteemed by the great master.—[Ed.]

[44]Giovanni B. B. Ghisi; Giorgio and Adams, his two sons; and Diana, his daughter.—[Ed.]

[45]This engraver, generally known by the single name of George, usually signed his plates with the surname Peins or Pentz.—[Ed.]

[46]He was born at Prague, although most of his works were executed in England.—[Tr.]

[47]Ambons—a kind of pulpit in the early Christian churches.—[Ed.]

[48]Strasbourg spire is 468 feet in height, the highest in the world. Amiens, the next, a mereflèche, is 422 feet.—[Tr.]

[49]M. Lacroix uses the wordRomanethroughout, with reference to this style of architecture: we have adoptedNormanas that most commonly associated with it, and because it is a generic term comprehending Romanesque, Lombardic, and even Byzantine.—[Ed.]

[50]Oculus(eye).—This word is not known in the vocabulary of English architects; but it is evidently intended to signify a circular window.—[Ed.]

[51]Officers who had jurisdiction over, and were inspectors of, works of masonry and carpentry.

[52]The word is derived fromvellus, which merely signifies the skin of any beast, not of a calf only.—[Ed.]

[53]The word is derived from the Latinuncialis, and is applied to letters of a round or hook-shaped form: such were used by the ancients as numerals, or for words in abbreviated inscriptions.—[Ed.]

[54]Minuscule.—Less or little. The term is evidently here intended to distinguish small letters from capitals.—[Ed.]

[55]Palimpsest—a kind of parchment from which anything written could easily be erased.—[Ed.]

[56]Librarian probably; thoughlibrairemeans only a bookseller,bibliothécairebeing the French for a librarian.—[Tr.]

[57]Translation: “This is Monseigneur St. Louis’ Psalter, which belonged to his mother.”

[58]Antiphonaries—books containing the responses, &c., used in Catholic church-services.—[Ed.]

[59]“Garni de deux fermaulx d’argent, dorez, armoiez d’azur à une aigle d’or à deux testes, onglé de gueulles, auquel a ung tuyau d’argent doré pour tourner les feuilles, à trois escussons desdites armes, couvert d’une chemise de veluyau vermeil.”

[60]Probably this “pilgrimage” refers to some one of the great European Councils or Diets held in the city during the Middle Ages, as were Congresses in later times.—[Ed.]

[61]Sic; but it should evidently be the fifteenth century.—[Ed.]

[62]Anglicè, Stephens, by which name this illustrious family of scholars and printers is most popularly known in England. They were ten in number, who flourished between 1512 and about 1660. Anthony, the last distinguished representative of the family, died in poverty at the Hôtel Dieu, Paris, in 1674, at the age of eighty-two.—[Ed.]

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