Printers' Marks Part 1

Printers' Marks.

by William Roberts.

PREFACE.

There are few phases of typography open to the charge of being neglected. An unquestionable exception occurs, however, in relation to Printers' Marks. This subject is in many respects one of the most interesting in connection with the early printers, who, using devices at first purely as trade marks for the protection of their books against the pirate, soon began to discern their ornamental value, and, consequently, employed the best available artists to design them. Many of these examples are of the greatest bibliographical and general interest, as well as of considerable value in supplementing an important cla.s.s of ill.u.s.trations to the printed books, and showing the origin of several typical cla.s.ses of Book-plates (Ex-Libris). The present Handbook has been written with a view to supplying a readable but accurate account of this neglected chapter in the history of art and bibliography; and it appeals with equal force to the artist or collector. Only one book on the subject, Berjeau's "Early Dutch, German, and English Printers' Marks," has appeared in this country, and this, besides being out of print and expensive, is dest.i.tute of descriptive letterpress. The principle which determined the selection of the ill.u.s.trations is of a threefold character: first, the importance of the printer; secondly, the artistic value or interest of the Mark itself; and thirdly, the geographical importance of the city or town in which the Mark first appeared.

Since the text of this book was printed, however, two additions have been made to the literature of its subject: Dr. Paul Kristeller's "Die Italienischen Buchdrucker- und Verlegerzeichen, bis 1525," a very handsome work, worthy to rank with the "Elsa.s.sische Buchermarken bis Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts" of Herr Paul Heitz and Dr. Karl A. Barack (to whom I am indebted for much valuable information as well as for nearly thirty ill.u.s.trations in the chapter on German Printers' Marks); and Mr. Alfred Pollard's "Early Ill.u.s.trated Books," an admirable volume which, however, only deals incidentally with the Printer's Mark as a side issue in the history of the decoration and ill.u.s.tration of books in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Mr. Pollard reproduces seven blocks from Dr. Kristeller's monograph on the Devices of the Italian Printers. In reference to the statement on p. 116 of this volume that the Mark of Bade "is the earliest picture of a printing press," Mr.

Pollard refers to an unique copy of an edition of the "Danse Macabre"

printed anonymously at Lyons in February, 1499, eight years earlier, which contains cuts of the shops of a printer and a bookseller.

That this volume has considerably exceeded its intended limit must be my excuse for not including, with a very few exceptions, any modern examples from the Continent. Nearly every French printer and publisher of any note indulges in the luxury of a Mark of some sort, and an interesting volume might be written concerning modern continental examples. The practice of using a Printer's Mark is an extremely commendable one, not merely as a relic of antiquity, but from an aesthetic point of view. Nearly every tradesman of importance in this country has some sort of trade mark; but most printers agree in regarding it as a wholly unnecessary superfluity. As the few exceptions indicated in the last chapter prove that the fas.h.i.+on has an artistic as well as a utilitarian side, I hope that it will again become more general as time goes on.

As regards my authorities: I have freely availed myself of nearly all the works named in the "Bibliography" at the end, besides such invaluable works as Brunet's "Manual," Mr. Quaritch's Catalogues, and the monographs on the various printers, Plantin, Elzevir, Aldus, and the rest. From Messrs. d.i.c.kson and Edmonds' "Annals of Scottish Printing"

I have obtained not only some useful information regarding the Printer's Mark in Scotland, but, through the courtesy of Messrs. Macmillan and Bowes of Cambridge, the loan of several blocks from the foregoing work, as well as that of John Siberch, the first Cambridge printer. I have also to thank M. Martinus Nijhoff, of the Hague, Herr Karl W. Hiersemann, of Leipzig, Herr J. H. Ed. Heitz, Stra.s.sburg, Mr. Elliot Stock, Mr. Robert Hilton, Editor of the "British Printer," and the Editor of the "American Bookmaker," for the loan either of blocks or of original examples of Printers' Marks; and Mr. C. T. Jacobi for several useful works on typography. Mr. G. P. Johnston, of Edinburgh, kindly lent me the reduced facsimile on p. 252, which arrived too late to be included in its proper place. The publishers whose Marks are included in the chapter on "Modern Examples" are also thanked for the courtesy and readiness with which they placed electros at my disposal.

The original idea of this book is due to my friend, Mr. Gleeson White, the general editor of the series in which it appears; but my thanks are especially due to Mr. G. R. Dennis for the great care with which he has gone through the whole work.

W. R.

86, Grosvenor Road, S.W., _October_, 1893.

PRINTERS' MARKS.

INTRODUCTION.

Shorn of all the romance and glamour which seem inevitably to surround every early phase of typographic art, a Printer's Device may be described as nothing more or less than a trade mark. It is usually a sufficient proof that the book in which it occurs is the work of a particular craftsman. Its origin is essentially unromantic, and its employment, in the earlier stages of its history at all events, was merely an attempt to prevent the inevitable pirate from reaping where he had not sown. At one time a copy, or more correctly a forgery, of a Printer's Mark could be detected with comparative ease, even if the body of the book had all the appearance of genuineness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: G. U. VON ANDLAU.]

This self-protection was necessary on many grounds. First of all, the privileges of impression which were granted by kings, princes, and supreme pontiffs, were usually obtained only by circuitous routes and after the expenditure of much time and money. Moreover, the counterfeit book was rarely either typographically or textually correct, and was more often than not abridged and mutilated almost beyond recognition, to the serious detriment of the printer whose name appeared on the t.i.tle-page. Places as well as individualities suffered, for very many books were sold as printed in Venice, without having the least claim to that distinction. The Lyons printers were most unblus.h.i.+ng sinners in this respect, and Renouard cites a Memorial drawn up by Aldus himself on the subject, and published at Venice in 1503.

But apart from the foregoing reasons, it must be remembered that many of the earliest monuments of typographic art appeared not only without the name of the printer but also without that of the locality in which they were printed. Although in such cases various extraneous circ.u.mstances have enabled bibliographers to "place" these books, the Mark of the printer has almost invariably been the chief aid in this direction. The Psalter of 1457 is the first book which has the name of the place where it was printed, besides that of the printers as well as the date of the year in which it was executed. But for a long time after that date books appeared without one or the other of these attributes, and sometimes without either, so that the importance of the Printer's Mark holds good.

A very natural question now suggests itself, "Who invented these Marks?"

Laire, "Index Librorum" (Saec. xv.), ii. 146, in speaking of a Greek Psalter says: "_Habet signaturas, registrum ac custodes, sed non numerantur folia. Litterae princ.i.p.ales ligno incisae sunt, sicut et in principio cujuslibet psalmi viticulae quae gallice _vignettes_ appellantur, quarum usum primus excogitavit Aldus._" The volume here described was printed about 1495, and the invention therefore has been very generally attributed to Aldus. That this is not so will be shown in the next chapter. We shall confine ourselves for the present to some of the various points which appear to be material to a proper understanding of the subject.

One of the most important and interesting phases in connection with Printers' Marks is undoubtedly the _motif_ of the pictorial embellishment. Both the precise origin and the object of many Marks are now lost to us, and many others are only explained after a thorough study of the life of the particular printer or the nature of the books which he generally printed or published. The majority, however, carry their own _prima facie_ explanations. The number of "punning" devices is very large, and nearly every one has a character peculiarly its own.

Their antiquity is proved by the fact that before the beginning of the fifteenth century, a picture of St. Anthony was boldly, not to say irreverently, used by Antoine Caillaut, Paris. A long series of punning devices occur in the books printed by or for the fifteenth century publishers, one of the most striking and successful is that of Michel le Noir, whose s.h.i.+eld carries his initials, surmounted by the head of a negress and sometimes supported by canting figures in full. This Mark, with variations, was also employed by Philippe and Guillaume le Noir, the work of the three men covering a period of nearly 100 years. The device of Gilles or Gillet Couteau, Paris, 1492, is apparently a double pun, first on his Christian name, the transition from which to _illet_ being easy and explaining the presence of a pink in flower, and secondly on his surname by the three open knives, in one of which the end of the blade is broken. It was almost inevitable that both Denis Roce or Ross, a Paris bookseller, 1490, and Germain Rose, of Lyons, 1538, should employ a rose in their marks, and this they did, one of the latter's examples having a dolphin twining around the stem. Jacques and Estienne Maillet, whose works at Lyons extended from the last eleven years of the fifteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth, give in the centre of their s.h.i.+eld a picture of a mallet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GILLET COUTEAU.

Du grant aux petis Gillet couteau]

[Ill.u.s.tration: GALLIOT DU PRe.

VOGVE LA GVALLEE GALLIOT DV PRE]

One of the boldest of the early sixteenth century examples is that employed by Galliot Du Pre, Paris, and in this we have a picture of a galley propelled with the aid of sails and oars, and with the motto "Vogue la gualee." This device (with several variations) was used by both father and son, and possesses an interest beyond the subject of Printers' Marks, for it gives us a very clear idea of the different boats employed during the first three quarters of the sixteenth century.

Another striking Mark of about the same time and covering as nearly as possible the same period, was that of the family De La Porte. The earlier example used in Paris about 1508 was a simple doorway; but the elder Hugues de la Porte, Lyons, and the successors of Aymon De La Porte of the same place, used several exceedingly bold designs in which Samson is represented carrying away the gates of Gaza, the motto on one door or gate being "libertatem meam," and on the other "mec.u.m porto." The two printers of the same name, Jehan Lecoq, who were practising the art continuously during nearly the whole of the sixteenth century at Troyes, employed a Mark on the s.h.i.+eld of which appears the figure of a c.o.c.k; whilst an equally appropriate if much more ugly design, was employed by the eminent Lyons family of Sebastien Gryphe or Gryphius: he had at least eight "griffin" Marks, which differed slightly from one another.

Francois Gryphe, who worked in Paris, had one Mark which was original to the extent of the griffin being supported by a tortoise. J. Du Moulin, Rouen, employed a little picture of a windmill on his Mark, as did Scotland's first printer, Andro Myllar; but Jehan Pet.i.t, a prolific fifteenth century printer of Paris, confined his punning to the words "Pet.i.t a Pet.i.t," as is seen in the reduced facsimile t.i.tle, given on p. 9, of a book printed by him for T. Kerver. Mathias Apiarius, Stra.s.sburg, used at least two Marks expressing the same idea, namely, a bear discovering a bee's nest in the hollow of a tree--an obvious pun on his surname. The latter part of the sixteenth century is not nearly so fruitful in really good or striking devices. Guillaume b.i.+.c.hon, Paris, employed a realistic picture of a lap-dog (in allusion to his surname) chasing a hare, with the motto "Nunc fugiens, olim pugnabo"; and equally realistic in another way is the Mark of P. Chandelier, Caen, in which effective use is made of a candle-stick with seven holders, the motto being "Lucernis fideliter ministro." Antoine Tardif, Lyons, employed the Aldine anchor and dolphin, and also a motto, "Festina tarde," which is identical in meaning, if not in the exact words, of that of Aldus.

Guillaume De La Riviere, Arras, used a charmingly vivid little scene of a winding river, with the motto "Madenta flumine valles"; and it is not difficult to distinguish the appropriateness of the sprig of barley in the Mark of Hugues Barbon, Limoges. The Mark of Jacques Du Puys, Paris, was possibly suggested by the word _puits_ (or well), and of which Puys is perhaps only a form: the picture at all events is a representation of Christ at the well. In the case of Adam Du Mont, Orange, the christian name, is "taken off" in a picture of Adam and Eve at the tree of forbidden fruit; and exactly the same idea occurs with equal appropriateness in the Mark of N. Eve, Paris, the sign of whose shop was Adam and Eve. Michel Jove naturally went to profane history for the subject of his Mark, and with a considerable amount of success.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JEHAN LECOQ.

Jehan Lecoq]

Among the numerous other examples with mottoes derived from sacred history, special mention, as showing the connection between the sign of the shop and its incorporation in the Mark, may be made to the following printers of Paris: D. De La Noue, who not only had "Jesus" as the sign of his shop, but also as his Mark; J. Gueffier had the "Amateur Divin"

as his sign, and an allegorical interpretation of the device, "Fert tacitus, vivit, vincit divinus amator," as a Mark; Guillaume Julian, or Julien, had "Amitie" as his sign, and a personification of this (Typus Amicitiae) as his Mark, with the motto "Nil Deus hac n.o.bis majus concessit in usus"; Abel L'Angelier (and his widow after his death) adopted the sacrifice of Abel as the subject of his Sign and Mark, with the motto "Sacrum pinque dabo nec macrum sacrificabo"; and the motto of both the first and the second Michel Sonnius was "Si Deus pro n.o.bis, quis contra nos?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: PEt.i.t AND KERVER.

PEt.i.t A PEt.i.t

Le second Volu

me Des Cronicques & Annalles de France, augmentees en la fin dudit volume daucuns faictz dignes de memoire des feux roys Charles huytiesme. Loys douziesme & fra[n]- cois premier du nom Iusques en Lan Mil cinq cens vingt Nouuellement imprime a Paris.

PEt.i.t PEt.i.t T K THIELMAN KERVER I P PEt.i.t]

A few punning devices occur among the early English printers, but they are not always clever or pictorially successful. The earliest example is that of Richard Grafton, whose pretty device represents a tun with a grafted tree growing through it, the motto, "Suscipite insertum verb.u.m,"

being taken from the Epistle to St. James (i., verse 21). John Day's device, with the motto "Arise! for it is day," is generally supposed to be an allusion to the Reformation as well as a pun on his name; tradition has it, however, that Day was accustomed to awake his apprentices, when they had prolonged their slumbers beyond the usual hour, by the wholesome application of a scourge and the summons "Arise!

for it is day." We may also mention the devices of Hugh Singleton, a single tun; and of W. Middleton, a tun with the letter W at bottom and M in the centre of the tun; of T. Pavier, in which, appropriately enough, we have a pavior paving the streets of a town, and surrounded by the motto "Thou shalt labour till thou return to dust." Thomas Woodc.o.c.k employed a device of a c.o.c.k on a stake, piled as for a Roman funeral, with the motto "Cantabo Iehovae quia benefecit"; Andrew Lawrence, a St.

Andrew cross.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JACQUES DU PUYS.]

Although not in any sense of a "punning" nature, the employment of a printing press as a Mark may conveniently be here referred to. It was first used in this manner, and in more than one form, by Josse Bade, or Badius, an eminent printer of the first thirty-five years of the sixteenth century, and to whom full reference will be found in the chapter on French Marks. A Flemish printer, Pierre Cesar, Ghent, 1516, was apparently the next to employ this device; then came Jehan Baudouyn, Rennes, 1524; Eloy Gibier, Orleans, 1556; Jean Le Preux, Paris and Switzerland, 1561; Enguilbert (II.) De Marnef and the Bouchets brothers, Poitiers, 1567; and, later than all, L. Cloquemin, Lyons, 1579.

[Ill.u.s.tration: T. PAVIER.

THOU SHALT LABOUR TILL THOU RETURN TO DUST]

Next to the section of "punning" devices, perhaps the most entertaining is that which deals with the question of mottoes. These are derived from an infinite variety of sources, not infrequently from the fertile brains of the printers themselves. Their application is not always clear, but they are nearly always indicative of the virility which characterized the old printers. It is neither desirable nor possible to exhaust this somewhat intricate phase of the subject, but it will be necessary to quote a few representative examples. Occasionally we get a s.n.a.t.c.h of verse, as in the case of Michel Le Noir, whose motto runs thus:

"C'est mon desir De Dieu servir Pour acquerir Son doux plaisir."

Also in the instance of another early printer, Gilles De Gourmont, who chants--

"Tost ou tard Pres ou loing A le Fort Du feble besoing."

Perhaps the greatest number of all are those in which the printer proclaims his faith to G.o.d and his loyalty to his king. One of the early Paris printers enjoins us--in verse--not only to honour the king and the court, but claims our salutations for the University; and almost precisely the same sentiment finds expression in the Mark of J. Alexandre, another early printer of Paris. Robinet or Robert Mace, Rouen, proclaims "Ung dieu, ung roy, ung foy, ung loy," and the same idea expressed in identical words is not uncommonly met with in Printers' Marks. Of a more definitely religious nature are those, for example, of P. de Sartieres, Bourges, "Tout se pa.s.se fors dieu"; of J. Lambert, "A espoir en dieu"; of Prigent Calvarin, "Deum time, pauperes sustine, finem respice"; and several from the Psalms, such as that of C. Nourry, called Le Prince, "Cor contritum et humiliatum deus non despicies"; of P. De Saincte-Lucie, also called Le Prince, "Oculi mei semper ad dominum"; and of J. Temporal (all three Lyons printers), "Tangit montes et fumigant," in which the design is quite in keeping with the motto; in one case at least, S. Nivelle, one of the commandments is made use of, "Honora patrem tuum, et matrem tuam, ut sis longaevus super terram." Here, too, we may include the mottoes of B. Rigaud, "A foy entiere cur volant"; S. De Colines, "Eripiam et glorificabo eum"; and of Benoist Bounyn, Lyons, "Labores manum tuarum quia manducabis beatus es et bene tibi erit." Whilst as a few ill.u.s.trations of a general character we may quote Geoffrey Tory's exceedingly brief "Non plus," which was contemporaneously used also by Olivier Mallard; J. Longis, "Nihil in charitate violentia"; Denys Janot, "Tout par amour, amour par tout, par tout amour, en tout bien"; the French rendering of a very old proverb in the mottoes of B. Aubri and D. Roce, "A l'aventure tout vient a point qui peut attendre"; J. Bignon, "Repos sans fin, sans fin repos"; the motto used conjointly by M. Fezandat and R. Granjon, "Ne la mort, ne le venin"; and the motto of Etienne Dolet, "Scabra et impolita ad amussim dolo, atque perfolio."

Among the mottoes of early English printers, the most notable, partly for its dual source, and as one of our earliest examples, is that of William Faques; one sentence, "Melius est modic.u.m justo super divitias peccatorum multas," is taken from Psalm x.x.xvii. verse 16; and the second, "Melior est patiens viro forti, et qui dominat," comes from Proverbs xvi., verse 32. The motto of Richard Grafton has already been quoted; that of John Reynes was "Redemptoris mundi arma"; and John Wolfe, "Vbique floret."