THE   PRINTED   BOOK,

P R E F A C E.

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ONSIDERING that this short study can claim to be nothing more than a rapid and somewhat summary survey of the history of THE BOOK, it eschews all controversial matter, nor does it pretend to convey much fresh information to those already possessing a special knowledge of the subject. It is rather a condensed, but at the same time, it may be hoped, a useful, compendium of the thousand unknown or now forgotten essays, involving endless contradictory statements, that have been issued on this theme. The mere enumeration of such works would simply suffice to fill a volume. We have accordingly no intention to attempt a bibliography, satisfying ourselves with the modest avowal of having found so many documents in all languages, that the very abundance has been at least as embarrassing to us as the lack of materials may have been to others.
      The Book appealing in its present form to a special public interested more in artistic than in purely typo- / p.iv / graphical topics, our attention has been more particularly given to the illustrators, the designers, engravers, etchers, and so forth. Such graphic embellishment seemed to us of more weight than the manufacture of the paper, the type-casting, the printing properly so called. This technical aspect of the subject has been very briefly dealt with in a separate chapter, and has also been enlarged upon in the early section. To the binding also we have devoted only a single chapter, while fully conscious that a whole volume would not have sufficed merely to treat the subject superficially.
      At the same time, we would not have the reader conclude from all this that our book abounds in omissions, or has overlooked any important features. The broad lines, we trust, have been adhered to, while each section has been so handled as to give a fair idea of the epoch it deals with. This is the first attempt to comprise within such narrow limits an art and an industry with a life of over four centuries, essaying to describe its beginnings and its history down to our days, without omitting a glance at the allied arts.
      The engravings selected for illustration have, as far as possible, been taken from unedited materials, and have been directly reproduced by mechanical processes, while fifteen new illustrations, having special relation to the history of the Book in England, have been added to this edition, which is also considerably enlarged in the text on the same subject.

[ p.v ]

C O N T E N T S. CHAPTER I.       PAGE 14  .  .   TO  1462    .   .   .   .   .   .   . I           Origin of the Book—Engravers in relief—The St. Christopher of 1423—Origin of the Xylographs—The Xylographs, Donatus, and Speculum—The Laurent Coster legend—From block books to movable characters—John Gaensefleisch, called Gutenberg—The Strasbourg trial—Gutenberg at Mayence—Fust and Schoeffer—The letters of indulgence—The Bible—The "Catholicon"—The Mayence Bible—Causes of the dispersion of the first Mayence printers—General considerations.        CHAPTER II. 1462  TO  1500    .   .   .   .   .   .   .     33           The Book and the printers of the second generation—The German workmen dispersed through Europe—Caxton and the introduction of printing into England—Nicholas Jenson and his supposed mission to Mayence—The first printing in Paris ; William Fichet and John Heinlein—The first French printers ; their installation at the Sorbonne and their publications—The movement in France—The illustration of the Book commenced in Italy—The Book in Italy ; engraving in relief and metal plates—The Book in Germany : Cologne, Nuremberg, Basle—The Book in the Low Countries—French schools of

PAGE        ornament of the Book ; Books of Hours ; booksellers at the end of the fifteenth century—Literary taste in titles in France at the end of the fifteenth century—Printers and booksellers' marks—The appearance of the portrait in the Book—Progress in England—Caxton and his followers.        CHAPTER III. 1500  TO  1600    .   .   .   .   .   .   .     98           French epics and the Renaissance—Venice and Aldus Manutius—Italian illustrators—The Germans ; Theuerdanck, Schäufelein—The Book in other countries—French books at the beginning of the century, before the accession of Francis I.—Geoffroy Tory and his works—Francis I. and the Book—Robert Estienne—Lyons a centre of bookselling ; Holbein's Dances of Death—School of Basle—Alciati's emblems and the illustrated books of the middle of the century—The school of Fontainebleau and its influence—Solomon Bernard—Cornelis de la Haye and the Promptuaire—John Cousin—Copper plate engraving and metal plates—Woériot—The portrait in the Book of the sixteenth century—How a book was illustrated on wood at the end of the century—Influence of Plantin on the Book ; his school of engravers—General considerations—Progress in England—Coverdale's Bible—English printers and their work—Engraved plates in English books.        CHAPTER IV. 1600  TO  1700    .   .   .   .   .   .   .     151           Tendencies of the regency of Marie de Medicis—Thomas de Leu and Leonard Gaultier—J. Picart and Claude Mellan—Lyons and J. de Fornazeris—The Book at the beginning of the seventeenth century in Germany, Italy, and Holland—Crispin Pass in France—The Elzevirs and their work in Holland—Sebastian Cramoisy and the Imprimerie Royale—Illustration with Callot, Della Bella, and Abraham Bosse—The publishers and the Hotel de Rambouillet—The reign of

PAGE        Louis XIV. ; Antoine Vitré syndic at his accession—His works and mortifications ; the Polyglot Bible of Le Jay—Art and illustrators of the grand century—Sébastien Leclerc, Lepautre, and Chauveau—Leclerc preparing the illustration and decoration of the Book for the eighteenth century—The Book in England in the seventeenth century.        CHAPTER V. THE BOOK IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY .   .   .     184           The regency—Publishers at the beginning of the eighteenth century—Illustrators in France ; Gillot—The school of Watteau and Boucher—Cars—The younger Cochin ; his principal works in vignettes—French art in England ; Gravelot—Eisen—Choffard—The Baisers of Dorat ; the Contes of La Fontaine—The publisher Cazin and the special literature of the eighteenth century—The younger Moreau and his illustrations—The Revolution—The school of David—Duplessis-Bertaux—The Book in Germany ; Chodowiecki—In England ; Boydell and French artists—Caslon and Baskerville—English books with illustrations—Wood engraving in the eighteenth century ; the Papillons—Printing offices in the eighteenth century.        CHAPTER VI. THE BOOK IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY .   .   .     218           The Didots and their improvements—The folio Racine—The school of Didot—Fine publications in England and Germany—Literature and art of the Restoration—Romanticism—Wood engraving—Bewick's pupils, Clennell, etc.—The illustrators of romances—The generation of 1840—The Book in our days in Europe and America.        CHAPTER VII. TYPES, IMPRESSION, PAPER, INK    .   .   .   .   .   .   .     239

CHAPTER VIII.       PAGE BOOKBINDING    .   .   .   .   .   .   .     253           The binding of the first printed books—Ancient German bindings—Binding in the time of Louis XII.—Italian bindings—Aldus—Maioli—Grolier—Francis I.—Henri II. and Diane de Poitiers—Catherine de Medicis—Henry III.—The Eves—The "fanfares"—Louis XIII.—Le Gascon—Florimond Badier—Louis XIV.—Morocco leathers—Cramoisy—The bindings of the time of Louis XIV.—The regency—Pasdeloup—The Deromes—Dubuisson—Thouvenin—Lesné—The nineteenth century—English binders—Roger Payne—Francis Bedford.        CHAPTER IX. LIBRARIES    .   .   .   .   .   .   .     290 INDEX    .   .   .   .   . 305