232
^
1852
THE MONTHLY VOLUME,
OCCASIONALLY ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS, AND CON-
TAINING ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-TWO PAGES, IN A
GOOD, BOLD TYPJS.
SIXPENCE, IN FANCY PAPER COVERS.
TENPENCE, IN CLOTH BOARDS, GILT EDGES.
" I never wanted articles on religious subjects half so much as
articles on common subjects, written with a decidedly Christian
tone." DR. ARNOLD.
THE Committee of the RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY have
resolved to publish a volume every month, adapted to the new
development and growing intelligence of the times. This
series, with the exception of a few reprints, will be ORIGINAL ;
from the pens of authors of ability in their respective depart-
ments in literature and science: SCRIPTURAL; in the prin- :
ciples in which they are written : POPULAR; in their style; so
that instead of being limited to one class of the community,
they may be generally acceptable: PORTABLE; that they may
serve as " hand-books " abroad and at home : and ECONOMICAL ;
the twelve volumes of a year costing less than three half-pence
per week. Thus while the MONTHLY SERIES will be fully
adapted to the educated FAMILIES of our laud, to DAY and
SUNDAY SCHOOLS, and to the LIBRARIES of mechanics and
others, they will supply interesting and valuable reading to a
large number of the people, who can only spare time enough
for the perusal of a small volume, and whose means will not
allow of a more costly 'purchase.
1. THE LIFE OF JULIUS C^SAR.
2. GLIMPSES OF THE DARK AGES.
3. WILD FLOWERS OF THE YEAR.
4. JAMAICA, ENSLAVED AND FREE.
5. OUR SONG BIRDS. By W. MARTIN, Esq.
6. SOLAR SYSTEM. Part I. By Dr. DICK.
7. THE TASK AND OTHER POEMS. By WM. COWPER, Esq.
8. SKETCHES OF THE WALDBN8E8.
9. SOLAR SYSTEM. Part II. By Dr. DICK.
10. LIFE OF LUTHER.
11. BLIGHTS of the WHEAT. By the Rev. E. SIDNEY, M.A.
12. ANCIENT JERUSALEM. By Dr. KITTO.
13. PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAN OF SALVATION.
2 THE EELIGIOUS TEACT SOCIETY.
14. MAN, IN HIS PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, SOCIAL,
AND MORAL RELATIONS. By W. NEWNHAM, Esq.
15. MODERN JERUSALEM. By Dr. KITTO.
16. LIFE OF CYRUS.
17. GARDEN FLOWERS OF THE YEAR.
18. DAWN OF MODERN CIVILIZATION.
19. LIFE OF LADY RUSSELL.
20. OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS. By W. MARTIN, Esq.
21. TRUTH, AND OTHER POEMS. By WM. COWPER, Esq.
22. LIFE OF MOHAMMED.
23. SKETCHES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
24. THE CAVES OF THE EARTH.
25. EMINENT MEDICAL MEN.
26. LIFE OF MARTIN BOOS.
27. SELF-IMPROVEMENT.
28. COMPARISONS OF STRUCTURE IN ANIMALS. By W.
MARTIN, Esq.
29. PROTESTANTISM IN FRANCE. Part I.
30. MAGIC, PRETENDED MIRACLES, etc.
31. THE ATMOSPHERE AND ITS PHENOMENA. By Dr. DICK.
32. SCHOOLS OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY.
33. THE LIFE OF CRANMER.
34. THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE.
35. OUR ENGLISH BIBLE.
36. THE TAHTAR TRIBES. By Dr. KITTO.
37. LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. -
33. PROTESTANTISM IN FRANCE. Part II.
39. THE ARCTIC REGIONS By CAPTAIN SCORESBY.
40. THE COURT OF PERSIA. By Dr. KITTO.
41. THE NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. By CAPTAIN
SCORESBY.
42. THE CRUSADES.
43. LIFE OF JOHN KASPAR LAVATER.
44. LIFE'S LAST HOURS ; or, THE FINAL TESTIMONY.
45. THE PEOPLE OF PERSIA. By Dr. KITTO.
46. LIFE OF ALFRED THE GREAT.
47. PLANTS AND TREES OF SCRIPTURE.
48. CHARACTERS, SCENES, AND INCIDENTS OF THE
REFORMATION. Part I.
49. BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. By W. MARTIN, Esq.
50. CHARACTERS, ETC., OF THE REFORMATION. Part II.
51. THE SENSES AND THE MIND.
52. THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS.
53. LIVES OF EMINENT ANGLO-SAXONS. Part I.
54. LIFE AND TIMES OF LEO X.
55. THE JORDAN AND THE DEAD SEA.
56. GOOD HEALTH.
57. IONA.
58. LIVES OF EMINENT ANGLO-SAXONS. Part II.
59. ANCIENT EGiTPT.
60. LONDON IN THE OLDEN TIME.
THE MONTHLY VOLUME. 3
61. IDUM^EA: WITH ASURVEY OF ARABIA AND THE ARABIANS.
62. BABYLON AND THE BANKS OF THE EUPHRATES.
63. NINEVEH AND THE TIGRIS.
64. LIVES OF THE POPES. Part I.
65. LONDON IN MODERN TIMES.
66. MINES AND MINING.
67. THE TELESCOPE AND MICROSCOPE. By Dr. DICK.
68. THE JESUITS: A HISTORICAL SKETCH.
69. LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
70. THE BRITISH NATION: ITS ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
71. LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN DE WYCLIFFE.
72. REMARKABLE DELUSIONS.
73. LIVES OF THE POPES. Part II.
74. VOLCANOES.
75. JAMES WATT AND THE STEAM ENGINE.
76. THli ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH.
77. THE PALM TRIBES AND THEIR VARIETIES.
78. LIFE AND TIMES OF CHARLEMAGNE.
79. WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE.
80. TYRE: ITS RISE, GLORY, AND DESOLATION.
Other Volumes are in course of preparation.
Of the foregoing Series the following DOUBLE VOLUMES are
formed, with engraved Frontispiece, Is. 6d. each, cloth boards.
COWPER'S TASK, TRUTH, AND OTHER POEMS.
DR. KITTO'S ANCIENT AND MODERN JERUSALEM.
DR. DICK'S SOLAR SYSTEM.
THE GARDEN AND WILD FLOWERS OF THE YEAR.
DARK AGES AND DAWN OF MODERN CIVILIZATION.
OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS AND SONG BIRDS.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
PROTESTANTISM IN FRANCE.
THE ARCTIC REGIONS AND NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY.
BY CAPTAIN SCORESBY.
DR. KITTO'S COURT AND PEOPLE OF PERSIA.
CHARACTERS, SCENES, AN D!NCIDENTS,OFTHE REFORMATION.
EMINENT ANOLO-SAXONS.
LONDON; OR, SKKTCHES OF THE GREAT METROPOLIS.
BABYLON AND NINEVEH.
ANCIENT EGYPT AND IDUM^SA.
THE CAVES AND MINES OF THE EARTH.
The Committee of the RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY look with
confidence to their friends, to aid them in widely distributing
their MONTHLY VOLUME in FAMILIES, SCHOOLS, and GENERAL
LIBRARIES; while they entreat on this effort the effectual
blessing of Almighty God.
4 THE EELIGIOUS TKACT SOCIETY.
NEW SEEIES OF BOOKS,
THE Committee of the Religious Tract Society have long been
convinced that a new series of Books for Schools and Families
was greatly needed. Many of the works now in use have much
merit, but they are generally destitute of that truth by which
alone the understanding can be enlightened, the heart renovated,
and the feet guided in "the paths of peace." It is to provide
books adapted to supply this deficiency that the present effort
is made. The pens of several esteemed writers have been secured
for this series.
In works of History, the object will be carefully to exclude
those details which are objectionable, and to view all events as
under the control of Divine Providence. In Biography, the con-
duct of men will be estimated, not by the maxims of this world,
as in most other publications, but by the only infallible standard,
the word of God. In every book of general instruction, sound
information will be imparted, on decidedly Christian principles.
The following have been published, in 12mo., strongly bound
in cloth, sprinkled edges.
THE HISTORY OF ROME, with Maps, 3*.
THE HISTORY OF GREECE, with Map, 2*. &d.
LIVES OF ILLUSTRIOUS GREEKS, 3*.
PALEY'S EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, with Introduc-
tion, Notes, and Supplement, by the Rev. T. R. BIRKS, A.M., 3*.
PALEY'S HOR.E PAULINA ; with HOR^ APOSTOLIC^,
by the Rev. T. R. BIRKS, A.M., 3*.
A UNIVERSAL GEOGRAPHY, in Four Parts: Historical,
Mathematical, Physical, and Political. By the Rev. THOMAS
MILNER, F.R.G.S. Ten Coloured Maps. 5*.
A HISTORY OF ENGLAND, and other works, are in progress.
Each volume will be complete in itself, printed in a good type.
*** These works will also be found worthy of the perusal of
students and general readers.
RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, 56, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND 65,
ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD; AND SOLD BY THE BOOKSELLERS.
C AXTON
THE AET OF FEINTING.
C A XT ON
THE ART OF FEINTING.
LONDON:
THE KELIGIOUS TKACT SOCIETY;
Imtituted 1799.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page
Cylinders, the records of Babylon and Persepolis Stamps
used by the ancient Romans Stencils employed in
writing Anticipation of the art of printing by the
Chinese Monograms Story of the Cunios The Ger-
man figure-cutters Print of St. Christopher from a
wood-block Various materials used to receive im-
pressionsThe papyrus A portion of the Book of
Psalms written on this substance Parchment The
writing of ancient manuscripts Palimpsests Costli-
ness and rarity of manuscripts " The Silver Book"
Cotton paper Paper from linen rags Early instances
of its use Books of images" The Poor Man's Bible "
Labours of Laurentius Coster Guttenberg, Fust, and
Schoefter The first printed Bible The value of the
Sacred Scriptures 7
CHAPTER II.
The Weald of Kent Birth of William Caxton Oppres-
sive law of Henry iv. A school in the Weald The
Company of Stationers English literature in early
times Proclamation for abolishing the French language
Travels of sir John Mandeville The literature of the
middle ages Thecarly trade in books Geoffrey Chaucer
Caxton's acquaintance with his writings His appren-
ticeship to Robert Large Caxton, a Commissioner His
service to the duchess of Burgundy Translation and
printing of his first work 4?
CHAPTER III.
Settlement of Caxton in England The story of Atkyns
The first press set up in Westminster Caxton's first
book, " The Game of Chess " His othor works Cax-
ton's patron the earl of Rivers Why did he not print
the Scriptures ? C8
CHAPTER IV.
Wyken dc Worde Extension of the art of printing The
first books Blaew's improvement of the printing-pn -s
Aldus Manutius The Estiennes or Stephenes
Wolfe, the first king's printer Immediate results of
the art of printing Advancement of literature . . 83
iv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
Page
Restrictions placed on the press Bull of pope Pius iv.
The Congregation of the index The Index Expurgato-
rius Singular results Aonio Paleario History of his
book, "The Benefit of Christ's Death " \Vhitgift's
complaint to queen Elizabeth Decrees of the Star
Chamber Incompetency of licensers of the press
Works seriously mutilated Milton on the Liberty of the
Press Freedom of the press in the reign of William in.
State of the press on the continent of Europe . . 109
CHAPTER VI.
Facilities for publication Singular collection of contro-
versial tracts Origin of newspapers The Gazeta of
Venice News mst written The correspondent of the
wealthy The "English Mercuric " a forgery "The
Weekly Newes " Nathaniel Butler Increase of news-
Jiapers Marchmont Needham The British essayists
chabod Dawks The first magazine The first review
Rapid composition The newspaper office Slow com-
position Various examples John Foster . . .124
CHAPTER VII.
Contrast between the printing-office of Caxton and a
modern typographical establishment Type-founding
William Caslon Chief improvements in the style of
typography The compositor at work The reader-
Pressmen Old fashioned press Improvements by the
earl of Stanhope Baskerville's improvement of ink
Invention of inking cylinders Stereotype Lpgographic
printing Machine printing Mr. William Nicholson
Printing by steam Various improvements Galvanic
Krinting-press Fourdrinier's patent for continuous
;ngths of paper Curiosities of printing Ihe Great
Exhibition ot 1851 144
CHAPTER VIII.
Marts for books St. Paul's Churchyard A Contrast-
Little Britain Paternoster Row Pernicious produc-
tions of the press Religious Tract Society . . . 181
C AXTON
THE ART OF PRINTING.
CHAPTER I.
Cylinders, the records of Babylon and Persepolis Stamps
used by the ancient Romans Stencils employed in writing
Anticipation of the art of printing by the Chinese
Monograms Story of the Cunios The German figure-
cutters Print of St. Christopher from a wood-block-
Various materials used to receive impressions The papyrus
A portion of the Book of Psalms written on this sub-
stance Parchment The writing- of ancient manuscripts
Palimpsests Costliness and rarity of manuscripts "The
Silver Book "Cotton paper Paper from linen rags Early
instances of its use Books of images "The Poor Man's
Bible "Labours of Laurentius Coster Gutten berg, Fust,
and Schoeffer The first printed Bible The value of the
Sacred Scriptures.
IT is accordant with the all-wise providence of
God to suspend the bestowal of an inestimable
benefit, not merely during the lapse of years,
but of ages. Of this the art of navigation pre-
8 CAXTON AND
scnts a remarkable instance. In the youth of
the world, the trunk of a tree, hollowed out,
formed, most probably, the first canoe. Slow
were the advances towards the structure of
a merchant-vessel, and even when that point
was gained, much remained to be accomplished.
The invariable time for sailing was summer,
when the heavens were genial and the light of
day was longer than the darkness of night.
Except with a smooth sea and a fair wind, mari-
ners could not venture out of sight of land, lest
they should be drifted about over the apparently
interminable waste of waters till they perished.
Unless, too, under very favourable circum-
stances, they did not continue sailing during
the night, but, anchoring in some cove or shel-
tered spot, drew up their vessels on the beach,
and gave themselves to repose until the orb of
day once more arose on the earth. As, however,
the knowledge of astronomy advanced, and
various observations of the heavenly bodies
were made and collected, the situations and
bearings of places were imperfectly sur-
mised. The loadstone at last, with its mar-
vellous powers, was discovered, and very
gradually, navigation attained its present en-
lightened and enterprising condition.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 9
In a somewhat analogous manner was the
art of printing imparted to mankind. " The
images of men's wits," says lord Bacon,
" remain unmaimed in books for ever, exempt
from the injuries of time, being capable of per-
petual renovation. Neither can they be pro-
perly called images, because they cast forth
seeds in the minds of men, raising and pro-
ducing infinite actions and opinions in succeed-
ing ages ; so that if the invention of a ship was
thought so noble and wonderful, which trans-
ports riches and merchandise from place to
place, and consecrates the most distant regions
in participation of their fruits and commodities
how much more are letters to be magnified,
which, as ships passing through the vast seas of
time, connect the remotest ages of wits and in-
ventions in mutual traffic and correspondence."
Lord Bacon's observation is a correct one ; yet,
as thousands of years elapsed after the infancy
of the human race, before any of them were
borne along by
" the heaven-conducted prow
Of navigation bold, that fearless brakes
The burning line, or dares the wintry pole,"
so, as we shall now proceed to show, similar
cycles of years revolved before the art of print-
1 CAXTON AND
ing arose, and became an engine of incalculable
power.
In the library of Trinity College, Cambridge,,
there is an object on which an intelligent
stranger will look with peculiar attention. It
is a solid figure, about seven inches high, and
three inches in diameter at each end, increasing
gradually in circumference from the extremities
to the middle, and thus bearing some resem-
blance to the form of a wine-cask. On its
surface are inscribed characters, very minutely
and finely wrought, and arranged in vertical
lines. These may be easily examined as the
visitor causes the object to revolve on its marble
pedestal ; while, if he be a lover of antiquity,
his interest will be heightened by the considera-
tion that it is probably not less than four
thousand years old.
The article in question has long been re-
garded, on satisfactory grounds, as a cylinder
found amidst. the ruins of Babylon or Persepolis,
and it furnishes a specimen of one of the modes
adopted in ancient times of preserving memo-
rials of matters of national or family import-
ance. In its date as well as in its use it is
analogous to those Babylonian bricks of which
there are so many specimens preserved ; but its
THE ART OF PRINTING. 11
rounded surface fitted it to contain a multipli-
city of items much more compactly than a flat
tablet could have done, while its figure preserved
it also from injuries to which other objects were
liable. Here, then, is an example belonging
to a remote age of an indented surface, produced
by some applied means of impression.
Roman antiquities furnish us with a specimen
of an impression of a different kind, and in a
more advanced stage. In the British Museum,
there is a metallic stamp, the letters of which,
as well as the border, are cut in relief. At the
back of it is a ring, answering the purpose of a
handle, or perhaps intended to enable the owner
to wear it as a signet. Its inscription is com-
prised in two lines ; the letters of which are
Koman capitals, well proportioned, but neither
spaced nor divided, according to the practice in
our own times. As the letters are reversed, the
inscription is nearly as follows :
CICAECILI
HERMIAE.SN.
Which would be thus given according to the
modern practice :
C. I. (LECILII HERMIT SIGNUM.
Caii Jvlii CcecUii Hermi<e Signum.
This signet of Caius Julius Csecilius Hermias
12 CAXTON AND
resembled in some respects the rings of the an-
cient Romans, the figures engraved on which were
employed for the same purposes as those upon
modern seals. The ring of a Roman emperor
was indeed a kind of state seal, allowed some-
times to be used by persons who were specially
appointed to be his representatives, and the
keeping of which, like that of the great seal of
our own country, was intrusted to a particular
officer. The engravings on seals of a more or-
dinary character were very various ; sometimes
there was the name of its owner, at others there
were portraits of ancestors, or friends ; figures
connected with the popular mythology, and the
worship of the gods ; while in many instances,
a person had engraved on his seal symbol-
ical allusions to the real or fabulous history of
his family. Accustomed, then, as the ancients
were to make impressions with their seals, it seems
strange that printing, which is but the application
in a more extended form of an analogous pro-
cess, did not suggest itself to their minds. That
they had very nearly caught the idea is indeed
evident from the following circumstance.
The signet of Hermias above alluded to
was obviously designed for stamping the letters
it contained, on parchment or some other
THE ART OF PRINTING. 13
flexible substance, as it is not adapted to make
an impression on lead or any kind of metal.
The rim and letters being exactly of the same
height, and the part which has been cut away
being very rough and uneven in point of
depth, the signet must have been used to mark
with ink on some small surface. Had it been
designed to make an impression on wax, the
part cut away would certainly have been ren-
dered as smooth and even as possible. The ex-
periment of taking an impression from it on
paper with modern printers' ink, has indeed
actually been tried, and found to answer re-
markably well. Thus it is apparent that the
germ at least of printing was possessed by the
ancient Romans. They needed only to have
made a stamp, with lines three or four times as
long, and containing twenty lines instead of two,
to have formed a frame of types which would
have printed a whole page. The embryo of
this wondrous art, however, remained in their
possession from age to age undeveloped ; it-
was the will of Providence that its full discovery
should be reserved for a more important period
of the world's history.
Another practice in use amongst the Romans
was also, we might suppose, well calculated to
14: CAXTON AND
suggest the art of printing to their minds.
Quintilian, when alluding to the education of
youth, thus expresses himself: "When the
boy has begun to trace the forms of the letters,
it will be useful for him to have the letters of
the tablet engraved, that through them, as
through furrows, he may draw his style. For
thus he will neither make mistakes, being pre-
vented by the edges on both sides, nor will he
be able to go beyond the proper bound, and by
tracing quickly and frequently certain forms,
he will strengthen his joints, and will not need
the assistance of some one to put his hand
above his own and guide it." * It is clear from
this passage that the Eomans were acquainted
with a method similar in principle to that on
which the art of stencilling is founded.
According to Procopius, the emperor Justin i.,
who lived in the sixth century, had a tablet of
wood perforated, through which he traced in
red ink the first four letters of his name. A
plate of gold is stated to have been used in the
same way, and for the same purpose, by Theo-
doric, king of the Ostrogoths.
The Chinese anticipated all other nations in
the art of printing nearly a thousand years ago ;
* Quintiliani Instit. Orator.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 15
the ruler Tang having ordered a work called
the " Nine Classics" to be engraved, printed,
and sold generally. The species of typography
adopted by them is simpler, less costly, and,
until recent improvements, more expeditious
than our own. As their language consists
principally of arbitrary characters, they have
not considered it necessary either to cast or to
cut an assortment of types, to be set up, worked
off, distributed, and re-composed, but prefer
cutting the characters on a block of wood, and
using as many blocks for any particular work
as there are separate pages.
So few changes have the arts in China under-
gone, that we can observe in the practice of the
Chinese printer, at the present time, the pro-
cess adopted by his ancestors in a remote age.
He first writes out the page intended to be
printed, and when this is done lays it on a
block of wood, which is prepared to receive it,
having been previously smoothly planed, and
covered with a glutinous paste. After the paper
has been affixed to the block it is rubbed till it
is quite dry. It is then as much as possible
removed, when the letters appear on the wood in
an inverted form, somewhat 4imly at first, but
brought out fully and vividly by the application
of oil.
1 6 CAXTON AND
The engraving of the block now begins. The
workman cuts straight down by the sides of the
letters, from top to bottom, clearing the spaces
between the lines, with the exception of the
stops. He proceeds then to the oblique strokes,
and cuts the perpendicular ones throughout
the entire line ; thus preventing the loss of
time which would arise from turning the
block round for every letter. He now pro-
ceeds to the central parts, and the page,
although it usually contains five hundred cha-
racters, is speedily completed. His ordinary
remuneration is equal to sixpence of English
money for one hundred characters.
The implements of the Chinese printer con-
sist of a brush, a pot of liquid ink, a piece of
wood bound round with the fibrous parts of a
species of palm, to serve as a rubber, and a
pile of paper ; all placed on a table. The
block is inked with the brush, a sheet of dry
paper is then placed upon it, over this the
rubber is rapidly passed once or twice ; and
thus sheet after sheet is produced until the
whole number required is worked off. With
this extremely simple apparatus, three thou-
sand impressions may be printed in a day.
It has been supposed by some that the art of
THE ART OF PRINTING. 17
engraving wood blocks, and of taking impres-
sions from them, must have been introduced
into Europe from China, but there is no neces-
sity for adopting this theory. At an early
period, marks called monograms, consisting of
the initials of the names of individuals, or of other
short arbitrary figures, similar to those which
may be seen stamped on bales of goods, were
in common use. Blocks for the purpose of
stamping these were invented, and the transi-
tion from this point to the invention of blocks,
for engraving was an easy and simple process.
It was also a frequent practice in Europe from
the twelfth to the fifteenth century to impress
inked stamps on paper. If, indeed, the follow-
ing account is to be credited, a still further
stride in the art of engraving and printing had
been made.
Papillon, in his " Traite de la Gramire en
Bois" tells a story of his seeing a work describ-
ing the deeds of Alexander the Great, executed
by Alexander Alberic Cunio, knight, and
Isabella Cunio, his twin sister, and finished by
them when they were only sixteen years of
age, at the time when Honorius iv. was
pope ; that is, at the period between the years
1285 and 1287. Papillon adds, that the
18 CAXTON AND
following words among others were coarsely
engraved on the block which formed the
frontispiece, in bad Latin, or ancient Gothic
Italian, with many abbreviations. "To our
illustrious and generous father and mother, by
us Alexander Alberic Cunio, knight, and
Isabella Cunio, brother and sister, first reduced,
imagined, and attempted to be executed in
relief with a little knife, on blocks of wood, then
joined and smoothed by his learned and beloved
sister, and finished at Ravenna, after eight pic-
tures of our designing, painted six times the size
here represented, cut, explained in verse, and
thus marked on paper to multiply the number,
and to enable us to present them as a token of
friendship and affection to our relations and
friends." The narrative thus given by Papillon
is interesting, and if established, would assign
the Cunios a high place in the history of the
typographical art; but, though its truth is
asserted by Mr. Otley, in his celebrated work
on the subject, strong reasons are advanced by
others for doubting the credibility of the story.
From the cheapness of 'playing cards, which
were used not only in the higher, but the lower
ranks in the fourteenth century, it has been
conjectured that the earliest sets of them were
THE ART OF PRINTING. 19
produced by stencilling, and that the outline
over which a brush dipped in liquid colour was
smeared, was formed by some rude process of
wood graving. The great cardmakers of the
period referred to, were the Germans, who
still give the name of fonnschneider, or figure-
cutter, to a wood engraver. This term is said
to occur in the town books of Nuremberg, that
curious old city, the cradle of many arts, so
early as the year 1441. At that time, cards
were produced in great variety ; some, like
the missals of the Komish church, were
executed with peculiar skill, being radiant
with purple and gold ; while others descended
iii the scale of appearance, until they met the
eye with a rude outline, smeared with colour.
Another step was taken towards printing,
when the paintings of saints, and other objects
were copied in outline, and accompanied by a
few words or sentences of Scripture. Grotesque
as these were, they became exceedingly popular,
and supplied the people with an inducement to
learn to read. The earliest print from a wood
block, to which we can affix any certain date, is
iii the celebrated collection of earl Spencer. It is
dated 1423, and represents St. Christopher
carrying the infant Saviour across the sea. It
20 CAXTON AND
was found in one of the most ancient convents
of Germany, pasted in one of the leaves of a
Latin manuscript of the year 1417.
But here it is desirable briefly to pause, in
order to glance at the history of the substances
used at various times to receive impressions
from writing or printing implements. The
ancients had recourse, when they wished to
record any matter, to the leaves of the palm-
tree, to table-books of wax, ivory, and lead ;
to cloths of cotton and linen ; to the intestines
and skins of animals, to the backs of tortoises,
and to the inner bark of plants.
Few, indeed, are the plants which have not,
at some time, been used for such purposes, and
hence many of the terms employed, as codex,
originally signifying the trunk or stem of a
tree ; liber, the thin coat or rind ; and tabula,
which properly means a plank, or board. The
British Museum contains manuscripts on ivory,
on plates of gold and of silver, and on other
substances too numerous to detail. Among
the last-mentioned are many written on the
leaves of the talipot tree, a species of palm,
peculiar to Ceylon, the Malabar coast, and the
Marquesas and Friendly Islands, which is still
employed for various purposes by the Cingalese.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 21
The leaves of the tree in question are first
soaked in boiling water and dried ; the letters
are then engraved with a pointed steel instru-
ment, and rubbed over with a dark-coloured
substance, which renders them more easily
legible.
The papyrus, called by the Egyptians lyblos,
formed an article of commerce long before the
time of Herodotus, and was extensively used
in the western part of Europe for records on
rolls, as is proved by the number of such
documents found at Herculaneum. A duty
which existed on imported papyrus was
abolished by Theodoric the Great, in the
sixth century of the Christian era, on which
occasion Cassiodorus congratulated the world
in a letter upon the cessation of a tax alike
unfavourable to the progress of learning and of
commerce.
The substance thus employed consisted of
thin coats or pellicles of the papyrus tree, which
grows in swamps to the height of ten, or more
feet. According to Pliny, the different coats of
this plant were joined together by the action of
the turbid Nile water, which had a kind of
glutinous property. To prepare it for writing,
one layer of papyrus was placed flat on a
22 CAXTON AND
hoard, and a cross layer put over it ; and
when thus adjusted they were pressed, and
afterwards dried in the sun. The sheets were
then fastened or pasted together, the best
being taken first, and afterwards the inferior
sheets. There were never more than twenty
in a roll. The papyri found in Egyptian tombs
differ very much in length, but not mate-
rially in breadth, as this was probably deter-
mined by the usual length of the strips taken
from the plant. The length might be carried
to almost any extent by fastening one sheet to
another. The writing was in columns, with a
blank slip between them.
The papyrus became the most common mate-
rial on which books were written by the Greeks
and the Komans. The former derived their
name for a book from byblos, the term applied
to the papyrus by the Egyptians ; while from the
coats or rind of the plant being employed for it,
the Romans called a book liber. The paper made
from the papyrus was of different qualities ; the
best description of it bore in Rome during the
imperial period the name of the emperor, as
Augustus, or Claudius, while the inferior sort
was not used for writing, but chiefly by mer-
chants for packing their goods.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 23
A portion of the Book of Psalms, written on
papyrus probably the earliest fragments of
the Sacred Scriptures known to exist has
recently been brought from Egypt to England
by Dr. Hogg, who says : * " Among the
various objects of antiquity which were pur-
chased from the Arabs at Thebes, were two
papyri, the one in Coptic and the other in
Greek ; both in the form of books. The
subject of the Coptic papyrus, now in the pos-
session of sir William Gell at Naples, has not
yet been ascertained ; but since my return to
England, the Greek papyrus has been dis-
covered to contain a portion of the Psalms.
The leaves, of about ten inches in length, by-
seven in width, are arranged, and have been
sewn together like those of an ordinary book.
They are formed of strips of the papyrus,
crossing each other at right angles. The
writing, continued on both sides, is perfectly
legible, the letters partaking both of the uncial
and cursive forms, sometimes standing quite
apart, unconnected by cursive strokes, with
accents occasionally, but not regularly inserted.
" The beginning of the manuscript is im-
perfect, and it concludes with the second verse
* Visit to Alexandria, Damascus, and Jerusalem.
24 CAXTON AND
of the thirty-fourth Psalm. The text, as far as
it has been collated, has been found to be a
good one, and to possess some interesting
variations not found in other ancient versions.
These papj^ri were both discovered among the
rubbish of an ancient convent at Thebes,
remarkable as still presenting some fragments
of an inscription, purporting to be a pastoral
letter from Athanasius, patriarch of Alexan-
dria, who died A.D. 371, which has been con-
jectured to be the age of the manuscript."
Parchment was, next to papyrus, the most
common material for writing on. It was
formed for this purpose of prepared skins,
chiefly those of sheep and goats, and is said to
have been used for writing so early as the
year B.C. 250, by Eumenes, king of Pergamus.
As he was desirous of collecting a library
which should vie with that of Alexandria, and
was prevented from obtaining a sufficient
quantity of papyrus by the jealousy of the
Ptolemies, he had recourse to this substance,
which derived its name from the site of his
kingdom.
It was upon this material that so many of
the manuscripts both of the ancient classics
and Sacred Scriptures were written by the
THE ART OF PRINTING. 25
monks in the Scriptoria, or writing rooms, of
their convents.
The picture drawn by one of our poets was
strictly true during the lapse of many ages :
for then
" along the cloister's painted side,
The monks, each bending low upon his book,
With head on hand reclined their studies plied :
Forbid to parley, or in fact to look,
Lengthways their regulated seats they took ;
The strutting prior gazed with pompous mien,
And wakeful tongue, prepared with prompt rebuke,
If monk asleep in sheltering hood were seen ;
He wary, often peeped beneath that russet screen.
Hard by, against the window's adverse light,
Where desks were wont in length of row to stand,
The gowned artificers inclined to write ;
The pen of silver glistened in the hand ;
Some on their fingers rhyming Latin scann'd;
Some textile gold from balls unwinding drew,
And on strained velvet stately portraits planned ;
Here arms, there faces, shone in embryo view ;
At last to glittering life their sober figures grew."
Monks like those described in the quotation
just given, were the real predecessors of our
modern printers ; multiplying books, however,
by a process of prodigious toil and labour.
Ivichard de Bury, bishop of Durham, says,
" Many wrote out manuscripts with their own
hands in the intervals of the canonical hours,
and gave up the time appointed for bodily rest
to the fabrication of volumes ; the sacred
26 CAXTON AND
treasures of whose labours, filled with cherubic
letters, are at this day resplendent in most
monasteries." But, though the copies of
manuscripts were many, and the monks'
labours incessant, the whole life of the most
industrious of them employed in this task
would add only a few to the number of books
in the world. When a volume was at
last produced in fair parchment, after the
arduous labours of years, it was covered with
immensely thick lids of wood and leather,
studded with large nails, and curiously clasped ;
and was studiously preserved from the common
gaze on the shelves of the monastic library.
" Laymen," says the same prelate, " to whom
it matters not whether they look at a book
turned wrong side upwards, or spread before
them in its natural order, are altogether un-
worthy of any communion with books." Nor
Avas this a solitary conclusion ; it was prac-
tically and constantly acted on at this period
when the bishop wrote his treatise entitled
" Philobiblion ; or, The Love of Books "more
than a century before the art of printing was
introduced. The splendid volumes produced
in the manner referred to bore evidence, how-
ever, not only of persevering industry but Oi
THE ART OF PRINTING. 27
great ingenuity ; the letters at the beginning of
each chapter or section being adorned with
envious devices ; frequently, too, a painting,
called an illumination, was introduced, radiant
with gold, crimson, and azure. But no vulgar
eyes looked on their contents ; they were only
unclasped on days of solemnity by the abbot
or the prior, and then restored, like the jewels
of the priesthood, to their dusty cases.
There appeared to have been sometimes a
difficulty in obtaining parchment for the pre-
paration of these works ; for the practice arose
of erasing the original writing from a manu-
script, and of engrossing on it a second time.
The name palimpsest was given to a parchment
thus used, the term strictly meaning " twice
prepared for writing." In this way, many
valuable manuscripts were irrecoverably lost,
but, in some instances, an important document
has been recovered. A palimpsest manuscript,
for example, was discovered in 1816 ; it con-
sisted of 127 sheets of parchment; and as the
result of prodigious labour, the " Institutes of
Gains" were retrieved, though nearly the whole
had been re-written with the Epistles of Jerome
the lines of the two works running in the
same direction, while no fewer than sixty-
28 CAXTON AND
three pages had been covered with writing
three times.
The parchment employed for manuscripts
was joined together, so as to form one sheet,
and when the work was finished, it was rolled
on a staff, and called a volumen, in which
originated our word volume. For each book
into which an author divided his work there
was generally a separate volume : thus, Ovid
calls his fifteen books of Metamorphoses fifteen
volumes. The title of a book was written on
a small strip of papyrus or of parchment, with
a light red colour, and was fastened to the
body of the manuscript.
In the middle ages, none but kings, princes,
and prelates, universities and monasteries, could
have libraries ; and even the collection of books
formed by them strangely contrasted with many
since possessed by private individuals. The
royal library of France, collected by the
sovereigns Charles v., vi., and vir., and pre-
served with great care in one of the towers of
the Louvre, consisted of only about nine
hundred volumes, and was purchased by the
duke of Bedford, A.D. 1425, for one thousand
two hundred livres. It appears from a catalogue
still extant, to have been chiefly composed of
THE AUT OF PKINTING. 29
legends, histories, romances, and books on
astrology, geomancy, and chiromancy, which
were the favourite studies of the times.
The kings of England were not so well
provided with books. Henry v. had a taste
for reading, but his literary treasures could not
satisfy it, and several books which he borrowed
were claimed by the owners after his death.
The countess of Westmoreland presented a
petition to the privy council, A.D. 1424, stating
that the king had borrowed a book from her,
containing the " Chronicles of Jerusalem," and
praying that an order might be given under
the privy seal for its restoration. The order
was granted with great formality.
About the same time, John, the prior of
Christchurch, Canterbury, presented a similar
petition to the privy council, setting forth that
the king had borrowed from his priory a
volume containing the works of St. Gregory ;
that he had never returned it ; but that in
his testament he had directed it to be restored,
notwithstanding which, the prior of Shire, who
had the book, refused to give it up. The
council, after mature deliberation, commanded
a precept, under the privy seal, to be sent to
the prior of Shire, requesting him to deliver
30 CAXTON AND
up the book, or to appear before the council to
assign the reasons for his refusal.
At the commencement of the fifteenth cen-
tury, the manuscript books used in the service
of the church were articles of great rarity and
value. As an instance of this it may be men-
tioned that, when a priest, named Henry Beda,
in the year 1406, bequeathed his manuscript
Breviary to the church of Jacques-la- Boucherie,
he left, at the same time, to William 1'Exale,
the churchwarden of the said church, the bum
of forty sols to pay the expenses of having a
cage made in which the Breviary might be
kept. The practice was for persons in those
times to assemble round such books for the
purpose of reading the prayers out of them ;
but that no one might be tempted to take a
book away, it was attached to a chain which
was fastened in the wall.
A translation of part of the New Testament
into a very ancient dialect of the German lan-
guage is commonly known by the name of the
Gothic Gospels, or the Silver Book. It is de-
posited in the Public Library at Upsal, in
Sweden, and is one of the oldest books and
most curious remains of ancient art known to
be in existence. This work is composed of
THE ART OF PRINTING. 31
very thin smooth vellum, of a fine purple or
violet colour, and of a folio size. The first
three lines of each Gospel, the beginning of the
Lord's Prayer, and of some other passages,
deemed especially important, as well as the
names of the Evangelists, are impressed in gold
letters ; the other letters are all of silver.
Much of the volume, in fact nearly one half, is
now lost, but more than one hundred and sixty
leaves are yet remaining, to show how beautiful
the whole must have been when complete, and
to suggest the means by which this extraor-
dinary work was executed.
To ascertain the latter point, we may refer to
the mode often adopted by a bookbinder when
inserting the gilt letters on the back of a book.
He rubs on the part where these are to be
placed some adhesive substance, such as white
of egg, puts on this some gold leaf, and then,
by means of a heated stamp, impresses the par-
ticular letters which may be required. In this
way, the gold is caused to adhere firmly on the
leather in the places where the impression is
made, and the remaining gold is wiped off with
a rag. Such was, in fact, the old process of
lettering, and nearly in this way the Silver
Book must have been executed.
32 CAXTON AND
On a dispute arising in reference to the pro-
cess which had been employed, professor Hire
instituted a very minute examination of this
codex in the presence of four literary gentle-
men, and came to the conclusion that the work
could only be produced in the way which we
have described. It was apparent, for instance,
that each letter was respectively so exactly
similar in form to every other, that it would
have been absolutely impossible for the best
writers to imitate its perfect regularity. And
then there were the tangible remains of the
impression ; for the form of every letter being
hollow on the face of the vellum, on turning to
the back of the leaf it was there found to be
convex, and that so palpably that the simplest
touch would immediately show the place where
the type had been pressed down, the margin
being quite smooth and the impressed part
rough. In a hundred cases, the substance of
the vellum appeared actually cut out by the
impression of the tool, while the surrounding
part was entire. To complete the evidence, a
film of a glutinous or oleaginous nature was in
many parts perceptible in a strong light, be-
tween the metallic foil and the metal to which
it adhered. It was, however, objected that
THE ART OF PRINTING. 33
vellum could not be impressed in this way
without being wrinkled up ; but Gerard
Meerman states that his bookbinder tried the
process for him, and found it succeed as well
in vellum as in leather.
Since the discovery of this " Silver Book,"
some fragments of other portions of Scripture
have been found in several places, particularly
parts of the Epistle to the Romans, in the
library of Wolfenbuttel ; these were published
by Kinttel, who states that they appear to have
been impressed in a similar way to the Upsal
Book. It is very curious that this language
that of the old Franks should be the only one
in which evident proofs of the practice of this
art should be found. It must have been too
costly for ordinary use, and perhaps the only
persons rich enough to command such expen-
sive luxuries were the monarchs of the con-
quering tribes by whom the language was
spoken.
Montfaucon argues, and that with seeming
conclusiveness, that cotton paper was discovered
in the empire of the east, towards the end of
the ninth or early in the tenth century. There
are several Greek manuscripts, in parchment or
vellum, and cotton paper, which bear the date of
D
34 CAXTON AND
the year they were written in ; but the greater
part have no date. The most ancient manu-
script in cotton paper, with a date, is that in
the library of France, which was written in 1050 ;
Montfaucon discovered some manuscripts of the
tenth century. It is probable that, were all the
libraries both of the east and the west dili-
gently searched, others might be found still
more ancient. It may be inferred that this
bombycine, or cotton paper, was invented in
the ninth century, or at latest in the beginning
of the tenth. Towards the end of the eleventh,
and the early part of the twelfth century, its
use was common throughout the empire of the
east, and even in Sicily. Roger, king of Sicily,
says in 1145, that he had renewed on parch-
ment a charter that had been written on cotton
paper in the year 1102, and another dated in
the year 1112. In the rule drawn up about
the same time by the empress Irene, consort
of Alexius Commenus, for the nuns she had
established at Constantinople, she says that she
leaves them three copies of the rule, two on
parchment and one on cotton paper. Cotton
paper became, subsequently, still more in use
throughout the Turkish empire.
Nothing can be affirmed definitively as to
THE ART OF PRINTING. 35
the origin of the paper now in use. Demster, in
his Glossary on the Institutes of Justinian,
declares that it was invented towards the close
of the twelfth, or in the beginning of the thir-
teenth century. Though he speaks of bomby-
cine paper, there is reason to conclude that he
also comprehends under that name the linen-
rag paper, which is much, like that made from
cotton. In Sicily, the state of Venice, and per-
haps other countries, both kinds were equally
used. Several editions of Aldus Manutius,
produced at Venice, are on cotton paper; its
proximity to Greece had, no doubt, introduced
the use of it there ; Demster seems, therefore,
in the work we have referred to, to speak of
both. But in the " Treatise against the Jews,"
by Petrus Mauritius, a contemporary of St.
Bernard, who died in 1153, it is expressly
said : "The books we read every day are
made of sheep, goat, or calf-skin ; or of oriental
plants, that is, the papyrus of Egypt, or of rags"
The word thus employed, signifies undoubtedly
such paper as is now in use ; there were books
of it in the twelfth century ; and as public acts
and diplomas were written on the Egyptian
paper till the eleventh, the probability is that
linen rag paper was invented about the same
36 CAXTON AND
century, and that it occasioned the disuse of the
Egyptian paper in the west, as that of cotton
did in the east. Petrus Mauritius affirms, that
there had been already in his time some books
of the linen rag paper, but they must have been
very scarce. Though Montfaucon made the
most diligent search both in France and Italy,
he could not find a single leaf of paper such as
that now used, of date prior to the year 1270 ;
so that the precise period of its first fabrication
must remain undetermined.
One of the earliest specimens of paper from
linen rags hitherto discovered, is a document,
with the seal preserved, dated A.D. 1239 ; and
signed by Adolphus, count of Schaumburg.
But Casiri positively affirms, that there are
many manuscripts in the Escurial, both upon
cotton and linen paper, written prior to the
thirteenth century. France used this kind of
paper in 1314 ; England about the year 1342 ;
and Italy in 1367. The Germans possess a
specimen bearing date 1308, but it has been
supposed that this is a mixture of linen with
cotton.
Some of the letters addressed to Hugh le
Despencer. from Gascony, at various periods in
the reign of Edward n., are written on a very
THE ART OF PRINTING. 87
stout and beautiful vellum ; others on paper of
a sound and strong fabric, well-sized, and such
as may be pronounced a good article. In the
Tower of London, there are a few letters upon
cotton paper, but parchment or vellum was the
material generally used for such purposes.
The original register of the privy seal of
Edward the Black Prince from July, 20
Edward m. to January, 21 - Edward in., forming
one volume, is, we may observe, on paper. It
is highly probable that in the south of France,
the supply of this paper was received from the
Moorish merchants or manufacturers of Spain.
The inventor of the linen rag paper, whoever
he was, entitled himself to the remembrance
and gratitude of posterity. The art of printing
would have been, comparatively, of little value
without the means of procuring a proper mate-
rial to receive the impressions of the type.
Had the papyrus been the only substance, it
would have been impossible to have procured
it in sufficient quantities to make large editions
of books. Cotton paper, though an improve-
ment, was but a rude and coarse article, unfit
for any of the delicate purposes which the press
was employed to effect. The perfection of the
art of paper-making consisted in finding a
38 CAXTON AND
material, easily prepared, and which could be
procured in sufficient quantities.
Meanwhile the Italians, Flemings, Germans,
and Dutch began to engrave on copper as well
as on wood ; and books of images, as they were
called, were produced, some with and some
without a text. The pages were placed in
pairs facing one another, and as only one side
of the leaves was minted, the blank pages also
stood directly opposite. The text corresponding
with the figures w r as sometimes placed below,
at other times on the side, and not unfrequently
it issued as a label, from the mouth of the
person or figure. Among the treasures of the
British Museum is the " Book of Canticles,"
printed on only one side of the paper from
engraved wooden blocks. Only three complete
copies are believed to be extant. Passages of
text, engraved in large characters, are inter-
spersed on scrolls fantastically disposed among
the figures, and give to the pages a very sin-
gular appearance.
Another work of the same class, and in the
same collection, is called " Biblia Pauperum,"
or the "Poor Man's Bible." It consists of
forty small folio plates intended to illustrate
sentiments drawn from the Scriptures ; the
THE ART OF PRINTING. 39
whole having been engraved on wood, printed on
one side of the paper, and placed in the manner
previously described. Each page contains four
busts : the two upper ones represent the pro-
phets or other persons, whose names appear
beneath them ; the two lower busts are anony-
mous. The middle of the pages, which are all
marked by letters of -the alphabet, is occupied
by three historical pictures, one of which is
taken from the New Testament. The inscrip-
tions, occurring at the top and the bottom of
the page, consist of texts of Scripture and
Leonine verses, so called from Leo the inventor,
the end of each line rhyming with the middle
of it, as in the following example :
" Gloria factorvm tcmere conceditur horum."
The place in which the art of printing was
invented has occasioned much controversy. A
claim to the honour is, put forth for Haarlem, in
connexion with Laurentius Coster, so called
from his father's holding the office of custos of
the cathedral in that city. The story ge-
nerally related of him is as follows : He began
with carving letters on the rind of beech trees,
and impressing them on paper, for the amuse-
ment and instruction of his grandchildren.
40 CAXTON AND
Having happily succeeded in printing one or
two lines, he invented, with the aid of his son-
in-law, Thomas Peter, a more glutinous writing-
ink, because he found that the common ink
sank and spread ; and thus formed whole pages
of wood, with letters cut on them ; " of which
sort," says Hadrian Junius, " I have seen some
essays in an anonymous work, printed only on
one side, entitled 'Speculum Nostrce Salutis ;'
in which it is remarkable that in the infancy of
printing (as nothing is complete at the first
invention) the back sides of the pages were
pasted together, that they might not, by their
nakedness, betray their deformity."
Laurentius died in 1440. The works he
produced, considering the difficulties he had to
encounter, and the fact that they were printed
with separate wooden types, fastened together
with thread must have cost years of labour.
But they were at best rude and inelegant.
The pages are not numbered ; there are no
divisions at the end of the lines ; there is no
punctuation ; the lines are uneven, and the
pages are not always of the same size or shape.
To Coster, however, credit is due for- what he
accomplished ; he appears to have acted inde-
pendently and zealously ; but we cannot trace
THE ART OF PRINTING. 41
in his works the beginning of the art on whose
rise we are now dwelling.
An ancient German chronicler, named Tri-
themius, who appears to have personally known
one of the three he describes, thus accounts for
the origin of printing : " At this time, in the
city of Mentz on the Rhine in Germany, and
not in Italy, as some have erroneously written,
that wonderful and then unheard-of art of
printing and characterizing books was invented
and devised by John Guttenberg, a citizen of
Mentz, who having expended almost the whole
of his property in the invention of this art, and,
on account of the difficulties which he experi-
enced on all sides, was about to abandon it
altogether ; when, by the advice, and through
the means of John Fust, (or Faust,) likewise a
citizen of Mentz, he succeeded in bringing it to
perfection. At first, they formed (engraved)
the characters or letters in written order on
blocks of wood, and in this manner they printed
the vocabulary called a ' Catholicon.' But with
these forms (blocks) they could print nothing
else, because the characters could not be trans-
posed in these tablets, but were engraved
thereon, as we have said.
" To this invention succeeded a move subtle
B2
42 CAXTON AND
one, for they found out the means of cutting the
forms of all the letters of the alphabet, which
they call matrices, from which again they cast
characters of copper or tin of sufficient hardness
to resist the necessary pressure which they had
before engraved by hand. And truly, as I
learned thirty years since from Peter Opilio,
(Schoeffer) de Gernsheim, citizen of Mentz,
who was the son-in-law of the first inventor of
this art, great difficulties were experienced after
the first invention of this art of printing, for in
printing the Bible, before they had completed
the first quaternion (or gathering of four
sheets) 4,000 florins were expended. This
Peter Schoeffer, whom we have before men-
tioned, first servant, and afterwards as son-in-
law to the first inventor, John Fust, as we have
said, an ingenious and sagacious man, disco-
vered the more easy method of casting the
types, and thus the art was reduced to the com-
plete state in which it now is. These three
kept this method of printing secret for some
time, until it was divulged by some of their
workmen, without whose aid this art could not
have been exercised ; it was first discovered at
Strasburg, and soon became known to other
nations. And thus much of the admirable and
THE ART OF PRINTING. 43
subtle art of printing may suffice the first in-
ventors were citizens of Mentz. These first
three inventors of printing, (videlicet) John Gut-
tenberg, John Fust, and Peter SchoeiFer, his
son-in-law, lived at Mentz, in the house called
Lum Jungen, which has ever since been called
the Printing Office."
It is a deeply interesting fact, that, after
testing by humbler efforts the capabilities of
his press and his movable types, Guttenberg
actually succeeded in printing a complete edition
of the Bible, between the years 1450 and 1455
It was executed with cut metal types, in six
hundred and thirty-seven leaves, and was
printed on vellum.
A story of this period is told which is very
likely to have been a true one. It is stated
that Fust went to Paris with some of his finest
vellum Bibles, one of wl ich was sold to the
king for 750 crowns, and an 'her to the arch-
bishop of Paris for 300 crowns. The people,
however, unwilling to give, even if they were
able, so enormous a sum, were supplied, to
'some extent, at the price of 50 crowns. It is
not to be supposed that all were equally orna-
mented ; yet the beauty of the work, the
elegance of the flower pieces, and the variety
44 CAXTON AND
of the finest colours which were intermixed
with gold and silver, led many purchasers to
show their purchases to their friends, each one
thinking, as he produced his, that the whole
world could not contain such another.
The archbishop considering his Bible worth
his majesty's seeing, carried it to the king,
who regarded it with surprise, and in return
showed his own. On comparing them, it was
found that the ornaments were not exactly the
same ; but as to the other part, which was
supposed to be written, they observed such a
conformity in the numbers of pages, lines, and
words, and even letters, as soon convinced them,
to their great astonishment, that they must
have been produced by some other mode than
transcription. Besides, to transcribe two such
Bibles would have been the work of a man's
life ; and on making inquiry Fust was found
to have sold a considerable number. Orders,
therefore, were given without delay to appre-
hend the vendor, and to prosecute him as a
practitioner of the Black Art. Fust now solved
the mystery ; whereupon he was discharged
from all prosecution, and honoured with a
pecuniary reward, which, it is said, was also
paid to his descendants.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 45
Such, then, was the origin of this great
power, which has " reformed religion, and re-
modelled philosophy ; has infused a new spirit
into laws ; which overrules governments with a
paramount authority ; makes the communica-
tion of mind with mind easy and instantaneous
beyond example ; confers a perpetuity unknown
before, upon institutions and discoveries, and
gives those wings to science which it has taken
from time."
Of this art, as we have seen, the Bible was
the earliest and most important specimen ; and
perhaps many a reader of this volume has
looked, as its writer has done, on a copy of this
extraordinary work of Guttenberg with inde-
scribable interest. The first he completed was,
indeed, the parent of an innumerable race ;
it was in Latin, but of how many languages
may it now be said, Each one may read in
his own tongue the wonderful works of God !
In these pages, the great God, their Maker,
their Lawgiver, their Redeemer, their Judge,
speaks to the children of men. There they
hear the voice of their Creator deigning to
reveal truths by the inspiration of his Holy
Spirit, which no human intellect ever con-
ceived. What a portraiture is there of our
fallen and helpless condition in consequence of
4:6 CAXTON AND
jin ! What a display of the exceeding riches
of the grace of God in so loving the world as to
bestow upon it the gift of his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him might
not perish, but have everlasting life ! What a
rich provision for sanctification in the work of
the Holy Spirit renewing the heart and changing
it from the slavery of sin to the love and
practice of holiness ! What rich supplies of
promises adapted to meet all the temporal and
spiritual wants of the children of men !
Precious Bible ! Where shall we find a trea-
sure to be compared for a moment with that
we find in thee ? " It cannot be gotten for gold,
neither shall silver be weighed for the price
thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of
Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
The gold and the crystal cannot equal it : and
the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of
fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral,
or of pearls : for the price of wisdom is above
rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal
it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold."
Spirit of the Lord ! Thou, by whose inspira-
tion all Scripture was given, open our eyes to
the truths it reveals ; sanctify our hearts that
they may delight in them all ; make us wise
for a glorious immortality !
THE ART OF PRINTING. 47
CHAPTER II.
The Weald of Kent Birth of William Caxton Oppressive
law of Henry iv. A school in the Weald The Company
of Stationers English literature in early times Proclama-
tion for abolishing the French language Travels of sir
John Mandeville The literature of the middle ages The
early trade in books Geoffrey Chaucer Caxton's ac-
quaintance with his writings His apprenticeship to Robert
Large Caxton, a Commissioner His service to the
duchess of Burgundy Translation and printing of his first
work.
A PART of the county of Kent has been known
by many successive generations as the " Weald;"
a modernization of the Saxon term "Wald,"
signifying a forest, which at one period most
probably flourished there. The district must,
however, have once been in a very different
state from that which at present prevails ; for
the visitor who now digs beneath the green
turf, will discover the remains of thin and
delicate-shelled creatures, which must have
tenanted some quiet stream. But at what
period of our globe's history a river flowed
through this part of Kent, or when it was
48 CAXTON AND
intersected by many streams, we know not ;
though that such was once the case seems
beyond all reasonable dispute.
Lambarde has thus described its state in the
sixteenth century : " It was a great while
together nothing else but a desert and waste
wilderness, not planted with towns or peopled
with men as the outsides of the shire were,
but stored and stuffed with herds of deer and
droves of hogs only." He proceeds to say
" It came to be taken even as men were con-
tented to inhabit it, and by piecemeal to rid it
of the wood, and to break it up by the plough."
It may naturally be supposed that the race of
men who would undertake such a work would
be rude and rustic ; and yet among them, and
in some homely dwelling of this wild district,
William Caxton was born, and passed some of
his early years.
At that period, an obstacle existed to indi-
viduals rising from a lower to a higher grade
of the social scale, the recollection of which, in
contrast with our present opportunities for pro-
gress, may well excite lively gratitude. A
law in the time of Henry iv. recites that, ac-
cording to ancient statutes, those who labour
at the plough or cart, or other service of
THE ART OF PRINTING. 49
husbandry till at the age of twelve years, shall
continue to abide at such labour, and not be
put to any mystery or handicraft ; notwith-
standing which statutes, says this law, country
people, whose fathers and mothers have no
land or rent, are put to divers crafts within the
cities and boroughs, so that there is great
scarcity of labourers and other servants of hus-
bandry. And then this statute enacts, " That
no man nor woman, of what state or condition
they be, shall put their son or daughter, of
whatsoever age he or she be, to serve as
apprentice to a craft or other labour within any
city or borough in the realm, except he have
land or rent to the value of twenty shillings by
the year at least, but they shall be put to other
labours, as their estates doth require, upon
pain of one year's imprisonment." Thus, as it
was decreed in India that the soodra cast should
be perpetuated in each successive generation,
so in our own country the Statute Book shows
that there was a period when only the pro-
prietor or tenant of land, to a specified extent,
could be trained to the exercise of any handi-
craft or trade. The citizens of London, how-
ever, procured a repeal of this oppressive Act
in the reign of Henry vi.
50 CAXTON AND
That a school had been planted within reach
of the humble homesteads of the Weald is
evident, for Caxton speaks in after life, and
under the influence of the prevailing super-
stition, of being " bounden to pray for my
father's and mother's souls, that in my youth
sent me to school, by which, by the sufferance
of God, I got my living, I hope truly."* And
that he did not come under the operation of
the obnoxious law just referred to is equally
obvious from other circumstances.
A school without books, suggests to our
minds a strange spectacle, and yet the place
to which Caxton went for instruction could
scarcely have had books worthy of the name.
There existed at this time, indeed, the Company
of Stationers, or Text Writers, who wrote and
sold the books then in use, and among them
the Absies, as they were called, Alphabets in
fact, accompanied by the Lord's Prayer, the
Address to the virgin Mary, called Ave Maria,
and a few similar things. This fraternity
dwelt in the neighbourhood of St. Paul's, and
gave rise to the names of places adjacent, as
Creed Lane, Amen Corner, and Ave Maria
Lane.
* Preface to the Histories of Troy.
THE ART OF PPJNTING. 51
Literature, properly so called, was then
included within extremely narrow limits.
Poetical literature had begun to be culti-
vated with spirit and taste in France, prior to
the Conqueror's invasion of England. Wace,
the author of a narrative poem, entitled Le
Brut d'Angleterre, (Brutus of England,) and
some other works ; Benoit, a contemporary,
author of a History of the Dukes of Normandy ;
and Guernes, an ecclesiastic of Picardy, who
wrote a metrical life of Thomas a Becket are
the Norman poets of most eminence whose
writings can be connected with the literature of
England. They composed most frequently in
rhymed couplets, each line containing eight
syllables.
The only other compositions that have come
down to us from the century following the Con-
quest, as those of individuals living in, or con-
nected with our country, are works written in
Latin by learned ecclesiastics, the chief of
whom were John of Salisbury, Peter of Blois,
Joseph of Exeter, and Geoffrey of Monmouth,
who wrote a history of England, about the year
1138. According to Dr. Johnson, it was about
1154 before the Saxon tongue began to take
that form in which the beginning of the pre-
52 CAXTON AND
sent English may plainly be discovered. At
that period, it did ,not contain many Norman
words, but its grammatical structure was con-
siderably altered. Of a metrical Saxon or
English version of one of Wace's works by
Layamon, a priest of Ernely on the Severn,
composed, it is believed, towards the close of the
twelfth century, sir H. Ellis says : " As it does
not contain any word which we are under the
necessity of referring to a French origin, we
cannot but consider it as simple and unmixed,
though very barbarous Saxon."
Sir Henry Ellis further considers that certain
peculiarities seem to prove that the pronuncia-
tion of our language had already undergone a
considerable change. " Indeed," he observes,
" the whole style of this composition, which is
broken into a series of short unconnected sen-
tences, and in which the construction is as
plain and artless as possible, and perfectly free
from inversions, appears to indicate that little
more than the substitution of a few French
for the present Saxon words was now neces-
sary to produce a resemblance to that Anglo-
Norman, or English, of which we possess a few
specimens supposed to have been written in the
early part of the thirteenth century. On the
THE ART OF PRINTING. 53
whole, it seems reasonable to infer, that
Layamon's work was composed at, or very
near, the period when the Saxons and Nor-
mans in this country began to unite with
our nation, and to adopt a common lan-
guage."
The age of chivalry and the Crusades gave
rise to the English metrical romances, which
are supposed to have originated in certain
collections of stories and histories compiled by
the monks of that period. For a long time,
poetry appeared only in the garb of the chronicle
or the romance. Familiar as we are now with
it in various forms, not one trace of these forms
was then discoverable. We must look to the
middle of the thirteenth century, if we would
observe the dawn of miscellaneous poetry.
About a century later, we find the Vision of
Piers Ploughman, a satirical poem, by Robert
Longlands, which discovers the progress that
was made towards a literary style, and the
ascendency of the language of the Anglo-
Saxons over that of the Normans.
As, however, the French tongue kept
possession of the court and higher circles, it
required a man of -no ordinary genius, attain-
ments, and influence, to give literary permanence
54 CAXTON AND
and consistency to the native language poetry
of England.
A proclamation of Edward I. is stated to be
extant, in which he endeavours to excite his
subjects against the king of France, by im-
puting to him the intention of conquering the
country, and establishing the French tongue ;
and this accusation is also frequently repeated
in the proclamations of Edward m. The
numerous translations into English of metrical
romances at this period would seem to indicate,
however, that the native language was becoming
more familiar than French. An important change
Was moreover effected in 1362 ; for by the thirty-
sixth of Edward in. it was enacted, that for the
future all pleas should be pleaded, shown,
defended, answered, debated, and judged, in the
English tongue, but should be entered and
enrolled in Latin. Still the statutes of the
realm long continued to be promulgated in
French ; and it was only from the time of the
accession of Richard in. that Englishmen were
governed by laws written in their own language.
The earliest English legal instrument known to
exist is said to bear date 1343 ; and there are
not more than three or four entries in English
on the rolls of parliament before the reign of
THE ART OF PRINTING. 55
Henry vi., after whose accession the use of the
native tongue became very common.
Sir John Mandeville, whose work dates not
long after the time just mentioned, may be
regarded as the father of English prose, no
original work being so ancient as his Travels.
But the translation of the Bible, and other
writings of WyclifFe, nearly thirty years after-
wards, give evidence of the copiousness and
energy of which our native dialect was at that
time capable.
Of the literature of the middle ages it may
generally be said, as Montgomery admirably
remarks,* that it was " voluminous and vast.
Princes, nobles, and even priests, were then
often ignorant of fhe alphabet. The number
of authors was proportionately small, and the
subjects on which they wrote were of the driest
nature in polemics such were the subtleties of
the schoolmen ; of the most extravagant cha-
racter in the paths of imagination such were
the romances of chivalry, the legends and songs
of troubadours ; and of the most preposterous
tendency in philosophy, so called such were
the treatises on magic, alchemy, judicial
astrology, and the metaphysics.
* Lectures on Poetry.
56 CAXTON AKD
" To say all that could be said on any theme,
whether in verse or prose, was the fashion of
the times ; and as few read but those who were
devoted to reading by an irresistible passion or
professional necessity and few wrote but those
who were equally impelled by an inveterate
instinct great books were the natural produce
of the latter, who knew not how to make little
ones ; and great books were requisite to appease
the voracity of the former, who, for the most
part, were rather gluttons than epicures in their
taste for literature. Great books, therefore,
were both the fruits and the proofs of the igno-
rance of the age ; they were usually composed
in the gloom and torpor of the cloister, and it
almost required a human life to read the works
of an author of the first magnitude, because it
was nearly as easy to compound as to digest
such crudities. The common people, under
such circumstances, could feel no interest, and
derive no advantage from the labours of the
learned, which were equally beyond their pur-
chase and their comprehension. Those libri
elepliantini (like the registers of the Roman
citizens, when the latter amounted to millions,)
contained little more than catalogues of
things, and thoughts, and names, in words
THE ART OF PRINTING. 57
without measure, and often without meaning
worth searching out ; so that the lucubrations,
through a thousand years, of many a noble,
many a lovely mind, which only wanted better
direction how to unfold its energies, or display
its graces, to benefit or delight mankind, were
but passing meteors, that made visible the
darkness out of which they rose, and into
which they sank again, to be hid for ever."
Long had the monks been accustomed to
string together their miserable rhymes in bar-
barous Latin, by hundreds and thousands ; but
it was not till towards the close of the four-
teenth century, that the first genuine English
poet appeared. This was Geoffrey Chaucer,
who has been styled the father of English
poetry. He was the first great improver and
reformer of our language ; Spenser spoke of his
writings as " the well of English undefiled ;"
and he is entitled to high regard for those
" ditees glad," through which he
" Made first to distylle and rayne
The gold dew-drops of speche and eloquence
Into our tongue."
With the works of Chaucer, Caxton became
doubtless acquainted in his early days, most
probably through the medium of the chanting
58 CAXTON AND
of minstrels, a considerable part of our old
poetry being composed with the intention of
being recited and not read. It is evident that
the persons now alluded to led their contem-
porary poets to practise a particular species of
composition ; and as they went hither and
thither at a time when reading and writing
were rare accomplishments, they were the
principal medium of communication between
authors and the public. They were a numerous
body a century before the time of Chaucer, and
were most indefatigable in wandering up and
down the country, chanting romances, and
singing songs and ballads to the harp, the fiddle,
and also to more humble and less artificial
instruments. Through this medium, Caxton,
as we have observed, probably became ac-
quainted with the works of Chaucer, and of
Gower also, who lived some time before the
period of his youth.
Caxton was apprenticed to Robert Large, a
member of the Mercers' Company, who was
one of the sheriffs of London in 1430, and lord
mayor in 1439-40. He died in the latter year.
It maybe inferred that Caxton served his appren-
ticeship with fidelity, since his master bequeathed
to him, as an expression of esteem, a legacy of
THE ART OF PRINTING. 59
twenty marks, which was, at that period no
inconsiderable sum. In possession of this
amount, he left his native land, having ac-
quired an intimate acquaintance with trade, and
embarking in the character of a merchant,
agent, or factor, he occasionally resided for
many years in Brabant, Flanders, Holland, and
Zealand.
Great commercial importance was attached
to the manuscripts which then supplied the
place of books. The trade in them was largely
conducted by the monks, who, as they were
the principal transcribers of manuscripts, so
they were also the only booksellers, and works
being scarce, they sold them for very large
prices Among other facts equally astonishing,
it is stated that a learned lady, the countess of
Anjou, gave for the Homilies of Haimon, bishop
of Halberstadt, two hundred sheep, five quarters
of wheat, and the same quantity of rye and
millet. One reason for so large a sum being
paid for manuscripts, appears to have been the
skill, labour, and taste, expended on their
execution. One work, " The Book of the Pas-
sion of our Lord Jesus Christ," for example,
consists of the finest vellum, the text being cut
out, instead of being inscribed on each leaf, and
60 CAXTON AND
being interleaved with blue paper, it was read
with perfect ease. For this curiosity the
work probably of some ingenious and laborious
English monk the emperor Rodolph ir. of
Germany offered 11,000 ducats. At a visita-
tion of the treasury of St. Paul's cathedral in the
year 1295, there were found twelve copies of the
Gospels, all adorned with silver, and some with
gilding, pearls, and gems, and one with eleven
so-called relics, which were let into the plates
of precious metal surrounding each page.
The trade in manuscripts was revived and
extended on the establishment of universities in
different parts of the Continent ; and, in 1259,
the sellers of them became so numerous in
Paris, as to be the objects of special regulations.
We read of librarii, the brokers and agents for
the sale and loan of manuscripts ; and of stati-
onarii, the sellers and copiers of manuscripts,
who were so called from having stations at
markets and in various parts of cities,. One
object of the law referred to, was to regulate
the prices charged by these persons, which had
become enormous. But the most profitable
part of the business appears to have been the
lending of books, which were so valuable that
security was taken for their safe return.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 61
Bookselling in Paris then the chief seat of
learning seems to have thus been a profitable
calling between the twelfth and fifteenth centu-
ries. But wherever universities were established
booksellers also resided, especially in Vienna,
Palermo, Padua, and Salamanca. Gradually
they spread themselves over less learned places,
and at length, the librarii and stationarii exer-
cised their vocations in most of the larger
European towns. There is reason to suppose
that other persons entered into their trade ;
for " it is pretty certain," says Dibdin, " that
mercers, in the time of Caxton, were general
merchants, trading in all kinds of goods, and
that they united a love of literature and of books
with their other multifarious concerns. Hence,
probably, Caxton acquired his passion for books
and learning, a passion which seems never to
have deserted him."
That Caxton was not unknown at the court
of England, is evident from his being ap-
pointed, in the year 1464, one of two com-
missioners to conclude a treaty of trade and
commerce between Edward iv. and Philip, duke
of Burgundy, surnamed " the good." This
employment appears to have led to another ;
for about four years after, Margaret Plantagenet,
62 CAXTON AND
the sister of the sovereign, was married to the
young duke of Burgundy, on which occasion
Caxton formed one of her retinue.
Referring to this period of his life, he after-
wards said, in allusion to the " Recuyel of the
Historyes of Troye," " When I remember that
every man is bounden by the commandment
and counsel of the wise man to eschew sloth
and idleness, which is mother and nourisher of
vices, and ought to put myself into virtuous
occupation and business, then I, having no
great charge or occupation, following the said
council, took a French book and read therein
many strange marvellous histories, wherein I
had great pleasure and delight, as well for the
novelty of the same, as for the fair language of
the French, which was in prose so well and
compendiously set and written, methought I
understood the sentence and substance of every
matter. And for so much as this book was
new and late made and drawn into French, and
never had been seen in our English tongue, I
thought in myself it would be a good busi-
ness to translate it into our English, to the
end that it might be had as well in the
royaume of England as in other lands, and also
for to pass therewith the time, and thus con-
THE ART OF PRINTING. 63
eluded in myself to begin this said work,
and forthwith took pen and ink, and began
boldly to run forth, as blind Bayard, in this
present work."
The work thus begun, was discontinued for
nearly two years. At length, his patroness the
duchess sent for him, and on his producing
the part he had finished, she examined three or
four leaves, criticising his English ; but so fur
from discouraging him, she desired him to resume
his labours. Unwilling to incur her displeasure,
he renewed his task, and speedily brought it to
a conclusion. It was begun in 1468, and was
finished in 1471. The work was kindly re-
ceived by the duchess, who liberally rewarded
the translator.
There is reason to conclude, that in complet-
ing this work Caxton had a larger circulation
of it in view than could be met by transcrip-
tion. That he contemplated its use in his own
country as well as abroad, is clear from his
words: "I thought in myself it should be a
good business to translate it into our English,
to the end that it might be had as well in the
royaume of England as in other lands." It is
natural too, to conceive him, fond of litera-
ture as he was, and withal a man of leisure,
64 CAXTON AND
intensely interested in the new art which was
now springing up, and making himself ac-
quainted, so far as circumstances allowed, with
its practical details.
His attention would also be directed specially
to England, by circumstances that occurred
while engaged in his translation. Edward iv.
had arrived in Bruges, a fugitive from civil
war, " attended by seven or eight hundred
men, without any clothes but what they were
to have fought in, and with no money in their
pockets;" while he "was forced to give the
master of the ship for his passage a gown
lined with martens." Caxton was honoured
with the confidence of the celebrated earl
Eivers, the sovereign's brother-in-law, and as,
after an exile of a few months, Edward again
swayed the sceptre of England, it seems in the
highest degree probable, that Caxton antici-
pated the favour of the royal patronage in his
native land.
That he actually printed the work he had
translated, is placed beyond all dispute. He
says towards the conclusion, " Thus end I this
book, and forasmuch as in writing of the
same my pen is worn, my hand weary, and my
eyes dimmed with overmuch looking on the
THE ART OF PRINTING. 65
white paper, and that age creepeth on n:e
daily, and also, because I have promised to
divers gentlemen, and to my friends to address
to them as hastily as I might this said book,
therefore I have practised and learned at my
great charge and expense, to ordain this said
book in print after the manner and form as ye
may here see, that it is not written with pen and
ink, as other books be, to the end that every
man may have them at once, for all the books of
this story named the 'Recuyel of the Historyes
of Troye,' thus imprinted, as ye here see, were
begun in one day, and also finished in one
day."
All who are conversant with old books will
recognise here the style and language of the
first printers. At the end of each of the first
works issued from Mentz, they apprised the
public that they were not drawn or written by
a pen, but made by a new art and invention of
printing or stamping them by characters or
types of metal set in forms. Caxton says,
moreover, the " work was begun in Bruges,
and continued in Ghent, and finished in Cologne,
in time of the troublesome world, and of the
great divisions being and reigning, as well in
the kingdoms of England and France as in all
c
CAXTON AND
other places universally through the world, that
is to wit, the year of our Lord one thousand
four hundred and seventy- one."
To say that Caxton printed his book is to
describe, in few words, a work of great com-
plexity and difficulty. To accomplish this he
must have had types, either by buying them
ready for use, or by procuring the moulds that
would yield them ; and when obtained, it
would be no easy task duly to arrange them.
Then a press was to be obtained, doubtless a
very humble affair, a mere board, acted on by
a screw, like a cheese-press or a napkin-press,
so that the types would be pressed after
they were inked, slowly, laboriously, and un-
certainly. Ink, too, had to be made, and the
balls by which it could be applied, a rude and
disagreeable process, yet one tjbat was con-
tinued for a long time, and which is even now
in use.
Assuredly, it was an arduous affair to be
compositor and pressman under such circum-
stances, and a due consideration of the matter
will increase our sense of Caxton's ability and
perseverance. " The Histories of Troy" would
have no attraction for the reader in the present
age ; but far different was it in the days of
THE ART OF PRINTING. 67
Caxton ; while the earliest work that issued
from his press cannot but be regarded with
lively interest, as the first sheaf of an extensive
harvest, into which multitudes in after days
have thrust in the sickle.
GS CAXTON AND
CHAPTER III.
Settlement of Caxton in England The story of Atkyns The
first press set up in Westminster Caxton 's first book,
" The Game of Chess "His other works Caxton's patron,
the earl of Rivers Why did he not print the Scriptures ?
THE settlement of Caxton in this country, for
the practice of the typographical art which has
shed so much honour on his name, is generally
admitted to have taken place in the year 1474,
towards the close of the reign of Edward iv.
It has, however, been argued by a writer
named Atkyns, that printing was a royal pre-
rogative, and that the art was brought into
England at the expense of the crown, through
another channel than Caxton. " Thomas
Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury," ho says,
" moved the then king Henry vi. to use all
possible means for procuring a printing-mould
(for so it was then called) to be brought into
this kingdom. The king, a good man, and
much given to works of this nature, readily
hearkened to the motion ; and taking private
THE ART OF PRINTING. 69
advice how to effect this design, concluded it
could not be brought about without great
secrecy, and a considerable sum of money given
to such person or persons as would draw off
some of the workmen from Haarlem in Holland,
where John Guttenberg had newly invented it,
and was himself personally at work. It was
resolved that less than one thousand marks
would not produce the desired effect ; towards
which sum the said archbishop presented the
king with three hundred marks.
" The money being now prepared, the ma-
nagement of the design was committed to Mr.
Robert Turnour, who then was keeper of the
robes of the king, and a person most in favour
with him of any of his condition. Mr. Turnour
took to his assistance Mr. Caxton, a citizen of
good abilities, who, trading much with Holland,
might be a creditable pretence, as well for his
going as for his staying in the Low Countries.
Mr. Turnour was in disguise, his beard and
hair shaven quite off, but Mr. Caxton appeared
known and public.
" They having received the sum of one
thousand marks, went first to Amsterdam, then
to Leyden, not daring to enter Haarlem itself,
for the town was very jealous, having impri-
70 CAXTON AND
soned and apprehended divers persons, who
came from other parts for the same purpose.
They stayed till they had spent the whole one
thousand marks in gifts and expenses. So, as
the king was fain to send five hundred marks
more, Mr. Tumour having written to the king
that he had almost done his work, a bargain, as
he said, being struck by him and two Hol-
landers for bringing off one of the workmen,
who should sufficiently discover and teach the
new art. At last, with much ado, they got off
one of the under workmen, whose name was
Frederick Corsells, or rather Corsellis ; who
late one night stole from his fellows in disguise,
into a vessel prepared before for that purpose ;
and so the wind, favouring the design, brought
him safe to London. It was not thought so
prudent to set him to work at London, but by
the archbishop's means, who had been vice-
chancellor, and afterwards chancellor of the
university of Oxon, Corsellis was carried with
a guard to Oxon, which constantly watched to
prevent Corsellis from any possible escape, till
he had made good his promise, in teaching how
to print. So that at Oxford printing was first
set up in England."*
* History of the University of Oxford.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 71
Anthony Wood, repeating the story, adds,
" And thus the mystery of printing appeared
ten years sooner in the University of Oxford
than at any other place in Europe, Haarlem
and Mentz excepted." It is unnecessary to
dwell on the inconsistencies of this romantic
tale, or its inaccuracies, as when it describes
John Guttenberg as labouring at " Haarlem
in Holland." It is possible that Henry vi.
might have seen the Mazarine Bible, of which
Mr. Hal lam says, "It is a very striking cir-
cumstance, that the high-minded inventors of
this great art tried at the very outset so bold a
flight as the printing an entire Bible, and
executed it with astonishing success. It was
Minerva leaping on earth in her divine strength
and radiant armour, ready at the moment of
her nativity to subdue and destroy her enemies."
The story of Atkyns also wants confirmation.
He says, indeed, "a certain worthy person did
present me with a copy of a record and manu-
scripts in Lambeth House, heretofore in his
custody, belonging to the see, and not to any
particular archbishop of Canterbury. The
substance whereof was this : (by this he refers
to the narrative above given) though I hope,
for public satisfaction, the record itself, in its
72 CAXTON AND
due time, will appear." But that time never
came ; and thus the tale wants the support
which it was intimated it would one day receive.
Atkyns speaks also of a book " printed at
Oxon, A.D. 1468, which was three years before
any of the recited authors would allow it
(printing) to be in England." In this state-
ment his position is somewhat improved. There
is a little book, which little thought of before,
fell under the notice of the curious about the
time of the Restoration a book which actually
bears date at Oxford, in the year 1468, copies
being yet extant. It is a small quarto, of
forty- one leaves, entitled " Expositio Sancti
Jeronimi in Symbolum Apostolorum ad Papam
Laurentium." But this was a book produced
from wooden types, a mode practised long be-
fore the invention of Guttenberg, and clearly
distinguishable from the metal types, which are
traceable to him, and which Caxton was the
first to employ in our country. A due con-
sideration of the vast difference between the
two modes of producing impressions would
have prevented the controversy which has been
waged on this subject.
As to the site of the first printing-press in
England, an old writer says it was " St. Ann's, an
THE ART OF PRINTING. 73
old chapel, over against which the lady Margaret,
mother to king Henry VIL, erected an alms-
house for poor women, which is now (in
Stowe's time) turned into lodgings for sing-
ing men of the college. The place wherein
this chapel and almshouse stood was called the
Eleemosynary, or Almonry, now corruptly the
Amlry (Aumlry),* for that the alms of the
abbey were there distributed to the poor ; in
which the abbot of Westminster erected the
first press for book printing that ever was in
England, about the year of Christ 1471, and
where William Caxton, citizen and mercer of
London, practised it."
It is indeed very probable that Caxton, after
the manner observed in other monasteries, set
up his press near one of the chapels attached to
the aisles of Westminster Abbey. The sup-
position has, therefore, been indulged,
" Each printer hence, howe'er unbless'd his walls,
E'en to this day, his house a CHAPEL calls."
But no remains of so interesting a place can
now be ascertained, and there is a strong pre-
sumption that the first printing-office was
demolished to make room for the building of
the far-famed chapel of Henry VH. Caxton's
* It was so called within the last fifty years.
c 2
74 CAXTON AND
office, it is said, \vas at a subsequent period re-
moved into King-street just by, but its precise
locality cannot be now pointed out.
Bagford says, " Caxton's first book printed
in the Abbey was ' The Game of Chess,' a book
in those times much in use with all sorts
of people, and in all likelihood first desired
by the abbot, and the rest of his friends and
masters." It was a translation by himself
of a work written by Dacciesole, a Dominican
friar, so early, according to Hyde, as 1200.
Of it Caxton says, " It is full of wholesome
wisdom, and requisite unto every state and
degree ; " a statement very inapplicable, we
might have thought, to a work of this character.
It appears, however, to have blended with in-
structions for playing the game, counsels which
would enable the people, according to Caxton's
notions, " to understand wisdom and virtue ;"
he therefore dedicates it to the duke of Clarence,
saying, "Forasmuch as I have understood and
known that you are inclined unto the common-
weal of the king, our said sovereign lord, his
nobles, lords, and common people of his noble
realm of England, and that ye saw gladly the
inhabitants of the same informed in good,
virtuous, profitable, and honest manners."
THE ART OF PRINTING. 75
Of the character, reception, and effect of the
works which subsequent!}' issued from Caxton's
press, Warton* gives the following account :
" By means of French translations, our coun-
trymen who understood French better than
Latin became acquainted with many useful
books, which they would not otherwise have
known. With such assistances, a commodious
access to the classics was opened, and the
knowledge of ancient literature facilitated and
familiarized in England at a much earlier
period than is imagined, and at a time when
little more than the productions of speculative
monks and irrefragable doctors could be ob-
tained or were studied."
How confused and barren the field of instruc-
tion was in the most celebrated schools of the
age, it is difficult now adequately to conceive.
In philosophy, nothing was studied but mathe-
matics and logic, and the latter was taught
in a trifling and useless manner from a work
attributed to Augustine. Neither preceptor
nor pupil desired nor dared greater things.
The circle of instruction, or the liberal arts, as
the term was then understood, consisted of two
branches, the trivium and the quadrivium.
* History of Poetry.
76 CAXTON AND
The trivium included grammar, rhetoric, and
dialectics ; the quadriviam comprehended
music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy.
He who was master of these as then taught
was thought to have no need of a preceptor to
explain any books or to solve any questions
which lay within the compass of human reason,
the knowledge of the trivium being supposed to
have furnished him with the key to all lan-
guages ; and that of the quadrivium to have
opened to him the secret laws of nature.
The scholastic questions were called Questiones
QuodlibeticcB) and were generally so ridiculous
that we have retained the word quodlibet in
our vernacular style, to express anything
absurdly subtle. They distinguished universals,
or what we call abstract terms, by the genera
and species rerum; and they never could decide
whether these were substances or names; that
is, whether the abstract idea we form of a horse
was not really a being as much as the horse we
ride. A favourite topic of discussion, and
one which the acutest logicians never resolved
was, " When a hog is carried to market with a
rope tied about its neck, which is held at the
other end by a man, whether is the hog carried
to the market by the rope or the man ?"
THE ART OF PRINTING. 77
In the view of these circumstances Warton con-
tinues, referring to what he had just styled " many
useful books ;" "when these authors, therefore,
appeared in a language almost as intelligible as
the English, they fell into the hands of illiterate
and common readers, and contributed to sow
the seeds of a national erudition and to form a
popular taste. Even the French versions of
the religious, philosophical, historical, and alle-
gorical compositions of those more enlightened
Latin writers who flourished in the middle
ages, had their use till better books came into
vogue ; pregnant as they were with absurdities,
they communicated instruction on various and
new subjects, enlarged the field of information,
and promoted the love of reading, by gratifying
that growing literary curiosity which now
began to want materials for the exercise of its
operations."
" These French versions," Warton adds,
" enabled Caxton, our first printer, to enrich
the state of letters in this country with many
valuable publications. He found it no difficult
task, either by himself or the help of his friends,
to turn a considerable number of these pieces
into English, which he printed. Ancient learn-
ing had as yet made too little progress in our
78 CAXTON AND
country to encourage this enterprising and
industrious artist to publish the Roman authors
in their original language ; and had not
the French furnished him with these mate-
rials, it is not likely that Virgil, Ovid, Cicero,
and many other good writers would, by the
means of his press, have been circulated in the
English tongue so early as the close of the
fifteenth century."
Of all Caxton's contemporaries, the lord
Rivers appears to have been the only one who
rendered him any literary assistance. One of
his works, " The Moral Proverbs of Christine
de Pisa," a metrical translation of a little French
poem, Caxton dismisses with the following
words :
" Go thou little quire and recommend me
Unto the good grace of my special lord
Th' earl Rivers, for I have emprinted thee
At his commandment, following every word
His copy, as his secretary can record,
At Westminster, of Feuerer the xx day,
And of king Edward the xvii day vraye."
This friend and patron of Caxton had no
ordinary trials to endure. "When Edward iv.
was one day hunting in Northamptonshire, and
had paid a visit to the duchess-dowager of Bed-
ford, her grace's daughter Elizabeth, the widow
THE ART OF PRINTING. 79
of sir John Grey, of Groby, who had fallen on
the Lancastrian side in the second battle of St.
Albans, came and threw herself at the monarch's
feet, imploring him to reverse her husband's
attainder in favour of her innocent children.
Captivated by her elegant form, her graceful
and winning manners, and her language and
sentiments, marked as they were by propriety
and wit, the sovereign eventually married her.
This led to the elevation of her family, and to
the creation of her father a baron in the late
reign as earl Rivers, amidst great jealousy on
the part of the Nevilles, who had expected to
enjoy a monopoly of power under the prince
whom they had placed on the throne. An in-
surrection of the peasantry soon after broke out
in Yorkshire, a county in which the influence
of the Nevilles chiefly lay. After being de-
feated, and witnessing the capture and execution
of their leader, other parties placed themselves
at the head of the insurgents, requiring the
removal of the Woodvilles the family of the
earl Rivers. The king was in great perplexity ;
he wrote to Clarence and Warwick ordering them
to hasten to him from Calais. Lord Herbert
advanced from Wales with eight thousand men,
and lord Stafford joined him at Banbury with
80 CAXTON AND
five thousand. The next day the rebels fell
on Herbert at Edgecote, and killed him, with
five thousand of his followers. In the pursuit
which followed this engagement, the victors
found lord Rivers and his son John in the
forest of Dean, and brought them to Northamp-
ton, where they were executed by a real or
pretended order from Clarence and Warwick.
It was after this catastrophe, in which his
father and brother had fallen, that the second
lord Rivers wrote his book, entitled " Cordial, $
which Caxton says was delivered to him " fort<i
be imprinted and so multiplied to go abroad
among the people, that thereby more surely
might be remembered the last four things
undoubtedly coining." A third work of his lord-
ship, published by Caxton, was the " Dictes
and Sayings of the Philosophers." Lord Rivers,
however, had not reached forty years of age
when death came to him in a terrific form.
He was murdered in Pomfret Castle by order
of Richard in.
It is not our purpose to describe in detail
the labours of Caxton ; we shall satisfy our-
selves, therefore, with the summary statement
of Dr. Dibdin : " Exclusively of the labours
attached to the working of his press as a new
THE ART OF PRINTING. 81
art", our typographer contrived, though well
stricken in years, to translate not fewer than
five thousand closely printed folio pages. As
a translator, therefore, he ranks among the
most laborious, and I would hope not the least
successful of his tribe. The foregoing con-
clusion is the result of a careful enumeration of
all the books translated as well as printed by
him ; which, (the translated books,) if pub-
lished in the modern fashion, would extend to
nearly twenty-five octavo volumes."
The first printed books had some marked
peculiarities, apart from those which, if de-
scribed, would only be understood by persons
who are well acquainted with the technicalities
of the art. Thus, they were generally either
large or small folios, or at least quartos ; the
lesser sizes not being in use. Some of them
have no titles, nor number of pages, nor were
there in any divisions into paragraphs. The
character employed was purposely designed to
imitate the hand-writing of the time ; the
words were printed so closely together that to
read was difficult and tedious, while the inat-
tentive reader was frequently led into mistakes.
In the early ages of printing, the uniform
character employed was an imitation of the old
82 CAXTON AND
Gothic or German, from which our old English
was formed a character now obsolete in the west
of Europe, except for the purpose of printing
ancient works in fac-simile, or giving variety to
other forms of typography. In Germany, how-
ever, and the states and kingdoms which lie
round the Baltic, works for ordinary use are
still printed in type of this description, which is
popularly known as German text.
The orthography employed by the early
typographers was various, and often arbitrary.
They made use of abbreviations, which in time
grew so numerous, that a key was published as
necessary to explain them. An oblique stroke
answered the purpose of our comma. No
capital letters were used to begin a sentence, or
for proper names of men or places. The early
printers, too, left blanks for the places of titles,
initial letters, and other ornaments, that they
might be supplied by ingenious artists. Such
ornaments were exquisitely fine, and curiously
variegated with the most beautiful colours, and
even with gold and silver. The margins were
likewise adorned with a variety of figures of
saints, birds, beasts, flowers, and monsters,
which sometimes had reference to the con-
tents of the page, though often it is impossible
THE ART OF PRINTING. 83
to trace between them and the author's subject
the most remote analogy. These embellish-
ments were very costly ; but there were others
of an inferior kind, at a proportionately lower
expense.
Nor should it be overlooked that the early-
printer was a bookbinder also, placing his
leaves literally between boards, and making
some books so heavy as to give rise to the say-
ing, " No man can carry them about, much less
get them into his head."
It has sometimes been asked, " How was it
that Caxton did not print the Bible?" And
the question is natural, especially as this was
the first great work of the typographic art,
with which he must have been fully acquainted.
Nor were the Sacred Scriptures, as in the
edition of Guttenberg and Fust, restricted to
the Latin tongue. Before the days of \Vyclifie,
portions of them had been translated into
English, and passed, probably, in some in-
stances, into the hands of wealthy and distin-
guished persons among the laity ; but it
remained for the English reformer to form the
sublime purpose of translating the whole of
them from Latin into English, and to carry it
into full accomplishment.
84 CAXTON AND
In venturing to take tins step, Wycliffe, as is
well known, exposed himself to the displeasure
of the priests. Knighton, the canon of Lei-
cester, did not hesitate to say, " Christ delivered
his doctrine to the doctors of the church, that
they might minister to the laity and weaker
persons, according to the state of the times,
and the wants of men. But this master John
Wycliffe translated it out of Latin into English,
and thus laid it more open to the laity, and to
women who could read, than it had formerly
been to the most learned of the clergy, even to
those of them who had the best understanding.
And in this way the gospel pearl is cast abroad,
and trodden under foot of swine ; and this
which was before precious to clergy and laity,
is rendered, as it were, the common jest of
both. The jewel of the church is turned into
the sport of the people ; and what was hitherto
the principal gift of the clergy and divines, is
made for ever common to the laity."
In the feeling thus discovered by Knighton,
the English clergy fully sympathized, for when
assembled in council, under the presidency of
archbishop Arundel, they issued an enactment
as follows : " The translation of the text of
the Holy Scriptures out of one tongue into
THE ART OF PRINTING. 85
another is a dangerous thing, as St. Jerome
testifies, because it is not easy to make the
verse in all respects the same. Therefore we
enact and ordain that no one henceforth do, by
his own authority, translate any text of the
Holy Scriptures into the English tongue, or
any other, by way of book or treatise ; nor let
any such book or treatise, now lately composed
in the time of John Wycliffe aforesaid, or since,
hereafter to be composed, be read in whole or
in part, in public or in private, under the pain
of the greater excommunication." It is to this
enactment that sir Thomas More attributes the
conduct of Caxton. " On account," he says,
" of the penalties ordered by archbishop
Arundel's institution, though the old transla-
tions that were before Wycliffe's days remained
lawful, and were in some folks' hands had and
read, yet he thought no printer would lightly
be so hot to put the Bible in print at his own
charge, and then hang upon a doubtful trial
whether the first copy of his translation was
made before Wycliffe's days or since ; for if it
were made since, it must be approved before
the printing."
The labours of Caxton closed with his trans-
lation from the French into English of a work
86 CAXTON AND
which thus begins : " When it is so, that
what a man maketh or doeth it is made to
come to some end, and if the thing be good or
well made it must needs come to good end ;
then by better and greater reason every man
ought to intend in such wise to live in this
world, in keeping the commandments of God,
that he may come to a good end. And then
out of this world, full of wretchedness and
tribulations, he may go to heaven unto God
and his saints unto joy ever durable." In this
work he was engaged on the last day of his
life, the 15th of June, 1490, when he was about
eighty years of age.
This work was entitled, " The Art and Craft
to Know well to Die." To know well to die !
This is indeed a knowledge of all others the
most desirable. Man is a guilty sinner ; his
heart and his life are stained with countless
transgressions ; he has violated the holy and
perfect law of God, and in consequence is
exposed to ruin and everlasting woe. To
know, then, how to have solid peace in that
hour which ushers the soul from time to
eternity, must be unspeakably important.
This knowledge the word of God supplies.
Man is guilty, but the Saviour hath made an
THE ART OF PRINTING. 87
atonement ; he hath brought in an everlasting
righteousness ; he hath come as foretold by
prophecy, to finish transgression, and make an
end of sin. He hath borne the curse of a
violated law, and now repentance and remission
of sin, through faith in his blood, are freely
proclaimed. The soul that trusts in the Saviour
with a living faith ; that has surrendered itself
up to be sanctified by his Holy Spirit; that
from a principle of love takes up his light and
easy yoke, and walks in obedience to all his
holy will that soul has learned how to die
well. When it passes through the dark ^valley
the Saviour shall be with it to give it light, and
shall enable it to exclaim, "O death, where
is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ?
The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of
sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ."
88 CAXTON AND
CHAPTER IV.
Wynken de Worde Extension of the art of printing The
first books Blaew's improvement of the printing-press-
Aldus Manutius The Estiennes or Stephenses Wolfe,
the first king's printer Immediate results of the art of
printing Advancement of literature.
ENGLAND'S first printer was now removed from
the world, but "the office" in which he had
toiled even till the coming of the messenger of
death was not to be . closed, or appropriated to
different purposes. Wynken de Worde, who
was born in the dukedom of Lorraine, and who
accompanied Caxton to England, continued
with him, in some capacity, till the death
of the latter. He was Caxton's successor,
too, in his house at Westminster, and styled
himself " Printer to Margaret, etc., the king's
grandame." He printed the Acts of Parlia-
ment with the royal arms for some years, using
an imprint cut and seal similar to what Caxton
had employed. Some of the Acts of Parlia-
THE ART OF PRINTING. 89
ment bear the imprint "Fleet-street, at the
sygn of the Sonne, by Wynken de Worde."
It is probable that he kept both shops for
some time, where, by himself and his servants,
he performed all parts of a printer's business,
and also supplied other printers in the metro-
polis. He is said to have printed several Latin
as well as English volumes, and to have done
so till 1533, if not beyond that time. No
Greek works, appear however, to have issued
from his press. Though the immediate suc-
cessor of Caxton, he made many improvements
in the art. On commencing business for him-
self, his first care was to cut a new set of
punches ; he sunk these into matrices, and cast
several sorts of printing letters, which he after-
wards used. He was the first English printer
who introduced the Roman letter in England,
employing it to distinguish anything remark-
able. So true was the type he used, and so
well have its impressions stood the test of time,
that it is not considered to have been since
excelled.
Most of his books now remaining were
printed in St. Bride's parish, Fleet-street, at the
sign of the Sun. The exact situation of his
place of business is not, however, easily deter-
90 CAXTON AND
mined. His residence is usually said to have
been " over against the conduit." This conduit,
founded by sir William Eastfield, was at the
south end of Shoe-lane. It was rebuilt in
1582, but was superseded by the introduction
of water from the New Kiver into London. Its
remains perished in the Great Fire of London.
The art of printing was speedily extended
to other places in England besides London.
Theodoric Rood, a native of Cologne, practised
it in the city of Oxford in 1480, and continued
to do so for several years. Into the University
of Cambridge it was introduced at a very early
period after its rise in England, but it is un-
certain who were the persons that carried the
art thither. A schoolmaster conducted a
printing-press at St. Albans so early as 1480,
and many others were set up in different
places ; among which may be mentioned York,
Canterbury, "Worcester, Ipswich, and Norwich,
besides South wark, Greenwich, and Moulsey,
near Kingston. Two copies of a Breviary of
the Church of Aberdeen, printed thirty-five
years after the first labours of Caxton at West-
minster, have been found. The Common Prayer
was printed in Dublin by Humphrey Powell,
in quarto, black letter, in 1551. Previously,
THE ART OF PRINTING. 91
and even subsequently to that period, the
authors of Ireland caused their works to be
printed abroad.
ITie first Bible with a date is in Latin, and
was printed, as we have seen, on vellum, in
1462, by Fust and Schoeffer. The first book in
Greek characters is a " Grammar" of the Greek
language, bearing date 1476. " ^sop's Fables "
was the first Greek classic printed ; it was
executed at Milan, about 1480. The first
Latin classic printed was Cicero's " Offices ; "
it appeared in 1465, the work of Fust and
Schoeifer. One of the first books printed
with diagrams was -" Euclid's Geometry," in
Latin ; it was printed at Venice, by Ratdoldt,
in 1482. The works of Virgil, printed there
by Aldus, in 1501, formed the first book
printed in italic types, and was the result of
the earliest attempt to produce cheap books.
One of the earliest books of travels, and the
first illustrated with folding plates, was printed
at Mentz in 1486. It is, like all the rarities
now enumerated, in the British Museum. The
earliest book in which engravings are found is
a copy of Dante, printed at Florence, in 1481.
An ingenious person named Blaew is enti-
tled to particular notice in a history, however
92 CAXTON AND
brief, of the printing-press. He served his
apprenticeship as a joiner, but being of an
inquisitive disposition, he rambled from Amster-
dam to Denmark, at a time peculiarly favour-
able to his purposes. There the celebrated
Tycho Brahe had established his astronomical
observatory, and Blaew was employed in mak-
ing his mathematical instruments. It is said
that in these he made many improvements, and
that all or most of the sidereal observations pub-
lished in Tycho's name, were due to him.
To gratify Blaew, Tycho gave him copies of
them before they were published to the world ;
and with these he went to Amsterdam, and
practised the making of globes. As his trade
increased, he found it necessary to deal in geogra-
phical maps and books, and became so particu-
lar as to his plates, that many of them were
engraved with his own hand. He also set up a
printing-office, and being sensible of the incon-
veniences attending the rudely-constructed typo-
graphical machine which had now been in use
about a hundred years, he made in it many
considerable improvements. Having constructed
nine printing-presses, he bestowed on them the
names of the nine muses. The excellence of
their workmanship soon became known, so that
THE ART OF PRINTING. 93
in a few years presses of his construction
became almost general throughout the Low
Countries, and from thence were introduced
into England.
Special honour is also due, in connexion
with the history of the art of printing, to Aldus
Manutius. He received a learned education,
passed his early life in literary pursuits, and in
the society of some of the most distinguished
scholars of his time, and was forty years of age
before he set up his printing-office at Venice.
His means were limited, and he had much to
suffer from the distracted state of his country.
He was even obliged to retire from Venice
altogether for twelve mouths, and on quitting
Milan, where he had found a refuge, he was
seized as a spy, and consigned to a dungeon,
from whence he only obtained deliverance by
the interposition of a friend, who happened to
be the vice-chancellor of the Milanese senate.
And yet, during his career of twenty-six years
as a printer, he gave to the world editions
of nearly all the Greek and Eoman authors
then known to exist. Nor did these publica-
tions involve ordinary labour ; for in almost
every instance he transcribed the text from
manuscripts, which it required great learning,
94 CAXTON AND
patience, and sagacity, to decipher, and selected
from the various readings, those which he
regarded as the most correct. He, there-
fore, acted the part of editor as well as that
of printer and publisher. Aldus Manutius
was also the author of several works of great
erudition. Among these were grammars of
the Greek and Latin languages, and a Dic-
tionary of them, forming a folio volume, the
first of the kind that had ever been prepared.
In the first years also of his residence at Venice,
he delivered several courses of lectures on
Greek and Roman literature, and founded
a literary association the Aldine Academy,
which obtained for itself, from the learning
of its members, a high celebrity. He also
invented the beautiful letter now generally in
use, and known by the name of Aldine, or
Italic.
The Estiennes or Stephenses of France were
celebrated as printers for nearly a hundred and
fifty years. Robert Stephens was born at Paris
in 1503, and for some time acted as chief manager
of the establishment of his father-in-law, Simon
de Colines, where he superintended an edition
of the New Testament. The publication of
this work was a grave offence to the doctors of
THE AST OF FEINTING. 95
the theological college the Sorbonne and ex-
cited suspicions of his favouring Protestantism,
to which he afterwards openly adhered. He
commenced business as a printer in his native
city, in 1526.
Like Miiuutius, he was greatly distinguished
by his scholarship. The works which issued
from his press were remarkable for their
exquisite typography and their great correct-
ness. It is said he was accustomed, on many
occasions, to exhibit the proof-sheets for public
inspection, and to offer a reward for any
error which might be Detected in them. To
him has been attributed the divisions of the
Scriptures into chapters agd verses, but his
claims in this respect have been over-stated.
The invention of chapters has been ascribed by
some to Lanfranc, who was archbishop of Can-
terbury in the reigns of William the Conqueror
and William n. Others attribute it to Stephen
Langton, who was archbishop of that see in the
reigns of John and Henry in. But the real
author of this division was cardinal Hugo, who
flourished about the middle of the thirteenth
century, and wrote a celebrated Commentary
on the Scriptures.
Robert Stephens was, however, the first
96 CAXTON AND
inventor of the verses into vvnich the New
Testament is now divided, and introduced them
in his edition of it, published in the year 1551.
The arrangement was soon adopted into all
other versions of the New Testament; but it
may be observed, that he placed the figures in
the margin, without forming every verse into a
distinct paragraph. The method now com-
monly in use was first exhibited in the Geneva
English Bible, printed about the year 1560.
Henry, the eldest son of Robert Stephens,
was one of the most learned men of his time j
his mother, the daughter of lodocus Badius,
also a printer, was a woman of extraordinary
acquirements, and used the Latin language in
common conversation, with the rest of the
family. Henry, who gave proof of his predilec-
tion for literature from his earliest years, soon
made himself familiar with Greek, and, at the
age of eighteen, assisted his father in collating
the manuscripts of Dionysius. He then tra-
velled in Italy, whence he brought the Odes of
Anacreon, which he afterwards published ; and 5
having visited England and the Netherlands,,
he returned to Paris.
The death of Francis I. exposed the elder
Stephens to peril as a Protestant, and he, in
THE ART OF PRINTING. 97
consequence, retired to Geneva, where he re-
sumed his business as a printer. Henry ac-
companied Ins father to that city, but returned
to Paris, where he established a printing-office
in 1557, and began printing the works of various
Greek authors, the manuscripts of which he
had collected during his travels ; all being
corrected by himself and enriched with annota-
tions from his own pen. In this way, like his
parent, he obtained distinction, not only for his
ability and taste as a typographer, but for his
thorough acquaintance with classical lore.
He attained, however, the pinnacle of his
fame by the publication of his Thesaurus a
dictionary of the Greek language, which was
the result of twelve years' devoted application.
This work, unhappily, involved him in serious
pecuniary difficulties, with which he struggled
unsuccessfully for several years. Its sale was
not sufficiently rapid to reimburse him for its
cost, and when he was looking for the time at
which it might be expected to do so, his hope
was suddenly extinguished by a circumstance
which he had not anticipated. A person named
Scapula, employed in his office, secretly and
treacherously abridged the Thesaurus, and
ruined its sale by a cheaper and briefer edition
D
98 CAXTON AND
of it. It is considered by some, however, that
Scapula's work was an original composition.
With unwearied diligence Stephens con-
tinued his labours for some years as an author
and a printer, sustained by the promises of
Henry in., which brought upon him many
bitter disappointments. The death of his wife,
whom he tenderly loved, increased his sorrows,
and leaving Paris, he spent several years in
wandering from one place to another ; now at
Orleans, again at Paris, and afterwards in
Germany, Switzerland, and Hungary. He died
in an almshouse at Lyons, where he was at-
tacked by disease, at the age of seventy.
A foreigner named Wolfe, a native either" of
Germany or Switzerland, set up a printing-
house in St. Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of
the Brazen Serpent, which was a device used by
foreign printers. He followed his business with
great reputation for many years, and published
most of the pieces of archbishop Cranmer.
Wolfe was the first who had a patent, dated
A.D. 1543, for being printer to the king in
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew ; thus being author-
ized to be his majesty's bookseller and stationer,
and to print all kinds of books in these lan-
guages, and also charts, maps, and whatever
THE ART OF PRINTING. 99
might at any time be useful or necessary. He
was permitted to exercise this office by himself,
or by sufficient deputies ; and enjoyed an
annuity of twenty-six shillings and eightpence,
besides all other profits and advantages belong-
ing to his office during his life. All other
booksellers and printers were forbidden to sell
or print any books printed by him at his own
charge, or in his name, on pain of forfeiting
the books. It appears he desisted from print-
ing during the reign of queen Mary, and spent
his time in collecting materials for his English
chronicles, afterwards digested and printed by
Holinshed.
" Every branch of modern science," says an
eminent living writer,* " abounds with instances
of remote correspondences between the great
system of the world and the artificial condition
to which knowledge raises man. If these cor-
respondences were singular or rare, they might
be deemed merely fortuitous, like the drifting
of a plank athwart the track of one who is
swimming from a wreck. But when they meet
us on all sides and invariably, we must be reso-
lute in atheism not to confess that they are
emanations from one and the same centre of
* Isaac Taylor, esq.
100 CAXTON AND
goodness. Is ifc nothing more than a lucky
accommodation which makes the polarity of
the needle to subserve the purposes of the
mariner ? Or may it not be safely affirmed,
both that the magnetic influence (whatever its
primary intention may be) had reference to the
business of navigation a reference incalculably
important to the spread and improvement of the
human race ; and that the discovery and the
application of this influence arrived at the des-
tined moment in the revolution of human affairs,
when, in combination with other events, it
would produce the greatest effect ? Nor should
we scruple to affirm that the relation between
the earth's axis and the conspicuous star which,
without a near rival, attracts even the eye of
the vulgar, and shows the north to the wanderer
in the wilderness or on the ocean, is in like
manner a beneficent arrangement ? Those who
would spurn the supposition that the celestial
locality of a sun immeasurably remote from our
system, should have reference to the accommo-
dation of the inhabitants of a place so incon-
siderable as our own, forget the style of the
Divine works, which is to serve some greater
principal end, compatible with ten thousand
lesser or remoter interests,"
THE ART OF PRINTING. 101
In connexion with these observations it may
be remarked, that the accordance of the art of
printing with the spirit of the times which gave
it birth, must be regarded as singularly provi-
dential. Had the invention been made known
at a much earlier period, it might have been
disregarded or forgotten, from the mere want of
materials on which to exercise it ; and had it
been, on the contrary, further postponed, it is
probable that many works which are now re-
garded as among the noblest monuments of the
human intellect, would have been totally lost.
In less than a century from the invention of
printing, Copernicus discovered the true theory
of the planetary motions ; and, in a very few
years afterwards, he was succeeded in his astro-
nomical career by the three great precursors of
Newton Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo.
The advances made in other departments " of
science and literature were also correspondingly
rapid.
" For us," says Dugald Stewart, " who have
been accustomed from our infancy to the use of
books, it is not easy to form an adequate idea
of the disadvantages which those laboured under
who had to acquire the whole of their know-
ledge through the medium of universities and
102 CAXTON AND
schools ; blindly devoted, as the generality of
students must have been, to the peculiar
opinions of the teacher, who first unfolded to
their curiosity the treasures of literature and the
wonders of science. Thus error was perpetu-
ated ; and instead of yielding to time, acquired
additional influence in each succeeding gene-
ration. But the art of printing, by rendering
the taught less dependent on their teachers,
and by opening more widely the sources of
knowledge, served quickly to break down these
ancient barriers, and emancipated the human
mind from its bondage."
One instance of that vassalage to prescriptive
authority here alluded to, appears in the influ-
ence acquired by the writings of Aristotle ; an
influence which, in some universities, was sup-
ported by statutes, requiring the teachers to
promise, on oath, that they would foster no
other guide in their public lectures. And yet,
as Dr. Reid observes, " his writings carry
too evident marks of that philosophical pride,
vanity, and envy, which have often sullied the
character of the learned. He determines boldly
things above all human knowledge, and enters
on the most difficult questions, as his royal
pupil, Alexander of Macedon, entered on a
THE ART OF PRINTING. 103
battle, with full assurance of success. He de-
livers his decisions oracularly, and without any
fear of mistake. Rather than confess his igno-
rance, he hides it under hard words and am-
biguous expressions, of which his interpreters
can make what they please. There is even
reason to suspect that he wrote often with
affected obscurity, either that the air of mystery
might procure great veneration, or that his
Dooks might be understood only by the adepts
who had been initiated into his philosophy."
Deep-seated, however, as was the attachment of
the learned to the philosophy of Aristotle, the
time had arrived when it was to be shaken to
its foundation.
Contemporary with the invention of printing
various events occurred, all calculated to im-
prove the mental condition of the people.
Civil wars had diminished the power of the
nobles, and the lower classes, who had grievously
suffered from their oppressions, began to emerge
from slavery. The policy of the sovereign had
also tended to depress the aristocracy, and he
restricted the number, of their retainers ; and
thus, those who had previously spent their
time in following some great lord to the wars,
or in hanging idly about his gates in time of
104 CAXTON AND
peace, were driven to apply themselves to in-
dustrious efforts, and from helpless dependents
became useful subjects. The more general
diffusion of wealth and extension of commerce
consequent upon the discovery of the New
World, and of the passage to India by the
Cape of Good Hope, concurred also with other
causes to raise the condition of the middle
and lower classes of the community. But for
this elevation in their state, the advantages
derived from the invention of printing would
have been extremely limited ; for a certain
degree of ease and independence is absolutely
necessary to awaken in the mind the desire of
knowledge, and to afford leisure for its pursuit.
So long, too, as education and books are con-
fined to one privileged class, they only furnish
an additional engine for debasing and mislead-
ing an inferior one.
In consequence of the revival of letters,
towards the close of the fifteenth century, a
number of learned Greeks repaired to Italy,
where the taste for literature already introduced
by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, together
with the liberal patronage of the illustrious house
of the Medici, secured them a welcome recep-
tion. A knowledge of the Greek tongue soon
THE ART OF PRINTING. 105
became fashionable ; and the learned, encouraged
by the rapid diffusion which the art of printing
now gave to their efforts, presented the Greek
authors, by means of Latin translations, to a
still wider circle of readers.
In England, also, literature revived, in conse-
quence of the stimulus given to it by the use
of the printing-press. Sir John Fortescue, and
a few other writers, have left favourable speci-
mens of prose composition, and their successors
made still further improvements in style.
Among these sir Thomas More is entitled to
honourable mention, as occupying a distin-
guished place in the ranks of the literati of his
age. So intimate and critical was his ac-
quaintance with the Greek and Latin languages
before he had reached maturity, that he wrote
and conversed in both of them with elegance
and ease. His celebrated work, entitled " Uto-
pia," was quickly translated into most of the
European languages. With him, too, must be
associated archbishop Cranmer, sir Thomas
Elyot, and Roger Ascham.
Warton very beautifully and justly compares
the appearance of Chaucer in our language, to
a premature English spring, after which the
gloom returns, and the birds and blossoms
D2
106 CAXTON AND
which have been called forth by a transient
sunshine, are nipped by frosts and scattered by
storms. The causes of the relapse of our
poetry after Chaucer are but too apparent in
the annals of English history, which, during
five reigns of the fifteenth century, continue to
display only a tissue of conspiracies, prescrip-
tions, and bloodshed. Before the death of
Henry vi., it is said one-half of the nobility
and gentry in the kingdom had perished on the
field or on the scaffold.
In noticing the rise of English literature,
flowing from the introduction of the printing-
press, one name is entitled to honourable
notice Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, and
heir-apparent to the duke of Norfolk, whom,
however, he did not long survive. He was
conspicuous in all the military achievements of
the age ; and in 1544, as field marshal, he
commanded the English army in an expedition
against Boulogne ; but the tide of his success
was on thi3 ebb. The despot Henry became
jealous of his talents and popularity ; certain
frivolous and groundless charges were preferred
against him ; the result was a mock trial, and,
notwithstanding his manly and eloquent defence,
he was executed in the thirtieth year of his age.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 107
Though cut off, however, before the full
maturity of intellectual vigour, he lived long
enough to effect some very material improve-
ments in English poetry. The versification of
preceding poets was more properly rhythmical
than metrical. Although some improvements
had been introduced by Chaucer, he left the
number of syllables too indefinite, and did not
reach the harmony and compression of which
this noble poet afterwards exhibited an example.
" Among the numerous poets," says Camp-
bell, " belonging exclusively to Elizabeth's
reign, Spenser stands without a class and with-
out a rival. In the other poets of his age we
chiefly admire their language, when it seems
casually to advance into modern polish and
succinctness. But the antiquity of Spenser's
style has a peculiar charm. Much of his ex-
pression is now become antiquated, though it
is beautiful in its antiquity, and like the moss
and ivy on some majestic building, covers the
fabric of his language with romantic and vener-
able associations."
From that age to the protectorate of Crom-
well, inclusively, there rose in a continued
succession of distinguished authors, minds of
all orders, writers in poetry, philosophy,
108 CAXTON AKD
history, and theology, who have bequeathed
to posterity many precious treasures of genuine
English literature. The translation of the
Scriptures, settled by authority, and which can
never be materially changed, has secured per-
petuity to the best model of the English tongue.
Pope indeed said :
" Our sons their fathers' failing language see,
And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be."
But this prediction is far less likely to be ful-
filled now than it was then, if we consider the
slight departure there has been from the style
of the great authors of the age of Elizabeth,
and of those that followed in the succeeding
reigns. And if, in some directions, a disposi-
tion has been occasionally discoverable to under-
value the simplicity and force of our mother-
tongue, even that disposition seems to have
declined, if it be not now extinct. The art o^
the confectioner will never displace our house-
hold bread, nor the florid compositions of the
musician the simple melodies which touch all
hearts.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 109
CHAPTER V.
Restrictions placed on the press Bull of pope Pius iv. The
Congregation of the Index The Index Kxpnrgatorius
Singular results Aonio Paleario History of his book,
"The Benefit of Christ's Death "Whit^ift's complaint to
queen Elizabeth Decrees of the Star Chamber Incompe-
tency of licensers of the press Works seriously mutilated
Milton on the Liberty of the Press Freedom of the oress
in the reign of William in. State of the press on the Con-
tinent of Europe.
THE press, though adapted to confer on society
distinguished advantages, was not allowed to
pour forth its productions in one unimpeded
stream. Obstructions to its free exercise arose
at an early period in its history. It is said that
the monks had a part of their libraries called
the Inferno, in which were hidden all prohibited
books, a free course being allowed to extremely
few. In the Council of Trent, the spirit cf
restriction assumed its most formidable shape,
and put forth its most terrific power. The
triple-crowned pontiff had in vain launched the
thunders of the Vatican, in order that he might
110 CAXTON AND
strike out of the hands of men the volumes of
WyclifFe, Huss, and Luther ; a new machinery
was therefore to be contrived and set in action.
On pope Pius iv. being presented with a
catalogue of books, the perusal of which, it was
said, ought to be forbidden, he not only con-
firmed their condemnation by a bull, but added
rules by which all should in future be judged.
His papal successors followed in his footsteps.
Literary inquisitors were appointed at Madrid,
Lisbon, Naples, and the Low Countries, to carry
the papal restrictions into vigorous effect. The
catalogues of prohibited books were called
" Indexes," and the inquisitors have been, and
are still, known at Rome as " The Congregation
of the Index."
Of these indexes there are two kinds ; one is
a list of condemned books which are never to
be opened; the other comprehends those works
which are only prohibited till they have under-
gone a purification. The latter lisfe is accordingly
known by the name of " The Index -Expurgato-
rius." As the caliph Omar directed that all
the works in the far-famed library of Alexan-
dria which contravened in the slightest degree
the dictum of Mohammed should be consigned
to the flames, so the Council of Trent placed
THE ABT Of PRINTING. Ill
under a ban any volume, whatever might be
its nature, which breathed a hint against the
authority of the Romish church ; and this pro-
hibition has been carried out from age to age.
Such a tyrannical policy, however, has failed
in its object. Works which to the Romanist
party were objects of dislike, had a singular
and powerful attraction for those whose reli-
gious opinions were of a different character,
and a demand for them was in consequence
created in spite of the interdict. So it has been,
and so it will still be, in other matters besides
those connected with religion, where a just
liberty is restrained or denied.
As Mr. D' Israeli says : * " The results of these
indexes were somewhat curious. As they were
formed in different countries, the opinions were
often opposite to each other. The learned
Arias Montanus, who was a chief inquisitor in
the Netherlands, and concerned in the Antwerp
index, lived to see his own works placed in the
Roman index ; while the inquisitor of Naples
was so displeased with the Spanish index, that
he persisted to assert that it had never been
printed at Madrid. Men who began by insisting
that all the world should not differ from their
* " Curiosities of Literature/'
112 CAXTONAND
opinions, ended by not agreeing with them-
selves. A civil war raged among the index-
makers ; and if one criminated, the other
retaliated. If one discovered ten sentences
necessary to be expurgated, another found
thirty, and a third inclined to place the whole
work in the condemned list. The inquisitors
at length became so doubtful of their own opi-
nions, that they sometimes expressed in their
license for printing, that 'they tolerated the
reading, after the book had been corrected by
themselves, till such time as the work should
be considered worthy of some further correc-
tion. The expurgatory indexes excited louder
complaints than those which simply condemned
books, because the purgers and castrators, as
they were termed, or, as Milton calls them,
' the executioners of books,' by omitting or
interpolating passages, made an author say, or
unsay, what the inquisitors chose ; and their
editions, after the death of the authors, were
compared to the erasures or forgeries in records ;
for the books which an author leaves behind
him, with his last corrections, are like his last
will and testament, and the public are the legi-
timate heirs of the author's opinions."
The history of one book is of extraordinary
THE ART OF PRINTING. 113
interest. Aonio Paleario was appointed by the
senate of Sienna public teacher of Greek and
Latin, and also lecturer on philosophy and the
belles-lettres. His true piety imbued his in-
structions with a spirit very different from that
of his colleagues, and this, while it gratified his
pupils, provoked the anger of the authorities.
In one of his letters, he says, " Cotta asserts
that if I am allowed to live, there will not be
a vestige of religion left in the city. Why?
Because, being asked one day, what was the
first ground on which men should rest their
salvation? I replied, 'Christ!' Being asked
what was the second? I replied, 'Christ!'
And being asked what was the third ? I still
replied, 'Christ.'"
Paleario published in his native language
a treatise entitled "The Benefit of Christ's
Death," which gained a vast reputation, and
three hundred persons leagued with Cotta to
effect his destruction. In order to secure Pa-
leario's condemnation, twelve of them wore
selected to be his accusers. Arraigned before the
senate of Sienna, he pleaded his own cause with
a hallowed and impressive eloquence which led
to his acquittal. Being, however, arrested on
another charge of heresy, he was condemned
114 CAXTOH AM)
to die, and suffered the cruel penalty of death
by fire.
Of Paleario's treatise, so great was the popu-
larity that 40,000 copies are said to have been
sold in six years ; and it was translated into
several other languages. But it was forbidden
in the various prohibitory indexes. The
spirit displayed in reference to it is thus cor-
rectly expressed by Mr. Macaulay : " It was
not on moral influence alone that the Catholic
church relied. In Spain and Italy, the civil
sword was unsparingly employed in her support.
The Inquisition was armed with new powers,
and inspired with a new energy. If Protestant-
ism, or the semblance of Protestantism, showed
itself in any quarter, it was instantly met, not
by party-teasing persecution, but by persecu-
tion of that sort which bows down and crushes
all but a very few select spirits. Whoever was
suspected of heresy, whatever his rank, his
learning, or his reputation, was to purge himself
to the satisfaction of a severe and vigilant tri-
bunal, or to die by fire. Heretical books were
sought out and destroyed with unsparing rigour.
Works which were once in every house were so
effectually suppressed, that no copy of them is
now to be found in the most extensive libraries.
TUE ART OF PRINTING. 115
One book in particular, entitled t Of the Benefit
of the Death of Christ,' had this fate. It was
written in Tuscan, was many times reprinted,
and was eagerly read in every part of Italy.
But the inquisitors detected in it the Lutheran
doctrine of faith alone. They proscribed it,
and it is now as utterly lost as the second
decade of Livy."
Mr. Macaulay's opinion, however, as to the
entire destruction of this work, proved not to be
strictly correct. Three copies of it in English
were discovered, made from a French version,
most probably by Arthur Golding, who was long
and laboriously employed in queen Elizabeth's
reign, in rendering into English the works of
several of the foreign reformers, as well as of
other writers. That it is a faithful rendering
from the original is apparent from many cir-
cumstances.*
The restraint of the press, however, even to
persecution and death, does not lie entirely at
the door of Romanists ; the shame and the guilt
are indissolubly associated with others also.
* The Religious Tract Society recently sent forth a new
edition of this remarkable and interesting work. A transla-
tion of the same book has likewise been issued in Italian
with a view to its being again circulated in the native country
of its author.
116 CAXTON AND
Whitgift complained to queen Elizabeth of the
liberty that was taken by many persons ' of
publishing their religious opinions, upon which
he obtained a memorable decree in the Star
Chamber, " That there should be no printing-
presses in any private places, nor in any part
of the kingdom besides London and the two
universities ; and these to be allowed by the
license of the archbishop, or the bishop of
London. That if any person willingly printed,
sold, or bound any book against the form and
meaning of any statute of the realm, or any of
the queen's injunctions, or any letters patent,
commissions, or prohibitions, such persons
should suffer three months' imprisonment ; and
that the wardens of the Stationers' Company
might search for all such books, and seize
them to her majesty's use." * How rigorously
and cruelly this decree was enforced, the records
of the times affectingly declare.
The same course was taken in after times.
On the 1st of July, 1637, the Star Chamber
issued a decree " for reducing the number of
master printers, and punishing all others who
should follow the trade, and for prohibiting
as well the impression of new books without
* Strype's Whitgift.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 117
license, and of such as had been licensed for-
merly without a new one, as the importation of
all books in the English tongue, printed abroad,
and of all foreign books whatever, till a true
catalogue thereof had been presented to the
archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of
London, and the books themselves had been
received by their chaplains, or other learned
men of their appointment, together with the
masters and wardens of the Stationers' Com-
pany."
Memorable, indeed, are the declarations of
Milton on this subject : " He who is made
judge to sit upon the birth or death of books,
whether they may be wafted into this world or
not, had need to be a man above the common
measure, both studious, learned, and judicious ;
there may be else ho mean mistakes in his cen-
sure. If he be of such worth as behoves" him,
there cannot be a more tedious or unpleasing
journey-work, a greater loss of time levied upon
his head, than to be made the perpetual reader
of uuchosen books and pamphlets. There is no
book acceptable, unless at certain seasons ; but
to be enjoined the reading of that at all times,
and in a hand scarce legible, whereof three pages
would not down at any time, is an imposition
118 CAXTON AND
which I cannot beKeve how he that values time
and his own studies, or is but of a sensible
nostril, should be able to endure.
" What advantage is it to be a man over
what it is to be a boy at school, if we have only
escaped the ferula to come under the fescue of
an imprimatur ? if serious and elaborate writ-
ings, as if they were no more than the theme
of a grammar lad under his pedagogue, must
not be uttered without the cursory eyes of a
temporizing licenser ? When a man writes to
the world, he summons up all his reason and
deliberation to assist him, he searches, medi-
tates, is industrious, and likely consults and
confers with bis judicious friends, as well as
any that writ before him ; if in this, the most
consummate act of his fidelity and ripeness, no
years, no industry, no former proof of his
abilities, can bring him to that state of matu-
rity, as not to be still mistrusted and suspected,
unless he carry all his considerate diligence, all
his midnight watchings, and expense of Palla-
dian oil, to the hasty view of an unleisured
licenser, perhaps much his younger, perhaps
inferior in judgment, perhaps one who never
knew the labour of book writing ; and if he be
not repulsed or slighted, must appear in print
THE ART OF PRINTING. 119
like a Punic with his guardian, and his censor's
hand on the back of his title to be his bail
that he is no idiot or seducer, it cannot be but
a dishonour and derogation to the author, to
the 'book, to the privilege and dignity of
learning."
Of the rncompetency of some who acted as
censors, tlrere is ample evidence. The simile of
Satan with the rising sun was supposed to con-
tain a treasonable allusion, and nearly occasioned
the suppression of Paradise Lost. Malebranche
said, that he could never obtain an approval for
his " Research after Truth," because it was
unintelligible to his censors ; at length Mze-
ray, the historian, approved of it as a work
on geometry. Not a few of these critics were
but a little wiser than the Austrian censor,
who found that a volume on the " Destruction
of Insects " had a covert allusion to the Jesuits,
who, he conceived, were thus malignantly de-
signated. It was, however, perhaps only a
joke of one who said to a geometrician, *' I
cannot permit the publication of your book ;
you dare to say, that between two given points
the shortest line is the straight line. Do you
think me such an idiot as not to perceive your
allusion? If your work appeared, I should
120 CAXTON AND
make enemies of all those who find, by crooked
ways, an easier admittance into court than by
a straight line."*
The list would be no inconsiderable one of
the works that have suffered serious mutila-
tion. Camden declared that he was not suffered
to print all his " Elizabeth," and sent the
omitted passages over to De Thou, the French
historian, who printed his history faithfully two
years afterwards. In like manner, lord Herbert's
History of Henry vin. has never been given to
the world according to the original, which is
still in existence. A poem of twenty pages
from the works of lord Brooke was cancelled by
the order of archbishop Laud. Sir Matthew
Hale ordered that none of his works should
be printed after his death, as he apprehended
that, in the licensing of them, some things
might be struck out or altered, which he had
observed, not without some indignation, had
been done to those of a learned friend. He
therefore preferred bequeathing his uncorrupted
MSS. to the Society of Lincoln's Inn, as their
only guardians, hoping that they were a treasure
worth keeping.
Another passage of Milton's Defence of the
* D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Literature."
THE ART OP PRINTING. 121
Liberty of the Press must not be omitted :
" Books are not absolutely dead things, but
do contain a progeny of life in them to be as
active as that soul whose progeny they are ;
nay, they do preserve, as in a vial, the purest
efficacy and extraction of tKat living intellect
that bred them. I know they are as lively,
and as vigorously productive as those fabulous
dragon's teeth ; and being sown up and down,
may chance to spring up armed men. And
yet, on the other hand, unless wariness be used,
as good almost kill a man as kill a good book.
Who kills a man, kills a reasonable creature,
God's image ; but he who destroys a good book,
kills reason itself, kills the image of God as it
were in the eye. Many a man bears a burden
to the earth ; but a good book is the precious
life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and
treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
It is true no age can restore a life, whereof
perhaps there is no great loss ; and revolutions
of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected
truth, for the want of which whole nations fare
the worse. We should be wary, therefore, what
persecution we raise against the living labours
of public men, how we spill that seasoned life
of man, preserved and stored up in books ; since
122 CAXTON AND
we see a kind of homicide may be thus com-
mitted, sometimes a martyrdom, and if ifc
extend to the whole impression, a kind of
massacre, whereof the execution ends not in
the slaying of an elemental life, but strikes at
the ethereal and fifth essence, the breath of
reason itself; slays an immortality rather than
a life."
It was not, however, till the reign of Wil-
liam in. that the press obtained its perfect
freedom, of which the following is a remarkable
illustration. When the 'Danish ambassador
complained to the king that lord Molesworth
had reflected on his master's government, in
his account of Denmark, and hinted that if
a Dane had so treated a king of England he
would, on complaint, have taken the author's
head off the king naively replied, " That I
cannot do ; but, if you please, I will tell him
what you say, and he shall put it into the
next edition of his book."
Even now, on the continent of Europe, there
is no liberty of the press. But it is otherwise
in this highly favoured land. The words of
sir James Mackintosh, in his brilliant defence
of the exile Peltier for a libel on Napoleon,
are still true : " One asylum of free discussion
THE ART OF PRINTING. 123
is yet inviolate. There is still one spot in
Europe where man can freely exercise his
reason on the most important concerns of
society, where he can boldly publish his judg-
ments on the acts of the proudest and most
powerful tyrants ; the press of England is still
free. It is guarded by the free constitution
of our forefathers. It is guarded by the hearts
and arms of Englishmen ; and I trust I may
venture to say, that if it be to fall, it will fall
only under the ruins of the British empire."
124 CAXTON AND
CHAPTER VI.
Facilities for publication Singular collection of controversial
tracts Origin of newspapers The Gazeta of Venice News
first written The correspondent of the wealthy The
"English Mercuric" a forgery "The Weekly Newes "
Nathaniel Butler Increase of newspapers Marchmont
Needham The British essayists Ichabod Dawks The
first magazine The first review Rapid composition The
newspaper office Slow composition Various examples
John Foster.
ALTHOUGH, as we have just seen, there were for
a long period very grievous restrictions on the
liberty of the press, yet the time came in which
facilities for publication were enjoyed which
had no parallel in any former age.
After the accession of James i., the press was
for a time almost entirely devoted to the issue of
controversial works. A bookseller, named Tom-
linson, collected 2,000 volumes of pamphlets
issued between the years 1640 and 1660. The
number of the publications included in this
collection amounts to 30,000. They were
bargained for, but not purchased, by Charles n.,
THE ART OF PRINTING. 125
and were eventually bought by George HI.,
who presented them to the British Museum.
An extraordinary impluse was given to the
printing-press by the publication of newspapers,
an event in its history at which it becomes us
to glance. Newspapers did not originate in
England ; for about the middle of the sixteenth
century, when the republic of Venice was
engaged in a momentous war with the Turks,
the expedient was adopted of recording occa-
sional accounts of its naval and military opera-
tions on written sheets. These were deposited
at particular places, where they were accessible
to any one desirous of learning the news on
the payment of a small coin, called a gazeta
a name which was gradually transferred to the
paper itself. Thus Blount* defines the word
" Gazette " as " a certain Venetian coin, scarce
worth one farthing ; also a bill of news, or
short relation of the general occurrences of the
time, printed most commonly at Venice, and
thence dispersed every month into most parts
of Christendom."
A file of these written Venetian papers, of an
early date, and published under the immediate
surveillance of the government, is still preserved
Glossojfraphia.
126 CAXTON AND
in one of the libraries of Florence. Although
the art of printing had after its discovery been
nowhere more speedily brought into use than
at Venice, yet the jealousy of the government
forbade the issue of a printed newspaper, and
the Venetian Gazeta continued in consequence
to be distributed in manuscripts for upwards of
a century after the introduction of the printing-
press. "When the Venetian newspaper, however,
was printed instead of written, all Christendom
became indebted to it for political information,
as the ships of the republic traversed every
known sea, and its maritime power shone forth
resplendently in the midst of the nations. Some
of these ancient printed newspapers we have
just referred to may still be seen in good
preservation at Venice. Newspapers subse-
quently appeared in several cities in Italy, but
were prohibited in that county by pope
Gregory xin.
We have alluded to the newspapers of Venice
being originally distributed in a manuscript
form. Something of a similar kind was also
common in our own country.
The desire of receiving intelligence from the
metropolis, which was felt by the wealthier
country residents, led to the common establish-
THE ART OF PRINTING. 127
ment of a very curious trade, that 'of news-
correspondents, who, for a subscription of three
or four pounds per annum, wrote a letter of
news every post-day to their subscribers in the
country. A writer of the seventeenth century,
describing one of this trade, puts into his mouth
the following words as descriptive of his avoca-
tion :
"This is the outer room, where my clerks sit.
And keep their sides, the register i' the midst ;
The examiner, he sits private there, within :
And here I have my several rolls and tiles
Of news by the alphabet, and all put up
Under their heads."
The news-correspondent as thus drawn was
undoubtedly the precursor of our newspaper
editor.
The " English Mercuric " was long supposed
to be the earliest printed newspaper, but Mr.
Thomas Watts of the British Museum,* by a
series of ingenious proofs, successfully demon-
strated it to be a literary forgery. " The first
thing," he says, " that arouses suspicion in the
printed number the first thing that catches
the eye is the form of the type. Instead of
being that of two centuries and a half, it is
that of about a century back, the * English
* Letter to A. Panizzi, Esq.
128 CAXTON AND
fount,' in fact, bearing a strong resemblance to
that in Caslon's Specimens of Types, published
in 1766. A single glance at the pages, how-
ever, is in this case more efficacious than
volumes of description could possibly be.
Their whole appearance decidedly stamps
them as having issued from the press in the
eighteenth, instead of the sixteenth century.
There is, moreover, one peculiar characteristic
about the printing, sufficient, if the shape of
every letter were ancient, to betray the secret
of its modern execution. The distinction
betAveen the u's and v's, and the i's and j's,
entirely unknown to the printers of the
sixteenth century, is here maintained through-
out in all its rigour. This circumstance alone,
if others were wanting, would be decisive
against the supposed antiquity of the printed
English Mercuries."
The first genuine newspaper is believed to
have been " THE WEEKLY NEWES," projected, it
appears, by Nathaniel Butler, its author and
writer : " No claim," says Mr. F. K. Hunt,
for very great originality or genius can be put
in for him. His merit consists in the simple
fact that he was the first to print what had long
been written to put into type what he and
THE ART OF PRINTING. 129
others had been accustomed to supply in
manuscript ; the first to give to the news-
letters of his time the one characteristic fea-
ture which has distinguished newspapers ever
since.
"He offered the public a printed sheet of
news to be published at stated and regular
intervals. Already hosts of printed papers,
headed with the word ' Newes,' had been issued ;
but they were mere pamphlets catch -penny s,
printed one now and another then, without
any connexion with each other, and each
giving some portion of intelligence thought by
its author to be of sufficient interest to secure
a sale. The Weekly News was distinguished
from them all by the fact of its being published
at fixed intervals, usually a week between each
publication, while each paper was numbered
in regular succession, as we have newspapers
numbered at the present day
" The step he took, though great in ultimate
consequences, was one very simple and natural,
and easily understood. He had been a news-
writer, an author of news-letters ; one of a
class of persons then engaged in London as
general correspondents, having offices where
they despatched packets of news to persons of
130 CAXTON AND
consideration in the country, who were rich
enough to afford such a luxury. Though
printing-presses had been at work in England
for a hundred and fifty years, and though the
Eeformation had allowed them greater freedom
than was known where the Roman faith still
flourished, the invention of Guttenberg had not
been employed for the systematic dissemination
of intelligence relative to passing events. Stray
pamphlets told now and then how a great flood
had devastated the western counties, how a
witch had been burned, or how Gustavus had
fought a great battle ; but the punctual record
of the history of the passing time, week by week,
was a thing unattempted till the news-wrikr,
Nathaniel Butler, became a news-printer"
The appetite for news once created, speedily
gained vigour, and within a few years, " Mer-
curies," " Corantos," " Gazettes," and " Diur-
nals," became numerous. A weekly newspaper,
entitled " The Certain News of this Present
Week," was established in London, in August,
1622, and very shortly after, "The London
Weekly Courant," and several other journals
made their appearance. On the breaking out
of the civil war in the time of Charles i., there
was a large increase of newspapers, as well as
THE ART OF PRINTING. 131
of other political writings. A provincial news-
paper the first of its kind was published in
1639 by Robert Barker, at Newcastle, but it
seems to have been of only short continuance.
A paper called the "London Gazette" was
published August 22, 1642, but its progress
was soon arrested. In the time of the Common-
wealth, Marchmont Needham was appointed
by Cromwell a public newswriter ; at the
Restoration he was discharged from his post,
and two persons, Giles Drury and Henry
Ruddiman, were appointed his successors.
It was their duty to publish two authorized
newspapers in each week, under the titles of
" Parliamentary Intelligencer," and " Mercurius
Publicus." The first newspaper published in
England, which might be justly deemed a vehicle
of general information, was established in 1663
by Roger L'Estrange, who continued the publi-
cations just mentioned, under the titles of the
Intelligencer and the News, until the close of
1665; when, on the 7th of November in that
year, a regular official Gazette was published at
Oxford, which has been continued under the
name of the London Gazette to the present time.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century,
there seems to have been a species of publication
132 CAXTON AND
which combined the properties of the written
and printed newspaper. Its nature will be
gathered from the announcement which pre-
ceded one of them published by Ichabod
Dawks in 1696:" This letter will be done on
good writing-paper, and blank space left, that
any gentleman may write his own private
business. It does undoubtedly exceed the best
of the written news, contains double the quan-
tity, is read with abundant ease and pleasure,
and will be useful to improve the younger sort
in writing a curious hand." The type of these
publications, we may add, was an imitation in
some cases of writing, which will explain the
meaning of the last remark.
In the reign of William HI. the number of
newspapers was increased, but they were
seldom published more than once a week. In
the reign of the Georges, a new feature was
given to them by their being made the vehicles
through which the great parties of the state
expressed their opinions. Swift, and Boling-
broke, Addison, and a crowd of anonymous
writers, inferior to him in literary talent, but
sometimes of high station in the royal councils,
appealed to the public through this medium.
The first attempt at reporting the parlia-
THE ART OF PRINTING. 133
mentary debates, we may here mention, was
made in the year 1735, not in a newspaper,
however, but in the Gentleman's Magazine, a
work to which we shall have presently occasion
to refer.
Literature acquired during the reign of queen
Anne a new character ; for instead of being
largely dependent on the caprice of private
patronage, it cast itself broadly on the support
of the people. At this period arose " The
Tatler," " The Spectator," and " The Guardian,"
the first sheafs of the harvest of popular
literature which was to follow. These and
other productions of a similar character, issued
from time to time under various names, have
since been ranged together in a long series of
volumes, under the general name of " The
British Essayists." They proved the harbingers
of a higher class of periodical miscellany the
Magazine, introduced by Edward Cave, a
printer. He formed the design of collecting
into a permanent repository the most valuable of
the fugitive pieces from the newspapers and other
sheets, or rather half-sheets, which appeared
during each month. He offered a share of his
project to many of the booksellers in London,
who rejected it either on the ground of its
134 CAXTON AND
absolute absurdity, or as militating against their
interests. They did not profit by experience ;
for the " Essayists," a work of which the maga-
zine formed a natural development, were sell-
ing freely. The lowness of their price contri-
buted to this effect, and an ordinary degree of
sagacity would, therefore, it might have been
expected, have regarded Cave's scheme with
hopefulness, particularly as the number of
fugitive pieces adapted for collection into one
work was at the time very great. About two
hundred per month of such pieces were then
thrown off from the press in London, and
about as many were printed in other parts of
the three kingdoms.
Not discouraged by the opposition of his
brother booksellers, Cave, in 1731, produced
at his own risk, " The Gentleman's Magazine,"
being the first work of that kind printed in
England. So great was its success, that in the
following year " The London Magazine" was
set up as its rival. In 1749, the first Eng-
lish " Review" of any importance, entitled the
Monthly Review, was published.
A foreign review, the " Journal des Sgavans"
had been published in January, 1665. It was
of small size, issued weekly, and each number
THE ART OF P1UNTING. 135
contained from twelve to sixteen pages. The
first book reviewed was an edition of Victor
Vilensis and Vigelius Tapsensis, African bishops
of the fifth century, by father Chifiet, a Jesuit.
The demand for popular literature now
rapidly advanced. Newspapers and magazines
alike increased, and books, issued in numbers,
were sold largely by hawkers in the rural dis-
tricts and small provincial towns. In this way,
the principle was first developed of extending
the sale of books by coming into the market at
regular intervals with fractions of a work, so
that the customer of humble grade might as it
were make a deposit every week in a savings'
bank of knowledge. One of the most success-
ful of the books published in this manner was
Smollett's "History of England," which sold
on its first publication to the extent of twenty
thousand copies.
Towards the close of the eighteenth century,
the taste for essay writing declined. The
popular reviews had also remained uncharac-
terized by distinguished ability, when, in the
year 1802, the Edinburgh Review gave fresh
impulse to this species of writing, and proved
the precursor of a new era in English litera-
ture. The plan of the work just named was
136 CAXTON AND
suggested by the late rev. Sydney Smith, at a
meeting of literati in Buccleuch-place, Edin-
burgh, then the spot where Mr., afterwards lord
Jeffrey, its editor, resided.
Since that period, there has been a vast
extension of the issue of books. Exclusive of
pamphlets, and other tracts, the number of
works published in the first fifty-seven years
of the last century was 5,280, being only an
average of 93 new works in each year. From
1792 to 1802, eleven years, exclusive of
reprints and pamphlets, there were 4,096 new
works, averaging 372 new books per annum.
From 1800 to 1827, excluding as before, the
number of new books AY as 15,888, showing
an annual average of 588 new books ; being an
increase of 216 per year over the last eleven
years of the preceding century.
Some persons have been remarkably prolific
in literary matter. The Spanish poet, Lope de
Vega, wrote upwards of 2,000 original pieces,
but not more than 300 of them have been
printed. He has himself stated that his average
amount of work was five sheets a day ; and it
has been calculated that he composed during
his life 133,225 sheets, and about 21,300,000
verses. He achieved in his day no ordinary
THE ART OF PRINTING. 137
fame. Cardinal Barberini followed him through
the streets with reverence ; the king would
even stop to gaze at such a prodigy ; the people
crowded round him wherever he appeared ;
the studious and the learned thronged to Madrid
from every part of Spain to see so distinguished
a person ; and even Italians, in general no
extravagant admirers of poetry which did not
emanate from their native soil, made pilgrim-
ages for the sole purpose of conversing with
Lope de Vega. So associated was the idea of
excellence with his name, that a Lope diamond,
a Lope day, or a Lope person, became fashion-
able and familiar modes of expressing good
qualities.
In our own land we have had many instances
of rapid and easy composition. Dryden usually
wrote with haste to provide for the wants of
the day. Johnson composed in one night
matter that amounted to nearly thirty printed
octavo pages ; and his sentences, so high-
sounding, and apparently the product of great
labour, were composed with scarcely any effort.
Gibbon, too, sent the first and only copy of his
manuscript of the "Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire" to the printer. Many similar
instances of rapid composition on the part of
E 2
138 CAXTON AND
authors of eminence, either in verse or prose, might
be quoted, but nowhere, perhaps, is this quality
more displayed than in that wonder of modern
art a newspaper printing-office, where masses
of information of the most diversified character
are written, arranged, edited, and printed with
a swiftness and correctness that are truly mar-
vellous. Mr. F. K. Hunt, in his interesting
work, " The Fourth Estate," has thus graphi-
cally described the multifarious literary pro-
cesses which have to be gone through in
connexion with the publication of a daily news-
paper : " By nine o'clock the editor, the sub-
editor, the foreign editor, are all busy ; the
editor with his leaders, the foreign editor with
his German and French, and the sub-editor
with the mass of multifarious things that now
load his table. The law reports being on mat-
ters of fact, and usually prepared by barristers,
give little trouble ; but with this exception,
scarcely a line comes to the sub-editor which
does not require preparation at his hands.
" Meetings reported to please speakers in-
stead of the public, railway and commercial
statements, full of long tabular accounts, to be
summarized and made readable ; letters from
indignant ' constant readers,' in which libels
THE ART OF PRINTING. 139
lurk in the midst of long statements of wrongs
endured, or reforms demanded ; reports of
police offices, of inquests, of disasters, all
written on flimsy paper, and requiring great
quickness of eye and mind to decipher at all ;
papers from all quarters of the kingdom ;
statements of markets, of shipping, of births,
deaths, and all other conceivable and incon-
ceivable things, demand attention and prepara-
tion for the printers, who by this time are
ready for the six hours' rapid and skilful
labour that shall convert this mass of contri-
butions, of all sizes, characters, and qualities,
into a shapely morning paper.
" With the help of an assistant or two the
load rapidly diminishes, and by midnight there
is a tolerably clear table, preparatory to the
arrival of the late railway despatches. These
received, a new labour has often to be com-
menced. Although the troublesome search
through fifty country papers has afforded a
great quantity of local news, the late despatches
often bring up much more ; the Irish and
Scotch advices come to hand, and with this
addition of home news very often comes a file
of papers from America, from the "West
Indies, from Brazil, from France, Germany,
140 CAXTON AND
or Hamburgh. An hour or two clears off all
these accumulations ; and then, the proof-sheets
having been attended to, and the place and
arrangement of the articles been decided on ;
the number of leaders, and the number of
advertisements settled, the columns calculated,
and the decision made as to what shall appear,
and what stand over the editorial work of one
day is done."
What talent and tact must be required for
the selection and arrangement of such a chaos
of material ! The task, to all but a few of an
existing generation, would be absolutely im-
possible. In the midst of it there is much of
literary composition ; while " the leaders,"
almost lost in the mass, though frequently
penned on the spur of the occasion, and im-
mediately placed in the printer's hands, are
not unfrequently characterized by a vigour of
thought and a force and eloquence of style, which
are not to be surpassed by the productions of
the most eminent men in literary history, sur-
rounded by circumstances the most favourable
that can be conceived to successful composition.
We have been referring to instances of rapid
writing for the press, but it may be added, on
the other hand", as a contrast to what we have
THE ART OF PRINTING. 141
stated, that to some persons literary composi-
tion is a task of prodigious labour. Pietro
Bembo, a noble Venetian, secretary to Leo x.,
was exceedingly fastidious in the revisal of
whatever he composed. He had forty portfolios
through which each sheet successively passed,
and no one was removed, in any instance,
without receiving a fresh perusal and further
correction. Referring to more modern periods,
every line of Sismondi's Italian Republics was
written three times, and so were almost all the
other historical works of this writer. He cor-
rected his proofs five or six times, and generally
twice read aloud all that he composed. Gib-
bon's Memoir of his own life is only a fragment,
and yet, contrary to his practice, when compos-
ing his history, he wrote it six times over.
Buffon did not suffer his " Epoques de la
Nature " to appear in print till they had been
written eighteen times. Pope published nothing
until it had been a year or two before him, and
even then his proofs were full of alterations ;
so much so, that on one occasion his publisher
thought it better to have the whole recomposed
by the printer, than for the latter to make the
necessary corrections. Goldsmith spent seven
years over his poem of the Deserted Village.
142 CAXTON AND f
Eobertson wrote the sentences of his Histories
on small slips of paper ; and after polishing
them to his mind, entered them in a manuscript
book, which afterwards had to undergo con-
siderable revision. Burke, Akenside, Gray,
and Thomson, also, were most elaborate and
indefatigable correctors. Petrarch made forty-
four alterations in a single verse ; and Mr.
Macaulay states that he has in his possession a
very fine stanza of Ariosto, which the poet had
altered a hundred times.
A singular instance of difficulty in composi-
tion, with the mention of which we shall con-
clude these illustrations, is to be found in the
case of that admirable writer, John Foster,
who thus expresses himself on the subject to
a friend : * "I am sometimes very much
disposed to murmur that the little I can do
towards any sort of usefulness being entirely
in the intellectual way, the doing it should be
so slow, and irksome, and painful, and even
physically injurious an operation. Some of the
workmen in the thinking-shop can do about
their best with a great degree of facility and
despatch, can bring thoughts and put them
into sentences about twenty times as fast as I
* Letters.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 143
ever could. In my case, old practice has not
given the smallest advantage in point of facility.
Rather, I think of the two it has left the
business still more slow and laborious than
even formerly ; so that my aversion to the
employment has continually increased. It is
the literal truth that I never, in the course of
the whole year, take the pen for a paragraph
or a letter, but as an act of force on myself.
When I have a thing of this kind to do, I
linger hours and hours often before I can reso-
lutely set about it ; and days and weeks, if it
is some task more than ordinary. About
finding proper words, and putting them in
proper places, I have more difficulty than it
could have been supposed possible any one
should have, after having had to work among
them so long ; but the great difficulty is the
downright scarcity of matter plainly the diffi-
culty of finding anything to say. My inventive
faculties are exactly like the powers of a snail ;
and in addition, my memory is an inconceivably
miserable one.'*
144 CAXTON AND
CHAPTER VII.
Contrast between the printing-office of Caxton and a modern
typographical establishment Type -founding William
Caslon Chief improvements in the style of typography
The compositor at work The reader Pressmen Old
fashioned press Improvements by the earl of Stanhope
Baskerville's improvement of ink Invention of inking cylin-
ders Stereotype Logographic printing Machine-printing
Mr. William Nicholson Printing by Steam Various Im-
provementsGalvanic printing-press Fourdrinier's patent
for continuous lengths of paper Curiosities of printing
The Great Exhibition of 1851.
COULD we, by an effort of imagination, obtain a
vivid picture of the printing-press of Caxton,
or of Wynken de Worde, and then survey one
of the extensive and well-provided typographical
establishments of our own times, we should be
sensible of a contrast probably not to be sur-
passed in its greatness in the whole history of
art. We propose now to describe some of the
elements of which that contrast would be
formed, as well as the circumstances in which
they arose.
In the early history of typography, printers
T1IE ART OF PRINTING. 145
made the letters they used, but their produc-
tion by the letter-founders has long been a
separate branch of business. This process
requires no little skill and management. In
the first instance, there is the cutting of a
punch, resembling the letter to be formed,
except that it is in reverse. The punch being
of hardened steel, and having this letter on its
point, is then struck into a small piece of
copper, which is called the matrix, or form of
the letter to be cast. The matrix is now fixed
in a curiously contrived instrument termed the
mould. The founder then, holding the mould in
his left hand, with his right pours the liquid
metal into the hole of the cube, forcing it down
to the matrix by jerking the mould upwards
higher than his head, he then lowers it as sud-
denly, quickly opens the mould, shakes out the
type, and repeats the process. In this way not
only every letter, but every figure, hyphen,
comma, or other mark, must have its punch and
matrix, as well as its separate casting. A single
workman will cast from four hundred to five
hundred types per hour.
A machine has been invented and patented
for the manufacture of printing types without
fusing the metal and pouring it into moulds, the
146 CAXTON AND
operation being effected by the pressure of a sharp
die upon copper. By the application of a small
steam engine, it is estimated that the machine
can produce sixty types per minute, or thirty-six
thousand in ten hours. The strength of copper
over ordinary type metal is stated to be in the
proportion of one hundred to one, and the
capacity of its endurance may be judged from
the fact that when employed to print govern-
ment stamps, one hundred and twenty-five
millions of impressions have been taken from a
single plate which had a raised copper sur-
face.
As soon as, by the ordinary process, there
is a heap of types a boy removes them,
and breaks off the superfluous piece at the
end of each, when another rubs its sides
on a stone to render them smooth. The types
are afterwards set up in long lines on a frame,
where they are polished and prepared for use.
The face, or printing part of the type, is not
touched after it leaves the matrix, that alone
giving it all the distinctness and sharpness of
which it is capable. All the types of one class
are precisely the same in height, while each
letter or point has on its body one or more
nicks, all of which make an equal range when
THE ART OF PRINTING. 147
the type is set up, and all are equally grooved
at the bottom that they may stand up steadily.
Types vary considerably in size, from the
smallest, called diamond, used in pocket Bibles
and Prayer-books, to the huge letters -which
meet the eye on some posting-bill, exhibited on
a van, or affixed to a wall.* When a great many
of each of the letters of the alphabet, together
with points, figures, and other necessary marks
and signs, all cast in certain proportions to
each other, are to be designated by one term,
they are called a fount of types.
At the commencement of the eighteenth
century, the native ability of English letter-
founders was so little prized by the printers of
the metropolis, that they were in the habit of
importing founts from Holland, where superior
types were then manufactured. Thus the
works of English literature, which so greatly
distinguished the reign of queen Anne, were
originally presented to the public through the
medium of Dutch types. How long England
might have remained dependent in this respect
on the continent, had it not been for the energy
of one individual, it is impossible to calculate.
* The very large letters, used for printing placards to be
posted on walla, etc., are commonly made of wood.
148 CAXTON AND
This person was William Caslon, who was
born in that part of the town of Hales Owen
which is situated in Shropshire. He served a
regular apprenticeship to an engraver on gun-
locks and barrels, and after the expiration of
his term, followed his business in Vine-street,
near the Minories, London. In every branch
of it his ability was conspicuous, but his early
reputation arose chiefly from his genius and
skill in inventing and engraving ornamental
devices on the barrels of fire-arms. Occasion-
ally, however, he was employed in making tools
for book-binders, and for chasers of silver plate.
While thus engaged, some of his book-
binding punches were noticed for their neat-
ness and accuracy by Mr. Watts, an eminent
printer, who, by engaging to support him and
to introduce him to the leading typographers or
the day, induced him to undertake the occupa-
tion by which he afterwards acquired so much
distinction.
Caslon, who had not before seen any part of
the business, on being taken to a foundry, was
asked by a friend if he thought he could cut
punches for types. He requested a single day
to consider the matter, and at the expiration of
that time replied, that he had no doubt he
THE ART OF PRINTING. 149
could. Aided by the liberality of his friends,
he applied himself to the task with assiduity
and zeal, which were alike required by existing
obstacles. Not only had he to excel his com-
petitors in his own peculiar branch of engraving
the punches which to him was probably by
no means arduous but to raise an establish-
ment, and cause his plans to be executed by
unpractised workmen. He had also to acquire
for himself a knowledge of the practical and
mechanical branches of the art, for which the
most minute and patient attention is indis-
pensably requisite.
But his wishes were realized, and the ex-
pectations of his patrons and friends were ex-
ceeded by the decided superiority he gained
over all rivals, whether domestic or foreign.
Not only did the importation of type cease, but
so highly were Caslon's founts esteemed, as to
be frequently exported to the continent. For
sixty years, that is, from 1720 to 1780, few
works were printed with the types of any other
foundry, and the editions of that interval are of
remarkable excellence.
One of the chief improvements of the style of
typography has been effected by the dismissal
of abbreviations and connected letters from the
150 CAXTON AND
founts. Formerl}'-, the word the was indicated
by the letter y. with a small e above it ; $ was
used for the conjunction and; and many other
unseemly abbreviations were employed. Con-
nected letters were also common : c and t were
joined by a curve from the top of one to the
other ; and when two ss came together, a long
/ was used.
The compositor is said to " work at case ;"
for all the types are sorted in cases, or shallow
and divided boxes : the lower case, or the one
nearest him, having all the small letters, points,
and spaces, to place between the words ; and
the upper case, containing all the capitals,
accented letters, figures, and characters used as
references to notes. Each letter has a larger or
smaller box appropriated to it, according as it
is seldom or frequently required, while the
letters most needed occupy the position most
convenient for the compositor.
"In the English language, the letter e inhabits
the largest box ; a, c, d, h, i, m, n, o, r, s, t, u, live
in the next sized apartments ; 6, /, g, I, p, v, w,
y, dwell in what may be termed the bed-rooms ;
while jj k t q, a, z, ce, and a, double letters, etc.,
are more humbly lodged in the cupboards,
garrets, and cellars. And the reason of this
THE ABT OF PRINTING. 151
arrangement is, that the letter e being visited
by the compositor sixty times as often as z, (for
his hand spends an hour in the former box for
every minute in the latter,) it is evidently
advisable that the letters oftenest required
should be the nearest. Latin and French
books devour more of c, i, /, m, jo, </, s, M, and
v, than English ones, and for these languages
the ' cases ' must therefore be arranged ac-
cordingly." The " cases " are placed upon
" frames," in shape and height similar to the
music-stands in an orchestra ; each of which is
BO constructed as to hold two pairs of cases,
the one pair containing the Roman, and the
other the Italic letters of the same fount. In
one of our large printing-offices there are as
many as sixty of these frames in a single room.
The various processes in the art of printing
were some years since graphically portrayed in
an article in the " Quarterly Review," and in
" Days at the Factories," from which some
of the following interesting details have been
abridged :
" It is impossible," says the writer of the
article referred to, " to contemplate a team of
sixty literary labourers steadily working toge-
ther in one room, without immediately acknow-
152 CAXTON AND
ledging the important service they are rendering
to the civilized world, and the respect which,
therefore, is due to them from society. The
minutice of their art it might be deemed tedious
to detail ; yet with so many operators in view
it is not difficult, even for an inexperienced
visitor, to distinguish the different degrees of
perfection at which they have individually
arrived.
" Among compositors, as in all other profes-
sions, the race is not always gained by him who
is apparently the swiftest. Steadiness, coolness,
and attention, are more valuable qualifications
than eagerness and haste ; and, accordingly,
those compositors who at first sight appear to
be doing the most, are often after all less ser-
viceable to themselves, and consequently to
their employers, than those who, with less dis-
play, follow the old adage of ' slow and sure.'
" On the attitude of a compositor his work
principally depends. The operation being per-
formed by the eyes, fingers, and arms, which,
with considerable velocity, are moved almost in
every direction, the rest of the body should be
kept as tranquil as possible. However zealous,
therefore, a workman may be, if his shoulders
and hips are seen to be moved by every little
THE ART OF PRINTING. 153
letter he lifts, fatigue, exhaustion, and errors are
the result ; whereas, if the arms alone appear
in motion, the work is more easily, and conse-
quently more successfully executed.
" Before a compositor can proceed with his
' c Py> his first business must evidently be to
fill his ' cases.' The usual way of filling cases
with letters is by distributing the type pages of
books which have been printed off. The dis-
tributing of the letters from the type pages into
the square dens to which they respectively
belong is performed with astonishing celerity.
If the type were jumbled, or, as it is technically
termed, * in pie,' the time requisite for recog-
nising the tiny countenance of each letter would
be enormous ; but the compositor, being enabled
to grasp and read one or two sentences at a
time, without again looking at the letters, drops
them one by one, here, there, and everywhere,
according to their destination. It is calculated
that a good compositor can distribute four
thousand letters per hour, which is about five
times as many as he can compose ; just as in
common life all men can spend money at least
twenty times as readily as they can earn it.
" As soon as the workman has filled his cases,
his next Sisyphus labour is by composition to
154 CAXTON AND
exhaust them. Glancing occasionally at the
copy before him, he consecutively picks up with
a zig-zag movement, and with almost the velo-
city of lightning, the letters he requires." Stand-
ing in front of the cases which contain the
Roman letters, he holds in his left hand what is"
called the composing-stick, which is commonly
made of iron or brass, having a movable side,
which may be adapted to any width of line by
means of a screw. The copy is placed upon the
least used part of the upper case. The com-
positor puts the letters of every word, with all
the required points and spaces between them,
into his stick, securing each addition by the
thumb of his left hand, from left to right along
the line. " His right hand goes mechanically to
the box which he requires ; but his eye is ready
to accompany its movements." In each letter,
as already noticed, there is a nick, or nicks,
which indicate the lower part of the letter, and
which he must always place outwards in his
composing-stick. " If the compositor were to
pick up the letter at random, he would most
probably have to turn it in his hand, and as it
is important to save every unnecessary move-
ment, his eye directs him to some one of the
heap which lies in the right position, both
THE ABT OF PRINTING. 155
as regards the face being upwards, and the
nick being outwards." When the line is com-
pleted, much care is required in spacing, so that
the type may not be too crowded, nor have
too many chasms, and that the lines may be
properly connected or terminated, as each one
must be "justified," as the phrase is, or made
to correspond with those previously set. A
thin slip of brass, called a setting-rule, is placed
in the composing-stick at the outset, and pulled
out and placed on the front of a line when
completed, greatly facilitating the process of
composition. When there are as many lines in
the composing-stick as it will conveniently hold,
the compositor lifts them out, as if they were
a mass of solid metal, with the fingers of both
hands, and places them in what is called the
galley a flat board or piece of zinc or brass,
having a ledge at the head and on one or both
sides.
" The facility with which some compositors
can lift about what is called a handful of mov-
able type without deranging a single letter is
very remarkable. Such skill is only attained
by practice ; and one of the severest mortifica-
tions with which a learner has to contend, is to
toil for an hour or two in picking up several
156 CAXTON AND
thousand letters, and then see the fabric
destroyed by his own clumsiness," leading him
to mourn over his " pie," as the heap of jum-
bled type is technically designated.
The galley is filled by the contents of suc-
cessive sticks, and in the instance of newspapers
and most other periodical works a proof is taken
before the type is made up into pages. In
books, however, when there are sufficient lines
to form a page, and having first placed the head
line, containing the title of the book, or the
contents of a portion of it, with the proper figure
in the corner, the compositor binds the types
tightly round with a cord, and places them
under his frame. The requisite number of
pages to form a sheet being completed, they
are arranged by the compositor upon a bench or
imposing-stone, and each is surrounded with
pieces of wood, or furniture) so as to provide a
proper margin for each page. The whole are
then secured in an iron frame, or chase, by
means of slips of wood and wedges. This pro-
cess is called imposing.
Whether the proof is taken before or after
the type is made up into pages, the process of
correction immediately follows. " As the com-
positor receives nothing for curing his own
THE ART OF PRINTING. 157
mistakes, they form the self-correcting punish-
ment of his own offence. The operation is the
most disagreeable, and, by pressure on the
chest incurred in leaning over the form, it is
also the most unhealthy part of his occupation.
The compositor's own errors are scarcely put to
rights before a much greater difficulty arrives,
namely, the author's corrections.
" Few men dare to print their sentiments as
they write them. Not only must the frame-
work of their composition be altered, but a
series of minute posthumous additions and sub-
tractions are ordered, which it is almost impos-
sible to effect ; indeed, it not unfrequently
happens that it would be a shorter operation for
the compositor to set up the types afresh, than
to disturb his work piecemeal, by the quantity
of codicils and alterations which a vain, vacil-
lating, crotchety writer has required.
" In a printing establishment ' the reader' is
almost the only individual whose occupation is
sedentary ; indeed, the galley-slave can scarcely
be more closely bound to his oar than is a
reader to his stool. On entering his cell, his
very attitude is a striking and most graphic
picture of earnest attention. It is evident, from
his outline, that the whole power of his mind is
158 CAXTON AND
concentrated in a focus upon the page before
him ; and as in midnight the lamps of the
mail, which illuminate a small portion of the
road, seem to increase the pitchy darkness
which in every other direction prevails, so
does the undivided attention of a reader to his
subject evidently abstract his thoughts from all
other considerations. An urchin stands by
reading to the reader from the copy furnishing
him, in fact, with an additional pair of eyes
and the shortest Avay to attract his immediate
notice is to stop his boy ; for no sooner does the
stream of the child's voice cease to flow than
the machinery of the man's mind ceases to
work something has evidently gone wrong !
he accordingly at once raises his weary head,
and a slight sigh, with one passage of the hand
across his brow, is generally sufficient to enable
him to receive the intruder with mildness and
attention.
" In a large printing establishment, the real
interest of which is to increase the healthy
appetite of the public by supplying it with
wholesome food of the best possible description,
it is found to be absolutely necessary that ' the
readers' should be competent to correct, not
only the press, but the author. It is requisite
THE ART OF PRINTING. 159
not only that they should possess a microscopic
eye, capable of detecting the minutest errors,
but be also enlightened judges of the purity of
their own language. The general style of the
author cannot, of course, be interfered with ;
but tiresome repetitions, incorrect assertions,
intoxicated hyperbole, faults in grammar, and,
above all, in punctuation, it is the reader's
especial duty to point out. It is, therefore,
evidently necessary that he be complete master
of his own tongue. It is also almost essen-
tial that he should have been brought up a
compositor, in order that he may be acquainted
with the mechanical department of that busi-
ness." The corrections having been attended
to by the compositor, a proof is again taken,
and, after final revision, the sheet is ready for
the press. The form having been "gauged,"
and duly adjusted by the compositor, it goes to
the pressmen, who are, strictly speaking, the
printers, as they take impressions from it on
the paper.
Until a very recent period, the presses com-
monly used in this country differed but little
in their form and materials from those first
known in Europe, and improved by Blaew.
They consisted of two upright cheeks of wood,
160 CAXTON AND
with stout cross-pieces, in which worked a
common iron screw. At the lower part of the
screw was suspended a square smooth-faced
table of hard wood, occasionally covered with
iron, called the platten. The chase, containing
the type, was placed on a level stone, fixed
in a wooden bed or carriage, and made to
slide backwards and forwards on a sort of
railway under the platten. The type being
inked by means of inking-balls, (made of
sheep's pelt,) and a sheet of paper placed upon
it, the form was passed immediately under the
platten, and this being pressed down by a
handle acting on the screw, the impression
was taken on the paper. Such was the old-
fashioned printing-press, which may still occa-
sionally be seen in places where the roughest
and commonest printing is executed.
The press invented by the late earl Stanhope
gained an important point, from its being capable
of all the force of the ordinary machine, with
perhaps a tenth of the labour. This result
was the reward of many tedious experiments,
in which his lordship was aided by Mr. Walker,
an ingenious mechanician. The immense ad-
vantage given by means of it, not only to the
pressman, but also to the public, in consequence
THE ART OF PRINTING. 161
of the improvement in the work produced, led to
the application to the old presses of lord Stan-
hope's compound leverage, by means of which
the power of the screw was prodigiously
increased. It was, however, soon found that
the wooden press was not calculated to sustain
the operation of this compound power, espe-
cially Avhen applied, as it was in several
instances, without any accurate calculation of
its probable effects. It caused the frame-work
of the altered presses constantly to give way
and rendered repeated repairs necessary. These
circumstances, added to the obvious superiority
of the new machines, led to the prompt and
general substitution of iron presses for those of
wood.
The ink to be used in good printing has been
the subject of much thought and care. The
lamp-black of commerce, coarse and impure as
it is, was used as the principal ingredient in it
for a period of nearly two hundred years ; and
it was not until the days of the celebrated
printer Baskerville that attention was turned
to the improvement of this article. He dis-
covered a superior kind of black for the pur-
pose required, and to his success may be chiefly
attributed the superiority of his printing. Some
162 CAXTON AND
of his editions of the Latin classics and English
poets were distinguished by great beauty of
typography.
The discovery of Baskerville, however, lay
dormant from the time of his death till 1790,
when, through Mr. Martin of Birmingham, his
apprentice, and afterwards his foreman, a con-
siderable quantity of his fine black, which had
been collected for a length of time from glass-
pinchers' and solderers' lamps, was bought by
him at an almost unlimited price, and was sold
to Mr. Bulmer for his experiments in fine
printing. As, however, difficulties arose in the
way of obtaining a regular supply of this sub-
stance, Mr. Bulmer manufactured an ink for
himself, and produced with it many works of
most exquisite typography. Mr. Martin was
one of his most successful competitors, making
his own black, which he did for a considerable
time, from fine lamp oil, the smoke being col-
lected in a variety of glazed earthen vessels
made for the purpose, connected together, and
communicating at last with one common
receiver. The slowness of this process, how-
ever, led him afterwards to adopt other means.
It was while engaged in his typographical
labours that earl Stanhope entertained the idea
THE ART OF PRINTING. 163
of supplying the ink for the printing-press by
means of a revolving cylinder, instead of by the
old process of stamping balls. Aiming to rea-
lize his object, he spared no expense to find a
substance adapted to cover the rollers which he
meant to employ. He had the skins of every
animal which he thought likely to answer the
purpose, dressed by every possible process ; and
he tried also a variety of substances, such as
cloth and silk, of various fabrics, but without
success. The first impediment was the seam
which it was necessary to make down the whole
length of the roller; and there was next the
impossibility of keeping any skin or substance
then known, always so soft and pliable as to
receive the ink with an even coat, and commu-
nicate the same to the form with the requisite
regularity. Sanguine, however, as to the possi-
bility of securing the object desired, all the presses
of his lordship's early construction had, at each
end of the table, a raised fianch, the height of
the type, for the purpose of applying inking
rollers ; but all his schemes to perfect such
rollers were absolutely baffled.
The idea of the revolving cylinder, however,
did not, it appears, originate with his lordship.
Papillon, in his work on engraving, gives
1G4 CAXTON AND
detailed particulars, illustrated by engravings,
of rollers for inking, and Mr. Nicholson also
hinted at a similar process. Lord Stanhope's
labours to secure the result are, however, en-
titled to respectful remembrance, as having
been intelligent, pains- taking, and persever-
ing. The difficulties which his inventive and
indefatigable powers could not surmount, were
accidentally removed by observing a process in
the Staffordshire potteries, in which the work-
men use what are there called dabbers. The
very substance which had been so ardently
sought for was found in these dabbers, com-
posed of glue and treacle ; it possessed every
requisite to hold and distribute the ink, im-
parting it equally over the form, and at the
same time being easily kept clean, soft, and
pliable. An ingenious printer, Mr. Forster,
then employed at the printing-office of Mr.
Hamilton, bookseller, at Weybridge, was the
first who applied the discovery to letter-press
printing, by spreading the matter in a melted
state on coarse canvass, and making balls, in all
other respects, in the usual manner.
The modern invention of stereotype differs
from ordinary printing mainly in this, that the
letters, instead of being run singly in matrices of
THE ART OF PRINTING. 165
copper, are cast in plates comprising entire pages,
from plaster of Paris moulds. The Luchtmans
of Leyden appear to have printed Bibles from
plates in which the types were cemented toge-
ther in pages, so far back as the year 1711.
But this plan is very different from that of
stereotyping, which was practised by Mr. Ged,
of Edinburgh, in 1725, and by Mr. Fenner and
Mr. James of London, who cast plates for
Bibles and Prayer-books in the University of
Cambridge, about four years after the last-
named date.
The plaster of Paris mould, forming a perfect
fac-simile of the page intended to be printed,
and surrounded with a proper raised margin, is
lowered into a vessel containing type metal in a
molten state, and which, filling every cavity,
forms, when the mould has been removed and
become cool, a solid page of letters. This being
dressed on the back until there only remains a
plate sufficiently thick to keep the whole toge-
ther, is attached either to a wooden slab or a
composition body, about five-eighths of an inch
thick ; and in this state the pages are ready for
printing.
Somewhat akin to stereotyping was the in-
vention of logography. The first number of
166 CAXTON AND
" The Times, or Daily Universal Register,"
printed logographically, is dated January, 1788,
and its price is marked threepence. Its im-
print is interesting when viewed in connexion
with the rise of the journal to its present
commanding position. " Printed for J. Walter,
at the Logographic Press, Printing House
Square, near Apothecaries Hall, Blackfriars,
where Advertisements, Essays, Letters and
Articles of Intelligence will be taken in.
Also at Mr. Metteneus's, confectioner, Charing
Cross ; Mr. Whiteeaves's, watchmaker, No. 30,
opposite St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street ;
Mr. Axtell's, No. 1, Finch Lane, Cornhill ; at
Mr. Bushby's, No. 1, Catherine Street, Strand;
Mr. Rose's, silk dyer, Spring Gardens ; and
Mr. Grives's, stationer, No. 103, corner of
Fountain Court, Strand."
The phrase, " printed Logographically," is,
however, one that asks for explanation. Mr.
Walter, the proprietor, had obtained a patent
for casting in metal whole words, instead of
single letters, which were placed side by side
in the manner of type, or interspersed with it
on the page. It was expected that, by this
means, orthographical errors would be much
fewer than in ordinary printing, and that as
THE ART OF PRINTING. 167
less time and labour would be required, the
process of typography would be much cheaper.
One joke of the time was, that orders to the
founder would be as follows : " Send me a
hundredweight, made up in several pounds of
heat, cold, wet, dry, murder, fire, dreadful
robbery, atrocious outrage, fearful calamity,
and alarming explosion ; " while another hun-
dred would be made up of " honourable gen-
tlemen, gracious majesty, loud cheers, hisses,
and groans, and similar combinations." But,
despite of gibes, and taunts, and difficulties,
Walter advanced, and on the 1st of January,
1785, he issued the Daily Advertiser, printed
in the new manner, having four pages, and a
halfpenny stamp ; this paper was sold for two-
pence halfpenny. The new process, however,
was not found to meet with the success which
its patentee had expected for it.
The press is greatly indebted to Mr. William
Nicholson, the editor of the journal that bore
his name, for various improvements which he
made in it, and for which he obtained a patent
in the year 1790. Among these was the
substitution of two cylinders, or of one cylinder
and a plane, for producing the impression,
instead of the two plain surfaces of the ordi-
168 CAXTON AND
nary or Stanhope press ; and also, the use of
cylinders covered with an adhesive and elastic
composition for applying the ink to the surface
of the form of types, which in the old process
was laid on with large balls or dabbers. Some of
the means devised by Mr. Nicholson were essen-
tially defective, and other parts of his invention
were but very imperfectly carried into effect ;
yet an examination of his specification will show
that many subsequent attempts at machine -
printing embody several of the principles which
were primarily adopted by that gentleman.
The printing-machines devised by mechani-
cians too numerous to name, all possess one
and the same general principle, employed in a
variety of ways. The ink by an arrangement
of rollers being applied to the face of the types,
the latter are drawn under a cylinder, on which
the sheet being laid, an impression is taken off
on one side. The sheet is then conveyed to a
second cylinder, by the rotation of which it is
carried on to the second form, and the other side
is printed. All the hand labour in this process
is performed by boys, one of whom lays the
paper on the first cylinder, while the other
receives it from the second cylinder, and lays
the heap even.
TILE ART OF PRINTING. 169
Printing by steam machinery was first
executed in England at the " Times " office, in
1814. In the " Times " of the 29th of Novem-
ber, in that year, the following announcement
appears : " Our journal of this day presents to
the public the practical result of the greatest
improvement connected with printing, since
the discovery of the art itself. The reader of
this paragraph now holds in his hand one of
the many thousand impressions of the ' Times '
newspaper, which were taken off last night by
a mechanical apparatus. A system of ma-
chinery, almost organic, has been devised and
arranged, which, while it relieves the human
frame of its most laborious efforts in printing,
far exceeds all human powers in rapidity and
despatch.
" That the magnitude of the invention may
be justly appreciated by its effects, we shall
inform the public, that, after the letters are
placed by the compositors, and inclosed in
what is called the form, little more remains for
man to do, than to attend upon and watch this
unconscious agent in its operations. The
machine is then supplied with paper itself
places the form, inks it, adjusts the paper to
the form newly inked, stamps the sheet, and
F2
170 CAXTON AND
gives it forth to the hands of the attendant, at
the same time withdrawing the form for a fresh
coat of ink, which itself again distributes, to meet
the ensuing sheet advancing for impression ;
and the whole of these complicated acts is per-
formed with such a velocity and simultaneousness
of movement, that no less than 1,100 sheets are
impressed in one hour.
" That the completion of an invention of this
kind, not the effect of chance, but the result of
mechanical combinations, methodically arranged
in the mind of the artist, should be attended
with many obstructions, and much delay, may
be readily admitted. Our share in the event
has, indeed, only been the application of the
discovery, under an agreement with the pa-
tentees, to our own particular business ; yet
few can conceive, even with this limited
interest, the various disappointments and deep
anxiety to which we have, for a long course of
time, been subjected."
In the "Times" of February 14, 1828,
appeared the following paragragh : " It is
now nearly fourteen years since the ' Times '
first issued from our office printed by steam
and a mechanical apparatus. At that time
we spoke, as we thought, with becoming praise
THE ART OF PRINTING. 171
of the perseverance and ingenuity of the in-
ventor, Mr Konig, and with sufficient modesty,
we trust, of our own firmness and resolution
in overcoming opposing difficulties, and even
dangers. This surprising machine has since
received certain improvements from the hand
of its original inventor ; but we have now to
present our readers and the public an account
of a vast and most beneficial change that has
taken place. The first machine printed but
1,100 sheets per hour the reader now holds
in his hand an impression, which a mere
machine has yielded at the rate of four thousand
an hour! Such ease, rapidity, and accuracy
united, could hardly ever before be ascribed to
any fabric constructed by the hand of man. Let
but the reader contemplate, if he can, what
must be the rapidity of these motions, which
throw off four thousand printed sheets in every
hour, or nearly seventy in a minute ! "
But improvement in respect of speed in
printing had not yet reached its acme". In
1849, a still more remarkable invention was
introduced at the " Times " office, the credit of
which was due to Mr. Applegath. The types,
instead of being laid on a table, traversing a
sort of railroad a correct description of the
172 CAXTON AND
old process were built up as it were on the
face of a drum of cast iron. Eight printing
cylinders were arranged round this drum, and
instead of the four impressions taken by the
old machine in its double journey, eight sheets
were printed in every revolution of the cylinder.
Eight men, on a raised gallery, were employed
to feed the machine, by carefully pushing suc-
cessive sheets into its eight mouths, each man
doing this at the rate of one sheet in four
seconds. Directly under these eight men were
a similar number on the ground, employed hi
taking off and piling the printed sheets thrown
out by the machine. So astonishing is the
velocity of this press, that the eye vainly
attempts to follow the numerous sheets of paper
in their rapid motion. Ten thousand copies an
hour can be thrown off by means of it, and if
necessary twelve thousand. Indeed, it is said
that a sufficiently large cylinder, with cor-
responding apparatus, could as easily produce
one hundred thousand as ten thousand copies
an hour. A calculation made by " La Patrie"
a French newspaper, shows how marvellously
human labour is outrivalled by these mecha-
nical arrangements. The paper, " La Patrie"
which is much smaller than the " Times,"
THE ART OF PRINTING. 173
contains about 4,230 lines ; 8,000 copies make
34,560,000 lines. A clerk could write about
three lines in a minute ; therefore it would
require 11,520,000 minutes, or 192,000 hours,
for a single clerk to supply 8,000 copies of " La
Patrie;" in other words, it would require
192,000 men to supply, by copying, the same
amount of paper which the cylinder printing
press supplies in one hour.
Few things can be more impressive to the
mind than to witness the steam printing-press in
active operation. " The visitor," says a writer
already quoted, " hears a deep rumbling sound,
which he is at a loss to understand, until a
door before him being opened, he is suddenly
introduced to enormous steam-presses. The
simultaneous revolution of so much compli-
cated machinery, crowded together in a com-
paratively small compass, coupled with a
moment's reflection as to the purpose for which
it is in motion, is astounding to the mind ; and
as broad leather straps are rapidly revolving in
all directions, the stranger pauses for a moment
to consider whether or not he may get entangled
in the process, and against his inclination, as
authors generally say in their prefaces " go
to press.'"
174 CAXTON AND
A new motive power in lieu of steam has, how-
ever, lately been applied to the printing-press,
although in its present shape it appears to be
rather an ingenious and novel experiment than
a fully tried invention. Mr. Foreman, a printer
in the United States, has patented a printing-
press, which is moved and regulated by gal-
vanic power. The paper is worked upon a
reel, and is continuous like a telegraphic coil,
passing over the type in the form of a cylinder.
When one side of it is worked, the paper is
reversed, and the other side printed, the sheets
being clipped apart as they come from the
press by an ingenious contrivance. According
to the American authorities, there is hardly
any limit to the speed at which this press will
work, while its exactness is stated to be be-
yond anything known in this line of machinery.
Recent improvements in the powers of the
printing-press have been happily aided by a
new process for the manufacture of paper, the
honour of which is due to persons not yet
named. Some very interesting details of Four-
drinier's machinery for making paper of endless
length, were given during a debate in the House
of Commons, on April 25, 1839, on the presen-
tation of a petition from this ingenious manu-
THE ART OF PRINTING. 175
facturer. Among them were the following :
That 1,000 or a stiU larger number of
yards of paper could be made continuously
by it. That, though a patent was obtained,
the word " machine " being written instead
of " machines," the invention was pirated,
and the means of the patentees were ex-
hausted in litigation before they could esta-
blish their rights. That they had become
bankrupts, and that the invention, on which
they had spent 40,000, was entirely lost to
them. Hence arose their appeal to Parlia-
ment, for some compensation for the loss
they had suffered from the state of the patent
law.
In support of their plea, the testimony of
competent witnesses was adduced ; and among
them that of Mr. Lawson, the printer of the
"Times." He characterized the invention as
one of the most splendid discoveries of the
age. He stated that the conductors of the
metropolitan newspapers could never have
presented to the world such an immense mass
of news and advertisements as was now
contained in them had not this invention
enabled them to make use of any size
required. It was shown also that the increase
176 CAXTON AND
of the revenue was not less by means of it
than 500,000 a year. In May, 1840, parlia-
ment voted to Messrs. Fourdrinier the sum
of 7,000.
Our description of the process of printing has
been confined chiefly to that department of the
art which has reference to the preparation of
books. Did it seem necessary, however, steel-
plate and copper-plate printing might be de-
scribed, together with the lithographic process,
which so much aids the man of business
in the production of mercantile circulars and
drawn plans. Many curiosities of printing
might also be detailed, as the process of
printing for the blind, the mode in which some
species of the electro-telegraph print their mes-
sages, and anastatic printing, by which fac-
similes of drawings are produced. It seems
well, however, that we should confine ourselves
to those processes which are more immediately
connected with the printing of books.
The Great Exhibition of 1851, amidst its
other marvels, presented many objects illus-
trative of the perfection to which the art of
printing had been brought in our own and
other countries. The Catalogue of the Exhi-
bition was itself a wonderful proof of the
THE ART OF PRINTING. 177
rapidity with which large masses of printed
matter can, by the aids of machinery and
division of labour, be thrown off in an incredibly
short space of time. The Exhibition, the reader
need hardly be reminded, opened on the 1st of
May, yet it was not till midnight of the 30th of
April, that the Catalogue a thick and closely
printed volume was ready to go to press. By
the next morning, however, a bound copy of it
was presented to her Majesty, while in mar-
vellously brief space the work was ready for
general circulation. Twelve trades were neces-
sary for the production of this Catalogue,
namely, type-founders, printers' joiners, iron-
founders, paper-makers, wholesale stationers,
letter-press printers, printing-ink-makers, com-
position roller-makers, engravers on wood,
lithographic-printers, hot-pressers, and book-
binders. Thirty-seven tons of new type were
employed, of which amount twelve tons were
manufactured in the short space of six weeks.
Twenty-seven thousand reams of paper were
used, the amount of duty on which at \\d.
per Ib. amounted to 3,923 ; while the ink
required for the small catalogue alone amounted
to nearly 4,000 Ibs.
In the Exhibition itself, among the various
178 CAXTON AND
objects connected with the printing-press there
was noticeable a mammoth sheet of paper, 2,500
yards in length, and double the breadth for-
merly used in the trade. Still more curious
were gutta percha stereotypes, and impressions
of the same printed on paper in ordinary
printing ink. Nor were these exhibited as
mere curious toys, but as illustrations of a pro-
cess well adapted for business purposes. The
matrix or mould of the stereotype is taken by
the pressure of a block of type upon gutta
percha while in a hot and soft state. The
specimens of printing and engraving furnished
in this way were as sharp as if taken by metal,
while the flexible nature of the substance
adapted it for being curved with special ease
round a printing cylinder. Strange also as it
may appear, gutta percha types were stated to
be very durable.
Much interest was excited in the Exhibition
by the working of Mr. Applegath's machinery
for printing the " Illustrated London News."
As this process has, however, already been
described by us in connection with the " Times"
office, a further reference to it here is un-
necessary.
Many beautiful specimens of English printing
THE ART OF PRINTING. 179
were exhibited, and much curious illustration
was afforded likewise of the advanced state to
which the art of printing had been brought in
foreign countries. Specimens of typography
from the imperial printing establishment of
Vienna which were to be seen in the Austrian
department attracted particular notice. Ac-
cording to the calculations furnished, 500,000
sheets, or 1,000 reams of paper per day are
required for the consumption of this establish-
ment. Among the objects which it sent to the
Exhibition was a collection of 11,000 steel
punches, including 104 different alphabets,
from the hieroglyphic downwards. There was
also a copy of a work produced at Vienna, con-
sisting of 17 sheets in elephant foHo, and
containing the Lord's Prayer in 608 languages,
printed with Roman letters, and in 200 lan-
guages, in the characters peculiar to each
language a specimen of printing, as it was
truly observed, " of vast design and exquisite
execution." *
Marvellous, however, as was this display of
typographic skill, it was paralleled, if not ex-
celled, by the spectacle presented in the case
See that very useful publication, " The Year Book of Facts
in Science and Art."
180 CAXTON AND
of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which
exhibited the word of God printed in one hun-
dred and twenty different languages. How
many years of study had been devoted by men
of different lands that these books might be
given to the world ! To accomplish this, rude
and strange languages had been formed, and
unwritten dialects had been moulded into order.
We have said, in an early portion of this work,
that Caxton had not dared to print a copy of
the word of God. What a difference presents
itself to the mind as it reviews the interval
between the day when Caxton drew his first
printed proof and our own age, when the
printing-press has attained such gigantic mag-
nitude and power ! and how solicitous ought
we to be, that the mighty engine which has
thus been placed in our hands should be wielded
for good, and made to tend to the glory and
not to the dishonour of Gcd !
THE ART OF PRINTING. 181
CHAPTER VIII.
Marts for books St. Paul's Churchyard A Contrast Littla
Britain Paternoster Row Pernicious productions of the
press Religious Tract Society.
ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD was once the most
celebrated mart for books. The London book-
sellers of olden times had their shops at all the
principal entrances to the old cathedral, while
some of them, as well as those of other trades,
were to be found within the precincts of that
edifice. A scarce tract on the burning of St.
Paul's Cathedral bears the following impri-
matur : u Irnprynted at London, at the west
ende of Panic's Church, at the sygne of the
Hedghogge, by William Seres." Towards the
close of the reign of Henry vin., and during
that of Edward vi., some valuable works
were published on this spot by the printer
Daye ; but his press was silenced during the
popish tyranny of Mary. Under the more
auspicious reign of Elizabeth, however, he
182 CAXTON AND
resumed his labours, and at great risk em-
barked large sums of money in printing the
works of Becon, Tyndale, and other reformers.
Foxe, whose "Acts and Monuments" were
frequently reprinted at Daye's press, appears
to have been supported by the employment
which Daye gave him as editor. A spirit of
opposition was excited by the trade against this
enterprising printer and publisher, and every
endeavour was used to check the sale of his
works ; upon which archbishop Grindall
allowed him to have a shop under the front
of St. Paul's for their sale, by which means
they were circulated. "Arise, for it is day,"
was the device adopted by him as his motto,
which might have a twofold reference first,
to his being called " The printer of the Refor-
mation," and secondly, to his own cognomen.
The great change which has taken place
within the last fifty or sixty years in the whole
matter of book-making, forces upon us a con-
trast, which, in passing from St. Paul's Church-
yard, we are anxious to present to the view of
the reader. In 1850, the American ambas-
sador, speaking of his early associations with
the British metropolis, said, " he could never
forget that the first book he ever read was
THE ART OF PRINTING. 183
published in St. Paul's Churchyard." Doubtless
the book-reminiscences of many others have a
reference to the same spot, and especially to the
shop of Mr. Newberry, filled as it was with
gilded toy-books, two inches square, dazzling
the eyes of his little patrons with other works
of a larger but equally unprofitable kind, as
" Jack the Giant Killer," " St. George and the
Dragon," etc.
Mr. Newberry, whom we have just named,
may be said to have been the first publisher of
children's literature, but his works were of a
different character from those which are now
provided for the young. Among other of the
superior books for children in Mr. Newberry's
day, one was entitled, " The Royal Guide ; or,
An easy introduction to reading English, em-
bellished with a great variety of copper-plate
and other cuts. Most humbly inscribed to his
Royal Highness Prince Edward. London,
printed for E. Newberry, at the corner of St.
Paul's Churchyard. Price sixpence." The
frontispiece is a likeness of the infant prince.
The picture alphabet with which it commences
is quite above the cuts of wood which were
made for plebeian children. The following is a
specimen of the rhymes under the letter A :
184 CAXTON AND
" The axe which traytors often dread,
And husbandmen employ,
"Will sure, in time, cut off the head
Of every naughty boy."
By far the greater number of the children's
books which were in vogue at the beginning of
this century, especially those known as six-
penny toy-books, were not to be compared,
even in their power to entertain children, (to
say nothing of the absence of other qualities,)
with a large proportion of the penny books
with which the world is now filled. If any
intelligent person, of any age, will read the
superior juvenile works published in the present
day, in connexion with any book bearing Mr.
Newberry's imprint, we are confident there will
be no desire to restore the nursery literature of
the olden time. Doubtless, grave errors have
crept into modern juvenile works, and an
equally indefensible extreme has frequently
been reached in the endeavour to avoid puer-
ility ; but all must readily admit that truth
reveals more wonders than fable or fiction,
though the objects it presents may not be so
incongruous or grotesque. We cannot sup-
pose that the Creator has formed the mind
even of a little child to be more pleased with a
human head on the body of a fish, (which may
THE ART OF PRINTING. 185
be taken as a sample of the illustrations in the
works referred to,) than with each in its proper
relation. It is an imposition on the under-
standing of such a child to represent to him a
bird using a cross-bow, or a bear reading from
a book. It admits of no question that there is
a more excellent method of providing for the
wants of the youthful mind, a method which
combines greater advantages with fewer defects,
equal entertainment with more utility. The
numerous excellent works for the young pub-
lished in our own day, prove that the truth has
been recognised that children can be interested
without having their minds filled with literary
rubbish.
At the period to which we have already
alluded books and paper were sold only at
stalls, hence the dealers in these articles were
designated stationers. This class of tradesmen,
after the fire of London, removed from St.
Paul's churchyard to Little Britain and Pater-
noster-row. Little Britain, anciently Breton-
street, from the mansion of the duke of Bretagne
being there, now became a street of great
literary importance, being filled with the shops
of stationers. Within four years, 464 pam-
phlets are said to have been published there.
186 CAXTON AND
The publication of "The Spectator" in folio
was commenced in this street by Buckley, a
learned printer and publisher, at his shop,
bearing the sign of the Dolphin. At the close
of the seventh volume, this popular work was
suspended, but was subsequently resumed by
Buckley on his removal to Amen Corner.
Buckley's taking up his position at Amen
Corner may be regarded as indicating a return
on the part of booksellers to that neighbourhood
as the great mart of books, which it has continued
to be to the present day.
The houses in Paternoster-row, "from the
first north gate of St. Paul's churchyard unto
the next gate, were first built without the wall
of the churchyard by Henry Walters, mayor,
in the year 1282." This street, as Stow
informs us, was called Paternoster-row, because
of stationers or text-writers that dwelt there,
who wrote and sold all sorts of books then in
use. There dwelt there also turners, and they
were called paternoster-makers, according to "a
record of one Eobert Nikkei, paternoster-maker
and citizen, in the reign of Henry iv."
Before the fire of London, the same writer
informs us, " this street was taken up by emi-
nent mercers, silkmen, and lacemen, and their
THE ART OF PRINTING. 1 87
shops were so resorted unto by the nobility
and gentry in their coaches, that ofttimes the
street was so stopped up, that there was no
passage for foot passengers. But after the
fire, those tradesmen removed to other parts.
In 1720, the inhabitants in this street were
a mixture of tradespeople, and chiefly tire-
women, for the sale of commodes, top-knots,
and the like dressings for the females. There
were also many shops of mercers and silk-men,
and at the upper end some stationers, and
large warehouses for booksellers, well situated
for learned and studious men's access thither,
being more retired and private."
A change has since then taken place, and
Paternoster-row is now emphatically the book-
sellers' mart. The intelligent stranger, as he
traverses this far-famed locality, may be said
to stand upon the spot from which issue the
streams of knowledge that go forth to fertilize
the earth. Here literature in all its diversified
forms meets the eye. There is no spot, perhaps,
where the mind may so appropriately meditate
on the power of the printing-press as this, whence
so many of its productions are annually sent
forth to the world.
That this vast engine, the press, is sometimes
188 CAXTON AND
largely perverted to the doing of evil, is an
indisputable and deplorable fact. It was said
only a few years ago, by a high literary autho-
rity,* " The press is pouring out every day
a tide of books, which distract the attention,
weaken the judgment, corrupt the taste, and
defy the criticism of the public by their
very multitude. Every one, young or old,
man or woman, fool or wise, thinks himself
able to say something which may catch the
people's eye, to raise himself either by money
or notoriety. The whole world has become a
great school, where all the people have turned
themselves into teachers ; and the ravenous
appetite of an idle people, always craving for
some new excitement or amusement, and ready
to swallow the most unwholesome food, is daily
stimulating the market. What should we say
if a man had the power of so volatilizing a
grain of arsenic, that its effluvium should be
spread over a whole country, entering into
every house, and penetrating to the most vital
part of the body ? And yet, until it is shown
that the human mind is good in itself, and
the source of good that is not what we know
it to be, save only when purified by religion,
* Edinburgh Review.
THE ART OF PRINTING. 189
corrupt itself, and a corrupter of others this
power, which every man possesses, and which
so many exercise, of diffusing their thoughts
over the world, and insinuating them into the
heart of a nation, is, in reality, the power of
spreading a pestilential miasma."
The only antidote to this moral poison, the
only counteractive of the evils thus exhibited,
is truth. Most desirable and important is it
that the popular literature of our country
should have for its basis, the great and eternal
principles of revealed religion ; that in the pre-
sentation before the mind of the phenomena of
the natural world, there should be a distinct
recognition of the Creator, not as he is pictured
by the unaided imagination, but invested with
those attributes which the Sacred Scriptures
unveil as his peculiar, unchangeable, and ever-
lasting possession ; and which, whenever the inte-
resting and valuable incidents of individual
history, or the events that occur on the far
larger and grander scale of a nation or a con-
tinent are narrated, the providence of the
infinite Ruler should be acknowledged, as sur-
veying with an omniscient eye the vast and the
minute, the occurrence of a moment, or the
circumstances of an age, or a series of ages,
190 CAXTON AND
and making all occurrences work out the pur-
poses of his wisdom and benevolence. It will
be a happy day in the history of the world
when our popular literature shall partake of
this character.
Among the many large publishing establish-
ments in Paternoster-row, the extensive one
from which the present volume issues may, in
a history of the printing-press, be perhaps not
unreasonably allowed to claim a little notice.
The Religious Tract Society was formed to
promote the circulation of religious books
and treatises in foreign countries, as well as
throughout the British dominions. At the
commencement of its operations in 1799,
the sphere of its labours was much circum-
scribed by the smallness of its funds, and the
unsettled and warlike state of most of the
nations of the earth ; but through the general
intercourse with foreign countries, from the
long continuance of peace, and the increased
support which the public has given to the
Society, its exertions have been extended to
almost every part of the world. The first
year's circulation amounted only to 200,000
tracts, in one language, and its total receipts
were about 450 ; but, assisted by the dis-
THE ART OF PRINTING. 191
interested labours of many esteemed friends,
and the devoted missionaries of different Chris-
tian denominations, the Society has now printed
important tracts and books in ONE HUNDRED
AND TWELVE languages and dialects ; its annual
circulation of works from the Depository in
London and from various foreign societies,
amounted to about TWENTY- SEVEN MILLIONS ; its
receipts to 68,126. 11s. d. ; and its total
distribution to March, 1852, including the
issues of its foreign Societies, to about FIVE
HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX MILLIONS of Copies of
its publications. It is an important fact, that
the daily circulation of the Society's works,
except on the sabbath, exceeds 86,000 copies.
As a part of this circulation, the issues of par-
ticular books are often very large. Upwards
of 427,000 copies have been sold of "The
Anxious Inquirer after Salvation Directed and
Encouraged."
The Religious Tract Society has not con-
fined itself solely to the issue of tracts, but
has sought by means of its works on his-
tory, education, and popular subjects, like
the present series, to keep pace with the in-
creased demand for general information, taking
care that all its productions shall be seasoned
192 CAXTON AND THE ART OF PRINTING.
with that religious knowledge which is the
highest of all blessings. Its great rule is, that
each of its publications shall contain a clear
statement of the method of a sinner's recovery
from guilt and misery by the atonement and
grace of the Redeemer, so that if a person were
to read a tract even of the smallest size, and
should never have an opportunity of seeing
another, he might be plainly taught, that in
order to salvation he must be born again
of the Holy Spirit, and justified by faith in
the atonement and finished righteousness ot
Christ. These truths are accordingly now
brought under the notice of the reader, and
affectionately commended to his attention, as
being able, when received into the heart by a
living faith, to nitike him wise unto salvation.
LONDON : BLACKBUE2T AND BVKT, PRINTERS, HOLBOBN HILL.
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
Z Caxton and the art of print:
232
C38C39
1852
