The Art & Practice of Typography / A Manual of American Printing, Including a Brief History up to the Twentieth Century, with Reproductions of the Work of Early Masters of the Craft, and a Practical Discussion and an Extensive Demonstration of the Modern Use of Type-faces and Methods of Arrangement

by Edmund G. Gress

THE SPREAD OF TYPOGRAPHY

The city of Mainz is in the western part of Germany, on the banks of the river Rhine, and even at the present time is heavily fortified. In the year 1462, seven years after Gutenberg’s first Bible was completed, it was the scene of a terrible conflict between two archbishops, Diether and Adolph II., who contended for the office of elector. The elector had a vote in the selection of the king or emperor, and Mainz was one of seven principalities entitled to such an officer.

Diether was the choice of a majority of the citizens of Mainz, but Adolph had the support of the pope in his claims and made war to establish himself in the office. One night in October, 1462, there was an uprising of the followers of Adolph within the city and hundreds of the inhabitants were murdered. The soldiers of Adolph then entered Mainz and set it afire. Most of the citizens fled, and industry and business were paralyzed.

Gutenberg was not affected by these events, as his new shop was outside of the city proper, in the village of Eltville, a short distance away.

The printing office of Fust and Schœffer, however, was burned, and the workmen, fleeing for safety from the distressed city, took up residence in various parts of Europe. Thus was the new art of typography spread and its secrets made common property.

As an introduction to the consideration of the spread of typography, the accompanying table may be of value. The information is as accurate as can be given after carefully consulting numerous authoritative books on the subject. Most writers disagree as to the years in which typography was introduced into many of the cities of Europe, and for that reason in cases where such doubt exists one of the later dates has been chosen for the purpose of this table.

In Germany, before the capture of Mainz, John Mentel at Strassburg and Albrecht Pfister at Bamberg, were printing books by the new process. With this fact as a basis, both Mentel and Pfister were once proclaimed inventors of typography by over-enthusiastic students of printing history.

Of the printers driven from Mainz by the sacking of the city, Ulrich Zell is probably the best known, because of his connection with the Coster-Gutenberg controversy. Zell became rich as a printer and publisher at Cologne, conducting an office there for more than forty years. During all that time he never printed a book in the German language. He had as business competitors twenty-one other master printers, one of whom, Arnold Ter Hoorne, was the first to make use of Arabic numerals.

Gunther Zainer began to practice typography at Augsburg in 1468 and was the first printer in Germany to print a book in Roman characters. He was also one of the first printers to encounter restrictions by labor unions. Zainer illustrated his books with woodcuts, and this the block-printers’ guild objected to. They induced the magistrates to pass a law against typographers using woodcuts, but this law was afterward modified to allow the use of woodcuts when made by regular engravers.

Heinrich Keffer printed at Nuremberg about 1470 under the direction of John Sensenschmidt, who in 1481, at Bamberg, published his famous Missal, printed with large Gothic types of about sixty-point body. Keffer had been a witness for Gutenberg in his law suit of 1455.

Anthony Koburger opened a printing office at Nuremberg in 1473, and later also conducted offices at Basel in Switzerland, and at Lyons in France. Koburger was one of the most successful of the early printers; he had twenty-four presses in operation at Nuremberg alone and is said to have printed twelve editions of the Bible in Latin and one in German.

CITY AND COUNTRY		YEAR THE ART WAS INTRODUCED	BY WHOM
Mainz	Germany	1450	Johann Gutenberg
Strassburg	Germany	1460	John Mentel
Bamberg	Germany	1461	Albrecht Pfister
Cologne	Germany	1464	Ulrich Zell
Rome [Subiaco]	Italy	1465	Conrad Schweinheim Arnold Pannartz
Basel	Switzerland	1468	Bertold Ruppel
Augsburg	Germany	1468	Gunther Zainer
Venice	Italy	1469	John de Spira
Nuremberg	Germany	1470	Heinrich Keffer John Sensenschmidt
Paris	France	1470	Ulrich Gering Martin Crantz Michel Friburger
Florence	Italy	1471	Bernardo Cennini
Utrecht	Netherlands	1473	Nicholas Ketelaer Gerard de Leempt
Bruges	Netherlands	1474	Colard Mansion
London [Westminster]	England	1477	William Caxton
Barcelona	Spain	1478	Nicholas Spindeler
Oxford	England	1478	Theodoric Rood
Leipzig	Germany	1481	Marcus Brand
Vienna	Austria	1482	John Winterberger
Stockholm	Sweden	1483	John Snell
Haarlem	Holland	1483	Johannes Andriesson
Heidelberg	Germany	1485	Frederic Misch
Copenhagen	Denmark	1493	Gothofridus de Ghemen
Munich	Germany	1500	John Schobzer
Edinburgh	Scotland	1507	Androw Myllar
Mexico City	Mexico	1540	John Cromberger
Dublin	Ireland	1551	Humphrey Powell
Cambridge, Mass.	[U.S.]	1639	Stephen Daye
THE SPREAD OF TYPOGRAPHY FROM MAINZ

PAGE PRINTED BY KOBURGER
Combination of woodcuts and typography in a book of 1493

In Italy the first printing done with separate types was in the year 1465 in the monastery at Subiaco, a village on the outskirts of Rome. The cardinal in charge of the monastery, impressed with the importance of the new art and anxious to have it introduced into Italy, persuaded Conrad Schweinheim and Arnold Pannartz to come from Germany for the purpose. In 1467 these two printers removed to the city proper and there printed more extensively. Many classical works were produced, but five years later they complained that a large portion of the product had not been sold and that they were in distress.

Ulrich Hahn was the first printer in the city of Rome proper, having opened an office there soon after Schweinheim and Pannartz began work at Subiaco.

John de Spira (born in Spire, Germany) was the first typographer at Venice, the Italian city famous for the excellence of its printed books. Setting up a press in 1469, his work was of such quality as to obtain for him exclusive right to print by the new process at Venice. De Spira died in 1470 and the privilege was forfeited.

Nicholas Jenson, who came to Venice in 1470, is known as the originator of the Roman type-face. Schweinheim, Pannartz, Hahn and De Spira, all had used type-faces based upon the letters of Italian scribes, but the types had Gothic characteristics. Nearly all Roman type-faces of the present day trace lineage, as it were, to the types of Jenson.

With the exception of Gutenberg, Fust and Schœffer, and perhaps Aldus, who succeeded him, Jenson is the most conspicuous figure among the early printers. The story of his introduction to the art is interesting: Charles VII., King of France, in the year 1458 decided to send an emissary to Mainz to learn the new art, which was supposed to be a secret, and Jenson, then an engraver and master of the royal mint at Tours, was selected for the mission. Three years later he returned to Paris with a full knowledge of typography, but found the king had died and that his successor was not interested in the matter. This condition of affairs seems to have discouraged Jenson, for he did not begin to print until 1470, and then at Venice, Italy. (A typographical error in a printed date of one of his books makes it read 1461 instead of 1471, and encourages some writers to claim that Jenson was the first Venetian printer.) The death of John de Spira opened the field for other printers in Venice, and Jenson was one of the first to take advantage of it.

Jenson cut but one set of punches for his Roman type-face, the cutting being done so accurately that no changes were afterward necessary. The Roman types, being less decorative and more legible than the Gothic letters of the Germans, allowed the use of capitals for headings. A colophon, the forerunner of the modern title-page, was set by Jenson entirely in capitals with the lines opened up by liberal space. This colophon, which was probably the first page of displayed type composition, is reproduced below.

THE FIRST PAGE OF DISPLAYED TYPE COMPOSITION
Arranged by Jenson at Venice in 1471

It is an interesting fact that the books of Jenson do not contain the letters J, U and W, these characters not having been added to the alphabet until some years later. To satisfy a demand he also cut and used a round Gothic face. The product of Jenson’s presses represents the highest attainment in the art of printing. His types were perfect, the print clear and sharp, paper carefully selected, and margins nicely proportioned.

Jenson died in 1481, honored and wealthy. His printing office passed first to an association and then to one whose fame as a printer perhaps surpasses that of Jenson.

Aldus Manutius was a learned Roman, attracted to printing about 1489 by the pleasures it afforded in the publishing of books. He introduced the slanting style of type known as italic, so named in honor of Italy and fashioned after the careful handwriting of Petrarch, an Italian poet. Italic at first consisted only of lower-case letters, small upright Roman capitals being used with them. The reproduction below shows this combination and also the peculiar style of inserting a space after the capital letter beginning each line.

A page (actual size) from the famous Bamberg Missal
Printed by Sensenschmidt in 1481

Aldus also introduced the innovation of considerably reducing the size of books from the large folio to the convenient octavo. The size of a folio page is about twice that of this one, which is known as a quarto, and an octavo page is half the size of a quarto.

Aldus was the first to suggest the printing of a polyglot Bible. The word polyglot means “many tongues” and here refers to a book giving versions of the same text or subject matter in several languages. The polyglot Bible of Aldus was to have been in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, but got no further than a few specimen pages.

The first polyglot work ever printed was a Psalter of eight columns, each a different translation, from the press of Peter Paul Porrus, at Genoa, Italy, in 1516. This Psalter was the literary work of Augustin Justinian, a Corsican bishop, who later also arranged an entire Bible on similar plans.

THE FIRST ITALIC TYPE-FACE
Page printed by Aldus at Venice in 1514

Aldus is honored wherever books are known, not only on account of the excellence of his productions, but because of the sincerity of his purpose and his love of printing. In the first book printed by him at Venice he declares for himself and co-workers: “We have determined henceforth to devote all our lives to this good work, and call God to witness that our sincere desire is to do good to mankind.” In the production of classical works Aldus was assisted by many scholar-refugees from Constantinople, which city had been captured by the Turks. Aldus’s fame spread thruout Europe, and many visitors came to Venice to see him. This annoyed him to such an extent that he had a notice placed above the entrance to his printing office which in part read: “Whoever you are that wish to see Aldus, be brief; and when business is finished, go away.” It can thus be seen that the present-day motto cards popular in business offices are not a new idea.

Aldus’s complete name was Aldus Pius Manutius Romanus, the first word of which is abbreviated from Theobaldus.

There were more than two hundred printing offices in Venice before the year 1500 and two million volumes were produced. These figures may surprise the average modern reader, who is not inclined to concede extensive production to the past.

Bernardo Cennini, a goldsmith, introduced typography into Florence, Italy, in the year 1471. It is claimed that he made his tools, cast his types and printed without instruction from German typographers, depending upon verbal reports of the process and examination of printed books. Cennini produced only one book.

Johann Numeister, who had been a pupil of Gutenberg, after the death of his master journeyed toward Rome, but for some reason stopped at the little Italian city of Foligno and began to print there in 1470. He used both Roman and Gothic types.

In Switzerland the new art was first practiced at Basel about 1468 by Bertold Ruppel or Rodt, who had been one of Gutenberg’s workmen. Basel was an important printing center in the days when the art was young, and gave to France its first typographers.

John Froben, who set up a press at Basel in 1491, is perhaps the best known of the printers of that city, and because of his use of the then new italic letters was called the “German Aldus.”

In those days lived the famous Dutch philosopher and theologian Erasmus, one of the brightest minds of Europe. Erasmus, having heard of Froben, came to Basel to arrange for the printing of his books, and thus began a friendship which lasted many years. Erasmus became a guest at the house of Froben, and his presence was a big factor in that printer’s success. Erasmus once said of Froben that he benefited the public more than himself, and predicted that he would leave his heirs more fame than money. (A book of one of the works of Erasmus, printed by Hieronymus Froben, son of John, recently sold for fifteen hundred dollars at a sale in New York.)

In France typography might have been introduced as early as 1461 had not the death of Charles VII. interfered with the plans of Jenson and caused him to go to Venice. As it was, in the year 1470 Ulrich Gering, Martin Crantz and Michel Friburger, three German printers who had been working at Basel, Switzerland, settled at Paris and began to print under the patronage of two members of the University of Sorbonne. The early books of this press were printed from a Roman type-face. The quality of the work of these printers is said not to have been good. Types were defective and presswork deficient, many of the printed letters needing retouching by hand.

Gering became rich and upon his death left much of his fortune to the university within whose walls he had first printed upon coming to Paris.

In order to demonstrate the success of the early printers in decorating their books without the aid of illuminators, a page is reproduced, printed about 1486 by Philip Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, a bookseller of Paris. The decorations were printed from wood blocks, engraved in the style of the Gothic period, with stippled backgrounds, and are interesting to the printer because they show early use of the pieced border, a method now familiar.

SPECIMENS FROM THE FIRST TWO PAGES OF THE POLYGLOT BIBLE IN HEBREW, LATIN AND GREEK. PRINTED BY PLANTIN AT ANTWERP. ABOUT 1569

GOTHIC ORNAMENTAL PIECES
Book of Hours, printed for Simon Vostre at Paris in 1486

Henry Estienne settled in Paris in 1502 and was the first of an illustrious family of typographers. The Estiennes flourished until 1664, during that time printing many remarkable books. A grandson of Henry Estienne was the first to apply the system of numbered verses to the entire Bible.

Robert Estienne, a son of Henry, was the best known and most scholarly of the Estiennes. He was patronized and favored by the King of France, and his press may be said to have been the beginning of the celebrated Greek Press of Paris.

Robert Estienne’s ambition, the printing of de-luxe editions of the classics, was his undoing as well as his making. The priests of the Sorbonne, upon the appearance of a polyglot Bible in Hebrew and Greek from the Estienne press, became enraged and Robert had to flee to Geneva, Switzerland, for safety. There was little demand in that city for elaborate books, but Estienne patiently worked there until his death in 1559. His life had been spent in a labor of love, for he had scorned money as a reward for his work.

In the Netherlands typography was not practiced so far as is known until 1473, when a press was erected at Utrecht. While it is supposed that printing was done before that time at Bruges, there is no direct evidence to support the supposition. It is known, however, that Colard Mansion printed at Bruges in 1474, and that he taught typography to William Caxton, with him producing the first book printed in the English language.

There is a book with the date 1472, printed at Antwerp by Van der Goes, but this date is supposed to be a misprint, as in the case of Jenson’s book of 1471.

Christopher Plantin, a Frenchman, who began to print at Antwerp in 1555, gave to that city the renown which it enjoys in the printing world. Plantin printed on a magnificent scale, his luxurious notions extending to the casting of silver types. His printing office was considered one of the ornaments of the city and is today used as a museum for the display of paintings and typographical work. Plantin retained a number of learned men as correctors of his copy and proofs, and the story is told that his proof sheets, after undergoing every possible degree of correction, were hung in some conspicuous place and a reward offered for the detection of errors. Plantin’s greatest work was his polyglot Bible of 1569, a portion of which is reproduced above.

Louis Elzevir, founder of the family of learned printers of that name, first printed in 1595 at Leyden. The second Louis Elzevir opened an office at Amsterdam in 1640. The product of the Elzevirs was of such quality as to make them famous thruout Europe as printers of the classics, and their books were extensively imitated and counterfeited.

While Haarlem is claimed to have been the birthplace of typography, a book cannot be produced printed in that city with a date earlier than 1483, when Johannes Andriesson had an office there.

In England the name of William Caxton is one to conjure with among typographers, for Caxton was the first to set type in that country, the event taking place about the year 1477. Perhaps the thing that endears Caxton to the hearts of English printers is that he was born in England. The first printers of Italy, Switzerland and France were Germans, but Caxton was English; we have his own words to prove it: “I was born and lerned myn englissh in Kente in the weeld where I doubte not is spoken as brode and rude englissh as it is in ony place in englond.”

Caxton had been apprenticed when a young man to a merchant, and after his master’s death took up residence at Bruges in the Netherlands, with which city England did considerable trading. There he prospered and as governor of the Merchant Adventurers had control over all English and Scotch traders in the Low Countries. The device later used by Caxton for his imprint is supposed to have been copied from some trading mark of the Bruges merchants.

Caxton resigned as governor and entered the service of the Duchess of Burgundy, who encouraged him in literary work. Under her patronage he translated (1469–1471) a “Historie of Troye.” The demand for this work was an incentive for Caxton to learn how to print it. This he did with the assistance of Colard Mansion who had started a printing office at Bruges.

Shortly afterward, Caxton returned to England and set up a press in the vicinity of Westminster Abbey, then on the outskirts of London. The first book with a date printed by him is “The Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophers,” completed in November, 1477. His type-faces are copies of those of Mansion, who in turn imitated the letters of Dutch copyists. A type-face based on Caxton’s letter is now made by an American foundry.

PAGE BY ENGLAND’S FIRST PRINTER
How Caxton arranged a book title in 1483

The product of Caxton’s press during his life is estimated at eighteen thousand pages, nearly all of folio size. Caxton did not print de-luxe editions as did other of the early printers of Europe, but his productions were no less interesting. On his first books the lines were not spaced to the full length. This gave to the right side of the page a ragged appearance, as in modern typewritten letters.

Caxton did not devote a separate page to a book title until late in his life, when he printed a title alone in the center of the first page. The reproduction (on the preceding page) of a part of Caxton’s “Fables of Esope” shows how the title was arranged at the page head.

Wynken de Worde, a native of western Germany, was a workman under Caxton and upon the latter’s death, about 1491, succeeded to the business of his master. He continued to print in Caxton’s house for several years, afterward removing to “Fleet-street at the sygn of the Sonne,” in London proper. Old English black-letter, which is now so popular, was used by De Worde to a great extent, and he was the first printer to introduce the Roman letter into England.

Richard Pynson, another of Caxton’s workmen and friend of De Worde, set up a press in Temple Bar, London, about 1492, and printed many useful books.

PAGE IN ENGLISH BY JOHN DAYE
From Fox’s famous “Acts and Monuments,” London, 1560

Richard Grafton is famous as a printer of English Bibles during the troublous times of the Reformation. The church authorities believed it was not good for the people in general to read the Sacred Scriptures, and the Bible, translated into English by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale, and printed anonymously by Richard Grafton at Antwerp, was the object of much concern to the ecclesiastics. The Bishop of London complained that “Some sons of iniquity have craftily translated the Holy Gospel of God into our vulgar English.” After a long imprisonment Tyndale suffered death by strangulation and burning. Grafton was imprisoned in 1540 for printing a large folio Old and New Testament known as the “Great Bible.” This tremendous task of printing was accomplished by Grafton in partnership with Edward Whitechurch at Paris and London.

Shortly after this the prejudice against an English translation was partly overcome, and in 1543 Parliament passed an act allowing the Bible to be read by certain classes, but forbidding women, apprentices, journeymen, husbandmen or laborers to read it privately or openly.

THE FIRST PSALTER IN ENGLISH
Printed at London about 1565 by Christopher Barker

John Daye, who first printed about 1546, was another English typographer to suffer imprisonment on account of activity in the Protestant cause. Many important books were printed by Daye, and in character and accomplishments he has been likened to Plantin who printed during the same period at Antwerp.

The best known of the books printed by Daye is Fox’s “Acts and Monuments,” on the subject of wrongs and persecutions in the days of the Reformation. Dibden says it was “a work of prodigious bulk, expense and labor.”

In Scotland printing was introduced in 1507 at Edinburgh by Androw Myllar, in partnership with Walter Chepman, under a patent granted by King James IV.

In Ireland a prayer book was printed by the new process in 1551 at Dublin by Humphrey Powell.

In North America typography was first practiced in 1540 at Mexico City, Mexico, by John Cromberger.

In the United States, or rather the territory now included under that name, typography was introduced in 1639 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Stephen Daye.

A title-page of many words and much type-display
(Actual size and color treatment)