FOOTNOTES:
[145] As wooden types were the first with which the original printers made their earliest essays in the art of Typography in Europe, it is interesting to learn that in America such types are now being used to so great an extent, that it requires the aid of the most finished machinery to supply the demand that has arisen for them. The following account of their manufacture is condensed from a narrative in the Boston Weekly Spectator (Oct. 12, 1871).—About 1853 Mr. William H. Page, originally a printer, entered into the employ of Mr. J. G. Cooley, a wood type cutter at Greenville. Noticing the many defects of the process he busied his mind in devising and inventing methods for its improvement. Succeeding in his efforts, he started in business on his own account; and in 1869, having bought out Mr. Cooley, transferred the whole of the works to Norwich, Eastern Connecticut. Here, with extensive and perfect machinery, and from 35 to 40 workpeople, one-seventh of whom are females, he supplies the greater part of the wooden types used throughout the United States. The process of manufacture is as follows:—All ordinary wood type is made of rock-maple, which grows abundantly in Connecticut. The logs are first sawed across the grain into blocks an inch and an eighth thick, then steamed to force out the sap, and when dried, packed away in the seasoning house for two years. When wanted for type, they are taken to dressing machines, where horizontal revolving cutters rapidly smoothe and reduce their size with perfect uniformity; they are then skilfully planed by hand, next gum-shellaced, and dried for half a day, and sand papered, which process is again repeated. After this, they are taken to felt buffing wheels, covered with beeswax and tallow, which, revolving with exceeding swiftness, thoroughly polish the surfaces on which the letters are to be cut. The blocks are then sawed into the desired shapes, and transferred to the letter makers. These place the prepared blocks in a machine not much unlike in its appearance to an eccentric lathe, although it is not one. Set in one angle of a horizontal frame like a pentagraph, is a pencil or tracer, moved by the hand of the operator exactly in the lines of a stationary pattern or model letter. In an opposite angle, and directly over the block to be carved, is a corresponding pencil of fine steel, in reality a small bit, or gouge, which is belted to the driving power, and makes from 17,000 to 20,000 revolutions a minute, following minutely all the lines and flexions of the tracer on the pattern. A skilful operator can thus make a letter in half a minute. This part of the work is chiefly performed by girls. After leaving the cutter the letters are further dressed by a trimmer who gives them their finishing touches, when they are thoroughly oiled with linseed oil, and packed for transport to wherever ordered. The ordinary size of letters, used for Advertising placards, is 1 ft. 8 in., though occasionally some are ordered 14 ft. long, [made and printed in sections it is presumed]. These monster letters are made of a softer white wood, and gouged out on a great machine called a “router.” The smallest size manufactured is about one-third of an inch. [B. W. S.] This is just the size of the types used for the “Appeal to Christendom against the Turks,” printed at Mentz in 1454 or 1455. What steam-driven machinery is doing for wooden types it is also doing in another form for types of cast metal. The greatest number that an expert workman could cast by the hand-mould process was about 1800 in an hour. After many years of costly experimentalizing, and frequent but not wholly fruitless failures, a machine was at last perfected in 1862, by which as many as 7600 letters an hour are turned out. With type manufactured at this rate, with steam type-composers that put together 40,000 letters an hour, (the invention of Mr. A. Mackie of Warrington), and with steam printing machines capable of perfecting 12,000 sheets (equal to 24,000 impressions) in the same space of time, (the Times “Walter” machine, invented by Mr. J. C. Macdonald); the latter half of the nineteenth century is truly an era of marvels in all that concerns Letter-press Printing.
[146] Dr. Van Der Linde treats this writer with but scant ceremony. He says, (p. 76 of Hessels’ Translation) “The father of this arch-liar had written frankly and in accordance with truth—‘Joh. Faust (Fust) war Mitverleger der Buchdruckerei in der Stadt Mentze; etliche wollen wider seiner Dank ihn zu einem Inventorem haben und macken, so aber nur mit seinem Vermögen und guten Rath in der That geholfen.’—‘Joh. Faust was partner in the printing office at Mentz; some persons would make an inventor of him against his own wish; he really helped only with his money and good advice.’”
II.—Account of the Origin of Printing, by Hadrian Junius.
Dicam igitur quod accepi a senibus et autoritate gravibus et Reipublicæ administratione claris, quique a majoribus suis ita accepisse gravissimo testimonio confirmarunt, quorum auctoritas jure pondus habere debeat ad faciendam fidem. Habitavit ante annos centum duo de triginta Harlemi, in ædibus satis splendidis (ut documento esse potest fabrica, quæ in hunc diem perstat integra) foro imminentibus e regione Palatii Regalis, Laurentius Joannis cognomento Aedituus Custosve (quod tunc opimum et honorificum munus familia eo nomine clara hæreditario jure possidebat) is ipse, qui nunc laudem inventæ artis Typographicæ recidivam justis vindiciis et sacramentis repetit, ab aliis nefarie possessam et occupatam, summo jure omnium triumphorum laurea majore donandus. Is forte in suburbano nemore spatiatus (ut solent sumpto cibo aut festis diebus cives, qui otio abundant), cœpit faginos cortices principio in litterarum typos conformare, quibus, inversa ratione sigillatim chartæ impressis, versiculum unum atque alterum animi gratia ducebat, nepotibus, generi sui liberis exemplum futurum. Quod ubi feliciter successerat, cœpit animo altiora (ut erat ingenio magno et subacto) agitare primumque omnium atramenti scriptorii genus glutinosius tenaciusque, quod vulgare lituras trahere experiretur, cum genere suo Thoma Petro qui quatuor liberos reliquit, omnes ferme consulare dignitate functos (quod eo dico, ut artem in familia honesta et ingenua, haud servili, natam intelligant omnes), excogitavit, inde etiam pinaces totas figuratas additis caracteribus expressit. Quo in genere vidi ab ipso excussa adversaria, operarum rudimentum, paginis solum adversis, haud opistographis. Is liber erat vernaculo sermone ab auctore conscriptus anonymo, titulum præferens: Speculum nostræ salutis, in quibus id observatum fuerat inter prima artis incunabula (ut nunquam ulla simul reperta et absoluta est) uti paginæ aversæ glutine cohærescerent, ne illæ ipsæ vacuæ deformitatem adferrent. Postea faginas formas plumbeis mutavit, has deinceps stanneas fecit, quo solidior minusque flexilis esset materia durabiliorque; e quorum typorum reliquiis, quæ superfuerant, conflata œnophora vetustiora adhuc hodie visuntur in Laurentianis illis, quas dixi ædibus, in forum prospectantibus, habitatis postea a suo pronepote Gerardo Thoma, quem honoris causa nomino, cive claro ante paucos hos annos vita defuncto sene. Faventibus, ut fit, invento novo studiis hominum, quum nova merx, nunquam antea visa, emptores undique exciret, cum uberrimo quæstu creuit simul artis amor, creuit ministerium, additi familiæ operarum ministri, prima mali labes, quos inter Joannes quidam, sive is (ut fert suspicio) Faustus fuerit ominoso cognomine, hero suo infidus et infaustus, sive alius eo nomine, non magnopere laboro, quod silentum umbras inquietare nolim contagione conscientiæ, quondam dum viverent, tactas. Is ad operas excusorias sacramento dictus, postquam artem jungendorum characterum, fusilium typorum peritiam, quæque alia eam ad rem spectant, percalluisse sibi visus est, captato opportuno tempore quo non potuit magis idoneum inveniri, ipsa nocte, quæ Christi natalitiis solennis est, qua cuncti promiscue lustralibus sacri operari solent, choragium omne typorum involat, instrumentorum herilium, ei artificio comparatorum, supellectilem convasat, deinde cum fure domo se proripit, Amstelodamum principio adit, inde Coloniam Agrippinam, donec Magontiacum perventum est, ceu ad asyliaram, ubi quasi extra telorum jactum (quod dicitur) positus tuto degeret, suorumque furtorum aperta officina fructum huberem meteret. Nimirum ex ea intra vertentis anni spacium, ad annum a nato Christo 1442, iis ipsis typis, quibus Harlemi Laurentius fuerat usus, prodisse in lucem certum est Alexandri Galli Doctrinale, quæ Grammatica celeberrimo tunc in usu erat, cum Petri Hispani tractatibus, prima fœtura. Ista sunt ferme, quæ a senibus annosis, fide dignis, et qui tradita de manu in manum, quasi ardentem tædam in decursu acceperant, olim intellexi, et alios eadem referentes attestantesque comperi. Memini narasse mihi Nicolaum Galium, pueritiæ meæ formatorem, hominem ferrea memoria et longa canitie venerabilem, quod puer non semel audierit, Cornelium quendam bibliopegum ac senio gravem, nec octogenario minorem (qui in eadem officina subministrum egerat) tanta animi contentione ac fervore commemorantem rei gestæ seriem, inventi (ut ab hero acceperat) rationem, rudis artis polituram et incrementum, aliaque id genus, ut invito quoque præ rei indignitate lachrymæ erumperent, quoties de plagio inciderat mentio: tum vero ob ereptam furto gloriam sic ira exardescere solere senem, ut etiam lictoris exemplum eum fuisse editurum in plagiarium eum fuisse editurum in plagiarium appareret, si vita illi superfuisset: tum devovere consuevisse diris ultricibus sacrilegum caput, noctesque illas damnare atque execrari quas una cum scelere illo communi in cubili per aliquot menses exegisset. Quæ non dissonant a verbis Quirini Talesii Cos, eadem fere ex ore librarii ejusdem se olim accepisse mihi confessi, etc.—Batavia p. 253, et seq.
III.—The Haarlem-Coster-Legend.
[The Haarlem Legend of the Invention of Printing by Lourens Janszoon Coster, critically examined by Dr. A. Van Der Linde. Translated from the Dutch by J. H. Hessels, with an Introduction and a Classified List of the Costerian Incunabula. London, Blades, East, and Blades. 1871. Roy. 8vo. pp. xxvi. and 170.]
A copy of the above work having reached me while the preceding sheet was being prepared for press, I am singularly gratified to find, that by means of a wholly independent process of investigation, I have arrived at a conclusion, almost identical, on the main point, with that to which other and more direct sources of information have led Dr. Van Der Linde. Writing for English readers, and dealing chiefly with the statements and arguments of the leading English Costerians, the confirmation thus given to my views is as great as it was unexpected.
Dr. Van Der Linde shews, most conclusively, that the whole story of the Origin of Printing in Haarlem arose from the fabrication of a pedigree by an innkeeper named Gerrit Thomaszoon, who was sheriff of Haarlem in the year 1545, and who died about the year 1563 or 1564. This pedigree, made a few years before his death, traces his descent from one Thomas Pieterssoen, by Lucye “his second wife, who was the daughter of Louris Janssoens Coster, who brought the first print into the world Anno 1446.” Authority for this statement there is absolutely none; and no proof whatever exists that Lucye the daughter of Louris Janssoens, ever existed otherwise than by her creation in the fertile fancy of the pedigree maker. But proof there is in abundance, that one Lourens Janszoon Coster kept a tallow-chandler’s shop in Haarlem between the years 1440 and 1450; that about the latter year he transferred that business to his sister, Ghertruit Jan Costersdochter, who died in 1454; he himself starting as an innkeeper in 1451, in which occupation he continued until 1483, when he left Haarlem with all his goods, and is heard of no more. This Lourens Coster was a member of a festive body, called the “Holy Christmas Corporation.” It consisted of 54 brethren and sisters, each one of whom possessed a chair specially set apart for him or her at their regular meetings. These chairs passed by inheritance or purchase from one to another; the corporation apparently having had its origin in a family gathering. Its transactions were minutely recorded, and particular care was taken to note the transmission of the chairs from one holder to another. Lourens Coster’s chair passed in 1484, (the record does not state how), into the possession of Frans Thomas Thomaszoon, and in 1497 Gerrit Thomaszoon Pieterszoon inherited it from his father. This is the individual who kept the inn on the market place, and was made sheriff in 1545. Now Jan Van Zuyren and Coornhert were partners in business, and “sworn book-printers” to the town in 1561, in which year Van Zuyren also became Burgomaster. They could not but have been intimate with the sheriff and innkeeper Gerrit Thomaszoon, who lived to the year 1563 or 1564. He would also be well known to Junius, living as he did in Haarlem from 1560 to 1572. In one of the rooms of his inn Gerrit Thomaszoon hung up the pedigree he had had made, and in which was set forth his descent from “Lucye, second wife of Thomas Pieterszoon, daughter of Louris Janssoens Coster, who brought the first print into the world Anno 1446.” Here then, as in a nutshell, lie the whole of the circumstances which Junius, in 1568, worked up in his Batavia into an account of the Origin of Printing in Haarlem, by Laurens Janszoon Coster; but with the date of the pedigree altered from 1446 to 1440. The cogent reasons for this alteration are fully shewn by Dr. Van Der Linde.
The statements of Van Zuyren and Coornhert; the story of the family mansion, and the wine-pot relics; the cursings of the old book-binder Cornelis; the confirmations of the tale to Junius by Nicholas Galius and Quiryn Dirksz Talesius, are all now easily understood,—they were tavern gossip, suggested by the pedigree, which passing through the alembic of Junius’s brain, issued thence in the shape of a circumstantial history, which national vanity has been induced to accept as a record of indubitable facts.
From first to last, the Coster-legend forms a very singular chapter in the history of national credulity. Scriverius, writing in 1628, and not knowing the source of Junius’s information, makes one Lourens Janszoon, sheriff of Haarlem, who died in 1439, the Laurens Janszoon Coster,—(these names being as common in Haarlem as those of Brown, Jones and Smith in London,)—to whom was attributed the origin of printing; and to whose memory a stone statue was erected in 1722. In 1823 and 1824 bronze and silver jubilee medals were struck in honor of the same supposed first typographer, and two memorial stones put up; and in 1851, a third tablet was placed in front of the rebuilt Coster-house. But meanwhile, the pedigree is discovered, and Koning and others strive hard to identify the Lourens Janssoens Coster it mentions, with the Lourens Janszoon of Scriverius. Junius’s account is unscrupulously amended and altered and corrected, in order to make room for the views of subsequent writers; and another statue in bronze is resolved upon, which is erected in 1856; but this one, in the secret knowledge of the Committee engaged in its erection,[147] is to the memory of the tallow-chandler and innkeeper, and not to that of the alleged sheriff. Finally, the pedigree is published, all other documents connected with the persons named in it, and in the history by Junius, are critically examined; and in 1870 the fallacy of the whole affair is thoroughly exposed.
The conclusion to which Dr. Van Der Linde arrives in his chapter on “The Spread of Typography in the Netherlands,” is as follows:—
“The harvest of history on the field of typography concerning Haarlem may be scanty; it does not yield anything, as far as xylography goes. There existed there already very early a Lucasguild, like that at Antwerp, and like the Johannesgild at Bruges; but, however rich in painters, sculptors, and goldsmiths, the Haarlem Corporation may have been, it produces, notwithstanding the most patient researches, not a single prenter (briefprenter) or xylographer. The manufacture, therefore, of a whole series of blockbooks of the 15th century, ascribed, two, three, and four centuries afterwards, without any shadow of evidence, to a Haarlem innkeeper, has to be referred to the empire of fiction.”
Mr. Hessels (a native of Haarlem, as is also Dr. Van Der Linde) says, in his very able Introduction: (p. vii.)
“Whatever may be said about the discrepancies and absurdities of the Coster-legend, now that we possess a full knowledge of it, there is one circumstance which has given, and will give, an air of probability to the story, even now that it is deprived of its hero, so long as this circumstance cannot be sufficiently accounted for. I mean the existence of a comparatively large number of works—blockbooks and incunabula—which are of an incontestably early, and Dutch origin, and which cannot, even at present, be ascribed to any known printer, but of which it is certain that they belong to the printer who produced the four editions of the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, the book referred to by Junius.”
He then gives, on pages xi. to xvi., a classified list of the Costeriana as far as known, amounting in all to 43 separate works and editions, distinguishing seven different types used in their production.
“The earliest date (he says) we can assign for the present to the Costeriana is 1471–74. Mr. Holtrop tells us on p. 31 of his Monuments, that the Hague copy of the Saliceto (No. 25 of his list) contains two MS. annotations: 1st, ‘Hunc librum emit dominus Conrardus abbas hujus loci XXXIII., qui obiit anno MCCCCLXXIIII, in profesto exaltationis sanctae crucis, postquam profuisset annis fere tribus.’ Another inscription indicates that this copy had belonged to the convent of St. James, at Lille. Now, the abbat Conrad, who bought this book for his convent, was Conrad du Moulin, who was abbat only from 1471 to 1474.
“This is the only date we can use at present. It is, as Mr. Bradshaw observes in his ‘List,’ mentioned above, ‘a singular circumstance that this one fact should compel us to place the printer of the Speculum at the head of the Dutch printers, though it only just allows him to take precedence of Ketelaer and De Leempt,’ from whom we have the date 1473, found in Peter Comestor, Scholastica hystoria.”—pp. xvii.-xviii.
The above considerations go far towards supporting the suggestions I have thrown out (see pages 323–348) in regard to the dates when, and the parties by whom, the Speculum, Donatuses, &c., were printed. And these suggestions are further confirmed by the extracts cited by Dr. Van Der Linde from the archives of Utrecht, in a note on p. 85 of Hessels’ Translation, where it is stated that in the year 1466, the name of Peter Dircxsz, described as a “beeldedrucker”—a prenter,—appears. “Perhaps,” adds Dr. Van Der Linde, “the printer of the plates of the Speculum.”