The block book proper however, shows text as well as illustrations, the text gradually becoming more and more important. Block books are printed in pale coloured ink, so that they may take colour as well as possible, and are usually coloured more or less, sometimes by hand and sometimes by means of stencil plates, or perhaps a combination of both methods. Many of them are astronomical, but as a rule the subjects are more or less religious, such as the “Ars Moriendi” or “Biblia Pauperum”; the illustrations and the text being variously arranged. Each page is cut on one block, sometimes printed page by page, sometimes two pages at a time, and always on one side of the paper only.
Now and then, as in the case of the “Speculum Humanae Salvationis,” the text is separately cut; this remarkable book is supposed to have been printed at Utrecht about 1470-72. Block books are always printed on paper of excellent quality.
Printing from moveable types in Europe is considered by many authorities to have been invented by Laurens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, during the earlier half of the fifteenth century. Actual proofs are wanting, but there exist several books and fragments of books, many of which have been recovered from the boards of old bindings, which certainly are not the work of Gutenberg. These fragments were printed in Holland, and are known as “Costeriana”; several of the letters used correspond to the Dutch manuscript letters of the time, and many of them are copies of the school books known as “Donatus’.” Some of the letters look much as if they had been cut in wood. At Avignon it is recorded that in 1444 experiments with printing types were made.
The Coster legend appears to have been started by Adrianus Junius, who in his Batavia, published at Antwerp in 1588, speaking of Haarlem, says: “Redeo ad urbem nostram cui primam inventae ist hic artis typographical gloriam deberi.”
There is no doubt that the Costeriana have a family likeness between them, and the types used in them have been carefully compared by Mr. Hessels with those found in the edition of Ælius Donatus’ grammars, and in the Doctrinale of Alex. de Villa Dei, and in his opinion they have the same origin.
Whether the rival claims of Avignon, Haarlem, or Mainz, for the honour of having been the first town in which printing from moveable types was done in Europe will ever be finally settled, is questionable. But there is no doubt that Johann Gutenberg was the first printer in Europe who made printing with moveable type of real usefulness. In 1472, Fichet wrote that Gutenberg, who worked in Mayence, was the first inventor of the art of printing by means of moveable types. Curiously enough the work credited to him shows no amateur feeling whatever. Both the Indulgences of 1454, which may be his, and the Mazarin Bible of about 1455, which certainly is, are as finely and perfectly printed as any books ever have been since.
It must be noted here that certain authorities still maintain that this Bible was printed by Fust and Schöffer, but the weight of expert opinion is nevertheless strongly in favour of Gutenberg.
But however this may be, in the case of the beautiful Mainz Psalter, we are on absolutely safe ground. In this book appears the date 1457, and also the names of the printers Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer. It is in every way a magnificent specimen of typography, and the letters are very large. It is also a fine example of colour printing, as the initial letters are cut in wood and printed in red and blue. Peter Schöffer was originally an illuminator of manuscripts, and no doubt we owe the splendid initials of the Mainz Psalter to his liking for colour.
The first printed date in a Dutch book is 1473, when books were printed both at Utrecht and Alost.