Early Printed Books

by E. Gordon Duff

PAGE OF FIRST PARIS BOOK.

About 1478, Gering’s two partners, Crantz and Friburger, left him; but he himself continued to print on for many years. About this date, too, the character of the books issued from the Paris presses began entirely to change. In 1477, Pasquier Bonhomme had issued the first French book printed in that city, the Grandes Chroniques de France, and from this time forward classical books were neglected, and nothing printed but romances and chronicles, service-books and grammars, and such books as were in popular demand. During the twelve or fourteen years after the first French book appeared, not one classical book a year was issued; and it was not till 1495, the year of Charles VIII.’s return from Italy, that the printing of classical books began to revive and increase.

In 1485, Antoine Verard, the most important figure in the early history of Parisian printing, begins his career with an edition of the Decameron. He was, however, more of a publisher than a printer, the majority of the books which contain his name having been printed for him by other printers. From his establishment came numberless editions of chronicles and romances, some copies of which were printed on vellum and illuminated. A very fine series of such books is now in the British Museum; these were originally bought by Henry VII., and formed part of the old Royal Library.

Among the more important printers who printed before 1490 should be mentioned Guy Marchant, Jean du Pré, Guillaume le Fèvre, Antoine Cayllaut, Pierre Levet, Pierre le Rouge, and Jean Higman. Levet is especially interesting, for the type which came into Caxton’s hands about 1490, and was used afterwards by Wynkyn de Worde in some of his earlier books, was either obtained from him or from the type-cutter who cut his type, for the two founts seem to be identical. Guy Marchant is celebrated as the printer of some curious editions of the Dance of Death.

After 1490 the number of printers and stationers increased rapidly. Panzer enumerates no fewer than eighty-five printers, and nearly 800 books executed during the fifteenth century; and there is no doubt that his estimate is considerably under the mark. The most important productions of the Parisian press at that time were service-books, of which enormous numbers were issued. The best known publisher of such works was Simon Vostre, who, with the assistance of the printer Philip Pigouchet, began to issue Books of Hours, printed on vellum, with exquisite borders and illustrations. These books began to be issued about 1488, and commence with an almanac for the years 1488 to 1508. In many cases the printers did not take the trouble to make new almanacs, but were content to copy the old; indeed, we find the same almanac in use ten years later. This has led to a great deal of confusion in the bibliography of the subject, for it is a common custom of librarians and cataloguers to ascribe the printing of a book of this class to the date which occurs first in the almanac, when there is no date given in the colophon. The most celebrated publishers of these books were Simon Vostre, Philippe Pigouchet, Antoine Verard, Thielman Kerver, Gilles Hardouyn, Guillaume Eustace, Guillaume Godard, and François Regnault. Vostre and Verard do not seem themselves to have printed, but were merely publishers, far the most important printer being Pigouchet. Of the nine or ten Books of Hours for the use of Sarum, printed abroad during the fifteenth century, Pigouchet probably printed half, and all but two were printed in Paris. In examining early foreign-printed English service-books, it is curious to notice that while nearly all the Horæ were printed at Paris, the majority of Breviaries were printed at Venice, and only two at Paris. No Horæ is known to have been printed at Venice.

The end of the century saw the commencement of the celebrated Ascensian press, the rival in some ways of the Aldine. The founder, Jodocus Badius Ascensius (Josse Bade of Asch), was a man of great learning, and was for a time professor of humanity at Lyons, and press-corrector to Trechsel, whose daughter he married. Trechsel died in 1498, and in 1499, at the invitation of Robert Gaguin, Badius came to Paris and established himself there as a teacher of Greek and a printer. It was not, however, till 1504 that the Ascensian press became important.

It is curious to notice that, in spite of the classical tastes of the first promoters of printing in Paris, and the enormous development of printing in that city towards the end of the fifteenth century, no Greek book was produced till 1507. Through the exertions of François Tissard of Amboise, who had studied Greek in Italy, and was anxious to introduce Greek learning into France, Gilles Gourmont set up a press provided with Greek types, and issued in 1507 a book entitled βίβλοϛ ἡ γνωμαγυρικήο, a small grammatical treatise, the first Greek book printed in France. From the same press, in the year following, came the first Hebrew book printed in France, a Hebrew grammar, written by Tissard. Greek printing, however, did not flourish; the supply of type was meagre and the demand for books small,[25] and it was not till 1528, in which year Sophocles, Aristophanes, Lucian, and Demosthenes were issued, that any signs of a revival were to be seen.

[25] Aleander in 1512, in the preface to his Lexicon Græco-Latinum, complained that the stock of Greek type was so meagre, that sometimes letters had to be left out here and there, and the work was often at a standstill for days.

Lyons was the second city in France to receive the art of printing, and it was introduced into that town by Guillaume le Roy of Liège soon after 1470. The first dated book, the Compendium of Innocent III., appeared in September 1473. From its colophon we learn that it was printed at the expense of Bartholomieu Buyer, a citizen of Lyons; and we know from other colophons that the press was set up in Buyer’s house. Bernard doubts whether Buyer was himself a printer, though he is certainly mentioned as such in several books, such as La légende dorée of 1476. Le miroir de vie humaine, and La légende des saintz of 1477, which are described in their colophons as ‘imprimés par Bartholomieu Buyer.’ His name is not found in any book after 1483, so that it is usually supposed that he died about that date. Le Roy continued to print alone for some years, but had ceased before 1493, in which year we know that he was still alive.