This device of Fust and Schœffer furnished inspiration to several printers of the same century, chief among whom were Michael Furter and Nicolas Kessler, whose devices are shown in Example [529]. Furter, who printed at Basel, Switzerland, in 1490, was once credited with being the inventor of printing, thru an error in a book, the date of which was made to read 1444 (M.CCCC.XLIIII), instead of 1494 (M.CCCC.XCIIII).
EXAMPLE 534
Two modern designs with ancient motifs
What is considered to be the most classic of all imprint-devices (Example [530]) is that used by Aldus Manutius, the great Venetian printer, who introduced the italic face of type. The device, an anchor, around which is twisted a dolphin, is said to be symbolic of the proverb “Hasten slowly.” The anchor represents stability and the dolphin swiftness. The mark was taken by him from a book he had printed, “Reveries of Polyphilus,” and was used as the Aldus device for the first time in an edition of Dante of 1502.
In a spirit of affection and regard for the famous Venetian, the device of Aldus has been adopted or adapted by several well-known printers. There is a nice sentiment connected with the use of this mark by William Pickering, the noted English publisher. In place of the “AL-DVS” of the original, Pickering’s adaptation contained a motto in which he announced himself as the English disciple of Aldus. The reproduction of the Pickering device shown is from a book published by Pickering and printed by Whittingham in 1840.
By 1892 we find a lion added to this device, as used by the Chiswick Press.
The McClure Publications of New York have a conventionalized interpretation which shows the dolphin and anchor in white upon a black circular background (Example [530]).
Bruce Rogers, at the Riverside Press, has most interestingly adapted the Aldus device. It seems that he always had a fondness for the thistle, the national flower of Scotland, and when seeking a motif for his mark, naturally turned to it. When the time came for putting it into use, the first requirement happened to be for an Aldine page, so it was cast in a form that would distinctly suggest the Aldus anchor and dolphin. (Compare the two designs in Example [530].) While on the subject of Bruce Rogers’s device it may be interesting to relate that later, when he desired to use it on a book modeled on French sixteenth-century work, he reshaped it as shown in Example [540], which carries a suggestion of one of Robert Estienne’s marks shown with it. Rogers redrew his personal device, or that of the Riverside Press, to blend with the motif of the book on which it was to be used, a practice that embodies the highest use of the printer’s mark.
EXAMPLE 535
The pun, as found in two printers’ marks