Christopher Plantin, printer and publisher of Antwerp, Belgium, whose famous printing office, preserved as a museum, was one of the shrines of worshiping printer-pilgrims up to the beginning of the European war, employed a device which is emblematic of the saying of Jesus, “I am the vine.”
A device used by the Elzevirs at Leyden, Holland, in 1620, shows a tree with spreading branches. On one side of the trunk is the figure of a man and on the other a scroll with the words Non solus (not alone).
Robert Estienne had a similar device in 1544 (Example [536-A]). This device as shown is slightly reduced from the original, while those previously mentioned are greatly reduced in size.
John Froben of Basel, Switzerland, who was a close friend of Erasmus, the philosopher and patron of learning, in 1520 used a device containing a staff surmounted by a dove and entwined by two serpents. (Example [542].) The legend, “Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” occasionally accompanied the design.
Sometimes these printers’ marks were so large as to leave little room for the title-page proper, in contrast to which is the extreme modesty of Ulrich Zell of Cologne, Prussia, whose works are numerous and who is credited with starting the story of the invention of printing by Coster. Zell scarcely ever placed even his name on a book, yet his work may easily be identified.
The Heintzemann Press device in Example [534] has an antique appearance and its designer evidently received inspiration for his anchor, foliage and scroll from such devices as those of Aldus and Plantin. The Rogers-Riverside Press mark, too, has ancient motifs. The anchor-shaped thistle, as already stated, is based upon Aldus’s device, and the frame suggests old designs in metal.
EXAMPLE 545
A mark that has to do with mythology
There is a suggestion of the pot device of Tory in the decorative portion of the Merrymount Press imprint shown as Example [537]. This appeared at the end of the book as a colophon, the style in which the imprint is written fitting it for that position. It will be remembered that the printers of Italy usually had the beginning and ending set in capitals to differentiate them from the body of the book. Elbert Hubbard used the idea commercially on his advertising booklets, as in Example [550].