Books and their makers during the Middle Ages

by George Haven Putnam

As before mentioned, the influence of the University was given strongly to the support of Orthodox doctrines of the Catholic Church, and doctrinal books which did not conform to the university standard of orthodoxy were not printed in Cologne. It is probable that in the beginning of the publishing operations, no direct censorship was attempted on the part of the theologians of the University, but it seems evident that they were able notwithstanding, to discourage publications the opinions of which they might consider pernicious.

The name of Franz Birckmann, whose printing operations began in 1507, occupies an important place in the list of the publishers of Cologne, and his business relations with Paris and his connections with the book-dealers of London have brought his name into reference in much of the correspondence of his time. Birckmann appears, at the outset at least, not to have himself been a printer. His first book, the Missale Coloniense, was printed for him in Paris. Kirchhoff speaks of Birckmann as possessing a fine business capacity and exceptional enterprise and creative genius, and refers to him as carrying on his undertakings now in London and Canterbury, then in Bruges, Liége, or Frankfort; again in Cologne, Antwerp, Tübingen, and Basel. The list of the places visited by this enterprising publisher of the time serves to give an indication as to the centres where literary activities were the most important.[443] Erasmus, writing on the 21st of December, 1520, from Canterbury, to his friend Andreas Ammonius in Rotterdam, speaks of Birckmann as being ready himself to undertake the introduction into England of any books that might be called for. Birckmann appears finally to have established in London a permanent business office, for the volume, Graduale ad Usum Sarum, which was printed for him in Paris in 1528, bears as an imprint, Franz Birckmann of St. Paul’s Church Yard.[444]

This early connection of the publishers of Cologne with London is of special interest in connection with the record of William Caxton, the first English printer, who was said to have learned his art in Cologne and to have brought it thence (by way of Bruges) to London. In the same series of letters to Ammonius, Erasmus speaks of giving to Birckmann the manuscript of his Proverbia, of his Plutarch, and the Lucian, in order that he might arrange to have the books printed in Paris, by Jodocus Badius. For some reason, not stated, Birckmann decided not to place these works in the hands of Badius, but took them to Froben, in Basel, which was the means of bringing Erasmus into connection with that publisher, with whom he had satisfactory intimate relations for so large a portion of his life.

As has been stated in another chapter, the theologians of the Faculty of the Sorbonne had taken a strong stand against the writings of Erasmus, and it is very possible that Badius was unable to secure a permit or a privilege for these volumes.

Birckmann seems, at about this time, to have secured some interest, if not in the general business of Froben, at least in a certain number of his publishing undertakings. In 1526, Birckmann came into trouble with the authorities of Antwerp on account of his having sold there an edition of the translation of S. Chrysostom, which had been made by Ökolampadius, and which had come under the ban of the Antwerp censorship. The publisher succeeded in freeing himself from the penalties imposed by the Antwerp magistracy only after a long contest and a considerable expenditure of money.[445] It is a little difficult to understand the precise grounds of the opposition raised by the Antwerp censors, and I have not been able to get at the details of the case. It is of interest as one of the earliest examples of censorship upon the press which occurred in Northern Europe. Kapp is of opinion that the censorship exercised by the Church authorities in Cologne was more rigorous than that instituted by the authorities in Bavaria. It seems certain that the Catholic University of the Rhine was able to exercise no little influence in shaping the direction of the earlier literary undertakings of North Germany.

Caxton’s sojourn in Cologne must have been some time between the years 1471 and 1474. Further details concerning his work in Bruges and his later publishing undertakings in London will be given in the chapter on printing in England. During the latter part of the fifteenth century and the earlier years of the sixteenth, Cologne printers secured for themselves an unenviable reputation as unauthorised reprinters of works which were the result of the scholarly labours and investment of publishers elsewhere. They issued editions as nearly in fac-simile as might be of a number of the classics published in Venice by Aldus, and they followed these, later, with the imitations of the scholarly texts published by Plantin in Antwerp and by the Elzevirs in Leyden.

While it was the case that these texts, with rare exceptions, were the work of authors dead centuries before, and that in the works themselves the original publishers could rightfully claim no control, it is to be borne in mind that the production of the earlier editions of such classics had nevertheless called for a very considerable expenditure of capital and of labour, as well in the securing of the codices used as “copy” by the type-setters as in the revision and editing of these codices by the scholarly commentators employed, and also in the preparation of notes, introductions, and elucidations for the volumes. The risk and investment incurred by Aldus in the production of his edition of Aristotle, and the exceptional character of the original labour invested by the publisher in such a work are grounds for considering that his contention for the control of the text which came from his printing-office, at least for a certain term of years, was as well founded as might be a contention of to-day for a book which was in its entirety the work of a contemporary writer.

The city whose publishing operations are next to be considered in the chronological record is Basel. For a number of years after the invention of printing, Basel remained one of the most important publishing centres, not only of the German Empire (to which at this time the city belonged), but of Europe. Its position on a direct line of communication between Italy and Germany had given it an importance in connection with the general trade of Europe, and the facilities which furthered this general trade became of value also in connection with the production of books. The University of Basel, founded in 1460, speedily brought to the city men devoted to scholarly pursuits, many of whom took an early interest in the work of the printing-press, and were ready to give their co-operation to publishers like Froben, not only in editing manuscripts for the press, but even in the routine work of the printing-offices in the proof-reading and correcting. In 1501, at the time Basel broke away from the imperial control, the city had already secured for itself a cosmopolitan character, and had become a kind of meeting place for the exchange of thought as well as for the goods of representatives of all nations. At this time there were in the city no less than twenty-six important publishing and printing concerns. The earliest book bearing a date and an imprint which was issued from a Basel printing-press was an edition of the Gregorii Magni Moralia in Jobum, which appeared in 1468. But one or two copies exist, of which the one that is in the best preservation is contained in the National Library of Paris.

Printing was introduced into Basel by Berthold Ruppel, who, in 1455, had been an apprentice with Fust. The first work which is identified as Berthold’s, but which does not bear a date, is the Repertorium Vocabulorum Exquisitorum of Conrad de Mure. The difficulties which have attended all organisations of labour appear to have begun at an early date in Basel, as there is record of a strike of the compositors occurring as early as 1471. This strike lasted for a number of months and was finally adjusted by the arbitration of the authorities of the town, certain concessions being made on the part of both the master and the employees. The magistrate issued a decision or mandate to the effect that on a certain date the workmen must return to their shops and accept the authority of their masters, and this order appears to have been accepted. It does not appear what course could have been taken to force the men to their work in case they might still have been recalcitrant. The fact that a difference between the printers and their men should have been a matter of such general importance indicates that already within twenty years of the beginning of printing in Germany, the business in Basel had assumed large proportions.

In 1474, there was printed in Basel an edition of the Sachsenspiegel, a work of popular character, which can share with the Bible and with different essays of Cicero, the honour of being the most frequently published book in Germany during the first quarter century of printing.