Book Collecting: A Guide for Amateurs

by J. Herbert Slater

THE ELZEVIR PRESS.

IF Aldine collectors were at one time numerous and enthusiastic, amateurs who affected the Elzevir press, and were never tired of extolling the excellence of the little books which issued therefrom, were more so. Long before the death of the last member of the great printing family, a whole mass of rules, some of them arbitrary, others founded on subtle distinctions, were already regarded as binding on the community of bibliomaniacs which looked upon L'Aimable Mère de Jésus as their pole-star, and Le Pastissier François as something to be seen only on rare occasions, and to be touched, if touched at all, with bated breath.

There is something harsh, comparatively speaking, about Aldus and his works. He was the taciturn, frugal-living man of letters, who for five years, as he himself confesses, never spent a single peaceful hour save when he was asleep. His very doors were barred with the inscription—

"Whoever you are, Aldus entreats you to be brief. When you have spoken, leave him."

Compared with this grim old editor-printer of a bygone age, the Elzevirs one and all were literary children, playing with their master's text—children who never grew old, and whose many liberties were not only endured, but excused out of consideration for their engaging ways. They were pirates, too, without exception, but they turned you out well. If they mutilated your text, they at any rate supplied you with the best of paper, ornaments and type; from their hands you emerged a well-dressed gentleman, a little ignorant perhaps, but decidedly aristocratic.

A short sketch of the history of the Elzevir family will be found useful for reference:—

The founder of the family, Louis, was born at Louvain in 1540, and, curiously enough, as in the case of Aldus Manutius, did not establish himself at the scene of his future labours until he was forty years old. In 1580 he started as a bookbinder and bookseller at the University city of Leyden, and at first confined his attention entirely to retailing such works as fell into his hands. Three years later, however, he set up a press and printed his first book, the Drusii Ebraicarum quæstionum ac responsionum, 8vo, 1583, which, though desirable, is not to be compared, either in intrinsic merit or in value, with some of the latter productions of the press; in fact, what are known as the "good dates" do not commence until the latter portion of the year 1625. Louis died in 1617, and is remarkable only as the founder of a famous family of printers; not one of his 123 different books can be considered important from a collector's point of view; and although a specialist would no doubt endeavour to make his collection as complete as possible, and with that object might be disposed to pay more for these early examples than anyone else might think it worth his while to pay, even he, if well advised, would draw the line at anything like lavish expenditure. Louis left five sons, whom, with a view to further development, it is necessary to bear in mind—Matthieu, Louis, Gilles (Giles), Joost (Justus), and Bonaventure. The last-named son—Bonaventure—commenced business on his own account as a printer in 1608, and on the death of his father in 1617 he took the management of the Elzevir press. In 1626 he took into partnership Abraham, a son of Matthieu, and the newly-constituted firm, which continued to exist until 1652, are entitled to most of the credit which attaches to the name of Elzevir.

Though the Greek and Hebrew works issued by this firm are inferior to those of Aldus and the Estiennes, their small editions of the Latin and French Classics in 12mo, 16mo, and 24mo cannot be surpassed for elegance of design, neatness, clearness, and regularity of type, as well as for the beauty of the paper which they used. Mention may be made especially of the Novum Testamentum Græcum, 1624 and 1633; the Psalterium Davidis, 1635 and 1653; the Virgil of 1636; and the Comediæ of Terence, 1635; though the works which gave the press its chief celebrity were the collection of French authors on History and Politics, in 24mo, known as Petites Republiques, and the series of Latin, French, and Italian Classics, in small 12mo.

It seems to be an almost universal belief that all the works issued from the Elzevir press are small in bulk, and various terms, more or less foolish, have been invented by careless or incompetent persons to give expression to this idea. One of them, and perhaps the most hideous of them all, is "dumpy twelves". In the first place, works issued from the Elzevir press in 12mo are perfectly symmetrical in shape, and not at all dumpy; and, secondly, many books are in 4to, some even in folio, as, for example, the Académie de l'Espée, printed by Bonaventure and Abraham in 1628. The amateur must avoid being misled by the poetical effusions which from time to time make their appearance, and which for the most part are written by persons who know nothing whatever of the subject. To obtain a rhyme for "Elzevir" is difficult, but it has been done at much sacrifice of common-sense.

Jean, the son of Abraham above mentioned, was introduced into the firm in 1647, five years before it came to an end through the death of the two partners in 1652. On this latter event taking place, he entered into partnership with Daniel, the son of Bonaventure, but the firm was not very successful, and was dissolved by mutual consent in 1655. Jean continued to trade on his own account until 1661, when he died, and Daniel joined Louis, the third of that name, and son of the second Louis, who had been printing at Amsterdam since 1638.