Incunabula.—Another article by Mr. Pollard treats of Incunabula. After summarizing the researches in this field the author grants that it is literally true that the output of the 15th century presses is better known to students than that of any other period. The subject has been pursued with what some have thought to be excessive and misplaced zeal. American librarians are naturally not so much interested in incunabula as are their European brethren, but our larger libraries and especially our universities are coming to have a fair representation of the work of some of the early printers and one notable collection, that made by Dr. Copinger, has come to this country, having been presented to the Philadelphia Free Library by Mr. P. A. B. Widener.
Printing.—The article on Printing by C. T. Jacobi, the author of a practical treatise on the subject which has gone through four editions, is confined to the work of the printing press and is divided into two parts: (1) history of the printing press and (2) modern presses. Those who do not have a mechanical bent will probably not get much out of these sections, but towards the end of the article is some general information on printing which ought to prove of interest to every library assistant.
The history of printing is treated at great length under the caption of Typography by J. H. Hessels, author of “Gutenberg; an historical investigation.” This article discusses in turn the manuscript period, the earliest attempts at printing, block-printing, early wood-engravings, block books, early printing with movable type, the controversy concerning the invention (this with great fulness), of early types and their fabrication, and ends with a sketch of some printers who flourished after 1500. A second section, entitled Modern Practical Typography, in part by John Southward, author of a “Dictionary of typography,” deals with the material characteristics of type, the sizes, and varieties of face, the manufacture of type, composition and imposition, signatures and forms, typesetting machines, electrotyping and stereotyping.
Proof Reading, by John H. Black, who was press reader on the new volumes of the 10th edition of the Britannica, and John Randall, is of concern to all of us who have to do with “the art preservative of all the arts.” Proof reading seems to be practiced less and less in these days of type-setting machines, but being informed on the subject will help us in insisting on good work along this line.
Illustrations.—That the information concerning zinc cuts, half-tones, three color processes, monotypes, electrotypes, photolithotypes, and all other photo-mechanical methods of reproduction should be included in an article under Process will probably strike American readers as a Briticism,—but the facts are up to date and reliable. The writer, Mr. Edwin Bale, art director for Cassell and Co., grants that the term “process” is a somewhat unfortunate, one inasmuch as it is descriptive of nothing in particular. The article discusses in turn the various classes under the three generic heads: (1) relief, such as zinc etching, half-tones, including those in color; (2) intaglio, such as photogravures and monotypes, where, as in the old copper plates, the printing surface is sunk below the surrounding portions of the plate; (3) planographic, like lithographs, collotypes, phototypes and heliotypes, which are all printed from flat surfaces. The distinction between these various kinds of illustrations is not easily grasped by the beginner, but no one whose constant business is with books ought to be ignorant of the difference between a woodcut and a half-tone, a mezzotint and a chrome-lithograph, a copper plate and a cleverly devised imitation made from a zinc block, and yet I have seen a good many library school graduates to whom the whole matter was so much Greek. How can you buy illustrated books intelligently if you don’t know whether the illustrations are what they pretend to be? Better read up further in Mr. Frank Weitenkampf’s “How to appreciate prints” and study carefully the Newark exhibit, “The features of the printed book,” the first opportunity you get. Meanwhile, make yourself familiar with the general information given by Laurence Housman in his article on Illustration. Leaving aside the illumination of manuscripts, the art of illustration in its modern sense goes back to the invention of printing. Many incunabula were enriched with drawings by artists of the French, German, Spanish and Italian schools. Many engravings on both wood and copper by such men as Dürer and Holbein were made to adorn the printed page. The art of illustration has always been influenced by the prevailing pictorial art. French engraving was influenced by the painting of Watteau. English illustrations of different periods show the large following which such men as Reynolds and Hogarth were accorded. Bewick laid the foundations for a school of English wood engraving which persisted until the invention of mechanical methods of reproduction came into vogue. The cheap magazines created a great demand for illustrations that could be inexpensively produced, and the files of illustrated periodicals thereby became one of the best places in which to study the work of wood engravers and illustrators whose work lent itself to reproduction in cheap form. To those who know how to use them aright this gives a new interest to some of the Poole sets which have of late years been retired to out of the way places, such as Once a week, Good words, London Society, Sunday at home, for in the pages of these journals are found illustrations by some of the best men of the school known as “of the ’sixties.”
The technical developments of the art of illustration form the subject of a brief supplementary article by E. F. Strange of the South Kensington Museum. This is concerned with the history of experiments leading to the development of the present day half-tone block and color printing.
Bookbinding is treated by Cyril Davenport, who sketches the history of his subject from the earliest times when protective covers were used over the smaller Assyrian tablets of about the 8th century B. C., through the days of Latin diptychs (the earliest prototypes of the modern book) to the time of rolls of papyrus, vellum or paper. The device of folding vellum into pages was first used about the 5th century of the Christian era, and the sewing of these signatures by fastening the threads around a strip of leather or vellum at right angles to the line of backs was the next stage in the development of the modern book. Then it was found that the bands needed protection and so strips of leather were fastened down the backs, and in order to prevent the tendency of the vellum leaves to curl, strong wooden boards were put on each side and the leather back was drawn over the boards far enough to make a hinge, thus giving us the half-bound books of the middle ages. The next steps were to cover not only the back but also the sides of the book with leather and then to decorate the leather. The art of gold tooling spread quickly, and heraldic designs were used for ornamentation from the days of Edward VI. The deterioration of the quality of modern book paper and badly prepared leathers have been serious drawbacks to good bookbinding, but there has been a revival of interest in the art for its own sake during recent years. The introduction of stamped cloth binding about 1822 developed into the case binding of today, for which elaborate machinery has been perfected.
Book-plates are thought of by many librarians as being unworthy of their serious attention, but a mere glance at the article by Egerton Castle should convince the uninitiated as to the value of at least a rudimentary knowledge of the subject. Mr. Castle’s study of “English book-plates” appeared twenty years ago, but his interest in ex-libris has apparently not flagged despite the demands of novel writing on his time, which is a tribute to the fascinations of these little marks of ownership. Among the illustrations are reproduced the earliest known movable book-plate, one belonging to the monastery of Buxheim, dating from about 1480, and the oldest English plate, that of Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1574. Good examples are given of armorial plates of various periods, of the Jacobean, the Chippendale or rococo, and the pictorial where, as in the Bewick plate, the motif is a bit of landscape or, as in the plate by E. D. French, a library interior.
Bookselling.—Even those librarians who think that they know something about buying books, can with decided advantage read the article on Bookselling. The modern system goes back almost to the invention of printing. The earliest printers were also editors and booksellers but as they were not able themselves to dispose of the entire output of their presses they had agents at most of the universities. The religious dissensions following the Reformation created a great demand for books and there were troublous times for both printers and booksellers. In the English copyright act of 1709 it is ruled that if any person shall think the published price of a book unreasonably high he may make complaint to the archbishop of Canterbury and to certain other persons named who shall thereupon examine into his complaint and if well founded reduce the price, and any bookseller charging more than the price agreed upon shall be fined for every copy sold. Unfortunately this law was never enforced. Were there such a court of appeal today it would have a full docket! In the paragraph on bookselling in this country it is pointed out that half the names in the “so-called American catalogue of books” printed between 1820 and 1852 are British, the works of Scott, Byron, Moore, Southey and Wordsworth having been printed here without the payment of any royalties. Through the growth of intercourse with England and the appearance on the literary horizon of native writers of ability, a decided change was gradually produced in the American book trade and the conditions here became more like those of Europe.
Publishing.—The subject of bookselling is treated still further in the article on Publishing which is in a way a continuation of it. It gives more historical detail concerning the early stages of this once combined business, with a good deal on that topic of interest to librarians and the book-buying public,—the net price question. The early separation of publishing from bookselling is touched upon, and the emergence of publishers as a separate class is outlined. The transitory phenomenon of the man of letters assisting the publisher in an advisory capacity as to the suitability of manuscripts submitted for publication is an interesting chapter in the expansion of the publishing business. Publishing being today largely a commercial affair, the literary reader has in the main been supplanted by the man of business with an aptitude for estimating how many copies of a given book can be sold. One London publisher has of recent years paid no salary to his reader but has given him a small commission upon every copy that was sold of any book published on his recommendation. What is wanted by the publisher is only too often not literary quality but commercial value.