JOHANN OF WESTPHALIA.
[Full text]
THEODORIC MARTENS.
| COLARD MANSION. |
Colard Mansion, 1474–84, the first printer who worked at Bruges, for an exhaustive account of whose connection with William Caxton the reader is referred to Mr. Blades’s monograph, used several Marks, printed in red and black, and similar to the example here given.
In many respects the “Clercs ou Frères de la vie Commune” (Fratres vitæ communis), who were printing at Brussels from 1476 to 1487, form one of the most interesting features in the early history of printing in the Low Countries. The types which they used resemble very much those of Arnold Ther Hoernen, Cologne; and the only book, “diligentia impresse in famosa civitate Bruxellen,” to which they put their name, is entitled “Legendæ Sanctorum Henrici Imperatoris et Kunegundis Imperatricis,” etc., 1484, and this is their only illustrated book. “Their productions illustrate the stage of transition between the ancient scribe and printer by showing how naturally one succeeded to the other.” A full bibliographical account of the Brothers will be found in M. Madden’s “Lettres d’un Bibliophile.” The Mark here given is reproduced from the above-named work: it consists of an Eagle crowned and displayed, supporting a shield with the arms of Brabant quarterly, with river in bend, and star. The first Deventer printer was Richard Paffroed (the surname has about thirty variations) in 1477, who was either a pupil of Ulric Zell or Ther Hoernen, and who continued there until the first year of the sixteenth century, and was apparently succeeded by his youngest son Albertus, who was printing there up to about 1530, and whose Mark we give.
