Illustrated books -- Bibliography; Illustration of books; Printing -- History
The first English Bible is believed to have been printed (1535) by
Christopher Froschauer at Zurich, the second (1537) at Antwerp, the
third (1539) was begun at Paris and completed in England. Besides their
New Testaments, Tyndale and George Joy published a good many
controversial works at Antwerp. In the next generation the city became
one of the strongholds of the Romanist exiles after the accession of
Elizabeth, and Hans de Laet, John Fouler, Willem Sylvius, and Gillis van
Diest the younger were frequently called on in 1564-6 to provide paper
and print for Stapleton, Harding, William Rastell, and the other
antagonists of Bishop Jewel.
In 1528 and the following year books by Tyndale, Roy, and Frith appeared
purporting to be printed by "Hans Luft at Malborowe in the land of
Hesse." A later book with this imprint has been shown by Mr. Sayle to
have been printed at Antwerp; whether these earlier works were really
produced at Marburg, or, as has been conjectured, at Cologne, or again
at Hamburg, is still uncertain. In the 'forties and 'fifties
Christopher Froschauer printed several English Protestant books at
Zurich, including _A faythfull admonycion of a certen trewe pastor and
prophete sent unto the germanes_, translated from Luther's _Warnunge_,
with the pleasing imprint "at Grenewych by Conrade Freeman in the month
of may 1554." In the 'fifties, again, Jean Crespin and other Geneva
printers worked for John Knox, and the Geneva New Testament was produced
there in 1558 and the Bible in 1560. In the 'sixties, as we have seen,
many treatises attacking Bishop Jewel were issued at Antwerp, others
appeared at Louvain, and about the same time (1566), at Emden, G. van
der Erven was printing for exiled Puritans some of their diatribes
against the "Popish aparrell" (i.e. the surplice) which Elizabeth
prescribed for the English Church.
In 1574 we encounter at Amsterdam a curious group of nine little books
"translated out of Base-Almayne into English," in which Hendrik Niclas
preached the doctrines of the "Family of Love." From that time onwards a
good deal of theological literature on the Protestant side was published
by Amsterdam presses. Richard Schilders at Middelburg was also an
extensive publisher of this class of book. Presses at Leyden and Dort
made similar contributions, but on a smaller scale. On the Roman
Catholic side the head-quarters of propagandist literature, as we have
seen, were at first at Antwerp and Louvain, at both of which places John
Fouler had presses. In the 'eighties the existence of the English
college at Rheims caused several Catholic books to be printed there,
notably the translation of the New Testament which was made in the
college itself. For like reasons much Catholic literature was published
from 1602 onwards at St. Omer, and from 1604 onwards at Douai. Books of
the same class, though in smaller numbers, appeared also at Paris and
Rouen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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