Illustrated books -- Bibliography; Illustration of books; Printing -- History
If Pynson had dealt largely in illustrated books the borrowings and
copyings here recited might seem insignificant. He published, however,
very little English work which can be set against them, and even of the
cuts which pass for English the native origin is not always sure. I
should be sorry to pledge myself, for instance, as to the provenance of
some neat but rather characterless column-cuts in his edition of the
_Speculum Vitae Christi_ (fifteenth century). The title-cut to the
_Traduction and Mariage of the Princesse_ (Katherine), printed in 1501,
is almost certainly English in its heaviness and lack of charm, but
despite the fact that they must have been produced in London we can
hardly say as much of the two far prettier pictures which adorn the
_Carmen_ of Petrus Carmelianus on the treaty of marriage between the
future Charles V and the Princess Mary (1508). In the first of these the
ambassadors are being received by Henry VII, in the second by the
Princess who is attended by her maids, and the latter is perhaps the
first English book-illustration with any touch of grace. Unluckily there
is a half Spanish, half Low-Country look about it, which suggests that
some member of the ambassadors' suite with an artistic turn may at least
have supplied the design, so that one hesitates to claim it too
vigorously as English work. We may be more confident about the one good
cut (the rest are a scratch lot) in the 1513 edition of Lydgate's _The
hystory sege and dystruccion of Troy_. In this Henry V is shown seated
in a large room, with his suite, while Lydgate in his black habit as a
Benedictine presents him with his book. There is a general resemblance
between this and another good piece of work, the picture in Alexander
Barclay's translation of Sallust's _Jugurtha_ (undated) of this other
black monk offering his book to the Duke of Norfolk (see Plate XXXI).
Probably both were from the same hand. It may be noted that the cut of
Barclay was used again in the _Myrrour of good maners conteyning the
iiii. vertues called cardynall compyled in latin by Domynicke Mancyn_,
of which he was the industrious translator. In Pynson's 1516 edition of
Fabyan's _Chronicle_, besides some insignificant column-cuts of kings
and some decorative heraldic work, there is an excellent picture of a
disembarkation. In other books we find cuts of a schoolmaster with his
pupils, of an author, of a woman saint (S. Bridget, though used also for
S. Werburga), etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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