Illustrated books -- Bibliography; Illustration of books; Printing -- History
Up to the year 1465 only one firm of printers evinced any appreciation
of the uses of advertisement. In 1457 Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer,
of Mainz, set their names at the end of the liturgical Psalter which
they were issuing from their press, and stated also the date of its
completion, "In vigilia Assumpcionis," on the vigil of the feast of the
Assumption, i.e. August 14th. Save in the case of a few unimportant
books this preference for publicity remained the settled practice of the
firm until Peter Schoeffer's death early in the sixteenth century, and
later still when it was in the hands of his son Johann. With other
printers at first the tendency was all the other way. Albrecht Pfister
placed his name in one or two of the handful of popular illustrated
books which he printed at Bamberg about 1461. No other book before 1465
contains its printer's name, and both at Strassburg and at Basel the
practice of publishing anonymously continued in fashion throughout the
'seventies--in Strassburg, indeed, for the best part of another decade.
[Illustration: IV. EARLY DUTCH PRESS
ALEXANDER GALLES, DOCTRINALE (3^a)]
While printing continued mainly anonymous chroniclers took no note of
it, but in the ten years which began in 1465 the progress of the art was
rapid and triumphant. Printers, mostly Germans, invaded the chief cities
of Europe, and boasted in their books of having been the first to
practise it in this place or that. Curiosity as to the beginnings of the
invention was thus aroused, and from 1470 onwards we meet with numerous
attempts, not always accurate, to satisfy it. The earliest of these
attempts is in a letter from Guillaume Fichet, a Professor at the
Sorbonne, who was mainly responsible for bringing the first printers to
Paris, to his friend Robert Gaguin. This is contained in one copy of the
second Paris book, the _Orthographia_ of Gasparinus Barzizius, printed
in 1470, Fichet having a fondness for giving individuality to special
copies by additions of this kind. In this letter he speaks of the great
light which he thinks learning will receive from the new kind of bookmen
whom Germany, like another Trojan Horse, has poured forth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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