The Printed Book: Its History, Illustration and Adornment: From the Days of Gutenberg to the Present Time — John Shaqi
The Printed Book: Its History, Illustration and Adornment: From the Days of Gutenberg to the Present TimeBouchot, Henri
History
The Printed Book: Its History, Illustration and Adornment: From the Days of Gutenberg to the Present Time
Bouchot, Henri
Bookbinding -- History; Books; Books -- History; Illustration of books; Printing -- History
In spite of the attempts of Jenson in the name of the King of
France--that is, if these attempts ever took place in the manner
indicated above--the invention was not known to have commended itself to
the powerful university of Paris. In general, and especially for the
introduction of innovations in that learned body, it was necessary to
fight, to strike without much chance of success, save in case of having
acquaintance in the place. We have seen John Fust, obliged suddenly to
retake the road to Germany, in a fair way to find himself taxed with
sorcery, not an inconsiderable matter. For others the sale of
unauthorised books had had most unhappy consequences unless the
Parliament intervened. So ten years had passed since the journey of
Jenson, and ten or twelve since the first manifestations of typography
at Mayence, without the diabolical discovery finding admittance to the
Sorbonne. A still more extraordinary thing, a Cologne printer issued
about 1472 a small folio in Gothic type, thirty-one long lines to a
page, which was a work written in French. The _Histoires de Troyes_ of
Raoul Le Fevre, chaplain of the dukes of Burgundy, first found a
publisher in Germany, and soon after another in England, before a single
press was definitely installed at Paris.
As we have said of Peter Schoeffer, numerous German students were in the
university, where they pursued their studies, and frequently remained
later as masters. It has been found that in 1458 a former student of
Leipzig named John Heinlein, a native of Stein, in the diocese of Spire,
entered as regent of the college of Burgundy, from whence he passed to
the Sorbonne in 1462, the year of the troubles in Mayence. After the
manner of latinising names so common at that time, he called himself
Lapidanus, from the name of his native place, which means Stone in
German. Heinlein met in Paris a Savoyard, William Fichet, born in 1433
at Petit Bornand, who became an associate of the Sorbonne about 1461,
and finally rector in 1468. These two men were great friends, and their
particular instincts attracted them to men of elevated studies. They
divined at once the enormous help printing would bring to their work.
Besides, it grieved them to see through the whole of France, especially
in Touraine, German colporteurs carrying on their trade under cover of
other commerce, a practice from which the most grave inconveniences
might result. It occurred to them that to prevent fraud they would
themselves create a printing establishment; but if they deliberated on
it, it must have been in secret, for the registers of the Sorbonne are
silent on their enterprise. If Fichet conceived the idea, it may be
believed that, from his German origin, Heinlein put it into execution.
M. Philippe thinks that he was formerly at Basle. In all probability it
was from that city he tried to obtain his workmen. In 1468 six years had
elapsed since the craftsmen were dispersed and fled from Mayence. At all
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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