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
If we try to apportion to each of the three printers his share in the
making of the book, it may be supposed that the intellectual part of the
composition and the correction fell to Freyburger and Gering, while the
heavier work of founding, placing in formes, and press work fell to
Krantz. This essay, satisfactory as it appeared, was far from
perfection. The first Parisian printers had multiplied abbreviations and
irregular contractions, and enormous difficulties and inevitable faults
ensued. Further, either they had more than one punch, or the leaden
matrix was deformed, for the characters frequently differ. At the same
time, we must commend them for having used the _æ_ and _[oe]_, which
were uniformly written _e_ in the manuscripts, thus giving rise to
errors without number. Their punctuation was the comma, semicolon, and
full stop.
[Illustration: Fig. 12.--_Rhetorique_ of Fichet, printed at Paris in
1471. The marginal ornaments are drawn by hand.]
Fichet and Heinlein had become the modest librarians of the Sorbonne,
and this new employment gave them greater facilities for surveillance.
The printing office did not remain inactive. It issued successively the
"Orthography" of Gasparin of Bergamo, the "Letters" of Phalaris, two
books of Æneas Sylvius, the "Conspiracy of Catiline" of Sallust, the
"Epitome of Titus Livius" of Florus, and finally the "Rhetorics" of
William Fichet, which, if we may credit a letter addressed to Bessarion,
was finished in 1471. Following came the "Letters" of Bessarion, the
_Elegantia Latinæ Linguæ_ of Valla, the first folio volume from the
Sorbonne presses; and others, thirteen volumes in 1470-71 and seventeen
in 1472.
At the end of 1472 the workshop was somewhat broken up, Fichet having
left for Rome and Heinlein preaching in Germany. The three printers had
shown by their works that they were in earnest; besides, they had from
the first gratuitously distributed copies among the nobles, who, being
accustomed to pay highly for manuscripts, did not fail to note the
difference. The associates then resolved to quit the Sorbonne and create
an establishment for themselves; their patrons being no longer there to
sustain them in case of failure, and in giving up their presses and
types it may be judged that they were not without anxiety on that point.
Their oldest dated book, the _Manipulus Curatorum_ of Montrochet, was
also the first that they printed in their new quarters, at the sign of
the "Golden Sun" in the Rue St. Jacques. They remained united up to the
year 1477, when Gering alone printed at the "Golden Sun," but he
obtained associates, George Mainyal in 1480 and Berthold Rembold in
1494, who lived with him in the Rue de la Sorbonne, where he established
himself on leaving the Rue St. Jacques. Ulrich Gering died on the 23rd
of August, 1510, after a half-century of work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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