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
We have now seen the history of the Book and its decoration in the
sixteenth century in France: at first French epics in Italy, books of
hours, romances of chivalry; then about 1550, with the reign of Henri
II., the religious pamphlets commenced, bookselling spread itself; the
strife between illustrations on metal plates and those in relief assumed
shape, it continued under Henri III., and terminated abruptly by the
victory of the first at the extreme end of the century. With political
passions, printing had become a weapon of warfare, which it will never
cease to be. They knew in the sixteenth century what perfidious
accusations or excessive praises were worth. The Book followed the fate
of its author. If the writer was burned, so was his book. Witness the
_Christianismi Restitutio_ of the Catholic Servetus, printed at Vienne,
in Dauphiné, and consigned to the flames with its author at Geneva in
1553. A single copy was saved from the fire, and is now preserved in the
Bibliothèque Nationale; it is the identical copy annotated by Colladon,
the accuser of the unhappy Servetus, and still bears traces of fire on
its leaves.
Typography and the illustration of the Book in England in the sixteenth
century did not make the same progress as in France and Italy. Much good
work was done, but it was mostly with foreign material. Type was
obtained from French and Dutch founders, and most of the woodcuts had
the same origin. In the early part of the century most of the
publications were translations of popular foreign books, such as
Voragine's "Golden Legend," Caxton's translations of Cicero, Boetius,
etc. Too many restrictions and privileges obtained to encourage or allow
of the establishment of an English school, which was to come later with
the spread of wealth and education. Books were mostly printed in Gothic
type, or "black letter," and the woodcuts were of the coarsest kind. An
exception was the beautiful Prayer-book of John Day, 1578, known as
Queen Elizabeth's Prayer-book, from the fine portrait of the Queen,
which we reproduce, on the previous page; but in this the woodcuts were
designed by Albert Dürer and Hans Holbein. Pynson was the first to use
Roman type in England, in the _Oratio in pace nuperrimâ_, 1518, quarto;
and the first English Bible in Roman type was printed at Edinburgh in
1576. It is thought that until about 1600 printers were their own
type-founders, as no record exists of founding as a separate trade until
that time.
[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Portrait of Queen Elizabeth from the "Book of
Christian Praiers," printed by John Day, 1578.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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