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
Lyons did not remain far behind in the movement, but how changed from
its great reputation of the sixteenth century! J. de Fornazeris engraved
the frontispieces to Justus Lipsius, published by Horace Cardon in 1613.
Peter Favre and Audran imitated them. C. Audran designed for Claude
Landry the _Theologia Naturalis_ of Theophilus Reynaud, and the
bookseller Picquet ordered from him the title for the _Annales Minorum_
in 1628. Everywhere taste was modelled on the works of the capital, to
name only the principal centres, Rouen, Rheims, Sens, down to Venes, a
small town of Tarn, where William de Nautonnier published in 1603 his
curious book _Mécométrie_, whose frontispiece was bordered by views of
cities, with an equestrian portrait of King Henry.
And if we pass to Germany, we find Mayence with mediocre engravings for
titles according to the formula and process used elsewhere, the title of
the _Droit Civil_ of Aymar Vailius, that of the works of St. Bonaventura
in 1609 for the bookseller Antoine Hiérat, and that of the _Viridarium
Virtutûm_, rather cleverly treated by the burin in 1610. What a period
had passed since Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoeffer! There was still one
Yves Schoeffer at Mayence, but only the name lived; nothing more
remained of the old printers of the other century. It was the same at
Bamberg, Cologne, Nuremberg, and Basle, in all the cities that made the
honour of typography and the Book in former times. Cologne was neither
better nor worse favoured than others. The booksellers Boetzer, Kinck,
and De Binghy had passable engravings for their titles; and the
Commentaries of Salmeron may be mentioned, with portraits from the
German originals of the fifteenth century. At Nuremberg there was a
curious specimen treating of natural history by Basil Besler, in which
the artist gives the interior of a zoological cabinet of the time; but
the blocks and the typography of the city of Koburger are wanting. Basle
held its own later in relief engraving. Meantime there was a mediocre
set of the Dance of Death on copper, published by Miegen, 1621.
At Jena and Frankfort-on-the-Main were prosperous printing houses, but
engravings and ornamentation were neglected. Frankfort employed the
frontispiece in the _Traité du Commerce_ of Sigismond Scaccia, published
by Zuner in 1648; it was divided into compartments, in which the Bourse,
the Exchange, and the port of the city were represented.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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