The Oxford press was the most ambitious, and was in possession of two sets of cuts, in neither case intended for the books in which they were used. One set was prepared for a _Golden Legend_, but no such book is known to have been issued at the Oxford press. One of these cuts appears as a frontispiece to Lyndewode's _Constitutions_. It represents Jacobus de Voragine writing the _Golden Legend_, so that it did equally well for Lyndewode writing his law-book. Others of the series are used in the _Liber Festialis_ of 1486, but as that was a small folio and the cuts were large, the ends were cut off, and they are all printed in a mutilated condition. The other cuts used in the _Festial_ are small, and form part of a set for a _Horae_, but no _Horae_ is known to have been printed at the Oxford press. It would be natural to suppose in this case that these cuts had been procured from some other printer who had used them in the production of the books for which they were intended; but the most careful search has failed to find them in any other book. Besides these cuts the Oxford press owned a very beautiful border, which was used in the commentary on the _De Anima_ of Aristotle by Alexander de Hales and the commentary on the _Lamentations of Jeremiah_ by John Lattebury, printed in 1481 and 1482. The printers owned nothing else for the adornment of their books but a rudely cut capital G, which we find used many times in the _Festial_.
The poverty of ornamental letters and borders is very noticeable in all the English presses of the fifteenth century. Caxton possessed one ambitious letter, a capital A, which was used first in the _Order of Chivalry_, and a series of eight borders, each made up of four pieces, and found for the first time in the _Fifteen O'es_. They are of little merit, and compare very unfavourably with French work of the period.
The best set of borders used in England belonged to Notary and his partners when they started in London about 1496. They are in the usual style, with dotted backgrounds, and may very likely have been brought from France. Pynson's borders, which he used in a _Horae_ about 1495, are much more English in style, but are not good enough to make the page really attractive; in fact almost the only fine specimens of English printing with borders are to be found in the Morton _Missal_, which he printed in 1500. In this book also there are fine initial letters, often printed in red. It is hard to understand why, as a rule, English initial letters were so very bad; it certainly was not from the want of excellent models, for those in the Sarum missals, printed at Venice by Hertzog in 1494, and sold in England by Frederic Egmont, contain most beautifully designed initials, as good as can be found in any early printed book.
Wynkyn de Worde, when he succeeded in 1491 to Caxton's business, found himself in possession of a large number of cuts, a considerably larger number than ever appeared in the books of Caxton's that now remain to us. The first illustrated book he issued was a new edition of the _Golden Legend_, in which the old cuts were utilised. This was printed in 1493. In 1494 a new edition of the _Speculum Vite Christi_ was issued, of which only one complete copy is known, that in the library at Holkham. It probably contains only the series of cuts used by Caxton in his edition, for the few leaves to be found in other libraries have no new illustrations. About the same time (1494) De Worde issued several editions of the _Horae ad usum Sarum_, one in octavo (known from a few leaves discovered in the binding of a book in the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford) and the rest in quarto.
In the quarto editions we find the large series of pictures, among which are the three rioters and three skeletons, the tree of Jesse, and the Crucifixion, which occur in Caxton's _Fifteen O'es_. It is extremely probable that all the cuts in these editions had belonged to Caxton. The two cuts in the fragment of the octavo edition, however, are of quite a different class, evidently newly cut, and much superior in style and simplicity to Caxton's. It is much to be regretted that no complete copy of the book exists, for the neat small cuts and bold red and black printing form a very tasteful page.
A curious specimen of engraving is to be found in the _Scala Perfectionis_, by Walter Hylton, also printed in 1494. It represents the Virgin and Child seated under an architectural canopy, and below this are the words of the antiphon beginning, 'Sit dulce nomen d[=n]i.' These words are not printed from type, but cut on the block, and the engraver seems to have treated them simply as part of the decoration, for many of the words are by themselves quite unreadable and bear only a superficial resemblance to the inscription from which they were copied.
An edition of Bartholomaeus' _De proprietatibus rerum_ issued about this time has a number of cuts, not of very great interest; and the _Book of St. Albans_ of 1496 has an extra chapter on fishing, illustrated with a picture of an angler at work, with a tub, in the German fashion, to put his fish into. It has also a curiously modern diagram of the sizes of hooks. In 1498 De Worde issued an illustrated edition of Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_. The cuts are very ambitious, but badly executed, and the hand of the engraver who cut them may be traced in several books. In 1499 an edition of _Mandeville_ was issued, ornamented with a number of small cuts, and about this time several small books were issued having cuts on the title-page.
Richard Pynson's first illustrated book was an edition of the _Canterbury Tales_, printed some time before 1492. At the head of each tale is a rudely executed cut of the pilgrim who narrates it. These cuts were made for this edition, and were in some cases altered while the book was going through the press to serve for different characters: the Squire and the Manciple, the Sergeant and Doctor of Physic, are from the same blocks with slight alterations. In 1494 came an edition of Lydgate's _Falle of Princis_, a translation from the _De Casibus virorum et feminarum illustrium_ of Boccaccio, illustrated with the cuts used by Jean Dupre in his Paris edition of a French version of the same work in 1483. One of the neatest of these, depicting Marcus Manlius thrown into the Tiber, is here shown. About 1497 an edition of the _Speculum Vite Christi_ was issued, with a number of neatly executed small cuts, and in 1500 Pynson printed the beautiful Sarum Missal, known as the _Morton Missal_. Special borders and ornaments, introducing a rebus on the name of Morton, were engraved for this, and a full-page cut of the prelate's coat of arms appears at the commencement of the book.
[Illustration: The Death of Marcus Manlius. From Lydgate's _The Falle of Princis_, Pynson, 1494. (Reduced.)]
After the year 1500 almost every book issued by W. de Worde, who was pre-eminently the popular publisher, had an illustration on the title-page. This was not always cut for the book, nor indeed always very applicable to the letterpress, and the cuts can almost all be arranged into series made for more important books. There were, however, a few stock cuts: a schoolmaster with a gigantic birch for grammars, a learned man seated at a desk for works of more advanced scholarship, and lively pictures of hell for theological treatises.
The title-page was formed on a fixed plan. At the top, printed inside a wood-cut ribbon, was placed the title, below this the cut.
Pynson, who was the Royal printer, and a publisher of learned works, disdained such attempts to catch the more vulgar buyers. His title-pages rarely have cuts, and these are only used on such few popular books as he issued. Both he and De Worde had a set of narrow upright cuts of men and women with blank labels over their heads, which could be used for any purpose, and have the names printed in type in the label above.
Foreign competition was also at this time making its influence felt on English book-illustration. W. de Worde had led the way by purchasing from Godfried van Os, about 1492, some type initial letters, and at least one woodcut. Pynson, early in the sixteenth century, obtained some cuts from Verard, which he used in his edition of the _Kalendar of Shepherdes_, 1506, and Julian Notary, who began printing about 1496, seems to have made use of a miscellaneous collection of cuts obtained from various quarters. He had, amongst other curious things, part of a set of metal cuts executed in the _maniere criblee_, which have not been traced to any other book, but appear to have passed at a considerably later date into the hands of Wyer, who commenced to print before 1524. When W. de Worde left Westminster in 1500 to settle in Fleet Street, he parted with some of his old woodcuts to Notary,--woodcuts which had been used in the _Horae_ of 1494, and had originally belonged to Caxton. All these miscellaneous cuts appear in his _Golden Legend_ of 1503, and the large cut of the 'Assembly of Saints' on the title-page seems also to have been borrowed. It was used by Hopyl at Paris in 1505 for his edition of the _Golden Legend_ in Dutch, and passed afterwards with Hopyl's business to his son-in-law Prevost, who used it in a theological work of John Major's.
The engraved metal ornamental initials were obtained from Andre Bocard.
Some time before 1510 an extremely curious book, entitled the _Passion of our Lorde Jesu_, was printed abroad, probably in Paris. The uncouthness of the language seems to have brought about its destruction; for, though many fragments have been found in bindings, only one perfect copy, now in the Bodleian, is known. It contains a number of large cuts of a very German appearance and quite unlike any others of the period. Some are used also in the York _Manual_ printed for De Worde in 1509.
About this time too a number of popular books in English, some adorned with rude woodcuts, were issued by John of Doesborch, a printer in Antwerp. Among them may be mentioned _The wonderful shape and nature of man, beasts, serpents, &c._, the _Fifteen Tokens_, the _Story of the Parson of Kalenbrowe_, and the _Life of Virgilius_. A still earlier Antwerp cut, which had been used by Gerard Leeu for the title-page of his English _Solomon and Marcolphus_, found its way to England and was used by Copland.
In the last years of Henry VII.'s reign, from 1501 to 1509, a few books may be mentioned as particularly interesting from their illustrations. In 1502 De Worde printed the _Ordinary of Chrysten Men_, a large book with a block-printed title. It was reprinted in 1506. In 1503 appeared the _Recuyles of y^e Hystoryes of Troye_, a typical example of an illustrated book of the period. There are about seventy cuts of all kinds, of which twelve were specially cut for the book: many others were used in the _Morte d'Arthur_, and the rest are miscellaneous. In 1505 we have the '_Craft to live and die well_,' of which there is another edition in the following year. In 1506 appears the _Castle of Labour_, one of the few books entirely illustrated with cuts specially made for it; in 1508 the _Kalendar of Shepherdes_. The cuts in these last three books were all ultimately derived from French originals. An edition of the _Seven Wise Masters of Rome_, of which the only known copy is imperfect, appeared about 1506, though the cuts which illustrate it were made before 1500. The fragment contains seven cuts, but the set must have consisted of eleven. They are very careful copies of those used by Gerard Leeu in his edition of 1490, and have lost none of the feeling of the originals.
Three books only of Pynson's production during this period call for special notice. About 1505 he issued an edition of the _Castle of Labour_, with very well-cut illustrations closely copied from the French edition. In 1506 appeared his edition of the _Kalendar of Shepherdes_, which is illustrated for the most part with cuts obtained from Verard, and in 1507 an edition of the _Golden Legend_. Of each of these books but one copy is known.
For some unknown reason, the accession of Henry VII. acted in the most extraordinary way upon the English presses, which in that year issued a very large number of books. Perhaps the influx of visitors to London on that occasion made an unusual demand; but at any rate a number of popular books were then issued. Amongst them are _Rychard Cuer de Lyon_, the _Fiftene Joyes of Maryage_, the _Convercyon of Swerers_, the _Parliament of Devils_, and many others. Besides these there were, of course, a number of funeral sermons on Henry VII., many of which have curious frontispieces. One of these was used again a little later, for the funeral sermon of the King's mother, the Lady Margaret, the royal pall and effigy on it being cut out and replaced by an ordinary pall. This method of inserting new pieces into old blocks, technically termed plugging, was not much used at this period when wood-engraving was so cheap. An excellent example, however, will be found in the books printed for William Bretton, which contain a large coat of arms. A mistake was made in the cutting of the arms, and a new shield was inserted, the mantling and supporters being untouched.
Another notable book of that period is Barclay's _Ship of Fools_, issued by Pynson in 1509. It contains one hundred and eighteen cuts, the first being a full-page illustration of the printer's coat of arms. The rest are copies, roughly executed, of those in the original edition. Another version of this book, translated by Henry Watson, was issued the same year by Wynkyn de Worde. It is illustrated with a special series of cuts, which are used again in the later editions. Of the original edition of 1509 only one copy is known, printed on vellum and preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Stray cuts from this series are found in several of De Worde's other books, but may be at once recognised from the occurrence of the 'fool' in his typical cap and bells.
About this time and a little earlier the title was very often cut entire on a block. The _De Proprietatibus_ of _c._ 1496 contains the first and the most elaborate specimen, in which the words 'Bartholomeus de proprietatibus rerum' are cut in enormous letters on a wooden board; indeed the whole block was so large that hardly any copy contains the whole. Faques, Pynson, and others used similar blocks, in which the letters were white and the background black (one of Pynson's printed in red is to be found in the _Ortus Vocabulorum_ of 1509), but their uncouthness soon led to their disuse. Numbers of service books were issued by Pynson and Wynkyn de Worde, profusely illustrated with small cuts, most of which appear to have been of home manufacture, though unoriginal in design. It is worth noticing one difference in the cuts of the two printers. Pynson's small cuts have generally an open or white background, De Worde's are, as a rule, dotted in the French style. Since in some of their service books these two printers used exactly similar founts of type the identification of their cuts is of particular value. But these service books almost from the first began to deteriorate. The use of borders was abandoned, and little care was given to keeping sets of cuts together, or using those of similar styles in one book. We find the archaic cuts of Caxton, the delicate pictures copied from French models, and roughly designed and executed English blocks all used together, sometimes even on the same page. The same thing is noticeable in all the illustrated books of the period. De Worde used Caxton's cuts up to the very end of his career, though in many cases the blocks were worm-eaten or broken. The peculiar mixture of cuts is very striking in some books. Take as an example the edition of _Robert the Devil_, published about 1514. No cut used in it is original: one is from a book on good living and dying, another from the _Ship of Fools_,[22] a third is from a devotional book of the previous century, and so on. In the _Oliver of Castile_ of 1518, though there are over sixty illustrations, not more than three or four are specially cut for it, but come from the _Morte d'Arthur_, the _Gesta Romanorum_, _Helias Knight of the Swan_, the _Body of Policy_, _Richard Cuer de Lion_, the _Book of Carving_, and so on, and perhaps many are used in several. Indeed, W. de Worde minded as little about using the same illustrations over and over again as some of our modern publishers.
For all books issued in the early years of the sixteenth century it was thought necessary to have at least an illustration on the title-page, so that practically an examination of the illustrated books of the period means almost an examination of the entire produce of the printing press. In time, when the subject has been thoroughly studied, it will be possible to separate all the cuts into series cut for some special purpose.
A rather important influence was introduced into the history of English book illustration about 1518, when Pynson obtained a series of borders and other material, closely imitated from the designs made by Holbein for Froben.[23] They are the first important examples of 'renaissance' design used in English books, and their effect was rapid and marked. Wynkyn de Worde, who in his devices had hitherto been content to use Caxton's trade-mark with some few extra ornaments, introduced a hideous parody of one of Froben's devices, poor in design, and wretched in execution. The series of borders used by Pynson were good in execution, and their style harmonised with the Roman type used by him at that time, but with other books it was different. The heavy English black letter required something bolder, and unless these borders were heavily cut, they looked particularly meagre. A very beautiful title-page of this type (here somewhat reduced) is that in Sir Thomas Elyot's _Image of Governance_, printed by Thomas Berthelet at London in 1540-41.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Device of Thomas Berthelet.]
The illustrated books of this period offer a curious mixture of styles, for nothing could be more opposed in feeling than the early school of English cuts and the newly introduced Renaissance designs.
The outsides of the books underwent exactly the same change, for in place of the old pictorial blocks with which the stationers had heretofore stamped their bindings, they used hideous combinations of medallions and pillars.
The device of Berthelet is an excellent specimen of the new style.
Despising good old English names and signs, he carried on business at the sign of Lucretia Romana in Fleet Street, and his device depicts that person in the act of thrusting a sword into her bosom. In the background is a classical landscape, and on either side pillars. Above are festoons, and on ribbons at the head and feet of the figure the name of the printer and of his sign. Though the cut is uninteresting it is a beautiful piece of work.
Another result of the new movement was the banishment of woodcuts from the title-page. Those to Pynson's books have already been noticed, but lesser printers like Scot, Godfrey, Rastell, and Treveris also made use of borders of classical design, and gave up the use of woodcuts.
It is extremely curious to notice what excellent effects on a title-page the printers at this time produced from the poorest materials. They seem to have understood much better than those of a later date how to use different sized type with effect, and to make the whole page pleasing, without attracting too much attention to one particular part.
[Illustration: Device of Richard Faques.]
Before leaving this early period it will be as well to return a little, and briefly notice some of the more marked illustrated books produced by printers other than Pynson and De Worde. The two printers of the name of Faques, Guillam and Richard, produced a few most interesting books, and the device of the last named, founded on that of the Paris printer, Thielman Kerver, is a fine piece of engraving.
The name was originally cut upon the block as Faques, and was so used in his two first books; but in order to make the name appear more English in form, the 'ques' was cut out and 'kes' inserted in type.
The last dated book which he printed, the _Mirrour of Our Lady_ of 1530, contains several fine illustrations; that on the reverse of the title-page depicting a woman of some religious order writing a book, has at the bottom the letters E. G. joined by a knot, which may be the initials of the engraver.
The Cambridge press of 1521-1522, from the scholastic nature of its books, required no illustrations, but it used for the title-page of the _Galen_ a woodcut border, rather in the manner of Holbein, but evidently of native production. In 1536 this border reappears in a Dutch Prognostication printed at Antwerp. The Oxford press of the early sixteenth century borrowed some of its cuts from De Worde, but a few, such as the ambitious frontispiece and the four diagrams in the _Compotus_ of 1519, were original.
John Rastell in his _Pastyme of People_ used a number of full-page illustrations of the kings of England, coarse in design and execution, and very remarkable in appearance. Peter Treveris issued a number of books with illustrations, some of which are well worthy of notice. The _Grete Herbal_, first published in 1516, contained a large number of cuts. Jerome of Bruynswyke's _Worke of Surgeri_ has some curious plates of surgical operations, and though the subjects are rather repulsive, they are excellent specimens of the wood-cutting of the period. Treveris' best known book is the _Policronicon_ of 1527, printed for John Reynes, whose mark in red generally occurs on the title-page. This title-page is a fine piece of work, and has been facsimiled by Dibdin in his _Typographical Antiquities_. Some of the cuts and ornaments used by Treveris passed after his death into the hands of the Edinburgh printer, Thomas Davidson.
Lawrence Andrewe of Calais, who printed shortly before 1530, also issued some curious illustrated books. Before coming to England he had translated the extraordinary book, _The wonderful shape and nature of man, beasts, serpentes, &c._, printed by John of Doesborch, whom we have spoken of above. On his own account he issued the _Boke of distyllacyon of waters_ by Jerome of Brunswick, illustrated with pictures of apparatus, and _The Mirror of the World_. This is founded on Caxton's edition, but is much more fully illustrated, the cuts to the Natural History portion being particularly curious. It is worth noticing that Andrewe, like some other printers at this time, introduced his device into many of the initial letters and borders which were cut for him, so that they can be readily identified when they occur, after his death, in books by other printers.
After the death of Wynkyn de Worde in 1535, ideas as regards book-illustration underwent a great change. Theology had become popular, and theological books were not adapted for illustration. The ordinary book, with pictures put in haphazard, absolutely died out; and cuts were only used in chap books, or in large illustrated volumes,--descriptions of horrible creatures, and the likenesses of comets or portents on the one hand, chronicles, books of travel, and scientific works on the other. The difference which we noticed between W. de Worde and Pynson, the one being a popular printer and the other a printer of standard works, is distinctly marked in the succeeding generation. While Wyer, Byddell, and Copland published the popular books, Grafton and Whytchurch, Wolfe and Day, issued more solid literature. The old woodcuts passed into the hands of the poorer printers, and were used till they were worn out, and it is curious to notice how long in many cases this took. On the other hand, the illustrations made for new books are, as a rule, of excellent design and execution, owing a good deal, in all probability, to the influence of Holbein, who, for the latter portion of his life, was living in England. As examples of his work, we may take two books published in 1548, Cranmer's _Catechism_, published by Walter Lynne, and Halle's _Chronicles_, published by Grafton. The first contains a number of small cuts, one of which is signed in full Hans Holbein, and two others are signed with his initials H. H. Some writers insist that these three cuts alone are to be ascribed to him, and that the rest are from an unknown hand. Besides these small cuts, there is one full-page cut on the back of the title of very fine work. It represents Edward VI. seated on his throne with the bishops kneeling on his right, the peers on his left. From the hands of the king the bishops are receiving a Bible. The cut at the end of Halle's _Chronicles_, very similarly executed and also ascribed to Holbein, represents Henry VIII. sitting in Parliament. Almost all the volumes of chronicles, of which a number were issued in the sixteenth century, contain woodcuts, and two are especially well illustrated,--Grafton's _Chronicles_, published in 1569, and Holinshed's _Chronicles_ in 1577.
The illustrations in the latter book, which Mr. Linton considers to have been cut on metal, do not appear in the later edition of 1586.
Among the illustrations in the first edition, so Dibdin says, is to be found a picture of a guillotine.
[Illustration: From Cranmer's _Catechism_, London, 1548.]
Of all the English printers of the latter half of the sixteenth century, none produced finer books than John Day, who, it has been suggested, engraved some of the woodcuts which he used. The best known, perhaps, of his books is the _Book of Christian Prayers_, commonly called Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book, which he published in 1569. In a way, this book is undoubtedly a fine specimen of book-ornamentation, but as it was executed in a style then out of date, having borders like the earlier service books, it suffers by comparison with the 'Books of Hours' of fifty years earlier. Another book of Day's which obtained great popularity was the _History of Martyrs_, compiled by John Fox. We read on Day's epitaph in the church of Bradley-Parva--
"He set a Fox to wright how martyrs runne, By death to lyfe. Fox ventured paynes and health, To give them light; Day spent in print his wealth."
Considering the popularity of the book, and the number of editions that were issued, we can hardly imagine that Day lost money upon it.
The illustrations are of varied excellence, but the book contains also some very fine initial letters. One, the C at the commencement of the dedication, contains a portrait of Queen Elizabeth on her throne, with three men standing beside her, two of whom are supposed to be Day and Fox. Below the throne, forming part of the letter, is the Pope holding two broken keys.
Initial letters about this time arrived at their best. They were often very large, and contained scenes, mythological subjects, or coats-of-arms. A fine specimen of this last class is to be found in the _Cosmographical Glasse_, by William Cuningham, 1559. It is a large D containing the arms of Robert, Lord Dudley, to whom the book is dedicated. Very soon after this some ingenious printer invented the system of printing an ornamental border for the letter with a blank space for the insertion of an ordinary capital letter,--a system which soon succeeded in destroying any beauty or originality which letters had up to this time possessed.
In conclusion, it will be well to notice the growth of engraving on metal in England. The earliest specimen that I know of is the device first used by Pynson about 1496. It is certainly metal, and has every appearance of having been cut in this country. Some writers have put forward the theory that the majority of early illustrations, though to all appearance woodcuts, were really cut on metal. But wherever it is possible to trace an individual cut for any length of time, we can see from the breakages, and in some cases from small holes bored by insects, that the material used was certainly wood. Julian Notary had some curious metal cuts, but they were certainly of foreign design and workmanship, and the same may be said of the metal cuts found amongst the early English service books. The border on the title-page of the Cambridge _Galen_, usually described as engraved on metal, is really an ordinary woodcut. It is not till 1540 that we find a book illustrated with engravings produced in this country. This was Thomas Raynald's _Byrth of Mankynde_, which contains four plates of surgical diagrams. In some of the later editions these plates have been re-engraved on wood. In 1545 another medical book appeared, _Compendiosa totius delineatio aere exarata per Thomam Geminum_. It has a frontispiece with the arms of Henry VIII., and forty plates of anatomical subjects. Other editions appeared in 1553 and 1559, and the title-page of the last is altered by the insertion of a portrait of Elizabeth in place of the royal arms. The _Stirpium Adversaria nova authoribus Petro Pena et Mathia de Lobel_ of 1570 has a beautifully engraved title-page, and the 1572 edition of Parker's _Bible_ contains a map of the Holy Land with the following inscription in an ornamental tablet: 'Graven bi Humfray Cole, goldsmith, an English man born in y^e north, and pertayning to y^e mint in the Tower, 1572.' Humfray Cole is supposed by some authorities to have engraved the beautiful portraits of Elizabeth, the Earl of Leicester, and Lord Burleigh, which appear in the earlier edition of 1568. Saxton's maps, which appeared in 1579, are partly the work of native engravers, for at least eight were engraved by Augustine Ryther and Nicholas Reynolds. In 1591 there are two books,--Broughton's _Concent of Scripture_, and Sir John Harington's _Ariosto_. The latter contains almost fifty plates, closely copied from a Venetian edition, and was the most ambitious book illustrated with metal plates published in the century. There are a few other books published before 1600 which contain specimens of engraving, but none worthy of particular mention.
[22] This particular cut, which represents the Fool looking out of a window while his house is on fire, meant to illustrate the chapter 'Of bostynge or hauynge confydence in fortune,' is not used in the edition of 1517. It may, perhaps, occur in the edition of 1509, of which the unique copy is at Paris.
[23] Sir Thomas More, the friend and employer both of Pynson and Froben, had probably a good deal to do with this purchase of material.