Possibly the earliest attempt to describe the art of typography is that in the Donatus issued by Peter Schoeffer, perhaps before 1456, the colophon of which says that it was finished “Arte nova imprimendi seu caracterizandi [from character = letter] . . . absque calami exaratione.” Fust and Schoeffer in the Mainz psalter of 1457 said that it was formed by an “adinventio artificiosa imprimendi ac caracterizandi absque calami ulla exaratione.” The colophon of the Catholicon of 1460 is more precise, and says that the book was printed “non calami, stili, aut pennae suffragio, sed mira patronarum formarumque concordia, proportione, ac modulo.” In 1462 Albrecht Pfister had “gedrucket” the Four Histories. In the Liber Sextus Decretalium, published in 1465, Fust and Schoeffer say that it was completed “non atramento [“atramento communi,” in the Justinianus of 1468 and 1472], plumali canna neque aerea, sed artificiosa quadam adinventione imprimendi seu caracterizandi,” a phrase which they slightly varied in Cicero’s Officia, issued in the same year: “non atramento, plumali canna neque aerea, sed arte quadam perpulcra.” The edition of St. Jerome’s Epistles of 1470 is said to have been completed by an “ars impressoria,” the Decretum Gratiani of 1472 by an “ars quaedam ingeniosa imprimendi,” the Dyalogus of 1478 by an “ars magistra.” We find further—“ars sancta” or “divina,” “nova ars scribendi,” “novum exscribendi genus prope divinum,” “sculptoria archetyporum ars,” “ars mirifica formandi,” “ars excusoria,” “nova imprimendi ratio,” “ars pressurae,” “chalcotypa ars,” “chalcographia” (1472 and later), “chalcographia excusoria impressoriaque,” “libraria impressio,” “empryntynge” (Caxton, 1482), “prenterei” (Schoeffer, 1492), “truckery” (1505), “impression des livres” (1498), and “prenten.”

The early printers called themselves, or were called by others, “libronim prothocaragmatici” (Gramm. Rhythm., 1468), “impres-sores libronim,” “exsculptor libronim” (Jenson, 1471), “chal-cographus” (1473; Hain, 13036), “magister artis impressoria?,” “boeckprinter”; and during the 16th century we find them still frequently called “chalcotypus” and “chalcographus.”

The types were at first designated more by negative than positive expressions. In 1468 they were called “caragma,” later on “car-acter" or “character,” “archetipae notae” (1473; Hain, 13036), “sculptoria archetyporum ars,” “chalcotypa ars,” “formae,” “ar-tificiosissimae imprimendorum librorum formae.” We soon hear also of the process and material by which they were produced. The Grammatica of 1468, published by Schoeffer, says that it was “cast” (sum fusus libellus). In 1471 “aeneae formulae” are spoken of; and Bernardus Cenninus and his son say that they had printed the Virgil “expressis ante calibe caracteribus et deinde fusis literis” (with letters first cut into steel and then cast). In 1473 Friedrich Creusner at Nuremberg says that he had “cut” (sculpsit) the work of Diogenes (Hain, 6192). Johan Zeiner of Ulm says in 1474 that he had perfected a book, not with the pen, but with letters of metal (stagneis caracteribus). In 1474 Joh. Ph. de Lignamine speaks of “metallicae formae.” In 1476 Husner of Strasburg represents the Nider as being printed with “letters cut of metal (litteris sculptis artificiali certe conatu ex aere).” Nicolas Jenson printed in 1480 with letters “cut and cast” (sculptis ac conflatis).

The word typographus does not seem to occur before 1488, when it was used in the preface of P. Stephanus Dulcinius Scalae to the Astronomicon of Manilius, printed in that year at Milan by Antonius Zarotus, in 1498 Erasmus uses it in a letter (dated 13th Feb.) to Christianus, a Lübeck merchant; and in 1517 Johan Schoeffer applies the word to himself in the colophon of the Aeneas Sylvius published by him. But of the use of the word typographia no earlier instance is known than 1520, in which year Gerardus Noviomagus (=Geldenhaurius) in his Lucubratiuncula de Batavorum Insula (pref. to Nicol. Buscoducensis, dated 1520) says: “inventa Germanorum . . . bombarda videlicet, typographia, pyxis char-taque nautica;” and Johan Schott, a printer of Strasburg, in the Geogr. Ptolem. published by him, describes his grandfather, Johan Mentelin, as “primus typographiae inventor.” Gerardus, it may be added, borrowed the whole passage from Pet. Montanus (li. 1 Adam, published a. 1504), who has chalcographia instead of typo graphia. Meerman indeed speaks of a use of the word typographia (or at least of typographus) earlier than 1520, and refers to the preface of Bernardinus Veronensis in the edition of Tibullus, Catullus, and Propertius published at Venice in 1493 by Symon Bevilaqua, “at least,” Meerman adds, “as it (the preface) is read in the Annal. Typogr. of Maittaire, i. 560, 2d ed.” But on page 560 Maittaire quotes the first two lines of Bernardinus’s preface (till dicit) and then adds: “Gratis characteribus destitutus, typographus necesse habuit hiatus in commentario hic illic relinquere,” which is evidently Maittaire’s own remark, not that of Bernardinus. The present writer at least has been unable to find such a passage in the Tibullus.

Although the art of writing and that of block-printing both differ widely from printing with movable metal types, yet this last process seems to have been such a gradual transition from block-printing, and block-printing in its turn to have been such a natural outcome of the many trials that were probably made to produce books in some more expeditious manner than could be done with handwriting, that a cursory glance at these two processes will not seem out of place, all the less as a discussion on the origin and progress of typography could hardly be understood without knowing the state of the literary development at the time that printing appeared.

The art of printing, i.e., of impressing (by means of certain forms and colours) figures, pictures, letters, words, lines, whole pages, &c., on other objects, as also the art of engraving, which is inseparably connected with printing, existed long before the 15th century. Not to go back to remoter essays, there is reason to suppose that mediaeval kings and princes (among others William the Conqueror) had their monograms cut on blocks of wood or metal in order to impress them on their charters. Such impressions from stamps are found instead of seals on charters of the 15th century. Manuscripts of the 12th century show initials which, on account of their uniformity, are believed to have been impressed by means of stamps or dies. But the idea of multiplying representations from one engraved plate or block or other form was unknown to the ancients, whereas it is predominant in what we call the art of blockprinting, and especially in that of typography, in which the same types can be used again and again.

Block-printing and printing with movable types seem to have been practised in China and Japan long before they were known in Europe. It is said that in the year 175 the text of the Chinese classics was cut upon tablets, which were erected outside the university, and that impressions were taken of them, some of which are said to be still in existence. Printing from wooden blocks can be traced as far back as the 6th century, when the founder of the Suy dynasty is said to have had the remains of the classical books engraved on wood, though it was not until the 10th century that printed books became common. In Japan the earliest example of block-printing dates from the period 764-770, when the empress Shiyau-toku, in pursuance of a vow, had a million small wooden toy pagodas made for distribution among the Buddhist temples and monasteries, each of which was to contain a dhâranî out of the Buddhist Scriptures entitled “Vimala nirbhasa Sûtra,” printed on a slip of paper about 18 inches in length and 2 in width, which was rolled up and deposited in the body of the pagoda under the spire. In a journal of the period, under the year 987, the expression “printed” book” (suri-hoñ) is found applied to a copy of the Buddhist canon brought back from China by a Buddhist priest. This, of course, must have been a Chinese edition; but the use of the term implies that printed books were already known in Japan. It is said that the Chinese printed with movable types (of clay) from the middle of the 11th century. The authorities of the British Museum exhibit as the earliest instance of Corean books printed with movable types a work printed in 1337. To the Coreans is attributed the invention of copper types in the beginning of the 15th century; and an inspection of books bearing dates of that period seems to show that they used such types, even if they did not invent them.

From such evidence as we have it would seem that Europe is not indebted to the Chinese or Japanese for the art of block-printing, nor for that of printing with movable types.

In Europe, as late as the second half of the 14th century, every book (including school and prayer books), and every public and private document, proclamation, bull, letter, &c., was written by hand; all figures and pictures, even playing-cards and images of saints, were drawn with the pen or painted with a brush. In the 13th century there already existed a kind of book trade. The organization of universities as well as that of large ecclesiastical establishments was at that time incomplete, especially in Italy, France, and Germany, without a staff of scribes and transcribers {scriptores), illuminators, lenders, sellers, and custodians of books {stationary librorum, librarii), and per-gamenarii, i.e., persons who prepared and sold the vellum or parchment required for books and documents. The books supplied were for the most part legal, theological, and educational, and are calculated to have amounted to above one hundred different works. As no book or document was approved unless it had some ornamented and illuminated initials or capital letters, there was no want of illuminators. The workmen scribes and transcribers were, perhaps without exception, caligraphers, and the illuminators for the most part artists. Beautifully written and richly illuminated manuscripts on vellum became objects of luxury which were eagerly bought and treasured up by princes and people of distinction. Burgundy of the 15th century, with its rich literature, its wealthy towns, its love for art, and its school of painting, was in this respect the centre of Europe, and the libraries of its dukes at Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, &c., contained more than three thousand beautifully illuminated MSS.

In speaking of the writing of the manuscripts of the 15th and two preceding centuries, it is essential to distinguish, in each country, between at least four different classes of writing, and two of these must be again subdivided each into two classes. All these different kinds of writing were, in the first instance, taken as models for cutting such portions of text as were intended to illustrate and explain the figures in block-books, and afterwards as models for the types used in the printing of books and documents.

(1) The book hand, that is, the ordinary writing of legal, theological, and devotional books, was used by the official transcribers of the universities and churches. These men had received a more or less learned education, and consequently wrote or transcribed books with a certain pretence of understanding them and of being able to write with greater rapidity than the ordinary caligrapher. Hence their writing may be called (a ) the current or cursive book hand, of which a good many illustrations may be found in Wilh. Schum, Exempla Codicum Amplon. Erfurtensium. Quite distinct from this current writing, and much clearer and more distinct, is (b) the upright or set book hand, which was employed by some writers who worked for universities and churches, and also by a good many who may be presumed to have worked in large cities and Commercial towns for schools and the people in general without university connexion. (2) In the church hand (Gothic or black letter) were produced transcripts of the Bible, missals, psalters, and other works intended for use in churches and private places of worship. This writing we may again subdivide into two classes,—(a ) the ornamental or caligraphic writing, found exclusively in books intended for use in churches or for the private use of wealthy and distinguished persons, and (b ) the ordinary upright or set church hand, employed for less ornamental and less expensive books. (3) The letter hand may be said to be intermediate between the set literary book hand and the set literary church hand, and to differ but little from either. It was employed in all public documents of the nature of a letter. (4) The court or charter hand was used for charters, title-deeds, papal bulls, &c.

Dypold Läber (Lauber), a teacher and transcriber at Hagenau in Germany, is known to have carried on a busy trade in manuscripts just about the time of the invention of printing. His prospectuses, in handwriting of about the middle of the 15th century, announce that whatever books people wish to have, large or small, “geistlich oder weltlich, hübsch gemolt,” are all to be found at Dypold Lauber’s the scribe. He had in stock Gesta Romanorum, mit den Viguren gemolt ; poetical works (Partirai, Tristan, Freidank) ; romances of chivalry Der Witfarn Ritter; Von eime Getruwen Ritter der sin eigen Hertze gab umb einer schonen Frowen willen; Der Ritter unter dem Zuber) ; Biblical and legendary works (A Rimed Bible; A Psalter, Latin and German; Episteln und Evangelien durch das Jor; Vita Christy; Das gantze Passional, winterteil und summerteil; devotional books (Bellial; Der Selen Trost; Der Rosenkrantz; Die zehn Gebot mit Glosen; Small Bette-Bücher) ; and books for the people (Gute bewehrte Artznien-Bücher; Gemolte Loss-Bücher, ce., fortune-telling books; Schachtzabel gemolt). The lower educational books consisted for the most part of the Abecedaria, containing the alphabet, the Lord’s prayer, the creed, and one or two prayers; the Donatus, a short Latin grammar extracted from the work of Aelius Donatus, a Roman grammarian of the 4th century, and distinctly mentioned in a school ordinance of Bautzen of 1418; the Doctrinale, a Latin grammar in leonine verse, compiled by Alexander Gallus (or De Villa Dei), a minorite of Brittany of the 13th century; the Summula Logica of Petrus Hispanus (afterwards Pope John XXI.), used in the teaching of logic and dialectics; and Dionysius Cato's Disticha de Moribus, and its supplement called Facetus, with the Floretus of St Bernard, used in the teaching of morals. As helps to the clergy in their attempts to educate the lower classes, and as a means of assisting and promoting private devotion, there were picture books accompanied with an easy explanatory text, for the most part representations of the mystic relation between the Old and New Testaments (typology). Among these books the Biblia Pauperum stands first. It represents pictorially the life and passion of Christ, and there exist MSS. of it as early as the 13th century, in some cases beautifully illuminated. A richly illuminated MS. of it, executed in the Netherlands c . 1400, is in the British Museum (press-mark, King’s, 5), and also fragments of one of the 14th century (press-mark, 31,303). A remodelling and development of this work is the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, a work in rhyme of the 14th century, which in forty-five chapters represents the Bible history interwoven with Mariolatry and legend. Of this work the Paris national library and arsenal library each possesses a MS. composed in 1324, whereas the British Museum has nine MSS. (six being illuminated) of the 14th and 15th centuries, written in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and England, one (press-mark, 16,578) bearing the distinct date 1379 and. another (press-mark, Egerton, 878) that of 1436. A work of a similar nature is the Apocalypsis, of which at least two recensions with illustrations may be pointed out. One gives the text as we know it, with or without commentary, for which cf. Brit. Mus., 17,333 (French), 18,633 (French, but written in England), Reg. 2 D. xiii., and 22,493 (French),—all four early 14th century. Another is more a short history or biography of St John, but the illustrations follow those of the former work very closely; cf. Brit. Mus., 19,896 (15th century, German). It is this last recension which agrees with the blockbook to be mentioned hereafter. Other devotional works are the Ars Moriendi, the Antichrist, and other works which will be found mentioned among the block-books.

Block-Printing or Xylography.

When all this writing, transcribing, illuminating, Ac., had reached their period of greatest development, the art of printing from wooden blocks (block-printing, xylography) on silk, cloth, &c., vellum, and paper made its appearance in Europe. It seems to have been practised, so far as we have evidence, on cloth, &c., and vellum as early as the 12th century, and on paper as far back as the second half of the 14th century, while it was largely employed in the early part of the 15th in the production of (1) separate leaves (called briefs, from breve, scriptum), containing either a picture (print, prent, shortened from the Fr. emprunt, empreinte, and already used by Chaucer, C. T., 6186, six-text, D. 604, printe, prente, preente, and in other early English documents; also called in colloquial German Helge, Helglein, or Halae) or a piece of text, or both together: and of (2) whole block-books, sometimes consisting of half picture and half text, or wholly of text, or altogether of picture. It is, however, certain that about 1400 xylography was known all over Germany, Flanders, and Holland.

In these blocks, as in wood-engraving now, the lines to be printed were in relief. The block, after the picture or the text had been engraved upon it, was first thoroughly wetted with a thin, watery, pale brown material, much resembling distemper; then a sheet of damp paper was laid upon it, and the back of the paper was carefully rubbed with some kind of dabber or burnisher, usually called a frotton, till an impression from the ridges of the carved block had been transferred to the paper. In this fashion a sheet could only be printed on one side (anopisthographic); and in some copies of block-books we find the sides on which there is no printing pasted together so as to give the work the appearance of an ordinary book. There are only a few block-books which do not possess this characteristic, as the Legend of St Servatius in the royal library of Brussels, Das Zeitglöcklein in the Bamberg library (cf . Falkenstein, p. 49), Das geistlich und weltlich Rom at Althorp and Gotha (cf. Falkenstein, p. 46); but these belong to the end of the 15th century, and therefore to a later period than the ordinary block-books. Consequently, if a man wanted to set up as a printer of briefs or books, he needed no apparatus but a set of wood-blocks and a rubber.

Formerly it was the general opinion that playing-cards had been the first products of xylography; but the earliest that have been preserved to us are done by hand, while the printed ones date from the 15th century, therefore from a period in which woodcuts were already used for other purposes. It is believed that some of the wood engravings and block-books were printed in monasteries. In a necrology of the Franciscan monastery at Nordlingen, which comes down to the beginning of the 15th century, this entry occurs: “VII. Id. Augusti, obiit Frater h. Luger, laycus, optimus incisor lignorum”; and on some of the engravings we find the arms of certain monasteries, which may, however, merely mean that they were printed for, not in, those monasteries. The registers of Ulin mention several wood-engravers (formschneider),— in 1398 a certain Ulrich; in 1441 Heinrich Peter von Erolzheim, Joerg, and another Heinrich; in 1442 Ulrich and Lienhart; in 1447 Claus (Nicolas), Stoffel (Christopher), and Johann; in 1455 Wilhelm; in 1461 Meister Ulrich, &c. In a register of taxes of Nordlingen we find from 1428 to 1452 a certain Wilhelm Kegeler mentioned as brief-trücker ; in 1453 his widow is called alt brieftriivkerin ; and in 1461 his brother Wilhelm is registered for the same craft. At Mainz there was a printer, Henne Cruse, in 1440. At Nuremberg we find in 1449 Hans, a formschneider, while his son Junghans exercised the same industry from 1472 to 1490. Hans von Pfedersheim printed at Frankfort in 1459, and Peter Schott at Strasburg in 1464. A certain George Glockendon exercised the same trade at Nuremberg till 1474, when he died, being succeeded by a son and afterwards by a grandson. In Flanders a Jan de Printere was established at Antwerp in 1417; and printers and wood engravers (houte bild-snyters) worked there in 1442 (Privileges of the Corporation of St Luke at Antwerp). At Bruges printers and beeldemakers (makers, engravers of images) were enumerated in 1454 among the members of the fraternity of St John the...