THE PENTATEUCH OF PRINTING
WITH
A CHAPTER ON JUDGES.
BY
WILLIAM BLADES.
With a Memoir of the Author, and List of his Works,
BY
TALBOT B. REED.
CHICAGO: A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY.
1891.
_Blades, East & Blades, Printers, 23, Abchurch Lane, London, E.C._
PREFACE
The Pentateuch of Printing is not so fanciful a title for the present book as might at first sight appear. There is a self-evident analogy between the Genesis of the World and the Genesis of Printing. The spread of Typography is not inaptly typified by an Exodus; while the laws promulgated in Leviticus have a plain parallel in idea with the laws and observances necessary to be followed in making a book. Numbers certainly is not so directly suggestive of the many great names which figure upon the Printers’ Roll of Honour; but Deuteronomy at once suggests, by its very signification, the second birth and reinforcement of the vital conditions of Printing introduced by the steam-machine. No subject is nowadays complete without a knowledge of what specialists have previously written upon it, and the public generally are certain to form their opinions upon the published statements of the best Judges. We thus obtain six chapter-heads for our book, and whether the information offered under these heads is worth reading must now be left to the only Judge, against whose verdict it is useless to appeal--the Reading Public.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PREFACE iii.
MEMOIR OF WILLIAM BLADES ix.
PROLOGUE xxv.
GENESIS 1
EXODUS 23
LEVITICUS 43
NUMBERS 59
DEUTERONOMY 83
A CHAPTER ON JUDGES 95
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
St. Christopher. Earliest dated Woodcut Frontispiece
Assyrian Clay Tablet, Stamped 5
Letters Stamped on a Greek Lamp 5
Letters Stamped on a Roman Lamp 5
Fifteenth Century Playing Card 6
Fac-simile, from the Biblia Pauperum. Block-book, 15th century 8
Scriptorium Monk at work 9
Bookbinder, 16th century 10
Cover of a Book, 15th century 11
Fragment from a Xylographic Donatus 12
Image of Pity. (Wood block and type) 13
Statue of Coster 17
Coster Commemoration Medal, 1856 19
Portrait of Ulric Gering 29
Manuscript written at Bruges, circ. 1472 34
Supposed Portrait of Caxton 36
Fac-simile from the Recuyell of the Histories of Troye, 1474. (Caxton’s Type, No. 1) 37
Bas-relief from the Entablature, Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster 39
Illustrations showing regular and irregular body of Type 46
Impression of a Type in 1476 48
Impression of a Type, circ. 1470 48
Profile tracings from M. Claudius’ 15th century Types 49
Diagram of a Type 50
Illustration of a Punch 50
Illustration of a Matrix 51
The “Lay” of a pair of Type Cases 52
A Fifteenth Century Wooden Composing Stick 53
Old Iron Composing Stick 53
A Line of Composed Type 53
Old Wooden Press, 1508 54
Interior of a 17th century Printing Office 55
Improved Wooden Press, 1640 56
Portraits of Coster, Gutenberg, Fust, Aldus and Froben. (From Maittaire) 62
Portrait of Aldus 65
The Medal of Aldus 67
The Plantin Museum, at Antwerp 75
Portrait of Christopher Plantin 76
Portrait of John Day, 1562 77
John Day’s Trade Mark 77
Portrait of William Spottiswoode 78
Portrait of Benjamin Franklin 79
Fac-simile Letter of Benjamin Franklin 80
Stationers’ Hall 81
Centenary Medal of the Walters, of the Times, 1885 87
Diagram Illustrating a Flat Impression 88
Diagram Illustrating Single Cylindrical Impression 88
Diagram Illustrating Double Cylindrical Impression of a Perfecting Machine 89
Diagram Illustrating Cylindrical Impression from Curved Stereotype 90
The “Hoe” Newspaper Printing Machine 90
Early Logotypes 92
Fac-simile Title-page of the Star Chamber Decree, 1637 104
Fac-simile Title-page of Atkyn’s Original and Growth of Printing, 1664 105
Fac-simile Title-page and Illustration from Wolffger’s Format Buchlein, 1620 106, 107
Fac-simile Title-page of Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises, 1683 108
Fac-simile Title-page of the Elzevir Specimen Book, 1713 109
Fac-simile Title-page of Watson’s History of Printing, 1713 110
Fac-simile Title-page of Lewis’ Life of Caxton, 1737 111
Fac-simile Title-page of Mores’ Dissertation on Founders, 1778 112
Fac-simile Title-page of I. Thomas’ History of Printing in America, 1810 113
MEMOIR of the late WILLIAM BLADES,
BY
TALBOT BAINES REED.
To the friends of the late WILLIAM BLADES no apology is needed for publishing in its present form the work on which he was engaged at the time of his death, in April, 1890. For such as did not know him, it is thought that a few biographical notes on the man and his career will sufficiently explain the peculiar interest which attaches to his last and not least important work.
WILLIAM BLADES was born at Clapham, on the 5th of December, 1824--at a period when the romantic bibliomania of DIBDIN and the Roxboro’ Club was in its zenith. These enthusiasts met periodically to celebrate their discoveries in the field of book-lore; to keep one another in mind of the famous occasion when the Marquess of BLANDFORD wrested the Valdarfer Boccaccio from the Earl of SPENCER for the sum of £2,260, at Evans’s; and to drink in silence to the “Cause of Bibliomania all over the World.” Emulated by the example of these aristocratic enthusiasts, other more humble enquirers, such as TIMPERLEY, HANSARD, and JOHNSON were exploring the same field, and helping one another to conclusions. There was more zeal than knowledge. There was a great deal of fine writing, entertaining anecdote, and expensive book-making; there were sweeping generalizations, and a touching confidence in second-hand evidence. But in all the school, although it included one or two practical printers, no one had the courage to defy authority, and question all bibliographical dogma until he could verify it for himself. The little boy at Clapham was destined to inaugurate this desirable revolution, and apply to the study of Early Printing a sturdy agnosticism which would have horrified DIBDIN and scandalized the choice spirits of the Roxboro’ Club.
At the early age of sixteen, and after a comparatively brief educational career at the Clapham Grammar School, WILLIAM BLADES entered the office of his father, the late JOSEPH BLADES, a respected City printer, at 11, Abchurch Lane. In after life he was always ready to attribute the main part of his success as a bibliographer, as well as his own business prosperity, to the thorough grounding which, during his ’prentice years, he received in all the details, practical and artistic, of his profession. Nor was he wont, in dealing with questions relating to the well-being and relief of the journeyman printer, in which he took so deep an interest, ever to ignore the days, often severe and wearisome, when he wore the apron and worked at case side by side with his father’s employés. His description of himself as “WILLIAM BLADES, Printer,” on the title-page of one or more of his books, conveyed what he felt to be his chief claim to authority on matters relating to the history and antiquities of his craft. Those matters it was his rule to investigate as a printer first, as an antiquary next, and as a man of letters last; and it was by adhering to this order that he was able to do for bibliography what AMES and DIBDIN and TIMPERLEY had failed to do.