,,old ,,picture ,,books            ,,old
 ,,picture ,,books    ,,with ,,other    
,,essays ,,on    ,,bookish ,,subjects1  
,,by    ,,alfred ,w4 ,,pollard          
,illustration      ,,london3 ,,methuen  
,,and ,,co    #cf ,,essex ,,street1     
,w4,c4 #aijb               ,to ,,john   
,,macfarlane1       ,librarian of the   
,imperial ,library1 ,calcutta4          
,my dear ,macfarlane1--         ,just as
 you had completed a valuable monograph 
on that       enterprising ,french      
publisher ,antoine ,vrard1 you were     
whirled away       to ,india to organise
 a great library at ,calcutta4 ,i have  
seen it       stated in the newspapers1 
on high authority1 that your ,imperial  
,library is to be a second ,british     
,museum1 but ,i am afraid that1         
even when fully developed by your energy
 and skill1 it will contain       no    
,vrards4 ,i hope1 however1 that when you
 come over on furlough       you will   
resume the pleasant studies we used to  
pursue together1       and that you may 

even be induced to read another paper   
before the       learned ,society of    
which you were once my fellow secretary4
 ,to keep       alive your interest in  
old books is thus a reasonable pretext  
for       dedicating to you these       
bookish essays4 ,my real hope is that as
       they stand on your book-shelf    
they may remind you of the original     
,british ,museum and of the many friends
 you left behind here after       your  
seventeen years' work amid our          
,bloomsbury fogs4         ,faithfully   
yours1         ,,alfred ,w4 ,,pollard   
,,note      ,the paper on ',england and 
the ,bookish ,arts' originally appeared 
as an  introduction to ',the ,english   
,bookman's ,library' 7,kegan ,paul and  
,co474  ,the other ,essays are reprinted
 from ',bibliographica1' ',the          
,connoisseur1'  ',the ,guardian1' ',the 
,library1' ',the ,king's ,college       
,school ,magazine1'  ',longman's        
,magazine1' ',macmillan's ,magazine1'   
',the ,newbery ,house  ,magazine1' ',the

 ,pageant1' and the ',transactions' of  
the ,bibliographical  ,society4         
,separate acknowledgment of its source  
is made at the beginning  of each paper1
 but the author desires here to thank   
the ,publishers and  ,editors to whom he
 is indebted for permission to reprint4 
,all the essays  have been revised1 and 
some of the illustrations appear here   
for the  first time4                    
,,contents                              
,,page      ,,old ,,picture ,,books     
#c      ,,florentine ,,rappresentazioni 
,,and ,,their ,,pictures        #aa     
,,two ,,illustrated ,,italian ,,bibles  
#cg      ,a ,,book ,,of ,,hours         
#ea      ,,the ,,transference ,,of      
,,woodcuts ,,in ,,the ,,fifteenth ,,and 
,,sixteenth ,,centuries                 
#gc      ,,es ,,tu ,,scholaris8         
#ii      ,,english ,,books ,,printed    
,,abroad                         #ajf   
,,some ,,pictorial ,,and ,,heraldic     
,,initials                 #abd         
,,england ,,and ,,the ,,bookish ,,arts  

#adf      ,,the ,,first ,,english ,,book
 ,,sale                          #aei   
,,john ,,durie',s ',,reformed           
,,librarie-,,keeper'              #agb  
,,woodcuts ,,in ,,english ,,plays       
,,printed ,,before #affj        #ahc    
,,herrick ,,and ,,his ,,friends         
#bjj      ,a ,,poet',s ,,studies        
#baf      ,,printers' ,,marks ,,of ,,the
 ,,fifteenth#a #b;,d ,,sixteenth        
,,centuries                             
#bbg      ,,the ,,franks ,,collection   
,,of ,,armorial ,,book-,,stamps         
#bdb          ,,by ,,alice ,,pollard    
,a ,,queen ,,anne ,,pocket-,,book       
#bfj      ,,why ,,men ,,don',t ,,marry  
#bgc      ,illustration3 ,,the ,,siege  
,,of ,,nova ,,troja4 ,,from             
,,gr,,ninger',s ',,virgil'3             
,,strassburg1 #aejb          ,,old      
,,picture ,,books      ,in the edition  
of ,virgil published by ,grninger at    
,strassburg in #aejb1  ,sebastian ,brant
 boasted that the illustrations to it1  
whose preparation  he had superintended1

 made the story of the book as plain to 
the  unlearned as to the learned3       
',hic legere historias commentaque      
plurima doctus1        ,nec minus       
indoctus perlegere illa potest4'    ,the
 boast was no ill-founded one1 though it
 must be granted that ,virgil  would    
have been puzzled by the cannon here    
shown as employed in the  siege of ,nova
 ,troja1 and similar medivalisms abound 
throughout the  volume4 ,coming almost  
at the end of the first series of early 
illustrated books1 the ,virgil of #aejb 
thus exemplifies two of the chief       
features to which they owe their charm3 
the power of telling a story and  the   
readiness to import into the most       
uncongenial themes some touches of  the 
life of their own day4 ,but by ,brant's 
time illustration was already  losing   
its pristine simplicity4 ,it could      
hardly be otherwise when such a  man as 
,brant1 who had just gained a ,european 
reputation by his  ',narrenschiff1' was 
concerning himself with it4 ,at the     

outset it had  been rather a craft than 
an art1 alike in ,germany1 in ,italy1 in
 the  ,netherlands1 and in ,france1 and1
 if we do not add ,england to the list1 
it is only because in ,england the      
workmen1 though nave enough in all      
conscience1 were so entirely untrained  
that to call them craftsmen  would be   
too great a compliment4 ,but whether    
skilled or unskilled1 the  woodcutters' 
objects were everywhere the same3 to    
render his design with  the greatest    
possible simplicity of outline1 to tell 
the story with a  directness which often
 verges on caricature1 and to keep his  
pictures in  decorative harmony with the
 type-page on which they were to appear1
  printed with the same pull of the     
press1 with the same excellent ink1 on  
the same excellent paper4    ,in papers 
brought together in this volume the     
reader is asked to look at  the woodcuts
 to two old ,italian ,bibles1 at the    
beautiful cuts which make  the          
,florentine ,miracle ,plays or          

,rappresentazioni so highly esteemed1 at
  the illustrations to ,french editions 
of the ',hours of the ,blessed          
,virgin1' and at some examples of the   
curious transformations and             
vicissitudes which old wood blocks and  
the designs for them went through  ere  
yet either clichs or photographic       
processes had been invented4 ,the       
reproductions which accompany these and 
other articles will give a  better idea 
of these ,old ,picture ,books to those  
who do not already know  them than could
 be conveyed by any verbal descriptions4
 ,here it may  suffice to emphasise one 
or two points which are often           
overlooked4    ,in the first place1 it  
may have been noticed that not only do  
we speak  of woodcuts1 a common enough  
word1 but also of woodcutters1 a term   
which1 until ,sir ,martin ,conway used  
it in the title of his ',the            
,woodcutters of the ,netherlands1' where
 it was ridiculed at the time as        
suggesting the stalwart workmen who cut 

down trees1 was hardly ever  employed in
 this sense4 ,it cannot be denied that  
the use of the word  sometimes lands us 
in incongruities of phrase2 but inasmuch
 as there is  no evidence of the graver 
having been used in woodcuts before the 
eighteenth century1 it is clearly wrong 
to speak of the early craftsmen  as     
engravers1 and it is only fair in       
estimating their performance to         
remember that they worked with no better
 tool than a knife4    ,as regards the  
material they used1 it was no doubt as a
 rule wood2 but  experts are agreed--,i 
know not on what evidence--that instead 
of the  blocks cut across the grain     
adopted by the modern engraver1 they    
used  wood sawn perpendicularly down the
 grain1 as in an ordinary plank4 ,it is 
certain1 however1 that in addition to   
wood some soft kind of metal1  spoken of
 in one place 7the list of border-cuts  
in one of ,du ,pr's  ',horae'7 as       
cuivre1 or copper1 but generally        
identified with pewter1  was also used4 

,this use of metal encouraged in some of
 the ,french ',books  of ,hours1'       
notably in those of ,philippe           
,pigouchet1 a finer and closer  method  
of work than we can believe was at that 
time possible on wood2  but the general 
handling was precisely the same1 and it 
is often only  when we see a thin line  
bending instead of breaking1 as wood    
did1 that  we know for certain that the 
craftsman was working on metal4 ,for    
this  reason the term woodcut is often  
applied to metal cuts worked in the     
style of wood as well as to woodcuts    
properly so called1 and though          
doubtless reprehensible1 the confusion  
is not nearly so misleading as  that    
between cuts and engravings4    ,a third
 fact has already been emphasised1      
namely1 that the makers of the          
woodcuts1 and ,i think we may add the   
designers of them also1 never put  their
 names to their work or troubled        
themselves in any way to preserve  their
 individuality4 ,save for the           

',nuremberg ,chronicle' of ,hartmann    
,schedel--a large book and a fine one1  
but of no unusual artistic  merit--the  
cuts in which are associated with the   
names of ,wohlgemuth  7the father-in-law
 of ,drer7 and ,pleydenwurff1 ,i do not 
know of any  single illustrated book of 
the fifteenth century the designs in    
which  can be attributed to a known     
artist4 ,in ,venetian cuts towards the  
end of  the century it is not uncommon  
to find a small initial letter1 such as 
the b in the ,giunta ,bibles1 the ,f of 
a ,livy1 the ,n of an ,ovid1 appearing  
on some of the blocks2 but1 after much  
learned disquisition1 it is now         
generally agreed that this is merely the
 mark of a woodcutter's  workshop4 ,as  
to the organisation of these workshops1 
we have1 unhappily1  no information4    
,all that we know is that at ,augsburg1 
where1 before the  introduction of      
printing1 woodcutting had been          
extensively employed for  playing-cards 
and figures of saints1 the cutters had  

formed themselves  into a flourishing   
guild1 and were able to insist that the 
making of the  illustrations for books  
should be left in their hands as a      
condition of  the printers being allowed
 to use them4    ,the only other point  
which it seems necessary to mention is  
that  illustrated books in the fifteenth
 century were intended to attract very  
much the same class of purchasers for   
whose benefit they are produced at  the 
present day4    ,people often run away  
with one of two contradictory ideas1    
that all  early books were very costly  
and only prepared for princes1 or that  
illustrated books were then the ,books  
of the ,people1 and therefore  possessed
 all sorts of beautiful properties not  
discoverable in the  bourgeois volumes  
we get at ,mudie's4 ,of course both     
these ideas have  some foundation4      
,profusely illuminated manuscripts1     
whether ,prayer-,books  or ,romances1   
were literally a luxury reserved for    
princes2 but then a  profusely          

illuminated manuscript is not only a    
book1 it is a  picture-gallery as well1 
and even now1 when prices have risen to 
what  seem extravagant heights1 the fine
 manuscripts which can be bought for    
from one to two thousand pounds are     
probably the cheapest art-treasures  on 
the market4 ,but until quite the end of 
the fifteenth century princes  cared    
very little for printed books1 thinking 
them rather cheap and  common1 even to  
the extent of refusing to have them in  
their libraries4  ,more than this1 rich 
connoisseurs generally1 and not merely  
princes1  when they patronised printed  
books at all1 preferred them quite      
plain1  finely printed1 but with no     
pictures in them4 ,they even preferred  
them  without any printed initial       
letters1 no doubt telling each other it 
was  so much nicer to have the initials 
prettily painted in by hand1--just as   
there are some people who prefer books  
in paper covers1 because they can  have 
them bound as they please4 ,we all know 

that most paper-cover books  melt away  
and never get bound at all2 and most of 
the books which were  to have painted   
initials remain to this day with the    
blank places still  unfilled4 ,but it   
was a very pretty theory1 and it shows  
clearly enough  that the rich people who
 held it cared nothing for printed      
ornaments1  and  fortiori nothing for   
printed illustrations4    ,on the other 
hand1 though some of the books we are   
concerned with were  probably sold for  
less than sixpence1 sixpence in the     
fifteenth century  was worth five or six
 shillings now1 and1 in fact1 from five 
shillings  to five guineas very fairly  
represents the range of prices of early 
illustrated books4 ,thus the cheapest of
 them1 the little ,florentine           
chap-books1 are not really the          
equivalent of our modern penny          
dreadfuls1  but rather of the pretty    
gift-books with which publishers tempt  
us every  ,christmas4 ,there was no     
fifteenth century equivalent to our     

modern  penny dreadfuls1 because the    
sort of people who now read penny       
dreadfuls  then read nothing at all4 ,as
 soon as they began to read1 plenty of  
bad  pictures were produced to please   
them4    ,if this prologue did not      
already threaten to be too long1 it     
would be  interesting to advance the    
theory that the great body of readers in
  every civilisation has always been    
drawn from much the same class as at    
present1 and also that the price of     
books1 when we allow for the  different 
value of money1 has varied equally      
little4 ,in any case1 it  should be     
understood that early illustrated books 
were neither very rare  nor very        
miraculously cheap1 but cost about the  
same as the illustrated  books of       
to-day1 and were intended for about the 
same class of readers4    ,up to a few  
years ago it was possible for quiet folk
 of this class to  possess some         
specimens of the old books as well as of
 the new4  ,unfortunately during the    

last quarter of a century1 and more     
especially  during the last decade of   
it1 the collecting of them has become a 
hobby  which can only be pursued by the 
very rich4 ,save perhaps the first      
editions of masterpieces of our own     
literature1 no books have advanced  so  
rapidly in market-value as those with   
illustrations4 ,a recent lawsuit  has   
brought into prominence the case of the 
',quatriregio' of ,bishop  ,frezzi1 a   
copy of which1 bought some thirty years 
ago for sixty guineas1  has now to be   
valued by experts1 who will apparently  
have to decide  whether its present     
worth should be fixed as nearer to five 
hundred or  eight hundred pounds1 the   
two last prices at which copies are     
believed  to have changed hands4 ,the   
little ,florentine ',rappresentazioni1' 
mostly  with only a single cut on their 
title1 the subject of my first paper1   
used to be purchasable for a few        
shillings apiece2 they have now to be   
bought with almost as many bank-notes1  

and a good example of a ,french  ',book 
of ,hours' is supposed to be cheap at a 
hundred and twenty pounds4  ,it is well 
that beautiful books should be honoured1
 but book-lovers may  not unreasonably  
regret the days when it was still       
possible for a man of  moderate means to
 possess them4    ,illustration3 ,,from 
,,the ',,rappresentazione ,,di ,s4      
,,orsola1' #aeed          ,,florentine  
,,rappresentazioni ,,and ,,their        
,,pictures#a         #a ,reprinted1 by  
leave of the editor1 from ',the         
,pageant4'      ,illustration           
,between the twelfth century and the    
sixteenth nearly every country in       
,europe possessed some sort of a        
religous drama1 which in many cases has 
lingered on1 nearly or quite1 to the    
present day4 ,even in ,england--in      
,yorkshire1 in ,dorset and ,sussex1 and 
perhaps in other counties--the old      
,christmas play of ,s4 ,george and the  
,dragon is not quite extinct1 though  in
 its latter days its action has been    

rendered chaotic by the  introduction of
 ,king ,george ,,iii41 ,admiral ,nelson1
 and other national  heroes1 whose      
relation to either the ,knight or the   
,dragon is a little  difficult to       
follow4 ,the stage directions1 which are
 fairly numerous in  most of the old    
plays which have been preserved1 enable 
us to picture to  ourselves the         
successive stages of their development  
with considerable  minuteness4 ,in some 
churches the 'sepulchre' is still       
preserved to  which1 in the earliest    
liturgical dramas1 the choristers       
advanced1 in  the guise of the three    
,maries1 to act over again the scene on 
the first  ,easter-day2 while of that   
other scene1 when at ,christmas the     
shepherds  brought their simple         
offerings1 a cap1 a nutting-stick1 or a 
bob of  cherries to the ,holy ,child1 a 
trace still exists in the               
representation1  either by a            
transparency or a model1 of the manger  
of ,bethlehem1 still  common in ,roman  

,catholic churches1 and not unknown in  
some ,english ones4  ,when the scene of 
the plays was removed from the inside of
 the church to  the churchyard1 we hear 
of the crowds who desecrated the graves 
in their  eagerness to see the          
performance2 and later still1 when the  
craft-guilds  had burdened themselves   
with the expenses of their preparation1 
we have  curious descriptions of the    
waggons upon which each scene of the    
great  cycles 'of matter from the       
beginning of the world to the ,day of   
,judgment1' was set up1 in order that   
scene after scene might be rolled       
before the spectators at the street     
corners or the market place1  throughout
 the length of a midsummer day4 ,artists
 with an antiquarian  turn have         
endeavoured to picture for us these     
curious stages4 ,in ,sharp's            
',dissertation on the ,coventry         
,mysteries' there is a frontispiece     
giving  an imaginary view of a          
performance2 and only a few years ago an

 article  was published in an ,american 
magazine1 with really delightful        
illustrations1 depicting the working of 
the elaborate stage machinery  behind   
the scenes1 as well as the effects with 
which the spectators were  regaled4 ,but
 of contemporary illustrations the lack 
remains grievous and  irreparable4 ,in  
,england we have nothing at all for the 
,miracle ,plays1  while for the         
moralities by which they were           
superseded1 the only  manuscript        
illustration is a picture of the castle 
in the ',castle of  ,perseverance1' in  
which1 with the aid of his good angels1 
its occupant1  ,man1 was set to resist  
the attacks of the deadly sins and all  
the hosts  of hell6 ,the later          
moralities1 printed by ,wynkyn de ,worde
 and his  contemporaries early in the   
sixteenth century1 have in one or two   
instances a few figures on the face or  
back of the title-page1 to which  labels
 bearing the names of the characters are
 attached4 ,but these were  venerable   

cuts1 which had done duty on previous   
occasions for other  subjects2 and so   
far from being specially designed to    
represent the  players on an ,english   
stage1 were really ,french in their     
origin1 and  only copied from old       
woodcuts of ,antoine ,vrard's           
',terence4'    ,in ,france we have much 
the same tale4 ,it is true that so many 
of the old  ,french ,mysteries still    
remain in manuscript1 unexplored1 that  
there is a  possibility of some pleasant
 surprise in store for us4 ,but the     
printed  plays were either not          
illustrated at all1 or sent forth with  
only a  handful of conventional cuts4   
,one little ray of light1 however1 we   
have  in the pictures1 especially of the
 ,annunciation to the ,shepherds and    
their ,adoration1 in many of the        
numerous editions of the ',hours of the 
,blessed ,virgin' 7the lay-folk's       
prayer-books1 as they have been called1 
of those days71 which1 from about #adij 
onwards1 attained the same  popularity  

in print which they had previously      
enjoyed in manuscript4 ,in  these       
illustrations we see the shepherds1 with
 their women-folk about  them1 as they  
watched their flocks till startled by   
the angel's  greeting1 and again        
crowding round the manger at ,bethlehem4
 ,in one  edition1 from which a         
reproduction is given in a later essay  
in this  volume1 they even bear on      
labels the names ,gobin le gai1 le beau 
,roger1  ,mahault1 ,aloris1 etc41 by    
which they were known in the plays4     
,but however ready we may be to trace   
the influence of the miracle plays  in  
these pictures1 as illustrations of the 
plays themselves they are  very         
inadequate2 and the fact remains that in
 only one country1 and  practically only
 in one city in that country 7for the   
,siena editions are  merely reprints7   
did the religious plays1 which in one   
form or another  were then being acted  
all over ,europe1 receive any           
contemporary  illustration4 ,this one   

city was ,florence2 and alike for the   
special form  in which the religious    
drama was there developed1 for the      
causes which  contributed to its        
popularity at the turn of the fifteenth 
and sixteenth  centuries1 and for its   
close connection with the popular art of
 the day1  the subject is one of        
considerable interest4 ,on its literary 
and  religious side1 the late ,john     
,addington ,symonds discussed it in     
',studies  of the ,italian ,renaissance'
 with his usual ability1 and many of the
  plays have been reprinted by ,signor  
,ancona4 ,of late years the little      
pictures by which they are illustrated  
have also received attention1 a  fact   
amply attested by the extraordinary rise
 in their market value4 ,but  it is     
worth while to bring together1 even if  
only in outline1 the  pictures and the  
plays to which they belong1 more closely
 than has  hitherto been attempted1 and 
this is my object in the present paper4 
,illustration3 ,,from ,,jacopone ,,da   

,,todi',s ',,laude1' #adij              
,book-illustration in ,italy began very 
early with the publication in  #adfg1 by
 ,ulric ,hahn1 at ,rome1 of an edition  
of the ',meditations' of  ,cardinal     
,torquemada on the ,life and ,passion of
 ,christ4 ,for the next  twenty years   
its progress was only sporadic1 and     
though we find  illustrations of greater
 or less artistic value in books printed
 at  ,naples1 ,rome1 ,ferrara1 ,verona1 
and ,venice1 we can only group them     
together in twos and threes2 there is   
absolutely no trace of any school  of   
illustrators4 ,from this sporadic growth
 ,florence was not entirely  excluded1  
for besides a treatise on geography we  
find in the #adgg  edition of ,bettini's
 ',monte ,santo di ,dio1' and the famous
 #adha ',dante1'  pictures of very      
considerable interest4 ,they differ1    
however1 from those  of the illustrated 
books of other ,italian towns1 in being 
not woodcuts  but engravings on copper1 
and it is a remarkable fact that until  

the  year #adij no ,florentine book is  
known which contains a cut4 ,the signs  
of  wear in a woodcut of the dead       
,christ which appears early in that     
year1  has given rise to a belief that  
there may have been some previous       
illustrated edition1 now lost2 but it is
 more probable that the picture  had    
only been printed separately for pasting
 into books of devotion4 ,in  any case1 
it stands apart1 with but one other cut1
 slightly later in  date1 from all other
 ,florentine work1 and must be looked on
 only as an  example of the sporadic    
illustrations of which we have spoken as
  appearing in other districts4 ,but    
from the #bhth of ,september1 #adij1    
onwards for twenty years1 we have a     
succession of woodcuts which1 amid  all 
the differences which give them         
individuality1 are yet closely  linked  
together in style1 and form1 on the     
whole1 by far the finest  series of     
book-illustrations of early date4 ,the  
popularity which these  woodcuts        

attained is attested by the repeated    
editions of the works in  which they    
appear2 while the suddenness with which 
they sprang up1 the  general similarity 
of style1 and the nature of the books   
they  illustrate1 all suggest that we   
have here to deal with a conscious and  
carefully directed movement as opposed  
to the haphazard use of  illustrations  
in other cities during the previous     
twenty years4 ,the book  in which the   
first characteristic ,florentine woodcut
 appears is an  edition of the ',laude1'
 of ,jacopone da ,todi1 printed by      
,francesco  ,buonaccorsi2 and both the  
choice of the book and the name of the  
printer offer a tempting basis for      
theory-making4 ,printing1 we must       
remember1 though it had been in use for 
more than a third of a century1  was    
even then a new craft1 and was still    
taken up sometimes as a  side-employment
 by many persons who had been bred to   
other trades or  professions4 ,our own  
,caxton1 as we all know1 was a mercer2  

the first  printer at ,st4 ,albans1 a   
schoolmaster2 ,francesco ,tuppo1 of     
,naples1 a  jurist2 ,joannes ,philippus 
de ,lignamine1 of ,rome1 a physician2   
and so on4  ,in natural continuation1   
however1 of the work of the ,scriptorium
 in many  monasteries1 we find that a   
large number of the early printers were 
members of monasteries or priests1 and  
it was to this latter order that  the   
,buonaccorsi who printed the ',laude'   
belonged4 ,now1 the name  ,buonaccorsi  
is the name of the family of            
,savonarola's mother4 ,a few  months    
before the appearance of the ',laude'   
the great ,dominican has been  recalled 
to ,florence by ,lorenzo de' ,medici1   
and his first public sermon  there--a   
sermon which had stirred the whole city 
to its depths--had been  preached on the
 previous #ast of ,august4 ,in the next 
year we find  ,buonaccorsi printing the 
first edition of the ',libro della vita 
viduale1' the earliest dated ,savonarola
 tract of which ,i know2 and ,i  have   

not been able to resist hazarding the   
conjecture that between the             
preacher-monk and the priest-printer    
there may have been some tie of  blood1 
and that it was to ,savonarola that the 
splendid series of  ,florentine         
illustrated books owed their origin4    
,that this should be the case would not 
be surprising4 ,savonarola was no       
,puritan1 or rather he was like the     
,puritans of the better sort1 and  loved
 art so long as it was subservient to   
the main object of man's  being4 ,the   
pamphlets with which he flooded         
,florence during the next few  years    
are1 for the most part1 decorated with a
 cut on their first page  or title2 and 
if the subject were ever worked out1 it 
would probably be  found that this was  
uniformly the case with the original    
editions1 and  those issued with the    
author's supervision1 while the         
unillustrated  copies are mere reprints1
 which the absence of any law of        
copyright made  it possible for any     

printer1 who thought it worth his while1
 to issue1  with or without the author's
 leave4 ,the woodcuts to the ,savonarola
  tracts number from forty to sixty1    
according as we include or reject       
variants on the same subject1 and fall  
naturally into three divisions1         
illustrating respectively the ,passion  
of ,christ1 the duties of ,prayer  and  
,preparation for ,death1 and various    
aspects of ,savonarola's activity1  in  
which1 however1 the representations of  
him are always imaginary1  never drawn  
from life4 ,as an example of these cuts1
 ,i give that which  decorates the      
title-page of an undated edition 7circa 
#adie7 of the  ',operetta della oratione
 mentale4' ,i have had occasion to use  
this  before in my little work on       
',early ,illustrated ,books1' but there 
is a  certain largeness of pictorial    
effect about it which gives this cut1 ,i
  think1 quite the first place in the   
series1 and makes me unwilling to  take 
any other as an example4 ,the cuts in   

the ',rappresentazioni' are  seldom     
quite as good as this1 but they form a  
parallel series to those  of the        
,savonarola tracts1 occasionally        
borrowing an illustration from  those on
 the ,passion of ,christ1 and evidently 
inspired by the same aims4  ,the same   
types 7our only means of fixing the     
printers of these dateless  little      
books71 were used in many of the works  
of both the series1 and it  does not    
seem fanciful to believe that           
,savonarola1 either directly or  through
 some trusted disciple1 was nearly as   
intimately connected with  the one as he
 undoubtedly was with the other4        
,illustration3 ,,from ,,savonarola',s   
',,della ,,oratione ,,mentale1' ,s4,a4  
,we have said that the choice of the    
work in which appeared the first        
typical ,florentine woodcut was not     
without interest for our subject4       
,jacopone da ,todi1 whom the cut        
exhibits kneeling in an ecstasy of      
prayer  before a vision of the ,blessed 

,virgin1 was a ,franciscan mystic1      
eccentric to the verge of madness in his
 manners1 but a spiritual poet  of no   
mean ability1 and the reputed author of 
the ',stabat ,mater4' ,he  died in      
#acjf1 and was probably old enough to   
have remembered that  strange epidemic  
of the ,battuti1 when thousands of      
frenzied men and  women marched from    
city to city1 scourging themselves      
almost to death  for the sinfulness of  
the world1 till their career had to be  
stopped by  the free use of the gallows4
 ,when the frenzy was past1 those who   
survived it formed themselves into      
companies for the continuance of  their 
religious exercises in a more moderate  
form1 and from their  meeting together  
to sing their ',laude1' hymns of a      
peculiarly personal  fervour1 in the    
chapels of their guilds1 they obtained  
the name  ',laudesi4' ,of the writers of
 these ',laude1' ,jacopone da ,todi was 
the  greatest1 and it was out of the    
',laude' that the later                 

',rappresentazioni' were gradually      
developed4 ,in his excellent account of 
the ',rappresentazioni1' to which ,i    
have already alluded1 ,mr4 ,j4 ,a4      
,symonds seems to me to have laid rather
 undue stress on the manner in  which   
this development took place1 as offering
 a contrast to the history  of the      
religious drama in other countries4 ,it 
is true that in ,england  the plays     
which have come down to us belong almost
 exclusively to the  great cycles which 
unrolled the history of man from the    
creation till  the crack of doom1 but we
 have mention of several plays on the   
lives of  the ,saints--e4g4 one on ,s4  
,george and the ,dragon1 and another    
7which  survives7 on ,s4 ,mary          
,magdalene1 and the popularity at one   
time of these  ,miracle ,plays1 properly
 so called1 is witnessed by the fact    
that it is  their name under which the  
cycles of ,scriptural dramas generally  
passed4  ,at ,florence these longer     
dramas were not wholly unknown1 but they

 seem  to have been acted only in       
pantomime or dumb-show1 in the great    
pageants on ,s4 ,john's ,day1 the       
shorter plays developing from the       
',laude'  just as1 at an earlier period1
 the liturgical dramas had developed in 
,france and ,england out of the dramatic
 recital of the gospel of the day4  ,it 
is worth noting1 by the way1 that the   
',laude' themselves were not            
superseded1 but continued to be written 
and sung when the  ',rappresentazioni'  
were already becoming popular4 ,two of  
the writers of  them during this period 
have a special interest for us--,maffeo 
,belcari1  as the author also of the    
earliest printed ',rappresentazione1'   
and  ,girolamo ,benivieni1 as the friend
 and disciple of ,savonarola1 whose     
doctrine and prophecies he defended in  
#adif in a tract1 printed1 this  also1  
by ,buonaccorsi4    ,illustration3      
,,from ',,laude ,,devote ,,di ,,diversi 
,,autori1' ,s4,a4    ,in an edition of a
 collection of ',laude' by various      

writers1 there is an  interesting cut   
representing the ',laudesi1' standing   
before a ,madonna1  singing her praise4 
,in course of time dramatic divisions   
had been  admitted into the ',laude1'   
and under the name of ',divozioni' they 
were  recited with appropriate action in
 dialogue form4 ,the actors were for    
the most part boys1 who were formed into
 confraternities1 while the  expenses of
 the plays were doubtless defrayed by   
their parents4 ,as the  dramatic element
 in the performances became more        
decided1 the plays came  at last to be  
generally termed ',rappresentazioni1'   
and under this name  they attained a    
great popularity during the last quarter
 of the  fifteenth century1 and the     
first of its successor4    ,unlike the  
northern ,miracle ,plays1 which are     
almost without exception  anonymous1    
many of the earliest ',rappresentazioni'
 which have come down  to us contain the
 names of their authors1 and in editions
 separated by  half a century the text  

remains substantially unaltered4 ,in    
,english  plays the text often appears  
to have grown up by a process of        
accretion1  so that a cycle1 or even a  
single play1 in the form in which it has
  survived1 could hardly with justice be
 assigned to a single author1 even  if  
we knew the name of the first writer    
concerned in it4 ,the difference  is not
 unimportant1 and is one of numerous    
small signs which tell us  that the     
religious drama in ,florence1 at least  
in this stage of its  development1 was  
less popular1 less spontaneous1 than in 
our own  country1 and more the result of
 deliberate religious effort4    ,the   
earliest ',rappresentazione' printed was
 the ',abraham' of the ,maffeo  7or     
,feo7 ,belcari1 whom we have already    
mentioned4 ,it was printed in  #adhe1   
the year after ,belcari's death at a    
good old age 7he was born in  #adaj71 so
 that all ,belcari's plays were         
published posthumously4 ,among  them are
 plays on the ,annunciation1 on ,s4     

,john the ,baptist visited by  ,christ  
in the ,desert1 and on ,s4 ,panuntius4  
,of the last two of these ,i  have seen 
fifteenth-century editions--the one at  
the ,british ,museum1 the  other at the 
,bodleian ,library1 each with a single  
charming woodcut4 ,no  less a person    
than ,lorenzo de' ,medici was the author
 of the play of ',san  ,giovanni e ,san 
,paolo1' which has also come down to us 
in its original  edition with a graceful
 cut2 and ,bernardo ,pulci1 who died in 
the first  year of the sixteenth        
century1 produced a play on the legend  
of ,barlaam  and ,josaphat4 ,but the    
most prolific of these dramatists seems 
to have  been a woman1 ,bernardo's wife 
,antonia1 to whose pen we owe plays on  
the  ,patriarch ,joseph1 the ,prodigal  
,son1 ,s4 ,francis of ,assisi1 ,s4      
,domitilla1  ,s4 ,guglielma1 etc4 ,the  
names of a few other writers are known2 
but there  were also numerous anonymous 
plays1 written very much on the same    
lines1  to some of which we shall have  

to allude4    ,almost invariably the    
plays begin with a ,prologue spoken by  
an ,angel1  who is represented in the   
title-cut of ,lorenzo de' ,medici's     
',san  ,giovanni e ,san ,paolo' as      
standing behind the two saints in a kind
 of  pulpit4 ,in other early plays the  
,angel is represented in a separate     
woodcut 7shown at the beginning of this 
article7 whose lower border is  cut off1
 so as to fix on to the border of the   
special title-cut of the  play4 ,later  
on1 another design was substituted for  
this1 without any  border at all4 ,i    
think it probable that these angelic    
prologuisings were  mostly spoken from  
some machine at the back of the stage1  
especially  contrived for celestial     
appearances4 ,in other respects1 the    
services of  the stage-carpenter do not 
seem to have been much called for4 ,the 
plays  were acted1 we are told1 either  
in the chapel of the guild or           
confraternity1 or in the refectory of a 
convent1 and the arrangements  were     

probably very similar to those in modern
 school-plays1 the  imagination of the  
spectators being often required to take 
the place of  a change of scene4 ,in the
 so-called ',coventry' ,plays we hear of
 a device  by which a new scene1 or     
perhaps rather a new centrepiece1 with  
the  actors all in their places1 could  
be wheeled round to the front2 but  more
 often all the dramatis personae were   
grouped at the back or  sides1 and      
individual actors merely stepped forward
 when their turn  came4 ,in the play of 
',san ,lorenzo' we are expressly told   
that two scenes  were shown             
simultaneously on different parts of the
 stage1 ,decius and  his satellites     
offering their heathen sacrifices on the
 one side1 while  ,pope ,sixtus comforts
 the faithful against the coming        
persecution on the  other4 ,this        
combination of two scenes in one is a   
familiar feature in  medival art1 and is
 not unknown even in these ,florentine  
woodcuts1  small as they are3 witness   

our cut on p4 #bi1 in which the         
bartering at  the pawnshop1 and the     
indignities offered to the sacred wafer1
 tell the  story of the play by means of
 its two most prominent scenes4         
,illustration3 ,,from ,,antonia         
,,pulci',s ',,rappresentazione ,,di ,s4 
,,francesco1'  ,s4,a4    ,illustration3 
,,from ,,the ',,rappresentazione ,,di   
,s4 ,,lorenzo1' ,s4,a4    ,of the       
literary value of the                   
',rappresentazioni' it is not possible  
to  speak with much enthusiasm4 ,from a 
literary standpoint1 indeed1 the  lives 
of the ,saints1 with which most of them 
have to do1 are a difficult  and not    
very promising subject4 ,most stories of
 heroism are best told in  ten lines at 
longest2 and to attempt to spin them out
 into several  hundred1 without any     
considerable material in the way of     
authentic  detail1 leads inevitably to  
weakness and exaggeration4 ,in this     
respect  the ',rappresentazioni' are    
neither much worse nor much better than 

the  average ',legenda ,sanctorum' in   
verse or prose4 ,they follow these1 in  
fact1 with remarkable fidelity1 and as  
they are written for the most  part in  
the familiar octava rima1 it is only by 
the speeches being  made in the first   
person1 instead of in historical        
narration1 that they  differ very       
greatly from them4 ,thus1 to take the   
plays from which we  have chosen our    
illustrations1 that of ,s4 ,francis of  
,assisi1 by ,antonia  ,pulci1 faithfully
 records all the main incidents as told 
in the  legends--the colloquy with the  
beggar during which he was stricken with
  compunction1 the theft from his father
 of money to repair a church1 the       
founding of his ,order1 the conference  
with the ,pope1 and the reception  of   
the stigmata2 this last being1 as might 
be expected1 the subject  chosen by the 
artist for the woodcut on the title4    
,the play of ',san  ,lorenzo' shows us  
the martyrdom of ,pope ,sixtus in the   
,decian  persecution1 and then the      

torture and death of ,s4 ,laurence for  
his  refusal to surrender the treasure  
which the ,pope had bequeathed to the   
poor of the church4 ,both of the        
woodcuts to these two plays are of great
  beauty4 ,the first probably follows   
the traditions of the many pictures  on 
the subject rather than that of the     
stage1 though it was1 no doubt1  for a  
scene like this that the stage-managers 
of the day used their  utmost resources4
 ,in the martyrdom of ,s4 ,laurence1 on 
the other hand1 we  may be sure that we 
have a very exact picture of the scene  
as played on  some convent stage4       
,both these plays belong to the         
fifteenth century1 and1 as is mostly the
  case in the earliest editions1 have   
only a rough woodcut each4 ,this was    
not invariably so1 as in the ,bodleian  
,library there are copies of  editions  
of the plays of ',stella' and ',s4      
,paulino1' which have every  appearance 
of having been printed before #aejj1 but
 yet have sets of  several cuts1 all    

obviously designed especially for them4 
,these1  however1 are exceptions2 and as
 a rule where we find several cuts1 it  
is  easy to trace most of them back1    
either to other plays1 or to other      
illustrated books of the time1 such as  
the ',epistole e ,evangelii1' the       
',fior di ,virt1' ,pulci's ',morgante   
,maggiore1' etc4 ,thus1 of the two cuts 
given here as illustrations to the      
curious ',rappresentazione d'uno        
miracolo del corpo di ,ges1' the first  
alone occurs in the  fifteenth-century  
edition1 while in that of #aeee         
7probably sixty years  later7 this      
original cut reappears1 with three      
others added to it4 ,the  first1 here   
shown1 representing a drinking scene1 is
 borrowed1 ,i  strongly suspect1 from   
the ',morgante ,maggiore'2 while the    
second1 which  shows a man being burnt1 
and the third1 in which a king is       
consulting  his counsel1 may be called  
stock-pictures1 and reappear with       
frequency4    ,illustration3 ,,from     

,,the ',,rappresentazione ,d',,uno      
,,miracolo ,,del ,,corpo ,,di  ,,ges1'  
#aeee    ,this play of the ',corpo di   
,ges' is an ,italian version of a       
miracle  which was constantly being     
reported during the middle-ages1 and was
  often the excuse for a cruel          
persecution of the ,jews4 ,the          
well-known  ',croxton' ',play of the    
,sacrament1' is cast on the same lines1 
and a  detailed comparison of the two   
would yield some points of interest4 ,in
  the ',rappresentazione' the story is  
well told1 and with unusual  vivacity4  
,after the angelic prologue there is an 
induction1 in which a  miracle of a     
consecrated wafer1 dripping blood1 is   
announced to ,pope  ,urban1 who         
discourses on it with a cardinal and    
with ,s4 ,thomas ,aquinas  and ,s4      
,bonaventura4 ,the play itself begins   
with a drinking scene1 in  which a      
wicked ,guglielmo squanders his money1  
and then takes his wife's  cloak to the 
,jewish pawnshop to get more4 ,the poor 

woman goes herself  to the ,jew to try  
to get her cloak back1 and is then      
persuaded to filch  a wafer at mass and 
bring it to the ,jew1 on his promise to 
restore her  garment4 ,her horror at his
 proposal is overcome by the pretext    
that his  object is to use the ,host as 
a charm to heal his sick son1 and that  
if  this succeeds he and all his family 
will become ,christians4 ,this1 of      
course1 is a mere fiction1 but it serves
 the woman in good stead2 for  when the 
,jew is discovered by the unquenchable  
flow of blood from the  wafer he        
maltreats1 he is promptly burnt1 while  
the ,judge is warned by a  special      
revelation to spare the life of his     
accomplice1 whose guilt  might easily be
 represented as the greater of the two4 
,illustration3 ,,from ,,the             
',,rappresentazione ,d',,uno ,,miracolo 
,,del ,,corpo ,,di  ,,ges1' ,s4,a4      
,illustration3 ,,from ,,the             
',,rappresentazione ,,di ,s4 ,,cecilia1'
 ,s4,a4    ,an edition of the play of   

',s4 ,cecilia1' probably printed about  
#aefj1  affords a good example of the   
gradual addition of cuts in later       
reprints4 ,this little tract of about   
twenty pages has no fewer than  eighteen
 pictures in it1 three of which1        
however1 are only repetitions  of one of
 the most familiar cuts in the whole    
series of  ',rappresentazioni'--a       
,christian virgin dragged before a king2
 while  three other well-worn cuts are  
each repeated twice1 so that the number 
of blocks used was only thirteen1 though
 these yielded eighteen  impressions4   
,as might be expected1 the little       
pictures are often dragged  in with very
 little appropriateness4 ,thus1 the     
,roman soldiers sent to  arrest ,cecilia
 gave the publisher an excuse to show a 
party of knights  riding in the country1
 and so on4 ,on the other hand1 the     
pleasant  picture of a disputation here 
shown1 though undoubtedly executed in   
the  first instance for some other work1
 probably gives us a very correct       

representation of the costume and       
grouping of the actors4                 
,illustration3 ,,from ,,the             
',,rappresentazione ,,di ,,santa ,,maria
 ,,maddalena1'  ,s4,a4    ,one point in 
the text of the ',s4 ,cecilia1' deserves
 noting4 ,in the main  it resembles very
 closely indeed the legend as it is     
known to lovers of  ,english poetry from
 the version which ,chaucer made in his 
early days and  afterwards inserted1    
with little revision1 into the          
',canterbury ,tales4'  ,but when        
,cecilia has gone through the form of   
marriage with the husband  who is forced
 upon her1 and is proceeding with him to
 his home1 the lads  of the             
neighbourhood bar their passage with a  
demand for petty gifts1 to  which the   
virgin submits with good grace--a       
fragment of ,florentine life  thus      
cropping up amid the rather unreal      
atmosphere of the old legend4           
,whatever the shortcomings of the       
',rappresentazioni1' their popularity   

was very great1 and they were reprinted 
again and again throughout the          
sixteenth century4 ,naturally the       
woodcuts suffered from continual use1   
and the stock-subjects1 like that of a  
general martyrdom shown on page  #aj1   
are often found in the later editions   
with their little frames or  borders    
almost knocked to pieces4 ,recutting was
 also frequent1 and in  the same edition
 of the play of ,s4 ,mary ,magdalene1   
from which1 for the  sake of the unusual
 freedom in the handling1 ,i have taken 
the title-cut  as one of our            
illustrations1 this is repeated later on
 from a new block1  clumsily cut in     
imitation of the old one4               
,illustration3 ,,from ,,the ',,contrasto
 ,,di ,,carnevale ,e ,,quaresima1'      
,s4,a4    ,illustration3 ,,from ,,angelo
 ,,politiano',s ',,giostra ,,di         
,,giuliano ,,de' ,,medici1'  ,s4,a4     
,illustration3 ,,from ,,enea ,,silvio   
,,piccolomini',s ',,storia ,,di ,,due   
,,amanti1'  ,s4,a4    ,as the           

',rappresentazioni' and their           
illustrations are connected with the    
,savonarola tracts on the one hand1 so  
on the other we find them  influencing  
some less dramatic forms of literature4 
,thus1 among the  early ,florentine     
illustrated books we find a number of   
',contrasti'--the  contrast of men and  
women1 of the living and the dead1 of   
riches and  poverty1 etc4 ,these were   
rather poems than plays1 but the name   
',rappresentazione' is sometimes applied
 to them in later editions4 ,this  is   
so1 for instance1 with the famous       
',contrasto di ,carnesciale e la        
,quaresima1' from which the first of the
 two cuts is here given1 the  second    
representing a visit to the fish and    
vegetable market for ,lenten  fare when 
the days of ,carnival are over4 ,again  
we find the same methods  of            
illustration applied to the ',giostre'  
of ,giuliano and ,lorenzo de'  ,medici1 
the story of ,orpheus1 by ,angelo       
,politiano1 which forms part of  the    

former1 being adorned with no fewer than
 ten admirable woodcuts1 of  which the  
picture here reproduced1 of ,orpheus    
frightened by a fury from  attempting a 
second time to visit ,hell in quest of  
his lost ,eurydice1 is  quite one of the
 finest4 ,the same methods of           
illustration were also used  in the     
'novelle1' including the ',storia di due
 amanti' of ,pope ,pius ,,ii41  from    
which we take our last illustration1 and
 other secular chapbooks1  which have   
nothing either religious or dramatic    
about them4 ,it is clear1  however1 that
 the religious use was the earlier of   
the two1 and that  while the writers of 
the ',laude' anticipated the practice of
 later  revivalists in turning profane  
songs and tunes into hymns of devotion1 
it was the secular literature which was 
the borrower in the matter of           
illustrations4    ,as to the authors of 
these charming woodcuts we know         
absolutely nothing4  ,dr4 ,paul         
,kristeller has lately attempted to     

trace out three or four  distinctive    
schools of style in them1 but no name of
 any artist can be  connected with them2
 and we can only conjecture that there  
were one or  two special workshops in   
,florence where they were designed and  
executed1  and that printers and        
publishers applied to these workshops   
when they  were in need of cuts4        
,illustration3 ,,from ,,an ,,italian    
,,bible4 ,,venice1 #adic          ,,two 
,,illustrated ,,italian ,,bibles#b      
#b ,reprinted1 by leave of the editor1  
from ',the ,library1' #aijb4    ,the    
search for old books has been so        
assiduous of late years that no  little 
surprise was felt when it was announced 
in #aijj that two copies  had been      
found1 almost simultaneously1 of a      
handsomely illustrated folio  edition of
 the ,italian ,bible of ,niccolo        
,malermi1 printed at ,venice in  #adic1 
and similar to but quite distinct from  
the illustrated editions  already known4
 ,a third copy has since been           

discovered1 and this has been  acquired 
by the ,british ,museum1 which since    
#ahig has also possessed the  first of  
the editions with the original woodcuts1
 that printed in #adij  for ,lucantonio 
,giunta4 ,as both editions are very     
rare1 and no comparison  has yet been   
made between them1 an attempt is here to
 be made to  describe and contrast them4
    ,the first edition of ,malermi's    
,italian version of the ,bible was      
printed  by ,jenson1 who finished it on 
,august #ast1 #adgj1 apparently the same
 year  in which the translator entered  
the monastery of ,s4 ,michele in        
,murano1  near ,venice1 at the age of   
forty-eight4 ,he was then stated to be  
'natus  quondam spectabilis et generosi 
viri domini ,philippi de ,malerbis1 de  
,venetiis'2 but nothing else is known of
 his family or early life1 and  the     
subsequent records only refer to his    
transfer from one monastery to  another4
 ,besides the ,bible he also translated 
into ,italian the lives of  the saints  

from the ',golden ,legend' of ,jacobus  
de ,voragine1 with  additions of his    
own4 ,this book also was printed for him
 by ,jenson1 and  published in #adge4   
,malermi's translation of the ,bible was
 a great popular success1 at least      
nine1 and probably ten editions being   
printed during the fifteenth  century1  
and the ,british ,museum possessing six 
others issued in #aeag1  #aedf1 #aeec1  
#aeeh1 #aeff1 and #aefg4 ,by a curious  
chance another  translation by an       
anonymous author must have been already 
in the press  while ,jenson was printing
 ,malermi's first edition4 ,it appeared 
exactly  two months later1 on ,october  
#ast1 #adga1 without the name of its    
printer1  but in the types of ,adam of  
,ammergau4 ,that two rival translations 
of the  ,bible were thus among the      
first-fruits of the ,italian press is   
one of  the facts which ,protestant     
controversialists are not apt to        
emphasise4  ,it is possible1 as ,dr4    
,garnett1 ,i think1 has suggested1 that 

,venice1  which was wont to show great  
independence in its relations with the  
,papal ,court1 was the only city in     
,italy in which a vernacular ,bible     
would have found a publisher4 ,the      
earliest ,italian ,bible printed in any 
other ,italian town does1 indeed1 appear
 to be one with ,dor's  illustrations1  
published at ,milan at some date between
 #ahff1 when the  illustrations first   
appeared in ,english and ,french        
,bibles1 and #ahhj1  when it attained a 
third edition4 ,no doubt the ,holy ,see 
had little  enthusiasm for vernacular   
,bibles1 and the ,italian governments1  
which  were more susceptible than       
,venice to the feeling of ,rome1 did    
nothing to  encourage them4 ,but        
discouragement1 whether we approve of it
 or not 7and  the subsequent religious  
history of ,europe shows that the ,roman
  objection to unannotated vernacular   
texts was not wholly unfounded71 is     
very different from prohibition1 and    
next to the eighteen  prae-,reformation 

,german editions1 the ten printed at    
,venice during the  fifteenth century   
offer the most convincing proof that1   
except in the  actual presence of       
heresy1 vernacular translations enjoyed 
a practically  unimpeded circulation    
long before the leaders of the          
,reformation made  free access to the   
,scriptures one of their main demands4  
,it is  remarkable1 indeed1 that during 
the middle of the sixteenth century1    
when the ,inquisition was tightening its
 hold on ,venice1 and the ',index       
,librorum ,prohibitorum' had come into  
being1 the ,italian ,bibles printed     
there increased notably4 ,the ,british  
,museum possesses five editions of      
,malermi's version published in the     
twenty-two years #aedf-aefg1 six of     
,brucioli's published in the twenty     
years #aecb-aeea1 two of ,santi         
,marmochino's1 printed respectively in  
#aech and #aede1 a total of thirteen    
editions published within thirty-six    
years1 now on the shelves of a  single  

library4 ,after #aefg there is another  
tale to tell4 ,until the  ,milan edition
 already mentioned1 ,geneva1 ,nuremberg1
 ,leipsic and ,london  are the only     
imprints to be found on ,italian        
editions of the complete  ,bible4 ,in   
the face of what she considered         
heretical interpretations1 the  ,church 
of ,rome would no longer trust her      
people with vernacular ,bibles2  but it 
is one of the small services which      
,bibliography can render to  ,history to
 note that this had not been her policy 
so long as the  ,scriptures were desired
 for edification and not for            
controversy1 and the  popularity of the 
,malermi ,bible is so decisive a proof  
of this that it  would be unfair to     
leave it unmentioned4    ,the main      
object of this article is far removed   
from the weighty question  of religious 
policy on which we have incidentally    
touched4 ,the first  edition of the     
,malermi ,bible is a very rare book1 and
 the ,british  ,museum1 sad to say1     

possesses no copy of it4 ,the only copy 
in ,england of  which ,i know is in the 
,john ,rylands ,library at ,manchester1 
and this  possesses six coloured        
illustrations representing the six days 
of  ,creation1 the colouring being so   
heavy as nearly1 though not quite1 to   
obscure the fact that it is imposed upon
 woodcuts4    ,in the years #adgj-adgb  
there are fairly numerous examples of   
woodcut  borders and initials being used
 in books printed at ,venice1 not as    
substantive decorations in themselves1  
but as outlines for the guidance  of    
illuminators4 ,we may probably take it  
that the six designs in the  first      
,malermi ,bible1 which do not seem to   
occur in all copies1 were of  this      
character1 and were not intended to     
stand by themselves4 ,the first         
,venetian woodcuts not intended to be   
coloured are found in books printed  by 
,erhard ,ratdolt1 and their use spread  
very slowly until nearly #adij4  ,thus  
the ,malermi ,bibles of #adgg1 #adha1   

#adhd1 and #adhg are all innocent  of   
woodcuts1 though there are blank leaves 
and spaces left in some of  them1 which 
may have been intended for illumination4
    ,there seems to have been a project 
of making the ',biblia cum postillis    
,nicolai de ,lyra1' published by        
,octavianus ,scotus in #adhi1 into a    
handsome illustrated book2 but if this  
was so the project was soon  abandoned1 
as the illustrations come in little     
patches at different  points at which   
the book may have been put in hand on   
different presses1  and between these   
points there are long stretches without 
any pictures  at all4 ,thus not only the
 first ,italian ,bible1 but the first   
,bible  printed in ,italy in which      
illustrations form an important feature1
 is  the edition of ,malermi's version  
printed in ,october #adij1 by ,giovanni 
,ragazzo for ,lucantonio ,giunta4 ,if   
long delayed1 this was a fine enough    
book to be worth waiting for4 ,it is in 
double columns1 measuring #bejgf  mm4   

apiece1 and each containing sixty-one   
lines of a respectably round  type about
 the size of pica4 ,for convenience of  
printing rather than of  binding it is  
divided into two parts 7the second      
beginning with the ,book  of ,proverbs71
 which are always1 as far as ,i know1   
found united in a  single volume4 ,part 
,i4 contains3 7i47 a frontispiece made  
up 7within a  border7 of six cuts       
measuring #efeg mm4 each1 representing  
the six days  of ,creation1 obviously   
influenced by the illumination with     
underlying  woodcuts of the #adga       
edition2 7ii47 a pictorial initial ,n   
for the ',nel  principio' of ,genesis2  
7iii47 #bjh small woodcuts or vignettes1
 measuring  about #dege mm41 of which   
#aii are different and #i are           
repetitions4 ,part  ,,ii4 contains a    
large picture and border for the opening
 chapter of  ,proverbs1 and #age small  
cuts1 of which #aff are different and #i
 are  repetitions4 ,deducting the       
repeats1 but counting the initial and   

each of  the ,creation woodcuts         
separately1 we have thus a grand total  
of #cgc  different designs1 almost all  
of them well drawn1 though many have    
been  sadly mangled by the wood-cutter4 
,illustration3 ,s4 ,,jerome4 ,,from     
,,the ,,malermi ,,bible4 ,,venice1      
,,giunta1 #adij    ,illustration3 ,,an  
,,author ,,at ,,work4 ,,from ,,the      
,,malermi ,,bible4 ,,venice1  ,,giunta1 
#adij    ,it is to the credit of the    
,venetian public that ,giunta's edition 
of this  big book sold quickly4 ,for    
reasons hereafter to be given ,i think  
it  possible that a reprint with some   
additional cuts was published as early  
as #adia4 ,we know for certain that a   
new edition 7printed again by  ,giovanni
 ,ragazzo7 was ready for sale in ,july  
#adib4 ,like most reprints of           
illustrated books this aimed at an      
appearance of greater liberality at a   
comparatively small expense4 ,thus in   
the book ,genesis there are #bg         
woodcuts in #adib against #af in #adij1 

a too realistic picture of  ,potiphar's 
wife tempting ,joseph being judiciously 
omitted1 while twelve  new subjects are 
added4 ,in ,exodus we have #bi cuts     
against #be1 four new  ones being added1
 while on the other hand the            
representations of the  ,burning ,bush  
7in which a dog is shown barking at the 
,almighty7 and of  the ,slaying of the  
,firstborn are withdrawn and replaced   
without  appropriateness by cuts taken  
from ,deuteronomy ix4 and ,leviticus x4 
,in  ,leviticus one cut 7that to chap4  
vii47 is changed and a new one added to 
chap4 xviii4 ,in ,numbers an            
illustration of the zeal of ,phineas in 
chap4  xxv4 is omitted1 and two new cuts
 added to chaps4 xxix4 and xxxiii42 in  
,deuteronomy we have six new cuts and a 
repeat4 ,to these #bf additions         
7against two omissions7 in the          
,pentateuch1 we have to add #ad more    
7against one repeat omitted7 from       
,joshua to ,kings4 ,from ,chronicles to 
,acts the woodcuts in the two editions  

are substantially the same1 six  cuts   
being changed1 while one is omitted4 ,in
 the ,epistles1 besides two  changes1   
there are #ab additions1 but these are  
mostly either repeats or  taken from    
other books4 ,in the ,apocalypse and the
 ,life of ,s4 ,joseph1  with which the  
book ends1 the illustrations in the two 
editions agree4  ,the number of         
different cuts 7deducting #ab and #i    
respectively for  repetitions7 is #bdj  
in ,part ,i4 and #agh in ,part ,,ii41 or
 a total of #dah  different cuts against
 #cgc in the #adij edition1 the increase
 being  practically confined to the     
books ,genesis1 ,exodus1 ,deuteronomy   
and the  ,epistles4    ,illustration3   
,s4 ,,jerome4 ,,from ,,the ,,malermi    
,,bible4 ,,venice1 ',,anima ,,mia1'     
#adic    ,illustration3 ,,an ,,author   
,,at ,,work4 ,,from ,,the ,,malermi     
,,bible4 ,,venice1 ',,anima  ,,mia1'    
#adic    ,turning now to the ',anima    
,mia' edition of #adic1 three copies of 
which  have recently come to light after

 its existence had remained unsuspected 
for generations1 we have only to place  
it side by side with one of the  ,giunta
 texts to find that it is a not too     
scrupulous attempt to cut into  the     
profits of the firm which was first in  
the field4 ,the worst evil of  the      
publishing trade at the present day is  
that if one publisher strikes  out a new
 line1 whether in the form of his books1
 or the prices at which  they are       
issued1 or by bringing into notice some 
hitherto neglected  author or subject1  
one or more of his competitors          
immediately tries to  put similar       
editions on the market1 and to offer    
purchasers a little  more for their     
money4 ,the result is that the first    
publisher finds his  profits sensibly   
diminished1 while the second very       
probably burns his  fingers4 ,few modern
 publishers1 however1 would plagiarise  
quite as  freely as did ',anima ,mia' in
 his new ,bible4 ,not only did he copy  
,giunta  closely in the form and size of

 his book1 the arrangement of the page  
and the size of the illustrations2 but  
in a great number of cases he  allowed  
his artists to take precisely the same  
subjects for  illustration1 and even to 
copy the designs themselves quite       
closely1  sometimes by the lazy method  
which1 by imitating the model on the    
block  of wood1 without first reversing 
it1 caused the printed picture itself   
to appear in reverse4    ,illustration3 
,,joshua ,,and ,,the ,,gibeonites4      
,,from ,,the ,,malermi ,,bible4         
,,venice1 ,,giunta1 #adij               
,illustration3 ',,except ,,the ,,lord   
,,build ,,the ,,house4' ,,from ,,the    
,,malermi  ,,bible4 ,,venice1 ',,anima  
,,mia1' #adic    ,a curious question now
 arises as to which of the ,giunta      
editions ',anima  ,mia' elected to copy 
from4 ,that of #adij was clearly not the
 one chosen1  since among ',anima       
,mia's' pictures we find illustrations  
to ,genesis  xiii41 xv41 xvii41 xx41    
xxiv41 and xxvi41 none of which were    

illustrated  in the #adij edition1 while
 pictures on the same subjects are found
 in  that of #adib4 ,again1 in the four 
books of ,kings the #adic edition agrees
  with the #adib in having forty-nine   
cuts as against forty-three in the      
original edition of #adij4 ,more        
conclusive still is the evidence of a   
mistake in ,joshua ix41 where it is     
impossible that the artist can have  had
 before him the pretty little cut of the
 ,gibeonites as hewers of wood  and     
drawers of water1 which is one of our   
illustrations4 ,by #adib the  block for 
this had apparently been damaged and is 
replaced by a larger  cut 7#ef mm4 in   
height71 representing a king and two    
councillors1  apparently taken from some
 other book4 ,the #adic illustrator was 
clearly  puzzled by this1 and for lack  
of anything better repeated a cut of    
,moses  and ,miriam from ,exodus4       
,clearly he had not in this case the    
#adij edition  before him4 ,but neither 
am ,i at all sure that he had that of   

#adib4 ,while  he copies six of the new 
pictures in ,genesis he omits six       
others2 in  ,exodus1 ,numbers1 and      
,deuteronomy he agrees with the #adij   
edition against  that of #adib2 in      
,judges1 ,ruth1 and ,kings1 with #adib  
as against #adij2 in  ,genesis1         
,leviticus1 and ,joshua1 partly with    
one1 partly with the other4  ,in two    
other cases he steers a middle course4  
,the #adij artist had  illustrated far  
too realistically both the temptation of
 ,joseph and the  sin which called forth
 the zeal of ,phineas4 ,in the #adib    
edition these  subjects are very wisely 
omitted4 ,in that of #adic they appear1 
but in a  modified form4 ,my own theory 
to account for these discrepancies is   
that  between #adij and                 
#adib--presumably in #adia--;,giunta    
published yet another  issue of the     
,bible1 adding a few illustrations1 but 
not so many as in  #adib1 and           
substituting two new cuts of the        
subjects unpleasantly  illustrated in   

#adij1 which he subsequently thought    
well to pass over  altogether4 ,such an 
intermediate edition would supply a     
model which  would explain all the early
 illustrations in the edition of #adic1 
and  would also allow a more reasonable 
time to ',anima ,mia' to get them made1 
and his book printed1 than the nine     
months which separate the editions  of  
,july #adib1 and ,april #adic4 ',anima  
,mia1' however1 was by no means  wholly 
a plagiarist1 as is proved by the fact  
that while in his first  volume the #bcf
 illustrations stand midways numerically
 between the #bae  and the #beb of the  
two ,giunta editions of #adij and #adib2
 for his second  volume he provided no  
fewer than #bjh against the #agf and    
#ahg of his  predecessors1 the new cuts 
being fairly evenly distributed through 
the  different books1 while their       
artistic merit is of average quality4   
,illustration3 ',,the ,,fool ,,hath     
,,said ,,in ,,his ,,heart4' ,,from ,,the
 ,,malermi  ,,bible4 ,,venice1 ,,giunta1

 #adij    ,illustration3 ,,the ,,entry  
,,into ,,the ,,ark4 ,,from ,,the        
,,malermi ,,bible4  ,,venice1 ',,anima  
,,mia1' #adic    ,it is by this         
touchstone of artistic merit1 and not by
 considerations of  quantity that the   
comparative claims of the two rival     
editions must be  decided2 and on the   
whole there can be no doubt that both   
for  originality of design and for the  
highest merit in execution the palm     
must be given to the artists and        
craftsmen employed by ,giunta4          
,unfortunately in both editions large   
numbers of the woodcuts were  intrusted 
to cutters quite incompetent to deal    
with such delicate work4  ,giunta's     
illustrations to the ,gospels are quite 
painfully bad1 while  those of ',anima  
,mia' are here only mediocre1 his worst 
craftsman having  been employed on some 
of the middle books of the ,old         
,testament4 ,his  worst work is almost  
as bad as the worst of ,giunta's1 though
 less  painful1 as not introducing the  

figure of ,christ4 ,the proportion of   
mediocre cuts is far greater1 and of    
these we give 7p4 #df7 a generously     
chosen example in that prefixed to      
,psalm lii4 ,it should really be an     
illustration1 it may be imagined1 to the
 text1 ',except the ,lord build  the    
house their labour is but vain that     
build it1' but in any case it is        
strikingly inferior to the brilliant cut
 in the #adij edition1 which            
illustrates the heading ',dixit         
insipiens' with all possible cogency4   
,illustration3 ,,jacob ,,deceiving      
,,isaac4 ,,from ,,the ,,malermi ,,bible4
 ,,venice1  ',,anima ,,mia1' #adic      
,lastly1 his best work1 though really   
good1 is not so good as that of his     
predecessor4 ,one reason for this is1 no
 doubt1 that part of the space          
available in the column was occupied by 
the little border-pieces which1  though 
offering a pleasing setting to the      
pictures1 diminish the space  available 
for illustration by nearly a quarter4   

,the effect of this is  especially      
noticeable when the #adic artist is     
copying his predecessor1  the necessity 
for 'selection' sometimes leading to the
 omission of  important parts of the    
composition4 ,but at the outset of both 
volumes1  before the work began to be   
hurried1 there is plenty of originality1
 and  excellent use is made of the space
 at the designer's disposal4 ,the cut   
of the animals entering the ark here    
shown is delightful1 and in that of     
,jacob deceiving ,isaac we seem to feel 
instinctively the blindness of the  old 
man1 who stretches out his hand to feel 
for the dish his false son  is bringing 
him4 ,as the #adic edition is so little 
known compared with  that of #adij1 both
 our remaining illustrations are taken  
from it4 ,the  first1 the frontispiece  
to the second volume1 shown at the      
beginning of  this article1 compares    
very favourably with the similar design 
in the  earlier edition4 ,the second1   
the picture of ,s4 ,jerome in the       

,desert1 is  one of the best things in  
the book1 both in design and cutting2   
but it  differs from everything else in 
it1 and may possibly belong to some     
other set4    ,illustration3 ,s4        
,,jerome ,,in ,,the ,,desert4 ,,from    
,,the ,,malermi ,,bible4 ,,venice1      
',,anima ,,mia1' #adic    ,it may have  
been noted that in writing of the       
edition of #adij ,i have not  thought it
 necessary to write of the various      
theories which have been  built on the  
little letter 'b' with which many of the
 cuts are signed1  e4g41 that of 'an    
author at work' reproduced on p4 #db4   
,it is now  generally acknowledged that 
it is the mark1 not of any designer1 nor
  even perhaps of any individual        
woodcutter1 but merely of the workshop  
in  which the little blocks were cut4   
,a ,,book ,,of ,,hours#c      ,some     
years ago a copy of an edition of the   
',hours of the ,blessed  ,virgin1'      
according to the use of ,sarum1 came    
into my possession1 and ,i  have since  

been surprised to learn that it is      
probably unique4 ,on the  fly-leaf of   
the little volume is the note3 ',this   
,book ,i picked up on a  ,stall at      
,venice1 in #agda1 and had it bound     
there4 ,it was probably  printed in     
,england 7as there are some few ,english
 directions in it7 some  time before    
,henry ,,viii4' ,the second half of this
 note has been crossed  through1 and the
 more correct information substituted3  
'rather at ,paris  for the use of       
,english booksellers1 about the year    
#aejj4' ,a later note  shows that the   
original purchaser was ,mr4 ,joseph     
,smith1 for many years  ,british ,consul
 at ,venice1 most of whose many bargains
 in early printed  books passed into the
 library of ,george ,,iii41 and thence  
to the ,british  ,museum4 ,of this      
little ',book of ,hours' many of the    
pages are stained  with damp1 so that it
 probably belonged to the consignment of
 his  purchases which was wrecked on its
 way home4 ,perhaps for this reason1    

perhaps because the most esteemed ,horae
 are on vellum and this is on  paper and
 moreover lacks its first leaf1 perhaps 
because the good king  did not care to  
collect works of prae-,reformation      
devotion1 this  particular purchase of  
the energetic consul never found a royal
 owner4  ,it possesses1 however1 not a  
little interest of its own1 and if my   
readers will consent to turn over its   
pages with me1 they will disclose  to us
 a great deal of information as to the  
compilation and printing of  these books
 of devotion in the fifteenth century1  
and their supply for  the use of devout 
persons in ,england4         #c         
,reprinted from ',the ,newberry ,house  
,magazine' by leave of       ,messrs4   
,griffith1 ,farren1 ,okeden and ,welsh4 
,it is rather surprising that ,consul   
,smith was deceived1 even for a  moment1
 as to the foreign origin of his        
purchase4 ,the illustrations1 as  to    
which we shall have a great deal to say 
later on1 are unmistakably  ,french1 and

 appear in many ,french ',books of      
,hours1' both of earlier and  later     
date4 ,the type also is of a character  
very common in ,french books1  and never
 found out of ,france4 ,these points1   
however1 require just a  smattering of  
knowledge about early printing for their
 appreciation1  while only a little     
common sense is needed in the present   
case to  determine the origin of the    
book4 ,the general printing is          
excellent1 but  the mistakes made in the
 half-dozen directions in ,english could
 have  been made by no ,englishman4     
,thus the words into the chirche appear 
as  in thothe chir che2 hous is         
misprinted bous2 begynne as  hegynne2   
and the like4 ,moreover1 we note that   
the printer possessed no  letter k in   
his fount1 but was obliged to represent 
it by a  combination of l and the old   
sign for and1 sign4 ,the book1          
therefore1 was printed neither in       
,england1 ,germany1 nor the ,low        
,countries1 but in a country where the  

letter k forms no part of the  alphabet1
 and a good guess might easily have     
suggested ,france as its  most likely   
place of imprint4    ,a clause in one of
 the ,acts passed by the ,parliament of 
#adhc1 while  ,richard ,,iii4 was still 
anxious to pose as a constitutional     
monarch1  expressly provided for the    
free importation of books printed       
abroad1 and  for the exemption of       
foreign printers and booksellers        
settling in  ,england from the          
restrictions usually imposed upon alien 
traders4 ,the  clause was no doubt      
prompted by a genuine desire to promote 
education  and learning1 but it is      
probable that a little protection of a  
young  industry might have quickened its
 development without imposing too       
serious a tax upon reading4 ,lettou and 
,machlinia were already at work in      
,london when the ,act was passed1 and   
,theodoric ,rood at ,oxford1 but no     
other printers were attracted from      
abroad for several years1 while the     

influx of foreign books made home       
competition so hazardous that after     
,rood disappears ,oxford was for many   
years without a printer1 and at         
,cambridge no press was set up till     
#aeba4 ,not only were almost all        
classical books imported1 but ,english  
works were printed in ,english by       
several ,dutch firms1 the much greater  
similarity of the two languages in      
those days rendering the task easier    
than it would be at present4  ,english  
books were also printed occasionally in 
,france1 for ,antoine  ,vrard among     
others1 not always1 however1 very       
intelligently1 as indeed  the misprints 
at which we have just been looking would
 lead us to  expect4    ,illustration3  
,,the ,,tree ,,of ,,jesse4 ,,from       
,,pigouchet',s ',,horae'    ,in addition
 to the works of poetry and romance1    
which are now the best  known among the 
productions of his press1 ,william      
,caxton issued also  many books of      
devotion4 ,in the show-case devoted to  

his publications in  the ,king's        
,library at the ,british ,museum1 among 
other unique books are  shown the ,latin
 ,psalter1 printed by him between #adhj 
and #adhc1 and a  volume containing the 
',fifteen ,oes1' and other prayers1     
'emprented bi  the commaundementes of   
the most hye and vertuous pryncesse our 
liege  ladi ,elizabeth by the grace of  
,god ,quene of ,englonde1' and of       
,margaret  ,tudor1 the king's mother4   
,caxton also printed at least four      
editions of  the ,horae1 fragments of   
which survive at the ,museum and at     
,oxford1  though no copy even           
approaching completeness is now known to
 exist4 ,as a  rule1 however1 ,english  
liturgical works were printed abroad1   
for the  most part in ,france 7at ,paris
 or ,rouen71 but also at ,venice1 at    
,antwerp1  at ,basel1 and elsewhere4    
,thus of the ,sarum ,breviary there are 
at the  ,museum six early ,paris        
editions1 and one from ,antwerp1 but no 
,london  edition before #aeda4 ,the     

solitary editions of the ,sarum ,gradual
 and  ,antiphonal are both from ,paris1 
while of the thirty editions of the     
,sarum ,missal1 five and twenty were    
printed abroad and only five at home4   
,it need not1 therefore1 surprise us to 
find that of thirty-nine ,sarum  ,horae 
in the ,museum library1 while two were  
printed at ,antwerp1 and two  at ,rouen1
 the ,paris presses produced            
twenty-seven1 those of ,london only     
eight1 and these with some help from    
,france4    ,it is time now to turn to  
the contents of our book4 ,these are as 
follows3--         i4    ,a ,kalendar4  
ii4   ,passages from the ,gospels on the
 ,birth1 ,ascension1 and ,death         
of ,christ1 viz41 ,s4 ,john i4 #a-ad2   
,s4 ,luke i4 #bj-ch2 ,s4                
,matt4 ii4 #a-ab2 ,s4 ,mark xvi4 #ad-bj2
 ,s4 ,john xviii4 #a-db4         iii4   
,prayers3 ,on the ,trinity3 ',whan thou 
goest first out of thy                  
hous'2 ',whan thou entrest into the     
chirch'2 ',whan thou                    

beginnest to praye4'         iv4   ,the 
,hours of the ,blessed ,virgin--',horae 
intemeratae beatae             ,mariae  
,virginis secundum usum ,sarum4'        
v4    ,the ,hours of the ,compassion of 
the ,blessed ,virgin4         vi4   ,the
 ,seven ,penitential ,psalms4           
vii4  ,the ,litany of the ,saints4      
viii4 ,the ,vigils of the ,dead4        
ix4   ,seven ,psalms on the ,lord's     
,passion4         x4    ,prayers3       
,before the ,image of the ,body of      
,christ2 ,to the             ,blessed   
,mary and to ,s4 ,john the ,evangelist4 
,there is thus1 as in all editions1 a   
great deal in the volume besides  the   
,horae1 from which the book takes its   
name4 ,but of the hundred and  sixty    
pages to which 7in addition to the      
twelve leaves of ,kalendar7 the  volume 
extends1 upwards of sixty are occupied  
by the ,hours1 which are  thus much the 
most important item in the contents4    
,the antiquity of  these ,hours was very
 great1 for they are mentioned as an    

office as early  as the sixth century4  
,they fell1 however1 into disuse1 but   
were revived1  and probably rearranged1 
by ,peter ,damian just ten years before 
our  battle of ,hastings4 ,forty years  
later1 in #ajif1 at the ,council of     
,claremont1 the saying of them1 in      
addition to the canonical hours1 was    
made compulsory upon all the clergy1 and
 this compulsion continued until  #aefh1
 when ,pope ,pius ,v41 in issuing his   
revision of the ,breviary1  released the
 clergy from the obligation to say this 
office1 at the same  time that he       
forbade the use of the vernacular       
translations of it1 which  for at least 
two centuries had been permitted to the 
laity4 ,in ,england1  as we all know1   
these vernacular versions were called   
,primers1 and their  rendering of the   
,psalms and ,prayers of which the ,hours
 were made up1 and  of the additional   
matter which was joined with them1 has  
formed the  basis of our present        
,english ,prayer ,book4        ,thee    

,god we preise3 ,thee ,lord we          
knowleche3      ,thee endless ,fader    
everi erthe worschipeth3      ,to ,thee 
alle angels1 to ,thee hevenes and alle  
manere powers3      ,to thee cherubim   
and seraphim crieth with vois withouten 
cessinge3      ,holy1 ,holy1 ,holy1     
,lord ,god of ,ostis3      ,hevenes and 
erthe ben ful of mageste of thi glorie3 
,thee the glorious compainie of         
apostles3      ,thee the preisable      
noumbre of prophetes3      ,thee        
preiseth the white ost of martires4     
,so began the ,english version of the   
,te ,deum in a ,primer written at  the  
end of the fourteenth century 7,british 
,museum1 ,add4 ,,ms4 #bg1 #eib71d  and  
if the beauty of some of these lines has
 caused us to give them a  preference   
over other versions a little closer to  
our own1 they serve  none the less well 
to show whence it was that our ,prayer  
,book obtained  its magnificent rhythms4
 ,but who would know more of our old    
,english  ,primers must be referred to  

the third volume of the late ,mr4       
,maskell's  ',monumenta ,ritualia       
,ecclesiae ,anglicanae' 7,clarendon     
,press1 #ahhb74 ,here  we are concerned 
with ,horae1 and that in their          
bibliographical and  pictorial1 rather  
than their liturgical aspect4         #d
 ,partially reproduced in photographic  
facsimile by ,mr4 ,henry                
,littlehales4 7,rivingtons1 #ahij47     
,each of the ,hours1 we are told1 had   
its mystical reference to some event  in
 the ,lives of the ,blessed ,virgin and 
our ,lord1 and these references  are    
explained in some of the ,primers in    
some rude verses1 which1 with           
correction of some obvious misprints1   
and modernising the spelling1 ,i        
proceed to quote3--        ,ad ,laudes3 
,how ,mary1 the mother and virgin1      
,visited ,elizabeth1 wife of ,zachary1  
,which said1 ',blessed be thou cousin1  
,and blessed be the fruit of thy body4' 
,ad ,primam3        ,how ,jesu ,christ  
right poorly born was1        ,in an old

 crib laid all in poverty1      ,at     
,bethleem1 by an ox and an ass1         
,where ,mary blessed ,his nativity4     
,ad ,tertiam3        ,how an ,angel     
appeared in the morn1        ,singing1  
',gloria in ,excelsis ,deo'2            
,saying1 ',the very ,son of ,god is     
born1        ,ye ,shepherds of          
,bethleem1 ye may go4'        ,ad       
,sextam3        ,how three kings of     
strange nations1        ,of ,christ's   
birth having intelligence1      ,unto   
,bethleem brought their oblations1      
,of gold1 of myrrh1 and frankincense4   
,ad ,nonam3        ,simeon1 at ,christ's
 circumcision1        ,these words unto 
the ,jews did tell1      ',my eyen      
beholdeth your redemption1        ,the  
light and glory of ,israel4'        ,ad 
,vesperas3        ,how ,mary and ,joseph
 with ,jesus were fain        ,into     
,egypt1 for succour1 to flee1      ,whan
 the ,innocents for ,his sake were      
slain1        ,by commission of ,herod's
 cruelty4        ,ad ,completorium3     

,how ,mary assumpted was above the      
skies1        ,by her ,son as sovereign 
lady1      ,received there among the    
hierarchies1        ,and crowned her the
 queen of glory4    ,i have quoted these
 verses in full1 rude though they are1  
because they  form the keynote to the   
scheme of illustrations of all ,horae   
and  ,primers4 ,the ,hours were intended
 as devotional comments on the subjects 
of these verses1 and in the fourteenth  
and fifteenth centuries it was  thus the
 most natural thing in the world that   
each ,hour should be  accompanied by an 
illumination1 or1 failing that1 a       
woodcut1 to  illustrate its special     
theme4 ,accustomed as we nowadays are to
 gain our  information exclusively by   
reading letterpress1 it is only by a    
visit to  our nurseries that we can     
recall to ourselves how deeply the need 
of  pictures was felt in the ages before
 the printing press made the art of     
reading a common acquirement4 ,of this  
need the ,miracle ,plays1 with all      

their rudeness1 all their unconscious   
profanity1 were at once the living      
witness and the living fulfilment4 ,in  
the great cycles1 such as those  of     
,york1 ,wakefield1 and ,chester1 which  
have come down to us1 the history  of   
the world in its sacred aspects is      
unrolled from the creation of the       
angels to the day of judgment2 and the  
presentment of these plays  probably    
brought the ,bible stories nearer to the
 people than could have  been possible  
in any other way4 ,certainly these plays
 left a deep mark  upon current ideas of
 art1 and helped to render impossible   
any attempt  at antiquarian correctness4
 ,in the scene of the ,adoration of the 
,shepherds in some of the finest books  
of ,hours 7,p4 ,pigouchet3 ,paris1      
#adih1 #aejb1 etc471 underneath the     
figures of the shepherds and their      
wives 7by whom they are mostly          
represented as being accompanied7 are   
written the names ,gobin le gai1 le beau
 ,roger1 ,aloris1 ,alison1 ,mahault1    

,ysambre1 by which they were known in   
the ,french plays on the ,nativity1  and
 the shepherds are ,french ,shepherds of
 the fifteenth century4 ,but  however   
great their anachronisms1 the tableaux  
in the ,miracle ,plays and  the pictures
 in books of devotion were found        
abundantly helpful1 and for  more than a
 century and a half1 first in manuscript
 and afterwards in  print1 the ,horae or
 ,primers1 the prayer-books of the      
laity1 hold the  first place among      
illuminated books4    ,illustration3    
,,from ,a ,,sarum ,,horae4 ,,paris3 ,p4 
,,pigouchet ,,for ,s4 ,,vostre1 #aejb   
,a few years ago ,mr4 ,quaritch         
possessed a charming ',book of ,hours1' 
which  at one time belonged to          
,elizabeth ,poyntz1 a relative of the   
,thomas  ,poyntz at whose book we were  
looking a little while back4 ,to this   
manuscript ,mr4 ,quaritch in his        
catalogue assigned the date 'about      
#acfj1'  which1 if correct1 gives it    
considerable antiquity among illuminated

  ,horae4 ,the end of the fourteenth    
century is the date at which these      
first become at all common1 and it was  
during the fifteenth century that  they 
obtained their greatest popularity1 and 
that the greatest artists  were employed
 in their production4 ,numerous and very
 beautiful examples  of the manuscripts 
produced during this period form part of
 the  permanent exhibition in the       
,grenville ,library at the ,british     
,museum1 and  ,i hope that many of my   
readers will go to look at them there4  
,all fine  examples of manuscript ,horae
 possess 7i47 beautiful initial letters1
  7ii47 borders surrounding every page1 
formed of leaves1 flowers1 birds1       
grotesques1 and the like1 7iii47 a      
number of beautiful miniatures1  filling
 the whole or the greater part of a     
page1 and representing the  scenes from 
the life of ,christ and ,his ,mother    
mentioned in the lines  quoted above1   
with additional illustrations from the  
,passion1 and from  the lives of the    

saints4 ,beyond saying this1 it is      
impossible to give  any general         
description of these manuscript ,hours1 
each one of which  possesses its own    
delightful individuality4 ,two or three 
special  examples1 however1 may be      
mentioned to show the estimation in     
which they  were held and the care which
 was spent on their decoration4 ,thus   
the  late ,mr4 ,charles ,elton possessed
 a charming little ',book of ,hours'    
which  once belonged to ,queen ,jeanne  
,,ii4 of ,naples 7#acgj-adce74 ,it      
measures  only #b #e_/h  #a #g_/h       
inches1 and contains one hundred and    
sixty leaves and  twenty miniatures1    
nine of which occupy the whole of their 
page4 ,the  initial letters throughout  
are in gold and colours1 and the borders
 are  of the ivy-leaf pattern1 the      
scrolls often terminating in grotesques4
  ,mr4 ,quaritch1 again1 when this paper
 was written1 had for disposal 7for  the
 sum of one thousand pounds7 a ,horae of
 slightly later date1 a  wedding present

 from the ,regent1 ,john1 ,duke of      
,bedford1 to ,lord ,talbot  on his      
second marriage in #adbd1 when he allied
 himself to ,margaret  ,beauchamp1      
daughter of ,richard1 ,earl of ,warwick4
 ,the first leaf contains  a miniature  
showing ,talbot and his wife at prayer  
under the protection  of their patron   
saints1 and many other miniatures are   
scattered through  the rest of the      
volume4 ,in #adbi ,talbot was captured  
at the battle of  ,patay and remained a 
prisoner in ,france till #adcc4 ,during 
this time he  made many entries in the  
blank leaves of his ,hours4 ,here is a  
snatch  from one in verse3        ,saynt
 ,george the gode knyght      ,over your
 ,fomen geve you myght1      ,and holy  
,saynt ,katheryne      ,to youre        
begynnyng send gode fyne1      ,saynt   
,christofre botefull 7helpful7 on see   
and lond1      ,joyfully make you see   
,engelond4    ,twenty years after his   
release from imprisonment1 ,talbot was  
slain 7,july  #bj1 #adec71 fighting     

against a ,breton force at ,chatillon4  
,it is possible  that he may have       
carried his ,hours on his person1 for it
 was in the  cottage of a ,breton       
peasant that it was discovered a few    
years ago1 and  it seems likely that a  
,breton soldier may have found it on the
  battle-field1 and transmitted it to   
his descendants as an heirloom4 ,as  an 
example of another kind of interest1 we 
may instance a ,horae at the  ,bodleian1
 on four of whose leaves are drawn most 
delicate and beautiful  representations 
of religious processions4 ,the best of  
these has been  reproduced in the       
,proceedings of the ,palographical      
,society1 and it is  impossible to      
overrate the charm of the drawing4      
,in #adgc ,nicholas ,jenson printed a   
,horae at ,venice2 three years later1   
,matthias ,moravus followed his example 
at ,naples1 and the earliest of         
,caxton's four editions was probably    
printed not much later than #adgh4  ,but
 these were all ordinary books1 with no 

special beauty about them  except what  
they might receive from the 'rubrisher1'
 or illuminator1  after the printer had 
done his work4 ,it was not till #adhg1  
just a third  of a century after the    
issue from the press of the first       
printed  document bearing a date1 that  
any serious attempt was made to supplant
  the manuscript ,horae by printed      
editions4 ,the first essay was made by  
,anthoine ,vrard1 of ,paris1 and is     
said--,i have never seen a copy of      
it--to have been a poor production1     
'without frontispieces' 7whatever  that 
may mean71 or borders to the text4 ,the 
success1 however1 with which  it met was
 apparently sufficient to encourage     
,vrard to renew his  attempt1 and in    
#adhh or thereabouts he issued his      
',grandes ,heures1' a  fine quarto1 with
 fourteen large engravings1 and borders 
in four  compartments to every page4 ,in
 #adhi1 he reprinted the book in much   
cheaper form1 using most of the large   
engravings which now occupied a  whole  

page apiece1 and devising for the       
borders smaller figures1 in  which      
scenes from the life of the ,blessed    
,virgin and our ,lord were set  forth   
with their ,old ,testament types4       
,meanwhile other publishers had not     
been idle1 for1 in #adhh1 ,jean du ,pr1 
or ,johannes de ,prato1 as he called    
himself on his ,latin title-pages1      
issued the first of the few ,horae      
which proceeded from his press2 and in  
#adia ,philippe ,pigouchet printed  his 
first known edition1 and not long       
afterwards entered into relations  with 
,simon ,vostre1 an enterprising         
bookseller1 which resulted in the       
publication of at least a score of      
editions1 all extraordinarily rare1     
during the next twenty years4 ,towards  
the end of this century1 and in  the    
early part of the next1 other ,paris    
firms of printers and publishers  joined
 in the trade4 ,of these1 ,thielman     
,kerver1 ,gilles and ,germain           
,hardouyn1 ,guillaume ,eustace1         

,francois ,regnault1 and ,geoffroy ,tory
 were  the most important1 but ,horae   
are extant bearing the imprint of more  
than thirty other firms besides these4  
,the demand must have been very  great1 
for ,paris supplied not only the rest of
 ,france--and in the  ,british ,museum  
there are examples of ,horae for the use
 of no fewer than  thirty different     
,french dioceses--but also ,england4    
,hence there was  abundance of work for 
all1 and the different publishers copied
 each  other's editions with a freedom  
which is not a little embarrassing to   
the humble bibliographer4    ,the       
subjects of the fourteen full-page      
illustrations in the little  ',horae    
secundum usum ,sarum1' which we have    
taken as our text1 are as  follows3--   
i4    ,the ,betrayal of ,christ         
7repeated after xiv474         ii4      
,the root of ,jesse1 from whose         
slumbering body a tree is               
springing1 its branches being the       
,jewish kings1 and the                  

,virgin and ,holy ,child its summit 7see
 page #ed74         iii4  ,the ,holy    
,trinity adored by the ,saints in heaven
 and by the             ,pope and       
,emperor and their followers upon earth4
         iv4   ,the ,annunciation4      
v4    ,the ,visitation4         vi4     
,the ,crucifixion4         vii4  ,the   
,adoration by the ,shepherds4           
viii4 ,the ,annunciation to the         
,shepherds4         ix4   ,the          
,adoration by the ,magi4         x4     
,the ,presentation in the ,temple4      
xi4   ,the ,flight into ,egypt4         
xii4  ,the ,death of the ,virgin4       
xiii4 ,s4 ,john before the ,latin ,gate4
         xiv4  ,dives and ,lazarus4     
,illustration3 ,,from ,,tory',s         
',,horae4' ,,paris1 #aebe    ,these1    
with the exception of the last1 which is
 not quite so common1  occur in most    
,horae4 ,other illustrations1 which are 
frequently found1  especially in earlier
 editions1 represent scenes from the    
life of ,david  in connection with the  

,penitential ,psalms1 his gazing at     
,bathsheba1 the  consummation of his    
plan for the murder of ,uriah1 and his  
punishment4  ,his victory over ,goliath 
is also occasionally represented4 ,we   
also find  in several early editions    
',les ,trois ,vifs' placed over against 
',les  ,trois ,morts1' three gay knights
 on one page and three grinning         
skeletons  on another1 and in ,tory's   
',heures  l'usage de ,paris' of #aebg we
 have a  striking picture of ,death1 on 
his black horse1 riding over the corpses
  of his victims to deliver yet another 
summons4 ,the ,calendar1 again1 is      
usually prefaced by a figure of a man1  
with all the organs of his body         
exposed1 and lines drawn from them to   
the celestial bodies1 which1 in  the    
popular beliefs1 were supposed to       
influence their health and  sickness4   
,of all these illustrations five or six 
different varieties are  found2 but from
 #adie to the end of the century1 the   
set of designs which  was used for our  

little ,sarum ,horae was by far the most
 popular1 and  influenced the editions  
of all the leading publishers4          
,illustration3 ,,from ,,tory',s         
',,horae4' ,,paris1 #aebg    ,to trace  
the history of these border-pieces would
 require a separate  article4 ,jean du  
,pr1 ,vrard1 and ,pigouchet1 made       
several experiments in  smaller ,horae  
with designs of flowers and birds for   
borders2 but the  popular taste decided 
in favour of allegorical and historical 
figures1  and these were soon multiplied
 to such an extent that their original  
order and significance were lost sight  
of4 ,in the editions published by  ,jean
 du ,pr in #adhh1 and by ,vrard in      
#adhi1 several pages are occupied  with 
an explanation of the small figures in  
the border4 ,jesse and ,balaam  are     
shown as types of the ,nativity of the  
,blessed ,virgin1 the betrothal  of     
,isaac and ,rebecca as a type of her    
,espousal1 ,eve tempted by the  ,serpent
 shows the ,fall to which the           

,annunciation preluded the remedy1  the 
,burning ,bush and ,aaron's rod         
foreshadowed the ,nativity4 ,here all is
  clear1 but as the demand for variety  
increased1 there were added1 in         
addition to the ',dance of ,death1'     
figures of the ,saints1 ,prophets1      
,angels1 and ,virtues1 representations  
of the ,sibyls1 emblems of the  ,fifteen
 ,signs of ,coming ,judgment1 and scenes
 from the life of the  ,blessed ,virgin 
and our ,lord1 and from the ,old        
,testament4    ,illustration3 ,,the     
,,dance ,,of ,,death4 ,,from            
,,pigouchet',s ',,horae' ,,of #adih4    
,partly for convenience of printing1 but
 more1 we may imagine1 for the  sake of 
producing an appearance of endless      
variety1 these border-pieces  were not  
cut in a single block1 but were         
detachable1 so that they could  be used 
in different combinations4 ,in several  
editions1 even in one of  that very     
scholarly and artistic printer ,geoffroy
 ,tory1 this is effected  at the cost of

 suggesting that the block had been     
accidentally broken1  as in the page    
already shown from his edition of #aebg1
 where at the foot  the pieces do not   
even fit together4 ,the more general    
plan1 however1 was  that exemplified in 
,tory's edition of #aebe1 where it is   
carried out with  unusual precision1 the
 borders being built up by the          
repetition of  exactly sixteen blocks of
 each size1 fitting respectively into   
the inner  and outer margin and the head
 and foot of the page4 ,in earlier      
editions  the border-pieces are more    
numerous and not so mathematically      
apportioned1 the reason being that while
 ,tory's are purely decorative1  and    
their number therefore fixed at will1 in
 the earlier editions the  cuts are     
pictorial1 and their number decided by  
the exigencies of the  subjects4 ,thus  
in ,pigouchet's ,paris ',hours' of #adia
 there are in all #adg  border-pieces1  
of which #gh are outer side-pieces1 #ae 
inner side-pieces1  #af cornices1 #h    

head-pieces1 and #cj foot-pieces4 ,the  
numbers illustrate  the greater         
importance of the outer side-pieces and 
foot-pieces1 which  have a depth or     
breadth of twenty-one millimetres       
against the nine of  the inner          
side-piece and head-piece4 ,the subjects
 illustrated in them  are the ,creation1
 the ,gospel history from the birth of  
the ,blessed  ,virgin to the ,last      
,judgment1 and special sets of the      
,nativity and  ,passion with ,old       
,testament types4 ,all these were       
extensively imitated by  other          
publishers1 and the same honour was paid
 to the famous set of the  ,dance of    
,death1 which ,pigouchet began to       
introduce early in #adif1 and  gradually
 increased in successive editions till  
in that of #hth ,august  #adig we find  
the full number of ten triple blocks of 
male victims and  twelve of women4 ,a   
similar succession may be traced in the 
gradual  changes in the full-page cuts1 
so that we can often tell within two or 

three months the time at which an       
undated edition was sent to press4 ,in  
my own little book there are no large   
border-pieces1 only ledges round  the   
text1 but from its containing the       
picture of the stem of ,jesse  7shown as
 one of our illustrations7 and the      
,church ,militant and  ,triumphant1 it  
must be assigned to the year #adih or a 
little later4    ,illustration3         
,,granollachs' ',,lunare4' ,,florence3  
,l4 ,,morgiani ,,for ,p4  ,,pacini1     
#adif4 ,,imitated ,,from ,,the ,,naples 
,,edition ,,of #adhe          ,,the     
,,transference ,,of ,,woodcuts ,,in     
,,the ,,fifteenth ,,and ,,sixteenth     
,,centuries#e      ,despite some efforts
 to prove the contrary1 there can be    
little doubt  that the art of taking    
clichs of woodcuts1 or of cuts engraved 
on soft  metal treated in the same way  
as wood1 was quite unknown during the   
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries4 ,if  
one printer or publisher desired  the   
use of a set of cuts in possession of   

another1 it was open to him to  try to  
borrow or buy them1 and failing this to 
have them copied as best  he could1 on  
the theory of artistic copyright having 
as yet been  broached4 ,in the present  
paper1 after a few words on the simpler 
processes of borrowing and buying1 ,i   
propose to bring together some  typical 
instances of the different methods in   
which cuts designed in one  country or  
district were copied in another1 and    
incidentally1 perhaps1  to throw a      
little new light on the relations of    
designers and  woodcutters in these     
early days of book-illustration4        
#e ,reprinted by leave of ,messrs4      
,kegan ,paul1 ,trench1 ,trbner and      
,co41 from ',bibliographica1' vol4 ii4  
7#ahie74    ,as to borrowing1 there is  
not much to be said4 ,i believe a few   
instances  of it may be found1 e4g4     
,matthaeus ,cerdonis tells us distinctly
 that  he printed an edition of a       
',cheiromantia' 7,padua1 #adhd7         
',erhardi ,ratdolt  instrumentis4' ,but 

it was undoubtedly1 and for obvious     
reasons1 very  rare1 and where it       
existed mostly indicates some specially 
close  relations between the two firms4 
,thus ,jacob ,bellaert at ,haarlem      
appears  to have borrowed some of       
,leeu's cuts for a ',lijden ons         
,heeren1' printed  in ,december #adhc1  
but on ,bellaert's disappearance in     
#adhf most of his  cuts and types are   
found in the possession of ,leeu1 and it
 is doubtful  if we should not look on  
his press rather as a branch            
establishment of  ,leeu's than as       
altogether independent4 ,we have also to
 be very careful  in our examination of 
cuts before building any theories of    
borrowing1 or  special relations between
 different firms1 as in some cases1     
notably in  many of ,vrard's ',horae1'  
in which we seem at first sight to find 
cuts  from the editions of ,philippe    
,pigouchet1 we are really confronted    
with  copies so closely imitated that it
 requires a minute comparison to show   

that they are printed from different    
blocks4    ,when we pass from borrowing 
to buying we open up an endless field   
for  investigation1 and one rich in     
small surprises4    ,mr4 ,falconer      
,madan showed me some years ago1 in a   
,civil ,war ,tract in the  ,thomason    
,collection at the ,british ,museum1 a  
very worn cut1 ,french in  appearance1  
representing ,s4 ,john the ,evangelist  
and the eagle by which  he is           
symbolised4 ,it puzzled me at the time1 
but ,i soon afterwards  identified it   
with the printer's device of ,robert    
,wyer1 in use by him  more than a       
hundred years earlier4 ,almost as great 
an age was probably  attained by a      
head-piece of terminal archers1 with    
rabbits1 etc41 which  ,i first noticed  
in the #aeih edition of ,sidney's       
',arcadia1' and found  still retained in
 the fourteenth edition1 dated #afgj4   
,the interval  between these two        
editions of itself exceeds the          
threescore and ten  years which ought to

 suffice for the life of a wood-block as
 of a man1  but ,i have since found the 
same head-piece in a prayer book1       
printed  about #aehe1 and as it is in no
 way appropriate to this1 have no doubt 
that its original appearance was even   
earlier4    ,illustration3 ,,from       
,,geoffroy ,,tory',s ',,champfleury1'   
#aebi4    ,in another rather amusing    
series of migrations my pride as a      
discoverer  has been tempered by the    
verdict of a lynx-eyed friend that the  
blocks  in question at one period of    
their career have been recut1 but their 
history is still curious4 ,if any one   
will turn to the #aege edition of ',a   
,ryght pithy pleasaunt and merie        
,comdie4 ,intytuled ,gammer ,gurton's   
,needle4 ,played on stage1 not longe ago
 in ,christes ,colledge in  ,cambridge1'
 he will see that the title-page of this
 our second printed  comedy1 'made by   
,mr4 ,s---- ,mr4 of ,art1' and          
'imprinted at ,london in  ,fleete streat
 beneth the ,conduit at the sign of ,s4 

,john ,evangelist by  ,thomas ,colwel1' 
is surrounded by a kind of garland      
supported by two fat  little boys2 and  
if we turn next to the last leaf of the 
',champfleury1'  that most pedantical   
treatise1 written and published by the  
,french  artist-printer1 ,geoffroy ,tory
 in #aebi1 there the same not very      
beautiful  design will confront us4 ,the
 concatenation of the ',champfluery' and
  ',gammer ,gurton's ,needle' is of     
itself delightful1 but chance has       
enabled  me to add two additional       
incongruities1 for ,i have found it     
again in a  copy of the ',christiani    
,hominis ,institutio1' by ,stephanus    
,paris1 printed  in #aeeb by ,michael   
,fezandat for ,vivantius ,gaulterot1 who
 had published  the second edition of   
the ',champfleury' three years earlier1 
and once  more in ,william ,copland's   
edition1 dated #aeec1 of ,bishop        
,douglas's ',,xii4  ,bukes of ,eneados4'
 ,thus we know within a few months the  
date at which  this block1 which had    

previously been recut1 crossed the      
,channel1 and  there is some reason to  
believe that some more of ,tory's old   
designs  came over with it1 for ,i have 
lately noticed three fragments of       
borders  used in ,tory's ',horae' of    
#aebe reappearing in a ',letter to      
,reginald  ,pole1' by ,tunstall and     
,stokesley1 printed by ,wolfe in #aefj4 
,like the  larger design1 these         
fragments have been recut1 but with     
considerable  skill1 so that we may be  
sure that the recutting was done in     
,france1 and  at no very long interval  
after #aebe1 the lines in the original  
blocks  being so fine that they would   
soon need replacing4    ,as an appendix 
to this section of my paper1 it occurred
 to me to look at  the cuts in some of  
the ,roxburghe ,ballads1 and a glance   
through the  first volume yielded some  
curious results4 ,thus a ballad entitled
  ',friendly ,counsaile1' by ,c4 ,r4    
,charles ,records81 printed for ,j4     
,wright1 the younger1 about #afcj1 has  

two cuts1 the first of ,christ  teaching
 the twelve ,apostles1 which can be     
traced back through the  ',kalender of  
,sheppards' to ,vrard's ',art de bien   
vivre et de bien  mourir' of #adib2 the 
second of two of the three gay          
cavaliers1 who met  their own corpses as
 they hunted 7les trois vifs et les     
trois morts71  which occurs in ,french  
,horae of about the same date4 ,another 
ballad  entitled ',christmas'           
,lamentation for the losse of his       
,acquaintance1  showing how he is forst 
to leave the country and come to        
,london1' is  headed by a little figure 
of a man1 which ,i first saw in the     
verso of  the title of ,wynkyn de       
,worde's edition of ',hycke ,scorner1'#f
 where it  is labelled ',pyte4' ,this   
also is ultimately ,french1 and was also
  originally first cut for ,vrard's     
,french ,terence4 ',doctor ,dogood's    
directions to cure many diseases' has in
 the first part half of a cut  from the 
',art de bien vivre1' representing      

,aaron and the ,israelites  going to    
meet1 not1 as in the original1 ,moses1  
who bears the ,tables of  the ,law1 but 
two ,english gentlemen1 who are joined  
on in a block of much  smaller size4    
,the second part has also an old cut1   
which appears to be  imitated from the  
,dutch4 ,another ,dutch                 
fifteenth-century design is used  in the
 second part of ',the ,discontented     
,married ,man1' and there are two  more 
fifteenth-century blocks 7recut7 in the 
',jovial ,broom-man1' a cut  from a     
,french 'sop' in ',a ,new ,medley1 or a 
,messe altogether1' and a  piece of an  
,augsburg block in ',the praise of our  
country ,barley ,brake4'  ,besides these
 we may note the presence at the head of
 a ballad called  ',solomon's           
,sacrifice1' printed for ,henry ,gosson1
 of the cut of a  printing-press which  
occurs in ',the ,ordinarie of           
,christians1' printed by  ,scoloker     
about #aedh4 ,of other cuts ,i only     
suspect the history1 and the  instances 

,i have quoted are sufficient to show   
the long life these  designs enjoyed in 
,england4         #f ,one of those on   
the recto has a common original with    
that of an       elephant with a howdah 
in ,doesborgh's ',van ,pape ,jans       
landendes4'    ,like some other branches
 of natural history1 'bibliology1' to   
use an  absurd word1 would be very dull 
if it could all be mapped out and       
tabulated ready to our hand1 but in     
cut-hunting1 as in fox-hunting1  there  
is pleasure to be gained from pursuit1  
if not from attainment1 and  especially 
in ,english books of the sixteenth      
century there is never any  difficulty  
in finding a promising cut to hunt4 ,it 
may be said1 indeed1  that whoever      
attempts to write the history of        
wood-engraving in ,england  during this 
period will need to be quite as well    
acquainted with the  productions of the 
,french press as of the ,english4       
,unfortunately this is  no easy matter1 
for except for a magnificent collection 

of ,vrards  mostly from the old ,royal  
,library1 and a goodly number of ,horae1
 the  ,british ,museum is by no means   
rich in early ,french books1 and ,i know
 of  no other ,english library which can
 do much to supply its deficiencies4    
,but the fact remains that between the  
large importation of ,french  blocks1   
the direct imitation of many others1 and
 the probable presence  of ,french      
woodcutters working in ,england1 the    
field for any one  desirous of tracing a
 native school of wood-engraving1 if    
such a school  can be said to have      
existed1 is full of pitfalls1 from which
 only a very  wide knowledge of the cuts
 in contemporary ,french books 7and to a
 less  extent also of ,dutch and ,german
 ones7 can offer deliverance4    ,the   
backwardness of ,england in the         
pictorial arts made it possible for  old
 wood blocks to enjoy here an unusually 
long life4 ,in other countries  their   
career was cut short by decisive changes
 of taste4 ,thus the sudden  inroad of  

the ,renaissance into ,germany at the   
close of the fifteenth  century swept   
away almost the whole of the            
delightfully simple work  produced      
between #adgj and #adij4 ,one curious   
case of survival is perhaps  worth      
mentioning4 ,in an edition of ,wyle's   
',translation oder ,deutschungen        
etlicher ,bcher1' printed at ,augsburg  
in #aecf1 the cuts to all the  stories  
but one show contemporary work of the   
usual kind4 ,the exception  is the tale 
of ,guiscard and ,sigismund1 the        
illustrations to which must  be quite   
half a century earlier1 and exhibit all 
the simplicity of  feeling and          
workmanship of the artists of ,augsburg1
 in their best days4    ,in ,france we  
have the same tale1 for it is impossible
 to conceive not  merely of the         
,estiennes1 but of a popular publisher  
like ,jean de  ,tournes1 decorating his 
books with the simple cuts we find in   
books by  ,vrard or ,trepperel4 ,in the 
,horae the publisher's needs were       

sometimes  too imperative to be         
resisted1 and amid the coarse and       
realistic  engravings which1 to the     
destruction of the charm of these books1
 came  into vogue about #aeje1 the old  
designs from the editions of ,pigouchet 
and ,vrard are often found for some ten 
years longer4 ,italy is in  somewhat a  
different position1 for there1 in the   
fifteenth century1 the  distinction     
between the books of the people and the 
books of the rich  had been unusually   
clearly marked1 and while the tastes of 
the rich  changed the popular literature
 was far more conservative4 ,the little 
,florentine cuts1 of which examples are 
given in another article1 are by  far   
the most striking example of this       
stability of the popular taste4 ,it  is 
probable that no new ones were designed 
after #aebj at the latest1 but  the old 
designs continued in use for more than  
sixty years after this  date1 battered  
by successive editions till their       
borders were knocked to  pieces1 but    

still retaining much of their old       
beauty1 and occasionally1  by some lucky
 chance1 finding a printer who did them 
justice4 ,when the  old blocks became   
unusable1 the designs were recut1 and it
 is sometimes  possible to trace them   
through as many as three different      
stages of  successive deterioration4 ,in
 ,venice the little vignettes1 so       
popular  between #adij and #aejj1       
enjoyed a similar1 but much shorter1    
extension of  life1 the preference for  
the heavier style of engraving which    
came in  with the turn of the century   
driving them down into the chap-books1  
where their original delicacy of line   
soon procured their destruction at  the 
hands of hasty printers4    ,though the 
vagaries of fashion were thus slightly  
tempered at the great  centres of       
printing in ,italy1 fashion interfered  
with the borrowing of  blocks in another
 way in this country4 ,germany and      
,france were each  fairly homogeneous in
 art matters4 ,we may trace different   

schools1 but  their differences are not 
very strongly marked1 and their         
followers were  probably not very keenly
 conscious of them4 ,in ,italy the      
artistic  individuality of every        
district was clearly defined1 and       
though1 as we  shall see1 the printers  
of one town made free use of the        
illustrations  in the books of those of 
another1 there was scarcely any         
interchange of  blocks4 ,in the ',de    
,structura compositionis' of ,ferrettus1
 printed at  ,forli in #adie1 both of   
the two illustrations are of ,venetian  
origin1  that of ,theseus and the       
,minotaur being taken from the          
',plutarch' of  #adia1 and that of the  
lecture-hall from the ',epigrammata     
,cantalycii' of  #adic4 ,but this is an 
almost unique instance of direct        
borrowing1 the  rule being that while   
designs were freely imitated1 they were1
 almost  invariably1 recast in the style
 of art of the district in which they   
were to appear4    ,illustration3 ,,from

 ,,the ,,naples ,,edition ,,of ,,the    
',,arte ,,de ,,astrologia' ,,or         
',,lunare' ,,of ,,granollachs1 ,,for    
,,the ,,year #adhe4 7,,reduced47        
,illustration3 ,,from ,,the ',,lunare'  
,,of ,,granollachs ,,for #adic4         
,,printed ,,at  ,,rome ,,by ,,plannck4  
,,reversed ,,from ,,the ,,naples        
,,edition4 7,,reduced47    ,passing now 
from the purchase of woodcuts to their  
imitation1 we may  look1 first of all1  
at the simplest and easiest form in     
which a design  could be reproduced4    
,the impression from a woodcut is1 of   
course1 a  reversal of the design as it 
appears on the block1 and an artist not 
very confident of his own skill would   
naturally shrink from the rather        
difficult task of copying the printed   
cut in reverse in order that his  own   
sketch might print in the same way as   
its original4 ,he preferred to  copy the
 printed cut as he saw it before him1   
with the result that in  the impressions
 from his copy everything is reversed1  

the right becoming  left1 and the left  
right4 ,thus simplified his task was    
easy1 and it was  even possible to avoid
 altogether the need of copying1 by     
merely pasting  the illustration on the 
block1 and cutting the wood through the 
paper4  ,when ,antoine ,vrard desired to
 bring out a ,french edition of the     
',metamorphoses1' his wood-cutters      
treated the designs in the edition by   
,colard ,mansion in this way1 and as the
 originals were but poor work the       
injury to them was not very great4 ,it  
was the first of these designs1  that of
 ,saturn devouring his children1 which  
,vrard1 a year or two  later1 printed in
 his edition on vellum of the ',miroir  
,historial' of  ,vincent de ,beauvais1  
to serve as a ground-plan to his        
illuminator1 who1  by painting out      
,saturn's scythe1 and the child in his  
mouth1 and some  other objectionable    
details1 turned it into a very          
moderately edifying  picture of the     
,holy ,family4 ,but this after-use is   

beside our point1 nor  are the cuts in  
either ,mansion's edition1 or that of   
,vrard1 worth  reproducing here4 ,as an 
instance of this practice we will rather
 show  the original and a copy in       
reverse of the frontispiece of the      
',nobilissima ,arte de ,astrologia1' by 
,granollachs1 an astronomer of          
,barcelona1 printed at ,naples1 with the
 calculations made for the year  #adhe1 
when it was presumably intended to be   
issued4 ,that this is really  its date  
we have strong confirmatory evidence in 
the style1 both of the  design and the  
cutting1 which corresponds very closely 
to that of the  cuts to the life of sop 
prefixed to the ,italian edition brought
 out at  ,naples in the same year1      
#adhe1 by the jurist-publisher1         
,francisco de  ,tuppo1 and probably     
printed for him by ,matthias ,moravus4  
,the designer  was a man of skill and   
imagination1 and we may notice in this  
picture  the ,saracenic type which he   
has given to the man whom we see at the 

window1 to suit with the presumably     
,moorish descent of its author4    ,the 
',arte de ,astrologia' of ,granollachs  
became popular1 and in #adic  ,plannck1 
a great printer of cheap books at ,rome1
 brought out an edition  of it there    
under the altered title ',lunare4' ,that
 it might not go  unillustrated1 he     
seems to have commissioned his          
office-boy to reproduce  the ,naples    
woodcut1 and the result was the         
remarkable work of art which  is here   
set face to face with its original4 ,by 
and by we shall see how a  ,florentine  
artist fared when the same task was set 
him4    ,reproduction in reverse was    
undoubtedly the refuge of the           
incompetent1  but we must remember that 
it was also the restoration of the      
design as  originally drawn on the wood1
 and the most skilful artists did not   
disdain to save themselves trouble in   
this way4 ,they had no objection to     
copying another man's work1 but their   
aim was not to see how closely  they    

could copy1 but to make a pretty picture
 with the least expenditure  of pains1  
and if it looked as well when the rights
 and lefts were  reversed there was no  
fault to be found4 ,hence we shall find 
this method  employed in many cases     
where the second artist was no whit     
inferior to  the first4 ,examples of the
 servile reproduction of woodcuts by    
other  printers1 without reversal1 are  
hardly as numerous as we should expect1 
and are naturally not very interesting4 
,they group themselves chiefly  round a 
few popular books1 such as the          
',fasciculus ,temporum' of  ,rolewinck1 
,steinhowel's 'sop' and ,brant's ',ship 
of ,fools4' ,the home of  the           
',fasciculus ,temporum' seems to have   
been ,cologne1 but the cuts in  the     
editions which we find printed in other 
towns of ,germany1 at ,venice  by ,walch
 and ,ratdolt1 and in ,spain1 all follow
 the same lines very  closely4 ,of the  
'sop1' which started either from ,sorg's
 press at  ,augsburg1 or from that of   

,knoblochzer at ,strasburg1 no less than
 eleven  editions were printed in       
different towns in ,germany during the  
fifteenth  century1 the cuts in all of  
which are on the same model1 while the  
actual blocks used by ,sorg afterwards  
passed into the possession of  ,gerard  
,leeu at ,antwerp1 and were again       
imitated by ,christian ,snellaert  at   
,delft4 ,the cuts in the ',narrenschiff'
 enjoyed no less widespread a           
popularity4    ,a few single cuts1 which
 from their subjects might be used as   
title-cuts  to a great variety of books1
 also attracted the attention of the    
more  pedestrian copyists4 ,thus in     
educational books printed in ,germany   
towards the close of the fifteenth      
century there are a bewildering  number 
of variants of a woodcut of a master and
 scholars with the legend  ',accipies   
tanti doctoris dogmata sancti1' and     
while a good many ,french  cuts found   
their way into ,england on their        
original blocks others were  copied for 

,english use with the servility we      
should expect4 ,among the  few instances
 of direct copying in ,italy1 one of the
 most noteworthy is  the reproduction at
 the beginning of the ',supplementum    
,chronicorum' of  ,foresti1 printed by  
,bernardino de ,benaliis at ,venice in  
#adhf1 of the  pictures of the          
,creation1 the ,fall1 and the           
,sacrifices of ,cain and ,abel1  from   
the large ,bible printed by ,quentel at 
,cologne about six years  earlier4 ,on  
the other hand1 in my monograph on      
',italian  ,book-,illustrations'        
7,portfolio1 ,no4 xii4 ,dec4 #ahid71 ,i 
have already  alluded to a curious      
instance of the direct copying of       
,italian  ornamental initials by a      
,german4 ,in #adhd1 in a ',boethius'    
printed by  ,oliverius ,servius at      
,rome1 we find three very fine initials1
 and we can  trace back the set to which
 they belong to ,sixtus ,riessinger1 who
 used  some of them in his edition of a 
',tractatus ,solemnis1' by ,philippus de

  ,barberiis in #adhj4 ,this is simple  
enough4 ,but1 when we find what looks   
like the same set in the possession of  
,johann ,mller at ,nuremberg about      
#adgc1 we ask in some surprise how      
initials distinctively ,italian should  
appear first at ,nuremberg and          
afterwards find their way back to ,rome8
  ,the answer to the puzzle is arrived  
at by tracing both the ,nuremberg and   
the ,roman initials to a set cut for    
,sweynheym and ,pannartz1 but used by   
them only in certain copies of a few    
books 7e4g4 the ,rylands copy of  the   
',suetonius' of #adgb7 whose purchasers 
preferred them to be  ornamented thus   
rather than by illumination4 ,one of    
these copies must  have fallen into the 
hands of ,mller1 who imitated the       
designs  remarkably closely1 but with   
some minute differences1 notably the    
addition of a thick line to the left of 
the initials1 which in the  originals   
are left unfinished on this side1 so    
that they might be  attached at pleasure

 to an ornamental border running down   
the margin4  ,thus the initials used by 
,mller are copies1 while those of       
,riessinger  and ,servius are from the  
original blocks1 which must have passed 
to them  from ,sweynheym and ,pannartz4 
,the difficulty in clearing up the      
little  mystery lay in the fact that it 
is possible to possess a copy of every  
book ,sweynheym and ,pannartz ever      
printed without finding a single volume 
in which the initials occur4    ,a      
well-known example of the close copying 
of a decorative border is the           
conveyance by ,joannes ,paulus          
,brissensis of a border used by ,edward 
,whitchurch for the first prayer book of
 ,edward ,,vi41 published in #aedi4     
,five years later a close imitation of  
this1 even to the retention of the      
initials ,e4 ,w41 appears on the        
title-page of a commentary on ,aristotle
  7',dialectica ,resolutio cum textu'71 
published by ,brissensis in ,mexico4    
,we come now to the last and most       

interesting section of our subject1 the 
cuts in which one artist has borrowed   
the design of another1 but whether      
imitating it freely or closely has      
introduced modifications in technical   
treatment which make it his own1        
harmonising it so closely with the work 
of his own city or country that it      
easily takes its place with purely      
native designs until by some chance its 
real origin is discovered4 ,for  various
 reasons these transformations are      
almost1 though not entirely1  confined  
to ,italy4 ,thus it would be idle to    
expect them in ,england  because there  
was no ,english school of design or     
engraving of sufficient  individuality  
to modify the style of the cuts it      
borrowed4 ,in ,germany1  on the other   
hand1 the native school was immensely   
productive1 and had a  long start of    
,france and ,italy in point of time4    
,very shortly after #adgj  we find      
illustrated books at ,augsburg and ,ulm 
of a simple excellence  which could not 

be bettered4 ,in ,france and ,italy we  
get a few good books  about #adhj1 but  
woodcuts do not become common till ten  
years later4 ,one  of the few very early
 illustrated books of ,italy1 the       
',valturius1'  printed at ,verona in    
#adgb1 was indeed copied in ,germany1   
the cuts being  reproduced in reverse in
 an undated ',vegetius1' probably       
printed at  ,augsburg about #adge by    
,johann ,wiener1 though it should be    
mentioned that  ,dr4 ,muther1 like a    
true ,teuton1 tries to claim priority   
for his  countrymen by bringing back the
 ',vegetius' to about #adgj4 ,but this  
is a  solitary instance1 which belongs1 
moreover1 to an earlier section of our  
subject1 and1 until ,mr4 ,redgrave      
communicated to the ,bibliographical    
,society his paper on the early         
illustrated books of ,oppenheim1 ,i knew
 of  nothing more apposite4 ,in that    
paper1 however1 ,mr4 ,redgrave showed   
how  both the border of the ',calendar1'
 printed by ,ratdolt at ,venice in      

#adgf1  and some of ,ratdolt's          
ornamental initials1 were closely       
imitated by  ,johann ,kbel1 in an       
undated ',passio ,domini4' ,the two     
books were  separated by an interval of 
quite thirty years1 and ,kbel in        
imitating  ,ratdolt was not content with
 his delicate outline1 but put in a     
heavy  background which does not improve
 it4 ,some late ,german prayer-books    
show  traces of the influence of the    
,french ',horae1' but beyond these ,i   
know  of nothing4    ,the case of       
,holland is somewhat similar to that of 
,germany4 ,in the last  decade of the   
fifteenth century1 the ,dutch           
woodcutters imitated closely1  or       
directly borrowed1 from the ,french     
',horae1' but the best work1 which  is  
also the earliest1 was entirely         
original4    ,in the sixteenth century  
the popular printers1 like ,john of     
,doesborgh1  no doubt obtained their    
haphazard illustrations whence and how  
they  could4 ,in the editions of ',le   

,chevalier ,dlibr1' by ,olivier de la   
,marche1 printed at ,antwerp in ,french 
and ,spanish1 in #aedg1 etc41 ,i        
thought1 at first1 that ,i had found an 
instance of artistic copying of a  very 
interesting nature1 for there is a close
 connection in design  between these    
highly-finished cuts and the rude yet   
striking work in the  edition printed at
 ,gouda1 by ,gottfried van ,os1 shortly 
after #adhf4  ,inasmuch1 however1 as ,la
 ,marche had given elaborate directions 
for the  illumination of his poem1 it is
 obvious that by following these        
directions any two designers would      
obtain fairly similar results1  without 
any direct imitation of one by the      
other4    ,as far as my own information 
goes1 the ,french wood-cutters trusted  
almost entirely to their own imagination
 during the fifteenth century1  and1    
when they took to borrowing for their   
',horae1' borrowed outright  without any
 attempt at adaptation4 ,one famous     
example of copying of a  later date     

deserves mention4 ,in #aede the younger 
,aldus printed at ,venice  a second     
edition of the famous                   
',hypnerotomachia1' and either this or  
the  original of #adii attracted the    
attention of ,gohorry1 who made a       
translation which was revised by ,jean  
,martin and printed by ,jacques  ,kerver
 in #aedf4 ,the cuts to this translation
 have been variously  attributed to     
,jean ,goujon and ,jean ,cousin1 but a  
moment's glance at the  book will show  
that they are not all by the same hand4 
,the majority of  the illustrations show
 wretched work1 and are very clumsily   
cut1 but  those at the beginning and a  
few in the latter part of the volume are
  fine examples of artistic translation 
into a different manner4 ,i give  here  
the scene of ,poliphilo by the river    
bank from both the original and  the    
copy1 and old favourite as the ,venetian
 cut justly is1 ,i think that  the      
,french cut attains almost equal        
excellence in another style4 ,no  finer 

example of free adaptation could easily 
be found4    ,illustration3 ,,cut ,,from
 ,,the ',,poliphilo' ,,of ,,venice1     
#adii4 7,,reduced7    ,illustration3    
,,the ,,same ,,cut ,,as ,,redrawn ,,in  
,,the ,,french ,,edition ,,of ,,the     
',,poliphilo1' #aedf4 7,,rather ,,more  
,,reduced7    ,when we come to ,italy we
 find a wholly different set of         
conditions4 ,here  book-illustration    
started late1 but during the twenty     
years from #adij to  #aeaj its vogue was
 enormous1 and great as was the         
fertility of the  ,italian designers it 
was natural that in face of the demands 
made upon  them by the publishers they  
should seek help whereever they could   
find  it4 ,but in ,italy at this period 
every craftsman was an artist1 and      
whether he sought his inspiration in the
 paintings which he saw around  him1 in 
the engravings on copper which had      
flourished long before                  
book-illustration became popular1 in the
 cuts in foreign books1 or in  those    

published in other districts of his own 
country1 the ,italian  woodcutter always
 put his own individuality into his work
 and made the  design he was copying his
 own4 ,i am unfortunately unacquainted  
with the  pictures to which ,dr4        
,lippmann and ,dr4 ,kristeller have     
traced three or  four of the ,venetian  
and ,florentine woodcuts1#g but the     
examples of  translation from engravings
 on copper to woodcuts in the ,venetian 
',petrarch' of #adij1 in the second     
,florentine edition of ,bettini's       
',monte  ,sancto di ,dio' 7#adia71 and  
in the illustration of the works of     
mercy in  the ',libro delli             
,comandamente di ,dio' of ,fra ,marco   
del ,monte ,sancta  ,maria 7,florence1  
#adif71 are extremely interesting1 and  
show how well the  workmen1 especially  
those of ,florence1 understood the      
principle of  artistic selection4       
#g e4g4 ,the cut of a preacher preceded 
by his little crucifer in       the     
',doctrina delle ,vita ,monastica' of   

,lorenzo ,quistiniano 7,venice1       c4
 #adie7 to a picture by ,gentile        
,bellini in the church of ,s4           
,maria del ,orto2 the cut of ,s4 ,thomas
 in the ',epistole et ,evangeli'        
of #adie to the picture by ,verrocchio  
in ,or ,s4 ,michele1 and that of        
the beheading of ,s4 ,john from a       
,pollaiuolo in the ,baptistery at       
,florence4 ,the case of the             
illustrations to the #adfg              
',meditationes'       of ,turrecremata1 
which are professedly copied from the   
frescoes in       the church of ,s4     
,maria di ,minerva at ,rome1 is an      
interesting       example of this       
copying1 the excellence of the original 
designs       sometimes triumphing over 
the rudeness of the engraving4          
,unluckily       the frescoes themselves
 have perished4    ,illustration3 ,,cut 
,,from ,,the ,,quentell ,,bible4        
7,,cologne1 ,c4 #adhj4 ,,much           
,,reduced7    ,illustration3            
,,adaptation ,,of ,,the ,,cologne ,,cut 

,,for ,,the ,,malermi ,,bible4          
7,,venice1 #adij7    ,no more           
characteristic example of free imitation
 can be found than in  the use made of  
the cuts in the ,latin and ,german      
,bibles1 printed by  ,quentell at       
,cologne about #adhj1 by the illustrator
 of the ,malermi ,bible  ten years      
later4 ,the ,german cuts are large and  
clumsy 7measuring about  #g-a_/b x #e   
in471 overcrowded with figures1 and with
 the rudest ideas of  perspective and   
arrangement4 ,the little ,italian       
vignettes1 on the other  hand1 are      
gracefully and delicately designed1 and 
it is only from the  presence of some   
purely fanciful accessory1 such as the  
pond and the  swan swimming in it in the
 examples here given1 that we are       
compelled to  recognise the debt of the 
,venetian artist to his ,german         
predecessor4    ,another1 though a less 
interesting example of the adaptation of
 large  and rather clumsy cuts to the   
scale of the little ,venetian vignettes 

is  the imitation in the ',terence1'    
published by ,simon de ,luere at ,venice
 in  #adig1 of the illustrations in     
,trechsel's edition which had appeared  
at  ,lyons four years earlier4 ,again1  
if1 as ,i believe1 we should attribute  
the first illustrated ,italian edition  
of the ',ars ,moriendi1' printed in     
#adij1 'co li figure accomodati per     
,johanne clein  ,piero himel de         
alamanis1' to ,venice rather than to    
,lyons1 we may claim the majority of    
the cuts in this as additional examples 
of intelligent1 if not very  original1  
adaptation by ,venetian artists1 the    
originals1 in this case1  being the     
designs first used in the ,german       
block-books1 imitated again  two years  
later1 by ,vrard at ,paris4             
,illustration3 ,,illustration ,,on ,,the
 ,,back ,,of ,,the ,,title-,,page ,,of  
,,the ',,arte  ,,del ,,ben ,,morire1'   
,,printed ,,in #adij ,,by ,,johann      
,,cleyn ,,and ,,piero ,,himel1          
,,probably ,,at ,,venice                

,illustration3 ,,florentine ,,adaptation
 ,,of ,,the ,,same ,,cut ,,used ,,on    
,,the  ,,title-,,page ,,of ,,the ,,somma
 ',,omnis ,,mortalium ,,cura' ,,of ,s4  
,,antonino4 ,,pacini1  #aejg    ,it is  
true that after #adif ,cleyn was        
printing at ,lyons1 and that there  is a
 ,lyonnese book with the probably       
erroneous date #adgh by him1 but we     
have no evidence1 ,i believe1 of his    
whereabouts in #adij1 and there is  one 
cut in the book1 for which1 as far as ,i
 know1 the artist drew  entirely on his 
own imagination1 and this appears to me 
to be much more  ,venetian in its       
character than ,lyonnese4#h ,i give this
 cut from a copy  in the ,british       
,museum which has unluckily been heavily
 coloured1 so that  the reproduction was
 no easy matter4 ,it comes within our   
subject1 not  only as evidence for the  
,venetian origin of the edition1 but as 
the  original of the little cut on the  
title of the ',omnis ,mortalium ,cura'  
of  ,s4 ,antonino1 printed for ,pacini  

in #aejg2 the differences between the   
copy and the original being             
characteristic of the alteration in tone
  always introduced by ,florentine      
artists when dealing with foreign work4 
,the border has been simplified and at  
the same time given the usual  black    
background4 ,the recesses of the church 
are in unrelieved black  instead of     
merely shaded4 ,the figures are slighter
 and more graceful1  and good taste is  
shown in the removal of the whispering  
devils1 one of  whom bears a scroll with
 the words 'nolo dire1' while the other 
inscription contains the word 'vergogna'
 7shame71 preceded by some  other       
letters which ,i cannot decipher in the 
,museum copy4 ,it will be  noticed that 
the ,florentine artist has reversed the 
positions of the  figures1 but not the  
little altar-piece4 ,the other cuts in  
the #adij  ',arte del ,morire' also     
found ,florentine imitators1 as ,i      
cannot doubt  that it was through them  
that the illustrator of the ,florentine 

editions  of c4 #adie and #aeac obtained
 his knowledge of the ,german designs   
which  he followed in ten of his cuts4  
,some of the designs are copied in      
reverse1 others directly1 but in nearly 
every instance we find that by a  number
 of small touches the cut has been made 
to assume a distinctly  ,florentine     
appearance4         #h ,the ,venetian   
origin of this cut is made almost       
certain by the       character of its   
border4 ,in style and touch 7cleverly as
 the       reproduction here given has  
been made from the thickly-painted      
original1 the lines are necessarily     
thickened7 the design is       closely  
akin to the borders in the ',omelie et  
,sermones' of ,s4       ,bernard        
7#adia71 and the ',dialogo de la        
,seraphica ,virgine ,s4       ,caterina'
 7#adid71 while in the border and       
woodcut initials of the                 
',supplementum ,chronicarum' of #adib we
 get both the bull's skull and       the
 dolphin's1 and in the ',rudimenta      

,grammatices' of ,donatus #adic1 a      
top border to the first page which      
resembles the lower border in       our 
cut4 ,there is no suggestion of copying 
here1 but a series of       designs     
probably all by the same artist which   
begin with this       border to the     
',arte' in #adij and can be traced for  
several years1       always at ,venice4 
,among other books in which ,florence   
followed the lead of ,venice the        
',meditazioni' of ,san ,bonaventura and 
the ',fior di ,virt' are perhaps the    
most important4 ,for my frontispiece to 
this article1 however1 ,i have          
preferred to hark back to the ',lunare' 
of ,granollachs1 the ,florentine        
edition of which 7#adif7 is as good an  
instance of artistic imitation of  that 
of ,naples1 as is the ,roman 7see page  
#hc7 of incompetent servility4    ,i    
have already written at greater length  
than ,i intended1 and am  conscious that
 all ,i have said is dry1 fragmentary1  
and disjointed4  ,there is1 however1    

still one point which ,i should like to 
put forward in  connection with these   
different styles of copying4 ,in ',the  
,masters of  ,wood-,engraving' ,mr4     
,linton has endeavoured to limit our    
idea of the work  of the early          
woodcutters to the mere faithful cutting
 on the wood the  lines marked down for 
them by the designer4 ,in this theory   
,mr4 ,linton  stands at the opposite    
extreme to ,sir ,w4 ,m4 ,conway1 who1 in
 ',the  ,woodcutters of the             
,netherlands1' hardly made sufficient   
allowance for  the differences in       
cutting which might be produced by      
different designs4  ,of the two1        
however1 ,sir ,w4 ,m4 ,conway seems to  
me to be the nearer to  the truth1 and  
,i think these instances in which we    
have both the design  and the           
woodcutter's copy before us help us to  
understand the method of  work4 ,no one 
can believe that the hand of any artist 
intervened between  the ,naples         
',granollachs' and its ,roman           

interpreter1 and ,i feel  tolerably sure
 myself that in the two ,florentine cuts
 ,i have given1 the  differences of     
treatment are also due to the craftsman4
 ,in the ,venetian  translation from the
 cuts in the ,cologne ,bible and in the 
,french  adaptation of the              
',hypnerotomachia' we have1 of course1 a
 different set  of conditions1 and we   
must not try to ignore them4 ,but until 
positive  evidence to the contrary is   
produced1 it is reasonable to believe   
that  the craftsman often supplied his  
own designs1 and the artist was often   
his own woodcutter1 and the examples of 
imitation at which we have been  looking
 seem to me to strengthen this theory4  
,,es ,,tu ,,scholaris8#i      ,in the   
following pages ,i propose to offer a   
little picture of  school-life four     
hundred years ago1 culled from an old   
,latin dialogue  book which was         
published anonymously in the fifteenth  
century under the  title ',es tu        
scholaris8' and went through many       

editions in different  countries4 ,all  
through the ,middle ,ages boys were     
supposed to speak ,latin  in school1 and
 this with some reason1 since if they   
meant to be scholars  when they grew up1
 to be able to speak and write ,latin   
fluently would be  far more useful to   
them than the acquisition of any single 
modern  language4 ,but no doubt it did  
not come easily to them1 and our        
anonymous  author seems to have thought 
that it might not come quite easily to  
their masters to show them how to do it1
 since1 as we shall see1 he  wrote his  
book for use in the humbler kind of     
schools1 where the master  himself might
 be a man of no great learning4 ,in fact
 he begins by  pointing out the         
inconvenience of a master not being able
 to answer his  boys' questions1 and to 
obviate this offers some ready-made     
dialogues on  what he considered        
suitable topics4         #i ,reprinted  
from the ,king's ,college ,school       
,magazine by leave of       the editor4 

,all the earlier dialogues begin with   
the words from which the book takes  its
 title--,are you a scholar8 ',es tu     
scholaris8' says the master4 ',sum1'    
says the boy1 7'knowing the language'71 
and then begin the variations4          
,illustration3 ,,from ,,the ,,flores    
,,poetarum1 ,s4,a4    ,the cruellest of 
these is a kind of 'fool's mate' 7to    
borrow a term from  chess71 in which the
 master asks1 ',what gender is sum8' and
 it is to be  hoped used his victory    
mercifully if his victim fell into the  
trap4 ,when  the first variations are   
exhausted we come to a ',where are you a
  scholar8' to which the correct answer 
is ',here and everywhere1 and in  all   
honest places1' honest places being     
subsequently defined as of four  kinds1 
that is to say1 at church1 at school1 at
 home with one's parents  and in the    
company of able men 7ecclesia1 scola1   
domus propria circa  parentes et        
convivium peritorum virorum74 ,of a     
sudden the master waxes  humorous and   

demands ',es tu scutellavarius1' a      
portentous word which  apparently means 
a 'washer-up1' since the boy emphasises 
his denial by  explaining that he does  
not wash plates in the kitchen 7quod non
 lavo  scutellas in coquina74 ,on this  
there follows some talk about religion1 
and we then approach scholastic topics  
with the question1 ',do you know        
,latin8' ',i do1' answers the boy1 with 
happy confidence1 and then in  reply to 
the further question1 ',what is ,latin8'
 is made to return the  remarkable      
answer1 that ,latin is a very noble     
idiom taking its origin  from the       
fountains of the ,greeks 7nobilissimum  
ideoma ex fontibus  ,graecorum ortum    
habens74 ,comparative philology was in  
its infancy in  those days1 and as even 
now there are worthy people who believe 
that  ,english is derived from ,german1 
we need not throw stones4    ,the next  
pages contain some interesting talk on  
the four chief books in  use in grammar 
schools1 the ',tabula' or horn-book on  

which was written  the ,lord's ,prayer1 
the moral sayings of ',cato1' the       
accidence of  ,donatus1 and the syntax  
and prosody of ,alexander ,gallus2 but  
we must  hurry on to the more human side
 of our text-book4 ,there are 'verba    
obedientiae' helping the boy to assure  
his master that for the future he  will 
be very careful not to anger him 7de    
cetero vos#aj commovere  percavebo71    
suggestions for defence where a fault   
could be denied1 and  ready-made excuses
 where it was obvious4 ,i regret to say 
that there are  also ready-made 'verba  
accusationis'3 ',please ,sir1 ,jones has
 torn my  grammar' 7,joannes ,donatum   
meum dilaniavit7 or ',that boy called me
 the  son of a thief' 7,ille mihi dixit 
filium furis74 ,these are evidently tips
  for whiners in the school itself1 but 
we have a more awful picture in  the    
demand1 ',wherefore1 honoured ,sir1 ,i  
earnestly beg you to take steps  against
 evil-doings and punish these fellows   
scholastically4' ,no doubt  ,brown minor

 had run into some dignity in the       
street1 and this is the  formula with   
which the dignity demanded that ,brown  
should be 'hoisted1'  which ,i take to  
be the meaning of 'scolastice           
corrigatis4'         #aj ,in this very  
medieval ,latin the master is always    
addressed as       'vos1' never as 'tu1'
 the use of the singular1 except to     
inferiors       or as a mark of         
affection1 being regarded as an insult4 
,for invitation to dinner and the       
offering of gifts there are quite a     
bewildering set of forms1 reminding us  
that school-fees in those days  were    
often paid in kind4 ,in the offering and
 acceptance of these there  is much     
politeness on each side4 ,the boy begs  
that the smallness of his  present may  
be excused on account of his poverty and
 goodwill1 or  promises that if the     
master will honour his parents at dinner
 the best  cheer they can provide shall 
be set before him4 ,the master1 on his  
side1  replies that he is quite unworthy

 of these entertainments1 but lest he   
should seem to despise them he will     
certainly come4 7,nimium est non enim   
sum dignus cum parentibus tuis prandere4
 ,ne autem me dicant eorum  prandium    
spernere comparebo libenter47 ,there are
 also forms of  invitation for boys to  
use to their friends1 and ,jones 7using 
the polite  plural7 asks ,brown to      
dinner to-morrow at his parents'        
request4    ,some of the shorter remarks
 seem to apply to a boarding school4    
',dear  master1 with your permission1 ,i
 should like to take a bath' says one   
boy3 another asks that he may go and lay
 the table1 a third that he may  take   
the clothes to the washerwoman6 ,a boy  
whose mother has called for  him        
addresses his petition for leave to the 
,precentor1 and we may guess  therefore 
that these boarding-schools were        
attached to churches or  monasteries1   
and that the boys1 like the monks       
themselves1 had to do  much of their own
 household work4    ,the boys are given 

plenty of tips for talk among           
themselves4 ',why were  you late        
to-day8' asks one1 and is reminded that 
bed is warm and sleep  sweeter than     
honey4 ,one boy sees a priest coming    
into the school and  hopes he will ask  
for a holiday4 ,his fellow says they    
have had several  holidays lately and   
doubts if another will be granted4 ,the 
gloomy side  of medieval school-life is 
not left unrepresented4 ',how often have
 you  been punished to-day8' is one of  
the questions1 and as if the            
alternative answers                     
'semel--bis--ter--quater1' were not     
enough1 they are  crowned with the cruel
 prophecy 'et iterum cras corrigeris4'  
,the last paragraph of the book is      
concerned with the appointment1 duties  
and behaviour of monitors4 ,they are    
called 'monitors' nowadays because1  ,i 
suppose1 they jog memories as to what is
 the next day's work1 and in  other ways
 prevent crime4 ,in those days they were
 called 'custodes1'  chiefly ,i am      

afraid because they kept the rods4      
',you've got to appoint  monitors1      
,sir1' says a boy4 ',you be monitor1    
then1' ',please1 ,sir1 ,i've  only just 
been monitor1 and it's not my turn4'    
',who ought to be  appointed then8'     
',this is the boy1 ,sir1 both because   
it's his turn and  because he knows how 
to get you long and nasty rods6' ,that  
is one  dialogue4 ,here is another1 boy 
with boy4 ',have you been putting down  
the  boys who made a disturbance and ran
 as they came out of church8' ',i       
have4' ',have you been putting me down8'
 ',i have2 ,jones saw you running  in   
the street and gave me your name to be  
put down4' ',dear monitor1 take  my name
 off1 lest ,i be punished1 and ,i'll ask
 my mother to give you a  big bun       
7magnum panem74' ',hold your tongue1    
then1 and ,i'll take it  off'--whereat  
the boy thanks heaven1 and we gather    
that there was rather  a bad tone in the
 schools in which ',es tu ,scolaris8'   
was in use4 ,it must  also be said that 

if the boys talked as they were taught1 
they talked  very bad ,latin4    ,the   
edition from which ,i have taken these  
notes has no 'woodcuts4' ,if it  had had
 one it would probably have been        
something of the nature of this  picture
 from an ,english grammar book1 in which
 the master is shown armed  with the    
usual birch4 ,the grammars of those days
 were in fact so bad  that it was held  
to be impossible for any one to learn   
them without the  additional notes      
offered by a rod4 ,but for my first     
illustration 7p4  #ajj71 ,i have taken a
 more human and1 ,i think1 a more       
lifelike picture1  from a ',flores      
,poetarum' printed at ,florence about   
#aejj4 ,no doubt by the  time boys came 
to study poetry they had reached a more 
mature stage1 and  were treated better4 
,but these young scholars look boyish   
and vivacious  enough1 and ,i would fain
 hope that this is a true picture of a  
,florentine classroom4 ,a ,venetian book
 goes even beyond this1  anticipating   

the methods of the ,newest ,educators1  
for in a woodcut to  it1 while the elder
 students are shown as solemnly         
attending to a  lecture1 two little boys
 are studying their ,a ,b ,c on the     
floor1 with a  small dog to help them4  
,but this picture is so plainly         
imaginative that  ,i will not even show 
it4    ,illustration          ,,english 
,,books ,,printed ,,abroad#aa      ,it  
may fairly be said that only a writer   
who knew nothing about them  would      
propose1 in a half-hour's paper1 to talk
 about the ,english books  printed      
abroad1 in some forty different places1 
during the last four  centuries4 ,but a 
consideration of the earlier of these   
books forms a  necessary part of the    
,society's contribution to the          
,bibliography of  ,english ,literature  
up to #afdj1 and the subject1 as a      
whole1 has for a  long time seemed to me
 an interesting one2 since1 either in   
the state of  the printing trade at     
home1 or in the circumstances of the    

author1 or  the nature of his subject1  
in every case a special reason has to be
  found why the book should have been   
printed out of ,england4 ,i have1       
therefore1 light-heartedly endeavoured  
to map out the broader outlines  of the 
subject1 in the hope that ,i may        
persuade other members of the  ,society 
to give their help in filling in the    
details1 and ,i must ask you  to        
remember that my paper is put forward   
only as a means of provoking a          
discussion much more valuable than      
anything ,i can contribute myself4      
#aa ,read before the ,bibliographical   
,society1 ,april #ahif4    ,i have said 
that the subject we have before us this 
evening is the  ,english books printed  
abroad during the last four centuries4  
,it would  have been more accurate to   
say during the last four centuries and a
  quarter1#ab for the latest book ,i    
shall have to mention was printed in    
,florence in #ahie1 while ,caxton began 
printing ,english books at ,bruges in   

#adgd or #adge1 and even earlier than   
these we have a ,sarum ,breviary        
printed at ,cologne1 and assigned by    
,mr4 ,gordon ,duff to the year #adgc4   
,these ,sarum ,service-books1 with which
 so many foreign printers busied        
themselves during the next eighty-five  
years1 lie on the outskirts of  our     
subject1 as the greater number of them  
are wholly or mainly in  ,latin1 and we 
are obliged to limit ourselves at       
present to ,english  books1 and may not 
take in the very considerable number of 
,latin works  written by ,englishmen1   
and intended mainly for the ,english    
market1  though printed abroad4 ,it is  
necessary1 indeed1 to remember that for 
some generations after the invention of 
printing1 our country1 for many  classes
 of books1 was wholly dependent on the  
enterprise of continental  printers1 and
 that1 to some extent1 this is still the
 case4 ,a single  oration of ,cicero and
 the plays of ,terence were the only    
,latin classics  printed in ,england    

during the fifteenth century4 ,no ,greek
 book appeared  here until #aedc1 and   
several of the great ,greek classics did
 not find an  ,english printer until the
 second half of the seventeenth century4
 ,even  now1 for the obscurer classics1 
and for the bulk of ,oriental books1 we 
are content to rely on ,germany1 and in 
the fifteenth century this  reliance on 
the continental presses extended to     
every variety of learned  book4 ,it     
would be absurd to attribute this state 
of things to any lack  of enterprise on 
the part of ,caxton and his fellows4    
,our ,president has  lately shown how   
carefully1 even in ,italy1 the first    
printers felt the  pulse of their       
market1 and whereas ,venice was a great 
trade centre for  the whole of ,europe1 
in ,england a publisher who produced a  
book too  learned to find purchasers    
here would have had little chance of    
appealing to the book lovers of other   
countries4 ,thus it may be urged in     
defence of the ,act of ,richard ,,iii41 

which permitted books to be imported    
into ,england from abroad and freely    
sold here1 that by encouraging  ,english
 printers to confine themselves to the  
popular books for which  there was a    
safe market1 it saved them from any     
temptation to risk the  fate which      
,sweynheym and ,pannartz had incurred at
 ,rome2 at the same time  it greatly    
helped forward the cause of education4  
,only three foreign  printers1 ,gerard  
,leeu and ,jan van ,doesborgh at        
,antwerp1 and ,antoine  ,vrard at       
,paris1 abused the liberty granted to   
them by competing  needlessly with our  
native printers in books they were      
capable of  printing equally well       
themselves4 ,the four popular ,english  
books printed  by ,leeu1 who had a      
special fount of type cut for the       
purpose1 were ',the  ,history of        
,jason1' ',the ,history of ,knight      
,paris and the ,fair ,vienne1'  ',the   
,dialogue of ,salomon and ,marcolphus1' 
and ',the ,chronicles of  ,england4'    

,these were all issued in #adib and     
#adic1 and all with the  exception of   
the ',marcolphus1' were reprints of     
editions issued by  ,caxton4 ,even the  
',marcolphus1' according to ,mr4 ,duff1 
who has edited a  facsimile reprint of  
it for ,messrs4 ,lawrence and ,bullen1  
may possibly  have been reprinted from a
 ,caxton now entirely lost1 though this1
 of  course1 is a mere conjecture4      
#ab ,an important extension to the      
subject1 but one which ,i have       not
 the knowledge to deal with1 would treat
 of the ,service-books       prepared   
especially for the ,english market in   
,flanders and the       north of ,france
 during the two centuries preceding the 
invention of       printing4 ,these are 
often claimed as of ,english origin1    
owing to       their having ,english    
saints in their calendars1 but their    
real       provenance is indisputable4  
,of ,doesborgh's ,english books there is
 no need to speak at length1 since  all 
,members of the ,society have in their  

possession ,mr4 ,proctor's  exhaustive  
monograph of this printer's work4 ,as a 
printer he was very  inferior to ,leeu1 
but as a publisher he showed much more  
enterprise in  his choice of books1     
introducing to ,english readers the     
stories of  ',euryalus and ,lucretia1'  
',virgilius the ,magician1' ',frederick 
of  ,jennen1' ',mary of ,nemmegen1'     
',tyll ,howleglas1' and the ',parson of 
,kalenborowe1' in addition to the still 
more notable book ',of the ,new         
,lands4' ,of the thirty-two books which 
,mr4 ,proctor has been able to  assign  
to ,doesborgh's press1 no fewer than    
eighteen were printed for  ,england1    
comprising grammars1 stories1 theology1 
history1 geography1 a  prognostication1 
a medical book1 and two books on the    
valuation of gold  and silver1 thus     
covering nearly the whole range of the  
popular  literature of the day4 ,the    
earliest of these books appeared before 
#aejh1  the latest some time after      
#aebj1 and they thus came out at the    

rate of  rather over one a year4 ,they  
were all1 however1 of the class of books
  which rapidly get themselves thumbed  
out of existence1 and from the  extreme 
rarity of those which survive it is     
probable that ,doesborgh's  real output 
was considerably greater4 ,antoine      
,vrard1 on the other hand1  had a trick 
of printing a few copies of his books on
 vellum which has  greatly helped to    
preserve them1 and it is improbable     
that1 besides his  ,service-books1 he   
printed any other works for the ,english
 market than  the two which have come   
down to us4 ,these are ',the traitte of 
god lyuyng  and good deyng1' and ',the  
,kalendayr of ,shyppars1' both printed  
in #aejc1  and both enriched with       
numerous illustrations1 some beautiful1 
others  grotesquely horrible1 mostly    
taken from his ',art de bien vivre et de
  bien mourir' of #adib4 ,in his choice 
of a translator ,vrard was unlucky1  for
 he seems to have employed some wild    
,scotsman1 who was no master of  his own

 tongue and still more ignorant of      
,french4 ,when ,robert ,copland         
retranslated the ,kalendar for ,wynkyn  
de ,worde in #aejh1 he was as  scornful 
of his predecessor's 'corrupte          
,englysshe' as any one  bibliographer   
could be of the labours of another1     
though in saying that  'no man coulde   
understonde 7it7 perfectly' he certainly
 did not err on  the side of            
exaggeration1 since most southern       
readers must have found  some difficulty
 in understanding it at all4    ,to the 
names of ,leeu1 ,doesborgh1 and ,vrard1 
as printers of ,english  popular books1 
,i ought perhaps to add those of        
,wolfgang ,hopyl of ,paris1  and ,martin
 ,morin and ,james ,ravynell of ,rouen1 
each of whom printed  before #aejj an   
edition of the ',liber ,festivalis' or  
',festial1' the book  of sermons with   
which parsons might regale their        
parishioners on the  high-days and      
holy-days of the ,church4 ,the          
',festial' was of a  semi-liturgical    

nature1 and the three printers were all 
printers of  liturgies4 ,we have1 thus1 
an easy transition to the ,english      
,service-books printed abroad to which  
we must now return for a few  minutes4  
,of these the immense majority were for 
the use of ,sarum1 though  the ,british 
,museum possesses a ,hereford ,missal   
printed at ,rouen in #aejb1  and three  
,york ,missals printed at the same place
 in #aeaf-ag4 ,of ,sarum  ,service-books
 printed before #aedj1 the ',old        
,english ,catalogue' records  no less   
than one hundred and five as in the     
possession of the ,museum in  #ahhd1 and
 the distribution of these is notable4  
,one ,missal was printed  at ,basel1 by 
,michael ,wenssler about #adhf2 another 
,missal by ,hertzog1 at  ,venice in     
#adid2 eleven service-books at ,rouen1  
the earlier ones by  ,martin ,morin1    
,james ,ravynell1 ,p4 ,violette1 and    
,andrew ,myllar2 twelve at  ,antwerp1 of
 which one is a ',directorium' printed  
by ,leeu in #adhh1 and  most of the rest

 much later books from the press of     
,christopher of  ,endhouen2 and lastly  
no less than fifty-six at ,paris1 the   
list of their  printers comprising many 
of the best firms of the time4 ,against 
these  eighty-one foreign editions1 of  
which1 it will be observed1 sixty-seven 
are ,french1 the editions printed in    
,england number no more than            
twenty-four1 and many of these are      
printed with cuts borrowed or copied    
from ,france4 ,obviously this class of  
work required special  qualifications in
 the printers1 and it was easier and    
cheaper to import  the ,service-books1  
even the ,primers1 than to produce them 
at home4  ,during the last few years of 
,henry ,,viii4's reign the number of    
,service-books1 which had previously    
shown some falling off1 again           
increased1 and under his daughter ,mary 
there was1 of course1 a great  revival  
of them4 ,the ,english printers were now
 better able to cope with  the demand1  
and of the forty-five ,service-books in 

the ,museum printed  during these years1
 twenty-four were printed in ,london1   
against ten at  ,rouen1 five at ,paris1 
and six at ,antwerp4 ,of course1 the    
,museum  collection1 both of these and  
of the earlier ,service-books1 is by no 
means complete1 but it is probably      
representative1 and there can be no     
doubt that during the period when       
liturgies are most interesting          
bibliographically1 four-fifths of those 
printed for use in ,england came  to us 
from abroad4    ,one other small class  
of books1 printed like liturgies for the
 most part  in ,latin1 but with lapses  
into ,english1 must be noticed before we
  proceed further--the ,latin ,grammars 
for the instruction of ,english         
school-boys4 ,the earliest of these is  
an edition of the ,grammar of           
,perottus1 printed by ,egidius van der  
,heerstraten at ,louvain1 about #adhf1  
and other grammar-books by ,anwykyll and
 ,joannes de ,garlandia are said to     
have been printed during the fifteenth  

century at ,deventer1 ,antwerp1         
,cologne1 and ,paris4 ,if any ,member of
 the ,society can give me a list of     
these dreadful little books ,i shall be 
very grateful to him1 but they  have    
always filled me with so much compassion
 for the unfortunate  children who had  
to learn them1 that ,i am afraid ,i have
 taken no notes  of the few ,i have     
seen4    ,in order to give an idea of   
the way in which the ,english books     
printed  abroad reflect the changing    
phases of our national life ,i propose  
now to  trace with a little more        
particularity the history of the classes
 of the  ,english books printed at      
,antwerp1 where throughout the sixteenth
 century  they are specially plentiful4 
,we begin in the quiet days of ,gerard  
,leeu  and ,jan van ,doesborgh1 who1    
good honest men1 could have had no other
  object in their ,english publications 
than the making a little profit out  of 
some popular subjects which our native  
printers were neglecting4 ,the  three   

grammar-books printed by ,thierry       
,martens for ,jacobi and ,pelgrim in    
#aejg and #aejh1 are not very           
interesting4 ,christopher of ,endhoven1 
who  calls himself with equal frequency 
,ruremondensis1 followed in #aebc in a  
higher branch of the trade1 competing   
with the printers of ,rouen and  ,paris 
who produced the ,sarum ,service-books  
in such numbers4 ,from #aebc to  #aeca1 
the succession of ,missals1             
,processionals1 ,manuals1 ,psalters1    
,hymnals1 ,breviaries and ,horae1 which 
were printed by ,endhoven at  ,antwerp1 
and sold in ,london1 mostly by ,francis 
,byrckman or ,peter ,kaetz1  is broken  
only by an edition of ,lyndewood's      
',provinciale4' ,in #aeca we  hear for  
the first time a different note1 three  
books being printed in  that year for   
,william ,tyndal1 which are ascribed to 
the press of ,martin  ,lempereur1 viz43 
',the prophete ,jonas1 with an          
introducci before1  teachinge to        
vnderstonde him'2 ',the exposition of   

the fyrste ,epistle of  seynt ,jhon'2   
and ',the praier and complaynte of the  
ploweman unto  ,christe'2 the latter an 
old book which the title assigns to not 
long  after #acjj4 ,the next year the   
widow of ,endhoven printed another      
,sarum  ',hymnal1' but in #aecd she was 
employed by the ,reformers1 printing    
,george  ,joy's revision of ,tyndal's   
,new ,testament1 while ,joy's ,english  
,psalter1  and ,tyndal's own ,new       
,testament were printed by ,lempereur4  
,antwerp  editions of the same year of  
the ',rudimenta ,grammatices1'          
originally  drawn up for ,wolsey's      
school at ,ipswich1 and of a            
',prognostication1'  show that the      
,dutch printers did not quite forget the
 existence of  untheological ,english   
readers1 but for a long time to come    
theology was  paramount in ,english     
books printed abroad4 ,several editions 
of ,tyndal's  ,new ,testament were      
printed at ,antwerp in #aece1 #aecf and 
#aech1 and though  the attribution of   

the ,coverdale ,bible of #aece to the   
press of ,jacob van  ,meteren 7a point  
which ,i leave to our ,bible experts7 is
 not undisputed1  it seems generally    
agreed that the composite version known 
as ',matthew's  ,bible1' brought out by 
,grafton and ,whitchurch in #aecg1 was  
really the  work of an ,antwerp printer1
 probably ,martin ,lempereur4    ,after 
#aech there seems to have been a break  
in the ,english printing at  ,antwerp   
for just a quarter of a century1 during 
which no ,english work of  any          
importance was issued1 the fugitive     
,reformers finding ,switzerland a  much 
safer refuge at this time than the ,low 
,countries4 ,but in #aefc  ,aegidius    
,diest printed two books 7,vincentius   
,lirinensis ',on the  ,antiquity of the 
,catholick ,faith1' and the ',buke of   
,fourscore three  ,questions proponit to
 the ,protestants in ,scotland71 for    
,ninian ,winzet1 a  ,scotch ,catholic in
 exile for his religion4 ,the times we  
see have  changed1 and it is now the    

,romanist ,refugees who seek printers   
abroad1  and the ,protestants who answer
 them in comfortable safety at home2 and
  for several years the ,romanists kept 
the ,dutch printers pretty busy4  ,from 
#aefd to #aefi1 ,diest and ,laet at     
,antwerp1 ,bogard and ,fouler at        
,louvain1 printed between them forty    
,english books1 by ,harding1 ,rastell1  
,martiall1 ,stapleton1 ,allen1 and      
,saunders1 all more or less called forth
  by ,bishop ,jewel's ',apologia        
,ecclesiae ,anglicanae1' which naturally
  roused the ire of the ,catholics1 more
 particularly of ,harding1 whom  ,jewel 
had ejected from his prebendship4       
,the ill-health which preceded ,jewel's 
death in #aega caused him to weary  of  
controversies1 and his opponents at last
 wearied also1 the next few  years being
 very unproductive of ,english books in 
the ,low ,countries4  ,when activity    
revived1 ,antwerp no longer maintained  
its supremacy4 ,the  majority of the    
,catholic books were printed now either 

at ,louvain or  ,douay1 while the new   
refugees1 the extreme ,puritans and     
,brownists1 took  up their quarters at  
,middleburg1 where their books were     
mostly printed  for them by ,j4 or ,r4  
,schilders4 ,whether ,middleburg was    
also the real  place of imprint of the  
editions of ,marlowe's ',epigrammes and 
,elegies1'  the first of which appeared 
in #aeii1 is one of the difficulties    
which  still await a final              
investigation4 ,mr4 ,charles ,edmonds   
preferred to  assign it to the press of 
,w4 ,jaggard1 with whose edition of the 
',passionate ,pilgrim' it is bound up in
 the ,isham collection4 ,in #aehi and   
#aeij we hear of another ,puritan       
refugee press at ,dort1 where several   
works were printed for ,barrow and      
,greenwood1 while in #aeig ,henoch      
,clapham found a local printer for two  
theological works which he had  compiled
 for the benefit of the 'poore ,english 
congregation in  ,amsterdam'2 one or two
 books were also printed for ,english   

students at  ,leyden1 and some ,english 
medical works at ,dort1 so that by the  
end of  the century the earlier monopoly
 of ,antwerp was completely destroyed4  
,we must turn back now to glance at some
 other places where ,english books  were
 printed1 and first we may note that    
even in this most theological  of       
centuries a few miscellaneous works     
demand our attention4 ,thus in  #aeea   
,j4 ,gryphius of ,venice found it worth 
his while to print a  ',compendious     
,declaration1' by ,thomas ,raynalde1 'of
 the vertues of a  certain lateli       
invented oile1' called ',oile           
,imperiale1' and a little  later on1    
when ,william ,turner was tired of      
'hunting the ,romische wolfe1'  ,arnold 
,birckman printed for him1 at ,cologne1 
the two parts of his  ',herbal' and his 
treatise on ',baths4' ,frellon's        
,english edition 7,lyons  #aedi7 of     
,holbein's ',images of the ,old         
,testament' had no theological  import1 
but is an early example of the printing 

of the explanatory text  of an          
illustrated book in more languages than 
one1 so as to secure a  larger sale4    
,lastly we must not forget one very     
important work1 ,theodor  de ,bry's     
',briefe and true report of the new     
found land of ,virginia1'  printed by   
,j4 ,wechel at ,frankfort in #aeij4 ,the
 great bulk1 however1 of  the ,english  
books printed abroad during the         
sixteenth century were  theological1 and
 the presses of ,augsburg1 ,basel1      
,cologne1 ,geneva1  ,munster1           
,nuremberg1 ,strasburg1 ,wesel1         
,wittenberg1 and ,zurich1 besides  the  
famous one of ',marlborow in the land of
 ,hesse1' all testified to the  activity
 of the ,english ,reformers4    ,the    
difficulties which beset the history of 
these ,english books printed  in        
,germany and ,switzerland are well      
known4 ,we are not often1 in dealing    
with them1 pulled up so sharply as when 
we find a book of ,knox or ,bale        
professedly printed 'at ,rome before the

 ,castell of ,s4 ,angel1' but there  are
 other imprints in original editions the
 authenticity of which has  been        
suspected1 and the question is immensely
 complicated by the  existence of       
,london editions in which the old       
imprint has been  sedulously preserved4 
,a very large number also of the most   
interesting  books contain no indication
 whatever of their origin1 and the rash 
attempts to place them1 which have been 
made in catalogues and  bibliographies1 
are often the reverse of helpful4 ,i    
hope that the  ,society may eventually  
help to put the subject on a better     
footing1 but  all ,i can do now is to   
mention a handful of books1 rather with 
a view of  showing the haunts of the    
reforming authors at various periods    
than with  much bibliographical         
intention4 ,thus the edition of         
,tyndal's ,new  ,testament was printed  
for him by ,peter ,quentel1 at ,cologne1
 in #aebe4  ,from #aebh to #aecj1 we    
find him employing ,hans ,lufft 'at     

,marlborow in the  land of ,hesse1' to  
print his ',obedience of a ,christian   
,man1' ',parable of  the ,wicked        
,mammon' and ',genesis4' ,in #aeca1 as  
we have seen1 ,martin  ,lempereur was   
working for him at ,antwerp4 ,john      
,frith's ',pistle to the  ,cristen      
,reader' was printed by ,lufft1 his     
',answer' to ,more1 written when  he was
 a prisoner in the ,tower1 by ,c4       
,willems of ,munster4 ,of the next      
generation of ,reformers1 ,john ,bale1  
,bishop of ,ossory1 appears first as    
employing ,michael ,wood to print his   
',mystery of ,iniquity1' at ,geneva1 in 
#aede2 in #aedf1 his tract on the       
',examinacyon of ,anne ,askew' bears the
  imprint ,marburg1 and his ',actes of  
,english ,votaries' that of ,wesel4 ,his
  best known work1 the ',illustrium     
,majoris ,britanniae ,scriptorum        
,summarium' 7#aedh71 was apparently     
begun at ,wesel by ,theodoricus         
,plateanus and finished at ,ipswich by  
,john ,overton4 ,after the accession  of

 ,mary1 ,bale seems to have had a hand  
in one or two books which appear  with  
the imprint1 ,roane or ,rouen1 which    
perhaps is no more authentic  than that 
of ',rome1 before the ,castell of ,st4  
,angel1' which appears on  his account  
of his ',vocacyon to the bishopric of   
,ossory1' in #aeec4 ,a  correspondent   
has suggested to me that this last may  
have been printed  at ,strasburg2 but   
,knox's book with the same imprint1 ',a 
godly letter  sent to the faythefull in 
,london1 ,newcastell and ,barwyke' is   
attributed  in the ,british ,museum     
,catalogue to the press of ,hugh        
,singleton1 in  ,london1 and this may   
have been printed there also4 ,knox's   
other books  with foreign imprints are  
mostly ,genevan1 ',an ,answer to a great
 number  of blasphemous cavillations'   
being printed by ,jean ,crespin1 and    
'the  copye of a letter sent to the     
,lady ,marye' by ,j4 ,poullain and ,a4  
,reboul4  ,his ',faithful ,admonition   
unto the ,professours of ,god's ,truths 

in  ,england1' professedly hails from   
',kalykow1' its real origin being       
doubtful4    ,we must hasten on now to  
the supporters of the other side of the 
religious controversy1 who1 on the      
accession of ,elizabeth1 in their turn  
had to seek refuge abroad4 ,as we have  
seen1 they at first congregated at      
,antwerp1 but in #aefh ,william ,allen1 
afterwards ,cardinal1 founded the       
,english ,college at ,douay1 and thereby
 made it the headquarters of the        
,english ,catholic ,press during the    
next century4 ,important1 however1 as   
,douay is1 cataloguers have1 perhaps1   
worked its printers a little too  hard1 
and the tendency to ascribe to them     
every ,english ,catholic book  with a   
foreign appearance is unfortunate4 ,we  
must remember that for  fifteen years   
from #aegh the ,english ,college was    
transplanted to ,rheims1  which thus had
 the honour of producing1 in #aehb1 the 
first ,roman  ,catholic version of the  
,new ,testament1 completed twenty-seven 

years  later by the issue of the ,old   
,testament at ,douay in #afji-aj4 ,the  
,new  ,testament was printed by ,j4     
,fogny1 the ,old by ,laurence ,kellam1  
and it is  needless to say that the     
versions of both books were vigorously  
attacked by the ,protestant experts4    
,the absence of the ,english ,college   
from ,douay1 from #aegh-ic1 of course   
diminishes the probability of  ,english 
books having been printed there during  
these years1 and the  foundation of the 
,seminary at ,s4 ,omer1 in the year of  
its return1 soon  provided a formidable 
rival4 ,it appears1 however1 from the   
town records  that printing was only    
introduced into ,s4 ,omer in #afja1 when
 the town  made a grant of #ajj livres  
to ,f4 ,bellet for his expenses in      
bringing  thither his press4 ,according 
to ,dr4 ,oliver1 the biographer of the  
,english ,jesuits1 a book entitled ',an 
apology for the ,arch-,priest1' by  the 
indefatigable ,father ,parsons1 was     
printed at ,s4 ,omer in this same  year1

 #afja1 so that ,bellet must have got to
 work very quickly1 unless  the ,college
 had a separate press of its own4       
,fitzherbert's ',defence of  the        
,catholic ,cause1' dated #afjb1 is also 
assigned to ,saint ,omer1 as are  the   
majority of the books mentioned by      
,oliver as having been printed  during  
the next twenty years4 ,the earliest    
names ,i find connected with  the ,saint
 ,omer press are those of ,c4 ,bocard1  
and ,john ,higham1 the latter  of whom  
printed simultaneously at ,douay1 just  
as1 at an earlier period1  ,j4 ,fouler  
had done at ,douay1 ,antwerp1 and       
,louvain4 ,these two latter  places were
 not unproductive of ,english books     
during the seventeenth  century1 and    
others were printed at ,brussels1       
,ghent1 ,paris1 and ,rouen1  so that    
wholesale attributions to ,douay are    
eminently unsafe4 ,it is  noteworthy1   
indeed1 that ,duthillceul in his        
',bibliographie douaisienne'  7second   
edition1 #ahdb71 mentions only just over

 twenty books as having  been printed in
 ,english at ,douay up to the close of  
the seventeenth  century4 ,this1 of     
course1 is ludicrously below the mark1  
,duthillceul's  failure to discover     
,english books being1 no doubt1 due to  
their having  found their way to the    
country for which they were intended4   
,as ,i have  said1 however1 everything  
points to the ,english press at ,douay  
having  been considerably less prolific 
than is generally believed4    ,we must 
pass on once more and enter the         
trackless wilderness of the  period     
after #afdj4 ,no doubt the enormous     
increase in the output of the  press    
makes its history during the last two   
centuries and a half  dishearteningly   
difficult1 but when ,i see all our      
bibliographical  stalwarts so sedulously
 engaged in crossing the 't's' and      
dotting the  'i's' in the work of their 
predecessors in the early history of    
printing1 ,i cannot help regretting that
 at least a few of them will not  turn  

their attention to the later period in  
which everything still  remains to be   
done4 ,as far as ,i can judge1 the      
,civil ,war did not leave  many traces  
in ,english books printed abroad1 but ,i
 have come across a  few of some little 
interest4 ,residence in ,roman ,catholic
 countries seems  to have caused a good 
many cavaliers to reconsider their      
religious  position1 and some of them   
found it necessary to explain themselves
 in  print4 ,several books of this kind 
were printed in ,paris4 ,thus in #afdd  
,sir ,kenelm ,digby put forth ',two     
,treatises1' one of which was concerned 
with the ',immortality of reasonable    
souls1' while in #afeb1 ,peter ,targa   
published for him ',a ,discourse        
concerning ,infallibility in ,religion1'
  which was reprinted in the same year  
at ,amsterdam4 ,in #afdg there was      
published at ,paris an ,english work    
called ',exomologesis1' recording the   
conversion of ,hugh ,paulin de ,cressy1 
and this went into a second edition  six

 years later4 ,in #afdi we come across  
',a ,lost ,sheep returned ,home1 or  the
 motives of the conversion of ,thomas   
,vane1' and in #afeg1  ',presbyteries   
,triall1 or the occasion and motives of 
conversion to the  ,catholic ,faith of a
 person of quality in ,scotland4' ,we   
find also several  ,english works of    
devotion printed in ,paris about this   
time1 and in #afei  we have an anonymous
 ',answer to the ,provinciall ,letters  
published by the  ,jansenists4' ,the    
impatience of the ,royalist ,colony in  
,france could not  wait for the         
importation of copies of the ',eikon    
,basilike' from ,england1  and at least 
one edition was published in ,paris in  
#afdi1 as to which ,mr4  ,almack's book 
7,no4 #bh in his list7 gives full       
information4 ,at the ,hague  the ,king's
 execution produced a very curious work1
 a translation of the  ',electra' of    
,sophocles by ,c4 ,w4 7,christopher     
,wace71 'presented to her  highness the 
,lady ,elizabeth2 with an epilogue1     

shewing the parallel in  two points1 the
 ,return and the ,restauration4' ,this  
was the first ,english  rendering of any
 part of ,sophocles1 but ,i see that ,i 
wrote of it some  years ago that it was 
'beneath contempt1' and1 ,i daresay1    
this unkind  opinion had good           
foundation4 ,in #afec we have at ,bruges
 an echo of the  ,lilburne controversy1 
in an answer to his pamphlet1 ',john    
,lilburne  revived1' written by ,captain
 ,wendy1 under the title ',vincit qui   
patitur1  or ,lieutenant-,colonel ,john 
,lylburne decyphered4' ,lastly1 at the  
,hague in  #affj1 ,sir ,william ,lower  
published a ',relation in form of a     
,journal of  the ,voiage and ,residencie
 which ,charles ,,ii4 hath made in      
,holland1' and  this is the last book of
 the ,civil ,war period of which ,i have
 a note4    ,during the reign of        
,charles ,,ii41 we have the usual       
sprinkling of  devotional and           
theological books printed abroad1 with a
 few traces at  ,ghent and ,paris of the

 controversies of ,friar ,peter ,walsh4 
,i have  recollections of one or two    
pamphlets printed by the ministers of   
,english ,puritan ,congregations in the 
,low ,countries1 but the only one of    
which ,i have a note is1 ',the ,interest
 of these ,united ,provinces1 being  a  
,defence of the ,zealanders' ,choice1'  
in which the ,rev4 ,joseph ,hill1       
,pastor of the ,scotch ,church at       
,middleburg1 where the book was printed1
  advocated in #afgc an alliance between
 ,england and ,holland4 ,such a book    
would have some interest in itself1 but 
the consequences of its  publication    
give it additional importance in the    
history of book-lore4  ,hill's work1    
which was also printed at ,amsterdam in 
,dutch1 gave great  offence to the      
,states2 he was ordered to leave        
,zeeland1 to which he did  not return   
till #afgh1 and it was during this      
enforced absence that he  introduced    
into ,england1 after the death of his   
friend ,dr4 ,lazarus  ,seaman1 the      

,dutch practice of selling books by     
auction4 ,but for that  unlucky         
pamphlet1 ,sotheby's and ,puttick's     
might never have existed4    ,two other 
,dutch printed books of this period are 
just worth noting1 a  reprint1 in #afhj1
 at the ,hague1 of ',two ,speeches made 
in the ,house of  ,peers1' by the ,earl 
of ,shaftesbury1 and a ',sermon of      
,thanksgiving for  the delivery of      
,charles ,,ii4' from the conspiracy of  
#afhc1 printed at  ,rotterdam4 ,as the  
,revolution approaches1 we get a warning
 of it in the  appearance1 at the       
,hague1 in #afhg and #afhh1 of the      
',citation of ,gilbert  ,burnet' and of 
',dr4 ,burnet's ,vindication of         
himself1' while after the  flight of    
,james1 we may note the publication at  
,cologne of ',the ,great  ,bastard1     
,protector of the ,little ,one1' 'done  
out of ,french' in #afhi1 a  ,paris     
edition of the ,king's 'speeches' in    
#afib1 under the title ',royal          
,tracts1' and in the same year at       

,amsterdam1 a ',letter' written under   
the  name of ,general ,ludlow1 defending
 his comparison of the first four years 
of ,charles ,i4's reign with the tyranny
 of the four years of ,james ,,ii4  ,six
 years later1 quite in the modern       
manner1 the old regicide published  his 
',memoirs1 finding a printer in         
,switzerland 'at ,vevay1 in the ,canton 
of ,bern1' where also a continuation was
 printed the next year4    ,the paper is
 already much longer than ,i had        
intended1 and it is  therefore1 perhaps1
 as well that of ,english printing      
abroad during the  first half of the    
eighteenth century ,i have found no     
trace1 except in a  few devotional books
 published at ,douay4 ,there ought to be
 some  ,jacobite tracts1 and ,i need not
 say that any notes of them will be     
heartily welcomed4 ,but there is a last 
phase of the foreign printing of        
,english books of which ,i may be       
allowed to quote a few instances4 ,for  
various reasons during the last hundred 

years or so1 a good many ,english  men  
and women of letters have lived abroad1 
and though most of them1  like ,byron1  
,beddoes1 ,landor1 and the ,brownings1  
have sent their books to  be printed in 
,england1 their foreign residence has   
occasionally left  interesting traces in
 books and booklets with foreign        
imprints4 ,thus ,sir  ,william          
,hamilton1 while ,ambassador at the     
,court of ,naples1 had two books        
printed for him there1 one ',campi      
,phlegraei' 7or7 ',observations on the  
,volcanoes of the ,two ,sicilies' in    
#aggf1 the other a series of            
collections of ',engravings from        
,ancient ,vases' found in ,sicily1      
between  #agia and #agie4 ,gibbon's long
 stay in ,switzerland doubtless had     
something  to do with the publication at
 ,berne1 in #agif-ig1 of a reprint of   
his  ',miscellaneous ,works' which had  
then only just appeared in ,london4     
,shelley's ',the ,cenci' appeared in    
#ahai1 with the imprint ,italy1 and his 

',adonais' was printed 'at ,pisa with   
the types of ,didot' in #ahba4 ,at      
,parma1 several ,english works obtained 
what used to be considered the  honour  
of ,bodoni's types1 and the ,english    
ventures of ,galignani at  ,paris1      
though far surpassed by the later       
enterprise of ,baron ,tauchnitz1        
deserve a chronicler4 ,the employment of
 foreign presses by wandering           
,englishmen has not yet died out4 ,at   
,davos ,platz1 ,stevenson did           
better--he set up a toy press of his    
own4 ,a year or two before the paper    
was read1 ,mr4 ,william ,sharp gave     
local colour to his ',sospiri di ,roma' 
by employing a ,roman printer1 and in   
#ahie an important ,english  historical 
work1 ',the ,life of ,sir ,robert       
,dudley' was printed at  ,florence4     
,when the ,bibliographical ,society     
takes up the history of ,english books  
printed abroad1 ,i hope that1 if only in
 a small print appendix1 room may  be   
found for a record of these later books1

 and that we shall not stop  at #afjj1  
or at #agjj1 or at #ahjj1 but recognise 
that our own age is as  worthy of our   
attention as any of its predecessors4   
,,some ,,pictorial ,,and ,,heraldic     
,,initials#ac      ,pictorial initials  
were not greatly in favour during the   
golden age of  printing1 and there is   
much to be said against them on the     
score of  appropriateness and good      
taste4 ,if capital letters were all     
either round  or oval1 one great        
difficulty would be removed from the    
artist's path1  for a decorative circle 
or oval1 even if a tail or handle has to
 be  added to it1 makes no bad frame for
 a little picture4 ,it is therefore  not
 surprising to find that the ,german    
designers1 who were the first to  attack
 the problem1 adopted a rounded form of 
the letter ,t1 shortened  the shaft of a
 ,p to a minimum1 and magnified the     
lower curve of a ,b or  ,s1 while       
reducing the upper one as much as       
possible4 ,these  accommodations do not 

make for clearness1 and certain letters1
 such as  ,a1 ,e1 ,h1 and ,m often      
remained stubbornly outside any such    
compromises4         #ac ,reprinted1 by 
leave of ,messrs4 ,kegan ,paul1 ,trench1
 ,trbner and       ,co4 from            
',bibliographica1' vol4 iii4 7#ahif74   
,this difficulty as to form had been    
experienced and1 as far as was          
possible1 overcome1 by the old          
illuminators1 but the printers had a    
trouble of their own which may have made
 them think that movable types  also    
were vanity4 ,an illuminator who had to 
paint the same initial  twelve times    
probably found a pleasure in varying his
 miniatures1 but  with the pictures     
which had not only to be drawn1 but to  
be cut on wood  or soft metal1 a printer
 was naturally less inclined to be      
profuse4 ,we  know1 of course1 from     
their general practice that the early   
printers had  generous ideas as to the  
adaptability of any one picture of a    
town or a  battle to the representation 

of any other town or battle which might 
be  mentioned in the text2 but there    
were only a few subjects capable of     
this endless repetition1 and when       
,leonard ,holl prefixed to his edition  
of ,ptolemy's ',cosmographia' 7,ulm1    
#adhb7 the magnificent1 if not very     
easily recognisable1 ,n1 which shows the
 editor1 ,nicolaus ,germanus1           
presenting his book to ,pope ,paul ,,ii4
 7fig4 #a71 he must have known that  he 
would have to wait a long time before he
 could use it again4    ,illustration3  
#a4 ,,from ,,ptolemy',s                 
',,cosmographia1' ,,printed ,,by        
,,leonard  ,,holl4 ,,ulm1 #adhb         
,illustration3 #b4 ,,from ,a            
',,josephus' ,,printed ,,by ,,lucas     
,,brandes ,,at ,,lubeck    ,lucas       
,brandes of ,lubeck1 in his splendid    
editions of ',josephus' and the         
',rudimentum ,noviciorum1' used a fine  
set of initials1 into which various     
pictures could be inserted at pleasure4 
,either from economy1 however1 or  from 

the poverty of invention of his         
designer1 he had recourse to no  more   
than some half dozen subjects4 ,in the  
',josephus' a battle-scene1 a  cleric at
 his desk1 and a military scribe1 who   
has been identified as a  ,knight       
,templar1 and whose adjustable          
reading-desk reminds us of the  latest  
inventions for the comfort of invalids1 
recur again and again4  ,the scribe     
appears1 conveniently enough1 in the    
fine ,p here shown 7fig4  #b71 and in a 
,c1 but we find him also huddled below  
the bar of an ,h1 and  perched upon that
 of an ,a4 ,in the same way the clerk1  
who is prettily  framed in a ,q1 is     
shown to much less advantage in an ,m1  
of which the  middle stem has been      
broken off to make room for him4 ,one or
 two of the  letters have no picture to 
fill them in1 the blocks being          
apparently all  engaged in other parts  
of the book4 ,in the ',rudimentum       
,noviciorum' we  find a ,david playing  
his harp within a ,d1 and the same      

pictures1 with  the loss of the ceiling 
and part of the floor1 is repeated in a 
,b4 ,the  cleric and the battle-scene   
appear again from the ',josephus1' and  
there  is also a ,c with a rather pretty
 picture of the ,virgin adoring the     
,holy  ,child4    ,as far as ,i am      
aware1 the only books in which large    
pictorial initials  are profusely and   
appropriately employed are some of the  
great folio  ,german ,bibles1 where the 
certainty of a large sale and the       
probability  of future editions         
encouraged the printer to liberality4   
,thus in the  ,bibles published by      
,gnther ,zainer at ,augsburg in #adgc   
and #adgg the  prologue and each        
successive book begins with a large     
initial filled in  with a picture       
illustrating the subject of the text4   
,the prologue begins  with a ,b1 within 
which are seated ,s4 ,jerome and a      
,bishop2 ,genesis with  an ,i1 to the   
right of which stands the ,creator1     
while the stem is broken  by a circle   

showing ,adam and ,eve in ,eden2 ,exodus
 with a ,d1 illustrating  the passage of
 the ,red ,sea2 ,numbers with a ,u1     
within which stand ,moses  and ,aaron4  
,in ,german ,bibles ,d and ,u are the   
initials most in request1  and1 though  
the ,u leaves little room for the       
picture1 both are fairly  convenient    
letters4 ,on the other hand1 the initial
 ,e of ,job and the ,a of  the ,first   
,book of ,chronicles are awkwardly      
divided by their cross-bars1  so that   
each has to contain two insignificant   
little pictures instead of  a single    
important one4 ,in most ,german ,bibles 
,i have seen these  pictorial initials  
are more or less thickly coloured1 so   
that it is  impossible to reproduce them
 successfully1 but ,i give here a fine  
,i  taken from the ,book of ,esdras in  
the undated edition printed by          
,sensenschmidt and ,frisner at          
,nuremberg about #adgf 7fig4 #c74       
,illustration3 #c4 ,,from ,,the ,,german
 ,,bible ,,printed ,,by ,,frisner ,,and 

,,sensenschmidt ,,at ,,nuremberg1       
,,about #adgf    ,illustration3 #d4     
,,from ,,an ',,orosius' ,,published ,,by
 ,v,,rard1 #aeji    ,illustration3 #e4  
,,initial ,l ,,used ,,by ,,jacques      
,,maillet ,,at ,,lyons    ,outside      
,germany1 as we have said1 pictorial    
initials did not flourish  much in the  
early days of printing1 for the finest  
printers1 as a rule1  abjured initials  
altogether1 and the few who used them   
rightly preferred  purely decorative    
designs4 ,in ,france1 in some editions  
of the ',mer des  ,histoires' and       
similar books1 we find two or three of  
very large size1 a  huge ,i1 with a     
figure of ,christ within it1 and the ,p 
here reproduced  7fig4 #d71 with the    
usual picture of an author at his work4 
,vrard1  however1 and the few other     
fifteenth-century publishers who        
employed  initials1 preferred grotesques
 to pictures1 which only occasionally1  
as  in the magnificent ,l from the ',mer
 des ,histoires' of ,pierre ,le ,rouge1 

have any high pictorial value4 ,in      
another ,l1 used at ,paris and at       
,lyons1  we have intertwined the faces  
of an old man and a young couple        
flirting4  ,it was no doubt specially   
designed for the #adib edition of the   
',matheolus1' or 'quinze joies du       
mariage1' in which it seems to have     
made its first appearance4 ,the monkey  
and bagpipes ,l of the ',recueil des    
histoires troyennes1' and the ,s4       
,george-and-the-,dragon ,l of a ,lyons  
reprint of the ',mer des ,histoires' may
 also be reckoned as pictorial1  but the
 more ordinary varieties are purely     
grotesque combinations of  distorted    
faces4 ,these had hardly gone out of    
fashion before the  ,renaissance        
influence was paramount1 and though ,i  
have found a few  small pictorial       
initials in sixteenth-century ,french   
books1 notably a  very pretty set in a  
,utrecht ,missal1 printed by ,wolfgang  
,hopyl at ,paris  in #aeje1ad they are  
certainly exceptional4         #ad      

,hopyl's initials are an inch and a half
 square on a dotted       background4   
,they were evidently designed specially 
for a ,missal1       the pictures being 
appropriate to the services to which the
       initials belong4 ,they do not    
make up a complete alphabet1 but of     
several letters there are two or three  
variants1 e4g4 for ,r there       are   
pictures of ,death1 of the              
,annunciation1 and of the               
,resurrection2 for ,s1 of ,,ss4 ,cosmo  
and ,damian1 of ,s4 ,martin and the     
,beggar1 and of the ,blessed ,virgin4   
,in ,spain the dignity and severity     
which marks the work of the early       
printers were opposed to any save purely
 decorative initials1 which1  probably  
through the influence of the ,german    
printers in the ,peninsula1  came into  
use at an early date1 and were often    
strikingly good4 ,the one  pictorial set
 ,i have found occurs in the            
',copilacion de ,leyes1'  promulgated in
 #adhe1 and printed by ,centenera at    

,zamora1 probably in the  same year4    
,each of these initials1 nine in number1
 is appropriate to the  section of the  
book which it heads4 ,thus in an ,s two 
knights in combat  herald the laws of   
chivalry2 in an ,a a canonist and his   
scholar preside  over those of          
matrimony2 for commerce we have         
money-changers in a ,d1 and  so on4 ,the
 initials are cut not in wood1 but on   
soft metal1 which  unluckily did not    
yield at all a good impression1 a fault 
by which the  best ,spanish decorative  
work is often marred4    ,in ,italy     
pictorial initials do not make their    
appearance until quite  late4 ,except at
 ,venice1 indeed1 printed initials of   
any kind were in no  high esteem1 at    
,florence not coming into use until     
#adhi4 ,at ,venice  ,ratdolt's          
decorative alphabets found several      
imitators before this date1  and soon   
after #adij we find alphabets of        
children on a black ground  coming into 
favour4 ,in a ',donatus1' printed1      

according to ,signor  ,ongania1 in      
#adic1 by ,guilelmus ,tridentis1 we find
 an open-work ,p1 within  which a boy is
 bringing a book to his master1 and1    
under the date #adid1  we are shown a   
picture of ,jacobus de ,voragine at work
 under the shadow  of the same letter4  
,towards the end of the fifteenth       
century and in the  early years of the  
sixteenth the missals of ,georgius      
,arrivabene and  ,lucantonio ,giunta are
 crowded with pictorial initials of very
 varying  value4 ,that here shown 7fig4 
#f71 from the ',missale ,ordinis        
,vallisumbrosae1' printed by ,giunta in 
#aejc1 is a good example of the  heavier
 sort4 ,the letter thus tricked out is a
 ,g1 the initial of the  ',gaudeamus'   
with which the introit begins on the    
festival of the first  ,abbot of        
,vallisumbrosa1 ,johannes ,gualbertus4  
,numerous other examples  will be found 
figured in ,ongania's ',arte della      
,stampa1' though the  careful student   
will soon discover that the initial     

letters with which  its pages are       
crowded are usually fitted into any     
spaces which chance to  be vacant1 and  
often have no connection of any kind    
with the larger  reproductions which    
they adjoin4 ,thus their source can     
seldom be traced  with certainty4       
,illustration3 #f4 ,,from ,,the         
',,vallisumbrosa ,,missal1' ,,printed   
,,by ,,giunta ,,at  ,,venice1 #aejc     
,with the exception of some             
portrait-initials at ,pavia1 of which   
,dr4 ,paul  ,kristeller has written in  
',bibliographica1' vol4 i4 p4 #cef sq41 
and a  few ,english ones of which we    
shall speak later1 the initials in these
  ,venetian ,service-books are the last 
of any importance in which the  artist  
has endeavoured to combine picture and  
letter into an harmonious  design4 ,the 
artists of the ,renaissance1 unlike     
their craftsman  predecessors1 had no   
feeling for book-work as such1 and it   
must be  confessed that the printers    
repaid them by printing their delicate  

work  with a carelessness which in most 
cases completely obscures it4           
,henceforth the predominant type of     
pictorial initial is one in which a     
plain ,roman capital is imposed upon a  
picture to which it has no  artistic    
relation1 and which it often cruelly    
mutilates4 ,moreover1 while  the        
reasonable preference for small books   
over bulky folios carried with  it a    
great reduction in the size of initials1
 the refusal of the artists  to simplify
 their designs1 so as to accommodate    
them to these narrower  limits resulted 
in an absolute waste of much fine work4 
,thus for the  famous ,holbein initials 
which came into use at ,basel about     
#aebj ,i must  refer my readers to the  
illustrations in ',butsch1' which1 good 
as they  are1 do not encourage me to    
attempt fresh reproductions4 ,even in   
the  original books in which the        
initials appear1 much of the delicacy of
 the  designs is hopelessly lost1 for it
 was impossible that a little picture1  

often of less than an inch square1      
however carefully cut1 should be        
adequately rendered when printed in a   
page of type by workmen who had  already
 lost much of the cunning1 or rather    
much of the capacity for  taking pains1 
of the early masters of the craft4      
,the new school of designers cast aside1
 as a rule1 any attempt to suit  their  
pictures to the subject of any          
particular books1 taking instead  some  
one theme or idea which they illustrated
 through all the letters of  the        
alphabet4 ,thus we have the ,child      
,alphabet and ,peasant ,alphabet of     
,holbein1 and the same master's still   
more famous ',dance of ,death'  designed
 for letters slightly larger than the   
previous ones1 but yet no  more than an 
inch square4 ,the alphabet by the       
,master ,i4 ,f4 is more than  a half as 
large again as this1 and is the most    
decorative of any1 the  pictures being  
drawn in relief against a black ground4 
,the early letters  of this alphabet    

illustrate the labours of ,hercules1    
whose name and that  of his antagonists 
are inscribed upon them4 ,when ,hercules
 was exhausted1  the artist seems to    
have fallen back on the ,scriptures1 his
 ,r  representing ,lot1 his ,s ,balaam1 
and so on4    ,these ,basel initials1   
which appear chiefly in books printed by
 ,froben1  ,bebel1 ,cratander1 and      
,froschover1 were no doubt the parents  
of the small  pictorial initials which  
soon became popular in ,germany1 ,italy1
 and  ,england4 ,their development in   
,germany may be traced in the pages of  
,butsch1 while the ,italian initials of 
the middle of the sixteenth  century    
have already been dealt with in         
',bibliographica' in ,mr4 ,a4 ,j4       
,butler's interesting article 7vol4 i4  
pp4 #dah-bg74 ,no one1 however1 as  far 
as ,i am aware1 has endeavoured to trace
 the history of pictorial  initials in  
our own country1 and ,i hope that the   
notes which ,i have been  able to bring 
together on this part of the subject1   

scanty as they are1  may yet prove of   
some use as a beginning4    ,as ,mr4    
,butler has shown1 the idea of the      
,italian alphabets is that the  subject 
of each picture should begin with the   
letter which is imposed  upon it4 ,in a 
scriptural set ,a may show us ,abraham1 
,b ,babel or ,balaam1 ,c  ,cain2 in a   
mythological1 ,a may be ,ajax1 ,b       
,bucephalus1 ,c a ,centaur1 and  so with
 other subjects4 ,in isolated instances 
we may trace this  connection between   
letter and word at a much earlier       
period4 ,thus in the  ,lubeck           
',josephus' besides the large initials  
there is also a much  smaller ,d        
enclosing a picture of ,david1 and it is
 at least possible that  the choice of  
the picture was suggested by the letter 
being the initial  of ,david's name4    
,the novelty to which ,mr4 ,butler drew 
attention consists  in the application  
of this system of illustration through  
an entire  alphabet1 and ,i have found  
no good reason for challenging his claim

 that  this novelty originated in       
,italy4 ,if it is to stand1 however1 we 
must  put back the first occurrence of  
these letters to some years before      
#aedf1 which is the first positive date 
he mentions1 for in the first  ,greek   
book printed in ,england1 the ',homiliae
 ,duae' of ,s4 ,chrysostom1  published  
by ,reyner ,wolf in ,august #aedc1 there
 are four initials which1  despite some 
difficulties as to two of them1 probably
 belong to this  class4 ,the letters are
 7i7 a ,d1 here figured1 which obviously
 stands  for ,diogenes1 7ii7 an ,h 7used
 as a ,greek eta7 showing ,eli 7or      
,heli7  and ,samuel1 7iii7 a ,k1 here   
figured1 representing the fountain of   
,en-hakkore which sprang at ,samson's   
prayer from the jaw-bone of the ass1    
with which he had slain the thousand    
,philistines1 and 7iv7 a ,q  7repeated7 
depicting the ,judgment of ,solomon4    
,despite the existence of  two ,k's in  
,en-hakkore1 and the possibility of the 
,q standing for  ,quaestio or           

,querimonia1 the difficulty of fitting  
the right words to  these letters makes 
it possible that the propriety of the ,d
 and ,h may be  accidental1 but on the  
whole the probability is the other way4 
,illustration3 #g4 ,d ,,and ,k ,,from   
,,the ',,homiliae' ,,duae ,,of ,s4      
,,chrysostom1  ,,printed ,,by ,r4       
,,wolfe4 ,,london1 #aedc    ,the        
interesting question now arises where   
did ,wolfe get these letters1  which    
have all the appearance of being used   
here for the first time8  ,their        
similarity to the letters to which      
attention was first called by  ,mr4     
,butler is so great that we can hardly  
doubt that1 directly or  indirectly1    
they are of ,italian origin4 ,but the   
introduction of  gold-tooling into      
,england by ,berthelet1 examples of     
which occur on books  printed as early  
as #aeda1 was undoubtedly effected      
through ,italian  workmen1 and it is    
quite possible that these letters were  
cut in ,england  by ,italians living in 

this country4 ,if1 however1 further     
investigation  should prove that they   
were imported1 they may help us to      
determine from  what quarter ,wolfe     
obtained his ,greek type1 of which no   
complete fount  had hitherto existed in 
,england4    ,six years after the       
',chrysostom' we find traces1 in the    
edition by  ,whitchurch 7,march #aedi7  
of the first ,prayer-,book of ,edward   
,,vi41 of  another set of scriptural    
initials of the same character4 ,the    
four  letters which ,i have noted are an
 ,a 7,abraham and ,isaac71 a ,b         
7,balaam71  an ,i 7,jacob's dream71 and 
an ,o 7,olofernes74 ,the letters are all
 very  much worn1 so that the pictures  
in many instances are barely            
decipherable4    ,of the next pictorial 
alphabet in ,english books ,i have      
lately been  surprised to find one      
letter in a proclamation printed by     
,berthelet in  #aedf1 my previous       
acquaintance of it beginning with books 
printed more  than ten years later4 ,the

 pictures in this alphabet are all      
signed with  an ,a1 at the top of which 
is a little projection suggesting that  
it  stands for the monogram of ,a4 ,s4  
,my friend ,mr4 ,sayle has found        
initials  with this signature in books  
printed during the reign of ,elizabeth  
and  ,james ,i41 which nearly make up a 
complete alphabet1 with some letters in 
duplicate4 ,according to ,bryant and    
,ngler1 the engraver ,anton ,sylvius1   
who was born at ,antwerp in #aebf1 and  
worked for ,plantin from #aeej to       
#aegc1 used the monogram ,i have        
described4 ,but ,i am not wholly        
satisfied  that this ,a4 ,s4 is the same
 man4    ,another point of some         
difficulty is whether the pictures have 
any  relation to the letters4 ,some of  
them come in very neatly1 thus ,e and   
,europa riding on her bull1 ,m and      
,mercury1 ,t and a lady1 who may very   
well be ,thetis1 haranguing a council of
 ,gods1 another ,t with ,neptune        
flourishing a very prominent ,trident1  

go well enough together1 but why  should
 a ,w be illustrated by ,hercules and   
,cacus1 or an ,f by ,cephalus and       
,procris1 or an ,i by the birth of      
,adonis8 ,on the whole1 pending further 
explanations1 it would seem that to     
connect letter and subject was  regarded
 by the designers rather as desirable   
than essential4    ,illustration3 #h4   
,,pictorial ,,initial ,,attributed ,,to 
,,anton ,,sylvius    ,the same point    
arises as to a much clumsier pictorial  
alphabet1 with  large figures in it1    
found in books and proclamations1       
printed from #aedg  onwards4 ,here the  
picture belonging to the ,t is of       
,christ and the  ,tribute-money1 but the
 pictures in other letters seem part of 
a set  illustrating the works of mercy  
7visiting prisoners1 healing the        
wounded1 etc47 and to have no special   
appropriateness to their initials4      
,in #aeed we find ,cawood in possession 
of both of these sets of initials4  ,he 
had obtained the first apparently from  

,berthelet1 and the second from         
,grafton4 ,the ruder set seems to have  
soon fallen into disuse1 though ,i  find
 some letters from it in the possession 
of ,john ,day in #aefc1 but  that of ,a4
 ,s4 7individual letters being re-cut as
 need arose7 was passed  on to ,barker1 
when he became ,queen's ,printer1 and   
reappears in several  books of the      
seventeenth century4    ,illustration3  
#i4 ,,heraldic ,,initial ,,from         
,,grafton',s ,,edition ,,of ',,hall4'   
,,london1 #aedh    ,in #aedh1 in        
,grafton's edition of ,hall's ',union of
 the ,families of  ,lancashire and      
,york1' we find a new experiment in the 
form of heraldic  initials4 ,the        
dedication to ,edward ,,vi4 begins with 
a large ,o1 measuring  #b-c_/d inches   
each way1 and containing the very       
elaborate arms of the  author himself2  
the records of the reigns of ,henry     
,,iv41 ,v41 and ,,viii41  with an open  
,h2 that of ,henry ,,vi4 with a ,d1 of  
,edward ,,iv4 with a ,p1 and  of ,henry 

,,vii4 with a fine ,c 7fig4 #i71 each   
letter containing the king's  arms4     
,illustration3 #aj4 ,,from ,a ,,bible   
,,printed ,,by ,,john ,,day4 ,,london1  
#aeea4 #d,,to4    ,in #aeea1 in the     
quarto ,bible printed by ,john ,day1 the
 dedication to  ,edward ,,vi4 by ,edmond
 ,becke begins with a really excellent  
pictorial ,e  7shown in fig4 #aj71      
representing the offer of a copy to the 
king4 ,as in  the case of the initials  
for ,hall's ',chronicle1' this design   
must have  been specially prepared for  
the book1 and therefore presumably in   
,england1 so that we need not set down  
other letters too freely as             
importations from abroad4               
,illustration3 #aa4 ,,heraldic ,,initial
 ,,containing ,,the ,,arms ,,of ,,dudley
 ,,of  ,,leicester    ,in #aeei1 in     
,cunningham's ',cosmographical ,glass1' 
printed for him by ,john  ,day1 there   
are several large initials1 very good of
 their kind and very  well printed4 ,the
 heraldic ,d1 which is peculiarly       

graceful1 contains the  arms of the     
,earl of ,leicester1 to whom the book is
 dedicated4 ,the  pictorial ,i and ,l   
7here shown7 are both signed1 the former
 ,i4 ,d41 a  signature which recurs on  
several of the illustrations1 the latter
 ,i4  ,b41 who was also the designer of 
the border to the title-page4 ,an effort
  seems to have been made to get        
,dudley's arms into a ,d1 as the opening
  allusion to ,daedalus is certainly    
dragged in by the shoulders4 ,the other 
two letters shown1 probably have        
reference to the subject of the book1   
the ,preface1 in which the ,i is found1 
laying especial stress on the           
importance of ,cosmography in war4 ,the 
other pictorial initials in the  book   
are an ,s1 in which one man is pointing 
to a sun-dial and another to  the sun   
7signed with a monogram of a ,c and a   
small ,i within it71 an ,a  with a      
procession of satyrs by the same artist1
 and a ,t showing  sea-gods navigating a
 ship 7signed ,h74    ,illustration3    

#ab4 ,,initial ,,signed ,i4 ,d4    ,it  
is thus obvious that several designers1 
or engravers1 were at work  about this  
time on pictorial initials1 though it   
will probably be found  no easy matter  
to identify them4    ,illustration3 #ac4
 ,,initial ,,signed ,i4 ,b4    ,in #aefc
 most of the letters from the           
',cosmographical ,glass' are found      
again in the very rare edition of the   
music to ,sternhold and ,hopkins'       
metrical version of the ,psalms1 also   
printed by ,day4 ,in the four parts  of 
the book there are three other initials 
of the same character1 a ,w             
representing the battle of the ,pigmies 
and the ,cranes1 a ,p of ,hercules  in  
the garden of the ,hesperides1 and an ,r
 with a hunting-scene 7signed  with the 
monogram ,c4 ,i474 ,all are excellent4  
,illustration3 #aa-ac4 ,,initials ,,from
 ,,cunningham',s ',,cosmographical      
,,glass1'  ,,printed ,,by ,,john ,,day1 
#aeei    ,two or three more examples of 
these large initials will bring to a    

close  my notes of those which ,i have  
been able to find in ,english books of  
this period1 though doubtless others are
 awaiting the research of future        
investigators4 ,in the first edition of 
,ascham's ',scholemaster1' printed  by  
,day in #aegj1 the large ,s is repeated 
from the ',cosmographical ,glass1'  and 
shows some signs of wear4 ,another      
letter of a slightly larger size  by the
 same designer is found prefixed to the 
',history of ,ireland' in  the #aegg    
edition of ',holinshed' printed by      
,harrison4 ,this is a ,t1 and  the      
picture it contains shows an astronomer1
 whom we may perhaps  reasonably        
identify with ,ptolemy4 ,if so1 we may  
remember that his name  used to be spelt
 all over ,europe with the omission of  
its first letter1  though the true form 
seems to be that used in ,english books 
of the  period4    ,illustration3 #ad4  
,,from ,,ascham',s ',,scholemaster1'    
,,printed ,,by ,,john ,,day1  #aegj     
,the other pictorial initial in the     

#aegg ',holinshed'#ae is the largest ,i 
have found in any ,english book1        
measuring nearly three and a half inches
  each way4 ,the letter is an ,i1 the   
subject of the picture the ,creation1   
and it is conceivable that1 though we   
find it in an ,english history1 it  was 
originally intended for the first page  
of a ,great ,bible1 in which  it would  
fitly have illustrated the words ',in   
the beginning ,god created  the heaven  
and the earth4' ,it is possible1 indeed1
 that this  applicability to a          
particular text may sometimes have been 
taken as a  motive1 when it was found   
difficult to establish a connection     
between  the initial and the subject of 
a picture as summed up in any single    
word4 ,thus a ,w1 which is found in     
,cawood's books in connection with the  
,a4 ,s4 initials1 represents the passage
 of the ,red ,sea1 and irresistibly     
reminds us of the verse ',when ,israel  
came out of ,egypt1' though not of  the 
word ,exodus4         #ae ,since this   

paper was in type ,i have been shown an 
earlier       example of this letter in 
a book printed by ,r4 ,wolfe in #aefc4  
,some very fine heraldic initials still 
remain to be noticed4 ,the  initials in 
the early editions of the ,english      
,bible are disappointing1  but in the   
first and second editions of the        
so-called ',bishops' ,bible1'  printed  
by ,jugge in #aefh and #aegb1 special   
attention seems to have been  paid to   
them1 and besides many small pictorial  
and decorative letters of  interest1    
there are some really fine examples of  
heraldic designs4 ,the  owners of the   
arms which ,i have identified are       
,archbishop ,cranmer1  ,archbishop      
,parker1 ,cecil1 ,dudley1 and ,francis  
,russell1 second ,earl of  ,bedford4    
,parker's arms are exhibited in several 
different letters1  generally with his  
initials ,m4 ,c4 7,matthew of           
,canterbury7 and the date4  ,the form of
 these heraldic letters is usually      
graceful1 and they are  much more easily

 justifiable on artistic grounds than   
the pictorial  initials at which we have
 been looking4    ,the title-pages of   
the ',bishops' ,bible' are adorned with 
copper-engravings of some merit of      
,elizabeth herself1 ,cecil1 and ,dudley4
  ,one of these1 ,i regret to say1 has  
been turned into an initial at the      
beginning of the ,psalms by the simple  
device of giving ,lord ,burleigh a      
large ,roman ,b to hold in his hand4 ,a 
less violent and more successful  effort
 after a portrait-initial is here shown 
from the edition of ,foxe's  ',actes and
 ,monumentes1' printed by ,day in #aegf4
 ,another portrait-initial  of the      
,queen is found in an ,e1 which heads   
one of her ,proclamations  printed by   
,purfoot1 and an inferior one in an ,f  
in another ,proclamation  printed by    
,barker4    ,illustration3 #ae4 ,,from  
,,foxe',s ',,actes ,,and ,,monumentes1' 
,,printed ,,by ,,john  ,,day1 #aegf     
,some of the heraldic initials of the   
first and second editions of the        

',bishops' ,bible' are repeated1 with   
some additional ones of smaller  size1  
in the #aegc edition4 ,parker's arms are
 also to be found in the  edition of    
',matthew ,paris' issued under his      
patronage in #aega1 ,cecil's  in the    
#aegg ',holinshed' already mentioned1   
and it is probable that a  good many    
others may be discovered4 ,it seems to  
me1 indeed1 that  students of the       
history of ,english printing have hardly
 paid the  attention it deserves to the 
work of the forty years from #aedj to   
#aehj4  ,the printers and bookmen of    
this period were not distinguished by   
much  originality1 or by delicate       
artistic taste1 but they were men of    
considerable enterprise1 and their      
interest in their books was great and   
genuine4 ,this interest and enterprise  
left a very distinctive mark on  the    
types1 the illustrations and the        
bindings of the books of the  period1   
and though the ideas which underlie them
 were mostly borrowed  from abroad1 they

 were developed with a certain freedom  
and largeness  which are not without    
their effect4          ,,england ,,and  
,,the ,,bookish ,,arts#af      ,there   
are so many gaps in our knowledge of the
 history of books in  ,england that we  
can hardly claim that our own dwelling  
is set in order1  and yet many of our   
bookmen appear more inclined to         
re-decorate their  neighbour's houses   
than to do work that still urgently     
needs to be done  at home4 ,the reasons 
for this transference of energy are not 
far to  seek4 ,it is quite easy to be   
struck with the inferiority of ,english 
books and their accessories1 such as    
bindings and illustrations1 to  those   
produced in the same centuries on the   
,continent4 ,thus to compare  the books 
printed by ,caxton with the best work of
 his ,german or ,italian                
contemporaries1 to compare the books    
bound for ,henry1 ,prince of ,wales1    
with those bound for the ,kings of      
,france1 to try to find even a dozen    

,english books printed before #afdj with
 woodcuts 7not imported from  abroad7 of
 any real artistic merit--if any one is 
anxious to reinforce  his national      
modesty1 here are three very efficacious
 methods of doing  it6 ,on the other    
hand1 ,english book-collectors have     
always been  cosmopolitan in their      
tastes1 and without leaving ,england it 
is possible  to study to some effect1 in
 public or private libraries1 the finest
  books of almost any foreign country4  
,it is small wonder1 therefore1 that    
our bookmen1 when they have been minded 
to write on their hobbies1 have  sought 
beauty and stateliness of work where    
they could most readily  find them1 and 
that the labourers in the bookfield of  
our own country  are not numerous4      
,touchstone's remark1 'a poor thing1 but
 mine own1'  might1 on the worst view of
 the case1 have suggested greater       
diligence  at home2 but on a wider view 
,english book-work is by no means a     
'poor  thing4' ,its excellence at       

certain periods is as striking as its   
inferiority at others1 and it is a      
literal fact that there is no art or    
craft connected with books in which     
,england1 at one time or another1 has   
not held the primacy in ,europe4        
#af ,from the introduction to the       
',english ,bookman's ,library1' by      
leave of ,messrs4 ,kegan ,paul1 ,trench1
 ,trbner and ,co4    ,it would certainly
 be unreasonable to complain that       
printing with  movable types was not    
invented at a time better suited to our 
national  convenience4 ,yet the fact    
that the invention was made just in the 
middle  of the fifteenth century        
constituted a handicap by which the     
printing  trade in this country was for 
generations overweighted4 ,at almost any
  earlier period1 more particularly from
 the beginning of the fourteenth        
century to the first quarter of the     
fifteenth1 ,england would have been  as 
well equipped as any foreign country to 
take its part in the race4  ,from the   

production of ,queen ,mary's ,psalter at
 the earlier date to that  of the       
,sherborne ,missal at the later1        
,english manuscripts1 if we may  judge  
from the scanty specimens which the evil
 days of ,henry ,,viii4 and  ,edward    
,,vi4 have left us1 may vie in beauty of
 writing and decoration  with the finest
 examples of ,continental art4 ,if ,john
 ,siferwas1 instead  of ,william        
,caxton1 had introduced printing into   
,england1 our ,english  incunabula would
 have taken a far higher place4 ,but the
 sixty odd years  which separate the two
 men were absolutely disastrous to the  
,english  book-trade4 ,already exhausted
 by the futile war with ,france1        
,england was  torn asunder by the wars  
of the ,roses1 and by the time these    
were ended  the school of illumination1 
so full of promise1 and seemingly so    
firmly  established1 had absolutely died
 out4 ,when printing was introduced     
,england possessed no trained           
illuminators or skilful scribes such as 

in  other countries were obliged to make
 the best of the new art in order  not  
to lose their living1 nor were there any
 native wood-engravers ready  to        
illustrate the new books4 ,i have never 
myself seen or heard of a  ',caxton' in 
which an illuminator has painted a      
preliminary border or  initial letters2 
even the rubrication1 where it exists1  
is usually a  disfigurement2 while as   
for pictures1 it has been unkindly said 
that  inquiry whence they were obtained 
is superfluous1 since any boy with a    
knife could have cut them as well4      
,making its start under these           
unfavourable conditions1 the ,english   
book-trade was exposed at once to the   
full competition of the  ,continental   
presses1 ,richard ,,iii4 expressly      
excluding it from the  protection which 
was given to other industries4          
,practically all learned  books of every
 kind1 the great majority of our        
service-books1 most  grammars for use in
 ,english schools1 and even a few       

popular books of the  kind to which     
,caxton devoted himself1 were produced  
abroad for the  ,english market and     
freely imported4 ,only those who mistake
 the shadow  for the substance will     
regret this free trade1 to which we owe 
the  development of scholarship in      
,england during the sixteenth century4  
,none  the less1 it was hard on a young 
industry1 and though ,pynson1 ,wynkyn de
  ,worde1 the ,faques1 ,berthelet1      
,wolfe1 ,john ,day1 and others produced 
fine  books in ,england during the      
sixteenth century1 the start given to   
the  ,continental presses was too great1
 and before our printers had fully      
caught up their competitors1 they too   
were seized with the carelessness  and  
almost incredible bad taste which marks 
the books of the first half  of the     
seventeenth century in every country of 
,europe4    ,towards the close of the   
eighteenth century1 as is well known1   
the  ,french thought sufficiently well  
of ,baskerville's types to purchase a   

fount after his death for the printing  
of an important edition of the  works of
 ,voltaire4 ,but the merits of          
,baskerville as a printer1 never  very  
cordially admitted1 are now more hotly  
disputed than ever2 and if ,i  am asked 
at what period ,english printing has    
attained that occasional  primacy which 
,i have claimed for our exponents of all
 the bookish arts1  ,i would boldly say 
that it possesses it at the present day4
 ,on the one  hand1 the ,kelmscott      
,press books and those of the ,doves    
,press1 on their  own lines1 are the    
finest and most harmonious which have   
ever been  produced2 on the other1 the  
book-work turned out in the ordinary way
 of  business by the five or six leading
 printers of ,england and ,scotland     
seems to me1 both in technical qualities
 and in excellence of taste1 the  finest
 in the world1 and with no rival worth  
mentioning1 except in the  work of one  
or two of the best firms in the ,united 
,states4 ,moreover1 as  far as ,i can   

learn1 it is only in ,great ,britain and
 ,america that the  form of books is now
 the subject of the ceaseless experiment
 and  ingenuity which are the signs of a
 period of artistic activity4    ,as    
regards book-illustration the same claim
 may be put forward1 though  with a     
little more hesitation4 ,we have been   
taught lately1 with  insistence1 that   
'the sixties' marked an epoch in        
,english art1 solely  from the black and
 white work in illustrated books4 ,at   
that period our  book-pictures are said 
to have been the best in the world2     
unfortunately  our book-decoration1     
whether better or worse than that of    
other  countries1 was almost            
unmitigatedly bad4 ,in the last quarter 
of a  century our decorative work has   
improved in the most striking manner2   
our illustrations1 if judged merely for 
their pictorial qualities1 have  not    
advanced4 ,in the eyes of artists the   
sketches for book-work now  being       
produced in other countries are probably

 as good as our own4 ,but  an           
illustration is not merely a picture1 it
 is a picture to be placed in  a certain
 position in a printed book1 and in due 
relation to the size of  the page and   
the character of the type4 ,english     
book-illustrators by no  means always   
realise this distinction1 yet there is  
on the whole a  greater feeling for     
these proprieties in ,english books than
 in those of  other countries1 and this 
is an important point in estimating     
merits4  ,another important point is    
that the rule of the 'tint' or          
'half-tone'  block1 with its inevitable 
accompaniment of loaded paper1 ugly to  
the  eye and heavy in the hand1 though  
it has seriously damaged ,english       
illustrated work1 has not yet gained the
 predominance it has in other           
countries4 ,our best illustrated books  
are printed from line-blocks1 and  there
 are even signs of a possible revival of
 artistic wood-engraving4    ,in        
endeavouring to make good my assertion  

of what ,i have called the  occasional  
primacy of ,english book-work1 ,i am not
 unaware of the danger  of trying1 or   
seeming to try1 to play the strains of  
',rule ,britannia' on  my own poor penny
 whistle4 ,as regards manuscripts1      
therefore1 it is a  pleasure to be able 
to seek shelter behind the authority of 
,sir ,edward  ,maunde ,thompson1 whose  
words in this connection carry all the  
more  weight1 because he has shown      
himself a severe critic of the claims   
which  have been put forward on behalf  
of several fine manuscripts to be       
regarded as ,english4 ,in the closing   
paragraphs of his monograph on          
',english ,illuminated ,manuscripts' he 
thus sums up the pretensions of the     
,english school3--         ',the        
freehand drawing of our artists under   
the ,anglo-,saxon kings       was       
incomparably superior to the dead copies
 from ,byzantine models       which were
 in favour abroad4 ,the artistic        
instinct was not       destroyed1 but   

rather strengthened1 by the incoming of 
,norman       influence2 and of the     
twelfth and thirteenth centuries there  
is       abundant material to show that 
,english book-decoration was then at    
least equal to that of neighbouring     
countries4 ,for our art of the          
early fourteenth century we claim a     
still higher position1 and       contend
 that no other nation could at that time
 produce such       graceful drawing4   
,certainly inferior to this high        
standard of       drawing was the work  
of the latter part of that century2 but 
still1       as we have seen1 in the    
miniatures of this time we have examples
 of       a rising school of painting   
which bid fair to attain to a high      
standard of excellence1 and which only  
failed for political       causes4'#ag  
#ag ',english ,illuminated              
,manuscripts4' ,by ,sir ,edward ,maunde 
,thompson ,k4,c4,b4 7,kegan ,paul1      
#ahie71 pp4 #ff1 #fg4    ,to this       
judicial pronouncement on the excellence

 of ,english manuscripts  on their      
decorative side1 we may fairly add the  
fact that manuscripts of  literary      
importance begin at an earlier date in  
,england than in any  other country1 and
 that the ,cotton ,,ms4 of ',beowulf'   
and the miscellanies  which go by the   
names of the ',exeter ,book' and the    
',vercelli ,book1' have  no contemporary
 parallels in the rest of ,europe4      
,when we turn from books1 printed or in 
manuscript1 to their possessors1  it is 
only just to begin with a compliment to 
our neighbours across the  ,channel4 ,no
 ,english bookman holds the unique      
position of ,jean ,grolier1  and les    
femmes bibliophiles of ,england have    
been few and  undistinguished compared  
with those of ,france4 ,grolier1        
however1 and his  fair imitators1 as a  
rule1 bought only the books of their own
 day1  giving them distinction by the   
handsome liveries which they made them  
don4 ,our ,english collectors have more 
often been of the omnivorous type1  and 

though ,lords ,lumley and ,arundel in   
the sixteenth century cannot1  even when
 their forces are joined1 stand up      
against ,de ,thou1 in ,sir  ,robert     
,cotton1 ,harley1 ,thomas ,rawlinson1   
,lord ,spencer1 ,heber1 ,grenville1  and
 ,sir ,thomas ,phillipps 7and the list  
might be doubled without much           
relaxation of the standard71 we have a  
succession of ,english collectors  to   
whom it would be difficult to produce   
foreign counterparts4 ,round  these dii 
majores have clustered innumerable      
demigods of the  book-market1 and       
certainly in no other country has       
collecting been as  widely diffused1 and
 pursued with so much zest1 as in       
,england during the  present century4   
,it is to be regretted that so few      
,english collectors  have cared to leave
 their marks of ownership on the books  
they have  taken so much pleasure in    
bringing together4 ,michael ,wodhull was
 a model  in this respect1 for his      
book-stamp is one of the most pleasing  

of  ,english origin1 and his autograph  
notes recording the prices he paid for  
his treasures1 and his assiduous        
collation of them1 make them doubly     
precious in the eyes of subsequent      
owners4 ,mr4 ,grenville also had his    
book-stamp1 though there is little joy  
to be won from it1 for it is  unpleasing
 in itself1 and is too often found      
spoiling a fine old  binding4 ,mr4      
,cracherode's stamp was as graceful as  
,wodhull's2 but1 as a  rule1 our        
,english collectors1 though1 as is shown
 elsewhere in this  volume1 many more of
 them than is generally known have      
possessed a  stamp1 have not often      
troubled to use it1 and their           
collections have  never obtained the    
reputation which they deserve1 mainly   
for lack of  marks of ownership to keep 
them green in the memory of later       
possessors4  ,that this should be so in 
a country where book-plates have been so
  common may at first seem surprising4  
,but book-plates everywhere have  been  

used rather by the small collectors than
 the great ones1 and the  regrettable   
peculiarity of our ,english bookmen is1 
not that they  despised this rather     
fugitive sign of possession1 but that   
for the most  part they despised        
book-stamps as well4    ,of book-plates 
themselves ,i have no claim to speak2   
but for good taste  and grace of design 
the best ,english ,jacobean and         
,chippendale specimens  seem to me the  
most pleasing of their kind1 and        
certainly in our own day  the work of   
,mr4 ,sherborne has no rival1 except in 
that of ,mr4 ,french1  who1 in          
technique1 would1 ,i imagine1 not have  
refused to call himself  his disciple4  
,turning lastly to bindings1 the first  
point which may fairly be made is  that 
,england is the only country besides    
,france in which the art has  been      
consistently pursued with success       
through many centuries1 and that  in    
length of pedigree it far surpasses even
 ,france herself4 ,early in the  twelfth

 century1 if not before1 the ,winchester
 bookmen turned their  attention also to
 leather-binding1 and the school of     
design which they  started1 spreading to
 ,london1 ,durham1 and ,oxford1 did not 
die out until  it was ousted by the     
large panel stamps introduced from      
,france at the  end of the fifteenth    
century4 ,during the first half of this 
period the  ,english leather-binders    
were the finest in ,europe2 during the  
second1  the ,germans pressed them hard1
 and when the large panel stamps1 three 
or  four inches square and more1 were   
introduced in ,holland and ,france1 the 
,english adaptations of them were       
distinctly inferior to the originals4   
,the earliest ,english bindings with    
gold tooling were1 of course1 also      
imitative4 ,the use of gold reached this
 country but slowly1 as the  first known
 ,english binding1 in which it occurs1  
is on a book printed  in #aeda1 by which
 time the art had been common in ,italy 
for a  generation4 ,the ,english        

bindings found on books bound for ,henry
 ,,viii41  ,edward ,,vi41 and ,mary ,i41
 all of which are roughly assigned to   
,berthelet  as the ,royal binder1       
resemble the current ,italian designs of
 the day1  with sufficient differences  
to make it probable that they were      
produced  by ,englishmen4 ,we know1     
however1 that until the close of the    
century  there were occasional          
complaints of the presence of foreign   
binders in  ,london1 and it is probable 
that the ,grolieresque bindings executed
 for  ,wotton were foreign rather than  
,english4 ,where1 however1 we find work 
on  ,english books distinctly unlike    
anything in ,france or ,italy1 it is    
reasonable to assign it to a native     
school1 and such a school seems to  have
 grown up about #aegj1 in the workshop  
of ,john ,day1 the helper of            
,archbishop ,parker in so many of his   
literary undertakings4 ,these  bindings 
attributed to ,day1 especially those in 
which he worked with  white leather on  

brown1 although they have none of the   
,french delicacy  of tooling1 may fairly
 be said to attack the problem of       
decoration with  a greater sense of the 
difference between the styles suitable  
for a  large book and a small than is   
always found in ,france1 where the      
greatest binders1 such as ,nicholas ,eve
 and ,le ,gascon1 often covered  large  
folios with endless repetitions of      
minute tools1 whose full beauty  can    
only be appreciated on small decimos or 
octavos4 ,the ,english designs  with a  
large centre ornament and corner-pieces 
are rich and impressive1  and we may    
fairly give ,day and his fellows the    
palm for originality and  effectiveness 
among ,elizabethan binders4 ,in the next
 reign the ,french  use of the semis or 
powder1 a single small stamp1 of a      
fleur-de-lys1 a  thistle1 a crown1 or   
the like1 impressed in rows all over the
 cover1  was increasingly imitated in   
,england1 very unsuccessfully1 and1 save
 for  a few traces of the style of ,day1

 the leather bindings of the first      
third of the century deserve the worst  
epithets which can be given them4       
,until1 however1 ,french fashions came  
into vogue after the ,restoration1      
,english binders had never been content 
to regard leather as the sole  material 
in which they could work4 ,embroidered  
bindings had come into  use in ,england 
in the fourteenth century1 and in the   
sixteenth  embroidered work was very    
popular with the ,tudor princesses1 gold
 and  silver thread and pearls being    
largely used1 often with very decorative
  effect4 ,the simplest of these are    
also the best--but1 as a rule1 much     
elaboration was employed1 and on a      
presentation copy of ,archbishop        
,parker's ',de ,antiquitate ,ecclesiae  
,britannicae' we find a clever but      
rather grotesque representation of a    
deer-paddock4 ,under the ,stuarts the   
lighter feather-stitch was preferred1   
and there seems to have been a  regular 
trade in embroidered ,bibles and        

,prayer-books of small size1  sometimes 
with floral patterns1 sometimes with    
portraits of the ,king1 or  ,scriptural 
scenes4 ,a dealer's freak which         
compelled the ,british ,museum  to buy a
 pair of elaborate gloves of the period 
rather than lose a  finely embroidered  
,psalter1 with which they went1 was     
certainly a  fortunate one1 enabling us 
to realise that in hands thus gloved    
these  little bindings1 always pretty1  
often really artistic1 must have looked 
exactly right1 while their vivid colours
 must have been admirably in  harmony   
with the gay ,cavalier dresses4         
,besides furnishing a ground for        
embroidery1 velvet bindings were often  
decorated1 in ,england1 with goldsmith  
work4 ,one of the most beautiful  little
 bookcovers in existence is on a book of
 prayers1 bound for ,queen  ,elizabeth  
in red velvet1 with a centre and corner 
pieces delicately  enamelled on gold4   
,under the ,stuarts1 again1 we          
frequently find similar  ornaments in   

engraved silver1 and their charm is     
incontestable4    ,thus while for       
,english bindings of this period in gilt
 leather we can  only claim that        
,berthelet's show some freedom in their 
adaptation of  ,italian models1 and     
,day's a more decided originality1 we   
are entitled to  set side by side with  
this scanty record a host of charming   
bindings in  more feminine materials1   
which have no parallel in ,france1 and  
certainly  deserve some recognition4    
,after the ,restoration1 however1       
leather  quickly ousted its competitors1
 and a school of designers and gilders  
arose in ,england1 which1 while taking  
its first inspiration from ,le  ,gascon1
 soon developed an individual style4 ,in
 effectiveness1 if not in  minute       
accuracy of execution1 this may rank    
with the best in ,europe4 ,we  can trace
 the beginnings of this lighter and most
 graceful work as early  as the         
thirties1 and it might be contended with
 a certain plausibility  that it began  

at the ,universities4 ,certainly the two
 earliest examples  known to me--the    
copy of her ',statutes' presented to    
,charles ,i4 by  ,oxford in #afcd1 and  
the ,little ,gidding ',harmony' of      
#afce1 the tools  employed in which have
 been shown by ,mr4 ,davenport to have  
been used  also by ,buck1 of            
,cambridge--are two of the finest       
,english bindings in  existence1 and in 
both cases1 despite the multiplicity of 
the tiny tools  employed1 there is a    
unity and largeness of design which1 as 
,i have  ventured to hint1 is not always
 found even in the best ,french work4   
,the  chief ,english bindings after the 
,restoration1 those associated with the 
name of ,samuel ,mearne1 the ,king's    
binder1 preserves this character1       
though the attempt to break the         
formality of the rectangle by the       
bugles at the side and the little       
penthouses at foot and head 7whence  its
 name1 the 'cottage' style7 was not     
wholly successful4 ,the use of the      

labour saving device of the 'roll1' in  
preference to impressing each  section  
of the pattern by hand1 is another blot4
 ,nevertheless1 it is  almost impossible
 to find an ,english or ,scotch binding 
of this period  which is less than      
charming1 and the best of them are      
admirable4 ,at the  beginning of the    
eighteenth century a new grace was added
 by the  inlaying of a leather of a     
second colour4 ,the fine ,harleian      
bindings let  us down gently from this  
eminence1 and then1 after a period of   
mere  dulness1 with the rise of ,roger  
,payne we have again an ,english school 
7for ,payne's traditions were worthily  
followed by ,charles ,lewis7 which1  by 
common consent1 was the finest of its   
time4    ,after ,payne and ,lewis1      
,english binding1 like ,french1 became  
purely  imitative in its designs2 but   
while in our own decade the ,french     
artists  have endeavoured to shake      
themselves free from old traditions by  
mere  eccentricity1 in ,england we have 

several living binders 7,mr4 ,cobden    
,sanderson and ,mr4 ,douglas            
,cockerell71 who work with notable      
originality  and yet with the strictest 
observance of the canons of their art4  
,moreover in the application of         
decorative designs to cloth cases1      
,england has invented1 and ,england and 
,america have brought to  perfection1 an
 inexpensive and very pleasing form of  
bookcover1 which  gives the bookman     
ample time to consider whether his      
purchase is worth  the more permanent   
honours of gilded leather1 and also1 by 
the facts  that it is avowedly          
temporary1 and that its decoration is   
cheaply and  easily effected by large   
stamps1 renders forgivable vagaries of  
design1  which when translated1 as they 
have been of late years in ,france1 into
  time-honoured and solemn leather1 seem
 merely incongruous and  irreverent4    
,in binding1 then1 as in the other      
,bookish ,arts1 ,anglo-,saxondom has no 
need to be ashamed of its record1 while1

 if we look to the work of the  present 
day1 there is good reason to hope that  
our part in the future  may be a still  
worthier one4          ,,the ,,first    
,,english ,,book ,,sale#ah      ,there  
are many points in the history of books 
and of book-collecting  which are still 
tantalisingly obscure4 ,how little we   
know about the  prices of early books1  
the cost of printing1 the relations of  
printer  and publisher or of publisher  
and author6 ,with the exception of a few
  royal personages and a few men and    
women of great wealth and rank1 the     
book-collectors of the two centuries    
which succeeded the invention of        
printing are hardly known to us1 even by
 name4 ,a few have gained  immortality  
among book-lovers by clothing their     
books in priceless  bindings2 others1   
like ,sir ,thomas ,bodley1 have won a   
nobler renown by  founding libraries in 
which students should have free access  
to their  treasures4 ,but of the rank   
and file of the early collectors1 the   

men who  bought books not by the        
cartload1 but with individual thought   
and care1  according to the length of   
purses easily exhaustible--of these for 
two  centuries we know little or        
nothing4 ,if it had not been for an     
indiscreet pamphlet published by an     
,english theologian in ,holland1 our    
ignorance about ,english book-collectors
 might have lasted indefinitely  longer4
 ,but during his brief stay in his      
native land the pamphleteer  introduced 
into this country the custom of selling 
by auction the books  of dead           
collectors1 and from the year #afgf1    
when this practice was  first adopted1  
our knowledge about ,english libraries  
becomes abundant4         #ah ,from     
',longman's ,magazine1' by leave of the 
publishers4    ,it is not a little      
curious in itself that we should be able
 to say with  precision that at nine    
o'clock of the morning1 on ,october #ca1
 #afgf1 at  the house of ,dr4 ,lazarus  
,seaman1 in ,warwick ,court1 ,warwick   

,lane1 began  the first book auction    
that ever took place in ,england4 ,but  
we can do  much more than this4 ,the    
little world of book-collectors was     
immensely  taken with this new method of
 book-buying4 ,the catalogues of the    
first  auctions soon came to be regarded
 as curiosities1 and the price fetched  
by each lot was carefully recorded4 ,the
 auctioneers were no less  interested4  
,they wrote prefaces to the catalogue of
 each sale1 giving us  their reasons for
 the various auction rules1 which soon  
came to assume a  form closely similar  
to those now in use at ,sotheby's or    
,puttick and  ,simpson's4 ,moreover1 at 
the end of ten years ,thomas ,cooper1   
the leading  auctioneer of the time1    
printed an exact list of the            
seventy-three sales  which had taken    
place since the introduction of the     
practice into  ,england1 and eleven     
years later another famous member of the
 fraternity  wrote the following letter1
 which has recently been acquired by the

  ,british ,museum1 and supplies us with
 the one link which was needed to       
complete our chain of information on the
 subject4    ,the letter forms part of  
the ',dering ,correspondence1' which    
stretches  from the reign of ,james the 
,first to that of ,george the ,second   
7,stowe  ms4 #gji74 ,it has the double  
endorsement3 7i7 ',mr4 ,millington1 the 
noted  auctioneer1 to ,mr4 ,jos4 ,hill1'
 and 7ii7 ',millington's letter         
acknowledginge the usefulnesse of       
sellinge ,libraryes by ,auction4' ,here 
is the text of the part which now       
concerns us3--           ',lond4 ,june  
#be1 #afig4         ',reverend ,sr1     
',i have designd severall ,times to wait
 of sic you when in ,england       to   
present my service and tender my thanks 
for your great ,service       done to   
,learning  ,learned men in your first   
advising  effectually       setting on  
foot that admirable  universally        
approved of way of       selling        
,librarys by ,auction amongst us4 ,a son

 of a worthy ffreind       of mine1     
being now in ,rotterdam in order to get 
some ,employment       there1 offering  
me the ,conveyance of mine to your hand1
 ,i presume       of your ,candour to   
receive my acknowledgements and         
gratefull       ,resentments for the    
knowledge ,i have got and the benefit ,i
 have       received by their           
management1 having for severall yeares  
strenuously ,pursued what you1 sire1    
happily ,introduced the       ,practice 
of into ,england4 ,i ,design you some   
,catalogues of the       ,library of ,dr
 ,edward ,bernard1 late ,astronomy      
,professor in ,oxford1       in which   
you will find ,curious ,manuscripts1    
,libri ,impressi collati       cum      
,codicibus ,,mss41 etc'      ,the letter
 proceeds to enlarge at some length on  
,dr4 ,bernard's books1  the best part of
 which1 by the way1 had been presented  
to the ,bodleian1  and then1 with an    
apology for the writer's presumption in 
addressing ,dr4  ,hill1 is duly signed1 

',your obliged humble servant1 ,d4      
,millington4' ,it  tells us1 it will be 
observed1 with the aid of the emphatic  
underscoring  here represented by       
italics1 that it was ,dr4 ,hill who had 
'first advised  and effectually set on  
foot that admirable and universally     
approved of  way of selling libraries by
 auction amongst us1' and we can see    
exactly  how he came to start the       
practice4    ,joseph ,hill was one of   
the most earnest and the most moderate  
of the  seventeenth-century             
,presbyterians4 ,his father1 ,joshua1 is
 said to have  died a few minutes before
 the archbishop's apparitor arrived to  
cite him  for not wearing a surplice2   
but though the objection to ,church     
discipline was thus hereditary1 it does 
not seem to have been  intensified in   
,joseph4 ,a distinguished career at     
,cambridge was closed  by his refusal to
 take the oath enjoined by the ,act of  
,uniformity in  #affb1 and the          
,university authorities 'cut his name   

out of the books in  kindness to him1'  
to prevent his being formally ejected   
from his  offices4 ,hill took refuge at 
,leyden1 and was soon appointed to the  
charge of the ,scottish ,church at      
,middleburg in ,zeeland4 ,but though a  
refugee1 he remained ,english at heart1 
and in #afgb wrote a pamphlet1  entitled
 ',the ,interest of these ,united       
,provinces1 being a ,defence of the     
,zeelander's ,choice4' ,it will be      
remembered that by the secret ,treaty of
  ,dover1 concluded between ,charles    
,,ii4 and the ,french king in #afgj1    
,charles was to aid ,louis against the  
,dutch1 and receive as part of his      
reward the province of ,zeeland4 ,the   
,french invasion took place in #afgb1   
and it was at this crisis that ,hill    
wrote his pamphlet1 which contains a    
defence of the ,english king4 ,though   
completed on ,november #cj1 #afgb1 it   
did not appear till ,april of the next  
year1 when the author at last  obtained 
a publisher1 though at the cost of no   

less a sum than one  hundred pounds4 ,in
 the following ,august he was ordered to
 leave ,zeeland  till the war was over1 
and on returning to ,england was        
rewarded by  ,charles with a pension of 
#hj1 and the offer of a bishopric as the
 price  of his conformity4 ,the offer   
was declined1 and in #afgh ,hill        
returned to  ,holland1 accepting a post 
at ,rotterdam1 where we find him when   
the  grateful ,millington wrote his     
letter of acknowledgment in #afie1 and  
where he died in #agjg4    ,when ,hill  
came over to receive the reward of his  
patriotism in ,england1  he would       
naturally have revived his acquaintance 
with an old ,cambridge  don1 ,dr4       
,lazarus ,seaman1 with whom he had many 
tastes in common4 ,seaman  had been     
,master of ,peterhouse and              
,vice-,chancellor of the ,university4   
,he  had written pamphlets endeavouring 
to keep the ,presbyterians in the       
,church by minimising the importance of 
episcopal orders1 and was just on  the  

right side of the line which shut ,hill 
out from the proffered  bishopric4 ,both
 were book collectors1 both were        
classical scholars1 and  when ,seaman   
died during ,hill's stay in ,london1 we 
may be quite sure that  ,hill was among 
his mourners4    ,seaman's funeral was  
no small affair4 ,two broadsides of not 
wholly  despicable verse are still      
extant to attest his popularity4 ,one is
  entitled ',an ,elegie to the endeared 
,memory of that ,learned and ,reverend  
,minister of the ,gospel1 ,dr4 ,lazarus 
,seaman1 who died on ,friday1 the #crd  
of ,september1 #afge1 and was carried   
from ,drapers' ,hall to be interred1    
with a numerous train of ,christian     
friends bewailing his ,death4' ,the     
other broadside1 which contains the     
better verse1 is more simply  inscribed 
',an ,elegy on the ,reverend and        
,learned ,divine1 ,dr4 ,lazarus         
,seaman1 sometime ,vice-,chancellor of  
,cambridge1 ,master of ,peterhouse1 and 
late ,minister of the ,gospel in ,all   

,hallows1 ,bread ,street4' ,even of     
this1  however1 the first six lines may 
suffice as a specimen3        ',what6   
,seaman dead6 and did no blazing star1  
,no comet bforehand his ,death declare8 
,what1 ,merlin1 not a word of this in   
thee8      ,lilly's but half a prophet  
now ,i see3      ,for had he known it1  
he'd have quickly said1      ,this year 
,presbtery shall lose its head4'    ,in 
no less conceited a vein1 but more      
successful1 is the proposed  epitaph1   
the last line of which is really an     
inspiration3        ',reader1 if that   
thou learned art      ,o do not urge me 
to impart      ,what 'tis ,i cover2 for 
,i fear      ,thou'lt be so eager to lie
 here1      ,and wish thy life might    
straight expire4      ,then ask no more1
 but away go      ,and send th'         
unlearned1 they may know4      ,i'll    
tell none else1 for here does lie       
,entomb'd a ,university4'    ,thus was  
the worthy doctor bewailed and buried1  
and soon his executors  were busy       

realising his effects4 ,what was to be  
done with his five or  six thousand     
books8 ,he had bequeathed them to no    
library1 and to sell  them to the       
booksellers was to give them away4 ,it  
was here1 then1 that  ,dr4 ,hill stepped
 in and 'advised and effectually set on 
foot that  admirable and universally    
approved of way of selling libraries by 
auction1' which had long been the       
practice in ,holland1 but as yet was    
quite unknown in this country4 ,the     
arrangements were soon made1 and a      
catalogue duly printed1 for whose       
title-page no less learned a language   
than ,latin would serve1 though we      
regret to have to note that the worthy  
,william ,cooper who compiled it was a  
sufficiently poor scholar to head  one  
of his sections ',bibliae ,variae1' as  
if ',biblia' were a feminine  singular  
of the first declension4 ,the ,latin of 
the title-page is of a  kind which every
 one can read1 so that for the sake of  
completeness we  quote it as it         

stands3--         ',catalogus variorum  
insignium librorum instructissim        
bibliothec       clarissimi doctissimiq2
 viri ,lazari ,seaman1 ,s4,t4,d41 quorum
 ,auctio       habebitur ,londoni in    
dibus ,defuncti in ,area  ,viculo       
,warwicensi1       ,octobris ultimo4    
,cura ,gulielmi ,cooper ,bibliopol4'    
,probably under ,dr4 ,hill's guidance   
,cooper also drew up the following      
preface1 the rules given in which1 as we
 have already noted1 are the            
progenitors of those still in use in the
 present day1 in which1 indeed1  some of
 their actual phrases may be found      
enshrined4         ',to the ,reader4    
',reader1         ',it hath not been    
usual here in ,england to make sales of 
,books       by way of ,auction1 or who 
will give most for them3 ,but it        
having been practised in other          
,countreys to the ,advantage both of    
,buyers and ,sellers2 ,it was therefore 
conceived 7for the       encouragement  
of ,learning7 to publish the ,sale of   

these ,books1 this       manner of way2 
and it is hoped that this will not be   
unacceptable       to ,schollers2 and   
therefore we thought it convenient to   
give an       ,advertisement concerning 
the manner of proceeding therein4       
',first1 ,that having this ,catalogue of
 the ,books1 and their       ,editions  
under their several ,heads and ,numbers1
 it will be more       easie for any    
,person of ,quality1 ,gentlemen1 or     
others1 to ,depute       any one to ,buy
 such ,books for them as they shall     
desire1 if their       occasions will   
not permit them to be present at the    
,auction       themselves4              
',secondly1 ,that those which bid most  
are the ,buyers2 and if any             
manifest differences should arise1 that 
then the same book or books       shall 
be forthwith exposed again to ,sale1 and
 the highest bidder to       have the   
same4         ',thirdly1 ,that all the  
,books according to the ,catalogue are  
7for       so much as we know7 perfect1 

and sold as such2 ,but if any of them   
appear to be otherwise before they be   
taken away1 the ,buyer shall       have 
his choice of taking or leaving the     
same4         ',fourthly1 ,that the     
money for the ,books bought1 be paid at 
the       delivery of them1 within one  
,month's time after the ,auction is     
ended4         ',fifthly1 ,that the     
,auction will begin the #cast of        
,october at the       ,deceased ,dr4's  
,house in ,warwick ,court in ,warwick   
lane1 punctually       at ,nine of the  
,clock in the ,morning1 and ,two in the 
,afternoon1 and       this to continue  
daily until all the ,books be sold2     
,wherefore it is       desired that the 
,gentlemen1 or those ,deputed by them1  
may be there       precisely at the     
,hours appointed1 lest they should miss 
the       opportunity of ,buying these  
,books1 which either themselves or their
       ,friends desire4'    ,in         
subsequent auctions these rules were    
repeated1 with but slight  alterations  

and the addition of a ',lastly' to the  
effect that         ',if any ,gentleman 
have a desire to view or see any or all 
of these       ,books in this           
,catalogue1 or to satisfie themselves in
 the       ,conditions and ,editions of 
any of them1 they shall be very ,welcome
       to the place aforenamed at any   
time before the day that the ,sale      
begins4'    ,to facilitate this         
inspection subsequent sales were held1  
not at the  deceased collector's house1 
but at some more convenient place1 that 
from  which this rule is quoted1        
,kidner's sale 7,february #f1 #afgg71   
taking  place 'at the sign of the       
,king's head in ,little ,britain1'      
possibly a  tavern1 but more probably   
the name of the bookseller's shop4 ,it  
is to  ,dr4 ,seaman's house1 however1 in
 ,warwick ,court1 that we must take our 
way  at nine o'clock on the morning of  
,october #ca1 #afgf1 if we wish to be   
present at the first ,english book sale4
 ,we shall have ,cooper's catalogue  in 

our hands1 and note that he has         
inaugurated the practice1 which still   
makes auction catalogues as difficult to
 consult as a ,bradshaw1 of  dividing   
according to their sizes books in folio1
 in quarto1 in octavo1  and in          
duodecimo4 ,he further divides each size
 of books according to  their subjects3 
',patres ,graeci1' ',patres ,latini1'   
',biblia1' ',libri  ,theologici1'       
',theologi ,scholastici1' ',scriptores  
in ,scripturam1' etc41  so that we have 
no little difficulty in finding out if  
the particular  books of which we are in
 want are included in the good ,doctor's
 library4  ,as we enter the house we    
probably find it very full4 ,there are  
friends  of ,dr4 ,seaman's anxious for  
his books to sell well2 poor ,divinity  
students hopeful of picking up a few    
volumes cheaply2 professed              
book-collectors1 who care little for    
theology1 but have an eye on some  of   
the classics1 and are curious to see how
 this new departure will  succeed2 and a

 little knot of booksellers1 also       
curious1 but on the  whole unfriendly4  
,will4 ,cooper ascends an impromptu     
rostrum1 an  assistant hands up a long  
set of the works of ,s4 ,chrysostom1 in 
,greek  and ,latin 7,paris1 #afcf71 and 
the bidding begins4 ,if any invocation  
would  persuade the ,muse of ,learning  
to tell us 'who first1 who last upraised
  his voice to bid1' that invocation    
should duly be made4 ,but in the        
absence of documents the ,muse usually  
abandons us severely to our own         
imagination1 and we are left to wonder  
whether it was friend1 or poor  student1
 or rich collector who made the first   
bid at the first ,english  book auction4
 ,probably it was one of the last class 
who secured the  prize1 for the great   
,chrysostom fetched no less than #h1    
#es41 nearly a  quarter's income for    
some of the poorer clergy of those days4
 ,this was  the highest price fetched by
 any book in the sale1 but its immediate
  successors were all respectable4 ,a   

set of the records of ,general and      
,provincial ,councils 7,paris1 #afcf7   
fetched #e1 #cs42 the works of ,s4      
,cyril  7,paris1 #afch71 #e1 #as42 of   
,theodoret 7#afdb71 #d1 #hs41 and of    
,epiphanius  7#afbb71 #c1 #bs4 #f;d4    
,thus the first five lots produced      
twenty-six pounds  all but sixpence1 and
 it may greatly be doubted whether1     
despite the  smaller purchasing power of
 money in these days1 they would fetch  
as  much as this if put up to auction at
 any of our modern sales4    ,the next  
twenty books averaged something over a  
pound apiece1 and the  prices languished
 till this division of the sale was     
over1 and the  ',patres ,graeci' were   
succeeded by the ',patres ,latini1' the 
works of ,s4  ,augustine 7,froben's     
edition1 #aefi7 heading the list at #e1 
#aes4 ,among  the editions of the       
,bible1 ',bibliae variae1' as the       
auctioneer called  them1 the ,london    
,polyglot of #afeg was facile princeps1 
fetching no  less than #h1 #bs41 or     

within three shillings of the top price 
of the  sale4 ,rabbinical literature was
 the next division taken1 and here it is
  curious to note that no single work   
fetched as much as a sovereign4 ,then   
came long rows of classics and theology1
 with nothing to call for remark  till  
we come to the books of ,english        
divinity1 among which ,fox's  ',martyrs'
 7,london1 #afda7 fetched as much as #c1
 #es4 ,among the ,english  philologists1
 a very miscellaneous section1          
,raleigh's ',history of the  ,world'    
went for #a1 #fs41 and ,burton's        
',anatomy of ,melancholy' 7,oxford1     
#afch7 for #fs4 ,even the latter was not
 much of a bargain1 for it is the  first
 edition 7#afba71 the one in quarto1    
which is now so highly prized4    ,when 
the folios were all sold1 the smaller   
sizes were taken in their  order1 but   
either the collectors of the seventeenth
 century 7very unlike  in this to their 
modern successors7 valued a book in     
proportion to its  bulk1 or else the    

novelty of the bidding was exhausted4   
,certainly we  have no more high prices 
to record1 and the auctioneer1 after a  
time1  had recourse to selling books in 
bundles or batches4 ,the ,oriental works
  went badly1 probably because few could
 read them2 the ,english divinity1      
which were sold ten and twenty together1
 at from a florin to fifteen  shillings 
the lot1 even worse1 because ,dr4       
,seaman's theology was now              
discountenanced by ,churchmen1 and the  
pockets of the ,dissenters were ill     
furnished4 ,we note a few pearls among  
these dusty tomes4 ,fletcher's  ',purple
 ,island' 7#afcc7 was sold with six dull
 tracts for #es41 and  ,bacon's         
',advancement of ,learning' 7#afje7 for 
#as4 ,the pamphlets of the  ,civil ,war 
went fairly well1 but a collection1     
which would now be held  priceless1 of  
thirty-two tracts on the relation of    
,england and ,spain  from #aehe to #aeia
 realised no more than #hs4    ,the     
total sum gained by the sale is stated  

as about #gjj1 a result which  ,i have  
not had the industry to check by adding 
together the prices of  all the         
different lots4 ,my impression is that  
it is rather an  under-estimate4 ,taking
 it as correct1 we may guess the average
 sum  realised by each book as about    
#cs41 for there are #acg pages in the   
,catalogue1 and from #ce to #dj books   
catalogued on each page1 or a total  of 
somewhere about #e1jjj4 ,a scholar's    
library1 especially a theological       
scholar's1 always sells badly--unless ,i
 am mistaken1 ,bishop ,thirwall's  books
 only averaged about #bs4 each--and ,dr4
 ,seaman's executors probably           
congratulated themselves on the result  
of this new method of disposing  of old 
books4 ,they had realised more than     
could possibly have been  obtained on an
 enforced sale to a single bookseller1  
and on the other  hand1 after the ardour
 of competition for the first few lots  
had  subsided1 buyers were able to make 
bargains which the booksellers would    

never have allowed them4 ,every one1    
save the booksellers1 was pleased1  and 
both the general satisfaction and the   
one discordant note which  marred it1   
are reflected in the preface which the  
auctioneer wrote for  the second book   
sale1 which took place some four months 
after the first4  ,here he says3        
',the first ,attempt in this kind 7by   
the ,sale of ,dr4 ,seaman's             
,library7 having given great ,content   
and ,satisfaction to the                
,gentlemen who were the ,buyers1 and no 
great ,discouragement to the            
,sellers1 hath ,encouraged the making   
this second ,trial1 by the              
exposing 7to ,auction or ,sale7 the     
,library of ,mr4 ,tho4 ,kidner1       in
 hopes of receiving such ,encouragement 
from the ,learned as may       prevent  
the ,stifling of this manner of ,sale1  
the ,benefit 7if       rightly          
considered7 being equally ,balanced     
between ,buyer and       ,seller4'      
,there was a danger1 we see1 of this    

manner of sale being 'stifled1' and     
subsequent prefaces show us that the    
danger came from reports spread by  the 
retail booksellers that the bidding was 
not always genuine4 ,to meet  these     
reports the auctioneers for a long time 
refused to accept  commissions to bid   
themselves1 lest they should be accused 
of bidding  when there was no commission
 behind them1 merely to run up prices   
against genuine purchasers4 ,a new rule 
was also passed1 obliging  strangers    
from the country either to pay for and  
remove books as soon as  they were      
knocked down to them1 or else to bid    
through citizens of  reputation1 'and   
this is the rather desired that all     
suspicions may be  removed of any       
,strangers appearing there to bid and   
enhance the ,price to  others without   
ever intending to send for what they so 
buy themselves4'    ,fenced round with  
these regulations1 the institution of   
selling books by  auction grew and      
flourished1 so that1 as we have said1 at

 the end of the  first ten years of its 
existence no fewer than seventy-three   
such  auctions had taken place4 ,it has 
certainly made book-collecting a more   
exciting and more picturesque practice  
than it could otherwise have  been1 and 
enables us not only to reconstruct the  
library of any famous  collector1 but   
often to trace the history of a         
particular book in a very  pleasant and 
interesting manner4 ,thus the copy of   
,dr4 ,seaman's ,catalogue  and the two  
,elegies on his death1 at which we have 
been looking1 all  once belonged to     
,narcissus ,luttrell1 the author of     
',brief ,historical  ,relation of ,state
 ,affairs1' #afgh-agad4 ,according to   
the crabbed notes of  the antiquary     
,hearne1 whom he had offended by        
refusing to lend him  books1 ,luttrell  
was not only a book-collector but a     
miser1 who would not  have given the    
judges and other dignitaries who        
attended his funeral 7in  #agcb7 'a     
meal's meat' while he was alive4 ,but he

 was 'well-known for his  curious       
library1 especially for the number and  
scarcity of books on  ,english history  
and antiquities1 which he collected in a
 lucky hour at  very reasonable rates4' 
,after ,luttrell's death1 his copy of   
,seaman's  ,catalogue passed into the   
collection of the antiquary ,gough1 and 
then  into that of the celebrated       
,richard ,heber1 perhaps the greatest of
 all  ,english book-collectors4 ,at     
,heber's sale it was acquired by the    
,british  ,museum1 and its literary     
pedigree thereby closed4 ,but the       
possession of  such a pedigree adds very
 greatly to the interest of a book in   
the eyes  of book-lovers1 and so far as 
the institution of sales by auction has 
increased our knowledge of the          
book-collectors of the past1 we have    
every reason to be grateful to ,dr4     
,joseph ,hill who1 to return to our     
text1 'first advised and effectually set
 on foot that admirable and  universally
 approved of way of selling libraries4' 

,,john ,,durie',s ',,reformed           
,,librarie-,,keeper'#ai           #ai   
,from ',the ,library1' by leave of the  
editor4    ,from time to time attention 
has been called to the letter in which  
,john  ,durie put together1 for the     
first time in ,england1 a series of     
suggestions on the duties of a          
,librarian1 but1 so far as ,i am aware1 
,durie's letter has never been reprinted
 in full1 and ,i propose here to        
preface it with a few notes on the      
author's own career as a librarian1  for
 which the ,calendars of ,state ,papers 
offer some materials4 ,of ,durie's  long
 life--he was born in #aeif and did not 
die till #afhj--we need  concern        
ourselves with only a very few months4  
,as we shall see1 his  employer         
,whitelock asserts that he was a        
,german1 but this is a mistake1  for he 
was born in ,edinburgh1 although the    
persecuted life of his  father1 ,robert 
,durie1 caused him to be educated       
abroad1 chiefly at  ,sedan4 ,from an    

early period he devoted himself to the  
cause of religious  unity among the     
,protestant ,churches of ,europe1 and in
 this cause he  laboured all his life1  
possibly with more zeal than wisdom4    
,when he  found how hardly religious    
unity was to be achieved he was ready1  
we are  told1 to regard the acceptance  
of the ,lord's ,prayer1 the ,apostles'  
,creed1 and the ,ten ,commandments as   
the sole requirement for                
intercommunion4 ,in the seventeenth     
century this certainly amounted to      
latitudinarianism1 and it is not easy to
 acquit ,durie of a disposition  to run 
both with hare and hounds1 which did not
 escape the observation  of his         
contemporaries4 ,at the outbreak of the 
,civil ,war he was a  ,royalist and     
acted for some time as ,chaplain to the 
,princess ,mary of  ,orange at the      
,hague4 ,but he wearied of this         
employment1 returned to  ,england1      
served the ,commonwealth1 both as       
librarian and as literary hack  in      

offices peculiarly distasteful to the   
,royalists1 and yet after the           
,restoration did not fail to endeavour  
to explain away his defection4 ,a       
political comprehensiveness such as this
 may perhaps explain the reason  why1   
despite his journeyings all over the    
north of ,europe1 ,durie's  efforts     
after religious unity so signally failed
 to attract theologians  of any party4  
,the believers in black and the         
believers in white will  hardly admire  
the man who adopts grey as the only     
wear1 and endeavours  to make it serve  
for each in turn4    ,the excellence of 
,durie's treatise on library-management 
speaks for  itself1 but it seems not    
altogether unlikely that it was composed
 for  the special purpose of the        
author's advancement4 ,it is prefaced by
 a  short letter by ,samuel ,hartlib1   
the friend of ,milton1 and ,durie1 as we
  shall see1 shortly afterwards was     
employed to translate ,milton's         
',eiconoclastes' into ,french4 ,on      

,august #e1 #afej 7the year in which the
  ',reformed ,librarie-,keeper' was     
published71 ,durie had been granted     
liberty by the ,council of ,state1 to   
which ,milton was ,latin ,secretary1 to 
abide in the ,commonwealth1 and on      
,august #ba this grant was confirmed by 
warrant 'granting license to ,mr4 ,durie
 to stay in ,england till further       
order1 on security for good behaviour4' 
,now some weeks before this the         
,council of ,state had taken into       
consideration what should be done with  
the ,royal ,collections of books1       
manuscripts1 and medals1 and had        
resolved to appoint ,whitelocke their   
keeper1 and to allow him the  services  
of an ,assistant4 ,if ,durie's          
',reformed ,librarie-,keeper' was       
written at this juncture1 at the        
suggestion of ,milton and ,hartlib in   
order to forward his claims to the      
,assistant-ship1 it was certainly very  
well timed1 and it is not unlikely that 
this was actually the case4             

,whitelocke's account of the matter1    
under date ,july #cj1 #afej1 is as      
follows3         ',july #cj4 ,referred  
to the ,council of ,state to preserve   
the books       and medals at ,st4      
,james's from imbezzlement4             
',after this ,order past1 the ,council  
propounded it to me1 whether ,i         
would take upon me the ,charge and ,care
 of these precious ,medals and          
,books1 and to be the ,library-,keeper1 
and to appoint whom ,i thought       fit
 to look to them under me4         ',i  
knew the greatness of the charge1 and   
considered the prejudice       that     
might fall out1 by being responsible for
 those rich jewels1       the           
imbezzlement whereof would be attempted 
by many1 and my other       occupations 
would not permit me to give much        
personal attendance on       this       
business1 nor to enjoy much of the      
delight of perusing them4         ',yet 
,i1 being informed of a design in some  
to have them sold and       transported 

beyond sea1 which ,i thought would be a 
dishonour and a       damage to our     
nation1 and to all scholars therein1 and
 fearing that       in other hands they 
might be more subject to imbezzleing1   
and being       willing to preserve them
 for publick use1 ,i did accept of the  
trouble of being ,library-,keeper at    
,st4 ,james's and therein was           
encouraged and much persuaded to it by  
,mr4 ,selden1 who swore that       if ,i
 did not undertake the charge of        
them--all those rare ,monuments       of
 ,antiquity1 those choice ,books and    
,manuscripts would be lost1 and         
there were not the like to them1 except 
only in the ,vatican1 in any       other
 ,library in ,christendom4         ',the
 ,council made an order for me to be    
,library-,keeper of ,st4       ,james's 
and to have lodgings in the house       
belonging to the place1       and       
recommended to me ,mr4 ,duery1 a ,german
 by birth1 a good scholar1       and a  
great traveller and friend to the       

,parliament1 to be my ,deputy       in  
that place1 but at my liking4           
',i was willing to have a ,deputy by    
their recommendation1 being             
thereby ,i should be the less           
answerable1 and ,i appointed ,mr4 ,duery
       to have the keys1 to go to ,mr4  
,patrick ,young the former              
,library-,keeper to the late ,king1 to  
inquire for an inventory of the         
,books and ,medals1 and to see an exact 
one made forthwith of all of            
them4'--',whitelocke's ,memorials1' p4  
#daf4    ,whitelocke's narrative1 though
 under date ,july #cj1 of course        
embraces  also the events of the        
subsequent months4 ,as the following    
entries from  the ,calendar of ,state   
,papers for #aefj will show1 ,durie did 
not receive  his appointment till the   
following ,october3         ',oct4      
#bh4--bd4 ,john ,durie appointed        
,library-,keeper of the books at        
,st4 ,james's1 as also of the medals1   
and to have the lodgings       belonging

 to that place1 and to make an inventory
 of the books1       medals and ,,mss41 
and present it to ,council4             
',oct4 #bi4--a4 ,mr4 ,dury to be        
,library-,keeper at ,st4 ,james's       
,house1       and ,col4 ,berkstead to   
appoint convenient lodgings for him4    
',nov4 #g4--b4 ,the new chapel of ,st4  
,james's to be used as a library1       
and ,mr4 ,durie to take care that the   
books and medals be removed       there 
as soon as it is finished4              
',nov4 #ba4--ab4 ,lord ,commissioner    
,lisle1 ,sir ,hen4 ,vane1 and ,mr4      
,challoner added to the ,committee      
formerly appointed for the              
library--viz41 ,lord ,commissioner      
,whitelock1 ,visct4 ,lisle1 and ,sir    
,gilbert ,pickering2 ,mr4 ,dury1 the    
,library-,keeper1 is to apply to        
them upon all emergencies1 and receive  
instructions for the safe               
preservation of the library and medals1 
and to prepare directions       to be   
given to the surveyor of the works for  

fitting the new chapel       for the use
 of a library4'    ,we hear no more of  
,durie till ,may #bjth1 #afea1 when the 
,council of ,state  ordered him 'to     
proceed in translating ,mr4 ,milton's   
book1 written in  answer to the ,king's 
book1 and ,mr4 ,frost to give him such  
fit reward for  his pains as he shall   
think fit4' ,in the following ,october  
we have this  interesting entry1 which  
shows that he was by no means neglectful
 of his  duties3         ',oct4 #f8--ef4
 ,john ,dury1 ,library-,keeper at ,st4  
,james's1 to the       ,council of      
,state4 ,the books and manuscripts will 
be utterly       spoiled if not         
immediately looked after1 as they lie   
upon the floor       in confused heaps1 
so that not only the rain and dust1 but 
the       rats1 mice1 and other vermin  
can easily get at them1 and none of     
these inconveniences can be prevented1  
unless you order the       trustees for 
sale of the late ,king's goods to       
deliver me the keys4         ',the      

trustees long since made a catalogue of 
the books1 and an       inventory of the
 medals1 so that there is nothing more  
left for       them to do1 and they     
might therefore be also desired to      
deliver up       such catalogues and    
inventory2 if there should be anything  
to       complete1 ,i am willing to     
assist them therein1 so that the work   
may       not linger1 and the library be
 utterly spoiled1 and remain useless    
to the public4' ,one page4    ,this is  
the last entry we have concerning ,durie
 as a librarian4 ,his  translation      
7published in #afeb7 of ',mr4 ,milton's 
book written in answer  to the late     
,king's book1' i4e4 ',eiconoclastes1'   
was brought to a  completion1 and there 
is an ,order in ,council that no custom 
duty should  be charged upon its export4
 ,then we have ,durie's petition for his
 fee  for the translation1 and then he  
goes off to ,sweden with ,whitelocke1   
his  rooms at ,st4 ,james's are assigned
 to another1 and our interest in him    

sensibly wanes4    ,the title-page of   
,durie's tiny pamphlet runs as          
follows3--',the   ,reformed             
,librarie-,keeper  with a supplement to 
the  ,reformed ,school1   as subordinate
 to ,colleges in  ,universities4  ,by   
,john ,durie   whereunto is added  ,i4  
,an idea of ,mathematicks4 ,,ii4 ,the   
description of  one of the chiefest     
,libraries which is in ,germanie1       
erected  and  ordered by one of the most
 ,learned  ,princes in ,europe4  ,london
   ,printed by ,william ,du-,gard1 and  
are  to bee sold by ,robert             
,littleberrie  at the  sign of the      
,unicorn in ,little  ,britain4 #afej4'  
,the supplement to the ,reformed ,school
 comes first1 and our tract is  preceded
 by a false title of its own3--',the    
,reformed   ,librarie-,keeper4  ,by     
,john ,durie  ,device of ,fleur-de-,lys4
 ,london   ,printed by ,william         
,du-,gard1  ,anno ,dom4 #afej4' ,the two
 letters are  preceded by ,hartlib's    
preface1 and followed by the two        

appendices  mentioned on the title-page1
 neither of which1 in all likelihood1 is
 by  ,durie himself4 ,of the two letters
 only the first is here reprinted1 the  
second being a mere feeble repetition of
 it clothed in religious  phraseology4  
,the one here given is to some extent   
marred by ,durie's  riding to death of  
the metaphor of 'trading' for exchange  
of  information4 ,despite this fault1 it
 is full of excellent sense1 and  shows 
throughout a lofty sense of the         
functions of a librarian4 ,i  reprint it
 here as it stands1 with a careful      
retention of the original  spelling and 
punctuation3--           ,,the          
,,reformed ,,librarie-,,keeper3         
,,or         ,two ,copies of ,letters   
concerning the ,place and ,office of a  
,librarie-,keeper4           ,,the      
,,first ,,letter4         ',the         
,librarie-,keeper's place and office1 in
 most countries 7as most       other    
,places and ,offices both in ,churches  
and ,universities7 are       lookt upon1

 as ,places of profit and gain1 and so  
accordingly sought       after and      
valued in that regard2 and not in regard
 of the service1       which is to bee  
don by them unto the ,common-wealth of  
,isral1 for       the advancement of    
,pietie and ,learning2 for the most part
 men look       after the maintenance1  
and livelihood settled upon their       
,places1       more then upon the end   
and usefulness of their emploiments2    
they       seek themselves and not the  
,publick therein1 and so they           
subordinate all the advantages of their 
places1 to purchase mainly       two    
things thereby viz4 an easie            
subsistence2 and som credit in          
comparison of others2 nor is the last   
much regarded1 if the first       may   
bee had2 except it bee in cases of      
strife and debate1 wherein       men are
 over-heated3 for then indeed som will  
stand upon the point       of ,honor1 to
 the hazard of their temporal profits2  
but to speak in       particular of     

,librarie-,keepers1 in most             
,universities that ,i know2       nay   
indeed in all1 their places are but     
,mercenarie1 and their       emploiment 
of little or no use further1 then to    
look to the books       committed to    
their custodie1 that they may not bee   
lost or       embezeled by those that   
use them1 and this is all4 ,i have been 
informed that in ,oxford 7where the most
 famous ,librarie now extant            
amongst the ,protestant ,christians is  
kept71 the settled maintenance       of 
the ,librarie-,keeper is not above      
fiftie or sixtie pound per       annum2 
but that it is accidentally1 viis et    
modis sometimes       worth an hundred  
pound3 what the accidents are1 and the  
waies by       which they com1 ,i have  
not been curious to search after2 but ,i
 have       thought1 that if the proper 
emploiments of ,librarie-,keepers were  
taken into consideration as they are1 or
 may bee made useful to the             
advancement of ,learning2 and were      

ordered and mainteined                  
proportionally to the ends1 which ought 
to bee intended thereby2       they     
would bee of exceeding great use to all 
sorts of ,scholars1 and       have an   
universal influence upon all the parts  
of ,learning1 to       produce and      
propagate the same unto perfection4 ,for
 if       ,librarie-,keepers did        
understand themselves in the nature of  
their       work1 and would make        
themselves1 as they ought to bee1 useful
 in       their places in a publick     
waie2 they ought to becom ,agents for   
the       advancement of universal      
,learning3 and to this effect ,i could  
wish1       that their places might not 
bee made1 as eueriewhere they are1      
,mercenarie1 but rather ,honorarie2 and 
that with the competent       allowance 
of two hundred pounds a year1 som       
emploiments should bee       put upon   
them further then a bare keeping of the 
books4 ,it is true       that a fair    
,librarie1 is not onely an ornament and 

credit to the       place where it is2  
but an useful commoditie by itself to   
the       publick2 yet in effect it is  
no more then a dead ,bodie as now it is 
constituted1 in comparison of what it   
might bee1 if it were       animated    
with a publick spirit to keep and use   
it1 and ordered as       it might bee   
for public service4 ,for if such an     
allowance were       settled upon the   
emploiment as might maintain a man of   
parts and       generous thoughts1 then 
a condition might bee annexed to the    
bestowing of the ,place2 that none      
should be called thereunto but          
such as had approved themselves zealous 
and profitable in som       publick     
waies of ,learning to advance the same1 
or that should bee       bound to       
certain tasks to bee prosecuted towards 
that end1 whereof       a ,list might   
bee made1 and the waie to trie their    
abilities in       prosecuting the same 
should be described1 least in after     
times1       unprofitable men creep into

 the place1 to frustrate the publick of 
the benefit intended by the ,doners     
towards posteritie4 ,the proper         
charge then of the ,honorarie           
,librarie-,keeper in an ,universitie    
should bee thought upon1 and the end of 
that ,imploiment1 in my                 
conception1 is to keep the publick stock
 of ,learning1 which is in       ,books 
and ,manuscripts1 to increas it1 and to 
propose it to others       in the waie  
which may bee most useful unto all2 his 
work then is to       bee a ,factor and 
,trader for helps to ,learning1 and a   
,treasurer to       keep them1 and a    
dispenser to applie them to use1 or to  
see them       well used1 or at least   
not abused2 and to do all this1 first a 
,catalogue1 of the ,treasurie committed 
unto his charge is to bee       made1   
that is all the ,books and ,manuscripts1
 according to the       ,titles         
whereunto they belong1 are to bee ranked
 in an order most       easie and       
obvious to bee found1 which ,i think is 

that of ,sciences       and ,languages2 
when first all the ,books are divided   
into their       subjectam materiam     
whereof they ,treat1 and then everie    
kinde of       matter subdivided into   
their several ,languages2 and as the    
,catalogue should bee so made1 that it  
may alwaies bee augmented as       the  
stock doth increas2 so the place in the 
,librarie must bee left       open for  
the increas of the number of ,books in  
their proper ,seats1       and in the   
,printed ,catalogue1 a ,reference is to 
bee made to the       place where the   
,books are to bee found in their ,shelvs
 or       repository4 ,when the stock is
 thus known and fitted to bee exposed   
to the view of the ,learned ,world1 then
 the waie of ,trading with it1          
both at home and abroad1 is to bee laid 
to heart both for the       increas of  
the stock1 and for the improvement of it
 to use4 ,for the       increas of the  
stock both at home and abroad1          
correspondencie       should bee held   

with those that are eminent in everie   
,science1 to       ,trade with them for 
their profit1 that what they want and   
wee have1       they may receiv upon    
condition1 that what they have and wee  
want1       they should impart in that  
facultie wherein their eminence doth    
lie2 as for such as are at home eminent 
in anie kinde1 becaus they       may com
 by ,native right to have use of the    
,librarie-,treasure1 they       are to  
be ,traded withal in another waie1 viz4 
that the things which       are gained  
from abroad1 which as yet are not made  
common1 and put       to publick use    
should bee promised and imparted to them
 for the       increas of their private 
stock of knowledge1 to the end that what
       they have peculiar1 may also bee 
given in for a requital1 so that        
the particularities of gifts at home and
 abroad1 are to meet as in       a      
,center in the hand of the              
,librarie-,keeper1 and hee is to ,trade 
with the one by the other1 to caus them 

to multiplie the publick       stock1   
whereof hee is a ,treasurer and ,factor4
         ',thus hee should ,trade with  
those that are at home and abroad out   
of the ,universitie1 and with those that
 are within the ,universitie1       hee 
should have acquaintance to know all    
that are of anie parts1       and how   
their view of ,learning doth lie1 to    
supplie helps unto them       in their  
faculties from without and from within  
the ,nation1 to put       them upon the 
keeping of correspondencie with men of  
their own       strain1 for the beating 
out of matters not yet elaborated in    
,sciences2 so that they may bee as his  
,assistants and subordinate             
,factors in his ,trade and in their own 
for gaining of knowledg3 ,now           
because in all publick ,agencies1 it is 
fit that som inspection       should bee
 had over those that are intrusted      
therewith1 therefore       in this      
,factorie and ,trade for the increas of 
,learning1 som tie       should bee upon

 those ,librarie-,keepers to oblige them
 to       carefulness4         ',i would
 then upon this account have an ,order  
made that once in the       year the    
,librarie-,keeper should bee bound to   
give an ,account of his       ,trading1 
and of his ,profit in his ,trade 7as in 
all humane ,trades       ,factors ought1
 and use to do to their principals at   
least once a       year71 and to this   
effect ,i would have it ordered1 that   
the chief       ,doctors of each        
facultie of the ,universitie should meet
 at a       ,convenient time in a week  
of the year to receive the ,accounts of 
his ,trading1 that hee may shew them    
wherein the stock of ,learning          
hath been increased for that year's     
space2 and then he is to       produce  
the particulars which he hath gained    
from abroad1 and laie       them before 
them all1 that everie one in his own    
facultie may       declare in the       
presence of others that which hee       
thinketh fit to       bee added to the  

publick stock1 and made common by the   
,catalogue of       ,additionals1 which 
everie year within the ,universities is 
to be       published in writing within 
the ,librarie itself1 and everie three  
years 7or sooner as the number of       
,additionals may bee great1 or          
later1 if it bee smal7 to be put in     
,print and made common to those         
that are abroad4 ,and at this giving up 
of the accounts1 as the       ,doctors  
are to declare what they think worthie  
to bee added to the       common stock  
of ,learning1 each in their ,facultie2  
so ,i would have       them see what the
 ,charges and ,pains are whereat the    
,librarie ,keeper       hath been1 that 
for his encouragement the extraordinarie
 expences       in correspondencies and 
transcriptions for the publick good may 
bee allowed him out of some ,revenues1  
which should be set apart to       that 
effect1 and disposed of according to    
their joint consent and       judgment  
in that matter4 ,here then hee should   

bee bound to shew       them the ,lists 
of his correspondents1 the ,letters from
 them in       ,answer to his1 and the  
reckoning of his extraordinarie expence 
should bee allowed him in that which hee
 is indebted1 or hath       freely laid 
out to procure ,rarities into the stock 
of ,learning4 ,and       becaus ,i      
understand that all the ,book-,printers 
or ,stationers of the                   
,common-wealth are bound of everie ,book
 which is ,printed to send a            
,copie into the ,universitie ,librarie2 
and it is impossible for one       man  
to read all the ,books in all           
,faculties1 to judg of them what        
worth there is in them2 nor hath everie 
one ,abilitie to judg of all       kinde
 of ,sciences what everie ,author doth  
handle1 and how       sufficiently2     
therefore ,i would have at this time of 
giving       accounts the               
,librarie-,keeper also bound to produce 
the ,catalogue of       all the ,books  
sent unto the ,universitie's ,librarie  

by the       ,stationers that ,printed  
them2 to the end that everie one of the 
,doctors in their own ,faculties should 
declare1 whether or no they       should
 bee added1 and where they should bee   
placed in the ,catalogue       of       
,additionals2 for ,i do not think that  
all ,books and ,treatises1       which  
in this age are ,printed in all kindes1 
should bee inserted       into the      
,catalogue1 and added to the stock of   
the ,librarie1       discretion must be 
used and confusion avoided1 and a cours 
taken to       distinguish that which is
 profitable from that which is useless1 
and according to the verdict of that    
,societie1 the usefulness of            
,books for the publick is to bee        
determined2 yet because there is        
seldom anie ,books wherein there is not 
somthing useful1 and ,books       freely
 given are not to bee cast away1 but may
 bee kept2 therefore       ,i would have
 a peculiar place appointed for such    
,books as shall bee       laid aside to 

keep them in1 and a ,catalogue of their 
,titles made       ,alphabetically in   
reference to the ,author's name with a  
note of       distinction to shew the   
,science to which they are to bee       
referred4       ,these thoughts com thus
 suddenly into my head1 which in due    
time       may bee more fully described1
 if need bee1 chiefly if1 upon the      
ground of this account1 som competencie 
should bee found out and       allowed  
to maintein such charges as will bee    
requisite towards the       advancement 
of the ,publick good of ,learning after 
this manner4'      ,illustration3 ,,from
 ,,wynkyn ,,de ,,worde',s               
',,hyckscorner4'    ,illustration3      
,,from ,,antoine ,,verard',s ',,therence
 ,,en ,,fran,,oys4'          ,,woodcuts 
,,in ,,english ,,plays ,,printed        
,,before #affjbj           #bj ,from    
',the ,library1' by leave of the editor1
 and ,messrs4 ,kegan       ,paul1       
,trench1 ,trbner and ,co4    ,when      
loaves are lacking it seems natural to  

attach a high value to  crumbs1 and     
perhaps this may be accepted as an      
excuse for printing the  following rough
 notes on the few woodcuts which ,i have
 been able to find  in editions of      
,english plays printed before #affj4 ,an
 excuse is needed1  because1 while the  
artistic value of the cuts is distinctly
 low1 the  plays in which they are      
found1 with the exception of ,marlowe's 
',dr4  ,faustus1' are not of the first  
interest4 ,on the other hand1 as ,i hope
 to  show1 the woodcuts1 as a rule1 are 
not merely fancy pictures used only     
because they looked pretty4 ,they are   
real illustrations1 drawn by men  who   
had certainly read the plays themselves1
 and in all probability had  seen them4 
,to have had1 say1 the play-scene from  
',hamlet' drawn1 however  rudely1 as a  
title-cut by a contemporary artist would
 have been a very  pleasant addition to 
our scanty sources of knowledge as to   
the  appearance of the actors and the   
stage when ,shakespeare's plays were    

first acted1 and1 though it is less     
interesting plays which have come  down 
to us embellished with illustrated      
title-pages1 we may as well take  note  
of what fortune has given us4    ,two at
 least of the old morality plays1       
',every ,man' and ',hyckscorner1'  are  
prefaced with cuts1 to some of which the
 names of the characters are  attached  
on labels1 so that we may be sure of    
their identity4  ,unfortunately most of 
these little figures are poor copies of 
those used  in a ,french translation of 
',terence1' published by ,antoine       
,vrard4 ,in  ',hyckscorner' ,wynkyn de  
,worde went farther4 ,to fill up a gap  
on his  title-page he inserts a picture 
of an elephant with a howdah on his     
back4 ,i have read ',hyckscorner' once1 
ten years ago1 and ,i hope never to     
have to read it again4 ,but if my memory
 serves me1 there is nothing  about an  
elephant in it1 and this particular     
elephant agrees so closely  with one    
used by ,john of ,doesborgh to          

illustrate a tract about ,prester       
,john's country that ,i am afraid he was
 one of ,wynkyn de ,worde's job  lots4  
,clearly these earliest cuts throw no   
light on the contemporary  stage4       
,the title-cut of ',the pleasant and    
stately morall of the ,three ,lordes    
and ,three ,ladies of ,london1' printed 
by ',r4 ,ihones' in #aeij1 is of more   
interest4 ,if ,i am right in my         
interpretation of it1 it relates not to 
the play itself1 but to a performance of
 any morality in a private hall4  ,on   
the right is a philosophical-looking    
person with a wand in his hand1  whom ,i
 take to be the ',doctor' or            
',expositor1' who used to interpret to  
the audience the meaning of the old     
miracle plays and moralities4 ,on the   
left is a man in ordinary dress of the  
sixteenth century1 apparently an  actor4
 ,both these are turning their faces to 
a group of ladies seated on  a dais1    
presumably as spectators4 ,the picture  
is thus taken from the  rear of the     

actors1 and illustrates1 though in      
rather a dull and  conventional manner1 
the performances of a much earlier      
period than  #aeij4 ,this is in keeping 
with the play itself1 the 'statelie     
morall'  being a curious hybrid1 half   
morality1 half play1 the publication of 
which at a date when ,shakespeare and   
,marlowe were already writing for  the  
stage was a curious anomaly4            
,illustration3 ,,from ',,the ,,three    
,,lords ,,and ,,three ,,ladies ,,of     
,,london1' #aeij4    ,three other       
sixteenth-century plays1 ,marlowe's     
',faustus1' ,greene's  ',friar ,bacon'  
and ',hieronimo1' were issued with      
title-cuts1 but not1 ,i  believe1 in the
 sixteenth century4 ,the edition of     
',the ,tragicall ,history  of the ,life 
and ,death of ,dr4 ,faustus4 ,written by
 ,chr4 ,mar41' which ,i  have found thus
 illustrated is that 'printed for ,john 
,wright1 and to be  sold at his shop    
without ,newgate at the sign of the     
,bible1 #afaf4'  ,unfortunately the cut 

is larger than the page of text1 and in 
the copies  both of this and of later   
editions1 to which ,i have had access1  
has  been cropped by the binder's shears
 beyond any possibility of              
reproduction4 ,it shows ,faustus1       
looking rather like some of the least   
flattering portraits of ,archbishop     
,laud1 standing in a magic circle1  wand
 in hand1 with the devil he has raised  
squatting before him on his  haunches   
like a ferocious black poodle4    ,as in
 the case of ',dr4 ,faustus1' it is     
difficult to find an uncropped  copy of 
',the ,honorable ,historie of ,frier    
,bacon and ,frier ,bongay4 ,as it  was  
lately plaid by the ,prince ,palatine   
his servants4 ,made by ,robert  ,greene1
 ,master of ,arts4 7,london1 ,printed by
 ,elizabeth ,allde dwelling  neere      
,christ-,church4 #afcj47' ,in the copy  
accessible to me only about             
three-fourths of the title-page have    
escaped the horrid shears2 but this     
suffices to show that we have here one  

of the few variations from the          
dramatist's text of which these         
illustrators have to be accused4 ,bacon1
  when weariness compels him to leave to
 his servant the task of watching  the  
,brazen ,head1 chides him for slowness  
in answering his call4 ',think  you1' is
 the answer1 'that the watching of the  
,brazen ,head craves no  furniture8 ,i  
warrant you1 sir1 ,i have so armed      
myself that if all your  devils do come 
,i will not fear them an inch4'         
,unluckily the artist has  dressed the  
servant not as a fighter1 but as a      
bandsman1 with drum and a  kind of fife1
 and no visible arms4 ,but the ,brazen  
,head is there1 and  ,bacon very fast   
asleep1 while the labels issuing from   
the ,head's mouth1  ',time was1' ',time 
is1' ',time is ,past1' show that the    
text of the play  had been read1 though 
not very carefully4    ,the illustration
 to ',hieronimo' here shown is taken    
from the edition  whose title runs3     
',the ,spanish ,tragedie1 containing the

 lamentable end  of ,don ,horatio and   
,belimperia3 with the pittiful death of 
old  ,hieronimo4 7,london1 ,printed by  
,augustine ,mathewes1 and are to bee    
sold  by ,iohn ,grismand at his shop in 
,pauls ,alley47' ,the original cut is   
very  'mealy' 7a characteristic quite   
successfully reproduced in the          
accompanying facsimile of it71 and the  
design has not many artistic  merits2   
but in point of faithfulness it is      
probably all that could be  desired4 ,it
 will be remembered that as ,horatio and
 ,belimperia are toying  in an arbour in
 ,hieronimo's garden1 the lady hears    
footsteps4 ',lorenzo1  ,balthazar1      
,cerberim1 and ,pedringano enter1       
disguised4' ,lorenzo1 the  jealous      
brother1 bids his minions ',quickly     
despatch1 my ,masters1' and  according  
to the stage direction1 'they hang him  
in the ,arbour' 7i4e41  ,horatio1 not   
,lorenzo71 and1 despite ,belimperia's   
entreaties1 stab him to  death4         
,illustration3 ,,from ,,the ',,spanish  

,,tragedie'    ',murder1 murder1 help1  
,hieronimo1 help6' cries ,belimperia1 as
 in the  picture1 and though at         
,lorenzo's bidding1 ',come stop her     
mouth2 away  with her1' she is dragged  
off1 the old man hears4 ,the stage      
direction1  ',enter ,hieronimo in his   
shirt1' has been interpreted liberally1 
for  ,hieronimo has nether garments in  
addition2 but he is duly coatless and   
provided with a torch with which to see 
the 'murdrous spectacle4'        ',hier4
 ,what outcry calls me from my naked    
bed1      ,and chills my throbbing heart
 with trembling fear1      ,which never 
danger yet could daunt before8      ,who
 calls ,hieronimo8 speak1 here ,i am4   
,i did not slumber2 therefore 'twas no  
dream4      ,no1 no2 it was some woman  
cried for help4      ,and here within   
the garden did she cry1      ,and in    
this garden must ,i rescue her4         
,but stay1 what murdrous spectacle is   
this8      ,a man hang'd up1 and all the
 ,murderers gone2      ,and in my       

,bower1 to lay the guilt on me8         
,this place was made for pleasure1 not  
for death3                              
,he cuts him down4      ,these garments 
that he wears ,i oft have seen3         
,alas1 it is ,horatio1 my sweet         
son6'----    and so he makes his        
discovery and devotes himself henceforth
 to revenge4  ,the labels issuing from  
the actors' mouths show that the artist 
had  studied his text1 and ,i cannot    
resist remarking on how admirably he has
  caught the pose of the straw dummy1   
which must have been left hanging to    
personate ,horatio1 in place of the     
actor1 who had doubtless slipped  behind
 the arbour during the scuffle and was  
now resting after his  exertions4    ,of
 plays first acted in the seventeenth   
century which have woodcuts1 the        
earliest is probably1 ',if you know not 
me1 you know nobodie3 ,or the  troubles 
of ,queene ,elizabeth4 ,printed for     
,nathaniel ,butter1 #afjf4' ,to  render 
the 'me' emphatic there is a portrait of

 ,queen ,bess seated in a  chair of     
state1 crowned1 and with ball and       
sceptre in her hands4 ,it is  carefully 
drawn and cut1 and no doubt represents  
the 'make up' which the  actors         
followed4 ,seven years later the same   
publisher similarly  embellished another
 chronicle play1 ',when you see me you  
know me1 or the  famous ,chronicle      
,historie of ,king ,henrie the ,eight1  
with the birth and  vertuous life of    
,edward ,prince of ,wales4 ,as it was   
played by the high  and mightie ,prince 
of ,wales his servants4 ,by ,samuel     
,rowly1 servant to  the ,prince4 7,at   
,london1 ,printed for ,nathaniel        
,butter1 and are to be sold  at his shop
 in ,paules churchyard near ,s4         
,austines ,gate4 #afac47' ,in the  cut  
,henry ,,viii41 in his familiar         
attitude1 is standing enveloped in      
curtains1 rather like a stage manager   
who has come to the 'front' to  address 
the audience4    ,but for our purpose   
kings and queens copied from familiar   

portraits are  less important than      
persons of a much humbler rank1 and more
 interesting  than either of the two    
illustrations just described is that of 
the  heroine from ',the ,roaring ,girls 
or ,moll ,cut-,purse4 ,as it hath lately
  beene acted on the ,fortune ,stage by 
the ,prince his ,players4 ,written by   
,g4 ,middleton and ,p4 ,dekkar4         
7,printed at ,london for ,thomas        
,archer4  #afaa47' ,moll ,cut-,purse was
 a real person1 of whom1 as ,mary       
,frith1 a  judicial account from the pen
 of ,mr4 ,a4 ,h4 ,bullen will be found  
in the  ',dictionary of ,national       
,biography4' ,in the play she frightens 
a father  into allowing his son to marry
 another ,mary by persuading him that it
 is  she herself of whom the young man  
is enamoured4 ,she is credited with     
'the spirit of foure great parishes and 
a voyce that will drown all the  citty1'
 but the cowardly ,laxton1 whom she     
fights1 mistakes her in her  male attire
 for a young barrister1 and perhaps the 

,temple produced many  rufflers not     
unlike the figure here shown4 ,mary     
,frith herself seems to  have had few   
good qualities1 but ,moll in the play is
 an amiable giant1  and her promise to  
her servant of the reversion of her     
man's clothes  'next week' was probably 
made in order to persuade the spectators
 that  this masquerading was only an    
isolated freak4    ,illustration3 ,,moll
 ,,cut-,,purse    ,illustration3        
,,greene',s ',,tu ,,quoque'    ,no less 
interesting than this1 and artistically 
the best picture we have  to show1 is   
the title-cut of ',greene's ,tu ,quoque 
or the ,cittie ,gallant1  as it hath    
beene divers times acted by the ,queenes
 ,maiesties servants4  ,written by ,jo4 
,cooke1 ,gent4 7,printed at ,london for 
,john ,trundle4 #afad47'  ,originally   
known as ',the ,cittie ,gallant1' this  
play was renamed after  ,thomas ,green1 
the actor who so successfully personated
 ',bubble1' to  whom the ',tu ,quoque'  
quip is assigned4    ,bubble is the type

 of the foolish young gentleman who     
wants to know 'the  lowest price of     
being italianated4' ,no doubt this      
excellent cut is a  portrait of ,green  
in the part as he enters 'gallanted1'   
and exclaims3  ',how apparel makes a man
 respected1 the very children in the    
streets do  adore me2 for if a boy that 
is throwing at his jackalent chance to  
hit  me on the shins1 why ,i say nothing
 but ,tu quoque1 smile and forgive  the 
child with a beck of my hand or some    
such like token3 so by that  means ,i do
 seldom go without broken shins4'       
,illustration3 ,,from ',,the ,,maids    
,,tragedie'    ,in contrast to these    
portraits of single characters is the   
title-cut of  ',the ,maids ,tragedie1 as
 it hath beene diuers times acted at the
  ,black-,friers by the ,kings          
,maiesties ,seruants4 ,newly perused1   
augmented  and inlarged1 this second    
,impression4 7,london1 ,printed for     
,francis  ,constable1 and are to be sold
 at the ,white ,lion in ,pauls          

,church-yard1  #afbb47' ,here we have   
depicted the chief incident of the play1
 the fight  which ,aspatia1 in man's    
clothes1 forces upon ,amintor in order  
to end her  life at his hand4 ,the      
drawing is a little rude1 but1 as will  
be seen  from the following quotation1  
the attitude of ,aspatia is strictly in 
accordance with the text4               
',aspatia4 ,you must be urged1 ,i do not
 deal uncivilly      ,with those that   
dare to fight1 but such as you          
,must be used thus4                     
,she strikes him4        ,amintor4      
,i prithee1 youth1 take heed4      ,thy 
sister is a thing to me so much         
,above mine honour that ,i can endure   
,all this--good gods6--a blow ,i can    
endure1      ,but stay not1 lest thou   
draw a timeless death      ,upon thy    
self4        ,aspatia4      ,thou art   
some prating fellow1      ,one that has 
studied out a trick to talk      ,and   
move soft-hearted people2 to be kickt1  
,she kicks him4      ,thus to be        

kickt--aside ,why should he be so slow  
,in giving me my death8        ,amintor4
            ,a man can bear      ,no    
more and keep his flesh4 ,forgive me    
then1      ,i would endure yet1 if ,i   
could4 ,now show      ,the spirit thou  
pretendest1 and understand      ,thou   
hast no hour to live4      ,they fight4 
,what dost thou mean8 ,thou canst not   
fight4      ,the blows thou mak'st at me
 are quite besides1      ,and those ,i  
offer at thee1 thou spread'st thine arms
      ,and tak'st upon thy breast1 alas1
 defenceless6        ,aspatia4 ,i have  
got enough1      ,and my desire4 ,there 
is no place so fit      ,for me to die  
as here4'    ,the fight1 it will be     
observed1 is akin to that between ,david
 ,balfour  and ,alan ,breck in          
,stevenson's ',kidnapped1' but here the 
spectators' pity  is more keenly worked 
on by the inexpert challenger being a   
woman and  by the more tragical         
termination of the combat4 ,as for the  
artist1 no  doubt he did his best4      

,in ,beaumont and ,fletcher's ',a ,king 
and ,no ,king1' printed by ,t4 ,walkley 
in #afai1 the title-page shows a        
well-drawn figure of a man1 above whose 
head1 half on1 half off it1 a crown is  
held by an arm from the sky4 ,in        
',swetnam the ,woman-hater1 arraigned by
 women1' printed for ,richard  ,meighen 
the next year1 a fairly good cut1 which 
,i regret to have  remembered too late  
to have reproduced1 exhibits ,swetnam   
formally tried  at bar1 before a judge  
and jury of women4    ,illustration3    
,,the ,,fair ,,maid ,,of ,,the ,,west   
,our next picture is from ',the ,fair   
,maid of the ,west1 or1 a ,girle ,worth 
,gold4 ,the first part4 ,as it was      
lately acted before the ,king and       
,queen1  with approved liking1 by the   
,queens ,majesties ,comedians4 ,written 
by ,t4  ,h4 7,london1 ,printed for      
,richard ,royston1 and are to be sold at
 his ,shop  in ,ivie ,lane4 #afca47'    
,the cut1 of course1 represents the     
'girl worth  gold1' and leaves one      

wondering whether the man who took the  
part was  really able to screw his waist
 to the fashionable limit here shown4   
,in ',the ,iron ,age3 ,contayning the   
,rape of ,hellen3 ,the siege of ,troy3  
,the  ,combate betwixt ,hector and      
,aiax3 ,hector and ,troilus slayne by   
,achilles3  ,achilles slaine by ,paris3 
,aiax and ,vlisses contend for the      
,armour of  ,achilles3 ,the ,death of   
,aiax1 etc4 ,written by ,thomas         
,heywood1' we have a  very pictorial    
title-page1 which duly answers to the   
stage direction3  ',alarum4 ,in this    
combat1 both having lost their swords   
and shields1  ,hector takes up a great  
piece of a rock and casts at ,aiax1 who 
tears a  young tree up by the roots1 and
 assails ,hector2 at which they are     
parted  by both armies4'    ,in ',the   
,second ,part' 7,n4 ,okes1 #afcb7 the   
title-cut shows ,troy in flames1  the   
,greeks issuing from the wooden horse1  
and in the foreground ,sinon  and       
,thersites engaged in a most            

conventional stage dialogue4 ,the actual
  greeting of these heroes is in        
contrast with the earnest mien the      
artist  has given them2 for ,thersites  
hails ,sinon as ',my ,urchin1' and      
,sinon  hails ,thersites as ',my ,toad4'
 ,but these epithets had no doubt a     
hidden  meaning4    ,our next           
illustration is from ',the ,foure       
,prentises of ,london1 ,with the        
,conquest of ,jerusalem4 ,as it hath    
beene diuers times acted at the         
,red-,bull1 by the ,queene's ,maiestie's
 ,seruants with good applause4  ,written
 and newly reuised by ,thomas ,heywood4 
7,printed at ,london by  ,nicholas      
,okes1 #afcb47'    ,on the whole1 ,i am 
inclined to think that the picture      
merely represents  the jovial dance of  
the apprentices1 either when their      
labours are over1  or when1 after the   
proclamation for the ,crusades1 they    
hold this  colloquy3        ',eustace4  
,ran1 tan1 tan4      ,now by ,s4 ,george
 he tells us gallant newes4      ,i'll  

home no more4 ,i'll run away to-night4  
,guy4 ,if ,i cast bowl1 or spoon1 or    
salt again1      ,before ,i have beheld 
,jerusalem      ,let me turn ,pagan4    
,charles4          ,hats and caps1      
adieu2      ,for ,i must leave you1 if  
the ,drum say true4        ,godfrey4    
,nay1 then1 have with you1 brothers6 for
 my spirit      ,with as much vigour    
hath burst forth as thine1      ,and can
 as hardly be restrain'd as yours4      
,give me your hands4 ,i will consort you
 too3      ,let's try what ,london      
,prentices can do6        ,eustace4 ,for
 my ,trades sake1 if good success ,i    
have      ,the grocers arms shall in my 
ensign wave4        ,guy4 ,and if my    
valour bring me to command      ,the    
,goldsmiths' arms shall in my colours   
stand4        ,godfrey4 ,so of us all4  
,then let us in one fleet      ,launch  
all together4'    ,these are brave      
words1 and the coats of arms hung over  
the 'prentices'  heads are in accordance
 with them4 ,but there is a stage       

direction later  on in the play3        
',alarum4 ,the four brethren each of    
them kill a ,pagan  king1 take off their
 crowns and exeunt1 two one way and two 
another  way'2 and ,i cannot but regret 
that the artist did not choose this as  
the  subject of his cut4                
,illustration3 ,,the ,,four ,,prentises 
,,of ,,london    ,in #afee ',the ,merry 
,devil of ,edmonton' appeared from the  
press of ,d4  ,gilbertson with a        
title-cut showing ,banks and his famous 
horse on a  platform4 ,our last         
illustration is taken1 not from this1   
but from  another ,edmonton play1 ',the 
,witch of ,edmonton1 a known true story4
  ,composed into a tragi-comedy by      
divers well-esteemed ,poets2 ,william   
,rowley1 ,thomas ,dekker1 ,john ,ford1  
etc4 ,acted by the ,princes ,servants1  
often at the ,cock-,pit in ,drury-,lane1
 once at ,court1 with singular          
,applause4 ,never printed till now4     
7,london1 ,printed by ,j4 ,cottrel1 for 
,edward ,blackmore1 at the ,angel in    

,paul's ,churchyard4 #afeh47'           
,illustration3 ,,from ',,the ,,witch    
,,of ,,edmonton'    ,the illustration in
 this case is a composite one1 referring
 to three  different moments in the     
play4 ,mother ,sawyer is found by the   
dog--said  dog1 of course1 being 'a     
,familiar'--cursing 'that curmudgeon    
,banks1'  the 'clown' of the piece1 who1
 with three of his companions1 has been 
abusing her4 ,a long speech of          
imprecation ends with the effective     
line3        ',vengeance1 shame1 ruin1  
light upon that ,canker1'    and it is  
then that there appears the stage       
direction1 ',enter ,dog1' his  opening  
remark being the ',ho6 have ,i found    
thee cursing8 now thou art  mine own1'  
of which part is shown on the label4    
,the dog subsequently  explains that it 
is only when he finds people cursing    
that he can obtain  powers over them of 
life and death1 but before owning to    
this limitation  he has rather unfairly 
got the old woman to seal the usual     

covenant with  her blood1 and instructed
 her in the art of making herself       
unpleasant4        ',i'll tell thee1    
when thou wishest ill2      ,corn1 ,man 
or ,beast1 would spoyl or kill1         
,turn thy back against the ,sun1        
,and mumble this short ,orison3         
,if thou to death or shame pursue 'em   
,sanctibicetur nomen tuum4'    ,in a    
subsequent scene the ,spirit takes the  
form of ,katherine ,carter1  with whom  
,cuddy ,banks is in love4 ,on her       
appearing to him he remarks  that he    
will teach her to walk so late6 ,the    
teaching1 however1 was not  on his side4
 ,she trips before him1 and his         
exclamation as he quits the  stage1     
',nay1 by your leave ,i must embrace    
you1' is speedily followed by  that     
quoted in the cut1 ',oh help1 help1 ,i  
am drown'd4 ,i am drown'd4' ,the  stage 
direction hereupon is ',enter ,wet1' and
 the dog1 after four  diabolic 'ha      
ha's1' bids him ',take heed how thou    
trustest the ,devil  another time6' ,the

 tumbling into the water1 it will be    
observed1 like  the murder of her       
children by ,medea1 was enacted behind  
the stage1  probably because on the     
stage there was no means of simulating  
water to  tumble into4 ,in this case1   
therefore1 the artist1 a very rude one1 
it  must be confessed1 not only brought 
three scenes together1 but depicted  one
 which the audience could not have      
witnessed4    ,our subject has been     
limited to woodcuts in old plays1 but it
 should be  noted that both the undated 
editions of ,middleton's ',game of      
,chess' have  engraved title-pages of   
some merit4 ,as for our woodcuts1 ,i    
have tried to  resist the temptation to 
claim for them more than they deserve4  
,one or  two of them are really good1   
several others at least interesting1 a  
few1  like that at which we have just   
been looking1 poor stuff enough4 ,but   
they are connected with the greatest    
period of the ,english drama1 and it    
has been worth while to collect these   

notes1 if only to show that this  is the
 best that ,english artists could do1 or
 ,english publishers had the  enterprise
 to commission them to do1 when they    
were confronted with so  unique an      
opportunity4          ,,herrick ,,and   
,,his ,,friends#ba           #ba ,from  
',macmillan's ,magazine1' by leave of   
the editor and       publishers4    ,to 
all but his professed admirers ,herrick 
is chiefly known by a little  handful of
 lyrics1 which appear with great        
regularity in the  anthologies1 but     
bring with them a very incomplete       
impression of their  author's           
personality and life4 ,in the case of   
,herrick this is no great  wonder4 ,the 
same sensuous feeling which made him    
invest his friends with  the perfume of 
,juno or ,isis1 sing of their           
complexions as roses  overspread with   
lawn1 compare their lips to cherries1   
and praise their  silver feet1 had also 
its other side4 ,the unlucky wights who 
incurred  the poet's wrath were treated 

in a fashion equally offensive to good  
taste and good manners4 ,nor are these  
gruesome epigrams the only apples  in   
the garden of ,herrick's ',hesperides'  
which have affronted the taste  of      
modern readers4 ,the epigrams indeed1 if
 apples at all1 are rather the  dusty   
apples of the ,dead ,sea than the       
pleasant fruit of the ,western  ,isles2 
but ,herrick's ',epithalamia1' odes     
whose sustained splendour gives  them a 
high rank among his poems1 because they 
sing of other  marriage-rites than those
 of rice and slipper1 have also tended  
to  restrict the circle of his readers  
in an age which prides itself on its    
modesty4 ,hence it has come about that  
while the names of the lovely  ladies of
 the poet's imagination1--,julia1       
,dianeme1 ,electra1 ,perilla--are       
widely known1 those of the men and women
 whom ,herrick treasured as his  friends
 are all but forgotten1 and the         
materials for constructing a  picture of
 the society amid which the poet moved  

have been neglected and  thrown aside4  
,like most bachelors1 ,herrick set a    
high value upon friendship1 and in  his 
sedater middle age1 when his poetry had 
lost something of its fire1  he set     
himself to construct a poetic temple to 
commemorate the virtues  of the men and 
women whom he most loved or honoured4   
,sometimes instead  of a temple he      
speaks of a book1 sometimes his friends 
are his 'elect1'  his 'righteous tribe1'
 language which recalls the 'sealed of  
the tribe  of ,ben' of his favourite    
,jonson4 ,inclusion among them was      
clearly  reckoned as an honour1 and many
 of the poems in which it is conferred  
were evidently written in response to   
solicitation1 sportive or earnest  as we
 may choose to think4 ,these friends of 
his later days are not  always very     
interesting4 ,many of them are of his   
relations1 ,herricks1 or  some of the   
innumerable ,stones and ,soames1        
well-to-do folk with whom the  poet     
claimed cousinship through his mother1  

,julia ,stone4 ,some of the  outsiders  
are more to our purpose--,john ,selden  
the ,antiquary1 for  instance1 whose    
intimacy was no small honour1 and ,dr4  
,alabaster1 who in  his young days had  
become a convert to ,catholicism while  
serving with  ,essex in ,spain1 but     
whose apocalyptic writings brought him  
into trouble  with the ,inquisition1    
from whose clutches he was glad to find 
refuge in  a return to ,protestantism   
and an ,english living4 ,mr4 ,john      
,crofts1  cup-bearer to the ,king1 is   
another friend who brings with him a    
distinct  sense of reality4 ,herrick    
calls him his 'faithful friend1' and    
their  acquaintance was probably of long
 standing1 for we hear of ,crofts as in 
the ,king's service a year or two before
 the poet buried himself in his         
,devonshire living1 and on the other    
hand all these ',temple' poems  impress 
us as having been written late in       
,herrick's life4 ,in his younger  days  
,crofts himself may have been a         

rhymester1 for in the ,state ,papers    
there is a letter from ,lord ,conway    
thanking ,william ,weld for some        
verses1 and expressing a hope that the  
lines may be 'strong enough to  bind    
,robert ,maule and ,jack ,crofts' from  
evermore using some phrase  unknown4    
,mr4 ,crofts seems to have had worse    
faults than this of using  incorrect    
phrases1 for a year or two later 7#afcd7
 there is a record of a  petition from  
,george1 ,lord ,digby1 praying to be    
released from an  imprisonment incurred 
for assaulting ,herrick's friend under  
very  irritating provocation4 ,jack had 
passed some insult on a lady under ,lord
  ,digby's escort1 had apologised1 had  
boasted of the original offence1 and    
when finally brought to book had        
interspersed remarks such as ',well6'   
and ',what then8' in a manner which made
 caning seem too good for him4  ,but    
this is the petitioner's account1 and   
,jack himself might have given  a       
different version4    ,others of        

,herrick's friends seem occasionally to 
have got themselves  into trouble4 ,dr4 
,john ,parry1 for instance1 ,chancellor 
of the ,diocese of  ,exeter1 when first 
appointed1 was accused of having        
oppressed divers  people with           
excommunications for the sake of fees2  
but we hear of him  afterwards as highly
 recommended by the                     
,deputy-,lieutenants1 and his  early    
exactions must have been atoned to the  
,king's satisfaction1 since  the        
chancellor was thought worthy to be made
 a judge-marshal1 and to  receive the   
honour of knighthood4    ,many of       
,herrick's poems bear reference1 direct 
or indirect1 to the ,civil  ,war4 ,he   
bewailed the separation of the ,king and
 ,queen1 welcomed ,charles  to the ,west
 in verse which sang the 'white omens'  
of his coming1  congratulated him on his
 taking of ,leicester in ,may1 #afde1   
and composed  an ode1 ',to the ,king    
upon his welcome to ,hampton ,court1' in
 which he  took all too cheerful a view 

of the royal prospects4 ,his book is    
dedicated to ,charles ,,ii41 and it     
contains also an address ',to ,prince   
,charlie upon his coming to ,exeter1'   
which probably refers to a visit in     
#afde4 ,years before he had sung the    
,prince's birth in a pretty choral  ode1
 taking note of the star which appeared 
at noontide when the ,king  his father  
went to make thanksgiving at ,st4       
,paul's ,cathedral4 ,two other          
incidents in the west-country campaign  
inspired his muse1 the taking and       
holding of ,exeter by ,sir ,john        
,berkeley1 and the gallant victories won
 in  ,cornwall by ,lord ,hopton over    
very superior numbers4 ,for the rest    
there  is nothing in the ',hesperides'  
to show that ,herrick was a bigoted     
royalist4 ,utterances in favour of the  
divine right of kings and the duty  of  
implicit obedience are not hard to find2
 but they are balanced by  epigrams     
which show a much more ,parliamentary   
spirit1 and it is often  difficult to   

tell where ,herrick is expressing his   
own sentiments and  where he is simply  
running into verse some sentence or     
phrase which  happened to catch his     
attention4    ,when the end came1       
,herrick1 like many another country     
priest1 was turned  out of his living1  
shook the dust of ,dean ,prior off his  
feet1 and  returned contentedly to      
,london1 there to take his place in a   
little band  of wits who were able to   
endure the gloom of the ,presbyterian   
rule which  then held the city in its   
grasp4 ,he passed his ',hesperides' and 
',noble  ,numbers' through the press1   
made friends with young ,john ,hall1    
then  fresh from ,cambridge but with a  
,european reputation for cleverness2    
addressed his 'honoured friend' ,mr4    
,charles ,cotton1 probably the friend   
of ,izaak ,walton and translator of     
,montaigne2 overpraised ,leonard        
,willan1  a wretched poet and dramatist1
 and contributed a curious poem to the  
',lachrymae ,musarum1' in which1 under  

the editorship of ,richard ,brome1  all 
the wits of the day poured forth their  
lament for the death of ,lord  ,hastings
 in #afdi4 ,then ,herrick vanishes from 
our sight1 and save that he  returned to
 his living after the ,restoration and  
died there at ,dean  ,prior in #afgd we 
know no more of him4    ,the mention of 
,herrick's ',temple' or ',book' of his  
heroes has led us to  gossip first of   
the less interesting half of his life   
which followed on  his acceptance of a  
country living4 ,the nine or ten years  
which passed  between his leaving       
,cambridge and his retirement to        
,devonshire were  probably the most     
poetically productive in all his career1
 and1 from the  glimpses which his poems
 give us1 were certainly the gayest and 
most  amusing4    ,he had gone to the   
,university unusually late in life1 in  
#afac when he  was already in his       
twenty-first year1 that is to say1 five 
or six years  senior to the average     
freshman of those days4 ,after his      

father's suicide  7for the fall from a  
window following immediately on making  
his will can  hardly have been          
accidental1 and was not so regarded at  
the time7 the  care of the poet and his 
brothers had devolved on their uncles   
,robert  and ,william1 and the latter1  
who was jeweller1 goldsmith1 and banker 
to  ,james ,i41 shortly after receiving 
the honour of knighthood from the       
,king1 on ,september #be1 #afjg1        
accepted his nephew as an apprentice for
  ten years4 ,herrick's appreciation of 
material beauty was so keen that  the   
absence from his poems 7so far as my    
memory serves me7 of any  striking      
allusions to goldsmith's work may       
perhaps be taken as evidence  that      
during his apprenticeship with his uncle
 he did not make any great  progress in 
the craft4 ,at all events he persuaded  
,sir ,william to excuse  him the last   
four years of his time1 and betook      
himself to ,cambridge1  the poets'      
,university4    ,fourteen letters which 

he wrote to his uncle from his college  
still  survive1 all written in a        
high-flown rhetorical style1 sometimes  
lapsing  into blank verse1 and with one 
unvarying theme1--the need of a prompt  
remittance4 ,his allowance was #dj a    
year 7some #bjj present value71         
probably paid out of the remnant of the 
#fjj odd which came to him from  his    
father's estate4 ,this of itself was no 
bad 'stipend1' to use the  poet's word1 
and from the tone of the letters we may 
guess that it was  also supplemented by 
occasional gifts from his uncle and     
aunt4 ,but it  was apparently not paid  
regularly2 ,herrick was frequently in   
pecuniary  straits1 and about #afaf he  
migrated from ,st4 ,john's to ,trinity  
,hall in  order to curtail his expenses1
 taking his bachelor's degree from the  
latter college in #afag4    ,it would be
 placing too touching a faith in        
under-graduate nature to  attach much   
importance to the fact that the payments
 which ,herrick  requests were mostly to

 be made through booksellers1 and that  
7save once  when he confesses to having 
'run somewhat deep into my tailor's     
debt'7  the need of books or the        
advancement of his studies are the      
pretexts  mostly given for his requests 
for speedy payment4 ,but there is no    
reason  to imagine that ,herrick's      
university career was an idle one4 ,his 
poems  show considerable traces of a    
knowledge and love of the classics4 ,he 
translates from ,virgil that charming   
passage which describes the meeting  of 
neas with ,venus clad as a simple       
huntress1 is full of ,horatian          
reminiscences1 borrows a few couplets   
from ,ovid1 adapts quite a number  of   
epigrams from ,martial1 makes so much   
use of his ,catullus that we may  guess 
he knew a fair number of his odes by    
heart1 quotes ,cicero1 turns a  tag or  
two from ,sallust and ,tacitus1 and had 
a very extensive  acquaintance with     
,seneca4 ,in ,greek he takes a couplet  
from ,hesiod as a  motto for his ',noble

 ,numbers1' alludes to ,homer1 though   
his reference to  ,helen at the ,scaean 
,gate is perhaps rather from the ',love 
,letters' of  ,aristaenetus than the    
,iliad1 translates some twenty lines of 
,theocritus  into the pretty poem       
entitled ',the ,cruel ,maid1' knew      
something of the  ,planudean ,anthology1
 and knew1 loved1 translated1 and       
mitated the  pseudo-,anacreon4    ,a    
fuller account of ,herrick's            
indebtedness to ,greek and ,latin       
authors  will be found in another paper4
 ,this brief survey of his classical    
studies may suffice to prove that he was
 no idler1 and when he left the         
university and returned to town he must 
have been well able to hold his  own    
with the best wits of the day4 ,the     
well-known poem on ',his ,age1'         
'dedicated to his peculiar friend1 ,mr4 
,john ,weekes under the name of         
,posthumus1' contains in the printed    
version some vague reminiscences of     
their sportive days4 ,in the ,egerton   

,,ms4 #bgbe at the ,british ,museum one 
verse of this poem mentions some of     
their old play-fellows3        ',then   
the next health to friends of mine      
,in oysters and ,burgundian wine1       
,hind1 ,goderiske1 ,smith1      ,and    
,nansagge1--'    acquaintances of the   
years ere yet ,herrick had donned his   
parson's gown1  and whose amatory powers
 he compares to those of ,jove himself4 
,the identity of these heroes is not    
very easily determined4 ,a friend       
suggests that ,hind may have been ,john 
,hind1 an ,anacreontic poet and  friend 
of ,greene1 and has found references to 
a ,goderiske 7,goodrich7 and  a         
,nansagge1 of whom1 however1 only the   
names are known4 ,smith1 despite  the   
commonness of the name1 may almost      
certainly be identified with  ,james    
,smith1 a poet whose few verses         
sometimes strike a curiously modern     
note4 ,like ,herrick he acted at one    
time as chaplain to a squadron sent  to 
the relief of the ,isle of ,rh1 and like

 ,herrick also became a  ,devonshire    
parson4 ,he was1 too1 one of the editors
 and writers of the  ,anthology known as
 ',musarum ,deliciae1' and his colleague
 in that task1  the gallant royalist    
sailor1 ,sir ,john ,mennis1 was also a  
friend of  ,herrick1 who addressed a    
poem to him4 ,john ,wicks1 or ,weekes1  
the  ',posthumus' of ,herrick's verses1 
was another friend of ,mennis and       
,smith1  and also a country clergyman4  
,the first poem in the ',musarum        
,deliciae'  is addressed ',to ,parson   
,weeks2 an invitation to ,london4' ',one
 friend8'  he is told--        ',why    
thou hast thousands here      ,will     
strive to make thee better cheer4       
,ships lately from the islands came     
,with wines1 thou never heard'st their  
name--      ,montefiasco1 ,frontiniac1  
,viatico and that old ,sack      ,young 
,herrick took to entertain      ,the    
,muses in a sprightly vein'--    an     
invitation which links together the     
names of all these topers4  ,weekes1    

however1 so ,antony ,wood tells us1 was 
a good preacher as well as  a merry     
fellow4 ,his living was in ,cornwall1   
but he added to it a canonry  at        
,bristol4 ,herrick addresses two other  
poems to him2 one 'a  paraeneticall or  
advisive verse1' beginning1        ',is 
this a life to break thy sleep1      ,to
 rise as soon as day doth peep8      ,to
 tire thy patient ox or ass      ,by    
noon and let thy good days pass1        
,not knowing this1 that ,jove decrees   
,some mirth to adulce man's miseries8'  
lines which seem to show that ,parson   
,weekes took the cultivation of his     
glebe somewhat too seriously4 ,in the   
third poem he is again addressed as     
,herrick's 'peculiar friend1' and having
 apparently come off better than  most  
royalist parsons under the              
,commonwealth1 is exhorted to           
hospitality3        ',since shed or     
cottage ,i have none1      ,i sing the  
more that thou hast one1      ,to whose 
glad threshold and free door      ,i may

 a poet come1 though poor1      ,and eat
 with thee a savoury bit1      ,paying  
but common thanks for it4'    ,if       
,herrick made some friends among members
 of his own profession1 his  love of    
music probably procured him many more4  
,he addresses poems to  ,william and    
,henry ,lawes1 both of whom set verses  
of his to music2 he  alludes also to    
,dr4 ,john ,wilson1 to ,gaulthier1 to   
,lanire1 and to ,robert  ,ramsay1 in    
terms of familiarity4 ,the last named1  
who 'set' his version  of the dialogue  
between ,horace and ,lydia1 may have    
been a ,cambridge  friend1 as he was    
organist of ,trinity ,college           
7#afbh-afcd74 ,with another  organist1  
,john ,parsons of ,westminster ,abbey1  
who died in #afbc1 ,herrick  must have  
been acquainted very shortly after his  
return from ,cambridge4  ,evidence of   
the friendship remains in two charming  
little poems  addressed to the          
musician's daughters1 ,dorothy and      
,thomasine3        ',if thou ask me1    

dear1 wherefore      ,i do write of thee
 no more1      ,i must answer1 sweet1   
thy part      ,less is here than in my  
heart1'    are the lines which have     
given the elder sister immortality1     
while the  attractions of the second are
 for ever celebrated in the couplet1--  
',grow up in beauty1 as thou dost begin 
,and be of all admired1 ,thomasine4'    
,another family into which ,herrick's   
love of music was probably the key      
which gained him admission1 was that of 
the ,norgates4 ,according to the        
',calendars of ,state ,papers1' ,edward 
,norgate the elder was in #afaa         
appointed1 in conjunction with ,andrea  
,bassano1 to the office of tuner of  the
 ,king's virginals1 organs1 and other   
instruments2 and six-and-twenty  years  
later we find him superintending the    
repair of the organ in the  chapel at   
,hampton ,court4 ,his son1 another      
,edward1 was originally a  scrivener in 
the ,king's service1 and was employed   
'to write1 limn and  garnish with gold  

and colours' the royal letters to a     
picturesque list  of foreign potentates1
 including the ,grand ,signior1 the     
,king of ,persia1  the ,emperor of      
,russia1 the ,great ,mogul and other    
remote princes1 such as  the ,kings of  
,bantam1 ,macassar1 ,barbary1 ,siam1    
,achee1 ,fez1 and ,sus4 ,from  scrivener
 he was raised to be ,clerk of the      
,signet ,extraordinary1 and  thence to  
be ,windsor ,herald1 and to fill a      
variety of small offices of  profit4    
,herrick addresses him as 'the most     
accomplished gentleman1  ,master ,edward
 ,norgate1 ,clerk of the ,signet to his 
,majesty1' and remarks  that            
',for one so rarely tun'd to fit all    
parts1      ,for one to whom espoused   
are all the arts1      ,long have ,i    
sought for1 but could never see         
,them all concentered in one man but    
thee'--    a flattering tribute to the  
universality of ,norgate's talents4     
,we may pass now to some of ,herrick's  
patrons4 ,his relations with the  royal 

family we have already touched on1 so   
nothing more need be said  about them   
here4 ,after the ,king1 the ,duke of    
,buckingham1 whom he  accompanied as    
chaplain to the ,isle of ,rh1 was       
probably the most  influential of the   
poet's protectors1 and ,herrick         
addresses an effusive  poem to him1 and 
a prettier one to his sister1 ,lady     
,mary ,villiers4 ,with  the ,earl of    
,westmoreland1 himself the author of a  
volume of verse 7',otia  ,sacra'71      
,herrick was probably on rather more    
intimate terms4 ,he  addresses poems    
also to the ,duke of ,richmond and      
,lennox1 the ,earl of  ,pembroke        
7,massinger's patron71 ,edward ,earl of 
,dorset1 ,viscount ,newark1  and also to
 the ,viscount's son1 whom he calls     
',ultimus ,heroum1 or the  most learned 
and the ,right ,honourable ,henry       
,marquis of ,dorchester4'  ,joseph      
,hall1 ,bishop of ,exeter 7his          
diocesan71 and ,williams1 ,bishop of    
,lincoln1 are the only episcopal        

recipients of his verses4 ,he bespeaks  
the favour of the former for his book1  
while to the latter he addresses  a     
carol and a congratulation on his       
release from imprisonment1 in which  he 
speaks obscurely of some ill-turn which 
,williams had done him4 ,the  list of   
lesser men of rank1 knights and         
baronets1 among ,herrick's  friends is  
of about the same length4 ,sir ,simeon  
,steward1 who competed  with him in     
writing fairy poems1 is still remembered
 by literary  antiquaries1 and ,sir     
,john ,denham1 whom he congratulated on 
his  'prospective poem' 7',cooper's     
,hill'71 is1 of course1 well known4 ,but
 ,sir  ,clipsby ,crew1 ,sir ,lewis      
,pemberton1 ,sir ,edward ,fish1 ,sir    
,thomas ,heale1  ,sir ,thomas           
,southwell1 and other worthy magnates of
 the day1 now only  survive in          
,herrick's verse and the indices to     
,county ,histories4 ,sir  ,clipsby      
,crew1 to whom he addresses five poems  
7besides two to his lady71  was probably

 the most intimate of these friends1 as 
,herrick speaks of  him as ',my ,crew1' 
',my ,clipsby1' and after telling him   
how he and his  friends 'securely live  
and eat the cream of meat1' quoting     
,anacreon and  ,horace the while1 bids  
the 'brave knight' come to visit his    
cell1 an  invitation which implies      
familiarity4 ,yet it is to be feared    
that with  all these good knights       
,herrick held the ,elizabethan relation 
of poet to  patron rather than a purely 
equal friendship4 ,various verses to    
,sir  ,clipsby ,crew1 ,sir ,lewis       
,pemberton1 ,mr4 ,kellan and others1    
show that  ,herrick loved to frequent a 
rich man's table1 and that when his own 
cellar was empty he was not slow to     
remind his friends that without         
,bacchus song is impossible4 ,herrick's 
ducal patrons probably repaid his       
compliments in broad pieces1 and even a 
plain commoner1 ,master ,endymion       
,porter1 is commended for his liberality
 to poets1 in that he 'not only  praised

 but paid them too4'    ,this ,endymion 
,porter is the last of ,herrick's       
friends with whom we shall  concern     
ourselves1 and in many respects the most
 interesting of them  all4 ,originally  
in the service of ,buckingham1 he       
accompanied the ,duke  and ,prince      
,charles on their visit to ,spain1 and  
passed into the latter's  service some  
time in the year #afbd as a groom of the
 chamber4 ,he made  himself useful to   
the ,king in many ways1 and as early as 
,may #afbe was  granted a pension of    
#ejj a year for life1 and three years   
later was  assigned the invidious office
 of ,collector of ,fines to the ,star   
,chamber1  'with a moiety of the fines  
he shall bring in4' ,porter was as full 
also  of projects as ,steele himself1   
and turned them1 it would seem1 to much 
better account4 ,thus we hear of        
ventures of his in ships called the     
,samaritan and the ,roebuck1 the latter 
of which proved so  remunerative that   
the common sailors took #bj apiece as   

their share4 ,he  contracted to drain   
,somercoates ,marsh in ,lincolnshire1   
and complained to  the ,privy ,council  
when his workmen were interfered with4  
,in #afce he  joined with ,lord ,conway 
in petitioning the ,king for a grant of 
a kind of  inspectorship of silks1 for  
which dues were to be levied and #ajj a 
year paid to the ,treasury1 the balance 
passing to the inspectors4 ,two  years  
later ,porter and his son ,george became
 deputies in the management  of ,his    
,majesty's ,posts4 ,then we hear of him 
as an assistant in the  ,corporation of 
,saltmakers of ,yarmouth1 and a little  
later he is  concerned in the erection  
of a light-house and harbour at ,filey1 
near  ,flamborough ,head4 ,an invention 
for perfecting bar-iron without the use 
of ,scotch coal was his next venture1   
and1 having apparently obtained a       
patent for this1 he prays the ,king for 
a grant of the forest of ,exmoor  in    
fee-farm with a tenure in socage and the
 liberty of disafforestation4  ,next    

year 7#afch7 he was given the reversion 
of the ,surveyorship of ,petty  ,customs
 in the ,port of ,london 7,chaucer's old
 post71 and a little later  on1 with the
 ,marquis of ,hamilton1 obtained leave  
from the ,king to  examine all accounts 
made to his ,majesty1 and when they     
found any  accountants to have deceived 
the ,king1 to make what advantage they  
could1 either by compounding with       
delinquents of that kind or by          
prosecuting them1 the ,king to have one 
half the profit1 and ,porter and  the   
,marquis the other4 ,many accountants1  
we are told1 came in and  offered very  
considerable compositions1 so much more 
grist to ,porter's  ever busy mill4     
,these grants and petitions1 it must be 
confessed1 shed  but a sorry light on   
the way affairs were managed during the 
eleven  years of ,charles's personal    
government1 but ,porter knew how to make
  himself a favourite with the ,king by 
purchasing him works of art1  conducting
 negotiations with ,rubens and other    

painters1 and many similar  services4   
,the ,state ,papers which give us all   
these details of his  business life tell
 us also some interesting scraps as to  
his taste in  dress and at the table4   
,he orders wine from abroad1 and        
apparently uses  his influence to get it
 in duty free1 while a friend gratefully
 informs  him that he has tried the     
largest soles he ever saw1 fried them   
and  pickled them according to          
,endymion's directions1 and found them  
excellent4 ,a husband who knows much    
about cookery does not always           
contribute to the easy digestion of     
family meals4 ,if ,endymion interfered  
much in this or other respects1 he may  
probably have repented of it1 for  his  
wife1 ,olive1 was plainly a little      
hot-tempered4 ,while ,endymion was      
absent in ,spain the letters of husband 
and wife are full of pretty  quarrels   
and reconciliations4 ',her will1' he    
writes once1 'must be done1  or else    
there will be but little quiet'2 and    

again1--',i wish no more  wrangling till
 we meet1 absence being punishment      
enough4 ,i beg you not  to beat ,george 
7their eldest son7 so much1 unless he be
 very like me4 ,i  will never beat      
,charles for being like you4' ,but ,mrs4
 ,porter could be  submissive as well as
 provoking4 ,her brother tells her that 
,endymion is  very angry1 and she writes
 that--',she did not think he could have
 been  so cruel to have stayed so long  
away1 and not to forgive that which he  
knows was spoken in passion4 ,she knows 
not how to beg his pardon1  because she 
has broken word with him before1 but she
 hopes his good  nature will forgive    
her1 and that he will come home4' ,some 
day the  temptation to piece together   
these married love-letters1 with a      
sketch  of what can be found out as to  
this interesting man1 will become       
irresistible4#bb ,here ,i must hasten to
 justify ,porter's appearance on  the   
present occasion4 ,five of ,herrick's   
poems are addressed to him1 all  in the 

vein of a poet to a patron with whom he 
was on familiar terms4  ,one ,i take to 
be an answer to a letter of condolence  
on the death of one  of ,herrick's own  
brothers1 though it is usually          
maintained that the  death alluded to is
 that of a brother of ,porter himself4  
,the others are  all sportive2 a letter 
in praise of a country life1 a dialogue 
in which  ,herrick and ,porter sing in  
turns the charms of country and court1  
and  two encomiums on ,porter's         
liberality4         #bb ,since this     
article was written1 a pleasant volume  
on the ',life       and ,letters of ,mr4
 ,endymion ,porter' has been brought out
 by       ,dorothea ,townshend 7,fisher 
,unwin1 #ahig74        ',let there be   
patrons1 patrons like to thee1          
,brave ,porter6 poets ne'er will wanting
 be2      ,fabius and ,cotta1 ,lentulus 
all live      ,in thee1 thou man of men6
 who here dost give      ,not only      
subject-matter for our wit      ,but    
likewise oil of maintenance for it4'    

,and again this quatrain1 which calls up
 an amusing picture3        ',when to   
thy porch ,i come and ravish'd see      
,the state of poets there attending     
thee1      ,those bards and ,i all in a 
chorus sing      ,we are thy prophets1  
,porter1 thou our ,king4'    ,as these  
verses remind us1 ,porter was a patron  
of many other poets  besides ,herrick1  
and by them also was duly besung4 ,he   
was a patron1 too  7the trait is too    
delightful to be omitted71 of the       
redoubtable ,captain  ,dover1 and in his
 capacity of ,groom of the ,bedchamber1 
gave that worthy  a suit of the ,king's 
clothes to lend more grace to the       
celebration of  the ,cotswold ,games4   
,but here1 alas1 we must bid farewell to
 him4 ,there  are yet others of         
,herrick's friends of whom we would fain
 write1 notably  a group of charming    
ladies3 ,mistress ,bridget ,lowman1 to  
whom he wrote  his ',meadow ,verse'2    
,mrs4 ,dorothy ,kennedy1 from whom he   
parted with so  much sorrow2 the 'most  

comely and proper ,mistress ,elizabeth  
,finch'2  ',mrs4 ,catherine ,bradshaw1  
the lovely1 that crowned him with       
laurels'2  and last1 but certainly not  
least1 that ',pearl of ,putney1 the     
mistress  of all singular manners1      
,mistress ,portman4' ,but these1 alas1  
are as  mysterious to us as ,julia and  
,dianeme themselves4 ,the gossip that   
has  here been set down has been        
gleaned1 painfully enough1 from old     
records  and registers1 and even these  
seemingly inexhaustible treasures will  
not  always yield the information we    
desire4          ,a ,,poet',s           
,,studies#bc           #bc ,from ',the  
,guardian4' ,by leave of the editor4    
,it would be curious to trace the       
history of the value we now attach to   
originality of ideas4 ,certainly1 in the
 ,middle ,ages originality was but      
lightly esteemed in comparison with the 
appearance of learning which is         
obtained by frequent reference to older 
authors4 ,chaucer1 for instance1        

delights in acknowledgments of his      
indebtedness to 'old books1' and  even  
appears to have invented one or two     
authorities rather than take  the       
responsibility for his statements on his
 own shoulders4 ,moreover1 in  many of  
his earlier poems his indebtedness to   
other writers is really  great4 ,thus in
 the ',parliament of ,foules' we find   
him taking hints from  ,boccaccio1 from 
,dante1 from ,alain de l',isle1 from    
,macrobius1 ,claudian1  and ,statius4   
,despite this indebtedness his work     
remains essentially his  own2 but his   
borrowings1 especially from ,boccaccio  
and ,de l',isle1 are  much more         
considerable than custom would permit to
 a modern poet4  ,shakespeare's royal   
method of appropriation is something    
quite different  from this1 and it is   
probable that the esteem for originality
 first  sprung up as an incident of that
 general revolt from the tyranny of     
authority which marked the sixteenth    
century4 ,by #afgb1 when the            

',rehearsal' was upon the stage1 the    
habit of copying old authors had  become
 a subject for ridicule3--    ',why1    
sir1' says ,bayes1 'when ,i have        
anything to invent ,i never trouble  my 
head about it as other men do1 but      
presently turn o'er this book1 and      
there ,i have at one view all that      
,persius1 ,montaigne1 ,seneca's         
',tragedies1' ,horace1 ,juvenal1        
,claudian1 ,pliny1 ,plutarch's ',lives1'
 and  the rest have ever thought upon   
this subject1 and so1 in a trice1 by    
leaving out a few words1 or putting in  
others of my own1 the business is       
done4' ,the bolt was apparently only    
shot into the air1 and certainly had    
not1 as far as we can see1 any special  
appropriateness to ,dryden1 whom  ,bayes
 was mainly intended to satirise4 ,but  
it is curious to note1 though           
,buckingham was probably quite ignorant 
of the fact1 that when the words  were  
first spoken a poet was still living1 in
 a quiet country parsonage1  to whom by 

way of caricature they might have been  
applied with  remarkable exactness4 ,the
 poet was ,robert ,herrick1 by common   
consent one  of the most individual and 
original of poets1 from whose title to  
that  honour nothing in this paper will 
in any way detract4 ,for ,herrick's     
borrowings assuredly were the outcome   
less of his poverty of thought  than of 
his wealth of music4 ,a saying pleased  
him1 and by putting in or  leaving out a
 few words he seems to have made it run 
into graceful verse  with an ease and   
charm which were wholly his own4 ,a     
friend to whom the  present writer's    
,herrick-studies are more indebted than 
he can easily  express has made a       
special investigation into the          
borrowings1 and the  results of his     
inquiries are extremely curious4#bd     
#bd ,i am glad in reprinting this       
article to be allowed to give his       
name1 the ,rev4 ,c4 ,p4 ,phinn4    ,it  
should1 perhaps1 be premised that1      
although ,herrick does not draw our     

attention to more than a small part of  
his indebtedness1 he had  certainly no  
wish to conceal it4 ,in the sole edition
 of his poems  published during his life
 --an edition which served the needs of 
his  few readers for a hundred and      
seventy-five years--a considerable      
number  of lines are printed in italics4
 ,some of these lines represent a few   
words of a speech1 others are the       
quotation of a proverb or proverbial    
saying1 but the great majority indicate 
that the poet is translating  from a    
,latin author4 ,the italicised lines do 
not by any means exhaust  ,herrick's    
obligations to classical writers1 and we
 may conjecture that  when preparing his
 poems for the press he underscored the 
passages of  which he happened to       
recollect the original1 but that his    
memory in many  cases refused to serve  
him4    ,herrick's poems are known to so
 many readers only by selections and    
anthologies1 that it will probably cause
 even professed students of  poetry some

 surprise to hear that among his        
heaviest creditors is the  prosaic      
,seneca1 and that he is also            
considerably indebted to ,tacitus1  and 
in some slight degree to ,sallust4 ,the 
popularity of the epigram  during the   
first half of the seventeenth century is
 an episode in the  history of ,english 
literature which has been too much      
ignored4 ,most of  the epigrams         
themselves are worth little or          
nothing--often less than  nothing1 for  
many of them are vulgar or vile4        
,neither can it be said  that the men   
who wrote them--,sir ,john ,davies1     
,bastard1 ,pick1 ,parrot1 the  ,mays1   
and the rest--are of great interest4    
,but the popularity of the  epigram1 as 
testified by such a collection as       
',wit's ,recreation1' which  ran through
 five editions in the fourteen years1   
#afdj-ed1 helps us  greatly to          
understand the transition from the      
luxuriant poetry which  flourished in   
the first half of the century to the    

colder and more  prosaic verse which we 
associate with ,dryden4 ,now1 of these  
epigrams  ,herrick wrote somewhat more  
than his fair share1 and they were so   
much  in the temper of the time that in 
the next edition of ',wit's             
,recreations1' which appeared after the 
publication of his ',hesperides1'  the  
editors helped themselves liberally from
 his store4 ,some of these  epigrams had
 better never have been written1 for    
,herrick1 whose  sweetness at times     
almost cloys1 was also master of a      
peculiarly  nauseating dirt1 which his  
modern editors surely do well in        
refusing to  print4 ,most of these      
unpleasant verses he must take upon his 
own  shoulders1 though for a            
considerable number he found his evil   
inspiration in ,martial4 ,but for his   
cleaner epigrams he was often  indebted1
 as we have said1 to ,seneca and        
,tacitus1 and the influence of  these   
authors may also be traced in some of   
the gnomic sayings which  occasionally  

heighten the effect of his best and most
 graceful poems4  ,here are a few       
instances1 chosen almost at random4     
,herrick's ',safety on  the ,shore'3--  
',what though the sea be calm8 ,trust to
 the shore2      ,ships have been       
drown'd where late they danced before'--
    is from ,seneca1 ',ep4' #d3 ',noli  
huic tranquillitati confidere2 momento  
mare evertitur2 eodem die ubi luserunt  
navigia1 sorbentur4' ,in ,herrick's     
',no ,bashfulness in ,begging'--        
',to get thine ends1 lay bashfulness    
aside1      ,who fears to ask doth teach
 to be deny'd'--    the line he         
italicises is from ,seneca's            
',hippolytus' 7ll4 #eid1 #e7--',qui     
timide rogat 444 docet negare4' ,so too 
in ',loss from the ,least'--            
',great men by small means oft are      
overthrown2      ,he's lord of thy life 
who contemns his own'--    the quotation
 is again from ,seneca1 ',ep4'          
#d--',quisquis vitam suam  contempsit   
tuae dominus est4'    ,if we turn now to

 ,herrick's borrowings from ,tacitus we 
may take as a  good example his couplet 
headed1 ',things mortal still           
mutable'3--        ',things are         
uncertain1 and the more we get      ,the
 more on icy pavements we are set4'     
,which is really a wonderful rendering  
of a saying of the ,emperor  ,tiberius  
reported in ',annals' ,i4 #gb--';,cuncta
 mortalium incerta1  quantoque plus     
adeptus foret1 tanto se magis in        
lubrico4' ,another good  instance is    
supplied by ',the ,eyes'--        '',tis
 a known principle in war1      ,the    
eyes be first that conquered are'--     
where ,herrick's not very lucid ,english
 is explained by ',de ,moribus          
,german4' #dc--',primi in omnibus       
praeliis oculi vincuntur4' ,or again1 we
  may take ',revenge'--a rather longer  
verse than those we have hitherto       
quoted3--        ',man's disposition is 
for to requite      ,an injury before a 
benefit3      ,thanksgiving is a burden 
and a pain1      ,revenge is pleasing to

 us1 as our gain'--    where ,herrick's 
original is ,tacitus1 ',hist4' ,,iv41   
#c3--',tanto proclivius  est iniuriae   
quam beneficio vicem exsolvere2 quia    
gratia oneri1 ultio in  quaestu         
habetur4'    ,herrick's obligations to  
,sallust are less important than those  
to ,seneca  and ,tacitus4 ,in one case  
he mentions the historian by name3--    
',empires of kings are now1 and ever    
were1      ,as ,sallust saith1          
coincident to fear4'    ,the reference  
being to the spurious ',epist4 ad ,cai4 
,caesar4 de ,rep4  ,ordinanda4'         
',consultation'--        ',consult ere  
thou begin'st2 that done1 go on         
,with all wise speed for execution'--   
is apparently suggested by the ',nam et 
prius quam incipias consulto1 et  ubi   
consulueris mature facto opus est1' of  
the opening of the  ',catiline4' ,there 
are some three or four other            
reminiscences about  equally close1 but 
they are hardly worth special mention4  
,as might be expected1 many of          

,herrick's borrowings1 especially those 
from ,tacitus1 have to do with politics1
 and commentators who have  mistaken his
 jottings from his common-place book for
 the expression of  his own principles  
have been rather confused by their      
alternate leaning  to absolutism and its
 reverse4 ,thus1 in ',a ,king and no    
,king'--        ',that prince who may do
 nothing but what's just      ,rules but
 by leave1 and takes his crown on       
trust'--    the sentiment is remarkably 
'thorough'2 but the italics indicate a  
quotation1 and we can hardly be wrong in
 tracing the lines to the  ',thyestes'  
of ,seneca3--        ',ubicunque tantum 
honeste dominanti licet1      ,precario 
regnatur4'    ,again1 in ',shame no     
,statist'--        ',shame is a bad     
attendant to a ,state3      ,he rents   
his crown1 who fears the people's       
hate'--    both lines1 though only the  
last is italicised1 are from ,seneca2   
the  first from ',hippolytus'           
#dca--',malus est minister regii imperii

 pudor'2  the second from 'dipus'       
#gja--',odia qui nimium timet regnare   
nescit4' ,on  the other hand1 the       
italics in the lines entitled ',patience
 in ,princes'  and ',gentleness' show   
that some of ,herrick's constitutional  
maxims were  also quotations1 though    
their source has not yet been traced4   
,that of  the first is1 perhaps1 to be  
found in ,seneca's ',de ,clementia' i4  
#bb4  ',kings ought to shear1 not skin1 
their sheep' comes from ,suetonius1     
',tiberius' #cb 7',boni pastoris est    
tondere pecus1 non deglubere'71 and     
',kings ought to be more loved than     
feared' from ,seneca's ',octavia1' l4   
#deg 7',decet timeri ,csarem4 ,at plus  
diligi'74 ,even in weightier matters    
than politics we must be on our guard   
against the tricks ,herrick may  play   
us4 ,the lines entitled ',devotion makes
 the ,deity'--        ',who forms a     
godhead out of gold or stone1           
,makes not a god1 but he that prays to  
one'--    have recently been quoted as  

expressing 'for once a really high and  
deep  thought in words of really noble  
and severe propriety'2 yet they are     
taken almost literally from ,martial    
,,viii4 xxiv4 #e3--        ',qui fingit 
sacros auro vel marmore vultus1         
,non facit ille deos3 qui rogat ille    
facit4'    ,in his ',noble ,numbers'    
,herrick quotes or paraphrases in the   
same way  from ,s4 ,augustine1          
,cassiodorus1 ,s4 ,bernard1 ,s4 ,basil1 
,s4 ,ambrose1 ,john  of ,damascus1      
,boethius1 and ,thomas ,aquinas4 ,one or
 two passages have also  been traced    
with absolute certainty to a            
contemporary theological work1  and it  
fills us with admiration to watch how   
dexterously ,herrick1 with a  minimum of
 alteration1 turns the prose of the     
commentator into  excellent verse4      
,if we turn to ,herrick's debt to more  
poetical writers we find that he  takes 
a few phrases from ,catullus 7his       
obligations to whom have been  absurdly 
exaggerated71 about as much from        

,tibullus1 and a little also  from      
,propertius and ,juvenal4 ,to his poem  
entitled ',the ,vision' he  transfers   
from ,virgil 7',aeneid' i4 #cae-bj7 the 
charming description of  the dress of   
the ,spartan huntress1 in which ,venus  
encounters ,aeneas4  ,from ,horace1 whom
 he occasionally imitates1 he borrows   
many single  lines1 for the most part   
acknowledging them by italics4 ,to ,ovid
 his  indebtedness for phrases and turns
 of thought is still more marked4 ,on   
the whole1 however1 his chief obligation
 is to ,martial1 who supplied him  not  
only with many of his epigrams1 both    
good and bad1 but also with  suggestions
 for more important poems4 ,thus1 in his
 second poem 7',to his  ,muse'7 he is   
inspired by ,martial ,i4 iv42 a phrase  
in his third 7',to his  ,book'7 is      
suggested by the same original2 the     
reference to ,brutus in the  fourth is  
from ,martial ,,xi4 xvi42 and the next  
poem is a paraphrase from  ,x4 xix4 ,all
 these poems have to do with his book1  

and it is needless to  say that the     
amount of borrowing in them is very     
exceptional2 but it was  from ,martial  
,,vii4 lxxxix4 that ,herrick took his   
lovely ',go1 ,happy ,rose'2  one of his 
poems on ,julia is from ,martial ,,iv4  
xxii42 ',the ,lily and the  ,crystal' is
 suggested by the same poet 7,,viii4    
lxviii4 #e-h71 and there  are numerous  
smaller borrowings1 altogether apart    
from the epigrams4    ,of ,greek1 it is 
probable that ,herrick's knowledge was  
only slight4 ,there  is even some slight
 reason to believe that his acquaintance
 with ,greek  authors was mainly derived
 from ,latin translations4 ',the ,cruel 
,maid' is  a very close imitation of    
part of the twenty-third ,idyll of      
,theocritus2  the only other ,greek     
poetry which plays a serious part in his
 verse is  the pseudo-,anacreon4 ,to the
 collection of sportive poems1 whose    
very  slightness is their charm1 which  
passed under ,anacreon's name1          
,herrick's  obligations are really      

immense4 ,it is not only that several of
 his most  charming poems--',the ,cheat 
of ,cupid1' ',the ,wounded ,cupid1' ',on
 ,himself1'  ',upon ,his ,grey ,hairs1' 
etc4--are directly translated or closely
 imitated  from the ,greek2 but we feel 
in the case of these lyrics that they   
really  helped the development of       
,herrick's own gifts in a way in which  
none of  his ,latin storehouses even    
approached4 ,thus it would be easy to   
make out  a fairly long list of poems1  
in which he comes so close to the spirit
 of  ',anacreon' that the curious       
student of such matters is sent hunting 
through the pages of his ,bergk in a    
vain search for originals which  never  
existed4    ,herrick went late to the   
,university1 and1 despite the extreme   
propriety  of the language as to his    
reading which we find in his letters to 
his  goldsmith-uncle when he was in need
 of a remittance1 it is difficult to    
believe that he was ever a very earnest 
or laborious student4 ,thus the  list of

 authors from whom he borrowed comes    
rather as a surprise4 ,it is  probable  
that a little discount must be taken off
 the amount of  erudition with which it 
might incline us to credit him4 ,his    
poems make  it absolutely certain that  
he was steeped in the works of ,ben     
,jonson and  well acquainted with       
,burton's ',anatomy of ,melancholy1' and
 the ,essays of  ,montaigne4 ,now       
,jonson1 ,burton1 and ,montaigne1 as it 
is hardly necessary  to remark1 all     
three drew inspiration from the         
classics1 and it would  not be difficult
 to prove that at times ,herrick's      
quotations came to him  filtered through
 these authors1 and not directly from   
the fountain head4  ,this helps us to   
understand some excursions of the poet  
which seem  unusually far afield4 ,for  
instance1 there can be no doubt that the
  ultimate original of ,herrick's--     
',gather ye rosebuds while ye may1      
,old ,time is still a-flying'--    is   
from ,ausonius 7#cfa1 ll4 #di-ej73--    

',collige1 virgo1 rosas1 dum flos novus1
 et nova pubes1        ,et memor esto   
aevum sic properare tuum4'    ,but how  
came ,herrick to be reading an author so
 little known8 ,the  probable answer is 
that he found the lines in ,burton      
7,,iii4 ii4 s4 sec4  #e71 where they are
 quoted with the gloss3--         ',a   
virgin is like a flower1 a rose withered
 on a sudden4 ,let them       take time 
then while they may1 make advantage of  
youth1' etc4    ,so too when we find    
,herrick in his ',jove for our labours  
all things  sells us1' quoting          
,epicharmus1 economy bids us imagine    
that he found the  saying 7,greek3 tn   
ponn plousin hmin panta tagath' hoi     
,theoi7 not  in ,xenophon's             
',memorabilia' ii4 i4 #bj71 where it    
first appears1 but in  ,montaigne 7,,ii4
 #bj71 where it is quoted4 ,for we know 
,herrick read  ,montaigne1 and we have  
no evidence that he read ,xenophon4     
,where the  quotation is from ,horace1  
or ,martial1 or ,seneca1 or any other   

author  whom we may be reasonably sure  
that ,herrick studied at first hand1 it 
is  of course quite as likely that he   
found it for himself as that his        
attention was drawn to it by ,jonson1   
,burton1 or ,montaigne4 ,probably the   
poet himself would sometimes have been  
puzzled to trace his obligations  to    
their sources4 ,in any case1 when all   
necessary allowance has been  made1 it  
is obvious that his knowledge of the    
chief ,latin writers was  considerable1 
and that according to the stereotyped   
phrase1 he must have  'kept up his      
classics' very diligently after leaving 
,cambridge4    ,what effect should this 
tracking out the poet's quotations and  
adaptations to their sources have on our
 judgment of his genius8 ,surely1  it   
should make us rate it more highly4 ,we 
may almost say that what  ,herrick      
borrowed was intrinsically of little    
more value than the tags  from a ,latin 
delectus4 ,he breathed upon them and    
filled them with his  music1 so that    

they assimilate so admirably with his   
verse1 that even  when he printed them  
in italics the meaning of the change of 
type has  long remained a secret to his 
commentators4 ,it has become a          
commonplace  of criticism to write of   
,herrick as a 'butterfly1' but he was   
really a  conscious artist1 and no mean 
one4 ,the examples which have been given
 in  this paper have necessarily been   
chosen chiefly to illustrate the width  
of his reading4 ,if space allowed1 it   
would be pleasant to adduce others  with
 the special object of exhibiting the   
skilfulness of his  transmutations4     
,even in those we have given1 few       
genuine lovers of  poetry will deny that
 while to translate 'luserunt navigia'  
by 'where  late they danced' is merely a
 happy stroke of scholarship1 the       
rendering  of 'in lubrico' by 'on icy   
pavements1' or 'regnare nescit' by 'he  
rents his crown1' is sheer genius4      
,,printers' ,,marks ,,of ,,the          
,,fifteenth ,,and ,,sixteenth           

,,centuries#be           #be ,from the  
',connoisseur1' by leave of the editor4 
,illustration3 ,,device ,,of ,,fust     
,,and ,,sch,,ffer1 #adfb                
,illustration3 ,,device ,,of ,,matthias 
,,van ,,der ,,goes    ,if truth is to be
 told1 ,i have never as yet met with any
 amateur who  collected books for the   
sake of the printer's mark at the       
beginning or  end of them4 ,but it has  
always seemed to me that it would be an 
agreeable variety of book-collecting to 
do this1 and one which would  lead the  
collector along many by-paths of curious
 knowledge4 ,for fear of  any possible  
mistake1 ,i should perhaps emphasise the
 point that the  collection must be one 
not of printers' marks cut out from     
books1 but of  books in which the marks 
are printed4 ,even in the case of       
book-plates1  it has often been noted   
how much they gain in interest when they
 are  found in situ1 though there is    
always the haunting fear that the       
conjunction of book and plate may only  

be due to the ingenuity of the  vendor4 
,book-plates1 however1 have of right a  
separate existence apart  from books1   
since they are made separately and must 
await their owners'  pleasure before    
they can be set to their proper work4   
,but the printer's  device is an        
integral part of the book in which it   
occurs1 nor can any  limpet torn from   
its rock look more unhappy than one of  
these marks  cut out from the page on   
which it was printed1 and pasted in a   
scrap-book4 ,unhappily1 it must be said 
that1 like the book-plate1 though  more 
rarely1 a device is sometimes found     
attached to a book to which it  does not
 belong4 ,thus1 in the last ,inglis sale
 an edition of a  ',defensorium         
,curatorum' by an unknown ,french       
printer1 was catalogued as  from the    
press of ,colard ,mansion on the score  
of ,mansion's device1 cut  out with     
extraordinary neatness1 being pasted on 
the last leaf4 ,the  buyer of it        
certainly bid with open eyes1 but it is 

annoying to pay even  a few shillings   
more because of such a freak4 ,so1 too1 
a leaf with  ,caxton's device bound at  
the end of ,pynson's edition of the     
',speculum  ,vitae ,christi' led the    
late ,mr4 ,blades to believe that       
,pynson was  ,caxton's apprentice4 ,but 
these misdeeds or mishaps are           
exceptional1 and  it is the collector of
 scraps1 from ,bagford downwards1 whom  
the  printers' device has chiefly to    
fear4    ,illustration3 ,,device ,,of   
,,egmont ,,and ,,barrevelt              
,illustration3 ,,device ,,of ,,arnold   
,,guillem ,,de ,,brocar    ,the merits  
of printers' devices are twofold--many  
of them are very  pretty1 and all of    
them1 when duly studied1 are capable of 
throwing  considerable light on the     
history of printing1 more especially on 
the  often important point of the order 
in which books were issued and the      
year1 or even the month1 to which an    
undated book belongs4 ,the  prettiness  
or beauty of some of the designs will be

 shown by our  illustrations1 nor is it 
difficult to explain how the devices    
throw  light on the careers of their    
printers4    ,illustration3 ,,device    
,,of ,j4 ,b4 ,,sessa1                   
,,fifteenth-,,sixteenth ,,century       
,illustration3 ,,device ,,used ,,by     
,,pynson ,,in ',,froissart',s           
,,chronicles1' #aebe  7reduced7         
,always executed in the manner of       
wood-cuts1 that is to say1 in relief1   
some of them were cut with a knife in   
wood1 others with a graver on very  soft
 metal4 ,the lines of the wood block    
break with use1 the lines of the  metal 
block bend1 and by careful examination  
of any two prints a good  guess can     
mostly be made as to which was the      
earlier4 ,a palmary instance  of this is
 a metal block which ,richard ,pynson   
began to use in #adif4 ,its  lower      
border began to bend almost at once2 by 
#aejc the bend was as much  as an eighth
 of an inch1 and year by year it        
increased1 till in #aeac the  border    

broke altogether4 ,needless to say1 that
 every undated book in  which this      
border appears can be dated almost as   
easily as if the year  of publication   
were printed in it4 ,when several       
examples by the same  printer are       
brought together1 a little observation1 
if carefully  verified1 will give a good
 clue to the date at which a device     
first came  into use and when it was    
abandoned for another1 and herein lie   
both the  usefulness and the sport which
 may be obtained from the study of      
printers' devices4 ,what the collector  
should aim at is to obtain the  earliest
 book in which the mark is used1 and to 
make notes of its  subsequent history4  
,perhaps from the fact that the ,anchor 
and ,dolphin which ,aldus adopted as    
his device were counterfeited with evil 
intent1 it has sometimes been  said that
 the devices were used as trade marks to
 protect the copyright  of the books in 
which they occur4 ,copyright as such did
 not exist in the  fifteenth and        

sixteenth centuries1 and books could    
only be protected by  their printer     
obtaining a special 'privilege' either  
for an individual  book or for books of 
a particular kind4 ,with this the       
devices had  nothing to do1 and although
 a pleasing design often begat a whole  
progeny of similar ones1 this copying1  
when it was not merely lazy1 was        
probably complimentary rather than      
competitive4 ,we must take it that the  
devices were purely ornamental1 aiming1 
no doubt1 at the glorification  of the  
printers who used them1 but not         
possessing any commercial  significance4
 ,hence1 perhaps1 the variety we find in
 them4 ,they may be  simply personal1   
containing only the printer's private   
arms or in some  few cases his portrait4
 ,they may join his initials or some    
motto of his  choice to the arms of the 
city in which he worked1 or to some more
 or  less graceful scroll work4 ,they   
may reproduce the sign of his shop or   
the figure of his patron saint2 or      

lastly1 a kind much in vogue in the     
sixteenth century1 they may be          
allegorical4 ,as we should expect1 there
  is a fairly steady movement from      
simplicity to ornateness4 ,the earliest 
device 7the first of our illustrations71
 that used by ,fust and ,schffer  at the
 end of the ,latin ,bible they printed  
at ,mainz in #adfb1 consists  only of   
two shields slung from a branch4 ,that  
of ,arnold ther ,hoernen1 of  ,cologne  
7about #adgj71 is in the same style1 but
 even more modest4 ,a few  years later1 
,gnther ,zainer1 of ,augsburg1 showed   
greater ambition in  his mark1 which    
represents a wild man holding a shield1 
on which is a  crowned lion rampant4    
,but though ,schffer1 ther ,hoernen1 and
 ,zainer thus  led the way1 their       
example was very little followed in     
,germany during  the fifteenth century1 
and it is in other countries and in the 
books of  native printers rather than of
 the ,german teachers of the craft that 
the  development of the ornamental      

device must be looked for4              
,illustration3 ,,device ,,of ,,fran,,oys
 ,,regnault    ,in ,italy1 despite what 
has just been said1 the earliest device 
known is  that of a ,german printer1    
,sixtus ,riessinger1 who worked at      
,naples1  #adga-hj4 ,it represents a    
woman holding a shield1 while behind her
 is a  scroll bearing the letters       
',s4,r4,d4,a41 ,sixtus ,riessinger de   
,argentina1'  i4e4 of ,cologne4 ,this   
device stands by itself1 the real       
sequence of  ,italian designs beginning 
with that used at ,venice by ,nicolas   
,jenson and  ,john of ,cologne in #adha4
 ,this consists of a circle and of a    
straight  line1 crossed by two bars1    
rising at right angles to the base of a 
segment of it4 ,it was imitated by one  
,italian printer after another at       
,venice1 ,pavia1 ,brescia1 and          
elsewhere1 and with various ornamental  
modifications re-appears in quite three 
out of four of the fifteenth  century   
,italian devices4 ,from ,italy it passed

 to ,france1 and from ,france  to       
,england1 where it was used by ,julian  
,notary4 ,the design1 by dividing  the  
circle into three parts1 allows the     
printer to place his initials in  them1 
and this was frequently done4 ,jenson   
was also a very famous  printer1 and his
 example would naturally be imitated4   
,but how it came to  be imitated so     
widely1 and whether any meaning1        
symbolical or otherwise1  can be        
extracted from the design1 are problems 
to which no satisfactory  answer has    
been returned4 ,among the prettier      
modifications of this too  popular      
design are those used by ,franciscus de 
,mazaliis1 of ,reggio1 and  by ,egmont  
and ,barrevelt1 the printers of the     
,venice edition of the ,sarum  ,missal4 
,the latter is shown on page #bbi4      
,among designs of other patterns1       
mention may be made of the crown used   
by ,mazochius1 of ,ferrara2 the 'putti' 
of ,filippo ,giunta1 and the crowned    
dolphin of ,piero ,pacini1 both of      

,florence2 the fourteen varieties of    
angels which appear on as many devices  
used by the brothers ,de ,legnano1  of  
,milan2 the shielded warrior of         
,bernardinus de ,garaldis1 of ,milan2   
the  ,s4 ,jerome of ,bernardinus        
,benalius2 the fleur-de-lys of          
,lucantonio  ,giunta2 the ,s4 ,antony of
 ,philippus ,pintius2 the ,s4 ,george   
and the ,dragon  of ,giorgio ,rusconi2  
and the mouse-eating cat of ,j4 ,b4     
,sessa1 reproduced  on page #bca4 ,the  
last five printers all worked at        
,venice1 and almost all  of those we    
have named belonged not only to the     
fifteenth century1 but  to the          
sixteenth1 in which the vogue of the    
,jenson model at last came to  an end4  
,it has already been said that for      
variety and artistic treatment among    
printers' devices1 the first place must 
be given to those found in  ,french     
books4 ,yet their beginning was poor    
enough1 the representation of  the ship1
 taken from the arms of the city of     

,paris1 which was used by  ,louis       
,martineau about #adhd1 being badly cut 
and quite insignificant4  ,jean ,du ,pr 
7for his first device71 ,pierre ,levet1 
,jean ,lambert1 and one  or two other   
,french printers at ,paris1 used some of
 the features of the  normal ,italian   
design1 though in a far more elaborate  
and decorative  form2 while at ,lyons1  
where ,italian influence was always     
strong1 simple  copying was thought good
 enough4    ,illustration3 ,,device ,,of
 ,,diego ,,de ,,gumiel    ,but the      
typical ,french device is much more     
pictorial than any of these4  ,the arms 
of ,france and of the city of ,paris are
 prominent in many of  them1 and in that
 of ,andr ,bocard both are used at once2
 but the printer  used often to take a  
suggestion from his ,christian name1    
from the sign  by which his shop was    
known1 or from the motto with which most
 early  ,french devices are encircled4  
,the second device of ,antoine ,caillaut
  7reproduced on p4 #bda7 is a beautiful

 and early example of the  appearance of
 a patron saint in a device2 while that 
of the two swans  used by ,du ,pr1 whose
 printing house had the ',deux ,cygnes' 
for its  sign1 is a good example of the 
second class4 ,the device here chosen   
for  our second ,french illustration ,i 
take to be an example of the pictorial  
expansion of a motto1 ,regnault's       
expression of trust in ,god being well  
represented by this quiet little        
pastoral scene 7see page #bcd74         
,though far inferior to the best ,french
 examples1 the printers' marks  used in 
the ,low ,countries are also numerous1  
varied and good4 ,they range  from the  
twin shields of ,veldener and ,gerard   
,leeu to such imposing  devices as the  
elephant and howdah used1 with punning  
intent1 by an  unknown printer          
7',g4,d4'7 at ,gouda1 and the bannered  
castle1 the arms of  the city of        
,antwerp1 adopted by ,thierry ,martens4 
,among the earliest are  the small      
portraits of the printers themselves    

found in some of the  books of ,john and
 ,conrad1 of ,paderborn1 in ,westphalia4
 ,that of the  former1 here reproduced1 
is sometimes found in red ink as well as
 black1  and is referred to in one of   
his colophons as 'meum solitum signum4' 
,the  bird-cage used by ,godfrid ,back  
at ,antwerp has no parallel among       
devices  that ,i know of1 but as a      
specimen of the larger ,dutch marks we  
will take  that of his fellow-citizen1  
,matthias van der ,goes1 which          
represents a  very vigorous 'wild man'  
with club and shield 7see page #bbh74   
,illustration3 ,,device ,,of ,,john ,,of
 ,,paderborn    ,spanish devices are in 
some cases adapted from the ,french or  
,italian1 in  others rather dull and    
uninteresting4 ,of those which belong to
 neither  of these classes1 by far the  
finest as a piece of decorative work is 
that of ,diego de ,gumiel1 of           
,valladolid 7see page #bcf71 the effect 
of  which is as rich as that of the best
 of ,william ,morris's initial  letters4

    ,next in interest to this we may    
perhaps rank the rather elaborate device
  7see page #bcj7 of ,arnold ,guillem de
 ,brocar1 the printer of the            
,complutensian ,polyglot1 who at        
different times in his career had       
presses  also at four other places4 ,the
 motto upon it1 ',inimici hominis       
domestici  ejus1' though it has been    
made the basis of some theories as to   
,brocar's  career1 is still unexplained4
 ,if the 'domestici1' the 'those of his 
own  household1' could be extended to   
,brocar's workpeople1 we should have    
here a fine example of an early grumble 
by a master printer1 but the  suggestion
 is perhaps more pleasing than probable4
 ,cryptic mottoes seem  to have run in  
,brocar's family4 ,his son ,juan adopted
 an extraordinary  device of a knight   
seizing a lady by the hair1 with an     
inscription  ',legitime certanti1' which
 must be taken as sarcastic4            
,illustration3 ,,device ,,of ,,john     
,,wight    ,the history of printers'    

marks in ,england begins with that used 
by  ,caxton for the first time as late  
in his career as #adhg4 ,out of respect 
for his master1 ,wynkyn de ,worde       
adopted the essential parts of this1    
i4e4 the initials ',w4,c4' and the      
interlacement between them in all his   
fifteen different devices1 thus         
conferring on them a rather painful     
monotony4 ,english printers1 indeed1    
seem to have set little store on        
originality in these matters1 the       
earliest device of ,pynson being        
adapted from that of ,le ,talleur1 of   
,rouen1 that of ,richard ,faques from   
,thielmann ,kerver's1 the 'wild men' of 
,peter ,treveris from those of          
,pigouchet1 and ,john ,byddell's        
unprepossessing figure of ,virtue from  
that  used by ,jacques ,sacon1 of       
,lyons4 ,nevertheless1 ,english devices 
at once  interesting and original are   
not lacking4 ,that used by ,pynson at   
the  end of ,lord ,berner's translation 
of ',froissart' 7see page #bcb7 is one  

of  the largest and not the least fine  
of armorial marks1 the interlaced       
triangles of ,william ,faques make a    
singularly neat device1 and ,john       
,day's picture of two men gazing on a   
skeleton1 with the motto1 ',etsi  mors  
indies accelerat vivet tamen post funera
 virtus1' has its own  merits4 ,england 
also contributes two of the very small  
number of  portrait marks1 a large one  
of ,day and a smaller one 7here         
reproduced7  of ,john ,wight1#bf a      
bookseller of ,st4 ,paul's ,churchyard1 
who published  a few books between #aeea
 and #aehi4 ,it seemed permissible to   
come down as  late as this in the case  
of our own country1 but to speak of the 
,french  and ,german devices of the     
middle of the sixteenth century would   
open up  too large a field4 ,all that   
has been attempted here is to give a few
  characteristic examples of            
comparatively early date1 so as to      
exhibit  the different styles of        
printers' marks1 used in different      

countries by  one generation of         
printers4 ,i hope that any of my readers
 who had not  hitherto made the         
acquaintance of these little designs    
will have been  convinced that they are 
worthy of further study4         #bf    
,our illustration shows the cut in an   
interesting state1 when       the       
original ,i4 of the first initial had   
been altered to an ,r4 to       suit    
,john's descendant ,robert4 ,the change 
is one of a kind with       which       
collectors of book-plates are familiar4 
,any one who desires to take up the     
subject more or less seriously will     
find a considerable literature ready to 
his hand4 ,to ,messrs4 ,bell and  ,co4's
 ',ex ,libris' series ,mr4 ,william     
,roberts has contributed a pleasant     
volume1 which offers an easy            
introduction for beginners4 ,more       
serious  students will find an almost   
exhaustive series of woodcut copies of  
,french devices in ,silvestre's         
',marques typographiques1' and much     

prettier facsimiles abound in ,m4       
,claudin's great ',histoire de          
l',imprimerie en ,france1' though this  
as yet treats only of ,paris  printers  
of the fifteenth century4 ,for ,italy1  
,dr4 ,kristeller's ',die  ,italienischen
 ,buchdrucker und ,verlegerzeichen bis  
#aebe' is excellent1  and its publishers
 7,heitz and ,mndel7 have brought out   
similar  monographs on the marks used at
 ,strasburg1 ,basel1 ,frankfort1 and    
,cologne1 and also in ,spain and        
,portugal4 ,the earlier ,low ,country   
marks  will be found in ,holtrop's      
',monumens typographiques des           
,pays-,bas'2 the  earlier ,english ones 
in the ',handlists of ,english          
,printers' issued by  the               
,bibliographical ,society4    ,as to    
collecting1 it is certainly a little    
alarming to have to buy a  whole book   
for the sake of a single device in it1  
or at most two4 ,on the  other hand1 the
 books are pleasant things in           
themselves1 and there is  an alleviation

 in the fact that the devices only begin
 to abound a  little before #adij1 and  
that books of this date can be acquired1
 even  now1 at prices which seem        
reasonable compared with those fetched  
by the  real first-fruits of the press4 
,many very pretty devices will be found 
in the thin volumes of ,latin verse     
published at ,paris in the early parts  
of the sixteenth century1 and a bookman 
who meets a 'tract-volume'  containing  
several of these bound together1 will   
probably find  sufficient devices among 
them to start his collection4           
,illustration3 ,,device ,,of ,,antoine  
,,caillaut          ,,the ,,franks      
,,collection ,,of ,,armorial            
,,book-,,stamps#bg           #bg ,from  
the ',library1' by leave of the editor4 
,some little time after the death of    
,sir ,augustus ,wollaston ,franks the   
,library of the ,british ,museum        
acquired1 through the kindness of his   
successor in the ,keepership of ,medival
 ,antiquities1 ,mr4 ,c4 ,h4 ,read1  some

 three hundred books1 of the sixteenth1 
seventeenth1 and eighteenth  centuries1 
bearing on their bindings armorial      
book-stamps4 ,for lack of a  better word
 these three hundred books have been    
dignified in the heading  of this       
article by the title of a 'collection1' 
but it is due to the  great reputation  
of ,sir ,wollaston ,franks as a         
collector to say that he  himself would 
probably have smiled if he had heard    
them called so4 ,as  all bookish people 
know1 one of his real hobbies was the   
collection of  book-plates1 his         
countless specimens of which passed at  
his death to  another department of the 
,british ,museum1 that of ,prints and   
,drawings1  where considerable progress 
has been made in describing and         
cataloguing  them4 ,by the side of his  
thousands of book-plates these three    
hundred or  so old books with armorial  
stamps on their covers are a merely     
subsidiary collection1 sufficient to    
illustrate the method of marking        

ownership1 which book-plates first      
rivalled and then1 alas1 almost         
entirely superseded4    ,the #ejj which 
,sir ,wollaston ,franks gave for the    
copy of the ',ptolemy'  of #adij1 with  
the badge of ,mary ,queen of ,scots1    
recently the subject of  one of the     
,bibliographical ,society's ,monographs1
 shows the spirit in  which he would    
have pursued the collection of armorial 
bindings had he  taken it up seriously4 
,as it was1 he seems to have given a    
standing  order to several booksellers  
to send him any books or odd volumes1 of
  which the chief value lay in the      
stamped arms1 and which they were       
willing to sell for a small sum1 and to 
have taken his chance4 ,there are  worse
 ways of collecting than this1 for a    
bookseller who knows that he  can always
 place a book of a certain class with a 
customer1 will often  be content to buy 
it at a venture for a small price and   
pass it on at  once at a few shillings' 
profit without examining it very        

carefully or  inquiring too curiously   
into its market value4 ,as will be seen 
from some  of the books soon to be      
mentioned1 this was certainly the       
experience in  this instance of ,sir    
,wollaston ,franks1 and the foregoing   
depreciation of  the specimens he thus  
got together must be understood as      
written solely  to prevent his name in  
the title of this article from raising  
expectation too high4    ,before        
describing any individual specimens1 it 
may be worth while to say  a few words  
about book-stamps in general4 ,compared 
with book-plates1 of  which the         
literature during the last ten or twelve
 years has grown with  such rapidity1   
they have as yet received very little   
attention outside  ,france1 where       
,guigard's ',armorial du ,bibliophile'  
in its second edition  7#ahib7 gives as 
full information about most ,french     
examples as can  reasonably be desired4 
,in the third volume of                 
',bibliographica1' ,mr4 ,w4  ,y4        

,fletcher wrote an interesting article  
on ',english ,armorial  ,book-stamps1'  
and it is much to be wished that he     
could be persuaded to  print in full his
 notes on the subject1 which are        
certainly more  complete-- or less      
incomplete--than those in the possession
 of any one  else4 ,a few years ago the 
,grolier ,club of ,new ,york held an    
exhibition of  books bearing these marks
 of ownership1 and printed a small      
catalogue of  it1 which ,i have not had 
the advantage of seeing4 ,other         
information1 as  far as ,i am aware1 can
 only be obtained by painful search in  
books of  heraldry and genealogy and in 
biographies4    ,towards the close of   
the age of manuscripts1 it became a     
fairly common  practice1 more especially
 in ,italy1 for book-lovers to cause    
their arms  to be painted as part of the
 decoration of the first page of text4  
,in  the last years of the fifteenth    
century book-plates came into use in    
,germany1 and during the next hundred   

years were slowly adopted both in       
,france and ,england4 ,but until the    
sixteenth century was far advanced the  
commonest way of marking possession of a
 book in ,england remained that  of     
inscribing the owner's name on the      
title-page or a fly-leaf4 ,thus all  the
 books in the large libraries of        
,archbishop ,cranmer and ,lord ,lumley  
bear their names1 ',thomas              
,cantuariensis' and ',lumley1' in the   
handwriting of their secretaries or     
librarians4 ,one or two instances are   
found of names printed or written on    
book-edges4 ,that of ',anna ,regina     
,anglie1' i4e4 ,anne ,boleyn1 on a      
vellum presentation copy of ,tyndale's  
,new ,testament of #aecd1 is a          
well-known example of this4 ,on the     
outside  of books names are found from a
 very early period2 but in the fifteenth
  century and the early years of the    
sixteenth they are mostly those1 not  of
 the owners of the volume1 but of the   
bookbinder1 as in the case of  ,conrad  

of ,strasburg1 ,johann ,richenbach1 and 
,andr ,boule4 ,every one1  however1     
knows the inscriptions which the three  
great collectors1  ,grolier1 ,maioli1   
and ,lauwrin put on their books4 ,as the
 sixteenth  century grew older the names
 or initials of the owner1 with         
sometimes a  date added1 are found on a 
fair number of bindings4 ,in ,germany   
such  names and dates were frequently   
branded in black on pigskin bindings4   
,in  other countries the names are1 as a
 rule1 stamped in gold4 ,as late as  the
 eighteenth century ,lord ,oxford used  
to stamp his name1 ',robert  ,harley1'  
on his books1 in addition to his arms4  
,coming at last to armorial book-stamps1
 we find that from the fifteenth        
century onwards books were often        
impressed with the royal arms4 ,these   
were used both as marks of possession   
and also1 at least in ,england 7as      
noted by ,mr4 ,davenport in his article 
on ',some ,popular ,errors as to old    
,bindings' in vol4 ii4 of ',the         

,library'71 as decorative designs on the
  trade bindings of loyal stationers4   
,crowned initials and royal badges  are 
often found1 and these nearly always    
mark royal ownership4 ,when this  use of
 armorial book-stamps was first adopted 
by collectors beneath the  royal rank is
 not easy to say4 ,grolier is said to   
have occasionally  placed his arms on   
his books1 but ,i believe that until    
about #aefj1 the  practice did not      
become at all common even in foreign    
countries1 and in  ,england it was      
probably some ten years later4 ,it is1  
perhaps1 worth  noting that in ,france  
the fashion must undoubtedly have       
received a great  impetus from the      
sumptuary law of #aegg1 which restricted
 the use of the  elaborate 'fanfare'    
style of ornamenting books to those in  
royal  ownership4 ,the splendid bindings
 of a few of the books of ,jacques      
,auguste de ,thou 7associated1 rightly  
or wrongly1 with the name of  ,nicolas  
,eve7 must all have been executed before

 this date4 ,thereafter he  adopted the 
plain morocco covers decorated only with
 the stamps of his  arms with which all 
book-lovers are familiar4 ,other        
collectors followed  his example1 and in
 their respective kinds both the strong1
 massively  stamped books of ,de ,thou1 
and the more finely grained red moroccos
 of  later ,french bookmen1 in which the
 tiny stamp of arms has a               
,legasconesque delicacy of finish1 offer
 examples of simple decoration  which   
the wealthiest collector may well       
imitate4    ,of books bearing the arms  
of ,french collectors upwards of one    
hundred  and fifty were brought together
 by ,sir ,wollaston ,franks1 but the    
,english  stamps1 which number rather   
over a hundred1 must engage our first   
attention4 ,one of the earliest of these
 is a small stamp of the arms of        
,archbishop ,parker1 forming the centre 
of a rather decorative binding1         
obviously of ,english work4 ,the book it
 is found on is a copy of ,beza's       

,latin ,new ,testament1 printed at      
,london by ,vautrollier1 in #aegd1 on   
the  yellow paper occasionally used     
during the middle of the sixteenth      
century1 presumably as less trying to   
the eyes than the ordinary white4       
,parker's patronage of ,john ,day is    
well known1 but in view of the          
likelihood of this being a presentation 
copy to the ,archbishop from            
,vautrollier1 it would be rash to credit
 ,day with the binding of this  volume1 
which is1 moreover1 not quite so        
original as ,day's work at its  best4   
,illustration3 ,,queen ,,elizabeth',s   
,,falcon ,,badge    ,two other books in 
the ,franks collection are connected by 
their stamps  with ,parker's royal      
mistress4 ,one of these bears the       
well-known ,falcon  badge which         
,elizabeth adopted in imitation of her  
mother4 ,this is found  on a copy of    
,etienne ,dolet's ',de ,latina lingua'  
printed at ,basel in  #aeci4 ,i do not  
know if the point has been raised and   

settled as to  whether this badge was   
used by ,elizabeth1 both as queen and as
 princess1  but there is at least       
nothing to prevent our supposing that   
this  treatise of ,dolet's was one of   
,elizabeth's school-books1 and thus     
often  in her hands4 ,it is at least a  
point in favour of such a supposition   
that the badge in this case is sharper  
and fresher than on any other  book ,i  
have ever seen4 ,the other ,elizabethan 
book in the collection is  even more    
interesting1 for its covers are embossed
 with the  portrait-stamp of the queen  
here reproduced1 and no other instance  
of  the use of the stamp is recorded4   
,the book is the ,plantin ,greek        
,testament of #aehc1 an edition which   
the queen would be very likely to       
possess4 ,but whether this copy was ever
 in her library we have no means  of    
deciding1 the alternatives of           
presentation to and presentation by1 of 
ownership by the original of the        
portrait or by some loyal subject1      

being very equally balanced4 ,the stamp 
in this case is slightly raised1  and is
 the earliest instance of a cameo stamp 
on any ,english binding4                
,illustration3 ,,elizabethan            
,,portrait-,,stamp    ,the only other   
sixteenth-century ,english armorial     
stamps in the  collection are two       
examples of the stamp used by ,william  
,cecil1 ,lord  ,burleigh1 one in gold on
 a copy of the ,greek ,testament of     
,erasmus  printed at ,basel in #aegj1   
the other in silver on a ,hebrew ,bible 
issued  from the press of ,plantin in   
#aehc4 ,it is certainly a very          
decorative  stamp1 but ,i must confess  
to preferring to it the simple          
inscription  ',william' and ',mildred   
,cicyll' on a binding which entered the 
,museum  with the old ,royal ,library4  
,in the present collection a little     
,lyons  ,virgil printed by ,gryphius in 
#aega1 though with a decorative instead 
of  an heraldic stamp1 bears the        
initials1 ',w4,p41' of an ,english      

owner1 a  book-plate of ',the ,right    
,honble4 ,robert ,james ,ld ,petre1     
,thorndon in  ,essex1' combined with a  
manuscript note1 dated #aehi1 enabling  
us to  identify ,w4 ,p4 with ,william   
,petre the second ,baron 7#aege-afjg74  
,the  note1 apparently written when     
,petre was fourteen years old1 records  
that  the book was acquired by exchange 
with a certain ,dominus ,bigge4         
,illustration3 ,,arms ,,of ,,lord       
,,burleigh    ,illustration3 ,,towneley 
,,arms    ,passing to the seventeenth   
century1 we may notice first two books  
which  bear the ,towneley arms1         
,nichols's translation of ,thucydides   
printed at  ,london in #aeej1 and the   
',scholia in quatuor ,evangelia' of     
,lyons1 #afjb4  ,the arms are stamped in
 silver instead of the more usual gold1 
and alone  of all the book-stamps with  
which ,i am acquainted they bear a date1
 that  of the year #afjc4 ,readers      
familiar with ,mr4 ,hardy's excellent   
little  treatise on ,bookplates may     

remember that the ,towneley plate which 
forms  its frontispiece bears the date  
#agjb1 just a century later4 ,the two   
marks of ownership are really1 however1 
separated by a somewhat smaller         
interval1 for while #agjb is no doubt   
the date of the plate 7such dated       
plates being unusually common at the    
beginning of the eighteenth  century71  
the #afjc of the book-stamp is probably 
the birth-date of  ,christopher         
,towneley1 the antiquary1 who was born  
at ,towneley ,hall1  ,lancashire1 on    
#ith ,january #afjc1 old style4         
,illustration3 ,,augustine ,,vincent',s 
,,badge    ,illustration3 ,,arms ,,of   
,,ralph ,,sheldon ,,and ,,his ,,wife    
,we come now to an interesting group of 
books1 once in the possession of  ,ralph
 ,sheldon1 the seventeenth-century      
antiquary4 ,the first of these  bears   
not his own arms but those of ,augustine
 ,vincent1 the ,windsor  ,herald1 which 
two years ago attracted attention from  
being found1  stamped in blind1 on the  

splendid copy of the first ,folio       
,shakespeare  presented to him by       
,william ,jaggard1 one of its           
publishers4#bh ,in the  present instance
 they are impressed in gold on ,estienne
 de ,cypres'  ',genealogies de soixante 
et sept tres nobles ,maisons1' printed  
at ,paris  in #aehf4 ,augustine ,vincent
 died in #afbf1 and his son sold his    
books to  ,ralph ,sheldon1 who on his   
death in #afhd bequeathed his           
manuscripts to  the ,college of ,arms4  
,the printed books apparently remained  
for some time  in the possession of the 
family1 for this volume bears a ,sheldon
  book-plate1 and ,sir ,wollaston       
,franks was able to purchase two other  
books with ,ralph ,sheldon's book-stamp1
 ,campian's ',historia ,anglicana'      
7,douay1 #afcb71 and the ',prophecies'  
of ,nostradamus 7,london1 #afgb74 ,on   
both of these the ,sheldon arms are     
quartered with those of ,ralph's wife   
7,henrietta ,maria1 daughter of ,thomas 
,savage1 ,viscount ,rock ,savage71 and  

both books have written in them the     
motto1 ',in ,posterum1' apparently in   
,ralph's autograph4 ,a third book1      
,greenway's translation of the ',annals'
  of ,tacitus 7,london1 #afdj71 bears on
 its title-page the autograph of  ',geo4
 ,sheldon1' and on the cover the        
,sheldon arms as here shown4         #bh
 ,this copy1 in the possession of ,mr4  
,coningsby ,sibthorp1 of                
,sudbrooke ,holme1 ,lincoln1 to whose   
family it has belonged for more         
than a century1 is fully described by   
,mr4 ,sidney ,lee on p4 #aga of         
his ',shakespeare's ,life and ,work4'   
,by a curious coincidence the       copy
 he describes on the previous page is   
one1 now owned by the       ,baroness   
,burdett-,coutts1 which formerly        
belonged to ,ralph ,sheldon1       who  
bought ,vincent's library4 ,presumably  
both copies at one time       belonged  
to him4    ,illustration3 ,,arms ,,of   
,,george ,,sheldon    ,the next two     
volumes we may note are ,thomas ,mason's

 ',of the ,consecration  of ,bishops in 
the ,church of ,england' 7#afac71 and   
the ',works' of ,king  ,james ,i4       
7#afaf71 both of them bearing the       
,hatton arms4 ,from their dates  these  
must therefore have belonged not to     
,elizabeth's favourite1 whose  arms are 
figured in ,mr4 ,fletcher's article1    
since he died in #aeia1 but  to a son of
 his cousin of the same name1 of ,clay  
,hall1 ,barking4 ,this  third           
,christopher ,hatton was baptized and   
probably born in #afje1 and was  a      
prominent man during the reign of       
,charles ,i41 by whom he was created    
,baron ,hatton in #afdc4 ,he was        
responsible for an edition of the       
,psalms  with prayers attached 7#afdd71 
which went by the name of ,hatton's     
',psalter1' and was philosopher enough  
to be able to make himself happy  with  
his 'books and fiddles' while a         
,royalist exile4    ,a few of these     
early seventeenth-century books possess 
bindings  interesting for other reasons 

besides their marks of ownership4 ,thus1
 a  fine ,hebrew folio is decorated not 
only with the arms of ,john ,williams1  
,bishop of ,lincoln1 but with some      
striking examples of the handsome1 if   
heavy1 corner-pieces in vogue in the    
reign of ,james ,i4 ,on a copy of       
,brent's ',history of the ,council of   
,trent' the arms of ,berkeley look all  
the better for being inclosed in a      
handsome scroll-work centrepiece4 ,so   
again we find both fine cornerpieces and
 a good central stamp on the  three     
volumes of the works of that learned    
divine ,william ,perkins  7,london1     
#afab71 which bear also the initials ,h4
 ,l4 beneath a coronet4  ,the owner was 
presumably ,henry ,yelverton1 created   
,viscount ,longueville  in #afij1 to    
whom also belonged a copy of the #affj  
edition of ,more's  ',explanation of the
 ,grand ,mystery of ,godliness4' ,on the
 ,perkins volumes  his coroneted        
initials were plainly added as an       
afterthought1 while a  much smaller ,m4 

,y41 inclosed in the cornerpieces as    
part of the original  design1 suggests  
that the volume had in the first        
instance belonged to  ,mary ,yelverton1 
the wife of the ,judge of ,court of     
,common ,pleas1 who died  in #afcj4     
,the works of ,perkins were popular in  
the seventeenth century1 and ,sir       
,wollaston ,franks acquired another     
edition of them1 that of #afbf1 bearing 
the arms of one of the descendants of   
,thomas ,smythe1 ,farmer of the         
,customs in the reign of ,elizabeth1    
whose arms combined with those of his   
wife1 ,alice ,judde1 were figured by    
,mr4 ,fletcher4 ,the coat now in        
question may have belonged either to his
 grandson1 ,thomas1 who was not  created
 ,viscount ,strangford until two years  
after the publication of the  book1 or  
to the ,viscount's brother1 the         
ambassador to the ,court of  ,russia1   
who fitted out an ,arctic expedition1   
and has his munificence  commemorated in
 the name of ',smith's ,sound4'    ,a   

copy of the #afag edition of ,spenser's 
',faery ,queen1' bearing the  initials  
,m4 ,c4 beneath a coronet1 offers       
another example of a mark of  ownership 
attached by a descendant of the original
 possessor4 ,who ,m4 ,c4  was is        
explained by the pretentious inscription
 on a book-plate inside  the cover1     
which proclaims itself the property of  
',the ,right ,honble  ,mary1 wife of    
,charles1 ,earle of ,carnarvon  ,sister 
of ,james1 ,earle of  ,abingdon4' ,the  
,earl of ,carnarvon here named was the  
second earl1 ,charles  ,dormer1 who died
 in #agji1 and his countess was the     
daughter of ,montague  ,bertie1 ,earl of
 ,lindsey1 by his second wife ,bridget1 
,baroness ,norreys of  ,rycote4 ,this   
descent accounts for the inscription on 
the title-page1  ',norreys1 #afdg1' and 
we may conclude that the volume was at  
one time  owned either by the ,baroness 
,norreys or her first husband4 ,the     
book-plate of the ,countess of          
,carnarvon is here reproduced as        

presumably  a rather early example of a 
lady's plate in the heraldic style4 ,it 
certainly does not deserve the honour   
for its artistic merits1 the  design and
 engraving being as poor as the         
inscription is foolish4                 
,illustration3 ,,book-,,plate ,,of ,,the
 ,,countess ,,of ,,carnarvon            
,illustration3 ,,arms ,,of ,,sir        
,,kenelm ,,digby ,,and ,,venetia        
,,stanley1 ,,his ,,wife    ,copies of a 
,commelinus ,tacitus 7#aeie7 and a      
,horace1 ,persius and ,juvenal          
7,london1 #afad-ae7 bear the arms of    
,john ,maitland1 created ,viscount      
,lauderdale in #afaf2 those of the ,earl
 of ,huntingdon are found on a          
,camden's ',britannica' of #afbg2 those 
of ,william ,covert of ,sussex1 on the  
#afae edition of the works of ,gervase  
,babington2 ,the ,right ,hon4ble  ,mary 
,wife of ,charles ,earle of ,carnarvon  
,sister of ,james ,earle of  ,abingdon  
those of ,chetwynd1 on ,matthew of      
,westminster's ',flores  ,historiarum'  

7,frankfort1 #afja72 those of ,wilmer on
 ,stowe's ',survey of  ,london1' #afah4 
,further investigation would no doubt   
yield a tale as to  each of these       
volumes1 but we may not linger over     
them4 ,we must stop1  however1 to note  
that the arms of ,archbishop ,laud1 on a
 copy of his  ',relation of a conference
 with ,fisher the ,jesuit1' do not      
clearly  indicate that this was his own 
library copy1 since an inscription      
7apparently in ,laud's handwriting7     
informs us that the book was  'presented
 by ye author to ,sr ,jo4 ,bramston1    
,chief ,justice of the  ,king's ,bench1'
 a book-plate of one of whose           
descendants1  ',thomas,bramston1 ,esq41 
of ,skreens1' is found in the volume4   
,in the same  way1 in the next century1 
we find ,speaker ,onslow possessed of a 
copy of  ,locke's ',letters concerning  
,toleration1' presented to him by       
,thomas  ,hollis1 and bearing some of   
the donor's favourite emblems1 the cap  
of  liberty1 the owl of ,minerva and a  

pen1 with the motto ',placidam sub      
libertate quietem4' ,there is no special
 reason to suppose that either          
,archbishop ,laud or ,hollis intended   
these volumes originally for their      
libraries1 and after having had them    
bound with that intention  subsequently 
gave them away4 ,it may1 of course1 have
 been so1 but we  should not entirely   
exclude the supposition that books were 
also  sometimes impressed with the arms 
or device of the donor1 in order to     
remind the recipient of the source      
whence the gift came1 just as we find   
gift-plates alongside of the more usual 
book-plates denoting personal           
ownership4    ,owing to the library of  
,sir ,kenelm ,digby having been seized  
after his  death in ,france under the   
inhospitable ,french law which gave to  
the king  the chattels of strangers     
dying in his country1 books with his    
arms are  not often found in ,england4  
,sir ,wollaston ,franks was1 therefore1 
fortunate in obtaining three volumes    

thus decorated1 two of them showing  his
 coat with that of his first wife1      
,venetia ,stanley on an escutcheon  of  
pretence1 as figured in ,mr4 ,fletcher's
 article1 while the third bears  his    
coat impaled with hers1 and is much more
 finely cut4    ,illustration3 ,,sir    
,,kenelm ,,digby',s ,,arms    ,the arms 
of the ,duke of ,albemarle are found on 
the #afcd edition of  ,harrington's     
',orlando ,furioso1' those of the ,earl 
of ,arlington on a copy  of a ,spanish  
religious work1 ',trabajos de ,iesus1'  
printed at ,madrid in  #afdg1 those of  
,lord ,cornwallis1 with a cipher        
imitated from that of  ,charles ,,ii41  
on a #affi edition of the ,book of      
,common ,prayer4 ,other                 
seventeenth-century collectors of minor 
note might be mentioned1 but we  must   
pass on now beyond the ,revolution of   
#afhh1 and notice a few coats  of later 
date4 ,a copy of ,dryden's ',miscellany 
,poems' of #agjb bears the  arms of     
,charles1 ,lord ,halifax 7'the          

,treasurer'71 as well as a book-plate   
dated with the same year1 #agjb2 a      
,roman ,history of #afie and a ,prayer  
,book of #agjj carry two different      
stamps of the arms of ,john1 ,lord      
,somers2 there are three books with the 
stamp and name of ,robert ,harley1      
,earl of ,oxford1 and three with the    
,carteret arms4 ,of these last two1     
,hammond's ',sermons' and the ',divi    
,britannici1' both published in #afge1  
bear 'the bloody hand' that marks a     
baronet1 while a ,horace of ,paris1     
#aefg1 shows ,lord ,carteret's arms as a
 peer4 ,on ,sanderson's ',nature and    
,obligation of ,conscience' 7#agbb7 we  
have another instance of a lady's       
book-stamp1 that of ,cassandra          
,willoughby1 ,duchess of ,chandos2 the  
arms  and book-plate of the ,duke of    
,montagu are found on a copy of ,bishop 
,berkeley's famous treatise on the      
virtues of tar-water 7#agdd72 lastly1 a 
,utrecht ,callimachus of #afig is       
adorned with the arms of ,sir ,philip   

,sydenham1 ,bart41 and with the         
book-plate of ,john ,wilkes1 who1 if a  
demagogue1 was a demagogue of classical 
tastes4    ,these eighteenth-century    
books and their owners are somewhat less
  interesting than the earlier ones to  
which most of this article has been     
devoted1 and in attempting to enumerate 
them it is difficult to avoid  the style
 of a catalogue4 ,the danger is all the 
greater when we turn to  the ,french    
books1 for here ,guigard has been before
 us1 and there is no  purpose to be     
served by making extracts from his      
pages4 ,as might be  expected1 the      
collection contains more than one       
specimen of the books of  ,de ,thou1 in 
which the ,british ,museum was already  
fairly rich4 ,among  other notable      
stamps of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries we may  mention that of       
,antoine de ,leve1 ,abb de l',isle en   
,barrois1 on three  books published     
between #aegd and #afbd2 of ,estampes de
 ,valency on a book  of #aeeg2 of       

,peiresc 7on a ',harpocrationis         
,dictionarium1' #afad71 and of  ,louis  
,philippeaux1 ,seigneur de la ,vaillire4
 ,of later date are those of  the       
,comtesse de ,verrue1 ,beatrix de       
,choiseul1 ,la ,rochefoucald1 ,president
  ,seguier1 ,turgot1 ,montausier1 ,marie
 ,leczinska1 and a host of others too   
numerous to mention4    ,the ,german    
books are few and apparently            
unimportant1 the ,italian mostly        
ecclesiastical1 those from the ,low     
,countries mostly school-prizes4 ,there 
are also two or three ,spanish books1   
all the more welcome because  ,spanish  
bindings are so seldom met with in      
,england1 and a few fairly  good        
specimens of the bookbinder's craft     
without armorial stamps4 ,but  the      
,english books are the main feature of  
the collection4          ,a ,,queen     
,,anne ,,pocket-,,book#bi    7,,by      
,,alice ,,pollard7      ,some forty     
years ago there was picked up in the    
cellar of a large  private bank in      

,lombard ,street a little pocket-book1  
which must have  lain there for at least
 a century4 ,its parchment covers were  
yellow and  time-stained1 and the brown 
ribbon which fastened them together had 
become ragged and moth-eaten1 but       
despite its somewhat faded brown ink    
the crabbed handwriting remained as     
legible as ever4 ,after its removal     
from the ,lombard ,street cellar the    
queer little book lay for another  forty
 years in the musk-scented drawer of a  
,chippendale secretaire1  which formed  
for it a not unfitting resting-place4   
,thence it has to-day  been unearthed1  
and is now to be made to tell its       
old-world story4 ,this1  in truth1 is   
but a simple one1 as the book contains  
chiefly a very  carefully kept          
memorandum of the moneys spent by its   
owner during his  youth and early       
manhood2 but running through these      
accounts we can trace  something of his 
family history1 of his employments1     
tastes1 and habits1  and so1 ,i think1  

gain a very fair idea of the writer's   
individuality4  ,now and then1 as if to 
help us1 he uses a page as a diary1 and 
by means  of such entries as births1    
deaths1 and marriages1 we can piece our 
story  together4         #bi ,from      
',longman's ,magazine1' by leave of the 
publishers4    ',john ,payne1 #afii1'   
that is the first information which our 
book gives  us1 and we turn from the    
fly-leaf1 where it is boldly written1 to
  inquire who this ,john ,payne was1 and
 what was his business and rank in      
life4 ,we start with a predisposition to
 believe that he was a banker1  because 
it was in a bank which still bears his  
name that his pocket-book  was picked   
up2 but the pocket-book itself has      
nothing to say about  banking1 while it 
is very profuse on the subjects of      
',linsayes1 dyapers1  ,westfalia linen1'
 etc41 and informs us that its owner was
 frequently  sending home house linen   
and dress stuffs to his mother1 sisters1
 and  friends4 ,somewhat reluctantly1   

therefore1 we conclude that our hero    
began life as a draper1 and it is with  
satisfaction 7for we would fain  have   
him cut a figure7 that we note sundry   
entries of a ,sir ,james and my  ,lady1 
a ,sir ,stephen1 and a ,lady ,langham in
 a connection which shows them  to have 
been either relations or old family     
friends4 ,there are not  wanting other  
indications that our young draper came  
of a well-to-do  stock1 and we may1     
therefore1 conclude that in coming to   
,london to serve  a seven years'        
apprenticeship1 he was only acting on   
the excellent rule  that to win success 
as a merchant 7or anything else7 you    
must begin at  the beginning4 ,as has   
been already said1 the date inside the  
pocket-book  is #afii1 but the accounts 
begin on ,january #aj1 #afif1 so that   
those of  the first three years have    
evidently been copied in from some      
earlier  notes4 ,this ascertained1 we   
become excited to find the entry of the 
purchase of the book itself1 and are    

rewarded after a little search by  the  
information that1 together with some    
paper and quills1 it only cost  one     
shilling and fourpence1 certainly no    
excessive outlay for a book  constantly 
in use for over a quarter of a century4 
,in copying his back  accounts into his 
new purchase1 ,john divided his book    
into two halves1  keeping the first for 
'what ,i have layd out since ,i came to 
,london on  my ,father's charge1' and   
the second for his disbursements from   
'the  money that ,i did bring up to town
 at the first coming up 7#dl #hs471  and
 sent me since and given me by freinds4'
 ,in looking over his accounts  for him 
we will follow the order of his own     
choosing1 and begin with his            
expenditure for what he considered the  
necessaries he might fairly  charge to  
his father4    ,on his first arrival in 
town the youthful ,john evidently found 
himself  somewhat behind the times in   
the cut of his clothes and the fashion  
of  his hair1 for on the first page of  

the book we have distinct suggestions   
of visits to his tailor and the barber1 
who between them arrayed his  outer man 
for a first entry into town life1 and   
managed to do so at the  moderate cost  
of #e1 #cs4 #f;d4 ,here are the items3  
,layed out between ye #ajth of ,january 
ye #bjth of ,february  #afi-e_/f4       
s4 d4      ,a paire of ,gloves          
#jj #ja #jb      ,a box  hatband        
#jj #jb #jf      ,a pennknife           
#jj #jj #jh      ,a ,queer of paper     
#jj #jj #jf      ,a ,coppy ,booke       
#jj #jj #jh      ,a ,porter  letter     
#jj #jj #jf      ,the ,barber           
#jj #jj #jc      ,sugar ,candy          
#jj #jj #jb      ,damask #d yds         
#jj #ad #jf      #b yds #c_/d of ,bd    
,cloth  #ja #ac #jj      #e yds of      
,shaloone       #jj #aa #jj             
,buttons  fustin           #jj #aj #aa  
,buckrum  ,canvis           #jj #ja #jc 
,glazd ,lin3                #jj #jj #je 
,the ,taylors ,bill           #ja #jf   
#jj                                     

--------                                
#je #jc #jf    ,tailors were evidently  
more modest in their charges in those   
days4 ,it is  difficult at first to see 
under what pretext ,john could have set 
down  twopennyworth of sugar candy under
 the head of ',thinges layd out on my   
,father's charge1' but we soon find a   
further entry of ',things for my  cold1'
 and doubtless the sugar candy might    
also have come under that  head2 indeed1
 the ,london fogs seem not to have      
agreed with the  ,huntingdonshire lad1  
for more than once in each year we find 
references  to colds which mostly appear
 to have been treated by blood-letting4 
,after the first month of #afi-e_/f the 
father could have had no cause to       
complain of his son's extravagance1 for 
his whole expenses for the next  quarter
 come to seventeen shillings and        
fourpence1 even including  ',sister     
,betty's fringe1' for which he paid     
eightpence1 a tip of sixpence  given to 
',ye ,maide1' and ',close mending from  

,top to ,toe1' which cost  him four     
shillings and threepence6 ,during the   
next year and a half he  has a fair     
number of new clothes and makes some    
wonderful bargains1  obtaining ',a      
,comb3 ,sisers3 ,blade  ,buttons' for   
one shilling and  ninepence4 ,his barber
 is still an expensive item1 for his    
',peruke' needs  constant attention2 his
 cold also requires 'sugar candy and    
other  things1' but he executes a great 
piece of economy by having ',wastcoate  
turned to ,breeches' at a cost of only  
#bs4 #a;d4 ,in #afii his 'wigg' again   
proves costly2 it appears to have been  
thoroughly done up and trimmed to  the  
latest fashion previous to a visit to   
his home1 for we find two  entries      
following each other3                   
s4 d4      ,my ,wigg  its ,mending      
#ja #jd #jj      ,my place ith' ,coach  
charge on the ,roade  #ja #jj #jj       
,the remaining accounts which he sends  
in to his father from time to time  have
 no particular interest1 being more or  

less repetitions of those  which have   
gone before1 but on the last page of the
 book he sums up the  whole seven years 
as follows3 ',spent on father's acct in 
ye whole #g  years of ,apprenticeship1  
#fdl4 #ais4 #aa;d4 ,spent on my own acct
 on  ,self and freinds1 #ail4 #aes4     
#i;d4 ,spent less than ,i had saved     
before  and given me after ,i came to   
towne in ye #g years1 #cl4 #acs4 #e;d4' 
,the seven years' private accounts start
 as follows3         ,the ,money that ,i
 did bring up to town att ye first      
coming up was       #dl4 #hs4 #j;d4     
,lent me since yt  given me by freinds3 
s4 d4       ,by father                  
#j #ag #j       ,by ,mother             
#j #ac #f       ,by ,grandmother        
#a #ai #f       ,by ,sr ,james and my   
,lady                        #b #ah #j  
,by ,cousen ,betty                      
#j #ab #j       ,by ,sr ,stephen        
#j #aa #j       ,by ,brother            
#j #af #j       ,by ,uncle  ,aunt       
#j #jc #j       ,by ,sisters            

#j #ac #f       ,hog ,money  old ,coate 
#j #jf #j       ,by several             
#j #jd #f       ,by ye ,box ,money of ye
 first #a_/b of my time    #j #ah #f    
,by ye ,king's ,entry                   
#j #jc #j       ,by ,aunt ,wikes        
#j #jb #f       ,by father more         
#j #ji #j       ,by my ,lady more       
#j #aj #j                               
------                                  
#af #ja #j         #gs4 #f;d4 ,i had    
given me more not sett down because layd
 out       againe ,in ,tokens4    ,the  
private accounts are only entered in    
detail for one half the time of  his    
apprenticeship1 and with one or two     
additions may be all summed up  under   
the following heads3--',fruit3          
,necessarys3 ,lost in wagers and  other 
wayes3 on ye ,poore3 ,spent with kindred
 and acquaintance3 ,tokens3   given4'   
,the regularity with which the accounts 
are kept is only equalled by the        
remarkable steadiness of his            
expenditure2 the first and third years  

showing an outlay of exactly #a1 #bs4   
each1 whilst the second and  fourth each
 run to precisely #b4 ,perhaps it will  
be most interesting  to examine the four
 years side by side4                    
#ast ,year4 #bnd ,year4 #crd ,year4 #dth
 ,year4                              s4 
d4 s4 d4 s4 d4 s4 d4      ,in fruit     
#f #aj-a_/b    #h  #j         #g  #e    
#g  #e      ,necessarys              #a 
#a-a_/b     #b  #i         #a  #i       
#b  #f      ,lost in wagers        other
 wayes            #b  #a         #a  #f 
#b  #g           #aa      ,on ,ye ,poore
            #a  #f         #b  #f       
#a  #g         #a  #b      ,spent with  
,kindred        acquaintance         #d 
#a-a_/b     #f  #h         #d  #f       
#ae  #j      ,tokens                    
--         #ac  #h          --          
#aa  #f      ,given                     
--          #a  #i         #d  #b       
#j  #f    ,the additional expenses are  
unnoteworthy with the exception of ',a  
,key to  a ,pen1' which certainly       

arouses curiosity2 the price of the key 
was one  shilling1 but its size1 shape1 
and use remain a mystery to us4    ,the 
next page or two are filled with        
desultory memoranda of small sums       
received in the form of 'tips1' and     
ending up with these two statements3    
,this being ,septr ye #bith #afii ,i    
find ,i have spent this first       half
 of my time on my own charges #jfl4 #ds4
 #jj;d44         ,spent on my own acct  
in ye #g years #ail4 #aes4 #i;d4    ,one
 is tempted to speculate as to what form
 his greater extravagance  during the   
second half of his time took1 but on    
this point the book is  silent4    ,the 
apprenticeship ended in the early part  
of #agjc1 but ,john apparently  stayed  
on in the same business for several     
years afterwards at a weekly  wage of   
#e4 ,that this did not constitute his   
entire income is clear from  a page of  
his diary1 which records3 ',father recd 
of ,jos4 ,atkins for my  rent ,dew at   
,lady ,day #agja1 #afl4 #acs4 #jj;d4    

taxes being ,deducted'2  and again1     
after more references to ,jos4 ,atkins3 
',recd of my tenant in  all #fdl4 #ags4 
being #b years rent due att ,michaelmas 
#agjc4'    ,we do not find any          
references either in the diary or the   
accounts to the  time when the young man
 began to think of taking to himself a  
wife1 but  his income at the high value 
of money in those days would now be     
quite  sufficiently large to enable him 
to do so1 and some time within the next 
three years he wooed and won his bride4 
,of the nature of that wooing one  would
 gladly learn a little more1 for even   
with the help of a decided  love-letter 
written to his mistress within six      
months of their marriage  we cannot     
divine much4 ,how this letter 7probably 
only one amongst many  of a like nature7
 ever fell again into the hands of its  
original writer1  to be placed by him in
 the pocket of the little account-book1 
we are  unable to say2 but there it is1 
yellow and stained with age1 and worn   

with much folding and refolding4 ,it is 
written on the thin1 rough1 large       
square note-paper of the period1 sealed 
with a monogram and elaborately         
addressed on the back3         ,for     
,mrs4 ,lydia ,durrant att       ,mr4    
,henry ,woodgate's in       ,goudhurst  
,kent       ,by ,stone ,crouch ,bag     
,the letter is so short and so quaint   
that ,i transcribe the whole4         ,i
 gladly embrace ys first opportunity to 
tell you dearest ,mdm       yt ,i       
arrived ,safe in towne ys evening with a
 great deal of ease       both to my    
horse  self2 ,the ,roads ,i found much  
better than by way       of ,tunbridge  
,weather ,thanks be to ,god pretty      
favourable1 ,my       greatest trouble  
was to think ye nearer ,i was to my     
journeys ,end1       yt ,i was still ye 
farther from yr ,dear ,self4 ,do me so  
much       ,justice ,mdm as to believe  
yt it is impossible for me to have      
any interest or concern nearer my heart 
then you  ,i am sorry so       great a  

truth and pure cannot be expressed in   
other ,words then such       as         
sometimes are forced to serve ye profane
 use of ,complements4 ,i       wish it  
were any way in my power  ,i hope it    
will 'ere long1 to       shew ye true   
affection ,i have for you  ,i value     
myself upon ye       opportunity ,i     
promise myself of shortly kissing yr    
hand4 ,i have       not mett with father
 as yett but trust ,i shall tomorrow    
morning4       ,yr letters to ,hackney  
shall be delivered with care and speed4 
,i       beg ,mrs ,woodgate's acceptance
 of ye oranges designed her ys          
week by ,caryer1 ,i shall rejoice to    
hear ye little one is come safe       to
 towne  ,aunt in a way of recovery but  
above all to hear of yr       good      
health wch will be an infinite joy4 ,if 
you did believe or       could ,imagine 
how great a refreshment a letter from   
you would       afford me at this       
melancholy distance you would not faile 
to write       by the first post1  ye   

hopes ,i conceive you will do so support
 me       under ye misfortune of yr     
absence4 ,it is late so adding my humble
       service to ,unkle's  ,mr ,paris's
 family with a thousand thanks          
shall extend this no farther than ye    
subscribing myself with a       most    
sincere and hearty affection            
,mdm yr most humble admirer       ,,john
 ,,payne4         ,march #abth #agj-e_/f
 ,fetter ,lane4    ',my greatest trouble
 was to think the nearer ,i was to my   
journeys ,end1  that ,i was still the   
farther from your ,dear ,self'--that is 
a very  prettily turned sentence1 and   
yet with a ring about it which sounds   
straight from the heart4 ,throughout the
 whole letter1 indeed1 there is a       
delightful simplicity and homeliness    
which even the stilted phraseology  of  
the period cannot quite spoil1 and which
 tempts us to think that when  the      
'melancholy distance' 7of some thirty   
miles7 no longer kept the  lovers apart1
 ,john may possibly have greeted his    

lady just a little more  warmly than    
with that respectful touch of her hand  
which was all that  epistolary          
conventions allowed him to propose to   
himself4 ,at any rate  his suit         
prospered1 for in the middle of his     
pocket-book we come across  two pages of
 diary pure and simple which show us    
that just five months  after his letter 
the wished-for opportunity of showing   
his 'true  affection' was granted by his
 marriage with ,mistress ,lydia ,durrant
 in  ,september of the same year4       
,immediately following this record of   
his  entrance 'into ye holy state of    
,matrimony1 ,sept4 #d1 #agjf1' we have  
the  beginning of his household         
accounts4 ,on the credit side they run  
as  follows3        ,recd ,sept4 #bgth1 
#agjf--                           s4 d4 
#d weeks money from ,shop               
#bj #jj #j        #e weeks do4 ,nov4    
#b;d                              #be   
#j #j        ,recd4 ,father pr4 ,bror4  
,woodford           #bj  #j #j          

,recd4 ,brother ,woodford more than     
layed out      #b #aa #j        ,nov4   
#af4 #b weeks' money                    
#aj #jj #j         --  #bc4 #a week's   
money                            #e  #j 
#j        ,dec4  #g4 #b weeks' money    
#aj  #j #j        ,jan4 #ah4 #f weeks'  
money                           #cj #jj 
#j        ,jan4 #be4 #a week's money    
#e #jj #j                               
--------                                
#abg #aa #j    ,the debit side is       
evidently headed by expenses in         
connection with the  wedding1 and it    
would appear that1 when ,john had       
brought his wife to  town1 the young    
couple finished the furnishing of their 
house together4        ,septr #bi1      
#agjf4                                  
s4 d4      ,pd for hatt                 
#a #aa #jj      ,other small things     
#j #aj #jj      ,mantle pr4 glass       
#b #aj #jj      ,wife                   
#b #aj --      ,charges of journey      
#f  #i #jj      ,pd ,father for house   

#f #ae #jj      ,pd for ,chaires        
#d  #h #jj      #b ,kills ,beere        
#j #aj #jj      ,wife for house         
#b  #f #jj      ,self for ,pockett      
#a #jj #jj      ,glasses #abs4 #f;d41   
,table #hs4                    #a #jj   
#jf      ,chest of ,drawers  ,do4       
#c #af #jj        ,nov4 #ahth4          
,wife for house                         
#b #jj #jj      ,linen                  
#e  #f #jj      ,shoes #is41 house #bl4 
#b  #i #jj      ,knives #cjs4           
#a #aj #jj      ,months ,rent1 ,board1  
,servts wages to ,michms   #i #ag  #f   
,pd wife for house                      
#b #jj #jj      ,linen for ,ditto       
#c #jj  #f      ,buttr1 ,cheese1  ,bacon
                              #a #ab  #f
      ,w4 ,clark1 ,upholster            
#aj #ab  #f      ,w4 ,litchfeilds ,bill 
#e  #b #jj      ,house #f weeks         
#ab #jj #jj      ,pd for ,plate  ,spoons
                              #ab  #e   
#f      ,pd ,cheesemonger1 ,st ,martins 
#b  #j  #j      ,house #bl41 ,handk4    

,muz4 #cas4                    #c #aa   
#jj                                     
--------                                
#ajf #ab #jj    ,on the next page we    
have a reference to ,sarah's wages1     
which were #b1  #cs41 but as no dates   
are given we are unable to decide       
whether this  represents three or six   
months' hire4    ,we now begin to notice
 that besides 'wife for house1' there is
 another  entry of 'wife for self1'     
which occurs pretty often1 'wife'       
receiving  from two to three pounds at  
once1 and finally she receives five     
pounds  for her 'occassions1' a         
mysterious allusion which is perhaps    
explained  by a reference later on to   
',parson and ,clark1 #acs4 #c;d41' and  
',cradle  and ,baskitt1 #aas4 #f;d4'    
,turning to the ',diary1' we have the   
simple  record of the birth1 and sad to 
say the death1 of his first child3      
,my ,dear first child was born ye #bcrd 
of ,june1 #agjg1 about #aj in       ye  
forenoon4         ,christened by ye name

 of ,eliz4 ye #be of ye same month1     
dyed       ye #aith of ,july following  
about #aa at night1  lyes in ye         
vault in ,st ,voster's1 ,londn4    ,with
 the birth of the child the household   
expenses increase1 and we find  in      
addition to ',house #bl4' further       
expenses1 which are noted down as       
'extraordinary1' but soon cease to be   
looked upon as anything but  ordinary4  
,the household seems to have been kept  
up on a fairly large scale1 for we  have
 mention of a ',kate' and a ',betsy' who
 also receive wages as well as          
',sarah'2 but it is evident from the    
other side of the page that the  wife's 
father lived with the young people and  
kept his own manservant1  paying them   
for board two sums of #dg1 #ajs4 within 
the twelve months4  ,items for wine and 
beer are very common1 one brewer's bill 
for six  months being ten pounds6 ,it is
 difficult to guess what became of the  
money allowed for ',house1' since the   
master paid servants' wages1 and  bills 

for wine1 beer1 coals1 groceries1       
house-linen1 butcher1  butter-man1 and  
taxes6 ,his wife's allowance also was   
very liberal1 and  at various times he  
pays for the following items besides3   
',for ,wife's  ,scarf1 #bl4 #ajs4 #j;d42
 ,wife's ,callico1 #al4 #gs42 ,wife's   
,silk1  #fl4 #ajs4 #jj;d42 ,wife1 for   
tippet1 #dl4 #fs4 #jj;d4'2 in fact1     
according to his own showing1 he appears
 to have given his wife ample  means of 
providing both for the house and        
herself1 and then to have paid  all her 
bills as well6    ,under date ,october  
#agjh1 we come across evidence of the   
arrival of  another child to replace the
 one too soon lost4 ,this time ',parson 
and  ,clark' head the list1 receiving   
#acs4 #c;d42 ',gossiping money' comes to
  #a4 #bs4 #f;d42 ',coates for child1   
#al4 #as4 #f;d4'2 ',midwife and ,nurse1 
#cl4 #ds4 #f;d41' and the ,diary says3  
,my second child ,john was born ,octr   
#acth1 #agjh1  was baptised       ye    
,sabbath ,day following by ,w4 ,benjn4  

,ibbatt4    ,there is still another     
record of the birth of a daughter1 who1 
like the  first1 lived but a few days4  
,my daughter ,ann was born ,novr ye     
#abth1 #agji1  ,dyed ye       #aith     
,ditto4    ,after this the regular      
accounts stop1 as does also the ,diary1 
but from  stray notes scattered through 
the book there would appear to have been
  born yet another daughter who survived
 infancy1 but whose health must  have   
given cause for anxiety4 ,thus in       
,february #agaf1 we read3 ',pd ,nurse   
,patch fifteen ,pounds twelve shillings 
in full for nursing and boarding  my    
,daughter to the #bjth of this ,instant 
,february4' ,and again1 in  ,february   
#agbj1 the child and nurse were         
evidently sent on a long visit  to      
,huntingdon to ,grandmother ,payne3 ',pd
 ,mother ,febry ye #afth1  #ag-bj_/a1   
,thirty seaven ,pounds fourteen         
shillings  #f;d4 in full for  ,butter1  
,interest1 ,child1 and ,maide's board   
and wages and all accts4'    ,after     

,november #agji there are no more       
regular house-accounts1 and the  little 
book is used principally for jotting    
down moneys received and  larger sums   
paid out to his mother and sisters4 ,the
 shop also ceases to  be mentioned1 and 
we have numerous entries of rents paid  
by tenants in  ,huntingdon2--indeed it  
would seem that soon after the death of 
his  wife's father1 which occurred in   
,june #agji1 ,john ,payne left ,london  
and  went down to manage his estates in 
,huntingdon1 where he seems to have     
been in possession of about #ajjj per   
annum in landed property1 chiefly       
consisting of small farms let to tenants
 at from #bj to #ej per annum4  ,out of 
this property1 however1 he has to pay   
quarterly dividends to his  mother and  
sister ,anna1 though their income1 like 
that of most widows  and unmarried      
daughters of the time1 was very small   
and could form no  great burden on the  
estate4 ,at what period ,john ,payne    
again left his  country house to mix    

once more in ,london business life1     
whether he was  personally connected    
with the bank or only lent his money and
 his name1  or whether indeed he ever   
was one of the founders or left that    
honour to  his son ,john1 is all a      
matter of conjecture2 yet one closes the
 quaint  little old book with feelings  
of regret1 and would fain follow its    
owner  a little further4 ,the last date 
is #agbf1 when he must still have been a
  comparatively young man4           99 
99       99       99       99    ,the   
publication of this little article had  
the pleasant result of  enabling the    
writer to restore the ,pocket-,book to a
 descendant of the  original owner4     
,further notes on some of the persons   
mentioned will be  found in a ',sequel' 
contributed by ,mr4 ,john ,orlebar      
,payne to the next  number 7that for    
,april #ahhi7 of ',longman's ,magazine4'
          ,,why ,,men ,,don',t          
,,marry#cj    ,,an                      
,,eighteenth-,,century ,,answer    7,,by

 ,,alice ,,pollard7           #cj ,from 
',longman's ,magazine1' by leave of the 
publishers4    ,the title of this       
article is not of my own choosing4 ,it  
was  fore-ordained for me some time back
 by the rather excited correspondents   
of a daily newspaper1 which opened its  
columns to as many solutions of  the    
riddle as ingenuity could devise4 ,it   
may fairly be objected that the  riddle 
is no riddle at all1 but rather belongs 
to the class of  question-begging       
queries of which ',how long have you    
ceased beating your  mother8' is the    
most famous example4 ,as a matter of    
fact1 most men do  marry1 and it seems1 
therefore1 unreasonable to be asked to  
explain why  they don't4 ,but on this   
one point my sex is perhaps a little    
unreasonable4 ,women have never         
acquiesced wholeheartedly in ,mr4       
,stevenson's assertion that though the  
ideal woman is a wife the ideal  man is 
a bachelor1 and so long as even a small 
minority of men of  presentable         

appearance and some visible means of    
subsistence persist in  denying         
themselves a man's highest privilege1   
the problem will doubtless  continue to 
be stated in the sweeping form which ,i 
here adopt4    ,the most hardened       
offenders are undoubtedly the members of
 a single  class3 pleasant young        
fellows1 with an income of three or four
 hundred a  year and no prospect of     
increasing it4 ,a bachelor with #djj a  
year1 if  he live within it1 persists in
 regarding himself as a miracle of      
economy1 but with even the smallest gift
 of husbandry is probably as  rich as   
any man in the kingdom4 ,to marry on the
 same #djj means a  terrible falling-off
 in the standard of comfort1 and the one
 luxury  which these pleasant fellows   
religiously deny themselves is that of a
  wife4    ,the story is not a new one1 
and the other day1 in looking over some 
pamphlets in a great library1 ,i came   
across a thin quarto1 entitled1  ',the  
,batchelor's ,estimate of the ,expences 

of a ,married ,life ,in a ,letter  to a 
,friend4 ,being an ,answer to a         
,proposal of ,marrying a ,lady with     
#bjjjl4 ,fortune4' ,the date of the     
pamphlet is #agbi1 and in it the        
situation is set forth with so much     
circumstance1 and in so engaging a      
manner1 that ,i thought there might be  
some readers who would care to  spend a 
few minutes in looking at it with me4   
,a gentleman1 himself a married man1    
having a relation a spinster of a       
marriageable age1 and possessing also   
the1 for those days1 by no means        
despicable fortune of #bjjj1 has        
proposed to a bachelor friend to        
negotiate a marriage between them4      
,the bachelor has no innate objection to
 marriage as such--on the  contrary1 he 
looks upon it as 'an agreeable state'2  
but he cannot 'at  present accept the   
proposal' because 'the following        
necessary expenses  arise so frequently 
and so openly to his view' that they    
deter him from  considering marriage as 

possible4    ,up to the present time he 
has lived in chambers at the moderate   
rent of  #ab1 #ajs4 per annum4 ,but so  
impressed is he with the probable       
requirements of a lady with the         
'handsome ,fortune' of #bjjj1 that he   
sees himself at once obliged to secure a
 house with a rental of #ej4    ,as a   
bachelor in chambers he has been lucky  
enough to escape all  ',church1 ,window 
and ,poor's ,taxes1 ,payments to        
,rector1 ,reader and  ,lecturer1 ,water 
,rates1 ,trophy ,money1#ca ,militia1    
,lamp1 ,scavengers1  ,watch1 ,constable1
 etc4' ,as a married man he calculates  
that for these  things alone he will be 
mulcted to the extent of 'at least' #i  
per  annum4         #ca ,trophy money   
was a duty paid by householders for     
providing the       militia with        
harness1 drums1 colours1 etc4    ,our   
friend was1 we presume1 in the habit of 
taking his morning cup of  coffee at a  
coffee-house4 ,now he sees in           
imagination not only his own  and his   

wife's daily supply of coffee to be     
provided1 but he pictures  the          
innumerable 'dishes of tea' which will  
be consumed by her and her  maids1 not  
to mention the additional quantity for  
gossips and card  parties4 ,thus1 ',tea1
 ,coffee1 ,chocolate1 ,sugar1 ,spirits  
and ,fresh ,supply  of ,china will cost 
#abl4 per annum4' ,we are tempted to    
inquire what  proportion of this sum    
must be set aside for 'spirits' and     
broken  crockery1 and why1 indeed1 there
 should be any connection between them1 
unless tea-drinkings in the early part  
of the eighteenth century were  too     
often modelled on the style of a certain
 famous one known to readers  of        
,dickens4    ,the consideration of tea1 
this being essentially a domestic       
article1  leads our bachelor to the     
question of servants4 ,for his own use  
he has  been content with the services  
of a bedmaker1 to whom he gave #ejs4 a  
year4 ,he forgets to add an unknown sum 
to pay for the waste1  impositions1 and 

perquisites inseparable from a          
bedmaker's existence4 ,in  the future   
the dignity of a citizen1 a householder1
 and a married man  has to be supported1
 and the weight of this can only be     
sustained by a  staff of 'two           
,maid-servants and a ,man'--the man to  
be in livery4 ,yet  even these luxuries 
will not cost him such a very large sum1
 since he  reckons to procure them all1 
livery included1 for an additional #ag1 
#ajs4 per annum--i4e4 #bj in all4    ,we
 are next let into his confidence with  
regard to the proper amount of          
entertainment he will think it fit and  
necessary to allow his wife4 ,she  must 
certainly go to the play1 but a lady of 
independent fortune1 the  mistress of a 
grand house and a servant in livery1    
cannot be expected to  walk out in      
evening-dress1 so a coach or chair must 
be provided for her  conveyance1 and for
 the hire of these he makes a yearly    
computation of  #c1 #ajs4 ',her expenses
 at these ,diversions' 7which included1 

doubtless1  entrance fees and           
refreshments7 would amount to another   
#c1 #ajs4 ,as a  staid and steady       
bachelor not given 7as he tells us later
 on7 to  'sauntering at ,coffee-,houses'
 or playing at hazard1 he has been      
content  with going to the play about   
once a year1 but now1 as 'it would not  
be  proper she should go alone1' this   
exemplary husband will even sacrifice   
his own inclinations1 and1 obeying the  
call of duty1 attend his wife at  a cost
 of #a1 #ajs4 a year6 ,not only is he   
considerate in the matter of  providing 
for his wife's pleasures1 but he seems  
to us decidedly liberal  in the matter  
of pin-money1 as he sets aside #cj for  
her personal  expenses4    ,coals and   
candles weigh heavily on his mind4 ,his 
landlady has hitherto  kept him         
sufficiently warm for an annual #djs4   
7coals must have been much  cheaper1    
landladies less of harpies1 or the      
winters much milder in those  days671   
but in his new establishment coals and  

candles will run up to  the large sum of
 #ae4    ,his bachelor dinners have cost
 him an average of #ajs4 per week2 when 
married he must still dine1 and even    
divert himself with 'evening  expenses' 
common both to married men and          
bachelors1 so that instead of  a modest 
#be for dinners he will now have to pay 
the following yearly  bills3            
s4 d4      ,the ,butcher                
#ce #jj #jj        ,poulterer           
#jf #jj #jj        ,fishmonger          
#jg #jj #jj        ,herb-,woman         
#je #jj #jj        ,oylman              
#je #jj #jj        ,baker               
#jh #jj #jj        ,brewer              
#aj #jj #jj        ,grocer              
#jf #jj #jj        ,confectioner        
#jb #jj #jj        ,cheesemonger        
#jd #jj #jj      ,wine1 ,cyder1 etc41 at
 a moderate computation #cj #jj #jj     
,the ,fruiterer                         
#ja #aj #jj      ,the ,milk-,woman      
#ja #jj #jj      ,salt1 ,small-coal1    
,rotten-stone1 ,brick-dust1      ,sand1 

,oat-meal1 ,whiteing and many other     
little ,ingredients in ,house-,keeping  
,i am      ignorant of                  
#jb #jj #jj    ,this detailed           
calculation over1 we again catch a      
glimpse of the man's  personality and   
his conception of what is due from him  
towards a wife4  ',if my ,wife pleases  
me1 as ,i do not doubt but your         
,relation will1 7,i  know my own ,temper
 so well in that ,respect that7 ,i shall
 be often making  her ,presents of      
either ,rings1 ,jewels1 ,snuff-,boxes1  
,watch1 ,tweezers1 some  ,knick-,knacks1
 and ,things of that ,nature1 in which1 
one ,year with  another1 ,i am sure ,i  
shall spend #el4' ,after this it occurs 
to him that  he has left out one        
important source of expense which he    
'least wishes  for1' but which 'happens 
in most ,families'--that is1 the fees of
 doctor  and apothecary1 which will1 he 
fears1 average #e per annum4    ',as for
 ,children1 we may reasonably expect one
 in every two ,years1 if  not oftener4' 

,reckoning the ',expence of             
,lying-,inne1 ,child-,linen1  ,midwife1 
,nurses1 ,caudles1 ,possets1 ,cradle1   
,christenings1 etc41' the  annual       
expense consequent on being a family man
 will be #ae4 ,but the  initial expense 
is not all3 ',nursing1 ,maintaining1    
,education1 ,cloathes1  ,schooling1'    
and--here1 surely1 we have found the    
prototype of ,mr4 ,walter  ,besant's    
ideal father--providing an endowment or 
fortune for each child  will require a  
sum of #cj per annum2 and he is         
'satisfied' that he has  stated a sum   
'vastly less' than is likely to prove   
needful in the end--a  foreboding in    
which he was certainly justified1 for of
 payments for  school and 'cloathing1'  
now as then1 there is no end6    ,having
 provided himself in imagination with   
wife1 house1 servants1 and  children1   
our far-seeing friend suddenly remembers
 that his dignity and  respectability   
will require to be supported by a seat  
in church1 so we  find an entry1 ',pew  

in ,church1' #b4 ,this is followed1     
although we cannot  trace the           
connection1 by an estimate of #h per    
annum for ',washing his  wife's and the 
,family ,linen1' and we wonder how      
laundresses managed to  live in those   
days4 ,but so far the house is not      
furnished1 and an  initial #cej must be 
found for that4 ,fifty pounds is to go  
for plate  alone1 'without which1 being 
so moderate a ,quantity1 ,i daresay my  
wife1  nor indeed should ,i myself be   
satisfied4' ,this #cej he calmly        
proposes  to deduct from his wife's     
fortune1 reducing it1 therefore1 to     
#afej4    ,this #afej1 placed out at #e 
per cent4 interest1 will bring in an    
income  of #hb1 but the cautious        
bachelor says #e per cent4 is not likely
 to  continue1 therefore he will reckon 
interest at #d per cent4 only1 and at   
this rate the wife's fortune will       
produce an income of only #ef4 ,he then 
proceeds to show that1 adding together  
the foregoing items1 he will have  to   

spend on his wife #bae1 or even #bca1   
#ajs41 'above the ,income of the        
,fortune she brings1 besides the ,hazard
 and want of certainty for the  ,money1 
which ought to be considered4'    ,and  
now the pamphlet draws to an end1 with a
 conclusion we will give in  the        
writer's own words3         ',these     
,things considered 7and he that marries 
without previous       ,consideration   
acts very indiscreetly71 ,i do not see  
how ,i can marry       a ,woman with the
 ,fortune you propose1 or that ,i should
 better       myself at all by it1 and  
in ,prudence1 ,people should do so or   
let it       alone2 7not that ,i propose
 or think to have more7 ,i must         
therefore       live single1 though with
 some regret that ,i cannot do          
otherwise1       and increase my own    
,fortune1 which happens to be sufficient
 for my       own ,maintenance till 7if 
,i may so call it7 ,i can afford        
,matrimony4         ',i wish the ,lady  
all ,happiness and a better ,husband1   

and if it be       for her              
,satisfaction1 one who has thought less 
of the ,matter2 not       but that ,i   
have a very good ,opinion of ,matrimony1
 and think of it       with ,pleasure1  
as hoping one time or other to enter    
into its ,lists1       but ,i now wait  
with ,patience till my ,circumstances or
 ,thought vary4       ,one ,thing ,i    
would not have you mistaken in1 is1 that
 ,i do not mean1       that your        
,relation will be thus expensive to me1 
more than any       other1 only that    
whenever ,i marry1 let her be who she   
will1 ,i must       necessarily 7if ,she
 has no more ,fortune than you propose7 
expend       considerably more than     
#bjjl4 a year on her1 above the ,income 
of       her ,fortune1 and at present ,i
 cannot persuade myself to be at so     
great an ,expense1 for the value of     
trying a dangerous ,experiment1         
whether the ,pleasures of ,matrimony are
 yearly worth that ,sum4'    ,and all   
this is submitted to the proposer by his

 ',obliged and ,humble  ,servant4'      
,the whole question of marriage1 with   
its arguments for and against1  seems to
 have been as engrossing a topic amongst
 ,english men and women  in the early   
part of the eighteenth century as it    
certainly is with us  now1 and the      
bachelor's pamphlet brought forward at  
least two replies1  which we found bound
 up with the original4 ,one of these1   
purporting to  be by the lady herself1  
and signed ',philogamia1' may be        
dismissed in a  few words2 its arguments
 are neither serious nor to the point1  
and such  wit as there is is of a low   
order1 and too much in the tu quoque    
style  to be amusing4 ,the second       
rejoinder is by the ',woman's           
,advocate1' and is  probably not1 as it 
pretends1 written by a man on behalf of 
women in  general1 but rather by an     
irritated member of the weaker sex1 who 
finds  herself and her fellows insulted 
en masse by the bachelor's refusal to   
marry one of them4    ,the ',advocate'  

takes the various items of the          
',batchelor's ,estimate' one  by one1   
and proceeds to demolish them to the    
best of her ability1  sometimes with a  
certain degree of success1 due1 we      
fancy1 to the more  intimate knowledge  
of housekeeping details naturally       
possessed by a  woman4 ,she at once     
attacks him on the subject of           
house-rent1 and with  truly feminine    
malice reminds him how she has often    
heard him praise a  friend's house      
rented at #bd1 and declare that he      
'could wish for  nothing better4' ,this 
rather reminds us of a young lady who   
advocated  the claims of a somewhat     
uninteresting young man by saying he    
would make  'such a delightful          
brother-in-law4'    ,has not our sex1   
too1 been accused1 with some degree of  
justice1 of  practising little          
meannesses1 and does not the ',woman's  
,advocate's'  confession that she 'has  
lived #aj years in one ,parish and never
 paid a  penny to the ,church' smack    

slightly of this feminine vice8    ,she 
goes on to say3 ',to the ,rector you    
will give #f;d4 as an ,easter           
offering--to the ,lecturer what you     
please4 ,trophy-money is but #f;d4 per  
annum4 ,you need not join the ,militia4 
,lamp1 ,scavenger1 and ,watch seldom    
amount to thirty shillings1 and as for  
the ,constable's ,tax1 ,i never  heard  
of such a thing in my ,life4' ,so the #i
 is reduced to #b4    ,on the estimate  
for servants1 especially for the footman
 in livery1 the  ',woman's ,advocate'   
pours great scorn4 ',a man in livery    
forsooth6 ,have  the two maids so little
 to do that you must e'en employ a man  
to play  with 'em8'    ,but it is       
perhaps in her attack on the actual     
house-keeping estimates  that the       
',woman's ,advocate' is at her best4    
,she does not always assign  her        
reasons1 but boldly makes such          
statements as the following3 ',your     
,butcher's ,bill is over-rated at least 
one ,third4 ,your ,poulterer's and      

,fishmonger's more than two ,thirds4 ,as
 for the ,herb-,woman you have  overtopt
 her with a ,vengeance2 ,twelve pence a 
week is more than enough  for greens    
etc41 and besides' 7does not this bear  
some resemblance to  the traditional    
postscript87 'half the year but few     
sorts are in  ,season4' ,there is more  
banter about greenstuff and salads1     
during which  the bachelor is taunted   
with being 'a meer ,frenchman to eat    
seven ,pounds  per annum in ,salads1'   
and with 'outdoing the ,italians in     
oiling it1' and  is1 moreover1 advised  
to buy his oil direct from the ship     
instead of  from the tavern1 thereby    
effecting a saving of #ajs4 per         
quart6--a hint  we should imagine well  
worth carrying out4    ,words fail the  
',advocate' in which to pour sufficient 
contempt on the  estimates for grocer   
and confectioner3 ',if you are          
sweet-,tooth'd1' she  says1 ',i will    
allow you now and then a ,pennyworth of 
,sugar-,plumbs1 but  think #djs4 per    

annum in that kind of ,trash too much   
for a ,person of  your ,years and       
,frugality2 and ,i could really wish1   
for your own ,sake1  you had omitted    
that ,article in your ,estimate4'       
,the mention of the doctor's and        
apothecary's fees1 which he 'least      
desired1' gives the ',advocate' a final 
opportunity for crushing her  victim1   
and will serve as a very fair example of
 her style of rejoinder  throughout the 
whole answer when she is not dealing    
with concrete  materials3 ',i believe   
you wish for no one ,article of         
,expence2 could you  have a ,wife that  
would wear no ,cloathes1 eat no         
,victuals1 bear no  ,children1 never be 
sick1 and bring you #b or #c1jjjl41 the 
more the  better1 ,i suppose your       
self-conceited ,worship would marry1 who
 imagine1  no doubt1 you merit a        
,fortune of #ej1 nay1 #ajj1jjjl4 ,to    
conclude ,i  pronounce ,bachelors the   
,vermin of a ,state4 ,they enjoy the    
,benefits of  ,society but contribute   

not to its charge1 and sponge upon the  
,publick1  without making the least     
return4 ,had ,i any ,power in the       
,legislature1 you  should not only be   
punished for ,mischievous ,libel1 but   
all ,batchelors  above the age of       
,thirty should be double ,tax'd4'       
,edinburgh3 ,printed by ,t4 and ,a4     
,,constable           ,transcriber's    
,notes3      ,variations in spelling1   
punctuation and hyphenation have been   
retained  except in obvious cases of    
typographical error3         444is a    
7familar --7 familiar feature in medival
 art444         444the zeal of          
7,phinehas --7 ,phineas in444           
444and there 7aret wo --7 are two       
more444         444picture by           
7,verrochio --7 ,verrocchio in ,or ,s4  
,michele1444         444and in the      
',rudimenta ,grammatices' of 7,donatu   
--7 ,donatus       #adic1444            
444his ,r 7represensing --7 representing
 ,lot1444         444,one ,missal was   
printed at 7,basle --7 ,basel1444       

444,caxton1 had 7introdnced --7         
introduced printing into                
,england1444         444it is only in   
,great 7,britian --7 ,britain and444    
444that manuscripts of literary         
7inportance --7 importance              
begin444         444be so eager to 7ie  
--7 lie here1444         444in reference
 to the 7,autor's --7 ,author's name444 
444bears the 7initals --7 initials1     
',w4,p41'444         444combined with a 
7manuscipt --7 manuscript note1444      
,footnotes interrupting paragraphs have 
been moved4    ,image tags interrupting 
paragraphs have been moved4    text and 
text represent superscript text4        
,italic printed text has been formatted 
as text4