file which includes the original illustrations4 ,see #dfbda-;h4htm or #dfbda-;h4zip3 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/cache_/epu b_/#dfbda_/pg#dfbda-;images4html7 or 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/files_/#df bda_/dfbda-;h4zip7 ,images of the original pages are available through ,internet ,archive4 ,see https3_/_/archive4org_/details_/somenote sonearly#jjmorrrich ,,some ,,notes ,,on ,,early ,,woodcut ,,books1 ,,with ,a ,,chapter ,,on ,,illuminated ,,manuscripts1 by ,,william ,,morris ,copyright1 #aijb ,by ,h4 ,m4 ,o',kane ,illustration3 ,from ,terence's ,eunuchus1 ,ulm1 ,conrad ,dinckmut1 #adhf ,notes on ,woodcut ,books ,,on ,,the ,,artistic ,,qualities ,,of ,,the ,,woodcut ,,books ,,of ,,ulm ,,and ,,augsburg ,,in ,,the ,,fifteenth ,,century4 ,the invention of printing books1 and the use of wood-blocks for book ornament in place of hand-painting1 though it belongs to the period of the degradation of medival art1 gave an opportunity to the ,germans to regain the place which they had lost in the art of book decoration during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries4 ,this opportunity they took with vigour and success1 and by means of it put forth works which showed the best and most essential qualities of their race4 ,unhappily1 even at the time of their first woodcut book1 the beginning of the end was on them2 about thirty years afterwards they received the ,renaissance with singular eagerness and rapidity1 and became1 from the artistic point of view1 a nation of rhetorical pedants4 ,an exception must be made1 however1 as to ,albert ,drer2 for1 though his method was infected by the ,renaissance1 his matchless imagination and intellect made him thoroughly ,gothic in spirit4 ,amongst the printing localities of ,germany the two neighbouring cities of ,ulm and ,augsburg developed a school of woodcut book ornament second to none as to character1 and1 ,i think1 more numerously represented than any other4 ,i am obliged to link the two cities1 because the early school at least is common to both2 but the ornamented works produced by ,ulm are but few compared with the prolific birth of ,augsburg4 ,it is a matter of course that the names of the artists who designed these wood-blocks should not have been recorded1 any more than those of the numberless illuminators of the lovely written books of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries2 the names under which the ,ulm and ,augsburg picture-books are known are all those of their printers4 ,of these by far the most distinguished are the kinsmen 7their degree of kinship is not known71 ,gunther ,zainer of ,augsburg and ,john ,zainer of ,ulm4 ,nearly parallel with these in date are ,ludwig ,hohenwang and ,john ,bmler of ,augsburg1 together with ,pflanzmann of ,augsburg1 the printer of the first illustrated ,german ,bible4 ,anthony ,sorg1 a little later than these1 was a printer somewhat inferior1 rather a reprinter in fact1 but by dint of reusing the old blocks1 or getting them recut and in some cases redesigned1 not always to their disadvantage1 produced some very beautiful books4 ,schoensperger1 who printed right into the sixteenth century1 used blocks which were ruder than the earlier ones1 through carelessness1 and ,i suppose probably because of the aim at cheapness2 his books tend towards the chap-book kind4 ,the earliest of these picture-books with a date is ,gunther ,zainer's ,golden ,legend1 the first part of which was printed in #adga2 but1 as the most important from the artistic point of view1 ,i should name3 first1 ,gunther ,zainer's ,speculum ,human ,salvationis 7undated but probably of #adga72 second1 ,john ,zainer's ,boccaccio ,de ,claris ,mulieribus 7dated in a cut1 as well as in the colophon1 #adgc72 third1 the sop1 printed by both the ,zainers1 but ,i do not know by which first1 as it is undated2 fourth1 ,gunther ,zainer's ,spiegel des ,menschlichen lebens 7undated but about #adge71 with which must be taken his ,german ,belial1 the cuts of which are undoubtedly designed by the same artist1 and cut by the same hand1 that cut the best in the ,spiegel above mentioned2 fifth1 a beautiful little book1 the story of ,sigismonda and ,guiscard1 by ,gunther ,zainer1 undated2 sixth1 ,tuberinus1 die geschicht von ,symon1 which is the story of a late ,german ,hugh of ,lincoln1 printed by ,g4 ,zainer about #adge2 seventh1 ,john ,bmlers ,das buch der ,natur 7#adge71 with many full-page cuts of much interest2 eighth1 by the same printer1 ,das buch von den #g ,todsnden und den #g ,tugenden 7#adgd72 ninth1 ,bmler's ,sprenger's ,rosencranz ,bruderschaft1 with only two cuts1 but those most remarkable4 ,to these may be added as transitional 7in date at least71 between the earlier and the later school next to be mentioned1 two really characteristic books printed by ,sorg3 7a7 ,der ,seusse1 a book of mystical devotion1 #adhb1 and 7b7 the ,council of ,constance1 printed in #adhc2 the latter being1 as far as its cuts are concerned1 mainly heraldic4 ,at ,ulm1 however1 a later school arose after a transitional book1 ,leonard ,hol's splendid ,ptolemy of #adhb2 of this school one printer's name1 ,conrad ,dinckmut1 includes all the most remarkable books3 to wit1 ,der ,seelen-wurzgarten 7#adhc71 ,das buch der ,weisheit 7#adhe71 the ,swabian ,chronicle 7#adhf71 ,terence's ,eunuchus 7in ,german7 7#adhf74 ,lastly1 ,john ,reger's ,descriptio ,obsidionis ,rhodi 7#adif7 worthily closes the series of the ,ulm books4 ,it should here be said that1 apart from their pictures1 the ,ulm and ,augsburg books are noteworthy for their border and letter decoration4 ,the ,ulm printer1 ,john ,zainer1 in especial shone in the production of borders4 ,his ,de ,claris ,mulieribus excels all the other books of the school in this matter2 the initial ,s of both the ,latin and the ,german editions being the most elaborate and beautiful piece of its kind2 and1 furthermore1 the ,german edition has a border almost equal to the ,s in beauty1 though different in character1 having the shield of ,scotland supported by angels in the corner4 ,a very handsome border 7or half-border rather71 with a zany in the corner1 used frequently in ,j4 ,zainer's books by the by1 in ,gritsch's ,quadragesimale1 #adge1 this zany is changed into an ordinary citizen by means of an ingenious piecing of the block1 e4g41 in the #adgc and #adgd editions of the ,rationale of ,durandus1 and1 associated with an interesting historiated initial ,o1 in ,alvarus1 ,de planctu ,ecclesi1 #adgd4 ,there are two or three other fine borders1 such as those in ,steinhowel's ,bchlein der ,ordnung1 and ,petrarch's ,griseldis 7here shown71 both of #adgc1 and in ,albertus ,magnus1 ,summa de eucharisti ,sacramento1 #adgd4 ,a curious alphabet of initials made up of leafage1 good1 but not very showy1 is used in the ,de ,claris ,mulieribus and other books4 ,an alphabet of large initials1 the most complete example of which is to be found in ,leonard ,hol's ,ptolemy1 is often used and is clearly founded on the pen-letters1 drawn mostly in red and blue1 in which the ,dutch 'rubrishers' excelled4 ,another set of initials founded on twelfth century work occurs in ,john ,zainer's folio books1 and has some likeness to those used by ,hohenwang of ,augsburg in the ,golden ,bibel and elsewhere1 and perhaps was suggested by these1 as they are not very early 7c4 #adge71 but they differ from ,hohenwang's in being generally more or less shaded1 and also in not being enclosed in a square4 ,this big alphabet is very beautiful and seems to have been a good deal copied by other ,german printers1 as it well deserved to be4 ,the initials of ,knoblotzer of ,strassburg and ,bernard ,richel of ,basel may be mentioned4 ,john ,reger's ,caoursin has fine handsome 'blooming-letters1' somewhat tending toward the ,french style4 ,in ,augsburg ,gunther ,zainer has some initial ,i's of strap-work without foliation3 they are finely designed1 but gain considerably when1 as sometimes happens1 the spaces between the straps are filled in with fine pen-tracery and in yellowish brown2 they were cut early in ,gunther's career1 as one occurs in the ,speculum ,human ,salvationis1 c4 #adga1 and another in the ,calendar1 printed #adga4 ,these1 as they always occur in the margin and are long1 may be called border-pieces4 ,a border occurring in ,eyb1 ob einem manne tzu nemen ein weib is drawn very gracefully in outline1 and is attached1 deftly enough1 to a very good ,s of the pen-letter type1 though on a separate block2 it has three shields of arms in it1 one of which is the bearing of ,augsburg4 ,this piece is decidedly illuminators' work as to design4 ,gunther's ,margarita ,davidica has a border 7attached to a very large ,p7 which is much like the ,ulm borders in character4 ,a genealogical tree of the ,house of ,hapsburg prefacing the ,spiegel des ,menschlichen lebens1 and occupying a whole page1 is comparable for beauty and elaboration to the ,s of ,john ,zainer above mentioned2 on the whole1 for beauty and richness of invention and for neatness of execution1 ,i am inclined to give it the first place amongst all the decorative pieces of the ,german printers4 ,gunther ,zainer's ,german ,bible of c4 #adgd has a full set of pictured letters1 one to every book1 of very remarkable merit3 the foliated forms which make the letters and enclose the figures being bold1 inventive1 and very well drawn4 ,i note that these excellent designs have received much less attention than they deserve4 ,in almost all but the earliest of ,gunther's books a handsome set of initials are used1 a good deal like the above mentioned ,ulm initials1 but with the foliations blunter1 and blended with less of geometrical forms3 the pen origin of these is also very marked4 ,ludwig ,hohenwang1 who printed at ,augsburg in the seventies1 uses a noteworthy set of initials1 alluded to above1 that would seem to have been drawn by the designer with a twelfth century ,,ms4 before him1 though1 as a matter of course1 the fifteenth century betrays itself in certain details1 chiefly in the sharp foliations at the ends of the scrolls1 etc4 ,there is a great deal of beautiful design in these letters2 but the square border round them1 while revealing their origin from illuminators' work1 leaves over-large whites in the backgrounds1 which call out for the completion that the illuminator's colour would have given them4 ,bmler and the later printer ,sorg do not use so much ornament as ,gunther ,zainer2 their initials are less rich both in line and design than ,gunther's1 and ,sorg's especially have a look of having run down from the earlier ones3 in his ,seusse1 however1 there are some beautiful figured initials designed on somewhat the same plan as those of ,gunther ,zainer's ,bible4 ,now it may surprise some of our readers1 though ,i should hope not the greatest part of them1 to hear that ,i claim the title of works of art1 both for these picture-ornamented books as books1 and also for the pictures themselves4 ,their two main merits are first their decorative and next their story-telling quality2 and it seems to me that these two qualities include what is necessary and essential in book-pictures4 ,to be sure the principal aim of these unknown ,german artists was to give the essence of the story at any cost1 and it may be thought that the decorative qualities of their designs were accidental1 or done unconsciously at any rate4 ,i do not altogether dispute that view2 but then the accident is that of the skilful workman whose skill is largely the result of tradition2 it has thereby become a habit of the hand to him to work in a decorative manner4 ,to turn back to the books numbered above as the most important of the school1 ,i should call ,john ,zainer's ,de ,claris ,mulieribus1 and the sop1 and ,gunther ,zainer's ,spiegel des ,menschlichen lebens the most characteristic4 ,of these my own choice would be the ,de ,claris ,mulieribus1 partly perhaps because it is a very old friend of mine1 and perhaps the first book that gave me a clear insight into the essential qualities of the medival design of that period4 ,the subject-matter of the book also makes it one of the most interesting1 giving it opportunity for setting forth the medival reverence for the classical period1 without any of the loss of romance on the one hand1 and epical sincerity and directness on the other1 which the flood-tide of renaissance rhetoric presently inflicted on the world4 ,no story-telling could be simpler and more straightforward1 and less dependent on secondary help1 than that of these curious1 and1 as people phrase it1 rude cuts4 ,and in spite 7if you please it7 of their rudeness1 they are by no means lacking in definite beauty3 the composition is good everywhere1 the drapery well designed1 the lines rich1 which shows of course that the cutting is good4 ,though there is no ornament save the beautiful initial ,s and the curious foliated initials above mentioned1 the page is beautifully proportioned and stately1 when1 as in the copy before me1 it has escaped the fury of the bookbinder4 ,the great initial ',s' ,i claim to be one of the very best printers' ornaments ever made1 one which would not disgrace a thirteenth century ,,ms4 ,adam and ,eve are standing on a finely-designed spray of poppy-like leafage1 and behind them rise up the boughs of the tree4 ,eve reaches down an apple to ,adam with her right hand1 and with her uplifted left takes another from the mouth of the crowned woman's head of the serpent1 whose coils1 after they have performed the duty of making the ,s1 end in a foliage scroll1 whose branches enclose little medallions of the seven deadly sins4 ,all this is done with admirable invention and romantic meaning1 and with very great beauty of design and a full sense of decorative necessities4 ,as to faults in this delightful book1 it must be said that it is somewhat marred by the press-work not being so good as it should have been even when printed by the weak presses of the fifteenth century2 but this1 though a defect1 is not1 ,i submit1 an essential one4 ,in the sop the drawing of the designs is in a way superior to that of the last book3 the line leaves nothing to be desired2 it is thoroughly decorative1 rather heavy1 but so firm and strong1 and so obviously in submission to the draughtman's hand1 that it is capable of even great delicacy as well as richness4 ,the figures both of man and beast are full of expression2 the heads clean drawn and expressive also1 and in many cases refined and delicate4 ,the cuts1 with few exceptions1 are not bounded by a border1 but amidst the great richness of line no lack of one is felt1 and the designs fully sustain their decorative position as a part of the noble type of the ,ulm and ,augsburg printers2 this sop is1 to my mind1 incomparably the best and most expressive of the many illustrated editions of the ,fables printed in the fifteenth century4 ,the designs of the other ,german and ,flemish ones were all copied from it4 ,gunther ,zainer's ,spiegel des ,menschlichen lebens is again one of the most amusing of woodcut books4 ,one may say that the book itself1 one of the most popular of the ,middle ,ages1 runs through all the conditions and occupations of men as then existing1 from the ,pope and ,kaiser down to the field labourer1 and1 with full indulgence in the medival love of formal antithesis1 contrasts the good and the evil side of them4 ,the profuse illustrations to all this abound in excellent pieces of nave characterisation2 the designs are very well put together1 and1 for the most part1 the figures well drawn1 and draperies good and crisp1 and the general effect very satisfactory as decoration4 ,the designer in this book1 however1 has not been always so lucky in his cutter as those of the last two1 and some of the pictures have been considerably injured in the cutting4 ,on the other hand the lovely genealogical tree above mentioned crowns this book with abundant honour1 and the best of the cuts are so good that it is hardly possible to rank it after the first two4 ,gunther ,zainer's ,speculum ,human ,salvationis and his ,golden ,legend have cuts decidedly ruder than these three books2 they are simpler also1 and less decorative as ornaments to the page1 nevertheless they have abundant interest1 and most often their essential qualities of design shine through the rudeness1 which by no means excludes even grace of silhouette3 one and all they are thoroughly expressive of the story they tell4 ,the designs in these two books by the by do not seem to have been done by the same hand2 but ,i should think that the designer of those in the ,golden ,legend drew the subjects that 'inhabit' the fine letters of ,gunther's ,german ,bible4 ,both seem to me to have a kind of illuminator's character in them4 ,the cuts to the story of ,simon bring us back to those of ,spiegel des ,menschlichen lebens2 they are delicate and pretty1 and tell the story1 half so repulsive1 half so touching1 of 'little ,sir ,hugh1' very well4 ,i must not pass by without a further word on ,sigismund and ,guiscard4 ,i cannot help thinking that the cuts therein are by the same hand that drew some of those in the sop2 at any rate they have the same qualities of design1 and are to my mind singularly beautiful and interesting4 ,of the other contemporary1 or nearly contemporary1 printers ,bmler comes first in interest4 ,his book von den #g ,todsnden1 etc41 has cuts of much interest and invention1 not unlike in character to those of ,gunther ,zainer's ,golden ,legend4 ,his ,buch der ,natur has full-page cuts of animals1 herbs1 and human figures exceedingly quaint1 but very well designed for the most part4 ,a half-figure of a bishop 'in pontificalibus' is particularly bold and happy4 ,rupertus a sancto ,remigio's ,history of the crusade and the ,cronich von allen ,konigen und ,kaisern are finely illustrated4 ,his ,rosencranz ,bruderschaft above mentioned has but two cuts1 but they are both of them1 the one as a fine decorative work1 the other as a deeply felt illustration of devotional sentiment1 of the highest merit4 ,the two really noteworthy works of ,sorg 7who1 as aforesaid1 was somewhat a plagiaristic publisher7 are1 first1 the ,seusse1 which is illustrated with bold and highly decorative cuts full of meaning and dignity1 and next1 the ,council of ,constance1 which is the first heraldic woodcut work 7it has besides the coats-of-arms1 several fine full-page cuts1 of which the burning of ,huss is one74 ,these armorial cuts1 which are full of interest as giving a vast number of curious and strange bearings1 are no less so as showing what admirable decoration can be got out of heraldry when it is simply and well drawn4 ,to ,conrad ,dinckmut of ,ulm1 belonging to a somewhat later period than these last-named printers1 belongs the glory of opposing by his fine works the coming degradation of book-ornament in ,germany4 ,the ,seelen-wurzgarten1 ornamented with seventeen full-page cuts1 is injured by the too free repetition of them2 they are1 however1 very good2 the best perhaps being the ,nativity1 which1 for simplicity and beauty1 is worthy of the earlier period of the ,middle ,ages4 ,the ,swabian ,chronicle has cuts of various degrees of merit1 but all interesting and full of life and spirit3 a fight in the lists with axes being one of the most remarkable4 ,das buch der ,weisheit 7,bidpay's ,fables7 has larger cuts which certainly show no lack of courage2 they are perhaps scarcely so decorative as the average of the cuts of the school1 and are somewhat coarsely cut2 but their frank epical character makes them worthy of all attention4 ,but perhaps his most remarkable work is his ,terence's ,eunuchus 7in ,german71 ornamented with twenty-eight cuts illustrating the scenes4 ,these all have backgrounds showing 7mostly7 the streets of a medival town1 which clearly imply theatrical scenery2 the figures of the actors are delicately drawn1 and the character of the persons and their action is well given and carefully sustained throughout4 ,the text of this book is printed in a large handsome black-letter1 imported1 as my friend ,mr4 ,proctor informs me1 from ,italy4 ,the book is altogether of singular beauty and character4 ,the ,caoursin 7#adif71 the last book of any account printed at ,ulm1 has good and spirited cuts of the events described1 the best of them being the flight of ,turks in the mountains4 ,one is almost tempted to think that these cuts are designed by the author of those of the ,mainz ,breidenbach of #adhf1 though the cutting is much inferior4 ,all these books1 it must be remembered1 though they necessarily 7being printed books7 belong to the later ,middle ,ages1 and though some of them are rather decidedly late in that epoch1 are thoroughly ',gothic' as to their ornament2 there is no taint of the ,renaissance in them4 ,in this respect the art of book-ornament was lucky4 ,the neo-classical rhetoric which invaded literature before the end of the fourteenth century 7for even ,chaucer did not quite escape it7 was harmless against this branch of art at least for more than another hundred years2 so that even ,italian book-pictures are ,gothic in spirit1 for the most part1 right up to the beginning of the sixteenth century1 long after the ,new ,birth had destroyed the building arts for ,italy3 while ,germany1 whose ,gothic architecture was necessarily firmer rooted in the soil1 did not so much as feel the first shiver of the coming flood till suddenly1 and without warning1 it was upon her1 and the art of the ,middle ,ages fell dead in a space of about five years1 and was succeeded by a singularly stupid and brutal phase of that rhetorical and academical art1 which1 in all matters of ornament1 has held ,europe captive ever since4 ,illustration3 ,from ,john ,zainer's ,griseldis1 ,ulm1 #adgc ,illustration3 ,from ,gunther ,zainer's ,speculum ,human ,salvationis1 ,augsburg1 ,c4 #adga ,illustration3 ,from ,gunther ,zainer's ,ingold1 ,das ,golden ,spiel1 ,augsburg1 #adgb ,illustration3 ,from ,john ,zainer's ,boccaccio de ,claris ,mulieribus1 ,ulm1 #adgc ,illustration3 ,from ,gunther ,zainer's ,epistles and ,gospels1 ,augsburg1 ,c4 #adgd ,illustration3 ,from ,gunther ,zainer's ,spiegel ,d4 ,menschl4 ,lebens1 ,augsburg1 ,c4 #adge ,illustration3 ,from ,gunther ,zainer's ,tuberinus1 ,geschicht von ,dem ,heiligen ,kind ,symon1 ,augsburg1 ,c4 #adge ,illustration3 ,from the sop ,,the ,,woodcuts ,,of ,,gothic ,,books ,notes on ,woodcut ,books ,i shall presently have the pleasure of showing you in some kind of sequence a number of illustrations taken from books of the #aeth1 and first years of the #afth centuries4 ,but before ,i do so ,i wish to read to you a few remarks on the genesis and the quality of the kind of art represented by these examples1 and the lessons which they teach us4 ,since the earliest of those ,i have to show is probably not earlier in date than about #adbj1 and almost all are more than fifty years later than that1 it is clear that they belong to the latest period of ,medival art1 and one or two must formally be referred to the earliest days of the ,renaissance1 though in spirit they are still ,gothic4 ,in fact1 it is curious to note the suddenness of the supplanting of the ,gothic by the neo-classical style in some instances1 especially in ,germany3 e4g41 the later books published by the great ,nuremberg printer1 ,koburger1 in the fourteen-nineties1 books like the ,nuremberg ,chronicle1 and the ,schatzbehalter1 show no sign of the coming change1 but ten years worn1 and hey1 presto1 not a particle of ,gothic ornament can be found in any ,german printed book1 though1 as ,i think1 the figure-works of one great man1 ,albert ,drer1 were ,gothic in essence4 ,the most part of these books1 in fact all of them in the earlier days 7the exceptions being mainly certain splendidly ornamented ,french books1 including the sumptuous books of ,hours71 were meant for popular books3 the great theological folios1 the law books1 the decretals1 and such like of the earlier ,german printers1 though miracles of typographical beauty1 if ornamented at all1 were ornamented by the illuminator1 with the single exception of ,gutenberg's splendid ,psalter1 which gives us at once the first and best piece of ornamental colour-printing yet achieved4 ,again1 the dainty and perfect volumes of the classics produced by the earlier ,roman and ,venetian printers disdained the help of wood blocks1 though they were often beautifully illuminated1 and it was not till after the days of ,jenson1 the ,frenchman who brought the ,roman letter to perfection1 it was not till ,italian typography began to decline1 that illustration by reproducible methods became usual2 and we know that these illustrated books were looked upon as inferior wares1 and were sold far cheaper than the unadorned pages of the great printers4 ,it must be noted in confirmation of the view that the woodcut books were cheap books1 that in most cases they were vernacular editions of books already printed in ,latin4 ,the work1 then1 which ,i am about to show you has first the disadvantage of the rudeness likely to disfigure cheap forms of art in a time that lacked the resource of slippery plausibility which helps out cheap art at the present day4 ,and secondly1 the disadvantage of belonging to the old age rather than the youth or vigorous manhood of the ,middle ,ages4 ,on the other hand1 it is art1 and not a mere trade article2 and though it was produced by the dying ,middle ,ages1 they were not yet dead when it was current1 so that it yet retains much of the qualities of the more hopeful period2 and in addition1 the necessity of adapting the current design to a new material and method gave it a special life1 which is full of interest and instruction for artists of all times who are able to keep their eyes open4 ,all organic art1 all art that is genuinely growing1 opposed to rhetorical1 retrospective1 or academical art1 art which has no real growth in it1 has two qualities in common3 the epical and the ornamental2 its two functions are the telling of a story and the adornment of a space or tangible object4 ,the labour and ingenuity necessary for the production of anything that claims our attention as a work of art are wasted1 if they are employed on anything else than these two aims4 ,medival art1 the result of a long unbroken series of tradition1 is preminent for its grasp of these two functions1 which1 indeed1 interpenetrate then more than in any other period4 ,not only is all its special art obviously and simply beautiful as ornament1 but its ornament also is vivified with forcible meaning1 so that neither in one or the other does the life ever flag1 or the sensuous pleasure of the eye ever lack4 ,you have not got to say1 ,now you have your story1 how are you going to embellish it8 ,nor1 ,now you have made your beauty1 what are you going to do with it8 ,for here are the two together1 inseparably a part of each other4 ,no doubt the force of tradition1 which culminated in the ,middle ,ages1 had much to do with this unity of epical design and ornament4 ,it supplied deficiencies of individual by collective imagination 7compare the constantly recurring phases and lines in genuine epical or ballad poetry72 it ensured the inheritance of deft craftsmanship and instinct for beauty in the succession of the generations of workmen2 and it cultivated the appreciation of good work by the general public4 ,now-a-days artists work essentially for artists1 and look on the ignorant layman with contempt1 which even the necessity of earning a livelihood cannot force them wholly to disguise4 ,in the times of art1 they had no one but artists to work for1 since every one was a potential artist4 ,now1 in such a period1 when written literature was still divine1 and almost miraculous to men1 it was impossible that books should fail to have a due share in the epical-ornamental art of the time4 ,accordingly1 the opportunities offered by the pages which contained the wisdom and knowledge of past and present times were cultivated to the utmost4 ,the early ,middle ,ages1 beginning with the wonderful calligraphy of the ,irish ,,mss41 were1 above all times1 the epoch of writing4 ,the pages of almost all books1 from the #hth to the #aeth century1 are beautiful1 even without the addition of ornament4 ,in those that are ornamented without pictures illustrative of the text1 the eye is so pleasured1 and the fancy so tickled by the beauty and exhaustless cheerful invention of the illuminator1 that one scarcely ventures to ask that the tale embodied in the written characters should be further illustrated4 ,but when this is done1 and the book is full of pictures1 which tell the written tale again with the most conscientious directness of design1 and as to execution with great purity of outline and extreme delicacy of colour1 we can say little more than that the only work of art which surpasses a complete ,medival book is a complete ,medival building4 ,this must be said1 with the least qualification1 of the books of from about #aafj to #acjj4 ,after this date1 the work loses1 in purity and simplicity1 more than it gains in pictorial qualities1 and1 at last1 after the middle of the #aeth century1 illuminated books lose much of their individuality on the ornamental side2 and1 though they are still beautiful1 are mostly only redeemed from commonplace when the miniatures in them are excellent4 ,but here comes in the new element1 given by the invention of printing1 and the gradual shoving out of the scribe by the punch-cutter1 the typefounder1 and the printer4 ,the first printed characters were as exact reproductions of the written ones as the new craftsmen could compass1 even to the extent of the copying of the infernal abbreviations which had gradually crept into manuscript2 but1 as ,i have already mentioned1 the producers of serious books did not at first supply the work of the illuminator by that of the woodcutter1 either in picture work or ornament4 ,in fact1 the art of printing pictures from wood blocks is earlier than that of printing books1 and is undoubtedly the parent of book illustration4 ,the first woodcuts were separate pictures of religious subjects1 circulated for the edification of the faithful1 in existing examples generally coloured by hand1 and certainly always intended to be coloured4 ,the earliest of these may be as old as #achj1 and there are many which have been dated in the first half of the #aeth century2 though the dates are mostly rather a matter of speculation4 ,but the development of book illustration proper by no means puts an end to their production4 ,many were done between #adej and #adij1 and some in the first years of the #afth century2 but the earlier ones only have any special character in them4 ,of these1 some are cut rudely and some timidly also1 but some are fairly well cut1 and few so ill that the expression of the design is not retained4 ,the design of most of these early works is mostly admirable1 and as far removed from the commonplace as possible2 many1 nay most of these cuts1 are fine expressions of that pietism of the ,middle ,ages which has been somewhat veiled from us by the strangeness1 and even grotesqueness which has mingled with it1 but the reality of which is not doubtful to those who have studied the period without prejudice4 ,amongst these may be cited a design of ,christ being pressed in the wine press1 probably as early as the end of the #adth century1 which may stand without disadvantage beside a fine work of the #acth century4 ,the next step towards book illustration brings us to the block-books1 in which the picture-cuts are accompanied by a text1 also cut on wood2 the folios being printed by rubbing off on one side only4 ,the subject of the origin of the most noteworthy of these books1 the ,ars ,moriendi1 the ,lord's ,prayer1 the ,song of ,solomon1 the ,biblia ,pauperum1 the ,apocalypse1 and the ,speculum ,human ,salvationis1 has been debated1 along with the question of the first printer by means of movable types1 with more acrimony than it would seem to need4 ,i1 not being a learned person1 will not add one word to the controversy2 it is enough to say that these works were done somewhere between the years #adcj and #adfj1 and that their style was almost entirely dominant throughout the ,gothic period in ,flanders and ,holland1 while it had little influence on the ,german wood-cutters4 ,for the rest1 all these books have great merit as works of art2 it would be difficult to find more direct or more poetical rendering of the events given than those of the ,speculum ,human ,salvationis2 or more elegant and touching designs than those in the ,song of ,solomon4 ,the cuts of the ,biblia ,pauperum are rougher1 but full of vigour and power of expression4 ,the ,ars ,moriendi is very well drawn and executed1 but the subject is not so interesting4 ,the ,apocalypse and ,the ,lord's ,prayer are both of them excellent1 the former being scarcely inferior in design to the best of the ,apocalypse picture ,,mss4 of the end of the thirteenth century4 ,we have now come to the wood-cuts which ornament the regular books of the ,gothic period1 which began somewhat timidly4 ,the two examples in ,germany and ,italy1 not far removed from each other in date1 being the ,historie von ,joseph1 ,daniel1 ,judith1 and ,esther1 printed by ,albrecht ,pfister1 at ,bamberg1 in #adfb2 and the ,meditations of ,turrecremata 7or ,torquemada71 printed at ,rome by ,ulric ,hahn1 in the year #adfg1 which latter1 though taken by the command of the ,pope from the frescoes of a ,roman ,church 7,sta4 ,maria ,sopra ,minerva7 are as ,german as need be1 and very rude in drawing and execution1 though not without spirit4 ,but1 after this date1 the school of wood-carving developed rapidly2 and1 on the whole1 ,germany1 which had been very backward in the art of illumination1 now led the new art4 ,the main schools were those of ,ulm and ,augsburg1 of ,maintz1 of ,strasburg1 of ,basel1 and of ,nuremberg1 the latter being the later4 ,the examples which ,i shall presently have the pleasure of showing you are wholly of the first and the last1 as being the most representative1 ,ulm and ,augsburg of the earlier style1 ,nuremberg of the later4 ,but ,i might mention1 in passing1 that some of the earlier ,basel books1 notably ,bernard ,richel's ,speculum ,human ,salvationis1 are very noteworthy2 and that1 in fourteen-eighties1 there was a school at ,maintz that produced1 amongst other books1 a very beautiful ,herbal1 and ,breydenbach's ,peregrinatio1 which1 amongst other merits1 such as actual representations of the cities on the road to the ,holy ,land1 must be said to contain the best executed woodcuts of the ,middle ,ages4 ,of course1 there were many other towns in ,germany which produced illustrated books1 but they may be referred in character to one or other of these schools4 ,in ,holland and ,flanders there was a noble school of woodcutting1 delicately decorative in character1 and very direct and expressive1 being1 as ,i said1 the direct descendant of the block-books4 ,the name of the printer who produced most books of this school was ,gerard ,leeuw 7or ,lion71 who printed first at ,gouda1 and afterwards at ,antwerp4 ,but ,colard ,mansion1 of ,bruges1 who printed few books1 and was the master of ,caxton in the art of printing1 turned out a few very fine specimens of illustrated books4 ,one of the most remarkable illustrated works published in the ,low ,countries--which ,i mention for its peculiarity--is the ,chevalier ,deliber 7an allegorical poem on the death of ,charles the ,rash71 and ,i regret not being able to show you a slide of it1 as it could not be done satisfactorily4 ,this book1 published at ,schiedam in #aejj1 decidedly leans towards the ,french in style1 rather than the native manner deduced from the earlier block-books4 ,france began both printing and book illustration somewhat late1 most of its important illustrated works belonging to a period between the years #adhe and #aebj2 but she grasped the art of book decoration with a firmness and completeness very characteristic of ,french genius2 and also1 she carried on the ,gothic manner later than any other nation4 ,for decorative qualities1 nothing can excel the ,french books1 and many of the picture-cuts1 besides their decorative merits1 have an additional interest in the romantic quality which they introduce3 they all look as if they might be illustrations to the ,morte ,d',arthur or ,tristram4 ,in ,italy1 from about #adhj onward1 book illustrations became common1 going hand-in-hand with the degradation of printing1 as ,i said before4 ,the two great schools in ,italy are those of ,florence and ,venice4 ,i think it must be said that1 on the whole1 the former city bore away the bell from ,venice1 in spite of the famous ,aldine ,polyphilus1 the cuts in which1 by the way1 are very unequal4 ,there are a good many book illustrations published in ,italy1 ,i should mention1 like those to ,ulric ,hahn's ,meditations of ,turrecremata1 which are purely ,german in style2 which is only to be expected from the fact of the early printers in ,italy being mostly ,germans4 ,i am sorry to have to say it1 but ,england cannot be said to have a school of ,gothic book illustration2 the cuts in our early printed books are1 at the best1 ,french or ,flemish blocks pretty well copied4 ,this lamentable fact is curious1 considered along with what is also a fact3 that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the ,english were1 on the whole1 the best book decorators4 ,i have a few words to say yet on the practical lessons to be derived from the study of these works of art2 but before ,i say them1 ,i will show you1 by your leave1 the slides taken from examples of these woodcuts4 ,only ,i must tell you first1 what doubtless many of you know1 that these old blocks were not produced by the graver on the end section of a piece of fine-grained wood 7box now invariably71 but by the knife on the plank section of pear-tree or similar wood--a much more difficult feat when the cuts were fine1 as1 e4g41 in ,ltzelberger's marvellous cuts of the ,dance of ,death4 ,mr4 ,morris then showed a series of lantern slides1 which he described as follows3 #a4 ,this is taken from the ,ars ,moriendi1 date about #adbj4 ,you may call it ,flemish or ,dutch1 subject to raising the controversy ,i mentioned just now4 #b4 ,the ,song of ,solomon1 about the same date4 #c4 ,from the first illustrated book of the ,ulm school4 ,the ,renowned and ,noble ,ladies of ,boccaccio4 ,it begins with ,adam and ,eve4 ,the initial letter is very characteristic of the ,ulm school of ornament4 ,the trail of the serpent forms the ,s1 and in the knots of the tail are little figures representing the seven deadly sins4 #d4 ,another page from the same book4 ,ceres and the ,art of ,agriculture4 ,one of the great drawbacks to wood block printing in those times was the weakness of the presses4 ,their only resource was to print with the paper very wet1 and with very soft packing1 so that the block went well into the paper2 but many books1 and this amongst others1 have suffered much from this cause4 #e4 ,another page of the same book4 ,the date is #adgc4 #f4 ,this is from an ,augsburg book4 ,speculum ,human ,vit1 written by a ,spanish bishop1 which was a great favourite in the ,middle ,ages4 ,it gives the advantages and disadvantages of all conditions of life4 ,this block contains a genealogical tree of the ,hapsburg family1 and is an exceedingly beautiful piece of ornamental design1 very well cut4 #g4 ,from the same book2 representing not the ,five ,alls1 with which you are familiar1 but the ,four ,alls2 the gentleman1 the merchant1 the nobleman1 and the poor man1 who is the support of the whole lot1 with his toes coming through his shoes4 ,this is a fine specimen of printing of ,gunther ,zainer4 ,the initial letters are very handsome in all these ,augsburg books4 #h4 ,there is a picture of the ,unjust ,lawyer1 from the same book1 taking money from both sides4 ,the date of this book is about #adge4 #i4 ,from sop's ,fables1 a reproduction of the ,ulm sop1 by ,antony ,sorg1 of ,augsburg 7but the pictures are printed from the same blocks71 the ,fly on the ,wheel1 and the ,jackdaw and ,peacock4 ,these designs for the sop pictures went all through the ,middle ,ages1 with very little alteration4 #aj4 ,king ,stork and ,king ,log1 from the same book4 #aa4 ,this is from the ,table-book of ,bidpay1 by ,conrad ,dinckmuth1 who carried on the early glories of the ,ulm school in a later generation2 about #adhf4 #ab4 ,the ,parrot in a ,cage1 with the ladies making a sham storm to cause the poor bird to be put to death4 ,dinckmuth did some very remarkable work3 one of the best of which was a ,german translation of the ,eunuchus of ,terence2 another the ,chronicle of the ,swabians4 #ac4 ,the ,schatzbehalter1 published by ,koburger1 of ,nuremberg1 #adia4 ,although so late1 there is no trace of any classical influence in the design4 ,the architecture1 for instance1 is pure late ,german architecture4 #ad4 ,from the same book1 ,joshua ,meeting the ,angel1 and ,moses at the ,burning ,bush4 #ae4 ,a page1 or part of a page1 from the celebrated ,nuremberg ,chronicle1 printed by ,koburger in #adic4 ,this is1 in a way1 an exception to the rule of illustrated books being in the vernacular1 as it is in ,latin2 but there is also a ,german edition4 #af4 ,another specimen of the same book4 #ag4 ,from a curious devotional book1 ,der ,seusse1 printed by ,antony ,sorg1 at ,augsburg1 about #adhe4 #ah4 ,another page1 which shows the decorative skill with which they managed their diagram pictures4 #ai4 ,an example of the ,flemish school1 and characteristic of the design of white and black1 which is so often used both by the ,florentine and the ,flemish wood-cutters4 ,it is from a life of ,christ1 published by ,gerard ,leeuw in #adhg4 #bj4 ,another page from the same book4 ,there are certainly two artists in this book1 and the one on the left appears to be the more pictorial of the two2 though his designs are graceful1 he is hardly as good as the rougher book illustrator4 ,gerard ,leeuw had a very handsome set of initial letters1 a kind of ornament which did not become common until after #adhj4 #ba4 ,another one from the same book4 #bb4 ,from another ,flemish book1 showing how the style runs through them all4 ,st4 ,george and the ,dragon2 from ,a ,golden ,legend1 #aejc4 #bc4 ,one of ,french series1 from a very celebrated book called ,la ,mer des ,histoires4 ,it begins the history of ,france a little before the deluge4 ,it is a most beautiful book1 and very large4 ,one would think these borders were meant to be painted1 as so many ,books of ,hours were1 but ,i have never seen a copy which has had the borders painted1 though1 as a rule1 when the borders are meant to be painted1 it is not common to find one plain4 #bd4 ,another page from the same book2 but the slide does not do justice to it4 ,i will here mention that one failing of the ,french publishers was to make one picture serve for several purposes4 ,the fact is1 they were more careful of decoration than illustration4 #be4 ,another ,french book by a ,french printer1 the ,aubre des ,batailles1 which illustrates that curious quality of romance which you find in the ,french pictures4 ,it is true that many of these cuts were not made for this book2 in fact1 they were done for another edition of the ,chevalier ,delibr1 the ,flemish edition of which ,i have mentioned before1 for some have that name on them4 #bf4 ,another from the same book4 #bg4 ,another good example of the ,french decorative style4 ,it is from ,petrarch's ,remedy of either ,fortune4 ,this is the author presenting his book to the king1 and is often used in these ,french books4 #bh4 ,from another ,french book of about the same date 7the beginning of the sixteenth century71 ,the ,shepherd's ,calendar1 of which there were a great number of ,english editions1 even as late as #afef1 the cuts being imitated from these blocks4 #bi4 ,a page from one of the beautiful ,books of ,hours1 which were mostly printed on vellum1 every page of which is decorated more or less with this sort of picture4 ,here is the calendar1 with the signs of the ,zodiac1 the work of the months1 the saints that occur in it1 and games and sports2 on the other side is the ,sangraal4 ,this book is throughout in the same style--wholly ,gothic4 ,it was printed in #adih1 and about twenty years after these service-books became very much damaged by having ,renaissance features introduced from ,german artists of the time4 #cj4 ,another page from the same book4 ,the ,resurrection1 and the raising of ,lazarus are the principal subjects4 #ca4 ,nominally an ,italian woodcut2 the book was printed at ,milan1 but this cut is probably of ,german design1 if not execution4 #cb4 ,from a very beautiful book in the ,florentine style4 ,one of the peculiarities is the copious use of white out of black4 #cc4 ,another from the same--,the ,quatre reggio1 #aejh4 #cd4 ,another1 very characteristic of the ,florentine style1 with its beautiful landscape background4 #ce4 ,this is one in which the ornament has really got into the ,renaissance style4 ,it is a sort of ,lucky ,book1 with all sorts of ways of finding your fortune1 discovering where your money has gone1 who is your enemy1 and so on4 ,one of the ,peschia books1 actually printed at ,milan1 but of the ,venetian school4 #cf4 ,from a book of the ,venetian style1 about the same date4 ,i show it as an example of the carefulness and beauty with which the artists of the time combined the border work with the pictures4 ,there is something very satisfactory in the proportion of black and white in the whole page4 ,now you have seen my examples1 ,i want once more to impress upon you the fact that these designs1 one and all1 while they perform their especial function--the office of telling a tale--never forget their other function of decorating the book of which they form a part2 this is the essential difference between them and modern book illustrations1 which ,i suppose make no pretence at decorating the pages of the book1 but must be looked upon as black and white pictures which it is convenient to print and bind up along with the printed matter4 ,the question1 in fact1 which ,i want to put to you is this1 ,whether we are to have books which are beautiful as books2 books in which type1 paper1 woodcuts1 and the due arrangement of all these are to be considered1 and which are so treated as to produce a harmonious whole1 something which will give a person with a sense of beauty real pleasure whenever and wherever the book is opened1 even before he begins to look closely into the illustrations2 or whether the beautiful and inventive illustrations are to be looked on as separate pictures imbedded in a piece of utilitarianism1 which they cannot decorate because it cannot help them to do so4 ,take1 as an example of the latter1 ,mr4 ,fred4 ,walker's illustrations to ,philip in the ,cornhill ,magazine1 of the days when some of us were young1 since ,i am inclined to think that they are about the best of such illustrations4 ,now they are part of ,thackeray's story1 and ,i don't want them to be in any way less a part of it1 but they are in no respect a part of the tangible printed book1 and ,i do want them to be that4 ,as it is1 the mass of utilitarian matter in which they are imbedded is absolutely helpless and dead4 ,why it is not even ugly--at least not vitally ugly4 ,now the reverse is the case with the books from which ,i have taken the examples which you have been seeing4 ,as things to be looked at they are beautiful1 taken as a whole2 they are alive all over1 and not merely in a corner here and there4 ,the illustrator has to share the success and the failure1 not only of the wood-cutter1 who has translated his drawing1 but also of the printer and the mere ornamentalist1 and the result is that you have a book which is a visible work of art4 ,you may say that you don't care for this result1 that you wish to read literature and to look at pictures2 and that so long as the modern book gives you these pleasures you ask no more of it2 well1 ,i can understand that1 but you must pardon me if ,i say that your interest in books in that case is literary only1 and not artistic1 and that implies1 ,i think1 a partial crippling of the faculties2 a misfortune which no one should be proud of4 ,however1 it seems certain that there is growing up a taste for books which are visible works of art1 and that especially in this country1 where the printers1 at their best1 do now use letters much superior in form to those in use elsewhere1 and where a great deal of work intending to ornament books reasonably is turned out2 most of which1 however1 is deficient in some respect2 which1 in fact1 is seldom satisfactory unless the whole page1 picture1 ornament1 and type is reproduced literally from the handiwork of the artist1 as in some of the beautiful works of ,mr4 ,walter ,crane4 ,but this is a thing that can rarely be done1 and what we want1 it seems to me1 is1 not that books should sometimes be beautiful1 but that they should generally be beautiful2 indeed1 if they are not1 it increases the difficulties of those who would make them sometimes beautiful immensely4 ,at any rate1 ,i claim that illustrated books should always be beautiful1 unless1 perhaps1 where the illustrations are present rather for the purpose of giving information than for that of giving pleasure to the intellect through the eye2 but surely1 even in this latter case1 they should be reasonably and decently good-looking4 ,well1 how is this beauty to be obtained8 ,it must be by the harmonious coperation of the craftsmen and artists who produce the book4 ,first1 the paper should be good1 which is a more important point than might be thought1 and one in which there is a most complete contrast between the old and the modern books2 for no bad paper was made till about the middle of the sixteenth century1 and the worst that was made even then was far better than what is now considered good4 ,next1 the type must be good1 a matter in which there is more room for excellence than those may think who have not studied the forms of letters closely4 ,there are other matters1 however1 besides the mere form of the type which are of much importance in the producing of a beautiful book1 which1 however1 ,i cannot go into tonight1 as it is a little beside my present subject4 ,then1 the mere ornament must be good1 and even very good4 ,i do not know anything more dispiriting than the mere platitudes of printers' ornaments--trade ornaments4 ,it is not uncommon now-a-days to see handsome books quite spoiled by them--books in which plain1 unadorned letters would have been far more ornamental4 ,then we come to the picture woodcuts4 ,and here ,i feel ,i shall find many of you differing from me strongly2 for ,i am sure that such illustrations as those excellent black and white pictures of ,fred4 ,walker could never make book ornaments4 ,the artist1 to produce these satisfactorily1 must exercise severe self-restraint1 and must never lose sight of the page of the book he is ornamenting4 ,that ought to be obvious to you1 but ,i am afraid it will not be4 ,i do not think any artist will ever make a good book illustrator1 unless he is keenly alive to the value of a well-drawn line1 crisp and clean1 suggesting a simple and beautiful silhouette4 ,anything which obscures this1 and just to the extent to which it does obscure it1 takes away from the fitness of the design as a book ornament4 ,in this art vagueness is quite inadmissible4 ,it is better to be wrong than vague in making designs which are meant to be book ornaments4 ,again1 as the artists' designs must necessarily be reproduced for this purpose1 he should never lose sight of the material he is designing for4 ,lack of precision is fatal 7to take up again what ,i have just advanced7 in an art produced by the point of the graver on a material which offers just the amount of resistance which helps precision4 ,and here ,i come to a very important part of my subject1 to wit1 the relation between the designer and the wood-engraver2 and it is clear that if these two artists do not understand one another1 the result must be failure2 and this understanding can never exist if the wood-engraver has but to cut servilely what the artist draws carelessly4 ,if any real school of wood-engraving is to exist again1 the wood-cutter must be an artist translating the designer's drawing4 ,it is quite pitiable to see the patience and ingenuity of such clever workmen1 as some modern wood-cutters are1 thrown away on the literal reproduction of mere meaningless scrawls4 ,the want of logic in artists who will insist on such work is really appalling4 ,it is the actual touches of the hand that give the speciality1 the final finish to a work of art1 which carries out in one material what is designed in another2 and for the designer to ignore the instrument and material by which the touches are to be done1 shows complete want of understanding of the scope of reproducible design4 ,i cannot help thinking that it would be a good thing for artists who consider designing a part of their province 7,i admit there are very few such artists7 to learn the art of wood-engraving1 which1 up to a certain point1 is a far from difficult art2 at any rate for those who have the kind of eyes suitable for the work4 ,i do not mean that they should necessarily always cut their own designs1 but that they should be able to cut them4 ,they would then learn what the real capacities of the art are1 and would1 ,i should hope1 give the executing artists genuine designs to execute1 rather than problems to solve4 ,i do not know if it is necessary to remind you that the difficulties in cutting a simple design on wood 7and ,i repeat that all designs for book illustrations should be simple7 are very much decreased since the fifteenth century1 whereas instead of using the knife on the plank section of the wood1 we now use the graver on the end section4 ,perhaps1 indeed1 some of you may think this simple wood-cutting contemptible1 because of its ease2 but delicacy and refinement of execution are always necessary in producing a line1 and this is not easy1 nay it is not possible to those who have not got the due instinct for it2 mere mechanical deftness is no substitute for this instinct4 ,again1 as it is necessary for the designer to have a feeling for the quality of the final execution1 to sympathise with the engravers difficulties1 and know why one block looks artistic and another mechanical2 so it is necessary for the engraver to have some capacity for design1 so that he may know what the designer wants of him1 and that he may be able to translate the designer1 and give him a genuine and obvious cut line in place of his pencilled or penned line without injuring in any way the due expression of the original design4 ,lastly1 what ,i want the artist--the great man who designs for the humble executant--to think of is1 not his drawn design1 which he should look upon as a thing to be thrown away when it has served its purpose1 but the finished and duly printed ornament which is offered to the public4 ,i find that the executants of my humble designs always speak of them as sketches1 however painstaking they may be in execution4 ,this is the recognised trade term1 and ,i quite approve of it as keeping the great man in his place1 and showing him what his duty is1 to wit1 to take infinite trouble in getting the finished work turned out of hand4 ,i lay it down as a general principle in all the arts1 where one artist's design is carried out by another in a different material1 that doing the work twice over is by all means to be avoided as the source of dead mechanical work4 ,the sketch should be as slight as possible1 i4e41 as much as possible should be left to the executant4 ,a word or two of recapitulation as to the practical side of my subject1 and ,i have done4 ,an illustrated book1 where the illustrations are more than mere illustrations of the printed text1 should be a harmonious work of art4 ,the type1 the spacing of the type1 the position of the pages of print on the paper1 should be considered from the artistic point of view4 ,the illustrations should not have a mere accidental connection with the other ornament and the type1 but an essential and artistic connection4 ,they should be designed as a part of the whole1 so that they would seem obviously imperfect without their surroundings4 ,the designs must be suitable to the material and method of reproduction1 and not offer to the executant artist a mere thicket of unnatural difficulties1 producing no result when finished1 save the exhibition of a tour de force4 ,the executant1 on his side1 whether he be the original designer or someone else1 must understand that his business is sympathetic translation1 and not mechanical reproduction of the original drawing4 ,this means1 in other words1 the designer of the picture-blocks1 the designer of the ornamental blocks1 the wood-engraver1 and the printer1 all of them thoughtful1 painstaking artists1 and all working in harmonious coperation for the production of a work of art4 ,this is the only possible way in which you can get beautiful books4 ,,some ,,notes ,,on ,,the ,,illuminated ,,books ,,of ,,the ,,middle ,,ages4 ,notes on ,illuminated ,books ,the ,middle ,ages may be called the epoch of writing par excellence4 ,stone1 bronze1 wooden rune-staves1 waxed tablets1 papyrus1 could be written upon with one instrument or another2 but all these--even the last1 tender and brittle as it was--were but makeshift materials for writing on2 and it was not until parchment and vellum1 and at last rag-paper1 became common1 that the true material for writing on1 and the quill pen1 the true instrument for writing with1 were used4 ,from that time till the period of the general use of printing must be considered the age of written books4 ,as in other handicrafts1 so also in this1 the great period of genuine creation 7once called the ,dark ,ages by those who had forgotten the past1 and whose ideal of the future was a comfortable prison7 did all that was worth doing as an art1 leaving makeshifts to the period of the ,new ,birth and the intelligence of modern civilisation4 ,byzantium was doubtless the mother of medival calligraphy1 but the art spread speedily through the ,north of ,europe and flourished there at an early period1 and it is almost startling to find it as we do in full bloom in ,ireland in the seventh century4 ,no mere writing has been done before or since with such perfection as that of the early ,irish ecclesiastical books2 and this calligraphy is interesting also1 as showing the development of what is now called by printers lower-case letter1 from the ancient majuscular characters4 ,the writing is1 ,i must repeat1 positively beautiful in itself1 thoroughly ornamental2 but these books are mostly well equipped with actual ornament1 as carefully executed as the writing--in fact1 marvels of patient and ingenious interlacements4 ,this ornament1 however1 has no relation in any genuine ,irish book to the traditional style of ,byzantium1 but is rather a branch of a great and widespread school of primal decoration1 which has little interest in the representation of humanity and its doings1 or1 indeed1 in any organic life1 but is contented with the convolutions of abstract lines1 over which it attains to great mastery4 ,the most obvious example of this kind of art may be found in the carvings of the ,maoris of ,new ,zealand2 but it is common to many races at a certain stage of development4 ,the colour of these ,irish ornaments is not very delightful1 and no gold appears in them4 ,example3 ,the ,book of ,kells1 ,trinity ,college1 ,dublin1 c4 ,this ,irish calligraphy and illumination was taken up by the ,north of ,england monks2 and from them1 though in less completeness1 by the ,carlovingian makers of books both in ,france and even in ,germany2 but they were not content with the quite elementary representation of the human form current in the ,irish illuminations1 and filled up the gap by imitating the ,byzantine picture-books with considerable success ,examples3 ,durham ,gospels1 ,british ,museum1 ,gospels at ,boulogne1 c41 and in time developed a beautiful style of illumination combining ornament with figure-drawing1 and one seat of which in the early eleventh century was ,winchester4 ,example3 ,charter of foundation of ,newminster at ,winchester1 ,british ,museum4 ,gold was used with some copiousness in these latter books1 but is not seen in the carefully-raised and highly-burnished condition which is so characteristic of medival illumination at its zenith4 ,it should be noticed that amongst the ,byzantine books of the earlier period are some which on one side surpass in mere sumptuousness all books ever made2 these are written in gold and silver on vellum stained purple throughout4 ,later on again1 in the semi-,byzantine-,anglo-,saxon or ,carlovingian period1 are left us some specimens of books written in gold and silver on white vellum4 ,this splendour was at times resorted to 7chiefly in ,italy7 in the latter half of the fifteenth century4 ,the just-mentioned late ,anglo-,saxon style was the immediate forerunner of what may be called the first complete medival school1 that of the middle of the twelfth century4 ,here the change for the better is prodigious4 ,apart from the actual pictures done for explanation of the text and the edification of the faithful1 these books are decorated with borders1 ornamental letters1 c41 in which foliage and forms human1 animal1 and monstrous are blended with the greatest daring and most complete mastery4 ,the drawing is firm and precise1 and it may be said also that an unerring system of beautiful colour now makes its appearance4 ,this colour 7as all schools of decorative colour not more or less effete7 is founded on the juxtaposition of pure red and blue modified by delicate but clear and bright lines and pearlings of white1 and by the use of a little green and spaces of pale pink and flesh-colour1 and here and there some negative greys and ivory yellows4 ,in most cases where the book is at all splendid1 gold is very freely used1 mostly in large spaces--backgrounds and the like--which1 having been gilded over a solid ground with thick gold-leaf1 are burnished till they look like solid plates of actual metal4 ,the effect of this is both splendid and refined1 the care with which gold is laid on1 and its high finish1 preventing any impression of gaudiness4 ,the writing of this period becoming somewhat more definitely ,gothic1 does not fall short of 7it could not surpass7 that of the previous half-century4 ,from this time a very gradual change--during which we have to note somewhat more of delicacy in drawing and refinement of colour--brings us to the first quarter of the thirteenth century2 and here a sundering of the styles of the different peoples begins to be obvious4 ,throughout the twelfth century1 though there is a difference1 it is easier to distinguish an ,english or ,french book from a ,german or ,italian by the writing than by the illumination2 but after #abbe the first glance on opening the book will most often cry out at you1 ,german1 ,italian1 or ,french-,english4 ,for the rest1 the illuminations still gain beauty and delicacy1 the gold is even more universally brilliant1 the colour still more delicious4 ,the sub-art of the rubricator1 as distinguished from the limner and the scribe1 now becomes more important1 and remains so down to the end of the fifteenth century4 ,work of great fineness and elegance1 drawn mostly with pen1 and always quite freely1 in red and blue counterchanged1 is lavished on the smaller initials and other subsidiaries of the pages1 producing1 with the firm black writing and the ivory tone of the vellum1 a beautiful effect1 even when the more solid and elaborate illumination is lacking4 ,during this period1 apart from theological and philosophical treatises1 herbals1 bestiaries1 c41 the book most often met with1 especially when splendidly ornamented1 is the ,psalter1 as sung in churches1 to which is generally added a calendar1 and always a litany of the saints4 ,this calendar1 by the way1 both in this and succeeding centuries1 is often exceedingly interesting1 from the representations given in it of domestic occupations4 ,the great initial ,b 7,beatus vir qui non7 of these books affords an opportunity to the illuminator1 seldom missed1 of putting forth to the full his powers of design and colour4 ,the last quarter of the thirteenth century brings us to the climax of illumination considered apart from book-pictures4 ,nothing can exceed the grace1 elegance1 and beauty of the drawing and the loveliness of the colour found at this period in the best-executed books2 and it must be added that1 though some work is rougher than other1 at this time there would appear1 judging from existing examples1 to have been no bad work done4 ,the tradition of the epoch is all-embracing and all-powerful1 and yet no single volume is without a genuine individuality and life of its own4 ,in short if all the other art of the ,middle ,ages had disappeared1 they might still claim to be considered a great period of art on the strength of their ornamental books4 ,in the latter part of the thirteenth century we note a complete differentiation between the work of the countries of ,europe4 ,there are now three great schools3 the ,french-,flemish-,english1 the ,italian1 and the ,german4 ,of these the first is of the most1 the last of the least1 importance4 ,as to the relations between ,england and ,france1 it must be said that1 though there is a difference between them1 it is somewhat subtle1 and may be put thus3 of some books you may say1 ,this is ,french2 of others1 ,this is ,english2 but of the greater part you can say nothing more than1 ,this belongs to the ,french-,english school4 ,of those that can be differentiated with something like certainty1 it may be said that the ,french excel specially in a dainty and orderly elegance1 the ,english specially in love of life and nature1 and there is more of rude humour in them than in their ,french contemporaries2 but he must be at once a fastidious and an absolute man who could say the ,french is better than the ,english or the ,english than the ,french4 ,the ,norwich ,psalter1 in the ,bodleian ,library2 the ,arundel1 ,queen ,mary's1 and ,tennison ,psalters1 in the ,british ,museum1 are among the finest of these ,english books3 nothing can surpass their fertility of invention1 splendour of execution1 and beauty of colour4 ,this end of the thirteenth century went on producing splendid psalters at a great rate2 but between #abfj and #acjj or #acbj the greatest industry of the scribe was exercised in the writing of ,bibles1 especially pocket volumes4 ,these last1 it is clear1 were produced in enormous quantities1 for in spite of the ravages of time many thousands of them still exist4 ,they are1 one and all1 beautifully written in hands necessarily very minute1 and mostly very prettily illuminated with tiny figure-subjects in the initials of each book4 ,for a short period at the end of this and the beginning of the next century many copies of the ,apocalypse were produced1 illustrated copiously with pictures1 which give us examples of serious ,gothic designs at its best1 and seem to show us what wall-pictures of the period might have been in the ,north of ,europe4 ,the fourteenth century1 the great mother of change1 was as busy in making ornamental books as in other artistic work4 ,when we are once fairly in the century a great change is apparent again in the style4 ,it is not quite true to say that it is more redundant than its predecessor1 but it has more mechanical redundancy4 ,the backgrounds to the pictures are more elaborated2 sometimes diapered blue and red1 sometimes gold most beautifully chased with dots and lines4 ,the borders cover the page more2 buds turn into open leaves2 often abundance of birds and animals appear in the borders1 naturalistically treated 7and very well drawn72 there is more freedom1 and yet less individuality in this work2 in short the style1 though it has lost nothing 7in its best works7 of elegance and daintiness--qualities so desirable in an ornamental book--has lost somewhat of manliness and precision2 and this goes on increasing till1 towards the end of the century1 we feel that we have before us work that is in peril of an essential change for the worse4 ,in ,france ,bibles ,historiaux1 i4e41 partial translations of the ,bible1 very copiously pictured1 were one of the most noteworthy productions of the latter half of the century4 ,the ,bible taken in the tent of the ,french ,king at the battle of ,poitiers1 now in the ,british ,museum1 is a fine example4 ,the differentiation1 too1 betwixt the countries increases2 before the century is quite over1 ,england falls back in the race though we have in the ,british ,museum some magnificent examples of ,english illumination of the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries1 e4g41 ,the ,salisbury ,book2 a huge ,bible 7,harl4 i41 e4 ix47 ornamented in a style very peculiarly ,english4 ,the ,wyclifite translation of the ,bible at the ,museum is a good specimen of this style1 and ,french-,flanders and ,burgundy come forward1 while ,italy has her face turned toward ,renaissance1 and ,germany too often shows a tendency toward coarseness and incompleteness1 which had to be redeemed in the long last by the honesty of invention and fitness of purpose of her woodcut ornaments to books4 ,many most beautiful books1 however1 were turned out1 not only throughout the fourteenth1 but even in the first half of the fifteenth century4 ,the ,hours of the ,duke of ,berry 7,bibliothque ,nationale1 ,paris71 and the ,bedford ,hours1 in the ,british ,museum1 both ,french1 are exceedingly splendid examples of this period4 ,the first harbinger of the great change that was to come over the making of books ,i take to be the production in ,italy of most beautifully-written copies of the ,latin classics4 ,these are often very highly ornamented2 and at first not only do they imitate 7very naturally7 the severe hands of the eleventh and twelfth centuries1 but even 7though a long way off7 the interlacing ornament of that period4 ,in these books the writing1 it must be said1 is in its kind far more beautiful than the ornament4 ,there were so many written and pictured books produced in the fifteenth century that space quite fails me to write of them as their great merits deserve4 ,in the middle of the century an invention1 in itself trifling1 was forced upon ,europe by the growing demand for more and cheaper books4 ,gutenberg somehow got hold of punches1 matrices1 the adjustable mould1 and so of cast movable type2 ,schoeffer1 ,mentelin1 and the rest of them caught up the art with the energy and skill so characteristic of the medival craftsman4 ,the new ,german art spread like wildfire into every country of ,europe2 and in a few years written books had become mere toys for the immensely rich4 ,yet the scribe1 the rubricator1 and the illuminator died hard4 ,decorated written books were produced in great numbers after printing had become common2 by far the greater number of these were ,books of ,hours1 very highly ornamented and much pictured4 ,their style is as definite as any of the former ones1 but it has now gone off the road of logical consistency2 for divorce has taken place between the picture-work and the ornament4 ,often the pictures are exquisitely-finished miniatures belonging to the best schools of painting of the day2 but often also they are clearly the work of men employed to fill up a space1 and having no interest in their work save livelihood4 ,the ornament never fell quite so low as that1 though as ornament it is not very distinguished1 and often1 especially in the latest books1 scarcely adds to the effect on the page of the miniature to which it is a subsidiary4 ,but besides these late-written books1 in the first years of printing1 the rubricator was generally1 and the illuminator not seldom1 employed on printed books themselves4 ,in the early days of printing the big initials were almost always left for the rubricator to paint in in red and blue1 and were often decorated with pretty scroll-work by him2 and sometimes one or more pages of the book were surrounded with ornament in gold and colours1 and the initials elaborately finished in the same way4 ,the most complete examples of this latter work subsidiary to the printed page are found in early books printed in ,italy1 especially in the splendid editions of the classics which came from the presses of the ,roman and ,venetian printers4 ,by about #aecj all book illumination of any value was over1 and thus disappeared an art which may be called peculiar to the ,middle ,ages1 and which commonly shows medival craftsmanship at its best1 partly because of the excellence of the work itself1 and partly because that work can only suffer from destruction and defacement1 and cannot1 like medival buildings1 be subjected to the crueller ravages of restoration4 ,,here ,,end ,,the ,,notes ,,on ,,early ,,wood-,,cut ,,books ,,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,,of ,,this ,,book ,,there ,,have ,,been ,,printed ,,one ,,hundred ,,and ,,twenty ,,copies ,,by ,,clarke ,,conwell ,,at ,,the ,,elston ,,press3 ,,finished ,,this ,,twentieth ,,day ,,of ,,february1 ,,mdccccii4 ,,sold ,,by ,,clarke ,,conwell ,,at ,,the ,,elston ,,press1 ,,pelham ,,road1 ,,new ,,rochelle1 ,,new ,,york 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's note3 ,minor typographical errors have been corrected without note4 ,irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed4