Part 12 (1/2)

A copy of the Vulgate of 1484 commands attention from the presence of a coeval MS. note pasted on the first leaf: ”Hec Biblia est Petri Dominici Boninsegnis qui a fratre Cosmo empta fuit Anno MCCCCLx.x.xU.

xviii. die Februarii.” A Latin _Horae_ of the fifteenth century contains on a fly-leaf the ensuing little family story: ”Ces Heures apartiennent a Damoyselle Mich.e.l.le Du Dere Femme de M. Loys Dorleans Advocat en la Court du Parlement et lesquelles luy sont echeues par la succession de feu son pere M. Jehan Dudere Conseiller du Roy & Auditeur en sa chambre des comptes 1577. Amour & Humilite sont les deux liens de nostre mariage.” A St. Jerome's _Epistolae_, printed at Mainz about 1470, is accompanied by the dated book-plate, 1595, of Christophorus Baro a Wolckhenstain.

In the French series the number of interesting items from a personal or historical point of view, if not both, is of course great, although, as a rule, French collectors have been rather sparing as annotators of their literary possessions. In a copy of De Bure's Sale Catalogue, 1786, now in the Huth Library, occurs a peculiarly striking exception, however, in the shape of a MS. note in the handwriting of Louis XVI., only three years prior to the fall of the Bastille, ”Marquer les livres que je desire pour moi.”

In the Duke of Suss.e.x's Library was a New Testament in French presented by Josephine before her second marriage to Napoleon. She had inscribed on the spare leaf preceding t.i.tle: ”Au General Bonaparte ce Testament Lutherain est presente de part la veuve Beauharnois,” and below occurs in the ill.u.s.trious recipient's hand, _Buonaparte_. An a.s.sociation fully as historically and personally significant appertains to the Voltaire's _Henriade_, 1770, in one of the volumes of which the to-be Empress writes: ”Donne part Madame la Viscontesse de Beauharnois: pensez a elle, aimez-la, n'oubliez jamais qu'elle est votre amie la plus attachee.” Was this an oblation at the same shrine?

But this is a slight digression, warranted by the twofold circ.u.mstance that all these examples have belonged to English collectors, and are of a cla.s.s quite as interesting to us as to those with whom they are more immediately a.s.sociated by origin. The same may perhaps be said of the MS. sold in London in 1899, formerly belonging to two persons so widely different as Marie Antoinette and Robespierre, of the latter of whom it possessed the autograph. The interest seemed to centre in the signature of the Revolutionary leader.

The interest and respect with which the presence of handwriting in books is regarded are indefinitely varied. But the preponderance of wors.h.i.+ppers is no doubt on the side of those who have shone in the _belles lettres_ and in society. Sovereigns, unless it be Frederic the Great or Napoleon, Mary of Scotland or Marie Antoinette, generals, politicians, professional men, do not go for much. The compet.i.tion is for the poet, the novelist, the newsmonger, or some _enfant terrible_, whose autograph is rare to excess. To be on thoroughly good posthumous terms with collectors, one has no need to have been respectable, sober, benevolent, or pious; these are rather in the nature of draw-backs; but one must have possessed a strong personality. That is the secret. Personality. Schedule the ill.u.s.trious of the past on this guiding principle, and you cannot err. Men and women without infirmities, without vices, why, ask any dealer of repute and experience, and he will tell you that there is no call for their signatures or for their correspondence. They have too much character in one sense and too little in another. An autograph of d.i.c.k Turpin or Claud Du Val would be worth a dozen of Archdeacon Paley or even of Archbishop Tillotson.

The autograph collector certainly forms a separate _genus_. He does not buy books. He does not affect MSS. where they exceed the limits of a fly-leaf or t.i.tle-page entry. We are accustomed to criticise Master John Bagford unkindly because he stripped the volumes of their t.i.tles and then cast them away. But he lived a long while ago, when the value and rarity of many of these things were not so generally understood, and there were not customers all over the Old and New Worlds as many as one can tell on one's fingers to take an early book, if it was offered to them. Even now it not seldom happens that an exceedingly interesting signature or note accompanies an item worth only so much per lb., and your connoisseur in the autograph surrenders all but his portion to its destiny. Who can gainsay him? He shrugs his shoulders; he is no bookworm; he wants autographs alone.

Exceptions to the governing principle arise, however, and sometimes they are recognised, sometimes not. The most beautiful examples for internal condition, binding, even intrinsic interest, are occasionally sacrificed to this Procrustes--this case-hardened Bagford of our own day. Not so long since we remarked as a treasure beyond our purse a copy of Donne's _Sermons_, with a brilliant portrait of the author, and a long inscription by Izaak Walton presenting the volume to his aunt. It was in the pristine English calf binding, as clean as when it left Walton's hands _en route_ for his kinswoman, and such a delightful signature. What has become of it? It is sad even to commit to paper the story--one among many. An American gentleman acquired it, tore the portrait and leaf of inscription out, and threw the rest away! Why, forsooth, should he keep a folio volume against his inclination? He left that to whomsoever it might chance to fall--a mangled corpse!

It is not peremptorily necessary, however, that there should be witness in black on white to the prior holder of a literary _bijou_; for the external evidence may prove abundantly adequate to the satisfaction of the most sceptical. A binding is quite capable of serving as a voucher and guarantee for the _provenance_ of a printed book or ma.n.u.script, provided that all the links in the chain are sound. The Prayer-Book of Queen Henrietta Maria, the _Fables_ of La Fontaine with the arms of Marie Antoinette as Dauphine, an unquestioned Grolier or Maioli, and still more such a bibliographical phoenix as that volume bound in gold of Lady Elizabeth Tyrrwhit's _Prayers_, formerly belonging to Queen Elizabeth, which the late Sir Wollaston Franks purchased at an incredible price and presented to the British Museum--these, and many more, speak for themselves. Yet where a royal or n.o.ble personage is not in the case, when it is only some Shakespeare or some Milton who is concerned, let us preferably have the written internal pa.s.sport. We would barter all the books which we have indicated for the Florio's _Montaigne_ with the poet's signature on the fly-leaf, albeit it is in no better a covering than its Shakespearian jacket of shabby old calf.

More than one volume in the earlier range depends very disproportionately for its interest on the preliminary matter in the form of a Preface or Dedication. In _Prefaces, Dedications, Epistles_, 1874, the writer drew attention to this point, and furnished a considerable series of such _prolegomena_ in ill.u.s.tration of the fact. But there are cases, of course, where the inscription is of a piece with the book, as in Davenant's _Madagascar_, 1638, where the poet wrote and printed on the leaf following the t.i.tle: ”If these Poems live, may their Memories, by whom they were cherish'd, _End.

Porter, H. Jarmyn_, live with them.”

The Imprimatur, or License to the Printer, occasionally supplies a curious literary or biographical side-light. That to Davenant's play of the _Witts_, 1636, runs: ”This Play, called the WITTS, as it was Acted without offence, may be Printed, not otherwise, 19 Ianuary, 1635. Henry Herbert;” and before Blount's _Jocular Tenures_, 1679, we find: ”I well knowing the Learning and industry of the Author, do allow the Printing of this Book. Fra. North.” Once more there is Sir Isaac Newton's _Principia_, 1687, with ”Imprimatur. S. Pepys.”

CHAPTER XII

Materials on which books are printed--Early popular works printed on vellum--The _edition de luxe_ again--Binding of books--Earliest method and style--Printers who were also binders--Superiority of morocco to russia and calf--Influence of climate and atmosphere on bindings--Character of old English bindings--Charm of a Caxton or other precious volume in the original covers--A first folio Shakespeare in old calf--Our latter-day literature compared with the old--Splendour of the liveries of books in the libraries of France under the ancient regime--Disappointment at the interiors of well-bound volumes explained--The author plays a subordinate part--The Parisian book-binding Code--The difference between the French and ourselves--The original publisher's boards--The Frenchman's _maroquin rouge_--A suggestion to collectors--Bibliographical _simulacra_--Do not touch!--Sentiment finds a place in England in regard to the treatment of old books--Thoughts which a book may awaken.

IT may be necessary to introduce a few words about the material on which the Printed Book has at various times been brought before its readers, or at least its purchasers. The oldest European fabrics employed for books of this cla.s.s (not MSS.) were paper and parchment, the latter very often prepared with very slight care, but the former of remarkable strength and durability. The cost must have been at first very onerous; but impressions of ancient volumes were usually limited. By degrees, fine vellum, alike conspicuous for its delicacy of quality and beauty of tone, was introduced, and became fas.h.i.+onable among the patrons of literature in Italy and elsewhere during the Renaissance. No such luxurious mode of presenting the type and giving full effect to the work of the illuminator, which so constantly formed a feature and a charm in the productions of the presses of the Continent of Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has ever since been found possible. It is rather singular that not merely cla.s.sical authors and other _editiones principes_ received this sumptuous treatment, but even such books as grammars and theological treatises. A copy of the _Grammatica_ of Alexander Gallus (or _De Villa Dei_) was lately offered for sale by auction, and realised 23; it was printed on vellum of excellent character and colour about 1480.

A visit to the galleries where the show-cases are ranged at the British Museum in intelligible order, is by no means the worst method of arriving at an introductory or general acquaintance with this aspect of the matter. For there examples of printing on parchment or vellum in all countries from the earliest period are conveniently grouped together. The National Library is fairly rich in treasures of the present cla.s.s, partly owing to the two facts, that it has inherited a good deal from the old royal collections and the Grenville one, and that it was already in the field when prices were more consistent with the financial resources of the inst.i.tution. Among the productions on vellum here to be found are the Gutenberg, and Fust and Schoeffer, Bibles (1455-62); the Psalters of 1457 and 1459; the Cicero of 1465; the Livy of 1469; the _Book of St. Albans_, 1486; one of the two known Caxtons on vellum (the _Speculum Vitae Christi_, bought of Mr. Maskell in 1864); the Sarum Missals of 1492 and 1497; the Great Bible of 1540; and the Works of Aquinas, in seventeen folio volumes, formerly belonging to Pope Pius V. and Philip III. of Spain.

A curious episode is connected with the last item. In the time of Panizzi the copy was offered for sale, and the Museum commission (300, we believe) was topped; but the book occurred again, and was acquired by Coventry Patmore, who presented it to the establishment, where he had for many years been an officer.

On the whole, there is no doubt that the English, and much more the Scotish, printers employed this costly and durable substance far more sparingly than those of the Continent. Of many no specimens whatever have descended to us; and the circ.u.mstances render it improbable that we shall hereafter add sensibly to our stores in this direction. In the case even of the Romish service-books, printed on paper, it is a matter of common knowledge among book-lovers that the _Canon Missae_, which was subject to exceptional wear and tear, is usually on vellum.

In our own language, works which we are accustomed to view as essentially popular were occasionally struck off (in a few copies, no doubt) on parchment. There is the edition of _Helyas, Knight of the Swan_, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1512, of which only one copy remains, and the metrical version of the _s.h.i.+p of Fools_, from the same press, 1509, of which an unique copy is in the National French library. Let us recollect, too, the Scotish Boece of 1536, the Great Bible of 1539, and the Tudor Prayer-Book of 1544.

Except paper, parchment (called in some old doc.u.ments _parthemen_), and vellum, there are no substances which can be said to boast any degree of antiquity, so far as European literature is concerned. We have, as is sufficiently well known, many others of comparatively modern introduction, which tend to impart to the editions or specimens for which they are employed a special value and curiosity. Such are: (1) Whatman's hand-made paper; (2) Dutch paper (_papier de Hollande_), of which there are cheap and worthless imitations; (3) China paper; (4) India paper; (5) j.a.panese (so-called) vellum; (6) tinted paper; (7) writing paper; (8) motley paper or paper of different colours; (9) silk; (10) satin.

The _edition de luxe_ has consumed in its time an enormous total of some of these descriptions of receptacle for literary products. The lovers of the Select in Books, who more commonly regard their possessions as _vertu_ rather than as vehicles of instruction or amus.e.m.e.nt, not unnaturally prefer something which the ordinary purchaser cannot procure, or at any rate does not seek. The fancy appears to be, for the most part, worse than futile, unless it is that books with engravings sometimes gain by being taken off on one or another of these materials; although in practice ill.u.s.trations are found to be just as apt to come out well on ordinary paper of good quality as on spurious vellum. It was not unusual in the last century, in Mexico and in South America, to print on silk even ordinary works; it may have been possibly found cheaper than paper. Satin is purely ceremonial.

Certain books occur of various dates, such as the _Livre de Quatre Couleurs_, printed on paper of various shades or colours, either for some pa.s.sing reason or as a mere matter of fancy. A modern jest-book appeared not long since, harmoniously executed on motley paper in a motley binding--a humorous conceit!

It is sufficiently remarkable that neither the Printing nor the Book-binding industries ever erected themselves into societies or guilds, as did the representatives of so many trades far less important in the nature as well as the influence of their products.

All the early typographers, at all events from the sixteenth century, were members of the Stationers' Company, and the invest.i.ture of books in liveries of different kinds became the function of an unprivileged and unchartered body, of which our knowledge is on that account even more limited and imperfect than it would otherwise have been. It is only through occasional and casual notices in correspondence or diaries that we hear of those who bound volumes for the older collectors, and we have to wait till we come down to the Harleian era, before we find artificers of this cla.s.s in possession of a recognised calling and competent staff. Three employments, which have long been independent and distinct, those of the printer, stationer, and binder, were therefore at first and during a prolonged period in the same hands and under the same roof.

Anterior to the introduction of printed books, the literary product or record was either rolled up (_volutus_) or st.i.tched, with or without a wrapper; and hence, when there were no volumes in the more modern acceptation in existence, there were rolls. We do not agree with the editor of Aubrey's _Letters_, &c., 1813, where, in a note to a letter from Thomas Baker to Hearne, he (the editor) remarks that the term _explicitus_ was applied to the completion of the process of unfolding a roll: it always signified the termination of the labour of the scribe, and even in early printed books occurs in the form _explicit_ to convey the same idea on the part of the printer.

The most ancient binders were the monks, who st.i.tched together their own compositions or transcripts, or, when the volume was more substantial, encased it in oaken boards, which a subsequent hand often improved and preserved by a coat of leather. But laymen were occasionally their own binders, as we perceive in the note to Warton's Poetry,[3] where a ”Life of Concubra.n.u.s” in MS. is said to have been bound by William Edis, afterward a monk at Burton-on-Trent, while he was a student at Oxford in 1517.

At Durham and Winchester there were notable schools of art of the present cla.s.s in the Middle Ages, and specimens occasionally occur, though rarely in good state. A very fine Winchester piece of work was sold in 1898 among William Morris's books (No. 580), and all over the country and abroad, even down to the present time, the inmates of religious inst.i.tutions occupy themselves with the same industry on a less ambitious scale, and with infinitely less artistic and picturesque results.

When Barclay wrote his English paraphrase of Brandt's _Stulltifera Navis_ about 1508, it almost seems as if the type of connoisseur, who understood the outside better than the interior of a book, was already in evidence, for the writer says:--