FRANCE.

A curious prelude has been discovered within the last few years to the history of the introduction of printing into France. L’AbbÉ Requin, searching through the archives of Avignon, brought to light a series of entries relating to printing, ‘ars scribendi artificialiter,’ as it is there called, dated as far back as the year 1444.[23]

The information obtained from the notarial books, fairly complete in its way, is as follows:—A certain silversmith, named Procopius Waldfoghel of Prague, was settled at Avignon by the beginning of 1444, and was working at printing, in conjunction with a student of the university, Manaudus Vitalis, whom he had supplied with printing materials.

In a notarial act of the 4th July of that year, the following materials are mentioned:—‘Duo abecedaria calibis et duas formas ferreas, unum instrumentum calibis vocatum vitis, quadraginta octo formas stangni necnon diversas alias formas ad artem scribendi pertinentes.’ Waldfoghel was evidently the maker of the materials and the teacher of the art, and he seems to have supplied his apprentices with such tools as would enable them to print for themselves.

In 1444, besides Manaudus Vitalis, Waldfoghel had as apprentices, Girardus Ferrose of Treves, Georgius de la Jardina, Arnaldus de Cosselhac, and a Jew named Davinus de Cadarossia.

From a document dated 10th March 1446, we learn that Waldfoghel, having two years previously taught the art of printing to the Jew, had promised to cut for him a set of twenty-seven Hebrew letters and to give him certain other materials. In return for this, the Jew was to teach him to dye in a particular way all kinds of textile material, and to keep secret all he learnt on the art of printing.

In another document, of 5th April 1446, relating to the partnership of Waldfoghel, Manaudus Vitalis, and Amaldus de Cosselhac, and the selling of his share to the remaining two by Vitalis, we have mention made of ‘nonnulla instrumenta sive artificia causa artificialiter scribendi, tam de ferro, de callibe, de cupro, de lethono, de plumbo, de stagna et de fuste.’

There seems to be no doubt that these various entries refer to printing with movable types; they cannot refer to xylographic printing, nor to stencilling. At the same time, there is no evidence to point to any particular kind of printing; and the various materials mentioned would rather make it appear that the Avignon invention was some method of stamping letters or words from cut type, than printing from cast type in a press. Until some specimen is found of this Avignon work, from which some definite knowledge can be obtained, the question must be left undecided, for it is useless to try to extract from words capable of various renderings any exact meaning. Our information at present is only sufficient to enable us to say that some kind of printing was being practised at Avignon as early as 1444. It seems, too, impossible that, had this invention been printing of the ordinary kind; nothing more should have come of the experiment; and we know of no printing in France before 1470.

Les neuf Preux, the only block-book executed in France, has been already noticed. It is considered to have been printed at Paris about 1455.

The first printing press was naturally started at Paris, the great centre of learning and culture, and it seems strange that so important an invention should not have been introduced earlier than 1470. Many specimens of the art had been seen, for Fust in 1466 and Schoeffer in 1468 had visited the capital to sell their books. If we may believe the manuscript preserved in the library of the Arsenal, the French King, in October 1458, sent out Nicholas Jenson to learn the art; but he, ‘on his return to France, finding Charles VII. dead, set up his establishment elsewhere.’ Probably a strong antagonism to the new art would be shown by the immense number of professional copyists and scribes who gained their livelihood in connection with the university, though the demand for manuscripts continued in France for some time after the introduction of printing. Many of the wealthy, moreover, refused to recognise the innovation, and admitted no printed book into their libraries, so that the scribes were not at once deprived of employment. Many of these men who had been employed in producing manuscripts, soon turned to the new art as a means of employment, becoming themselves printers, or assisting in the production of books, as rubricators or illuminators.

In 1470, thanks to the exertions of Jean Heynlyn and Guillaume Fichet, both men of high position in the University of Paris, a printing press was set up in the precincts of the Sorbonne by three Germans, Martin Crantz, Ulrich Gering of Constance, and Michael Friburger of Colmar. The first book they issued was Gasparini Pergamensis Epistolarum Opus, a quarto of 118 leaves, with a prefatory letter to Heynlyn, which fixes the date of its production in 1470, and an interesting colophon—

The classical taste of the patrons of the first press is strongly shown by its productions, for within the first three years a most important series of classical books had been published. Florus and Sallust (both first editions), Terence, Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics, Juvenal and Persius, Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations, and Valerius Maximus, are amongst the books they issued.

In 1470-71 these printers finished thirteen books, while in the following year, before moving from the Sorbonne, they printed no less than seventeen. Some time towards the end of 1472 they left the Sorbonne and migrated to the Rue St. Jacques, where two other printers—Kaiser and Stoll—were already settled in partnership at the sign of the Green Ball (Intersignium viridis follis).

In 1472 was issued the Gasparini Orthographia. The copy of this book in the library at Basle contains a unique supplementary letter from Fichet to Robert Gaguin, in which is the following interesting statement about the invention of printing:—‘Report says that there (in Germany), not far from the city of Mainz (Ferunt enim illic, haud procul a civitate Maguncia), there was a certain John, whose surname was Gutenberg, who first of any thought out the art of printing ... by which art books are printed from metal letters.’[24]

Between the two printing offices in the Rue St. Jacques a keen spirit of rivalry arose; and this was carried to such an extent, that no sooner was a book printed by one than another edition was issued by the other—a sign that the demand for such books must have been large. The earliest type used by these first printers is an exquisite Roman, the letters being more square than the best Roman type of Venice, and far surpassing it in beauty. Round brackets are used, and all the generally used stops are found. The first type of Kaiser and Stoll is also Roman, with neat and very distinctive capitals, and the small l has a short stroke coming out on the left side about half-way up, a peculiarity still retained in all the Roman type belonging to the ‘Imprimerie Nationale.’ The popular taste seems to have been for Gothic type, and very few printers made use of Roman before the year 1500.

About 1478, Gering’s two partners, Crantz and Friburger, left him; but he himself continued to print on for many years. About this date, too, the character of the books issued from the Paris presses began entirely to change. In 1477, Pasquier Bonhomme had issued the first French book printed in that city, the Grandes Chroniques de France, and from this time forward classical books were neglected, and nothing printed but romances and chronicles, service-books and grammars, and such books as were in popular demand. During the twelve or fourteen years after the first French book appeared, not one classical book a year was issued; and it was not till 1495, the year of Charles VIII.’s return from Italy, that the printing of classical books began to revive and increase.

In 1485, Antoine Verard, the most important figure in the early history of Parisian printing, begins his career with an edition of the Decameron. He was, however, more of a publisher than a printer, the majority of the books which contain his name having been printed for him by other printers. From his establishment came numberless editions of chronicles and romances, some copies of which were printed on vellum and illuminated. A very fine series of such books is now in the British Museum; these were originally bought by Henry VII., and formed part of the old Royal Library.

Among the more important printers who printed before 1490 should be mentioned Guy Marchant, Jean du PrÉ, Guillaume le FÈvre, Antoine Cayllaut, Pierre Levet, Pierre le Rouge, and Jean Higman. Levet is especially interesting, for the type which came into Caxton’s hands about 1490, and was used afterwards by Wynkyn de Worde in some of his earlier books, was either obtained from him or from the type-cutter who cut his type, for the two founts seem to be identical. Guy Marchant is celebrated as the printer of some curious editions of the Dance of Death.

After 1490 the number of printers and stationers increased rapidly. Panzer enumerates no fewer than eighty-five printers, and nearly 800 books executed during the fifteenth century; and there is no doubt that his estimate is considerably under the mark. The most important productions of the Parisian press at that time were service-books, of which enormous numbers were issued. The best known publisher of such works was Simon Vostre, who, with the assistance of the printer Philip Pigouchet, began to issue Books of Hours, printed on vellum, with exquisite borders and illustrations. These books began to be issued about 1488, and commence with an almanac for the years 1488 to 1508. In many cases the printers did not take the trouble to make new almanacs, but were content to copy the old; indeed, we find the same almanac in use ten years later. This has led to a great deal of confusion in the bibliography of the subject, for it is a common custom of librarians and cataloguers to ascribe the printing of a book of this class to the date which occurs first in the almanac, when there is no date given in the colophon. The most celebrated publishers of these books were Simon Vostre, Philippe Pigouchet, Antoine Verard, Thielman Kerver, Gilles Hardouyn, Guillaume Eustace, Guillaume Godard, and FranÇois Regnault. Vostre and Verard do not seem themselves to have printed, but were merely publishers, far the most important printer being Pigouchet. Of the nine or ten Books of Hours for the use of Sarum, printed abroad during the fifteenth century, Pigouchet probably printed half, and all but two were printed in Paris. In examining early foreign-printed English service-books, it is curious to notice that while nearly all the HorÆ were printed at Paris, the majority of Breviaries were printed at Venice, and only two at Paris. No HorÆ is known to have been printed at Venice.

The end of the century saw the commencement of the celebrated Ascensian press, the rival in some ways of the Aldine. The founder, Jodocus Badius Ascensius (Josse Bade of Asch), was a man of great learning, and was for a time professor of humanity at Lyons, and press-corrector to Trechsel, whose daughter he married. Trechsel died in 1498, and in 1499, at the invitation of Robert Gaguin, Badius came to Paris and established himself there as a teacher of Greek and a printer. It was not, however, till 1504 that the Ascensian press became important.

It is curious to notice that, in spite of the classical tastes of the first promoters of printing in Paris, and the enormous development of printing in that city towards the end of the fifteenth century, no Greek book was produced till 1507. Through the exertions of FranÇois Tissard of Amboise, who had studied Greek in Italy, and was anxious to introduce Greek learning into France, Gilles Gourmont set up a press provided with Greek types, and issued in 1507 a book entitled ???? ? ???a???????, a small grammatical treatise, the first Greek book printed in France. From the same press, in the year following, came the first Hebrew book printed in France, a Hebrew grammar, written by Tissard. Greek printing, however, did not flourish; the supply of type was meagre and the demand for books small,[25] and it was not till 1528, in which year Sophocles, Aristophanes, Lucian, and Demosthenes were issued, that any signs of a revival were to be seen.

Lyons was the second city in France to receive the art of printing, and it was introduced into that town by Guillaume le Roy of LiÈge soon after 1470. The first dated book, the Compendium of Innocent III., appeared in September 1473. From its colophon we learn that it was printed at the expense of Bartholomieu Buyer, a citizen of Lyons; and we know from other colophons that the press was set up in Buyer’s house. Bernard doubts whether Buyer was himself a printer, though he is certainly mentioned as such in several books, such as La lÉgende dorÉe of 1476. Le miroir de vie humaine, and La lÉgende des saintz of 1477, which are described in their colophons as ‘imprimÉs par Bartholomieu Buyer.’ His name is not found in any book after 1483, so that it is usually supposed that he died about that date. Le Roy continued to print alone for some years, but had ceased before 1493, in which year we know that he was still alive.

After Lyons comes Toulouse; and the first dated book issued there was the Repetitio solemnis rubrice de fide instrumentorum, 20th June 1476. It was not till 1479 that a printer’s name appears in the colophon to a work by Johannes Alphonsus de Benevento. The printer, Jean Parix, was a native of Heidelberg. He had founts both of Gothic and Roman type, the Gothic being especially remarkable for the shapes of the letters, which are very distinctive, and though eccentric in form they are not at all unpleasing in appearance. In 1488, Henry Mayer began to print, issuing in that year a translation of the De consolatione philosophiÆ of Boethius, ‘en romance,’ and the first French translation of the Imitatio Christi. This Henry Mayer has often been quoted as the first printer at Tolosa in Spain, owing to the name Tolosa in the colophons being considered to stand for that town, and not, as it really does, for Toulouse. M. Claudin, however, has found in the town registers of Toulouse a mention of Henry Mayer as a printer in 1488; and in the imprint of the Boethius which he printed in the same year it is distinctly stated that it was ‘impresso en Tolosa de Francia.’ At the end of the Cronica de EspaÑa, printed by Mayer in 1489, is along peroration addressed to Queen Isabella as his sovereign by Mayer, from which it is sometimes argued that the book was printed in Spain. The real fact is that the book is an exact reprint, peroration and all, of the edition printed at Seville in 1482 by Dachaver, with the sole difference that Mayer has substituted his name for that of the Spanish printer.

Angers [Feb. 5, 1476-77], Chablis [April 1, 1478], Vienne [1478], and Poitiers [1479], are the four remaining towns into which printing was introduced before 1480. The first book issued at Angers, printed by Johannes de Turre and Morelli, is an edition of Cicero’s Rhetorica Nova, printed in a curious Roman type, apparently copied from that used by Kaiser and Stoll at Paris. The first printer at Chablis was Pierre le Rouge; but some time after 1483 he removed to Paris, and his place was taken by Guillaume le Rouge, who moved about 1492 to Troyes, and finally also settled in Paris. Johannes Solidi and Peter Schenck are the two most important of the early printers at Vienne. Solidi was the first; but Schenck, who began in 1481, printed the most interesting books, and always in French. Two of these are of great rarity, L’Abuze en court and Le hystoire de Griseldis. The first book printed at Poitiers, the Breviarium Historiale, 1479, has no printer’s name, nor indeed have any of the earlier books. [Hain *13,811] gives a book, Casus longi super sextum decretalium, printed by John and Stephen de Gradibus in 1483. The discovery of some fragments of Heures À l’usage de l’eglise d’Angers, with the names of the printers, Jean Bouyer et Pierre BellescullÉe, printed partly in the types of the first books, make it possible that these two may have been the printers. The fragments were found in the binding of a book by M. Delisle.

Caen was the first town in Normandy where printing was practised, but only one book was printed there in the fifteenth century. It is an edition of Horace, the first to appear in France, and of the very greatest rarity, only three copies being known, one of which, printed on vellum, is in the Spencer Library. The printers were Jacobus Durandas and Egidius Quijoue, and the book was issued 6th June 1480. It is a quarto of forty leaves, with twenty lines to the page, printed in a good, bold Gothic type. There were several privileged booksellers attached to the University of Caen, but it is improbable that any of them printed, at any rate in the fifteenth century. They obtained their books from either Paris or Rouen.

Within the next seven years ten towns set up presses in the following order:—Albi (1481), Chartres (1482), Metz (1482), Troyes (1483), ChambÉry (1484), BrÉhant-LoudÉac (1484), Rennes (1484), TrÉguier (1485), Salins (1485), Abbeville (1486).

At Albi, on 17th November 1481, the wonderful edition of the Meditationes of Turrecremata, supposed to have been printed by Numeister, was issued. This was preceded by a book of Æneas Sylvius, without date, but ascribed to the same printer, though printed with a different type; and Hain [8723] quotes a third book, also without date, Historia septem sapientum. The arguments of M. Claudin, who has written a book to prove that Numeister was the printer at Albi, though ingenious, are very far from conclusive.

Two books were executed at Chartres in the fifteenth century, a Missal in 1482 and a Breviary in 1483, both for the use of that diocese. The printer was Jean du PrÉ of Paris.

The first printers at Metz, Johannes Colini and Gerhardus de Novacivitate, who printed in 1482 an edition of the Imitatio Christi, used a very peculiar type of Gothic with a number of Roman capitals mixed with it, resembling that of Nicholas GÖtz at Cologne, and which, leaving Cologne in 1480, appeared at Treves in 1481. In 1499, Caspar Hochfeder came to Metz from Nuremberg.

The earliest book with the name of Troyes in the colophon is a Breviarium secundum usum ecclesiÆ Trecensis, of 25th September 1483. It was executed by Pierre le Rouge, who probably came over from Chablis for the purpose. In 1492, Guillaume le Rouge, who had before this printed at Chablis, set up the first permanent press in the town.

BrÉhant-LoudÉac was the first town in Brittany where books were printed; and from 1484 to 1485 the two printers, Robin Foucquet and Jean CrÈs, issued ten books, all in French, in a ragged Gothic type. The first printers at Abbeville, Jean du PrÉ of Paris and Pierre GÉrard, to judge by their books, were well-skilled workmen, for both the printing and illustrations are very fine. Their first book was an edition of the Somme Rurale, and it was followed by a splendid edition, in two volumes, of La citÉ de Dieu of Augustine, a large folio with wonderful woodcuts. Their third work was Le Triomphe des neuf Preux; and this is the last book known to have been printed at Abbeville in the fifteenth century.

Though Rouen was without a printer till 1487, it became within a very few years one of the most important towns in the history of French printing. Its fortunate position on the Seine, equally advantageous for sending books to Paris or exporting them to England, was doubtless the chief cause of its great prosperity, and its influence over the book trade was felt, not only over all France, but over England as well. The first printer was Guillaume le Talleur, and his first book, Les Chroniques de Normandie, was published in May 1487. He printed several law books for Richard Pynson about 1490, and was very probably his teacher. The most important export from Rouen was certainly service-books, and of these endless numbers were issued for various uses. Martin Morin, who began to print in 1490, was especially connected with this kind of work, and some of the most beautiful of the Salisbury Missals are from his press. The printers were, however, not nearly so numerous as the booksellers, though it is not always very easy to distinguish between them. Morin, Le Talleur, Noel de Harsy, Jean le Bourgeois, and Jacques le Forestier, may safely be given as printers; others, like Richard and Regnault, were probably only booksellers or stationers. BesanÇon also had a printing press in 1487, but who the first printer was is not very certainly known. Several writers consider him to have been Jean du PrÉ; but M. Thierry-Poux, judging from the types, considers that Peter Metlinger, who printed later at DÔle, is more likely to have been the printer. In 1488 (26th March 1487), Jean CrÈs printed the first book at Lantenac, an edition in French of Mandeville’s Travels. Its colophon mentions no name of place, but the type and the printer’s name are identical with those of the Doctrinal des nouvelles mariÉes of 1491, which has the name of the place, Lantenac, in the colophon.

Between 1490 and the end of 1500 printing was introduced into twenty towns. In 1490, to Embrun, Grenoble, and DÔle; but the first and second of these places only produced a single book each. In 1491, to Orleans, GoupilliÈres, AngoulÊme, Dijon, and Narbonne.

M. Jarry[26] mentions a certain Jehan le Roy, who was spoken of at Orleans in 1481 as a printer and stationer, but nothing printed by him is known. The first book known is a Manipulus Curatorum in French, printed by Matthew Vivian. Our knowledge of the existence of a press at GoupilliÈres in the fifteenth century is the result of a fortunate discovery made by M. Delisle. He found, used as boards for an old binding, thirty-six leaves of a book of Hours ‘À l’usage du diocÈse d’Evreux,’ with a colophon stating that it was printed at GoupilliÈres on the 8th May 1491, by Michel Andrieu, a priest. At Narbonne also but one book was printed before 1500, a Breviarium ad usum ecclesiÆ Narbonensis.

In 1492, printing was introduced into Cluni; and in 1493, to Nantes, ChÂlons, Tours, and MÂcon. ChÂlons and MÂcon are each represented by one book, which in each case is a Diurnale for the use of its own church.

In 1495, Jean Berton began to print at Limoges, issuing service-books for the use of the church. The last six towns to be mentioned are Provins (1496), Valence (1496), Avignon (1497), PÉrigueux (1498), Perpignan (1500), and Valenciennes (1500).

Nothing seems to have resulted from the early attempts at printing at Avignon, which have been spoken of before, and the first dated book issued there is an edition of part of Lucian, printed for Nicholas Tepe, by Jean du PrÉ of Lyons, on the 15th October 1497.

It will be noticed that printing was introduced into many of the provincial towns of France merely to serve a temporary purpose, and not for the object of permanent work. In many cases the printer was brought to the town, probably at the request and expense of the ecclesiastical authorities, to print such service-books as were required for the use of the church. For this reason we find printers and types moving from place to place, so that it is not always easy to assign a book to a particular town, when the type in which it is printed was used in several places. The splendid series of facsimiles edited by M. Thierry-Poux, and published by order of the Government, gives great assistance to the study of French typography; while from time to time small monographs have appeared giving the history of printing in all the more important towns of France.