•i CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1 83 1 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library Z1023 .C89 Of the decorative illustration of books olin 3 1924 029 555 426 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029555426 THE EX-LIBRIS SERIES. Edited by Gleeson White. THE DECORATIVE ILLUSTRATION OF BOOKS. BY WALTER CRANE. *ancf& SOJfS OF THE DECORATIVE ILLUSTRATION OF BOOKS OLD AND NEW BY WALTER CRANE ^ LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. NEW YORK: 66 FIFTH AVENUE MDCCCXCVI 5 PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM & CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, E.C. PREFACE. HIS book had its origin in the course of three (Cantor) Lectures given before the Society of Arts in 1889; they have been amplified and added to, and further chapters have been written, treating of the very active period in printing and decorative book- illustration we have seen since that time, as well as some remarks and suggestions touching the general principles and conditions governing the design of book pages and ornaments. It is not nearly so complete or comprehensive as I could have wished, but there are natural limits to the bulk of a volume in the " Ex-Libris" series, and it has been only possible to carry on such a work in the intervals snatched from the absorbing work of designing. Within its own lines, however, I hope that if not exhaustive, the book may be found fairly representative of the chief historical and contemporary types of decorative book-illustration. In the selection of the illustrations, I have endeavoured to draw the line between the purely graphic aim, on the one hand, and the ornamental aim on the other — between what I should term the art of pictorial statement and the art of decorative treatment ; though there are many cases in which they are combined, as, indeed, in all the most complete book-pictures, they should be. My purpose has been to treat of illustrations which are also book-ornaments, so that purely graphic design, as such, unrelated to the type, and the conditions of the page, does not come within my scope. As book-illustration pure and simple, however, has been treated of in this series by Mr. Joseph PREFACE. Pennell, whose selection is more from the graphic than the decorative point of view, the balance may be said to be adjusted as regards contemporary art. I must offer my best thanks to Mr. Gleeson White, without whose most valuable help the book might never have been finished. He has allowed me to draw upon his remarkable collection of modern illustrated books for examples, and I am indebted to many artists for permission to use their illustrations, as well as to Messrs. George Allen, Bradbury, Agnew and Co., J. M. Dent and Co., Edmund Evans, Geddes and Co., Hacon and Ricketts (the Vale Press), John Lane, Lawrence and Bullen, Sampson Low and Co., Macmillan and Co., Elkin Mathews, Kegan Paul and Co., Walter Scott, Charles Scribner's Sons, and Virtue and Co., for their courtesy in giving me, in many cases, the use of the actual blocks. To Mr. WilHam Morris, who placed his beautiful collection of early printed books at my disposal, from which to choose illustrations ; to Mr. Emery Walker for help in many ways ; to Mr. John Calvert for permission to use some of his father's illustra- tions ; and to Mr. Pollard who has lent me some of his early Italian examples, and has also supervised my bibliographical particulars, I desire to make my cordial acknowledgments. WALTER CRANE. Kensington: July \Zth, 1896. CONTENTS. IHAPTER I. — OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIVE AND DECORA- TIVE IMPULSE FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES ; AND OF THE FIRST PERIOD OF DECORATIVELY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS IN THE ILLUMINATED MSS. OF THE MIDDLE AGES. I. CHAPTER II. — OF THE TRANSITION, AND OF THE SECOND PERIOD OF DECORATIVELY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, FROM THE INVENTION OF PRINTING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY ONWARDS. 45. CHAPTER III. — OF THE PERIOD OF THE DECLINE OF DECORATIVE FEELING IN BOOK DESIGN AFTER THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, AND OF THE MODERN REVIVAL. 1 25. CHAPTER IV. — OF RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF DE- CORATIVE BOOK ILLUSTRATION, AND THE MODERN REVIVAL OF PRINTING AS AN ART. 185. CHAPTER V. — OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES IN DESIGN- ING BOOK ORNAMENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS : CONSIDERATION OF ARRANGEMENT, SPACING AND TREATMENT. 279. INDEX. 329. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. GERMAN SCHOOL, XVTH CENTURY. PAGE " Leiden Christi." (Bamberg, 1470) 3 Boccaccio, " De Claris Mulieribus." (Ulm, 1473) . 7, 1 1 "Buch von den sieben Todsiinden." (Augsburg, 1474) • ^5 "Speculum Humanse Vitae." (Augsburg, cir., 1475) ^7 Bible. (Cologne, 1480) 21 " Spiegel onser Behoudenisse." (Culembourg, 1483) 25 Terence: "Eunuchus." (Ulm, i486) 27 " Chronica Hungarise." (Augsburg, 1488) ... 35 " Hortus Sanitatis." (Mainz, 1491) 39 " Chroneken der Suffen." (Mainz, 1492) . ... 41 Bible. (Liibeck, 1494) 47 "^sop's Fables." (Ulm, 1498) 53 FLEMISH SCHOOL, XVTH CENTURY. " Life of Christ." (Antwerp, 1487) 31 FRENCH SCHOOL, XVTH CENTURY. " La Mer des Histoires." Initial. (Paris, 1488) . 37 " Paris et Vienne." (Paris, «>. 1495) 51 ITALIAN SCHOOL, XVTH CENTURY. " De Claris Mulieribus." (Ferrara, 1497) .... 54 Tuppo's " ^sop." (Naples, 1485) 55 P. Cremonese's "Dante." (Florence, 1491) ... 56 " Discovery of the Indies." (Florence, 1493) . . 57 " Fior di Virtu." (Florence, 1498) 58 Stephanus Caesenas : " Expositio Beati Hieronymi in Psalterium." (Venice, 1498) 59 "Poliphili Hypnerotomachia." (Venice, 1499) . 63, 65 Ketham's " Fasciculus Medicinse." (Venice, 1493) 295 Pomponius Melle. (Venice, 1478) 297 ITALIAN SCHOOL, XVITH CENTURY. Artist Unknown. Bernadino Corio. (Milan, Minu- ziano, 1503) 67 School of Bellini: " Supplementum Supplementi Chronicarum, etc." (Venice, 1506) .... 69 Quatriregio : " The Descent of Minerva." (Florence, i5°8) 71 Aulus Gellius. (Venice, 1509) 73 Quintilian. (Venice, 1512) 75 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ITALIAN SCHOOL, XVITH CENTURY — Continued. PAGE Ottariano dei Petrucci. (Fossompone, 1513) . . 77 Ambrosius Calepinus. (Tusculano, 1520) . . . 121 Artist unknown : Portrait title : Ludovico Dolci, 1561. (Venice, Giolito, 1562) 133 GERMAN SCHOOL, XVITH CENTURY. Albrecht Diirer: "Kleine Passion." (Nuremberg, 1512) 81, 83, 85 Albrecht Diirer: "Plutarchus Chaeroneus." (Nu- remberg, 1513) 87 Albrecht Diirer : " Plutarchus Chaeroneus." (Nu- remberg, 1523) 89 Hans Holbein : " Dance of Death." (Lyons, 1538) 91, 92 Hans Holbein : Title-page : Gallia. (Basel, dr. 1524) 93 Hans Holbein : Bible Cuts. (Lyons, 1538) . . 95,96 Ambrose Holbein: "Neue Testament." (Basel, 1523) ■ 97 Hans Burgmair : " Der Weiss Konig." (1512-14) . 99 Hans Burgmair : " lornandes de Rebus Gothorum." (Augsburg, 1516) loi Hans Burgmair : " Pliny's Natural History." (Frank- fort, 1582) 103 Hans Burgmair : " Meerfahrt zu viln onerkannten Inseln," etc. (Augsburg, 1509) 105 Hans Baldung Griin : " Hortulus Anim»." (Strass- burg, 1511) 107, 108, 109, no Hans Wachtlin : Title Page. (Strassburg, 1513) . in Hans Sebald Beham : " Das Papsthum mit seinen Gliedern." (Nuremberg, 1526) 113 " Biblia Dudesch." (Halberstadt, 1520) .... 117 Fuchsius : " De Historia Stirpium." (Basel, 1542). 123 Virgil Soils: Bible. (Frankfort, 1563). .... 131 Johann Othmar : " Pomerium de Tempore." (Augs- burg, 1502) 147 FRENCH SCHOOL, XVITH CENTURY. Oronce Fine : " Quadrans Astrolabicus." (Paris, 1534) 127 MODERN ILLUSTRATION. William Blake: "Songs of Innocence," 1789 . . 137 ix b LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. MODERN ILLUSTRATION — continued. PAGE William Blake :" Phillip's Pastoral " 139 Edward Calvert: Original Woodcuts: "The Lady and theRooks,""TheReturnHome," "Chamber Idyll," "The Flood," "Ideal Pastoral Life," "The Brook," 1827-29 141. i43 Dante Gabriel Rossetti : " Tennyson's Poems," 1857 151 Dante Gabriel Rossetti : " Early Italian Poets," 1861 153 Albert Moore: "Milton's Ode on the Nativity," 1867 155 Henry Holiday : Cover for "Aglaia," 1893 ... 157 Randolph Caldecott: Headpiece to "Bracebridge Hall," 1877 158 Kate Greenaway : Title Page of " Mother Goose " . 159 Arthur Hughes : " At the Back of the North Wind," 1871 160, r6i Arthur Hughes: "Mercy" ("Good Words for the Young," 1871) 304 Robert Bateman : "Art in the House," 1876 . . . 162, 163, 164, 165 Heywood Sumner : Beard's " Stories for Children," 1896 167, 170 Charles Keene : "A Good Fight." ("Once a Week," 1859) 169 Louis Davis : " Sleep, Baby, Sleep " (" English Illus- trated Magazine," 1892) 171 Henry Ryland : " Forget not yet " (" English Illus- trated Magazine," r894) 173 Frederick Sandys: "The Old Chartist" ("Once a Week," 1861) 175 M. J. Lawless: "Dead Love" ("Once a Week," 1862) 177 Walter Crane: Grimm's "Household Stories," 1882 179 Walter Crane: "Princess Fiorimonde," 1880 . . 181 Walter Crane: "The Sirens Three," 1886 ... 183 Selwyn Image: "Scottish Art Review," 1889 . . 187 William Morris and Walter Crane : "The Glittering Plam," 1894 1(^1, 290, 291 CM. Gere: "Midsummer" ("English Illustrated Magazine," 1893) loe C. M. Gere: "The Birth of St. George" .... 197 Arthur Gaskin :" Hans Andersen," 1893 . . . . 199 X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. MODERN ILLUSTRATION — continued. PAGE E. H. New: " Bridge Street, Evesham " . . . . 201 Inigo Thomas : "The Formal Garden," 1892 . 204, 205 Henry Payne: "A Book of Carols," 1893 . . . . 209 F.Mason: "Huon of Bordeaux," 1895 . . . . 211 Gertrude, M. Bradley: "The Cherry Festival," . . 213 Mary Newill : Porlock 215 Celia Levetus : A Bookplate 217 C. S. Ricketts : "Hero and Leander," 1894 . . . 219 C. S. Ricketts: "Daphnis and Chloe," 1893 . • • 223 C.H.Shannon: "Daphnis and Chloe," 1893 . . 224 Aubrey Beardsley : " Morte d'Arthur," 1893 225, 227, 228 Patten Wilson : A Pen Drawing 229 Laurence Housman : "The House of Joy," 1895 . 231 L. Fairfax Muckley : "Frangilla" 233 Charles Robinson : " A Child's Garden of Verse," 1895 235, 237, 239 J. D. Batten: " The Arabian Nights," 1893 • -241, 242 R. Anning Bell: "A Midsummer Night's Dream," 1895 243 R. Anning Bell : " Beauty and the Beast, 1894 . . 245 R. Spence : A Pen Drawing 247 Alfred Jones : "The Tournament of Love," 1894 . 249 William Strang : "Baron Munchausen," 1895 .251,253 H. Granville Fell: "Cinderella," 1894 254 John Duncan : " Apollo's Schooldays " (" The Ever- green," 1895) 255 John Duncan: "Pipes of Arcady" ("The Ever- green," 189s) 257 Robert Burns : " The Passer-By " (" The Evergreen," 189s) ■ • • 257 Mary Sargant Florence : "The Crystal Ball," 1894 . 261 Paul Woodroffe : " Ye Second Book of Nursery Rhymes," 1896 263 Paul Woodroffe : " Ye Book of Nursery Rhymes," 189s 263 M. Rysselburgher : " Dietrich's Almanack," 1894 . 264 Walter Crane: "Spenser's Faerie Queen," 1896 . . 269, 281, 283, 285 Howard Pyle : "Otto of the Silver Hand" . . 270, 271 Will. H. Bradley: Covers for "The Inland Printer," 1894 273, 274 xi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. MODERN ILLUSTRATION — continued. PAGE Will. H. Bradley: Prospectus for "Bradley His Book," 1896 275 Will. H. Bradley: Design for "The Chap Book," 189s 277 Alan Wright : Headpieces from " The Story of My House," 1892 . • . 305, 335 The untitled tailpieces throughout this volume are from Grimm's " Household Stories," illustrated by Walter Crane. (Macmillan, 1882.) APPENDIX OF HALF-TONE BLOCKS. I. Book of Kells. Irish, Vlth century. II., III., IV. Arundel Psalter. English, XlVth century. (Arundel MSS. 83 B. M.) V. Epistle of Phillipe de Comines to Richard II. French, XlVth century. (Royal MSS. 20 B. vi. B. M.) VI., VII. Bedford Hours. (MSS. 18, 850 B. M.) VIII. Romance of the Rose. English, late XVth century. (Hast. MSS. 4, 425.) IX. Choir Book. Siena. Italian, XVth century. X., XI. Hokusai. Japanese, XlXth century. f^itf^"^' xu CHAPTER I. OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIVE AND DECORA- TIVE IMPULSE FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES; AND OF THE FIRST PERIOD OF DECORATIVELY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS IN THE ILLUMINATED MSS. OF THE MIDDLE AGES. Y subject is a large one, and touches more intimately, perhaps, than other forms of art, both human thought and history, so that it would be extremely diffi- cult to treat it exhaustively upon all its sides. I shall not attempt to deal with it from the historical or antiquarian points of view more than may be necessary to elucidate the artistic side, on which I propose chiefly to approach the question of design as applied to books — or, more strictly, the book page — which I shall hope to illustrate by repro- ductions of characteristic examples from different ages and countries. I may, at least, claim to have been occupied, in a practical sense, with the subject more or less, as part of my work, both as a decorator and illustrator of books, for the greater part of my life, and such conclusions as I have arrived at are based upon the results of personal thought and experience, if they are also naturally coloured and influenced from the same sources. All forms of art are so closely connected with life and thought, so bound up with human con- ditions, habits, and customs ; so intimately and vividly do they reflect every phase and change of THE FIRST PERIOD. that unceasing movement — the ebb and flow of human progress amid the forces of nature we call history — that it is hardly possible even for the most careless stroller, taking any of the by-paths, not to be led insensibly to speculate on their hidden sources, and an origin perhaps common to them all. The story of man is fossilized for us, as it were, or rather preserved, with all its semblance of life and colour, in art and books. The procession of history reaching far back into the obscurity of the forgotten or inarticulate past, is reflected, with all its movement, gold and colour, in the limpid stream of design, that mirror-like, paints each passing phase for us, and illustrates each act in the drama. In the language of line and of letters, of symbol and picture, each age writes its own story and character, as page after page is turned in tPie book of time. Here and there the continuity of the chapters is broken, a page is missing, a passage is obscure ; there are breaks and fragments — heroic torsos and limbs instead of whole figures. But more and more, by patient research, labour, and comparison, the voids are being filled up, until some day perhaps there will be no chasm of con- jecture in which to plunge, but the volume of art and human history will be as clear as pen and pencil can make it, and only left for a present to continue, and a future to carry to a completion which is yet never complete. If painting is the looking-glass of nations and periods, pictured-books may be called the hand- glass_ which still more intimately reflects the life of different centuries and peoples, in all their 2 VjrliJXiVli^lN OV^nWVJlj. XVth century. LEIDEN CHRISTI. (bAMBERG, ALBRECHT PFISTER, I470.) ILLUMINATED MSS. minute and homely detail and quaint domesticity, as well as their playful fancies, their dreams, and aspirations. While the temples and the tombs of ancient times tell us of the pomp and splendour and ambition of kings, and the stories of their conguests and tyrannies, the illuminated MSS. of th* Middle Ages show us, as well as these, the more intimate life of the people, their sports and their jests, their whim and fancy, their work and their play, no less than the mystic and religious and ceremonial side of that life, which was, indeed, aft inseparable part of it ; the whole worked in as with a kind of embroidery of the pen and brush, with the most exquisite sense of decorative beauty. Mr. Herbert Spencer, in the course of his enunciation of the philosophy of evolution, speaks of the book and the newspaper lying on the table of the modern citizen as connected through a long descent with the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the ancient Egyptians, and the picture-writing of still earlier times. We might go (who knows how much further ?) back into prehistoric obscurity to find the first illustrator, pure and simple, in the hunter of the cave, who recorded the incidents of his sporting life on the bones of his victims. We know that the letters of our alphabet were once pictures, symbols, or abstract signs of entities and actions, and grew more and more abstract until theybecame arbitrary marks— thefamiliar characters that we know. Letters formed into words ; words increased and multiplied with ideas and their inter- change ; ideas and words growing more and more abstract until the point is reached when the jaded intellect would fain return again to picture-writing, 5 THE FIRST PERIOD. and welcomes the decorator and the illustrator to relieve the desert wastes of words marshalled in interminable columns on the printed page. In a journey through a book it is pleasant to reach the oasis of a picture or an ornament, to sit awhile under the palms, to let our thoughts unbur- dened stray, to drink of other intellectual waters, and to see the ideas we have been pursuing, perchance, reflected in them. Thus we end as we begin, with images. Temples and tombs have been man's biggest books, but with the development of individual life (as well as religious ritual, and the necessity of records,) he felt the need of something more familiar, companionable, and portable, and having, • in the course of time, invented the stylus, and the pen, and tried his hand upon papyrus, palm leaf, and parchment, he wrote his records or his thoughts, and pictured or symbolized them, at first upon scrolls and rolls and tablets, or, later, enshrined them in bound books, with all the beauty that the art of writing could command, enriched and emphasized with the pictorial and ornamental commentary in colours and gold. As already indicated, it is my purpose to deal with the artistic aspects of the book page, and therefore we are not now concerned with the various forms of the book itself, as such, or with the treatment of its exterior case, cover, or bind- ing. It is the open book I wish to dwell on — the page itself as a field for the designer and illus- trator — a space to be made beautiful in design. Both decorated and illustrated books may be divided broadly into two great periods : 6 H w u s X o o u W o g iflii. ^' M^^ >^^ L ..a\ « ^M i«J^^^'^^*'*^'^^ ^^i ^^ m^^^^^^ SM 1 ^ ■^■^ m ^ ^ r'fv ^^^j^^^fe^^S m^ -\j ^fT^^Ss '5>^J><' ^ %^ >^^^ J — ' 'W ^"^^iklld k 'chronica HUNGARIiE." (aUGSBURG, RATDOLT, I488.) THE BEAUTIFUL PAGE, arabesques, how he is often decorator, illustrator, and pictorial commentator in one. Even apart from his enrichments, it is evident that the page was regarded by the calligrapher as FRENCH SCHOOL. XVth CENTURY. INITIAL FOR "LA MER DES HISTOIRES." (PARIS, PIERRE LE ROUGE, 1488.) a space to be decorated — that it should at least, regarded solely as a page of text, be a page of beautiful writing, the mass carefully placed upon the vellum, so as to afford convenient and ample Z1 THE FIRST PERIOD. margin, especially beneath; The page of a book, in fact, may be regarded as a flat panel which may be variously spaced out. The calligrapher, the illuminator, and the miniaturist are the architects who planned out their vellum grounds and built beautiful structures of line and colour upon them for thought and fancy to dwell in. Sometimes the text is arranged in a single column, as generally in the earlier MSS. ; sometimes in double, as gener- ally in the Gothic and later MSS., and these square and oblong panels of close text are relieved by large and small initial letters sparkling in gold and colour, inclosed in their own framework, or escaping from it in free and varied branch work and foliation upon the margin, and set with minia- tures like gems, as in the Bedford Hours, the larger initials increasing to such proportions as to inclose a more important miniature — a subject- picture in short — a book illustration in the fullest sense, yet strictly a part of a general scheme of the ornamentation of the page. Floral borders, which in some instances spread freely around the text and fill the margins, un- confined though not uninfluenced by rectangular lines or limits from a light and open, yet rich and delicate tracery of leaves and fanciful blossoms (as in the Bedford Hours) ; are in others framed in with firm lines (Tenison Psalter, p. 1 1) ; and in later fifteenth century MSS. with gold lines and mouldings, as the treatment of the page becomes more pictorial and solid in colour and relief. Sometimes the borders form a distinct framework, inclosing the text and dividing its columns, as in " The Book of Hours of Ren6 of Anjou " (Egerton 38 GERMAN SCHOOL. XVth century. IX\ x\ "HORTUS SANITATIS." (mAINZ, JACOB MEIDENBACH, I491.) GERMAN SCHOOL. XVth century. fb«w jte^wwf&ScfeEMf anna ] "CHRONEKEN DER SUFFEN." (maINZ, SCHOFFER, I492.) G THE MINIATURISTS. MS. 1070), and the same design is sometimes repeated differently coloured. Gradually the miniaturist — the picture painter — although at first almost as formally decorative as the illuminator — asserts his independence, and influences the treatment of the border, which becomes a minia- ture also, as in the Grimani Breviary, the Romance of the Rose, and the Choir Books of Siena, until at last the miniature or the picture is in danger of being more thought of than the book, and we get books of framed pictures instead of pictured or decorated books. In the Grimani Breviary the miniature frequently occupies the whole page with a single subject-picture; or the miniature is superimposed upon a pictured border, which, strengthened by rigid architectural lines and tabernacle work, form a rich frame. All these varieties we have been examining are, however, interesting and beautiful in their own way in their results. In considering any form of art of a period which shows active traditions, real life and movement, natural growth and develop- ment, we are fascinated by its organic quality, and though we may detect the absorption or adaptation of new elements and new influences from time to time leading to changes of style and structure of design, as well as changed temper and feeling, as long as this natural evolution continues, each variety has its own charm and its own com- pensations ; while we may have our preferences as to which approaches most nearly to the ideal of perfect adaptability, and, therefore, of decora- tive beauty. In the progressive unfolding which characterizes 43 THE FIRST PERIOD. a living style, all its stages must be interesting and possess their own significance, since all fall into their places in the great and golden record of the history of art itself. 44 CHAPTER II. OF THE TRANSITION, AND OF THE SECOND PERIOD OF DECORATIVELY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, FROM THE INVENTION OF PRINTING IN THE FIFTEENTH CEN- TURY ONWARDS. E have seen to what a pitch of perfection and magnificence the decoration and illustration of books attained during the Middle Ages, and the splendid results to which art in the three distinct forms — calligraphy, illumination, and miniature — contri- buted. We have traced a gradual progression and evolution of style through the period of MS. books, both in the development of writing and ornament. We have noted how the former became more and more regular and compact in its mass on the page, and how in the latter the illustrative or pictorial size grew more and more important, until at the close of the fifteenth century we had large and elaborately drawn and naturalistic pictures framed in the initial letters, as in the Choir Books of Siena, or occupying the whole page with a single subject, as in the Grimani Breviary. The tree of design, springing from small and obscure germs, sends up a strong stem, branches and buds in the favourable sun, and finally breaks into a beautiful free efflorescence and fruitage. Then we mark a fresh change. The autumn comes after the summertide, winter follows autumn, till the new life, ever ready to spring from the husk of the old, puts forth its leaves, until by almost im- perceptible degrees and changes, and the silent 45 OF THE TRANSITION. growth of new forces, the face of the world is changed for us. So it was with the change that came upon European art towards the end of the fifteenth century, the result of many causes working to- gether ; but as regards art as applied to books, the greatest of these was of course the invention and application of printing. Like most great movements in art or life, it had an obscure beginning. Its parentage might be sought in the woodcuts of the earlier part of the fifteenth cen- tury applied to the printing of cards. The imme- diate forerunners of printed books were the block books. Characteristic specimens of the quaint works may be seen displayed in the King's Library, British Museum. The art of these block books is quite rude and primitive, and, contrasted with the highly-finished work of the illuminated MS. of the same time, might almost belong to another period. These are the first tottering steps of the infant craft; the first faint utterances, soon to grow into strong, clear, and perfect speech, to rule the world of books and men. Germany had not taken any especial or distin- guished part in the production of MSS. remark- able for artistic beauty or original treatment ; but her time was to come, and now, in the use of an artistic application of the invention of printing, and the new era of book decoration and illustra- tion, she at once took the lead. Seeing that the invention itself is ascribed to one of her own sons, it seems appropriate enough, and natural that printing should grow to quick perfection in the 46 1-1 o o a u w o THE EARLIEST PRINTERS. land of its birth ; so that we find some of the earliest and greatest triumphs of the Press coming from German printers, such as Gutenberg, Fust, and Schceffer, not to speak yet of the wonderful fertility of decorative invention, graphic force, and dramatic power of German designers, culminating in the supreme genius of Albrecht Diirer and Hans Holbein. The prosperous German towns, Cologne, Mainz, Frankfort, Strassburg, Augsburg, Bamberg, Hal- berstadt, Nuremberg, and Ulm, all became famous in the history of printing, and each had its school of designers in black and white, its distinctive style in book-decoration and printing. Italy, France, Switzerland, and England, how- ever, all had their share, and a glorious share, in the triumph of printing in its early days. The presses of Venice, of Florence, and of Rome and Naples, of Paris, and of Basel, and of our own William Caxton, at Westminster, must always be looked upon as in the van of the early progress of the art, and the richness of the decorative inven- tion and beauty, in the case of the woodcut adornments used by the printers of Venice and Florence especially, gives them in the last years of the fifteenth century and the early years of the sixteenth a particular distinction. 1 454 appears to be the earliest definite date that can be fixed on to mark the earliest use of printing. In that year, the Mainz "Indulgences" were in circulation, but the following year is more import- ant, as to it is assigned the issue of the famous Mazarin Bible, from the press of Gutenberg and Fust at Mainz, a copy of which is in the British 49 H OF THE TRANSITION. Museum. Mr. Bullen says, "The copy which first attracted notice in modern times was dis- covered in the library of Cardinal Mazarin" — hence the name. It is noticeable as showing how transitional was the change in the treatment of the page. The scribe has been supplanted — ^the marshalled legions of printed letters have invaded his territory and driven him from his occupation ; but the margin is still left for the illuminator to spread his coloured borders upon, and the initial letters wait for the touch of colour from his hand. The early printers evidently regarded their art as providing a sub- stitute for the MS. book. They aimed at doing the work of the scribe and doing it better and more expeditiously. No idea of a new departure in effect seems to have been entertained at first, to judge from such specimens as these. Another early printed book is the Mainz Psalter. It is printed on vellum, and comes from the press of Fust and Schceffer in 1457. It is remarkable not only as the first printed psalter and as the first book printed with a date, but also as being the first example of printing in colours. The initial letter B is the result of this method, and it affords a wonderful instance of true register. The blue of the letter fitted cleanly into the red of the sur- rounding ornament with a precision which puzzles our modern printers, and it is difficult to understand how such perfection could have been attained. Mr. Emery Walker has suggested to me that the blue letter itself might have been cut out, inked, and dropped in from the back of the red block when that was in the press, and so the two colours 50 THE MAINZ PSALTER, printed together. If this could be done with sufficient precision, it would certainly account for the exactitude of the register. Apart from this interesting technical question, however, the page FRENCH SCHOOL. XVth CENTURY. FROM PARIS ET VIENNE. (PARIS, JEHAN TREPEREL, C. I49S-) is a very beautiful one, and the initial, with its solid shape of figured blue, inclosed in the delicate red pen-like tracery climbing up and down the margin, is a charming piece of page decoration. The original may be seen in one of the cases in 51 OF THE TRANSITION. the King's Library, British Museum. We have here an instance of the printer aiming at directly imitating and supplanting by his craft the art of the calligrapher and illuminator, and with such a beauty and perfection of workmanship as must have astonished them and given them far more reason to regard the printer as a dangerous rival than had (as it is said) the early wood engravers, who were unwilling to help the printer by their art for fear his craft would injure their own, which seems somewhat extraordinary considering how closely allied both wood engraver and printer have been ever since. The example of the Mainz Psalter does not seem to have been much followed, and as regards the application of colour, it was as a rule left as a matter of course to be added by the miniaturist, who evidently declined as an artist after he had got into the way of having his designs in outline provided for him ready-made by the printer; or, rather, perhaps the accomplished miniature printer, having carried his art as applied to books about as far as it would go, became ab- sorbed as a painter of independent pictures, and the printing of books fell into inferior hands. There can be no doubt that the devices and decorations of the early printers were intended to be coloured in emulation of illuminated and miniatured MSS., and were regarded, in fact, as the pen outlines of the illuminator, only complete 'Urhen filled in with colours and gold. It appears to have been only by degrees that the rich and vigorous lines of the woodcut, as well as the black and white effect, became admired for their own sake — so slowly moves the world ! 52 GERMAN ILLUSTRATION. A good idea of the general character of the development of the wood (and metal) cut in book and illustration and decoration in Germany, from GERMAN SCHOOL. XVth CENTURY. tTDie viqi^fokl von ten Wm vnb ftdfctxa. 'das buch und leben des hochberuhmten fabeldichters ^sopia. (ulm, heinrich steihowel, 1498.') 1470 (Leiden Christi, Pfister, Bamberg, 1470) to (Virgil Solis' Bible) 1563, may be gained from a study of the series of reproductions given in this ^ This is the date of the copy from which the illustration is reproduced. The first edition of the book was, however, probably issued about 1480. 53 OF THE TRANSITION. and the preceding chapter, in chronological order, with the names, dates, and places, as well as the particular characteristics of the style of the different designers and printers. The same may be said in regard to the Italian s e r 1 e s ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVth CENTURY, ^hich fol- lows, and those from Basel and Paris. P e r- haps the most in- teresting examples of the use of early printing as a sub- stitute for illumina- tion and miniature are to be found in the Books of Hours which were produced at Paris in the later years of the fifteenth and the early years of the six- teenth centuries (1487-15 19 about) by Philip Pigouchet, V^rard, Kerver, Du Pr6, and Har- douyn. Reproductions may be seen in the Art Library at South Kensington Museum. The originals are mostly printed on vellum. The effect of the richly designed borders on 54 Is. ^/i^^ ^'^^> ^^^ tVuM ■iiu "la 1"" Ittu "..1 » /I 1" 1 ,ii> 9p^ 1 H P "" U* 1 ^m !l« ^P''i§^_,lj^ ^^^^ ^sv \ pr ^^^^ ^^^^S — * ^^^^^^^^ ^S^^Sj^ ■— ^l-peg^fejl^^S^g 3V?^^0.£jj5^^>W5^^ i^^^^^8 L ^^m DE CLARIS MULIERIBUS. (ferrara, 1497.) ITALIAN ILLUSTRATIONS. black dotted grounds is very pleasant, but these books seem to have been intended to be illumi- ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVth century. TUPPO'S ^SOP. (NAPLES, 1485.) nated and coloured. We find in some copies that the full-page printed pictures are coloured, being 55 OF THE TRANSITION. worked up as miniatures, and the semi-architec- tural borderings with Renaissance mouldings and details are gilded flat, and treated as the frame of the picture. There is one which has the mark of ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVth CENTURY. p. CREMONESE'S " DANTE." (FLORENCE, NOVEMBER, I49I.) the printer Gillet Hardouyn (G. H. on the shield), on the front page. In another copy (15 15) this is printed and the framework gilded ; the subject is Nessus the Centaur carrying off Deianira, the wife 56 BORDERS AND ORNAMENTS. of Hercules; a sign of the tendency to revive classical mythology which had set in, in this case, in curious association with a Christian service- book. It is noticeable how soon the facility for ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVth CENTURY. THE DISCOVERY OF THE INDIES. (FLORENCE, I493.) repetition by the press was taken advantage of, and a design, especially if on ornamental borderings of a page, often repeated several times throughout a book. These borderings and ornaments being 57 I OF THE TRANSITION. generally in separate blocks as to headings, side panels, and tail-pieces, could easily be shifted and a certain variety obtained by being differently made up. Here we may see commercialism creep- ing in. Considerations of profit and economy no doubt have their effect, and mechanical invention ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVth century. FIOR DI VIRTU. 1498 (FLORENCE, 1493 ?) comes in to cheapen not only labour, but artistic invention also. It took some time, however, to turn the printer into the manufacturer or tradesman pure and simple. Nothing is more striking than the high artistic character of the early printed books. The invention of printing, coming as it did when the illuminated MSS. had reached the period of its greatest glory and perfection, with the artistic 58 ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVth century. W^^ CriNCIPIT EXPOSITIO BEAT! HIER.ONYMI PRAESBYTERI IW PSALTERIVAi. ET PRIMO PROLOGVS EIVSDEM. ROXIME CVM ORIGENfS PfalKDujquod EDcblrldioniUeuoubat ftdftis & neceflanis uiKipizutionibui aonoutain in coinuneiegercnuu :ljinul utefqdepixtiedimusnonnuUaeuin uel petltanxidelcuitcnne] intaOa pccnitui le Uqniirccdeqiilbusin alio opeie ktifTune difpouoinguo IdUcet Don pouui le ma gaambiaufrimonccondudcK. Igltiu pro bmilUduR quz iatcinos cft^lludio £:& redu]epollulafbiutgiiz6u9.inibl dl gnamcmoaa uidebantui fignit qaibuf' dam podni qaa iDlc^neudonibasad' oauicm.EcCqoodfolcnihiCKOe qui Id bieui tabd]a cenannn At aibiam Ariu pinguDC& laDiSmas tcgtonu in tnodicofpatiocoiiaim»oftendeR')iiaui ptaltem opcteJaODimo guali pMtcriejaliqajperihingeieaiteK paua& qua utgifUm iDieUiganiur ^fcxtcraQazamfniflaluDiiqiuiiioiinbabcamat^ lanoaein.Noa cy putem atnepodedldquzilieffiEKDiriled quo caquzinTbumuud homeliu ipfe difTouit udego digbaaibinot leOiontuD bmic aoguflu commemariohini nfoam. Pfalienum gwcum eft:* ladne otganum dicituKquemhebidRablathnocant. Pialrndsdiiiiureo qf apfake-' lionomenaccepUndpto<andom. Quaranis Dauld omnu pfal' mos cantaffewamcn omnesp&lmlinpaloiuchiifti penineni;& qui piaUEoIadeflcnonoidcnwiwpudhebmMpionnopialinohabennii. Nampntitulaniintdligltuiuniufciiiiif^pialnmnidleaaj. Qiiid ell dtuImmficIauis.''CVtiiadu(eiim)ipdomon6igiediiurDifipeitlanim iu Si oDiu/cuiuf^ plalmiinKlkdiupudauciiiihoccftpeidmluinin iclligiianin cuius pedbna aDUtunaouD pedum chnffanut lO pedbna ecclelixaut io peilbnapiophna. aAA z STEPHANUS CAESENAS PEREGRINI INVENTORE (s.C. P.I.). (VENICE, DE GREGORIIS, 1498.) THE RENAISSANCE. traditions of fifteen centuries poured, as it were, into its lap, filling its founts with beautiful letter- ing, and guiding the pencil of its designers with a still unbroken sense of fitness and perfect adap- tability ; while as yet the influence of the revival of classic learning and mythology was only felt as the stirring and stimulating breath of new awakening spring — the aroma of spice-laden winds from un- known shores of romance — or as the mystery and wonder of discovery, standing on the brink of a half-disclosed new world, and fired with the thought of its possibilities — "Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific." Had the discovery of printing occurred two or three centuries earlier, it would have been curious to see the results. But after all, an invention never lives until the world is ready to adopt it. It is impossible to say how many inventions are new inventions. " Ask and ye shall have," or the practical application of it, is the history of civiliza- tion. Necessity, the stern mother, compels her children to provide for their own physical and in- tellectual necessities, and in due time the hour and the man (with his invention) arrives. Classical mythology and Gothic mysticism and romance met together in the art and books of the early Renaissance. Ascetic aspiration strives with frank paganism and nature worship. The gods of ancient Greece and Rome seemed to awake after an enchanted sleep of ages, and reappear again unto men. Italy, having hardly herself ever broken with 6i OF THE TRANSITION. the ancient traditions of Classical art and religion, became the focus of the new light, and her inde- pendent republics, such as Florence and Venice, the centres of wealth, culture, refinement, and artistic invention. Turkish conquest, too, had its effect on the development of the new movement by driving Greek scholars and the knowledge of the classical writers of antiquity Westward. These were all materials for an exceptional development of art, and, above all, of the art of the printer, and the decoration and illustration of books. The name of Aldus, of Venice, is famous among those of the early Renaissance printers. Perhaps the most remarkable book, from this or any press, for the beauty of its decorative illustration, is the Poliphili Hypnerotomachia — " The Dream of Poli- philus" — printed in 1499, an allegorical romance of love in the manner of those days. The author- ship of the design has been the subject of much speculation. I believe they were attributed at one time to Mantegna, and they have also been ascribed to one of the Bellini. The style of the designer, the quality of the outline, the simplicity yet richness of the designs, their poetic feeling, the mysticism of some, and frank paganism of others, places the series quite by themselves. The first edition is now very difficult to obtain, and might cost something like 100 guineas. My illustrations are taken from the copy in the Art Library at South Kensington Museum, and are from negatives taken by Mr. Griggs, for the Science and Art Department, who have issued a set of reproductions in photo-lithography, by him, of the whole of the woodcuts in the volume, 62 K ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. ALESSANDRO MINUZIANO. (MILAN, DESIGNER UNKNOWN, 1503.) 11AL.1AJN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. LIBER t>RIMVS CUBER PRIMVS IN SVPPLEMENTVM SVPPLEMENTI CRONI* CARVMrAB IPSO PRIMOAVGTORE FRATRE !A(X>BO PHIUP. PO BERGOMENSE:ACX:VRA-nORE SWDIO REPEECCVSSVM : FOEUQTEa INOPIT. N PRINQPIO CREAVrr DEVS COELVM Ec tenam . Tena auiemcr» jnanls fif incompofia ; Tctibunnit Genefeos ptimo Moyfcs fan^us uf n acu nUus thrologusuif uinas decetnens confcribcie Ic^s ac pletaP cSuententem CEadcredifelplinan]'.non com [uuiubus ic ttids exoidiis utl uoluiu&d nihil poijps ducens : quani prifcocatngeDeris Cut cheotogfam ad ledleuiueodjnozmampertincrci^ Oeo ^undum ipflus hj^oriam iqapf cNcc ut ccccrx natloes mul ticudincrodeoni^faifojniroducecetiolultifcdapri mauilibiKanlpmnliumat^inuilibiliumcauraexor furJlIum docuii creacorem eflc uniuerfi:tegnii(^' ac f^ dpmiDam : Ec uon felom qoas iple Icripairus efiet legum niatenas . Venim «tiaitinaniixfpdus:cuiasC}lonutuianonenie limpliciter cuni^a fuifle piodu^ &^ olfendtt : onus quidem uirtuK;omnia quxpcodada Tunc gubernari docn i Ec ieaico fie exoidiens aiL Id prindplo aaait deus ccelumiSC tendm . Pro c^ai> biis^tJerbisiAureIiuspacetADguniDLis^njti:dc:CLdd:(icuituUEdJcens. Viliblli' Qofdnuria^tinziiiiuseft n]undus.Inui(ibilium uro maximus eft detu:fed tnun duioefle coa^'dmmrdeum imo aed£mD5.C2H^ autem deus ^cerit rauhdum n5lfpbtiustRdiinusquainfpfideQ.VbiCratteuiqule^prumaudiuLmusfNua- qtiain interim rrlpondicmos meliui^aam in (bipnirls landtiRVbi dixit prophe ,ta (buSfln prindpio fedt deus caelum S£ cerram. Nunquid-oam ibi tunc fuic ifte pr(9heca.*quando fedrdeiiscQetuni : 6f cenam^ Non:?ed ibi fiiit.ubl fuit dci fa* pia»(a.paqaam Ea€tft(u'hcomnia:quaeenamlzpetnanimas le'tranffert : amfy .cos 8c ^n^iheras dri cojoAimens : quibas St fiudpeta inrus fine ftrepitu enacac: Loquiiturqao9eisangeIldd:qmftmpetuidencCadnn dei:ualuncaieffi(|;cjus qmbusqqz oporto (cmper anundant.Ei propceiea ex iis unus erat ifte piophc tarqoj axit& Icr^fic. In ptindpio aeauit deus coffum 6f terraos . Tetra auiem exacinanis 6£ incompolTca. Infotmis quippe ilia matecta eratiquam de nihilo k- dt deus appellata ptimuiiiccekun & tcna:Et dictum eft . In pcinapiofecic^us codiunK teiT3m:nbn quia iam hoc ellcr:(ed quia hocefle poterac . Nam Bi cce^ lurapoftea fcnt)injrfactum,Quemadmodum:Garbons remenconridecances:di camDs:tbieflejadices:6fn)bni:d£iamDS}5£6u<3usjacrolia:nanquiaiamfint>'red quia inde fntoia fiint: Ac ficdidhim eft^ Inprihapio fedt dcDsiiodumOf lenamt quafi'leiiieii cceli Bi terrx^.cum adhuc in con&ru cceti 8C terrx roarerti eftec led quiacercilQmumfrar.-iadefutunjraeflecGelum&cerTam :iam££illa materia ccclum&tena appellatjaeft.Hancitat^^sdoram ibrmamcerra ef&gieuren •f.K(rr. • ^>-% SCHOOL OF GIOV. BELLINI. (VENICE, GREGORIUS DE RUSCONIBUS, 1506.) ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. mi .♦ esi 7» AVLl GELH NOCTIVM ATTICARVM CONt- MENTARII. LIBER PRIMVS. 1«# LVTARCHVSIN LIBROquera jTf n "iv^Zt Rff» ea^ul■an avifavai 71^ AJifui-it it^i (q)niii naipofntadeftquaimmi inter homines animi cor poiifquf! ingenio acque uimitibus interfic : con» (cnpRu(cite fubriliierc^ roauatmn Pythagdrd philofophura didtan rcpericnda : modirfadaqj 'flatus longitudinis ei'us praftitia . Nam quuiu fere conforetcurnculum ftadlu : quod eft piRs apud louem cIj'mptum;Hcrcu!cni pcHibus fu/ is mct3rjm:id<^ feaTTe longum pedes duceios:cxter3 quoc^ ftadia in ter lis gfxaxab alils pofteainmtutarpedtun quidem efTr oumero dtictrntO' rum:red tamen cfTe aliquantulom bFcuiora:£aa1e tmeiTexit modum : fpa^- tiumt^ pUntsHcrcults raaone propomonis habiiauanto fuifTe:^ aliom proceausiquantoolympicum ftadiura Idngius enct:qc2tcra . 0)mpr£* heafa autem mefura hercutani pedis ^m tiaturalem membro^; omtuum inter fe copae nnam modiffcatus eft^Atq; ita id coIiegit:quod erat confc* quens:tanto fuifTe Herculem cotpore excetlioFcni:^ alios:quanto olyin/ f loim fhdium aEteris pah oumero fadtisancdres. ^ Ab Herodeattjcoconfiilariuirotempdliue depramptam quenJani uAatum 4C ^tmb&m adotefcentenitrpeae tannus philorophuB teCkaio remuetba^piftetiftoicuqaibusfeftiuitcraoero ftooA fcuinac aolgus Eoquacuun nebulonum;qui fe (bicosnunoipvem, Capat^ Erodes AtticusafrfiCgrxca&cund^iSCconfiz&tihonorepra: ditus:acccrfebat f£^nos:quuiii apud magiftrosathenis c{fc mus:inuiUaseiusurbiproxunasuned£cI^ri{timuniuirij Scr ULftanumicop/urtf^ alios noftrates : qui Rotna in Grxoam: ad capiendum tn^hiiciiltutu concefTeraiuJ^tiii il^i. tunc quum efTemus apud cum m iiilIa:cuinomen eA ccphyliarSC ^u aiuu:dC Rdete aiitumni flagrantttlimo propuirabamas cdlorisincomodaluco^ umbra ingentuj longis aibbufacris:d^mo/Iibus xdium pofbcum rcfiigerantibus lauacris Diiidis:& abundis:8C collucennbusuotinfc^ DLib^uenullate aquis.undic|t AULUS GELLIUS, PRINTED BY GIOV. TACUINO. (VENICE, ANDREA VAVASSORE,' 1509.) L • ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. ^.fabiii^aindltanio^tonaniin mfU mtionam.^acD annotationibns Kapbadia RegUin viei^ bnia peralpbabe> mmnoafter addita. -I r-r r 1^ 3 ss^^ "fv g ^ ?)!? QUINTILIAN. (VENICE, GREGORIUS DE RUSCONIBUS, 1512.) ITALIAN SCHOOL. xvith century. €rSecuda psn operudiiicx pafliani.'; H refurre^iiO' nis die idagac^dt iudxo^ fug hocargumeta confunt. Tli multa funtaigumenta, quibus iudaci magn/in no bis calumnia foleiic ailrue re,& fidem Tperata^a nobis retuirefiionis llulca gaiiu^ licacederidere^inhac tame lucubrariuncula-noltra ea duntaxat confutare aggre- diemur^quxdominiczpaf lionis S. relurreffionis materiam conceinunc.Solet nancu oblhnatum illud , K feruile iudzorum pecus in Cnrilli (aluatoris blarphemiam exirc propenfms Kin chrillianoruincaluinniam infultareaudendus K confidentius, quia legis noftrs muniinenca non pauca ex auita ipforam religione mutiiati fumus ea pixdpue,quz agni pafchalis cyrpo^domiui pallio nem fignificabant:quo fie uc perperam inrerpretaft teslegeni,& diuini facia mentimyfterium contami nanteSjitiultas indies calumnias nobis inferre no de fi{{ant,nunquam cauitlandi finem £icientes:adeo eg cotinuisfubGnationibusnoslacenentes,&fingulas obferuationesnorftias deteftatesperpetuisipfo^co/ Jtumeliis^atc^ conuitiisfinlus obnoxittnonfolumin pafcbas celebratione obferuationenoftram Judibrio jnaximocy opprobrio ducent«(de quo fuperiori lu cubratiunculanoftra rciipfimus)uem eciami diiicx paflionismyiderioruditacis^Siirciti.'enosirnnulares A. ii m^m>: r^:Jm^ OTTARIANO DEI PETRUCCI. (fossompone, 15 13.) CAXTON. of the original size, at the price, I beHeve, of 5^. 6d. Here is an instance of what photographic reproduction can do for us — when originals of great works are costly or unattainable we can get reproductions for a few shillings, for all prac- tical purposes as good for study as the originals themselves. If we cannot, in this age, produce great originals, we can at least reproduce them — perhaps the next best thing. There is a French edition of Poliphilus printed at Paris, by Kerver, in 1561,^ which has a frontis- piece designed by Jean Cousin. The illustrations, too, have all been redrawn, and are treated in quite a different manner from the Venetian originals — but they have a character of their own, though of a later, florid, and more self- conscious type, as might be expected from Paris in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The initial letters of a series of chapters in the book spell, if read consecutively, Francisco Columna (F.R.A. N.C.I. S.C.O. C.O.L.V.M.N.A.) — the name of the writer of the romance. Whether such designs as these were intended to be coloured is doubtful. They are very satis- factory as they are in outline, and want nothing else. The book may be considered as an illus- trated one, drawings of monuments, fountains, standards, emblems, and devices are placed here and there in the text, but they are so charmingly designed and drawn that the effect is decorative, and being in open line the mechanical conditions are perfectly fulfilled of surface printing with the type. ^ The first French edition is dated 1546. 79 OF THE TRANSITION. After the beautiful productions of the German, ItaHan (of which some reproductions are given here), and French printers, our own William Caxton's first books seem rather rough, though not without character, and, at any rate, picturesque- ness, if they cannot be quoted as very accomplished examples of the printer's art. The first book printed in England is said to be Caxton's " Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers," printed by him at Westminster in 1477. A noticeable characteristic of the early printed books is the development of the title page. Whereas the MSS. generally did without one, with the advent of printing the title page became more and more important, and even if there were no other illustrations or ornaments in a book, there was often a woodcut title. Such examples as some here given convey a good idea of what charming decorative feeling these title page designs some- times displayed, and those greatest of designers and book decorators and illustrators, Albrecht Diirer and Hans Holbein, showed their power and decorative skill, and sense of the resources of the woodcut, in the designs made by them for various title pages. The noble designs of the master craftsman of Nuremberg, Albrecht Diirer, are well known. His extraordinary vigour of drawing, and sense of its resources as applied to the woodcut, made him a great force in the decoration and illustration of books, and many are the splendid designs from his hand. Three designs from the fine series of the Little Passion and two of his title pages are given, which show him on the strictly decorative 80 GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. ALBRECHT DURER, " KLEINE PASSION." (NUREMBERG, 1512.) M GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. ALBRECHT DURER, " KLEINE PASSION." (NUREMBERG, 1 5 12.) ■J GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY, ALBRECHT DURER, " KLEINE PASSION. (NUREMBERG, 1512.) GERMAN SCHOOL. 'XVlTH CENTURY. 1 S^^^l^^^^^^g^^^^^^l^M ( u M PLVTARCHI CHAERONEI 1 DE HIS QVI TARDE A NVMINE CORRI. 1 PIVNTVR LI* BELLVS. AliaCynie Epicurus cu t dixiflet,ac priufqg vllum tulifTet rcfponfum ,(qua' doquide iuxta Porticus vcrfabamur extremitatem,) oppido fenoftro pripiens c cofpcdu, aoiit, Nos veto tanqg homf s admiraci im* portunitate,taciri, inuicctiKB defixj, aliquacifpercoftitimus, Inde rurfus ad pridina reuerii fumus|dealtnbu< latione.Prioritacp PatrocIes,quin in« quit/i ita vidrf,qu^ftione ftanc di^^ fcutiamus/cnnoDihufqj illatis, tzr>> qg CO prxfentc, 8C non prxfente, re* fpodeamus.Sufcipies vero Timon, a iii 1 ! P/ J r- 1 J 'A* tiiiiiiiiimi _ a. 1 ^^^0i m ALBRECHT DURER. (NUREMBERG, HEINRICH STEYNER, 1513.) GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. DESIGNED BY ALBRECHT DURER. (NUREMBERG, 1523.) N HANS HOLBEIN, side. The title dated 1523 may be compared with that of " Oronce Fine " (Paris, 1 534). There appears to have been a return to this convoluted knotted kind of ornament at this period. It appears in Italian MSS. earlier, and may have been derived from Byzantine sources. There is a fine title page designed ^ER- SCHOOL. XVIth CENT. by Holbein, printed by Petri, at Basle, in 1524. It was ori- ginally designed and used for an edition of the New Testa- ment, printed by the same Adam Petri in 1523. At the four corners are the sym- bols of the Evangel- ists ; the arms of the city of Basle are in the centre of the upper border, and the printer's device occupies a corre- holbein. sponding space below. Figures of SS. Peter and Paul are in the niches at each side. But the work always most associated with the name of Holbein is the remarkable little book con- taining the series of designs known as the " Dance of Death," the first edition of which was printed at Lyons in 1 538. I give two reproductions from this edition — two remarkable designs in a wonderful 91 THE NUN. DANCE OF DEATH. (LYONS, 1538.) HANS HOLBEIN. series. These cuts are only about 2^ by 2 inches, and yet an extraordinary amount of invention, graphic power, dramatic and tragic force, and grim and satiric humour, is compressed into them. They stand quite alone in the history of art, and give a wonderfully interesting and complete series of illustrations of the GER. SCHOOL. XVIth CENT, ijfg ^f the sixteenth century. Holbein is supposed to have painted this "Dance of Death" in the palace of Henry VHL, erected by Cardinal Wolsey at Whitehall, life size ; but this was de- stroyed in the fire which consumed nearly the whole of that palace in 1697. The Bible cuts of Hans Holbein are also a very fine series, and remark- (lyons, 1538.) able for their breadth and simpli- city of line, as well as decorative effect on the page. It is interesting to note that Holbein's father and grandfather both practised engraving and paint- ing at Augsburg, while his brother Ambrose was also a fertile book illustrator. Hans Holbein the elder married a daughter of the elder Burgmair, father of the famous Hans Burgmair, examples of 92 ^s ^^pfe^ m ^^{Mw ^^^5^ **(V?^-^ ^^-^^L ^^s ^^i K B m ix^^^^^ m ^ H^^^ A n^ ifeS^^^ ^^miri HOLBE 'DANCE OF DEATH." THE PLOUGHMAN. GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. HANS HOLBEIN. (BASEL, ADAM PETRI, circa 1524.) rHET^ERMAN MASTERS, whose fine and vigorous style of drawing are given. Albrecht Diirer and Holbein, indeed, seem to express and to sum up all the vigour and power of design of that very vigorous and fruitful time of the German Renaissance. They had able GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. HANS HOLBEIN. BIBLE. contemporaries, of course, among whom are distinguished, Lucas Cranach (the elder) born 1470, and Hans Burgmair, already named, who was associated with Diirer in the work of the celebrated series of woodcuts, " The Triumphs of Maximilian ; " one of the fine series of " Der Weiss Konig," a noble title page, and a vigorous drawing of peasants at work in a field, here represent him. Other notable designers were 95 THE GERMAN TRADITION. Hans Sebald Beham, Hans Baldung Grlin, Hans Wachtlin, Jost Amman, and others, who carried on the, German style or tradition in design to the end of the sixteenth century. This tradition of convention was technically really the mode of ex- pression best fitted to the conditions of the woodcut GERMAN SCHOOL. XVIth CENTURY. HANS HOLBEIN. BIBLE. and the press, under which were evolved the vigor- ous pen line characteristic of the German masters. It was a living condition in which each could work freely, bringing in his own fresh observation and individual feeling, while remaining in collec- tive harmony. The various marks adopted by the printers themselves are often decorative devices of great interest and beauty. The French printers, Gillett 96 GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. AMBROSE HOLBEIN. " DAS GANTES NEUE TESTAMENT," ETC. (BASEL, 1523.) o GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. HANS BURGMAIR. "der WEISS konig" (1512-14). GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. HANS BURGMAIR. (AUGSBURG, 1516.) "^ H u a I— ( > O O u 12; w o PRINTERS' MARKS. Hardouyn and Thielman Kerver, for instance, had charming devices with which they generally occupied the front page of their Books of Hours. ttte.3nfplidoziioUtoi^ €nic. Otatto. oi'e cekb:areoctauu:fj3cno0 qm9 ci' C petua ommitare munirfc cm^ fum* camalt comertio ra^atUQai cu oeo pa9 trc 1 fpir(m fancto vi'ufo 1 regnae tc. 0n o(c (pipbantctoottiint. s aSj?^^ ! j~K 1 WM 1 ^m p ^ (Ilk ll^L*! n K V »i Orite mi'racu* lis (nna turn t>te fancrum coltmns bodfe (ld(ama goeou7 i:itadp^ fepi'unu boduvC nam eje ctuead HANS BALDUNG GRUN. " HORTULUS ANIMiE." (STRASSBURG, MARTIN FLACH, 1511.) Others were pictorial puns and embodied the name of the printer under some figure, such as that of Petri of Basle, who adopted a device of a 107 PRINTERS' MARKS. Stone, which the flames and the hammer stroke failed to destroy ; or the mark of Philip le Noir — a black shield with a negro crest and supporter ; gafue ties fun ctitatie/ Ucide ec ftlidta'f tietqea cdfioicvL ctieTair/ cn'e.-raii ch'oz of'? dot vni uafie, biee ini fcrico:'/ bermonwtqvic ed xiuie gaudftim t t>e9 functie rern'gcn'a.Salue ©ite ptcdaral angtM i boib? cfeara: in qua noB jcfna Tcdemftn planctu noftru Hi gaadm con umit^aiaeoice fcfta: m cj cofolanhif 5o:da mefta-Salue gtia Dierunn q ofta iparadifumrcrtitmtbota rfu. "i^er ifti' ^tm facratm I'mi mm'ra suofat t p cua le HANS BALDUNG GRUN. " HORTULUS ANIM.E." (STRASSBURG, MARTIN FLACH, 151I.) or the palm tree of Palma Isingrin. Others were purely emblematic and heraldic, such as the dolphin twined round the anchor, of Aldus, with 108 EMBLEM BOOKS. the_ motto " Propera tarde" — "hasten slowly." This, and another device of a crab holding a butterfly by its wings, with the same signification, are both borrowed from the favourite devices of two of the early emperors of Rome — Augustus and Titus. This symbolic, emblem- atic, allegorizing ten- dency which had been more or less characteristic of both art and literature, in various degrees, from the most ancient times, became more systematically culti- vated, and collections of emblems began to appear in book form in the sixteenth century. The earliest being that of Alciati, the first edition of whose book appeared in 1522, edition after edition following each other from various printers and places from that date to 162 1, with ever-increasing additions, and being translated into French, German, and Italian. Mr. Henry Green, the author of " Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers " (written to prove Shakespeare's acquaintance with the emblem books, and constant allusions to emblems), said of Alciati's book that " it established, if it 109 HANS BALDUNG GRUN. "HORTULUS ANIMiE." (STRASSBURG, 1510-II.) EMBLEM BOOKS. did not introduce, a new style for emblem literature — the classical, in the place of the simply grotesque and humorous, or of the heraldic and mystic." There is an edition of Alciati printed at Lyons (Bonhomme), 155 1, a reprint of which was pub- lished by the Hol- bein Society in 1881. The figure designs and the square wood- cut subjects are sup- posed to be the work of Solomon Bernard — called the little Ber- nard — born at Lyons in 1522. These are surrounded by elabo- rate and rather heavy decorative borders, in the style of the later Renaissance, by an- other hand, some of them bearing the monogram P.V., which has been ex- plained to mean either Pierino del Vaga, the painter (a pupil of Raphael's), or Petro de Vingles, a printer of Lyons. These borders, as we learn from a preface to one of the editions (" Ad Lectorem " — Roville's Latin text of the emblems), were intended as patterns for various craftsmen. " For I say this is their use, that as often as any one may wish to assign fulness to empty things, ornament to base no HANS BALDUNG GRUN. "HORTULUS ANIM^." (STRASSBURG, 151O-II.) GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. HANS WACHTLIN. (STRASSBURG, MATHIAS SCHURER, 1513.) GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. HANS SEBALD BEHAM. "DAS PAPSTHUM MIT SEINEN GLIEDERN." (NUREMBERG, HANS WANDEREISEN, 1 526.) Q EMBLEMS, things, speech to dumb things, and reason to senseless things, he may, from a little book of emblems, as from an excellently well-prepared hand-book, have what he may be able to impress on the walls of houses, on windows of glass, on tapestry, on hangings, on tablets, vases, ensigns, seals, garments, the table, the couch, the arms, the sword, and lastly, furniture of every kind." An emblem has been defined (" Cotgrave's Dictionary," Art. " Emblema ") as " a picture and short posie, expressing some particular conceit ; " and by Francis Quarles as " but a silent parable ;" and Bacon, in his "Advancement of Learning," says : — " Embleme deduceth conceptions intellec- tuall to images sensible, and that which is sensible more fully strikes the memory, and is more easily imprinted than that which is intellectual." All was fish that fell into the net of the emblem writer or deviser ; hieroglyphic, heraldry, fable, mythology, the ancient Egyptians, Homer, ancient Greece and Rome, Christianity, or pagan philo- sophy, all in their turn served "To point a moral and adorn a tale." As to the artistic quality of the designs which are found in these books, they are of very various quality, those of the earlier sixteenth century with woodcuts being naturally the best and most vigorous, corresponding in character to the quali- ties of the contemporary design. Holbein's " Dance of Death," or rather " Images and Storied Aspects of Death," its true title, might be called an emblem book, but very few can approach it in 115 THE COPPER-PLATE. artistic quality. Some of the devices in early editions of the emblem books of Giovio, Witney, and even the much later Quarles have a certain quaintness; but though such books necessarily depended on their illustrations, the moral and philosophic, or epigrammatic burden proved in the end more than the design could carry, when the impulse which characterized the early Renaissance had declined, and design, as applied to books, became smothered with classical affectation and pomposity, and the clear and vigorous wood- cut was supplanted by the doubtful advantage of the copper-plate. The introduction of the use of the copper-plate marks a new era in book illus- tration, but as regards their decoration, one of distinct decline. While the surface-printed block, whether woodcut or metal engraving (by which method many of the early book illustrations were rendered) accorded well with the conditions of the letter-press printing, as they were set up with the type and printed by the same pressure in the same press. With copper-plate quite other conditions came in, as the paper has to be pressed into the etched or engraved lines of the plate, instead of being impressed by the lines in relief of the wood or the metal. Thus, with the use of copper-plate illustrations in printed books, that mechanical relation which exists between a surface-printed block and the letter-press was at once broken, as a different method of printing had to be used. The apparent, but often specious, refinement of the copper-plate did not necessarily mean extra power or refinement of draughtsmanship or design, but merely thinner lines, and these were often ii6 GERMAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. gmmms 'BIBLIA DUDESCH. (halberstadt, 1520.) FUCHSIUS. attained at the cost of richness and vigour, as well as decorative effect. The first book illustrated with copper-plate engravings, however, bears an early date — 1477. [" El Monte Sancto di Dio." Niccolo di Lorenzo, Florence]. In this case it was reserved for the full page pictures. The method does not seem to have commended itself much to the book de- signers, and did not come into general use until the end of the sixteenth century, with the decline of design. The encyclopaedic books of this period — the curious compendiums of the knowledge of those days — were full of entertaining woodcuts, dia- grams, and devices, and the various treatises on grammar, arithmetic, geometry, physiology, ana- tomy, astronomy, geography, were made attractive by them, each section preceded perhaps by an allegorical figure of the art or science discoursed of in the costume of a grand dame of the period. The herbals and treatises on animals were often filled with fine floral designs and vigorous, if some- times half-mythical, representations of animals. There are fine examples of plant drawing in a beautiful herbal (" Fuchsius : De Historia Stir- pium"; Basle, Isingrin, 1542). They are not only faithful and characteristic as drawings of the plants themselves, but are beautiful as decorative de- signs, being drawn in a fine free style, and with a delicate sense of line, and well thrown upon the page. At the beginning of the book is a woodcut portrait of the author, Leonard Fusch — possibly the fuschia may have been named after him — and at the end is another woodcut giving the portrait of 119 HERBALS. the artist, the designer of the flowers, and the draughtsman on wood and the formschnieder, or engraver on wood, beneath, who appears to be fully conscious of his own importance. The first two are busy at work, and it will be noticed the artist is drawing from the flower itself with the point of a brush, the brush being fixed in a quill in the manner of our water-colour brushes. The draughtsman holds the design or paper while he copies it upon the block. The portraits are vigorously drawn in a style suggestive of Hans Burgmair. Good examples of plant drawing which is united with design are also to be found in Matthiolus (Venice, 1583), and in a Kreuterbuch (Strasburg, 155 1), and in Gerard's Herbal, of which there are several editions. As examples of design in animals, there are some vigorous woodcuts in a " History of Quad- rupeds," by Conrad Gesner, printed by Froschover, of Zurich, in 1554. The porcupine is as like a porcupine as need be, and there can be no mistake about his quills. The drawings of birds are excellent, and one of a crane (as I ought, perhaps, more particularly to know) is very characteristic. But we have passed the Rubicon — the middle of the sixteenth century. Ripening so rapidly, and blossoming into such excellence and perfection as did the art of the printer, and design as applied to the printed page, through the woodcut and the press, their artistic character and beauty was somewhat short-lived. Up to about this date (1554 was the date of our last example), as we have seen, to judge only from the comparatively few specimens given here, what beautiful books were 120 ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. mbro fiU0 Calepinu0 bergom^teapio fefCoz t>euotif(imue ozdinis eramtnmm fancd au^fhtiL'^aichonuni latinaratm^ StxcsmmkerpzeepafpicacUfymsMnu niumq;0<»niicojpiae vocabuloaim ifcr tOib^tdfRmus: ita: vtin vnum axaerit volnmm H onium €»arcellum:H elhim •&ompeium:fli arcum ^arronem:.Q cr/ taS£Qonatum:}X 3ilmfanc^'z8mdae 'phirimuin arsuio functus omdotlitera/ naqspakftra. ' CAtEPINVS AD ItlKyU. Ingenf mania rtqnmvidaii Pr(danu*4 Ubc^bontv'q tMU> Verfb adocK.nomiiifr ptehad, MflUifu ttnlirjiilxirc imttct Ob|ctui*<^Tfri,nKlb'<)TaHfi Aafiorfic ^ufltmcboaOf'tvAili, HkdempcuUixTexcaf apma ^nvnljuf f&dcifwiorrnullo* EtglaiU 2arntuf»?[atinis. Nam( aedai>aliiTiugir,9i|ifr« . Qupeniauxiiuun , poaub i]£); Sa?i flam* oiaipiobt,\e^'n. IACjOBVS rELtCIANtrS ILECAZOlA, STVDrOSIS. tjaaih pamag fcopolif ioga quifqoU adiKi Qjifqaii ? Aonidmii fiwida ran mpif. jt^aaHh cupufif Qinaflir misieK Dinm Eft. Calepinqf adef^.bocdice caipc viam. (tUSCULANO, ALEX. PAGANINI, 1520.) (Comp. Diirer's title page, Nuremberg, 1523.) R GERMAN SCHOOL. PICTOR ES OPERIS, XVlTH CENTURY. SCVLPTOR "rUCHSIUS: DE HISTORIA STIRPIUM." (bASLE, ISINGRIN, 1542.) THE NEW SPIRIT. printed, remarkable both for their decorative and illustrative value, and often uniting these two functions in perfect harmony ; but after the middle of the sixteenth century both vigour and beauty in design generally may be said to have declined. Whether the world had begun to be interested in other things — and we know the great discovery of Columbus had made it practically larger — whether discovery, conquest, and commerce more and more filled the view of foremost spirits, and art was only valued as it illustrated or contributed to the know- ledge of or furtherance of these ; whether the Reformation or the spirit of Protestantism, turning men's minds from outward to inward things, and in its revolt against the half paganized Catholic Church — involving a certain ascetic scorn and contempt for any form of art which did not serve a direct moral purpose, and which appealed to the senses rather than to the emotions or the intellect — practically discouraged it altogether. Whether that new impulse given to the imagination by the influence of the revival of Classical learning, poetry, and antique art, had become jaded, and, while breaking with the traditions and spirit of Gothic or Mediaeval art, began to put on the fetters of authority and pedantry, and so, gradually overlaid by the forms and cerements of a dead style, lost its vigour and vitality — whether due to one or all of these causes, certain it is that the lamp of design began to fail, and, compared with its earlier radiance, shed but a doubtful flicker upon the page through the succeeding centuries. 124 CHAPTER III. OF THE PERIOD OF THE DECLINE OF DECORATIVE FEELING IN BOOK DESIGN AFTER THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, AND OF THE MODERN REVIVAL. S I indicated at the outset of the first chapter, my purpose is not to give a complete historical account of the decoration and illustration of books, but rather to dwell on the artistic treatment of the page from my own point of view as a designer. So far, how- ever, the illustrations I have given, while serving their purpose, also furnished a fair idea of the development of style and variation of treatment of both the MS. and printed book under different influences, from the sixth to the close of the sixteenth century, but now I shall have to put on a pair of seven-league boots, and make some tremendous skips. We have seen how, at the period of the early Renaissance, two streams met, as it were, and mingled, with very beautiful results. The freedom, the romance, the naturalism of the later Gothic, with the newly awakened Classical feeling, with its grace of line and mythological lore. The rich and delicate arabesques in which Italian designers delighted, and which so frequently decorated, as we have seen, the borders of the early printer, owe also something to Oriental influence, as indeed their name indicates. The decorative beauty of these early Renaissance books were really, therefore, the outcome of a very remarkable fusion of ideas and styles. Printing, as an art, and book 125 THE CLASSICAL INFLUENCE, decoration attained a perfection it has not since reached. The genius of the greatest designers of the time was associated with the new invention, and expressed itself with unparalleled vigour in the woodcut; while the type-founder, being still under the influence of a fine traditional style in handwriting, was in perfect harmony with the book decorator or illustrator. Even geometric diagrams were given without destroying the unity of the page, as may be seen in early editions of Euclid, and we have seen what faithful and characteristic work was done in illustrations of plants and animals, without loss of designing power and ornamental sense. This happy equilibrium of artistic quality and practical adaptation after the middle of the sixteenth century began to decline. There were designers, like Oronce Fine and Geofifroy Tory, at Paris, who did much to preserve the traditions in book ornament of the early Italian printers, while adding a touch of grace and fancy of their own, but for the most part the taste of book designers ran to seed after this period. The classical influence, which had been only felt as one among other influences, became more and more paramount over the designer, triumphing over the naturalistic feeling, and over the Gothic and Eastern orna- mental feeling ; so that it might be said that, whereas Mediaeval designers sought after colour and decorative beauty, Renaissance designers were influenced by considerations of line, form, and relief. This may have been due in a great measure to the fact that the influence of the antique and Classical art was a sculpturesque influence, 126 FRENCH SCHOOL. XVlTH CENTURY. DESIGNED BY ORONCE FINE. (PARIS, SIMON DE COLINES, IS34-) (Comp. Diirer's title to Plutarch, 1513, and St. Amhrosius, 1520.) THE RENAISSANCE, mainly gathered from statues and relievos, gems and medals, and architectural carved ornaments, and more through Roman than Greek sources. While suggestions from such sources were but sparingly introduced at first, they gradually seemed to outweigh all other motives with the later de- signers, whose works often suggest that it is impossible to have too much Roman costume or too many Roman remains, which crowd their Bible subjects, and fill their borders with overfed pedi- ments, corpulent scrolls, and volutes, and their interstices with scattered fragments and attitudi- nizing personifications of Classical mythology. The lavish use of such materials were enough to overweight even vigorous designers like Virgil Solis, who though able, facile, and versatile as he was, seems but a poor substitute for Holbein. What was at first an inspiriting, imaginative, and refining influence in art became finally a destructive force. The youthful spirit of the early Renaissance became clouded and oppressed, and finally crushed with a weight of pompous pedantry and affectation. The natural development of a living style in art became arrested, and authority, and an endeavour to imitate the antique, took its place. The introduction of the copper-plate marked a new epoch in book illustration, and wood-engrav- ing declined with its increased adoption, which, in the form it took, as applied to books, in the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries, was certainly to the detriment and final extinction of the decorative side. It has already been pointed out how a copper- 129 s COPPER-PLATE. plate, requiring a different process of printing, and exhibiting as a necessary consequence such differ- ent quaHties of Hne and effect, cannot harmonize with type and the conditions of the surface-printed page, since it is not in any mechanical relation with them. This mechanical relation is really the key to all good and therefore organic design ; and therefore it is that design was in sounder condition when mechanical conditions and relations were simpler. A new invention often has a dislocating effect upon design. A new element is introduced, valued for some particular facility or effect, and it is often adopted without considering how — like a new element in a chemical combination — it alters the relations all round. Copper-plate engraving was presumably adopted as a method for book-illustration for its greater fineness and precision of line, and its greater com- mand of complexity in detail and chiaroscuro, for its purely pictorial qualities, in short, and its adop- tion corresponded to the period of the ascendancy of the painter above other kind of artists. As regards the books of the seventeenth century, while " of making many books there was no end," and however interesting for other than artistic reasons, but few would concern our immediate purpose. Wood-cuts, headings, initials, tail-pieces, and printers' ornaments continued to be used, but greatly inferior in design and beauty of effect to those of the sixteenth century. The copper-plates introduced are quite apart from the page orna- ments, and can hardly be considered decorative, although in the pompous title-pages of books of this period they are frequently formal and archi- 130 >3 W o a 1—1 > w H <1 O O u w <1 Pi w o to a z w IX H o fa e^t(|Ug . ;1 cres*ioi\ Slept and ;Snvua ; ^leep pleepAaW^.^IeepjXl ^ WTVufe o'erthec^wotKerweep' er.X^a«AnteAIisIiiew DESIGN FOR A TITLE PAGE. HENRY HOLIDAY. and a bright and successful wood-engraving, is Ford Madox Brown's design of " Elijah and the Widow's Son." There is a dramatic intensity of expression about his other one also, " The Death of Eglon." Still, at best, we find that these are but carefully studied pictures rendered on the wood. The pre-Raphaelite designs show the most decorative sense, but they are now issued quite distinct from the page, whatever was the original intention, and while they may, as to scale and treat- ment, be justly considered as book illustrations, and as examples of our more important efforts in that direction at that time, they are not page decorations. One may speak here of an admirable artist we have lost, Mr. Albert Moore, who so distinguished himself for his refined decorative sense in paint- ing, and the outline group of figures given here shows that he felt the conditions of the book page and the press also. Mr. Henry Holiday is also a decorative artist of great refinement and facility. He has not done very much in book illustration, but his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's " Hunting of the Snark" were admirable. His decorative feeling in black and white, however, is marked, as may be seen in the title to "Aglaia." As, until recently, I suppose I was scarcely known out of the nursery, it is meet that I should offer some remarks upon children's books. Here, undoubtedly, there has been a remarkable de- velopment and great activity of late years. We all remember the little cuts that adorned the books of our childhood. The ineffaceable quality of these early pictorial and literary impressions afford 154 ALBERT MOORE. FROM MILTON'S ODE ON CHRIST'S NATIVITY. (nISBET, 1867.) TOY BOOKS. the strongest plea for good art in the nursery and the schoolroom. Every child, one might say every human being, takes in more through his eyes than his ears, and I think much more advan- tage might be taken of this fact. If I may be personal, let me say that my first efforts in children's books were made in association with Mr. Edmund Evans. Here, again, I was fortunate to be in association with the craft of colour-printing, and I got to understand its possi- bilities. The books for babies, current at that time — about 1865 to 1870 — of the cheaper sort called toy books were not very inspiriting. These were generally careless and unimaginative wood- cuts, very casually coloured by hand, dabs of pink and emerald green being laid on across faces and frocks with a somewhat reckless aim. There was practically no choice between such as these and cheap German highly-coloured lithographs. The only attempt at decoration I remember was a set of coloured designs to nursery rhymes by Mr. H. S. Marks, which had been originally intended for cabinet panels. Bold outlines and flat tints were used. Mr. Marks has often shown his decorative sense in book illustration and printed designs in colour, but I have not been able to obtain any for this book. It was, however, the influence of some Japanese printed pictures given to me by a lieutenant in the navy, who had brought them home from there as curiosities, which I believe, though I drew inspi- ration from many sources, gave the real impulse to that treatment in strong outlines, and flat tints and solid blacks, which I adopted with variations 156 v<<.*^v<- HENRY HOLIDAY. CONTENTSIIi^ INTRODUCTION . . . SONNET:— "AN INVITATION." Rev. H. D. R«wnslb» CORSET VVEARING: THE MEDICAL SIDE OF THE ATTACK. VV. WiLDEBMRCE S.MnH. M D. ■ ■ . - ■ OUR CHOICE FROM THE FASHIONS. Sophie Brvam, Sc.D. THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEIGHT IN CLOTHING. E. Winifred DiEhsoN, L.R.C.P. and S I. .... THE ARTISTIC ASPECT OF DRESS. Henrv HoLiDAV. (Will. Illustrations) . CYCLING COSTUME M