Books and their makers during the Middle Ages

JOHANN FROBEN, who achieved a well-deserved reputation as one of the most enlightened and enterprising publishers of the sixteenth century, and who will be remembered as having been honoured with the friendship and confidence of Erasmus, was born in 1460, in Hammelburg, a village in Franconia. He studied in the University of Basel (which had been founded the year before his birth), and achieved distinction as a scholar in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He was trained as type-setter and press-corrector by the famous printer Amerbach, and thus equipped, he secured citizenship in Basel in 1490, and in the following year began business in his own name as a master printer and publisher. Gutenberg had been dead for twenty years, but the business established by Fust and Schöffer with the original Gutenberg plant (representing the earliest printing concern in Europe) was still being carried on by the son of Schöffer. The work of Caxton, which had been begun in Bruges in 1470, had, in 1474, been transferred to London, and closed with his death in 1492, the year in which Aldus Manutius began his printing operations in Venice. In Paris the leading typographer of the town was Badius, the predecessor of the more famous Estiennes.

At the time Froben began his work, the methods of carrying on a printing-office, and the machinery for the production and distribution of books, were still to be established. Type-setters, pressmen, and correctors were all to be trained, and every technical detail of the work of book-making called for the personal supervision and often for the individual inventiveness of the master. Upon him came also of necessity the responsibility for the selection of the work to be undertaken, the securing of text for “copy,” the collation and preparation of the “copy” for the type-setters, and an unremitting watchfulness over each page as put into type. It is to be borne in mind that nearly all the earlier books were printed in Latin, which for the majority of the Swiss or German compositors was an unfamiliar tongue, a circumstance that very seriously increased the risk of type-setting errors. It is surprising that in the face of difficulties of this kind, the books of the fifteenth century present, with rare exceptions, a fairly correct text.

Froben’s first publication was a Latin Bible in convenient octavo form. The several earlier Bibles had been issued in folio, and this less costly edition won for itself at once a widespread appreciation. Froben’s undertakings were restricted to books in Latin and Greek—that is, to works addressed to scholars. He left to later publishers the task of preparing books in the vernacular for the unlearned reader. In fact, the interest of the latter in 1492, was in the main limited to almanacs, horn-books, legends, and such picturesque compendiums as the Sachsen-Spiegel. For general literature, the common folk was not yet ready. The educational influence of the Reformation was required to arouse the intelligence of the people and to induce a popular demand for reading-matter.

In 1500, Froben, then forty years of age, married Gertrude, the daughter of a prosperous bookseller named Lachner. The latter supplied means for the extension of the printing-office in which, in 1504, seven presses were at work. During the thirty-six years of the business career of Froben, he printed no less than two hundred and fifty-seven separate works, many of these being of distinctive importance and of considerable compass. Among these were the complete works of S. Jerome, which appeared in 1516 in nine folio volumes; the works of S. Augustine, completed in 1529, in ten folio volumes; the New Testament in Greek (this was the first edition of the Greek text, and it was, later, utilised by Luther in the preparation of his German version); and the writings of Erasmus, who appears to be the only contemporary author whose books were undertaken by Froben. These proved to be good property for both the author and publishers, as Erasmus was addressing himself to the scholarly readers of the civilised world, and his writings were eagerly read throughout Europe by both the clergy and the laity. In addition to the authorised editions issued in Basel, Venice, and Paris, there were many piracy reprints, but notwithstanding the competition of these, the author was able to secure from his three publishers, Froben, Aldus, and Badius of Paris, returns that made a material addition to his income. He was probably the first author in Europe, writing after the invention of printing, who made any money by his pen. Froben secured the coöperation, in the course of his publishing work, of a number of learned associates who rendered assistance as literary advisers, editors, and press-correctors, the list including, among other scholars, Erasmus (who was for many years an inmate of his house), Oecolampadius, Heiland, Musculus, and Gelenius. To Froben also is to be credited the discovery of Hans Holbein. Holbein was born in Grünstadt in 1497, and came to Basel about 1517, with the view of making his living as a wood-engraver. Froben was one of the first to give him employment, and many of the designs in the Froben books issued between 1518 and 1522 were both drawn and engraved by young Holbein. It was through Froben that the talent of the young artist was brought to the attention of Erasmus, and Erasmus was the means of securing an invitation from Sir Thomas More for Holbein to visit England, where he spent the rest of his life and where his most important art-work was done. King Henry VIII. attached him to the Court and bestowed on him a pension.

Froben’s list included a number of “orthodox” theological works, and remaining as he did in the fold of the Church, the influence of his Press was as a whole exercised consistently against the doctrines of the Reformers. His imprint appears never to have been associated with any of the doctrinal books or tractates of the Lutherans, Calvinists, or Zwinglians.[87] Not a few of Froben’s more costly publications were undertaken in coöperation with other publishers, a kind of partnership agreement being entered into for each particular book taken up in this manner. His more important associates were Johann Amerbach, who took high rank among the scholarly printers of the time, Johann Petri, also of Basel, and Franz Birckmann of Cologne. This method of dividing the risk of an undertaking between several publishing concerns became, later, a very general practice with the publishers of London.

Erasmus, writing from Basel, in 1523, to Vergilius Polydorus, says: “I find here three methods of bringing a book into print. Sometimes Froben takes upon himself the entire risk and outlay.... In other cases the publication is undertaken for the account of some person interested, and Froben simply reserves a commission for his services; and under a third arrangement, the publication is undertaken by two or more firms, associated as a temporary company.... It is now being considered in Paris whether this book of yours [Erasmus does not mention the title of the book] is to be published by Birckmann alone, or by the ‘Company.’ As soon as Froben has returned from the Fair (at Frankfort) I will write to you what the decision has been. I hope that I shall be able to arrange the matter to your best advantage.” Whatever may have been the pressure of work in the Froben printing-office, either in connection with the completion of books for the Frankfort Fair, or for any other cause, there appears never to have been question of postponing the publications of any of the writings of Erasmus himself. For these the presses were always ready because for these there was always a waiting public.

A year or two later Erasmus writes: “Froben is expending enormous sums for manuscripts and for collation and revision of these.” Among the revisers referred to in this statement was the famous scholar Beatus Rhenanus, who having studied philosophy in Paris and sojourned for a brief period in Strasburg, had migrated to Basel, and was devoting himself exclusively to the work of the Froben Press. He served not only as a reviser and press-corrector, but as a literary counsellor, to whose suggestions were due a number of Froben’s scholarly undertakings. Erasmus speaks with high regard of his learning and conscientiousness and of the value for Froben of his coöperation.

One of the charges made by Ulrich von Hutten in his little controversy with Erasmus (a controversy in which the last word was the Spongia, or Sponge, of the latter) was that he received money for work done for a printer. The charge was well founded, for Froben paid Erasmus two hundred guldens a year for his services as editor or reviser. It does not appear from the records that have been preserved whether he received, in addition, his board and lodging during the time that he sojourned in his publisher’s house, or whether there was for this a separate arrangement. There is also no precise statement concerning the receipts that came to Erasmus from the sale of Froben’s editions of his books, but the scholar makes a number of appreciative references to the effective service rendered by his Basel publishers and to the importance of these receipts. It is evident from the phrases used by the pugnacious Von Hutten that the earning of money by labour was still considered by many as something unbecoming a man of gentle birth or gentle station,—and, as before said, Erasmus was one of the first of European authors who had secured an income from the work of his pen. It would be more exact to say, from the sale of his own productions, for a considerable number of scholars of his generation were accepting compensation for services as editors and press-correctors.

Kapp is of opinion that Luther, whose writings secured a wider circulation than even those of Erasmus, never accepted any honorarium, and that his compensation for his books was limited[88] to a few complimentary copies. Luther speaks of “the exceptional greed” of a translator who secured a gold gulden for the rendering of a quarto. The number of pages is not specified, but we may hope, for the sake of the translator, that the quarto was a thin one.[89] On the other hand, Thomas Murner sold his Geuchmatt to the Strasburg publisher, Hupfuff, in 1514, for four guldens, a sum which Kapp estimates as the equivalent of forty guldens to-day. I will give consideration in a later chapter to the data that have been preserved concerning the general compensation secured in Germany during the century succeeding Gutenberg for literary or editorial work. The first of the books of Erasmus to be issued by Froben was the famous Encomium Moriæ (The Praise of Folly), printed in 1515. Of the first Basel edition, 1800 copies were sold in the first six months. The Latin version was printed also by Aldus in Venice and by Badius in Paris. A German version was speedily issued, illustrated with designs by Holbein, and this was followed by translations in French and Dutch. During the lifetime of the author, no less than twenty-seven editions appeared, the larger number of which were unauthorised and brought to the author no returns. The Praise of Folly was the first printed book that secured during the lifetime of its author what may be called a “world-wide circulation,” which for the “world” of that time was practically limited to Europe. The circulation of many of the treatises of Luther was very great, but these found their way to few but Protestant readers, while in its original Latin and in the various versions in the vernacular, The Praise of Folly was welcomed in all circles—Protestant, Catholic, lay and ecclesiastical, scholarly and unlearned. The Praise of Folly has taken its place with the world’s literature, but a still greater success with the generation of the author was secured by the next book of Erasmus, the Adagia, or Proverbs. Of this there were printed in the authorised editions, by Froben, between 1513 and 1539, ten thousand; by Aldus, in Venice, between 1508 and 1524, eight thousand; by Schürer, in Strasburg, between 1513 and 1520, eleven thousand; by Badius and Philippus, in Paris, three thousand; or, in all, thirty-two thousand copies. There were also a number of unauthorised editions issued in Lyons, Cologne, and elsewhere, the statistics of which are not available.

The third of the more important works of Erasmus, the Colloquia, which may be described as a kind of predecessor of Landor’s Imaginary Conversations, also published in Basel, Venice, and Paris, found a sale (for the authorised editions) in a term of ten years, of about twenty-four thousand copies. The demand for this was hastened by the rumour that it was shortly to be placed on the Index Expurgatorius.

Erasmus speaks of Froben as “the Aldus of Germany,” and can give him no higher commendation. Froben had selected for his publishing symbol or trade-mark a design representing an upright staff on the point of which rests a dove, about which are twined two serpents with their heads raised towards the dove. It is not difficult to imagine the kind of interpretation that would be given by the wits of a modern authors’ society to such a symbol, with its suggestion of the innocent and hapless author lifting his aspirations towards the heavens, but powerless to escape the toils of the wily publishers of the earth, earthy. No such criticism appears, however, to have arisen in the sixteenth century to disturb Froben’s peace of mind.

His best friend, the most influential author of his time, expresses the wish that his serpents may prove as serviceable for Froben as the dolphin has been for Aldus, and that in combining, as he does, the innocence of the dove with the wisdom of the serpent, Froben may achieve a well-earned fame and future.[90] Rhenanus, Mutianus, Rufus, and many others of those who were proud to call themselves the Auctores Frobeniani, are all in accord in their appreciative references to the high literary ideals, the thorough scholarship, and the liberal business methods of the great Basel publisher.

I insert here certain letters from Zwingli to Beatus Rhenanus, which have a bearing upon the esteem in which Froben was held by his literary friends, and which contain also some interesting references to the books most desired by Zwingli.[91]

Zwingli to Beatus Rhenanus.

The following letter from Froben himself is interesting as indicating the personal relation borne by the publisher to certain of his publishing undertakings:

John Froben to his friend Zwingli.

Rhenanus, in referring to the intimate relation between Erasmus and Froben, speaks of it as a friendship between the prince of scholars and the prince of publishers. The circle of intimates who were gathered about the two “princes” during the nine years of the sojourn of Erasmus in Basel (1521-1530) included the brothers Amerbach, Glareanus, Oecolampadius, Rhenanus, Listrius, Gerbelius, Fontejus, and Eobanus Hessius. The older Amerbach, who coöperated with Froben in many of his more important publications, trained three sons to take responsibilities in the editorial division of his business. One became an expert in Greek, the second in Latin, the third in Hebrew. One of the books in which the Amerbachs took an important part was the great edition of the works of S. Jerome. Concerning this, Erasmus writes in April, 1515, to Pope Leo X.: “A great work is being carried on in this city, in the establishment of Froben, most trustworthy and most capable of all publishers; S. Jerome is again in life and his words are to be freshly given to the world. Providence itself appears to have brought this firm into existence, in order again to cause to be felt the influence of S. Jerome. Froben himself, Amerbach and his three sons are devoting their whole energies to the undertaking.”

Through the influence of Erasmus, a papal privilege was secured in the name of Froben, for the works of Jerome for a term of five years, for which privilege six ducats had to be paid. The publication of the Jerome was a notable event in the world of scholarship and in ecclesiastical circles and brought great prestige to the Basel publisher. Many congratulatory letters were received from all parts of Europe. Dorpius, writing in July, 1515, to Erasmus, asks the latter to give to Froben, “chief among printers,” a cordial greeting for the great services rendered by him to the Church and to learning. “May the Lord give to him,” he continues, “many long years in which to carry on his noble undertakings.” Erasmus himself, writing to Feltichius, in December, 1526, says: “No one who has not been intimately associated with my friend Froben, can fairly realise the extent of his devotion to good work and the toilsome labour that he has given to his undertakings. The world has never seen a publisher who has striven so earnestly and so unselfishly in the cause of scholarship.” After the death of Froben, which occurred in 1528, Erasmus writes again: “We have lost Froben, that most exceptional man. His life was devoted to earnest and conscientious labours and he died at his work.... For the past eight years I have been his house guest and have had with him the most cordial friendship. A truer friend than Froben, I could not wish from the Gods. For the family that he has left I feel for his sake a cordial affection.”[92]

Writing in August, 1531, to Jerome, the son of Froben, Erasmus says: “Many virtues possessed Johann Froben of blessed memory, but through nothing did he bring himself to me so closely as in this, that he gave the devotion of his life to the task of bringing to the world the best literature; a task in furthering which, his death came to him.... So it resulted that he gave more thought to his scholarly ideals than to his own fortunes, and thus has left to his heirs a great repute but a small estate.... Now that I understand that his son has inherited his high purposes, so can I assure this son that the good will and coöperation which I extended to his father will not be intermitted for him.”

One of the most important of the works which was left unfinished at the time of Froben’s death and to which his own last working hours had been given, was the edition of S. Augustine, which was to form a companion to the works of S. Jerome. The S. Augustine was published by Froben’s son with the coöperation of the younger Amerbachs and with the all-important aid also of Erasmus and Rhenanus. Erasmus exerted himself to secure for the S. Augustine a privilege for France, but for some reason not given this privilege was denied. Erasmus does not mention what amount he received for his editorial service in the undertaking, but (writing in September, 1528) says that he would not have undertaken such a task for two thousand guldens. According to Kapp, he refused to receive from Froben the elder more than one third of the annual payments that the publisher wanted to make to him, and he also refused to accept a house which Froben had tendered to him as a gift. The entire relation between the two men forms a noteworthy episode in the somewhat chequered history of authors and publishers.

Froben had at one time taken up the publication of the writings of Luther. On the fourteenth of February, 1519, he writes to Luther that he has made very large sales of Luther’s books in France, Spain, Italy, Brabant, and England.[93] This reference is to the first collection of Luther’s writings, which had been printed by Froben in October, 1518, and of which further impressions were made in August, 1519, and in March, 1520. After 1520, Froben prints no further books for Luther, although it is evident that an assured and increasing sale was being secured for these. It is probable that he was influenced to this decision by the counsels of Erasmus and in connection with his relations to Leo X. It seems evident that Froben, while not a bigoted Romanist, had not been attracted by the doctrines of the Reformers. Irrespective of his long personal association with Erasmus, it is probable that his own scholarly temperament and direction of thought would have brought him into sympathy rather with the views of the scholar of Rotterdam than with those of the monk of Wittenberg. He believed that the Church was to be set right not by being broken into fragments, but by being brought back to the teachings of its founders and of their successors, the Fathers, and he was prepared to do his part in this work of reform and of re-inspiration by devoting his life and his fortunes to the task of presenting to believers these teachings in accurate and accessible texts. Froben’s editions of the Scriptures, the works of S. Jerome and of S. Augustine and of other of the Fathers, and his issues of the books of Erasmus, to the production of which he devoted a lifetime of conscientious toil, constituted the publisher’s contribution to the settlement of the vexed questions which were bringing turmoil upon Europe and by which the Church was rent in twain. But the contest was too bitter, and the passions it had aroused were too fierce to make it possible for either the wisdom of the Fathers or the scholarship and wit of Erasmus to be of much present service in furthering a peaceable outcome.