PRINTERS’ MARKS OF GERMANY
AND SWITZERLAND.
| i t |
| JACOBI THANNER. |
Although the early history of the Printer’s Mark in Germany is neither extensive in variety nor startling in surprises, there are still very many features of general interest. And if the Printer’s Mark, as we have already seen, had its origin in Mainz, its development is certainly due to the Strassburg craftsmen. As no other city in Germany can show such a varied collection of beautiful Marks, examples of the Strasburg printers will preponderate in this chapter. It is now generally accepted that the art of printing was carried on in Strassburg (Argentina, Argent-oratum), either in 1459 or 1460, by Johan Mentelin, who appears to have continued in the business until 1476; and about six years after he had started, Heinrich Eggestein commenced, and continued until about 1478. Accepting the arrangement of Herr Paul Heitz and Dr. Karl August Barack in their very elaborate “Elsässische Büchermarken bis Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts,” the first Strasburg printer to use a Mark was Johann Grüninger, who, after working at Basel for a year or two, took up his residence in Strassburg at the end of 1482. One of his first Marks appeared in Brant’s “Narrenschiff,” 1494, and of this our example is an elaboration. By the year 1525 he employed no less than five distinct examples, the last of which, in Ptolemæus, “Geographicæ Enarrationes,” 1525, differs completely from all the others, the single letter G occupying the centre of the masonic compass and rule. Grüninger, it may be noted, was the printer of “Cosmographie Introductio,” 1509; the second edition of the famous book in which the name America was proposed and used for the first time. He is further noted for the number of misprints which occur in the books issued by him. The last book which bears his imprint is apparently “Geberi philosophi ac alchimistæ maximi, de Alchimia, libri tres,” March, 1529. Martin Schott’s distinct device is found in at least three books of the date 1498, including Matheolus’ “Ars memorativa,” and was used by him until 1517. It was also used by his son, Johann Schott, about 1541, the same printer using seven or eight other Marks, all more or less distinct, at different periods. The first book bearing Martin Schott’s name is dated 1491, and he continued printing until 1499; while his son was in business from 1500 to 1545. Equally distinct is the accompanying example—one of several—used by Johann Knoblouch, which is found in the majority of the books printed by him from about 1521 to 1526, notably several works by Erasmus (e.g. “Moriæ Encomium,” 1522, and the “Novum Testamentum,” 1523). The father started in 1497, and was succeeded by his son, who continued the business until 1558. The Mark, it may be mentioned, is a somewhat atrocious pun on the owner’s name, which is the German for “garlic,” with the seed pods of which the figure emblematically representing Ignorance ascending from darkness into light is encircled; this Mark is generally surrounded by mottoes in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin.
| IOHANNES. SANTVS | M S |
| JOHANN GRÜNINGER. | MARTIN SCHOTT. |
JOHANN KNOBLOUCH.
REINHARD BECK.
REINHARD BECK.
| printer's mark |
| WOLFGANG KÖPFEL. |
Although Reinhard, or Renatus, Beck was only in business for about eleven years, 1511–1522, he had several Marks, which differed chiefly in their extraneous ornament, as will be seen from the accompanying examples. Two books, sine nota, which Mr. Quaritch assigns to Beck’s press, of the date 1490, are remarkable for the large number of woodcuts which they contain, relating principally to plants, animals, gardening operations, rural architecture, so that the Mark of “ein wilder Mann” is so far in keeping with the nature of his publications. Fourteen or fifteen Marks, several of which are only variations of one type, have been identified as having been used by Wolfgang Köpfel (whose surname sometimes appears in its Greek translation of Cephalæus) between 1522 and 1554: the most remarkable, of which we give a reproduction, appears to have been used very rarely, notably in “Zehn Sermones” of Luther, 1523; a much commoner type is the smaller example, which appeared in various books issued between 1526–1554. Georg Ullricher von Andlau, 1529–36, confined himself to one type (see p. 1), that of the Cornucopia or Horn of Plenty, of which there are seven variants. The more elaborate of the two Marks of Matthias Biener, or Apiarius, 1533–36, appears in Oecolampadius’ “Commentarius” on the Prophet Ezekiel, 1534, and is an evident pun on the printer’s surname. Several of the dozen Marks used by Craft Müller, or Crato Mylius, 1536–62, are exceedingly bold and picturesque, although, with the exception of the Ceres, they are all variants of the leonine type: the Ceres was apparently used only in his first book, “Auslegung oder Postilla des heil. Zmaragdi,” 1536.
ESTAS HYEMS / PROPE LONGE / MORS ET VITA
WOLFGANG KÖPFEL.
Hostibus haud tergo, sed forti pectore notus.
CRAFT MÜLLER (CRATO MYLIUS).
MATTHIAS BIENER (APIARIUS).
Full text
Alma Spicifera Flaua / CERES. Ni purges & molas non comedes.
CRAFT MÜLLER.
| printer's mark |
| THEODOSIUS RIHEL, JOSIAS RIHEL (UND DEREN ERBEN). |
Wendelin Rihel was the founder of one of the longest-lived dynasties of Strassburg printers, who were issuing books from 1535 to 1639; their eighteen Marks have all the same subject, a winged figure of Sophrosyne, holding in one hand a rule, and in the other a bridle and halter. Of Thiebold Berger, who appears to have been in business from 1551–1584, very little is known, either of his books or his personality; his Mark is, however, pretty, and unique, so far as Strassburg is concerned. Lazarus Zetzner and his successors, whose works date from 1586 to 1648, and whose Marks number nearly thirty, all variants of the example here given: it is a bust of Minerva supported on a short square pedestal, on which is inscribed the words “Scientia immutabilis.” This family printed a large number of works, from a Lutheran Bible to Aretini’s “Historiæ Florentinæ.” As an example of a rare and distinct Mark we give one of two employed by Conrad Scher, 1603–31, which was subsequently used by Johannes Reppius, also of Strassburg. Curiosity is the only feature of the solitary example of David Hauth, 1635.
| SCIENTIA IMMUTABILIS | TIMETE DOMINVM OMNES SANCTI EIVS QVONIAM NON EST INOPIA TIMENTIBVS EVM. PS:34 |
| LAZARUS ZETZNER. | |
| THIEBOLD BERGER. |
| Prudentia Firma Et Simplex Spes | printer's mark |
| CONRAD SCHER. | DAVID HAUTH. |
J. R. DULSSECKER.A
But of all the Strassburg printers, there can be no doubt that, from a strictly pictorial point of view, the Marks of Johann Reinhold Dulssecker, 1696–1737, are by far the most beautiful. Indeed, in many respects they are the most charming examples to be found among the devices of any time or country. In some instances they partake much more of the character of a vignette than a tradesman’s mark. His earliest device is composed of his monogram; and his first decorative Mark is the very beautiful little picture of an English garden, in the central pathway of which occurs his initials. This Mark appears to have been used in only one book, “M. Fabii Quinctiliani Declamationes ... ex recensione Ulrici Obrechti,” 1698. A type of Mark very frequently used by him occurs in Schilter’s “Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum,” 1702, with his motto of “Dominus providebit,” and of this Mark we give an excessively rare variant on p. 47. He had eleven Marks, his list includes books of all kinds, in Latin, German, and French.
FOECUNDANTE DEO IN VARIOS PRODUCIMUR USUS
JOHANN REINHOLD DULSSECKER.
Of the other Alsatian printers we have only room to refer to two examples. Thomas Anshelm (or Anshelmi Badensis) is perhaps the most eminent of the early Hagenau printers, his books dating from 1488 to 1522, the earliest of which, however, were not printed at this place. His Marks all carry the initials T A B, the Hebrew letters in the accompanying example representing the name Jehovah; in his most elegant Mark the same word is supported on a scroll by a cherub, whilst another cherub is supporting a second scroll on which is inscribed the word Jesus in Greek characters. The style and workmanship of this woodcut suggest the hand of Hans Schaufelein, and it is worth noting that in 1516 Anshelm produced “Doctrina Vita et Passio Jesu Christi,” some of the illustrations of which were by Schaufelein. Anshelm issued a large number of books, including the works of Pliny, Melancthon, Erasmus, Cicero, etc. Valentin Kobian, 1532–42, inserted an exceedingly original and striking Mark in the edition of Erasmus’ “Heroicum Carmen,” 1536, the Peacock with one foot on a Cock and the other on a crouching Lion being highly effective.
VALENTIN KOBIAN.
Full text
| see endnote | see endnote |
| THOMAS ANSHELM. Full text |
A. THER HOERNEN. Full text Text close-up |
Printing had not established itself at Cologne until four years later than at Strassburg. Ulric Zell, at the dispersal of the Mainz printers, settled himself in this city, where he was printing from about 1463 to nearly the end of the fifteenth century. He was clearly not an innovator, for he never printed a book in German, and did not adopt any of the improvements of his confrères who had settled themselves in Italy; he “rigidly adhered to the severe style of Schoeffer, printing all his books from three sizes of a rude face of a round gothic type.” It is not to him therefore that we can look for anything in the way of Printers’ Marks, the earliest Cologne printer to adopt which was apparently Arnold Ther Hoernen, whose colophons, of which we give an example, were often printed in red. His Mark is a triangle of which the two upright sides are prolonged with a crosslet; in the centre a star, and on either side the gothic letters T H, the whole being on a very small shield hanging from a broken stump. Herman Bumgart, one of whose books bears the subscription “Gedruckt in Coelne up den Alden Mart tzo dem wilden manne,” and who was in Cologne at the latter end of the fifteenth century, has a special interest to us from the probability that he was in some way connected with the early Scottish printers.
Impressu[m] Colonie sup[er] antiquū for[um] in Siluestri viro.
HERMAN BUMGART.
Once started, the idea of the Mark was quickly taken up. Johann Koelhoff, 1470–1500, the first printer to use printed signatures (in his edition of Nyder, “Preceptorium divinæ legis,” 1472), came out with a large but roughly drawn example, the arms of Cologne, consisting of a knight’s helmet, with peacock feathers, crest, and elaborate mantles, surmounting a shield with the three crowns in chief, the rest of the escutcheon blank, and rabbits in the foreground. Koelhoff (who describes himself “de Lubeck”) was the printer of the “Cologne Chronicle,” 1499, and of an edition of “Bartholomæus de Proprietatibus Rerum,” 1481. Several interesting Cologne Marks of the first years of the sixteenth century may be noted. For instance, Eucharius Cervicornus, 1517–36, used a caduceus on an ornamented shield, and printed among other books what is believed to be the earliest edition of Maximilianus Transylvanus’ “De Moluccis Insulis,” 1523, in which the discoveries of Ferdinand Magellan and the earliest circumnavigation of the globe were announced. Like Koelhoff, Nicolas Cæsar, or Kaiser, who was established as a printer at Cologne in 1518, used the Cologne arms as a Mark, which is sufficiently distinct from the earlier example to be quoted here. Johann Soter, 1518–36, is another exceedingly interesting personality in the early history of Cologne printing. We give the more elaborate of the two marks used by him and reproduced by Berjeau: the shield contains the Rosicrucian triple triangle on the threshold of a Renaissance door. During the latter end of his career at Cologne, Soter had also an establishment at Solingen, where he printed “several works of a description which rendered too hazardous their publication in the former city.” Arnold Birckmann and his successors, 1562–92, used the accompanying Mark of a hen under a tree. After Günther Zainer, 1468–77, who introduced printing into Augsburg, the most notable typographer of this city is perhaps Erhart Ratdolt, to whom reference is made in the chapter on Italian Marks. We give the rather striking Mark—a white fleur-de-lis on black ground springing from a globe—of Erhart Oglin, Augsburg, 1505–16, one of whose productions, by Conrad Reitter, 1508, is remarkable as having a series of Death-Dance pictures; Hans Holbein was eight years of age when it appeared, and was then living in his native town of Augsburg.
JOHANN KOELHOFF.
| printer's mark | see endnote |
| NICHOLAS CÆSAR. | J. SOTER. Full text |
| VTILIA SEMPER NOVA SAEPIVS PROFERO |
| ARNOLD BIRCKMANN. |
For typographical purposes Switzerland may be regarded as an integral portion of Germany, and it was to Basle that Berthold Rodt of Hanau, one of Fust’sworkmen, is assumed to have brought the art about the year 1467. One of the first Basle printers to adopt a Mark was Jacobus De Pfortzheim, 1488–1518, who used two very distinct examples, of which we give the more spirited, the left shield carrying the arms of the city in which he was working. It appears for the first time in “Grammatica P. Francisci nigri A. Veneti sacerdoti oratoris,” etc., 1500. The second Mark is emblematical of the Swiss warrior. The most eminent of the Basle printers was however Johann Froben, 1490–1527, who numbered among his “readers” such men as Wolfgang Lachner, Heiland, Musculus, Oecolampadius, and Erasmus. Very few, if any, German works were printed by him; the first edition of the New Testament in Greek was printed by him in 1516, Erasmus being the editor. Froben’s device (to which lengthy reference has already been made, and into a discussion of the extremely numerous variants of which we need not enter here) led Erasmus to think that his learned friend did indeed unite the wisdom of the serpent to the simplicity of the dove (see p. 43). Two other early Basle printers, Michael Furter, 1490–1517, and Nicholas Lamparter, 1505–19, used Marks one shield of each of which carried the arms of Basle. Henricpetri was a celebrated printer of Basle, 1523–78, and had a Mark of quite a unique character, representing Thor’s hammer, held by a hand issuing from the clouds, striking fire on the rock, while a head, symbolizing wind, blows upon it. To yet another distinguished Basle printer, Cratander, reference is made, and his Mark given, in the second chapter.
ERHARD OGLIN.B
JACOBUS DE PFORTZHEIM.
HENRICPETRI.
| OMNIA LVSTRAT |
| WILHELM MORITZ ENDTER’S DAUGHTER. |
The most famous, as he was one of the earliest, if not actually the first, printers of Nuremberg, or Nürnberg, Anthony Koberger, does not appear to have used a Mark. Indeed, the Printers’ Marks of Nürnberg generally do not make anything like so good a show as those of Cologne and other large German cities. The earliest Mark of all is probably that of Wilhelm Moritz Endter’s daughter, which represents a rocky landscape, with a town in the background lighted by the sun. Endter’s books, it may be mentioned, are excessively rare. A much better known printer of this place is Johann Weissenburger, who started here in 1503, and continued until 1513, when he removed to Landshut, and remained there until 1531. He used the accompanying Mark at both places,—the precise signification of the letters H H on one side of the globe is not known. Mr. Quaritch describes a book of Jacobus Locher, published by this printer in 1506, which is remarkable as containing a number of woodcuts “which, in their style and spirit, draw the book into close connexion with the ‘Ship of Fools.’”
J. WEISSENBURGER.
MELCHIOR LOTTER.
| V S / L D |
| V. SCHUMANN. |
| W |
| CONRAD BAUMGARTEN. |
Several of the Marks of the early printers of Leipzig, into which printing was introduced in 1480, are of great interest and possess quite a character of their own. One of the earliest, for example, is that of Melchior Lotter, who issued a large number of books from 1491 to 1536. The word “Lotter” is equivalent to “vagabond” in English, and the Mark herewith consists of an emblem of a mendicant in a half-suppliant posture. Melchior Lotter junior was printing at Wittenberg from 1520 to 1524, where he printed anonymously the first edition of Luther’s Bible, with illustrations by Lucas Cranach, 1522, which an enthusiastic bibliopole has described as “one of the great works of the world.” Valentin Schumann, 1502–34 (and probably much later), is another eminent Leipzig printer, being the first to attempt printing in Hebrew characters in a Hebrew grammar, 1520. The initials L D on his Mark are taken to signify “Lipsiensis Demander” or Damander, a rude Latinization of Schumann which he sometimes used. Sufficiently quaint also is the Mark of Jacobus Thanner, 1501–21, which forms the initial to the present chapter. By 1500 printing had reached to Olmütz, where Conrad Baumgarten was issuing until 1502 works chiefly levelled against the Church of Rome; from 1503 to 1505 the same printer had established himself in Breslau, which he again changed for Frankfort-am-Oder, 1507–14, removing again in the latter year to Leipzig. The W on one of the shields of his Mark is the initial of Wratislau, the Polish name of Breslau, and the female saint on the other shows the arms of the town. It appears to be uncertain whether printing was introduced into Frankfort-am-Main in 1511 or 1530; but the only Mark which we need quote is that of Johann Feyrabendt, whose chief interest to posterity lies in the fact that he printed Jost Ammon’s “Künstliche wohlgerissene neu Figuren von allerley Jagtkunst,” 1592: his Mark is emblematical of Fame, winged, blowing a German horn, and enclosed in a cartouche. Andreas Wechel was printing at Frankfort from 1573 to 1581, his Mark being the well-known one of the Pegasus. Although Jacob Stadelberger, Heidelberg, was not by any means an eminent printer, his Mark is well worthy of note: it consists of three shields, the right of which bears the arms of Bavaria, the left a lion rampant, the arms of Heidelberg, and that of the middle is supposed to represent the arms of Zurich.
| printer's mark | L C |
| J. FEYRABEND. | L. GUERBIN. |
JACOB STADELBERGER.
Adam Steinschawer is said to be the printer of the first book issued at Geneva, in 1479; soon after him came Guerbin, 1482, whose Mark we give after Bouchot. From about 1537 to 1554 Jehan Girard, or Gerard, was busy printing books here; the Mark herewith comes from one of Calvin’s books, 1545, the Latin motto being anglicized thus: “I came not to send peace, but a sword,” a very proper motto indeed for such an author. Girard used three other Marks of this type. The position of Geneva in literature is French rather than German, and this also holds good with regard to its typographical annals. The accompanying Mark of Jean Rivery, Geneva, 1556–64, is distinct of its kind, and is the smaller of the two examples used by this printer; in the larger one, the same motto appears, but in roman type, not italic; there are also only two trees, both nearly leafless; the hand holding an axe occurs in both examples. Many French printers, for various reasons, and at different times, “retired” to Geneva, as, for example, the Estiennes; the Marks of several Franco-Genevan printers therefore will be found dealt with in the previous chapter. Although printing appears to have been introduced into Zurich in 1508, books executed at this place prior to 1523 are excessively rare. Christopherus Froschover, 1523–48, was by far the most eminent and prolific of the early Zurich printers; to him has been attributed the production of the first English Bible. His Mark is a punning one, Frosch being German for “frog;” it is emblematical of a gigantic frog ridden by a child under a tree, the “larger growth” being surrounded by several of the normal size. Of other Swiss printers whose Marks we reproduce, but to whom we can make no further reference, are Nicolas Brylinger, Basle, 1536–65 (the accompanying example is taken from the title-page of “Pantalonis Henrici, Prosopographiæ Heroum atque illustrium Virorum totius Germaniæ,” 1565, a folio of three volumes, full of fancifully drawn portraits, the same portrait being often used for several men), and F. Le Preux, of Lausanne, Morges, and Berne.
| NON VENI PACEM MITTERE SED GLADIVM. | see endnote |
| JEHAN GIRARD. | J. RIVERY. Full text |
C. FROSCHOVER.
N. BRYLINGER.
F. LE PREUX.