SOME DUTCH AND FLEMISH
PRINTERS’ MARKS.

velde

J. VELDENER.

The introduction of the art of printing into the Low Countries, and the rival claim of Coster and Gutenberg, have proved a highly fruitful source of literary quarrels and disputations. It is not worth our while to enter, even briefly, into the merits of the arguments either for or against; and it will suffice for our present purpose to regard Johann Veldener, 1473–7, as the first printer. He was probably a pupil of Ulric Zell, and, like many others of the early Netherland printers, he does not appear to have remained long at one place. For example, he was at Louvain from 1473–7, at Utrecht 1478–81, and at Culemberg, 1482–4. His only Mark appears to be that given herewith, in which his name in an abbreviated form occurs between the two shields, on the right one of which appears the arms of Louvain. His most notable publications were two quarto editions of the “Speculum” in the Dutch language, one of which contained 116 and the other 128 illustrations, “printed from the woodcuts that had been previously used in the four notable editions; to make these broad woodcuts, which had been designed for pages in folio, Veldener cut away the architectural framework surrounding each illustration and then sawed each block in two pieces.” He received from the University the honorary title of Master of Printing, an honour which was also conferred on his more distinguished contemporary, Johann of Westphalia, 1474–96, for whom in fact is claimed the priority of the introduction of printing into Louvain. The first of the large number of books produced by the latter is by Petrus de Crescentiis, “Incipit liber ruraliū cōmodorū,” 1474, its colophon being printed in red. The accompanying exceedingly curious “souscription,” with portrait of the printer, is given from Lambinet’s “Recherches.” Thierry Martens, or Mertens, or Martin d’Alost (Theodoricus Martinus), may be regarded either as an early printer of Louvain, Antwerp, or Alost, for it is stated that he had presses working simultaneously at the three places; but Alost has the first claims, and it is said that he was printing here in 1473, although as a matter of fact he was only twenty years of age at this period. He was a distinguished scholar, and the friend of Barland and Erasmus, the latter making the following reference to the accompanying Mark, “l’ancre sacrée,” in the epitaph he wrote as a memorial of his friend:

see endnote

JOHANN OF WESTPHALIA.
Full text

THEODO. MARTIN. EXCVDEBAT.

THEODORIC MARTENS.

Fait et jmprime a bruges par colard mansion lan et jour dessusdis

COLARD MANSION.

Colard Mansion, 1474–84, the first printer who worked at Bruges, for an exhaustive account of whose connection with William Caxton the reader is referred to Mr. Blades’s monograph, used several Marks, printed in red and black, and similar to the example here given.

In many respects the “Clercs ou Frères de la vie Commune” (Fratres vitæ communis), who were printing at Brussels from 1476 to 1487, form one of the most interesting features in the early history of printing in the Low Countries. The types which they used resemble very much those of Arnold Ther Hoernen, Cologne; and the only book, “diligentia impresse in famosa civitate Bruxellen,” to which they put their name, is entitled “Legendæ Sanctorum Henrici Imperatoris et Kunegundis Imperatricis,” etc., 1484, and this is their only illustrated book. “Their productions illustrate the stage of transition between the ancient scribe and printer by showing how naturally one succeeded to the other.” A full bibliographical account of the Brothers will be found in M. Madden’s “Lettres d’un Bibliophile.” The Mark here given is reproduced from the above-named work: it consists of an Eagle crowned and displayed, supporting a shield with the arms of Brabant quarterly, with river in bend, and star. The first Deventer printer was Richard Paffroed (the surname has about thirty variations) in 1477, who was either a pupil of Ulric Zell or Ther Hoernen, and who continued there until the first year of the sixteenth century, and was apparently succeeded by his youngest son Albertus, who was printing there up to about 1530, and whose Mark we give.

see endnote

THE BROTHERS OF COMMON LIFE.
Full text

A P / ALBERTVS PAFFRAEJ

ALBERTUS PAFFRAEJ.

delf in hollant

JACOB JACOBZOON VAN DER MEER.

So far as Gouda is concerned, Gheraert or Gerard Leeu and early printing are synonymous. He was a native of this place, and established himself here as a printer in 1477 and continued up to 1484, when he removed his presses to Antwerp, where he was printing until the year of his death, 1493. His “Dialogus Creaturarum,” the first edition of which appeared in 1480, had run into over a dozen editions, in Latin or Dutch, by the first year of the sixteenth century. Whilst at Gouda Leeu used several marks, of which the smaller, given on p. 39, was printed in red and black; at Antwerp he used a much more ambitious example, consisting of the arms of the Castle of Antwerp: a battlement and a turreted gate, with two smaller ones on either side; the two large flags bear the arms of the German Empire and of the Archduke Maximilian of Austria. Nicolas Leeu, who was printing at Antwerp in 1487–8, was possibly the brother of the more famous typographer, and his Mark consists of the lion (a pun on his surname, which is equivalent to lion) in a Gothic window holding two shields, with the arms of Antwerp on the left and the monogram of Gheraert Leeu on the right. Like Leeu and so many of the other early Dutch printers, the first Delft typographer, Jacob Jacobzoon Van der Meer, 1477–87, employed the arms of the town in which he printed on his Mark, the right shield in the present instance carrying three water-lily leaves. In 1477 he issued an edition of the Dutch Bible, and three years later the first edition of the Psalter, “Die Duytsche Souter,” which had been omitted from the Bible. The only other Delft printer to whom we need refer is Christian Snellaert, 1495–7, the only book to which he has placed both his name and his Mark being “Theobaldus Physiologus de naturis duodecim animalium,” 1495. His most remarkable production, however, is a “Missale secundum Ordinarium Trajactense,” issued about 1497; this Mark, given on p. 35, was also used by Henri Eckert van Hombergh, who was printing at Antwerp from 1500 to 1519: the shield carries the arms of Antwerp; in the arms of Snellaert this shield is blank, and this constitutes the only difference between the two Marks.

printer's mark

GERARD LEEU.

printer's mark

MATHIAS VAN DER GOES.

printer's mark	G B
R. VAN DEN DORP.	G. BACK.

printer's mark

A. CÆSARIS.

If it could be proved that “Het boeck van Tondalus visioen” was, as has been stated, printed at Antwerp in 1472, by Mathias Van der Goes, the claim of Antwerp to be regarded as the first place in the Low Countries in which printing was introduced would be irrefutable. Unfortunately there is very little doubt but that the date is an error, although Goes is still rightly regarded as having introduced printing into Antwerp, where he was issuing books from 1482 to about 1494 in Dutch and Latin. He had two large Marks, one of which was a ship, apparently emblematical of Progress or commercial enterprise, and the other, a savage brandishing a club and bearing arms of Brabant,—the latter, from “Sermones Quatuor Novissimorum,” 1487, is here given. Rolant Van den Dorp, 1494–1500, whose chief claim to fame is that he printed the “Cronyke van Brabant,” folio, Antwerp, 1497, had as his most ambitious Mark a charming picture of Roland blowing his horn; on one of the shields (suspended from the branch of a tree) is the arms of Antwerp, which he sometimes used separately as his device. Contemporaneously with Van den Dorp, 1493–1500, we have Godefroy Back, a binder who, on November 19, 1492, married the widow of Van der Goes, and continued the printing-office of his predecessor. His house was called the Vogehuis, and had for its sign the Birdcage, which he adopted as his Mark; this he modified several times, notably in 1496, when the monogram of Van der Goes was replaced by his own. In the accompanying example (apparently broken during the printing) the letter M is surmounted by the Burgundy device—a wand upholding a St. Andrew’s cross. We give also a small example of the two other Marks used by this printer. Arnoldus Cæsaris, l’Empereur, or De Keysere, according as his name happened to be spelt in Latin, French, or Flemish, is another of the early Antwerp printers whose mark is sufficiently distinct to merit insertion here. His first book is dated 1480, “Hermanni de Petra Sermones super orationem dominicam.” Michael Hellenius, 1514–36, is a printer of this city who has a special interest to Englishmen from the fact that “in 1531 he printed at Antwerp an anti-Protestant work for Henry Pepwell, who could find no printer in London with sufficient courage to undertake it.” Hellenius’ Mark is emblematical of Time, in which the figure is standing on clouds, with a sickle in one hand and a serpent coiled in a circle on the left. The Mark of Jan Steels, Antwerp (p. 19), 1533–75, is regarded by some bibliographers as the emblem of an altar, but “from the entire absence of any ritual accessories, and the introduction of incongruous figures (which no mediæval artist would have thought of representing), it would appear to be merely a stone table.” Jacobus Bellaert, 1483–86, was the first Haarlem printer, one of his earliest works being “Dat liden ende die passie ons Heeren Jesu Christi,” which is dated December 10, 1483. Bellaert’s name does not appear in it, but his Mark at the end permits of an easy identification, it being the same as that which appears in his Dutch edition of “Glanvilla de Proprietatibus Rerum,” 1485: the arms above the Griffin are those of the city of Haarlem. One of the most famous printing localities of the Low Countries was Leyden (Lugdunum Batavorum), where the art was practised so early as 1483, Heynricus Henrici, 1483–4, being one of the earliest, his Mark carrying two shields, one of which bears the cross keys of Leyden. The Pelican is an exceedingly rare element in Dutch and Flemish Printers’ Marks, one of the very few exceptions being that of J. Destresius, Ypres, 1553, the motto on the border reading “Sine sanguinis effusione non fit remissio.”

printer's mark

GODEFROY BACK.

TEMPVS.

MICHAEL HILLENIUS.

printer's mark

J. BELLAERT.

hollan leiden

H. HENRICI.

printer's mark

JODOCUS DESTRESIUS.

Anziet thende. / Van den keere. / HVDK

HENRI VAN DEN KEERE.

It will be convenient to group together in this place a few of the more representative examples of the Marks of the Dutch and Flemish printers of the sixteenth century. Of Thomas Van der Noot, who was printing at Brussels from about 1508 to 1517, there is very little of general interest to state, but his large Mark is well worthy of a place here. Picturesque in another way also is the Mark of J. Grapheus, Antwerp, 1520–61; the example we give is a distinct improvement on a very roughly drawn Mark which this printer sometimes used, which is identical in every respect to this, except that it has no borders. It is one of the few purely pictorial, as distinct from armorial, Marks which we find used at Antwerp in the earlier half of the sixteenth century. One of this printer’s most notable publications is “Le Nouueau Testament de nostre Sauflueur Iesu Christ trāslate selon le vray text en franchois,” 1532, a duodecimo of xviii and 354 folios, a rare impression of Le Fèvre d’Etaples’ Testament as it had been issued by L’Empereur, in 1530, who had obtained the licence of the Emperor and the Inquisition for this impression. Henri Van den Keere, a book-seller and printer of Ghent, 1549–58, had four Marks, all of which resemble more or less closely the rather striking and certainly distinct example here given. Of the Bruges printers of the sixteenth century, Huber or Hubert Goltz, 1563–79, is perhaps the most eminent, not so much on account of the typographical phase of his career, as because of his works as an author and artist. The “Fasti Magistratum et Triumphorum Romanorum,” is one of his books best known to scholars, whilst to students of numismatics his work on the medals from the time of Julius Cæsar to that of the Emperor Ferdinand, in Latin, of which a very rare French edition appeared at Antwerp in 1561, is well known, and the original edition of his works in this respect is still highly esteemed, although, as Brunet points out, Goltz has suffered a good deal in reputation since Eckel has demonstrated that he included a number of spurious examples, whilst some others are incorrectly copied. His interesting typographical Mark is given on p. 51. J. Waesberghe, of Antwerp and Rotterdam, had at least three Marks, of which we give the largest example, and all of which are of a nautical character, the centre being occupied by a mermaid carrying a horn of plenty; in the smaller example of the accompanying Mark, the background is taken up by a serpent forming a circle. The Mark of M. De Hamont, a printer and bookseller of Brussels, 1569–77, is worth quoting as one of the very few instances in which the subject of St. George and the Dragon is utilized in this particular by a printer of the Low Countries. Rutger Velpius appears to have had all the wandering proclivities of the early printers; for instance, we find him at Louvain from 1553 to 1580, at Mons from 1580 to 1585, and Brussels from 1585 to 1614: he had three Marks, of which we give the largest. Of the Liege printers, we have only space to mention J. Mathiæ Hovii, whose shop was “Ad insigne Paradisi Terrestris” during the latter half of the seventeenth century, and whose Mark is of rather striking originality and boldness of design.

printer's mark

THOMAS VAN DER NOOT.

see endnote

J. GRAPHEUS.
Full text

LITERÆ IMMORTALITATE[M] PARIV[N]T

J. WAESBERGHE.

SVB VMBRA ALARVM TVARVM PROTEGE NOS

RUTGER VELPIUS.

CAVETE / I. C. I

J. M. HOVII.

printer's mark

MICHEL DE HAMONT.

The two most distinguished names in the annals of Dutch and Flemish printing are unquestionably Plantin and the Elzevirs. A full description of the various Marks used by Christophe Plantin alone would fill a small volume, as the number is not only very great, but the varieties somewhat conflicting in their resemblance to one another; all of them, however, are distinctly traceable to three common types. Some are engraved by Godefroid Ballain, Pierre Huys, and other distinguished craftsmen. His first Mark appeared in the second book which he printed, the “Flores de L. Anneo Seneca,” 1555. His second Mark was first used in the following year, and bears the monogram of Arnaud Nicolaï. Of each of these examples we give reproductions, as also of the fine example designed for Plantin’s successors either by Rubens or by Erasme Quellin, and engraved by Jean Christophe Jegher, 1639, Plantin having died in 1589. The most famous of all Plantin’s Marks is of course that with the compass and the motto “Labor et Constantia,” which he first used in 1557. Plantin explains in the preface to his Polyglot Bible the signification of this Mark, and states that the compass is a symbolical representation of his device: the point of the compass turning round signifies work, and the stationary point constancy. One of the most curious combinations of Printers’ Marks may be here alluded to: in 1573, Plantin, Steels and Nutius projected an edition of the “Decretals,” and the Mark on this is made up of the three used by these printers, and was designed by Pierre Van der Borcht.

EXERCE IMPERIA ET RAMOS COMPESCE FLVENTES	CHRISTVS VERA VITIS
C. PLANTIN. (First Mark.)	C. PLANTIN. (Second Mark.)

LABORE ET CONSTANTIA / I. C. I.

C. PLANTIN.

Nearly every volume admittedly printed by the Elzevir family possessed a Mark, of which this family, from Louis, in 1583, to Daniel, 1680, used four distinct examples. The founder of the dynasty, Louis (1583–1617), adopted as his sign or mark an Eagle on a cippus with a bundle of arrows, accompanied with the motto, “Concordia res parvæ crescunt”—the emblem of the device of the Batavian Republic—and as the year 1595 occurs on the primitive type of this Mark, it might be concluded to date from that period. But Willems points out that no book published by Louis in the years 1595 and 1596 carries this Mark, which (he says) figures for the first time on the Meursius, “Ad Theocriti idyllia Spicelegium,” 1597. In 1612 Louis Elzevir reduced this Mark, and suppressed the date above mentioned. For some time Isaac continued the use of the sign of his grandfather, and even after 1620, when he adopted a new Mark—that of the Sage or Hermit—he did not completely repudiate it. Bonaventure and Abraham scarcely ever used it except for their catalogues.

NON SOLUS

THE SAGE.

The second Mark, which Isaac (1617–25) adopted in 1620, it occurring for the first time in the “Acta Synodi Nationalis,” is known as the Solitaire and sometimes as the Hermit or Sage. It represents an elm around the trunk of which a vine, carrying bunches of grapes, is twined; the Solitaire and the motto “Non solus.” The explanation of this Mark is obvious, and may be summed up in the one word “Concord;” the solitary individual is symbolical of the preference of the wise for solitude—“Je suis seul en ce lieu être solitaire.” This Mark was the principal one of the Leyden office, and was in constant use from 1620 to 1712, long after the Elzevirs had ceased to print.

The third Elzevir Mark consists of a Palm with the motto “Assurgo pressa.” It was the Mark of Erpenius, professor of oriental languages at the University of Leyden, who had established a printing-press which he superintended himself in his own house. At his death the Elzevirs acquired his material, with the Mark, which occurs on the Elmacinus, “Historia Saracenica,” and on the Syriac Psalter of 1625, on the “Meursii arboretum sacrum,” 1642, and on about seven other volumes.

THE ELZEVIR SPHERE.
printer's mark	printer's mark
THE SPURIOUS SPHERE.	THE GENUINE SPHERE.

The fourth important Elzevir Mark is the Minerva with her attributes, the breastplate, the olive tree, and the owl, and the motto “Ne extra solus,” which is from a passage in the “Frogs” of Aristophanes. It was one of the principal Marks of the Amsterdam office, and was used for the first time by Louis Elzevir in 1642. After Daniel’s death this Mark became the property of Henry Wetstein, who used it on some of his books. It was also used by Thiboust at Paris and Theodoric van Ackersdyck at Utrecht.

In addition to the foregoing, a number of other Marks were employed by this firm of printers, the most important of the minor examples being the Sphere, which occurs for the first time on “Sphæra Johannis de Sacro-Bosco,” 1626, printed by Bonaventure and Abraham; and from this time to the end of the period of the operations of the Elzevirs, the Sphere and the Minerva appear to have equally shared the honour of appearing on their title-pages. Among the other Marks which we must be content to enumerate are the following: a hand with the device of “Æqvabilitate,” an angel with a book, and a book of music opened, each of which was used occasionally by the first Elzevir; and one in which two hands are holding a cornucopia, of Isaac; the arms of the Leyden University formed also occasionally the Mark of the Elzevirs established in that city.

The Mark of Guislain Janssens, a bookseller and printer of Antwerp, at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century, is both distinct and pretty, and is worth notice if only from the fact that artistic examples are by no means common with the printers of this city.

VIGILATE QVIA NESCITIS DIEM NEQVE HORAM EXPERGISCERE / G I

GUISLAIN JANSSENS.