120
HISTORy OF PRINTING.
leaves, and the recto the I36th, the remaining ^I leaves are appropriated to the litany, prayers, responses, vigils, &c. The psalms are executed in larger characters than the nymns ; the capital letters are cut on wood, with a degree of delicacy and boldness, which are truly surprising: the largest of them the initial letters of the psalms, which are black, red, and blue must have passed three times through the press. In the appendi- cular title-page, which, though being printed with an ostentation of care, is printed Ppalmorum Codex instead of Psalmorum Codex.
Another edition of this psalter was printed in 1469, by the same printers containing probably, the first printed text of the Athanasian creed. . It is said not to be equally beautiful with the for- mer edition, though executed with the same types, and capital letters and also on vellum. The St. Alban's and Benedictine monks are supposed to have been at the expense of these editions.
From the short time that elapsed between the dissolution of partnership that had subsisted be- tween Gutenberg and Faust, and the date affixed to the above mentioned edition of the psalter, there is reason to believe that the characters employed in its execution were all ready at band ; and that they had been completed by Gutenberg, previous to his rupture with Faust. In fact, it does not seem likely that Peter Scho- effer, though he is admitted to have improved the art of letter-founding, could have prepared the instruments he invented for casting letters, and have cast the characters necessary for printing so considerable a work, in the short space of eighteen months. Another argument against Schoeffer with regard to this work, is, that the large initial letters of this edition of the psalter had already been employed in former impressions which were indisputably the work of Gutenberg. The initial letter B, of the first psalm, forms a beautiful specimen of the art in its early progress. It is nchly ornamented with foliage, flowers, a bird, and a greyhound. It has been justly observed, that the artists employed on the work were both well-skilled and well-practised in their profession; and that the art of engraving was no longer in its infancy. Various engravings and fac-timilies, coloured, of this letter, are to be met with. Home has a neatly-engraved copy of it in black. He says, the letter itself is in a pale blue colour ; the ornaments in which it is placed are red ; and the figures and flowers are transparent and white as the vellum on which it is printed.
In the Bibl. Sptnceriana, this letter is given with a few lines of the text with these colours reversed thus — ^the letter itself red, the ornaments blue. However, I believe both may be right ; for it is acknowledged that in this and many other instances, the various editions, and even copies of the same edition, are varied in the colour of their ornaments.
Ackerman, in the frontispiece to Senef elder' t Hittory of Lithography, has given a copy of the plate mentioned above, as a specimen of litho- graphic printing in coloois, which has a very goM effect.
Although the initial letters of this psaltervm engraven on wood, yet the rest of the volmneii certainly printed with metal types, the inventum of which has by some authors been ascriW to Peter Schoeffer. Trithemius, however, whons cotemporary with him, asserts, on the contianr, that Gutenberg and Faust invented the an o( casting characters in metal which they had befoit been obliged to cut with the hand.; but Uiat Schoeffer discovered a more expeditious method, which further contributed to the perfection of the art. It seems evident, therefore, that the an of founding metal characters was invented by Jok Gutenberg ; and it was afterwards perfected bj Schoeffer, who contrived punches for striUngtlie matrices.
It appears, both from Papillon and Sanj;e, that this mode of ornamental printing was poe- tised by the earlier typographers : they botli affirm the large ornamental capital letters of the Mentz psalter (Faust and Schoeffer, 1457) u well as the bible and other books, to bare beei printed in colours with suits of blocks. The former asserting that there were three cokmis used, viz. red, blue, and purple, the latter cod. tending for two only, viz. blue and red. I hare had no opportunity of examining any one of dies* treasures of typography. The letter B at the beginning of the volume has been, as I bare before stated copied in fac-timile bv sereni authors, and described by others ; and I mean to give it in those two colours, both as an exem- plification of the principle, and for the purpose of showing that it may be produced by a process certainly never yet called in aid of such a purpose, but which would save much time and expense of engraving suites of blocks ; namely, stereotype ; and, having one block only engraved, the rest may be effected by merely such oands as are on the ordinary establishment of a printing office.
Mr. Savage, who examined a fine copy of this psalter with the most anxious curiosity, says, " he could not help admiring the great accuncr with which the workmanship was executed, in inserting a large capital letter into the surrooad. ing ornamental part, where the exact shape is bounded by a fine line of a dififerent colour, so near to each other, as to be separated by a space not more than the thickness of writing paper, and uniformly true in every instance;" but tie general appearance of the work is heightened in beaotj, by a more bright and delicate tint of each of those colours in other places written or painted in by hand, as well as some other emendalionsof even the black ink.
It is a. curious fact," says Mr. Savage "that under Faust and Gutenberg the process should be carried nearly to perfection ; for some of the works they printed, both in the quality of the ink, and in the workmansbh), are so excellent, that it would require all me skill of onr best printers, even at the present day, to surpass them m all respects ; and I do not hesitate to say, that in a few years after, the printers were actu- ally superior to us in the use of red ink, both as to colour, and w to the inserting of a grnt
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