Mass-produced books are such common objects today that it can be astonishing to realise the artistry involved in making them in earlier centuries. In this part of the exhibition, you can explore the different material elements and crafts involved in making books.
The form of the codex (stacked sheets of prepared animal skin or paper stitched together and covered in a durable binding) is a Roman invention dating to around the first century CE. ‘Codex’ derives from the Latin for ‘tree trunk’, probably referring to the wooden boards used to bind the sheets. Originally all European books were manuscripts (from the Latin for ‘handwritten’). Chinese scholars pioneered printing from woodblocks around 200 CE and from moveable ceramic and metal type in the eleventh century. German metalworker Johann Gutenberg (c. 1400–1486), who, like all Europeans of his age, knew nothing of these inventions, is considered the founder of European printing.
Over the centuries, the production and aesthetics of printing and binding books embraced new materials and influences. The Emmerson Collection includes many examples of beautiful books made by printers and bookbinders working in England, Scotland and continental Europe from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, some of which are highlighted here.
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1 – Design
George Lauder (attributed), The loyall Christians melancholie sonets. Delyvered in a thrifold prospeck., manuscript, 1649, State Library Victoria (RAREEMM 837/2)
The first step in conceiving the production of a printed book is its design. What size will it be? Will it have illustrations? What kind of font will be used? This was also true in the seventeenth century.
Many books of that period feature elaborate title pages and beautiful frontispieces (that is, illustrations facing the title page).
This quirky drawing is a design for a title page for a book that was never published, as far as we know.
The artist was a Royalist, as can be seen from the sorrowful imagery accompanying the image of the dead King Charles I.
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William Marshall was one of the most prolific engravers under the reign of Charles I. Marshall is well known for his ambitious frontispieces, including this one to George Wither’s A Collection of Emblemes 1635. Despite his popularity, Marshall’s patrons weren’t always happy, with Wither complaining in the book:
And, so (with pains, and cost) The first intended FRONTISPIECE, is lost.
Image: William Marshall, frontispiece to George Wither, A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne , London, 1635, British Museum, London (1896,1230.129)
John Milton also detested Marshall’s portrait of him for his 1645 Poems. So much so that he had the artist engrave lines in Greek below it which, unbeknownst to Marshall, translate as:
Looking at the form of the original, you could say, perhaps, that this likeness had been drawn by a rank beginner; but, my friends, since you do not recognise what is pictured here, have a chuckle at a caricature by a useless artist.
Image: William Marshall, frontispiece to John Milton, Poems, London, 1645, British Museum, London (P,3.200)
2 – Paper
Biblia Latina..., Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 7 May 1485, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 232/1)
In medieval Europe, the main material used to make a writing surface was vellum (a prepared animal skin, usually goat or calf).
This changed in the thirteenth century, when interactions with China brought knowledge of paper-making to Europeans.
Paper, which was then made from reconstituted linen and hemp rags, was the ideal surface for printing, because of its flexible and absorbent yet durable nature.
The success of printing from the middle of the fifteenth century onwards was due, in no small part, to the availability of paper – still an expensive resource but cheaper than vellum.
In this example from 1485, you can see the imprint of the woollen felt that the wet pulp was pressed against to make a sheet of paper.
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This is one of the earliest illustrations of papermaking in Western literature. In the foreground, a man stands over a pulp-filled tub holding a screen while a boy carries sheets of paper. In the background, there is a press and a hammer for beating pulp. Waterwheels can also be seen through the two windows.
Image: Jost Amman, Der Papyrer (The Papermaker), in Hartmann Schopper, Panoplia omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera continens …, Frankfurt-am-Main, Sigmund Feierabend, 1568, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington (GT5770.S4 Cage)
This woodcut is from Hartmann Schopper’s Panoplia omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera continens … 1568 – a book showcasing different trades and occupations. Other examples include shoemakers..
Image: Jost Amman, Der Kürßner (The Furrier), in Hartmann Schopper,Panoplia omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera continens …, Frankfurt-am-Main, Sigmund Feierabend, 1568, British Museum, London (1904,0206.103.46)
Astrologers…
Image: Jost Amman, Astonomus. Der Sternbeseher. (The Astronomer), in Hartmann Schopper, Panoplia omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera continens …, Frankfurt-am-Main, Sigmund Feierabend, 1568, British Museum, London (1904,0206.103.12)
Barbers…
Image: Jost Amman, Tonsor imperatorius. Feldscherer. (The Field Barber / The Army Surgeon), in Hartmann Schopper, Panoplia omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera continens …, Frankfurt-am-Main, Sigmund Feierabend, 1568, British Museum, London (1904,0206.103.125)
… and dentists.
Image: Jost Amman, Edentarius. Der Zanbrecher. (The Dentist), in Hartmann Schopper, Panoplia omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera continens …, Frankfurt-am-Main, Sigmund Feierabend, 1568, British Museum, London (1904,0206.103.96)
3 – Type
Biblia Latina..., Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 7 May 1485, State Library Victoria (RAREEMM 232/1)
Many of the first printers were goldsmiths: their metalworking skills allowed them to mould and then cast the individual pieces of type that were used to print each letter and character.
The compositor would assemble the pieces of type in a ‘form’ (a rectangular frame the desired dimensions of the printed page). This was radically different from, and more efficient than, previous methods of textual printing, such as woodblock printing, in which each block could only be used to print one text.
The first typefaces, known as ‘gothic’ fonts, mimicked the appearance of formal handwriting of the day, as in this example from 1485.
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Before the introduction of the printing press in Europe in the fifteenth century, all books were written by hand (hence, manuscripts, from the Latin ‘manu’, ‘by hand’ and ‘scriptus’, ‘written’). While this practice continued during the seventeenth century, handwriting transformed, thanks, in part, to the development of new writing implements. During this time, graphite pencils and pens were introduced as an alternative to quill and ink.
Image: Spitz Master and Master of Sir John Fastolf (illuminators), Book of Hours, c. 1420, Paris, Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. 57 (94.ML.26) (f.34))
Literacy also increased and new styles of writing emerged. The ‘secretary hand’ – derived from gothic scripts, as seen here – was the first cursive hand developed in England. It evolved alongside ‘italic hand’ and students would learn to write with both using copybooks.
Image: Jehan de Beau-Chesne, A booke containing diuers sortes of hands …, London, printed by Richard Field dwelling in the Blacke-Friers neare Ludgate, 1602, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington (STC 6450.2)
These two styles would eventually merge to create ‘round hand’, which formed the basis of modern handwriting.
Image: John Ayers, A tutor to penmanship … c. 1698, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington (A4306.2)
4 – The printing press
Rupert of the Rhine, A speech spoken by His Excellence Prince Rupert to his Sacred Majesty, and the Lords of his Privie Councell, at his returne from Redding to Oxford... 1642, Oxford, L. Lichfield... reprinted at London for John Rivers, State Library Victoria (RAREEMM 2015/42)
The moveable-type printing press itself was also a key innovation of the mid-fifteenth century.
Modelled on the screw-presses that were widely used in wine production and textile printing, Johannes Gutenberg’s invention mechanised printing for the first time.
Previous printing techniques involved hand-pressing a block onto paper, vellum or textile. The design of Gutenberg’s press, which rapidly spread across Europe, allowed for even pressure to be applied across the printing matrix and the rapid processing of sheets in and out of the machine.
The collector Robert S. Pirie (1934–2015) was a contemporary of John Emmerson; he chose an image of a printing press for his bookplate.
Roberto Valturio, De re militari libris XII..., Paris, Christian Wechelum, 1532, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 526/25)
As the printing industry boomed around Europe in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, printers began to include a ‘mark’ to identify their work. This was a cultural shift, as few manuscript scribes signed their work.
The earliest printed books included the printer’s name in a ‘colophon’ (from the Greek for ‘summit’) at the end of the book, but gradually their names migrated to the title page. The inclusion of a ‘device’ (a visual logo printed from a woodblock) was in part an early copyright claim, as rival printers would sometimes pirate each other’s work.
It was also common for a printer to include a motto, as Christian Wechel has done in his 1532 Paris mark: ‘Unicum arbustum non alit duos erithacos’ (‘one bush does not feed two robins’, a Latin translation of an ancient Greek proverb).
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The ‘Gutenberg Bible’ was the first significant book printed in Europe using moveable type. Already developed and in use in East Asia, moveable type was introduced to Europe by German Johann Gutenberg. Only forty-eight copies of the Gutenberg Bible remain – thirty-six printed on paper and twelve on vellum. Less than half are complete. This copy at the Morgan Library & Museum is printed on vellum and combines the new technology of printing with hand-painted decorations.
Image: Biblia Latina, Mainz, Johann Gutenberg and Johann Fust, c. 1455, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York (PML 12, I, 4v–5r)
5 – Illustration
Clement Walker, Anarchia Anglicana: or, The history of independency..., London, 1649, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 521/67)
Engraving is an ‘intaglio’ (Italian for ‘carved’) technique: the image is printed by the application of ink to the lines cut into a metal plate.
Engravings cannot be printed alongside letterpress type, because it is a ‘relief’ method of printing, meaning the surface of the letters is printed, not the parts that are cut out. Because of this, engraved images were often added or ‘tipped in’ to printed books in this period, such as this evocative engraving added into a Royalist text published shortly after the execution of Charles I in 1649.
While the image is rich in dramatic symbolism concerning Oliver Cromwell’s evil nature, it also recalls an actual event: Charles II, after the death of his father and the defeat of the Royalist army in 1650, hid in an oak tree to avoid Cromwell’s soldiers. The oak became a symbol of English royalty.
Today, many pubs are called ‘The Royal Oak’, including in Victoria.
Clement Walker, Anarchia Anglicana: or, The history of independency..., London, 1649, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 521/67)
This volume also tells us an intriguing detail about how books were stored in the past.
An owner has written the book’s title on the ‘fore-edge’ of the book, that is, the paper edge, not the book’s spine.
Until the sixteenth century, books were routinely stored with their spines facing inwards to the bookshelf, necessitating this kind of fore-edge title. They were also often stored flat rather than standing on their end, which this title also demonstrates.
No one knows exactly why books began to be stored spine-out and standing vertically, but it is likely it was simply practical: as more books were produced, a more efficient use of bookshelf space was needed.
Spine titles appear from the sixteenth century onwards, making this volume an unusually late example.
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There are many examples of fore-edges also being used as canvases for paintings and other illustrations. Some are mostly decorative: in this example, two cherubs flank either side of a flower.
Image: Visus Libelli late seventeenth century, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington (V.a.615)
Others depict historical scenes. Here, John T. Beer has painted the martyrdom of William Tyndale to complement the book’s subject. Tyndale was a key figure in the Protestant Reformation. He was executed for heresy in 1536, with his last words reported as ‘Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes’.
Image: The vvhole workes of W. Tyndall, Iohn Frith, and Doct. Barnes, three worthy martyrs …, London, printed by Iohn Daye, and are to be sold at his shop vnder Aldersgate, 1573, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington (STC 24436 copy 3)
Some fore-edge painters chose fictional scenes. Here, William Shakespeare reads his works to Elizabeth I. There is no evidence that the two ever met.
Image: The works of William Shakspere, London, Charles Cox, 1851, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington (PR 2752 1849c copy 1 Sh. Col.)
6 – Binding
Biblia Latina..., Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 7 May 1485, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 232/1)
Once the sheets of a book had been printed, folded, cut, stacked into ‘gatherings’ or ‘quires’ and sewn together into the right order, they were ready for binding.
This was a separate craft to printing, and though printers sometimes worked closely with particular binderies, in the early centuries of book production customers would have purchased the printed sheets and then selected their own binder and preferred type of binding.
This is the oldest book in John Emmerson’s collection, and still has its original fifteenth-century binding.
Because the leather that would have covered the wooden boards and spine has partially come away, you can see the inner structure of the binding, as well as getting a sense of how it looked originally.
Biblia Latina..., Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 7 May 1485, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 232/1)
This Bible is believed to have been owned by William Juxon, the Archbishop of London, who was with Charles I on the scaffold during his execution.
Anonymous artist, William Juxon, c. 1640, National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG 500)
A possible signature of Juxon’s is found on the flyleaf of the book.
Emmerson collected it for this association, rather than because of its original binding.
William Beveridge, Private thoughts compleat in two parts..., London, printed for R.S. and sold by W. Taylor at the ship in Paternoster-Row, 1712, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 711/37)
Bindings were attached securely to the ‘text block’ (as the stack of gatherings was known) using strong cords embedded into the boards. The outside would be covered with leather or another material.
Endpapers of William Beveridge, Private thoughts compleat in two parts..., London, printed for R.S. and sold by W. Taylor at the ship in Paternoster-Row, 1712, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 711/37)
To cover this work on the inside of the volume, paper or vellum was applied as a ‘pastedown’ and ‘flyleaf’. These sheets of paper were often plain or even reused from older books, but in deluxe bindings, special papers could be used.
This is an example of ‘Dutch gilt’ or brocade paper, popular in the eighteenth century. It was designed to mimic the rich brocade fabrics of the period. It was mainly produced in Germany; ‘Dutch gilt’ or ‘foil’ was a copper and zinc alloy used as a cheap imitation of gold leaf.
The history of ye Old & New Testament in cutts, London, printed by Wm: R: for Iohn Williams in Crosse-keyes Court in Litle Brittaine, 1671, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 721/13)
Binders sometimes retained elements of earlier practice for aesthetic rather than practical reasons.
Medieval manuscripts were made of vellum (prepared animal skin), which was a springy material that expanded and contracted according to humidity.
It is believed that this book was owned by Catherine Sheffield, an ‘illegitimate’ daughter of King James II.
To keep a vellum book safely closed, clasps were applied. Paper does not behave like vellum and clasps are not necessary on paper books, but they were often used all the same: you can see the remnants of clasps on the fifteenth-century binding (above), and the delicate clamshell clasps applied to this binding from 1671.
The New Testament of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ. Newly translated out of the originall Greeke..., London, Robert Barker, printer to the Kings most excellent Maiestie: and by the assignes of Iohn Bill, 1630, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 163/15)
Bookbinding was a practical as well as a creative art.
The French technique of ‘dos-à-dos’ (‘back-to-back’) allowed a binder to bring together separate, related texts: in this case, three Anglican religious works.
The two text blocks share a lower board. This style of binding was often used for small formats, as it would be unwieldy with larger books. This example measures just 11.2 cm high and was made to be carried in a pocket.
Raphael Holinshed, The firste volume of the chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande ..., London, imprinted by Henry Bynneman for George Bishop, 1577, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 315/6)
Bindings came in all materials, from the very humble to the extremely expensive. Somewhere in the middle of this scale are leather bindings, usually calf, goat, sheep or pigskin.
Usually, the ‘hair side’ of the skin was the outside surface of the binding, polished and buffered to a soft sheen. Sometimes when working with calf or sheepskin, binders used the inside instead, that is, the ‘flesh side’ of the skin.
Light buffering creates a suede finish, such as can be seen on this reverse calf binding from the late sixteenth century.
This binding also features ‘blind tooling’ – the impression of patterns using metal roller tools and stamps on the soft skin, which are not in-filled with gold leaf or other pigment but instead left ‘blind’.
This decorative technique is seen in European bindings from the fourteenth century onwards.
The Bible..., London, by the Deputies of Christopher Barker, Printer to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie, 1595, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 313/9)
This elaborate gilt binding of black goatskin dates to the early eighteenth century and shows the ongoing value of the 100-year-old book inside it, which was printed by a member of the prestigious Barker dynasty of English printers.
It features motifs of scrolls, stars, crowns, flowers and other heraldic symbols, such as the saltire (a diagonal cross).
‘Gilt tooling’ is a technique in which heated brass tools (both stamps and rollers) were used to press designs into the leather through a layer of gold leaf.
It is a development of blind tooling and was learned from Arabic binders. The tools used can sometimes identify particular binders, and the overall designs indicate different periods and regions.
The Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament and the New..., Cambridge, printed by John Archdeacon printer to the University ,1778; The Psalms of David in metre..., Edinburgh, printed by Alexander Kincaid, His Majesty's Printer, 1774, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 726/6; RAREEMM 726/7)
The condition of a binding tells us a lot about how the book has been used (or not used!) throughout its lifetime. This two-volume set of the Bible and the Book of Psalms includes texts printed in different cities and different years that have been bound as a set at the request of an owner.
The bindings are magnificent gilt tooled red ‘morocco leather’, which bindings expert Mirjam Foot has identified as likely Scottish in origin.
‘Morocco leather’ was a generic name applied to the supple goatskin leather produced in northern Nigeria that arrived in Britain and Europe via Morocco, and which was very popular with binders in the eighteenth century.
This reader clearly preferred the New Testament, as the gilt tooling on the volume which contains it shows wear that is absent from the gleaming Old Testament volume.
Joseph Hall, Meditations and vovves, diuine and morall..., London, printed by Tho[mas] Purfoot for Arthur Johnson, Samuell Macham, and Lawrence Lyle, 1609, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 425/18)
Velvet was an expensive material in which to bind a book, and embroidered velvet was even more deluxe.
This text, written for a female readership, is bound in a contemporary fine binding of maroon velvet with floral designs in silver and coloured thread and sequins.
It bears a close resemblance to the work of the calligrapher, miniaturist and binder Esther Inglis (1571–1624).
Esther Inglis (binder and calligrapher), Argumenta psalmorum Davidis per tetrasticha..., c. 1608, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington (V.a.94)
Inglis was born in the largely Catholic country of France to Protestant parents, who fled to Scotland to avoid persecution.
Her mother, Marie, was a scribe, and Esther became an exceptionally skilled embroiderer, with many wealthy patrons.
Of her forty-seven surviving manuscripts, seventeen are in embroidered bindings stitched by Inglis herself.
The Holy Bible: containing the Old Testament and the Nevv..., London, printed by Robert Barker, printer to the Kings most excellent Majestie, 1637, State Library Victoria (RAREEMM 2019/11)
This exquisite embroidered binding represents the pinnacle of deluxe binding in the seventeenth century.
It was possibly presented as a gift to Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s queen, due to its similarity with one such binding in the Emmerson Collection and another in the British Library.
Anthony van Dyck, Queen Henrietta Maria, 1636, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The embroidery depicts the allegorical figures of Prosperity (unusually reading a book) and Faith within raised silver wirework cartouches featuring lions’ heads, which are applied to a white silk ground with coloured silk and silver thread and spangles.
The original red fabric ties are missing. The gilt fore-edge has been ‘guaffered’: a heated tool has been used to imprint a delicate pattern.
The fact that this book contains Anglican religious texts makes them a pointed gift to a Catholic queen married to the head of the Church of England.
Thomas Littleton, Littletons tenures in English., London, in Fletestrete within Temple Barre, at the signe of the Hand and Starre, by Rycharde Tottill, 1586, State Library Victoria (RAREEMM 164/11)
The embroidered bindings so fashionable at the court of Charles I are breathtaking, but so too are the much humbler bindings applied to everyday working books such as this copy of Littleton’s Tenures, a standard legal text of the period.
This small volume has been bound by an amateur (likely the book’s lawyer owner) using a piece of waste vellum – it is in fact a discarded legal document, presumably one that had been lying around in the lawyer’s office.
This pragmatic, durable binding has preserved the book for over four centuries, and will continue to do so long into the future.
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Due to the loss of records and the fact that professional embroiderers did not sign their work in the seventeenth century, it can be difficult to know which workshops made particular bindings. Unusually, the English bookseller Robert Harding of Maggs Brothers was able to identify a small group of bindings that appear to be the work of a single studio, including this copy of William Camden’s Britain…, 1610.
Image: Front board of William Camden, Britain..., London, printed at Eliot's Court Press by George Bishop & John Norton, 1610, British Library, London (Davis 182)
Now in the British Library, this book contains a handwritten dedicatory poem to Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. The identical nature of elements of the binding’s design with books in the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, and in the John Emmerson Collection suggest they were all produced in the same workshop. Research into this group continues.
Image: Back board of William Camden, Britain..., London, printed at Eliot's Court Press by George Bishop & John Norton, 1610, British Library, London (Davis 182)
Connections
The last rites of Charles I
On the morning of 30 January 1649, King Charles I ascended a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall. By his side was William Juxon, the King’s minister, who would read him his last rites. Juxon’s involvement in the events of Charles’s execution was documented in pamphlets that circulated London. …
…Then the King, speaking to the Executioner said, I shall say but very short Prayers, and when I thrust out my hands… Then the King called to Dr. Juxon for His Night-Cap, and having put it on said to the Executioner, Does My Hair trouble you? Who desired Him to put it all under His Cap, which the King did accordingly, by the help of the Executioner and the Bishop: then the King turning to Dr. Juxon said, I have a good Cause, and a gracious GOD on my side.
