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The bespoke book: experimental printing in early modern Italy
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The bespoke book: experimental printing in early modern Italy
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Content
THE BESPOKE BOOK:
EXPERIMENTAL PRINTING IN EARLY MODERN ITALY
by
Emily R. Anderson
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(ART HISTORY)
August 2020
ii
Acknowledgements
There are countless individuals and institutions that I owe my deepest gratitude.
Undertaking a Ph.D. program and writing a dissertation at the University of Southern California
has been incredibly rewarding and illuminating, and it is due to a network of support that I was
able to complete my degree. I received funding and support from numerous sources including the
USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, the USC Visual Studies Research Institute, the
USC Graduate School, and the USC Department of Art History. I also received funding awards
from the Decorative Arts Trust and the Rare Book School. Without the financial and academic
support from these institutions, researching and writing my dissertation would not have been
possible.
I would like to thank my committee in their unwavering dedication to my growth as a
scholar while writing my dissertation. Daniela Bleichmar, as my primary advisor, provided
enthusiastic support and guidance throughout the process. Her unique perspective as a scholar
well versed in art history, history, and visual studies helped me to broaden my own thinking and
methodologies in these fields. Deborah Harkness encouraged me to strengthen my confidence and
my own scholarly voice in my argument and writing. Susanna Berger’s ability to think both in
period terms and about the stakes of scholarship in the present is a skill set that I strive to achieve.
In addition to these inspiring scholars on my committee, I also had the rare honor of having my
former Master’s thesis advisor, Lisa Pon, serve as a reader for my Ph.D. dissertation. I am grateful
for her continued support of my work. I truly consider my committee a “dream team” of scholars,
iii
and I will carry their teachings and advice with me as I continue on my own scholarly journey
past the Ph.D.
In addition to the people at USC that made my dissertation possible, I am also indebted to
the institutions, librarians, and curators that opened their doors to me for my research. I would
like to thank the librarians and curators at USC Special Collections, Charles E. Young Library at
University of California, Los Angeles, Huntington Library, Pierpont Morgan Library and
Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Oakspring Garden Foundation
and Library, British Library, British Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Cambridge University
Libraries, and Biblioteca Marciana. I dealt with many curators and librarians during my research
that readily helped me with my project. This is not an exhaustive list, but among those who
assisted me on my visits were John Bidwell, Peter Crane, Maria Isabel Molestina, Maria Oldal,
Michaela Ullman, and Tony Willis. I also have to acknowledge the Getty Research Institute as my
“home away from home.” Due to the generosity and support of the GRI, I had my own desk and
workspace at the largest art library in the world. It was a great privilege to have written my
dissertation at the GRI under the raking light of the “oculus” and surrounded by friends,
colleagues, and books.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to many other professors, colleagues, and friends
who helped me over the years. Peter Mancall and Amy Braden of the USC-Huntington Early
Modern Studies Institute were incredibly supportive as mentors and supervisors. Peter, with his
unparalleled enthusiasm, knowledge, and cheerfulness always puts a smile on my face with his
life and career advice. Amy heroically never fails to respond to every one of my texts, emails, and
phone calls asking for guidance, and always knows when I need to relieve some stress whether
it’s climbing up a fifty-foot wall of rocks or hiking ten miles. Thank you as well to Anne Marie
iv
Yasin and Megan Luke who have both served as Director of Graduate Studies and Amy Ogata
and Kate Flint who have served as the respective Chairs of the Art History Department for their
leadership and assistance during my time at USC.
Some of the greatest takeaways from my Ph.D. experience are the relationships I formed
with my fellow Ph.D. students. Lauren Dodds was already a dear friend before I arrived at USC,
and I am grateful that our friendship continued to develop over the years. I looked forward to
everyday I worked at the GRI where I could chat over lunches and coffees with Jessica Brier and
Grace Converse, both cherished friends, as well as Lauren. Also thank you to Dina Murokh, the
department’s social planner, for her generosity and introduction to the amazing individuals in
other cohorts.
Finally, I am grateful for the support from my friends including Becca, Vinh, Cody, Beth,
Claire, Rheagan, Annie, Hannah, Katie, and Melissa. I am thankful for the unconditional love and
encouragement from my family: my parents, Cindy and Glenn; my brother, Max; and Rollins.
Perhaps most of all, I have to thank my partner and best friend, Nate Gross, who was by my side
for all the ups and downs of completing a dissertation. Thank you to everyone who supported my
passion for rare books and my goals for the past six years.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements……..……………………………………………………………………….....ii
List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………..vi
Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………………………...ix
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………….....x
Introduction: Defining the Bespoke Book……………………………………………………….....1
Chapter 1: Innovation and the Convergence of Manuscript and Print…………………………....26
Chapter 2: The Mutability of Print and the De-Standardization of the Printed Book………….....74
Chapter 3: Materiality and the Bespoke Book: Knowledge through Materials………………....119
Chapter 4: Aesthetics of the Bespoke Book and the Book as a Visual Object………………….163
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….206
Figures……………………………………………………………………………………….......214
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………..292
Appendix A: Catalogue of Printed Books…………………………………………………….....318
Appendix B: Catalogue of Books Printed on Blue Paper in Italy, 1514–1600………………….325
vi
List of Figures
Fig. I.1 Robert Darnton, Communication Circuit, 1983 214
Fig. I.2 Thomas R. Adams and Nicolas Barker, Life cycle of the book, 1993 214
Fig. 1.1 Folio [11]r, St. Jerome, Epistolae, Rome:
Sweynheym and Pannartz, 1468 215
Fig. 1.2 Folio [10]r , St. Jerome, Epistolae, Rome:
Sweynheym and Pannartz, 1468 216
Fig. 1.3 Folio, Pliny the Elder, Historia naturalis Venice: Nicolas Jenson, 1472 216
Fig. 1.4 Preface, Euclid, Elementa geometriae, Venice: Ratdolt, 1482 217
Fig. 1.5 Proposition 1, book I, Elementa geometriae, 1482 218
Fig. 1.6 Folio [2]r, Elementa geometriae, 1482 219
Fig. 1.7 Detail of text in preface, Elementa geometriae, 1482 219
Fig. 1.8 Franco dei Rossi, Bartolomeo Sanvito, Triumph of Love, ca. 1463-4 220
Fig. 1.9 A
1
r, Plutarch, Andrea Matteo Acquaviva d’Aragona, De virtute morali,
Naples: Frezza, 1526 221
Figs. 1.10-1 L
5
r and detail, De virtute morali, 1526 222
Fig. 1.12 M
3
v–M
4
r, De virtute morali, 1526 223
Figs. 1.13-4 L
3
recto and detail, De virtute morali, 1526 224
Fig. 1.15 E
3
r, De virtute morali, 1526 225
Fig. 1.16 Franco dei Rossi, opening to volume I, Livius, Historae Romanae
decades, [Venice]: Vindelinus de Spira, 1470 226
Fig. 1.17 Franco dei Rossi, opening to volume II, Historae Romanae
decades, 1470 226
Fig. 1.18 Folio [25]r in Historae Romanae decades, 1470 227
Fig. 1.19 Opening to volume I, Historae Romanae decades, 1470 228
Fig. 1.20 Colophon, Peutinger, Romanae Vetustatis fragmenta,
Augsburg: Ratdolt, 1505 229
Fig. 1.21 Hans Burgkmair, St. George and the Dragon, ca. 1508 230
Fig. 1.22 Hans Burgkmair, Emperor Maximilian I on Horseback, ca. 1508 231
Fig. 1.23 Lucas Cranch, St. George and the Dragon, ca. 1507/8 232
Fig. 2.1 Initial B, Psalterium, [Mainz]: Fust and Schoeffer, 1457 233
Fig. 2.2 Instrumentum veri motus lunae, Regiomontanus, Kalendarium,
Nuremberg: [Regiomontanus], [1474] 234
Fig. 2.3 Table of lunar eclipses, Kalendarium, [1474] 235
Fig. 2.4 Title page, Regiomontanus, Kalendarium, Venice: Ratdolt, 1476 236
Fig. 2.5 Table of solar eclipses, Kalendarium, 1476 237
Fig. 2.6 Leaf [19]v-[20]r, Kalendarium, 1476 238
Figs. 2.7-8 Quadrans horologii horizontalis and quadratum horaium generale,
Kalendarium, 1476 238
Fig. 2.9 Tables of solar and lunar eclipses, Regiomontanus, Kalendarium,
Venice: Ratdolt, 1482 239
Fig. 2.10 Diagram of lunar eclipses, Johannes de Sacrobosco, Sphaera mundi,
Venice: Ratdolt, 1485 240
Fig. 2.11 Diagram of solar eclipses, Sphaera mundi, 1485 241
vii
Figs. 2.12-3 Leaf 1
1
r and Leaf 1
1
v, Johannes de Sacrobosco, Sphaera mundi,
Venice: Florentius de Argentina, 1472 242
Fig. 2.14 Opening with astronomical diagrams, Sphaera mundi, 1472 242
Fig. 2.15 Bishop of Regensberg, Breviarium Ratisponense,
Augsburg: Ratdolt, 1487 243
Fig. 2.16 Diagram of lunar eclipses, Johannes de Sacrobosco, Sphaera mundi,
Venice: Ratdolt, 1482 244
Fig. 2.17 Anatomy Lesson, Johannes de Ketham, Fasciculo di medicina,
Venice: Giovanni and Gregorio de’ Gregori, 1494 245
Fig. 2.18 Anatomy Lesson, Fasciculo di medicina, 1494 246
Fig. 2.19 Urine chart, Fasciculo di medicina, 1494 247
Fig. 2.20 Assembled manikin, Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis
fabrica epitome, Basel: Johannes Oporinus, 1543 247
Fig. 2.21 Astrological charts, Johannes Angelus, Astrolabium, Augsburg:
Ratdolt, 1488 248
Fig. 2.22 Astrological charts, Astrolabium, 1488 248
Fig. 2.23 1
2
v-1
3
r, Astrolabium, 1488 249
Fig. 2.24 Italian, St. Nicolas of Myra, ca. 1470s 249
Fig. 2.25 Giovanni Britto (attr.), frontispiece, Pietro Aretino, Stanze in lode
di Madonna Angela Sirena, Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1537 250
Fig. 2.26 Hubert Goltzius, Tiberius, Goltzius, Vivae omnium fere imperatorum
imagines, Antwerp: Gillis Coppens van Diest, 1557 251
Fig. 2.27 Giovanni Britto (attr.), The Poet and the Siren, ca. 1540-50 252
Fig. 2.28 Giovanni Britto (attr.), S
ii
v-S
iir,
Anton Francesco Doni, I mondi di Doni,
Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1552 252
Fig. 2.29 Via Croce and Verita, Francesco Marcolini, Le Sorti, Venice:
Marcolini, 1540 253
Fig. 2.30 Giuseppe Porta, frontispiece, Le Sorti, 1540 254
Fig. 3.1 Story of Jacob, Vienna Genesis, 6
th
c. CE 255
Fig. 3.2 Danila (scribe), St. Jerome’s Prologue, New Testament and Ecclesiastical calendar,
Cava Bible, late 9
th
c. CE 255
Fig. 3.3 Flemish, folios 18v-19r, Black Hours, ca. 1480 256
Fig. 3.4 Flemish, folios 12v-13r, Black Book of Hours, ca. 1458 256
Fig. 3.5 Flemish, folios 32v-33r, Black Prayer Book, ca. 1466-76 257
Fig. 3.6 Title page, Ben Levi Gershom, Perush ‘al ha-Torah, Venice:
Bomberg, 1547 258
Fig. 3.7 Folio iiiiz
4
Perush ‘al ha-Torah, 1547 259
Fig. 3.8 Opening, Moses Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Venice: Bragadin,
1574-5 260
Fig. 3.9 Anchor in circle watermark, Mishneh Torah, 1574-5 261
Fig. 3.10 Author’s tracing of anchor in circle watermark, Mishneh Torah,
1574-5 261
Fig. 3.11 “BF” countermark, Mishneh Torah, 1574-5 262
Fig. 3.12 Folio, Samuel Zarza, Mekor Hayim, Mantua: Meir ben Ephraim and
Jacob ben Nephtali, 1559 263
viii
Fig. 3.13 Folios 31v-32r, Officium Hebdomade sancte, Venice: Giovanni Antonio
Nicolini da Sabbio, 1522 264
Fig. 3.14 Folios EE
3
v-EE
4
r, Claudio Tolomei, De le lettere, Venice:
Gabriele Giolito, 1547 265
Fig. 3.15 Opening, Euclid and Federico Commandino (commentary),
Elementorum libri xv, Pesaro: Franceschini, 1572 266
Fig. 3.16 Jacob Chriegher, title page, Elementorum, 1572 267
Fig. 3.17 Title page, Euclid and Commandino, De gli elementi, Urbino:
Frisolino, 1575 268
Fig. 3.18 Opening, De gli elementi, 1575 269
Fig. 3.19 Albrecht Dürer, Adoration of the Magi, 1503 (printed 1560s/1570s) 270
Fig. 3.20 Albrecht Dürer, Betrothal of the Virgin, ca.1504-5 (printed 1560s/1570s) 270
Fig. 3.21 Albrecht Dürer, Joachim and the Angel, ca.1504 (printed 1560s/1570s) 271
Fig. 3.22 Antonio Campi, Mucius Scaevola, 1550-80 (blue paper) 271
Fig. 3.23 Antonio Campi, Mucius Scaevola, 1550-80 (ochre paper) 272
Fig. 4.1 Opening, Francesco Colonna (attr.), Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Venice:
Aldus Manutius, 1499 273
Fig. 4.2 Titian, Horse and Rider Falling, ca. 1537 274
Fig. 4.3 Opening, Virgil, Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1514 275
Fig. 4.4 Taddeo Gaddi, Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple, ca. 1332-8 276
Fig. 4.5 Filippino Lippi, Bust of a Young Woman Holding a Shield,
ca. late-15
th
to early-16
th
c. 276
Fig. 4.6 Nola Vetus, Ambrogio Leone, De Nola, Venice: Giovanni Rosso, 1514 277
Fig. 4.7 Nola Praesens, Leone, De Nola, 1514 277
Fig. 4.8 Master E.S., The Madonna and Child in the Garden, ca. 1465-7 278
Fig. 4.9 Mair von Landshut, Samson and Delilah, ca. 1490-1500 278
Fig. 4.10 Frontispiece, Sebastiano Serlio, Il terzo libro, Venice: Marcolini, 1540 279
Fig. 4.11 Benedetto Bordon, a
i
v-a
ii
r in Petrarch, Le cose volgari, Venice:
Aldus Manutius, 1501 280
Fig. 4.12 Folio a
1r,
Libri de re rustica, Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1514 281
Fig. 4.13 Folio c
1
r, Virgil, Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1514 282
Figs. 4.14-5 Cassia solutiva, folio E
1
v and detail, Pietro Andrea Mattioli,
De medica materia, Venice: Valgrisi, 1565 283
Fig. 4.16 Giorgio Liberale, Bottlenose skate, ca. 1558 283
Fig. 4.17 Pastinaca marina, folio Ee
1
r, Mattioli, De medica materia, 1565 284
Fig. 4.18 Limonium, Nnnn
5
v to Nnnn
6
r, Mattioli, De medica materia, 1565 285
Fig. 4.19 Giorgio Liberale and Wolfgang Meyerpeck, woodblock of
limonium, 1562 285
Fig. 4.20 Vittore Carpaccio, Head of a Man, ca. 1510-20 286
Fig. 4.21 Jean Picard (binder), Virgil, Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1514 286
Fig. 4.22 Binding, Mattioli, De materia medica, 1565 287
Figs. 4.23-4 Binding, front cover and back cover, Martial, Epigrams, Venice:
Aldus Manutius, 1501 288
Figs. 4.25-6 Foredge, side view and top view, Epigrams, 1501 289
Fig. C.1 Title page, Ramon de la Cruz, Saynete, La fantasma del Lugar,
Barcelona: Pablo Nadal, [ca. 18
th
c.] 290
ix
Fig. C.2 Joris Hoefnagel, Mira calligraphiae monumenta,
illumination added 1591-6 290
Fig. C.3 Opening in William Morris, Emery Walker, and Edward Burne Jones,
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer now newly imprinted, Hammersmith:
Kelmscott Press, 1896 291
Fig. C.4 Édouard Manet (illustrator), Edgar Allen Poe, Le Courbeau, Paris:
Stèphane Mallarmè [publisher], R. Lesclide [printer], 1875 291
x
Abbreviations
Adams Adams, H.M. Catalogue of books printed on the continent of
Europe, 1501-1600, in Cambridge libraries. 2 vols. London:
Cambridge University Press, 1967.
Ahmanson-Murphy Naiditch, P.G. The Aldine Press: catalogue of the Ahmanson-
Murphy collection of books by or relating to the press in the
Library of the University of California, Los Angeles. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2001.
BM STC Short-title catalogue of books printed in Italy and of Italian books
printed in other countries from 1465 to 1600 now in the British
Library. Supplement. London: British Library, 1986.
BMC Catalogue of books printed in the XVth century now in the British
Museum [British Library]. 13 vols.. London: Goy-Houten, 1963-
2007.
Bod-inc A catalogue of books printed in the fifteenth century now in the
Bodleian Library. 6 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Bongi Bongi, Salvatore. Annali di Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari da Trino di
Monferrato. 2 vols. Rome: Presso i principali librai, 1890-97.
Brunet Brunet, Jacques-Charles. Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de
livres: contenant 1o, Un nouveau dictionnaire bibliographique. 6
vols. Paris: Firmin Didot frères, fils et Cie, 1860-65.
BSB-Ink Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Inkunabelkatalog. 7 vols. Wiesbaden:
Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1988-2009.
EDIT 16 CNCE EDIT 16: censimento nazionale delle edizioni italiane del XVI
secolo. Online resource:
http://edit16.iccu.sbn.it/web_iccu/ehome.htm
Goff Goff, Frederick R. Incunabula in American libraries: a third
census. Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint Co., 1973.
GW Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. 10 vols. Leipzig: K.W.
Hiersemann, 1925-78.
ISTC Incunabula Short Title Catalogue. Online resource:
https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/
xi
Mortimer Mortimer, Ruth. Harvard College Library, Catalogue of Books
and Manuscripts, Italian 16th Century Books. 2 vols. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1964-74.
OPAC SBN Catalogo del Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale. Online resource:
https://www.iccu.sbn.it/it/SBN/il-catalogo-sbn-aperto-al-pubblico-
opac/index.html
Renouard Renouard, A.A. Annales de l'imprimerie des Alde, ou, Histoire des
trois Manuce et de leurs èditions. Paris: J. Renouard, 1834.
Thomas-Stanford Thomas-Stanford, Charles. Early Editions of Euclid’s Elements.
San Francisco: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1977.
USTC Universal Short Title Catalogue. Online resource:
https://www.ustc.ac.uk/
xii
Abstract
My dissertation examines the dynamics between innovation and tradition during the first
hundred years of printing on the Italian peninsula. The novel, world-changing technology of the
printing press made it possible to produce numerous identical copies of a single book in a short
period, moving away from the slower, artisanal method of manuscript production. Or so the story
goes. As it turns out, the first generations of printers found rich and varied ways to both benefit
from and push back against the standardization of printed texts. They developed new and
experimental techniques—such as printing with gold or printing on blue paper—to create printed
books that were distinctive, luxurious, and at times unique copies that blurred the boundaries
between print and manuscript. I call this little-known type of individuated mass-produced
publications “bespoke books.” In my project, I study books that were deliberately made with
atypical materials or using experimental techniques in terms of innovation, mutability,
materiality, and aesthetics of printed book such as Aldus Manutius’s rarely discussed titles printed
on blue paper and Venetian books with chiaroscuro woodcut frontispieces.
Ultimately, the crux of my project is to introduce the bespoke book into the visual culture
of early modern Europe, and by extension, encourage the examination of books within various
visual contexts beyond this time frame and geography. To do this, I draw on interdisciplinary
methodologies including critical and analytical bibliography, interpretation of literary contexts,
and comparative histories in addition to my primary art historical method of visual analysis. My
dissertation is therefore an important inroad towards the inclusion of books of all types, illustrated
or not, within the history of art and the inclusion of visual culture within the history of the book.
1
Introduction
Defining the Bespoke Book
In 1514, Aldus Manutius (1449–1515), the preeminent printer in Venice, issued five
books unlike any printed in Europe. At least three surviving copies of Libri de re rustica (Book
of Country Affairs), two copies of Virgilius (Works, referred to as Virgil), and a copy of
Quintilianus were printed on blue paper in the small quarto and octavo formats.
1
These books
were probably intended for special patrons as is evident in a copy of the blue Virgil in which an
early hand added initials in black, silver, and gold. For a viewer at the time, the blue paper would
recall familiar artworks and luxury objects––drawings on blue prepared paper, chiaroscuro
woodcuts on blue washed paper, and even manuscripts with leaves of dyed parchment. Each of
these objects required laborious methods of preparing pigment and ground, cutting multiple
woodblocks, and treating animal skin with dye. Aldus was able to produce a book that looked
like prestigious and expensive objects by experimenting with the still-novel technology of print.
Circumventing earlier techniques, he acquired blue paper and printed on it as he would
any book on more typical white paper. By innovating with materials and technology, he
produced a new type of object that preserved the appearance of earlier luxurious art objects in
book form. This unexpected and understudied move––the choice by a printer long considered a
1
Cato, Marcus Porcius, Columella, et. al. Libri de re rustica … (Venice: in aedibus Aldo Manuzio et
Andrea Torresano, May 1514); Morgan Library & Museum, PML 79276; Harry Ransom Center,
University of Texas, Austin, Uzielli 102; Beinecke Library, Yale University, BEIN Gn9 116b Copy 2;
USTC 800443. Virgil, Virgilius (Venice: October 1514); University of California, Los Angeles, Z233.A4
V819 1514; Sterling and Clark Fine Art Institute Library, N5760 V57v; USTC 862703. Marcus Fabius
Quintilianus Quintilianus (Venice: Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea I Torresano, 1514), Bibliothèque nationale
de France, RES-X-2268; USTC 851765. According to A.A. Renouard, there was also a copy of
Sannazaro’s Arcadia (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, 1514) also printed on blue paper, but I have been unable to
locate it. See A.A. Renouard, Annales de l’Imprimerie des Alde, ou Histoire des trios Manuce et de leurs
Éditions, 2 vols. (Paris: Chez Antoine-Augustin Renouard, 1803), 114, no. 8. See also, Conor Fahy,
“Royal Paper Copies of Aldine Editions, 1494–1550,” Studies in Bibliography 57 (2005/2006): 91.
2
major figure in the development of printing to produce an object that shares an apparent affinity
with artisanal objects––goes against some of the most established narratives in the history of
book. Printers used the printing press to issue books that drew upon earlier and contemporaneous
visual culture, thereby creating a new category of object in the history of art: the “bespoke
book.” My consideration of the visual and material aspects of printed books whose facture and
appearance highlights the heretofore-unrecognized experimental nature of the book and the print
shop in order to pose questions about the role of the book in material and visual culture.
These books are often described as presentation copies or de luxe copies. Presented as
gifts, these printed books are unique copies of editions in both facture and appearance and
distinct from the general print run. However, the terms presentation copy (relevant when the
provenance is known) or de luxe copy (a nineteenth-century phrase) while applicable in the
majority of cases involving customized printed books, don’t adequately describe the multi-
dimensional aspects of these books including their paradoxical nature as a luxury commercial
object and the different strategies involved in creating them.
2
A new category is required in order
to properly examine the varied methods of personalizing printed books and the motivations
behind these actions. In describing these objects as bespoke books, I explore the ways in which
printers and readers sought to transform the printed book to suit individuals’ desires via
experimentation and innovation.
I designate these printed books as bespoke for both the broadness and specificity of the
term. The categories of presentation copy and de luxe copy are in many ways too specific and
2
For presentation copy see “Presentation Copy,” ABAA Glossary of Terms, accessed February 1, 2020,
https://www.abaa.org/glossary/entry/presentation-copy. A presentation copy refers books that were gifted
by the author (or publisher) to a recipient, usually with an inscription or similar personalization. For de
luxe copy see Geoffrey Ashall Glaister, Glaister’s Glossary of the Book (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1979), 132. De luxe edition refers specifically to nineteenth-century French books that
were extra illustrated, printed on higher-quality paper, and had specially cast type.
3
only apt to describe books that were intended as gifts or books that were intended as collectible,
limited editions. Additionally, the terms don’t sufficiently address the range and variety of
techniques that printers employed to make printed books bespoke such as printing on blue paper,
printing in color, hand-coloring, and hand-illuminating. In the course of examinging these
bespoke elements of printed books, I intend to illuminate the ways in which printers deployed
artisanal techniques to create unique, printed objects. In analyzing the ways in which these
techniques affect the appearance and reception of printed books, I view the bespoke book as a
framework and gateway to the future examination of all printed books (even those without
elaborate illuminations or part of a limited print run) in terms of their singular visual and material
makeup. My study of the bespoke book therefore offers new considerations of the printed book
as a product of an artisanal workshop practice, and the printing press as an extension of handcraft
practices.
While the printing press was a new and novel technology, the “revolutionary” outcomes
of Johannes Gutenberg’s invention on European society concern the speed and volume at which
printers could now disseminate texts as opposed to manuscripts. The long accepted narrative of
the printing press is that it produced “exactly repeatable” images and text for the first time in
Europe.
3
Elizabeth Eisenstein’s theory of textual stability or “fixity” relied on the supposed
advantage of the printing press in increasing the output of repeatable texts over the transmission
of manuscripts.
4
Her characterization of manuscript transmission as a flawed process due to
human fallacy in copying text by hand ignores the errors, failings, and shortcomings of the
printing press, which like any new technology, forced printers to experiment and innovate
resulting in diverse printed products. In his dismantling of Eisenstein’s narrative of
3
See William Ivins, Prints and Visual Communication (London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1953), 1-2.
4
See Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and cultural
transformations in early-modern Europe, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979).
4
standardization, David McKitterick noted that her preoccupation with fixity was a misplaced,
retroactive theory that would not have concerned printers and readers in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. Instead, he characterized the early decades of printing in Europe as a
“context of anticipated variation” in which printers and readers alike expected and acknowledged
that there would be variations from book to book whether it was in intentional (such as added
illustrations or illuminations) or unintentional (errata or varying quality of printing).
5
The
bespoke book is a product of this context, and therefore, not an anomalous “presentation copy.”
Although McKitterick referred to Eisenstein’s fixity argument as an “afterthought” in
current scholarship, the long-held goal of bibliography has been quest for an “ideal” copy of a
title with no errata, no mistakes in collation or pagination, and no cancels (pages left blank or
censored); this pursuit often dismisses imperfect copies as well as disregards historically specific
alterations or mistakes in printing.
6
Despite thorough rebukes and rebuttals, the correlation
between the printing press and standardization has been upheld in the methods by which most
scholars study printed books. Bibliographers, however, have recently begun to recognize the
significance of variations, however slight, in printed books. Despite existing in multiple copies,
printed books were not always identical, having different typesettings, added headings, rubrics,
illuminations, differences in collation, and copies printed on different supports like vellum or
paper. After an individual bought a book, it underwent even more changes including binding,
annotation, and personalization (adding coat-of-arms or ex libris).
7
Nevertheless, these
conversations are almost exclusively limited to incunables (books printed between ca. 1450 and
5
David McKitterick, Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order, 1450–1830 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003), 100-2.
6
David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery, An Introduction to Book History (London: Routledge, 2013),
8.
7
Bettina Wagner, “Introduction,” in Early Printed Books as Material Objects, Proceedings of the
Conference Organized by the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Sections, Munich, 19-21 August 2009,
eds. Bettina Wagner and Marcia Reed (Berlin: De Gruyter Saur, 2010), 1.
5
1500) with manuscript additions like illuminations, and moreover are generally considered only
on a case-by-case basis. In other words, uniquely printed books are studied as anomalies rather
than as group, which belies the importance of these objects in early modern culture. My project
aims to define and build a model of studying printed books, in analyzing the “bespoke” qualities
of printed books, in order to study these objects as vital contributions to the visual culture of
early modern Europe.
My dissertation defines and examines these bespoke books, and in doing so, offers a
different way to investigate printed material in early modern Europe in terms of innovation,
mutability, materiality, and aesthetics. The bespoke books that I discuss often touch on all of
these themes, but there are some bespoke books that demonstrate these qualities in specific ways.
For instance, books with gold printing resembling gold script in manuscripts are indicative of the
innovative qualities of bespoke books, while books printed on blue paper show printers’
concerns for the material and visual aspects of bespoke books. In studying printed books by way
of these themes, the category of the bespoke book destabilizes many commonly held narratives
associated with advent of the printing press including the transition from manuscript to print, the
standardization of text, the dissemination of knowledge, and the visual uniformity of print.
Unlike previous scholarly efforts in dismantling common narratives of the printing press,
my study considers the visual knowledge of printers. In searching for affinities between printed
books and manuscripts, drawings, and prints, the printing press emerges as an instrument printers
employed to translate familiar visual cues of luxury such as gold or color into the printed book.
In addition to the hand-illumination or hand-coloring of printed books, printers were actively
experimenting with techniques in order to “mechanize” traditional handcrafts including color
6
printing, printing with gold, and printing on colored supports. Bespoke books are evidence that
printers adapted the printing press, an instrument of mass-production, to make unique objects.
The Economies of the Bespoke Book
The highest concentration of bespoke books occurred on the Italian peninsula in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The milieu of printers that traveled from northern Europe to
Subiaco (a town near Rome) in the 1460s and eventually to Venice in the 1470s brought the
technology of printing with them.
8
Perhaps the biggest draw for northern printers was the
burgeoning luxury economy in city-states across in the Italian peninsula in the fifteenth century.
Conspicuous consumption––according to Richard A. Goldthwaite––was the defining
characteristic of the economy of Renaissance Italy. The dramatic increase in art production and
luxury goods in the fifteenth century resulted in an increase in the consumption of these
products.
9
Before the arrival of the printing press in Europe, books were luxury objects, often
made on commission for a patron or university by a team of artists and scribes.
10
While
manuscripts varied in complexity from simple textbooks to elaborately illuminated books of
hours, book production in medieval Europe was an important sector of urban economies.
11
The
printing press disrupted how books were made and how books were sold. While the paintings,
sculptures, and furnishings (among other goods) that flooded the market in the fifteenth remained
luxury products, books coming off the press were now less expensive and more accessible than
8
S.H. Steinberg, Five Hundred Years of Printing (London: The British Library, 2001), 30.
9
Richard A. Goldthwaite, “The Economy of Renaissance Italy: The Preconditions for Luxury
Consumption,” I Tatti Studies: Essays in the Renaissance 2 (1987): 15-6.
10
Lisa Jardine, Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance (New York: Nan A. Talese, 1996),
136-7.
11
Erik Kwakkel, “Commercial Organization and Economic Innovation,” in The Production of Books in
England 1350–1500, eds. Alexandra Gillespie and Daniel Wakelin (Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 2011), 173-4.
7
ever before. Significantly, however, the reaction to the printing press in Italy was not always
welcoming, and the printed book was often treated with skepticism and distrust.
12
So, in the
luxury economy of early modern Italy in which the buying populace was wary of mass-produced
items, how did printers find success? The bespoke book offered a solution in that it tapped into
the luxury economy in a new way. As both a commercial object and a luxury object, the bespoke
book appealed to buyers as something new yet familiar, and due to the economic state of the
Italian peninsula, printers turned to increasingly experimental methods of printing books to
secure patrons and buyers.
The difficulties facing printers are apparent when looking at the fate of the inventor of
movable type and the man responsible for printing the first book in Europe. Johannes Gutenberg
(ca. 1400–68) notoriously died destitute and betrayed by his former collaborators. One of the
collaborators, Peter Schoeffer (1425–1503), claimed that Gutenberg spent over 4,000 guilders––
about the price of forty reasonably sized houses in Mainz––before he even printed the 42-line
Bible.
13
However, from his money troubles we learned that printing in the fifteenth century
required a significant capital investment in order to pay for the supplies (paper and vellum being
the most expensive materials), the workforce, and the equipment. Since profit came after the
book was printed and sold, this initial investment was crucial. After printing and selling his
Bible, Gutenberg likely had a gross profit of around 500 percent––that is, before Johann Fust (ca.
1400–66), another of his collaborators, took his cut and the creditors came calling.
14
As John L.
Flood has noted, the rise of printing in thriving commercial centers like Mainz and Venice was
directly tied to access to capital; individuals or institutions in these cities had more available
12
Brian Richardson, “The debates on printing in Renaissance Italy,” La Bibliofilía 100 (1998): 136-7.
13
Leonhard Hoffmann, “Die Gutenberg-Bibel: eine Kosten- und Gewinnschätzung auf der Grundlage
zeitgenössischer Quellen,” Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens 39 (1993): 318, note 6.
14
Ibid., 303, note 6.
8
funds to invest in printers.
15
For Flood, the most successful printers tended to be more
conservative, relying on financiers and in-demand titles with existing markets such as grammars
for universities, classics for humanists, and Bibles and missals for the clergy.
16
His assessment,
however, is based off northern (mainly German) printers and reveals some stark differences
between the printing centers of Europe.
Even though the printing press arrived in the Veneto almost twenty years after it first
appeared in Mainz, Venice produced the most editions of printed books during the incunabula
period, roughly 3,602 editions, surpassing Rome and Paris.
17
More than one hundred print shops
were operating in Venice in 1490, but by 1500, only ten were still in business.
18
This significant
drop in functioning print shops attests to the difficulty in running a press. If a printer could not
make up the initial capital put up for the print shop selling their books, then the shop would fail.
Aldus Manutius, in his Greek edition of Museaus’ love poem Hero and Leander issued around
1495, made a plea to his readers to buy his Greek texts so he could print more, stating simply:
“without a great deal of money I cannot print.”
19
The same year, Aldus applied for a privilege
that would prevent other printers in the Veneto to issue Greek texts, claiming that he wanted to
protect his new Greek type as well as his “two new methods” for printing the type––all of which
15
John L. Flood, “’Volentes sibi comparare infrascriptos libros impressos …’ Printed Books as
Commercial Commodity in the Fifteenth Century,” in Incunabula and their Readers: Printing, Selling,
and Using Books in the Fifteenth Century, ed. Kristian Jensen (London: The British Library, 2003), 142,
note 31. Flood cites examples of the Church funding editions of the Bible. For instance, Prince-Bishop
Georg von Schaumburg likely financed the 36-line Bible printed in Bamberg around 1461 and Bishop
Ruprecht von Pfalz-Simmern funded Johann Mentelin’s 49-line Bible in 1460.
16
Ibid., 146.
17
Paul Needham, “Venetian printers and publishers in the fifteenth century,” La Bibliofilía 100 (1998):
158.
18
Flood, “Printed Books as Commercial Commodity,” 142.
19
Aldus Manutius, preface in Musaeus, Opusculum de Herone et Leandro [Greek] with Latin version of
Marcus Musurus (Venice: Aldus Manutius, [before Nov. 1495–1497?]), ISTC im00880000.
9
cost him a “great part of his wealth.”
20
The privilege, however, did not stop competing printers
from developing their own Greek type, and in 1498, one of Aldus’ former collaborators Gabriel
Braccius, obtained a privilege for his own Greek type.
21
Printing bespoke books then was
potentially an additional strategy that printers employed to distinguish their products from the
competition, especially when privileges failed to protect them. Furthermore, printers could
present bespoke books to potential patrons in the hopes of gaining more funds to continue their
enterprise.
Using the bespoke book as a way to garner favor made it a fixture in the gift economy of
early modern Europe. The gift economy was predicated on the practice of giving, receiving, and
reciprocating between groups and individuals for generally diplomatic gains.
22
Authors included
verbose dedications to cardinals, princes, and emperors in order to elicit patronage. Patronage,
particularly for authors, was often more than monetary. For example, the mathematician and
astronomer Peter Apian (1495–1552) received knighthood, the rights to legitimize his children
born out of wedlock, the ability to confer degrees, an enlargement of his coat-of-arms, and
imperial printing privileges on top of 3,000 gold coins for his many dedications to Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V (1500–58). In addition, Apian frequently included novel printing devices like
volvelles (movable discs of layered paper) in his astronomical texts.
23
Printers and authors used
20
The privilege is quoted in Martin Davies, Aldus Manutius: Printer and Publisher of Renaissance
Venice (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1999), 18. For the full privilege
see the Appendix: Documents Relating to the Development of Greek Type in Venice in Nicolas Barker,
Aldus Manutius and the Development of Greek Script & Type in the Fifteenth Century (New York:
Fordham University Press, 1992), 105-8. For more on printing in Greek, see Robert Proctor, The Printing
of Greek in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford: Bibliographical Society at the Oxford University Press, 1900).
21
Barker, Aldus Manutius and the Development of Greek Script, 65.
22
See Marcel Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Society (London:
Routledge, 1954, 2002 rprt.)
23
Suzanne Karr Schmidt, Interactive and Sculptural Printmaking in the Renaissance (Leiden: Brill,
2018), 317. Editions with dedications to Charles V include Astronomicum Caesarum (1540) and
Horoscopion Apiani (1533).
10
bespoke techniques as additional methods to secure patrons and these potential benefits. Printers
and authors also sent personalized copies of editions with some form of bespoke embellishments
such as illuminations and heraldry.
24
For instance, Francesco Berlinghieri’s (1440–1501) Septe
giornate della geographia (The Seven days of geography) printed in Florence in 1482 was gifted
to several notable individuals with printed copies receiving illuminated borders, initials, and
coats-of-arms. A Florentine merchant, Paolo da Colle, even brought illuminated copies to the
court of Sultan Bayezid II in Constantinople and to his half-brother, Cem, in exile near Geneva
in 1483, likely as diplomatic gifts in order to grow relations between Florence and the Ottoman
Empire.
25
Despite the best efforts of printers and authors, even the most elaborate bespoke books
did not insure success––a great number of “remainder” copies of Geographia were still for sale
in 1603. As Sean Roberts argues, the production of “humanist luxury books” was a niche, vanity
operation for a select group of individuals rather than widespread venture capitalism for
printers.
26
However, the continued production of bespoke books throughout the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries demonstrates the importance of these books for printers navigating the luxury
and gift economies of early modern Europe. Additionally, my consideration of bespoke books
goes beyond the definition and dynamic of presentation copies––in which a luxury copy was
gifted to an elite individual––in order to ask why printers, authors, and reader chose to make
copies of books bespoke for a wider audience. Moreover, if not for monetary gain or a guarantee
24
For more on dedications, see Helen Smith, “Acknowledgments and Dedications,” in Book Parts, eds.
Dennis Duncan and Adam Smyth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 98. See also, Richard
McCabe, ‘Ungainefull Arte’: Poetry, Patronage, and Print in the Early Modern Era (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2016).
25
Sean Roberts, Printing a Mediterranean World: Florence, Constantinople, and the Renaissance of
Geography (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013), 4-6.
26
Ibid., 98-100. The Florentine printer, Filippo Giunti, likely acquired the remainders in the late-fifteenth
or early-sixteenth century. The Giunti reissued the edition in 1516, but according to their 1603 catalogue,
the still had copies for sale.
11
of success, why did the most prominent printers of the fifteenth including Erhard Ratdolt, Aldus
Manutius, Francesco Marcolini, and the Giolito family manipulate or at times disrupt the
mechanical processes of the printing press to create highly experimental and unique books?
In 1542, the poet Pietro Aretino wrote to the patriarch of the Giolito family, Gabriele,
with regard to his printing practice: “onde si può dire che fate mercanzia, più d’onore che
d’utile” (so you can say that you make merchandise with more honor than use). Expanding on
this concept, Amedo Quondam suggested that there were two different types of books in early
modern Italy, “mercanzia d’onore” and “mercaniza d’utile,” and his analysis of sixteenth-
century publishing practices offers insight as to why printers made bespoke books that were
potentially financial risks. Printers issued titles not solely for profit, but for cultural capital. Thus,
a book that was mercanzia d’onore was intended not for monetary gain, but, rather, to increase a
printer’s standing in intellectual society in order to attract collaborations with notable authors
and editors.
27
In my estimation, the bespoke book is one of the few objects in the early modern
period that existed in flux between the luxury economy, gift economy, and as mercanzia
d’onore. Printers used the bespoke book to appeal to different sectors of the book-buying
populace: as intellectual and cultural capital, as a way to elicit patronage and grow relationships,
and even to counteract the commercial implications of the printing press.
Print, Printing, and Print Culture
Writing in the 1468 edition of St. Jerome’s Epistolae from the print shop of Conradus
Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz, Cardinal Giovanni Andrea Bussi, the bishop of Aleria, in
his dedication to Pope Paul II commented: “In our time, God gave Christendom a gift which
27
The letter is dated to July 1, 1542 and quoted in Amedo Quondam, “’Mercanzia d’onore’ ‘Mercanzia
d’utile’: Produzione libraria e lavora intelletuale a Venezia nel Cinquecento,” in Libri, editori e pubblico
nell’Europa moderna: Guida storica e critica, ed. Armando Petrucci (Bari: Laterza, 1977), 53.
12
enables even the pauper to acquire books.”
28
While Bussi in his dedication pontificates on the
merits of printing, noting in particular the wider availability of books to lay people, at least three
copies were printed on vellum and even more contain visual flourishes like illuminated initials
and vine borders.
29
Many early books were produced precisely to counter the leveling effect of
the printing press, resulting in luxury copies that no pauper could have afforded. The
proliferation of hand-illuminated printed books, especially during the incunabula period,
challenges the “transition” of scribal to print culture in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
posited by scholars writing on the topic.
Eisenstein arrived at the terms “print culture” and “scribal culture” from Walter J. Ong’s
descriptions of “chirographic culture” and “typographic culture.” However, Eisenstein does little
to expand on the definition of print culture, initially describing it as “post-Gutenberg
developments in the West.” Scribal culture, for Eisenstein, was any form of communication
between the invention of writing and the invention of movable type, and was in direct opposition
to print culture.
30
Both of these descriptions are problematic in that they retroactively apply a
cultural chronology in which the printing press supplanted the scribe immediately and
absolutely. In reaction to this, Harold Love redirects the focus of these opposing cultures towards
“scribal publication” in his study of seventeenth-century England. He examines specific
publications and authors to challenge the generalizations that Eisenstein put forth.
31
Similarly, in
28
Hieronymus (St. Jerome), Johannes Andreas (editor), Epistolae … (Rome: Conradus Sweynheym and
Arnoldus Pannartz, 13 Dec. 1468), 2r-v; ISTC ih00161000.
29
Two copies are illuminated, today at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, and printed on vellum. A third
illuminated copy is at the Biblioteca de Torres at the Seminario Archivescovile di Monreale. I discuss the
two copies in Venice at more length in chapter one.
30
Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, I:9.
31
See Harold Love, Scribal Publication in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1993).
13
his incisive critique of the scribal culture/print culture polemic, Joseph A. Dane argues that if
anything scribal and print cultures coexist alongside each other rather than acting in opposition.
32
In attempting to better define and nuance the terms, scholars such as Roger Chartier have
historicized the transition of hand to press. The rise of the printed book marked a shift in modes
of communication and knowledge consumption; in other words, it heralded a transitional period
between the so-called scribal culture of the Middle Ages to a new print culture. The printing
press facilitated the circulation of text on an unprecedented scale due to its relatively low cost
and faster production compared to manuscripts. This in turn provided the population of Europe
with equally unprecedented access to books and the knowledge contained within, whereas
manuscripts were generally reserved for elite rungs of society including nobility, university
students, and the clergy.
33
Printed books were portable, and additionally, were now written in a
multitude of vernacular languages, making texts more available than ever. As a result, society
experienced monumental changes in men and women’s relationship with all aspects of society
including religion, government, and education (to name only a few), leading to cultural
upheavals in Western society such as the Reformation and the Enlightenment.
34
Scholars have
also focused on other ramifications of print culture including increased literacy and new ways of
reading.
35
Ultimately, scholars discuss the print culture beginning in the 1450s and the
manuscript culture of centuries prior as opposing forces in the shaping of Western culture.
32
Joseph A. Dane, The Myth of Print Culture: Essays on Evidence, Textuality, and Bibliographic Method
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 19.
33
See Roger Chartier, “General Introduction: Print Culture,” in The Culture of Print: Power and the Uses
of Print in Early Modern Europe, ed. Roger Chartier, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1989), 1.
34
See “Part One: Introduction to an Elusive Transformation,” in Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an
Agent of Change, 1-162.
35
See Roger Chartier, The Order of Books: Readers, Authors, and Libraries in Europe between the
Fourteenth and Eighteenth Centuries, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1994).
14
The presence of bespoke books in the early modern period asks us to reconsider the
parameters and expectations of print culture.
36
Looking at manuscripts as well as illuminated
printed books, McKitterick contends, “the boundary between manuscript and print is as untidy
chronologically as it is commercially, materially, or socially.”
37
Often missing from the
discussion of print culture is the relationship between the materiality of the book and its contents,
or, what Dane frames as a chasm between the singularity of the material and the reproducibility
of the textual.
38
Bespoke books can serve as a bridge between material and text by showing how
printers sought to elevate the contents of printed books via material and visual means.
In order to do this, the techniques that bookmakers employed were highly experimental,
and the newness and novelty of the printing press in Europe in the fifteenth century provided
countless opportunities for innovation. Whereas printing has long been lauded a technology of
standardization and reproduction, my dissertation shows how printers deliberately used the
technology to make books that defied these associations. Thus, I demonstrate that the first one
hundred and fifty years of the printing press was not a stable period in book history but rather a
time in which books were truly an experimental and unstable medium.
Scholars often characterize the exchange of knowledge that took place through the
dissemination of books only in terms of textual communication. However, the knowledge of
experimental printing did not appear in the text but rather in the books themselves. For example,
while there is no surviving documentation concerning Aldus’s early experiments with printing on
blue paper, the books themselves have remained relatively intact. Despite the rarity of these
36
Roberts, Printing a Mediterranean World, 102-3. In his discussion of presentation copies of Francesco
Berlinghieri’s Geographia (1472), Roberts suggests that these types of books deserve closer examination
since they “represent distinct tiers of potential readership and reception,” and therefore question the
implied inclusiveness of print culture.
37
McKitterick, Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order, 12
38
See Dane, The Myth of Print Culture.
15
volumes, the spread of this knowledge is apparent in the continuation of the practice of using
blue paper by his heirs after his death in 1515, as well as the outpouring of examples from other
printers in Venice and elsewhere. Bespoke books therefore provide an opportunity to explore
how knowledge was created and disseminated through media and medium in the early modern
period.
Models of Studying the Book
Scholarship on the printed book has focused on the question of agency. Questions of who
or what determined the role of the book in shaping western culture generally fall into three
categories: people, processes, and products. These categories overlap and relate, and as a result,
scholars of the book tend to construct circuits of contact and evolutionary models. Entire books
are devoted to parsing out the historiography of book studies in order to clarify the plethora of
models, frameworks, and methodologies that exist in scholarship.
39
There is no one model that
best fits the bespoke book. The paradoxical nature of the bespoke book (as a uniquely printed
object) and the complexities of its creation in early modern Italy requires a new approach that
draws on the study of technology, communication, history, literature, bibliography, and art
history.
In considering the book and its role in the history of technology, Frederick Kilgour
suggested that the book when conceived as a portable storehouse of human knowledge followed
a similar evolutionary model as human biology. Kilgour argued that changes in printing
technology emerged as “punctuated equilibriums” with very little innovation occurring between
Gutenberg’s movable type and the invention of the first iron press in the early nineteenth
39
See Finkelstein and McCleery, An Introduction to Book History and Leslie Howsam, Old Books & New
Histories: An Orientation to Studies in Book and Print Culture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2006).
16
century.
40
Preceding Kilgour’s evolutionary model, Marshall McLuhan viewed the book as
analogous to human development, as cultures moved from oral to written to print culture.
41
McLuhan argued that writing, print, and the increasingly private activity of reading books
permanently shifted patterns of human interaction and “detribalized” the individual.
42
He was
preoccupied with the printing press as a vehicle of mass production in a similar way as Walter
Benjamin writing decades earlier in his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction,” was preoccupied with determining how the invention of the press affected the
culture of mankind on a grand scale.
43
For both men, their arguments were more a reaction to the
rise of the true mass production of texts in the nineteenth century and the technology of the
twentieth century rather than to the handpress of the fifteenth century, although they both
pinpointed movable type as the starting point in initiating major cultural shifts.
The monumental achievement of the press and movable type has eclipsed exploration of
the experimental environment of the print shop in the early modern period, as well as the
importance of the printing press in other areas of society like art, science, and politics. The turn
towards a social history of books began in the 1960s with Don McKenzie’s concept of
“concurrent production” that suggests that printed books were the products of many forces
operating alongside one another. McKenzie paints the early modern print shop as a complex
system with multiple authors, editors, pressmen, compositors, and publishers working
40
Frederick G. Kilgour, The Evolution of the Book (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 3. Kilgour
borrows the theory of “punctuated equilibriums” from the evolutionary biologists, Niles Elredge and
Stephen Jay Gould.
41
See Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (Toronto: University
of Toronto Press, 1962) and Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (Cambridge: MIT Press,
1964).
42
McLuhan, Understanding Media, 32.
43
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age Its Technological Reproducibility,” in The Work of Art
in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media, eds. Michael W. Jennings,
Brigid Doherty, and Thomas Y. Levin, trans. Edmund Jephcott, et. al. (Cambridge: Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, 2008), 19-55.
17
concurrently on several different texts making the bibliographer’s task a rather futile one.
44
Later, McKenzie continued to question how a text gains meaning concluding that those who
make books (authors and printers), as well as those who consume them (readers), add meaning to
the text through their successive interpretations.
45
Developing from McKenzie’s “sociology of the text,” the primary focus in book history
shifted towards studying the reception of books in terms of textual meaning, communication, and
materiality from the vantage point of the reader. Lucien Febrve and Henri-Jean Martin were
among the first to look at the printed book in these terms, whereas earlier scholarship was
concentrated on bibliographical descriptions.
46
In Febrve and Martin’s assessment, the printed
book facilitated changes in “habits of thought” including how people read and comprehended
information on a scale that was impossible with manuscripts.
47
Additionally, Eisenstein
continued to delineate between print and manuscript in her examination of the printing press as a
paradigm-shifting technology in the early modern period. She argued that the printing press
enabled communication at an unprecedented volume, which eventually led to significant cultural
and political ruptures, like the Reformation.
48
Eisenstein’s sweeping generalizations have been
thoroughly dismantled by scholars like Adrian Johns who criticize her synthetic approach and
realiance on secondary sources. Her arguments did however galvanize a new generation of
44
See Don McKenzie, “Printers of the mind: Some notes on bibliographical theories and printing-house
practices,” Studies in Bibliography: Papers of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia 22
(1969): 1-75.
45
McKenzie, “What’s past is prologue,” in Making Meaning: “Printers of the Mind” and Other Essays,
eds. P. McDonald and M.F. Suarez (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2002), 268.
46
Bibliography is an important field of the history of the book that requires a very specialized skill set.
Book collectors and “bibliophiles” in the nineteenth century developed bibliographic description from the
cataloguing and inventory practices of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries into a scholarly pursuit.
47
Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin, The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, 1450–1800,
trans. David Gerard (London: Verso, 1958), 9.
48
See especially chapter 2, “Defining the initial shift; some features of print culture” and chapter 4, “The
scribal tradition recast: resetting the stage for the Reformation” in volume 1 of Eisenstein, The Printing
Press as an Agent of Change.
18
historians of the book to search for more nuanced and historicized approaches to a monolithic
print culture.
In the wake of these studies, scholars like Robert Darnton, Thomas R. Adams, and
Nicolas Barker have proposed theories concerning the book and communication networks.
Darnton developed a “communication circuit” that looked at the people involved in book making
and distribution including the printers, publishers, authors, and readers (Fig. I.1). Darnton
developed his model in order to combat what he viewed as a “disorienting crisscrossing of the
disciplines” citing the numerous methodologies ranging from analytical bibliography to
comparative literature.
49
Adams and Barker later criticized Darnton’s model and offered their
own bio-bibliographical method that emphasized the “life cycle” of the book and reinstated the
book as a physical artifact that moved, traveled, and acted on the people that consumed the
contents (Fig. I.2). Adams and Baker considered the human elements in Darnton’s circuit as
important factors acting on the life of a book: publishing, manufacturing, distribution, reception,
and survival.
50
Yet, both these models orbit around the textual contents of the book (whether printed or
manuscript), which is only one component of the codex (or scroll, tablet, or e-book). Jerome
McGann argued that “all texts, like all other things human, are embodied phenomena, and the
body of the text is not exclusively linguistic.” Claiming that the study of books was wrapped up
in the “spell of romantic hermeneutics,” McGann suggested that a more materialist and social
49
See Robert Darnton, “What Is the History of the Book?” in Books and Society in History: Papers of the
Association of College and Research Libraries, Rare Books, and Manuscripts Preconference 24-28 June
1980, Kenneth E. Carpenter, ed. (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1983), 10. See also Darnton, “What is the
History of the Book?: Revisited,” Modern Intellectual History 4/3 (2007): 495-508.
50
Thomas R. Adams and Nicolas Barker, “A New Model for the Study of the Book,” in A Potencie of
Life: Books in Society, ed. Nicolas Barker (London: British Library, 1993), 5-43.
19
approach advocating for the “socialization of the text.”
51
In this manner, Adrian Johns’ bio-
bibliography methodology examines the people that create, disseminate, and interpret books. He
directly takes on Eisenstein, stating that “in her work, printing itself stands outside history,” and
instead, proposes that the revolutionary aspects of the printing press was a result of people and
how they used the press and books.
52
Further questioning and expanding Eisenstein’s binary model of “scribal culture” and
“print culture” and echoing McGann’s call for a more social-historical focus, Paul Needham has
identified three areas of craft in early modern Europe as useful modes for viewing the fifteenth-
century book, specifically. The crafts are as follows: a scribal craft that includes drawing and
illumination, a print craft that encompasses woodcuts, metalcuts, and engravings, and finally a
printing craft that deals with typography.
53
Needham hesitates to use the all-inclusive term
“culture” in order to zone in on the specific social groups associated with each craft. The study of
these groups and their respective crafts will highlight the interactions that lead to the distinctive
construction, appearance, and production of incunabula.
54
Needham’s “craft model” lends itself
to a productive art historical analysis of the earliest printed books in Europe. However, like many
book historians, within his model resides an accepted dichotomy between text and image. The
bespoke book considers the printed book within and outside of the temporal limitations of print
culture.
55
Despite Darnton and other’s attempts to simplify the study of the book, book history
remains a contentious and exceedingly interdisciplinary field. One only has to read the strongly
51
Jerome McGann, The Textual Condition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), 12-3.
52
Adrian Johns, The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1998), 19.
53
Paul Needham, “Prints in the Early Printing Shops,” Studies in the History of Art 75 (2009): 40.
54
Needham, “Prints in the Early Printing Shops,” 40-1.
55
Howsam, Old Books & New Histories, 5-6.
20
worded exchanges between Eisenstein and Johns in the American Historical Review,
necessitating a mediation of sorts from Anthony Grafton, over the usefulness of the term “print
culture” in current scholarship.
56
What can an art historian offer in this crowded area of study?
My project re-centers the book as an object within a historically specific context. In the
development of the social history of art, visual analysis met concerns for the sociological. As
Michael Baxandall was one of the first to show, examining the surrounding visual environment
and cultural conditions in which a work was made can provide new insights into the production
and reception of objects within various historical contexts.
57
With these models in mind, I will
consider the book within a communication network that connected printers, artists, and audiences
to varying elements of visual culture that included materials, techniques, and imagery found in
books, drawings, manuscripts, and prints. This assessment will venture past previous models
based on production and communication and will question what a book visually conveys to its
audience through its media and appearance.
Chapter Overview
My dissertation consists of four chapters that each build on my definition of the bespoke
book. The four chapters are arranged thematically according to the cornerstones of the bespoke,
printed book: innovation, mutability, materiality, and aesthetics. In examining printed books that
demonstrate one or more of these aspects, I show how the bespoke book was an important and
integral part of early modern visual and material culture. The chapters consist of case studies of
56
See Anthony Grafton, “Introduction,” American Historical Review 107/1 (2002): 84-6; Elizabeth
Eisenstein, “An Unacknowledged Revolution Revisited,” American Historical Review 107/1 (2002): 87-
105; Adrian Johns, “How to Acknowledge a Revolution,” American Historical Review 107/1 (2002): 106-
25; Eisenstein, “[How to Acknowledge a Revolution]: Reply,” American Historical Review 107/1 (2002):
126-8.
57
See Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Renaissance Italy: A Primer in the Social History
of Pictorial Style (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972).
21
printed books with analyses of the techniques and methods used to make them. In my
consideration of the bibliographic, visual, material, and social lives of bespoke books, I reveal a
more holistic narrative about printed books, prints, and manuscript in fifteenth- and sixteenth-
century Italy.
The first chapter concerns the convergence of manuscript and print in the fifteenth and
early-sixteenth century. I begin with a brief survey of the arrival of printing in the Italian
peninsula and the varied reactions to the presence of the technology and its products. In this
discussion, we find the origins of bespoke books as responses to a skeptical market of readers
wary of the new technology, and additionally, as a tool for printers to accrue cultural and
monetary capital from patrons. In order to produce books to attract both a general and elite
audience, printers experimented with the press in order to produce books that both highlighted
the reproductive novelty of the printing press while maintaining a luxurious (or bespoke) allure.
The resulting innovations that printers developed to create the bespoke book merged the printing
press and handcraft techniques in new ways, including using interchangeable woodcut borders
and printing in gold. In this chapter, I look past the incunabula period––often considered the only
“experimental” period in the history of the book––towards the early decades of the sixteenth
century revealing that the temporal limitations of the “transition” from print to manuscript
obfuscates the innovative and unique aspects of printed books.
58
I suggest we think of bespoke
books with qualities of print (type, paper, and woodcuts) and manuscripts (script, vellum,
illuminations) in terms of a convergence of print and manuscript rather than a transition.
58
Rudolf Hirsch, Printing, Reading and Selling, 1450–1550 (Weisbaden: Harrassowitz, 1974), 2. Hirsch
additionally marks the end of the “experimental” period of book printing at 1460 even before the end of
the incunabula period.
22
Arising from the adaptability of the printing press, the second chapter investigates the
mutability of print.
59
In order to question the stability of the printed book, I examine books
printed with color as well as books that require a different kind reading. Adding color to books
required interaction between the bookmaker, the reader, and the book itself. I compare color-
printing techniques and hand-colored books to explore how printed books changed and shifted as
they passed hands from printer to reader. In other words, printed books became bespoke through
use, and printers used the printing press to achieve and encourage this. In an effort to reorient the
categorization of “presentation copy,” I consider how printers used color printing to create books
that appeared luxurious, but were far more accessible. Through this imitative process, despite
their rarity, bespoke books had a profound influence on print shops, printers, and their
experiments.
In exploring how and why printers carried out these experiments, I turn towards the
materiality of the printed book in the third chapter. I devote this chapter to the phenomenon of
printing on blue paper. This study opens up an investigation into the history of colored writing
supports in the Mediterranean world; this was a history that printers knew about and deployed to
make bespoke books. In order to deepen our understanding of the materiality of the printed book,
I also examine the material makeup of blue paper and its use in drawings and prints.
60
The study
of books printed on blue paper additionally raises questions about how books disseminated
knowledge in the early modern period. Communication studies about the printed book primarily
focus on how the textual contents of books were transmitted. However, in studying the
materiality of printed books, I show that both manuscript and printed books as portable objects
were significant conveyers of visual and material histories. From Aldus’ first experiments
59
Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, I:116-20.
60
See Graham Larkin and Lisa Pon, “The Materiality of Printed Words and Images,” Word & Image 17
(2001): 1-6.
23
printing on blue paper to the spread of the technique from Venice outward to the rest of the
Italian peninsula, we see how books transmitted ideas about their own construction, appearance,
and cultural significance.
The appreciation of blue paper books in Italy attests to printers, authors, and readers’
concerns for the visual characteristics of the book. The final chapter turns towards the aesthetics
of the bespoke book. In examining the pictorial and non-pictorial elements of bespoke books, I
highlight the diversity of printed books in the early modern period, and also question why
individuals often undertook expensive and risky efforts to personalize books. The impetus to
individualize a commercial product is apparent in both the interiors and exteriors of books. In
addition to exploring illumination, color printing, and printing on blue paper, I also look at
bindings and foredge decoration. The manipulation of the printed book, inside and out, for
aesthetic purposes, created a far more varied and diverse landscape of books in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, and these bespoke books, therefore, require their own consideration and
category in scholarship.
Ultimately, the crux of my project is to introduce the bespoke book into the study of the
visual culture of early modern Europe, and by extension, encourage the examination of books
within various visual contexts beyond this time frame and geography. To do this, I draw on
interdisciplinary methodologies including critical and analytical bibliography, interpretation of
literary contexts, and comparative histories in addition to my primary art historical method of
visual analysis. While art historians have previously studied almost exclusively illustrated texts,
my research primarily considers non-illustrated books as evidence that printers, artists, and
readers valued the overall visual appearance of these objects. My dissertation is therefore an
24
important inroad towards the inclusion of books of all types, illustrated or not, within the history
of art and the inclusion of visual culture within the history of the book.
A Note about Notes
For the sake of brevity and clarity, I place bibliographical information in the footnote
following the first mention of a title. I give the author, short title, and imprint (when known)
followed by the library and call number if I am discussing specific copies of a title and its
edition. The author spellings and short titles are from the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue
(ISTC) and the Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) when applicable. In cases where a title
does not appear in either online database, I use the generally accepted short title in library
catalogues.
I have included the abbreviated bibliographic references for each book I discuss in their
own appendix, “Appendix A: Catalogue of Books.” The abbreviations and citations are all
according to the “Standard Citation Forms for Rare Materials Cataloging” as determined by the
Rare Books and Materials Section (RBMS).
61
The books are arranged chronologically for easier
searching, and additionally, the collation, format, and any other pertinent information (if
available) are listed.
When discussing books printed on blue paper, I refer to the second appendix, “Appendix
B: Catalogue of Books Printed on Blue Paper in Italy, 1514–1600.” The appendix lists all the
blue paper books from select institutions that I discovered in person or in online catalogues. The
list is ordered chronologically and contains additional bibliographic data including formats and
collation. The appendix is intended as a reference source for the reader and myself, and is by no
61
Standard Citation Forms for Rare Materials Cataloging, accessed January 3, 2020,
https://rbms.info/scf/.
25
means a complete catalogue. It is my hope that the catalogue serves as a starting point for
continued studies of bespoke books beyond the limitations of my specific project.
26
Chapter 1
Innovation and the Convergence of Manuscript and Print
Around 1466, the artist and architect Leon Battista Alberti (1404–74) recounted a
technique of text reproduction that he saw in Rome. About the occasion he wrote “…it happened
that we greatly lauded the German inventor who in these times has made it possible, by certain
pressings down of characters, to have more than two hundred volumes written out in a hundred
days; from a downwards pressure, a large sheet is written out with the labor of no more than
three men.”
1
In Alberti’s oft-quoted observation, he references both the inventor of movable type
in Europe, Johannes Gutenberg, as well as the process and production capabilities of the press.
As a comparison, around 1456 Vespasiano da Bisticci (1421–98), a Florentine bookseller,
employed forty-five scribes for twenty-two months to fulfill a commission of two hundred
manuscripts for Cosimo de’ Medici’s library.
2
Additionally, Alberti witnessed the workings of
the printing press soon after its arrival south of the Alps in 1465 revealing the speed at which the
new technology spread across Europe.
1
Leon Battista Alberti, Opuscoli morali di Leon Battista Alberti …, ed. Cosimo Bartoli (Venice:
Francesco Franceschi, 1568), 200. “Essendo io insieme con il Datho, ne giardini di Belvedere del Papa, &
havendo secondo, il solito nostro alcuni ragionamenti insieme delle cose che si appartengono a gli
esercitii delle lettere, occorse che noi lodammo grandemente quel Todesco, che a tempi nostril é stato
inventore, che con al une impronte di caratteri, si stampino, d’alcuno originale datoli, in cento giorni, piu
dugento interi volume di libri, solamente con la fatica di tre huomni & non piu.” Alberti’s observations
about printing appear in his treatise De cifris or De Componendis Cifris about ciphers. The tract first
appeared in print in the vulgate in the aforementioned source under the title “La Cifra di Leonbattista
Alberti.” Girolamo Mancini also produced a Latin translation of the text in his Vita di Leon Battista
Alberti (Florence: Sansoni, 1882). Mancini identified three manuscripts containg the treatise and dates the
writing to c. 1466-7. For the passage on printing see also Alberti, De cifris in Opera inedita et pauca
separatism impressa, ed. Girolamo Mancini (Florence: Sansoni, 1890), 310. For more on De cifris, see
Charles J. Mendelsohn, “Bibliographical Note on the “De Cifris of Leone Battista Alberti,” Isis 32/1
(194): 48-51.
2
Vespasiano da Bisticci, Le vite, 2 vols., ed. Aulo Greco (Florence: Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul
Rinascimento, 1970-6), II:83-9.
27
Alberti’s observations also indicate the swift changes that took place in book production
during the incunabula period. However, as other scholars have shown, the early days of the
printed book and its integration into western life was not so simple. The printing press brought
new challenges, such as determining how a printed book should physically look––including the
format, type, supports, illustrations, and binding. Printers turned to manuscripts for examples,
especially with regards to types, which were for the most part derived from scripts.
3
Moreover,
printers continued to employ illuminators to add embellishments like borders, miniatures, and
initials by hand to their printed wares, generally for special copies presented to patrons.
Alternatively, readers could commission artist to decorate their personal copies.
4
Often described
as “hybrids,” these books represent a blending of printing and manuscript techniques.
5
Few
scholars have posed questions about the “how” and “why” of decisions regarding printed book
design, beyond suggesting that printers followed the familiar examples of manuscript books at
their disposal. Interestingly, there is also a lacuna in the scholarship concerning how printers
attempted to mechanize manuscript techniques like illumination in order to provide clientele with
new and novel objects.
Printed books with manuscript additions, whether added by the press or by hand, fall into
the category of bespoke books due to the experimental and innovative nature of their printing.
3
Febvre and Martin, The Coming of the Book, 78-83. For a history of type see Daniel Berkeley Updike,
Printing Types: Their History, Forms, and Use, a Study in Survivals, 2 vols. (Cambridge: The Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 1962). For a case study see Peter Bain and Paul Shaw, eds.,
Blackletter: Type and National Identity (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998). In the edited
volume, the authors examine the origins of blackletter, the “gothic” type that Gutenberg developed from
German liturgical manuscripts, and the implications of the type throughout the centuries and its ties to
German national identity.
4
Lilian Armstrong, “The Hand-Illumination of Printed Books in Italy 1465–1515,” in The Painted Page:
Italian Renaissance Book Illumination, ed. Jonathan J.G. Alexander (London: Royal Academy of Arts,
1994), 35-47.
5
Sandra Hindman, “Cross-Fertilization: Experiments in Mixing the Media,” in Pen to Press: Illustrated
Manuscripts and Printed Books in the First Century of Printing, eds. Sandra Hindman and James Douglas
Farquhar (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977), 101-6.
28
Study of bespoke books in the incunabula period shows how printers merged printing technology
and handcrafts in the early days of the printing press. The innovative qualities of bespoke books
further reveal that printers were actively seeking ways to blur the boundaries between manuscript
and print. Rather than a transition from scribal to print culture, there was a convergence of
traditional, artisanal techniques, and new, mechanical technologies.
Many scholars disregard bespoke books in favor of studying the general print runs of
editions intended for a wider audience of readers. My research shows that, in fact, these rare and
unique objects influenced not only the visual and material aspects of printed books in the
decades to follow but also shaped the business of the book trade itself. The innovative nature of
bespoke books demonstrates how printers formulated new techniques of printing and methods of
bookselling in order to insure the success of both bespoke books and the general print run on the
market.
Traditionally, scholars have argued that the use of manuscript techniques in order to
“finish” incunabula was a decision on the part of printers to make “their books look as much like
manuscripts as possible.”
6
This simplistic and confusing phrasing obfuscates the multifaceted
relationship between printers, readers, the press, the hand, and the book (both manuscript and
print) in the fifteenth century. As David McKitterick proposed, rather than being purely
imitative, the application of manuscript techniques to early printed books shows that consumers
of books saw little distinction between the written word and the printed word, since at the end of
the day both were just words.
7
Echoing a thesis that Curt Bühler initially put forth that “there is
little real difference between the fifteenth-century manuscripts and the printed,” the attempts by
6
David Greetham, Textual Scholarship: An Introduction (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1994), 79.
See also chapter 3, “The Book: Its Visual Appearance” in Febvre and Martin, The Coming of the Book,
77-108; and chapter 2, “From Script to Print” in Hirsch, Printing, Selling and Reading, 1-12.
7
McKitterick, Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order, 29-30.
29
McKitterick and others to equate the manuscript and the printed book glosses over the changing
attitudes towards the printing press and printed books during this period, as well as the extremely
experimental origins of the printed book.
8
For instance, flourishes including initials, paraphs, and borders ranging from simple blue
or red pen work to elaborate illuminations added to the visual interest of the page and served as
organizational signposts in manuscripts and printed books alike. Because signposts such as
initials, paraphs, and borders were important aides for reading comprehension, printers viewed it
necessary to include these scribal markers to printed books. However, since the printing press
was a new technology, printers faced some difficulties printing detailed, pictorial flourishes
alongside text. McKitterick briefly discusses these “limitations” of the printing press as another
contributing factor to the phenomenon of “hybrid” books. In the fifteenth century, printers were
unequipped to translate the colors, details, and images present in manuscripts to printed books,
so those jobs fell to scribes and illuminators.
9
While this is the case across a wide array of
incunables, the limitations of the printing press forced printers to undertake risky printing
experiments––with varying degrees of success––during this time in order to mechanize handcraft
techniques. Importantly, these choices in printed books reveal how printers judiciously chose
which handcraft elements to incorporate in their printed products, either through hiring scribes
and illuminators or adapting the printing press to simulate the embellishments.
Bespoke books informed both printing practices and the book trade in fifteenth-century
Italy. In order to understand their influence, I begin with an overview of the spread of print
technology from the Rhine Valley to the Italian peninsula, and the adoption of this technology
among the elite and lay audiences alike. This chapter examines the use of manuscript techniques
8
Curt Bühler, The Fifteenth-Century Book: The Scribes, the Printers, the Decorators (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960), 16.
9
McKitterick, Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order, 33-4.
30
in printed books as a predecessor to more complex experiments with the printing press in the
decades that followed as well as the methods that printers developed that combined print and
handcraft techniques.
The remainder of the chapter will examine the various ways that bespoke books
complicate our understanding of the transition from scribal culture to print culture. Using
specific case studies dealing with one of the most extravagant and risky experiments during this
time––printing with gold––I show how printers adapted the printing press to meet their needs as
well as the desires of their clientele. In addition, I examine the reverse of this practice in which
illuminators added gold or color on top of printed words and images. These techniques are only a
few of the wide array of experiments and innovations that took place during the incunabula
period, but they offer insight as to why printers chose to embark on risky ventures and hire artists
to embellish printed books. In efforts to merge both print and manuscript, printers created a new
type of book that would earn them the acclaim and patronage of readers and, ultimately, help
shape the changing attitudes towards works on paper, including prints and drawings, in the early
modern period.
The Bespoke Book in the Early Days of Italian Printing
The movement of printing technology from the Rhine Valley to the Italian peninsula
depended on individuals traveling to make their fortune abroad. In 1465, Konrad Sweynheym (d.
ca. 1476) and Arnold Pannartz (d. 1477)––two émigrés from Mainz and Cologne––arrived at the
Benedictine monastery in Subiaco, a town east of Rome.
10
There, they set up a press and issued
10
See Gabriele Paolo Carosi, Da Magonza a Subiaco: L’introduzione della stampa in Italia (Busto
Arsizio: Bramante, 1982). See also M.D. Feld, “Sweynheym and Pannartz, Cardinal Bessarion,
Neoplatonism: Renaissance Humanism and Two Early Printers’ Choice of Texts,” Harvard Library
Bulletin XXX (1982): 282-335.
31
three books in quick succession before moving their operation to Rome in 1467.
11
Nearly
simultaneously, Ulrich Han (d. ca. 1478) and Sixtus Riessinger (fl. fifteenth c.), also traveling
from north of the Alps, established a printing house in Rome in 1465 and printed their first book
at the end of 1466.
12
Around this time, Johannes de Spira (also Speyer, d. 1469), another German printer from
the Rhine region, began printing books in Venice. There, he issued two editions of Cicero’s
Epistolae ad familiares and an edition of Pliny’s Historia naturalis in 1469.
13
The Venetian
senate quickly awarded Johannes a monopoly on book printing in the city, but the privilege was
never put into practice due to the printer’s untimely death in the winter of that same year.
14
His
brother Wendelin (also Vindelinus) took over the business; however, with the privilege defunct,
other printers soon established shops in Venice. For instance, Nicolas Jenson (ca. 1435–80), a
former master of the French Royal Mint in Tours who likely worked with the Spira brothers,
established one of the most successful print shops of the fifteenth century in Venice in 1470.
15
Jenson had competition: between 1469 and 1474, about fifteen shops had printed over 130
editions with the number swelling by 1500 to over fifty printers and around 3,500 editions.
16
11
The three books were: Marcus Tullius Cicero, De oratore (Subiaco: Conradus Sweynheym and
Arnoldus Pannartz, before 30 Sept. 1465), ISTC ic00654000; Lucius Coelius Lactantius, Firmianus,
Opera (Subiaco: Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz, 29 Oct. 1465), ISTC il00001000;
Aurelius Augustinus, De civitate dei, (Subiaco: Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz, 12 June
1467), ISTC ia01230000.
12
Johannes de Turrecremata, Meditationes seu Contemplationes devotissimae (Rome: Ulrich Han, 31
Dec. 1466/7), ISTC it00534800. Donati in La Bibliofila (1973) dated the book to 1466 since it was likely
that Han was dating according to the Nativity style even though the imprint reads 1467. Additionally,
Riessinger was responsible for bringing the printing press to Naples around 1470.
13
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistolae ad familiares (Venice: Johannes de Spira, before 18 Sept., 1469),
ISTC ic00504000; Pliny, Historia naturalis (Venice: Johannes de Spira, before 18 Sept., 1469), ISTC
ip00786000.
14
Martin Lowry, Nicolas Jenson and the Rise of Venetian Publishing in Renaissance Europe (Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1991), 48.
15
Lowry, Nicolas Jenson, 48.
16
Armstrong, “The Hand-Illumination of Printed Books,” 35. Armstrong’s data is derived from ISTC.
32
Jenson is primarily known for his development of a new roman type in book printing.
Like many of his contemporaries, he worked with scribes who assisted in designing type based
on well-established styles like the popular Carolingian script.
17
In Jenson’s case, he likely drew
from numerous sources for his capital and lower-case alphabets including some of the most
influential scribes of the day including Felice Feliciano (1433–79) and Bartolomeo di San Vito
(1433–1511), respectively.
18
Feliciano in particular had a special interest in script and type. He
wrote a manuscript treatise about the geometric construction of Roman capitals, Alphabetum
Romanum (Roman alphabet, 1463), in which he described the methods for creating proportional
and exact letters using squares and circles.
19
While Jenson was not alone in turning to the
writings and examples of these scribes, he was the first to execute the types in print with
comparable levels of detail and refinement to the pen. The capitals of his roman type, for
instance, have sharp, backward-sloping serifs; the Qs have long tails and the bowl thickness of
his Ps, Ds, and Bs are varied. Feliciano recommended all these design elements in his
Alphabetum. As a form of tribute, Jenson additionally named Feliciano in his dedicatory pages in
Scriptores rei rusticae (Writings on agriculture, 1472).
20
For Jenson, there was a clear desire to
bridge the two mediums of print and manuscript. He recognized the importance of adapting the
freedom of calligraphic alphabets to movable type, and relied heavily on scribal examples. Type
at its core, from Gutenberg’s blackletter to Jenson’s roman, was innovating in nature, and a
17
Lowry, Nicolas Jenson, 77.
18
Ibid., 79-81. For Jenson’s Latin alphabets, there is no conclusive, singular source. There is not enough
documentary evidence to connect him directly to specific scribes but comparisons between his types and
scripts, particularly from Paduan scribes, show that Jenson was well-aware of the styles and sought to
imitate them in his type.
19
For more on Felice Feliciano see Evelyn Karet, “Stefano da Verona, Felice Feliciano and the First
Renaissance Collection of Drawings,” Arte Lombarda 124 (1998): 31-51. One manuscript of Alphabetum
survives in the Vatican Library, Codex Vat. lat. 6852. See also Lilian Armstrong, Petrarch’s Famous
Men in the Early Renaissance: The Illuminated Copies of Felice Felicano’s Edition (London: The
Warburg Institute, 2016).
20
Lowry, Nicolas Jenson, 78-9.
33
printer’s success in the fifteenth century depended on their ability to translate the pen to the
press.
The technology for reproducing text (and images) was already an established practice in
the fifteenth century. Block books, made from woodblocks incised with images and text,
preceded printed books made from movable type. The image and text were cut together on a
single block and then the block was inked and rubbed (rather than impressed) through a piece of
paper or cloth. When issued together, the woodcuts formed a type of codex.
21
Predating block
books, woodblocks were used to stamp designs on textiles, according to the artist Cennino
d’Andrea Cennini (ca. 1370–1440); moreover, woodblocks were also used to make small,
devotional images and playing cards.
22
Thus, beginning in the fourteenth century, early methods
of reproduction using tools like woodblocks existed alongside methods of hand-reproduction
such as the pecia system in which scribes circulated “exemplars” of manuscripts among
universities and scriptoria.
23
The crucial shift came with Gutenberg’s invention of movable type.
Unlike the images and texts of the block books, movable type consisted of separately struck
letters in metal. Printers could then in arrange the letters in a form in near-infinite combinations,
rather than having to carve out a singular woodblock for each line of text or image.
21
See Sabine Mertens, et. al., Blockbücher des Mittelalters: Bilderfolgen als Lektüre… (Mainz: P. von
Zabern, 1991). The catalogue contains essays and an appendix listing all known surviving examples of
block books. See also Arthur Hind, An Introduction to the History of the Woodcut, 2 vols. (New York:
Dover Publications, 1963, rprt.), I:207-64; Needham, “Prints in the Early Printing Shops,” 45-55.
22
Cennino d’Andrea Cennini, The Craftsman’s Handbook: Il Libro dell’ Arte, trans. Daniel V.
Thompson, Jr. (New York: Dover Publications, 1960), 115-8. See also Hind, History of the Woodcut, I:
64-197.
23
Marcel Thomas, “Manuscripts,” in The Coming of the Book, 20-2. For more on the pecia system see:
Jean Destrez, La pecia dans les manuscrits universitaires du XIIIe et du XIVe siècle (Paris: Vautrain,
1935); Robert Steele, “The pecia,” Library 11 (1931): 230-4; Graham Pollard, “The pecia system in the
medieval universities,” in Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts, and Libraries: Essays Presented to N.R. Ker,
eds. M.B. Parkes and Andrew G. Watson (London: Scolar Press, 1978), 145-61; Jean Vezin, “La
fabrication du manuscript,” in Histoire de l’édition françaises, vol. I (Paris: Editions du Cercle de la
librairie – Promodis, 1990), 35-8.
34
The process for making type required the skills of a metal-smith, like Jenson. First, the
outline of a letter was traced onto a piece of hard steel, and then the negative space was filed
away leaving the letter in relief. This piece of metal, termed the letter punch, was then struck into
soft copper using a hammer creating an impression. The copper impression, more commonly
known as the matrix, was then placed in the bottom of a hand mould, a tall, rectangular wooden
box-like structure. A soft alloy of tin, lead, and antimony was then poured into the mould. When
the wooden framework was removed, the letter remained in relief at the base of about an inch-
long metal shaft. Skilled workers could produce four individual characters of type a minute,
making it possible for printers to amass large quantities of individual characters.
24
Paired with the press itself, printers deployed movable type at an unprecedented speed
and volume. The printing press consisted of primarily two different components: the forme and
the press. The forme was a wooden frame into which the compositor set individual pieces of
type. The compositor set each line of text, copying from a manuscript onto a “compositor stick”
that he could then transfer to the forme. Once the forme was complete with the designated lines
of text, the type was inked and dampened paper or treated vellum was fixed onto a frame that
was lowered using a screw and lever borrowed from winepresses. The press only required two
people to operate: one to ink and set the paper and the other to operate the screw and lever.
25
The
combined technology of the press and movable type, requiring a smaller workforce than
manuscript production, made books at a greatly accelerated speed. But speed was not everything,
and printers like Jenson continued to seek out ways of distinguishing their wares from those of
their competitors.
24
Andrew Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), 23-5.
25
Ibid., 25-6.
35
For instance, printers continued to employ scribes and illuminators to embellish printed
books. Two copies (one a variant) of Sweynheym and Pannartz’s 1468 edition of St. Jerome’s
Epistolae, located at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, were printed on vellum with elaborate
white-vine borders, initials, and blue and red paragraph marks added by hand (Figs 1.1-2).
26
Another copy, now at the British Library, also contains blue and red paragraph marks and
capitals in gold with hand-coloring throughout. The first leaves of text in each of the two
volumes of the British Library copy also contain illuminations. The first volume has a border in a
vine-branch design encircling the coat of arms of Cardinal Aloysius de Aragon, Bishop of Leon
(fl. 1477–85) with putti holding up the shield. The second volume has a floral border with
another coat of arms situated at the foot of the design.
27
A fourth copy, at the Huntington
Library, also contains elaborate gold-leaf initials, foliage and vine borders, and two coat of arms:
an unidentified armorial displaying a hedgehog and an armorial with blue dragonheads belonging
to the Bandini family in Camerino.
28
By commissioning scribes or illuminators, printers
Sweynheym and Pannartz (or the owners) made these printed copies of Epistolae bespoke.
Swenynhem and Pannartz’s use of moveable type alongside manuscript techniques such as
illumination is but one example of the innovative nature of many incunables during this period.
In addition, the known provenance of two of these copies of Epistolae, a cardinal and a
prominent Italian family, indicates that the audience of these types of bespoke books that
combined print and manuscript techniques was a rarified one.
26
Hieronymus (St. Jerome), Johannes Andreas (editor), Epistolae … (Rome: Conradus Sweynheym and
Arnoldus Pannartz, 13 Dec. 1468), Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana VEAE126261 and VEAE126264;
ISTC ih00161000.
27
The two copies at the British Library are the two variants (C.13.e.1-2 and G.8041-2). The second
variant has a different typeset for the text in volume 1. See also “Epistolae,” British Library catalogue,
accessed October 24, 2019, http://explore.bl.uk/BLVU1:LSCOP-ALL:BLL01001865970
28
Huntington Library online catalogue, “Jerome, Saint,” accessed October 24, 2019,
http://catalog.huntington.org/record=b1259646
36
Like Sweynheym and Pannartz in Rome, printers in Venice also turned to scribes and
illuminators to embellish printed books. According to Lilian Armstrong, the significant output of
hand-illuminated printed texts in Venice offers two conclusions: first that illuminators and
miniaturist were under pressure to produce decorated books at an accelerated rate, and second,
that booksellers often arranged for the decoration of books prior to the sale (as opposed to buyers
decorating books after the purchase). Questions still persist with regard to the exact details of
how transactions occurred amongst printers, booksellers, illuminators, and buyers operated,
namely who facilitated the decoration, where it took place, and how soon it was completed.
Nonetheless, the large number of surviving hand-illuminated incunabula show the prevalence of
this practice and that the methods of acquiring decoration were just as varied as the decorations
themselves.
29
Illuminations and miniatures generally followed manuscript traditions of bianchi girali
(white vinestem) designs, gold initials against solid grounds, acanthus leaves, and line and dot
work. However, the extent to which copies of printed books were decorated also varied. Some
only had a singular illuminated initial, others had initials throughout; some only had rubrications,
and others had extravagant decorative borders with miniatures.
30
One commonality among the
designs in hand-illuminated printed books is repetitious patterns. This is especially prevalent in
the vinestem designs that often occupy the margins on the first leaf of text. The repeating
patterns, moreover, made for a more efficient completion of the illumination. This type of design
presented an opportunity for printers to try a different kind of technique. In Venice, the Spira
press stamped woodcut borders after printing the text on the first leaf in their 1472 edition of
29
Lilian Armstrong, “The Impact of Printing on Miniaturists in Venice after 1469,” in Printing the
Written Word: The Social History of Books circa 1450–1520, ed. Sandra Hindman (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1991), 175.
30
Ibid., 180-1.
37
Giovanni Boccaccio’s Genealogiae deorum (The Genealogy of the gods).
31
The borders,
designed by the miniaturist known as the Master of the Putti, are white vinestems with two putti
represented as Tritons blowing horns in front of a vessel and a central medallion for a coat-of-
arms in the lower margins. In the copy at the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the
medallion was left blank but the white vinestem was colored. The designs appeared previously in
a Spira edition of Cicero’s Epistolae ad familiares from 1471, now in Paris, and once again in
Jenson’s 1472 Pliny now in Baltimore.
32
Interestingly, the putti-Tritons are absent from the
Cicero but are included in the Pliny. From this, it is evident that the border consisted of separate
woodblocks that could be arranged as the printer, or the perhaps the miniaturist, saw fit. The
woodcut borders were likely intended to expedite the process of illumination, serving as outlines
or guides for the artists.
Another common motif in hand-illuminated printed books is the inclusion of a coat-of-
arms, generally integrated into a border design or floating in the upper or lower margin on the
first leaf of text. The presence of coat-of-arms indicates that someone went the extra step of
personalizing the book beyond decorative illuminations. The purchaser of the book, whether they
kept it for themselves or gave it as a gift, could add the coat-of-arms, or the printer could add the
arms if they intended to present the book as a gift to a patron. Significantly, the coat-of-arms was
at times left blank, as is the case of a copy of Jenson’s edition of Pliny’s Historia naturalis
(Natural history, 1472) at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (Fig. 1.3).
33
The border, executed
by the Pico Master, consists of a white vinestem design and putti. The escutcheon in the lower
register of the border is left blank. The emptiness of the white, shield-shaped space is in stark
31
Giovanni Boccaccio, Genealogiae deorum (Venice: Vindelinus de Spira, 1472), ISTC ib00749000.
32
Lilian Armstrong, Renaissance Miniature Painters & Classical Imagery: The Master of the Putti and
his Venetian Workshop (London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 1981), 122, cat. no. 33.
33
Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), Johannes Andreas (editor), Historia naturalis (Venice:
Nicolaus Jenson, 1472), Bibliothèque Nationale, BN, Réserve S. 414, bk. I; ISTC, ip00788000.
38
contrast to the surrounding illuminations; it is obvious that the coat-of-arms required “filling-in.”
However, the purchaser of the book never finished the design. The blank coat-of-arms
additionally implies that hand-illuminated books were not only made as “special orders” but
perhaps the printer or bookseller had cause to decorate a certain number of their products “on
spec” for potential buyers.
34
Printers in Italy also formatted printed books with the expectation that owners could add
embellishments at their discretion. Printed books had wide margins, blank spaces for capitals,
and often lacked book and chapter headings to leave space for borders, initials, rubrications, and
headings done by hand. Without these manuscript additions, the printed book was
“unfinished.”
35
The result was often printed books with initials, paragraph marks, and chapter
headings, done in pen and ink, with more elaborate examples featuring illuminated miniatures,
borders, and initials.
36
More than simply “finishing” a printed books (since the majority of
printed books lack these manuscript additions), incunables with this formatting show that
printers used the printing press to encourage individual tastes alongside mass-production.
The desire to increase the speed of decorating had a significant impact on the printing
press. Printers began to experiment with new ways to mechanize hand-techniques. Some of these
were subtle but no less significant, such as the development of more refined and detailed
typefaces. Printers also began to replace hand-illuminated decorative borders with woodcut ones
while others began incorporating woodcut illustrations throughout the text. These developments
in the visual appearances of books would become commonplace by the end of the fifteenth
century. However, even as these techniques became standard, printers continued to experiment
with new ways of enhancing their products.
34
Armstrong, “The Impact of Printing on Miniaturists in Venice,” 182, 189.
35
Armstrong, “The Hand-Illumination of Printed Books,” 37.
36
McKitterick, Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order, 33-5.
39
Following in the footsteps of the Spira brothers and Jenson, another émigré printer
traveled to the Veneto to seek his fortune in the burgeoning book trade. Erhard Ratdolt (1442–
1528) arrived in Venice around 1476. Ratdolt, the son of an Augsburg woodcarver, began his
printing career in Italy during a relatively stable period of Venetian printing. As Martin Lowry
has expertly explained, the printers of Venice endured several tumultuous years spurred by a
distrust of the printing press on moral and practical grounds. Around 1472, a “crisis” occurred in
the Italian printing industry. A scandal involving printed, forged paper currency in Venice sent
the Council of Ten on a lengthy investigation to find the culprits. The inquisition in turn
motivated Fra Filippo de Strata (also Strada, active late fifteenth c.), a vocal opponent of the
printing press, to launch his loudest campaign yet against the new technology.
37
Fra Filippo was a Benedictine monk and scribe at S. Cipriano on the island of Murano,
only a narrow waterway away from the growing printer center of Venice. Within a few years of
the Spira brothers’ first imprints, the monk addressed a poem to the current Doge of Venice,
Nicolo Marcello (reign, August 1473–December 1474).
38
In his poem written in Latin, now
known as the Polemic Against Printing, Fra Filippo addresses several issues with satirical and
hyperbolic flair, including the influx of immoral texts, the immigration of northern printers to
Italy, and the loss of the manuscript arts with the printing press. With regard to the business
practice of printers he states: “They shamelessly print, at a negligible price, material which may,
alas, inflame impressionable youths, while a true writer dies of hunger.” Fra Filippo is here
referring to the saturation of printed Latin classics, especially less-than-virtuous and sensual
Roman poetry, readily available on the book market at the time. Between 1469 and 1473, the
Spira brothers printed forty-nine Latin editions, including classics, commentaries, and grammars.
37
Lowry, Nicolas Jenson, 107. See also Richardson, “The debates on printing,” 144.
38
See Martin Lowry’s introduction in Filippo de Strata, Polemic Against Printing, trans. Shelagh Grier,
ed. and introduction Martin Lowry ([Birmingham]: The Hayloft Press, 1986), n.p.
40
Jenson printed seventeen Latin editions before Fra Filippo finally took pen to paper to lodge his
complaints.
39
The “true writer” for Fra Filippo was the Italian writer who lived “like a beast in a
stall” while “printers guzzle wine and, swamped in excess, bray and scoff.” Here, Fra Filippo is
alluding to the German printers who had developed a reputation, whether true or not, as heavy-
drinkers in the Veneto.
40
According to Fra Filippo, the overabundance of printed books coupled
with foreign printers’ inability to grasp classical learning in turn led to decrease in quality of
texts, and rather than improving education, only encouraged idiocy (“so it happens that asses go
to school”).
41
Comparing writing (scriptura) to the printing press (stamparum) he writes:
Writing indeed, which brings in gold for us, should be respected and held to be
nobler than all goods, unless she has suffered degradation in the brother of the
printing-presses. She is a maiden with a pen, a harlot in print.
42
In his proclamations of wantonness, corruption, and stoking of xenophobia, Fra Filippo
was doing his utmost to align book printers with the aforementioned forgers currently
under investigation in Venice; Lowry suspects that the monk was responsible for the
shuttering of at least eight print shops in due course.
43
While his railings, which
continued in more poems until the early sixteenth century, for the most, part ultimately
went unheeded, their existence shows that framing the incunabula period as time of
smooth transition from manuscript to print belies the serious uncertainties plaguing
printed books in their early years on the market.
39
Lowry, “Introduction,” in Polemic Against Printing, n.p.
40
Ibid.
41
Here there is a small kernel of truth to Fra Filippo’s assessment. Mistakes and inaccuracies were
common in printed books at the time since the role of the editor was still nebulous and printers had
limited access to certain titles. For more see Chapter 1: “Printers, Authors and the Rise of the Editor” in
Brian Richardson, Print Culture in Renaissance Italy: The Editor and the Vernacular Text, 1470–1600
(Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1994), 1-18.
42
Filippo de Strata, Polemic Against Printing, n.p.
43
Lowry, “Introduction,” in Polemic Against Printing, n.p
41
In addition to Fra Fillipo’s anti-printing rhetoric, there is evidence that some across
Europe had misgivings and even distrust of the printing press. In 1481, Ratdolt printed his
second edition of Fasciculus temporum, a summary of world history written by the German
monk Werner Rolevinck. Around 1498, a Neapolitan scribe transcribed the majority of Ratdolt’s
1481 edition using pen and ink on paper. The manuscript, now at the Morgan Library (MS
M.801), consists of 151 leaves of four texts bound together; folios 1r to 51v are part of
Fasciculus temporum. At the time the manuscript was made, there were thirty-three printed
editions of Fasciculus temporum on the market, and five of them from Ratdolt’s press. The
scribe dutifully copied not only the text but also the layout of the pages and the illustrations from
Ratdolt’s printed 1481 edition. The words, number of lines, and even misprinted words and
certain illustrations match in both books; of particular interest is a scene of Venice often printed
in reverse in many editions but printed correctly in Ratdolt’s 1481 edition. With so many
available printed editions of Rolevinck’s text, why did a scribe in Naples make a manuscript of
the text? Employing the printed book in the same manner as an exemplar manuscript in the pecia
system, the scribe in Naples perhaps borrowed Ratdolt’s edition of Fasciculus temporum, and
then copied it for his client (perhaps unbeknownst to the client) because the client mistrusted
printed books, influenced by Fra Fillipo and other detractors. Or, perhaps the client preferred the
personalization of a hand-written text. Regardless, the manuscript of Fasciculus temporum
shows a give and take between manuscripts and print, rather than a smooth shift from scribal to
print culture. Given the diverse attitudes about the printed book in the fifteenth century, in order
for printers to be successful they needed not to supplant manuscript with print, but rather to
merge the two media
42
Erhard Ratdolt’s Experiments and Printing in Gold
Taking Fra Filippo’s polemic and the manuscript copy of Fasciculus temporum into
account, printers in the fifteenth century faced an uphill battle to acquire audiences for their
products. According to Lowry, only Nicolas Jenson survived relatively unscathed the aftermath
of both Strata’s writings and the counterfeit scandal. As a result, the savviest of printers adopted
his business strategies as their own, including Ratdolt. Before, during, and after the crisis, Jenson
shored up his business by strengthening relations outside of Venice, shifted his capital
accruement from a small group of elite patrons to a larger contingency of academic persons, and
used his connections to ensure support from the Pope.
44
Finally, Jenson chose to print titles that
appealed to multiple audiences, and additionally developed new and novel ways of printing these
titles.
One title from Ratdolt’s press particularly exemplifies these successful business
practices. In 1482 Ratdolt issued the editio princeps of Euclid’s fifteen books on geometry
known as Elementa geometriae (Elements of geometry), adding unique visual elements to his
printed version of this foundational Greek geometry text.
45
For the general print run on paper, he
included woodcut borders on the first leaf of the main text. He additionally developed a new type
of combined woodcut/metal cut so that the exact geometrical diagrams could be printed
alongside the text. In special vellum and paper copies intended for an elite clientele, the text
preface on the verso of the first leaf was printed in gold (Fig. 1.4).
44
Lowry, Nicholas Jenson, 111.
45
Euclides, Adelardus Bathoniensis (translator), Johannes Campanus (editor), Elementa geometriae …
(Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 25 May 1482), ISTC ie00113000.
43
Euclid’s writings formed the basis of geometry since antiquity. Euclid’s work flourished
from the mid-fourth century to the mid-third century BCE.
46
His thirteen books on geometry
were initially compiled in the fourth century CE, and were passed down through later
mathematicians, who continued to augment the theorems, eventually adding two more books.
47
The first four books are on plane geometry; books five through ten concern ratios and
proportions; books eleven through thirteen cover spatial geometry; and the apocryphal books
fourteen and fifteen are about regular polyhedrons. Altogether, these fifteen books became
known as the Elements, and Euclid as the “writer of the Elements.”
48
Significantly, Elements
presented readers proven, mathematical truths as well as new philosophical models for
contemplating the universe, namely, that geometric principles offered a methodical order for
studying the perception of reality.
49
46
See Proclus, A Commentary on the First Book Euclid’s Elements, trans. and introduction Glenn R.
Morrow (Princeton: Princeton, University Press, 1970). Proclus (412–85 CE) offered a brief biography of
Euclid in his commentary on the first book stating that Euclid lived during the “time of the first Ptolemy”
and was “younger than the pupils of Plato...but older than Archimedes.” Although, it he must be noted
that Proclus was likely speaking anecdotally and there is no evidence to back up his claims. See Thomas
Heath, A History of Greek Mathematicians, Volume 1: From Thales to Euclid, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1921), 354. According to Heath, since Plato died in 347 BCE and Archimedes lived from 287–12
BC, Euclid flourished around 300 BCE, which in turn corresponds with the reign of Ptolemy I from 306
to 283 BCE.
47
These students included Theon of Alexandria, ca. 335–405 CE (believed to be the first arranger of
Elements, later copies cite his “lectures” as their source); Proclus, ca. 450 and Pappus of Alexandria, ca.
320 CE: both make reference to Euclid as the “writer of the Elements”; also mentioned by Archimedes,
287-212 BCE.
48
Heath, Greek Mathematics, 357. Heath notes that from Archimedes onward, Euclid was almost
exclusively referred to only as the “writer of the Elements” (ó στοιχειωτης) rather than by his name. It
should also be noted that in the early modern period, the writer of the Elements was also often incorrectly
conflated with the Socratic philosopher Megarensis born in Megara around the fifth century BCE. Henry
Billingsley and John Dee, for example, name the author of their 1570 edition as Euclid of Megara.
However, the identity of Euclid was contested even during this time. For instance, Federico Commandino
refutes the claim that the writer of the Elements was Euclid of Megara in the preface to his translation
from 1572.
49
Paul Lawrence Rose, The Italian Renaissance of Mathematics: Studies on Humanists and
Mathematicians from Petrarch to Galileo (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1975), 6.
44
In addition to its philosophical and mathematical impact, Euclidean geomtry set an
important precedent concerning the relationship between text and images. Euclid’s Elements
depended on the conjunction of the diagram and the proof alongside textual or oral explanations
––as is evident from the earliest surviving papyrus fragment dated ca. 75–125 CE containing the
diagram of Proposition 5, Book II.
50
The accuracy of Euclid’s theorems, supported with visual
diagrams rather than algebraic calculations, has led scholars to claim that Elements survived for
centuries as an unrevised and unsurpassed text in mathematics.
51
However, this claim
presupposes that the process of transmission in the western world from the fourth century BCE
to the early modern period (and even the present day) was an unbroken chain and ignores Arabic
translations. In fact, there were many different translations and versions of Elements across this
entire time period. Before the twelfth century CE, Euclid’s Elements was known in parts of
Europe from the Latin translation made around 500 CE by the Roman Boethius (ca. 480–524
CE), and even then, only parts of the fifteen books were known. In the twelfth century, three
independent translations—two from Arabic sources and one from the Greek—became available.
Robert of Chester (fl. twelfth c.), an English Arabist, reworked the Arabic translation and
Boethius’s Latin translation around 1140, and later Campanus of Novara (ca. 1220–96) enriched
Robert’s text with newly available contemporary material around 1255. Campanus’ version
50
Reviel Netz, The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics: A Study in Cognitive History
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 13-4. For the papyrus fragment, see David Fowler, The
Mathematics of Plato’s Academy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), 211. Fowler, after personal
correspondence with papyrus historian and archeologist E.G. Turner, revised the date of the fragment.
The fragment is known as Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 29 (P.Oxy.I 0029), and is currently held at the
University Museum at the University of Pennsylvania.
51
J.V. Field, The Invention of Infinity: Mathematics and Art in the Renaissance (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1997), 224-5. Pure geometry was considered the method that the ancients used for
arriving at theorems and was based on the visualization and construction of geometric figures. The
development of algebra in the later sixteenth century caused mathematicians to reconsider the best
methods of geometry. For the role of the Elements in this division see Samuel Y. Edgerton, The Heritage
of Giotto’s Geometry: Art and Science on the Even of the Scientific Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1991), 42.
45
reigned as the dominant text in Europe, and formed the basis of the first printed edition of
Elements.
52
From its first printing, Elements was an amalgamation of revisions, translations, and
additions derived from numerous sources including Arabic and Latin texts. The first printed
edition of Elements did not appear until nearly thirty years after Gutenberg established the
printing press and movable type in Mainz around 1450, and almost twenty years after the first
printing press arrived in Italy in 1465 when Ratdolt issued the editio princeps in 1482.
Humanists, an emerging class of intellectuals in the fifteenth century who studied the quadrivium
(arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music) were in need of textbooks, especially those from
Greek and Roman authors.
53
Between 1482 and 1600, no fewer than forty-six editions of
Elements were printed across Europe, with at least the first six books available in Greek, Latin,
Arabic, Italian, French, German, English, and Spanish were printed across Europe; only eight of
these were without diagrams. In addition, another thirty-eight partial editions (less than six
books) were also printed in this time frame.
54
The numerous editions that followed from printers
across Europe attest to the demand for the geometry text amongst humanists and others, and the
continued importance of Elements throughout the early modern period.
As the first printer of Elements, Ratdolt boasts in his preface that before his edition it was
impossible to print mathematical works with their corresponding diagrams “without which
nothing in this science can be well understood.” He continues “that it was this alone that formed
an obstacle to something that would be useful to all,” and after applying himself to the problem
“and not without putting in much hard work, that geometrical figures can be composed with the
52
Menso Folkerts, The Development of Mathematics in Medieval Europe (Burlington, VT: Ashgate,
2006), 2.
53
Rose, The Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 3.
54
Charles Thomas-Stanford, Early Editions of Euclid’s Elements (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts,
1977), 19-32.
46
same ease as movable type.”
55
In other words, it was a technical achievement on Ratdolt’s part to
issue a classical mathematical text with diagrams due to the difficulty of printing accurate figures
alongside type.
Ratdolt was not wrong to suggest that the diagrams in Euclid’s Elements were essential to
the understanding of the text. The importance of the figures is apparent in the theorems
themselves since they rely on visual proofs rather than algebraic calculations. Taking Proposition
1 in Book I as an example, the proposition posits that one can construct an equilateral triangle on
any given finite straight line.
56
The figure that accompanies the proposition shows two
equilateral triangles formed from a shared finite straight line sitting neatly inside the overlapping
area of two circles (Fig. 1.5). Within the diagram are lower case letters that correspond to the
text. The diagram labels “a-b” as the line segment that forms the basis of the proof. Points “a”
and “b” are the centers of the two circles and points “c” and “d” are the intersections of the two
circles. The lines that connect points a, b, c, and d within the circles are all equal to one another,
forming two equilateral triangles, and proving that an equilateral triangle; hence, the diagram
proves that an equilateral triangle can be constructed on any finite straight line. Without using
algebraic or numeric formulas, proposition I.1 demonstrates that any line of any length is subject
to this rule.
57
The appearance of these diagrams in Ratdolt’s edition of Elements is deceptively simple;
all of the figures (more than 480 in all) consist of varying combinations of straight lines and
55
Erhard Ratdolt, dedication to Doge Mocenigo, in Euclid, Elementa geometriae, *1v.
56
Euclid, Euclid’s Elements, 3.
57
Sachiko Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature: Image, Text, and Argument in Sixteenth-Century
Human Anatomy and Medical Botany (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2012), 193.
47
circles.
58
However, the figures, much like the text, represent a culmination of centuries of
adaptions and interpretations. The most apparent departure from the earliest surviving papyrus
fragments to the editio princeps is the addition of letters to the diagram, likely incorporated in
the ensuing centuries.
59
Additionally, variants in diagrams existed across Arabic and Latin
medieval manuscripts. Scribes added too many labels, drew too inaccurate lines, and even at
times created mathematically impossible configurations in the persistent copying of multiple
manuscripts in varying arrangements, fragments, and languages.
60
The obstacles that Ratdolt
faced in printing Elements, therefore, included translating and executing both the diagrams and
the text in a readable and comprehensible fashion.
The image and text are interdependent, and the success of a printed volume relied on the
printer’s ability to seamlessly merge the two components.
61
One of Ratdolt’s earliest
biographers, Gilbert Redgrave, described the figures in Elements as “admirably engraved wood-
cuts [sic] of great delicacy and intricacy.”
62
Redgrave made this assumption since woodcuts were
the most commonly used means in the fifteenth century to print images in books, since the raised
lines of the incised block matched the raised lines of the metal type. Consequently, a woodblock
and the type could be set together within a matrix thereby expediting the printing process.
63
However, as later scholars have noted, woodcuts at the time of the book’s printing were not
58
Renzo Baldasso, “La stampa dell’ editio princeps degli Elementi di Euclide (Venezia, Erhard Ratdolt,
1482),” in The Books of Venice – Il Libro Veneziano, eds. Lisa Pon and Craig Kallendorf (New Castle,
DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2005-2007), 66.
59
Gregg De Young, “Mathematical Diagrams from Manuscript to Print: Examples from the Arabic
Euclidean Transmission,” Synthese 186 (2012): 22. See also Netz, The Shaping of Deduction, 15. Netz
notes that Aristotle used lettered diagrams in his lectures suggesting that the letters were as much of part
of Greek oral tradition as textual tradition.
60
Ken Saito, “Traditions of the Diagram, Tradition of the Text: A Case Study,” Synthese 186 (2012): 8-9.
61
Netz, Shaping of Deduction, 25.
62
Gilbert Richard Redgrave, Erhard Ratdolt and his Work in Venice (London: Bibliographical Society at
the Chiswick Press, 1894), 16.
63
Hind, History of the Woodcut, I:2-3.
48
advanced enough to produce the fine and exact lines of the diagrams. Ratdolt himself references
this in his preface as the “obstacle” preventing the printing of diagrams in mathematical
treatises.
64
How then did Ratdolt print the diagrams in Elements? Recently, Renzo Baldasso has
noted the absence of wood grain marks in the diagrams as further evidence that Ratdolt
employed a different technique. In one specific example of the diagram in Proposition 17, Book
8 Baldasso notes that the raised lines from a diagram visible on the verso of the leaf are smooth
and curved rather than exhibiting the telltale wedge shaped imprint of a woodcut.
65
This
observation led him to concur with A. Hyatt Mayor’s earlier speculation that Ratdolt bent metal
strips and set them in plaster or lead to make the diagrams.
66
Using metal strips to create the
diagrams can account for the crispness and evenness of the lines and circles, and moreover,
Ratdolt could set the metal-cast diagrams with the type.
Ratdolt’s experiment in printing the diagrams using metal and wood was an important
factor for the edition’s success. Today, according to the British Library’s Incunabula Short Title
Catalogue, 272 institutions around the world hold at least one copy of Ratdolt’s edition, with
many institutions holding more than one copy. Sold for a relatively inexpensive price at 2 lira,
10 scudi, Ratdolt’s edition of Elements likely did not return a profit; however, the price made the
book more accessible to a general audience.
67
Yet, of these hundreds of surviving texts in
libraries today, there are seven copies that are explicitly not intended for an average book buyer.
64
Sachiko Kusukawa, “Illustrating Nature,” in Books and the Sciences in History, ed. Marina Frasca-
Spada and Nick Jardine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 91.
65
Baldasso, “La stampa dell’ editio princeps,” 67.
66
A. Hyatt Mayor, Prints & People: a social history of printed pictures (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1971), n.p.
67
Lowry, Nicolas Jenson, 212.
49
These seven copies contain a glittering display of Ratdolt’s riskiest experiment of printing with
gold.
68
Like many institutions, the British Library holds multiple copies of Elements. One of
these is on vellum with a gold preface on the verso of the first leaf, and it is illuminated on the
facing recto (Fig. 1.6).
69
King George III (1738–1820) purchased this particular copy from
Joseph Smith (ca. 1682–1770) who had amassed his collection of books and art primarily while
he was the English consul in Venice between 1744 and 1760.
70
A decade before the king
acquired the volume in 1765, a catalogue of Smith’s library, Bibliotheca Smithiana, stated that in
“the dedicatory epistola, the letters are printed in gold.”
71
However, the inventory does not
provide any explanation as to how Ratdolt printed these letters in gold. One French
bibliographer, Prosper Marchand, even called such books “frivolities of the imagination” in
1758.
72
A few years later in 1765, Gerard Meerman rebuked Marchand’s claim stating that
Ratdolt used gold ink to print the preface in Smith’s copy.
73
These examples show that
bibliographers exhibited skepticism and confusion about Ratdolt’s ability to print with gold
resulting in a lack of interest in studying how and why the printer used gold in his preface.
Nonetheless, there was a substantial precedent for using gold in books before Ratdolt’s
experiments with the printing press. Before and after the arrival of the printing press, gold was
applied to vellum and paper in primarily three ways: using shell gold, which involved painting a
68
Victor Carter, Lotte Hellinga, Tony Parker, and Jane Mullane, “Printing with Gold in the Fifteenth
Century,” The British Library Journal 9 (1983): 1.
69
Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century Now in the British Museum, Part V: Venice (London:
Oxford University Press, 1963), V, 285-6.
70
Carter, et. al., “Printing with Gold,” 1.
71
Joseph Smith, et. al., Bibliotheca Smithiana, seu catalogus libroum D. Josephi Smithii Angli per
cognomina authorum dispositus (Venice: Giovanni Battista Pasquali, 1755), clxi.
72
Prosper Marchand, Dictionaire historique, ou Memoires critiques et litteraires, concernant la vie et les
ouvrages de diverses personnages distingues particulierement dans la Republique des lettres, 2 vols. (La
Haye: Chez Peirre de Hondt, 1758-9), 58, note b.
73
Gerard Meerman, Origines Typographicae, 2 vols, (London: Th. Wilcox, 1765), 12.
50
dry surface with opaque; the bronzing method or dusting gold powder on a wet surface coated
with an adhesive; or applying gold leaf to a surface prepared with glaire (a mixture of egg white
and vinegar) or gum.
74
The second method, bronzing, was by far the most prevalent technique
for illuminating books in the Veneto in the fifteenth century. Through the letters of Matteo de’
Pasti (1420–67), a Veronese miniaturist turned medalist, there is clear evidence concerning how
artists learned this method and applied it. Although now lost, Piero de’ Medici commissioned a
set of Petrarch’s Triumphs from the artist around 1441, but possibly after some altercation,
Matteo was forced to leave Florence before finishing the manuscripts. While waiting to return to
Florence, he resided in Venice where he learned the “technique of using powdered gold like any
other color,” promising Piero de’ Medici that he “may see a thing that has never been done like
this before.”
75
Like Ratdolt after him, in his letter to Piero, Matteo leveraged new techniques as a
means for securing patronage. For the artist, the use of powdered gold was a novel technique that
would surely impress his patron despite the artist’s dalliances in Florence.
Powdered gold was fairly common in manuscripts made in the Veneto beginning in the
late fourteenth century according to Cennino d’Andrea Cennini, who recommended using it on
panels, parchment, and walls in his treatise Il Libro dell’Arte (The Craftsman’s Handbook,
manuscript ca. 1390s).
76
The relative ease of application, as compared to the much more delicate
and finicky gold leaf, made it a popular choice for finer details in manuscript illumination like
74
Elizabeth Savage, “Jost de Negker’s Woodcut Charles V (1519): An Undescribed Example of Gold
Printing,” Art in Print 5/2 (2015): 11-12. Savage borrows her explanations from Carter, et. al., “Printing
with Gold,” 4, and also adds a method of gold printing using gold printing ink.
75
Francis Ames-Lewis, “Matteo de’ Pasti and the Use of Powdered Gold,” Mitteilungen des
Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 28/3 (1984): 351-2. The letter (Archivio di Stato di Firenze,
Medici il Prinicpato, fil. XVI, 16) was first published in Milanesi, “Lettere d’artisti italiani dei secoli XIV
e XV,” in Il Buonarroti, 2
nd
series/IV (1869): 78-9. The English translation first appeared in D.S.
Chambers, Patrons and Artists in the Italian Renaissance (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1970), 94-5.
76
Cennini, Il Libro dell’ Arte, 102.
51
highlights in drapery and arabesques.
77
The use of gold in manuscripts, whether it was powdered
or gold leaf, was an integral component of illumination. In his brief section on illumination in Il
Libro dell’ Arte, Cennini devotes the majority of his text to the application of gold describing
both methods of using gold leaf and powdered gold.
78
The importance of gold in manuscripts
added monetary and aesthetic value to the book as well as demonstrated the rarified skills of
illuminators, making the addition of gold, whether powdered or gold leaf, an integral component
in art of illumination.
The frequent use of powdered gold in Venetian manuscripts also found its way into
printed books. Hand-illuminated printed books represent an important category of bookmaking
in the early modern period.
79
However, in the wake of the printing crisis in 1472 and skeptical
attitudes towards the printing press, there was sharp decline in the volume of printed books with
hand-decoration but an increase in the flow of manuscripts indicating that illuminators were
turning their attentions away from the printing business and back towards manuscripts. This led
to a decrease in illuminated printed books.
80
The lack of available scribes and illuminators
possibly led printers, such as Ratdolt, to turn towards mechanical means of reproducing artisan
flourishes and embellishments. If Ratdolt could manipulate the printing press in such a way to
print text in gold, not only would he eliminate the need to hire an illuminator, but he could also
perfected a technique often seen only in the most rarified of manuscripts.
77
For examples see Ames-Lewis, “Matteo de’ Pasti,” 354. He cites the figure of St. Maurice on folio 34v
in the manuscript Passio Mauritii et sotiorum ejus (Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 940) with
powdered gold pigment in the drapery, datable to c. 1452-3. He also includes an earlier example made
around 1400 of Petrarch’s Canzoniere with decoration by Cristoforo Cortese (British Library, Kings MS
321) that contains arabesques made with powdered gold pigment.
78
Cennini, Il Libro dell’ Arte, 100-3.
79
Armstrong, “The Hand-Illumination of Printed Books,” 35.
80
See Armstrong, Miniature Painters, 5.
52
It was in this context that Ratdolt sought out a method of mechanizing the application of
gold in book printing. None of the telltale signs of traditional techniques of applying gold like a
slightly raised surface, loose powder particles, or hairline cracks are visible in Ratdolt’s preface.
The gold letters in Ratdolt’s preface are not suspended in a substance, dusted on, or laid on the
page. Rather, they are printed on the support.
81
This indicates that he developed a different
method for applying gold in his book. The letters in the preface are indented, evidence that a
press was used to apply the gold (Fig. 1.7). Ratdolt also used different, slightly larger typesetting
for the limited print run of copies with the gold preface. The typesetting measures 185 by 118
mm in the books with gold and 175 by 117 mm in the books with preface in black ink. The same
typeface was used for both gold and black based on the type and the occasionally smudge of
black ink in the gold leaf.
82
Since the same metal type was used for both the black and gold, it is
plausible that gold leaf was applied directly to the type. Gold leaf, although difficult to
manipulate, adheres well to lightly greased metal. To facilitate this, Ratdolt’s workshop likely
coated the surface of the vellum or paper with a thin layer of adhesive like rosin, as is evident
from a few stray particles in the British Museum, before imprinting the gold leaf. Additionally,
the rosin was likely warmed to increase its viscosity before using the press to apply the type
coated in the gold leaf. Through a combination of pressure, heat, and adhesive the gold leaf was
transferred with near perfect precision.
This technique is more akin to the practice of gold tooling on leather in bookbinding, and
it is possible that Ratdolt used a bookbinding, or standing, press to achieve the outcome rather
81
Carter, et. al., “Printing with Gold,” 4-5. The authors cite a specific example in the British Library to
illustrate the differences between Ratdolt’s gold printing and other techniques: an edition of Dante printed
in 1472 by Johann Neumeister in Foligno (G.11346.). The first page of this particular copy has a
decorated border on a gold background with gilded capitals. The capitals were printed (most likely with
woodcuts) and painted over using gold flakes suspended in a medium causing the raised effect. The gold
background was applied using gold leaf and as result suffers from many hairline cracks.
82
Carter, et. al., “Printing with Gold,” 6.
53
than a movable type press.
83
A standing press was capable of exerting more pressure than a
typical printing press.
84
To make a gold tooled binding, heated tools were pressed through gold
leaf onto leather to create designs. Like rosin coating the vellum, glaire was brushed onto the
leather to facilitate the gold’s adherence to the leather. This practice was prevalent in Islamic
regions since the thirteenth century, and it arrived in Venice in the mid-fifteenth century.
85
Ratdolt’s possible use of a bookbinder’s press could account for the varying sizes of typesetting
given that he was using different presses in accordance with his materials. While it is unclear
whether Ratdolt had access to a standing press, the correlation between the methods used in gold
tooling and printing with gold shows that he was experimenting with ways of translating
traditional handcrafts to mechanical reproductive processes.
Additionally, printed books destined for elite owners during this time often contained
illuminations added by hand including miniatures, initials, borders, and vine work with gold.
Gold script, however, was rare and reserved for the most exceptional patrons. In Padua for
instance, under Venetian rule since 1409, a manuscript trend wherein parchment was stained
different colors, chief among them were purple and green, and then the miniatures and script
were added in gold.
86
The staining made for a vibrant support, and artists developed different
ways of applying pigment in order to increase the contrast between line and surface. One
example, today in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is a manuscript of Francesco Petrarch’s
83
Carter, et. al., “Printing with Gold,” 9.
84
P.J.M. Marks, The British Library Guide to Bookbinding: History and Techniques (London: The British
Library, 1998), 90.
85
Marks, Guide to Bookbinding, 51. See also Anthony Hobson, Humanists and Bookbinders: The Origins
and Diffusion of the Humanistic Bookbinding 1459–1559 … (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1989).
86
Purple and green weren’t the only colors used to stain parchment. There is another example of a
manuscript of Virgil’s Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid made around ca. 1466-8 in the Bibliotheque
Nationale in Paris (latin 11309) in which a folio was stained yellow. Bartolommeo Sanvito was the
scribe, and Marco Zoppo supplied the metalpoint; the drawing which was Orpheus playing his lyre to the
animals on the yellow folio.
54
(1304–74) Canzoniere (Song book) and Trionfi (Triumphs).
87
The miniatures, by an anonymous
artist and Franco dei Russi (1453–82), are typical of the Paduan style in the late fifteenth century,
which consisted of stained parchment, architectural frontispieces, and the borrowing of motifs
and compositions from classical sculpture. Bartolommeo Sanvito, a Paduan scribe responsible
for pioneering the cursive script later used as a model for italic type, wrote the manuscript
sometime around either 1463–4 or 1466–9.
88
The miniaturists supplied the drawings on the
frontispieces, architectural borders, and historiated capitals. The frontispiece to the Triumph of
Love in the Triumphs portion on bifolium 148v and 149r was made on purple stained parchment
using powdered gold dusted over lines coated in gum arabic, and it is likely that the script was
added in this same manner (Fig. 1.8).
89
The presentation copy of Elements in the British Library and the other surviving copies
with gold printing were products of experimentation with handcraft and mechanical techniques.
These bespoke books were simultaneously unique and iterative, drawing on both the visual and
material components of manuscript and print. The Smith copy of Elements at the British Library
particularly exhibits this convergence of manuscript and print. The gold preface was printed on
the verso of the leaf and the facing recto contains some of Ratdolt’s metal-cast diagrams and an
elaborate illuminated design featuring the printer’s patron and the book’s dedicatee, Doge
Giovanni Mocenigo (1409–85). In addition to the illuminated capital, there is a white vinestem
design along the border and headpiece. In the center of the bottom decoration, the Doge’s coat of
arms is surrounded by garland. The use of vellum as a support, gold printing, illuminated
87
Jonathan J.G. Alexander, ed., The Painted Page: Italian Renaissance Book Illumination 1450–1550,
(Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1994), 152, cat. no. 71, Victoria and Albert Museum, L. 101-1497.
88
Alexander, The Painted Page, 152.
89
Ames-Lewis, “Matteo de Pasti,” 352-4. Ames-Lewis describes the technique of using powdered gold
in the context of manuscript illumination in reference to the work of Matteo de Pasti and the methods
detailed in Cennini’s treatise when powdered gold was mixed with pigments in painting.
55
borders, miniatures, and the presence of the coat of arms are all signs that this book was a
presentation copy for Doge Mocenigo.
While it was important for Ratdolt to impress his patron using novel techniques and
expensive materials, he also noted the significance of a printed edition of Euclid being widely
disseminated in his preface. He therefore printed the majority of the copies on paper with no gold
or illuminations. Even in the non-bespoke copies (the copies part of the general print run), the
diagrams were still there, and in place of the illuminated border and initial, he placed a woodcut
of arabesques and foliage on the recto facing the preface. In fact, Ratdolt was the first printer in
Venice to print a completely inked woodcut border alongside text. In 1477, he issued two titles,
Appian’s Bellum Civile and Coriolanus Caepio’s Vita Petrum Mocenici, with woodcut designs
on the first leaf of text.
90
In a similar vein, the illuminated P on the first leaf of text in the Doge’s
copy was replaced with a woodcut historiated capital and the heading was printed in red ink in
the regular edition. The use of cheaper materials like paper and woodcuts kept the price of the
volume down, but the red ink, diagrams, and woodcut designs intimated the more luxurious
copies he made for his elite clientele.
However, it is also important to note that the woodcut border in non-presentation copies
of Elements contains an empty medallion in the lower register––a blank space for the reader to
fill in for themselves. In this other copy at the British Library, a reader has done just that. While
we may not be able to date the doodle of arms or identify the associated family, the drive to mark
and possess the book was present and encouraged via the design of the woodcut. Ratdolt’s
experimentations with metal-cast diagrams, woodcut borders, and gold printing were not limited
to luxury copies but were rather adapted for use in larger in print runs. The impetus to make a
book bespoke whether it was through printing in gold or adding your personal arms was an
90
Lowry, Nicolas Jenson, 212-3
56
important element in both bookmaking and book ownership. Yet, books with gold printing or
illuminations were difficult and expensive to make, and presented risks for printers without the
necessary capital.
For example, only one other individual in the fifteenth century besides Ratdolt printed in
gold. Zacharias Callierges was a Cretan operating a Greek press in Venice, and printed two
books using gold in 1499 and 1500, respectively. For his first publication, Etymologicon
Magnum Graecum (Venice, 1499), Callierges printed the border and the initial on the first page
in gold.
91
After Etymologicon, Callierges went on to print gold borders and initials in Simplicius’
Hypomnemata in Aristotelis categorias (1499) and Ammonius Hermeas’ Commentarii in
quinque voces Porphyrii (1500) (Fig. 1.14).
92
The gold-printed decorations and initials bear the
same clean lines and indentations indicating that Callierges likely used a similar technique,
applying gold leaf to the metal type.
93
However, rather than apply gold leaf to type, he applied it
to metal arranged in the typographical design attached to a woodblock––not unlike Ratdolt’s
Euclidean diagrams.
94
Ratdolt’s bespoke copies of Euclid’s Elements taken in consideration with the general
print run of the title, represent an important aspect of the book business in the fifteenth century.
As John L. Flood has noted, printing was a speculative business while manuscript production,
which was often done on commission, was more stable and predictable.
95
Printers faced the risk
of being left with a surplus of material whereas manuscripts were generally made to order. In
91
Etymologicum Magnum Graecum (Venice: Zacharias Callierges for Nicolaus Blastus and Anna
Notaras, 8 July 1499), ISTC ie00112000.
92
Simplicius, Hypomnemata in Aristotelis categorias (Venice: Zacharias Callierges for Nicolaus Blastus,
26 Oct. 1499), ISTC is00535000. Ammonius Hermiae, Commentarii in quinque voces Porphyrii (Venice:
[Zacharius Callierges] for Nicolaus Blastus, 23 May 1500), ISTC ia00565000.
93
Carter, et. al., “Printing with Gold,” 2.
94
Carter, et. al., “Printing with Gold,” 8.
95
Flood, “Printed Books as Commercial Commodity,” 141.
57
March 1472, the first printers in Italy, Sweynheym and Pannartz, went to Pope Sixtus IV in
Rome with a request to subsidize their next printing venture: an edition of Nicolas of Lyra’s
commentary on the Bible, in four-volumes. Their reason for the additional request for funds was
to purchase the surplus of books in their shop. Since their arrival in Subiaco in 1465 and eventual
move to Rome, they printed 20,475 volumes but their bountiful supply did not have a demand.
Sweynheym and Pannartz were therefore left with a shop “full of printed quires, and without the
basic needs of life.”
96
In light of an oversaturated market, printers choose to add embellishments
to their tomes, experimenting with ways to distinguish their products from others on the market.
Creating a unique product for the book market swiftly expanding across Europe was crucial to
their shops’ survival.
97
However, as is evident from Ratdolt’s preface in Elements and the numerous titles from
his print shop, slavish imitation of manuscripts was not the only method of securing buyers or
“establishing a link between producer and consumer,” as John L. Flood describes the relationship
between printers and readers.
98
His experiments with the printing press resulted in books that
appealed to both an elite and lay clientele. The diagrams and the gold text both resembled
components in manuscripts, yet Ratdolt executed them in a novel way simultaneously satisfying
appreciations for both an aesthetic tradition and a fascination with the new.
However, the additional labor involved in changing out the typesetting and potentially
using a standing press to imprint the gold worked against the speed and efficiency associated
with the success of the printing press. In addition to the gold printing, the metal-cast diagrams,
96
Lowry, Nicolas Jenson, 106. For the petition see Victor Scholderer, “The petition of Sweynheym and
Pannartz to Sixtus IV,” in Fifty Essays in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Bibliography, ed. D.E. Rhodes
(Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger & Co., 1966), 72-3.
97
Flood, “Printed Books as Commercial Commodity,” 142. See also Pettegree, The Book in the
Renaissance, 65.
98
Flood, “Printed Books as Commercial Commodity,” 139.
58
and the illuminations, Ratdolt also issued copies on vellum and paper, indicating that he was well
versed in using the printing press on different supports. Ratdolt’s presentation copies of Elements
demonstrate that printers were experimenting with the printing press and its capacity to produce
bespoke books that emulated the visual and material culture associated with manuscripts, like
gold, miniatures, and vellum. The editio princeps of Elements demonstrates how printers adapted
the printing press to produce copies in wide range of materials beyond paper and printers’ ink.
Nevertheless, printing with non-typical and expensive materials like gold and vellum had
its risks. As much as Ratdolt was an innovator, he also had to consider printing the Elements as a
business venture. In my estimation, Ratdolt’s ambitious editio princeps of Euclid’s Elements and
the bespoke copies demonstrate that a successful printing operation needed to maintain to both
an elite and academic audience. Additionally, since these two circles more often than not
overlapped in the fifteenth century, even the non-presentation copies required elements that
imitated their bespoke counterparts. The visual components of a mathematical treatise like
Elements including the support, ink, type, decorations, and illustrations were therefore crucial in
garnering a buyer’s interest. And the more successful bookmakers were at using the printing
press to peak both the audiences’ visual as well as intellectual interests, the more successful the
business venture. It is therefore for this reason, among others, that bookmakers turned to the
contemporaneous visual culture in their experimentations.
Scholars like William Ivins and Elizabeth Eisenstein have associated print with the ability
to “preserve” and standardize texts and images through the process of mechanical reproduction.
99
However, while the diagrams and text within Euclid’s Elements have remained relatively
unchanged throughout the book’s numerous iterations, the varying material components of
different copies continued to add new layers of meaning to the text and images. Most
99
See Ivins, Prints and Visual Communication and Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change.
59
significantly, bespoke copies of printed editions of Euclid’s Elements, in addition to bringing
Greek mathematics to Europe, demonstrate the interconnectedness between books and
manuscripts, and how bespoke books informed printing practices including the making and
selling of printed books.
Illuminating the Printed Book after Incunables
In the sixteenth century, there was yet another shift in the making of printed books with
bespoke additions. Throughout the incunabula period, printed books subsequently lost many of
the manuscript additions that were so prevalent in the fifteenth century. Printers such as Jenson
and Ratdolt experimented with new ways of using the printing press to add these embellishments
using woodcuts, metal-cuts, and even printing in gold. The end of the incunabula period around
1500 often marks the end of these “hybrid books” with regard to the overall decline of hand-
illumination in printed books as well as the use of vellum as a printing support. Nonetheless, in
the first decades of the sixteenth century, there was a continued demand for hand-illuminated
printed books among the elite on the Italian peninsula, and these individuals used the medium of
the printed book as a blank canvas, so to speak, to satisfy their desire for a truly unique book.
Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is a book, today at the Morgan Library,
printed in June of 1526 in Naples. The book, entitled Quae hic contineatur: hae synt Plutarchi
De virtute morali libellus Graecus or more simply Plutarch’s De virtute morali (On moral
virtue), was one of the classics of Greek philosophy as well as a history of musical instruments
and astrological writings.
100
Antonio Frezza de Corinaldo (also Antonius de Fritus Corinaldini)
100
Plutarch, Andrea Matteo Acquaviva d’Aragona (commentary), Quae hic contineatur: hae synt
Plutarchi De virtute morali libellus Graecus… (Naples: Antonio Frezza, 1526), USTC 849969.
60
printed the tome with Latin translation and commentary from Andrea Matteo III Acquaviva
(1458–1529), the duke of Atri in the Kingdom of Naples.
101
Andrea Matteo was a prominent figure in the wars and politics of late-fifteenth century
Europe. He fought against the Turks, fought in the War of Ferrara against Pope Sixtus IV and
Venice, joined the Conspiracy of Barons in opposition to the king of Naples Ferrante of Aragon,
and was imprisoned in Spain during the Italian Wars but eventually released. After surviving the
tumultuous final decades of the fifteenth century, the duke settled in Naples and turned his
attention towards building a humanistic library.
102
He expressed his goals in a letter to Aldus
Manutius on July 2, 1507 in which he described his desire to revive and restore the great Latin
and Greek texts in the same vein as the great Venetian publisher.
103
Like Manutius, Andrea
Matteo wanted to publish his and other scholars’ Latin translations and commentary of classical
texts, however, he also equally interested in acquiring manuscripts for his collection. He likely
intended to use his manuscripts as sources for his Latin publications as evinced in the colophon
of De virtute morali in which he claimed to have used a manuscript from his own library as the
basis of the text.
104
With regard to the source for De virtute morali, Francesco Tateo has
identified a potential manuscript now in the Vatican Library (Vat. Lat. 10655).
105
101
Concetta Bianca, “La biblioteca di Andrea Matteo Acquviva,” in Gli Acquaviva d’Aragona, duchi di
Atri e conti di S. Flaviano: atti del sesto convegno (Terramo: Centro abruzzese di ricerche storiche, 1985-
9), 160-1.
102
For a summation of Andrea Matteo’s prominent military career and his involvement in the War of
Ferrara, the Conspiracy of Barons, and the Italian wars see Andrea Donati, “Gli Acquaviva d’Aragona
dalle origini ai fuoriusciti in Francia,” in Tiziano, Bordon e gli Acquaviva d’Aragon: pittori veneziani in
Puglia e fuoriusciti napoletani in Francia, eds. Nuccia Barbone Pugliese, Andrea Donati, and Lionello
Puppi (Foggia: Claudio Grenzi Editore, 2012), 91-100.
103
For the letter see P. De Nolhac, “Les correspondants d’Alde Manuce,” Studi e documenti di storia e
diritto VIII (1887): 247-299 and IX (1888): 203-248. The letter is number 64, p. 221-2. See also Bianca,
“La biblioteca” 159-60.
104
Colophon: Neapoli ex officina Antonii de Fritiis Corinaldini ciuisq; Neapo | summo ingenio artificis |
Anno MDXXVI Junio Mense | Ac fideliter Omnia ex archetypis Hadrianoru Ducis ipsius manu scriptis
105
Francesco Tateo, “Sulle tradizioni umanistiche di Plutarco: Il De virtute morali di Andrea Matteo
Acquaviva,” in Filosofia e cultura per Eugenio Garin (Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1991), 198.
61
Stemming from his humanist education under the tutelage of Giovanni Pontano (ca.
1426–1503), Andrea Matteo became a patron of letters and that included commissioning
manuscripts of Classical texts for his library. Unfortunately, as was the fate of many Renaissance
libraries, the contents of Andrea Matteo’s collection were dispersed after his death. The majority
of identifiable manuscripts from Andrea Matteo’s library now reside in the Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. The manuscripts, commissioned and executed in the late fifteenth
and early sixteenth centuries, are notable for their elaborate miniatures, initials, borders, and
illumination.
106
The elaborate illumination and addition of gold in the copy of De virtute morali at the
Morgan is evidence that Andrea Matteo also desired a personalized, luxurious copy of the book
possibly for himself or for a close friend or relative in addition to producing a print run for a
more general audience. For instance, none of the four digitized copies of the surviving print run
that I could access contain these additional embellishments.
107
While the exact number of the
print run of the book is unknown, eighteen institutions hold at least one copy of the book (many
have two or more) according to the Universal Short Title Catalogue. Matteo’s printed copy of De
virtute morali at the Morgan Library in many ways resembles the manuscripts in his collection
more than the remaining printed copies of the book.
One example of Andrea Matteo’s merging of print and manuscript is the armorial that
appears on leaf A
1
recto (Fig. 1.9). The miniature border depicts a landscape with animals in the
top register and two medallions on the right featuring a figure playing musical instruments in the
upper medallion and a group of blacksmiths working at an anvil in the lower medallion. The
106
See Caterina Lavarra, “Introduzione,” in Hermann Julius Hermann, Manoscritti miniati dalla
biblioteca del duca Andrea Matteo III Acquaviva d’Aragona, trans. Giulia A. Disanto (Lecce: Congendo,
2013), 7.
107
Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III, Naples; Biblioteca nazionale centrale, Rome; Biblioteca
Casanatense, Rome (2 digitized copies).
62
bottom register contains a gold shield with a blue lion under a helmet within a green medallion
with flourishes of feathers surrounding it.
The numerous woodcuts were first hand-illuminated with blue pigments that vary in tone
and saturation, likely lapis lazuli or ultramarine. For example, in the woodcut of an astrological
diagram on L
5
recto depicts an orb filled with concentric elliptical orbits around a green oval,
outlined in gold and demarcated with gold rings (Figs. 1.10-11). There are also highly detailed
elements in the diagram, including gold text labeling the lines and the zodiac figures on the gold
ring on the lower part of the main orb. The light blue areas of the diagram are additionally
modeled with lighter strokes of blue. The elaborate diagrams and the illuminated border are
included alongside relatively simpler embellishments. The text of the book headings are
displayed in gold, there are gold initials over flat, colored grounds throughout, and even the
woodcut schematics are lined in gold (Fig. 1.12).
Of the eighteen institutions listed on USTC, the Morgan Library is not included. It is
likely therefore, that the copy of De virtute morali in the Morgan is truly a unique copy made
especially for Andrea Matteo’s personal collection. Alternatively, the book could have been
intended for his son-in-law Giovanni Caraccioli, the Prince of Malfi, and the book’s dedicatee.
The duke, in building his library, strove to have both print and manuscript housed together unlike
modern libraries that separate them. This was not entirely unique to Andrea Matteo considering
that Renaissance bibliophiles collected both printed books and manuscripts in order to enrich
their libraries. Contemporaneous examples include Ferdinand Columbus (1488–1539), a
diplomat in Charles V’s retinue and son of Christopher Columbus, who accumulated a massive
library of manuscripts, printed books, and additionally prints throughout his travels.
108
108
Mark P. McDonald, The Print Collection of Ferdinand Columbus (1488–1539): A Renaissance
Collector in Seville, 2 vols. (London: The British Museum Press, 2004), I:126-37.
63
In addition to building a library, Andrea Matteo desired printed books with a high degree
of personalization, but what sets Andrea Matteo apart from his contemporaries is his desire to
build not only a personal collection, but also a scholarly one. Not only would his library be a
repository of the most refined and elaborate manuscripts of the times, but he also established a
press in his own home to further disseminate his classical texts. In this, he gave himself the
freedom to dictate the text, format, and appearance of the book. Already providing the translation
himself, it is not a stretch to consider that he also had some control over the woodcuts that appear
throughout De virtute morali.
The curator’s notes preserved in the copy at the Morgan describe the illustrations and the
chapter/book headings as “superimpressed with gold,” but it is more probable that powdered
gold was added by hand over the black line of the woodcut. The lines of the woodcuts are clearly
visible underneath the gold and the indented lines create an illusion of impressed gold.
109
However, in order to print the diagrams in gold, the printer Antonio Frezza would have had to
make two separate blocks for the diagrams––one for inking the initial outline in black and the
second for the gold leaf––since the black ink would have certainly transferred onto the gold leaf
if the same block was used. The diagram on L
iii
recto provides a clearer idea of the process of
illuminating the woodcut illustrations (Figs. 1.13-14). Close examination of the layering of
pigments shows that the woodcut was printed first, followed by the hand-illumination of the blue
pigment, and finally the gold. The printer used powdered gold judging from the lack of flaking
and the telltale smears, specifically on the diagram on E
iii
recto (Fig. 1.15).
A similar technique was used during the incunabula period. One experiment used in
Venetian printing involved printing a woodcut border design as a guide for miniaturists. This
was different from the woodcut borders printed with the type that appeared in the general print
109
Object description, typed and preserved in the book at the Morgan.
64
run of an edition. Rather, printers constructed a border from separate units of woodcuts that were
arranged in a different pattern from copy to copy. These borders, usually consisting of varying
combinations of lozenges and vine motifs, were then painted over by miniaturists. Lamberto
Donati was the first to begin to catalogue the use of these woodcut motifs in incunabula. His
study catalogued over seventy-five woodcuts that appeared in hundreds of books between 1469
and 1474 on the Italian peninsula. According to both Donati and Lilian Armstrong (who has also
done extensive work on this particular practice), the most dense concentration of this technique
was in Venice. This is likely due to the relatively higher volume of books printed in the Veneto
during this time coupled with the influx of miniaturists arriving in the city looking for work in
the new industry.
110
Vindelinus de Spira used the technique on multiple occasions in the early 1470s. There
are many copies of Vindelinus’s 1470 edition of Livy’s Historiae Romanae decades (Roman
History, First and Fourth Decades) that show evidence of this method. One copy at the Morgan
Library was printed on vellum and bound in two volumes, and contains an elaborate border at the
beginning of each volume.
111
On folio 5 (i.e. folio 25), the artist, Franco dei Rossi (1453–82),
painted deeply vibrant green vines against a gold ground with two medallions nestled in the vine-
work (Fig. 1.16). One medallion in the center of right margin features a profile portrait of a king
dressed in a red tunic on a blue ground. The second medallion consists of two putti holding the
coat of arms of the Venetian Donà (also Donado) family, filled in with silver.
112
The heading is
written in gold and the initial is illuminated. Rossi followed a similar design with the border in
110
Armstrong, “The Hand-Illumination of Printed Books,” 37. See also L. Donati, “I fregi xilografici
stampati a mano negl’incunabuli italiani,” La Bibliofilia LXXIV (1972): 157-64, 303-37, LXXV (1973):
125-174; Armstrong, Renaissance Miniature Painters, 26-9; Armstrong, “The Impact of Printing on
Miniaturists in Venice after 1469,” 195-200.
111
Titus Livius, Historae Romanae decades … ([Venice]: Vindelinus de Spira, 1470). New York, The
Pierpont Morgan Library, PML 266; ISTC il00238000.
112
See Lilian Armstrong’s catalogue entry in The Painted Page, 170-1, cat. no. 83.
65
the second volume. There are green vines on a gold ground, a medallion featuring a nobleman on
the right, and monochromatic red putti holding the Donà coat-of-arms (Fig. 1.17).
At first glance, the border looks like a typical illuminated border seen in printed books
from this period. However, when compared to other copies of Livy’s Historiae Romanae
decades issued from Vindelinus’s shop, patterns emerge that reveal that the same woodcuts were
used to create unique borders from copy to copy. In the copy at the Morgan, the border design
consists of seven rectangular lozenges in the upper and left margins with three more thin
lozenges extending down the left margin; then a square-shaped vine-work design is repeated
seven times along the right and lower margins. Each section is demarcated with barely
perceptible prick marks in the gold leaf, perhaps as further guides for Rossi. Additionally, along
the edges of the vinework designs, black lines of the woodcut peek through the green. Despite
these details, every effort was made to disguise the use of woodcuts in the border design. The
solidity of the gold ground in the background of the border obscures the negative space of the
vellum left behind by the woodcuts. Rossi also employed the finest of white heightening and
black shading within the design seamlessly merging the black lines of the woodcut with his
hand-illuminated modeling. The woodcut border therefore served as a kind of printed under-
drawing comparable to the preparatory sketches made on canvas or panel for paintings; these
were later hidden under layers of pigment.
Vindelinus de Spira used the printing press as a tool for creating bespoke books, but he
was not the only printer to do so. Nicolas Jenson also printed books using these same
woodblocks from the Spira shop. According to Donati, twenty-seven out of the 107 copies with
the woodcut borders were from Jenson’s press.
113
Employing both print and hand techniques
insured that the copies would be unique, which suggest that there was a substantial enough
113
See Donati, “I fregi xilografici stampati a mano.”
66
market for hand-illuminated printed books. Yet, why did printers use interchangeable blocks
rather than a singular block, and additionally, given the elaborate illumination across a number of
copies did printing the borders expedited the process at all? The use of the woodcut blocks as
guides could have been intended not only for renowned miniaturists like Rossi but also as a
potential way to decrease the additional cost of illumination. The woodcut lines would have
eliminated the design step in the illumination process and therefore would have decreased the
time and labor involved in the hand-illumination of the book.
The same border woodcuts, gone over with illumination, were used in copies of
Vindelinus’ Historiae Romanae decades now in the British Library in London, the Biblioteca
Corsiniana in Rome, and the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice.
114
One of the three copies
of Historiae Romanae decades at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana has a border composed of a
repeating pattern of thinner rectangular lozenges along the upper, left, and right margins (Fig.
1.18). In the bottom margin two of the square vine-work units––rotated ninety degrees clockwise
and counterclockwise, respectively––frame a coat of arms featuring a gold wave design arranged
diagonally along a blue shield. Additionally, the two borders in the copies at the Biblioteca
Marciana and the Morgan have very different color schemes. The copy in Venice features a
white vine design on blue ground with passages of red, green, and yellow throughout. The
variations and differences between the colors and the arrangement of the woodblocks are
indications that Vindelinus de Spira was attempting to merge the uniqueness of the manuscript
and with the reproducibility of the printing press. It was not only a matter of adding flourishes by
hand, but also a matter of finding ways to consolidate handcraft and the press in order to create a
bespoke book.
114
British Library, G. 9029; Biblioteca Corsiniana, 49.G.9-11; Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana INC. V.
101. The library has 3 copies, 2 of which are imperfect. The one listed here is the copy containing the
hand-illuminated woodcut border.
67
Combining press and hand methods for decorating his printed books ensured that the
copies would be distinct implying that printers needed new ways of drawing in customers.
Already when Spira issued Historiae Romanae decades in 1470, there were already two editions
on the market from Swenyheym and Pannartz and Ulrich Han.
115
In addition to distinguishing his
products, the interchangeable woodcuts offered the potential buyer options when it came to
illuminating their book. The woodcut blocks allowed for flexibility in choosing artists to hire
from renowned miniaturists like Rossi to a lesser-known artist that came at a lower rate. An artist
of Rossi’s caliber likely did not necessarily need to use a woodcut border as a guide, but he did
take advantage of the practice. Alternatively, the border didn’t need to be illuminated at all, since
it still served its aesthetic purpose framing the text with or without color confirming that the
interchangeable woodblock units was another innovation from printers attempting to merge print
and manuscript.
Moreover, the copy of Historiae Romanae decades at the Morgan also contains
additional quires at the beginning of each volume. The quires contain handwritten epitomes of
each book in the tome. The headings for each paragraph alternate in blue and gold, and the first
folio of the text in the first volume and second volume is entirely written in gold with blue
headings and illuminated initials. In the first volume, the verso of the first volume is written in
blue and the facing recto once again is written in gold. The woodcuts for the borders in each
volume also differ slightly. Although a similar color scheme and layout was used (green vines on
gold ground; medallions with a noble portrait and putti holding the coat-of-arms, illuminated
initials), the vine designs of the square units differ slightly. The vine design in the first volume
features two pears sprouting from vines in the interior of the heart-shaped loop while the vine
design in the second volume feature a vessel in the center. The variety in copies at the Historiae
115
Data from ISTC.
68
Romanae decades at the Morgan and Biblioteca Mariciana from construction to appearance is
evidence of how customizable printed books were in the fifteenth century. In addition to blank
medallions in border encouraging owners to add their personal coat-of-arms, the extra quires
show how readers claimed ownership of the book, and also customized it according to their own
reading habits.
116
Another copy of Historiae Romanae decades at the Morgan contains no woodcut border
and was printed on paper rather than vellum.
117
However, volume one has extensive marginal
annotations throughout written in red and brown inks, much like the glossing in the vellum copy.
Additionally, the paper copy also has an illuminated white vine initial at the beginning of the
first book in volume one as well red pen initials at the beginning of the remainder of the books
(Fig. 1.19). The second volume has a pen and wash historiated initial and a bas-de-page border in
the style of Girolamo da Cremona on the first folio. The bas-de-page also features the coat-of-
arms, two basilisks surrounding a crenelated tower, of the Frizziero family in Venice.
Underneath the design there is an early inscription belonging to Franciscus de Onigo of Treviso
that reads “Ad usum Comitis Francisci de Onigo.”
118
As the variation in these bespoke copies of
Historiae Romanae decades shows, printers experimented with expanding the flexibility and
mutability of the printed book. This copy, for instance, did not contain the interchangeable
woodblock borders, but did have additional illuminations and miniatures. Printers did not simply
carry over manuscript traditions to their printing practice, but rather, out of necessity and market
116
For a more in-depth study on reading habits and how readers interacted with books see William H.
Sherman, Used Books: Marking Readers in Renaissance England (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2008).
117
PML 278; ChL719 (copy 1)
118
“Livy, Historiae Romanae decades,” Morgan Library & Museum Corsair online catalogue, accessed
January 20, 2020, http://corsair.themorgan.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=134805
69
pressures, sought new ways to make books, relying on the customer’s aesthetic appreciation for
manuscripts and a desire to own an unique object.
However, few examples of this method using interchangeable woodblock borders appear
after 1474. Like many printing experiments during the incunabula period, including printing in
gold, the use of hand-illuminated interchangeable woodcut borders was short-lived––though not,
I would argue obsolete. The hand-illuminated woodcuts in Andrea Matteo’s De virtute morali
show how printers and patrons continue to merge print and manuscript after the incunabula
period. Like the woodcut borders in Vindelinus’s Historiae Romanae decades, the artist(s)
responsible for the hand-illuminations in De virtute morali did not simply fill in the lines of the
woodcut diagrams, but rather completely covered printed elements with rich gold and deep
blues.
In efforts to improve upon the technology of the printing press thereby securing buyers
and patrons, bookmakers turned to a variety of sources for both practical and aesthetic
inspiration. As a result, bespoke books provide alternative narratives in the development of
Renaissance art from the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. The techniques used to make the unique
appearances of bespoke books played a crucial role in shaping other art forms, especially works
on paper such as chiaroscuro woodcuts and drawings.
Experimental Printing and Visual Culture
Ratdolt repeated his practice of printing with gold only a few more times after his
experiments in Venice. After he returned to his native city of Augsburg, he issued an edition of
Johannes Thuróczy’s Chronica Hungarorum (Chronicle of Hungary) in 1488.
119
Only two
119
Johannes Thuróczy (Johannes de Thwrocz), Chronica Hungarorum… (Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt, for
Theobaldus Feger, 3 June 1488). ISTC it00361000.
70
surviving copies, both in the National Museum in Budapest, have a preface printed in gold.
120
Then in 1505, Ratdolt collaborated with the German humanist and bibliophile Konrad Peutinger
(1465–1547) to publish a brief compilation of classical inscriptions entitled Romanae Vetustatis
fragmenta (Augsburg, 1505).
121
In some of the surviving copies, the text was printed in red,
black, and gold. In at least two instances, Ratdolt made the entirety of the epigraphic texts in
gold with black headings. These copies, now at the Newberry Library and the Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, respectively, were also printed on vellum (Fig. 1.20).
122
However, unlike his
previous experiments with gold printing, the gold was brushed over red bole, dark red clay used
for gold leaf application.
123
The fact that Ratdolt decided not to repeat his experiment of gold
printing for Romanae Vetustatis fragmenta using gold leaf and type, but rather chose a more
typical method of applying gold indicates the apparent difficulty of his initial technique.
Nonetheless, the practice of merging gold and print that began in the Veneto soon spread
north of the Alps, due primarily to Ratdolt’s return to Augsburg. As a result, gold began
appearing with more frequency in German prints. Peutinger had a keen interest in printing in
gold as is evident from his oft-quoted letter to the court of Saxony that accompanied proofs of
equestrian figures printed in gold and silver on parchment. The letter, written in 1508,
additionally asked for an assessment from the court as to the quality of the printing.
124
These
120
Géza Sajó and Erzsébet Soltész, Catalogus incunabulorum quae in bibliothecis publicis Hungariae
asservantur (Budapest: Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 1970), no. 3324.
121
Konrad Peutinger, Romanae Vetustatis fragmenta … (Augsburg: Erhard Ratdotl, 1505). USTC
691414.
122
Newberry Library, Wing folio ZP 547 .R11; Österreichische Nationalbibliothek CP.1.C.4 ALT CP.
The Newberry Library catalogue describes this the gold text as “printed in gold.” The presence of the red
bole, however, indicates that the gold was brushed on rather than imprinted.
123
David Landau and Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 1470–1550 (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1994), 184.
124
For the full transcription of the letter see Adolf Buff, ed., “Rechnungsauszüge: Urkunden und
Urkundenregesten aus dem Augsburger Stadtarchiv,” JKSW 13 (1892): xi in part 2. The documents in the
Augsburg state archive are numbered 8560-61. “von gold und silber auf pirment getrukt”
71
equestrian portraits were more than likely trial runs of Hans Burgkmair’s woodcuts depicting St.
George and the Dragon and Maximilian I (Figs. 1.21-22). These in turn, according to the letter,
were derived from Lucas Cranach’s experiments in color printing a year or so earlier with his
woodcut of St. George and the Dragon (Fig. 1.23).
125
These three prints, made almost
simultaneously and in close proximity, are considered the earliest experiments with chiaroscuro
woodcuts. This type of woodcut was produced using multiple blocks to create variation in tone
and modeling in order to create the chiaroscuro effect popular in paintings at the time.
126
Both
Cranach and Burgkmair used two blocks printed in register on tinted paper. There was one
“black line” woodblock and the second was the “highlight” woodblock. The woodblocks were
printed in register in order to create modeling through highlights and shadows. In both cases, the
lines of the highlight woodblock were “printed” in gold or silver.
However, a different technique for “printing” in gold is visible in the impression of
Cranach’s St. George and the Dragon at the British Museum. Cranach covered the highlight
woodblock in a sticky substance and printed it over the black line woodcut, and he then flocked
the sticky, impressed lines with gold thus given the illusion that the lines were printed in gold.
127
Burgkmair’s method for printing metallic highlights involved using silver or gold inks rather
than flocking gold. In the impression of Maximilian I at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, he
printed the block brushed with metallic inks first on red tinted paper; then he printed the black
line block.
128
125
Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 187.
126
Naoko Takahatake, “The Italian Chiaroscuro Woodcut: History and Technique,” in The Chiaroscuro
Woodcut in Renaissance Italy, ed. Naoko Takahatake (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
2018), 10-32. Takahatake provides the most recent and detailed account of the technique and methods
involved in printing chiaroscuro woodcuts in Europe at the start of the sixteenth century.
127
Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 187.
128
Ibid., 190.
72
This widely accepted narrative about the origins of the chiaroscuro woodcut obscures the
fact that Burgkmair worked in Ratdolt’s Augsburg print shop until 1507, around the time he
began experimenting with using multiple blocks to create tonal variations and heightening.
129
Cranach’s method of flocking gold into the adhesive impressions of his St. George and the
Dragon is more akin to the technique used in the gold epigraphs and colophon in Ratdolt’s 1505
edition of Romanae Vetustatis fragmenta, whereas Burgkmair’s printing of metallic inks is more
similar to Ratdolt’s experiments in Venice. Landau and Parshall are quick to dismiss
Burgkmair’s experience with the bookmaker, since Ratdolt’s gold printing methods while in
Augsburg differed from Burkgmair’s methods.
130
However, this reasoning disregards the
experimental nature of the print shop where many different crafts and techniques came into
contact.
131
In sum, while prints decorated by hand using gold leaf or powdered gold date to the early
fifteenth century, printing with gold did not occur until Ratdolt began his experiments with
Euclid’s Elements in 1482.
132
Nonetheless, the experimentations during the incunabula period
had profound reverberations in other areas of printing. The use of gold leaf, gold printers ink, or
gold powder in woodcuts arrived in the wake of experiments in book printing. Moreover, printers
like Ratdolt and Calliegeres took on these experiments in order to emulate the appearance of
gold in manuscripts. Similarly, the illuminations over woodcuts in Andrea Matteo’s De virtute
morali recall earlier experiments with interchangeable woodcut borders intended to expedite the
129
Ibid., 177. See also Chapter 1 “Introduction to and early history of the Chiraoscuro Woodcut” in
Nancy Bialler, Chiaroscuro Woodcuts: Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) and his Time (Amsterdam:
Rijksmuseum, 1992), 12-23; Parshall, “The Origins of the Chiaroscuro Woodcut,” in The Chiaroscuro
Woodcut in Renaissance Italy, ed. Naoko Takahatake (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
2018), 34-41.
130
Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 190.
131
Needham, “Prints in the Early Printing Shops,” 77-80.
132
Savage, “An Undescribed Example of Gold Printing,” 9.
73
decoration process in printed books. The lengths that printers went to mechanize handcraft
techniques using the printing press show the importance of these embellishments in the history of
printed book. Gold not only added value to books, whether manuscript or print, but also visual
interest. The later adoption of gold printing for highlights in woodcuts attests to this. Printed
books formed a significant component of early modern visual culture, especially with regard to
how techniques and methods of printing shaped other products of the printing press like
woodcuts. The continued use of gold in printing in the sixteenth century was not limited to
woodcuts. It also represents how print and manuscript were further blurred past the incunabula
period, and therefore part of a persistent interest to push open the commercial and mechanical
borders of the printed book.
74
Chapter 2
The Mutability of Print and the De-Standardization of the Printed Book
While the incunabula period witnessed a myriad of innovations in the appearance and
construction of printed books, the text-based content of books also evolved because of the
changes brought on by the printing press. The advent of printing in Europe brought with it the
standardization of text. In other words, print was a reproductive medium that allowed for the
production of the same words and images over and over again providing a stable, textual
foundation for learning and knowledge.
1
However, the production of exact copies was not a new
concept in the bookmaking business since scribes had employed the pecia system of copying
from circulated exemplars for manuscripts for centuries.
2
The crucial difference between the two
methods of reproduction was the increased scale of production. Print shops far surpassed the
speed of manuscript production by the end of the sixteenth century, resulting in wider
dissemination of these texts.
3
Despite the increased numbers of identical texts, printers and readers continued to look
for ways to alter printed books according to the tastes of the time, such as adding illuminated
initials in the style of manuscripts in incunabula. The proliferation of books in the fifteenth and
sixteenth century, in fact, provided an almost infinite amount of opportunities for printers and
readers to experiment with new ways of making their printed books bespoke. In their efforts to
mimic and mechanize the artisanal components of the manuscript-making tradition, printers used
new techniques and materials in a deliberate effort to disrupt the standardization of these texts.
1
Johns, The Nature of the Book, 5-6.
2
Thomas, “Manuscripts,” 20-2.
3
See Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, I:43-128. The majority of Eisenstein’s
second chapter, “Defining the initial shift; some features of print culture,” is devoted to examining how
printing affected modes of communication through repetition and large-scale production.
75
Using the printing press itself to create unique objects is somewhat a paradoxical notion and
undermines the “stability through repeatability” thesis prevalent in studies of the book. Johns
views the “fixity” of text as a result of human needs and desires whereas Eisenstein sees fixity as
inherent in the technology of the printing press.
4
However, the existence of bespoke books in the
fifteenth century and the sixteenth century questions both of these theories. If people desired
fixed texts or the printing press created fixed texts, why do unique copies of editions with
deliberate alterations made by hand or machine proliferated during this time? Were bespoke
books simply one-offs made for special clients or do they represent an alternative story to the
standardization narrative? In describing these printed books as “bespoke,” I consider a wide-
range of printed books from the most elaborately embellished such as Ratdolt’s dedicated copy
of Elements to Doge Mocenigo to books with more simple flourishes like illustrated books with
hastily applied washes of color. In examining the multitude of bespoke books that existed in
early modern Italy the supposed “stability” of print is called into question considering the lengths
printers and readers went to in order to differentiate their products and possessions.
In The Gutenberg Galaxy, Marshall McLuhan stated: “just as printing was the first mass-
produced thing, so it was the first uniform and repeatable ‘commodity.’ The assembly lines of
movable types made possible a product that was uniform and as repeatable as a scientific
experiment.”
5
The printed book was a commodity, but McLuhan’s over-simplification of the
printing process is an indication of the prevalent views in scholarship regarding the early years of
book printing in Europe. As many book historians have noted, incunabula were made to
4
Johns, The Nature of the Book, 5-6 and Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, I:80-8.
This is one of the few overlaps in Johns and Eisenstein’s arguments, and while they both recognize that
printed books were not always perfect copies, they view manuscripts as antithetical to printed books in
the ability to preserve texts (Johns in particular implies that hand-copying resulted in too many mistakes
to produce reliable texts).
5
McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy, 125.
76
resemble manuscripts using scripts as basis for type, adding rubrications, initials, and even
miniatures. Thus, in order to make the printed book a viable commodity, printers relied on an
already “standard” modus operandi when it came to the construction, format, and appearance of
manuscripts. The success of print shops often depended on the printers’ ability to print books that
gave the illusion of luxury objects. In many cases, bookmakers went a step further to print books
that were luxury objects thereby insuring patronage and clientele. In order to achieve this,
printers experimented with and manipulated the “assembly lines of movable types” in a variety
of ways. Focusing on repeatability and mass-production, while crucial for understanding the
importance of the book in the history of communication, obscures a more nuanced history of
printing and its varied products.
Similar to experiments with gold printing, the mechanization of handcrafts in order to
replicate the visual appearance of manuscripts often resulted in more labor and more materials
disrupting the reproduction process. This was especially true for color printing in the early
modern period. Color, added by hand or via the printing press, was perhaps the most obvious
means for transforming a mass-produced object into a luxury one. The added labor and cost of
materials alone warranted a higher value, both monetarily and aesthetically. Examining color
printing shows how printers were actively undermining the “stability” of printed books as they
continued to experiment with the printing press to create new and unique books.
In my estimation, color in printed books shows how bookmaking was an embodied
experience on the part of printers, artists, and readers. Not only did printing in color require
tedious monitoring with regard to preparing the blocks and matrices, selecting inks, and careful
registration, but hand-coloring also necessitated a certain degree of interaction on the part of the
artist with the images and texts. In some cases, that level of interaction extended to the reader.
77
This is apparent in natural history texts that instructed the readers to color (and sometimes to cut
and glue) illustrations. For example, the book that had the first instance of tri-color printing in
woodcuts also included printed volvelles that the reader could turn and manipulate as needed. It
is necessary then to consider the books that encouraged this degree of interaction as bespoke:
like color, no two copies were the same, since they elicited different reactions and experiences
from their readers.
The coloring and handling of printed astrology and natural history books is well
documented in scholarship––this genre occupies the majority of the focus when considering the
mutability of print and its effects on literacy.
6
However, there is an additional and less discussed
genre of the printed book that also fabricated bespoke experiences for their readers. The genre of
fortune-telling books was incredibly popular in Italy from the late fifteenth through the mid-
sixteenth centuries. Often elaborately illustrated, the images along with brief text instructed the
reader in different kinds of divination games. When we consider these books alongside the
colored woodcuts and the various printed instruments present in natural history texts, there are
additional insights as to the innovation at play among bookmakers and authors in the early
modern period.
Print as a medium lent itself to customization and manipulation. The reproducibility of
texts and images via the printing press made print highly exploitable in the sense that it could
take many forms from loose sheets to bound books, or pasted on furnishings, or albums,
6
See for instance, Susan Dackerman, ed., Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011); Suzanne Karr Schmidt, “Printed Bodies and the Materiality
of Early Modern Prints,” Art in Print 1/1 (2001): 25-32; See also Karr Schmidt, Interactive and
Sculptural Printmaking.
78
depending on the desires of printers and purchasers of prints.
7
While this reproducibility led to
the standardization of texts and images over the course of the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, the
repetition of these same texts and images also allowed for an almost infinite array of variation.
Ultimately, it was the mutability of print as a medium that allowed printers and readers to “de-
standardize” the printed book through individuation.
Printing in Color and the First Bespoke Books
Early European printed books are more colorful than scholars generally accept. This
misconception stems from a lack of interdisciplinary considerations in the fields of art history
and book history as well as long-held prejudices against the importance of color from both
philosophical and scholarly perspectives. For instance, the fact that fine art prints are under the
purview of art historians and book illustrations generally fall under history of the book and
bibliography leaves a clear division in scholarship despite the similar techniques and motivations
for printing in color.
8
While single-sheet, fine art prints such as chiaroscuro woodcuts (which I
will discuss in more depth later) have traditionally occupied the majority of the focus in
scholarship regarding color printing, printed books using similar methods reveal how color
printing was much more widespread than previously thought. However, prints in color still
represent a small fraction of impressions made throughout the early modern period in Europe
before the invention of the mezzotint process in the beginning of eighteenth century.
9
However,
from printing with gold leaf to printed rubrications, it is evident that bookmakers sought methods
7
Susan Dackerman, “Introduction: Prints as Instruments,” in Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge, 20-1.
See also Suzanne Karr Schmidt and Kimberly Nichols, Altered and Adorned: Using Renaissance Prints
in Daily Life (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2011).
8
See the historiography section in Ad Stijnman and Elizabeth Savage, “Introduction: A Historical
Overview of Printed Colour before 1700,” in Printing Colour 1400–1700: History, Techniques,
Functions, and Receptions, eds. Ad Stijnman and Elizabeth Savage (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 2-4.
9
Stijnman and Savage, “Introduction,” 7.
79
to embellish their wares via print, often in direct response to elaborate and desirable hand-
coloring techniques.
10
Color printing in many ways serves as an exemplum of the shifting modes of acquiring
and disseminating craft knowledge—what Pamela Smith has termed “artisanal epistemology”—
in the early modern period. While manuals and treatises still retained their significance as
repositories of information, experimentation in acts of making were growing in importance.
11
Color printing did not happen as isolated experiments, but were in actuality occurred far more
frequently due to a slew of simultaneous experimentations with common materials and
instruments involved in the printing process. Printers had access to similar inks, tools, and
techniques but would use them in varying ways to create bespoke books.
12
Printing in color then
was a skill in the “mechanical arts” that printers developed through a bodily knowledge (learning
through making and doing) rather than scholarly knowledge. Printing in color, like bespoke
books, therefore occupies a unique place in the history of printing; both exist in multiples yet
remain distinct due to the materials and processes involved.
The earliest experiments in color printing coincided with the earliest books made with the
hand press and movable type. Soon after Gutenberg printed his Bible around 1455, his former
collaborators issued a Psalter, also in Mainz, in 1457. Known as the Mainz Psalter, this second
book of substantial size printed in Europe, followed the model of Gutenberg’s Bible closely.
13
Both were large format and printed in royal folio with initials and gothic type. However, whereas
copies of Gutenberg’s Bible survive on both paper and parchment, the ten bound copies and
10
Peter Parshall, “The Problem of Printing in Colour,” in Printing Colour, xii-xvi.
11
See Pamela Smith, The Body of the Artisan: Art and Experience in the Scientific Revolution (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2004), 19-20.
12
Stijnman and Savage, “Introduction,” 1.
13
Psalterium ([Mainz]: Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, 14 Aug. 1457), ISTC ip01036000.
80
fragments of the Mainz Psalter that survive were all printed on parchment.
14
Additionally, the
appearances of the books were based on manuscript predecessors, which was apparent in the use
of rubrics and colored initials.
15
In Gutenberg’s Bible, these elements were added by hand in
spaces that he deliberately left blank, but the printers of the Mainz Psalter devised a way to print
these colored components.
16
Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, the printers of the Mainz Psalter, engineered
interlocking sections of metal type that were taken apart and inked separately. They used this
technique of compound printing to print the opening initial B, a red letter outlined in blue, in the
Mainz Psalter in 1457 (Fig. 2.1).
17
Compound prints, also termed “jigsaw prints,” comprise
individual matrices, each inked separately, that are fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle so the
printers could print the multiple colors in one run of the press.
18
Printing in two colors using the
jigsaw method necessitated constructing two blocks that fit together. In the case of the Mainz
Psalter, the initials were the only elements printed using this technique. First the ornament design
surrounding the letter was cut in relief on the surface of a metal block with a recess left for the
letter itself. The letter was a separate metal piece that fit into this recess. Since the letter and the
ornament were two separate pieces, they could be inked in their respective colors, put together,
and then printed in a single pull of the press. In fact, with only a few exceptions, each page in the
14
Mayumi Ikeda, “The Fust and Schöffer Office and the Printing of the Two-colour Initials in the 1457
Mainz Psalter,” in Printing Colour, 65.
15
Eberhard König, “Die Illuminierung der Gutenbergbibel,” in Johannes Gutenbergs
zweiundvierzigzeilige Bibel: Faksimile-Ausgabe nach dem Exemplar der Staatsbibliothek Preußischer
Kulturbesitz Berlin, eds. W. Schmidt and F.A. Schmidt-Künsemüller (Munich: Idion, 1979), 69-125. See
also C. de Hamel, The Book: A History of the Bible (London: Phaidon, 2001).
16
Ikeda, “The Fust and Schöffer Office,” 65.
17
Bamber Gascoigne, Milestones in colour printing 1457–1859, with a bibliography of Nelson prints
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 1.
18
Stijnman and Savage, “Materials and Techniques for Early Colour Printing,” in Colour Printing, 13.
81
Mainz Psalter was printed in a single pull, which means that the black texts and red rubrics were
also arranged in the forme along with the pieces that made up the initial.
19
Like Ratdolt’s preface in his edition of Euclid’s Elements, Fust and Schoeffer informed
the reader of their newly devised skills in the colophon:
The present book of Psalms, adorned with the charm of capitals and divided
sufficiently with rubrications, with the skillful invention of the impressing and
stamping of letters, [was] thus formed without any penning of a reed, and in piety
towards God [it] was diligently completed …
20
The intricacies of compound printing required a specialized skillset that included metal work,
type laying, inking, and printing, which is no small feat considering the newness of the
technology. Additionally, printing in color offered the potential buyer both the simulation of
traditional, artisanal techniques and the novelty of a new method of achieving these effects; a
point that Fust and Schoeffer were keen to advertise in their colophon.
On top of the complex engineering involved in compound color printing, there were
likely many other factors that contributed to the creation of the Mainz Psalter. Considering their
affinity to hand-colored initials in manuscripts, scholars have posited that several artists provided
the designs of the initials. Moreover, in addition to the knowledge of manuscripts, printing, and
metalworking required to facilitate this project, the printers also had to develop the proper inks
for such an enterprise. As Mayumi Ikeda has shown in her study of the Psalter, the blue ink
presented some problems for Fust and Schoeffer. It faded and eventually turned grey eventually
prompting the printers to employ a scribe or an artist to paint over the initial with a thicker,
19
Ikeda, “The Fust and Schöffer Office,” 71. For the first in depth study of the construction and printing
method of the initials in the Mainz Psalter see H. Wallau, “Die zweifarbigen Initialen der Psalterdrucke
von Johann Fust und Peter Schöffer,” in Festschrift zum fünfhundertjährigen Geburtstage von Johann
Gutenberg, ed. O. Hartwig (Mainz: Harrassowitz, 1900), 261-304.
20
“Presens spalmorus [sic] codex-venustate capitalium decorates Rubricationibusque sufficienter
distinctus, Adinuentione artificiosa impremendi ac caracterizandi-absque calami vlla exarcione sic
effigiatus, Et ad eusebiam dei industrie est consummatus …” For the translation see A.W. Pollard, An
Essay on Colophons: With Specimens and Translations (Chicago: The Caxton Club, 1905), 12-3.
82
brighter pigment.
21
After the Mainz Psalter, the pair attempted their compound color printing
technique only one other time—a small missal printed the following year in 1458 that only
survives in eight copies in various states of completion.
22
The difficulties Fust and Schoeffer
faced with complex techniques and uncooperative materials were common amongst printers.
However, the issues inherent in developing color printing methods indicate printers’ willingness
to disrupt the naturally reproductive process of the hand press and movable type. Fust and
Schoeffer’s varying results with color printing, including their shortcomings with printing blue
ink, show that the printers were experimenting with adapting the printing press to meet and
surpass the expectations of books at the time while simultaneously creating bespoke books with
the colored design elements of traditional manuscripts.
Despite the difficulty in printing in color, printers continued to experiment with new
methods, and chief among them was Erhard Ratdolt. Likely learning from bookmakers in
Nuremberg before arriving in Venice around 1476, he was one of the first printers on the Italian
peninsula to experiment with printing text in red and black ink. Recent bibliographic evidence
has shed some light onto the techniques he used to achieve this. Ratdolt used a relatively
common method of manipulating the frisket sheet, a sort of mask or covering consisting of oiled
paper that was arranged in the press in order to hold the printed sheet in place against the tympan
21
One example of this survives at the John Rylands University Library in Manchester (S9784). See Ikeda,
“The Fust and Schöffer Office,” note 31. Ikeda also notes that blue ink continued to be a problem for the
printers citing the 1462 reissue of their Bible. The 1462 Bible was intended to have blue and red initials
much like the Mainz Psalter, but only a few early initials were printed in blue while red the initials were
completed. The blue initials were printed as blanks in the remainder of the book.
22
Missale ([Mainz: Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, 1458]), ISTC im00736000. See Gascoigne, Colour
Printing, 1-2. Gascoigne states that it only survived in two copies, but according to ISTC there are eight
institutions with copies. According to the Bodleian catalogue (Bod-inc M-284), there are two- and six-line
initials printed in two colors with the letter in one color and the decoration in the other color.
83
and also protect the margins from errant ink.
23
Printers could cut “windows” into the frisket sheet
in order to only print specific parts of the matrix, whether it was a woodblock or type. When
using a frisket sheet, the printer did not need to align multiple matrices in register like in
compound printing, but rather they printed multiple colors using a single matrix printed multiple
times.
24
Two fragments of Ratdolt’s frisket sheets survive at the Herzog August Bibliothek in
Wolfenbüttel. The small pieces survived because they were used in the binding of Albrecht von
Eyb’s Spiegel der Sitten (Mirror of Morals, 1511), and in 1990, conservators removed and
preserved these pieces during a routine treatment at the library.
25
These sheets provide valuable
insights into Ratdolt’s working methods for printing in red and black. First, the printer prepared a
forme with all the elements to be printed (type and/or blocks), and then printed the forme onto
the designated frisket sheet as a guide to aid in registration during the process. Then, the
windows were cut out of the frisket sheet using a knife to cut open the areas of the forme that
would be inked in red. The red components were printed first. The entire forme was inked in red,
and was subsequently printed onto the sheet of paper (or vellum). The uncut portions of the
frisket sheet blocked the red parts of the forme while the cut out windows revealed the red titles
or initials. After all the sheets for the print run were printed in red, the frisket sheet was removed
or the entire center was cut out (preserving the margins). Then the forme was adjusted removing
23
See Savage (formerly Upper), “The Earliest Artefacts of Colour Printing in the West: Red Frisket
Sheets, c. 1490–1630,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 108/4 (2014): 477-522 and
Savage (formerly Upper), “New Evidence of Erhard Ratdolt’s Working Practices: The After-Life of Two
Red Frisket Sheets from the Missale Constantiense (1505),” Journal of the Printing Historical Society
Spring (2015): 81-97.
24
Stijnman and Savage, “Early Colour Printing,” 13.
25
Savage (formerly Upper), “Ratdolt’s Working Practices,” 81. At the time of Savage’s article in 2015,
there were forty-nine other fragments of frisket sheets used for red printing identified, but the
Wolfenbüttel fragments are the only sixteenth-century examples of frisket sheets that have been positively
attached to a text.
84
the red components and adding spacing materials. The forme was then inked in black and
printed, bypassing the need to rearranging it for registration. The surviving frisket sheet in
Wolfenbüttel, caked in red ink and cut out, was then re-used as wastepaper in binding.
26
Like the other surviving fragments of frisket sheets, Ratdolt’s frisket sheets at
Wolfenbüttel were cut from manuscripts that were made during the late twelfth century to late
fourteenth century. Since parchment remained expensive throughout the early modern period and
frisket sheets were extensively cut and inked therefore making them unusable except as invisible
components in bindings, it was logical that the frisket sheet was itself a recycled material.
27
The
reuse of materials along with Ratdolt’s manipulation of the press points towards years of
knowledge and expertise gained through trial and error. The process of printing itself, requiring
less materials and labor than making manuscripts, provided the freedom to experiment, even if
those experiments impeded the efficiency of the printing press.
It is also important to note that cutting and printing on frisket sheets was only one of
Ratdolt’s methods for printing in black and red, and moreover these experiments likely began
during his time as a printer in Venice. The first book from his shop in Venice was Kalendarium
(Calendar, 1476) by Johannes Regiomontanus’ (Johann Müller von Königsberg, 1436–76), the
great mathematician and astronomer who had died earlier that year; the book featured lunar and
solar information, feast days, and church holidays arranged by Regiomontanus.
28
Ratdolt had a
relationship with Regiomontanus during his time in Nuremberg before arriving in Venice, since
he traveled south of the Alps with some manuscripts from the mathematician in hand.
29
26
Savage, “Ratdolt’s Working Practices,” 85. Wastepaper was generally used in bindings as pasteboard or
guards for endleaves that were pasted underneath a pastedown.
27
Ibid., 86.
28
Johannes Regiomontanus (Johann Müller of Königsberg), Kalendarium (Venice: Bernhard Maler
(pictor), Erhard Ratdolt and Peter Löslein, 1476), ISTC ir00093000.
29
Lowry, Nicolas Jenson, 211-2.
85
Regiomontanus was already a well-known figure among humanists on the Italian peninsula by
the time Ratdolt moved to the Veneto. The mathematician was especially close to Cardinal
Basilios Bessarion (d. 1472) in Venice, a Greek scholar and prominent patron who is largely
credited for the re-introduction of Plato in Western Europe. The Cardinal also donated his
substantial library to the Venetian senate around 1468 subsequently forming the basis of the
Biblioteca Marciana.
30
In his decision to print Regiomontanus’s work as the first book from his
newly established print shop, Ratdolt acted to ingratiate himself to his adopted city.
While in Nuremberg, Regiomontanus printed two editions of the text in Latin and
German in 1474.
31
Ratdolt followed Regiomonatus’s editio princeps closely in his own edition of
Kalendarium. For both editions, Regiomontanus had designed three woodcuts for telling time
that were printed at the end of the book. One of these woodcuts included brass arm, complete
with joints, and the remaining two had strings attached. For instructions, Regiomontanus
included a volvelle—layered, turnable paper wheels—along with the three horological woodcuts
for interpreting the lunar cycle (Fig. 2.2).
32
Regiomonatus drew on manuscript examples for the
construction of his volvelles, and additionally, oversaw their printing.
33
In addition to these printed instruments, Regiomontanus also included woodcuts of
various degrees of lunar eclipses determined by year, month, and day within tables. The
woodcuts are very simple with the negative space of the page serving as the visible portion of the
moon during the eclipse, so a fully black circle represented a full eclipse (Fig. 2.3). Moreover,
30
For more of Regiomontanus in Italy and his relationship with Cardinal Bessarion, see Rose, The Italian
Renaissance of Mathematics, 90-118. For more on Regiomontanus, see Rivka Feldhay and F. Jamil
Ragep, eds., Before Copernicus: the cultures and contexts of scientific learning in the fifteenth century
(Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017); Ernst Zinner, Regiomontanus, his life and work
,trans. Erza Brown (New York: Elsevier Science Pub. Co., 1990).
31
German edition: ISTC ir00100300; Latin edition: ISTC ir00092000.
32
Suzanne Karr Schmidt, “Georg Hartmann and the Development of Printed Instruments in Nuremberg,”
in Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge, 270.
33
Karr Schmidt, Interactive and Sculptural Printmaking, 295.
86
Regiomontanus was likely the first printer to use metal strips to form the thin, black lines and
circles of his diagrams—a technique that Ratdolt adapted for his edition of Kalendarium and his
1482 edition of Euclid’s Elements.
34
Ratdolt not only printed the mathematician’s writings but
also brought these new printing methods for illustrations to Venice. The combined power of
printing a popular title from a popular author with innovative images cemented Ratdolt’s
esteemed position among Venetians in the late fifteenth century.
However, Ratdolt did choose to make some changes to the format of his edition of
Kalendarium. While Ratdolt included Regiomontanus’s images along with woodcut initials in
his 1476 edition, he also added a separate title page with a woodcut border and an imprint date in
Arabic rather than the typical Roman numerals (Fig. 2.4). The woodcut border is light and airy
with an ornamental and vegetal motif that occupies about three-quarters of the page. Three lines
of the imprint listing the printers including two of Ratdolt’s collaborators, are incorporated into
the lower portion of the border with two ornamental flourishes on either sided. The separate title
page and the decorative border in Kalendarium were some of the earliest to appear in printed
books and marked a significant departure from the visual appearance of manuscripts that
generally had an illuminated, historiated initial at the start of the text known as the incipit.
35
Additionally, Ratdolt printed the title page in black and red. The first initial of the title “A” is
red, as is the imprint (minus the date), and the remainder of the text and border is black. Like in
his later experiments with printing in gold, Ratdolt was astute enough to add his own, distinctive
visual elements to an already established author and text.
34
Zinner, Regiomontanus, 110-7. See also Renzo Baldasso, “Illustrating the Book of Nature in the
Renaissance: Drawing, Painting, and Printing Geometric Diagrams and Scientific Figures,” (PhD diss.,
Columbia University, 2007), 195-6.
35
Febvre and Martin, The Coming of Book, 84. For a general, if reductive, overview of the incorporation
of title pages and frontispieces see chapter three, “The Book: Its Visual Appearance.”
87
The red and black printing on the title page in Kalendarium was not the only instance of
color in copies of Ratdolt’s edition. In many cases, the woodcuts of the lunar eclipses were hand-
colored. The example of the 1476 edition at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Münich for
instance has hand-applied yellow wash in the negative space left behind by the woodcuts of the
eclipses left behind by the woodcuts (Fig. 2.5).
36
Similarly, copies at the University of
California, Los Angeles and the Morgan Library also contain yellow wash within the woodcuts
of the lunar eclipses.
37
Additionally, in the copy at the Morgan Library, although the volvelles are
lacking, the woodcut border on the leaf where the volvelles were once attached on the verso of
leaf [19] is hand-colored with yellow, green, red, and ochre pigments. The printed vine initial on
the facing recto of leaf [20] is also hand-colored with red, green, and ochre (Fig. 2.6). The
articulated, brass arms with miniscule rosettes on the joints remain attached to two of the
horological woodcuts, quadrans horologii horizontalis and quadratum horaium generale (Figs.
2.7-8). All these embellishments to the printed leaves of these copies of Kalendarium make each
copy distinct, and reveal an impetus amongst the readers of this astronomical text to add color
and dimension to the white paper.
Scholars have proposed that illustrations like these consisting of mostly negative space
with only a black outline were intended to invite hand-coloring either by the reader or by the
printer at the request of the patron.
38
On a more logistical note, if the coloring was done in-house
at the print shop, the printer was generally responsible for the labor as well as a component of the
price.
39
Perhaps as a solution to this, Ratdolt began experimenting with printing in color. Less
36
Bayerishce Staatsbibliothek, Münich, BSB-Ink R-69.
37
University of California, Los Angeles, *A1 .R263c 1476.
38
See Armstrong, “The Impact of Printing on Miniaturists in Venice,” 174-202; Landau and Parshall, The
Renaissance Print, 36-38.
39
Armstrong, “The Impact of Printing on Miniaturists in Venice,” 200-1. See also Kusukawa, Picturing
the Book of Nature, 75-6.
88
than ten years later, he issued another edition of Kalendarium in 1482 that contained some of the
earliest multi-colored woodcuts.
40
Ratdolt printed the series lunar eclipses in the 1482 edition in black and red with the red
ink occupying the areas where the negative space once was in the earlier editions (Fig. 2.9). To
achieve this, Ratdolt printed the woodcuts in register. He used two woodblocks, each set in a
separate matrix, one inked in black and one in red, and then superimposed the matrices so that
they lined up with each other before he ran each one through the press.
41
Unlike the customized
jigsaw prints used for the initials in the Mainz Psalter that required only one run of the press,
color printing in register requires as many runs as there are colors. As a result, in the case of the
black and red lunar eclipses, Ratdolt had to run each sheet through the press at least twice, taking
great care that the two relief prints would align with one another in each printing. While jigsaw
printing would seem the most efficient, it also called for intricate and highly customized matrices
that had to fit together very precisely. On the other hand, even though Ratdolt’s method required
multiple passes through the press, the woodcuts and their matrices remained fairly simple in
construction, so there wasn’t a need for specially made matrices.
The process, however, became more complicated with more colors since the more times a
sheet was printed, the more likely the image would come out of register. Yet, only a few years
after his 1482 edition of Kalendarium, Ratdolt continued to push the limits of color printing in
register with his printing of tri-colored diagrams in red, yellow, and black.
42
In 1485, Ratdolt
issued his second edition of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s (ca. 1195–ca. 1256) astronomical text
40
Johannes Regiomontanus, Kalendarium (Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 9 Agu. 1482), ISTC ir00094000. For
earlier prints in color see Stijnman and Upper, “Color Prints before Erhard Ratdolt: Engraved Paper
Instruments in Lazarus Beham’s Buch von der Astronomie (Cologne: Nicolaus Götz, c. 1476)” Gutenberg
Jahrbuch 86 (2014): 86-105.
41
Stijnman and Savage, “Early Colour Printing,” 13.
42
Elizabeth Savage, “Colour Printing in Relief before c. 1700,” in Printing Colour, 30.
89
Sphaera mundi (Sphere of the world).
43
On the folio 5
3
verso, he printed a diagram of
Sacrobosco’s theory of lunar eclipses underneath the text (Fig. 2.10). The large diagram
consisting of circles and lines occupies the entire lower half of the page. The outline of the
diagram is in black and the various circles representing the movement of the celestial bodies are
filled in with red and black. On the facing recto, there is a diagram printed in yellow and black of
the solar eclipse (Fig. 2.11). Yellow and black diagrams appear earlier in the volume on folios 3
2
verso, 3
8
recto, 4
4
recto, 4
5
recto, and 4
8
recto. These bi-color woodcuts appeared in addition to
the tri-color woodcut and typical black line woodcuts. Ratdolt used the printing press to create
variation within a single, printed volume. The multi-colored woodcuts not only demonstrate the
printer’s skill and ingenuity, but also represent a departure from the standard printings of this
popular astronomical text.
In fact, none of the other editions of Sacrobosco’s Sphaera mundi printed in Europe
contained illustrations.
44
Instead, the publishers included blank leaves for the reader or perhaps a
hired illuminator to supply diagrams on their own. In the case of Florentius de Argentina’s editio
princeps, printed in Venice in 1472, there are at least three surviving copies that contain
diagrams added by hand. One of these copies at the Library of Congress contains only one
diagram depicting the terrestrial spheres, but an illuminator also added rubrications and initials to
the text of the book (Figs. 2.12-13).
45
Similarly, a copy at Yale University has numerous
diagrams added by hand, likely with the assistance of a compass (Fig. 14). The blank leaves and
43
Johannes de Sacro Bosco, Sphaera mundi … ([Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, [before 4 Nov.] 1485), ISTC
ij00406000.
44
These editions include Sphaera mundi (Venice: Florentius de Argentina, 1472), ISTC ij00400000;
Sphaera mundi (Ferrara: Andreas Belfortis, Gallus, 1472), ISTC ij00399600. Baldasso mentions a third
edition printed in Venice by Adam of Ambergau in 1472, but that edition is not listed in ISTC. See
Baldasso, “Illustrating the Book of Nature,” 206-7.
45
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Incun. X .S125 QB42; Historical Library of the Medical
School, Yale University, Incunabula J-400 (Goff). See Baldasso, “Illustrating the Book of Nature,” 207,
note 19.
90
drawings in these early editions of Sphaera mundi indicate that firstly, illustrations were a
necessary and encouraged component of reading and understanding the text, and secondly, that
these printers were either unable or opposed to printing the images. For similar reasons, Ratdolt
waited until 1482 to print Euclid’s Elements, supposedly perfecting his methods of printing
diagrams using metal strips that began with Regiomontanus’s texts. The initial limitations of the
printing press coupled with an obvious need to include images for the comprehension of certain
texts prompted experimentation in the print shop. As a result, the origins of a “standard” text
such as Sphaera mundi were anything but standard requiring frequent adaption and manipulation
of the printing press in order to compete with and surpass other editions of the same title and
previous manuscript copies.
All the printed editions of Sphaera mundi were also issued with another astronomical text
Theorica planetarum (Theories of planets). Early printers attributed the tract to a twelfth-century
translator and commentator known as Gerard of Cremona. Despite that attribution being shaky,
even at the time, the tract was paired as an explanatory compendium to the first editions of
Sacrobosco’s Sphaera mundi.
46
Regiomontanus wrote a polemical critique of Theorica
planetarum in 1475 entitled Disputationes contra Cremonensia deliramenta (Disputations
against the delusional Cremona) that soon replaced the medieval text in fifteenth-century
editions of Sphaera mundi.
47
46
The first printed edition of Theorica planetarum issued in 1472 by Andreas Belfortis, Gallus in Ferrara
(ISTC ig00162500) named Gerard of Cremona (ca. 1114–1187), a prolific translator and commentator, as
the author of the text. However, sixteenth-century bibliographers proposed that the author was in fact was
a later astrologer of the same name, sometimes referred to as Gerard of Sabbioneta for clarity, writing in
the mid-thirteenth century. However, debate still surrounds the true authorship of the text. For a full
account of the origins of Theorica planetarum, see Olaf Pedersen, “The Origins of the ‘Theorica
planetarum,’” Journal for History of Astronomy 12 (1981): 113-23.
47
Johannes Regiomontanus, Disputationes contra Cremonensia deliramenta ([Nuremberg: Johann Müller
of Königsberg (Regiomontanus), ca. 1474], ISTC ir00104000.
91
Importantly, Regiomontanus’ tract disputing Theorica planetarum included woodcut
diagrams. These illustrations consisted of straight lines and circles depicting the trajectories and
movements of planets, and were printed within and alongside the text. Regiomontanus, rather
than include blank leaves for the owner to supply their own diagrams, printed these crucial
images.
48
When Ratdolt printed his first edition of Sphaera mundi in 1482, he added the text of
Regiomontanus’s Disputationes along with its diagrams. Ratdolt also added another text from
Georg von Peuerbach (1423–61), an Austrian astronomer, entitled Theorica novae planetarum,
and subsequently added woodcuts for these writings as well.
49
Sacrobosco’s Sphaera mundi and the multiple texts and images that accompanied it
became a textbook for students due to the fact that astronomy was one of the subjects of
quadrivium and Sphaera mundi contained both historical and contemporary writings.
50
For
example, a copy at the Morgan Library of Ratdolt’s 1485 edition contains annotations and
manicules in the margins indicating that an active reader, likely a student, once owned the
copy.
51
In adding texts and images, Ratdolt’s volume was effectively shaping humanist studies,
and the merging of text and image in print was part of this change.
In his seminal study of the woodcut, Hind characterized Ratdolt’s color printing only as
technical advancements, with little to no consideration as to the aesthetic or stylistic choice.
52
Ratdolt’s traversing across Europe from Augsburg to Nuremberg to Venice and eventually back
to Augsburg, however, demonstrates how printers were largely responsible for establishing
48
For a brief publishing history of Regiomontanus and Sphaera mundi, see Baldasso, “Illustrating the
Book of Nature,” 208-9.. He notes that Franciscus Renner printed additional images in his edition issued
in 1478, and, interestingly, an edition from Leonhard Pachel and Ulrich Scinzenzeler in Milan printed the
same year contained no illustrations.
49
He also included George Peurbach’s text Theorica novae planetarum.
50
Pedersen, “The Origins of the ‘Theorica planetarum,’” 113.
51
Sherman, Used Books, 30-2.
52
Hind, History of Woodcut, I, 299-303.
92
trends in book design through their own movements. He initially began his forays in color
printing in Venice before he left for his native Augsburg in 1486 and continued to expand his
operations and experiments once there.
53
He continued to expand his efforts with color printing,
adding more colors (and thus more woodblocks) in attempts to create tone and variation. One
example is the Breviarium Ratisponense printed during his time in Augsburg in 1487, which
featured a woodcut of the bishop of Regensberg who was also the dedicatee of the volume. The
woodcut maintains its black outline, but three additional woodblocks were used—inked in
yellow, dark green, and red—to add passages of color to the image (Fig. 2.15).
54
Additionally,
the superimposition of multiple blocks allowed for some variations in tone considering that the
colors could overlap or range from opaque to transparent.
55
In contrast to the solid areas of color
in the yellow and red diagrams in 1485 edition of Sphaera mundi, the woodcut of the Bishop is
far more complex considering the tedious registration process. By adding more color, Ratdolt
was actively disrupting the printing process in order to present a unique and innovative book to
the market in Augsburg like he had in Venice.
In addition to securing a clientele of humanists with his editions of classical and
contemporary titles, Ratdolt’s calculated experiments in color printing were a crucial component
of his business model. While scholars often characterize color printing as exorbitant and risky
due to the labor and materials involved, Ratdolt is an early example of how experimentation with
printing press could result in both profit and wide acclaim. Following a similar model of
publication that he established with Regiomontanus’s Kalendarium, Radolt issued an edition of
Sphaera mundi in 1482 with woodcut illustrations printed in standard black lines before
53
Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 180.
54
Breviarium Ratisponense (Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt, 1487–8), ISTC ib01176500. See Gascoigne,
Colour Printing, 2.
55
Stijnman and Savage, “Early Colour Printing,” 13.
93
publishing an edition with color printing. Also like Kalendarium, Radolt chose a well-known
author and text as a platform for his riskier printing ventures perhaps to mitigate any potential
losses from materials and labor. While Radolt has long been acknowledged as an important
printer north and south of the Alps, this pattern in his printing practice has not been considered a
significant factor in his success. The lack of recognition in this regard shows the clear distinction
in scholarship between uncommon and common bookmaking practices; so much so that the
whole category of “presentation copies” was constructed to account for books made with
uncommon materials despite the lack of evidence that these books were indeed intended as gifts.
Ratdolt and others, with their experiments with colored printing, were in fact creating a book that
was both commercial in scope yet bespoke in its appearance. Color printing in particular reveals
how easily printers could manipulate print as a medium to offer the illusion of luxury in the form
of color illustrations (a hallmark of the manuscript tradition) in an accessible package: the
printed book.
What these colored printed woodcuts, text, and printed instruments demonstrate is that
print was both an agent of standardization yet incredibly mutable. Printed books simultaneously
create standards and pushed back against standards. Regiomontanus standardized the use of these
illustrations in his Disputationes, which in turn became part of the printings of Sacrobosco’s
Sphaera mundi. Only three years after Regiomontanus’s published this work, Franciscus Renner
(fl. late 15
th
century) issued an edition of Sphaera mundi in Venice containing the Theorica
planetarum, but did not include Regiomontanus’s rebuttal.
56
However, like Regiomontanus,
Renner developed diagrams to illustrate the astronomical text, including three woodcuts for
56
Johannes de Sacro Bosco, Sphaera mundi … Theorica planetarum (Venice: Franciscus Renner, 1478),
ISTC ij00402000.
94
Sacrobosco’s portion and eight woodcuts for Theorica planetarum.
57
Even more editions of
Sphaera mundi were printed in Milan and Bologna, respectively, so when Ratdolt issued his
edition in 1482, he was already entering a crowded marketplace. The thirty-nine woodcuts that
populate the pages of the 1482 edition alongside Regiomontanus’s Disputationes were not
merely a result of standardization, since earlier editions varied in content, but rather a move to
offer the market something new, even revolutionary.
This desire to present audiences with a non-standard book is further supported by
Ratdolt’s 1485 edition of Sphaera mundi, which demonstrated his novel experiments with color
printing techniques. For even though the images and text remain the same in line and form,
printing the illustrations in register using yellow, red, and black inks makes this edition distinct,
as noted above. In a significant turn, however, there are examples of how the non-standard can
develop into the standard. A copy of Ratdolt’s 1482 edition at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
has hand-colored woodcuts, colored in the same manner as the printed colored woodcuts in his
1485 edition (Fig. 2.16).
58
The yellow circles are hand-colored yellow and red circles are hand-
colored red. There are additional instances where the woodcuts are colored green or yellow but
still match up with the tri-colored printed woodcuts from the 1485 edition. This likely means that
a later owner of the 1482 edition went back and added the color after viewing the 1485 edition
with color printing. The state and quality of the wash implies that the application of colored
washes by hand was likely near contemporary and not a centuries-later addition. This reveals the
way in which bespoke books can inform the appearance of printed books, not unlike how the
earliest printers chose to replicate the visual qualities of manuscripts.
57
Baldasso, “Illustrating the Book of Nature,” 208.
58
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Münich, 1482.07.06.
95
The printing press as an agent of standardization is not as simple as using a new
technology to reproduce identical texts. In examining the origins of standard texts such as the
Mainz Psalter and Sphaera mundi, the titles were subject to change at every stage of production
including consolidating new and old texts, the addition of images or decoration, and even the
application of color to enhance the visual elements of the book. It is necessary to consider these
early experiments in color printing, especially as they relate to the later treatment of books in the
sixteenth century. While color printing served as a hallmark of a skilled printer, adding color to
books was itself a method of pushing against standardization towards customization of printed
materials. It is for this reason, among others, that the hand-coloring of books persisted alongside
printers’ efforts to mechanize the process.
Adding Color to Books with the Hand and Print
Similar to other bespoke techniques, the continued practice of hand-coloring in the wake
of the printing press and color printing methods is infrequently discussed in scholarship on this
topic. Printed books with hand-colored elements like illuminated initials or colored illustrations
are often categorized as presentation copies. Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
presentation copies were an important component of the printing business. Books as gifts helped
printers secure patronage from the recipient and were also popular diplomatic gifts.
59
However,
the questions of who applied the color to presentation copies, and when and where they did so
are often difficult, if not impossible, to answer. For this reason, and also because of their rarity,
such books are viewed as anomalies in mass-produced print media.
59
See an in-depth study of the role of presentation copies in diplomatic affairs see Roberts, Printing a
Mediterranean World.
96
Although adding color by hand was often the most expensive and laborious method of
making a book bespoke, it was the most common method.
60
Miniaturists who illuminated printed
books carried over their techniques from manuscript illumination including the application of
luxurious materials like gold and lapis lazuli—a practice that continued into the sixteenth
century.
61
Yet, even among these rarified craftsmen, there was pressure to produce illuminations
faster in order to keep up with the speed of the printing press. For instance, artists began to use
different materials that could be prepared faster and with a quicker application like choosing pen
and wash or watercolor over more traditional tempera paint. In Venice, printers used woodcuts as
guides for miniaturists to add color without spending much time on creating a design.
62
Moreover, as Peter Parshall and David Landau have effectively shown, the success and
development of the woodcut in Europe was intrinsically tied to its use as illustrations in printed
books, especially in Venice.
63
For instance, printed book illustrations developed differently in
Venice than in northern Europe. Beginning in the fifteenth century, miniaturists, rather than the
typical woodcut makers responsible for making playing cards and small devotional images of
saints, were responsible for adding illustrations to printed books. In the miniaturist workshop, or
bottega, after the ground of the parchment was prepared, a light outline was printed by hand
using a stampiglia. A stampiglia was simply a woodblock, carved with a design, attached to a
handle. Scholars have thus attributed the stark linear style of early Venetian book illustration to
this method since the stampiglia was only intended to provide an outline for the miniaturist to
subsequently fill in with color and modeling.
60
Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature, 69-70.
61
The most well-documented examples of illuminated books in the early sixteenth century were
illuminated Aldines made on commission or with illuminations add by the owner. See Helena K. Szépe,
“The Poliphilo and other Aldines reconsidered in the context of the production of decorated books in
Venice,” (PhD diss., Cornell University, 1992).
62
See Armstrong, “The Hand-Illumination of Printed Books.”
63
Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 33.
97
Additionally, since a design from a stampiglia had to be printed by hand, it interrupted
the process of the press. A folio with an illustration required hand printing using the stampiglia
and then an additional run through the press with the type for the text. While Landau and
Parshall have viewed this method as a reason as to why early printed book illustration was
“careless” and “crude,” it nevertheless is crucial evidence as to how bookmakers in Venice
approached images in books.
64
Printers in Venice were not opposed to using both printing and
handcrafts to create bespoke books. Moreover, technique shows that printers used a variety of
methods to add color to printed books. The stampiglia was only one of many methods that
printers adopted to facilitate the process, and like the methods that came after it, many printers
combined mechanical and handcraft techniques.
There were additional experiments in expediting the coloring process like the methods of
stenciling and stamping.
65
One of the most well-known and earliest examples is the woodcut
illustration of an anatomy lesson in Fasciculo di medicina (Pamphet on Medicine) printed in
1494 in Venice by the Gregori brothers (Fig. 2.17).
66
Giovanni (fl. 1482–1503) and Gregorio (fl.
1496–1527) de’ Gregori published the first Latin edition of this text of medieval medical
knowledge under the title Fasciculus medicinae in 1491. The brothers printed the first edition
using mostly German manuscript sources in order to appeal to audiences outside of Italy,
specifically German-speaking students at universities. Additionally, they named Johannes de
Ketham (Johann von Kirchheim, 1410–80) as the author of the text. Although the attribution was
64
Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 36-7.
65
Stijnman and Savage, “Materials and Techniques for Early Colour Printing,” 16. See also Doris
Oltrogge, “Colour Stamping in the Late Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries: Technical Sources and
Workshop Practice” in Printing Colour, 51-64. Oltrogge discusses color stamping on fabric and textiles
with a focus on the technical qualities of the pigments, binders, and workshop practices.
66
Johannes de Ketham, Fasciculs medicinae … (Venice: Johannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis, de
Forlivio, 26 July 1491), ISTC ik00013000. See also the facsimile edition of Fasciculo de medicina with
an introduction and commentary: Karl Sudhoff, The Fasciculus Medicinae of Johannes de Ketham,
Alemanus, Facsimile of the first, Venetian, edition of 1491 (Milan: R. Lier, 1924).
98
spurious, Ketham, a German physician and professor at the University of Vienna, did live and
travel in the Veneto bringing with him ancient and medieval medical sources.
67
The 1491 edition was hugely successful partly due to its six, large-scale woodcuts of
charts depicting urine glasses, human anatomy, and astrological designations that occupied the
entire leaf of the folio-sized book.
68
Capitalizing on this success, the Gregori brothers printed a
vernacular edition, also in folio, and added text from the Bolognese physician, Mondino de’
Liuzzi (ca. 1270–1326) along with ten full-page woodcut illustrations.
69
The Italian edition
included the first appearance of the anatomy lesson as a frontispiece for the section of Mondino’s
writings.
70
However, after the first printing of Fasciculo di medicina, the woodcut was
apparently lost and replaced with a slightly different copy of the image in subsequent re-
printings.
71
In both cases, the woodcut depicts a typical dissection at a university with student
observers, an anatomist who reads from a text, a demonstrator (ostensor) who elucidates the
anatomist’s descriptions, and a barber-surgeon who performs the physical dissection.
72
In some instances, the frontispiece was colored using a combination of stamping and
stenciling. In a surviving example at the Museum in Fine Arts in Boston, the artist used black,
red, brown, and yellow inks for the scene. The simple act of adding color to the woodcut
demonstrates the importance of color in printed books; however, this example at the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston also shows the pitfalls of a coloring method like stenciling and stamping. For
instance, the two legs of the barber-surgeon are two different colors; the left leg is brown
67
Dackerman, Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge, 146, note 2.
68
See Jerome Bylebyl, “Interpreting the Fasciculo Anatomy Scene,” Journal of the History of Medicine
and Allied Sciences 45 (1990): 285-316.
69
Johannes de Ketham, Fasciculo de medicina … (Venice: Johannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis, de
Forlivio, 5 Feb. 1493/94), ISTC ik00017000.
70
Dackerman, Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge, 146.
71
Bylebyl, “Interpreting the Fasciculo Anatomy Scene,” 286.
72
Ibid., 306.
99
matching the rest of his clothing but the right leg is inked in red. Additionally, the pointing hand
of the demonstrator was inked in the same red of his cloak completely obscuring his hand and his
pointer. The left hand of the anatomist is similarly inked over in red. Yet, there are passages
where the color adds dimension and detail such as the red lips of the students, the red cheeks of
the anatomist, and the yellow window frames. The color also imbues the image with an added
layer of information for the reader. For example, the barber-surgeon is the only one clothed in a
brown outfit. The students, anatomist, and demonstrator are either in black or red. A barber-
surgeon was typically uneducated in a university-sense and considered more along the lines of
tradesmen unlike the other men in the scene.
73
Thus the position of the barber-surgeon in the
middle of the scene coupled with his singular brown outfit sets him apart from the students and
professor and from the reader as well, likely a medical student.
The woodcut in the copy of Fasciculo di medicina at the Morgan Library contains areas
where the stenciling in the woodcut of the anatomy lesson similarly obscures body parts and
pointers with passages of red, and also has the bi-colored legs of the barber-surgeon (Fig. 2.18).
However, unlike the copy at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the individuals in the scene lack
the subtle touches of red to the cheeks and lips. The differences between the two copies shows
that parts of the frontispiece were stenciled and that parts were added with a brush. It appears
that the robes and hats of the participants in the lesson, important elements for determining the
rank of each individual, were stenciled while additional features, like rosy cheeks and lips, were
73
Ibid., 285. This designation would change over the century as physicians and anatomists began to
dissect cadavers themselves without the proxy of a barber-surgeon. Andreas Vesalius was vocally
opposed to the use of barber-surgeons as dissectors. Additionally, there was a tradition in Italy of
university-trained barber-surgeons who received degrees in the field. However, it is likely this made up
only small contingency in the field of human anatomy. See also Bylebyl, “The School of Padua:
humanistic medicine in the sixteenth century” in Health, Medicine and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century,
ed. Charles Webster (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 335-70.
100
added at the artist’s (or owner’s) discretion. Significantly, the Morgan copy of Fasciculo de
medicina contains evidence of the importance of color in medical texts.
In an earlier woodcut in the book, there is a urine chart (Fig. 2.19). Urine charts were
primarily used for diagnostic purposes also known as urology. Physicians examined the color,
opacity, and even taste of urine in order to determine the humoral imbalances of the patient, and
urine charts were handy guides.
74
The one in Fasciculo de medicina includes a description of
each humor in the four corners of the leaf, and there is a wheel of vials filled with different
colors of urine with a textual description corresponding to each vial in the center.
The illustrations in the Gregori brothers’s text set a new custom for images in printed
books, especially those in the genre of medicine and natural history. The simple, contour outlines
provided a guide for artists as well as invited the addition of color.
75
The materials and time
involved in coloring illustrations was especially high for heavily illustrated natural history books.
Therefore, more often than not, hand-colored books were presentation copies for special clients
or even the dedicatees. In most cases, these individuals were nobles. One of the most elaborate
examples is a hand-colored presentation copy of Andreas Vesalius’s (1514–64) De humani
corporis fabrica (On the fabric of the human body, 1543) for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V
(1500–58), today in the Norman Library of Science and Medicine. Vesalius issued the first
edition of this monumental text in 1543 with the printer Johannes Oporinus in Basel. Vesalius
74
For more on urine charts and uroscopy see Dániel Margócsy’s catalogue entry “Ulrich Pinder … Urine
Analysis Chart and Key,” in Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge, 56, no. 7. See also Michael Stolberg,
“The Decline of Uroscopy in Early Modern Learned Medicine,” Early Science and Medicine 12 (2007):
313-36.
75
Peter Parshall and Rainer Schoch, et. al., Origins of European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century
Woodcuts and their Public (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2005), 20
101
presented the Emperor Charles V, who was the dedicatee, with a copy bound in purple silk velvet
with vellum endpapers and hand-colored and gold-highlighted illustrations.
76
There is also a copy of Epitome (1543), a shorter, supplemental text to De humani
corporis fabrica, at the Cambridge University Library printed on vellum and completely hand-
colored with additional silver highlights.
77
Epitome included Adam and Eve figures, as well as
separate woodcuts of all the systems of the human body. In the text, Vesalius instructed readers
to color certain parts of the illustrations and then cut them out and layer the systems on the male
and female figures (Fig. 2.20). The construction of these manikins was intended as learning tool
for students of medicine, and many followed Vesalius’s instructions judging from the few
surviving examples.
78
Sachiko Kusukawa suggests that the copy of Epitome at Cambridge, due
to its intactness, its elaborate coloring, and the use of vellum, was likely another gift from
Vesalius to Charles V.
79
These hand-colored examples of authoritative anatomical texts shows the lengths to
which printers and authors went to in order to enhance the appearances of books whether it was
part of the general print run or for specific individuals. Ivins’ mantra that the printing press
created the phenomenon of “exactly repeatable pictorial statements” belies the fact that
bookmakers and readers actively sought out means to distinguish printed books using these
various techniques and materials such as hand-coloring, color-printing, or a combination of the
two.
80
While color printing mechanized the addition of color, thereby making “exactly repeatable
76
Diana H. Hook and Jeremy M. Norman, The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine, 2
vols. (San Francisco: Jeremy Norman & Co., Inc., 1991), II:779, cat. no. 2137.
77
Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome (Basle: Johannis Oporini, 1543),
USTC 606037; Cambridge University Library, CCF.46.36.
78
Dackerman, Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge, 74-7. See also Suzanne Karr Schmidt’s entry in the
catalogue for the manikins from Epitome, cat. no. 12.
79
Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature, 70.
80
Ivins, Prints and Visual Communication, 1.
102
pictorial statements” with more than just black ink, hand-coloring persisted as a popular method
even becoming a crucial part of printing during the early modern period. The success of the
printing press was not entirely due to its reproductive functions, but also due to the freedom it
gave bookmakers and book owners to “customize” and “personalize” objects. In other words, the
printed book as a commercial product (as opposed to a luxury manuscript) was more accessible
to a wider public, and therefore offered more opportunities for a wider range of bespoke
treatments like hand-coloring. Bookmakers and authors could use hand-coloring as a tool to gain
the all-important and necessary patronage from nobles and elites, and in turn, book owners could
employ hand-coloring to add value and visual interest to their personal copies.
Hand-coloring was perhaps the most common means of accomplishing this considering
that adding pigment or washes to a book immediately made it unique and different from any
other printed copies. Even when multiple copies were hand-colored, there was significant
variety. For example, at least three copies of Ratdolt’s edition of Johannes Angelus’s (1453–
1512) Astrolabium (1488) survive today with different degrees of hand-coloring.
81
There are two
copies at the Morgan Library and one copy at the National Library of Medicine in Washington,
D.C., each with hand-colored initials and woodcuts. Issued after Ratdolt returned to Augsburg,
Astrolabium is an astrological work consisting of a series of tables and over 400 woodcuts that
include eighty miniatures featuring the influence of zodiac signs on daily life.
82
In the copy at the
Morgan (PML 126008, copy 2), the woodcut vignettes are hand-colored with red, green, blue,
and pink on the clothing of the figures and colored skies and landscapes (Fig. 2.21). Similarly,
the woodcuts in the copy at the National Library of Medicine are colored with a greater range of
81
Johannes Angelus, Astrolabium (Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt, 27 Nov. (or 6 Oct.) 1488), ISTC
ia00711000.
82
“Angelus, Johannes, Astrolabium planu[m],” Morgan Library & Museum, Corsair Online Catalogue,
accessed January 21, 2020, http://corsair.themorgan.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=133446.
103
washes applied throughout (Fig. 2.22). In both of these copies, the person or persons responsible
for applying the color followed the lines of the woodcuts with their modeling, often applying
darker tones over the printed hatching, but they also added blue skies in many scenes indicating
that their primary concern wasn’t solely to adhere to the printed design. However, in the other
copy at the Morgan (PML 55175, copy 1), only the initials contain traces of hand-coloring; in
addition, the tables are rubricated, but the illustrations have no coloring (Fig. 2.23). Finally, one
other copy at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has no hand-coloring in the woodcuts or initials
and no rubrications.
The amount of hand-coloring present in a volume generally depended on cost and labor.
In the case of copy 1 of Astrolabium at the Morgan, the provenance gives some insight as to who
ordered the hand-coloring of the initials and rubrications. The book is bound in contemporary
dark-brown calf with the gold-tooled armorial device of King Vladislav II (1456–1516),
successor to Matthius Corvinus (1443–90), the king of Hungary and Croatia and avid book
collector.
83
Like printing with gold, hand-coloring on the scale seen in these presentation copies
was costly and laborious, since it required more material and more time. For instance, Kusukawa
has deduced that the price of a fully hand-colored copy of Conrad Gessner’s Historia animalium
(History of animals, 1551-8) cost double or more (depending on the amount of figures) than the
price of an uncolored “white copy.”
84
Many were willing to spend more money to add color to
books as is evident in the countless surviving printed books with hand-coloring. Nevertheless,
printers continued to experiment with different ways of printing in color. Color printing, like
83
Paul Needham, Twelve Centuries of Bookbindings, 400–1600 (New York: Pierpont Morgan Library,
1979), no. 31.
84
Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature, 59-61. See Table 2.2 on page 60 detailing the prices of the
books and the prices per figure. Kusukawa, using bibliographic date from Wellisch, deduces that a white
copy of the first volume was 2 florins and a colored copy of the same volume was 4 florins. The first
volume contained 82 figures whereas the fourth volume contained 737 figures. The white copy price of
this volume was 3 florins and the colored copy was 7 florins and 10 scudi.
104
hand-coloring, was a mode of attracting clientele while simultaneously adding much desired
color to the leaves of books.
Chiaroscuro Printing in Italy
Color was an important aspect of the printed book adding visual interest and distinction
to the pages. Additionally, there is a relationship between printed books and prints; printers
produced both printed books and fine art prints from artists using the same tools, techniques, and
materials.
85
Nonetheless, the divide between the book and the fine art print is apparent in modern
scholarship. However, looking at bespoke practices like color printing in both books and prints
reveals that the relationship goes beyond a superficial affinity. It shows the varied uses of the
printing press and how individuals manipulated the matrix, forme, and press in order to push the
limits of the technology, and also uncovers more about how these individuals communicated and
spread this knowledge among themselves in a network of printers, bookmakers, authors, and
artists. Additionally, when considering the widespread development and use of bespoke
techniques in printmaking, it is apparent that the visual environment of early modern Europe was
much more connected and heterogeneous than current scholarship suggests.
Furthermore, the study of bespoke books offers new connections between printed media
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The foremost example is chiaroscuro woodcuts. The
earliest experiments began in Augsburg where the artists Cranach and Burgkmair printed black
line blocks on tinted paper with additional blocks printed with gold as heightening. Additionally,
in his woodcut of St. George and the Dragon Cranach scraped away areas of the wash to create
85
For further discussion about the overlap of printmaking and bookmaking (specifically in a German
context) see Needham, “Prints in the Early Print Shops.”
105
even more dimension in the print.
86
Cranach’s removal of the wash in order to reveal the
whiteness of the paper underneath indicates that the typical methods of color printing were not
satisfactory in achieving tonal variation. The major difficulty in printing in color was
registration. Using multiple woodblocks, each inked in a different color, required precise
alignment with each pull of the press. The more colors used, the more precision necessary. Even
if the printer achieved a perfect registration, this method of printing lacked the desirable tonal
variety and modeling seen in drawings and paintings.
The earliest experiments in printing on blue paper occurred in Venice in the late fifteenth
century. The woodcut depicts Saint Nicolas of Myra (today known as Santa Claus) distributing
golden balls as dowries for three women to save them from a life of prostitution (Fig. 2.24). The
woodcut was hand-colored in red, off-white, green, olive green, and tan colored washes. The
relatively large print, 29.3 x 21.2 cm, is additionally pasted on top of limp vellum with still-intact
ties on the top, bottom, and left side. Based on the placement of the ties, it is possible that this
print pasted on vellum was the back cover of a binding or, alternatively, attached to
furnishings.
87
Rather than tint or wash the paper, the artist used blue paper to bypass the
additional step of preparing the support while simultaneously adding a mid-tone for the print.
Many artists preferred to use colored paper for their drawings along with colored drawing
mediums like red chalk, white heightening, and charcoal. For instance, the Venetian artist, Paolo
Pino (active 1534–65) in his Dialogo di Pittura (Dialogue on Painting, 1548), outlined the
importance of understanding and employing colore and disegno, broadly the balance of the
86
Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 187.
87
Karr Schmidt, Altered and Adorned, 54-7.
106
evocative use of color and the intellectual implementation of design, in art making.
88
In the
dialogue, two speakers––the Florentine Fabio and the Venetian Lauro––discuss the merits and
nuances of colore and disegno alongside the practice of painting and drawing. At one point in the
book, Fabrio describes the best method of drawing as:
…understanding how to be inventive, as in [using] black chalk on tinted paper
and touching it up with white bodycolor and washes, or in sketching with the pen,
but this chiaroscuro is the quickest and most practical way and the best, because
the whole [work] can be coherently unified with a wider range of middle and light
tones.
89
Echoing this, Giorgio Vasari (1511–74) also advocated for the use of tinted paper, black lines,
and white heightening in drawing saying that this method “is very pictorial and best shows the
scheme of the coloring.”
90
While drawing was viewed as a necessary act of disegno prior to
executing the design in a painting, artists and writers considered drawing on colored paper a
crucial component of this practice. The use of colored paper merges the concepts of disegno and
colore in such a way that the artist could visualize the modeling of his painting using minimal
colors in his preparatory drawings.
Printing on blue paper would eventually become popular in book printing, but
chiaroscuro woodcuts were the predominant type of printing in color for art prints. The spread of
the technique to the south of the Alps solidified its importance in printing practices of the
88
Marcia B. Hall, Color and Meaning: Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1992), 2. See also Catherine Whistler, Venice & Drawing, 1500–1800:
Theory Practice and Collecting (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), 2.
89
Paolo Pino, Diaologo di pittvra di messer Paolo Pino (Venice: Paolo Gherardo, 1548), 15-16. “…saper
l’inventioni, come in carte tinte, con lapis nero, & biaca, toccar d’acquaticie, trattegiar di penna, ma lo
chiaro, & scuro è il piu presto, & più util modo, e il migliore, per che si può bene unire il tutto, & dar piu
mezze tinte, & più chiare.” See also the English translation Mary Pardo, Paolo Pino’s Dialogo di Pittura:
A Translation with Commentary (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1960), 332.
90
Giorgio Vasari, On Technique; being the introduction to the three arts of design, architecture,
sculpture and painting, prefixed to the Lives of Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, trans.
Louisa S. Maclehose, ed. G. Baldwin Brown (London: J.M. Dent & Company, 1907, 1960 rprt.), 213.
“…e questo modo è molto alla pittoresca e mostra più l’ordine del colorito.”
107
sixteenth century. On July 24, 1516, the artist Ugo da Carpi (ca. 1480–1532) requested a
privilege for protecting his technique of printing in “chiaro et scuro.”
91
He no doubt adopted the
technique from Burgkmair’s and Cranach’s prints made nearly a decade earlier, but the privilege
offers additional insight as to the motivations behind chiaroscuro woodcuts and by extension
experimental printing. Carpi mentioned that his chiaroscuro woodcuts would appeal to an
audience that appreciated disegno––the tactile and abstract practice of drawing during which an
artist planned their composition and honed the execution of the contours.
92
In this, Carpi voiced
his intention to bridge the mediums of drawing and print in his recreation of tone via printing
multiple blocks.
93
Moreover, a privilege did not necessarily prevent others from using Carpi’s
technique themselves; rather it attempted to protect Carpi’s future sale of his prints. The issuance
of a privilege then reveals that Carpi was making a saleable work of art as opposed to a drawing
completed on commission.
94
Chiaroscuro woodcuts, similarly to bespoke books, blurred the lines
between commercial and luxury objects.
Considering the multiple blocks, presses, and inks used in chiaroscuro woodcuts, it was
not a common practice in bookmaking. In fact, there is only one known instance of chiaroscuro
woodcut appearing in a printed book. In Venice, the Italian printer Francesco Marcolini da Forli
(ca. 1500–59) issued Stanze in lode di Madonna Angela Sirena (Poems in Praise of Madonna
Angela Serena, 1537). The Venetian writer Pietro Aretino (1492–1556) penned this book of
poems celebrating the poet Angela Tornimbena, the wife of Giannantonio Serena.
95
The
91
Takahatake, “The Italian Chiaroscuro Woodcut,” 10.
92
Whistler, Venice & Drawing, xiv.
93
See Jonathan Bober, “The Chiaroscuro Woodcut and Drawing in Sixteenth-Century Italy,” in The
Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy, 42-51.
94
Parshall, “The Problem of Printing in Colour,” in Colour Printing, xv.
95
See the catalogue entries in the following catalogues: Naoko Takahatake, et. al., The Chiaroscuro
Woodcut in Renaissance Italy, 191-3, cat. no. 78; Andrea Bayer, et. al., Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
(New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008), 221-3, cat. no. 113c.
108
chiaroscuro woodcut is the frontispiece for the volume and occupies the majority of the leaf with
the abbreviated title sitting above the thick, black line of the border (Fig. 2.25). In it, Aretino
appears as a pastoral shepherd in the foreground, looking up to a mythologized version of Angela
as a winged siren (a play on her married name) in the clouds. The print was made using two
blocks; one was black and the second one varied in color. From the surviving examples of the
book, the second block was inked in yellow ochre.
Titian is credited for the design of this frontispiece.
96
The artist was close friends with
Aretino and additionally familiar with the block cutter Giovanni Britto (also Johannes Breit, fl.
1536–50). Britto, a German block cutter active in Venice since the early 1530s, worked with
Marcolini the year prior executing a woodcut for Fra Hieronymo Maripietro’s Il Petrarcha
spirituale (The Spirituality of Petrarch, 1536).
97
Additionally, until 1547, Marcolini essentially
held a monopoly on printing Aretino’s works due to their friendship and close working
relationship.
98
Stanze, therefore, is not only an experimental book with regard to the chiaroscuro
frontispiece, but also with regard to its collaborative nature. Marcolini’s bringing together of
artists and poets was an integral component of his printing business. Additionally, collaboration
was necessary for color printing since it required close communication with the artist, the block
cutter, and especially the printer. Since color printing developed almost exclusively through
experimental means in the print shop, the knowledge and expertise of the printer was essential
for the successful production of printing an image in color. This knowledge involved the
96
For a summary of the attribution, see David Rosand and Michelangelo Muraro, Titian and the Venetian
Woodcut (Washington, D.C.: The Foundation, 1976), 194.
97
Rosand and Muraro, Titian and the Venetian Woodcut, 194-5, no. 42.
98
See Gaetano Zaccaria, Catalogo Ragionato di Opere Stampate per Francesco Marcolini da Forli
(Fermo: Tipografia de’ Fratelli Ciferri, 1850).
109
preparation of suitable inks, expertise to arrange and superimpose matrices, and methods for
efficient and correct registration.
99
While Aretino’s Stanze is the only example of chiaroscuro woodcut book illustration in
Italy, it was not the only book of its kind printed in Europe. Hans Baldung, one of the early
originators of the technique, designed frontispieces in chiaroscuro.
100
Later in the sixteenth
century, the Netherlandish artist Hubert Goltzius (1526–83) devised a book fully illustrated with
chiaroscuro woodcuts. The book entitled Vivae omnium fere imperatorum imagines (1557)
consisted of 131 depictions of medallions representing the Roman emperors and empresses from
Julius Caesar to Charles V and his brother, Ferdinand, along with short biographical entries.
101
The earliest numismatic works were printed in Italy, Germany, and France at the beginning of
the 1550s, and Goltzius’s was the first book of its kind issued in the Low Countries.
102
The
Flemish printer Gillis Coppens van Diest (ca. 1496–1572) issued the first edition in Latin in
Antwerp in 1557. Two editions followed the same year in German and Italian, respectively, and
then a fourth edition in French in 1559 and a fifth edition in Spanish in 1560.
103
Like Marcolini,
van Diest was also an experienced printer and published who specialized in heavily illustrated
volumes. For instance, he was responsible for printing the first edition of Abraham Ortelius’s
99
Stijnman and Savage, “Materials and Techniques for Early Colour Printing,” 19.
100
Matthias Mende, Hans Baldung Grien, das Graphische Werk, vollständige Bildkatalog der
Einzelholzchnitte, Buchillustrationen und Kupferstiche (Unterschneidheim: Uhl, 1978), 328, 401.
101
Hubert Goltzius, Vivae omnium fere imperatorum imagines (Antwerp: Gillis Coppens van Diest,
1557), USTC 415521. See also Bialler, Chiaroscuro Woodcuts, 30, cat. no. 2.
102
For more on numismatists see the chapter “The Early Numismatists” in Francis Haskell, History and
its Images: Art and the Interpretation of the Past (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 13-25.
Some of the earlier numismatist works were Gullaume Rouillé, Promptuaire des medailles (Lyon: 1553);
Jacopo Strada, Epitome du Thrésor des Antiquitez (Lyon: 1553), Guillaume du Choul, La Religion des
anciens romains (Lyon: 1555-1556); Enea Vico, Discorsi sopra le medaglie degli antichi (Venice?:
1555).
103
Bialler, Chiaroscuro Woodcuts, 30.
110
monumental atlas Theatrum orbis terrarum (Theater of the World, 1570), which contained fifty-
three highly detailed maps.
104
In Vivae omnium fere imperatorum imagines, there is a chiaroscuro title page featuring a
strapwork design, followed by dedication pages, the usual preliminary text, and then the text of
the subject matter. The biographical entries are arranged on the verso of the leaves with the
facing rectos containing the woodcuts of the medallions (Fig. 2.26). The woodcuts were made up
of three separate elements: an etched plate for the outline of the composition, a dark tone
woodblock, and a light tone woodblock. The white of the paper was incorporated in the design as
the lightest highlight.
105
For the colors, Goltzius alternated between combinations of yellow
ochre and brown and olive drab and green, respectively. In addition to this, the artist designed
each woodcut based on coins that were minted during the subject’s lifetime.
106
According to
Karel van Mander (1548–1606) in his Het schilder-boeck (The Book of Painters, 1604), this
process took Goltzius nearly twelve years to complete. In addition to gathering the images of the
coins themselves, the cutting of multiple blocks by Joos Gietleughen using different grounds
took up an extensive amount of time.
107
Gietleughen was a prominent cutter in Antwerp and somewhat of a specialist in color
printing. For Vivae omnium fere imperatorum imagines, he cut two woodblocks for every etched
104
In 1998, there was an outpouring of scholarship about Ortelius on the 400
th
anniversary of his death.
One such text is Marcel van den Broecke, Peter van der Krogt, and Peter Meurer, eds., Abraham Ortelius
and the First Atlas: Essays Commemorating the Quadricentennial of his Death, 1598–1998 (Houten:
HES, 1998).
105
Edward H. Wouk, “’Divine, August and Immortal’: The Potentials and Limitations of Colour Printing
in the Low Countries, c. 1555,” in Colour Printing, 154
106
Bialler, Chiaroscuro Woodcuts, 30.
107
Karel van Mander, Het leven der doorluchtighe Nederlandtshce, en Hooghduytsche schilders in Het
schilder-boeck (Haarlem: Passchier van Wesbusch, 1604), fol. 248. He discussed the process in the
section about Netherlandish and German painters, Het leven der doorluchtighe Nederlandtshce, en
Hooghduytsche schilders (Lives of the illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters).
111
image, totaling a likely 393 plates for the book.
108
Moreover, the combination of intaglio (the
etched tone block) and relief printing (the line woodblocks and letter press) required two
different types of presses, requiring more time, labor, and financing. Interestingly, there is
evidence that Goltzius, Gietleughen, and van Diest continually experimented with printing these
images from edition to edition, and potentially even copy to copy, in order to expedite the
process and mitigate costs. For instance, rather than recut new line blocks and light tone blocks
after they were too degraded to print, they simply altered the design to account for the wear and
tear, such as adding more hatching to the shadows or re-cutting the highlights. Yet, when the
dark tone block was eventually worn down, they reworked the etched plate rather than recut a
new dark tone block thereby require one less run in the press. In order to achieve a similar
appearance, they added parallel, horizontal lines to the etched plate, usually behind the profile of
the figure, to imitate the shadow in the dark tone block. Additionally, as early as the second and
third editions, the etched plate was replaced with a woodcut. After this change, the printing
process was now entirely in relief thus removing the need for a second, intaglio press.
109
For this
reason, the chiaroscuro images from edition to edition (and often copy to copy) vary in colors,
lines, shadows, and highlights. Through these variations, not only were chiaroscuro-illustrated
books highly experimental, but also incredibly bespoke.
Books with chiaroscuro woodcuts were in no doubt costly to produce, considering the
number of plates, inks, presses, and labor involved in the process of making each copy. Perhaps
to maximize profits, after he issued Stanze, Marcolini also printed the chiaroscuro frontispiece
separately as a broadside with three sonnets, one of which was by Aretino and the other two by
108
Wouk, “Colour Printing in the Low Countries,” 154.
109
Bialler, Chiaroscuro Woodcut, 30-1.
112
Agostino Beazzano (also Bevazzano).
110
As a result, the appearances of the woodcuts vary
between the frontispiece and the broadside. For example, a copy of the book at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art is black and ochre whereas a broadside at the Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division is printed in black and green (Fig. 2.27).
Additionally, Marcolini reprinted the line block in a later publication, I mondi del Doni
(The Worlds of Doni), in 1552 (Fig. 2.28).
111
I mondi as a whole is another product of an
experimental collaboration between Marcolini and the poet, Antonio Francesco Doni (1513–74).
In the book, Doni describes seven worlds (Piccolo, Grande, Massimo, Misto, Imaginato, Risibile,
De Pazzi) and seven infernos. Seven different academic “types” (Disperato, Perduto, Smarrito,
Pazzo, Ardito, Savio, and Ostinato) travel throughout these in a similar allegorical mode as
Dante’s Divine Comedy. The book also included multiple title pages demarcating each section
for each world.
The volume was heavily illustrated with devices on the title pages, woodcut scenes
placed in the text, and full page woodcut portraits of illustrious men. The numerous woodcuts,
like the frontispiece from Aretino’s Stanze, had appeared in previous titles published by
Marcolini. These included Le Sorti di Francesco Marcolini da Forli intitolate Giardino di
pensieri (The Fates of Francesco Marcolini da Forli entitled the Garden of Thoughts, 1540) and
La Comedia con la nova espositione di Alessandro Vellutello (Divine Comedy with new
explanation of Alessandra Vellutello, 1544).
112
Doni, for his part, supplied the text to accompany
the illustrations rather than the other way around. In other words, Marcolini and Doni crafted the
110
Takahatake, The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy, 191.
111
Anton Francesco Doni, I mondi del Doni (Venice: Francesco Marcolini [Accademia Pellegrina: Anton
Francesco Doni], 1552), USTC 827618.
112
Francesco Marcolini, Le sorti di Francesco Marcolini da Forli intitolate Giardino di pensieri (Venice:
Francesco Marcolini, 1540), USTC 840720; Dante Alighieri, Alessandro Vellutello (commentary), La
Comedia con la nova espositione di Alessandro Vellutello (Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1544), USTC
808777.
113
book based on the supply of woodcuts designed for earlier projects.
113
The reuse of woodcuts in
multiple titles was a typical practice in early modern printing, but the complete construction of a
book based on these images was a novel and economic use of these illustrations.
Marcolini was known for his elaborately illustrated books. He was a fixture and leading
member of the informal gathering of artists and writers in Venice in 1549 (or possibly earlier)
known as the Accademia dei Pellegrini. This association included Titian, Tintoretto, Giuseppe
Porta, Francesco Salviati, and Enea Vico. It is likely through the Accademia dei Pellegrini that
Marcolini formed close ties with the most prominent Venetian artists and writers of the time, and
consequently collaborated with them on numerous occasions.
114
For instance, in addition to
Titian’s design for the chiaroscuro frontispiece, Salviati also designed woodcuts for the
aforementioned Le Sorti and Aretino’s Life of the Virgin (1539).
115
Although the chiaroscuro frontispiece was likely a unique experiment in Italian book
printing, Marcolini tapped into the appeal of prints of this type throughout his printing career.
Marcolini, competing with the heirs of Aldus Manutius and the Giolito firm, chose to specialize
in printing books with images that resembled the fine art prints on the market, often termed
reproductive prints. These prints often involved a collaborative between the artist, the
blockcutter, and the printer. For instance, the earlier prints from the association of Marcantonio
Raimondi and Raphael set the precedent for this type of relationship.
116
By capitalizing on this
type of collaboration, Marcolini appealed to the new audience of collectors and admirers of
113
Zaccaria, Francesco Marcolini da Forli, 17.
114
Sharon Gregory, Vasari and the Renaissance Print (Burlington: Ashgate, 2012), 295. For more on the
“Academy” see Paul Grendler, Critics of the Italian World 1530–1560: Anton Francesco Doni, Nicolò
Franco and Ortensio Lando (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969)
115
David McTavish, Giuseppe Porta Called Giuseppe Salviati (London: Garland Publishing, 1981), 95-
100.
116
See Lisa Pon, Raphael, Dürer, and Marcantonio Raimondi: Copying and the Italian Renaissance Print
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004).
114
prints, the likes of which included prominent individuals like Giogio Vasari. The latter
additionally praised Marcolini in his Vite, and was known to send the printer drawings via letters
to Aretino, perhaps for eventual publishing in books.
117
Marcolini smartly accumulated a circle of friends and collaborators throughout the Italian
peninsula that benefited his printing business. He was able to secure renowned authors, poets,
and artists for his numerous titles, and liberally experimented with his printing practice. His
inclusion of a chiaroscuro frontispiece is also indicative of the risks he was willing to take to
enhance his printed books, considering the difficulty in executing the design. However, his reuse
of the line block of this woodcut in several other titles also reveals how he experimented with
translating bespoke techniques to a general print run for both economic and aesthetic benefits.
The story of chiaroscuro printing in books, while brief and somewhat isolated, speaks to
the mutability of the printed book. Marcolini’s reuse of the line block from the frontispiece in
Stanze shows how print can move seamlessly between the “standard” and “non-standard.” The
reproduction of the line block across multiple titles is an “exactly repeated pictorial statement”
yet its first appearance as part of a chiaroscuro woodcut provided a distinctly unique experience
for the viewer. Unlike Ratdolt’s bi-colored and tri-colored woodcuts, the chiaroscuro woodcuts
in Marcolini’s and Goltizius’s editions varied from copy to copy as result of using different inks
on the tone blocks; thus, the frontispiece of Stanze, like the coins and medals in Vivae omnium
fere imperatorum imagines were visibly diverse. While on the surface the image of the forlorn
poet looking to the sky inserted into different contexts while on the surface appears to be a
standard illustration due to its repetition, it was, in fact, the result of efforts to de-standardize the
printed book using experimental printing techniques.
117
Gregory, Vasari and the Renaissance Print, 68.
115
Printed Books and the Bespoke Experience
The application of color to printed books, whether it was printed or added by hand, was a
form of prolonged interaction with printed material. Printers employed tedious and highly
technical methods to print in color or even hired artists to add illuminations or washes. Similarly,
readers also added color to illustrations, adding rubrications and initials, or hired artists to do so.
Coloring printed books required a degree of interaction between printers, authors, artists, and/or
readers with the printing press, materials, and contents of the book. The result of these
interactions was a bespoke, embodied experience with the printed material. To conclude, I
consider how the mutability of print as a medium elicits bespoke experiences beyond the
application of color. In doing so, I suggest that a printed book becomes a bespoke book not only
through the distinction of its facture and appearance but also through the individuate interaction
between a book and its reader.
As Susan Dackerman posits, the material aspects of print, including the matrix and the
press coupled with the portability and accessibility paper, allowed for a near infinite distribution
of printed images and texts.
118
Additionally, paper is easily malleable––it can be colored as well
as pasted onto objects, folded into shapes, and cut and glued in any combination. Subsequently,
printed books and prints were both two-dimensional and three-dimensional depending how an
individual manipulated the paper. For this reason, among others, print was an ideal medium for
relating scientific discoveries and ideas. This is evident in the surviving printed globes made
with paper gores that could be pasted onto wooden spheres, the aforementioned paper anatomical
manikins seen in Vesalius’s Epitome, as well as on numerous broadsides.
119
Additionally, there
was a very unique edition of Henry Billingsley’s English translation of Euclid’s Elements, The
118
Dackerman, Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge, 20.
119
See Karr Schmidt, Interactive and Sculptural Printmaking.
116
Elements of Geometrie (1570) with “pop-up” geometric shapes that transformed the two-
dimensional diagrams into three-dimensional polyhedrons.
120
The cutting, gluing, pasting, and
coloring of these objects formed bespoke and unique experiences for each reader.
The genre of fortune telling books was incredibly popular for this reason. Determining
one’s fate, future, or destiny, required participation often in the form of playing a game involving
dice or tarot.
121
The first illustrated, printed fortune telling book was Lorenzo Spirito’s Libro
della ventura, ovvero Libro delle sorti (Book of Fortune, or Book of Fates) published in 1482,
and subsequently reprinted five more times over the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
122
The
second book was Sigismundo Fanti’s Triompho di Fortuna (Triumph of Fortune), which was
published in Venice in 1526.
123
The aforementioned Le Sorti from Marcolini’s print shop was the
third of its type published in Italy belonging to this popular genre, and he then issued a second
edition in 1550 with some updated woodcuts.
124
Like the examples listed above, the fortune-telling books also offered the reader a
bespoke experience. The fortune-telling books did not instruct the reader to add color, cut, or
glue but the images and texts assisted in foretelling the readers’ fate. The book began with initial
questions or prompts consisting of thirteen questions for men, thirteen for women, and twenty-
four for either. After choosing the questions, the participant drew cards that corresponded to fifty
pages of allegorical woodcuts representing vices and virtues such as Vanity, Defect, Truth, or
120
Henry Billingsley, John Dee (preface), The Elements of Geometrie … (London: John Day, 1570),
USTC 507133. Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature, 22-4.
121
Kelli Wood, “The Art of Play: Games in Early Modern Italy,” (PhD diss., University of Chicago,
2016), 67. See also Wood, “Chancing it: print, play, and gambling games at the end of the sixteenth
century,” Art History 42/3 (2019): 450-81.
122
Lorenzo Spirito, Libro della ventura, ovvero Libro dell sorti (Perugia: Stephanus Arndes, Gerardus
Thomae and Paulus Mechter, 1482), ISTC is00685500.
123
Sigismondo Fanti, Triompho della Fortuna (Venice: Agostino Zani ad istantia di Iacopo I Giunta,
1526), USTC 828746.
124
Francesco Marcolini, Le ingeniose sorti… (Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1550), USTC 840721.
117
Knowledge. The cards, arranged in a “via croce” pattern, directed the reader to platitudes and
responses from philosophers, arranged in grids over forty-five pairs of pages accompanied with
woodcut portraits (Fig. 2.29). Additionally, the reader was instructed to consult the book at
various times of the day and the year fully inserting itself into the readers’ daily routine.
125
Le Sorti was admired for its elaborate and detailed woodcut illustrations. In fact, it is one
of the few illustrated books that Vasari praises in his Lives of the Artists, describing the
allegorical figures as “bellissime” and asking the rhetorical question: “And who does not see
without marveling at works of Francesco Marcolini da Forli?”
126
Marcolini additionally used his
relationships, including his friendship with Vasari, and experience with printing illustrated books
to push the limits of the medium of the book itself.
127
The title page includes a woodcut depicting
a gathering of fortune-tellers in an ancient landscape (Fig. 2.30). The men and women in the
foreground and middleground examine a book and astrolabe respectively, while in the
background a group at a table is playing a version of the fortune-telling game. The frontispiece
includes a plaque in the lower right corner with the signature of the artist, Giuseppe Porta (ca.
1520–75). The Tuscan artist was a student of Francesco Salviati (1510–63) and later took his
teacher’s name. Yet, the woodcut itself is possibly based on a design from Marco Dente, a
student of Raimondi who died in the Sack of Rome in 1527. Porta published the woodcut in
125
Ruth Mortimer, Harvard College Library, Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts, Italian 16
th
Century
Books, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1964-74), II:408-9, no. 279.
126
Giorgio Vasari, Le Vite de piu Eccellenti Pittori, Scultori, e Architetti, 10 vols. (Florence: Felice le
Monnier, 1853), IX, 292. “E chi non vede senza maraviglia l’opere di Francesco Marcolini da Forli? il
qual, oltre alll’altre cose, stampò il libro del Giardino de’ pensieri, in legno…qual libro sono figurate
varie fantasie: il Fato, l’Invidia, la Calamità, la Timidità, La Lauda, e molte altre cose simili, che furono
tenute belissime.”
127
Gregory, Vasari and the Renaissance Print, 68. Vasari, in a letter to Pietro Aretino, stated that he had
“certain pictures” to give to the poet and to Francesco Marcolini when he arrived in Venice in 1541. See
Karl Frey and H.W. Frey, eds., Der literarische Nachlass Giorgio Vasari, 3 vols. (Munich: G. Müller,
1923-40), 110. Additionally, Marcolini’s frequent collaborator Doni, described Vasari as Marcolini’s
“crony” in his dialogue I marmi (Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1552), 92 suggesting a jocular and
familiar relationship.
118
reverse with Dente’s monogram of S.R. along with another monogram of R.V.P belonging to
“Raphael Urbinas Pictor.”
128
It is unlikely that Raphael is responsible for design, but at the very
least the title page was designed by a Tuscan-Roman artist in the 1530s or 1540s and also
indicates that Marcolini sought out painters for the woodcuts in his books. The design featured
natural philosophers examining a book showing the stars and constellations in the foreground.
Porta simply replaced the astrological opening with an opening from Le Sorti. This deliberate
reference in the book to the book itself signals to the reader that Le Sorti operates in different
dimension than a typical book, and provides an interactive experience for the reader.
Fortune-telling books like Marcolini’s Le Sorti operated in a similar mode to proto-
scientific printed instruments encouraging the user to interact with and manipulate the printed
leaves of paper. These interactive books represent a different facet of the bespoke book. Rather
than rely on the use of color, added by hand or by press, the printers manufactured bespoke
experiences instructing readers to create their own individual reception of the book. In this
regard, bespoke books extend beyond the limited category of presentation copy, and
demonstrates that printers, authors, and readers were actively attempting to de-standardize the
printed book by cultivating bespoke experiences in a variety of ways from adding color to
integrating games and play. The mutability of print additionally shows how the material aspects
of the printed book––from paper to ink––informed the ways printers sought out new methods of
creating bespoke books that would similarly tap into a reader’s desire for a unique experience
128
Christopher Witcombe, “Giuseppe Porta’s Frontispiece for Marcolini’s Sorti,” Arte Veneta 36 (1983):
170-4. Witcombe argued that the design was not from Giuseppe Porta, despite the monogram, but from
Dente.
119
Chapter 3
Materiality and the Bespoke Book: Knowledge through Materials
When Aldus Manutius issued the first printed books on blue paper in 1514, he produced
two notable volumes: Libri de re rustica (Book of Country Affairs), containing writings from
Roman luminaries including Cato, Varro, Columella, and Palladius, and Virgil’s Virgilius
(commonly referred to simply as Virgil). Both volumes were printed on blue paper in the small,
octavo format.
1
These were the first volumes ever to be printed on blue paper, a somewhat
unexpected move from one of the most prominent and prolific printers in the early sixteenth
century. Already an established printer and businessman by 1514, Aldus’ decision to experiment
with a new support for the printed word may come as surprise.
2
Yet, his titles on blue paper were
a result of a material history that was centuries in the making, and shows how printers actively
engaged in contemporaneous visual culture and how knowledge about bookmaking spread from
manuscript to print.
Embellishment was not a new feature of Aldine editions when Libri de re rustic and
Virgil appeared in 1514. Aldus produced many copies of books printed on vellum and
subsequently decorated with designs ranging from fully fleshed out miniatures to simple
rubrications.
3
While these “illuminated Aldines” have received copious amounts of scholarly
1
One copy of Libri de re rustica was printed on a combination of blue and white paper. See Guido
Beltrami and Davide Gasparotto, eds., Aldo Manuzio: Renaissance in Venice (Venice: Marsilio, 2016),
cat. no. 66.
2
Martin Lowry, The World of Aldus Manutius: Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1979), 109-11.
3
See Lilian Armstrong, “Benedetto Bordon, Aldus Manutius, and LucAntonio Giunta: Old Links and
New,” 161-84; Helena K. Szépe, “Bordon, Dürer, and Modes of Illuminating Aldines,” 185-200, and
Angela Dillon Bussi, “Le Aldine miniate della Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,” 201-16. All three essays
are in David S. Zeidberg and Fiorella Gioffredi Superbi, eds., Aldus Manutius and Renaissance Culture:
Essays in Memory of Franklin D. Murphy (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1998).
120
attention from bibliographers and art historians alike, the surviving “blue Aldines” have received
very little. Even though they are rare, the three copies of Libri de re rustica and the two copies
Virgil represent a crucial turning point in book printing in the sixteenth century. These blue
books are evidence that printers were experimenting with new techniques derived from much
older material traditions with important financial and cultural ramifications. While in their
analysis of social history and analytical bibliography, book historians have recent come to view
books as material objects. However, scholarship still perpetuates a distinct separation between
the categories of printed books and art objects during the early modern period.
4
I contend that
perhaps even more than illuminations or illustrations, books printed on colored paper show a
definitive dialogue between printed books and the contemporaneous visual culture. Moreover,
this dialogue shows books disseminated knowledge via material construction, in addition to
textual contents.
Materially, blue paper had the practical and economic benefits of white paper (being
easier to print on and cheaper than vellum), allowing printers to maintain an elite clientele
interested in purchasing luxury books, while producing and selling these books at much lower
cost.
5
Blue paper, which required only a single pass through the printing press, offered an easier
and more streamlined method than color printing or hand-coloring to add color to printed books.
Visually, blue paper recalled similarly colored supports with a long-standing history in European
culture, such as dyed vellum used in manuscripts and drawings. The color blue tapped into a
centuries-old material and visual history that appealed to the desire of an audience, generally
special clients or noble patrons, for a bespoke, luxury object. Blue paper books feature
4
See Bettina Wagner and Marcia Reed, eds., Early Printed Book as Material Objects: Proceedings of the
Conference Organized by the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, 19-21 August 2009 (Berlin: De
Gruyter Saur, 2010).
5
G. Scott Clemons and H. George Fletcher, eds., Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting than Bronze
(New York: The Grolier Club, 2015), 27.
121
significantly in the category of bespoke books, and show how printers tapped into the
surrounding visual culture in order to grow their businesses. Blue books are the confluence of
material and visual history derived from the use of colored support in luxury manuscripts, the use
of blue paper in drawings, and printers’ willingness to experiment with the printing press.
Moreover, blue books show that experimentations in book printing continued long after the
incunabula period; therefore, the phenomenon of printing on blue paper requires closer
examination.
Overall, tracing the use of blue paper in book printing demonstrates how experimental
techniques and methods in bookmaking spread in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Printers
traversed Europe and brought with them their techniques for printing in color and manipulating
the printing press. The appearance of blue paper books across the Italian peninsula throughout
the course of the sixteenth century sheds light on how information among printers was
transferred and how information about novel printing techniques became concentrated in specific
centers, like Venice, which was home to multitude of émigré printers. Examining the materiality
of blue paper books provides a framework for studying the origins, production, and diffusion of
bespoke books in the early modern period. Ultimately, the study of books printed on blue paper
shows that books, through the virtue of their facture and appearance, conveyed knowledge about
bookmaking and visual culture to printers and readers throughout Europe during this time.
History of Colored Supports in Bookmaking
In order to understand how the visual tradition grew in the mid-fifteenth century in the
wake of the printing press, we must first consider the longer history of colored supports in books.
The brief summary that follows will illuminate the motivations behind blue paper manufacture as
122
the technology spread from China to the Middle East to Europe. Long before the first paper mills
were established on the Italian peninsula, scribes and illuminators developed methods for dying
and painting folios of parchment for an elite clientele. The codices that survive today––primarily
of Byzantine and Islamic origin––are evidence of a widespread and long-established practice of
producing colored supports in books that continued well into the sixteenth century.
Manuscripts with dyed folios proliferated in the Mediterranean region and northern
Europe between the sixth and eleventh centuries. A small number of codices or fragments that
are fully or partially colored blue or a similar hue, purple, have survived today.
6
The majority of
these manuscripts contained purple-stained, washed, or dyed folios. Some of the best known
examples include the Vienna Genesis, the Rossano Gospels, and the Codex Sinopenis, all
containing varying numbers of purple folios with gold and/or silver script as well as elaborate
miniatures.
7
Additionally, there are three codices that date to the sixth century; these were most
likely made in the region of present-day Syria.
8
These Greek manuscripts, moreover, all consist
of Biblical subject matter, indicating that purple folios were perhaps exclusively used for
Christian texts in that region.
9
In the case of the Vienna Genesis, we have some idea of its journey from Byzantium to
its current location at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. The codex found its way
to Venice in the fourteenth century via the trade network between the nascent Venetian republic
and the still Christian-controlled Constantinople. The next record of the codex was in 1664 when
6
Marcus Fraser, “The Origins and Modifications of the Blue Qur’an,” in Manuscripts in the Making: Art
& Science, vol. 1, eds. Stella Panayotova and Paola Ricciardi (London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2017),
199. About thirty codices including fragments survive today.
7
Vienna Genesis, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna; Rossano Gospels, Cathedral Library,
Rossano; Codex Sinopenis, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
8
Fraser, “The Blue Qur’an,” 199.
9
Ingo F. Walther and Nobert Wolf, eds., Codices illustres: The world’s most famous illuminated
manuscripts 400 to 1600 (Köln: Taschen, 2014), 58
123
the manuscript was transferred from the collection of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (1640–
1705) to the Imperial Library in Vienna. The manuscript belonged to a collection of artworks left
to Leopold by his uncle, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (1614–62), who was a prominent collector
himself. The Archduke wrote to his nephew that he “was transported with joy when [he]
discovered this gem.”
10
Twenty-four folios of a supposed ninety-six folios have survived, and
they are now separated and kept between acrylic glass plates. The Vienna Genesis contains an
average of two miniatures per folio, totaling forty-eight illustrations. Extrapolating from this
pattern, the Vienna Genesis once contained a staggering 192 miniatures all on purple-stained
folios with silver uncial script (Fig. 3.1).
11
“This gem” was included among the masterpieces of
Wilhelm’s collection, which was famously immortalized in a series of paintings and recorded in
a visual inventory (Theatrum pictorium, 1684), both conceived by David Teniers the Younger.
Even though the manuscript does not make an appearance in these works, the sustained
appreciation of Vienna Genesis from sixth-century Byzantium to seventeenth-century Vienna
indicates a continuation of a visual tradition predicated on the use of luxurious materials and
elaborate techniques in bookmaking among the elite.
Another surviving manuscript codex that is a direct precedent to books printed on blue
paper is the Cava Bible, also known as the Codex Cavanensis.
12
The manuscript was made in
Spain in the ninth century, likely during the rule of Alfonso II (791–842) in the vicinity of
Oviedo. Of the total 303 folios, two are dyed a deep indigo blue and three others are dyed
purple.
13
The opening of folios 220 verso to 221 recto make up the blue folios and the scribe,
who signed his name Danila on folio 166 verso, added text in white, yellow, and red (Fig. 3.2).
10
Emmy Wellesz, The Vienna Genesis, with an introduction and notes (New York: T. Yoseloff, 1960), 5.
11
Walther and Wolf, Codices illustres, 58.
12
Cava Bible, Biblioteca Statale del Monumento Nazionale della Abbazia Benedettina della Santa Trinità.
13
John Williams, Early Spanish Manuscript Illumination (New York: G. Braziller, 1977), 12.
124
Folio 220 verso contains Saint Jerome’s Prologue to the New Testament arranged in the shape of
the Cross, and a calendar arranged within Moorish-style arches and columns spans 221 recto.
14
Manuscripts with dyed folios such as the Cava Bible and the Vienna Genesis offer insight
as to the motivations of including colored supports in codices. In Byzantine tradition, colors held
many sacred and royal associations with purple often reserved specifically for imperial
purposes.
15
Additionally, purple carried classical and Biblical associations as a favorite hue of
Plato and Aristotle, appearing in Solomon’s Temple, and worn by Christ during the Passion.
16
Moreover, purple and its close neighbor on the spectrum, blue, were among the most expensive
pigments available from antiquity and well into early modern times. Purple’s connection to
Byzantium originated in the textile industry at Tyre that used the shells from mollusks, also
known as murex, to achieve a deep, fade resistant purple pigment.
17
Similarly, blue was
primarily derived from rare sources such as the mineral lapis lazuli or plants including indigo
and woad.
18
In both cases, the raw materials for the blue and purple pigments were limited to a
specific locale, which increased their specialness and price.
19
Given the symbolic associations
14
Williams, Early Spanish Manuscript Illumination, 40.
15
The Byzantine and Late Antique views on color have been covered extensively. See Meyer Reinhold,
The History of Purple as a Status Symbol in Antiquity (Brussels: Collection Latomus, 1970), Oddone
Longo, ed., La porpora: Realtà e immaginario di un colore simbolico (Venice: Istituto Veneto di Scienze,
Lettere, ed Arti, 1998). For a general and thorough overview see John Gage, Colour and Culture:
Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction (London: Thames & Hudson, 1993), 26.
16
Stella Panayotova, “Colour in Illuminated Manuscripts,” in Colour: The Art and Science of Illuminated
Manuscripts, ed. Stella Panayotova (London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2016), 18. For the Classical
references see Gage, Colour and Culture, 12-4, 29-34. For the Biblical references see 3 Kings 2:7-8, 3
Kings 3 (Solomon’s Temple) and Mark 15:17 (for Christ’s robes). Matthew 27:28 also mentions Christ’s
robes as scarlet.
17
Paola Ricciardi and Kristine Rose Beers, “The Illuminators’ Palette,” in Colour: The Art and Science of
Illuminated Manuscripts, 30. For recent work on the use of murex see Hedvig L. Enegren and Francesco
Meo, eds., Treasures from the Sea: Sea Silk and Shellfish Purple Dye in Antiquity (Havertown, PA:
Oxbow Books, 2017).
18
Ricciardi and Beers, “The Illuminators’ Palette,” 29-30.
19
See Spike Bucklow, “The Trade in Colours,” in Colour: The Art and Science of Illuminated
Manuscripts, 59-65.
125
paired with the exorbitant cost, the use of blue and purple to dye parchment was truly a display
of the patron’s wealth.
Due to the diversity of the Mediterranean region, it is also important to consider the use
of colored parchment in non-Christian texts. Significantly, Islamic artists in Spain produced a
Qur’an written in gold script on blue parchment in the tenth century. The famous Blue Qur’an,
folios of which are now held in numerous collections, has been the subject of much debate
among scholars concerning its origin and dating.
20
More recently, Marcus Fraser proposed that
the Blue Qur’an was made in Cordoba during the reign of the Umayyad caliph al-Hakam II
between 961 and 976. Scholars long believed that the Abbasid caliph al-Ma’mun in Persia
commissioned the Blue Qur’an. Unlike previous scholars who only look to other Islamic
examples of blue and gold manuscripts as evidence in their various attributions, Fraser drew
20
See F.R. Martin, Miniature Paintings and Painters of Persia, India, and Turkey from the 8
th
to 18
th
Centuries (London: B. Quaritch, 1912), 106, 141; Anthony Welch, Calligraphy in the Arts of the Muslim
World (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1979), 48-9; Richard Ettinghausen, “Manuscript
Illumination” in A Survey of Persian Art, vol. 5a, eds. Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman (New
York: Maxwell Aley Literary Associates, 1981, rprt.), 1944; Jonathan Bloom, “Al-Ma’mun’s Blue
Koran?” Revue des Études Islamiques 54 (1986): 59-65; Bloom, “The Blue Koran: an Early Fatimid
Kufic Manuscript from the Maghrib,” in Les Manuscrits du Moyen-Orient: Essays de codicologie et de
paléographie, ed. François Déroche (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1989), 95-9; Bloom, “The
Early Fatimid Blue Koran Manuscript,” Graeco-Arabica 4 (1991): 171-8; Marcus Fraser and Will
Kwiatkowski, Ink and Gold: Islamic Calligraphy (London: Published for Sam Fogg by Paul Holberton,
2006); Bloom, Arts of the City Victorious: Islamic Art and Architecture in Fatimid North Africa and
Egypt (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 42-4; Alain George, “Calligraphy, Colour, and Light in
the Blue Qur’an,” Journal of Qur’anic Studies 11/1 (2009): 75-125; Fraser, “Bifolium from the Blue
Qur’an,” in The Sarikhani Collection: An Introduction, ed. Robert Hillenbrand and Charles Melville
(London: Paul Holberton Pubishing, 2011), 30-3; Fraser, “Colour: Making and Meaning,” in Ink, Silk,
and Gold: Islamic Art from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, ed. Laura Weinstein (Boston: MFA
Publications, 2015), 19-23, 34. Jonathan Bloom in “Al-Ma’mun’s Blue Koran?” suggested that the Blue
Qur’an was made in Fatimid-controlled North Africa before the conquest of Egypt around 969, while also
showing that the blue and gold color scheme was not entirely unusual in medieval Islamic manuscripts.
George in “Blue Qur’an” maintained that the manuscript was made before the ninth century during the
Abbasid caliphate based in Baghdad.
126
comparisons between the Blue Qur’an and the Cava Bible and suggests that the use of deep blue
parchment is due to a regional style rather than to an Islamic book tradition.
21
Additionally, Fraser mentioned one piece of evidence, almost in passing, that requires
closer consideration. Between 947 and 951, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII sent the
Spanish Umayyad caliph Abd al-Rahman III letters written in gold and silver on blue
parchment.
22
The arrival of the letters in Cordoba were recorded in later centuries by the
historians Ibn ‘Idhari al-Marrakushi and Ahmad ibn Mohammed al-Maqqari.
23
The letters,
written in Greek and containing the seal of the Emperor, arrived in Cordoba as part of a
diplomatic envoy from Constantinople. The goal of the envoy was to finalize a treaty with the
caliph and to exchange precious objects. For the occasion, ‘Abd al-Rahman III put on a show of
strength and power calling together his sons, courtiers, and army. The Islamic historians paid
special attention to the letters in the Byzantine envoy. One letter stated the Emperor’s message to
the Caliph and the other listed all the gifts. Moreover, these letters were authenticated with a
golden seal and transported in a pair of silver caskets nested within each other. The inner box
21
Fraser, “Blue Qur’an,” 209.
22
Ibid., 200.
23
See Alexander Vasiliev, Byzance et les arabes: Extraits des sources arabes, vol. 2, part 2, ed. H.
Grégorie and M. Canard, et. al. (Brussels: Corpus Bruxellense Historiae Byzantine, 1950), 218-9, 276-81;
Priscilla Soucek, “Byzantium and the Islamic East,” in The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the
Middle Byzantine Era, AD 843–1261, eds., H. Evans and W. Wixom (New York: Metropolitan Museum
of Art, 1997), 408-9. Ibn ‘Idhari al-Marrakushi was a historian living in Marrakech in the late 13
th
and
early 14
th
century. He wrote an extensive history of al-Andalus and Morocco around 1312. The book,
Kitab al-Bayan al-Mughrib, is an invaluable source for insights into Umayyad court culture. Kitab al-
Bayan al-Mughrib exists today in primarily two iterations. The first is a French translation: Historie
de’Afrique et de ‘Espagne, intitulée al-Bayano’l-Mogrib, trans. Edmond Fagnan, 2 vols., (Algiers, 1901-
4). The second is a transcription of the Arabic: Kitab al-Bayan al-Mughrib, ed. R. Dozy, 2 vols. (Leiden:
Brill, 1948-51). Alexander Vasiliev (see above) translated some excerpts of Kitab al-Bayan al-Mughrib,
and his translation concerning the letters on blue parchment are the most widely used among scholars.
Additionally, the letters are discussed in the writings of Ahmad ibn Mohammed al-Maqqari––a historian
writing in the sixteenth century in Algeria. His history of Muslim Iberia was translated in the nineteenth
century under the title: Analects sur’histoire et la’littérature des arabes d’Espagne, 2 vols. in 4 parts, ed.
Reinhart Dozy, Christopher Krehl, and William Wright (Leiden: Brill, 1855-61).
127
was silver with an enamel portrait of Constantine VII and nested in the brocade lining of the
outer box.
24
This is an example of a precious colored writing support traveling from east to west and
from Christian to Islamic cultures. The letters on blue parchment were part of a large and
extensive network of gift-exchange in the Mediterranean world. As with other much more
studied objects including carved ivory and mosaics, the visual impact of these works of art
reverberated across the wider European context.
25
This piece of evidence solidifies the claim that
there was a widespread appreciation for colored parchment, specifically blue-dyed parchment
used in codices like the Blue Qur’an and the Cava Bible, across the larger Mediterranean world.
Letters, like those ones discussed above, help to explain the continued use of blue in bookmaking
once the technology for making paper arrived on the Italian peninsula.
The method of making manuscripts, in addition to the religious, secular, and monetary
value of color, is perhaps the most useful for tracing the development of texts like the Cava Bible
to the blue Aldines. Codicologists trace the movement of manuscripts via circuits of copying text
in which scribes exchanged exemplar manuscripts. This pecia system resulted in the production
of nearly identical texts, especially those in use at universities and monasteries, long before the
advent of the printing press.
26
This circuit of copying in which books were circulated and
generated within a relatively closed group of scribes in academic and ecclesiastical settings is
generally only applied to text. For example, it is used to explain how many translations of
24
Soucek, “Byzantium and the Islamic East,” 408-9. See also Ibn ‘Idhari, Kitab al-Bayan al-Maghrib, vol.
2, 215; Ibn ‘Idhari, Historie de’Afrique et de ‘Espagne, vol. 2, 357; al-Maqqari, Analects sur’histoire et
la’littérature des arabes d’Espagne, vol. 1, 235-7.
25
See introduction in Roberts, Printing a Mediterranean World, 1-14.
26
Steele, “The pecia,” 230-4.
128
manuscripts, like the copies of Euclid’s Elements in Greek, Arabic, and Latin, appear in such
great quantities in various languages and relatively unchanged over centuries.
27
Modes of illustrating have also been subsumed into this model. In her study of the Vienna
Genesis, Emmy Wellesz argued that the heavily illustrated codex provided future miniaturists
with pictorial sequences and iconography exemplars, and she claimed that the manuscript was
the visual archetype of the Genesis story.
28
However, the colored folios in codices like the
Vienna Genesis or Cava Bible have often been ignored when considering the diffusion of
imagery among codices. Despite her lengthy discussion of the illustrations in the Vienna
Genesis, Wellesz hardly mentions the purple substrate of the miniatures. One exception is the
aforementioned work by Marcus Fraser on the Blue Qur’an. Fraser’s methodology and
conclusions demonstrate the significance of the support in manuscripts as additional visual and
material evidence to consider when examining how techniques in bookmaking spread across
regions over time.
In this vein, the rarity and uniqueness of stained or painted parchment is a crucial
component in understanding how visual traditions in book making developed, adapted, and
transformed within the Mediterranean region and the rest of Europe. The “bespokeness” of these
manuscripts permeated bookmaking techniques via a circuit of material, as opposed to textural,
copying. This is apparent in the three surviving manuscript codices with purple folios. The
Vienna Genesis, Rossano Gospels, and the Codex Sinopenis were all made around the same time
in the same place suggesting a taste for colored supports for Biblical texts. The texts vary in
27
Folkerts, Mathematics in Medieval Europe, 2. See also chapter 3, “Euclid in Medieval Europe.” This is
a revised essay that first appeared in a booklet printed in Winnipeg in 1989. Folkerts includes a list of the
manuscripts and printed editions of Elements beginning with Boethius’s translation in 500 CE. For full
details regarding the manuscript versions of Elements see chapter 3 in Folkerts, Mathematics in Medieval
Europe, 1-64.
28
Wellesz, The Vienna Genesis, 15-6.
129
content, but the visual formats of the books, like the inclusion elaborate miniatures and the dyed
folios, are relatively similar.
29
The arrival of fiber-based paper in Europe, however, had
significant ramifications for this visual tradition.
Continuing a Visual Tradition: Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts with Colored Folios
In the decades before Aldus Manutius printed Virgil and Libri de re rustica on blue paper
in 1514, scribes and miniaturists continued to produce manuscripts across Europe with dyed or
tinted parchment. This technique was especially prevalent in the mid to late fifteenth century
during a period that most scholars consider a decline in the manuscript arts due to the spread of
printing. In many cases, manuscripts with colored folios were made for the richest and highest
ranking nobles. For this reason, among others, manuscripts like these are rare, and often treated
as the “crown jewels” of modern collections.
30
While these books have long been favorite
subjects among codicologists and art historians, they have seldom been viewed in relation to
contemporaneous printed books. It is my intention to consider the role of these manuscripts in
the increase of printed books in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and additionally to pose
questions about the importance of colored supports to bookmakers, patrons, and readers.
29
While all three codices are Biblical in subject matter, the texts are not the same. The Vienna Genesis
begins at the Fall and ends at Jacob’s death in Genesis 49. Since only 48 leaves survive today, it is
believed that the Vienna Genesis most likely began at the Creation but those folios have been lost. The
other two texts, the Rossano Gospels and the Codex Sinopenis, most likely covered all four books of the
gospels. Today, only the Book according to St. Mark survives in the Rossano Gospels and only 44 folios
survive from the Codex Sinopenis. It is likely that the subjects of each book were made at the requests of
patrons as was the norm in later manuscript making.
30
For instance, the Black Prayer Book of Galeazzo Maria Sforza at the Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, Austria is featured in Walther and Wolf, Codices illustres, 362. The Black Hours at
the Morgan is also featured in this text. Additionally, there are two texts entirely devoted to the Black
Prayer Book: Jenni Ulrike and Dagmar Thoss, Das Schwarze Gebetbuch (Gebetbuch des Galleazzo
Maria Sforza: Codex 1856 der Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Wien (Frankfurt: Insel Verl, 1982)
and Ernst Trenkler, Das Schwarze Gebetbuch (Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1948).
130
Some of the most notable examples of manuscripts with colored folios are the so-called
“black books of hours.” Black books of hours were primarily made in Flanders in the second half
of the fifteenth century. Vellum was stained or dyed in a black solution or tinted with black
pigment, and the text was written in gold or silver.
31
The artists achieved the black coloration of
parchment with one of two possible recipes: black was made from “gallnuts” or black was made
from linseed oil from a lamp, also known as lampblack. In his manual on artisanal practices,
Cennino Cennini described an opaque black made from a “soft black stone” (possibly a gallnut),
as better for laying gold than other more transparent black pigments.
32
The present condition of
black books of hours points towards the use of “vitriol” or black derived from gallnuts. Gallnuts
are the material that surrounds the larvae of parasites on oak trees, which is combined with an
iron salt to produce a chemically reactive black ink or dye. Vitriol can eat through paper, but
adheres fairly well to prepared parchment (because gallnuts and parchment both contain tannins).
The leaves of the books were often immersed entirely in a black solution, and over time, the
dyestuff ate away at the parchment, making the black book of hours very fragile.
33
There are only seven known surviving examples in collections today. The best-preserved
example, the Black Hours at the Morgan Library (MS M.493) was made circa 1470 in Bruges by
a follower of William Vrelant, the predominant illuminator in the area until his death in 1481.
34
The manuscript boasts fourteen full-page miniatures, 138 border decorations, and fifteen large
initials, and several small initials throughout its 121 folios.
35
The artist or artists took complete
advantage of the dark and glossy black of the folios, using silver and gold for the text and deeply
31
See Trenkler, Das Schwarze Gebetbuch.
32
Cennini, Il Libro dell’ Arte, 22-3.
33
Pascal Schandel, “The Vienna Book of Hours,” FMR 9 (2005): 28.
34
Roger S. Wieck, Painted Prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art (New York:
George Braziller, Inc. in association with The Pierpont Morgan Library, 1997), 83.
35
Walther and Wolf, Codices illustres, 372.
131
pigmented hues of blue in the illuminations and miniatures. The results were stark and arresting
contrasts between the darkness of the vellum, the metallic of the text, and the deep blues in the
border decoration (Fig. 3.3). The labor involved must have been substantial. In addition to the
intensive process of preparing the animal skin, each folio of the parchment was then treated with
black pigment or stain.
Like the sixth-century manuscripts with dyed folios, black books of hours were generally
intended for noble recipients with the time, material, and resources required to execute the book.
In the case of an unfinished black book of hours at the Hispanic Society of America in New
York, it is likely that the book was made for Maria of Castile, wife to Alfonso V of Aragon
(1401–58) (Fig. 3.4). On folio 13 recto, the Flemish illuminator included Maria’s coat-of-arms
and a calendar specific to the Crown of Aragon. Notably, the Aragonese elements are missing
from the coat-of-arms implying that the manuscript was made shortly after the death of Alfonso
V in 1458. This has led scholars to conclude that the black book of hours at the Hispanic Society
was an offering of bereavement to the recently widowed queen.
36
Similarly, the Black Prayer Book at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna was
also intended for an extremely prominent patron. The Black Prayer Book (Codex Vindobonensis
1856), made in Bruges between 1466–7, consists of 154 folios with fifteen full-page illustrations,
twenty-four smaller miniatures, and seventy-one border vignettes (Fig. 3.5). A possible initial
recipient was Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1433–77), who came from a long line of
notable art patrons based in the Burgundian court.
37
On the basis of this possible recipient, the
36
Media Center for Art History at Columbia University, “Black Book of Hours,” A Collection in Context:
The Hispanic Society of America, accessed January 14, 2019,
http://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/hispanic/monographs/black-hours.php
37
Antoine de Schryver, “L’Oeuvre authentique de Philippe de Mazerolles, enlumineur de Charles le
Temeraire,” in Cinq-centième anniversaire de la bataille de Nancy (Nancy: Annales de L’Est, 1979),
135-44. See also Schryver, “Philippe de Mazerolles: le livre d’heures noir et les manuscrits
132
scholar Antoine de Schryver has attributed authorship to Philippe de Mazerolles, a valet de
chambre in Charles’s court and a member of the guild of illuminators in Bruges.
38
However,
soon after the book was made in Bruges it fell into the possession of Galeazzo Maria Sforza
(1444–76), the Duke of Milan, well-known bibliophile with a sizeable library.
39
The Duke’s
armorial and emblems are in the manuscript, and it is likely that it was part of the immense
dowry for Bianca Maria Sforza’s (his daughter) marriage to Maximilian I in 1494.
40
After the
book arrived in Milan, artists added Sforza’s armorial.
41
The owners of these black books of
hours set a precedent in the fifteenth century for books made on colored supports. Even though
attributions and provenances are murky, the fact that these manuscripts belonged to elite
individuals contributes to the luxurious aura of blue paper. Although cheaper than vellum or
parchment, blue paper alluded to rarified manuscripts like the black books of hours, since
colored supports required extra time, labor, and skill.
d’Ordonnances militaires de Charles le Téméraire,” Revue de l’art 126 (1999): 50-67. For more on
Philippe de Mazerolles, see the brief biography in Bernard Bousmanne and Thierry Delcourt, eds.,
Miniatures flamandes, 1404–1482 (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2011), 331-5.
38
Bousmanne and Delcourt, Miniatures flamandes, 331-2. There is some debate about the attribution and
the intended recipient. For instance, Bernard Bousmanne and Thierry Delcourt have suggested that a
bifolio at the Louvre (MI 1091) and another folio at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Mss. NAL
149) are more likely from the black Book of Hours produced at Charles’s behest. There is archival
evidence that Philippe de Mazerolles was instructed to complete a black Book of Hours for Charles,
whereas there is very little evidence supporting this same claim in regards to the Black Prayer Book in
Vienna. For the archival material, see François Avril, Nicole Reynaud, and Dominique Cordellier, eds.,
Enluminures du Louvre: Moyen Âge et Renaissance (Paris: Musée du Louvre Éditions / Hazan, 2011),
294-9. MI 1091 is a bifolio representing only a fragment of the black Book of Hours, which is mostly
lost. Bousanne and Delcourt note that another folio at the BNF (Mss, NAL 149) is from the same
manuscript
39
For more about Galeazzo Maria Sforza see Gregory Lubkin, A Renaissance Court: Milan under
Galeazzo Maria Sforza (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).
40
Walther and Wolf, Codices illustres, 362. Bianca Sforza’s uncle (Galeazzo’s brother), Lodovico il
Moro, organized the marriage after the Duke’s assassination in 1476.
41
Schandel, “The Vienna Book of Hours,” 26. Schandel suggests that Italian artists added the armorial
after it arrived in Milan since it conforms to other “princely models” made in the area In addition,
Schandel has noted the affinity in the manuscript to others made by the Master of Anthony of Burgundy.
Like Philippe de Mazorelles, this Master was an illuminator in the Burgundian court, and produced many
works for Anthony of Burgundy, the illegitimate son of Philip the Good and half-brother of Charles the
Bold.
133
Importantly, the black books of hours also provide insight as to the aesthetic appeal of
using colored supports in book making. The black books of hours inverted the traditional
relationships between light and dark by using a dark surface rather than a light surface. In doing
so, bookmakers manipulated the reader’s perception. The darkness of the black-dyed parchment
enhanced the vibrancy and luminosity of the pigments in the illuminations and miniatures. Early
modern color theory, derived primarily from classical texts, elucidates these effects. For instance,
Plato (428/7 or 424/3–348/7 BCE) described color as particles both large and small that cause
sensations and reactions when combined and altered through movement, lightness, and darkness.
He referred to black as particles that move at a faster speed than white since black comes from
fire and dilates the eyes “penetrating and dissolving the very passages of the eyes [which] causes
a volume of fire and water to pour from them, which we call ‘tears.’”
42
In a similar vein, in On Colors, Aristotle (384–322 BCE) posited that “we do not see any
of the colors pure as they really are, but all are mixed with others; or if not mixed with any other
color they are mixed with rays of light and with shadows, and so appear different and not as they
are.”
43
Aristotle’s writings embraced the ambiguity of color perception and the subjectivity that it
entails; however, like many classical and early modern theorists, his focus was on the effect of
light and shadow on color. The varying degrees of lightness and darkness with regard to color in
turn developed into a framework for art theory and criticism which posited that an artist’s deft
handling of highlights and shadows was the hallmark of a great artist.
Therefore, the ability to manipulate the reader’s perception using a dark writing support
with light text was a testament to the skill of the scribe and the miniaturists. The blackness of the
42
Plato, Timaeus, trans. R. G. Bury, Loeb Classical Library 234 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1929), 174-5.
43
Aristotle, Minor Works: On Colours, trans. W. S. Hett, Loeb Classical Library 307 (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1936), 16-17.
134
parchment absorbed the reflecting light causing the metallic and brighter pigments of the words
and image to appear more luminous and vibrant than they would on white parchment. However,
adapting these effects and skills for printed books required experimentation, and had varying
results. One of the earliest examples was printing with gold––a difficult and tedious process.
Blue paper, however, was more accessible than gold leaf, and additionally, did not require any
treatment or tinting using difficult dyes like the black solution used in the black books of hours.
The common factor between black books of hours and books printed on blue, however, is the use
of colored supports, indicating an understanding among scribes, printers, and artists of the visual
impact of writing supports on readers. Printing on blue paper offered a new solution for
bookmakers seeking to create a luxurious object using the printing press that echoed the visual
impact and luxurious feel of the manuscripts with black supports.
Even though there are only about seven surviving black books of hours, the importance
of these types of objects in the visual culture of early modern Europe should not be overlooked.
The additional task and expense of coloring parchment black occurred at a time when most
scholars assume the manuscript arts were dying out due to the printing press. While some
scholars have shown that scribes and illuminators continued to work and adapt to the printing
press, few have considered objects like the black books of hours in this same context.
44
Even
though the manuscripts were made in Bruges, the books traveled widely across the continent, and
were exchanged by elites and artists alike. Additionally, the journeys of these books, from their
centers of production to elite owners across Europe, reveal the diffusion of colored supports
across geographic distances throughout the early modern period. In both aesthetics and material,
black books of hours are significant predecessors to books printed on blue paper, and the
44
See Armstrong, “The Impact of Printing on Miniaturists in Venice,” 174-202 and Helena K. Szépe,
“Venetian Miniaturists in the Era of Print,” in The Books of Venice, eds. Lisa Pon and Craig Kallendorf
(Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2009), 30-61.
135
appreciation for these manuscripts led to the continued and increasingly common use of blue
paper in the sixteenth century. Books made on color supports demonstrate that bookmakers, from
scribes to printers, were experimenting with the traditional materials used in manuscripts and
printed books.
The Arrival of Blue Paper in Italy and its Use in Hebrew Texts
It is commonly thought that the first paper made from cloth and plant fibers appeared in
China around 105 CE.
45
The invention of paper is attributed to a eunuch serving in the court of
Emperor Hedi. In the story that was told centuries later, Cai Lun made zhi (the earliest form of
rag-based paper) from scraps of rags, hemp, tree bark, and old fishing nets. Beginning in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, archaeologists and literary historians began to
discover evidence for an earlier invention dated around 206 BCE to 9 CE including hemp-based
paper found in the Shaanxi province.
46
Paper is technically a substance made from fibers that have been macerated until each
fiber is a separate unit. These fibers are then mixed with water and drained using a sieve or mesh
screen. As the water drains, the fibers are left behind on the screen, resulting in a thin layer of
45
Dard Hunter, Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft (New York: Dover
Publications, Inc., 1943, rprt. 1978), 5. The first edition of Dard Hunter’s text on the history of
papermaking first appeared in 1943 from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. followed by a second edition in 1947. The
later Dover edition in 1978 is an unabridged version of the 1947 edition.
46
Jonathan Bloom, Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 32-3. Numerous fragments of predominately hemp-based papers
were found in the north-central regions of China, including a coarse scrap dated to 206 BCE–9 CE found
in the Shaanxi province. This paper was too rough for writing in ink; yet white, thinner paper perfect for
writing was found in 1991 dated to the first century BCE in the Gansu province in northwestern China.
All the paper fragments discovered across China and present-day Mongolia indicate that cloth based
paper was in wide use long before Cai Lun supposedly invented it, but also that materials and methods of
papermaking were equally varied.
136
intertwined, matted fibers known as paper.
47
Paper makers in central Asia were the first to make
paper entirely from rags, specifically linen and cotton, sometime around the founding of Islam in
the seventh century CE.
48
The move from plant to cloth as a pulp base was a direct result of the
environment—a common theme in the history of papermaking. In his seminal work on the
subject Dard Hunter highlighted that the availability of materials in specific regions determined
the dominant support for writing. He explained how the reeds along the Nile resulted in Egyptian
papyrus while the beaten tree bark, or huun, in the Yucatan formed the Mayan and later Aztec
codices.
49
Understanding the arrival, manufacture, and acceptance of paper in Europe is part of the
history of blue paper as well. The manufacture of cloth-based paper followed the spread of Islam
to present-day Iraq, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, and Sicily.
50
Blue paper
most likely followed the same pathway of transmission as white paper from east to west. Many
recipes for dyeing paper are described in a manuscript dated to the first half of the thirteenth
century, but there are not specific instructions for blue paper. Another such treatise is a
manuscript discussing colored paper deals with bookmaking titled Kitab `umdat al-kuttab wa
47
Hunter, Papermaking, 5. The earliest forms of paper in Asia only contained a small amount of cloth
fibers mixed with a much larger amount of plant fibers.
48
Bloom, Paper Before Print, 9. The use of linen in papermaking originated in Samarkand, a city in
present-day Uzbekistan. Whereas in China paper was a mixture of cloth and vegetal fibers, the paper
made in the Middle East was almost entirely comprised of cloth scraps.
49
See Hunter, Papermaking, 8-47. Essentially, the first chapter of Papermaking, “Before Paper: The
Writing Substances of the Ancients,” summarizes the various writing supports across the globe that
predate the wide use of paper in later centuries.
50
Charles Briquet, Opuscula: The Complete Works of Dr. C.M. Briquet without Les Filigranes, ed. E.J.
Labarre (Hilversum: Paper Publications Society, 1955), 144-57. Charles Briquet in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries analyzed 122 examples of Middle Eastern, Arabic, and European manuscript
papers from 960 to 1800 for their fiber content and type of sizing agent. In his study, Briquet effectively
proved two important things concerning the history of paper. First was that paper made in the Middle East
and Arabic regions was primarily comprised of hemp fibers not cotton fibers. Second, in the case of
European paper, animal gelatin was used as the primary sizing agent after the fourteenth century and
Middle Eastern paper was made either with no sizing agent or with a variation of gum arabic. Moreover,
Briquet identified the use of gelatin in Middle Eastern papers by the sixteenth century, indicating that this
technique had spread from Europe to the region.
137
`uddat dhawi al-albab (Book of the Staff of the Scribes) written around 1025. The author, Tamim
ibn al-Muizz ibn Badis (1007–61), a Zirid prince ruling a small principality in northeast Algeria,
supplied basic recipes for dyes and instructions for coloring paper in this treatise.
51
White paper
was tinted a range of colors from blues, pinks, greens, and ecru.
52
Tinted blue paper was made in
the Middle East as early as the fourteenth century using the concentrated dye of the native indigo
plant.
53
The papermakers on the Italian peninsula found a way to cut costs while maintaining the
distinctive aura of colored supports whether it was parchment or paper. A Bolognese statute from
1389 listing paper prices and sizes offers documentary evidence of blue paper in Europe,
mentioning a “royal blue” paper; this statute indicates that blue paper was present in Italy since
at least the late fourteenth century.
54
Unlike previous methods of dyeing or tinting parchment and
paper, the blue paper manufactured in Italy was most likely derived from indigo-dyed garments
collected by specialty paper mills, or alternatively, dying the pulp from white rags using vegetal
pigments like indigo or woad.
55
The earliest surviving evidence for the existence of specialty
paper mills is a patent for the manufacture of blue paper for sugar wrappers in England, a
popular use for the material in the seventeenth through eighteenth centuries. Although this patent
51
Martin Levey, “Arabic Bookmaking and Its Relation to Early Chemistry and Pharmacology,”
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 52/4 (1962): 1-79. Levey’s translation comes from a
1908 copy of Ibn Badis’s treatise in the holdings of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago
(A12060), which was copied from a manuscript in the Egyptian National Library in Cairo at the time of
Levey’s publication in 1962. Levey also consulted five other fragmentary copies for his translation.
52
Bloom, Paper Before Print, 69-70.
53
Irene Brückle, “The Historical Manufacture of Blue-colored Paper,” The Paper Conservator 17 (1993):
20.
54
Wisso Weiss, “Blau Papier für Druckzwecke,” Gutenberg Jahrbuch 26 (1959): 26.
55
Whistler, Venice & Drawing, xxi.
138
dates to 1665, it is evident from the Bolognese statute that paper mills began manufacturing blue
paper centuries earlier.
56
The prominence of blue paper on the Italian peninsula in particular was due to the
availability of blue vegetal pigments and unprocessed (i.e. unbleached) blue rags to paper
makers. Paper makers added colorants like indigo or woad at the final stages of beating resulting
in a uniform, and even appearance. Additionally, paper made from colored rags was often lighter
in color and has mottled or spotty appearance. Paper makers employed both methods in
producing blue paper resulting in variations of hue and appearance.
57
The effects of these
variations in fact enhanced the atmospheric qualities of the color, making it attractive to
draftsmen and eventually to printers.
58
After Aldus’ early experiments printing on blue paper, the technique spread amongst
printers in Venice and beyond. However, in the sparse scholarship available about books printed
on blue paper, scholars focus on one genre that received this bespoke treatment––Hebrew books
An exhibition at the British Library in 1995 entitled Carta Azzurra: Hebrew Printing on Blue
Paper posed the primacy of blue paper for Hebrew texts. The curator, Brad Sabin Hill,
postulated that printers chose to print Hebrew texts on blue paper due to the association of the
color with the Levant, specifically lapis lazuli.
59
Lapis lazuli was one of the most expensive pigments available to artists in the west from
antiquity onward. Sources of lapis lazuli are limited to a small region in present-day Afghanistan,
making it one of the rarest pigments; the color was so costly that patrons often had to supply the
56
A.S. Klein, “Die Ältesten papiertechnischen Patente,” Wochenblatt für Papierfabrikation 27 (1929):
843. See also Brückle, “Blue-colored Paper,” 29.
57
Brückle, “Blue-colored Paper,” 21-2. See also Weiss, “Blaues Papier für Druckzwecke,” 27.
58
For more on the use of blue paper in drawing see Whistler, Venice & Drawing, xxi, xxvii, xxx, 198.
59
See Brad Sabin Hill, Carta Azzurra: Hebrew Printing on Blue Paper (London: British Library, Oriental
and India Office Collection, 1995). This is an extremely brief commentary (4 pages total) on an exhibition
at the British Library.
139
pigment if they wished for the artist to use it in a painting. An account from 1347 lists the price
of lapis lazuli at about three to four lire an ounce––this same amount bought about 100 leaves of
gold leaf.
60
With regard to the journey that lapis lazuli made from the East to the West, Anne
Dunlop has examined the increased importation of materials in Europe due to the Mongol
conquests in the east in the thirteenth century. The Mongol conquest unified present-day Middle
East and opened trade routes. The resulting influx of materials like gold and lapis lazuli in
Europe reciprocally increased the quality of fifteenth-century Italian panel painting. Moreover,
Dunlop further argues that these materials became linked to the exotic Holy Land thereby
imbuing religious images with meaning acquired across distance and culture especially with
regards to the blue robes of the Virgin Mary.
61
Additionally, Venice became the main hub for the
pigment trade for the rest of the Italian peninsula with some contracts between artists and patrons
stipulating an additional cost for importing ultramarine from the Veneto.
62
Thus, the color blue,
in addition to its connotations of the East and the Holy Land, was also tied to Venice, one of the
most important printing centers in Europe.
The first printer likely responsible for capitalizing on these connotations was Daniel
Bomberg (1483–ca. 1553). Bomberg was a Flemish Christian from a family of Antwerp
merchants with connections to prominent Flemish artists as well as a printer.
63
Bomberg’s
60
Anne Dunlop, “On the Origins of European Painting Materials, Real and Imagined,” in The Matter of
Art: Materials, Practices, Cultural Logistics, c. 1250–1750, eds. Christy Anderson, Anne Dunlop, and
Pamela H. Smith (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015), 76.
61
Ibid., 77-87.
62
Gage, Colour and Culture, 131. One such contract was drawn up for Filippino Lippi’s commission of
the fresco in Strozzi Chapel in the Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Dated to 1487, the contract included
that there should be available funds for Lippi to go to Venice to acquire pigments. Similarly, in 1502,
Pinturicchio’s contract for the frescoes at the Piccolimini Library in Siena allotted 200 ducats for the artist
to travel to Venice to buy “gold and the necessary colors” including ultramarine.
63
For more on Bomberg’s (also Van Bomberghen) family see Henri van Bomberghen, Généalogie de la
famille van Bomberghen (Brussels: s.n., 1914). With regard to his connections to artists, according to
Karel van Mander in Het Schilder Boek (Haerlem, 1604), the artist Jan van Scorel “got to know some
Antwerp painters, namely a certain Daniel Bomberg, a lover of the art of painting” while he was traveling
140
prominence in the specialized arenas of Jewish book printing and the Flemish art trade
eventually brought him into contact with Cardinal Domenico Grimani (1461–1523). Grimani
was an ardent collector of the arts and probably one of Bomberg’s most significant patrons,
whose support allowed the printer to take on massive printing projects.
64
These included the first
complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud and the first three editions of the Rabbinic Bible
with all the vowel points and accents in the Hebrew type––all issued before 1525.
65
Marvin J.
Heller postulates that deluxe copies of Bomberg’s Babylonian Talmud were printed on vellum or
colored paper; however, he does not name any examples.
66
Bomberg and his frequent collaborator Israel Cornelius Adelkind (active 1519–54) also
printed an edition of Perush ‘al ha-Torah in 1547.
67
Perush ‘al ha-Torah consists of a
commentary on the five scrolls of the Torah by Rabbi Ben Levi Gershom (1288–1344), a Jewish
polymath known as Gersonides. Adelkind was a master printer, editor, and corrector who worked
at Bomberg’s press between 1519 and 1538, and in the 1540s, and likely oversaw the printing of
in Venice. See Mander, Het Schilder Boek, 234r-236v. For the English translation see Hessel Miedema,
The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters, from the First Edition of the Schilder-
Boek, 1603–1604, 2 vols. (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1994-9), 1:197-8.
64
Bernard Aikema, “Hieronymus Bosch and Italy?” in Hieronymus Bosch: New Insights into his Life and
Work, eds. Jos Koldeweij, Bernard Vermet, and Barbera van Kooij (Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van
Beunigen, 2001), 28-9. Grimani’s personal doctor, Abraham ben Meir Balmes, was an important Jewish
philologist and compiled a Hebrew grammar that Bomberg published in 1523. It is likely through
Abraham ben Meir Balmes that the Cardinal first came into contact with the Flemish printer.
Additionally, Bomberg is likely responsible for procuring Grimani’s collection of paintings by
Hieronymus Bosch.
65
Bruce Nielsen, “Daniel van Bombergen, a Bookman of Two Worlds,” in The Hebrew Book in Early
Modern Italy, eds. Joseph R. Hacker and Adam Shear (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
2011), 56.
66
Marvin J. Heller, “Earliest Printings of the Talmud,” in Printing the Talmud: From Bomberg to
Schottenstein, eds. Sharon Lieberman Mintz and Gabriel M. Goldstein (New York: Yeshiva University
Museum, 2005), 74.
67
Levi ben Gershom, Perush ‘al Torah (Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1547); British Library 014534772,
shelfmark: Asia, Pacific & Africa 1907.e.8.
141
a copy of the title on blue paper (Fig. 3.6).
68
The blue Perush ‘al ha-Torah was probably
intended as a presentation copy, but as is the case with many “presentation copies,” the exact
provenance is unknown. There is only one marginal note in early hand in Hebrew on folio iiiiz
4
indicating that at some point, the text was in the possession of Jewish individual or at least
someone very well versed in Hebrew (Fig. 3.7).
Bomberg’s experiments with blue paper demonstrate he was aware that colored support
was signifier of luxury and distinction based on its rarity and long visual tradition in manuscripts.
The oldest of these types of manuscripts originated in Byzantium and the Middle East, and the
tradition continued with the creation of black books of hours (in Bomberg’s native Flanders). For
a Christian audience, the blue paper in Hebrew books might have recalled the East and the Holy
Land. However, the color blue for Jewish audiences also had important religious connotations. In
the Bible, Isarelites are instructed to dye the tzitzit (fringes on the prayer shawl and daily
undergarment) with tekhelet. While the Bible does not specify the color of the dye, later rabbinic
scholars have determined that tekhelet was a bluish dye likely derived from marine snail shells,
or hillazon.
69
The Mishneh Torah describes tekhelet as a color that resembles the sky and thus
resembles the color God’s seat of glory in the heavens.
70
Blue paper, then, had a religious
significance that went beyond the typical Christian context. Additionally, Bomberg would often
fund pilgrimages to the Holy Land with the expectation that the traveler would bring back to him
manuscripts in Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac and other eastern languages amassing a large collection
68
Benjamin Williams, “The Venetian Edition of the Midrash Rabba in Cambridge University Library,”
Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 15/4 (2015): 385-6.
69
Gadi Sagiv, “Deep Blue: Notes on the Jewish Snail Fight,” Contemporary Jewry 35/3 (2015): 286.
Special thank you to my colleague, Danielle Charlap, to alerting me to the importance of tekhelet in the
Bible and the significance of the color in Jewish tradition.
70
G. Wigoder, F. Skolnik, and S. Himelstein, eds., “Tekhelet,” in The new encyclopedia of Judaism (New
York University Press, 2002),
https://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/nyupencyjud/tekhelet/
0?institutionId=887
142
of manuscripts.
71
The blue Perush ‘al ha-Torah then is representative of printer’s knowledge of
past and contemporaneous visual traditions.
The materiality of blue paper is connected not only to Eastern lands but also to Venice. In
fact, Hebrew books printed on blue paper offer evidence as to the origin of blue paper for
printing. Printers in Venice produced the vast majority of books printed on blue paper in the
sixteenth century, making it likely that blue paper was primarily made in the Veneto.
72
A copy of
Mishneh Torah, a compendium of Jewish law (halacha) originally codified by the medieval
Jewish polymath Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), offers additional understanding as to the
history of blue paper in Venice.
Alvise Bragadin (ca. 1500–75), a Christian patrician in Venice specializing in Hebrew
books, printed his second edition of Mishneh Torah between 1574 and 1575, and there are at
least two known copies of this edition printed (at least partially) on blue paper.
73
A copy at
71
Neilsen, “Daniel van Bombergen,” 58. Jacob be Hayyim ib Adoniyahu (1470–1538), editor for no less
than sixteen of the press’s imprints, praised Bomberg’s zeal for collecting these books. In the second
edition to the Rabbinic Bible, he states that the printer “did all in his power to send into all the countries
in order to search out what may be found of Massorah; … we obtained as many of the Masoretic books as
could possibly be got.” Furthermore, Adoniyahu was also sure to mention that Bomberg was not stingy
when it came to acquiring books: “nor did he draw back his right hand from producing gold from his
purse, to defray the expenses of the books, and of the messengers who were engaged to make search for
them in the most remote corners, and in every place where they might be found.” The lengthy colophon
appears in the second edition of the Soferim tractate, fol. 47b. For the English translation see Christian
David Ginsburg, Jacob ben Chajim ibn Adonijah’s Introduction to the Rabbinic Bible (London:
Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1867), 77-8.
72
See Appendix B: Catalogue of Books Printed on Blue Paper in Italy, 1514–1600 for a full list.
73
Moses Maimonides, Mishneh torah: hi ha-yad ha-hazekah … (Venice: Alvise Bragadin, 1574). St.
John’s College, Tt.4.13-16; St. John’s copy is imperfect, lacking leaves 2
2
and 2
3
from vol. 2 and 75
3
and
75
4
from vol. 3. Another copy of the blue Mishneh Torah was formerly part of the Valmadonna Trust
Library. The other known copy of the blue Mishneh Torah was formerly part of the Valmadonna Trust
Library. The Valmadonna Trust Library was one of the most important collections of Hebrew books
specializing in sixteenth-century Italian works. However, in 2015, the contents of the Valmadonna Trust
Library went up for sale at Sotheby’s, so the current location of the blue Mishneh Torah is unknown.
Similarly, the book is now most likely in a private collection since the sale of the Library’s contents, and
the current location is unknown. For more on the sale, see the auction catalogue: Sotheby’s, The
Valmadonna Trust Library: Part I, Magnificent Manuscripts and the Bomberg Talmud (New York:
Sotheby’s, December 22, 2015).
143
Cambridge University is printed on two stocks of paper: one white and one blue. There are a
total of four volumes of Mishneh Torah, and all are folio size measuring around thirty
centimeters. The first two volumes are a combination of white and blue paper and the remaining
two volumes are entirely printed on a light blue paper. The foredge of the volumes are painted
solid blue, alluding to the support inside the book, but also perhaps giving the illusion that the
book was printed entirely on blue paper. Alternatively, the combination of white and blue paper
could be an aesthetic choice. The visual impact of the openings with blue and white leaves is
striking and highlights the blueness of the blue paper as well as the whiteness of the white paper
(Fig. 3.8).
Looking at the watermarks in the Cambridge copy of Mishneh Torah deepens our
understanding of where blue paper was made. Since the thirteenth century in Italy, a wide range
of designs were incorporated into the mesh sieve of the mold, so as the paper dried the design
was subtly incorporated into the chainlines of the sheet forming a watermark.
74
Unfortunately,
very few of the books on blue paper I have examined actually contain watermarks, making the
study of them difficult, yet some books, like the Mishneh Torah in Cambridge, offers some
indication of origins of blue paper in Italy.
The watermarks on the blue paper in Mishneh Torah belong to Swiss filigranologist
(filigrany being the study of watermarks) Charles Briquet’s “anchor within a circle” category.
75
He dates the first appearance of the “anchor within a circle” design to 1474 to Italy, and further
74
Therese Weber, The Language of Paper: A History of 2000 Years (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2007), 89.
75
Charles Briquet, Les Filigranes: Dictionnaire Historique des Marques du Papier dés Leur Apparition
vers 1282 Jusqu’en 1600, A Facsimile of the 1907 Edition with Supplementary Material Contributed by a
Number of Scholars, 4 vols., ed. Allan Stevenson (Amsterdam: The Paper Publications Society, 1968),
III: nos. 454-593. Briquet’s survey of watermarks remains the most extensive record of these designs.
However, there is little evidence to point to specific paper mills, since molds were often sold and reused
so the same watermark can appear in very different contexts. However, watermarks can offer the
geographic origins of paper as well as dates.
144
notes that all variations of this type are also Italian in origin.
76
The watermark appears on about
ten leaves of blue paper in Mishneh Torah consists of two “Vs” within a circle bisected by a
double-arched line that terminates in a smaller circle attached to a six-pointed star. The design of
the watermark and the presence of this countermark most closely resemble the watermark
numbered 562 in Briquet’s catalogue (Figs. 3.9-10).
77
He also notes that this particular style in
which the “rod and two arms of the anchor are drawn by a simple line” was accompanied by a
variety of countermarks, and in fact, the countermark, “BF,” appears throughout the book (Fig.
11).
78
Briquet pinpoints this design to Venice with its earliest appearance dating to around
1563.
79
The watermarks and countermarks in Mishneh Torah indicate that Bragadin acquired his
stocks of blue paper from nearby paper mills in the Veneto, and demonstrating while the color
blue connoted distant origins in the Levant, blue paper was in fact made much closer to the
printer’s home.
Elsewhere, in nearby Mantua, a small group of Jewish intellectuals started working in the
print house of Venturino Ruffinelli (1534–58), a Christian printer from Venice, in the 1550s.
Ruffinelli, who had trained in Venice and then moved his printing operation to Mantua in 1544,
began printing Hebrew texts in 1556 with the scribe Meir ben Ephraim of Padua (d. 1583) and
Jacob ben Naphtali of Gazzuolo.
80
In 1559, with Giacomo Ruffinelli (Venturino’s son), they
issued at least one blue paper copy of Samuel Zarza’s (called Ibn Seneh, fl. late fourteenth
76
Briquet, Les Filigranes, I:40-1.
77
Briquet, Les Filigranes, I:44. He located a specimen his particular design in the Archivio Comune in
Verona on a letter dated to 1580–7. Since Briquet examined both manuscripts and printed books in his
survey there are usually fluctuations with dates and styles.
78
In order to arrive at the tracing of this watermark, I inverted the colors in Photoshop and adjusted the
brightness and contrast until I could feasibly trace the watermark with the pen tool.
79
Briquet, Les Filigranes, I: 41.
80
Franco Pignatti, “Ruffinello, Venturino,” Trecanni, accessed March 12, 2020,
http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/venturino-ruffinelli_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/. The first
Hebrew title that Ruffinello printed was Liber gramaticae dictus Bachur videlicet electus magistri Eliae
Levitae Hebraei Germani (27 October 1556).
145
century) philosophical commentary on the Pentateuch, entitled Mekor Hayim (Fig. 3.12).
81
In
addition to Mekor Hayim, the same press produced some copies of the mystical text Zohar the
following year in 1560, also on blue paper.
82
The timing technique arriving in Mantua is notable.
Ruffinelli, who started his print shop in Venice and often published texts printed at other shops,
learned of the technique from his fellow printers. For instance, Bernardino Giolito de Ferrari
(called Stagnino, ca. 1480–1540) likely printed a series of works by Girolamo Savonarola for
Ruffinelli between 1535 and 1536.
83
Significantly, also in 1536, Stagnino printed a copy of an
edition of Chistoforo Landino’s commentary on Dante’s poetry, Comedia del divino poeta Dante
Alighieri, on blue paper.
84
We can infer that Ruffinelli’s knowledge of printing on blue paper
likely came from his contact with Stagnino, and subsequently, was passed on to his son,
Giacomo. It is probable that Ruffinelli had the ability and knowledge to print on blue paper by
the late 1530s, but the only known blue paper books from Ruffinelli’s press were printed after
his move to Mantua and his death. Furthermore, these blue books were limited to Hebrew titles.
The gap and uptick in printing on blue paper is due to societal circumstances originating in
Venice and debates over printing Jewish texts.
81
Brad Sabin Hill, Hebraica (Saec. X ad Saec. XVI): Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the
Library of the Valmadonna Trust, an Exhibition at the Pierpont Morgan Library (London: Valmadonna
Trust Library, 1989), n.p., cat. no. 37. The blue copy was formerly part of the Valmadonna Trust Library.
82
Hill, Hebraica, n.p. catalogue no. 37.
83
Pignatti, “Ruffinello.” Ruffinelli is mentioned in the preface as the publisher for the volumes as well as
included in the imprint along with his collaborator, Giovanni Padovano. The titles listed on USTC all
contain the same imprint of “Venice: per Bernardino I Stagnino, Giovanni Padovano & Venturino
Ruffinelli, 1536.” These titles include: Trattato delle revelatione della reformatione della chiesa (USTC
855252), Sermones in adventu Domini super archam Noe (USTC 855251), In primam divi Ioannis
epistolam & in alia Sacrae Scripturae verba (USTC 855249), Opera singolare contra l'astrologia
divinatrice in corroboratione delle refutatione astrologice del signor conte Ioanne Pico de la Mirandola
(USTC 855250).
84
Dante Alighieri, Cristoforo Landino (commentary), Comedia con la dotta & leggiadra spositione di
Christophoro Landino: con somma diligentia & accuratissimo studio nuovamente corretta, & emendata
(Venice: Bernardino Stagnino ad instantia di Giovanni I Giolito De Ferrari, 1536), USTC 808785.
146
Returning to Bragadin and his print shop, the problems began when he printed his first
edition of Mishneh Torah in 1550. This edition of Mishneh Torah (which also happened to be the
first book issued from his press) contained the additional commentary of Rabbi Meir
Katzenellenbogen, a German residing in Padua. Soon after, Bragadin came into direct conflict
with another printer, Marco Antonio Giustiniani, who printed his own edition of Mishneh Torah.
Both printers immediately charged each other of perjury, and accused one another of printing
blasphemous text.
85
The on-going debate between Bragadin and Giustiniani led Pope Julius III to
issue a papal decree in 1553 banning all printings of the Talmud and condemned any existing
Talmudic text to the fires. Entire print runs of Hebrew texts were lost to the flames with one
observer, a Polish Jew named Delacrut, noting that over one thousand complete copies of the
Talmud were burned in Venice alone.
86
Yet another witness, Rabbi Abraham Menahem ben
Jacob of Rapaport, described the scene as follows:
The decree went out from the city of Rome to use [the Talmud volumes] as fuel for the
fire. In Venice––woe to the eyes that saw this––on the thirteenth and fourteenth of
Marheshvan 5314 (October 31/November 1, 1553), a continuous fire, which was not
extinguished. I fixed these days for myself, for each and every year, for fasting, weeping,
and mourning, for this day was a bitter for me as the burning of the House of our God
(The Temple) (Minkah belulah, on “a fiery law unto them” [Deuteronomy 33:2].
87
For Bragadin and his well-established firm, the ban prevented him from printing Hebrew texts
until 1563, and resulted in the destruction of thousands of Jewish texts. It is likely for this reason
that no deluxe copies of Bomberg’s Babylonian Talmud have survived––save for at least one
85
Riccardo Calimani, “Gli editori di libri ebraici a Venezia,” in Armeni, ebrei, greci: stampatori a
Venezia, ed. Scilla Abbiati (Venice: Assessorate alla Cultura, 1989), 59. See also Marvin J. Heller,
Further Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Books (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 305-14.
86
Hill, Hebraica, 7.
87
Quote from Heller, Making of the Early Hebrew Books, 305. For more on the ban and burning of the
Talmud see Piet van Boxel, “Robert Bellarmine Reads Rashi: Rabbinic Bible Commentaries and the
Burning of the Talmud,” in The Hebrew Book in Early Modern Italy, 121-32.
147
copy printed on high-quality Royal folio paper.
88
For printers outside of Venice, the ban
significantly diminished the competition in printing Hebrew texts. Printing on blue paper was an
additional method of promoting Hebrew texts using a special support with ties to Venice and the
Levant.
Although the first book printed outside of Venice on blue paper that I have identified
appeared in Rome in 1548 (an edition of Pietro Bembo’s Delle rime), the example of Hebrew
books printed on blue paper offers a probable pathway for how the technique proliferated
throughout the Italian peninsula in the sixteenth century.
89
The manufacture and dissemination of
blue paper from the fourteenth century to the sixteenth century are components of the materiality
of blue paper, and indicative of its symbolic and luxurious connotations. Books printed on blue
paper demonstrate the important role that printed books had in the diffusion of printing
techniques as these books likely served as examples for other printers attempting to make
bespoke books. As was the case with Hebrew books printed on blue paper, these books
demonstrate the printers’ calculated decisions to print titles on a support that evokes a certain
historical and spiritual significance, as well as shows an appreciation for colored supports
beyond the Veneto.
88
Only about sixteen complete sets of the Babylonian Talmud have survived, and only about a dozen of
these were assembled during the sixteenth century. For instance, Jack Lunzer, the custodian of the
Valmadonna Trust Library, identified a complete edition of the Talmud at the 1956 exhibition
“Tercentenary of the Resettlement of the Jews in the British Isles, 1656–1956” at the Victoria & Albert
Museum. The Talmud arrived at Westminster Abbey around 1629, having once belonged to the Professor
of Hebrew at Oxford, and remained undisturbed and unidentified as the Bomberg imprint for nearly four
centuries. Once Lunzer recognized the Talmud as Bomberg’s, he spent the next twenty-four courting the
Abbey to sell it. He eventually exchanged the Talmud for a 900-year old copy of Westminster Abbey’s
original charter. Most recently, in the Sotheby’s sale of the Valmadonna Trust Library’s collection in
2015, the Talmud sold for a staggering $9.3 million. The Valmadonna Talmud, like many of the surviving
copies, is printed on heavy, high-quality, white Royal folio paper. There is additionally a copy at
Wittenberg also on this type of paper.
89
Appendix B, no. 32, Pietro Bembo, Delle rime di M. Pietro Bembo (Rome: Per Valerio Dorico et Luigi
fratelli, ad instantia di M. Carlo Gualteruzzi, 1548). Two copies survive on blue paper: one at the
Newberry (Case Y 712 .B42) and one at University Library, Cambridge (Y.8.42).
148
Blue Paper as a Printing Phenomenon and the Proliferation of the Bespoke Book
Given the prevalence of Hebrew books printed on blue paper, it is commonly assumed
that blue paper was predominantly used for religious texts. However, in tracing the spread of
blue paper in book printing from Aldus’ initial experiments in 1514, we find that blue paper
proliferated across almost every genre of books including classical, liturgical, historical, literary,
mathematical, and natural science texts.
90
Throughout its uses in a variety of contexts, blue paper
continued to accrue meanings, often as a result of the textual contents. For instance, its use in
poetry and geometry speak to the evocative qualities of the color blue in its allusion to natural
elements. Importantly, the dissemination of printing on blue paper suggests that bespoke books
were not always anomalies, but rather, indicate that experimental printing was a far-reaching
phenomenon in early modern Italy. Blue books serve as evidence that printers were engaged with
the surrounding visual and material culture, and through that engagement, produced a new
category of object of novel and distinct printed books.
After Aldus printed the copies of Virgil and Libri de rei rustica on blue paper, there
wasn’t another book printed on the same support for several years. From my research, I have
constructed a timeline of blue paper books in Italy to better understand the ways in which
printers adopted the technique. Given the lack of documentary evidence with regard to blue
paper books, the imprints and colophons in blue copies of books provide the names and dates
that allow me to build up the connections between printers and blue paper. In tracing the
apprenticeships and collaborations among printers, an initial picture of how the making blue
paper books spread outwardly from Venice to rest of the Italian peninsula.
90
See Appendix B for a list of these texts.
149
In 1520, Guglielmo da Trino (also Guglielmo da Fontaneto, active mid-fifteenth to early
sixteenth c.), an itinerant printer and editor from Trino, printed a copy of Andrea Baiardi’s Libro
d’arme, & d’amore, nomato Philogine in Venice (possibly in his own home according to the
colophon) on blue paper.
91
Then in 1522, the Venetian printer Giovanni Antonio Nicolini da
Sabbio (ca. 1500–46/7) printed a copy of the liturgical text Officium Hebdomade sancte,
secundum Romanam curiam on blue paper. The blue paper copy today is at the British Library,
and the only other known surviving copy is on white paper at UCLA.
92
Giovanni Antonio printed
the text in very small, duodecimo format. Despite the size, he included full-page woodcuts and
printed the gothic type in red and black on the blue paper (Fig. 3.13). The printer employed the
small size, type, woodcuts, and distinctive support of blue paper to recall liturgical manuscripts
like books of hours, perhaps even black books of hours.
Along with his brothers, Stefano and Pietro, Giovanni Antonio left his native Sabbio (a
major papermaking center) for Venice where they learned the printing trade under the tutelage of
Aldus Manutius and his father-in-law, Andrea Torresano (1451–1529).
93
According to a
privilege entered in 1521, Giovanni Antonio and his brothers established their own shop around
1520.
94
Giovanni and his brother’s use of blue paper in one of their earliest imprints reveals an
important pattern for how the technique of printing on blue paper spread. They likely learned
about the method from working in the Aldine shop, and then employed the technique soon after
with their edition of Officium Hebdomade sancte.
91
Tiziana Plebani, “Guglielmo da Trino,” Trecanni, accessed March 17, 2020,
http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/guglielmo-da-trino_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/. Andrea Bairdi,
Libro d’arme & d’amore, nomato Philogine (Venice: Guglielmo da Fontanto, 1520); USTC 811935. The
colophon reads: “Venezia, nelle case de Guglielmo da Fontaneto, 1520.”
92
Officium Hebdomade sancte, secundum Romanam curiam (Venice: Io. Antonio Frates de Sabio
[Giovanni Antonio de Sabio], 1522), British Library, C.52.aa.4.; UCLA Z233.I8 C26he 1522.
93
Laura Carnelos, “Nicolini da Sabbio, Giovanni Antoino,” Treccani, accessed January 24, 2020,
http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/nicolini-da-sabbio-giovanni-antonio_(Dizionario-Biografico)/
94
Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Senato Terra, reg. 22, 19 novembre 1521, c. 70-v.
150
Two years later, Bernardino Vitali (fl. 1494–1539) printed a new Italian translation of
Flavius Vegetius’s (d. 450 CE) De re militari entitled Vegetio de l’arte militare nela commune
lingua (Vegetius’s Art of War in the Common Language, 1524) on blue paper. Then in 1532, he
printed a collection of Petrarch’s poems entitled Il Petrarcha con l’epositione d’Alessandro
Vellutello (Petrarch with the commentary from Alessandro Vellutello). At least two copies
printed on blue paper survive, and are now in the Charles E. Young Library at the University of
California, Los Angeles and the Fitzwilliam Museum, respectively. In this edition of Il
Petrarcha, a Lucchese intellectual, Alessandro Vellutello (fl. early sixteenth c.), included the
Canzoniere (Songbook) and the Trionfi (Triumphs).
95
From 1470 to 1500, at least twenty-five
editions of Canzoniere and Trionfi were printed in Italy.
96
Vellutello’s commentary was
therefore not the first edition of Petrarch to appear on the book market. However, Vitali followed
a familiar business model, imitating what Erhard Ratdolt established during his time in Venice.
Like Canzioniere and Trionfi, Euclid’s Elements was already an incredibly popular text among
scholars and humanists before the printing press.
97
Nonetheless, Ratdolt needed to entice patrons
among the elite, whose monetary support was necessary for printing more books. The German
printer’s novel solution included printing his preface using gold leaf and type. Vitali, like
Ratdolt, printed a few copies of Vellutello’s edition of Petrarch’s poems on blue paper at the
request of a client, or perhaps to secure patronage. Vitali’s decision to print at least one bespoke
copy of Vellutello’s commentary on Petrarch’s poems tapped into a wider practice regarding the
works of the poet. There are numerous examples of Petrarch’s works receiving special treatments
95
Carlo Dionisotti, “Vellutello, Alessandro,” Trecanni, accessed May 15, 2019,
http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/alessandro-vellutello_%28Enciclopedia-Dantesca%29/
96
Ernest H. Wilkins, “The Fifteenth-Century Editions of the Italian Poems of Petrarch,” Modern
Philology 40/3 (1943): 225.
97
For manuscript copies of Canzoniere and Trionfi see Wilkins, “Fifteenth-Century Editions of Petrarch,”
225 and Enrico Narducci, ed., I codici petrarcheschi delle biblioteche governative del regno … (Rome:
Tipografia Romana, 1874).
151
from bookmakers; for example, the manuscript of Canzoniere and Trionfi made in the second
half of the fifteenth in Padua, now at the Victoria & Albert Museum, includes dyed folios and
gold dusted. In addition, Aldus printed limited runs of his editions of Petrarch’s poems on vellum
that were often illuminated with miniatures.
98
Importantly, Vitali’s blue books of Petrarch sparked another trend in printing on blue
paper. For the next fifty years, vernacular literature was the most popular genre for blue paper
books. After Vitali, the aforementioned Bernardino Stagnino, printed a copy of Dante’s Comedia
del divino poeta, on blue paper 1536, and he in turn was followed by his young apprentice,
Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrara. Gabriele (ca. 1508–78) was one of Stagnino’s distant relatives, and
he began working in the print house around 1531.
99
Gabriele came from a large family of
printers, editors, publishers, and booksellers. Working alongside his father Giovanni (ca. 1470–
1539), who was an editor and bookseller, Gabriele established a successful bookshop called the
libreria della fenice (bookshop of the phoenix) in Venice. Gabriele, like Aldus, owed his success
to cornering a niche market in a competitive business.
100
Gabriele printed in small formats like
quartos and octavos but unlike Aldus he chose to almost exclusively print in the vulgate.
Additionally, he worked with polygrafi (polygraphs) like Lodovico Dolce (ca. 1508–68) who
could edit and translate works for contemporary audiences.
101
Modern scholars have credited Gabriele and his family’s success in the book trade to
their printing of a wide range of vernacular texts that appealed to an equally wide range of
98
Szépe, “Modes of Illuminating Aldines,” 196-8.
99
Angela Nuovo and Christian Coppens, I Giolito e La Stampa nell’Italia del XVI Secolo (Geneva:
Librarie Droz, 2005), 40.
100
See Reinhard Flogaus, “Aldus Manutius and the Printing of Greek Liturgical Texts,” in The Books of
Venice, 207-30.
101
Richardson, Print Culture in Renaissance Italy, 90-1. Richardson notes that the term polygraphes first
appeared in France in 1536. Essentially, polygraphs were considered “jacks-of-all-trades” in the printing
world and served as editors and translators for any subject matter and for numerous languages.
152
readers. This was certainly the case when Gabriele began printing materials that tapped into
diverse reading populations of early modern Italy. The printer issued numerous titles from
women authors in order to attract women buyers.
102
Additionally, the majority of the editions
printed during the company’s heyday were literary texts. Of the 982 titles printed between 1536
and 1606, 256 were on religion, 120 on history, 208 were treatises, and 398 were literature.
However, within these years of production the output of books on these various subject matters
varied greatly. For instance, between 1565 and 1569, Gabriele issued fifty editions of religious
works and only twenty-five literary works; whereas only fifteen years earlier, between 1550 and
1554, he printed 104 literary works and only thirteen religious texts.
103
As Brian Richardson has
noted, these figures point towards shifting preferences among the readership in the second half of
the sixteenth century and the ability of printers to adapt to these changes.
104
There is no doubt that Gabriele was a savvy businessman who correctly realized which
texts were desirable throughout the sixteenth century, and he passed this knowledge onto his
heirs. However, none have noted an additional specialization of the Giolito business. Gabriele
and his family printed more titles on blue paper than any other printer in the sixteenth century.
The Giolito family issued numerous copies of their titles on blue paper including Claudio
Tolomei’s De le lettere (1547), Francesco Baldelli’s Commentari di C. Giulio Cesare (1554),
and editions of Lodovico Dolce’s commentary on Petrarch (1554) and his translation of Ovid’s
102
Androniki Dialeti, “The Publisher Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, Female Readers, and the Debate about
Women in Sixteenth-Century Italy,” Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme, New Series
/ Nouvelle Série 28/4 (2004): 5.
103
Brian Richardson, Printing, Writers, and Readers in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1999), 137-8. See Table 6 for the exact numbers of titles printed every few years during
this period.
104
Ibid., 138.
153
Metamorphosis (1553) (Fig. 3.14).
105
Despite the many titles printed on blue paper, there are
precious few copies of each title on blue paper that survive.
106
In the Giolito catalogue printed in 1592, Indicie copioso, e particolare di tutti li libri
stampati dalli Gioliti in Venetia, all these titles are listed but there are no mentions of the copies
printed on blue paper––only the author, title, size, and prices are listed.
107
Like the blue Aldine
books, there are no surviving records of sale for the blue Giolito books.
108
The lack of
documentation concerning the prices and sales of these types of books coupled with their rarity
indicates that like hand-colored printed books and printed books on vellum, blue paper books
were intended for a special clientele.
109
Blue paper offered bookmakers an opportunity to print
books that were visually and materially bespoke.
The mid- to late-sixteenth century was the heyday for printing books on blue paper.
Following the examples of Hebrew texts and Giolito’s output, printing on blue paper became a
well-known technique for producing colored (albeit monochromatic) books. Nevertheless, blue
paper continued to be a viable material for gaining attention. This was apparent when
bookmakers used blue paper to issue special blue copies of popular titles. For instance, in 1572,
at least two copies of Euclid’s Elements were printed entirely on blue paper. Nearly one hundred
years after Ratdolt conducted his experiments for printing in gold in his editio princeps of
Euclid’s Elements, another bookmaker sought to revitalize the foundational geometry text. The
printer Camillo Franceschini (active 1560–96) published Euclid’s Elements with a new Latin
105
See Nuovo and Coppens, I Giolito, 453-86.
106
See Appendix B for a list of known surviving copies.
107
Heirs of Gabriele Giolito, Indicie copioso, e particolare di tutti li libri stampati dalli Giolit in Venetia,
fino all’anno 1592 (Venice: Giolito de Ferrari, 1592).
108
Nuovo and Coppens, I Giolito, 463. The authors refer to Giolito’s blue paper books as dedication
copies.
109
Clemmons and Fletcher, Aldus Manutius, 27.
154
translation and commentary by Federico Commandino in Pesaro, a small coastal town on the
Adriatic Sea near Urbino.
110
Born into a noble family in Urbino, Commandino was one of the central figures of the
Urbino School, a group of mathematicians and scholars focused on the study and restoration of
classical mathematics, in the sixteenth century.
111
One of his close followers, Bernardino Baldi in
his Vita di Federico Commandino (Life of Federico Commandino), praised him for his role in
reviving ancient mathematics stating: “Commandino with the greatest diligence and insight
restored to light, to dignity and to splendor the works of nearly all the principal writers of the age
in which mathematics had flourished.”
112
Baldi’s words were not an exaggeration considering
that in addition to his translation of Euclid’s Elements, Commandino provided new
commentaries for many other classical mathematical works including texts from Ptolemy and
Archimedes.
113
Before printing his edition of Elements with Franceshini, Commandino employed many
different printers to produce his translations of and commentaries on classical mathematics
including Paolo Manuzio, the third son of Aldus, who printed Commandino’s editions in Rome
and in Venice beginning in the late 1550s.
114
In 1570, the British astrologer, natural philosopher,
mathematician, John Dee (1527–1608) met with Commandino, and gave him an Arabic
110
Euclid, Evclidis Elementvrum Libri XV Vnà cum Scholijs antiquis. A Federico Commandino Vrbinate
Nuper in Latinum … (Pesaro: Camillo Franceschini, 1572), USTC 828478.
111
Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 185. For more on the Urbino School see Domenico
Bertolini Meli, “Guidobaldo dal Monte and the Archimedean Revival,” Nuncius 1 (1992): 3-34.
112
Bernardino Baldi, Vita di Federico Commandino, dated 1587 and first printed in Giornale de’ Letterati
d’Italia 19 (1714): 140-85. See also the later printing in Filippo Ugolini and Filippo Polidoro, eds., Versi
e Prose scelte di Bernardino Baldi (Florence: Le Monnier, 1859), 513-37.
113
Field, Invention of Infinity, 183.
114
Paolo Manuzio established the Roman branch of his family print shop in the late 1560s.
Commandino’s edition of Ptolemy’s De Analemmate was one of the first books printed there. Paolo also
had already issued Commandino’s editions of Archimedes and Ptolemy’s and Jordanus’s Planisphere in
Venice in 1558. See Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 190.
155
manuscript related to another work by Euclid, De superficierum divisionibus (On Division). The
two in turn collaborated to produce new Latin and Italian editions of the text, which was printed
in Pesaro in 1570.
115
In 1572, Commandino produced a new, authoritative commentary and
translation of Latin edition Euclid’s Elements, and followed quickly with an Italian edition, De
gli elementi di Euclide libri quindici, in 1575 from the printer Domenico Frisolino.
116
In his adherence to the classical tradition of mathematics with philosophical
underpinnings (as opposed to Dee’s interpretation of Elements that tended towards a new
empiricism), Commandino sought to revive Euclid’s geometry in the midst of a widely-felt
intellectual stagnation in the sciences in the late sixteenth century.
117
For instance, in his
“Prolegomena” to the 1572 edition, he provided a survey of mathematics and philosophy
effectively demonstrating the importance of the discipline in contemplating grander, theological
themes.
118
In light of this context, the decision then to print at least four copies of his Latin and
Italian editions on blue paper (two Latin and two Italian) speaks to the potential of bespoke
books in enhancing the contents of a text. The black geometric diagrams on folio-sized blue
paper reflect the themes of light, dignity, and splendor in Commandino’s mathematical practice
that Baldi described (Fig. 3.15). The light blue surface of the pages does not obscure the
diagrams or the text, but instead occupies the plentiful negative space that the points, lines,
circles, triangles, and parallelograms create. The varying relationship between white space,
115
For more on this collaboration see Paul Lawrence Rose, “Commandino, John Dee, and the De
superficierum divisionibus of Machometus Bagdedinus,” Isis 63/1 (1972): 88-93.
116
Euclid, De gli elementi di Euclide libri quindici... Tradotti ... da M. Federico Commandino.... (Urbino,
Domenico Frisolino, 1575), USTC 828481.
117
Enrico I. Rambaldi, “John Dee and Federico Commandino: An English and an Italian Interpretation of
the Euclid during the Renaissance,” Rivista di Storia della Filosofia 44 (1989): 212-3. Dee provided the
preface for John Billingsley’s English translation: The Elements of Geometrie … (London: John Day,
1570), USTC 507133.
118
Ibid., 214-5.
156
diagram, and text, or what Gregg De Young refers to as the “architecture” of Euclidean geometry
in manuscripts and printed books, was an indication of the contemporaneous educational and
cultural climate, including aesthetic predilections and economic states.
119
For example, in some
Arabic manuscripts of Elements, scribes drew the diagrams in red ink but kept the diagram labels
and text in black––evidence those manuscripts with these additional material and labor costs
were reserved for wealthier patrons.
120
In the case of the blue Elements, the printers of both the Latin and Italian editions,
Francischini and Frisolino, respectively, replaced the white space with blue. Rather than “empty”
spaces, the openings within the intersections of lines and circles are filled with color. The color
of blue paper along with its variegated appearance was poetically evocative recalling the sky,
nature, and foreign hands. For instance, Leonardo da Vinci, in a lengthy passage in his Codex
Hammer (1506/9) theorized about how one perceives the sky as blue. He viewed billowing
vapors, colored smoke, and colliding atoms as all components in producing blue as an
atmospheric effect.
121
The blue paper in books of poetry enhances the poetic language of the text
with its color and texture. The University Library at Cambridge University and Houghton
Library at Harvard hold these copies of Euclid’s Elements printed on blue paper. Blue copies of
the Latin edition at Cambridge University and Harvard have the same architectural title page as
the copies printed on white paper.
122
The design includes custom historiated capitals featuring
119
Young, “Mathematical diagrams,” 22-3.
120
Ibid., 25, note 9. Young cites several manuscripts of the Tahīr of al-Tūsī, including the Hyderabad,
Salar Jang Museum, acc. 2144 and Hyderabad, Osmania University, acc. 488 and acc. 508. These
manuscripts contain Euclidean diagrams made with red lines and black labels, and non-Euclidean
diagrams or diagram parts are made with black lines and red labels.
121
Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Hammer. See Jean Paul Richter, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci,
Compiled and Edited from the Original Manuscripts, 2 vols. (New York: Dover Publications, 1970).
122
For Harvard’s copy on blue paper see Mortimer, Harvard College Library, 246-7, I: cat. no. 174.
Thomas-Stanford, Euclid’s Elements, 11, note 2. Thomas-Stanford states in a note that he is aware of a
157
putti drawing geometric diagrams, and woodcut geometric figures accompanying Euclid’s
definitions with propositions.
123
The title page immediately demonstrated to the reader the
impact of black lines on blue paper (Fig. 3.16). The copy at Cambridge University was printed
on a light blue, slightly variegated paper with a smooth and even surface. The complex
architectural details of the woodcut include a grotesque directly above the imprint as well as the
name of the name of the dedicatee, the Duke of Urbino, Francesco Maria II della Rovere (1549–
1631), incorporated in the frieze within the entablature. There are additional garlands along the
upper portion of the structure and geometric diagrams included in the base. Framing the columns
are two female allegorical figures with one holding a plumb line and the other holding measuring
devices.
The name of the artist responsible for the woodcut, “IACOBUS Chriegher German,” is
additionally under the imprint. Jacob Chriegher (active 1569–1586) likely provided the designs
for the historiated capitals as well, but it is not certain if he oversaw the design of the diagrams.
Like the simple lines of the diagrams, there is an airy and light quality to this woodcut. There is
minimal modeling on the figures and architectural details, but rather the areas of darkness,
especially in the underside of protruding surfaces, are completely filled in with black. There is a
stark contrast then between the ink of the woodcut and the blue of the paper, with the support
serving as both midtone and background.
Comprehension of Euclidean geometry depended on the clarity and precision of the
diagrams. For Ratdolt, his solution was to develop a new metal-casting technique using metal
strips to print the diagrams. In Franceschini’s edition, he used woodcuts for the diagrams, but he
was able to retain the exactitude of Ratdolt’s metal-cast figures. Franceschini and Commandino,
copy printed on blue paper in a private collection. Unfortunately, he does not provide any additional
information, and to date, I have not yet tracked down this potential third blue copy.
123
Mortimer, Harvard College Library, I:247.
158
perhaps in an effort to impress their patron Francesco Maria II della Rovere, chose to print some
copies on blue paper as part of a highly limited print run.
124
The light blue surface of the leaves
in the text do not obscure the diagrams, making it an ideal support for printers looking to create a
visual impact without interfering with the authority of the text and image.
Commandino issued another edition of Elements in Italian, De gli elementi di Euclide
libri quindici, before his death in 1575, and some copies were also printed on blue paper.
Commandino’s Italian translation, De gli elementi, before his death in 1575, and at least two
surviving copies were also printed on blue paper. To date, I have identified two copies currently
for sale at PrPh Books and Sokol Books, respectively.
125
In the Italian edition, the architectural
title-page was replaced with a simplified design consisting of a ruled border and a triangle of
flourishes above imprint (Fig. 3.17). The printer Domenico Frisolino issued the Italian edition,
but even though he had his own printing house in Urbino, according to the colophon De gli
elementi was likely printed in Commandino’s own home.
126
Despite not receiving the block for
the title-page, Frisolino used the same blocks for the diagrams and capitals from the 1572 edition
(Fig. 3.18). This edition also gives some clues as to how bookmakers acquired blue paper. In a
contract dated November 13, 1574, Commandino outlined an agreement for buying paper from
Melchiorre Silvestri and Magister Pietro Bramante. Both men were active in a paper mill in
Fermignano, a small town near Urbino where paper was manufactured since 1411. Additionally,
124
Mortimer, Harvard College Library, I:247.
125
“Euclides,” PrPh Books, accessed February 13, 2020, https://www.prphbooks.com/allbooks/blue-
paper-euclides-fl-3rd-century-bc-de-gli-elementi-di-euclide-libri-quindici-tradotti-da-m-federico-
commandinonbspurbino-domenico-frisolino-before-3-september-1575?rq=euclid; “Euclid” Sokol Books,
accessed February 13, 2020, https://sokol.co.uk/euclid-5/.
126
“In Urbino in casa di Federico Commandino, con licentia dei superiori. MDLXXV”
159
the Montefeltro family, former rulers of Urbino and predecessors of the Della Rovere family,
owned the Fermignano paper mill.
127
The integration of colored supports in book printing opens new avenues of investigation
concerning how bookmaking techniques were transmitted. Bookmakers had access to or at the
very least knowledge of art and writing on colored supports. The spread of blue paper books
from Venice to other cities like Pesaro is evidence that the technique traveled across the Italian
peninsula. The sustained use of colored parchment and paper in manuscripts and books after the
advent of the printing press showed that printers were attuned to this long history, and actively
participated in it to create bespoke books that recall these luxurius objects.
Bespoke Books and Visual Culture
Despite the numerous examples of color in printed books, during this time there was
debate as to the relationship between color and printing, specifically in regards to fine art prints.
In an oft-quoted passage from Erasmus of Rotterdam’s treatise De recta Latini Graecique
sermonis pronuntiatione dialogus (Dialogue on the Correct Pronunciation of Latin and Greek,
1529), the author states “if you adorn it [the print] with color, you injure the artwork.”
128
In this
instance, Erasmus was referring to prints by his occasional correspondent Albrecht Dürer.
129
Erasmus further elaborates on his point claiming that Dürer’s talent surpasses even Apelles. He
states that the classical Greek artist could only imitate life with the use of color whereas Dürer
127
See Luigi Moranti, L’arte tipografica in Urbino (1493–1800) (Florence: Leo Olschki, 1967), 12-3.
128
Erasmus of Rotterdam, De recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronuntiatione dialogus (Basel: Froben,
1529), 19. “…ut si colorem illinas, iniuriam facias opera.”
129
For more on Erasmus and Dürer, see Lisa Jardin, Erasmus, Man of Letters: The Construction of
Charisma in Print (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993). See also Erwin Panofsky, “Erasmus and
the Visual Arts,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 32 (1969): 200-27.
160
goes even further and “depicts what cannot be depicted” in nature using only black lines.
130
Erasmus’ criticism of the illumination of prints has been persistently quoted in modern
scholarship about the graphic arts. Even Erwin Panofsky was quick to characterize the
individuals who added color to Dürer’s prints as “uncomprehending” that the achievement of
printmaking was the ingenuity of the line, and color obscured the artist’s mastery of it.
Erasmus’ criticism of hand-coloring prints has been persistently quoted in modern
scholarship about the graphic arts. Even Erwin Panofsky was quick to characterize the
individuals who added color to Dürer’s prints as “uncomprehending.”
131
While Dürer did not use
blue paper for his prints as he did for his drawings, I have identified three later impressions of
scenes from his Life of the Virgin series made on blue paper (Figs. 3.19-21). Dürer made the
series of twenty woodcuts around 1503–5, but the woodcuts on blue paper were most likely
made in the later sixteenth century. The Adoration of the Magi at the British Museum shows
signs of wear, with finer details like the hatching around the Virgin’s right eye are blurred and
smudged. Similar signs of wear are also present in Betrothal of the Virgin and Joachim and the
Angel at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. also printed on blue paper. The lack of
definition in the hatching in the background in Betrothal of the Virgin and the breaks in the
horizon line in Joachim and Angel point towards these as later impressions as well.
132
However,
130
Erasmus, De recta, 19. Panofsky, “Erasmus and the Visual Arts,” 224-5.
131
Panofsky, “Erasmus and the Visual Arts,” 226.
132
Adam von Bartsch, The Illustrated Bartsch, Sixteenth Century German Artists: Albrecht Dürer,
(Commentary), ed. Walter L. Strauss (New York: Abaris Books, 1981), X:346-61. Bartsch and Strauss
note that there is an impression of the Adoration of the Magi [B.87 (132)] printed on blue paper in
London with the accession number “1895-1-22-710.” Today, accession number for the Adoration of the
Magi impression on blue paper is 1924,0419.1. Bartsch and Strauss also reference impressions of
Joachim and the Angel [B.78 (131)] “occasionally printed on blue paper” with gaps at the top and horizon
line from c. 1590 indicating that the impression at the NGA is one these later states. They also mention a
watermark, “Escutcheon with Diagonal Beam,” corresponding to Briquet nos. 976-979. While Bartsch
and Strauss date this watermark to ca. 1600, Briquet dates the type of watermark much earlier around
1540. Unfortunately, I was unable to examine the watermark of the impression at the NGA due to its
mounting, so I cannot confirm that the NGA impression is the one listed in Bartsch. The imperfections
161
these inconsistences are only apparent under close examination and magnification; the average
viewer would not notice them and this is due to the darker tone of blue paper compared to white
paper. Whereas white paper would enhance the increasingly blurry black lines of a worn-down
woodblock, blue paper neutralizes them by minimizing the contrast between ink and paper. Like
bookmakers, printers were also savvy in their dealings—using a support that was visually
interesting and a distraction from the imperfections of heavily used blocks.
Prints on blue paper, as well as drawings, offer insight as to the practical applications of
blue paper in the graphic arts. Additionally, the study of these objects alongside printed books
poses questions concerning color theory and prints in the early modern period. Erasmus’s
opinion regarding Dürer’s prints was just one in a chorus of rhetoricians and artists voicing their
views on the subject. The earliest printing experimentations with blue paper occurred in the late
fifteenth century decades before Aldus began printing his books on blue paper. The hand-colored
woodcut of St. Nicolas of Myra for instance is dated to the 1470s, and the elaborate, German
chiaroscuro woodcuts printed on washed paper date to the early sixteenth century.
There are very few examples of woodcuts on blue paper. Nonetheless, the ones that do
survive reveal that blue paper was used to imitate more complicated techniques like chiaroscuro
woodcuts. The blue paper took the place of the tone block used to create a base for the remaining
line blocks.
133
Such was the case with a woodcut depicting the Roman youth Mucius Scaevola
thrusting his hand into a fire in order to prove to his enemies the strength and endurance of
Rome. The Cremonese artist, Antonio Campi (ca. 1522–87), designed a line block based off this
legend, representing Mucius Scaevola in armor holding his hand in a roaring fire atop a pedestal
with his captors observing the feat with respectful, downcast gazes. Supposedly derived from an
listed in Bartsch do correspond with the impression at the NGA. Finally, there is no mention of blue paper
under the entry for the Betrothal of the Virgin [B.82 (131)].
133
Takahatake, “The Italian Chiaroscuro Woodcut,” 17.
162
original drawing by Parmigianino, many impressions from around the 1550s survive today
printed on colored paper. There are three impressions on blue paper located at the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, the Ashmolean, and the British Museum respectively (Fig. 3.22). The
British Museum additionally has an impression on prepared paper tinted a light, ochre brown
(Fig. 3.23). Campi was not averse to working with different types of supports for his woodcuts as
is evident from these impressions on colored paper as well as records of prints intended for
fabric.
134
Like the later impressions of Dürer’s prints on blue paper, the colored support served as a
midtone for the black lines of Campi’s woodcuts. The result was a small and simple design
compared to more elaborate chiaroscuro woodcuts requiring multiple blocks with a wider range
of color and tone. Nonetheless, woodcuts on colored paper represent a type of liminal object in
between the commercial object and the fine art object. The makers of these woodcuts, like the
makers of bespoke books, harnessed the materiality of blue paper to circumvent the difficulty of
creating fine art objects while maintaining its distinctive connotations. The history of colored
supports in bookmaking from the late antique to early sixteenth century in the Mediterranean
world demonstrates the importance of materiality in the development of the bespoke book.
Moreover, the materials chosen for a printed book had a profound effect on the visual appearance
of the book and increased its aesthetic appeal for readers.
134
Takahatake, “The Italian Chiaroscuro Woodcut,” 24. Campi provided a drawing, two copperplates,
and fabric in order to secure a contract for a series of the passions of Christ with the printmakers Niccolò
and Giacomo Valegio. As part of the deal, the printmakers returned the drawing after using the design to
engrave the copperplates, and also gave Campi one hundred impressions on paper and one hundred
impressions on fabric.
163
Chapter 4
Aesthetics of the Bespoke Book and the Book as a Visual Object
In 1499, Aldus Manutius printed the enigmatic tome Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
(Poliphilo’s Strife of Love in a Dream or The Dream of Poliphilus).
1
Written in a strange
Latinized Italian with Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew sprinkled throughout, the book tells the story
of the lovesick Poliphilo navigating a dreamscape replete with Greek and Roman imagery and
mythological allusions to win the love of Polia, who has rejected him.
2
Published anonymously,
the debate continues as to the authorship of the book. Proposed authors include Fra Francesco
Colonna (ca. 1433–1517), a Dominican priest, and Leon Battista Alberti, the renowned humanist
and artist.
3
The type, cut by Francesco Griffo of Bologna (1450–1518) specifically for the book,
is a precursor to Aldus’ italic, and scholars consider it a successful adaption of Roman
inscriptions to movable type.
4
The woodcuts, like the author, are hotly debated with attributions
ranging from the miniaturist Benedetto Bordon to Renaissance painters such as Andrea
Mantegna, Gentile Bellini, or even a young Raphael.
5
1
Franciscus Columna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Venice: Aldus Manutius, Romanus, for Leonardus
Crassus, Dec. 1499), ISTC ic00767000.
2
Rosemary Trippe, “The 'Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,’ Image, Text, and Vernacular Poetics,”
Renaissance Quarterly 55/4 (2002): 1223.
3
The initials of each chapter form an acrostic spelling out: POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCVS
COLVMNA PERAMAVIT (Fra Francesco Colonna loved Polia exceedingly). Aldus named a different
Francesco Colonna (ca. 1453–1517), a noble in Rome, as the author. For the Fra Francesco Colonna
attribution, see Maria Teresa Casella and Giovanni Pozzi, Francesco Colonna biografia ed opere, 2 vols.
(Padua: Editrice Antenore, 1959), II:11-149. For the alternate Colonna that Aldus named, see Maurizio
Calvesi, Il pugno d’amore in sogno di Francesco Colonna romano (Rome: Lithos, 1996), 33-258. For the
argument suggesting Alberti as the author, see Liane Lefaivre, Leon Battista Alberti’s Hypnerotomachia
Poliphili: Re-Cognizing the Architectural Body in the Early Italian Renaissance (Cambridge: MIT Press,
1997). See also, Lionel March, “Leon Battista Alberti as Author of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,” Nexus
Network Journal: Architecture and Mathematics 17 (2015): 697-721.
4
Stanley Morison, “The Type of Aldine Poliphilus,” The Monotype Recorder 199/XXII (1924): 2-4.
5
“Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, accessed March 16, 2020,
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/365313.
164
Regardless of the mysteries surrounding the publication of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,
the book has the epithet as “the most beautiful book of the fifteenth century” due to its visual
appearance including artfully arranged text placed in perfect alignment with the 171 woodcuts
(Fig. 4.1).
6
Unlike sumptuous and illuminated manuscripts, the illustrations in Hypnerotomachia
Poliphili are starkly rendered in black outlines with little to no hatching or modeling. However,
the artists responsible for the woodcuts incorporated the imagery and techniques that defined
Italian Renaissance art, including classical architecture and one-point perspective.
7
The
woodcuts, type, and literary contents are a direct product of the cultural environment, and as a
result, scholars have viewed Hypnerotomachia Poliphili on par with fine art objects such as
paintings and sculpture in their searches for attributions and pictorial sources.
8
Yet, what makes a book “beautiful”? Is it a visual affinity to contemporaneous artworks,
the skilled execution of the illustrations, the crispness of the paper, or the cleanness of the type?
The aesthetics of a printed book comprises “the look” of the book as an object in its entirety, and
includes the illustrations, spatial relationship between the images and the text, the type, and the
support. Importantly, in examining the aesthetics of the printed book, we see how printers
appropriated elements from the surrounding visual culture in order to make a book bespoke.
Although beautiful, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is not bespoke by my own definition. It
survives today in 224 institutions, and save for three copies on vellum, the majority of the copies
are nearly identical (excepting variant leaves and errata) with no hand-coloring or illuminations.
9
6
Redmond A. Burke, “The Most Beautiful Book of the Fifteenth Century: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
(Venice, Aldus Manutius, December, 1499),” Bulletin of the New York Public Library 58 (1954): 419-20.
7
For a concise summary of the style of the woodcuts, see Szépe, “The Poliphilo and other Aldines
reconsidered,” 53-8.
8
See Christopher J. Nygren, “The Hypernotomachia Poliphili and Italian art circa 1500: Mantegna,
Antico, and Correggio,” Word & Image 31/2 (2015): 140-54.
9
“Columna, Franciscus: Hypnerotomachia Poliphii,” Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, accessed March
13, 2020, https://data.cerl.org/istc/ic00767000.
165
Nonetheless, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili demonstrates how printers in Italy strove to achieve an
aesthetically pleasing and timely appearance for the printed book, an appearance that was
derived from the surrounding material and visual environment.
The aesthetics of the bespoke book is the culmination of the three defining aspects of
these objects explored earlier in this dissertation: innovation, mutability, and materiality. The
printers’, artists’, and authors’ considerations for the appearance of printed books depended on
collaboration and experimentation, which in turn was reliant on new ways of adapting the
printing press, manipulating the printed product, and the knowledge of bookmaking. Readers,
too, participated in enhancing the aesthetic qualities of the printed book. Not only were they the
target audience, but they also personalized their books with illuminations and bindings.
Considering the aesthetics of the bespoke book brings together the individuals responsible in
creating and activating a book from the printer to the reader.
10
In this chapter, I examine printed
books like those in earlier chapters including illuminated books, books with color printing, books
printed on blue paper, and additionally, bound and personalized books, in order to show how my
definition of the bespoke book coalesces how disparate, anomalous, or unique book parts
coalesce into an aesthetic for the printed book. In doing so, my study calls into question the
visual uniformity of the printed book as black text on white paper, and highlights the truly
experimental nature of the printed book in its first 150 years.
Moreover, in my consideration of the aesthetics of bespoke books, I look at the non-
pictorial elements of the printed book, including books with few to no illustrations, as well as
bindings. Printed books with illustrations or illuminations usually fall under the purview of art
historians, since these objects contain identifiable images that are analyzed and attributed to
artists (when possible). The printed figures or the miniatures added by hand that populate the
10
See Johns, The Nature of the Book.
166
leaves of printed books have received considerable attention in art historical scholarship. Notable
examples include work from Susan Dackerman, Elizabeth Ross, and Sachiko Kusukawa.
11
Additionally, Lilian Armstrong and Helana K. Szépe have examined incunabula embellished
with illuminations and miniatures in order to broaden our understanding of the role of artists in
bookmaking.
12
The focus in this body of scholarship, however, remains on the woodcuts,
engravings, and miniatures, and consequently books without these elements are absent from
these studies. The choice to use blue paper as a printing support in both illustrated and
unillustrated books, for instance, is an indication that bookmakers were choosing to engage in a
long-established material culture, and additionally, concerned about the overall visual impact of
the book. In my assessment, books printed on blue paper and books with decorative bindings ask
us to consider the printed book as a visual object regardless of whether or not it is illustrated.
The exteriors of books are further evidence of the different measures that bookmakers,
and book owners, took to make their printed books distinctive. These methods included bindings
with various degrees of embellishment as well as modifications made to the foredges of printed
books. Similar to blue paper, additions to the exteriors of printed books demonstrate concern for
the materiality and aesthetic of the book. Moreover, while there is some evidence that
bookmakers bound books for clients using in-house binderies, book owners sought out the
majority of bindings and foredege decoration at their own discretion.
13
Therefore, the study of
11
See Susan Dackerman, ed., Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge; Elizabeth Ross, Picturing Experience
in the Early Printed Book: Breydenbach’s Peregrinatio from Venice to Jerusalem (Philadelphia: Penn
State University Press, 2014).
12
For Armstrong see: Renaissance Miniature Painters and Classical Imagery; “The Impact of Printing on
Miniaturists in Venice after 1469,” “Benedetto Bordon, Aldus Manutius, and LucAntonio Giunta: Old
Links and New.” See also Helena Szépe, “Venetian Miniaturists in the Era of Print.”
13
As one example, see Anthony Hobson, “Was there an Aldine Bindery?” in Aldus Manutius and
Renaissance Culture, 247-87.
167
the exteriors of printed books, like hand-coloring, explores how book owners transformed a
commercial object into a distinctive one.
Exploring the aesthetic concerns for the interiors and exteriors of books sheds more light
on the varied methods and motivations in the making of bespoke books. This study also reveals
that there was a concern for the overall visual appearance of the printed book. In combining both
mechanical and artisanal techniques, bookmakers and book owners continued to experiment
throughout the early modern period to achieve “bespokeness”––those distinctive material and
visual qualities that made a printed object unique. Throughout this process, defined by
experimentation, the bespoke book emerged as a singular and liminal category of object between
text and image, commercial and luxurious, and print and fine art.
Aesthetics of Paper
Paper in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries did not appear as the smooth, stark white
support that is now. In fact, the process of papermaking was visible on the surface of the paper
itself. Soft, slightly indented parallel lines mark all paper made from rags produced in Europe
before the eighteenth century. These lines, referred to as chain lines, were a result of the thin
layer of pulp drying on moulds made of meshes of wires set in parallel lines. The chain lines
produced faint ridges along the surface of the paper that, depending on the thickness and quality
of the paper, varied in visibility.
14
This paper, commonly referred to as laid paper, was the
dominant type of paper until the late eighteenth century when papermakers in England developed
a method for making paper, known as wove paper, without the appearance of chain lines.
15
14
Hunter, Papermaking, 225-6.
15
Ibid., 125-6. Two British papermakers are credited with the invention of wove paper in Europe in the
1750s: John Baskerville and James Whatman. Using a finally woven brass mesh, the pulp was dried on
168
While paper historian Dard Hunter refers to chain lines as defects in early modern paper,
artists often chose to work with papers of different qualities in order to achieve a desired effect.
Similar to white paper, blue paper also varied in quality. The cheaper blue paper had a larger
grain and was therefore rougher, whereas more expensive blue paper was fine-grained and
smooth. As Catherine Whistler notes, Venetian artists choose different qualities of blue paper in
accordance with their drawing medium in order to achieve the desired effect. The rising
popularity of blue paper among draftsmen in the fifteenth century was tied to the shifting
preference of techniques from metalpoint on vellum to ink or chalk on paper.
16
Blue paper easily
mimicked the colored support of more expensive prepared vellum or even prepared paper, while
additionally having a visual affinity for more luxurious objects such as manuscripts with dyed
folios. Titian, for example, oftentimes selected a larger grain paper since the rough texture better
trapped the particles of the soft-grained chalk that he would glide across the surface.
17
Titian’s
Horse and Rider Falling on blue paper made around 1537, now located at the Ashmolean
Museum, demonstrates the artist’s keen manipulation of paper and chalk (Fig. 4.2). Today, the
blue of the paper is greatly faded, but the visibly rough texture lends lightness and movement to
Titian’s light strokes of black chalk and possibly charcoal. This combination of chalk and paper
well suited this scene of dynamic action, which was further enhanced with white body color and
passages of deep black.
Additionally, due to the nature of paper made from rags, fibers were often visible in the
paper as well. Before the invention of a device called the “knotter” in the early nineteenth
century used to untangle fiber knots and remove foreign materials while the pulp was in the
the mould in the same manner as laid paper. However, the more delicate brass mesh did not produce the
same distinctive lines as early meshes used in laid paper.
16
Francis Ames-Lewis and Joanne Wright, Drawing in the Italian Renaissance Workshop (London:
Albert & Victoria Museum, 1983), 47.
17
Whistler, Venice & Drawing, xxi.
169
mold, all manner of specks, tangles, and particles appeared on the surface of the paper. Hunter
describes one humorous example of a fifteenth-century paper sheet with a mosquito embedded in
the macerated and dried pulp.
18
While this was likely a rare occurrence, the examples points
towards the heterogeneity of rag-based paper in the early modern period. Not only did the quality
and appearance vary from paper mill to paper mill, each sheet of paper that came off the moulds
varied in its overall appearance.
In the early modern period there were no methods of chemical bleaching for making
paper white. As a result, paper often appeared off-white or even grayish in color due to the
macerating of a variety of linen and cotton rags to make the pulp.
19
For this reason, papermakers
sought out white and off-white rags to produce the lightest color of paper possible. Interestingly,
this also points towards the possibility of papermakers seeking out blue rags to make blue paper.
The blue paper manufactured in Venice was most likely derived from these indigo-dyed
garments collected by specialty paper mills.
20
However, the different colors of blue paper that
existed from light to dark (turchino, blu, and azurra) indicate that papermakers continued to
manipulate the pulp to manufacture different colors of blue. Papermakers could then potentially
enhance the blueness of the pulp with dyestuff from indigo or woad, using a combination of
different techniques to produce varying colors of blue paper. The actual color of blue paper is
seldom uniform and it can change in tone from blue to green to grey on a single sheet or
throughout the leaves of a book. This was due in part to the indigo-colored fibers that often
speckle the surface of blue paper, creating a variegated and textural effect. Experimentation on
the part of papermakers attempting to use all available raw materials led to further variation in
tone and texture of blue paper as an alternative to white paper.
18
Hunter, Papermaking, 226-7.
19
Ibid., 229.
20
Ibid., 224. See also Whistler, Venice & Drawing, xxi.
170
Until recently, only one blue copy of Virgil was identified, today housed in the Charles E.
Young Library at the University of California, Los Angeles. However, in the outpouring of
scholarship commemorating the 500
th
anniversary of Aldus’s death in 2015, another blue Virgil
was re-discovered at the Sterling and Clark Fine Art Institute Library.
21
The book was a highlight
of the Grolier Club’s exhibition Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting than Bronze, and has
only been published in the eponymous catalogue.
22
Aldus used two different types of blue paper
in this copy of the 1514 edition of Virgil (Fig. 4.3) The majority of the volume, folios a
4
to E
8
,
was printed on a lighter, medium-blue paper, but the first three leaves, folios a
1-3
, were printed on
a much heavier, darker-blue paper, indicating that he had at least two blue paper stocks at his
disposal.
23
This was also a common practice with white paper; rarely was there a book made
from a single stock of paper. Like white paper, availability of paper stocks was a crucial factor
for bookmakers, and they often had to draw from different stocks from different paper mills to
fulfill print runs. As a result, Aldus often used many different stocks of paper to fill orders as part
of his printing practice.
24
The variations of hue and tone that occur in a book like the Clark Virgil, in which the
paper goes from dark to light, could easily be interpreted as a mistake or miscalculation on
Aldus’s part. However, perhaps like artists that deliberately chose varying qualities of blue paper
for their drawings, the varying hues of blue in printed books could point to a specific, aesthetic
use. As modern scholars have shown, there was no unified, singular color theory in Europe in the
21
The Clark Institute Library, N5760 V57v.
22
See Clemons and Fletcher, Aldus Manutius.
23
Fletcher, “Aldine Virgil on Blue Paper,” in Aldus Manutius, 27. I have not examined the Clark copy in
person yet, but I am curious if there are any watermarks. In the UCLA Aldine Press catalogue, they
mention two unidentified anchor watermarks. Since these two copies of Virgil were likely printed
concurrently, it would be interesting to see if there were similar anchor watermarks in the Clark copy.
24
See Paul Needham, “Aldus Manutius’s Paper Stocks: The Evidence of Two Uncut Books,” The
Princeton University Library Chronicle 55/2 (1994): 287-307.
171
early modern period. This was primarily due to numerous and often-contradictory classical
sources on the topic of color available at the start of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century. The
goals of ancient writers in this field of study was to determine a set of primary or base colors
from which all other color were derived through mixing and optical perception.
25
Additionally,
these colors were associated with concepts like the four elements (earth, wind, fire, or water) or
with more bodily matters like tactility or emotions. Democritus (ca. 460–370 BCE), for example,
identified four “simple” colors each with assigned associations: white denoting smoothness,
black denoting roughness, red denoting heat, and the enigmatic chlōron (pale green) which is
“composed of both the solid and the void.” Greek philosophers assigned meaning to color
perhaps in an effort to grapple with the subjectivity of color perception.
Artists in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries continued to write about color in terms of
reception and the interplay of light and dark.
26
For instance, Cennini, writing in the late
fourteenth century, discussed the coherence of color and design as integral to art practices in his
Libro dell’Arte. He viewed both as fundamental to the art of painting and furthermore, insisted
that drawing on tinted paper using light and shadow, otherwise known as chiaroscuro, was
crucial to understanding both color and line.
27
Later in the fifteenth century, another artist and
author of a treatise, Leon Battista Alberti, continued to develop ideas about light and dark in his
own writings. According to Alberti in his manuscript De Pictura (On Painting, ca. 1430s),
painting consisted of three phases: circumscription (contour drawing), composition, and “the
reception of light” (receptio luminum). The application of color fell into this final phase of light
reception. In other words, lighting and shading achieved using modeling with white and black
25
Gage, Colour and Culture, 11-16. Gage provides a synthesis of the theories of Greek philosophers on
the subject of color.
26
Ibid., 117.
27
Cennini, Libro dell’Arte, chapter iv and xxxii.
172
created dimension, which was the crucial factor for making a natural or lifelike painting.
28
Alberti did not argue for the superiority of design over color or vice versa (as later artists would
in the rhetoric of disegno and colore), but rather saw the two as intertwined since a well-
designed painting required equally well-applied color.
29
As John Gage has noted, Alberti’s
discussion of light, shadow, and color went beyond practical application of pigments and
modeling but stood to reflect the very act of vision itself since color was a “perceptional
function” of the eye receiving light.
30
Cennini instructed artists to color paper or parchment using a mixture of pigments,
powdered bone, glue, and, in some cases, spit. When these substances were brushed on the
support, the result was a coarse and rough surface, which was ideal for silverpoint drawing. This
method required the use of a metal stylus, usually a very soft metal like lead or silver. The artist
could draw on the support using the stylus and the roughness of the surface would erode the
delicate particles of the metal leaving behind silvery-grey lines. Styluses made from lead, or
more accurately a ratio of two-parts lead to one-part tin, could make marks on unprepared
surfaces, but these tools also wore down and eroded much quicker than silver styluses.
Therefore, silver was the preferred metal for artists using this stylus technique. Due to the nature
of the materials, silverpoint drawings are linear and precise requiring a light and decisive hand.
31
Although the silvery lines of metalpoint drawings were considerably lighter than red chalk or
black charcoal, artists used the technique on a variety of colored paper and parchment. A colored
28
Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting, ed. and trans. Rocco Sinisgalli (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2011), 49-50.
29
Gage, Colour and Culture, 119.
30
Ibid., 120.
31
Frances Ames-Lewis, Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981),
35-6.
173
support provided a vibrant midtone and additional white heightening increased the contrasts in
the modeling.
32
Silverpoint or metalpoint drawings, like manuscripts, required additional labor to execute
the preparation of paper or parchment. Whereas parchment or vellum for manuscripts were
burnished and made smooth, the support for metalpoint drawings were brushed with ground
bone. Moreover, if the artist or patron desired a colored surface, then extra steps and cost of
adding pigment to the supports were necessary.
33
One rare surviving example of silverpoint
drawing on a colored support by Taddeo Gaddi dated circa 1332 to 1338 (Fig. 4.4). Presentation
of the Virgin at the Temple, now at the Louvre, was likely a preparation drawing for Gaddi’s
cycle of the life of the Virgin that he painted in the Baroncelli Chapel in Santa Croce in Florence.
The drawing consists of silverpoint, white heightening, dark green and blue pigments on green
prepared paper.
34
Presentation of the Virgin demonstrates that there was an affinity between
luxury manuscripts and drawing from at least the early decades of the trecento.
The appearance of blue paper itself also prompts new considerations of the motivations
behind its use in book printing. Blue paper, like white paper, was incredibly varied of in its
quality, appearance, and uses. Alternatively, a finer grained paper, more akin to the quality used
in printing, was ideal for ink, pen, or brush drawings.
35
Unlike white paper, however, the color
and irregularity of blue paper produces an atmospheric effect evoking sky or water. Interestingly,
in her assessment of drawings on blue paper, Catherine Whistler argues that the use of blue paper
32
Fore more on metalpoint see the exhibition catalogue Stacey Sell and Hugo Chapman, Drawing in
Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015).
33
Ames-Lewis, Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy, 19-23.
34
INV 1222. George R. Goldner, Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection (Malibu: The J. Paul
Getty Museum, 1983), 13-20.
35
Ames-Lewis and Wright, Drawing in the Italian Renaissance Workshop, 76.
174
served as a poetic evocation for draftsmen seeking to enhance their drawings.
36
In addition to
preferring to use a blue support as a vibrant mid-tone, artists likely chose blue paper for its
connotations of natural elements. A pen and ink drawing with white heightening in the Gabinetto
dei Disegni e delle Stampi at the Gallerie degli Uffizi demonstrates Leonardo’s musings about
the elemental nature of the color blue. The Florentine artist Filippino Lippi (ca. 1547–1504), who
often favored using white gouache on colored supports, chose a bluish grey tinted paper for this
drawing called A Bust of a Young Woman Holding a Shield (Fig. 4.5).
37
The garments and hair of
the young woman flow out in fluid tendrils creating a halo effect around the figure. Lippi’s
combination of white heightening on the bluish grey surface produces an ethereal and airy effect.
In this instance, the artist’s misty passages of white over blue recalls clouds in a blue sky. Blue
paper allowed the artist to evoke the elemental and natural qualities of the color in order to
elevate the aesthetics of their work.
Aristotle, writing on the subject of color in Poetics, stated “if a man smeared a canvas
with the loveliest colors at random, it would not give as much pleasure as an outline in black and
white.”
38
Alternatively, in Statesman, Plato stated that a portrait is not complete until it was “like
a picture of a living creature, seems to have a good enough outline, but not yet to have received
the clearness that comes from pigments and the blending of colors.”
39
Later Roman writers like
Pliny the Elder in Naturalis historia (Natural History, ca. early first century CE) and Vitruvius in
De Architectura (On Architecture, ca. late first century BCE) were also concerned with the use
36
Whistler, Venice & Drawing, xxi.
37
Uffizi, Inv. 1255 E r. See George R. Goldner, “Filippino Lippi (ca. 1457–1504),” Heilbrunn Timeline
of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, accessed May 25, 2019,
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lipp/hd_lipp.htm.
38
Aristotle, Poetics, Aristotle in 23 Volumes, 23 vols., trans. W.H. Fyfe (Cambridge, MA, Harvard
University Press, 1932), 1450b.
39
Plato, The Statesman, Plato in Twelve Volumes, vol. 12, trans. Harold N. Fowler (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1921), 277b-c.
175
of color in paintings. Both commented on the extravagant and excessive use of costly pigments,
what Pliny termed with disdain “florid painting.”
40
While Plato and Aristotle were speaking
metaphorically in their discussion of painting, their words along with later Roman writers touch
on issues surrounding color in art that would continue to concern early modern artists. As is
evident from these and many other classical sources, there were numerous and conflicting
opinions about the use of color in art, and these writings fueled the rhetoric on the subject well
into the early modern period.
Color Printing and Experimental Aesthetics
The same year that Aldus issued copies of Virgil and Libri de re rustica on blue paper, a
close friend of the printer, Ambrogio Leone (1458–1525), was involved with additional
experiments intended to enhance the aesthetic qualities of the printed book. In 1514, Leone
published De Nola: opusculum distinctum plenum clarum doctum pulcrum verum grave varium
et utile with the printer Giovanni Rosso (active 1480–1519).
41
De Nola is a history of Leone’s
native city of Nola, a small but flourishing city in the Kingdom of Naples. Under the feudal rule
of the prominent Orsini family, Nola occupied an important commercial and military position for
the family and the Kingdom.
42
Leone dedicated the tome to Enrico Orsini (d. 1533), the last
count of Nola (who likely provided funds for the printing), and subsequently wrote flatteringly
40
See Pliny, Natural History, Volume IX: Books 33-35, trans. H. Rackman Loeb Classical Library 394
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952) for his discussion of painting and colors. For his discussion
of pigments see 282-283. See also Vitruvius, On Architecture, Volume II: Books 6-10, trans. Frank
Granger, Loeb Classical Library 280 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1934).
41
Ambrogio Leone, De Nola: opusculum distinctum plenum clarum doctum pulcrum verum grave varium
et utile (Venice: Giovanni Rosso, 1514) USTC 837946.
42
Bianco de Divitiis, Fulvio Lenzo, and Lorenzo Miletti, “Introduction,” in Ambrogio Leone’s De Nola,
Venice 1514: Humanism and Antiquarian Culture in Renaissance Southern Italy, eds. Bianco de Divitiis,
Fulvio Lenzo, and Lorenzo Miletti (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 1-2.
176
about Enrico, his family, and other Neapolitan nobles, justifying the Orsini’s claim to the city.
43
Beside the typical aggrandizing language in the dedication, De Nola is a significant publication
in that it was the one of the first illustrated texts of archaeology, one of the first to discuss
antiquities beyond Rome, and the first humanist, Neapolitan text on these topics.
Leone included historical and topographical descriptions of Nola and the surrounding
areas, providing commentary from Roman authors such as Galen and Pliny the Elder.
44
Additionally, there are four full-page engravings that complement his geographic and
archaeological discussions. Leone collaborated with the artist, Girolamo Mocetto (ca. 1470–
1531), on the design and execution of the engravings. A follower of Andrea Mantegna (ca.
1431–1506), Mocetto drew on traditions of ancient cartography as well as contemporary
cartographic examples for the illustrations.
45
While in the majority of copies of De Nola the four
engravings are printed with black ink, at least two copies have two of the engravings printed in
red and green.
46
In a copy at UCLA, the first illustration (Ager Nolanus) depicts an aerial view of
the Terra di Lavoro encompassing the Bay of Naples and the surrounding region. Nola is
situated in the center in relation to the major Roman cities and sites in the area including Mt.
Vesuvius, Herculaneum, Pompeii, Naples, Stabia, and Catstellamare. This engraving was printed
43
Lorenzo Miletti, “Ambrogio Leone’s De Nola as a Renaissance Work: Purposes, Structure, Genre and
Sources,” in Ambrogio Leone’s De Nola, 12-3. After joining a failed revolt against Charles V, Enrico fell
from power and the Orsini family lost control of Nola. For more on Enrico, see Giovanni Vincenti, La
contea di Nola sec. XIII al XVI: Ricerche storiche e feudali (Naples: Coppini, 1897), 63-72.
44
De Divitiis, et. al., “Introduction,” 4.
45
Fernando Loffredo, “Ambrogio Leone and the Visual Arts,” in Ambrogio Leone’s De Nola, 119-20.
46
In the UCLA catalogue, they describe a “Crawford-Breslauer-Schaefer copy” that was also printed with
the two engravings in red and green. There is also a copy currently for sale at Philobiblon, a book dealer.
UCLA’s copy (* Z233.I8 L553de 1514) was purchased through another book dealer, PrPh, so it is unclear
from the information available if the Philobiblon copy is a newly discovered third copy or if it is related
to the “Crawford-Breslauer-Schafer copy.” For the UCLA copy, see the “De Nola,” UCLA Library
catalogue, accessed March 20, 2020, https://catalog.library.ucla.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=7674986.
For the Philobiblon copy, see “Leone, Ambrogio, De Nola,” Philobiblon, accessed March 2, 2020
http://www.philobiblon.org/incunaboli-cinquecentine/de-nola-opusculum-distinctum-plenum-clarum-
doctum-pulcrum-verum-grave-varium-et-utile.
177
entirely in bluish-green ink. The second engraving (Nola Vetus) is a folding map of antiquities in
Nola printed in black, but in the UCLA copy, there is a greenish tint to it (Fig. 4.6). The third
engraving (Figura praesentis urbis Nolae) is a folding plat map (a map showing land parcels) of
Nola printed in black. Finally, the fourth engraving (Nola Praesens) is another aerial map
depicting Nola with its fortifications printed in reddish-brown ink (Fig. 4.7).
47
The engravings in De Nola are significant for several reasons. Engraving itself was an
uncommon method for book illustration in the early sixteenth century. As an intaglio process, the
artist incised metal plates (usually copper) with a burin, so engravings required a roller press
rather than the hand press printers used for woodcuts and type.
48
However, this also meant the
engravings could be executed outside of Rosso’s print shop, suggesting that the Mocetto
engraved the plates himself.
49
Moreover, the book was printed in folio format (the copy at UCLA
measures 32 centimeters), requiring equally large plates, and, in the case of the two folding
maps, plates that exceeded the size of the book. The slight green cast to the second engraving at
UCLA suggests that the plates were not cleaned well between printings, indicating that the
printers were perhaps rushing between impressions. The intaglio process, the size, and the added
complication of printing two of the engravings with color ink all disrupted the efficiency of the
printing press. The variations with colors and unevenness with printing the engravings imply that
the printers were attempting to produce colored images using untried and experimental methods
to make a small number of copies bespoke.
50
47
“De Nola,” UCLA Library catalogue. See also, Fulvio Lenzo, “The Four Engravings: Between Word
and Image,” in Ambrogio Leone’s De Nola, 59.
48
Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 23-6. For a more thorough description of engraving and
its history, see Ad Stijnman, Engraving and Etching 1400–2000: A History of the Development of Manual
Intaglio Printmaking Processes (London: Archetype Publications, 2012).
49
Lenzo, “The Four Engravings,” 63-4.
50
Arthur M. Hind, Early Italian Engraving: A Critical Catalogue with Complete Reproduction of all the
Prints Described, 7 vols. (London: M. Knoedler, 1938-48), V: 159-171.
178
The engravings printed in color in De Nola are, in fact, some of the earliest known in
Italy. Monochrome intaglio printing, in which a single color is used to ink the plate, likely began
in the late fifteenth century. The earliest surviving engraving printed with non-black ink is a
Madonna with the Child in a Garden dated to ca. 1465-7. The artist, Master E.S. (1420–68),
printed the engraving with white ink on paper coated in black (Fig. 4.8). The image is arresting
and singular, considering that the more common inks of choice were blue, green, brown, and red
for monochrome engravings on white paper.
51
However, another northern artist, Mair von
Landshut (active ca. 1485–1504), was also experimenting with color and engravings toward the
end of the fifteenth century. Around 1499, Mair began printing engravings on prepared and
tinted paper, usually brown, green, and blue tones, and occasionally he added white heightening
or gold. One engraving, Samson and Delilah, is made in the typical, intaglio process, but the
print is on a bluish green support (Fig. 4.9). Landau and Parshall characterize Mair’s engravings
on colored paper as “counterfeit drawings,” and as such, prints made on colored paper are often
viewed as attempts to imitate drawings with the intention of making a sellable product.
52
Similar
to printing bespoke books, artists experimented with adding color to prints in order to recreate a
unique object, like a drawing, mechanically. The printing press was thus adapted to mimic the
aesthetic preferences at the time, such as drawings on colored paper.
It is no coincidence that printers who collaborated with artists and humanists were
attuned to the visual environment, and responded with printed books that reflected
contemporaneous aesthetic attitudes. Francesco Marcolini, like Leone and Aldus, was a
prominent figure in the arts in Venice. As I noted previously, Marcolini collaborated with artists
and poets for his elaborately illustrated and original books. In addition to his experiments with
51
Ad Stijnman, “Colour Printing in Intaglio before c. 1700: A Technical History,” in Printing Colour, 42.
52
Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 180.
179
chiaroscuro printing, he also issued copies of titles on blue paper. One example is the Italian
architect Sebastiano Serlio’s (1475–1554) Il terzo libro nel qual si figurano, e descrivono le
antiquità di Roma (The third book in which appears the description of Roman antiquity, 1540)
printed on blue paper. The only known surviving copy on blue paper is last recorded for sale at
Philobiblon, and additionally this copy is bound with another of Serlio’s titles printed by
Marcolini, Regole generali di architettura (General rules of architecture, 1540), also printed on
blue paper.
53
The two titles are related, with Regole generali di architettura serving as Book IV
of Serlio’s works on architecture. Serlio intended for his treatise to be seven books, and the first
five were published in his lifetime (Book VI was never published but exists in manuscript, and
Book VII was published in 1575 and edited by Jacopo Strada).
54
Between the two volumes, there
are 126 woodcuts and an additional fifty-six full-page woodcuts (six of which are printed across
three leaves on folios S
4
-T
2
). The book opens with a frontispiece that follows Marcolini’s typical
style of using a full page, pictorial woodcut with a cartouche for the title (Fig. 4.10). The heavily
illustrated text is also typical of Marcolini’s press, but the blue paper makes this copy very non-
typical. Marcolini’s preference to include woodcuts in several of his titles reveals the importance
of the visual (along with textual) components of the printed book in his print shop. The use of
blue paper, enhances the aesthetic qualities of Serlio’s Il terzo libro by invoking the visual and
material appreciation for colored supports in drawings and manuscripts.
53
Sebastiano Serlio, Il terzo libro di Sabastiano Serlio bolognese, nel qual si figurano, e descrivono le
antiquità di Roma, e le altre che sono in Italia, e fuori d'Italia … (Francesco Marcolini, 1540), USTC,
856038. For the listing on Philobilon, see “Sebastiano Serlio, Il terzo libro,” Philobiblon, accessed March
23, 2020, http://www.philobiblon.org/architettura-arte/serlio-sebastiano-1475-1554-il-terzo-libro-nel-
qual-si-figurano-e-descrivono-le-antiquita-di-rom.
54
Book I through V of Serlio’s treatise on architecture were published across Europe in non-sequential
order. Regole generali (Book IV) was first published in 1537 in Venice (making Marcolini’s issue the
second edition). Books I and II were published in 1545 in Paris in Italian and French (after Serlio moved
to Fontainebleau). Book V was issued in 1547, and also published in Paris. See William Bell Dinsmoor,
“The Literary Remains of Sebastiano Serlio,” The Art Bulletin 42/1 (1942): 55-91.
180
Marcolini’s use of blue paper along with the color-printed engravings in Leone’s De Nola
are evidence of the varied ways that printers, authors, and artists used the printing press to tap
into the realms of fine art. Moreover, the variation of methods (often complex and experimental)
used to make a printed book bespoke show printers’ determination to craft new ways of
enriching the aesthetics of their product by adding color to illustrations and the paper itself.
Illuminations and the Personalization of Printed Books
The choice to print books on blue paper speaks to the printer’s recognition of the
aesthetics of the printed book. The use of blue paper additionally shows printers tapped into this
cultural and visual climate using the printing press. Significantly, Aldus began his experiments
with blue paper around the time that hand-illumination was decreasing in frequency.
55
Although
there is evidence to suggest that some miniaturists in Venice continued to illuminate printed
books and manuscripts into the late sixteenth century, the practice was nearly obsolete by the
1540s.
56
However, prior to 1514, Venetian and non-Venetian collectors of Aldine editions often
commissioned miniaturists to illuminate their personal copies, with over sixty surviving copies in
collections today. Eight of these are traceable to one family, the San Marina branch of the
prominent Venetian Pisani family, indicating a unique trend among wealthier purchasers of
Aldine editions to commission illuminations.
57
55
See Appendix B: Descriptive Catalogue of Aldines Illuminated in Italy in Helena K. Szépe, “The
Poliphilo and other Aldines reconsidered,” 165-93.
56
Szépe, “Venetian Miniaturists,” 33. Szépe names some “outstanding miniaturists” including Giorgio
Colonna and Giovanni Mario Bodovino, and cites the examples of illuminated Venetian civil manuscripts
known as comissioni as evidence of the continued practice in the sixteenth century.
57
Szépe, “Modes of Illuminating Aldines,” 190. All eight contain the arms of the family in different
hands. Lowry suggests Domenico Pisani, a diplomat in Venice, was responsible for the commissions. See
Martin Lowry, “Aldus Manutius and Benedetto Bordon: In Search of a Link,” Bulletin of the John
Rylands University of Manchester 66 (1983): 192-5.
181
This trend is additionally apparent with copies of Aldus’ first edition of Petrarch’s Le
cose volgari.
58
Issued in 1501, Le cose volgari was one of the first of Aldus’ series of small
format classical titles, known as libelli portatiles, and additionally, was one of his early texts
printed entirely in italic type (the first was his edition of Virgil printed the same year).
59
Although the libelli portatiles were smaller, octavo formats than larger editions of the same title,
Lowry argues that this does not mean that Aldus’ editions were “cheap” or that Aldus employed
the octavo and more condense italic type as cost-cutting measures.
60
The lengths that owners
went to illuminate their copies also attests to the value of these editions.
For instance, Isabella d’Este (1474–1539), the Marchioness of Mantua, specifically
requested copies of Aldus’ classical titles on fine paper and vellum. In 1501, Isabella wrote to
her agent in Venice, Lorenzo da Pavia (d. 1517), requesting Aldine books including Le cose
volgari and Virgil printed on fine paper (carta bona). In response, Lorenzo explained that at
present, no copies of Virgil on carta bona were available, but there were fifteen copies of
Aldus’s edition of Petrarch printed on vellum.
61
Isabella eventually acquired a copy of the 1501
Petrarch for her collection, and had her illuminators in Mantua add border decoration, her
heraldry, and initials.
62
Today at the British Library, the book contains the coat-of-arms of
Isabella d’Este, illuminated initials, and pink and blue penwork more typical of her court at
58
Petrarch, Le cose volgari (Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1501), USTC 847779.
59
Lowry, World of Aldus Manutius, 137-42. Francesco Griffo, who had designed the roman for
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, was also responsible for the design of the italic type. Perhaps realizing the
importance of the type, Aldus attempted to monopolize Griffo’s talents, and prevent him working for
other printers. Disputes over contracts and work led to a falling out between Griffo and Aldus, and
resulted in Griffo leaving the firm and taking his talents (and type) elsewhere.
60
Lowry, World of Aldus Manutius, 142.
61
Armand Baschet, Aldo Manuzio: Lettres et documents, 1495–1515 (Venice: Antoni Antonelli, 1867),
10-11.
62
Szépe, “The Poliphilo and other Aldines reconsidered,” 173-4. The border decoration and heraldry are
located on folio a2r, and the first initial is on folio n4a as the incipit to the Sonnets in the Death of Laura.
There are more gold initials throughout. For more see also, David Chambers and Jane Martineau, eds.,
Splendours of the Gonzaga (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1981), 156-7.
182
Mantua than Venice.
63
Isabella’s desire for a copy of the 1501 Petrarch and her subsequent
commissioning of the illumination in her copy, shows that collectors chose to invest in
enhancing the aesthetic qualities of printed books and in doing so, make their copy bespoke.
Isabella’s copy of Le cose volgari is only one of several illuminated copies of Aldus’
edition. The renowned miniaturist and cartographer Benedetto Bordon (1460–1531) was
responsible for illuminating several Aldine editions, including a copy of Le cose volgari also at
the British Library (Fig. 4.11).
64
Bordon’s style was varied, drawing on the Flemish use of nature
studies and the all’ antica motifs of Andrea Mantegna. Like many illuminators in Venice and
Padua, Bordon executed complex and crowded designs to accommodate all this imagery.
65
The
copy of Petrarch with his illuminations contains decorations with all’ antica architectural borders
and foliate motifs throughout. Bordon’s modes of illuminating Aldine editions of Petrarch
emanated from his shop in Venice, with followers and imitators applying his sculptural style and
all’ antica motifs to other copies.
66
In addition to the illuminations in the Bordon Petrarch at the British Library, there are
dyed leaves of vellum inserted throughout denoting important points in the Petrarchan narrative.
In Bordon’s Le cose volgari at the British Library, there are three colored leaves placed
throughout: yellow, purple, and black. The yellow folio follows the title page, the black is
between n
3
and n
4
, and the purple is between q
6
and q
7
. The yellow opens the first part of the
63
Szépe, “The Poliphilo and other Aldines reconsidered,” 101. British Library, C.20.b.29
64
British Library, C.4.d.5. Lowry, “Aldus Manutius and Benedetto Bordon,” 193. Renouard also lists
several copies of Le cose volgari that were printed on vellum and illuminated, see Renouard, Annales, 3.
For more on Bordon see M. Levi d’Ancona, “Benedetto Padovano e Benedetto Bordone: prime tentative
per un corpus di Benedetoo Padovano,” Commentari XVIII (1967): 31-42; G. Mariani Canova, “Prolifo
di Benedetto Bordon miniatore padovano,” Atti dell’istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti CXXVII
(1968-9): 99-121; Miriam Billanovich, “Benedetto Bordon e Giulio Cesare Scaligero,” Italia medioevale
e umanistica XI (1968): 187-256.
65
Lowry, “Aldus Manutius and Benedetto Bordon,” 179.
66
Szépe, “Modes of Illuminating Aldines,” 196-8.
183
poems, the black precedes the collection of sonnets mourning the death of Laura (the love of
Petrarch and the subject of his romantic poetry), and the purple precedes the Trionfi, the poems
that evoke the Roman tradition of triumph in which victorious generals paraded with their spoils
of war through the city of Rome. The yellow, the color associated with the god of poetry, Apollo,
black, recalling death and mourning, and the purple, one of the most important colors in imperial
Rome, all serve as important narrative as well as visual devices within Le cose volgari.
67
While
adding extra leaves of dyed vellum was a tradition in Petrarchan manuscripts made in the
Veneto, they do not appear in every illuminated printed edition.
68
For instance, there are no extra
dyed folios in Isabella’s copy of Le cose volgari. These leaves of flat color and Bordon’s
elaborate decorations reveal that the aesthetic alterations to a printed book were connected to
manuscript traditions and enhanced the textual contents, all while making the book bespoke and
unique.
Despite the number of surviving copies with illuminations, Aldus likely had little to do
with arranging the commissions. There is some evidence that he did have illuminated copies
ready to sell. In correspondence between May and June 1505, Isabella asked Isabella d’Este
asked Aldus specifically for four of his Latin titles, including his 1501 Petrarch, on carta
membrana (vellum).
69
Aldus responded that he didn’t have the Petrarch she wanted, but he did
have some illuminated copies of his 1501 Juvenal and Persius bound with his 1502 Martial at his
67
Szépe, “The Poliphilo and other Aldines reconsidered,” 172-3. See also Beltramini and Gasparotto,
Aldo Manuzio, cat. no. 68.
68
The Paduan scribe Bartolommeo Sansovito described colored vellum in Petrarchan manuscripts in his
daybook. For the daybook, see S. de Kunert, “Un padovano ignoto ed un suo memorial de’primi anni del
Cinquecento (1505–11),” Bollettino del Museo Civico de Padova X (1907). Also, see the example of
Canzionere and Trionfi with dyed leaves in the Victoria and Albert Museum that I discussed in chapter 1
and Alexander, The Painted Page, 152, cat. no. 71.
69
Baschet, Aldo Manuzio, 24-6.
184
disposal.
70
Aldus, in addition to having available illuminated books, also corresponded directly
with clients such as Isabella in order to satisfy their demands for printed books. Vellum copies,
with or without illustrations, were so integral to the business that by 1500, a print run could
include twelve to fifteen copies printed on vellum.
71
In addition, vellum copies weren’t always
reserved for a special patron; any customer could buy one if they had the funds.
72
While he likely
had some copies illuminated and ready for sale, in general the illumination was at the discretion
of the purchaser. The fact that illumination was at the discretion of the buyer leads to the
possibility that Aldus printed the copies of his titles on blue paper at the request of a patron or
client. Printing on blue paper could have been a replacement for illuminations––adding color and
distinction to the entire book rather than just borders or initials on the first leaves of text.
Moreover, the decision to print on blue paper mirrors the increasing popularity of the support
among artists and the decline of illuminations indicating that printers were attuned to the
changing visual landscape as art forms fell in and out of favor with potential patrons.
In books without illustrations, artists embellished the text using a variety of techniques
from illumination to simple pen work. For instance, there is additional illumination and
decoration in the blue paper copies of Virgil and Libri de re rustica. Like was common in books
printed on vellum, initials added by hand served to increase the material value of the book while
also linking the printed book visually to luxury manuscripts. In the case of the copy Libri de re
rustica at the Morgan, there is only one initial added over a guide letter. On folio a
1
r, a previous
owner wrote the letter E in simple red lines (Fig. 4.12). Similarly, the copy in Austin also has a
70
Baschet, Aldo Manuzio, 25-6.
71
Lowry, “Aldus Manutius and Benedetto Bordon,” 173-97.
72
See Lowry, Nicolas Jenson, chapter 7.
185
gold initial F on 1 recto.
73
The quarto-sized volume was the first edition of the book from the
Aldine press.
74
The copy at the Morgan Library is in excellent condition; the blue paper is evenly
saturated with no discoloration or fading. There is an inscription on the title-page, “Guillaume
Depinteuille,” that indicates the book likely belonged to a French man in the late seventeenth to
early eighteenth century. The Morgan does not provide information regarding the added initial or
the provenance, but even the small amount of embellishment points towards a desire to further
enhance the blue paper within the volume.
Likewise, in the blue paper copy of Virgil at UCLA, there are also illuminated initials.
75
Issued as an octavo, the 1514 imprint of Virgil’s works is smaller than blue Libri de re rustica.
The blue Virgil at UCLA was also illuminated with every initial rendered in gold and silver on
black (Fig. 4.13). The minute designs consist of gold letters with silver arabesques, which
according to the catalogue of the Aldine collection at UCLA were made around 1530 in France
or possibly by a French artist.
76
While not as elaborate as the foliate borders in the Gonzaga’s
vellum copy, the initials still serve to enhance the support of the printed text. In the same way,
the blue paper serves to enhance the metallic qualities of silver and gold by saturating the black
ground whereas white paper would up the contrast. Like the vellum Aldines, these blue Aldines
were likely part of a deluxe print run reserved for special buyers or patrons.
Blue paper operated in similar way as colored parchment in manuscripts, appealing to
elite personages and collectors. The substantial difference, however, is the cost of blue paper as
73
Craig W. Kallendorf and Maria X. Wells, Aldine Press Books at the Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin: A Descriptive Catalogue (Austin: Harry Ransom
Humanities Research Center, 1998), 131-2, cat. no. 109.
74
Libri de re rustica, M. Catonis lib. I, M. Terentii Varronis lib. III, L. Iunii Moderati Columellae lib. XII
… Palladii lib. XIIII … (Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1514). Pierpont Morgan Library, PML 79276.
75
UCLA, Z233.A4 V819 1514.
76
P.G. Naiditch, The Aldine Press: catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy collection of books by or relating
to the press in the Library of the University of California, Los Angeles (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2001), 115, no. 127.a.
186
compared to vellum. The price of paper was significantly cheaper than vellum and subsequently
brought down the price of books in the fifteenth century. Some estimates even put the difference
at eight to one, with printed books on paper costing one-eighth the amount of a manuscript.
77
Blue paper, therefore, presented an economical way to tap into a market generally reserved for
books on vellum.
Like Ratdolt’s experiments with gold printing, few of the blue volumes printed by Aldus
survive. For instance, only one completely blue copy of Libri de re rustica survives now at the
Pierpont Morgan Library. Another copy at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas,
Austin was printed on blue paper, but the missing gatherings 2
a
-2
b
were replaced with white
paper from Naples in the nineteenth century.
78
In searching library catalogues, I have also found
another blue copy of Libri de re rustica at Yale University, bringing the total number of
surviving copies to three.
79
The rarity of these volumes combined with Aldus’s practice of
printing his octavos and quartos on vellum for small print runs, indicates that these blue books
were intended as individual, personal copies.
80
The examples of these copies of the UCLA Virgil and the Morgan Libri de re rustica
demonstrate that blue paper was a desirable support among Aldus’s most important patrons, like
former owner of the Clark Virgil, Jean Grolier (1489/90–1565). The addition of illuminated
initials and the fine, contemporary binding in the case of the Clark copy shows that the owners of
these texts sought to embellish their books in a similar way as books printed on vellum. The blue
Aldines occupy a unique place in the arena of bespoke books. They are books printed on paper,
77
Richardson, Printing, Writers, and Readers, 114-5.
78
Harry Ransom Center Uzielli Aldine Press Collection, Uzielli 103. Renouard, 66, no. 2. See Kallendorf
and Wells, Aldine Press, 9, no. 109.
79
Beinecke Library, Yale University, BEIN Gn9 116b Copy 2.
80
Craig W. Kallendorf, Virgil and the Myth of Venice: Books and Readers in the Italian Renaissance
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), 151 and note 25.
187
yet that paper has a special quality that distinguished it from more typical white paper.
Additionally, the visual tradition of colored supports has a long history in bookmaking imbuing
objects with historical and symbolic significance. Aldus’s earliest experiments with printing on
blue paper facilitated an efficient means of creating bespoke books within this deeper visual
tradition. Like many other highly successful aspects of his printing practice including the use of
italic type and small formats, printing on blue paper soon became a staple of Venetian presses.
Presentation Copies, Illustrated Books, and Visual Culture
Printed books with illustrations offer significant clues as to how printers engaged with the
surrounding visual culture. The example of Aldus’ Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, along with
Marcolini’s endeavors, shows how printers collaborated with artists for the design of the
illustrations in book. Illustrations with modifications like hand-coloring or illuminations also
suggest that printers, and more-often readers, were concerned with further augmenting the visual
appearance of their printed books. Books with these additions have traditionally fallen under the
category of “presentation copy”: however, that designation relies on the provenance of the book
resulting in a myopic study of the book in relation to ownership. In cases in which we know the
provenance of books, we can ask why these books were “presented” to individuals, and
additionally examine the ways in which books were modified and enriched. The alterations made
to books to make them bespoke and, in some cases, worthy of presentation demonstrate the
importance of the visual qualities of the printed book. The “presenter” (whether it was the
printer, author, or a previous owner) of the book had to enhance the aesthetics of printed books
with illumination, hand-color, color printing, or printing on blue paper in order to make it
appropriately luxurious and distinct for the recipient of the book. Thinking of presentation copies
188
as bespoke books, in a broader sense, opens new discussions of how and why certain alterations
were made, and additionally how these books fit into a larger narrative of early modern visual
culture.
Nonetheless, presentation copies of books on natural history are some of the most
elaborate and luxurious printed books to survive from the sixteenth century. These bespoke
books display a mastery of both material and technique, like the bespoke copies of Pietro Andrea
Mattioli’s (1501–77) De medica materia. The first edition of Mattioli’s Commentarii in sex
libros pedacii Dioscorides Anazarbei de medica materia (Commentary in six books on
Discorides of Anazarbei’s On medical material) was printed in Venice in 1544 without
illustrations. In 1565, the printer Vincenzo Valgrisi in Venice issued a fully illustrated expanded
edition in Latin with over nine hundred woodcuts of flora and fauna.
81
Lauded as a monumental
undertaking in the field of botany, Mattioli’s De medica materia demonstrates the growing
importance of the image in natural history in the wake of Leonard Fuchs’ De historia stirpium
(On the History of Plants, 1542) and Andreas Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica (On the
Fabric of the Human Body, 1543).
82
All three books were copiously illustrated, however, Fuchs
and Vesalius’ texts were both based on the authors’ own research while Mattioli’s treatise was
his commentary on ancient medical text of Dioscorides (ca. 40–90 CE).
The Saxon State and University Library (SLUB) in Dresden, the Österreichischen
Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, and the Oak Spring Garden Library in Virginia each hold a copy
of the 1565 edition of De medica materia printed entirely on blue paper.
83
The blue copies of De
81
Pietro Andrea Mattioli, Petri Andreae Matthioli Senensis medici, commentarii in sex libros pedacii
Dioscoridis Anazarbei de medica material (Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1565), USTC 841574. See also
Wilfrid Blunt and William T. Stearn, The Art of the Botanical Illustration (London: Collins, 1950), 58-9.
82
For an in-depth analysis as well as a comparison between how the fields of anatomy and botany used
images, see Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature.
83
SLUB, Botan.204; Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, *70.A.9; Oak Spring Garden Library, RB1017.
189
medica materia are rare. Each copy contains woodcuts with some degree of enhancement
including gold, bronze, and silver highlighting or white heightening. As with the surviving blue
Aldines, embellishments were added in order to increase the value and personalize the book. I
believe that the highlighting in the blue copies of Mattioli’s were added at the behest of an owner
of the books at a later date (as this was not commonly done by printers), though soon after the
books were published, as suggested by the fact that all three surviving copies were decorated
with similar materials.
84
The highlighting and heightening serve to enhance the visual impact of the blue paper.
The copy of De medica materia at the Oak Spring Garden Library has silver and bronze
highlighting on many of the botanical woodcuts, consisting of parallel hatching along the black
lines of woodcut. On folio E
1
v, the artist applied silver highlighting to the woodcut of the “cassia
solutiva” (also known as the Cassia fistula or the golden rain tree) (Figs. 4.14-15). The strokes of
silver occupy the negative space left between the black lines, as seen for instance in the pods of
the plant. Alternatively, in the leaves of the plant, the silver lines cross the black lines. The silver
highlighting enhances the design of the woodcut rather than fully obscuring it, as was
occasionally the case with hand-coloring or illumination.
Two artists, Giorgio Liberale and Wolfgang Meyerpeck, were responsible for the design
and execution of the woodcuts in Mattioli’s De medica materia. While Meyerpeck’s
involvement remains obscure, there is more information regarding Liberale’s role in producing
the illustrations.
85
Liberale (1527–79), an Italian artist from Udine, served in the courts of the
84
“Mattioli, Andrea Pietro,” Oak Spring Garden Foundation, library catalogue, accessed March 23, 2020,
https://o90016.eos-intl.net/O90016/OPAC/Details/Record.aspx?BibCode=974836. I have only examined
the copy at the Oak Spring Garden Library.
85
There is little to no scholarship about Meyerpeck or his role in the book. Mattioli thanks both men in
his dedication in the 1565 edition for their designs. It is likely that Meyerpeck worked with Liberale on
woodcuts for earlier illustrated editions indicating that they were both in the employ of Holy Roman
190
Holy Roman Emperors in Vienna, and between 1558 and 1572, during his time with Archduke
Ferdinand II (1529–1595), Liberale painted series of images of flora and fauna in gouache and
watercolor on parchment forming an album.
86
Ferdinand commissioned the album as type of
visual index or addendum to his kunst- and wunderkammern.
87
The album, made between 1562
and 1580, contains 1038 images of animals made on both the recto and verso of the folios. While
initially the unsigned and undated album was attributed to Joris Hoefnagel, another artist who
specialized in nature drawings in the courts of Holy Roman Emperors, art historians later
credited Liberale as the artist.
88
One folio in the album depicting a type of fish called a bottlenose skate has some affinity
with a woodcut of the same animal in De medica materia (Fig. 4.16). The body of the skate on in
the album occupies the negative space within the decorative border with the tips of the pectoral
fins, stinger, and tail pushing against it. The very tip of the upper pectoral fin even folds in an
effort to fit within the frame. However, the attempt is unsuccessful as the border slightly overlaps
the fin. In addition to the border made up of white waves on a red register, Liberale also applied
a wash of yellow and greys to the parchment. On the skate, he provided shadows and highlights
that accentuated the musculature of the skate as well as a pattern of white dots on its scales.
Similarly, it is apparent that Liberale designed the stingray in De medica materia to push
against the confines of the woodblock (Fig. 4.17). Both marine creatures are arranged along a
diagonal axis in order to fill as much space on the folio as possible with the creature. In the
Emperors in Prague. Additionally, on many of the woodcuts, there is a monogram of “G.S.” but like
Meyerpeck, the engraver(s) remain mysterious figures.
86
“Giorgio Liberale,” Benezit Dictionary of Artists, Oxford Art Online, accessed June 14, 2019.
https://www.oxfordartonline.com
87
Christina Weiler, Von Fischen, Vögeln und Reptilien: Meisterwerke aus den kaiserlichen Sammlungen
(Vienna: Kremayr & Scheriau, 2011).
88
See Eva Irblich, La Fauna dell’Adriatico di Giorgio Liberale (Gorizia: Edizioni della Laguna, 2002)
and Weiler, Von Fischen, Vögeln und Reptilien.
191
woodcut, Liberale folds the stingray’s tail on itself, flowing over its left pectoral fin, which is an
anatomically impossible feat for this animal. Like Liberale’s modeling in the watercolor drawing
in Ferdinand’s album, parallel hatching creates the anatomy of the stingray and the details on the
scales. As Hyatt Mayor has noted, Liberale purposefully took his renderings of plants and
animals to the very edges of the woodblock; he likely did so by drawing directly on the block
itself.
89
This technique is even more obvious in illustrations of complex and sinuous plants like
“limonium” (today known as sea lavender) on the verso of Nnnn
5
(Fig. 4.18). In order to show
the leaves, stem, flowers, and root system, the limonium takes on a rectangular appearance. The
surviving woodblock, now at the Oak Spring Garden Library, reveals that Liberale did use the
entire surface area of the pear wood for his design (Fig. 4.19).
90
From these similarities as well as the corresponding dates, it is likely that Liberale was
working on both the designs for Mattioli’s De medica materia and Ferdinand’s album at the
same time. In fact, the dates of Liberale’s and Mattioli’s collaboration point towards a unique
example of a back and forth between drawing and printed illustrations. Mattioli arrived in Prague
at the request of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–64) to serve as the personal physician
for his son and eventual successor Maximilian II (1527–76) in 1554, only four years before
Liberale arrived at the Habsburg court.
91
That same year (and ten years after the first edition
89
Hyatt Mayor, Catalogue of Botanical Books in the Collection of Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt, ed.
Jane Quinby, 2 vols. (Pittsburgh: Hunt Botanical Library, 1958), I:97.
90
The Getty Research Institute owns six woodblocks: teasel (Dipsacus sylvestris), hemlock water
dropwort (Oenanthe crocata), lettuce (Lactuca sativa), carline thistle (Carlina vulgaris simplex), datura
lily (Datura metel), and buttercup (Ranunculus hirsutus). The survival of many of the woodblocks is a
rare and fortuitous occurrence. The woodblocks for Mattioli’s herbal are the only set of natural history
woodblocks to survive to the present day (the woodblocks for Andreas Vesalius’s De humani corporis
fabrica (1543) survived until the twentieth century in Germany but were lost during the second World
War). See William Patrick Watson, “The Mattioli Woodblocks: a Remarkable Survival” in The Mattioli
Woodblocks (Oxford: Joshua Associates Ltd., 1988) n.p.
91
Frank J. Anderson, An Illustrated History of Herbals (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977),
164.
192
from 1544), Valgrisi, issued a Latin edition of De medica materia with over five hundred small
woodcuts designed and executed by Liberale and Meyerpeck.
92
Then in 1562, George
Melantrichus, a printer in Prague, issued an edition in Czech. For this edition, Liberale produced
an additional four hundred larger woodcuts. These large woodcuts were also the illustrations for
a German edition printed in 1563, as well as Valgrisi’s 1565 edition.
93
The scholarly literature on Liberale had failed to address the relationship between the
Vienna album and the illustrated printed editions of De medica materia. For instance, in
Christina Weiler’s comprehensive catalogue of the album, there are comparisons between
Liberale’s watercolors and Ulisse Aldrovandi’s numerous illustrated works on natural history
including De reliquis animalibus exanguibus libri quatuor (Four Books on Animals, Bologna,
1606), but no mention of Mattioli’s De medica materia.
94
From the chronology of Liberale’s
album and the editions of Mattioli’s herbal printed with illustrations as well as the visual
affinities, it is likely that Liberale executed both the watercolors and designs for the woodcuts
concurrently. Additionally, in the dedication to Valgrisi’s 1555 Italian edition that contained
some small woodcuts, Mattioli explains to the dedicatee, Cristoforo Madruzzo, that Giorgio
Liberale made the illustrations from life, likely preserved examples of plants and animals.
Moreover, Mattioli says that illustrations came at a great cost financially, and to his and the
artists’ wellbeing given the time and effort in producing the woodcuts.
95
Mattioli’s description of
Liberale and his process predated the first edition with the large woodcuts issued in 1563. It
92
Sandra Raphael, “Mattioli’s Herbal,” in The Mattioli Woodblocks, n.p.
93
Raphael, “Mattioli’s Herbal,” n.p.
94
See especially the section entitled “Kunstwerk und Naturobjekt,” in Weiler, Von Fishcen, Vögeln und
Reptilien, 144-68.
95
Mattioli, De materia medica (Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1555), leaf α4 verso. See also Mortimer,
Harvard College Library, 429, cat. no. 294. “…v’ho nuovamente aggiunot le figure vive & naturali di
tutte le piante, & de gli animali, di cui trattò, & scrisse Dioscoride, con grandissime spese, & fatiche,
aiutato però non poco da Giorgio Liberale da Udene gentilissimo dipintore: il quale con arte, ingegno, &
patientia inestimabile ha disegnato il tutto dalle vive piante, & parimente da i vivi animali.”
193
seems that even as Liberale continued to execute more and more designs for subsequent editions,
he also continued to produce watercolors for Archduke Ferdinand’s II album.
Like the album, the richly illustrated editions of De medica materia were highly valued in
accordance to the cost of the book as well as the information it contained.
96
The large size and
the full use of the woodblock were intended to provide the reader with enough detail to identify
the types of flora and fauna in nature. Yet, the watercolors in the album differed in at least one
important aspect from the woodcuts. Liberale rendered the watercolor drawings of the sea
creatures and reptiles in a full-spectrum of color. Compensating for the lack of color in the
woodblock illustrations, Liberale rendered the botanical woodcuts in detail, showing the roots
and leaf structures so that would-be botanist or physician could more easily identify the plant.
For some scholars like Sandra Raphael, this is proof that Mattioli and Liberale intended for color
to be “irrelevant” in the printing of the book.
97
While Mattioli did provide further description of
the plants and animals in the text, he mainly described their various uses in medicine. For
instance, in the text for the aforementioned datura lily he described the outer layer of the spiny
fruits as hard and dark in color but did not elaborate further.
98
However, the lack of specificity
was likely due to many factors including a lack of standardization with regard to color
terminology and the inescapable subjectivity of color perception, rather than color being
irrelevant to the printing of the text.
99
96
Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature, 253. Kusukawa turns to the inventory of books belonging to
the British physician Thomas Lorkyn (1528–91) for prices. Lorkyn valued a 1558 edition of Mattioli’s De
materia medica at 13 s. 4 d. or about one mark. This was the same value of a 1555 revised edition of
Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica.
97
Raphael, “Mattioli’s Herbal,” n.p.
98
Mattioli, De materia medica (Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1565), Aa2v, 280. “Contegitur haec putamine
exteriori cardamomi maioris putamini simili, sed duriore, compactiore, & colore magis obscuro.”
99
See Gage, Color and Culture. See also Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature, 79-80.
194
Moreover, the blue paper in De medica materia increases the visual interest of the page
as a mid-tone for the negative space in the illustrations as well as a colored background for the
text––like drawings made on colored supports. In his Head of a Man, dated 1490, Vittore
Carpaccio (ca. 1460–ca. 1525), a Venetian artist who favored blue supports in his drawings, laid
down parallel lines of black ink and white heightening on blue paper (Fig. 4.20).
100
The man in
the drawing is in profile and he faces to the left, towards the light source. Carpaccio’s white
heightening is light and thin compared to the darker and thicker lines of the black ink. The use of
blue paper indicates that Carpaccio wanted to create a midtone for his study––a technique later
adopted by printmakers for chiaroscuro woodcuts. Like the embellished woodcuts in the
Mattioli’s herbal, the blueness of the paper serves as a contrast to the bright white and further
saturates the black ink.
Color was a consideration for authors, artists, and publishers at the time. As Sachiko
Kusukawa has shown, portions of the book-buying market would pay extra, in some cases ten
times as much, for a hand-colored copy of a book.
101
For instance in 1585, Valgrisi’s son Felice
(fl. 1582–1603) issued another Italian edition of De medica materia with this in mind. In an
address to the reader in part two, Felice said that in addition to the general print run he printed
twenty-five copies on “carta reale bellissima.” He goes on to say that these copies on special
paper were intended for doctors or princes, and moreover the special paper was intended for
100
Whistler, Venice & Drawing, xviii.
101
Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature, 75-6. Kusukawa cites one specific example in which
Serverinus Gobelius, the physician to the Elector of Brandenberg, asked the printer Christophe Plantin for
a colored copy of L’Obel’s Plantarum seu stirpium icones (Images of Plants and Shrubs). Plantin did not
have any in stock and informed Gobelius that it would take three months to produce another. Instead, he
offered the physician a colored copy of L’Obels Kruydtboek that had the same illustrations as Icones. The
Kruydtboek would cost Gobelius 105 florins; Plantin charged one stuiver for each of the 2,100 figures.
The uncolored, unbound copy cost 8 florins.
195
hand coloring in order to help the reader learn.
102
Whether this was ever carried out is difficult to
ascertain, but there was a significant precedent for adding color to books.
Hand-coloring the figures in books involved more labor and money than printing the
book on blue paper, but this significant difference in price indicates that printers could charge
more for books with color. Blue paper, once again, resolved the absence of color in printing in a
cost-effective manner. It did not require multiple passes through the press, cutting down on time
and labor, and as it has been noted, the price of blue paper was most likely comparative (if not
less than) to white paper. Considering that a book’s price depended on the type of support
(vellum or paper) it is likely that blue paper books fell somewhere in between the cost of vellum
copies and high-quality white paper.
There is one interesting moment in the Oak Spring Garden copy where color was applied
to the illustrations. Returning to the woodcut of the golden rain tree, there is curious leaf in the
lower right of the image that is washed in dark green. This is the only instance of hand-coloring
in this copy of De medica materia. However, it provides an opportunity to view the difference
between the silver parallel and cross-hatching versus the dark wash of a color in a single image.
The effect of the dark green wash on the blue paper obscures the lines of the woodcut. Metallic
pigment like silver was the most appropriate in terms of highlighting the black lines of the
woodcut and blue of the paper. In the case of these three blue copies of De medica materia, the
blue mid-tone also provided passages of contrast. The black lines of the woodcuts blur into the
102
Felice Valgrisi in the address to the reader in Mattioli, De i discorsi nelli sei libri di Pedacio
Doscoride anazarbeo, della Materia medicinale, 2 vols. (Venice: Felice Valgrisi, 1585), leaf LLL2 recto.
See also Mortimer, Harvard College Library, 431-4, cat. no. 295. “… habbiamo fatto stampare XXV. di
questi volume in carta reale bellissima, & attissima à ricevere, senza far trasparenza, ciascuna sotre di
colore: acciò i Medici, & altri studiosi possino adornarne i loro studi; & possino farne anco dono à quei
Principi, che si dilettassero d’illustarne le lor librerie.”
196
blue of the paper while the metallic highlights pop brilliantly against the colored support, not
unlike metalpoints made on colored supports.
Therefore, the decision to print copies on blue paper was obviously not to increase the
accuracy of the illustrations with the addition of color but it was rather more akin to why artists
chose blue or other colored supports for their drawings. From an aesthetic perspective, blue
paper serves many different functions. As I discussed in the previous chapter, blue paper has a
material history associated with luxury manuscripts in the greater Mediterranean, and thereby
increases the cultural value of the book. Like Ratdolt’s presentation copy of Euclid’s Elements
dedicated to Doge Mocenigo or the black books of hours made for the nobility of Europe,
prestigious and elite individuals also likely owned blue copies of De medica materia. In the case
of the copy of De medica materia in Vienna, it contains a handwritten inscription belonging to
Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (1578–1629), the grandson of Mattioli’s first Habsburg
employer Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. The inscription reads "Bibliothecae Archid.
Ferdinandi" indicating that the book was part of Ferdinand’s II library.
103
It is likely that the copy
was in the possession of the Habsburgs earlier given Mattioli’s proximity to the court and his
relationship to Ferdinand’s II grandfather, as well as his uncle, Maximilian II. Like the copy at
the Oak Spring Garden Library, the Vienna copy also has embellishments in the form of white
and bronze highlighting in the woodcuts.
104
The inscription and the highlighting are evidence
that the Vienna copy was perhaps a presentation copy for Ferdinand II or one of his
predecessors.
103
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek online catalogue, accessed June 30, 2019,
http://data.onb.ac.at/rec/AC08346244.
104
Gabriele Pum, “Kaiser Ferdinands II: Bücher als indirekte Zeitzeugen,” in Flores litterarum Ioanni
Marte sexagenario oblati: Wissenschaft in der Bibliothek, (Vienna: Böhlau, 1995), 117-29.
197
Moreover, the blue copy of the herbal now in Vienna suggests a different function of
bespoke books. The unillustrated first edition of De medica materia in 1544 sold around 30,000
copies and spawned over sixty editions in numerous languages.
105
Of all the copies of the dozens
of editions printed and sold of De medica materia, the three copies printed on blue paper make
up a minute percentage. However, these blue herbals bring to the fore questions regarding
“bespokeness” and the printing press. The fact remains that although these blue books resemble a
bespoke presentation copy like Charles’s V hand-colored copy of De humani corporis fabrica at
these three blue copies of De medica materia are essentially identical. While there are certainly
variations in the highlighting, these three blue copies of Mattioli’s herbal are a result of the
printing press, an instrument used to reproduce identical objects. Liberale’s album of watercolors
is a bespoke object while De medica materia is not. However, the blue paper serves to mask the
mechanical nature of the printing press by tapping into the use of color in conventional bespoke
objects like drawings and manuscripts. The blue copies of De medica materia were intentionally
made to appear bespoke even if the printer was simultaneously using a reproductive instrument.
For this reason, bespoke books occupy a transitional yet important space in the early modern
period.
Bindings, Foredges, and the Book as Visual Object
Many of the books discussed thus far have unique, finely made bindings and/or
embellishments along their foredges. Bookbinding encompasses the art of not only sewing and
arrangement of the leaves known as “forwarding,” but also making the coverings for books and
105
Raphael, “Mattioli’s Herbal,” n.p.
198
decorating foredges, or “finishing.”
106
Until the nineteenth century, printed books were bought,
exported, and imported unbound––usually shipped in barrels or chests––to locations across the
early modern world. Binding, therefore, fell to the discretion of the owner of the book. For this
reason, books were often bound in entirely different locations from where it was printed, and
additionally could be bound years after it was printed.
107
The Aldine collection at UCLA is a further testament to the dissemination of Aldine
editions across the Italian peninsula as evidenced from their binding. Of the contemporary
bindings within the collection, bindings from Venice, Rome, Florence, Perugia, Bologna, Padua,
and Milan are represented.
108
Another example of the distance books traveled for bindings comes
from correspondence between Isabella d’Este, her agent in Venice Lorenzo da Pavia, and Aldus
Manutius. Lorenzo suggested that the books would be best served with fine binding and silver
clasps and he would seek out a master binder in Venice. He also mentioned that he had recently
met a merchant from Flanders with books in the most beautiful bindings he had seen, and he
could arrange to have Isabella’s books sent to Flanders to receive the same treatment.
109
Consequently, binding styles were therefore dependent on the taste (and the budget) of the owner
of the book, and thus range greatly in terms of materials and decoration.
The blue Aldine Virgil now at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in
Williamstown, Massachusetts, belonged to the well-known bibliophile Jean Grolier, according to
the partially erased inscription on the title page. He likely acquired it soon after the book was
printed during his second tenure in Italy in 1515 while he served as the Treasurer of French
106
Marks, Guide to Bookbinding, 9.
107
Ibid., 7.
108
Naiditch, The Aldine Press: catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy collection, 33.
109
Baschet, Aldo Manuzio, 74-5.
199
forces in Milan.
110
Grolier was a one of Aldus’s most prominent patrons and an avid collector.
While most of his library is lost today, around 350 books primarily survive in Bibliothèque
Nationale in Paris and the British Library in London. Out of these 350 books, about half are
Aldine editions, and forty-two of these were printed during Aldus’s lifetime. Grolier likely
developed a relationship with Aldus and his press through the printer’s brother-in-law,
Gianfrancesco Torresano. Torresano was a Venetian bookseller and one of Grolier’s many
agents in Italy tasked with acquiring books.
111
Aldus and Grolier eventually met in 1511 when
Aldus visited Milan, but there is no surviving evidence to suggest that Grolier ever traveled to
Venice.
112
Grolier’s collecting practices therefore reveal how much collectors depended on their
agents, such as Torresano, and moreover, the relative ease with which that printed books
traveled.
Grolier, however, was not sated with general print runs of Aldine editions. Like many
book collectors in the early sixteenth century, he sought out vellum copies and often added
illuminations. In two copies of his Aldine titles at the Bibliothèque Nationale, for instance, there
is evidence to suggest that the illuminations were carried out at the Aldine press. The
illuminations in the 1515 edition of Lucretius (Vélins 2070) and the 1501 edition of Martial’s
Epigrams (Vélins 2091) bear an affinity to a copy of the 1501 edition of Petrarch’s Le cose
volgari (Vélins 2142) illuminated for the Mocenigo family in Venice.
113
110
Fletcher, “Jean Grolier’s 1514 Aldine Virgil on Blue Paper,” in Aldus Manutius, 29.
111
Anthony Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting: Jean Grolier and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, their
Books and Bindings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 59.
112
Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting, 25.
113
Lowry, Aldus Manutius, 280, note 93.
200
Upon return to his native Paris, Grolier had the book bound (or possibly re-bound) (Fig.
4.21).
114
While it is rare to know the person responsible for bookbinding, the bookseller and
bookbinder Jean Picard (fl. 1540–1547) is the most likely candidate.
115
In 1540, Gianfrancesco
Torresano founded a branch of the Aldine bookshop––al segno dell’ancora et dolphin or Anchor
and Dolphin shop after Aldus’s device––in Paris. Torresano then handed the management of the
shop over to Picard.
116
Picard, as both the premier purveyor of Aldine editions in Paris and a
notable bookbinder, was perfectly positioned to provide bindings for Grolier’s books. He bound
in the book in black, Parisian fine-grained goatskin, and added multiple gilt and blind stamped
fillets on the sides. He centered a gold-tooled ornament on both the front and back covers. On the
front, he included the title in the middle of the ornament P. VIRGILVS | MARO. and Grolier’s
inscription IO. GROLIERII ET AMICORVM in the lower portion.
117
This inscription appeared
on the majority of Grolier’s books bound in Paris, and the addition of “et amicorum” to his motto
suggests that he intended to share or gift his books amongst his growing circle of learned men.
118
Between June 1540 and September 1547, Picard ran the Aldine export shop in Paris where he
bound at least 250 books for Grolier, and the blue Virgil was probably one of the first books that
Picard bound for his client in the early 1540s.
119
Before acquiring the blue Virgil, Grolier was already in the practice of elaborately
binding his books. In the 1520s and 1530s, he employed no less than five bookbinding shops to
114
Flecther, “Aldine Virgil on Blue Paper,” 28. Fletcher posits that this binding was the work of Jean
Picard, who managed Aldus’s export shop in Paris between 1540 and 1547. He was favorite binder of
Grolier and bound at least 230 of his books.
115
Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting, 59.
116
Hobson, “An Aldine Bindery?” 245.
117
“Virgil,” Clark Art Institute Library Catalogue, accessed January 20, 2020,
http://francine.clarkart.edu/record=b1085827~S4
118
Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting, 59. According to Hobson, one in every four books that Grolier
purchased was a duplicate. The frequency of the duplicates indicates that he wanted to have multiple
copies at his disposal for his own purposes as well as to send to friends that requested these titles.
119
Fletcher, “Aldine Virgil on Blue Paper,” in Aldus Manutius, 28.
201
bind his books in France. Among them is the so-named “Eustace Binder.”
120
One example of his
handiwork is now in the Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine Collection at UCLA. Sixteenth-century
brown calf with panels of gilt ruled and ornamental borders encase a copy of the 1521 Aldine
edition of Polybius’s Historiae translated by Niccolò Perotti.
121
Additional embellishments on
the binding include a lozenge centerpiece comprised of smaller gilt ornaments, gilt corner pieces,
and spine panels with gilt fleur-de-lis as well as gilded foredges.
122
The example of the blue Virgil demonstrates that blue paper was a desirable support
among Aldus’s most important patrons, like Grolier. Even after Aldus’s death in 1515, Grolier
sponsored the printing of at least three posthumous editions in order to preserve the high
standards of the Aldine press. For this, he received a dedication in each title.
123
Significantly, for
one of these editions, Grolier had stipulations. Guillaume Budé’s De asse (On the ass), a treatise
on the Roman monetary system, was first published in Paris in 1514. In 1519, Grolier asked
Torresano, who had taken over the operations of the Aldine press, to reprint the work on good
quality paper with wide margins. He also asked that De asse be printed in the same format and
with the same type as an earlier Aldine text, Angelo Poliziano’s Opera (Works, 1498).
124
However, when De asse was eventually printed in 1522, it was in quarto format with italic type
as opposed to the folio format and roman type of Poliziano’s Opera.
125
120
Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting, 54.
121
Renouard, Annales, 90, no. 4. This was a separate issue of Polybius from the Aldine folio edition of
Livy printed in 1520-1, see Renouard, 89, no. 6.
122
“Polybius,” UCLA Library catalogue, accessed January 23, 2020,
https://catalog.library.ucla.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=2763457
123
Lowry, Aldus Manutius, 280-1. These three editions include a 1515 Greek Grammar printed by
Musurus, a 1521 edition of Terence, and a 1522 edition of Guillaume Budé’s De asse.
124
Grolier’s letter to Gianfrancesco Torresano, Milan, March 14, 1519, Vatican Library, Reg.lat.2023,
fol. 196; also printed in A.J.V. Le Roux de Lincy, Recherches sur Jean Grolier sur sa v ie et sa
bibliothèque (Paris: L. Potier, 1866), 434-5.
125
Hobson, Renaissance Book Collectors, 45.
202
Nonetheless, Grolier’s concerns for the quality of the paper and type used in his
sponsored printings as well as his personal taste for lavish bindings shows a concern for the
exterior of printed books among collectors. This ranges from the smaller format books to the
larger folio volumes. For instance, a copy of Vitali’s 1532 edition of Petrarch’s Canzoniere
printed on blue paper at the Fitzwilliam Museum is preserved in a sixteenth-century binding. The
binding is dark brown morocco with gold-tooled lettering on the front cover that includes the
title and the year M.D.XXXIIII, indicating that the book was perhaps bound in 1534. The spine
also contains gold tooling and blind stamped decoration, and there are remnants of long-gone
clasps along the edges.
126
This small, octavo edition of a popular book of poems received a similar treatment as the
much larger, folio copies of Mattioli’s De materia medica. The copy at the Oak Spring Garden
Library was bound in white pigskin over sturdy wooden boards with elaborate blind tooling and
surviving clasps and hasps (Fig. 4.22).
127
The clasps, intended to prevent the boards from
warping, are additionally chased with parallel lines.
128
The copy at the Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, once in the possession of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, also has an
extravagant binding. The contemporary red-brown leather is over wooden boards with gold-
tooled motifs including candelabra, cartouches, plant tendrils, and arabesques, as well traces of
clasps.
129
These bindings are further evidence of the lengths and expenses that book owners (as
well as some bookmakers) would go to in order to make a printed book bespoke.
Additionally, the attention paid to the exterior of the book reveals the importance of the
overall visual appearance of the book as well as the contents of the interior. The concern for the
126
“Petrarch,” Cambridge University library catalogue, accessed January 24, 2020,
http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/16u99e0/44CAM_ALMA21396538580003606
127
“Mattioli,” Oak Spring Garden Foundation Library catalogue.
128
Glaister, Glossary of the Book, 97.
129
“Mattioli,” Österreichische Nationalbibliothek catalogue.
203
viusality of the book among book owners in the early modern period is further evinced in a
generally overlooked area of the printed book: the foredge. The foredge makes up the outer,
visible edge of the book once the edges are trimmed during the forwarding process. Decorating
the edges of books was a result of how books were stored. Until about the sixteenth century,
books were laid flat with the foredge exposed rather than the spine. For this reason, titles were
often written in ink along the edges of books or even more elaborate embellishments were added.
Foredges were stained and speckled with pigments, marbled, and beginning in the seventeenth
century, artists painted scenes in watercolors that were only visible once the book was closed.
130
In the sixteenth century, one of the most popular methods of foredge decoration was
gauffering. Typically, the foredge was first gilded and then a layer of sizing was added. After the
sizing dried, the gilt was rubbed with palm oil to help the gold leaf adhere to the surface. Once
the gold leaf was added, the same tools used in blind-tooling leather were warmed and impressed
along the foredge. Often times, the additional step of adding gold leaf was abandoned and the
tools were impressed directly onto the gilding.
131
Gauffering was therefore an important method
of further enhancing the exterior of the book. For example, Vitali’s edition of Canzioniere at the
Fitzwilliam Museum, in addition to the elaborate binding, also has gauffered edges.
Another example of a gauffered foredge is a copy of Aldus’s 1501 edition of Martial’s
Epigrams at the British Library (G.9631). The copy is bound in sixteenth-century dark, brown
leather with gold-tooled lettering and decoration on the front cover. The lettering, slightly off-
center, includes the title MARTIA | LIS | EURIPI | DES. Surrounding the title is a gold-tooled
border and a blind-tooled border with two Mudéjar-style knot motifs arranged underneath the
130
Marks, Bookbinding, 39.
131
Sarah T. Prideaux, “Book-Edge Decoration,” The Magazine of Art (Jan. 1892): 94-7.
204
lettering.
132
The back cover also has the two rows of gold- and blind-tooled borders and an
additional three Mudéjar-style knots accented with flowers and stars (Figs. 4.23-24). The foredge
is gilded and incised with a repeating rope-work pattern. In raking light, the details of the
gauffering are more apparent (Figs. 4.25-26). Additionally, indentations were made within the
lines of the pattern to give the appearance of the texture of the rope, and the placement of the
lines forms a complex, geometric motif along the edges of the book. The gauffered edges on a
printed book add to the overall visual effect when the book is on the shelf or in someone’s hands.
Like binding, gauffering is an additional bespoke element intended to enhance the visuality of
the book as well as a method of customizing the book for the owner and reader.
Bindings, like blue paper, reveal the importance of the visual appearance of the printed
book in addition to its material components. Moreover, these elements were also crucial for
making a printed book bespoke. Bindings differentiated printed books from one another even if
the textual contents of the book remained the same. Like blue paper served many different
purposes for many different groups. For the printer, it was a more economical and efficient way
to print deluxe print runs for an elite clientele or as a gift for a potential patron. The blue of the
paper tapped into a visual tradition of colored supports in bookmaking steeped in religious,
secular, and symbolic significance. For the buyer or receiver of such a book, blue paper
represented this history and projected his or her own wealth and erudition. Moreover, in many
cases, the blue paper was a platform for added embellishments, indicating an impetus to
distinguish the book even further. In these ways, books printed on blue paper demonstrate the
core nature of a bespoke book. The form and function of a book made using the printing press
shifted dramatically once a printer begins to experiment with new materials like blue paper. The
growing access to blue paper among printers and the widespread use of the material among
132
Marks, Bookbinding, 70.
205
artists in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries additionally shows that blue paper books were a
product of contemporaneous tastes and practices.
In sum, the works of poetry printed on blue paper tap into the spiritual and natural
qualities associated with the color blue established in classical color theory. Similarly, the use of
blue paper in books like Mattioli’s De medica materia serves as both a reference to luxury art
objects like manuscripts with colored folios to contemporary art practices like drawings on blue
paper. In addition, the blue paper functions as a midtone for the woodcuts as well as an
economical substitute for more costly and laborious hand-coloring. The motivations for using
blue paper in bookmaking were therefore varied and multitudinous. However, on the whole, blue
paper, bindings, and printing in color enhanced every aspect of the book: it increased its material
value and its visual interest.
206
Conclusion
By the end of the sixteenth century, there was a downturn in bespoke book production.
For instance, fewer and fewer books appeared on blue paper, and eventually blue paper was used
for a variety of widely-distributed paper materials, such as wrappers for sugar, pamphlets, serial
publications, and plays.
1
For example, a collection of several Spanish plays on blue paper printed
in the eighteenth century is now bound together in a single volume at the Biblioteca Nazionale
Mariciana (Fig. C.1). Newly discovered blue pigments like smalt and Prussian blue (both found
in the eighteenth century) as well as manufactured colorants including synthetic ultramarine
(developed in 1826) led to a preponderance of blue paper.
2
The increased amount of blue paper
on the market and its use in ephemera diminished its novelty. The growing ubiquity of blue
paper mirrored a decrease in scribes and miniaturists. Already shrinking professions in the early
sixteenth century, these artists were gradually confined to the most elite courts of Europe. For
example, the artist Joris Hoefnagel (1542–1601) executed beautiful illuminated manuscripts
including the Mira calligraphiae monumenta (today at the Getty Museum) for Holy Roman
Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612) in the final decades of the sixteenth century (Fig. C.2).
3
Experimental printing, however, continued; predominantly in northern Europe, artists
explored innovative techniques in etching such as using a brush to etch the plate, thereby
1
Brückle, “Blue-Coloured Paper,” 20. The use of blue for pamphlets and serialized literature was
particularly common in France in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. See Rogier Chartier, The
Cultural Uses of Print in Early Modern France (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), 240.
2
Brückle, “Blue-Coloured Paper,” 27-8.
3
J. Paul Getty Museum, MS 20 (86.MV.527). For more on Hoefnagel and the court of Rudolf II see
Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, The School of Prague: Painting at the Court of Rudolph II (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1988); Lee Hendrix and Thea Vignau-Wilberg, The Art of the Pen:
Calligraphy from the Court of the Emperor Rudolf II (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003); Thea
Vignau-Wilberg, Joris and Jacob Hoefnagel: Art and Science around 1600 (Berlin: Hatje/Cantz, 2017).
207
producing more painterly prints.
4
Major developments in color printing throughout the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as mezzotint and chromolithography, were also the
result of experimentation in order to improve the printing process and enhance the appearance of
books and other printed media.
5
However, the introduction of iron printing presses, mechanized
type-casting, and wood pulp in papermaking in the nineteenth century prompted dramatic
changes in how books were made, fully “industrializing” the book.
6
In the midst of these changes, printers and artists adopted the bespoke book as a method
for counteracting what they viewed as a loss of beauty and appreciation for the book. “The Book
Beautiful” movement sprung up in England at William Morris’ (1834–96) Kelmscott Press
where he collaborated with printer and engraver Emery Walker (1851–1933) and illustrator
Edward Burne Jones (1833–98) to recreate the beauty of medieval manuscripts using vellum and
rag-based paper, woodcuts, fifteenth-century type, and small print runs.
7
For example, they only
printed 425 copies of the most celebrated book from their press, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
(1896). They printed these on linen laid paper (and an additional thirteen on vellum) with
specially made red and black ink, eighty-seven full page woodcuts (designed by Burne Jones),
twenty-six historiated initials (designed by Morris), foliage borders, and the new “Troy” type
(designed by Walker) (Fig. C.3).
8
4
For more on these techniques, see Jun Nakamura, “On Hercules Segers’s ‘Printed Paintings’” in
Printing Colour, 189-95.
5
For an introduction to mezzotint, see Carol Wax, The Mezzotint: History and Technique (New York:
H.M. Abrams, 1990). For a thorough history of the chromolithograph, see Michael Twyman, A History of
the Chromolithograph: Printed Colour for All (London: British Library, 2013).
6
See for an overview of these inventions; see Kilgour, The Evolution of the Book.
7
See Arthur Clutton-Brock, William Morris (New York: Parkstone, 2007); William S. Peterson, The
Kelmscott Press: A History of William Morris’s Typographical Adventure (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1991); Linda Parry, ed., William Morris: Art and Kelmscott (Suffolk: Boydell Press,
1996).
8
See Clutton-Brock, William Morris.
208
Similarly elaborate projects were taking place in France in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries as publishers such as Ambroise Vollard and Stèphane Mallarmè sought out
collaborations with artists and poets to create highly original illustrated books or livres d’artiste.
9
For instance, Mallarmè collaborated with Édouard Manet to design images for the French
translation of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven. The monochromatic black and sketchy lithographs
of Le Courbeau (1875) were intended to capture the angst and anxiety in Poe’s poem in order to
form new relationships between the text, image, and reader (Fig. C.4).
10
Throughout the
twentieth century, artists pushed the boundaries of the page, merged the text with the image, and
employed fine papers and innovative techniques.
11
My brief survey of the afterlife of the bespoke book shows that although my study of the
bespoke ends at 1600, the bespoke book continued to be an important object for printers, authors,
readers, and artists. As a means to individuate a mass-produced object in the face of
industrialization, to celebrate bookmaking skills, and as fertile vehicle for artistic collaboration
and interpretation, the bespoke book underwent numerous developments as people perpetually
adopted it for new purposes. By way of conclusion, I will look back and forward, and
contemplate the role of the bespoke book in early modern Europe, and new approaches to the
bespoke book in the digital age.
9
For more the livre d’artiste, see Jean Khalfa, ed., The Dialogue between Painting and Poetry: Livres
d’Artistes 1874-1999 (Cambridge: Black Apollo Press, 2001); Elza Adamowicz, “État Présent: The Livre
d’Artiste in Twentieth Century France” French Studies 63/2 (2009): 189-98; Anna Sigrídur Arnar, The
Book as Instrument: Stéphane Mallarmé, the Artist's Book, and the Transformation of Print Culture
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011).
10
Michéle Hannoosh, “From Nevermore to Eternity: Mallarmé, Manet, and ‘The Raven’” in The
Dialogue between Painting and Poetry, 37-57. Also see part two in Arnar, The Book as Instrument.
11
For the livre d’artiste in the twentieth century, see Celia Pullen, “The twentieth-century Livre d'Artiste:
The greatest challenge to the text-image hierarchy of French book illustration?” Journal of Illustration 2/1
(2015): 93-108; Jerry Kelly, Riva Castleman, and Anne H. Hoy, The Best of Both Worlds: Finely Printed
Livres d’Artistes, 1910-2010 (New York: The Grolier Club, 2010).
209
The Bespoke Book in Early Modern Europe
In my examination of bespoke books between 1450 and 1600, I developed a new
category of the printed book in order to deepen our understanding of how printers, authors, and
readers incorporated visual and material culture within the leaves of a codex. I looked at four
central aspects of the bespoke book (innovation, mutability, materiality, and aesthetics) in order
to uncover the techniques and motivations behind experimental printing in early modern Europe.
Since the technology of printing arrived in the Italian peninsula in the 1460s, printers sought
ways to adapt the printing press to serve specific needs. The most pressing of these needs was the
necessity of printing a book that resembled luxury manuscripts of earlier centuries. Merging print
and manuscript allowed printers to maintain an elite audience, and cemented the place of the
bespoke book in the luxury and gift economies of early modern Europe.
Additionally, in defining the bespoke book, I aim to problematize the term “presentation
copy,” and offer a more nuanced view of these books. Erhard Ratdolt’s editions of Sphaera
mundi and Kalendarium with color printing are examples of bespoke books due to their
experimental nature, but were not intended as presentation copies. Books made with uncommon
materials or with novel methods were often made for special clients or patrons, but Radolt’s
books with color printing were part of much larger print runs. Furthermore, these were only two
examples of fifteenth-century printers’ attempts to use the printing press to blur the boundaries
between print and manuscript. The bi- and tri-color woodcuts, gold printing, and interchangeable
woodcut borders were made with using the printing press, yet were intended to resemble
manuscripts. In addition to hand-illumination and hand-coloring, printers experimented with the
printing press in order mechanize handcraft processes and aesthetics. In the fifteenth century,
color-printing techniques were complicated and required a careful configuration of materials to
210
produce books with color. Other techniques such as printing with gold and hand-coloring were
also time consuming and costly in terms of materials and labor. In pursuing novel methods of
color printing and mechanical illumination, the printers often disrupted the reproductive
functions of the printing press. The technology of the printing press, as generally assumed, was
thus not only a reproductive technology, but printers used the press for precisely the opposite
purpose to create unique and individual objects.
In employing the printing press to make bespoke books, printers viewed these objects
alongside similarly distinct objects. These included manuscripts, fine art prints (like chiaroscuro
woodcuts), and drawings. In order to form further connections between bespoke books and the
visual culture of early modern Europe, I examined books printed on blue paper. Colored supports
added dimension, visual interest, and value to books and many other works of art. Using blue
paper and the printing press was a new technique for adding color to printed materials, and
moreover, was a more efficient method than the more complicated color-printing techniques and
hand-coloring. Printing on blue paper was both economical and aesthetically desirable, thus
producing a commercially viable, luxury product. Building on the commercial appeal of blue
paper books, using colored supports in bookmaking was couched in a deeper material history in
which scribes and miniaturists used dyed folios of parchment for the most rarified of luxury
manuscripts. The bespoke book was therefore not only a product of the new technology of
printing but a result of centuries of material and visual culture concerning color, writing
supports, and books. Printing bespoke books, therefore, was not only an attempt to mimic
manuscripts, but shows how printers actively engaged with the historical and contemporaneous
visual environment.
211
In early modern Italy, the bespoke book was a vital visual object with an active role in the
luxury and gift economies throughout Europe. Ultimately, the bespoke book is the culmination
of a diverse range of experiments undertaken by printers, authors, artists, and readers in order to
create a unique object on par with other luxury, handcrafted art works. The fact that the printing
press was the essential instrument in achieving an individuated printed book broadens our
understanding of the roles and uses of the technology during this time.
The Bespoke Book in a Digital World
Ending a project about the history of the book with a section on electronic books,
digitized books, or more broadly, books in the modern age, has been typical in scholarship in
book studies since the mid-1990s.
12
In truthfulness, I had not originally intended to conclude
with my thoughts about “the bespoke book in a digital world,” but current events caused me to
re-think my position on the topic. At the time of completing my dissertation project, campuses,
museums, and libraries closed in order to lessen the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic. Working from home with the majority of my books (both primary and secondary
sources) inaccessible, I was completely reliant on digital resources including digitized fifteenth-
and sixteenth-century books.
In her introduction to the published proceedings of the 2009 conference “Early Printed
Books as Material Objects,” Bettina Wagner praises the increased accessibility of printed books
online, but also, she warns against some of the “pitfalls” of virtualization of books. Digitizing
books, especially incunabula, decreases exposure and handling, and therefore, provides
important conservation benefits. The issue of virtual books, she claims, lies in which copies of
editions are chosen for digitization. The books that are digitally reproduced are the ones that
12
For instance, see Finkelstein and McCleery, Book History, 119-35.
212
institutions considered the most beneficial users, and often, sacrificing copy-specific data in the
process.
13
Copy-specific data, or the features that are unique that singular copy, such as
inscriptions, binding, annotations, and collation errors is important for studying the lives of
printed books––their construction, historical significance, their provenance, and readers’
interpretations. Consequently, bespoke books as unique objects are not commonly chosen for
digitization projects. For instance, I have yet to find a digitized book on blue paper.
14
However,
there are some notable exceptions; there are numerous hand-illuminated incunabula available
online via the Münchener Digitalisierung-Zentrum Digitale Bibliothek (MDZ) displaying the
collection at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Additionally, the digital copies of incunabula in
BSB-Ink are hyperlinked on ISTC.
15
The electronic book and the digitization of a printed book both represent a break from the
codex and thus a break from the material.
16
In order to resolve this rupture, Jerome McGann
suggests that we return to a philological approach when considering digitized books. McGann
views the digitization of books as beneficial in that it increases accessibility and poses an
opportunity to hone our practical skills and focus on the social, material, and historical context of
the book.
17
The virtual nature of digitized books requires renewed attention towards the historic
specificity of book production, as well as recognition of the past and future of the text.
13
Wagner, “Introduction,” 1-4.
14
The one exception is the copy of Mattioli’s De materia medica (1565) at the Oak Spring Garden
Foundation. A few folios as well as some surviving woodblocks at the Foundation are digitized with
Google Arts & Culture. See Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Google Arts & Culture, accessed March 1,
2020, https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/oak-spring-garden-foundation.
15
See Bettina Wagner, “Vom Print zur elektronischne Ressource: Der Inkunabelkatalog der Bayerischen
Staatsbibliothek im Internet,” Bibliotheksforum Bayern 32 (2004): 254-67.
16
Kilgour, The Evolution of the Book, 151.
17
See Jerome McGann, “Philology in a New Key,” Critical Inquiry 39/2 (2013): 327-46. See also
McGann’s interview in Amodern: Jerome McGann, “The Admoderns: Towards Philology in a New Key,
Feature Interview with Jerome J. McGann,” interview by Scott Pound, Amodern 1, February 2013.
https://amodern.net/article/interview-with-jerome-mcgann/.
213
Like many who consider the ramifications of digitizing books, McGann’s concern is for
the textual contents of the book. In my estimation, the focus on text often neglects other parts of
the book. For this reason, I chose to study the material and ultimately visual components of
printed books. The efforts from printers in the early modern period to interrupt the reproduction
of texts using bespoke techniques to make a book distinct from other copies shows that the text
was only one consideration in bookmaking. If more bespoke books are digitized, then there will
be more opportunities to examine the printed book as a visual and material object in exciting
ways. The category of the bespoke book offers new insight into printing as an experimental
endeavor in early modern Europe and offers a new model to study the historical, social, material,
and significantly, visual aspects of the book.
214
Figures
Figure I.1
Robert Darnton, Communication circuit in “What Is the History of the Book?” in Books and
Society in History (1983).
Figure I.2
Thomas R. Adams and Nicolas Barker, Life cycle of the book in “A New Model for the Study of
the Book,” in A Potencie of Life: Books in Society (1993)
215
Figure 1.1
Folio [11]r in St. Jerome, Epistolae, Rome: Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz, 1468,
illuminations, letterpress on vellum. (Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice)
216
Figure 1.2
Folio [10]r in St. Jerome, Epistolae, illuminations, letterpress on vellum. (Biblioteca Nazionale
Marciana, Venice)
Figure 1.3
[Image forthcoming]
Folio in Pliny the Elder, Historia naturalis Venice: Nicolas Jenson, 1472, illuminations,
letterpress on vellum. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris).
217
Figure 1.4
Preface, folio [1]v in Euclid, Elementa geometriae, Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 1482, gold printing,
letterpress on vellum. (British Library, London)
218
Figure 1.5
Proposition 1, book I (lower left margin) in Elementa geometriae, metal-cast diagrams, woodcut
initials, and letterpress on paper. (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
219
Figure 1.6
Folio [2]r in Elementa geometriae, metal-cast diagrams, letterpress, and hand-illumination on
vellum. (British Library, London)
Figure 1.7
Detail of text in preface, folio [1]v in Elementa geometriae, gold printing, letterpress on vellum.
(British Library, London)
220
Figure 1.8
Franco dei Rossi (attr.) and anonymous artist (illuminators); Bartolomeo Sanvito (scribe),
Triumph of Love, folio 149r in Petrarch, Canzioniere and Trionfi, ca. 1463-4, gold and ink on
purple stained parchment. (Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
221
Figure 1.9
A
1
r in Plutarch, Andrea Matteo Acquaviva d’Aragona (commentary), Quae hic contineatur: hae
synt Plutarchi De virtute morali libellus Graecus… Naples: Antonio Frezza, 1526, illuminations,
letterpress on vellum. (Morgan Library & Museum, New York)
222
Figures 1.10-11
L
5
r (left) and detail (right) in De virtute morali, hand-illuminations over woodcuts, letterpress on
vellum. (Morgan Library & Museum, New York)
223
Figure 1.12
M
3
v–M
4
r in De virtute morali, hand-illuminations over woodcuts, letterpress on vellum.
(Morgan Library & Museum, New York)
224
Figures 1.13-14
L
3
r (left) and detail (right) in De virtute morali, hand-illuminations over woodcuts, letterpress on
vellum. (Morgan Library & Museum, New York)
225
Figure 1.15
E
3
r in De virtute morali, hand-illuminations over woodcuts, letterpress on vellum. (Morgan
Library & Museum, New York)
226
Figure 1.16
Franco dei Rossi (illuminator), opening to volume I in Titus Livius, Historae Romanae decades
… ([Venice]: Vindelinus de Spira, 1470), hand-illuminations over woodcut border, letterpress on
vellum. (Morgan Library & Museum, New York)
Figure 1.17
Franco dei Rossi (illuminator), opening to volume II in Historae Romanae decades, hand-
illuminations over woodcut border, letterpress on vellum. (Morgan Library & Museum, New
York)
227
Figure 1.18
Folio [25]r in Historae Romanae decades, hand-illuminations over woodcut border, letterpress
on vellum. (Biblioteca Nazionale Mariciana, Venice)
228
Figure 1.19
Opening to volume I in Historae Romanae decades, pen and ink, letterpress on paper. (Morgan
Library & Museum, New York)
229
Figure 1.20
Colophon in Konrad Peutinger, Romanae Vetustatis fragmenta … Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt,
1505, red and black letterpress, gold leaf over bole on vellum. (Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, Vienna)
230
Figure 1.21
Hans Burgkmair (print maker), Jost de Negker (block cutter), St. George and the Dragon, ca.
1508, chiaroscuro woodcut printed from two woodblocks in black and silver on blue stained
paper. (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
231
Figure 1.22
Hans Burgkmair (printmaker), Jost de Negker (block cutter), Emperor Maximilian I on
Horseback, ca. 1508, chiaroscuro woodcut printed from two woodblocks in black and gold on
crimson prepared paper. (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
232
Figure 1.23
Lucas Cranch, St. George and the Dragon, ca. 1507/8, printed in gold, on paper prepared with
indigo wash, partly scraped off. (British Museum, London)
233
Figure 2.1
Initial B, a
1
r in Psalterium, [Mainz]: Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, 1457, compound printing
with red and blue ink, letterpress on vellum. (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna)
234
Figure 2.2
Instrumentum veri motus lunae, d
1
verso in Regiomontanus, Kalendarium, Nuremberg: Johann
Müller of Königsberg [Regiomontanus], [1474], woodcuts of layered paper (volvelle), string,
letterpress on paper. (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Münich)
235
Figure 2.3
Table of lunar eclipses, c
12
verso in Kalendarium, [1474], woodcuts, letterpress, hand-colored
yellow wash on paper. (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Münich)
236
Figure 2.4
Title page, Folio [1]r in Regiomontanus, Kalendarium, Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 1476, woodcut,
letterpress in black and red ink on paper. (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Münich)
237
Figure 2.5
Table of solar eclipses, Folio [15]v in Kalendarium, 1476, woodcut, hand-colored yellow wash,
letterpress on paper. (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Münich)
238
Figure 2.6
Leaf [19]v-[20]r in Kalendarium, 1476, woodcut, hand-colored with yellow, green, red, and
ochre, letterpress on paper. (Morgan Library & Museum, New York)
Figures 2.7-8
Quadrans horologii horizontalis and quadratum horaium generale, leaf [32] recto and verso in
Kalendarium, 1476, woodcut, letterpress, articulated brass arms on paper. (Morgan Library &
Museum, New York)
239
Figure 2.9
Tables of solar and lunar eclipses, leaf [15]v-leaf [16]r in Regiomontanus, Kalendarium, Venice:
Erhard Ratdolt, 1482, color printed woodcuts in register with black and red ink, letterpress on
paper. (Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris)
240
Figure 2.10
Diagram of lunar eclipses, 5
3
v in Johannes de Sacrobosco, Sphaera mundi, Venice: Erhard
Ratdolt, 1485, color printed woodcuts in register in black and red, letterpress on paper.
(Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Münich)
241
Figure 2.11
Diagram of solar eclipses, 5
4
r in Sphaera mundi, color printed woodcuts in register in black, red,
and yellow, letterpress on paper. (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Münich)
242
Figures 2.12-13
Leaf 1
1
r (left) and Leaf 1
1
v (right) with diagram of terrestrial spheres, in Johannes de
Sacrobosco, Sphaera mundi, Venice: Florentius de Argentina, 1472, illuminated initials, hand-
drawn diagram, letterpress on paper. (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
Figure 2.14
Opening with astronomical diagrams in Sphaera mundi, 1472, hand-drawn diagram, letterpress
on paper. (Historical Library of the Medical School, Yale University, New Haven)
243
Figure 2.15
Heinrich of Absberg, Bishop of Regensberg, in Breviarium Ratisponense, Augsburg: Erhard
Ratdolt, 1487, four superimposed woodcuts inked in black, yellow, dark green, and red on paper.
(Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Münich)
244
Figure 2.16
Diagram of lunar eclipses, 5
3
v in Johannes de Sacrobosco, Sphaera mundi, Venice: Erhard
Ratdolt, 1482, hand-colored woodcuts with yellow wash on paper. (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek,
Münich)
245
Figure 2.17
Anatomy Lesson, f
ii
v in Johannes de Ketham, Fasciculo di medicina, Venice: Giovanni and
Gregorio de’ Gregori, 1494, woodcut with stenciling on paper. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
246
Figure 2.18
Anatomy Lesson, f
ii
v in Fasciculo di medicina, woodcut with hand-applied stenciling on paper.
(Morgan Library & Museum, New York)
247
Figure 2.19
Urine chart, 1
ii
v in Fasciculo di medicina, woodcut with hand-applied stenciling on paper. (New
York, Morgan Library & Museum)
Figure 2.20
Assembled manikin in Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica epitome, Basel: Johannes
Oporinus, 1543, hand-colored, cut and pasted woodcut on vellum. (Cambridge University
Library, Cambridge)
248
Figure 2.21
Astrological charts, f
4
v-g
1
r in Johannes Angelus, Astrolabium, Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt, 1488,
woodcut with hand-coloring, letterpress on paper. (Morgan Library & Museum, New York)
Figure 2.22
Astrological charts, f
4
v-g
1
r in Astrolabium, woodcut with hand-coloring, letterpress on paper.
(National Library of Medicine, Washington, D.C.)
249
Figure 2.23
Opening, 1
2
v-1
3
r in Johannes Angelus, Astrolabium, Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt, 1488, woodcut
initial, hand-coloring, letterpress on paper. (Morgan Library & Museum, New York)
Figure 2.24
Italian, St. Nicolas of Myra, ca. 1470s, woodcut with hand-colored red, sand, green, olive, and
tan on blue paper, mounted on vellum. (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)
250
Figure 2.25
Attr. Giovanni Britto (block cutter), frontispiece in Pietro Aretino, Stanze in lode di Madonna
Angela Sirena, Venice: Francesco Marcolini da Forli, 1537, chiaroscuro woodcut, letterpress on
paper. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
251
Figure 2.26
Hubert Goltzius (design), Joos Gietleughen (block cutter), Tiberius, A
3
v-A
4
r in Goltzius, Vivae
omnium fere imperatorum imagines, Antwerp: Gillis Coppens van Diest, 1557, chiaroscuro
woodcut, letterpress on paper. (Universidad Complutense, Madrid)
252
Figure 2.27
Attr. Giovanni Britto (block cutter), The Poet and the Siren, ca. 1540-50, chiaroscuro woodcut
on paper. (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
Figure 2.28
Attr. Giovanni Britto (block cutter), S
ii
v-S
iii
r in Anton Francesco Doni, I mondi di Doni, Venice:
Francesco Marcolini da Forli, 1552, woodcut, letterpress on paper. (Biblioteca Nazionale
Centrale, Rome)
253
Figure 2.29
Via Croce and Verita, A
4
v-B
1
r in Francesco Marcolini, Le Sorti…intitolate Giardino di pensieri,
Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1540, woodcut, letterpress on paper. (Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York)
254
Figure 2.30
Giuseppe Porta, frontispiece in Le Sorti…intitolate Giardino di pensieri, woodcut, letterpress on
paper. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
255
Figure 3.1
Story of Jacob, folio 12v in the Vienna Genesis, 6
th
c. CE, illuminations and metallic script on
purple-stained parchment. (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna)
Figure 3.2
Danila (scribe), St. Jerome’s Prologue to the New Testament (left) and Ecclesiastical calendar
(right), folios 220v-221r from the Cava Bible, late 9
th
c. CE, white, yellow, and red script on
indigo-stained parchment. (Biblioteca Statale del Monumento Nazionale della Abbazia
Benedettina della Santa Trinità, Cava de Tirreni)
256
Figure 3.3
Flemish, follower of Guillaume Vrleant, folios 18v-19r in the Black Hours, ca. 1480, miniatures
and silver and gold lettering on vellum stained black. (The Morgan Library & Museum, New
York)
Figure 3.4
Flemish, folios 12v-13r in the Black Book of Hours, ca. 1458, gold and silver lettering on black
stained parchment. (The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
257
Figure 3.5
Flemish, folios 32v-33r in the Black Prayer Book, ca. 1466-76, illumination on black-dyed
parchment. (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna)
258
Figure 3.6
Title page in Ben Levi Gershom, Perush ‘al ha-Torah, Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1547, woodcut,
letterpress on blue paper. (British Library, London)
259
Figure 3.7
Folio iiiiz
4
in Perush ‘al ha-Torah, woodcut, letterpress, handwritten annotation on blue paper.
(British Library, London)
260
Figure 3.8
Opening in Moses Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Venice: Alvise Bragadin, 1574-5, woodcut
device, letterpress on white and blue paper. (St. John’s College Library, University of
Cambridge)
261
Figure 3.9
Anchor in a circle watermark in Mishneh Torah, letterpress on blue paper. (St. John’s College
Library, University of Cambridge)
Figure 3.10
Author’s tracing the anchor in a circle watermark in Mishneh Torah, (St. John’s College Library,
University of Cambridge)
262
Figure 3.11
“BF” countermark in Mishneh Torah, letterpress on blue paper. (St. John’s College Library,
University of Cambridge)
263
Figure 3.12
Folio in Samuel Zarza, Mekor Hayim, Mantua: Meir ben Ephraim and Jacob ben Nephtali, 1559,
woodcut chapter heading, letterpress on blue paper. (Formerly Valmadonna Trust Library, image
from Brad Sabin Hill, Hebraica, cat. no. 37)
264
Figure 3.13
Folios 31v-32r in Officium Hebdomade sancte, secundum Romanam curiam, Venice: Giovanni
Antonio Nicolini da Sabbio, 1522, woodcut, letterpress in black and red ink on blue paper.
(British Library, London)
265
Figure 3.14
Folios EE
3
v-EE
4
r, in Claudio Tolomei, De le lettere, Venice: Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrara, 1547,
woodcut initials, letterpress on blue paper. (Cambridge University Library, Cambridge)
266
Figure 3.15
Opening in Euclid, Federico Commandino (commentary), Elementorum libri xv, Pesaro: Camillo
Franceschini, 1572, woodcut initials, woodcut diagrams, letterpress on blue paper, (Cambridge
University Library, Cambridge)
267
Figure 3.16
Jacob Chriegher (designer), title page in Elementorum, woodcut, letterpress on blue paper.
(Cambridge University Library, Cambridge)
268
Figure 3.17
Title page from Euclid and Commandino, De gli elementi, Urbino: Domenico Frisolino, 1575,
letterpress on blue paper. (PrPh Books, current location)
269
Figure 3.18
Opening in De gli elementi, woodcut diagrams, letterpress on blue paper. (Sokol Books, current
location)
270
Figure 3.19
Albrecht Dürer, Adoration of the Magi, from the Life of the Virgin, 1503 (printed 1560s/1570s),
woodcut on blue paper. (British Museum, London)
Figure 3.20
Albrecht Dürer, Betrothal of the Virgin, from the Life of the Virgin, ca.1504-5 (printed
1560s/1570s), woodcut on blue paper. (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)
271
Figure 3.21
Albrecht Dürer, Joachim and the Angel, from the Life of the Virgin, ca.1504 (printed
1560s/1570s), woodcut on blue paper. (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)
Figure 3.22
Antonio Campi, Mucius Scaevola, 1550-80, woodcut on blue paper. (British Museum, London)
272
Figure 3.23
Antonio Campi, Mucius Scaevola, 1550-80, woodcut on ochre paper. (British Museum, London)
273
Figure 4.1
Opening, d
8
v and e
1
r in Francesco Colonna (attr.), Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Venice: Aldus
Manutius, 1499, woodcut and letterpress on paper. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
274
Figure 4.2
Titian, Horse and Rider Falling, ca. 1537, black chalk on grey paper. (Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford)
275
Figure 4.3
Opening, folio 92v-folio 93r in Virgil, Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1514, initial in gold on blue
ground, letterpress on blue paper. (Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA)
276
Figure 4.4
Taddeo Gaddi, Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple, ca. 1332-8, silverpoint, white
heightening, dark green and blue pigments on green prepared paper. (Louvre, Paris)
Figure 4.5
Filippino Lippi, Bust of a Young Woman Holding a Shield, ca. late-15
th
to early-16
th
c., pen and
ink, white lead on blue-grey tinted paper. (Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe delle Gallerie
degli Uffizi, Florence)
277
Figure 4.6
Nola Vetus in Ambrogio Leone, De Nola, Venice: Giovanni Rosso, 1514, engraving printed with
green-blue ink on paper. (University of California, Los Angeles)
Figure 4.7
Nola Praesens in Leone, De Nola, engraving printed with reddish-brown ink on paper.
(University of California, Los Angeles)
278
Figure 4.8
Master E.S., The Madonna and Child in the Garden, ca. 1465-7, engraving in white on paper
prepared with black ink. (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)
Figure 4.9
Mair von Landshut, Samson and Delilah, ca. 1490-1500, engraving on green prepared paper.
(British Museum, London)
279
Figure 4.10
Frontispiece in Sebastiano Serlio, Il terzo libro, Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1540, woodcut and
letterpress on blue paper. (Philobiblon Books, current location)
280
Figure 4.11
Benedetto Bordon (miniaturist), a
i
v-a
ii
r in Petrarch, Le cose volgari, Venice: Aldus Manutius,
1501, hand-illumination, letterpress on vellum. (British Library, London)
281
Figure 2.12
Folio a
1
r from Libri de re rustica, Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1514, initial in red ink, letterpress on
blue paper. (Morgan Library & Museum, New York)
282
Figure 4.13
Folio c
1
r in Virgil, Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1514, gold initial, silver arabesques on black
ground, letterpress on blue paper. (University of California, Los Angeles)
283
Figures 4.14-15
Cassia solutiva, folio E
1
v and detail (right) in Pietro Andrea Mattioli, Commentarii in sex libros
pedacii Dioscorides Anazarbei de medica materia … Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1565, woodcut
with silver heightening on blue paper. (Oak Spring Garden Library, Upperville, VA)
Figure 4.16
Giorgio Liberale, Bottlenose skate, ca. 1558, gouache on parchment. (Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, Vienna)
284
Figure 4.17
Pastinaca marina, folio Ee
1
r in Mattioli, De medica materia, woodcut, letterpress on white paper.
(Smithsonian Libraries, Washington, D.C.)
285
Figure 4.18
Limonium (left), Nnnn
5
v to Nnnn
6
r in Mattioli, De medica materia, woodcut, letterpress on blue
paper. (Oak Spring Garden Library, Upperville, VA)
Figure 4.19
Giorgio Liberale and Wolfgang Meyerpeck, woodblock of limonium, 1562, pearwood. (Oak
Spring Garden Library, Upperville, Virginia)
286
Figure 4.20
Vittore Carpaccio, Head of a Man, ca. 1510-20, brush drawing in brown ink, heightened with
white, over black chalk, on blue paper. (British Museum, London)
Figure 4.21
Jean Picard (attr. binder), Virgil, Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1514, Parisian fine-grained goatskin
and gold tooling. (Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA)
287
Figure 4.22
Binding, Mattioli, De materia medica, 1565, white pigskin over wooden boards, blind tooling,
clasps, and hasps. (Oak Spring Garden Library, Upperville, VA)
288
Figures 4.23-24
Binding, front cover (left) and back cover (right), Martial, Epigrams, Venice: Aldus Manutius,
1501, brown left with gold tooling. (British Library, London)
289
Figures 4.25-26
Foredge, side view (left) and top view (right), Epigrams, gilding with gauffered knot design.
(British Library, London)
290
Figure C.1
Title page in Ramon de la Cruz, Saynete, La fantasma del Lugar, Barcelona: Pablo Nadal, [ca.
18
th
c.], letterpress on blue paper. (Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice)
Figure C.2
Joris Hoefnagel, Mira calligraphiae monumenta, illumination added 1591-6, tempera colors,
watercolors, gold and silver paint, and ink on parchment and paper. (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los
Angeles)
291
Figure C.3
Opening in William Morris, Emery Walker, and Edward Burne Jones, The Works of Geoffrey
Chaucer now newly imprinted, Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1896, woodcut, letterpress in
black and red ink on paper. (British Library, London)
Figure C.4
Édouard Manet (illustrator), opening in Edgar Allen Poe, Le Courbeau (The Raven), Paris:
Stèphane Mallarmè [publisher], R. Lesclide [printer], 1875, lithograph, letterpress on paper.
(Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
292
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Appendix A
Catalogue of Bespoke Books
I have simplified the references to only include the ISTC, USTC, Ahmanson-Murphy, BMC, BM
STC, Bod-inc, Brunet, BSB-Ink, EDIT 16, Goff, GW, Mortimer, OPAC SBN, and Renouard
citations (see Abbreviations, vii-viii). More bibliographic references for each book can be found
via ISTC and USTC.
1. Psalterium
([Mainz]: Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, 14 Aug. 1457
Folio. [143] leaves
ISTC, ip01036000; BMC I, 18; BSB-Ink, P-820; Goff, P1036; GW, M36179
2. Missale
[Mainz: Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, 1458]
Folio. [12] leaves
ISTC, im00736000; Bod-inc, M-284; Goff, M736; GW, M23863
3. HIERONYMUS (St. Jerome), Johannes Andreas (editor)
Epistolae …
Rome: Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz, 13 Dec. 1468
Folio. [304], [332] leaves
ISTC, ih00161000; BMC IV, 5, XII, 1; Bod-inc, H-083; Goff, H161; GW, 12421
4. LIVIUS, Titus
Historae Romanae decades …
[Venice]: Vindelinus de Spira, 1470
Folio. [421] leaves
ISTC, il00238000; BMC V, 154; Bod-inc, L-116; BSB-Ink, L-188; Goff, L238; GW, M18494
5. BOCCACCIO, Giovanni
Genealogiae deorum
Venice: Vindelinus de Spira, 1472
Folio. [294] leaves
319
ISTC, ib00749000; BMC V, 162; Bod-inc, B-369; BSB-Ink, B-583; Goff, B749; GW, 4475 (+
Accurti(1936) p.84)
6. PLINY, Johannes Andreas (editor)
Historia naturalis
Venice: Nicolaus Jenson, 1472
Folio. [358] leaves
ISTC, ip00788000; BMC V, 172; Bod-inc, P-360; BSB-Ink, P-601; Goff, P788; GW, M34326
7. REGIOMONTANUS, Johannes (Johann Müller of Königsberg)
Disputationes contra Cremonensia deliramenta
[Nuremberg: Johann Müller of Königsberg (Regiomontanus), ca. 1475]
Folio. [10] leaves
ISTC, ir00104000; BMC II, 457; Bod-inc, R-038; BSB-Ink, R-59; Goff, R104; GW, M37482
8. REGIOMONTANUS, Johannes
Kalendarium
Venice: Bernhard Maler (pictor), Erhard Ratdolt and Peter Löslein, 1476
4to. [32] leaves, ills.
ISTC, ir00093000; BMC V, 243; BSB-Ink, R-69; Goff, R93; GW, M37455
9. SACRO BOSCO, Johannes de
Sphaera mundi … Theorica planetarum
Venice: Franciscus Renner, 1478
4to. [48] leaves
ISTC, ij00402000; BMC V, 195; Bod-inc, J-180; BSB-Ink, I-500, Goff, J402; GW, M14655
10. SPIRITO, Lorenzo
Libro della ventura, ovvero Libro dell sorti
Perugia: Stephanus Arndes, Gerardus Thomae and Paulus Mechter, 1482
Folio.
ISTC, is00685500; GW, M43158
11. EUCLID, Adelardus Bathoniensis (translator), Johannes Campanus (editor)
Elementa geometriae …
Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 25 May 1482
320
Folio. [138] leaves, ills.
ISTC, ie00113000; BMC V, 285; Bod-inc, E-036; BSB-Ink, E-106; Goff, E113; GW, 9428
12. REGIOMONTANUS, Johannes
Kalendarium
Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 9 Aug. 1482
4to. [28] leaves, ills.
ISTC, ir00094000; Bod-inc, R-034; BMC V, 286; BSB-Ink, R-70; Goff, R94; GW, M37456
13. SACRO BOSCO, Johannes de
Sphaera mundi …
[Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, [before 4 Nov.] 1485
4to. [58] leaves
ISTC, ij00406000; BMC V, 290; BSB-Ink, I-503; Goff, J406; GW, M14654
14. Breviarium Ratisponense
Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt, 1487–8
8vo. [pagination varies], ill.
ISTC, ib01176500; BMC II, 380; BSB-Ink, B-885; Goff, Suppl. B1176a; GW, 5434
15. THURÓCZY, Johannes (Johannes de Thwrocz)
Chronica Hungarorum…
Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt, for Theobaldus Feger, 3 June 1488
4to. [174] leaves
ISTC, it00361000; BMC II, 381; Bod-inc, T-204; BSB-Ink, T-342; Goff, T361; GW, M14775
16. ANGELUS, Johannes
Astrolabium
Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt, 27 Nov. (or 6 Oct.) 1488
4to. [176] leaves, ills.
ISTC, ia00711000; Bod-inc, A-283; BMC II, 382; BSB-Ink, E-63; Goff, A711; GW, 1900
17. KETHAM, Johannes
Fasciculs medicinae …
321
Venice: Johannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis, de Forlivio, 26 July 1491
Folio. [16] leaves
ISTC, ik00013000; Goff, K17; BMC V, 344; GW, M14185
18. KETHAM, Johannes de
Fasciculo de medicina …
Venice: Johannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis, de Forlivio, 5 Feb. 1493/94
Folio. [52] leaves, ills.
ISTC, ik00017000; BMC V, 344; Goff, K17; GW, M14185
19. Etymologicum Magnum Graecum
Venice: Zacharias Callierges for Nicolaus Blastus and Anna Notaras, 8 July 1499
Folio. [224] leaves
ISTC, ie00112000; BMC V, 580; Bod-inc, E-034; BSB-Ink, E-102; Goff, E112; GW 9426
20. SIMPLICIUS
Hypomnemata in Aristotelis categorias
Venice: Zacharias Callierges for Nicolaus Blastus, 26 Oct. 1499
Folio. [168] leaves
ISTC, is00535000; BMC V, 580, XII, 42; Bod-inc, S-216; BSB-Ink, S-407; Goff, S535; GW,
M42298
21. COLUMNA, Franciscus
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
Venice: Aldus Manutius, Romanus, for Leonardus Crassus, Dec. 1499
Folio. [234] leaves, ills.
ISTC, ic00767000; Ahmanson-Murphy, 35; BMC V, 561; Bod-ink, C-391; BSB-Ink, C-471;
Goff, C767; GW, 7223; Renouard, 21, no. 5
22. HERMIAE, Ammonius
Commentarii in quinque voces Porphyrii
Venice: [Zacharius Callierges] for Nicolaus Blastus, 23 May 1500
Folio. [pagination varies]
ISTC, ia00565000; BMC V, 580; Bod-inc, A-240; BSB-Ink, A-482; Goff, A565; GW, 1618
322
23. PETRARCH
Le cose volgari
Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1501
8vo. ff. [192]
USTC, 847779; Ahmanson-Murphy, no. 43; EDIT 16 CNCE, 36111; OPAC SBN,
UM1E000043; Renouard, 28, no. 5
24. PEUTINGER, Konrad
Romanae Vetustatis fragmenta …
Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt, 1505
Folio. ff. [8]
USTC, 691414; Adams, P-942
25. LEONE, Ambrogio
De Nola: opusculum distinctum plenum clarum doctum pulcrum verum grave varium et utile
Venice: Giovanni Rosso, 1514
Folio. ff. LVIII, [8], [4], ills.
USTC, 837946; Adams, L-479; BM STC, 374; EDIT 16 CNCE, 45515;
26. FANTI, Sigismondo
Triompho della Fortuna
Venice: Agostino Zani ad istantia di Iacopo I Giunta, 1526
Folio. ff. [19], CXXVIII, [1]
USTC, 828746; EDIT 16 CNCE, 18567; OPAC SBN, FERE002965
27. PLUTARCH, Andrea Matteo Acquaviva d’Aragona (commentary)
Quae hic contineatur: hae synt Plutarchi De virtute morali libellus Graecus…
Naples: Antonio Frezza, 1526
Folio. ff. [20, 22], CXXXVIII, [16]
USTC, 849969; Brunet III, 547; EDIT 16 CNCE, 41642; OPAC SBN, BVEE006592
28. ALIGHIERI, Dante, Cristoforo Landino (commentary)
Comedia con la dotta & leggiadra spositione di Christophoro Landino
Venice: Bernardino Stagnino ad instantia di Giovanni I Giolito De Ferrari, 1536
323
4to. ff. [28], 440
USTC 808785; Bongi I, 4; Adams, D-90; BM STC, 29, EDIT 16 CNCE, 1162; OPAC SBN,
CNCE001162
29. MARCOLINI, Francesco
Le sorti di Francesco Marcolini da Forli intitolate Giardino di pensieri
Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1540
Folio. pp. 206 (i.e. 207), [1]
USTC, 840720; EDIT 16, 55028; OPAC SBN, VEAE008279
30. VESALIUS, Andreas
De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome
Basle: Johannis Oporini, 1543
Folio. ff. [14]
USTC, 606037
31. ALIGHIERI, Dante, Alessandro Vellutello (commentary)
La Comedia con la nova espositione di Alessandro Vellutello
Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1544
4to. ff. [442]
USTC, 808777; EDIT 16, 1163; OPAC SBN, NAPE005364
32. GERSHOM, Levi ben
Perush ‘al Torah
Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1547
Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl., 6138 (4); Zedner, Cat. Heb books Brit. Mus., p. 431; Davidson, Otsar
ha-shirah, v. 3, p. 301 (108).
33. MARCOLINI, Francesco
Le ingeniose sorti…
Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1550
Folio. pp. 157 (i.e. 207), [1]
USTC, 840721; Mortimer II, 409, no. 280.
324
34. DONI, Anton Francesco
I mondi del Doni
Venice: Francesco Marcolini [Accademia Pellegrina: Anton Francesco Doni], 1552
USTC, 827618; Adams I, 364 no. 825; EDIT 16, 17693; Mortimer I, 236-40, no. 166
35. GOLTZIUS, Hubert
Vivae omnium fere imperatorum imagines
Antwerp: Gillis Coppens van Diest, 1557
Folio. ff. [176]
USTC, 415521; Adams, G 838
36. MAIMONIDES, Moses
Mishneh torah: hi ha-yad ha-hazekah …
Venice: Alvise Bragadin, 1574
325
Appendix B
Catalogue of Books Printed on Blue Paper in Italy, 1514–1600
In Appendix B, I included all the blue books that I discuss in my dissertation. In addition, I
added books printed on blue paper that I have identified at the following institutions: Harvard
University Libraries, Cambridge University Libraries, University of California libraries, Morgan
Library & Museum, University of Texas, Austin, British Library, Nazionale Biblioteca
Mariciana, Huntington Library, Yale University Libraries, Sterling and Clark Fine Art Institute
Library, Newberry Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Oak Spring Garden
Foundation among others. I have also included notes about the paper (when available) and
abbreviated reference citations. This is not a complete list of books printed on blue paper (as the
details in online library catalogues at different institutions vary), but it is the start of a larger
project cataloging these books.
1. Morgan Library & Museum, New York
PML 79276
CATONIS, Palladius, Cato, Columella, and Varro; Giovanni Giocondo, (editor). Libri de re
rustica M. Catonis lib. I. M. Terentii Varronis lib. III. L Iunii Moderati Columellae Lib. XII. …
Venice: Aldus Manutius, May 1514.
4to. [34], 308 leaves, ills.
USTC, 800443; EDIT 16 CNCE, 37471; OPAC SBN, UBOE027716; Renouard, 66, no. 2
2. Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin
Uzielli 102
CATONIS, Palladius, Cato, Columella, and Varro, (Giovanni Giocondo, editor). Libri de re
rustica M. Catonis lib. I. M. Terentii Varronis lib. III. L Iunii Moderati Columellae Lib. XII. …
Venice: Aldus Manutius, May 1514.
4to. [34], 308 leaves.
Notes: The missing gatherings 2a-2b were replaced with white paper in the nineteenth century.
Craig W. Kallendorf and Maria X. Wells, Aldine Press Books at the Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin: A Descriptive Catalogue (Austin: Harry
Ransom Humanities Research Center, 1998), 9, no. 109.
3. Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven
BEIN Gn9 116b Copy 2
326
Catonis, Palladius, Cato, Columella, and Varro, (Giovanni Giocondo, editor). Libri de re rustica
M. Catonis lib. I. M. Terentii Varronis lib. III. L Iunii Moderati Columellae Lib. XII. … Venice:
Aldus Manutius, May 1514.
4to. [34], 308 leaves.
4. Bibliothèque nationale de France
RES-X-2268
QUINTILIANUS, Marcus Fabius. Quintilianus. Venice: Aldo I Manuzio & Andrea I Torresano,
September 1514.
4to. ff. [4] 230
USTC 851765; Adams, Q-52; EDIT 16 CNCE, 54150; OPAC SBN, TO0E020499; Renouard, 68
5. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.A4 V819 1514
VIRGIL. Virgilius. Venice: Aldus Manutius, October 1514.
8vo. 220, [4] pp
Notes: Printed on blue paper with sixteenth-century illuminated initials in gold on black
background with silver floral arabesque decoration.
USTC, 862703; Adams, V-465; Ahmanson-Murphy, nos. 127, 127.5; BM STC, 730; EDIT 16
CNCE, 55882; Renouard, 68, no. 8
6. Sterling and Clark Fine Art Institute Library, Williamstown, MA
N5760 V57v
VIRGIL. Virgilius. Venice: Aldus Manutius, October 1514.
8vo. 220, [4] pp
Notes: Printed on two different types of blue paper with initial letters illuminated in gold. The
book belonged to Jean Grolier (1489/90–1565) based on the partially erased inscription on the
title-page. Grolier had the book bound (or possibly re-bound) in Parisian fine-grained, black
goatskin with a gilt title.
Clemons and Fletcher, Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting than Bronze (New York: The
Grolier Club, 2015)
327
7. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice
SDA 41590, FOAN G 0538
BAIARDI, Andrea. Libro d’arme, & d’amore, nomato Philogine, nel qual se tratta de Hadriano,
e di Narcisa. De le giostre, e guerre fatte per lui, e de molte altre cose amorose, e degne.
Venice: nelle case de Guglielmo da Fontaneto, 1520.
8vo. [252] leaves
USTC, 811935; EDIT 16 CNCE, 3897; OPAC SBN, CNCE003897
8. British Library, London
C.52.aa.4.
CATHOLIC CHURCH. Officium Hebdomade sancte, secundum Romanam curiam. Venice: Io.
Antonio Frates de Sabio [Giovanni Antonio de Sabio], 1522.
12mo. 138 leaves, ills.
Notes: Printed on blue paper with red and black ink.
9. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 V53d 1524
VEGETIUS RENATUS, Flavius. Vegetio Del arte militare nela commune lingua. Venice:
Bernardino di Vitali, 1524.
8vo. 200 pp.
BM STC, 80; EDIT 16 CNCE 37965
10. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 P44r 1532
PETRARCH. Il Petrarcha / con l'epositione d'Alessandro Vellutello e con piu utili cose in
diversi luoghi di quella nouissimamente da lui aggiunte .... Venice: Bernardino Vitali, November
1532.
8vo. [10], 176, [50] leaves, ill.
Adams, P-800; BM STC, 504; Brunet IV, 548
11. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Reference Collection
328
PETRARCH, Francesco. Il Petrarcha con l’espositione d’Alessandro Vellutello [Canzoniere].
Venice: Bernardino Vitali, 1532.
8vo. 176, [49] leaves, ill.
Notes: Wanting title, wanting A
1
and f
12
. Bound in sixteenth-century dark brown morocco with
gilt lettered title and date 'M.D.XXXIIII' on front cover. Spine also has gold tooling and blind
stamping, and the foredges are gauffered.
12. Morgan Library & Museum, New York
PML 1582
CATONIS, Palladius, Cato, Columella, and Varro; Giovanni Giocondo, (editor). Libri de re
rustica M. Catonis lib. I. M. Terentii Varronis lib. III. L Iunii Moderati Columellae Lib. XII. …
[Venice: in aedibus Aldi, et Andrea soceri mense decembri MDXXXIII]
4to. [54] leaves, 295, [1] l; ills.
Adams, S-812; Renouard, 109
13. British Library, London
239.c.22.
TASSO, Bernardo. Libro primo, secondo de gli Amori di Bernardo Tasso. Venice: Ioan. Ant. da
Sabio, 1534.
8vo. 127, [5] leaves
Notes: wanting title
USTC 858221; EDIT 16 CNCE, 32018; OPAC SBN, LO1E002582;
14. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.G4 D23d 1536
ALIGHIERI, Dante. Comedia del diuino poeta Danthe Alighieri: con la dotta & leggiadra
spositione di Christophoro Landino … Venice: Bernardino Stagnino (printer), Giovanni Giolito
de’ Ferarri (publisher), 1536.
4to. [28], 440 leaves; ill.
Notes: Bound in contemporary [?] vellum with gold-stamped brown leather spine label.
USTC, 808785; Adams D-90; BM STC, 209; Bongi I, 4; EDIT 16 CNCE, 1162
329
15. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 T271 1537
TASSO, Bernardo. Libro terzo de gli amori di Bernardo Tasso. Venice: Bernardino Stagnino,
1537.
8vo. [64] leaves.
USTC, 858222; BM STC, 662; Brunet V:662; EDIT 16 CNCE, 33400
16. Beinecke Library, Yale University
BEIN 2010 1445
ARETINO, Pietro. De le letere di messer Pietro Aretino libro primo. [Venice?: Curzio Troiano
Navò and frates, 1538].
8vo. 218, [5] leaves
USTC, 810354; EDIT 16 CNCE, 2393; OPAC SBN, CNCE002393
17. Newberry Library, Chicago
Wing ZP 3551 .38
ZANCHIUS, Joannes Chrysostomus. Ioannis Chrysostomi Zanchi Panegyricvs ad Carolvm V.
Rom. Imper. [Venice?]: [n.p.], 1538.
8vo. [23] leaves.
18. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 G43c 1540b
PAOLO, Giovio. Comentario de le cose de' turchi / di Paulo Iovio, vescovo di Nocera ; a Carlo
Quinto imperadore augusto. [Venice ?]: [Comin da Trino, ca. 1540].
8vo. [36] leaves
USCT, 833153; EDIT 16 CNCE, 21155; OPAC SBN, TO0E015492
19. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
RES-V-720 (1)
SERLIO, Sebastiano. Il terzo libro … nel qual si figurano e descrivono le antiquita di Roma, e le
altre che sono in Italia e fuori d'Italia. Venice: Francesco Marcolini da Forli, 1540.
Folio. 155, [1] pp.
330
Notes: This copy was previously owned and bound between 1540-7 by Jean Grolier.
USTC, 856038; EDIT 16 CNCE, 49984; OPAC SBN VBAE000549
20. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
RES-V-721 (2)
SERLIO, Sebastiano. Regole generali di architettura di Sebastiano Serlio bolognese sopra le
cinque maniere de gli edifici, cioè thoscano, dorico, ionico, corinthio, e composito … Venice:
Francesco Marcolini da Forli, 1540.
Folio. [75] leaves; 150 pp.
Notes: This copy was previously owned and bound between 1540-7 by Jean Grolier.
USTC, 856043; EDIT 16 CNCE, 28611; OPAC SBN, VIAE000780
21. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
RES-J-3256
POSTEL, Guillaume. De Magistratibus Atheniensium liber... Venice: Giovanni Antonio &
Pietro Nicolini da Sabbio, 1541.
8vo. 75, [1] leaves
USTC, 851122; EDIT 16 CNCE, 59503; OPAC SBN, PARE049522
22. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 S1132H 1544
SABELLICO. Le historie Vinitiane di Marco Antonio Sabellico : diuise in tre deche con tre libri
della quarta deca / nouamente da messer Lodouico Dolce in uolgare tradotte.. [Venice]: Curzio
Troiano de Navò, 1544.
4to. 293, [1] leaves, ills.
USTC, 854026; Adams, S-17; BM STC, 188; EDIT 16 CNCE, 31543; OPAC SBN,
BVEE009898
23. Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice
ANT 46551, D 092D 181
GUAZZO, Marco. Historie di tutte le cose degne di memoria qual del Anno 1524… Venice: al
Segno della Croce per Comin da Trino di Monferrato, 1545.
8vo. [8], 408 leaves
331
USTC, 835093; BM STC, 319; EDIT 16 CNCE, 22056; OPAC SBN, TO0E014728
24. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.G4 E64 1545
PHALARIS. L'epistole di Phalaride tiranno de gli Agrigentini / tradotte dalla lingua greca nella
uolgare italiana ; con l'indice delle lettre posto nel fine. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferarri,
1545.
8vo. 59, [5] leaves.
USTC, 762210; Adams, P-979; BM STC, 510; Bongi I, 100; EDIT 16 CNCE, 26036; OPAC
SBN, TO0E005530
25. Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin
Uzielli 254
CICERO. Le epistole famigliari, tradotte secondo i very sensi dell’auttore … [Venice: nelle case
di figliuoli di Aldo: 1545].
8vo. 333, [1] leaves
USTC, 822274; EDIT 16 CNCE, 12264; Kallendorf and Wells, Aldine Press Books, 298a;
OPAC SBN, CNCE012264; Renouard, 132, no. 9
26. Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven
Hc73 24H
BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Il Decamerone di M. Giovanni Boccaccio … [Venice: Gabriel Giolito
de’ Ferrari, 1546]
8vo. 6 p.l., 501, [69] p. illustrations.
27. Huntington Library, San Marino
111052
ARIOSTO, Lodovico. Le Rime di M. Lodovico Ariosto non piu uiste, & nuouamente stampate à
instantia di Iacopo Modanese, cio è Sonetti, Madrigalli, Canzoni, Stanze, Capitoli. Venice:
Iacopo Coppa, 1546.
8vo. 55, [1] leaves
USTC, 810638; EDIT 16 CNCE, 2643; OPAC SBN, CFIE001456
332
28. British Library, London
1907.e.8
BEN GERSHOM, Levi. Rabi Leṿi ben Gershom Perush al ha-Torah : al derekh beur divre
ha-parashah, ṿe-al derekh beur ha-milot im ha-toalot ha-magiot me-hem. Venice:
[Daneil Bomberg and Israel Cornelius Adelkind], [1546/7].
Folio. 248 leaves
Joseph Zedner, Catalogue of Hebrew Books in the Library of the British Museum (London:
British Museum, 1867), 431
29. Cambridge University Library, Cambridge
Acton.c.49.498
TOLOMEI, Claudio. Lettere di M.C. Tolomei libri sette. Venice: Gabriele Giolito, 1547.
4to. 234 (i.e. 232), [6] leaves
USTC, 859281; EDIT 16 CNCE, 26071; OPAC SBN, BVEE018109
30. Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice
SIN 43559, C 060C 259
CALDERIA, Giovanni. Concordantiae poetarum philosophorum et theologorum… Venice: apud
Cominum de Tridino Montisferati, 1547.
8vo. ff. [4] 179 [1]
USTC, 817739; EDIT 16, 8387; OPAC SBN, BVEE005621
31. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
RES-Z-2730
CALDERIA, Giovanni. Concordantiae poetarum philosophorum et theologorum… Venice: apud
Cominum de Tridino Montisferati, 1547.
8vo. ff. [4] 179 [1]
USTC, 817739; EDIT 16, 8387; OPAC SBN, BVEE005621
32. Newberry Library, Chicago
Case Y 712 .B42
BEMBO, Pietro. Delle rime di M. Pietro Bembo. Rome: Per Valerio Dorico et Luigi fratelli, ad
instantia di M. Carlo Gualteruzzi, 1548.
333
4to. [8], 152, [4], 153-180 pp.
USTC, 813382; Adams, B-604; BM STC, 81; Brunet, I, 764; EDIT 16 CNCE, 5030; OPAC
SBN, BVEE013398
33. Cambridge University Library, Cambridge
Y.8.42
BEMBO, Pietro. Delle rime di M. Pietro Bembo. Rome: Per Valerio Dorico et Luigi fratelli, ad
instantia di M. Carlo Gualteruzzi, 1548.
4to. [8], 152, [4], 153-180 pp.
34. Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven
Jdb11 B523 549
BIONDO, Michelangelo. Della nobilissima pittura, et della sua arte, del modo, & della dottrina,
di conseguirla, ageuolmente et presto … Venice: Alla Insegna di Appolline [Bartolomeo
Imperadoe, 1549]
8vo. [4], 27, [1] leaves
USTC, 814588; EDIT 16 CNCE, 6126; OPAC SBN, CNCE006126
35. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge
GEN *IC5 B5234 549d
BIONDO, Michelangelo. Della nobilissima pittura, et della sua arte, del modo, & della dottrina,
di conseguirla, ageuolmente et presto … Venice: Alla Insegna di Appolline [Bartolomeo
Imperadoe, 1549]
8vo. [4], 27, [1] leaves
36. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge
WKR 21.1.14
DEMOSTHENES; Felice Figliucci (commentary). Le undici filippiche di Demosthene con vna
lettera di Filippo a gl'Atheniesi. Rome: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1550.
8vo. [4], 140 leaves
USTC, 826508; EDIT 16 CNCE, 16742; OPAC SBN, BVEE010047
37. Cambridge University Library, Cambridge
Td.52.118
334
VIDA, Marco Girolamo. Cremonensium orations III adversus Papienses in controuersia
prinipatus [Poemata Omnia]. Cremona: [Giovanni Muzio and Bernardino Locheta], 1550.
8vo. [2], 136 leaves
USTC, 863242; Adams, C-2926; BM STC, 203; EDIT 16 CNCE, 13722; OPAC SBN,
BVEE008456
38. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 V667c 1550
VIDA, Marco Girolamo. Cremonensium orations III adversus Papienses in controuersia
prinipatus [Poemata Omnia]. Cremona: [Giovanni Muzio and Bernardino Locheta], 1550.
8vo. [2], 136 leaves
39. Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice
ANT 11613, C 057C 074
FIGLIUCCI, Felice. Di Felice Figliucci senese, De la filosofia morale libri dieci. Soprali dieci
libri de l'Ethica d'Aristotile. Rome: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1551.
4to. [16], 504, [24] pp.
USTC, 829477; EDIT 16 CNCE, 18972; OPAC SBN, UFIE003835
40. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
RES-TE95-1
LAGUNA, Andreas de. Methodus cognoscendi extirpandique excrescentes in vesicae collo
carunculas. [Rome: Antonio Blado, 1551].
8vo. 24 leaves
USTC, 837117; EDIT 16 CNCE, 24650; OPAC SBN BVEE005613
41. British Library, London
C.20.a.19.
PICCOLOMINI, Alessandro. L’instrumento de la filosofia. Rome: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1551.
8vo. [32], 323, [1] leaves
USTC 848302; EDIT 16 CNCE, 36082; OPAC SBN, BVEE006030
335
42. Morgan Library & Museum, New York
PML 126435
Calendario et lunario perpetuo. [Venice: Bartolomeo Imperatore, 1552].
4to. [10] leaves
USTC, 870136; Adams, C-191
43. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.G45 P935 1552
BERNI, Francesco. Il primo libro dell'opere burlesche di M. Francesco Berni, di Messer Gio.
della Casa, del Varchi, del Mauro, di M. Bino, del Molza, del Dolce, e del Firenzuola. Florence:
[Filippo and Jacopo Giunta], 1552.
8vo. 224 leaves.
USTC, 814145; BM STC, 88; Brunet I, 800; EDIT 16 CNCE, 5547; OPAC SBN, BVEE029095;
Renouard, 56, no. 148
44. Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice
45391, D 013D 229
GUEVARA, Antonio de. Libro secondo di Marco Aurelio ... Trattato dall'Horologio de Prencipi
composto da Monsignor il Vescovo di Mondogneto ... tradotto per il S. Alfonso Ulloa … Venice:
Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari et Fratelli, 1553.
8vo. [22], 333, [2] pp.
45. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 C326a 1553
CENTORIO, Ascanio. Le amorose rime di M. Ascanio Centorio, caualier di San Iacopo dalla
Spada, gentilhomo romano. [Venice]: [Matteo Pagano], 1553.
8vo. [4], 47, [5] leaves.
USTC, 821578; BM STC, 165; EDIT 16 CNCE, 10782; OPAC SBN, CNCE010782
46. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.G4 H66oS 1553
HOMER; Gonzalo Perez (translator). La Vlyxea de Homero : repartida en XIII libros / traduzida
de griego en romance castellano por el señor Gonçalo Perez. Venice: Gabriel Giolito, 1553.
336
12mo. 209, [1] leaves.
Adams, H-799; BM STC, 331; Bongi, 405-406
47. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.G4 O96ml 1553
OVID; Lodovico Dolce (translator, editor). Metamorphoses / Le trasformationi di M. Lodovico
Dolce. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferarri, 1553.
4to. [16], 309, [11] Leaves
USTC, 85803; BM STC, 482; Bongi I, 395; Brunet II, 789; EDIT 16 CNCE, 27046; Mortimer,
342; OPAC SBN, RMLE028769
48. British Library, London
C.29.c.1.
POLYBIUS. Undici libri di Polibio nuovamente trovati e tradotti per L. Domenichi. Translated
by Lodovico Domenichi, Venice: Gabriele, Giolito, 1553.
8vo. 825, [11] pp
USTC, 850252; EDIT 16 CNCE, 27063; OPAC SBN, TO0E010888
49. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 E31d 1554
EGNAZIO, Giovanni Battista. Ioannis Baptistae Egnatii viri doctissimi De exemplis illustrium
virorum Venetae ciuitatis atque aliarum gentium : cum indice rerum notabilium. Venice:
[Niccolò Bevilacqua], 1554.
4to. [8], 309, [1] pp.
USTC, 828069; Adams, E-81; BM STC, 231; EDIT 16, CNCE 18057; OPAC SBN,
BVEE010096; Renouard, 295, no. 1
50. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.G4 C11w 1554
JULIUS CAESAR; Francesco Baldelli (translator). I commentari di C. Giulio Cesare / da M.
Francesco Baldelli nuouamente di lingua latina tradotti in thoscana. ; con figure, e tauole delle
materie e de i nomi delle città, ch'in questi commentari si leggono, antichi e moderni, per adietro
no piu stampate. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari e fratelli, 1554.
8vo. [48], 384 [i.e. 784], [32] pp.
337
USTC, 817502; BM STC, 135; Bongi I, 451; EDIT 16, CNCE 8172; OPAC SBN, CNCE008172
51. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 P44r 1554
PETRARCH; Lodovico Dolce (editor, commentary). Il Petrarca / nouissimamente revisto e
corretto da Messer Lodovico Dolce ; con alcuni dottis. auertimenti di M. Giulio Camillo, et
indici del Dolce de'concetti e delle parole che nel poeta si trouano ; & in ultimo de gli epitheti ;
& un'utile raccoglimento delle desinenze delle Rime di tutto il canzoniere di esso poeta. Venice:
Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferarri et fratelli, 1554.
8vo. [32], 380 [i.e. 386], [14], [184] pp. ills.
USTC, 847856; Adams, P-821; BM STC, 505; Bongi I, 434-435; EDIT 16 CNCE, 47363
52. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
8-BL-6428
PETRARCH; Lodovico Dolce (editor, commentary). Il Petrarca / nouissimamente revisto e
corretto da Messer Lodovico Dolce ; con alcuni dottis. auertimenti di M. Giulio Camillo, et
indici del Dolce de'concetti e delle parole che nel poeta si trouano ; & in ultimo de gli epitheti ;
& un'utile raccoglimento delle desinenze delle Rime di tutto il canzoniere di esso poeta. Venice:
Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferarri et fratelli, 1554.
8vo. [32], 380 [i.e. 386], [14], [184] pp. ills.
53. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
RES-YD-1379
ALIGHIERI, Dante. La Divina Comedia di Dante, di nuovo alla sua vera lettione ridotta...
Venice: Gabriele Giolito De Ferrari & fratres, 1555.
12mo. pp. [36] 598 [2]
USTC, 808793; OPAC SBN, 1170
54. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
8-H-3959
TEGRIMI, Niccolò; Antonio Bandinelli; Giusto Compagni. Le Vite di Castruccio Castracani
degl' Antelminelli principe di Lucca e del minore Scipione Affricano. Lucca: Vincenzo
Busdraghi, 1556.
8vo. 247 (=251) [5] pp.
338
USTC, 858606; EDIT 16 CNCE, 23379
55. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
4-BL-2528
GIRALDI, Giambattista Cinzio. Dell'Hercole di m. Giovanbattista Giraldi Cinthio nobile
ferrarese, secretario dell'illustrissimo et eccellentissimo signore il signore Hercole Secondo da
Este, duca quarto di Ferrara. Modena: nella stamperia di Cornelio I Gadaldini, 1557.
4to. pp. 353 [17]
USTC, 833270; EDIT 16 CNCE, 21268; OPAC SBN, RMLE013754
56. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
RES-X-1488
REMIGIO, Nannini. Orationi militari, raccolte per M. Remigio, Fiorentino, da tutti gli historici,
greci e latini, antichi e moderni... Venice. Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1557.
4to. pp. [32] 740
USTC, 844122; EDIT 16 CNCE, 26254; OPAC SBN, LO1E004129
57. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
RES-Z-2466
SPERONI, Sperone. Dialoghi di m. Speron Speroni. Nuovamente ristampati, et con molta
diligenza riveduti, et corretti. Venice: Domenico Giglio, 1558.
USTC, 857244; EDIT 16 CNCE, 25857; OPAC SBN, TO0E000484
58. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.G4 P74I 1560
PLUTARCH. La prima [-seconda] parte delle Vite di Plutarco. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’
Ferarri, 1560.
4to. [8], 973, [3]; 535, [1] pp.
USTC, 850005; Bongi II, 83; Brunet IV, 740; EDIT 16 CNCE, 27349
59. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 M612nz 1561
339
MAIMONIDES, Moses; Obadiah Bertinoro. Mishnayot mi-seder Nezikin / ‘im perush Mosheh
bar Maimon ve-‘im perush ‘Ovadyah mi-Bertanurah. Mantua: Ya’akov Kohen mi-Gazolo, 1561
or 1562.
4to. 116 leaves
David Amram, Makers of Hebrew books in Italy: Beginning Chapters in the History of the
Hebrew Printing Press (Philadelphia: J.H. Greenstone, 1909), 332
60. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
RES-X-1487
REMIGIO, Nannini. Orationi militari, raccolte per M. Remigio, Fiorentino, da tutti gli historici,
greci e latini, antichi e moderni... Venice. Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1561.
USTC, 844123; EDIT 16 CNCE, 26308; OPAC SBN, TO0E007493
61. Widener Library, Harvard University, Cambridge
Heb 42300.966
KIMHI, Moses; Elias Levita (commentary). Mahalakh shevile ha-daʻat, diķduķ… Mantua: Me’ir
b.R. Efrayim mi-Padovah, 323 [1563].
8vo. [128] pp.
62. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
RES-E*-264
MEMMO, Giovanni Maria. Dialogo del magn. cavaliere M. Gio. Maria Memmo, nel quale,
dopo alcune filosofiche dispute, si forma un perfetto prencipe e una perfetta Republica... Venice:
Gabriele Giolito De Ferrari, 1563.
4to. pp. [12] 193 [3]
USTC, 841990; EDIT 16 CNCE, 26438; OPAC SBN, VEAE012118
63. The Grolier Collection, New York
Canones, et decreta sacrosancti oecumenici, et generalis Concilii Tridentini… Rome: Paulus
Manuitus, 1564.
8vo. CCXXXIX, [17] pp.
USTC, 764675; Ahmanson-Murphy, 353, no. 703; Clemmons and Fletcher, 244-3, no. 98; EDIT
16 CNCE, 77060; OPAC SBN, VEAE123266; Renouard, 190-4
340
64. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 M343r 1564
MARMITTA, Jacopo. Rime di M. Giacomo Marmitta parmeggiano. Parma: Seth Viotto, 1564.
4to. [2], 198, [10] pp.
Notes: Bound in contemporary brown leather binding that is paneled in gold, with ornamental
border of fleur-de-lys and crescent moons, and circle-within-mandorla motif in the cnter. There
is a gold-stamped motto on upper cover "Humil quantunque pien di fede i vegno," and there is an
additional motto on lower cover that reads "Sperando al viver mio fido sostegno." There are also
small gilt floral ornaments in spine panels, gold-stamped red leather with spine label, and all
foredges gilt.
USTC, 841028; Adams, M-623; BM STC (suppl.), 54; EDIT 16 CNCE, 39083; OPAC SBN,
BVEE008403
65. Saxon State and University Library, Dresden
Botan.204
MATTIOLI, Pietro Andrea. Petri Andreae Matthioli Senensis medici, commentarii in sex libros
pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei de medica material. Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1565.
Folio. [172], 1459, [13] pp., ills.
USTC, 841574; EDIT 16 CNCE, 39013; Jane Quinby, Catalogue of Botanical Books in the
Collection of Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt (Pittsburgh: Hunt Botanical Library, 1958-61),
I:94; Claus Nissen, Die botanische Buchillustration (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1966), 1305; OPAC
SBN, BVEE004275; G.A. Pritzel, Thesaurus literaturae botanicae omnium gentium (Leipzig:
F.Z. Brockhaus, 1872-7), 5989
66. Oakspring Garden Library, Upperville, Virginia
RB1017
MATTIOLI, Pietro Andrea. Petri Andreae Matthioli Senensis medici, commentarii in sex libros
pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei de medica material. Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1565.
Folio. [172], 1459, [13] pp., ills.
67. Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Vienna
*70.A.9
MATTIOLI, Pietro Andrea. Petri Andreae Matthioli Senensis medici, commentarii in sex libros
pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei de medica material. Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1565.
Folio. [172], 1459, [13] pp., ills.
341
Hunt, 94; Nissen, 1305; Pritzel, 5989
68. Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven
1979 600
FLORIMONTE, Galeazzo. Ragionamenti di mons. Galeazzo Florimonte, vescovo di Sessa,
sopra l’Ethica d’Aristotile … Venice: D. Nicolini, 1567.
8vo. [4], 177, [1] leaves
USTC, 830045; EDIT 16 CNCE, 19274; OPAC SBN, TO0E004363
69. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
4-S-4293 (2)
CENTORIO, Ascanio degli Ortensi. Discorsi di guerra del Signor Ascanio Centorio divisi in
cinque libri... con la tavola di ciascheduno... Venice: Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1568.
4to. 5 volumes in 2
USTC, 821592; EDIT 16 CNCE, 10795
70. Cambridge University Library, Cambridge
F157.a.2.1
EUCLID; Federico Commandino (commentary). Elementorum libri XV. Una cum scholiis
antiquis. A Federico Commandino Urbinate nuper in Latinum conversi, commentariisque
illustrate. Pesaro: Camillo Francischini, 1572.
Folio. [12], 255 leaves : ill., diagrams
USTC, 828478; Adams, E-984; Brunet II, 1088; EDIT 16, CNCE 18358; Mortimer, no. 174;
OPAC SBN VBAE000180; Thomas-Stanford, 29, no. 18.
71. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge
Typ 525 72.373
EUCLID; Federico Commandino (commentary). Elementorum libri XV. Una cum scholiis
antiquis. A Federico Commandino Urbinate nuper in Latinum conversi, commentariisque
illustrate. Pesaro: Camillo Francischini, 1572.
Folio. [24] pp, 255 leaves : ill., diagrams
72. Huntington Library, Harvard University, Cambridge
113022
342
BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Il Decameron di Messer G. Boccacci cittadino fiorentino. Ricorretto
in Roma et emendato secondo l’ordine del sacro Conc. di Trento, et riscontrato in Firenze con
testi antichi et alla sua vera lezione ridotto da’ deputati di loro alt. ser.. Florence: Fioreza
Stamperia de i Giunti, 1573.
8vo. [29], 578, [2], [1] p. Woodcut portrait of author on titlepage, woodcut initials.
printed on blue paper
73. Sokol Books (last known location)
EUCLID; Federico Commandino (commentary and translation). De gli elementi d’Euclide libri
quindici ... Urbino: Domenico Frisolino, 1575.
Folio. [8], 278 leaves. 600 woodcut diagrams.
Notes: Currently on sale via Sokol Books.
USTC, 828481; Adams, E-995; BM STC, 568; EDIT 16 CNCE, 18361; Luigi Moranti, L'arte
tipografica in Urbino (1493-1800) (Florence: Leo Olschki, 1967), no. 4; OPAC SBN,
BVEE005091; Thomas-Stanford, 42
74. PrPh Books (last known location)
EUCLID; Federico Commandino (commentary and translation). De gli elementi d’Euclide libri
quindici ... Urbino: Domenico Frisolino, 1575.
Folio. [8], 278 leaves. 600 woodcut diagrams.
Notes: Currently on sale via PrPh Books.
75. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 M3015c 1580
MANFREDI, Muzio. Cento donne, cantate da Mutio Manfredi, Il Fermo, academico innominato
di Parma. Parma: Erasmo Viotti, 1580.
12mo. [12], 244 [i.e. 246], [18] pp.
USTC, 840092; BM STC, 409; EDIT 16 CNCE, 38913
76. Huntington Library, San Marino
111697
343
AUDEBERT, Germain. Germani Avdeberti Avrelii Venetiae ad Sereniss. ac. sapientiss.
Venetiarvm. Principem Nicolavm. deponte et illvstriss. atq. prvdentiss. senators. patriciosq.
Venetos. Venice: Aldine Press, 1583.
4to. 8 p. l. 181 pp,
USTC, 811402; EDIT 16 CNCE, 3366; Brunet I, 551; OPAC SBN, CNCE003366; Renouard,
233
77. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 M576c 1589
MIARI, Alessandro. La caccia: faulo boschereccia. Reggio: Hercoliano Batholi, 1589.
8vo. [8], 124, [4] pp.
USCT, 842355; EDIT 16 CNCE, 30810; OPAC SBN, BVEE005538
78. Gonville & Caius, Lower Library, Cambridge University, Cambridge
Bb.1.22
TASSO, Torquato. La Gierusalemme liberata di Torquato Tasso, con le figure di Bernardo
Castello e la annotationi di Scipio Gentile e di Giulio Guastauini. Genoa: Girolamo Bartolio,
1590.
4to. 11, [1], 255, [1], 71, [1], 40, [8] pp.
Notes: Illustrations engraved by Agostino Carracci and Giacomo Franco after designs by
Bernardo Castello. Some engravings with gold embellishments.
USTC, 858410; Adams, T-243; EDIT 16 CNCE, 30894; OPAC SBN, LO1E000628
79. University of California, Los Angeles
Z233.I8 B4287p 1598
BENDINELLI, Scipione. Scipionis Bendinellii pro vniuersalib[us] Carmelitarum congregationis
Mantuanae comitiis oratio ad Senatum populumq[ue] Lucensem. Lucca: Vincentium
Busdrachium [Vincenzo Busdraghi], 1598.
4to. [12] pp.
USTC, 813565; EDIT 16 CNCE, 5149; OPAC SBN, 5149
Abstract (if available)
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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Anderson, Emily Rose
(author)
Core Title
The bespoke book: experimental printing in early modern Italy
School
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree Program
Art History
Publication Date
02/05/2021
Defense Date
05/11/2020
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
book history,early modern Italy,early modern print,early modern visual culture,history of the book,OAI-PMH Harvest,print culture,print studies
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Bleichmar, Daniela (
committee chair
), Berger, Susanna (
committee member
), Harkness, Deborah (
committee member
), Pon, Lisa (
committee member
)
Creator Email
eanderson@26miles.com,emilyand@usc.edu
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-360660
Unique identifier
UC11665848
Identifier
etd-AndersonEm-8890.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-360660 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
etd-AndersonEm-8890.pdf
Dmrecord
360660
Document Type
Dissertation
Rights
Anderson, Emily Rose
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA
Tags
book history
early modern Italy
early modern print
early modern visual culture
history of the book
print culture
print studies