Studies in Fifteenth-Century Printing

Book Description

The work of G. D. Painter on incunabula and early printing needs no introduction. Ranging from Gutenberg and Caxton to the first printing in France and Spain, the author has done much to illuminate the tangled history of the earliest editions of some of the rarest and most attractive books in European printing.

The articles reprinted here feature a number of studies which have become classics in their field. The author’s investigation of Gutenberg’s early work represents a major contribution to the age-old controversy surrounding the invention of printing. Similarly, his studies on Caxton have helped to clarify the date and development of the work of England’s first printer. Also included is his celebrated essay on the most outstanding illustrated book from the fifteenth century, Aldus Manutius’ edition of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.

Contents

• Preface
• Gutenberg and the B36 group. A reconsideration
• The true portrait of Johann Gutenberg
• The untrue portraits of Johann Gutenberg
• Gutenberg Quincentenary
• Gutenberg et son oeuvre. A review
• Gutenberg and the Master of the Playing Cards. A review
• The Problem of the Missale speciale. A review
• Netherlandish Blockbooks Quincentenary
• A fifteenth-century horror comic. A review
• A Horatian ghost
• Michael Wenssler’s devices and their predecessors
• Jacques Moerart, publisher, not printer
• The printer of Haneron
• The first Greek printing in Belgium, with notes on the first Greek printing in Paris
• Campbell’s ‘Annales de la Typographie néerlandaise au XVe Siècle’. A review
• The first press at Barcelona
• The Caxton Legenda at St. Mary’s, Warwick
• Caxton through the looking-glass. An enquiry into the offsets on a fragment of Caxton’s Fifteen Oes, with a census of Caxton bindings
• William Caxton and the 1482 Polychronicon
• An unbelievable landmark. A review; Caxton’s Progress
• Incunabula in Cambridge University Library. A review
• A list of books acquired by the British Museum from Chatsworth. Part I, Incunabula
• The Fifteenth-Century Book. A review
• The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of 1499. An introduction on the dream, the dreamer, the artist and the printer
• Victor Scholderer – in memoriam
• Additional Notes
• Index