1541: Franz Behem

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Source:

Title: ‘De Chalcographiae Inventione Poema Encomiasticum.’
Author: Johannes Arnold
Publisher: -
Printer: excudebat Franz Behem
Illustrator: -
Engraver: -
Location: Mainz
Year: 1541
Links: [Scan], [USTC].

Comments:

Falconer Madan (1895, page 231) state: ‘The press on the right hand is of an ordinary kind with a straight bar and with a few details shown: ... But the left-hand half is occupied by a large case for type, the compositor, with his composing-stick well shown, sitting before it.’ [Note: did Madan confuse ‘right’ and ‘left’ in this picture?]

Nigel Roche (2000, page 31) states: ‘The title page of Joannes Arnoldus Bergellanus, De Chalcographiae inuentione, poema encomiasticum (an early treatise on printing and its invention), printed in 1541 by Franz Behem at Mainz, displays separate views of a printing press and of a compositor. ... I cannot agree with Madan that this is a ‘large case for type’ and that this ‘arrangement perhaps indicates at least these facts, that the letters were not yet arranged, as now, according to the frequency of use of each [when were capitals so arranged?], but by their natural order, and also that there was no separate lower case. Surely this grid of letters was intended for educational or decorative purposes only?’

Technique:

Woodcut

Publications

Falconer Madan (1895) ‘Early representations of the printing-Press with especial reference to that by Stradanus.’, Bibliographica. Volume 1, page 226-227. (Illustration 10).

Roche, Nigel (2000) The iconography of the printing office to 1700. Unpublished MA thesis. Library and Information Studies, University College London. (Illustration #I).