406
[Class XVII.
composition of the types being made by young girls ; byMM. Plon Brothers (p. 1243), whose books, albums,vignette engravings, and woodcuts, are of great merit;by M. Clayf. (pp. 1218, 1219), whose illustrated booksare of first-rate workmanship, and whose woodcut impres-sions are truly beautiful; * and for the provinces, byMM. Mame+ (p. 1192), who exhibit books neatly boundand fairly printed, at most extraordiuarily-low prices;by M. Silbermann (pp. 1194,1195), who has contributedto improve the art of surface-coloured printing; by M.Desrosiers (p. 1219), who in a small provincial townhas produced his “Ancient Auvergne,” &c., in a verycreditable manner; and by M. Barbat (p. 1229), whoexhibits illustrated volumes of the Scriptures.
The Jury would have been gratified to see displayed inthe Exhibition any typographical production executed inSpain,—the country which in 1772 produced at Madrid the superb edition of “ Sallust, ” printed in such perfec-tion and on such beautiful paper by the King’s printer,Joachim Ibarra.
It is in Spain that the most ancient manufactories ofpaper known in Europe were established.
The same feeling is to be expressed as regards Portugal ,for the Jury cannot consider as a specimen of Portuguese printing the sample exhibited from Madeira, under thetitle of Amostra de Imprensa , though every beginning,however small, ought to be encouraged. The printers ofLisbon might have sent some well-known editions of theirclassics.
Tamar, an art recently cultivated in Belgium ; theMissals of M. Westmael Legros, of Namur (p. 1160);the cheap publications of M. Casterman, of Tournay i (p. 1159); the Academical Collections of M. Hayez, of' Brussels (p.1159); the Statistical Tables of the Populationand Agriculture of Belgium of M. Lesicne (p. 1159);the Album de Pomolotjie of M. Parent (p. 1159); theSpecimens of Illustrated Works of M. Muquardt(p. 1176); and the Collection of Letters and the His-torical Initials of M. Jacqmain, of Ghent (p. 1165).
Few printers of the Netherlands have sent specimens oftheir productions. The neat and cheap Bibles of MM.Enschede Johannes and Sons (p. 1146); the curiousJournal of the Embassy of the Earl of Portland inFrance, printed by M. Noordendorp, at the Hague (p. 1149); and the “Graduate Romanum,” and“Anti-phonarium Romanum,” by M. Zweesaardt, of Amster-dam (p. 1149\ have been remarked by the Jury.
We will also mention the continuatiou of the volu-minous publication of the “ Lives of the Saints,” com-menced by Bollandus , and forming fifty-three volumes infolio. The first of these enormous volumes, printed in1845, is entirely devoted to the Life of St. Theresa. Itis satisfactory to know that this great enterprise, sup-ported by the Belgian Government, is to be continued, asit equally embraces religion, history, and geography.
Hie Jury have not been able to judge of the state ofprinting in Denmark , that country not having sent asingle printed book. There was only an ingeniousmachine for composing the types after an entirely newsystem.
Printing was introduced into the Low Countries at thesame time as into England. Martin d’Alost, in 1473, andthe Brethren of la Vie Commune , at Brussels , publishedtheir first works. The art of printing made rapid pro-gress in the skilful hands of Joannes de Westphalia, in1474, at Louvain, and soon extended itself to Antwerp ,Andenande, Ghent, Bruges, Hasselt , &c. Towards theyear 1554, the Plantins at Antwerp , and, in 1616, theElzevirs, first at Leyden and afterwards at Amsterdam ,carried the typographic art to such a degree of perfection,that their publications are still sought after throughoutthe whole of Europe . The 'Wetsteins, the Blaeuws, andthe Moreti (who, being ennobled, received permission tocontinue the art of printing without derogation to theirnobility), were emulators and successors worthy of them.The political events of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-turies had a baneful influence on the progress of typo-graphy, which revived, particularly in Belgium , in 1815.The number of able printers increased considerably inboth countries; and, since 1830, Belgium has witnessedwith satisfaction the annual increase of original publica-tions, notwithstanding the unfavourable position in whichthe publishers are placed from the competition of thereprints of foreign works. Such, however, is the influenceof the development of a national spirit, that during thelast twenty years the Belgian press has issued a greaternumber of original works than in the 150 years"whichpreceded the recognition of the independence of thecountry.
Amongst the printers of Belgium , where the mechanicalpart of the art is good, the town of Malines has long sincemade itself known by its Prayer and Liturgic Books,successfully and economically printed in red and black—thanks to the incessant labours of M. P. T.Hanieq. Typo-graphy is also represented in the Exhibition by the well-printed Bibles and Testaments of M. Briard, of Ixelles (p. 1159); the illustrated books and woodcuts of M.
* By a singular coincidence these three were pupils ofthe typographic establishment of M. Firmin Didot.
+ According to M. Marne’s statement, they keep a stockof 1,500 volumes always ready ; throughout the year theyproduce 15,000 volumes per day, averaging 240 pages eachvolume. They have 20 steam cylinder machines, one ma-chine turning out 14 reams of printed work per hour. Allthe wood engraving is done in their establishment: theyemploy 1,200 persons.
M. Broling, the printer to the Bank of Sweden, exhi-bited specimens of printing bank-notes by letter-press, ofsuperior merit from their varied combinations, brightnessof colour, good register, and the difficulty thrown in theway of forgery by the different processes employed.
A single broadside sheet from St. Petersburgh exhi-bited specimens of several Russian and Oriental charac-ters surrounding a vignette on wood, representingvarieties of the Russian people. The whole is neatlyprinted.
It is to be regretted that the typographical productionsof Greece were not exhibited amongst those of othercivilized nations. A printing-office was established atAthens at the time of the independence of Greece .
At this Exhibition, Greece has confined herself toinscribing upon her banners, in large letters, the sentencesfrom her ancient poets as the harbinger of a betterfuture:—
Saotruv %£*? .... rax olvoio y sccr st afeuvov.
7.n\o7 ts yu76\a, yurcov
E }$ cr 'ffivbw'r', ’A yeidr, S’ <01; y,%i fjocroTm.
Europe might have possessed the art of printing eversince the year of onr Lord 1310, had she been acquaintedwith a work by Rdchid-ed-din, who, as far back as thatperiod, had described the process of printing as known tothe Chinese, in his Persian work entitled Vjemma’a et -tewarihh.
Persia has sent to the Exhibition some beautiful manu-scripts only, and some books printed in Europe ; never-theless, the typographic press is not unknown in thatcountry, since a newspaper in the Persian language ispublished there.
Whilst at the present day the ancient languages ofEgypt are printed in Europe with hieroglyphic, Coptic,or Greek characters, it was interesting to see displayed inthe Exhibition in London , 165 volumes of all sizes,printed in Arabic, in Turkish, and in Persian, at Cairo