THE BLACK ART

Johannes Gutenberg and William Caxton

We often marvel at art and artefacts that have survived centuries or even millennia relatively unharmed. The survival of ephemeral and fragile works is all the more astounding in many cases. In advance of Chorley's upcoming auction of Books and Manuscripts that includes a leaf from the 42-line Gutenberg bible, a leaf from Caxton's Polychronicon and several illuminated manuscript leaves and fragments, we muse on the history and importance of incunabula and manuscript fragments.

We often marvel at art and artefacts that have survived centuries or even millennia relatively unharmed. The survival of ephemeral and fragile works is all the more astounding in many cases.

Whilst early illuminated and elegantly handwritten manuscripts were commissioned for monasteries, churches or illustrious patrons, we do not consider the printed book as the reserve of the wealthy but an affordable source of knowledge and reading pleasure for all. Its invention is a fascinating story and has been widely studied. The names Johannes Gutenberg and William Caxton loom large in the early history of printed books.

The term ‘incunabula’ (Latin for cradle, infancy or swaddling clothes) has, since the 18th century, been applied to books printed between circa 1450 and 1500. Its first use dates back to Batavia, a work by Adrien de Jonghe (1511-1575) that established a timeframe for the early art of typography.

Born in Mainz at the turn of the 14^th century, Gutenberg has been credited with the combination of several artistic and craft skills to create the first printing presses that were able to produce books in large quantities. Moveable type existed in Asia, ink was available, and printing presses were in use for woodblock production, but Gutenberg combined improved presses, a method for mass producing moveable and durable metal type and oil based inks to create the world’s first printing press and printed books.

Funded by the wealthy patron Johann Fust, Gutenberg was able to set up his experimental presses. However, as the 42-line bible became ready in 1455, Fust called in Gutenberg’s debts, and Gutenberg’s presses and business came under the ownership and direction of Fust. Although Gutenberg established a later business in Bamberg, his groundbreaking invention did not make him a rich man, and in fact Fust tried hard to eradicate Gutenberg’s claim to his invention, naming himself as the innovative genius.

Gutenberg created a revolution in the ability to create books comparatively cheaply, and this greater distribution of books and knowledge created an ‘information revolution’ that enabled the humanist movement. In particular, the translations of the Bible and other books into the vernacular spurred the greater dissemination of knowledge. Although Latin and Greek remained the scholarly languages of the elite, books in German, French, English, etc. soon became widely available and of course, allowed for a greater audience (and greater profits) for the printers and publishers.

The art of printing spread quickly across Europe, through Bruges and Cologne and eventually to London. Setting up in Westminster in 1476, the merchant adventurer William Caxton established his press and became the first printer in England. His business was taken over by the appropriately named Wynkyn de Worde.

The first English printed book is known to have been Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Caxton went on to publish many other works designed to appeal to the taste of his British readers. Eighty per cent of his publications were printed in English, including the first English translation of Aesop's Fables.

As well as a technician and translator, Caxton was also an author. In the case of Ranulf Higden’s Polychronicon, a medieval compendium of history that ended in the year 1360, Caxton, 100 years later, expanded it by adding his own chronicle of events up to 1460. Caxton named this appendix the Liber Ultimus – the Final Book.

[Caxton] Higden (Ranulphus) Polychronicon, a single incunabulum leaf from the Liber Ultimus

Sold for £550 (plus fees)

The modern history of incunabula and their collection is an interesting story in its own right. Whilst fourty-eight largely complete copies of the 180 printed 42-line Gutenberg bible survive, there were many examples which were broken up for leaves and for profit. Many incunabula suffered this fate, with plates regularly excised and framed and text leaves sold to collectors.

Leaf of the Gutenberg Bible, Mainz, circa 1455

Sold for £39,000 (plus fees)

Gabriel Wells (1861–1946) was one of the most important antiquarian booksellers in America and Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. One of the most significant transactions of Wells' career was his purchase of a Gutenberg Bible from Joseph Sabin, who had bought it at auction in 1920. Wells opted to break up the Bible (which was not overall in perfect condition) and to sell the leaves individually, thus reaching a wider market. The leaves in good condition sold for an average of $150 each, while the ruined leaves were priced around $100.

Christ, in a large initial, from a manuscript choir book. [Italy (Naples), circa 1325]

Sold for £7,000 (plus fees)

Illuminated manuscripts suffered a similar fate, with the ‘pretty bits’ often cut out, full-page leaves excised to be framed, and books split between collectors so each could have an example of an artist’s work.

There have always been unscrupulous dealers in and collectors of manuscripts and early books, but at the same time, we can be grateful that so many of these superbly beautiful works have survived until the present day.

Explore Chorley's March Auction of Fine Books & Manuscripts