Printer's & publishers' devices in England & Scotland, 1485-1640.

  • McKerrow, R. B. (Ronald Brunlees), 1872-1940.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Printer's & publishers' devices in England & Scotland, 1485-1640. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    claimed, and, I suppose, after a certain time the printer would feel quite justified in considering it as his own. We may thus probably explain the transfer to Bynneman of England's device No. 138, and perhaps that of No. 203 from Bynneman to Newbery. Lastly, something must be said as to the occurrence of borders in works in which their apparent owners seem to have had no share. The borders with which the present work deals are, of course, only those which have some especial mark of ownership and which, therefore, would less naturally appear in the work of other men. But in the case of borders which have no such distin- guishing mark, an apparent transference backward and forward between printers who are not known to have had business relations with one another, is exceedingly common. The simplest explanation, and the only one which seems to suit the fadts, is that they were lent or hired out. A good wood-cut compartment, especially one of a large size, must have been of value, and probably was con- sidered to add greatly to the attractiveness of a book. There is at any rate nothing improbable in the idea that printers hired such things from one another as modern publishers obtain eledtros of illustrations. It results from this that we must guard ourselves against assuming that a work in which one of these more elaborate title- borders appears was necessarily printed by the probable owner of it at the time. In attempting to determine the printer of such a work we must rely chiefly for our evidence on such initial letters and smaller ornaments as it would not be worth anyone's while to borrow. Indeed, in this, as in detedtive work of all kinds, it is the apparently unimportant which is most valuable as evidence. g