THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
Johannes Enschedé was disposed to think that the Commendacien was the first work
that Henric did in this type, and that he put his name and description of ietter-
cutter' to it so that other printers might know that founts of this Black Letter were
to be had from him. He also thought that the book must have been printed before
1485. His reason was that he owned a book printed by Jacob van Breda, a quarto
set in this same type, entitled Aulularia Plautina1 giving, as he thought, the date 1485 at
the end in this form : 'From the office of Jacob van Breda in the year Xviij Sex. КаГ
ap[r]. M.Ivc. lxxxv'. Here, however, my ancestor was clearly wrong: the figures 1485
were written in the volume at a later date,2 and the year of printing must be taken to
have been (15)18.
Ledeboer3 thought that Henric Lettersnider was printing by 1480; but to me it
seems more likely that he did not begin until some ten years after that.4
The first book known to me that was printed in our English-bodied Black Letter
by a printer other than Henric is one beginning Hier beghinnen alle die epistolen eude
evangelien ...5 The concluding words of the book mean: 'Printed at Deventer in the
diocese of Utrecht by me Jacob van Breda, in the year of our Lord 1493, on the ist
day in March'. If we may suppose that Jacob van Breda bought this fount after seeing
the Commendacien, we can hardly date the Commendacien earlier than, say, 1490. Johannes
Enschedé was particularly concerned to draw attention to this book of Jacob van
Breda because it was printed in a type for which he owned the matrices (see figs. 2
and 3). At one time he thought it the earliest use of the type apart from Henric's
own books, but after seeing the Aulularia he changed his mind. It is certain, more¬
over, that other books in Johannes Enschedé's library by this Deventer printer
dated 1490 and 1492, were not set in our Black Letter, and it is inconceivable that a
printer of those days would have a new type in his possession for several years with-
epiftolen eñ euan0elien mitten fermonen nan
Den 0^e^elen iaer.Die een naOl anOeren uouje
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"Цш tjolepnoen alle Die eptftelen eñ Die euä [i] NK 1732. Catalogue auction Enschedé 1867, lot 2276. [4] Cf. note 5 on p. 6. [5] CA 703. Catalogue auction Enschedé 1867, lot 281, now in Cam¬ 8 HENRIC LETTERSNIDER mtœahêïmaebetenbeDetopOat0tyitn0eenbe rat uoett en ÎêpDe ^ет.Шеп foect 0ÏUÏ £>t anttooet Figs. 2,3. English-bodied Black Letter No. i. Resetting of two pages from out making use of it. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that in 1493 the Black Soon after its use by Jacob van Breda the type appears in the printing done by the The Augustinian canons of Schoonhoven, like those of Gouda, Delft, Haarlem, Lettersnider's type [*] This was among the books sold in 1867.1 have not been [1] See HPT 1, p. 96. able to trace it. [Catalogue auction Enschedé 1867, lot 667; now in [2] CA 375. the British Library, ВМС ix, p. 104.] 9
0euen mitten tonnetto arcljfcljcn fermonen uä
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[2] This is not so: the date 1485 is printed (nk 1732).
[3] A. M. Ledeboer, Alfabetische lijst der boekdrukkers... in Noord-
Nederland, 1876, p. 76 ; see also his Chronologisch register, 1877, p. 1.
bridge UL, ULC 3553.
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the Epistelen ende Evangelien, Deventer, Jacob van Breda, 1493.
Letter was recently cut,1 and that it cannot be dated earlier than 1490, though, I ad¬
mit, not much later.
Canons Regular of the Priory of St. Michael at Den Hem near Schoonhoven. One
example is a folio of 1495 headed Breviarium Traiectense,2 with the imprint extra muros oppidi
Scoenhoviensis...
and other places in Holland, were masterly copyists of manuscripts ; indeed, they
were adept at all manner of learned and literary pursuits ; and the canons of Den Hem
in particular were highly reputed. Among them were scholars of real distinction,
such as Cornells Lopsen van der Goude, better known as Cornelius Aurelius, who
taught Erasmus. Many manuscripts from this Priory have survived to witness to the
used at Den Hem