University of Virginia Library

Venetian 'Woodcut' Capitals
by
A. J. Dunston

Many by-ways branch off from the path followed by a classical scholar interested in the Italian Renaissance: if he succumbs to temptation and wanders down any of them, he soon finds himself hopelessly lost in alien fields. For this reason, and because I have now returned to Australia where further research on the subject is virtually impossible because of the paucity of material available,[1] I make no apology for presenting an incomplete piece of research based on a study of only some 170 incunabula, but rather express the hope that someone who has the appropriate facilities available will pursue the problem further and try to answer with more precision the questions which arise.

Towards the end of my sabbatical leave in 1974, I had occasion to examine some of the incunabula printed in Florence by Bartolommeo di Libri. The British Library has 116 copies (excluding duplicates). Decorated capitals are first found in a book dated 5 September 1495 (IA 27311, BMC VI 650: C3—S262[2]): they are B and L, 15 x 15 mm., white on black ground. The 18 books which precede IA 27311, dating from 1482 onwards, have capital spaces with guide letters and/or Lombards. Of the 28 dated and 69 undated books which follow, 48 have capital spaces and/or Lombards, 7 have decorated capitals from sets measuring 20 x 22 mm. and 24 x 29 mm., and 42 have one or more decorated capitals from the 15 x 15 mm. set from which the B and L of IA 27311 came. IB 27385 (BMC VI 654, C3—B324), dated 20 July 1499, uses all the letters of the alphabet in this set except B.[3] No other Florentine printer appears to use this set save that the T makes a singular appearance on f.G.1.r. of IB 27636 (BMC VI 651 and 675, C3— S243). This is a 'composite' volume dated 8 February 1496/7[4] : di Libri

appears to have printed gatherings a-t, using 11 of the capitals in the 15 x 15 mm. set, Morgiani printed gatherings A-F, using capitals from an 18 x 16 mm. set, and Bonaccorsi gatherings G-I, in which the capital T is the only one used.

Again, all the letters of the alphabet except B E F O R T are used in C 107 g 16, Incomincia il libro delle omelie di sancto Gregorio papa. This volume bears no indication of date or place of printing. Brunet, Manuel du Libraire, 11 (1861), col. 1725, says "les éditions de cette traduction (Pachel and Scinzenzler Milan 1479, BMC VI 746 [IB 26432] C3—C423) sont cette de Florence 1502 pet. in-fol. de 92 ff. à 2 col. sans nom d'imprimeur mais qu'on attribue aux Junte. . . ." But perhaps the volume is Venetian (see further n.7).

BMC VI 647 says of the decorated capitals used by B. di Libri, "some closely following Venetian models".[5] This prompted a perusal of incunabula produced by printers who either worked in Venice or had Venetian associations, and led to the discovery that no less than 16 of these consistently use what appears to be the same[6] 15 x 15 mm. set used in Florence by B. di Libri.

The earliest dateable usages, in chronological order, are:

             

Date	Printer	Capitals used	Incunabulum & references
(Printed in Venice)
30 March 1492	Joannes Rubeus Vercellensis[7]	A only	IA 23149, BMC V 417, not in C3
6 November 1493	Matteo Capcasa	ACDEFILMT	IA 22751, BMC V 484, not in C3
20 January 1493/4	Matteo Capcasa	All except G and T	IA 22745, BMC V 485, C3--C103
14 March 1494	Simon Bevilaqua	All except O	IB 23934, BMC V 518, C3--D437
13 May 1494	Matteo Capcasa	All	IB 22758, BMC V 485, C3--J180

Other dated usages, to show the extent of the use of the set:

                           

Date	Printer	Capitals used	Incunabulum & references
29 April 1494	Joannes Rubeus Vercellensis	E only	IA 23164, BMC V 418, C3--T224
21 May 1496	Joannes Rubeus Vercellensis	AEGLMNP QSTV	IA 23180, BMC V 419, C3--J393
10 April 1497	Joannes Rubeus Vercellensis	All	IB 23185, BMC V 419, C3--O185
25 June 1494	Christophorus de Pensis	E only	IA 23469, BMC V 469, C3--C335
15 June 1496	Christophorus de Pensis	All except BCFO	IB 23485, BMC V 470, C3--V66
27 March 1499	Christophorus de Pensis	All	IA 23509, BMC V 472, C3--A578
22 September 1494	Bonetus Locatellus[8]	All except FV	IB 22910, BMC V 443, C3--C531
10-20 November 1494	Jacobus and Hieronymus Paganinus	All	IB 23272, BMC V 457, C3--L315
25 May 1494	Johannes Emericus[9]	FC only	IA 24207, BMC V 539, C3--N118
13 April 1495	Petrus de Quarengis	ACHNOPRSV	IB 24161, BMC V 512, C3--P357
15 October 1495	Joannes et Gregorius de Gregoriis	C only	IB 21101, BMC V347, C3--K14
22 April 1496	Joannes et Gregorius de Gregoriis	ENPQ	IB 21097, BMC V 348, C3--A965
10 April 1497	Joannes et Gregorius de Gregoriis	All	IA 21131, BMC V 350, C3--J429

                     

Date	Printer	Capitals used	Incunabulum & references
6 June 1495	Joannes Tacuinus	All except BDGR	IA 24048, BMC V 529, C3--C703
17 May 1496	Philippus Pincius[10]	All	IB 23666, BMC V 497, C3--N272
25 March 1497	Manfredus de Bonellis[11]	All except Q	IB 23825, BMC V 504, C3--B754
28 June 1497	Theodorus de Ragazonibus	AP only	IB 23568, BMC V 479, C3--B1233A
(Printed in places other than Venice)
Reggio Emilia
18 September 1496	Dionysius Bertochus[12]	All	IB 34061, BMC VII 1090, C3--S349
20 November 1499	Franciscus de Mazalibus[13]	All	IB 34043, BMC VII 1089, C3--S350
Brescia
20 November 1498	Angelus and Jacobus Britannicus[14]	All except BHL	IB 31189, BMC VII 982, C3--S623

We observe from this list that 16 printers who had some contact with Venice used decorated capitals from the same set of 15 x 15 mm. white on black ground over a period of time ranging from 1493-1500. And beyond: for on my return to Australia I found that the 1508 edition of the works of Statius, with the commentary of Domizio Calderini, which I happen to own and which was printed in Venice by Petrus de Quarengis, has all the letters except B M V. The set is not, of course, always used exclusively and printers from time to time used it in conjunction with other sets they possessed.

For example, Joannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis used a variety of sets including another but very similar 15 x 15 mm. white on black ground set which is used by itself in IB 21105 (BMC V348, C3—A979) and in conjunction with the other in IB 21097 (BMC V 348, C3—A965).

Plate 1A illustrates the nineteen letters of the set from IB 23272 (BMC V 457-8, C3—L315), Lucas de Burgo somma di aritmetica, printed in November 1494 by Jacobus and Hieronymus Paganinus. The C and A may be compared with those in Plate 1B: IA 22745 (BMC V 485, C3—C103), Cantalicus Epigrammata, printed on 20 January 1493/4 by Matteo Capcasa. Plate 1C shows the O used by Bartolommeo di Libri, IA 27595 (BMC VI 665, C3—S273), Savonarola, Triumphus Crucis, undated. Further comparisons may be made with the set as reproduced (except for O) by F. Ongania in L'arte della stampa nel rinascimento italiano, Venice, n.d., p. 81, and with the S and V reproduced in BMC V Plate XXXIII and BMC VII Plate C respectively.[15]

We must now try to define a little more clearly exactly what we are dealing with here. Though borrowings of type and woodcut capitals and borders is well attested,[16] it is quite impossible that we have here a single set of capitals. Quite apart from the intrinsic improbability of such a large number of printers sharing a common set, no wood or metal set could have lasted so long. In any case close examination reveals, as we shall see, differences, minute maybe but still differences, between some printings of the same capital letter and others. A more pertinent question is perhaps, "Of what material were the blocks made anyway? Metal or wood?" BMC I, intro. p. xvii, refers to "relief-blocks, whether wood or metal used for pictorial illustrations and ornaments" and goes on to discuss how both wood and metal blocks can develop faults which will allow a whole series of books to be put into chronological order. BMC V in the sections which preface the descriptions of books produced by each printer consistently uses the term 'Woodcut Capitals': BMC VI uses the term 'Printed Capitals', and BMC VII simply 'Capitals'.

Plate 2 shows the left-hand side of f. 109 v. and the right-hand side of f. 110 r. of IB 23272. This makes it clear that Paganinus had at least 7 blocks for decorated capital S. One, on f. 110 r. marked X, is clearly different from the rest.[17] The rest resemble each other in decoration very closely indeed, though one can discern very minute differences here and there. The frame-lines, however, are so chipped or distorted as to allow those on f. 109 v. to be 'paired' with those on f. 110 r. The clearest examples are the last S on f. 109 v. and the top on f. 110 r., where the top of the frameline has a quite distinctive distortion. The rest can be 'paired' as I have indicated in the margins.[18]

We have here one printer with 6 near-identical copies of the same block. Taking into consideration the similar duplications that doubtless could be evidenced in the work of this and of other printers, and the whole extent (in time and by so many different printers) of the use of this set, it is clear, I think, that we cannot be dealing with the work of Italian wood-engravers, skilled as they were, but rather with type which has been cast.

In reply to a letter written to him making this suggestion, Mr. H. G. Carter of the Oxford University Press very kindly drew my attention to the noun and verb 'dab' in the Oxford English Dictionary: "9. . . . 1889 T. B. Reed (in letter), The common process of producing cast ornaments for printing before the introduction of electrotyping was known in English type-foundries as 'dabbing'.[19] The original woodblock is dropped sharply into a bed of molten lead on the point of cooling. A mould or matrix of the design is thus produced. To produce replicas of the design the operator strikes this matrix into lead. The result is a 'cast' or 'dab' in relief, which when mounted can be used to print along with type."

Although further research—the examination of more incunabula, and perhaps the enlistment of the aid of optical equipment—is necessary before one can speak with precision about details, it is perhaps already clear that the Venetian typefounders in the last decade of the fifteenth century must have discovered the process of 'dabbing'. This would explain not only the general similarity of the capitals but also the minute differences. It would also explain occurrences such as the following. The normal E of the set has a whorl of leaf and branchwork circling the lower, middle and upper

arms of the letter; F has a figure seated in the lower right hand corner. In IB 31189 (BMC VII 982/3, C3—S623), printed by Angelus and Jacobus Britannicus on 20 November 1498, is found an E which is in fact the F with a lower arm added to the base of the stem.[20] This same E is also found in IB 21158 (BMC V 352, C3—A1416), Joannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis, n.d., and on f. 13 r. of the 1508 Statius mentioned above. It looks as if one cast of the F either accidentally developed a flaw or was deliberately altered so that it took the form of and was used for an E.

It has been already noted that the set was not always used exclusively, but often in conjunction with other sets of similar or greater dimensions. Some printers, like Paganinus, had 'duplicates' of individual letters, others had a few alternative blocks which they used co-extensively with those of the set. For example, Joannes Rubeus, in IB 23201 (BMC V 421, C3—J487) 23 October 1499, uses an M which is of the same basic design but slightly different, and in IA 23207 (BMC V 422, C3—O 79), 10 March 1500, has a second Q. Compare that on f. d 3 r, with that (normal) on f. g 2 r. But the set of initials as illustrated in Plate 1A is the one consistently used. Its predominance among Venetian printers seems to point to a Venetian origin, and there is nothing intrinsically improbable in the suggestion that Bartolommeo di Libri obtained his set (less the O) from that source. Joannes Rubeus and Matteo Capcasa appear to have been the first to use letters from the set: both (see n. 7) seem to have been regularly employed by Luca-Antonio Giunta. Did Luca-Antonio lend a set of capitals to his brother Filippo in Firenze? Was this in fact the 'Florentine connection'? Further research might perhaps examine this possibility.

Notes