STUDIES IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY PRINTING

The work of George D. Painter on incunabula and early printing needs no introduction. Ranging from Gutenberg and Caxton to the first printing in France and Spain, the author has done much to illuminate the tangled history of the earliest editions of some of the rarest and most attractive books in European printing. The articles reprinted here feature a number of studies which have become classics in their field. The author’s investigation of Gutenberg’s early work represents a major contribution to the age-old controversy surrounding the invention of printing. Similarly, his studies on Caxton have helped to clarify the date and development of the work of England’s first printer. Also included is his celebrated essay on the most outstanding illustrated book from the fifteenth century, Aldus Manutius’ edition of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili There is a preface by Dennis E. Rhodes.

Table of Contents

Preface
Gutenberg and the B36 group. A reconsideration
The true portrait of Johann Gutenberg
The untrue portraits of Johann Gutenberg
Gutenberg Quincentenary
Gutenberg et son oeuvre. A review
Gutenberg and the Master of the Playing Cards. A review
The Problem of the Missale Speciale. A review
Netherlandish Blockbooks Quincentenary
A fifteenth- century horror comic. A review
A Horatian ghost
Michael Wenssler’s devices and their predecessors
Jacques Moerart, publisher, not printer
The printer of Haneron
The first Greek printing in Belgium, with notes on the first Greek printing in Paris
Campbell’s Annales de la Typographie néerlandaise au XVe siècle. A review
The first press at Barcelona
The Caxton Legenda at St. Mary’s, Warwick
Caxton through the looking-glass. An enquiry into the offsets on a fragment of Caxton’s Fifteen Oes, with a census of Caxton bindings
William Caxton and the 1482 Polychronicon
An unbelievable landmark. A review
Caxton’s Progress
Incunabula in Cambridge University Library. A review
A list of books acquired by the British Museum from Chatsworth. Part I, Incunabula
The Fifteenth-Century Book. A review
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of 1499. An introduction on the dream, the dreamer, the artist and the printer
Victor Scholderer — in memoriam
Additional Notes
Index.