of the worthy Vicar, who got well beaten himself and rolled upon the floor, to the amusement of the real offender, the author of the offensive article, who complaisantly stood by as bottle-holder on the occasion.

As somewhat german to our chapter, we shall add a few supplemental words about printing and book-binding.

In the United States the Press is represented by the illustrious Franklin, the Bacon of the New World-a tria juncta in uno, printer, author, and one of the great fathers of modern science; and who has been thus technically described by one of the fraternity," the * of his profession, the type of honesty, the of all, and although the of death has put a. to his existence, every § of his life is without a ."

Types have been likened to

"A thousand lamps at one lone altar lighted,

Turning the night of error into day."

Type-setting in early times was not remarkable for its exactness and accuracy. In the year 1561, a book was printed, called the Anatomy of the Mass. It had only 172 pages in it; but the author-a pious monk-was obliged to add fifteen pages to correct the blunders. These he attributes to the special instigation of the "devil," to defeat the work; and hence may have come the use of the title, "Printer's Devil."

A printer's wife in Germany lost her life by feloniously meddling with the types. She went into the office by night, and took out the word "lord," in Genesis iii. 16, where Eve is made subject to her husband, and made the verse read, "he shall be thy fool," instead of "he shall be thy lord." It is said that she was put to death for her wickedness. It is well known that printers of an early edition of the Scriptures were so heavily fined as to be utterly ruined, for leaving out the word "not" from one of the Ten Commandments. There is an edition of the Bible, called the "Vinegar Bible," from the parable of the "Vineyard" being printed " vinegar."

Other equally notorious instances of errata in editions of the Vulgate, which provoked the anathemas of the Vatican, are on record. In one case there were six thousand errors, and after a revision, nearly as many more were detected on a subsequent inspection. It is, perhaps, scarcely possible to produce a book faultless, but the art, at the present day at least, approximates very closely to perfection, some of the more costly publications of London being of exquisite typographic beauty. Punctuation is as important to the sense as orthography. This is so self-evident that we need not cite any illustrations in proof. The oldest printing establishment in Europe, if not in the world, is that of M. Barth of Breslau, still extant, which we believe, has been for 350 years uninterruptedly in existence, in the hands of his ancestors and himself. The first book printed there was a German legend, in 1504.

Bookmaking must be classed among the Fine Arts, for indeed it is an art in itself, whether we consider it in its exterior or interior decoration. The English excel all others in the tasty arrangement that is required in a really exquisite work. They understand it in all its minutiæ. The very titlepage is a model of neatness and elegance; and of such importance is the superintendence of their labors, that artists, "trained men in their vocation," are employed in most of the large establishments to attend to it in all its artistic capabilities. Contrast an English with a French or German work of equal pretensions-how quiet, yet how genial is the one in its superior refinement above all the others. Neither ought it to be forgotten that, while speaking about books, those who administer in such a wonderful degree to their attractiveness, claim some notice at our hands, for it is mainly owing to the engraver that a new dawning in this species of literary luxury has taken place, and those beautifully illustrated works that are ventured upon the broad waters of the Atlantic to gratify the fastidious, giving delight to numbers by their kindly remembrances, and laden affections, are the result of those

silent workers. Their names, famous in this phase of decorative art on the other side of the great highway, are familiar as "household words." Yet we, too, have those in our midst who would make their impress in any nation. Danforth, Jones, Seely, Burt, and John Halpin, in historical; Smilie and Beckwirth, in landscape; and Fred. Halpin, in portraiture, are names that could not be lightly passed over anywhere; and among our artists on wood, Bobbett, Childs, Andrews, Lossing, and others, keep up in a corresponding degree the merits of their particular professions.

Bookbinding is an art of great antiquity. It is two thousand years and more since Phillatius, a Greek, divided the rolled volume into sheets, and glued these together in the form which is familiar to us. The rolls had been preserved from dust and injury by being kept in cylindrical cases, and a protection for the book in its new shape was soon found to be more necessary than before. This was supplied by securing the leaves between stiff covers, probably of wood at first, and thus began the modern art of bookbinding.

Soon the board was covered with leather, making in external appearance a still nearer approach to the workmanship of our day; but it was not until the close of the fifteenth century, or the beginning of the sixteenth, that the stont pasteboard, called mill-board, which unites lightness with sufficient strength, was used as the foundation of the book-cover.

When the sheet of paper of which a book is made is folded in two leaves, the book is called a folio; when into four leaves, it is called quarto; when folded into eight leaves, it is called octavo; when into twelve leaves, duodecimo, or 12mo.; when folded into 16 leaves, 16mo.; and when into eighteen leaves, 18mo., &c.

The ancient Romans ornamented the covers of their books very elaborately. Those of wood were carved; and upon some of these, scenes from plays, and events of public interest, were represented. About the commencement of the Christian era,

leather of brilliant hues, decorated with gold and silver, had come into use. In the Middle Ages the monks exhausted their ingenuity, and frequently, it would seem, their purses, in adorning the covers of those manuscripts which they spent their lives in writing and illuminating. Single figures and groups, wrought in solid gold, solid silver, and gold gorgeous with enamel, precious stones and pearls, made the outside of the volume correspond to the splendor within. Less expensive works were often bound in oaken boards very richly carved; scenes from the life of Christ, the Virgin, or the Apostles, furnishing the subjects. Many still exist upon which the Nativity, or the Crucifixion, is carved in high relief.

In the latter part of the fifteenth century, and the beginning of the sixteenth, kings, princes, and wealthy nobles, expended much money upon the binding of their libraries, which were, in many cases, very extensive. Carved ivory covers, protected by golden corners, and secured by jewelled clasps, were common, as were also those of velvet, silk brocade, vellum, and morocco, elaborately ornamented after designs made by great artists, and protected with bosses, corners, and clasps of solid gold. The precious stones and metals upon these book-covers, cost us the loss of many a more precious volume, for they frequently formed no inconsiderable part of the plunder of a wealthy mansion in a captured city. Mr. Dibdin tells us of one library of thirty thousand volumes-that of Corvinus, King of Hungary-which was destroyed on this account by the Turkish soldiers, when Buda was taken in 1526.

Quite an era in the history of bookbinding in England was formed by the publication of the Great Bible, by Grafton, in 1539. His first edition was of 200 copies, and within three years there were seven editions. A substantial binding was thus needed for nearly twenty thousand volumes, and from this time there was a noticeable advance in the art in England; chiefly, however, in the mechanical department; for Henry VIII. had many books richly and beautifully bound. In his

reign the use of gold tooling was introduced, and the designs. for some of the rolls are attributed to Holbein. Queen Elizabeth herself embroidered velvet and silk book-covers, some of which were also tooled in gilt.*

The art has been carried to a high degree of excellence and finish in France. Many have acquired great renown there, in this department of handicraft. They hold themselves far above their brethren of England; and Duru once said that he should consider himself insulted if he were told that he could bind as well as Hayday. Their prices were enormous-three times as great as those of the best London binders, large as those were. The French books are remarkable for the firmness of their boards, the smoothness of their leather, and the delicacy, the richness of design, and the sharpness of outline of their gold tooling. The designs upon one of Beauzonnet's Capé's, or Lortic's books, seem hardly to be stamped upon the leather, but rather to be inlaid in it. But for pleasure and convenience in use, the work of the French binders is inferior to that of the English. Books bound by the former are very stiff; that is, they open with great difficulty, and require constant pressure to keep them open.t.

The father of the English school of binders was Roger Payne, who lived towards the close of the last century. The great modern English binders are Hayday, Clarke, Bedford, Riviere, and Wright. The Remnants have a very large establishment, and bind richly and substantially. The work of Charles Lewis was highly prized, and merited its reputation.

The fitness of the binding to the character of the volume which it protects, though little regarded by many binders, and

* Illustrated Record of Art.

† It may be well to say here, for the benefitof those not familiar with the bookbinder's vocabulary, that gilt tooling is what is commonly called gilding, the figures in gilt being produced by the impression of a hot tool, sometimes stamped, sometimes rolied, upon gold leaf. Blind tooling is produced by the use of the hot tool without gold leaf. The forwarding of a book is the sewing and putting it into the cover. Finishing is the tooling, gilding, &c.