A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and GermanyI wished to know the costs and charges of _printing_, &c.--from which the comparative price of labour in the two countries might be estimated. M.
Didot told me that the entire charges for printing, and pulling, one thousand copies of a full octavo size volume--containing thirty lines in a page, in a middle-size-letter--including _every thing_ but _paper_--was thirty-five francs per sheet. I am persuaded that such a thing could not be done at home under very little short of double the price:--whether it be that our printers, including the most respectable, are absolutely more extravagant in their charges, or that the wages of the compositors are double those which are given in France.
After Didot, comes c.r.a.pELET--in business, skill, and celebrity. He is himself a very pleasant, unaffected man; scarcely thirty-six; and likely, in consequence, to become the richest printer in Paris. I have visited him frequently, and dined with him once--when he was pleased to invite some agreeable, well-informed, and gentlemanly guests to meet me. Among them was a M. REY, who has written "_Essais Historiques et Critiques sur Richard III. Roi d'Angleterre_," just printed in a handsome octavo volume by our Host. Our conversation, upon the whole; was mixed; agreeable, and instructive. Madame c.r.a.pelet, who is at this moment (as I should conjecture) perhaps pretty equally divided between her twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth year, and who may be cla.s.sed among the prettier ladies of Paris, did the honours of the fete in a very agreeable manner: nor can it be a matter of surprise that the choicest Chambertin and Champagne sparkled upon the table of _one_--who, during the libations of his guests; had the tympans and friskets of _twenty-two Presses_ in full play![148] We retired, after dinner, into a s.p.a.cious drawing room to coffee and liqueurs: and anon, to a further room, wherein was a BOOK-CASE filled by some of the choicest specimens of the press of its owner, as well as of other celebrated printers. I have forgotten what we took down or what we especially admired: but, to a question respecting the _present_ state of business, as connected with _literature_ and _printing_, at Paris, M.
c.r.a.pelet replied (as indeed, if I remember rightly, M. Didot did also) that "matters never went on better." Reprints even of old authors were in agitation: and two editions of _Montaigne_ were at that moment going on in his own house. I complimented M. c.r.a.pelet--and with equal sincerity and justice--upon the typographical execution of M. Brunet's _Manuel du Libraire_. No printer in our own country, could have executed it more perfectly. "What might have been the charge per sheet?" My host received the compliment very soberly and properly; and gave me a general item about the expense of printing and paper, &c., which really surprised me; and returned it with a warm eulogy upon the paper and press-work of a recent publication from the _Shakspeare press_--which, said he, "I despair of excelling." "And then (added he), your prettily executed vignettes, and larger prints! In France this branch of the art is absolutely not understood[149]--and besides, we cannot publish books at _your_ prices!"
We must now bid adieu to the types of M. c.r.a.pelet below stairs, and to his "good cheer" above; and with him take our leave of Parisian booksellers and printers.[150] What then remains, in the book way, worthy of especial notice? Do you ask this question? I will answer it in a trice--BOOK-BINDING. Yes ... some few hours of my residence in this metropolis have been devoted to an examination of this _seductive_ branch of book commerce. And yet I have not seen--nor am I likely to see--one single binder: either _Thouvenin, or Simier, or Braidel, or Lesne_. I am not sure whether Courteval, or either of the Bozerians, be living: but their _handy works_ live and are lauded in every quarter of Paris.
The restorer, or the Father, (if you prefer this latter appellative) of modern Book-binding in France, was the Elder Bozerian: of whose productions the book-amateurs of Paris are enthusiastically fond. Bozerian undoubtedly had his merits;[151] but he was fond of gilt tooling to excess. His ornaments are too minute and too profuse; and moreover, occasionally, very unskilfully worked. His choice of morocco is not always to my taste; while his joints are neither carefully measured, nor do they play easily; and his linings are often gaudy to excess. He is however hailed as the legitimate restorer of that taste in binding, which delighted the purchasers in the Augustan age of book-collecting. One merit must not be denied him: his boards are usually square, and well measured. His volumes open well, and are beaten ... too unmercifully. It is the reigning error of French binders. They think they can never beat a book sufficiently. They exercise a tyranny over the leaves, as bad as that of eastern despots over their prostrate slaves. Let them look a little into the bindings of those volumes before described by me, in the lower regions of the Royal Library[152]--and hence learn, that, to hear the leases crackle as they are turned over, produces _nearly_ as much comfort to the thorough-bred collector, as does the prattling of the first infant to the doating parent.
THOUVENIN[153] and SIMIER are now the morning and evening stars in the bibliopegistic hemisphere. Of these, Thouvenin makes a higher circle in the heavens; but Simier shines with no very despicable l.u.s.tre. Their work is good, substantial, and pretty nearly in the same taste. The folio Psalter of 1502, (I think) in the Royal Library, is considered to be the _ne plus ultra_ of modern book-binding at Paris; and, if I mistake not, Thouvenin is the artist in whose charcoal furnace, the tools, which produced this _echantillon_, were heated. I have no hesitation in saying, that, considered as an extraordinary specimen of art, it is a failure. The ornaments are common place; the lining is decidedly bad; and there is a clumsiness of finish throughout the whole. The head-bands--as indeed are those of Bozerian--are clumsily managed: and I may say that it exhibits a manifest inferiority even to the productions of Mackinlay, Hering, Clarke, and Fairbairn. Indeed either of these artists would greatly eclipse it. I learn that Thouvenin keeps books in his possession as long as does a _certain_ binder with us--- who just now shall be nameless. Of course Charles Lewis would smile complacently if you talked to _him_ about rivalling such a performance![154]
There is a book-binder of the name of LESNe--just now occupied, as I learn, in writing a poem upon his Art[155]--who is also talked of as an artist of respectable skill. They say, however, that he _writes_ better than he _binds_. So much the worse for his little ones, if he be married. Indeed several very sensible and impartial collectors, with whom I have discoursed, also seem to think that the art of book-binding in France is just now, if not retrograding, at least stationary--and apparently incapable of being carried to a higher pitch of excellence. I doubt this very much. They can do what they have done before. And no such great conjuration is required in going even far beyond it. Let Thouvenin and Simier, and even the _Poet_ himself, examine carefully the choice of tools, and manner of gilding, used by our more celebrated binders, and they need not despair of rivalling them. Above all, let them look well to the management of the backs of their books, and especially to the headbands.
The latter are in general heavy and inelegant. Let them also avoid too much choking and beating, (I use technical words--- which you understand as well as any French or English bookbinder) and especially to be square, even, and delicate in the bands; and the "Saturnia regna" of book-binding in France may speedily return.
[121] _Bibliomania_; p. 79. _Bibliographical Decameron_; vol. i.
p. xxii.
[122] See the _Bibliographical Decameron_; vol. ii. p. 20.
[123] [Consistently with the plan intended to be pursued in this edition, I annex a fac-simile of their autograph.]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[124] [Madame Debure died a few years ago at an advanced age.]
[125] [Mr. Hibbert obtained this volume from me, which will be sold at the sale of his Library in the course of this season.]
[126] [Nothing can be more perfectly ridiculous and absurd than the manner in which M. c.r.a.pelet flies out at the above expression! He taunts us, poor English, with always drawing comparisons against other nations, in favour of the splendour and opulence of our own Hospitals and Charitable Foundations--a thought, that never possessed me while writing the above, and which would require the peculiar obliquity, or perversity of talents, of my translator to detect. I once thought of _dissecting_ his petulant and unprovoked note--but it is not worth blunting the edge of one's pen in the attempt.]
[127] [In a few years afterwards, the body of the husband of Madame Treuttel was consigned to _this_, its _last_ earthly resting-place. M.
JEAN-GEORGE TREUTTEL, died on the 14th Dec. 1825, not long after the completion of his 82d year: full of years, full of reputation, and credit, and of every sublunary comfort, to soothe those who survived him. I have before me a printed Memoir of his Obsequies--graced by the presence and by the orations of several excellent Ministers of the Lutheran persuasion: by all the branches of his numerous family; and by a great concourse of sympathising neighbours. Few citizens of the world, in the largest sense of this expression, have so adorned the particular line of life in which they have walked; and M. Treuttel was equally, to his country and to his family, an ornament of a high cast of character. "O bon et vertueux ami, que ne peut tu voir les regrets de tous ceux qui t' accompagnent a ta derniere demeure, pour te dire encore une fois a REVOIR!" _Discours_ de M. COMARTIN _Maire de Groslai_: Dec. 17.]
[128] ["Delightful" as was this Library, the thought of the money for which it might sell, seems to have been more delightful. The sale of it-- consisting of 1028 articles--took place in the spring of last year, under the hammer of Mr. Evans; and a surprisingly prosperous sale it was. I would venture to stake a good round sum, that no one individual was _more_ surprized at this prosperous result than the OWNER of the Library himself. The gross produce was 2704. 1s. The net produce was such... as ought to make that said owner grateful for the spirit of compet.i.tion and high liberality which marked the biddings of the purchasers. In what country but OLD ENGLAND could such a spirit have been manifested! Will Mons. Renouard, in consequence, venture upon the transportation of the _remaining_ portion of his Library hither? There is a strong feeling that he _will_. With all my heart--but let him beware of his MODERN VELLUMS!!]
[129] [I shall _now_ presume to say, that M. Renouard is a "VERY rich man;" and has by this time added _another_ 500 bottles of high-flavoured Burgundy to his previous stock. The mention of M.
Renouard's Burgundy has again chafed M. c.r.a.pelet: who remarks, that "it is useless to observe how ridiculous such an observation is." Then why _dwell_ upon it--and why quote three verses of Boileau to bolster up your vapid prose, Mons. G.A. c.r.a.pelet.?]
[130] [The _second_ edition of this work, greatly enlarged and corrected, appeared in 1825, in 3 volumes: printed very elegantly at the son's (Paul Renouard's) office. Of this improved edition, the father was so obliging as to present me with a copy, accompanied by a letter, of which I am sure that its author will forgive the quotation of its conclusion--to which is affixed his autograph. "Quoiqu'il en soit, je vous prie de vouloir bien l'agreer comme un temoignage de nos anciennes liaisons, et d'etre bien persuade du devouement sincere et amical avec lequel je n'ai jamais cesse d'etre.
Votre tres humble Serviteur,
[Autograph: AulAug. Renouard]
[131] [Now completed in 60 volumes 8vo.: and the most copious and correct of ALL the editions of the author. It is a monument, as splendid as honourable, of the Publisher's spirit of enterprise. For particulars, consult the _Library Companion_, p. 771, edit. 1824.]
[132] The year following the above description, the Catalogue, alluded to, made its appearance under the t.i.tle of "_Catalogue de la Bibliotheque d'un Amateur_," in four not _very_ capacious octavo volumes: printed by c.r.a.pELET, who finds it impossible to print--_ill_. I am very glad such a catalogue has been published; and I hope it will be at once a stimulus and a model for other booksellers, with large and curious stocks in hand, to do the same thing. But I think M. Renouard might have conveniently got the essentials of his bibliographical gossipping into _two_ volumes; particularly as, in reading such a work, one must necessarily turn rapidly over many leaves which contain articles of comparatively common occurrence, and of scarcely common interest. It is more especially in regard to _modern_ French books, of which he seems to rejoice and revel in the description--(see, among other references, vol. iii. p. 286-310) that we may be allowed to regret such dilated statements; the more so, as, to the fastidious taste of the English, the engravings, in the different articles described, have not the beauty and merit which are attached to them by the French. Yet does M. Renouard narrate pleasantly, and write elegantly.
In regard to the "_brush_ at the Decameron," above alluded to, I read it with surprise and pleasure--on the score of the moderate tone of criticism which it displayed--and shall wear it in my hat with as much triumph as a sportsman does a "brush" of a different description! Was it _originally_ more _piquan?_ I have reason not only to suspect, but to know, that it WAS. Be this as it may, I should never, in the first place, have been backward in returning all home thrusts upon the aggressor--and, in the second place, I am perfectly disposed that my work may stand by the test of such criticism. It is, upon the whole, fair and just; and _justice_ always implies the mention of _defects_ as well as of excellencies. It may, however, be material to remark, that the _third_ volume of the Decameron is hardly amenable to the tribunal of French criticism; inasmuch as the information which it contains is almost entirely national--and therefore partial in its application.
[133] [Not so. Messrs. Payne and Foss once shewed me a yet _larger_ copy of it upon vellum, than even M. Renouard's: but so many of the leaves had imbibed an indelible stain, which no skill could eradicate, that it was scarcely a saleable article. It was afterwards bought by Mr. Bohn at a public auction.]
[134] [It was sold at the Sale of his Aldine Library for 68. 15s. 8d. and is now, I believe, in the fine Collection of Sir John Thorold, Bart, at Syston Park. The Cicero did not come over for sale.]
[135] [In the previous edition I had supposed, erroneously, that it was the Father, M. Renouard himself, who had invoked his name on the occasion.
The verses are pretty enough, and may as well find a place _here_ as in M. c.r.a.pelet's performance.
Je l'ai vu ce fameux bouquin Qui te fait un t.i.tre de gloire: Tout Francois qui pa.s.se le Rhin Doit remporter une Victoire.]
[136] [M. Renouard obtained it at a public sale in Paris, against a very stiff commission left for it by myself. A copy of equal beauty is in the Library of the Right Hon. T. Grenville.]
[137] [The Theophrastus was sold for 12 1s. 6d. and the Aristotle for 40.
The latter is in the Library of the Rt. Hon. T. Grenville, having been subsequently coated in red morocco by C. Lewis.]
[138] [It seems that I have committed a very grave error, in the preceding edition, by making Mons. Renouard "superintend the gathering in of his VINTAGE," at his country-house (St. Valerie) whereas there are no Vineyards in Picardy. France and Wine seemed such synonymes, that I almost naturally attached a vineyard to every country villa.]
[139] [It was published in 1820.]
[140] "The luxurious English Bibliographer is astonished at the publication of the "Manuel" without the accompaniment of Plates, Fac-similes, Vignettes, and other graphic attractions. It is because _intrinsic merit_ is preferable to form and ornament: _that_ at once establishes its worth and its success." c.r.a.pELET, vol. iv. p. 88. This amiable Translator and sharp-sighted Critic never loses an opportunity of a _fling_ at the "luxurious English Bibliographer!"
[141] [My translator again brandishes his pen in order to draw _good-natured_ comparisons. "It would be lucky for him, if, to the qualities he possesses, M. Dibdin would unite those which he praises in M. Brunet: his work and the public would be considerable gainers by it: his books would not be so costly, and would be more profitable.
The English Author describes nothing in a _sang-froid_ manner: he is for ever _charging_: and, as he does not want originality in his vivacity, he should seem to wish to be the CALLOT of Bibliography."
c.r.a.pELET. _Ibid_. I accept the t.i.tle with all my heart.]
[142] When he waited upon Lord Spencer at Paris, in 1819, and was shewn by his Lordship the _Ulric Han Juvenal_ (in the smallest character of the printer) and the _Horace_ of 1474, by _Arnoldus de Bruxella_, his voice, eyes, arms, and entire action ... gave manifest proofs how he FELT upon the occasion! [It only remains to dismiss this slight and inadequate account of so amiable and well-versed a bibliographer, with the ensuing-fac-simile of his autograph.]
[Autograph: Brunet, Libraire, rue Git-le-Couer, No 10.]
[143]
Chardin pa.s.se surtout parmi les amateurs Pour le plus vetilleux de tous les connaisseurs; Il fait naitre, encourage, anime l'industrie; LES BEAUX LIVRES font seul le CHARME DE SA VIE.
LA RELIURE, _poeme didactique_.
Par LESNE'. 1820, 8vo. p. 31.
[144] [This curiosity is now in the limited, but choice and curious, collection of my old and very worthy friend Mr. Joseph Haslewood. The handle of the stick is decorated by a bird's head, in ivory, which I conjectured to be that of an _Eagle_; but my friend insisted upon it that it was the head of an _Hawk_. I knew what this _meant_--and what it would _end_ in: especially when he grasped and brandished the Cane, as if he were convinced that the sculptor had antic.i.p.ated the possession of it by the Editor of Juliana Barnes. It is whispered that my friend intends to surprise the ROXBURGHE CLUB (of which he is, in all respects a most efficient member) with proofs of an _Engraving_ of this charming little piece of old French carving.]
[145] Mons. Chardin is since dead at a very advanced age. His mental faculties had deserted him a good while before his decease: and his decease was gentle and scarcely perceptible. The portrait of him, in the preceding edition of this work, is literally the MAN HIMSELF. M.
c.r.a.pelet has appended one very silly, and one very rude, if not insulting, note, to my account of the deceased, which I will not gratify him by translating, or by quoting in its original words.
[146] [A copy of the Horace UPON VELLUM (and I believe, the _only_ one) with the original drawings of Percier, will be sold in the library of Mr. Hibbert, during the present season.]
[147] ["And unquestionably the best Letter Founder. His son, M. Amb. Firmin Didot; who has for a long time past cut the punches for his father, exhibits proof of a talent worthy, of his instructor." c.r.a.pELET.]
[148] [The translation of the above pa.s.sage runs so smoothly and so evenly upon "all fours," that the curious reader may be gratified by its transcription: "On ne doit pas etre surpris que le meilleur vin de Champagne et de Chambertin ait ete servi sur la table de celui qui, au milieu des toasts de ses convives, avait pour accompagnement le bruit agreable. des frisquettes et des tympans de vingt-deux presses.".Vol.
ii. 102.]
[149] ["Would one not suppose that I had told M. Dibdin that it was impossible for the French to execute as fine plates as the English? If so, I should stand alone in that opinion. I only expatiated on the beauty of the wood-cut vignettes which adorn many volumes of the 4to.
Shakspeare by Bulmer. (N.B. Mr. Bulmer never printed a Shakspeare in 4to. or with wood cuts; but Mr. Bensley _did_--in an 8vo. form.) Their execution is astonishing. Wood engraving, carried to such a pitch of excellence in England, is, in fact, very little advanced in France: and on this head I agree with M. Dibdin." c.r.a.pELET, iv. 104.]