A short notice of some of Mr. Blades’s numerous contributions to Bibliography which do not range themselves under the previous divisions must be given under the somewhat unscientific heading of Miscellaneous.

When I started the _Bibliographer_ in 1882, I naturally asked Mr. Blades to let me have an article for the opening number, and he was good enough to send a curious little query, “Who was Bercula?” The name of Thomas Bercula appears as the printer of _Vulgaria Whitintoni_, 1520 and 1525, and Mr. Blades asks if he was a sleeping partner with Pynson, as his name is not otherwise known. Shortly after the appearance of the number of the _Bibliographer_ I met the late Mr. Henry Stevens, who said he could answer the question and would send me a note for a coming number. Mr. Stevens, however, on account of his full employment and also from ill-health, was unable to fulfil his promise. His solution of the difficulty therefore did not appear until after his lamented death, when his son sent his note to the _Athenæum_ (May 8th, 1886). Mr. Stevens suggested that Thomas Bercula stood for Thomas Berthelet, the English diminutive being represented by the Latin _cula_.

The article on “The First Printing-Press in England as pictorially presented,” which Mr. Blades contributed to Berjeau’s _Book-worm_ in 1869, and which is reprinted in the present volume, contains an interesting account of the technical errors and anachronisms which artists have introduced into their representations of Caxton’s first printing-press.

In 1883-85 Mr. Blades defended in the _Printers’ Register_ the claims of John Nicholson to the honour of being the original inventor of the Steam Press. His advocacy of the unfortunate Englishman lost him the friendship of Herr Goebel of Stuttgart, who would not allow any of the glory of this great work to be taken away from Frederick Koenig. Blades puts the matter clearly in his _Pentateuch of Printing_ (p. 86), where he shows that Nicholson took out a patent in 1790 “for printing by machinery, in which he specified those very principles of action which have been the basis of every successful printing machine since made.” At the beginning of the present century Koenig, a young German, came over to England, and was greatly assisted by Bensley the printer during the period of his attempt to construct a printing machine.

“From 1806, when he came to London, to 1811, Koenig made two complete machines (not including his first wooden trial), but both were unsuccessful because they were founded on the false principle of the old hand-presses, viz., impressions from a flat surface or platen. Disheartened by failure, and, as he himself confessed, at his wits’ end what to do next, an accidental occurrence put him on the right road. Bensley, his partner, by chance visited Nicholson to obtain from him some information concerning those patent laws with which a long and sad experience had rendered him familiar. He found him in a debtors’ gaol, and then he heard for the first time of Nicholson’s patents. Fluttered and anxious, Bensley took Koenig straight off to read the particulars.... He at once set about constructing a new machine, in which all his previous plans of impression were thrown aside, and ... Nicholson’s method of pressure by means of a cylinder beneath which the type ran was adopted.” Koenig himself acknowledged fifteen years later that he had read Nicholson’s patents, but with great contempt for their crudeness, and that he immediately forgot all about them. Herr Goebel, his biographer, believes this very improbable statement of Koenig’s.

Mr. Blades made an interesting collection of medals connected with printing, and in July 1867 he contributed to the _Numismatic Chronicle_ an article on the subject entitled “Numismata Typographica.” In 1869 he printed twenty-five copies of “A List of Medals, Jettons, Tokens, etc., in connection with Printers and the art of Printing,” and in the following year he issued a privately printed pamphlet--“A List of Medals struck by order of the Corporation of London, with an appendix of other medals struck privately or for sale having reference to the same corporate body, or the members thereof.” In 1872 he compiled a “List of Medals connected with Printers and the art of Printing, exhibited at the opening of the New Library and Museum, Guildhall, London,” and in 1877 a list of the collection of medals shown at the Caxton Exhibition. In 1878 he commenced in the _Printers’ Register_ a “Numismata Typographica,” which was reprinted as a volume in 1883 under the title of _Numismata Typographica; or, the Medallic History of Printing; being an Account of the Medals, Jettons, and Tokens struck in commemoration of Printers and the art of Printing_.

He commenced a “Bibliotheca Typographica” in the _Printer’s Register_ in 1875, but the completion of this list of publications in the English language treating of printers and printing was suspended, and the materials which he had collected were placed at the disposal of the compiler of the _Bibliography of Printing_, published by Messrs. Wyman.

Mr. Blades contributed to the _Athenæum_ in January 1872 a valuable article on “Common Typographical Errors, with especial reference to the text of Shakespeare,” in which he pointed out the corruptions in the text that might be attributed to errors in composition. This was reprinted in his interesting volume entitled _Shakspere and Typography; being an attempt to show Shakspere’s personal connection with, and technical knowledge of the art of Printing_, which contains the ingenious and half-serious suggestion that Shakspere spent some time in a printer’s office.

The popular little work entitled _The Enemies of Books_, which first appeared in 1881, was very successful, having passed through five editions in all, and being honoured by translation into French. As this book forms one of the “Book-Lover’s Library,” it is not necessary to describe it further in this place.

Mr. Blades presented to the English reader in 1885 a very interesting volume: “_An Account of the German Morality-Play, entitled Depositio Cornuti Typographici, as performed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with a rhythmical translation of the German version of 1648._ By William Blades, Typographer.... To which is added a literal reprint of the unique original version, written partly in Plaat-Deutsch by Paul de Vise and printed in 1621.” In this work the author brought together much fresh matter, and illustrated his subject with great learning. He added a chapter in which it was shown that a survival of a similar practice, though in a greatly mutilated form, still exists in English printing offices.

In 1889 Mr. Blades sent three letters to the _Athenæum_[3] on the subject of “Watermarks.” He pointed out that watermarks are but fallacious evidence as to the place and date of books, but he laid great stress on their importance as fixing their size notation. After explaining the make of hand-made paper and the position of the watermark, he enunciated the following three laws:--

Law 1. In any old book, if the chain-lines run down, and the watermark is found about the centre of the page, that must be folio.

Law 2. If the chain-lines are across, and the watermark is found in the middle of the back of a book, that book must be quarto.

Law 3. If the chain-lines are down, and the watermark is found at the top edge of a book, that book must be octavo.

Mr. Blades considered that in dealing with this very difficult question of size notation the year 1800 should be taken as the dividing line. Before that date the rules that he laid down were to be observed; but for the later period, when machine-made papers had become common, the bibliographer might adopt any system of nomenclature that he found most convenient.

Early in the year 1890 Mr. Blades commenced a series styled _Bibliographical Miscellanies_, which promised to be of great value and interest, but soon after No. 1 had been published the author was called away from this world. He left, however, some materials ready for the press, and Nos. 2 to 5 were published after his death. All these _Miscellanies_, which relate to the Signatures in Books and to Books in Chains, are reprinted in this volume, so that it is not necessary to do more than commend them to the reader as containing a large amount of useful information on two very interesting bibliographical points.

The ever-busy printer and author was taken all too soon from his labours on April 28th, 1890. Although he was not an old man, he had enjoyed a long life of work, and his jubilee as a printer was about to be celebrated when his last illness came rather suddenly upon him. He left ready for publication a popular work on the history of printing, to which he had given the fanciful title of _The Pentateuch of Printing_. This was published in 1891 under the editorial care of Mr. Talbot Reed, who added a memoir of the author and a full list of his published works as well as his contributions to periodicals.

Sufficient has been said of Mr. Blades’s literary work, but in conclusion a few words must be added as to the man himself. He was not one to put himself forward, and to appreciate his real worth it was necessary to know him in private life. Although his name at once took high rank, he can scarcely be said to have received sufficient honour during his lifetime for the important work which he did, and this may have been partly owing to his quiet and unobtrusive disposition. He was a student who did his work for the love of it, and not to be praised of men.

He took great interest in the Library Association of the United Kingdom, and was a constant attendant at the annual meetings. The writer of this notice well remembers his presence at the most delightful of these meetings, which was held at Cambridge, when that model bibliographer and distinguished man, the late Henry Bradshaw, proved himself a model President and Chairman as well. At this meeting, when the members visited the library of Corpus Christi College, he took up his parable and discoursed about the Caxtons. At the dinner which was given by the members to the President, Blades appeared in a new character, for he added to the harmony of the evening by standing up and singing with good effect the old song of “Down among the dead men.” In going over the work of this true student and enthusiastic lover of his profession, it is impossible not to feel the highest admiration for a man who did so much to foster the same tastes in those around him and to clear away difficulties in the path of those who were to follow him.

H. B. W.

CONTENTS.

BOOKS IN CHAINS