The Golden Compasses

The History of the House of Plantin-Moretus

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The Printer's Techniques and Methods

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Chapter 5
The Printing Shop

The work of a printing press requires quite complicated equipment, and to understand the plant and tools it is necessary to have some idea of how this work was done. Moxon in 1683-84, the Encyclopédie française in 1769, and various other books^1. devote fairly lengthy passages to it. But once more it is the author of the Dialogues françois et flamands of 1567 who is most helpful with his businesslike descriptions of the various operations and the principal implements.^2.

E: When it is a question of printing any book, it is given to the compositor, who assembles the types that are distributed separately in the case, in which there are as many boxes as there are different types.

G: I follow so far.

E: Then he fastens the copy on which he wishes to work to a visorum, which is a long wooden piece that supports the copy, and for fear lest it become folded he fixes a mordant, which is a cleft stick going crosswise. That done, he takes his composing stick, also of wood, wherein he sets the lines, and as he completes them he places them in a galley where the pages are made up.

G: Then do you print the pages, one after the other?

E: Not at all. But when he has set two or four or six or eight of them, depending on the size of the book, he imposes them all together in a chase.

G: What is this chase?

1. See the introduction and notes by the publishers of the 1958 re-edition of Moxon's Mechanick Exercises and the bibliographical notes in Hellinga, Copy and Print. Cf. also the bibliography in p. 132, note 8.

2. As given in Ray Nash's excellent English translation.

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E: It is a square, made of six bars of iron of which four form the sides and the other two a cross at the middle, so that there are four small squares in which the pages are imposed.

G: Are all chases made this way?

E: No. Sometimes there is only one crosspiece and sometimes none at all. That is on account of the difference in the size of books.

G: These pages imposed, what does he do?

E: He justifies them and locks them with wooden furniture, of which some pieces are called headers (head-sticks), tapered (side- and foot-) sticks, reglets, and quotations - so called because they are used for the quotations that are placed in the margins.

G: That being done, how does he lock them in the chase? For there must be innumerable pieces.

E: It is true. However, he locks them with quoins in such a way that all the pieces are pressed in from every side, like the staves of a wooden measure by its hoops.

E: The forme made up this way is handed over to the two pressmen who operate the press.

G: It is necessary now for you to explain the press.

E: First, the press is made firm between two sister twins (cheeks), set upright on two paws (feet). They are joined by two summers (head and winter) and are made secure above with stays, pins, and keys which hold fast and steady all the top part.

G: Then is it a business of such great force?

E: You will hear. Between the sister twins the screw (spindle) is located, fitted in the hose. The pivot (head) of this spindle enters into the nut supported by crampons. It then rests on the stud bedded in the top of the platen. This platen is a large and broad piece of iron which covers all that has to be printed and is attached by means of rings.

G: This is not enough. What means is there to make the spindle go round?

E: There is a bar which, being pulled by the handle, lowers the spindle and, being pushed back on to its catch, raises it.

G: Then when work is under way the printer pulls the bar in order to bring the platen down on the forme and when he wishes to take off his sheet he pushes the bar back?

E: So it is. But it must be understood that the forme is put on a marble or stone set in the coffin, at the four corners of which there are corner irons holding the chase. This coffin is on a plank with cramp-irons underneath and runs backward and forward the length of the cradle (ribs) by means of a spit below, upon which the rounce is fitted.

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G: Then turning the rounce brings all the coffin forward under the platen and sends it back again after the operation?

E: You are quite right. The cradle does not move, and is supported at one end by the press itself and at the other by a wooden upright called the foot (forestay). On the hind end of the coffin is a large (outer) tympan, attached by means of iron joints, and the small (inner) tympan goes inside it, so that the blankets are held between them.

G: What are these blankets for?

E: The blankets are placed between the platen and the forme lest the platen, by its great hardness, should batter it.

G: But is the paper never going to be laid on?

E: I am coming to that. The paper is laid on top of the tympan. It is pricked on to two small points fastened to the large tympan by means of screws and nuts, so it can be got at easily for the reiteration. The reiteration is done when the paper is turned over for printing on the other side.

G: The paper being stretched out thus, is it printed at once?

E: No, not yet, for it must be covered by a frisket, held firm by hasps.

G: What is this frisket?

E: It is a parchment covering all parts of the forme not to be printed, such as the space between pages, the margins, and all white spaces.

G: It is done then, for all I can see.

E: Not yet, for it is necessary to have dampened the paper on the previous day so that it is evenly moist.

G: Why so?

E: Otherwise the ink, although very sticky, would not take hold. On being dampened the paper is placed between two planks so that it stays flat and takes the water better. Meanwhile the ink balls are being prepared.

G: What are the ink balls?

E: They are for putting ink on the forme. They are made, first, of a wooden stock, then some well-carded wool stuffed into it, which is covered by pelts nailed all round the wood. That done, ink is taken which clings to the leather, and it is beaten on the forme, which retains as much as is needed for printing.

G: Is it possible the type takes that without anything further?

E: It is, and for that reason the ink must be thick and sticky lest it should run while on the type.

G: What is there to do then?

E: The tympan is then lowered, the frisket being fixed, and taking the rounce by the handle the pressman makes the coffin enter halfway under the platen. The bar is pulled for the first time, the coffin is run on in the other half, and the bar pulled a second time.

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G: Why is the coffin not run clear in the first time?

E: Because the platen cannot cover the whole forme...

G: And what is done with the forme when all copies are printed?

E: When they are about to finish work they heat some lye in a kettle. This being done they put the forme in a big trough where it is rubbed and cleansed with brush and lye, which gets rid of all the remaining ink. That done, they give it back again to the compositor for distribution of the types, each one back to the box from which he had taken it.

Thus the compositors used type-cases,^1. composing sticks,^2. galleys,^3. visorums,^4. and chases. The pressmen required rather more equipment: the presses themselves and all that appertained to them; ink balls,^5. basins and troughs for moistening the paper,^6. lye-troughs for washing the formes.^7. There also had to be a sufficient number of trays, boxes, trestles, and table-tops to hand in the printing shop, not to mention such items as hammers, saws, ladders, and so on.

1. Cf. the detailed description in the 1958 re-edition of Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, pp. 27-33.

2. Ibid., pp. 40-42.

3. Ibid., p. 39.

4. Ibid., p. 204.

5. Ibid., pp. 81 and 282 sqq.

6. Ibid., pp. 81 and 278 sqq.

7. Ibid., p. 80.

The press

The printing-press was the most complicated and most expensive of all these.^8. It was the only piece of equipment that invariably figured

8. Interesting description of printing presses and their evolution in the sixteenth century: J.W. Enschedé, ‘Houten handpersen in de zestiende eeuw,’ Tijdschrift voor Boek- en Bibliotheekwezen, 4, 1906, pp. 195-215 and pp. 262-272; F. Madan, ‘Early Representations of the Printing-Press, with Especial Reference to that by Stradanus’, Bibliographica I, 1895, pp. 223-248, 499-502; F. Madan, ‘Early Representations of Printing Presses’, The Bodleian Quarterly Record, 4, 1924, pp. 165-167. Cf. also R. Nash, Dürer's 1511 Drawing of a Press and Printer, 1947. For the seventeenth century: a detailed exposition in Moxon, Mechanick Exercises, pp. 45 sqq., with interesting footnotes and an appendix, pp. 373-374, by H. Carter. Cf. also J.W. Enschedé, ‘De drukpersafbeeldingen in Ampzing en Scriverius 1628’, Tijdschrift voor Boek- en Bibliotheekwezen, 6, 1908, pp. 265-268. For the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: L.C. Wroth, The Colonial Printer, 1938, pp. 69-86. Numerous pictures from the sixteenth and later centuries with notes in M. Audin, Histoire de l'imprimerie par l'image. I. L'histoire et la technique, 1929; Iconographie de l'Imprimerie et du Livre, s.d. (to be used with care as there are many none too reliable later reconstructions); K. Dieterichs, Die Buchdruckpresse von Johannes Gutenberg bis Friedrich König, 1930; L. Neipp, Les machines à imprimer depuis Gutenberg, 1951 (with more emphasis on presses of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries).

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in the firm's inventories. The expensiveness was only relative, however. The inventory made in 1589-90 after Plantin's death listed ten presses, valued at 50 fl. each, 500 fl. altogether.^1. Fifty guilders at that time represented roughly one third of the year's wages of a pressman or compositor; 500 fl. was approximately what Plantin spent on vermilion and ink in the period 1586 to 1589. A great deal of money has to be invested in machinery in a modern printing works. The price of a printing-press in Plantin's day was not especially high; compared with paper and cast type, it amounted to only a fraction of the total running costs - and of course it lasted much longer.

The estimated values in the inventory of 1589-90 are generally a little lower than the actual purchase price of the presses. When Plantin had to re-equip his officina in 1563-65, he paid between 50 and 60 fl. each for the seven presses he bought or commissioned.^2. The presses he had formerly owned had been auctioned with the rest of his effects in 1562 at widely divergent prices: one went for only 37 fl. 10 st., another for 57 fl., while the remaining two fetched 75 fl. and 75 fl. 15 st.^3.

The fact that a good printing-press in Plantin's day cost on average a modest 50 to 60 fl. explains why he was able to expand his business so quickly and why he and his successors were able to bear up under economic recession without too much difficulty. The capital invested in the machines did not greatly depress the profitability of the firm. It did not require much money to put a new machine into operation and no great financial loss was entailed when some presses were temporarily out of action. Laying in sufficient stocks of type as his business expanded cost Plantin far more in the period 1563 to 1576 than the purchase of printing-presses.

The description of the printing-press in the Dialogues françois et flamands, although brief, shows how the apparatus worked and what its component parts were. The presses had to be capable of two movements, one horizontal and one vertical. In the horizontal movement the coffin with the stone, on which the chase with the forme

1. Cf. Vol. I, p. 165.

2. Cf. pp. 136-138.

3. Arch. 27, f^os 44^vo and 45^ro.

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rested, was pushed forward by means of a handle. This brought the coffin under the platen. In the vertical movement the platen was lowered, by means of a lever and by way of a spindle attached to a crosspiece between two upright supports, until it pressed on the forme. The horizontal movement made it possible for the forme to be properly quoined, or locked up, and then unlocked, and the operations of inking, feeding in the blank paper, and removing the printed sheet to be carried out. The vertical movement performed the actual printing, lowering the platen so that the paper came into contact with the inked forme. There had to be some means of ensuring that the paper was applied with the greatest possible speed and precision against the inked forme as required. This was achieved in a simple but ingenious manner with the tympan,^1. which was attached to the coffin and could be folded down on the forme, and the frisket, jointed to the tympan.

The type of press described in the Dialogues françois et flamands of 1567 must have been comparatively new at the time. As far as can be made out from the fairly numerous woodcuts of the first half of the sixteenth century depicting printing-presses and the places where they were installed, these machines were quite primitive and crude until about 1525, when they began to take on the form described in the Dialogues.^2. The construction of this newer type was regarded as so satisfactory that it remained in use without important modification until early in the nineteenth century, when incipient mechanization in the shape of the Stanhope iron press (1800) began to revolutionize the industry. Small improvements were, however, made in the intervening years, in particular to the platen and the mechanism operating it.

Moxon in 1683-84 described at great length what he called the ‘new-fashioned press’.^3. The real difference between this and the ‘old-

1. In fact consisting of the actual tympan and the inner tympan (which must fit exactly in the tympan): Moxon, Mechanick Exercises, pp. 63-64.

2. For these early presses cf. especially J.W. Enschedé, F. Madan, R. Nash, and M. Audin in the works quoted on p. 132 note 8.

3. See plates 23-24.

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fashioned press’, which Moxon also described, lay in the fact that in the former the wooden casing around the spindle had been replaced by an iron fitting rather like a yoke; the platen was still attached in the same way, that is to say it was suspended by cords, but from the underneath of the ‘yoke’ this time. The new arrangement gave greater elasticity and smoothness of operation, printing becoming more even and the lever springing back more easily.

Moxon ascribed the invention of the new press to the famous Dutch cartographer and printer Willem Janszoon Blaeu († 1638), but Dutch sources are completely silent about this aspect of Blaeu's work.^1. Whatever the truth of this may be, a medal of the Middelburg printers' guild of 1631 depicts a press of this new type.^2. It may be assumed that presses with iron yokes, whether or not they were invented by Blaeu, were first built in the Northern Netherlands around 1625. At some later date the system was again improved by fixing the platen directly to the yoke by screws or other means: this made it much easier to get the platen level, which produced an even better distribution of pressure.

The ‘new-fashioned press’ meant an improvement in quality of work, although not necessarily of speed. Its use, however, did not spread quickly. When Moxon devoted so much space to this Dutch invention, it was to urge his countrymen to take it up. How far he was successful remains open to question. The only eighteenth-century presses extant in Britain and America belong to the old-fashioned type.^3. In France and Germany too the old type remained in use. Only one kind of press was described by the Encyclopédie française in 1769, and this was the sort that Plantin used. But the printer's descendants profited from the technological advance on the part of their northern colleagues.

The Plantin-Moretus Museum has seven presses which all date from before 1800. Five of them are of the improved Blaeu type, with

1. Cf. Carter's notes in Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, pp. 373-374.

2. J.W. Enschedé, ‘Houten handpersen in de zestiende eeuw,’ p. 266, note 2.

3. For presses preserved in the United States see L.C. Wroth, The Colonial Printer, 1938.

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platens attached by screws to the iron yoke.^1. The other two are, to judge from their wooden frames, considerably older, and must go back to the time of Plantin or at least Jan Moretus. This makes them the oldest presses in the world. Both have the Blaeu yoke. Their platens have disappeared, but from the construction of the lower parts of the yokes it would seem that the platens were suspended.^2. This, therefore, was the earliest form of iron yoke, fitted to older presses in the course of the seventeenth century.

Dutch typographers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were ahead technically of their foreign counterparts. But whereas in France, Germany and - despite the efforts of Moxon - England, the example of the Dutch had little effect, the Moretuses faithfully adopted all their improvements. How quickly they did this is another question. Careful sifting of the accounts submitted by the joiners and smiths who worked for the Plantin house might make it possible to say exactly when these Dutch inventions were applied there - and this in turn might enable the advent of the Blaeu yoke and its improved version to be dated more accurately.

Contemporary sources provide some interesting details of the component parts of presses of Plantin's day, and especially of what they cost. At the end of 1563, after his possessions had been auctioned in the Vrijdagmarkt, Plantin faced the problem of re-establishing his officina. It was at this time that he went into partnership with a number of financial backers to whom he had to render account, so naturally his book-keeping had to be more detailed than he thought necessary in later years, when he was again sole master of the firm. The accounts for the years 1563-67 allow the equipment of the printing shop to be traced down to the smallest detail.

In October 1563 Plantin bought his ‘presse à imprimer no. 1’.^3. The total cost of 59 fl. 3½ st. was made up as follows:

1. See plate 20.

2. See plate 19.

3. Arch. 3, f^o 1. The text is also given by Colin Clair, Christopher Plantin, p. 84.

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Ferreure à Mathias le Serrurier	30 fl.
Bois à Michel de la Motte	14 fl.
Pierre du back	3 fl.
Platine de cuivre pesant 41½ livres à 4½ st. chacune livre	9 fl.	4½ st.
Barreau		5 st.
Rabottement ou pour avoir dressé et rabotté la platine de cuivre	1 fl.
Port et affustage		17½ st.
Marteau (1½ st.), escardes à laine (3 st.), une lime et un compas		6½ st.
Sparres 4 à 2 st. la pièce et pour 2 st. de clou		10 st.
	_____	_____
	59 fl.	3½ st.

Press no. 2 was an old one which the cabinet-maker Michel de la Motte and the locksmith Matheis had to set about refurbishing. Plantin's notes show that in the end there was little of the original press left.^1. The third press was built specially for Plantin by De la Motte and Matheis, although the spindle, escrieu, and platen came from Paris.^2. Numbers 5 and 7 were also constructed by the two

1. Arch. 3, f^o 3^vo (20th November 1563): ‘Pour une vieille presse acheptée en Lombarde Veste: 10 fl.; Pour la ferreure toute neufve avec leschange de lad[icte] vieille presse: 22 fl; Pour le bac tout neuf avec leschange du bois de lad [icte] vieille presse: 11 fl.; Pour la pierre de lad[icte] presse à Rombaut demeurant en Steenhauwersvest: 3 fl.; Pour la platine de cuivre pesante 42½ livres et 4½ st. la lb.: 9 fl. 11 st.; Pour avoir rabboté la platine et pour le bac à encre: 1 fl. 6 st.; Pour le travail de ferier lad[icte] presse et les cloux quil y a faillu: 8 st.; Pour une sparre à escansonner 2½ st., en clous 1½ st., en ...(?) 2 st. sa iournée: 15 st.; en 2 peaux de parchemin pour les timpans à 5 st. pièce: 10 st. [total:] 58 fl. 10 st. Menutez pour la presse numero 2: pour le manche de barreau et pour le manche du rouet: 5 st.; 2 escardes: 3 st.; 1 marteau: 2 st.; 2 chandeliers longs à presse: 4 st. pièce; 1 brayoir à 1 st.; 2 peaux de parchemin de veau pour la tympan: 10 st.; [total:] 1 fl. 9 st.’ Cf. also the complementary notes in Arch. 36, f^o 47^vo: ‘Le 27 septembre j'ay achapté une vieille presse en Lombarde veste au Reynard pour le prix de 10 fl. et ay délivré lad[icte] presse à Michel de la Mote et marchandé à luy quil me fera le bois dune presse toute neufve et ce pour le prix de 11 fl. par tel moyen que le bois de lad[icte] vieille presse sera à luy...; Le 27 de septembre j'ay marchandé à Matheis le serrurier de me faire la ferreure toute neufve d'une presse et ie luy laisse toute la ferraille de la vieille presse cy devant spécifiée dont il ne se doibt servir à la ferreure de la neufve fors que de la ronse et avec lad[icte] ferraille vieille ie luy doibs bailler pour toutes choses la somme de 22 fl.’

2. Arch. 3, f^o 5^ro (21st December 1563): ‘A Michel de la Motte, 7 fl. 7½ st.; A Matheis le Serrurier, 8 fl. 4 st.; et la pierre, 3 fl. La vis faicte à Paris avec lescrieu et platine ensemble: 25 fl. [total]: 40 fl. 1½ st.’ - Arch. 3, f^o 3^ro (5th November 1563): ‘Vis, escrieu et platine venants de Paris... J'ay receu une vis de presse avec son escrieu pesant [not entered] et la platine pesant [not entered]. Lad[icte] vis et escrieu coustent à Paris 14 fl. 18 st.; la voicture à 42 st. le cent font [not entered].’

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Antwerp craftsmen.^1. Numbers 4 and 6 were again ‘old presses with their appurtenances’ which, however, were in reasonably good condition and did not need such extensive renovation as no. 2.^2.

In these various entries in the accounts, two items are always specified: the imposing stone and the platen. If the former was broken the press might be put out of action for quite a long time, and so the farsighted Plantin was always careful to have a small reserve of imposing stones to hand.^3. When specified, the platens appear to have been made of copper and their prices reckoned by weight.^4. Plantin also bought spares of these: in the years 1563-67 four to seven working presses.^5. The inventory made of Plantin's estate in

1. Press no. 5 (Arch. 3, f^o 18^vo; 14th October 1564): ‘J'ay payé a Mattheis Bessels serreurier pour la ferreure entière de lad[icte] presse: 30 fl.; A Michel de la Motte pour la pierre: 3 fl. 5 st.; Pour le bois entièr: 14 fl.; pour l'estansonner, le bac à encre, sparres es dessous (?) les pieds, les manches du barreau et de la ronse, etc: 3 fl.; [total] 50 fl. 5 st.’; (Arch. 3, f^o 19^vo): ‘Presse cinquiesme... encores: J'ay payé à Michel de la Motte pour une plattine pesante 46¾ à 4¼ st. la lb. et 1 fl. pour raboter: 10 fl. 18½ st.’ - Press no. 7 (Arch. 3, f^o 39^vo, 11th December 1565): ‘Au serrurier Matheis Bessels: 30 fl.; Le bois à Michel de la Motte: 16 fl.; La pierre d'icelle: 3 fl. 5 st.; Pour 3 chassis de fer à Matheis Bessels: 6 fl.; [total:] 55 fl. 5 st.’.

2. Press no. 4 (Arch. 3, f^o 9^ro; 1st April 1564): ‘Presse vieille avec ses apartenances...: 60 fl. 10 st. J'ay achapté une vieille presse avec 3 rames, 2 frisquettes, une plattine, 2 bancs, 2 blanchets, 6 es à tremper et 8 paires de casses vuides à mectre lectres, et pour le port de la crane jusques au logis 8 st.’ - Press no. 6 (Arch. 3, f^o 25^vo; 10th April 1565): ‘J'ay achapté à la vendue des biens de feu Jaques Susato ce qui ens[uict]:... la presse avec 4 rames de fer et ses apartenances: 43 fl.’

3. The payment of 3 fl. was noted on 31st December 1563 ‘pour une pierre pour servir au bac de quelque presse sil sen rompoit quelqu'une’ (Arch. 3, f^o 5^ro). On 6th April 1564 (Arch. 3, f^o 9^vo) followed the buying of a stone for the big press for 3 fl. 5 st. (‘J'ay faict faire et receu une pierre pour la grande presse à l'adventure si celle qui y est rompoit’); and on 10th April 1565 (Arch. 3, f^o 23^ro) a stone for 3 fl. (‘Une pierre ou marbre à presse à 3 fl.’).

4. Cf. presses nos. 1, 2, 5 and following note.

5. In fact two on 4th December 1563 (Arch. 3, f^o 4^vo: ‘platines de cuivre 2 pesantes l'une 56 lb. et lautre 62½ lb à 4 st. la livre et poisent ensemble 125 lb: 25 fl.’), one on 22nd April 1564 (Arch. 3, f^o 10^vo: ‘J'ay payé à Michel de la Motte pour une plattine pesant 39 livres net à 4½ st. la livre: 8 fl. 14 st.’), and one on 31st December 1566 (Arch. 3, f^o 61^vo: ‘pour une grande platine de cuivre pesant 69 lb. à 4 st. la lb.: 13 fl. 6 st.’).

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1589-90 mentions as many as nine spare platens in addition to the ten on the working presses.^1.

The fact that the account-books imply that all these platens were of copper is interesting.^2. The author of the Dialogues françois et flamands describes the platen as a ‘large and wide piece of iron’. When Plantin's possessions were auctioned one press was listed as having two platens ‘one of metal and one of iron’.^3. Moxon too only makes mention of an ‘iron plate’. On the other hand the use of copper or copper-covered platens seems to have been the rule in Holland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.^4. All the presses preserved in the Plantin-Moretus Museum have copper platens.

The tympan and frisket completed the printing-press. Curiously enough the price of the tympan itself was hardly ever quoted.^5. In all probability it was treated as one of the basic components, its price included in that of the ironwork, and one per press must have been deemed sufficient. Friskets were mentioned just as infrequently. Three of the four presses sold in 1562 had two friskets each, the other three. The old press (no. 4) which Plantin bought in 1564 also had two among its apartenances. Probably two friskets per press continued to be the rule in the newly constituted printing shop and these were presumably included in the prices of the presses the printer ordered in 1563 and subsequent years, but there were just a few that he bought separately.^6.

Chases served to take the made-up formes. In strict ‘demarcation’ terms they belonged to the compositors' sphere of operations although

1. Cf. Vol. I, p. 165.

2. At least as far as specified: it is possible, or at least not entirely impossible that the platens for several presses bought in 1563-65 were made of some other material.

3. Arch. 27, f^o 45^ro.

4. H. Carter in the 1958 edition of Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, p. 77.

5. On 10th April 1565 (Arch. 3, f^o 25^vo; ‘2 tympans grands et 1 petit’ together with 2 chases and another article of equipment: 1 fl. 2 st.), on 29th December 1565 (Arch. 3, f^o 41^ro; 1 small tympan: 3 st.), on 18th June 1566 (Arch. 3, f^o 52 ^vo; ‘un tympan à la 7 presse’: 13 st.).

6. On 1st February 1564 (Arch. 3, f^o 6^vo): 3 (at 12 st. each, 1 fl. 6 st.); on 15th October 1564 (Arch. 3, f^o 18^vo): 1 (12 st.) and 3 ‘croix de frisquettes’ (6 st.); on 29th December 1565 (Arch. 3, f^o 41^ro): 4 ‘pentures de frisquettes’ (14 st.) and 3 ‘croisées de frisquettes’ (6 st.).

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they ended up on the presses when ready. As a rule they were listed as appurtenances of the presses. Three of the four presses sold in 1562 had three chases, the other two. Press no. 4 which Plantin bought in April 1564 had three, while for no. 6, the press acquired at the auction of the estate of Susato, the number rose to four. The inventory of Plantin's estate in 1590 has the entry, ‘aussi quelques chassis ou rames de fer outre les 2 servantes à chacune presse’,^1. which makes it clear that two chases for each press (or perhaps better: at least two for each press) was then the general rule. And this is quite understandable: while one was on the press, the compositor had to have another one available so that he could continue imposing the set pages. These items of equipment were not as a rule included in the price of the presses which Plantin ordered. Moreover, they were sometimes supplied by other tradesmen than the locksmith who built most of the ironwork for Plantin's machinery.^2.

When the presses were installed, great care had to be taken to ensure that they stood perfectly level and that they were properly supported: the movement of the coffin and of the handle of the platen caused a degree of vibration that would otherwise affect the stability and the good operation of the machine. The money Plantin paid his joiners for supporting beams constituted a further expense.^3.

This did not complete the list of equipment needed by the pressmen. They had to have troughs and basins for wetting the paper.

1. Cf. Vol. I, p. 165.

2. In Arch. 3 there is mention of the purchase of chases in October 1563 (4: bought from Jehan van Lire, 17 st.), on 1st February 1564 (4 ‘rames’: 2 fl. each), on 21st July 1564 (4 ‘grands chassis’: 8 st. each; and 11: 4 st. each; 3 fl. 16 st.), on 14th October 1564 (‘à Mattheis Bessels serreurier pour 5 chassis de fer’: 10 fl.), on 2nd December 1564 (‘payé à Jan van Lire le 3 novembre pour ung grand chassis en la chambre à lectres’: 14 st.), on 10th April 1565 (2 chases), on 11th December 1565 (‘pour 3 chassis de fer à Matheis Bessels’: 6 fl. - as a component of press no. 7), on 29th December 1565 (10 pairs of ‘chassis de fer’ at 2 fl. each: 20 fl.), on 26th January 1566 (‘à Matheis Bessels 4 grands chassis de fer pour imprimer l'Anatomie’: 8 fl.), on 18th June 1566 (‘pour 7 chassis... aud[ict] de la Motte’: 1 fl. 16 st.).

3. Cf. for example the data relating to presses 1 and 5. Also in Arch. 3, f^o 4^ro (29th December 1563: ‘pour avoir remué la première presse et lestansonné en lautre imprimerie: 6 st.’), f^o 8^vo (1st April 1564: ‘pour avoir accoustré les presses et congné les derrières et mis le fer tenir le derrière et estanconné les 3: 2 fl. 7 st.’).

[p. 141]

Between October 1563 and January 1566 Plantin bought 45 es à tremper le papier (at 3 st. each this came to 6 fl. 15 st.); 4 grands es à tremper le papier de l'Anatomie (5 st. each: 1 fl.); 1 tinnette à 3 pieds pour tremper le papier (10 st.).^1. Six es à tremper were purchased with the second-hand press which became no. 4. Total expenditure on this item was therefore 8 fl. 5 st.

The formes had to be washed after use. For this purpose the following were bought in October 1563: bac de bois à laver les fourmes, this wooden trough costing 2 fl. 10 st.; pied [stand] de bois pour poser le bac à laver (10 st.); tonnelet à mectre la potasse tremper pour la lessive (10 st.); borstel [brush] à laver les formes de laissive (4½ st.); chaudron servant à la lessive (6 pounds at 3½ st. per pound, making 1 fl. 1 st.).^2. Altogether this came to 4 fl. 15½ st.

For inking the formes the pressmen employed ink balls (basles), using them two at a time. They were not expensive. Between October 1563 and March 1566 Plantin entered the sum of 4 fl. 4 st. in his account-books for this item, this sum buying him 42 pairs of bois de basles at 2 st. per pair.^3. In October 1563 and again in January 1565 he spent 9 st. on 600 cloux de basles; these were used for tacking on the leather that covered the ink balls. The leather had to be cut to size, and for this further implements were necessary.^4. Hammers were needed to drive home the tacks, and Plantin bought six of these for 1 fl. 1 st. (3½ st. each).^5. The wool with which the ink balls were stuffed had to be carded; the two escardes for this purpose cost 3½ st. and 4 st.^6.

1. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (tinnette; 4 es), 11th February 1564(18 es), 22nd February 1564 (7 es), 2nd December 1564 (4 es), 23rd December 1565 (12 es), 26th January 1566 (4 grands es).

2. Arch. 3, f^o 1^ro.

3. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (‘bois de basles 12 qui font 6 paires’: 12 st.), 10th February 1565 (‘12 paires’: 1 fl. 4 st.), 10th April 1565 (‘12 paires de bois à basles et 2 brayoirs’: 1 fl. 4 st.), 23rd March 1566 (‘24 bois de basles à limprimerie’: 1 fl. 4 st.).

4. Arch. 3, dated 7th November 1563 (‘pour 1 bois rond et ung carré à. servir de grandeur à couper les cuirs’: 5 st.; ‘un de espois à couper les cuirs dessus’: 15 st.) and 8th December 1563 (‘1 cousteau à couper les cuirs’: 3 st.).

5. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (3), 14th October 1564 (2) and 29th December 1565 (1). The hammers listed among the appurtenances of presses nos. 1 and 2, quoted at 1½ and 2 st., were presumably also a marteau à basles.

6. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 and 10th February 1564. For the last purchase it was specifically stated to be for press no. 3. ‘Escardes’ also belonged to the appurtenances of press no. 1 (value: 3 st.) and press no. 2 (2 ‘escardes’; value: 3 st.).

[p. 142]

Ink had to be prepared, stored, and applied. For these purposes were purchased: 1 tonnelet à encre (7 st.); 1 broyeur à encre and a small pot à huille (2½ st.); 1 ancrier à noir et rouge ou a esté employé la pierre du bac d'une presse veille, pour faceon (2 fl. 10 st.); 1 tréteau à bac à lencre (3 fl.); 1 grande pierre avec une meullette à broyer le vermilion (3 fl. 15 st.); and 2 palettes à encre (4 st. each); a total of 10 fl. 2½ st.^1. Each printing-press also had its own ink duct, but this was presumably included in the basic price,^2. as were some of the many other small items.^3.

1. Arch. 3, dated October 1563, 22nd April 1564, 4th May 1564, 10th April 1565.

2. As was in fact stated for press no. 3.

3. See for example the more detailed lists for presses nos. 1 and 2 above.

Compositors' equipment

The type-setters' equipment was less expensive. Their principal tool was the composing stick. Plantin bought remarkably few of these. The author has been able to find mention of only twelve for the period 1564 to 1566.^4. The first purchase entered in the accounts dates from 1st April 1564, that is to say a few months after Plantin had started work again. According to Moxon composing sticks in England in his day were the personal property of the compositors,^5. and probably this was already the rule in Plantin's establishment. What Plantin did supply were galleys. These were of two kinds, those for composing and those for distributing.^6. Between October 1563 and 16th March 1566 Plantin bought 32 galleys.^7. For these and the composing sticks mentioned above he paid a total of 9 fl. 15 st.

4. Arch. 3, dated 1st April 1564 (4), 10th April 1565 (2, and one from the auction of the printer J. Susato's property), 23rd September 1565 (3 ‘compositeurs sans vis’) and 16th March 1566 (2).

5. Mechanick Exercises, pp. 40-41.

6. Moxon did not make this distinction.

7. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (‘1 gallée de distribution grande’: 3½ st.); 29th November 1563 (‘galées 3 à distribuer’: 4 st. each; 3 ‘communes pour composer’: 2½ st. each; ‘2 à tirer les pages pour commun folio’: 4 st. each; total: 1 fl. 7½ st.); 1st April 1564 (‘A Michel dela Motte pour 4 gallées à coulisses et 4 compositeurs avec 2 gallées à distribuer’: 2 fl. 15 st.); 4th May 1564 (‘4 gallées: 2 à distribution à 4 st. pièce et 2 petites à 3 st.’: 14 st.); 18th June 1564 (2 galleys at 5 st.); 10th April 1565 (3 galleys and 2 composing sticks: 1 fl. 8 st.); 16th March 1566 (8 galleys and 2 composing sticks: 2 fl. 10 st.).

[p. 143]

A much more important item of expenditure were the type-cases, divided into small compartments, each of them reserved for a particular letter. Letters are not used with equal frequency and so, for example, z requires a smaller compartment than e or a. It will be obvious that the compartments were arranged not in alphabetical order, but so that the most used letters were easiest of access - on the same principle as the keyboard of a modern typewriter. However, just as there are today different keyboards in use, so the arrangement of the type-cases varied from place to place in those days, as they do now, and possibly even from one printer to another.^1. It has not been possible to reconstruct the arrangement in use in the Plantinian press.

One problem connected with type-cases can be cleared up, thanks to the firm's account-books. Moxon speaks of a ‘pair of cases’, namely a lower case for the small letters and an upper case for the capitals. He was the first to mention specifically the existence of such a pair of cases. In his commentary on Moxon^2. Harry Carter, the British expert, quotes two English texts of 1588 which speak of pairs of cases. The continental texts that Carter cites point to a single case. The Dialogues françois et flamands of 1567 talks of la casse divided into cassetins, and a French text of 1575 put it in much the same terms: ‘une grande casse de bois pleine de petits cassis’. Finally Carter quotes a text from the Plantinian records which indicates the same arrangement.^3. He believed that, unlike the English expression, the French bas-de-casse, haut-de-casse, and the Dutch onderkast, bovenkast go back to a time when only a single case was in use. He makes the pertinent observation that the ‘double’ case only came into use where alphabets with both large and small capitals, such as the roman and the italic, were adopted. In areas such as Germany and Eastern Europe, where the black letter and the Cyrillic alphabets with one kind of capital held sway, the single large type-case was adhered to.

Plantin's accounts for the years 1563 to 1567 allow the discussion

1. Cf. the examples given in Moxon; Encyclopédie française; M. Audin, Histoire de l'imprimerie par l'image, I, fig. 170-193 (18th-2Oth centuries).

2. Mechanick Exercises, p. 27 note.

3. Text of 1556: ‘Garamond petit Romain, Du Bas de la casse 29 matrices, capitalles 26... Cicero Italique Grand Jonc [Granjon], capitales 23, Bas de la casse 26’ (Arch. 34, p. 111).

[p. 144]

to be satisfactorily concluded. The printer seems to have had both single cases and pairs made - thirty of the former and eighty-one of the latter.^1. The predominance of pairs seems to indicate that they were employed for roman and italic. In some instances the types for which the cases were intended is indicated: ‘3 paires à compositions latines’ and ‘6 paires à lectres latines’ next to ‘6 casses pour lectres latines’ and ‘6 casses à lectres communes’. The two latter entries show that not all roman and italic types had double cases; but then not all of Plantin's examples of these alphabets had two kinds of capitals. It must have been the presence or absence of small capitals that decided the choice of case. Hebrew alphabets, without the difference between capitals and lower case, all had single cases, whenever specified.^2. Greek alphabets had both kinds.^3.

Prices of cases fluctuated around 1 fl., although in some instances as much as 3 fl. and 3 fl. 6 st. was paid. Casses and paires de casses seem to have cost virtually the same to produce and their prices were therefore similar. The price per unit was small, but the large number purchased brought total expenditure on this item up to 132 fl. 11 st.

1. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (‘Casses pour la composition 4 vieilles acheptées de Leonard de Kinder’: 2 fl.; ‘Casses 3 paires pour la composition latine à Michel de la Motte’: 3 fl.), 29th November 1563 (‘de Michel de la Motte: 8 paires de casses, à. 18 st. la pièce’: 7 fl. 4 st.), 24th December 1563 (‘Casses à mectre le grec 2 paires à 3 fl. la paire’: 6 fl.), 1st February 1564 (‘Casses 8 paires à 19 st. piece et 2 autres de 3 fl. paire’: 13 fl. 2 st.), 1st April 1564 (‘6 casses pour lectres latines, 5 fl. 8 st.; 4 casses d'Hebrieu à 22 st. pièce et 1 à grec de 3 fl.’: 7 fl. 8 st.), 22nd April 1564 (‘pour 4 casses à lectre hébraicque et 1 bac à encre’: 6 fl. 4 st.), 4th May 1564 (‘2 bac de casse seuls [?] pour mectre les signes et nottes’: 1 fl.; ‘6 paires de casses à lectres latines de 20 st. pièce’: 2 fl. 10 st.), 18th june 1564 (‘A Michel de la Motte, 3 paires de casses à 22 st. pièce et 1 à 18 st.’: 4 fl. 4 st.), 10th April 1565 (‘pour casses à lectres, formats, reglets, etc.’: 13 fl. 12¼ st.; ‘3 casses à Hebrieu’: 4 fl. 10 st.; ‘A Michel de la Motte pour 9 paires de cases’: 10 fl. 7 st.), 23rd September 1565 (‘une casse à mectre le gros gros grec’: 3 fl. 6 st.; ‘6 casses à lectres communes à 22 st. pièce’: 6 fl. 12 st.), 23rd December 1565 (‘casses 6 paires à 24 st. paire’: 13 fl. 4 st.), 16th March 1566 (‘Michel de la Motte, 18 paires de casses à 22 st. paire’: 19 fl. 16 st.), 15th June 1566 (‘8 paires de casses vieilles achaptés de Laurent van Everbroeck fondeur à 12 st. paire’: 4 fl. 16 st.), 31st December 1566 (‘8 paires de cases’: 8 fl.). The purchase of press no. 4 on 1st April 1564 included ‘8 paires de casses vuides à mectre les lectres’.

2. See preceding note: ‘4 casses d'Hebrieu; 4 casses à lectre hebraicque; 3 casses à Hebrieu.’

3. ‘Casses à mectre le grec: 2 paires; 1 casse à grec; une casse à mectre le gros gros grec.’ Cf. the two preceding notes.

[p. 145]

The cases were placed on a kind of stand, so that they were slightly at an angle.^1. In October 1563 Plantin took delivery of ‘4 paires de tresteaux à poser les casses de la composition lesquels ie luy avoit faict faire et se peuvent ioindre dos à dos l'un contre lautre ou bien se séparer lequel quon veut’, for which he paid 3 fl. per pair. In the period up to 15th June 1566 the printer bought a further 14 tréteaux and 2 paires de tréteaux.^2. Altogether these cost him 37 fl. 3 st. Type-cases that were not put into immediate use had to be stored somewhere, and for this purpose Plantin bought a number of estallages.^3. He also provided himself with a stand à 18 liettes pour les lectres fleuries et figures (6 fl. 15 st.) and with another à mectre les lectres par pages (4 fl. 7½ st.). An old chest was converted into an estallage pour mectre les fourmats (1 fl. 11½ st.).^4. The total cost of all these stands was 20 fl. 9 st.

Until recently compositors usually worked standing up, but until the end of the seventeenth century pictures of printing shops show them seated at their tasks, as is usual in modern composing rooms today. This was the case in Plantin's establishment, as is shown by his purchase on 29th November 1563 of 8 bancs de chesne pour asseoir les compositeurs. These oak benches cost 4 fl. 16 st. altogether and were followed by half a dozen stools - escabelles à seoir les compositeurs (1 fl. 12 st.).

Making up the formes and quoining them required pegs, wooden

1. Cf. Moxon, pp. 30-33.

2. Arch. 3, dated 10th April 1565 (‘A Jan van Lire pour 2 tréteaux à cases’; 3 fl.), 9th June 1565 (‘Pour 4 tréteaux à poser les casses à Jan van Lire’: 6 fl. 13 st.), 26th January 1566 (‘2 tréteaux à mectre les casses à Jan van Lire’: 3 fl. 10 st.), 16th March 1566 (‘A Jan van Lire, 6 tréteaux à cases’: 9 fl.), 15th June 1566 (‘2 paires de tréteaux à cases’: 3 fl.).

3. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (‘Estallage à casses de composition... J'ay payé à Jehan van Lire menuisier pour sa faceon dun estallage faict pour mectre en reserve les casses à lectres quant elles ne servent point à composer et pour le bois tout ensemble’: 3 fl. 10 st.), 11th February 1564 (‘2 estallages pour mectre dessus les casses de grec’: 1 fl. 15 st.), and 4th May 1564 (‘2 estallages simples à casses par Jan van Lire à 25 st. pièce’: 2 fl. 10 st.).

4. Arch. 3, dated 7th November 1563 and October 1563. The ‘estallage à mectre les lectres par pages’ is further described: ‘J'ay faict faire et receu un estallage de 7 es dentredeux en la hauteur et de 3 entredeux qui est clos par derrière de bois dur’ (Arch. 3, f^o 2^vo).

[p. 146]

slats, and the like. In October 1563 Plantin began his purchases of these items with 15 Flemish ells of reglets ‘for the Virgil formes’. In the following period, up to 10th March 1566, hundreds more ells of reglets and hundreds of pegs and pièces de format were bought, costing 46 fl. 9½ st. in all. Six iron hammers ‘for locking the formes’ were bought at 2 st. each.^1.

The equipment mentioned above was enough to enable the pressmen and compositors to perform their tasks, but Plantin still had to find money for a whole range of minor but essential odds and ends. He paid 26 fl. 3½ st. for a number of chests,^2. ladders,^3. and benches for the formes and paper;^4. and a further 29 fl. 6½ st. for barrels, buckets, wooden bowls, baskets, etc.^5.

Pressmen and compositors began early in the morning and worked until late in the evening. For much of the day, at least in the winter months, they had to work by artificial light. Plantin provided individual lighting in the form of candlesticks, and supplied candle snuffers.^6. All this cost him a modest 2 fl. 3¾ st.

1. Arch. 3, dated 16th March 1566.

2. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (‘Basle grande faicte dossier blanc à mectre livres’: 1 fl. 5 st.), and 22nd November 1563 (‘Basles 2 à mectre la laine des imprimeurs’: 7 st.).

3. Arch. 3, dated 24th November 1563 (‘Eschelle pour le service de l'imprimerie à dresser les pilles de papiers ou livres’: 5 st.) and 23rd December 1565 (‘1 eschelle à estendre les formes’).

4. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (‘banc à formes pour les compositeurs 1 et pour le papier 1 à 7½ st. pièce’: 14 st.), 11th February 1564 (‘3 bancs à servir de mectre le papier quon imprime dessus et dedans et 3 autres à mectre les formes dessus et dedans, 30 st. chascun; 2 grands de noyer à mectre formes avec 4 moyens aussi de noyer et 18 es à tremper le papier’: 5 fl. 2 st.), 22nd April 1564 (‘de Jehan de Lire un banc à mectre les formes de composition pour la 4^e presse et un pour le papier’: 3 fl. 6 st.), 2nd December 1564 (‘un banc à formes 30 st. travail etc. 28 st. et 64 bastons pour estendre (?)’: 8 fl. 8 st.), 11th December 1565 (‘Jehan van Lire pour un banc à la presse’: 2 fl.), 16th March 1566 (‘2 bancs à formes pour le nouvel grenier’: 3 fl. 10 st.). Two benches belonged to the old press the purchase of which was entered for April 1564 (press no. 4).

5. Inter alia Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (‘corbeilles à lectres 3 à 1½ st. et 4 petites à quadrats 1 st. pièce’: 8½ st.; ‘escuelles de bois pour l'imprimerie pour mectre la colle etc.’: 3 st.), 29th November 1563 (‘barre de fer pour divers usages pesant 21 lb. à 1 st. la lb.’: 1 fl. 1 st.), 21st January 1564 (‘Estuves de fer pour l'imprimerie’: 5 fl. 10 st.), 2nd December 1564 (‘en es à planches’: 4 fl. 5 st.), 23rd December 1565 (‘pour unes estuves de fer à mectre en limprimerie, 18 fl.; pour les asseoir aud[ict] lieu, 2 fl. 11 st.’).

6. Arch. 3, dated 7th December 1563 (‘chandelliers 4 à vis pour les compositeurs’: 6 st.), 1st February 1564 (‘chandeliers la 3 presse’: 14 st.), 13th August 1565 (‘2 chandeliers à presses’: 7 st.). ‘2 chandeliers longs à presse’ (4 st. each) were among the minor items belonging to press no. 2. As to candles, cf. Arch. 3, dated 7th December 1563 (‘mouchettes 6 pour l'imprimerie tant aux comp[ositeurs] quaux imprimeurs’: 8¾ st.).

[p. 147]

The entries in Plantin's account-books for 1563-66 enable the present-day reader to visualize the printing shop in the Golden Compasses, with its presses and their accessories, with type-cases, trestles and stands, with benches, troughs, and all the small items essential to a swift and smooth flow of work. The expansion of the business in the years 1567 to 1576 led to many further purchases of equipment. Plantin and his successors regularly paid considerable sums to carpenters and locksmiths for their work on presses and the repair or replacement of chases, friskets, tympans, galleys, and water troughs. After 1567, however, it is difficult to make out which were entirely new purchases and which merely replacement items. It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that another inventory was made of the equipment, and even then it was not a complete one. The ‘inventory of the equipment in the printing shop on 15th April 1745’^1. listed: 11 presses, 64 iron chases, 70 galleys (large and small, good and bad indiscriminately mixed), 17 ‘trekbakjes’ (?), 84 ‘trekhaken’ (?), 19 brass basins, 22 type-cases, 2 trays of quoins, 86 deal table tops, 62 hardwood tables for putting formes on, 5 proof-reading tables, 21 trays for wool, 13 trays for the formes, 12 stones on which the formes could be corrected.

Only a part of all this equipment has survived. The inventory of the printing shop and the type room in the Plantin-Moretus Museum now lists two presses without their platens,^2. five presses with all their appurtenances (platens, friskets, tympans and inking systems), one press for intaglio printing, 9 friskets, 5 ink balls with leather coverings, 11 ink balls without covering, 5 ‘stones’ [= marble], set on wooden stands, on which formes could be corrected, 323 type-cases, some of them placed on stands (the trestles that Plantin noted) in the printing shop, some

1. Arch. 461, f^o 4.

2. And without other items of equipment, but with the tympan, the spindle, and the yoke.

[p. 148]

stacked in the type room on racks (the estallages entered in the accounts for 1563-67), 34 galleys, 39 composing sticks, 14 iron chases, 16 iron strips for dividing up the chases, one candlestick with snuffer. In addition there is in one of the cellars a stone trough that was once used for wetting paper. Comparison of the two lists shows that many objects have been lost, including the trays for wool, the copper basins, the table tops, and other items. The greater part of what is left can probably be dated to before 1800, but, with the exception of the intaglio press (1714), it would be difficult to hazard exact dates and places of manufacture.

The fact that the prices of the items Plantin bought in the years 1563 to 1567 are specified makes the inventory particularly interesting, and gives an idea of what the equipping of a large-scale concern such as he built up would have entailed in terms of money. He spent 553 fl. 10½ st. on the printing shop: 387 fl. 14½ st. on the presses, 135 fl. 11½ st. on spare stones and platens, chases, friskets, tympans, and other associated items, and only 30 fl. 4½ st. on the rest (ink balls, troughs and water basins, utensils for washing the formes and preparing and storing ink).

Fitting out the composing or type room cost just 253 fl. 7½ st. Of this, 132 fl. 11 st. went on type-cases, 37 fl. 3 st. on the stands for the cases, 20 fl. 9 st. on the estallages, 6 fl. 8 st. for benches, 46 fl. 9½ st. for wood for formes and quoins and only 9 fl. 5 st. for the type-setters' composing sticks and galleys. Finally there was a further 61 fl. 3 st. spent on candlesticks, benches, and other furniture that was used by both pressmen and type-setters.

The total cost to Plantin of fitting out his workshop in the period 1563-67 was therefore 868 fl. 1 st., more than half of which (523 fl. 6 st.) was accounted for by the presses and their accessories. This was not an enormous sum. And this was moreover equipment that lasted a long time so that in favourable circumstances the capital invested could easily be recovered.

What has been said about the relatively low cost of the presses compared to the firm's total capital and running costs also applies to the

[p. 149]

whole of the equipment and furniture of the printing shop and type room. This is confirmed in the inventory of Plantin's estate. The total value of his business at Antwerp was estimated at 18,000 fl. The presses were valued at 50 fl. each, 500 fl. altogether; the cast type at 8,800 fl.; the punches and matrices at 2,201 fl.; and the wood-blocks and copperplates for illustrations at 6,723 fl. All the rest was included in the total of 18,000 fl. without further itemization: ‘Par dessus tout cecy et parmy l'achapt de 18,000 fl. sont comprises toutes les casses, bacqs, mandes, tréteaux, formats, 9 platines à part, comme aussi quelques chassis ou rames de fer outre les 2 servantes à chacune presse, et toute telle menuté d'imprimerie.’^1. This means that in 1589 the contents of the printing shop and type room were assessed at 500 fl. (the value of the ten presses) - only one thirty-sixth part of the total estimated value of the press and its effects.

In addition to these more or less permanent items there were others that had to be regularly renewed: linen and parchment for the tympans and friskets; wool for filling the ink balls, and leather for covering them. These purchases were also carefully recorded in the years 1563 to 1567 and the accounts are therefore valuable and informative on this aspect too.

Entries of purchases of linen do not occur very often^2. as it presumably lasted for some considerable time. The same was not true of the parchment with which the friskets and the inner tympans were covered. In the case of the former, a new skin of parchment had to be cut for each forme, or, more precisely, for the formes of each new book. Between 1563 and 1566 Plantin bought eleven new sheets for the tympans (at 4, 5 and 6 st. each) and 208 pounds of old parchment for the friskets (at 2, 2¾ and 3¼ st. per pound), making 34 fl. 14¾ st. altogether.^3. In the inventories of 1658 and 1662 compiled by

1. Cf. Vol. I, p. 165.

2. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (‘Blanchets 2 de 7 quartiers de carese blanc pour le tympan’: 1 fl. 9 st.) and 13th August 1565 (‘3 aunes ¼ de moins de crese à faire blanchets aux tympans à 22 st. laune’: 3½ fl.).

3. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (‘Parchemin à faire les timpans de la presse 2 peaux à 4 st. pièce’: 8 st.; ‘Parchemin vieil à faire des frisquettes 3 lb. à 2¾ st. la lb.’: 8¾ st.), 20th November 1563 (‘2 peaux de parchemin pour les timpans à 5 st. pièce’: 10 st.), 10th February 1564 (‘Blanchet et peaux de parchemin’: 1 fl. 5 st.; ‘Parchemin vieil pour rimprimerie 50 lb. à 2 st. la lb.’: 5 fl.), 10th April 1565 (‘155 lb. de vieil parchemin à 3¼ st. la lb.’: 25 fl. 3 st.), 13th August 1565 (‘5 peaux à tympans neufs à 6 st.’: 1 fl. 10 st.). Among the minor items for press no. 2 were ‘2 peaux de parchemin pour les timpans à 5 st. pièce, 10 st.’. Other purchases of ‘peaux [de parchemin]’ were noted, but with no indication of whether they were for tympans, for bookbinding, or for printing. For example, Arch. 3, dated 10th April 1565 (purchase of ‘2 douzaines de peaux’, 7 fl.; ‘19 peaux’, 5 fl. 4½ st.; ‘18 peaux à 5 st. pièce’, 4 fl. 10 st.; 24 ‘peaux’, 4 fl. 4 st.).

[p. 150]

Balthasar ii Moretus the stock of parchment for friskets and tympans was valued at 1,980 fl.^1. As the accounts for 1563-67 show, however, the amount used up per year did not represent an exorbitant expense. Nor did the wool for the ink balls: 39 pounds were purchased between 1563 and 1567 for a total cost of 6 fl. 19¾ st.^2.

What did cost a lot of money was the leather required for the ink balls. In the memorandum of c. 1760 ‘concerning various things needed in the press’^3. exact figures are given of consumption per unit. From one skin of leather 8 or 9 pieces large enough to cover an ink ball could be cut. Thirty-three skins per press per year were used, a total of 264 per year for the eight presses then in use. Each skin cost 12 st. and 264 times this amount made 158 fl. 8 st. Having them sewn cost 6 st. per dozen.

In the accounts for 1563-67 only the inclusive costs were entered. These were also considerable: between October 1563 and 28th August 1567 no less than 1290 skins were noted, costing altogether 328 fl. 15 st.^4.

1. Arch. 108. In the 1707 inventory the parchment (stored in the type-foundry) was estimated at 4,000 lb., which at 12 st. a lb. represented a value of 2,400 fl. (Arch. 721, no. 77). In 1757 the stock (then lying in the ‘small room at the back of the shop and above the wash-house’) had risen to 5,909 lb.; but the value per lb. having fallen to 7 st., the whole of the stock then was valued at only 2,068 fl. 3 st. (Arch. 721, no. 81).

2. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (4 lb. at 3½ st. per pound, 14 st.), 10th February 1564 (for 14 st.), 10th April 1565 (8 lb. at 3 st. per pound, 1 fl. 4 st.), 26th May 1565 (6 lb. 1 fl. 4 st.), 13th August 1565 (4 lb. 14 st.), 23rd March 1566 (6 lb. 1 fl. 3¾ st.), 12th May 1566 (4 lb. at 3½ st. per pound, 14 st.), 5th July 1566 (3 lb. at 4 st. per pound, 12 st.).

3. Arch. 697, no. 101, f^o 1^ro. Cf. L. Voet, ‘Een aantekenboek van Franciscus Joannes Moretus’, De Gulden Passer, 44, 1966, p. 233.

4. Arch. 3, dated October 1563 (‘6 peaux blanches de cuir de mouton à faire les basles’: 1 fl. 7 st.); 10th November 1563 (‘12 peaux de cuir blanc pour faire basles à imprimer’: 2 fl. 8 st.); 24th November 1563 (‘cuirs blanc no. 7 qui cousten 5 st. la pièce et est pour limprimerie’: 1 fl. 5 st.); 29th November 1563 (‘cuirs pour limprimerie’: 15 at 4½ st. each, 3 fl. 7½ st.); 22nd April 1564 (‘36 peaux blanches à faire balies’: 48 st. a dozen, 7 fl. 4 st.); 20th May 1564 (‘pour 12 peaux blanches à faire basles pour limprimerie’: 2 fl. 14 st.); 17th June 1564 (‘cuirs blancs pour faire basles dimprimerie, 40 peaux blanches’: 9 fl.); 3rd October 1564 (34 pieces, 7 fl. 13 st.); 16th October 1564 (4 dozen, 23 fl. 13 st.); 13th January 1565 (4 dozen, 10 fl. 16 st.); 10th April 1565 (4 dozen, 10 fl. 16 st.; ‘19 peaux pour balles’ at 5½ st. each, 5 fl. 3½ st.); 26th May 1565 (4 dozen, 10 fl. 10 st.); 13th August 1565 (26 pieces, 5 fl. 4 st.; ‘6 douzaines 3 peaux de peaux à basles à 3 fl. douzaine’: 18 fl. 15 st.); 18th August 1565 (5 dozen, 14 fl. 5 st.); 23rd March 1566 (10 dozen and 4 pieces, 31 fl.; ‘pour douze douz[aines] de cuirs achaptés à Mastrick [Maastricht] à 33 st. la douzaine, la mande 4 st. et le port ens[emble]’: 21 fl. 10 st.); 12th May 1566 (‘1 douzaine de peaux blanches pour limprimerie’: 2 fl. 14 st.); 5th July 1566 (5 dozen, 15 fl.); 28th July 1566 (6 dozen, 17 fl. 10 st.); 2nd September 1566 (6 dozen, 16 fl. 4 st.); 6th October 1566 (6 dozen and 3 pieces, 17 fl. 13 st.); 19th January 1567 (8 dozen, 21 fl. 12 st.); 13th April 1567 (5 dozen, 12 fl. 12 st.); 28th August 1567 (5 dozen and 8 skins, 17 fl. 19½ st.).

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On 30th June 1565, an amount of 8 fl. was entered as the price of ‘8 weeks of assembling and stitching the leathers’. This means that in only four years Plantin spent as much on leather for ink balls as on purchases of new presses. During the 34 years of his career as a printer his expenditure on this leather must have been at least three times as great as that on the complete furnishing and equipping of his officina, including the presses and their appurtenances.

The amount of money spent on lighting was not less considerable. Between 31st December 1563 and 19th January 1567, as many as 129 stenen of candles were bought. (The steen, a weight then in use in the Southern Netherlands, was lighter than the present English stone; it weighed 4.719 kg or 10 lb. 6 oz.). At 17 and 18 st. a steen these purchases of candles came to 118 fl. 3 st.^1.

The printing shop and other rooms had to be heated in the winter, and there had to be a fire for warming the lye all the year round. The memorandum of c. 1760 already referred to contained a ‘note or

1. Arch. 3, dated 31st December 1563 (3 stenen, at 17 st. each, 2 fl. 11 st.); 23rd January 1564 (12, at 17 st. each, 10 fl. 4 st.); 3rd October 1564 (7, at 18 st. each, 6 fl. 6 st.); 16th October 1564 (5, 4 fl. 10 st.); 13th January 1565 (4, at 18 st. each, 2 fl. 14 st.); 10th April 1565 (12, 10 fl. 4 st.); 13th August 1565 (7, 6 fl. 18 st.); 18th March 1566 (52, 53 fl. 11 st.); 19th January 1567 (25, at 17 st. each, 21 fl. 5 st.).

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estimate of the amount of English coal slack needed each year for the printing office’:^1.

The foundry - 2 quarters of slack per week, making per year	104
The printing shop - during the winter	80
In the cellar, for the furnace	100
For the copperplate printer	20
	_____
	304

The note concludes: ‘In 1738, 300 quarters were purchased at 26½ st. a quarter, which came to 397 fl. 10 st. and in 1739, 130 quarters at 22¼ - st. a quarter, 167 fl. 1½ - st. altogether.’ It was not until the end of the seventeenth century that the use of coal as fuel was recorded in the Plantinian accounts.^2. Before this wood and charcoal had been employed. This means that the relative amount and cost of fuel used in Plantin's time must have been higher than the above figures. The accounts for 1563 to 1567, however, give only negligible sums for this item,^3. and these must represent no more than a fraction of the actual expenditure. There is written evidence from 1639 which would seem to imply that it had formerly been the custom for the cost of heating the printing office to be borne by the workmen themselves.^4. Another reference shows that in the time of Plantin this expense was met with

1. Arch. 692, no. 101, f^o 4^ro.

2. The first mention of the use of coal known to the author dates from 1661 (Arch. 154, f^o 31). This refers to coal used by the Van Wolsschatens in their workshop when casting type for Balthasar ii Moretus and debited to the account of the firm. The author's researches have not been exhaustive and coal may have been used as fuel for furnaces and for heating earlier than this, perhaps considerably earlier.

3. Arch. 3, dated 31st December 1563 (‘charbon pour brusler en limprimerie’: 12 st.; ‘tailles 6 à mectre le feu en limprimerie pour les compagnons’: 3 fl.), and 10th April 1565 (‘pour bois bruslé aux estuves de limprimerie’: 12 fl.).

4. Ord. L, art. 57 (Note. Anno 1639 the box which used to hang in the press done away with, with our master's consent who is giving wood or charcoal for the press, without the journeymen having to pay anything for it. The master gives them the coal-dust for stoking. Original Dutch text: ‘Nota. Anno 1639 is de Busse die in de Druckerij placht te hangen te niet gedaen, met consent van onsen Meester die daer voor het hout oft colen geeft voor de Druckerij, sonder dat de Gesellen daer voor iet moeten betaelen. Den meester vereert hun het gruys voor het stoken.’ On this Ord., see p. 310, note 1.

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money from the quarterly bonus that the master paid per working press.^1. Whether this was always the case, or whether the master made a regular contribution towards the heating cost is another question, but whatever the exact arrangement may have been, it is most unlikely that the men would have had to pay for heating the lye. The absence of entries of wood and charcoal purchases in the period 1563-67 is to be explained in another way. This was the time of the partnership with the Van Bomberghen family. Fuel costs were included in the sum of 50 fl. that Plantin received each year during that period to cover miscellaneous small items - heating and lye were mentioned specifically in the contract.^2. An average of 50 fl. per year for the whole of Plantin's career, however, makes the cost of these menutez, as they were termed, also considerably higher than that of equipping the press.

1. Arch. 788 (wages book 1583-89), under 3rd December 1589: ‘aus compagnons pour leur quart d'an et rabatu 5 fl. 7½ st. pour les bois, 8 fl. 12½ st.’ It is the only mention of this kind the author has found. Very likely the workers themselves were normally responsible for the heating, but here, as an exception, the patron himself had either advanced the money or had had the wood delivered and now deducted this from the premium.

2. As noted in the deed of partnership: cf. Vol. I, p. 46.