XVI
The Period in which the Speculum was Printed.
The Paper-Marks of the Speculum, with Fac-simiies … Not Evidence of Age … The Earliest Dated Annotation … Earliest Known Manuscript copy in Dutch … Indications that the Book was Printed at Utrecht … Probably Printed in the Last Half of the Fifteenth Century … Review of the Evidences … The Cambray Record … Printers of the Fraternity of St John at Bruges … Testimony of Zell in the Cologne Chronicle … All Unsatisfactory … Discordant Opinions … Dutch Printing probably Xylographic … No Evidence of an Early Use of Types in Holland … Early Printing in Haarlem … Jacob Bellaert …Fac-simile of his Types … His Successors … Brito of Bruges, with Fac-simile of his Types … Was not an Inventor … Netherlandish Knowledge of Printing came from Cologne … Map of the Netherlands … Not probable that Types were Used there before 1463.
The paper-marks[1] of the Speculum and of other works of the unknown printer have been repeatedly examined in the belief that they would reveal the place where and the time when the paper was manufactured. A Dutch author has said that these marks enable us to determine when the books in which they are to be seen were printed. An English author,
- ↑ A paper-mark is an opaque design on the web of the paper, placed there to enable the buyer to identify a particular manufacture. It is made by bending the wires on which the moist pulp is couched in some peculiar shape which leaves its impression on the paper when it is perfected. Certain sizes of paper are even now known by the names of marks that are no longer used. Foolscap once bore the mark of a fool's head with cap and bells; Post once had the mark of a post-boy's horn. Paper-marks are now made chiefly for the finer qualities of writing papers. The illustrations of old paper-marks, on the following pages, were taken from Koning, and are about one-eighth of the original size.
