RoBengarten.] •*-^ [Jan. 4, 



sister arts have been added to the daily use of the printing office, and 

 every day sees the announcement of some new handmaid to the old art 

 preservative of all arts. 



The cheapening of books has gone hand in hand with the improvements 

 in typography and its allied ai'ts, but at the same time books dear to the 

 bibliophile are still being produced, and the last decade of the century, 

 now fast drawing to its end, will leave to posterity a rich heritage of 

 works representing splendidly all the forms of expression of art in books. 

 The renaissance of making fine books is comparatively modern ; at one 

 time it was limited to mere reproduction, but now it is marked by pro- 

 gressive originality, sometimes like the impressionists in painting start- 

 ling by their struggles for novelty, but often charming by the good use 

 made of the latest mechanical inventions. The French publishers have 

 succeeded in making each a specialty, and the great books on architec- 

 ture and decoration, the Bibles, the classic French authors, on art and 

 on bibliography, will perpetuate their names among the world's master 

 printers. 



The Exposition du Livre was rich in typography, but it was also rich 

 in illustrations of every epoch and every kind. The oldest illustrators 

 were the miniaturists and illuminators of the Middle Ages. It is in the 

 manuscripts anterior to the discovery of Guttenburg that their art can be 

 best appreciated. One of the rooms on the lower floor of the Palais de 

 rindustrie was devoted to manuscripts, and many of them were rare 

 marvels of beauty, all of real interest. Printing by the end of the fif- 

 teenth century supplanted m inuscripts and illumination, an art that has 

 only been revived in our own day. The learned chief of the famous 

 Museum of the Louvre has told the sad story of a miniature painter for 

 manuscripts, who after holding rank at the head of the Guild, saw his 

 talent made useless in competition with the first printers, and he soon lost 

 his occupation and the means of his livelihood. The old art was killed, 

 but it had the honor of compelling its new rivals to imitate the work of 

 their predecessors. In the best incunabula there is a constant effort to 

 make the printed page look like manuscript. The decoration of the printed 

 Litres d'Heures strove to imitate the models which scribes had carried to 

 a rare degree of perfection. They were works of art and luxury, and do 

 honor to the names of Verard and Pigouchet, Kerver and Simon Vostre. 

 Under the influence of Italian renaissance they worked a great change, 

 visible in the books of the sixteenth century, with their large plates illus- 

 trating the text, the borders surrounding, the figures inserted in the pages, 

 Tiie designers and the engravers were artists of the first excellence. 



The next age, that of the great masters of French literature, was too 

 busy with the text to care for illustration, beyond an allegorical frontis- 

 piece or portraits, such as that of Malherbe in the edition of 1630, or of 

 Corneille in that of 1644, excellent examples of engraving and valuable 

 historically. In religious books and in funeral orations there were still 

 illustrations. The funeral sermons of the seventeenth century were not 



