PHY AND BIBLIOLOGY) by Johann Koelhoff,
also at Cologne in 1472. Illustrations abound in the books printed at
Augsburg in the early 'seventies, and in the 'eighties are common in
Germany, France and the Low Countries, while in Italy their full
development dated from about 1490. Experiments were made in both Italy
and France with illustrations engraved on copper, but in the 15th
century these met with no success.

Bound with wooden boards covered with stamped leather, or with half of
the boards left uncovered, many of the earliest printed books are
immensely large and heavy, especially the great choir-books, the Bibles
and the Biblical and legal commentaries, in which a great mass of notes
surrounds the text. The paper on which these large books were printed
was also extraordinarily thick and strong. For more popular books small
folio was at first a favourite size, but towards the end of the century
small thin quartos were much in vogue. Psalters, books of hours, and
other prayer-books were practically the only very small books in use.
Owing to changes, not only in the value of money but in the coinage, the
cost of books in the 15th century is extremely difficult to ascertain. A
vellum copy of the first printed Bible (Mainz, c. 1455) in two large
folio volumes, when rubricated and illuminated, is said to have been
worth 100 florins. In 1467 the bishop of Aleria writing to Pope Paul II.
speaks of the introduction of printing having reduced prices to
one-fifth of what they had previously been. Fifteen "Legends" bequeathed
by Caxton to St Margaret's, Westminster, were sold at prices varying
from 6s. 8d. to 5s. This would be cheap for a large work like the
_Golden Legend_, but the bequest was more probably of copies of the
Sarum _Legenda_, or Lectionary, a much smaller book.

_16th Century._--The popularization of the small octavo by Aldus at
Venice in 1501 and the introduction in these handy books of a new type,
the italic, had far-reaching consequences. Italics grew steadily in
favour during the greater part of the century, and about 1570 had almost
become the standard vernacular type of Italy. In France also they were
very popular, the attempt to introduce a rival French cursive type
(_lettres de civilite_) attaining no success. In England they gained
only slight popularity, but roman type, which had not been used at all
in the 15th century, made steady progress in its contest with black
letter, which by the end of the c