The printer's materials

Chapter 2
Paper and Parchment1.

It is necessary first to consider the materials and equipment essential to the craft of printing. Paper is one of the necessities of the trade that, by its nature, requires continual replenishment; it can of course be used only once. It will be seen that paper accounted for an average of 60-65 per cent of the cost of producing a book, this percentage rising to 75 per cent for some large printings.2. It used up vast amounts of capital with remorseless regularity. Through the years paper merchants were the most important suppliers of the Plantin firm and their bills figure as one of the principal items of regular expenditure in its accounts.

Before discussing who these merchants were, some idea must be given of the quantities of paper the masters of the Golden Compasses had to order. These quantities were, then as now, expressed in reams of 500 sheets, subdivided into 20 ‘mains’ (quires) of 25 sheets each. The amounts involved can best be comprehended by considering how

much paper was needed to print a book. Obviously this varied according to the format, the number of pages, and the number of copies printed. For a folio edition the sheet is folded into two. If the sheet is printed on both sides one sheet gives four pages of print. One folio book of 100 pages therefore requires 25 sheets of paper, and if 1,000 copies are to be printed, the total needed is 25 × 1,000 = 25,000 sheets = 50 reams. For a quarto edition each sheet is folded in four, giving eight pages of print. A book of 100 pages thus requires 12½ sheets and a printing of 1,000 copies takes 12,500 sheets or 25 reams. For an octavo edition the corresponding figures are 6¼ sheets, and 6,250 sheets or 12½ reams.

The following are a few actual examples from the firm's account-books:

J. Sambucus, Emblemata, 1564, octavo, 240 pp., 1,250 copies: ‘Il contiennent 16 feilles et la première a esté refaicte et est de 1,250 qui sont 42 rames et la feille refaicte 2 rames qui font ensemble 44 rames.’1.

M. Barlaeus, De miseriis et fragilitate humanae vitae libellus, 1566, octavo, 63 pp.: ‘Il est imprimé à 150... et y est entré 25 mains.’2.

Cassiodorus, Institutionis divinarum lectionum liber I, 1566, octavo, 112 pp.: ‘Il contient 7 feilles et est imprimé à 550, y est entré 9 rames de papier.’3.

The Polyglot Bible, in eight huge folio volumes, required no less than 1,600 sheets per copy,4. making an impressive total of about 1,920,000 sheets or 3,840 reams for the entire printing of 1,200.

The masters of the Golden Compasses made this sort of calculation for every work that they published. This they had to do for working out the cost of production and fixing the selling price. But these figures still do not convey a clear picture of the vast amount of paper that was carried into the press every year. There is a simpler method of gauging the quantities involved. The daily output of normal work from one printing-press amounted to 1,250 sheets, printed on both sides, or 2½ reams. For liturgical books (the ‘black-

and-red’ editions as they were known in the Plantin press) the norm dropped to 1,000 sheets printed on one side, i.e., one ream.1. In a working week of six days one press turned out between six and fifteen reams, according to the nature of the publication, giving 312 to 780 reams per year. These figures, based on the rate of work which the men were expected to maintain, are confirmed by a petition submitted in 1757 by Franciscus Joannes Moretus, in which he requested to be allowed to import paper from abroad duty-free.2. The firm was then fully geared to the production of service books. The relevant sentence is ‘The Plantinian printing office is equipped with eleven presses, for the employment of which at least 3,432 reams are required each year, that is to say six reams per week for each press.’3.

Two centuries earlier Plantin had reported a consumption of five reams per press per week for a certain service book, but this was a very large antiphonary that demanded special care in production;4. this rate can be regarded as an absolute minimum.

The number of reams required in a given year can thus be determined almost mathematically from the number of presses working,5. as long as it is remembered that until about 1610 ordinary (i.e., non-liturgical) editions predominated, with a consumption of approximately 15 reams per week per working press; that between 1610 and 1650 ordinary and liturgical publications were roughly equal in number; and that after 1650 production was almost entirely given up to service books, with a consumption of about 6 reams per press per working week. If for the period 1555 to 1765 an average of ten working presses is assumed (which is probably a little too high) at a rate of 4,000 reams per year (which is probably slightly too low), this gives a consumption

for this span of 210 years of 840,000 reams or 420,000,000 sheets - all of them made by hand.

Paper is considerably older than the art of printing; there were already merchants on hand to supply Gutenberg. Raw materials, consisting of rags of flax and hemp fibre, were available everywhere in Europe; but in spite of this, centres of production were few. This was chiefly because large supplies of running water were required for cleaning and milling the rags and for driving the rollers. Paper manufacture therefore tended to be concentrated outside towns and in hilly or mountainous districts. There were very few paper mills in the Southern Netherlands in Plantin's time, and in the North they were virtually non-existent. ‘Daniel de Keyser, huissier du conseil de Gandt [Ghent] et pappetier du moulin dudit Gandt’ supplied Plantin with 41 reams in 1574,1. when the printer was desperately looking for sources of paper, and sent 90 reams in 1575.2. These, however, are the only deliveries of home-produced paper to Plantin that can be confirmed.3. Plantin would not have been able to meet all his requirements with Netherlands-made paper, but he does not seem to have availed himself of what domestic supplies there were. Probably he was not satisfied with the quality.

In the sixteenth century the three foremost paper manufacturing countries were Italy, France, and Germany. Transport costs, especially overland, added greatly to the price of goods. This is presumably why Plantin hardly ever ordered paper from Italy, although Italian paper was highly thought of. Only one purchase is known. Plantin bought some reams of ‘grand papier imperial d'Italie’ in 1569-71 for the enormously high prices of 21 and 23 fl. per ream. It is

significant that he made this purchase in Antwerp, from Antonio Ciardi, an Italian bookbinder who also sold paper on occasion.1.

Germany was far more important as a source of supply, at least in Plantin's early years, and there is mention of purchases from that country in some of his letters.2. There is even a contract, dated 11th April 1566, which has been preserved. In it Simon Heret, a citizen of Mainz, undertook to supply 3,000 reams of paper of various kinds over a period of three years. The paper was to be made for Plantin at Heret's own mill near Mainz,3. but the printer was not able to keep up payments and the contract was terminated.4.

These purchases of German paper were hardly ever entered in the ledgers or journals. Presumably they were written up in the early Cahiers de Francfort that have not been preserved.5. They do not seem to have been very large and consisted mainly of high-quality writing paper (‘très fin pour écrire’) which Plantin often resold to eminent customers such as de Çayas, Philip ii's secretary,6. the president of the

Privy Council, Viglius,1. the Abbot Mofflin2. and Alexander Grapheus,3. and even to Antwerp paper merchants,4. together with a certain amount of other fine paper for de luxe editions.5.

Most of the paper used in the Plantinian press came from France,6. either ordered directly from French paper merchants or imported via Antwerp dealers. Direct negotiations with French manufacturers and merchants predominated in Plantin's early career, when he often

visited France and dealt with them in person.1. His letters from this period contain many references to the paper he had imported directly from his homeland.2. In an undated letter to Pierre Porret (1567?) there is a passage which seems to indicate that these transactions did not always go smoothly.3.

The position began to change after 1567. The Plantin press was expanding rapidly into a very large concern that devoured ever-increasing quantities of paper and demanded all Plantin's time and energy. France remained an important source of paper, and direct dealings with French merchants continued: the size of their deliveries in the period 1568-76 - when Egidius Beys acted as agent at Paris - even exceeded those of previous years. But Antwerp dealers were being employed more and more to supply the needs of the firm. Between 1568 and 1576, when French merchants supplied about 20,000 fl. worth of paper, their opposite numbers in Antwerp provided almost 90,000 fl. worth. One account alone, that of Jacques de Lengaigne, ‘papetier etc. en Anvers’, amounted to more than double those of all the French suppliers together.

In 1576 the troubles in the Southern Netherlands brought about a catastrophic decline in production in the Plantinian press, and purchases of paper fell accordingly. But even with the press working at a greatly reduced tempo, the task of supplying it with paper remained

a difficult one. The war dislocated communications with France and Germany, making imports irregular and causing costs to soar.1. Even after the surrender of Antwerp in 1585 and the restoration of law and order in the Southern Netherlands, difficulties continued. In France itself religious and political ferment exploded into civil war. Once more paper prices rose.2.

Paper for the Plantinian press continued to be obtained both by direct importation from France and via paper merchants in Antwerp, as in the years 1568-76.3. Antwerp dealers still had the lion's share, although their percentage of the total was reduced, at least in the period 1577-85.

Not all the paper that Plantin bought was used in his press. In his early years he also carried on a fairly lively retail trade in paper. In 1557 he made an agreement with a certain François de la Chontierelt (?) to buy jointly quite a large amount of paper (886 reams at a price of 685 fl. 10 st.) with the express intention of selling it in Antwerp.4. But Plantin usually conducted this retail trade, which diminished in importance after 1563, by selling paper out of his stocks to colleagues,5. friends, or customers in his shop.6.

Paper Deliveries to the Plantin Press between 1563 and 15891.

In later life, too, Plantin sometimes purchased paper for resale, as in the case of the writing paper for de Çayas, Mofflin, and other important figures in Spain and the Netherlands.1. In such instances as these, however, it was often as much a matter of performing a friendly service as of making a profit.

Plantin sometimes bartered with paper. In 1570 or 1571, for example, he sent many bales of French paper to Mainz to this end.2. What his exact aim was in doing this is not certain, nor whether he succeeded. It may be that works he was contemplating printing at that time required large quantities of fine-quality German paper, and that as he could not pay in cash (this inability had already put a stop to deliveries from the Mainz paper manufacturer Heret in 1567) he was trying to obtain his supplies by barter. Later, after 1576, Plantin made over quite large quantities of paper to Antwerp merchants such as Martin Jacobs and Guillaume Colisis.3. What probably happened here is that Plantin, while his business was contracting and imports were disrupted, got rid of stocks of the high-quality paper he no longer

needed so urgently, either in exchange for more immediately usable supplies or in settlement of his accounts.

The manner in which paper for the press was obtained continued practically unchanged under Plantin's immediate successors. It was still brought in from France, either directly or through the offices of Southern Netherlands dealers.1. As in the past, political conflicts and military activities sometimes made supplies difficult to obtain.2.

At the end of the seventeenth century there was a dramatic shift in the balance of the paper market. In the space of a few years Holland changed from being an importer of paper to a manufacturer of that commodity able to dominate the Western European market. This development was reflected in supplies coming into the Plantinian press. After 1650 a few Dutch firms had supplied all paper for the Moretuses. However, they imported it from France, where they had interests in, or even owned, paper mills. About 1685 the bills they sent in began to mention ‘papier hollandois’ and at the end of the century this Dutch paper had largely replaced the French.

The Moretuses' correspondence shows how this change came about and the results it had. One of the firms affected was that of the Vincent family of Amsterdam, who were one of the chief suppliers of the Plantinian house from 1660 to 1718.3. An edict published by the States-General of the Northern Netherlands in 1671, on the eve of Louis xiv's invasion of their country, was a severe blow for the Vincents, for it forbade the import of French goods. They even thought of settling in the Spanish Netherlands, but Balthasar ii Moretus, in a letter of 30th July 1672, advised them against ‘coming to reside in these parts’ as the general outlook there was even less favourable. The 1671 edict, however, proved an incentive to enterprising Dutchmen with money to invest: paper mills began to be set

up in the Veluwe and Zaan districts. It took a little while, of course, before these could produce on a profitable scale, and in the meantime the Vincents went on dealing in French paper. In 1675 Ysbrand Vincent journeyed south to visit the family's own mill at Pradier and the other mills that worked for his firm; these were concentrated mainly along the Charente in the region of Angoulême. He intended to settle there permanently, but the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 compelled him, as a Dutch Protestant, to flee from a France that had become so inhospitable to those of his religion. After much adversity - in the course of which he frequently invoked the good offices of Balthasar iii Moretus - Ysbrand and his French wife finally crossed the border into the Spanish Netherlands in 1686. It was another ten years before their two children, who had had to remain behind in France, were able to slip across the frontier and join them.

These tribulations did nothing to help the Vincents' trade with France. Moreover, many of the French paper manufacturers were Prostestants. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes caused large numbers of them to seek refuge in Holland. Dutch paper production rose in quantity and quality while the French declined. Ysbrand Vincent dispatched increasing amounts of Dutch paper to Antwerp. There are echoes of all this in the letters exchanged between Ysbrand and the Moretuses. There was a great dearth of journeymen paper-makers in France; most mills were falling into ruin and could not be repaired for lack of money, wrote the Dutchman on 16th June 1698.1. Paper had risen sharply in price in France because of ‘the costliness of rags, glue, of the necessities of life, the scarcity of journeymen paper-makers [so many having been] killed in the war’ - so he put it in a letter of 6th March 1699,2. ‘Most paper mills in France have been ruined, and the little [paper] that is made there is scandalously unreliable, mixed with dross’ are his observations in a letter of 25th July

1704.1. With the same letter Vincent sent a sample to Antwerp ‘of which I have had great quantities made in one of our provinces with fresh well - water, it has been properly sized, is fit to be used for writing books and to be dampened three times, and in all respects is of such quality that no French paper can equal it.’2.

The Plantin press continued to obtain practically all its paper from Holland from the beginning until about the middle of the eighteenth century, when the Southern Netherlands started to emerge as a paper producing region.3. Some paper mills had in fact been established among the hills of Brabant during the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In accordance with the protectionist principles of the time, these were sheltered as much as possible by import duties imposed on foreign paper. The first legislation enacted in 1670 provided for only moderate duties, but in a decreee of 14th August 1752 these were increased considerably, for by this time the government believed that there were sufficient native mills to meet all the needs of the country. The new tariff was applied only to paper from France, Germany, and the autonomous bishopric of Liège. Dutch paper continued to be taxed at the old rate. Then in 1756-57 new mills were set up in Brabant, and old ones reorganized. Certain of their owners seem to have had great influence, especially Jan Baptist van Langhenhoven at Brussels and the partners Jan Baptist van Tryst (or Triest) and René van Kuyl (or Cuyl) with mills at Diegem and La Hulpe. Through their efforts a decree of 21st September 1757 extended the new tariff to include Dutch paper.4. Dutch paper at the new prices would have been too expensive for

Franciscus Joannes Moretus, who had recently inherited the Plantinian press, and on 26th September 1757 he hastily cancelled orders he had placed in Holland. He then approached Van Langhenhoven at Brussels, who did all he could to win this important account. Van Langhenhoven promised to provide the printer with the very best paper he had and offered him small gifts of notepaper, not to mention ‘two sacks of turnips... which are the produce of our own garden at Evere, which parish yields the best [turnips] in all Brabant’. In fact Van Langhenhoven and his widow were allowed to supply some of the paper requirements of the press from 1757 to 1762. In spite of Van Langhenhoven's promises and endeavours, however, F.J. Moretus was not completely satisfied with the quality delivered. In addition to this he had publications in hand which needed to be printed on particular types of Dutch paper. Through the offices of a privy councillor, Jan Karel van Heurck, he petitioned the government for leave to import 1,600 reams1. of paper a year from Holland at the old tariff.2. On 22nd December 1757 he was given permission to import exactly half this amount at the 1680 rate of duty. Franciscus Joannes was not satisfied and insisted on his 1,600 reams. The government's anticlimactic reply, given to Van Heurck on 6th June 1758, was that the Plantin Press could import as much Dutch paper as it wanted at the old rate. According to Franciscus Joannes it was not Van Heurck's efforts, nor a sudden generous impulse on the part of the government, that brought about this unexpected success, but the fire which burnt down the Diegem paper mill of the partners Van Tryst and Van Kuyl.3. Thus it was that Dutch paper continued to feed the presses of the Officina Plantiniana through the second half of the eighteenth century.

The prices paid by Plantin and his successors for their paper depended

of course on size and quality. Through the centuries all the masters of the firm were particular about the quality of the paper they used. The letters they wrote to their suppliers were generally full of complaints about the kinds delivered, coupled with the constant threat to go elsewhere.1. The suppliers often spoke up for themselves and in so doing furnished important details of contemporary paper manufacture.2.

This does not mean that the masters of the Golden Compasses bought only the best and most expensive paper. It had to be good of its kind, but the kind used varied according to the edition being produced and the price at which it was going to be sold. Paper for a popular book or for a government ordinance did not need to be as fine as that used for a breviary or a missal. It was not unusual for a work to be printed on various qualities of paper according to whether it was going to be made up into what might be termed a standard, a special, or a de luxe edition. Plantin discussed this in connexion with the Polyglot Bible in his letter to de Çayas of 1st October 1567. He proposed two kinds of paper. One was to be an expensive Auvergne paper at 4 fl. 10 st. a ream, on which half the edition was to be printed for those to whom money was no object (‘pour ceux qui désirent plustost avoir quelque chose d'excellent que d'y espargner l'argent’). The other was to be a cheaper sort from La Rochelle or Troyes at 2 fl. 17 st. a ream, on which the other half

of the edition would be printed for the common people who had less money to spend and who in any case were less likely to be interested in the aesthetics of book production (‘pour le commun, qui n'est si cognoissant ou n'a le moyen d'y employer tant d'argent, ou bien qui ne se delectent pas à la belle marge du livre’).1. This proposal was repeatedly modified until in the end the Polyglot Bible was printed as follows: 960 copies on ‘papier grand royal de Troyes’; 200 on ‘papier fin royal au raisin’ of Lyons; 30 on ‘papier imperial à l'aigle’; and 10 on Italian ‘grand papier imperial’. In addition 13 copies were printed on parchment.2. Quite frequently liturgical works were put on the market in two different versions.3. It sometimes happened that just a few copies out of a particular edition were printed on better, or at any rate different, paper from the rest. It was, for example, quite common for presentation copies to be printed on blue-tinted paper, a practice which Plantin followed on occasion.4. Now and again a small number of copies might be printed on paper of superior quality, and usually of larger format, at the special request of bibliophiles. Cardinal Granvelle, for example, was very fond of works ‘à la belle marge’. The many letters exchanged between Plantin and this prelate or his representatives contain frequent references to such specially printed copies of Plantinian books destined for the cardinal's three libraries.5.

What has been said above implies that the larger the size, the higher

the price of the paper. Before the invention by Nicolas Louis Roberts in 1798 of a machine that could turn out paper in continuous sheets, the measurements of a sheet of paper depended on the size of the scoop. This in turn depended on the physical strength of the workman who had to handle it. The largest sheet of hand-made paper ever achieved was produced at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the James Whatman Springfield mill at Maidstone in Kent. It measured 51½ by 30¾ inches.1. A special scoop had to be made for it which was mounted on a hoist; some six or eight men were needed to handle it and the whole operation was done more for publicity than as a serious piece of paper manufacture. In the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries the largest sheets of paper only very exceptionally exceeded 18 × 26 inches (45 × 65 cm).2. In 1574-76 Plantin had some 22 × 33-inch (55 × 85 cm) paper made. This was for printing an enormous choir-book, intended for the Spanish market, but when the project fell through it was used for editions of de la Hèle and other composers; it must have been among the largest sizes produced in the normal course of manufacture by the old methods.3.

Neither in their orders nor in their records of deliveries did the masters of the Golden Compasses ever state measurements.4. Sizes and varieties were combined in what might be termed code-names, often derived from the watermark used. Watermarks at that time generally did not identify the manufacturer, but indicated the size and sometimes the quality as well. These code-names had precise meanings. Plantin knew exactly the quality, size, and price represented by such entries in his stock-taking of 15655. as: 1,304 reams

‘papier carré’, 3,356 reams ‘petit bastard’, 631 reams ‘grand bastard et petite grande forme’, 466 reams ‘papier diet carillon’, 83 reams ‘grosbon carillon’, 63 reams ‘papier diet volume de Brie’, and so on. Unfortunately the meanings of these and other names have been lost.1. As these types of paper were made with different scoops in different mills, there must sometimes have been considerable variations in both size and quality within each category. When paper was being ordered, or when it was being discussed with authors, it was common practice for samples of the kinds in question to be shown so that misunderstandings could be avoided.2. It was because of these variations that the owners of the officina always tried to stock up with enough paper to print a complete edition before they started work on a book;3. deviation from this rule often brought difficulties.4. It was probably considerations such as these which led Plantin to have a ‘protest’ drawn up in April 1566, by a notary public. The document

held Pierre Péricart of Troyes liable for any costs that might be incurred through the late delivery of an unspecified quantity of ‘petit bastard’ paper; it was served on Péricart's son, who happened to be in Antwerp at the time.1.

Fluctuations in dimensions and quality were matched by great variations in price. Occasionally paper prices were calculated by weight,2. but usually they were expressed in reams. By way of illustration, here are the amounts and types of paper delivered to Plantin in 1568, 1569, and 1570 by Jacques de Lengaigne, his principal Antwerp supplier.3. For a total of 9,578 fl. 18 st. the printer received the quantities given in following table.

The fine German paper which Plantin was buying at this time cost about the same as the most expensive types of French paper supplied by Lengaigne.1. Far higher in price was the Italian paper supplied by Antoine Ciardi for certain copies of the Polyglot Bible.2. Plantin had to pay 21 and 23 fl. per ream for it - about six times as much as for the dearest French and German kinds. The 22 reams which Ciardi delivered cost the printer 483 fl. 3 st. - roughly the price of 220 reams of average quality paper, such as the ‘ville de Lyon’.

These figures apply to the period before 1576. It has already been seen that political conditions after that date pushed up the price of paper: in the last years of Plantin's life they rose by a third and more. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries prices continued to rise with the cost of living. However, during these two centuries the Officina Plantiniana specialized in service books and this simplified the ordering of paper. Plantin had needed many categories of paper for his wide range of publications, but from the second half of the seventeenth century onwards it was possible to reduce these to the few high-quality kinds used in the printing of breviaries and missals. The situation is admirably depicted in the petition addressed in F.J. Moretus's name to the central government on 10th October 1757, in connexion with the lifting of import duties on Dutch paper.3.

It can be seen that paper merchants were among the most important suppliers of the Plantin press. Its masters had to spend vast sums of money on this vital material. In the quarter of a century between the end of 1563 and the middle of 1589 Plantin had to pay out more than 200,000 fl., an enormous amount for the time and further proof of the great size and economic importance of the firm he founded.

Plantin in fact had to pay even more than this. In the great majority of cases, the prices included delivery at the press, but sometimes they did not include transport costs, which could be very considerable.1. Together with workmen's wages, paper formed the biggest item of regular expenditure. In 1566, for example, 4,529 fl. 18½ st. was spent on paper, and 4,141 fl. 3½ st. was paid in wages to the compositors and pressmen. This gives a total of 8,671 fl. 2 st. compared with a total expenditure of 13,041 fl.2. This ratio can be regarded as fairly constant. Through the years, in boom and depression alike, paper consumed about one third of the money the masters of the Gulden Passer invested in their firm.

Paper was generally delivered in quite large quantities. Naturally, time elapsed before there could be any return on the money spent on

paper. To counteract this, and to avoid having to find and pay out large sums of money all at once, Plantin made agreements with his chief suppliers which enabled payment to be spread over a period of months. The usual arrangement was to pay one third of the account on delivery, one third after two to three months, and the remainder after a further two to three months.1.

Paper bought for the Officina was not always used immediately. Common prudence dictated the holding of reserves which could keep the business going in times of emergency. White paper was always to be found stacked in the attics and store-rooms of the house. The extent and value of these stocks fluctuated, but whenever exact details are given they show that this paper represented a continuing asset, often a very considerable one. In value it approached and sometimes exceeded the firm's more permanent equipment, such as printing-presses, founts of type, and material for illustrations.2.

Books could also be printed on parchment. This material, however, was used only occasionally and the officina did not keep stocks of it, ordering supplies only when needed for a particular work. Parchment is regularly listed in the inventories, but always with the note that it was for covering tympans and friskets.3. The author has found no mention in the inventories of parchment for printing.

The reason for this was simply that parchment was much dearer than paper. It was reserved for sumptuously produced limited editions, mainly in the years 1568-72; examples were thirteen copies of the Polyglot Bible, and copies of the Psalterium and Antiphonarium. The parcheminiers Jan Tollis, his widow Catelijne (from 1572), and

Jan Thys supplied the printer with consignments of parchment at various prices for friskets, bookbinding, and printing.1. Parchment for printing cost 2 fl. 5 st. per dozen sheets in 1570 and 2 fl. 6 st. in 1572; for slightly larger sizes (‘parchemin de 30 pouces’) 2 fl. 16 st. was paid for the same number.2. This meant that twelve sheets of parchment cost almost as much as a ream of good quality paper. Parchment was twenty-five times as dear as the ‘grand real fin de Troye’; the 3 fl. 12 st. which Plantin paid for one ream of this very expensive paper purchased just twenty sheets of parchment.

Only extremely wealthy customers could afford to buy books printed on parchment. The Psalterium printed on paper cost 8 fl., a high price for the period, but on parchment it cost 60 fl. - half a year's wages for the workman who printed it.3. The Antiphonarium cost 17 fl. on ordinary paper, 19 fl. on best quality paper, and 162 fl. 10 st. on parchment.4. This was more than a compositor earned in a year - and even then the last pages were printed on paper.

One of the problems experienced with parchment was that of supply. Parchment was made from the skins of animals, chiefly (in France and the Netherlands at least) calves and sheep. The parchment Plantin used was probably prepared from sheepskins.5. Not more than two sheets could be cut from one skin. The 16,263 sheets of parchment

used just for the thirteen copies of the Polyglot Bible must have meant the slaughter of at least some 8,000 sheep.

Under these circumstances supplies of parchment were obviously limited. Plantin also had to contend with the fact that his sheepskins had to be imported from Zealand. When that province rose against Philip II in 1572, the printer's source of supply was almost cut off. He was only able to obtain small quantities at ever increasing prices.1. This was why the last 44 quires of the parchment copies of the Antiphonarium had to be printed on paper.2. It also explains why Plantin used 16,263 sheets when printing the thirteen parchment copies of the Polyglot Bible for Philip II, not the 20,800 that were needed to complete the work: the last two volumes of each of the thirteen bibles had to be printed on paper.3.

Supplies continued to be difficult in subsequent years. On 23rd December 1588 Plantin wrote to Lopez Soares d'Albergia, a Portuguese who had asked him for parchment, to say that good quality in this commodity was no longer to be had in Antwerp. For this reason he, Plantin, had not sent any - after all, the Portuguese could import good parchment from Holland directly.4. Plantin hardly ever printed on parchment after 1572. His successors contented themselves with printing an occasional presentation copy5. or the whole or part of a government-subsidized edition on parchment.6.