Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

Christopher Plantin and his descendants . Plantiu ' s biography is a romance of real life . He ivas born at Mont Louis , near Tours , in 1514 , the year after the battle of the Spurs was fought in France , and that of Flodden Field in Scotland . His father , Charles dc Tiercelin Signeur , of La Roche du Maine , was of noble birth , and a captain iu the Duke ¦ d'Aleneon ' s regimentand ivas taken prisoner both at the battle of Pavia

, and at that of St . Queutin , and died in deep poverty , at the age of eighty-fiA'e . Two of the old warrior ' s sons emigrated to Caen , and changed their names , adopting those of two plants they noticed in passing through a field : one taking the name of Porret , from the porret or leek , and becoming a "leech" and apothecary ; the other assuming that of Plantin , from the plaintain or weybred , and apprenticing himself to Richard Mace ,

the King ' s printer . At Caen , Plantin married Joanne Riveire , ancl then ivent to Antwerp , where the Town Clerk employed him to bind his books , and lent him money with which to hire a larger shop , known by the sign of the Rose , near tbe Augustine Church -. for houses not then being numbered , tradesmen , like innkeepers at the present day , made their places of business conspicuous by some sign ; the booksellers often affixing woodcuts of theirs to their

publications , to make their shops better knoivn . Thus one of the early Bolognese printers , Benedict Hector , says : — " Purchaser ,- be aware when you AA'ish to buy books issued from my printing office . Look at my sign , Avhich is represented on the title page , and you can never be mistaken . For some evildisposed printers have affixed my name to their uncorrected ancl faulty works ,

in order to secure a better sale for them . Jodocus Badius , of Paris ; Aldus , of Venice ; aud others , make similar complaints ; proving that there were in the earliest ages of printing , as UOAV , scoundrels fitter for the hulks than a printer ' s " chapel . " Even the Steivs upon the Bankside , as we learn from good old Stow , bore such signs as the Cross Keys , the Cardinal ' s Hat , etc . Our earliest English printer after the immortal Caxton , Wynken de Worde , a native of Lorraineprinted aud published at the sign of the Sun in Fleet

, Street ; his pupil , Richard Pynson , at the sign of St . George , in , the same street , close to St . Dunstan ' s Church , and consequently Avithin a stone-throAV of the'Masonic Magazine office ; Julian Notary , " ivithout Temple Bar , iu St . Clement parish , at the sign of the Three Kings , "—that is , Melchior , Balthazar , and Jaspar , the three so-called Kings of Cologne ; John Butler ( said to have been also a Judge of the Common Pleas ) , at the sign of St . John the

Evangelist , in Fleet Street ; Laurence Andrew , at the Golden Cross , Fleet Street ; Thomas Berthelet , the King ' s printer , at the sign of the Lucretia Romana , Fleet Street ; John Haukins , at the Mermaid , " at Pollis Gate next to Cheapside ; " and so on , many subsequent printers adopting the signs and monograms of their predecessors , —as , for instance , Richard Fawkes , the St . John the Evangelist ; John Rastellthe Mermaid ; ancl John Daythe famous

, , printer of the Reformation , partly adopted the Sun of Wynken de Worde , rising above the horizon , whilst a boy wakens up his sleeping companion with the exclamation— " Arise , for it is Day ! "—one of those puns on their own names for ivhich our early printers had so much liking : Richard Grafton ' s rebus of a grafted fruit-tree growing through a tun or cask being one of many examples . * Plantin soon acquired a fame , not only for the neatness of