Many older prints made use of standardized expressions that indicated who authored the composition, who executed the print itself, who published it, and if the print enjoyed any form of copyright protection. Many of these abbreviations, which are usually in Latin or French, are given in the back of A. Hyatt Mayors' Prints and People, a Social History of Printed Pictures (New York, 1971). This convention became especially common during the 16th and 17th centuries when many professional printmakers and print publishers worked to reproduce important paintings and drawings in the medium of engraving. Here are two examples, both taken from a print by Jan Sadeler (The Rich Man and the Poor Lazarus) in the Spencer Museum of Art:
This line tells us that the engraving reproduces ("is after") a composition by Basano, and that the engraving itself was done by Jan (Ioannes) Sadeler. The horizontal lines over "et" in "invet" and over "a" in "Ioa" tell us that letters have been omitted there. "Invet" actually stands for "invenit," which anglophones can imagine stands for "invented it," "Ioa" stands for "Ioannes", and "sc" stands for "sculpsit" or "carved it," that is, engraved it.
This line tells us that the print enjoyed an early form of copyright known as a privilege. The full text was probably meant to read: "Cum Privilegio Sacrae Cesareae Majestatis," indicating that the print was protected in Germany and Austria.
The publisher's "signature" can be seen in this detail of a print by Jacob Gole from a series of The Five Senses. The inscription (beneath the elegantly engraved title of the print de Smaak, or Taste) tells us that the print was published by Nicolas Visscher and that it enjoys a privilege.
Probably the most important publisher in Northern Europe in the sixteenth century was Hieronymous Cock. Cock ran a publishing house in Antwerp at the sign of "The Four Winds" (in French: "Aux Quatre Vent;" in Flemish: "In de Vier Winden"). This is an inscription on an engraving by Philip Galle after a design by Pieter Bruegel showing the virtue of Prudence. The inscription "H. Cock Excu-" indicates the Hieronymous Cock was the publisher.