Addison Van Name

“ By right of seniority Germany stands at the head, and Mainz, the birthplace of [vii] printing, is followed by the other German towns in the order of their press age. Next come the presses of Italy, France, Holland and England, arranged in like order. To prevent, however, too wide a departure from the chronological succession which would result from the strict application of this rule, the later, i.e., the sixteenth century, Venice and Paris books are separated from the earlier and transferred to the end of the list, where in point of development they properly belong. ”

“ Bonus Accursius was rather the publisher than the actual printer, who in the case of the Lascaris was Dionysius Paravisinus, and in the case of the Crastonus and the Aesop, probably the brothers de Honate, who at that date were the possessors of the peculiar roman type used in the Latin translations. After the Aesop this particular font of Greek type next appeared in the first edition of Homer, printed at Florence in 1488 by Bartolommeo di Libri, and in three of his subsequent books, once at Rome early in the 16th century, after which it disappears altogether. ”

“ Signatures and catchwords, to guide the binder in the arrangement of the sheets, did not come in with the printed book, but had long been in use in the MSS.
Although out of the hundreds of presses active during the first century only a score are here represented, leaving wide gaps in the series, it is better, because more nearly in the natural line of development, that the books should be ranged under the country, the locality and the press to which they severally belong, than that they should be kept in strict chronological order. ”

“ Theodore Gaza, the translator, was a learned Greek from Thessalonica, who took up his residence in Italy on the capture of his native city by the Turks. The translation was made at the instance of Nicolas V., who had invited him to Rome in 1450, but was first printed in the present edition (Venice, 1476) and dedicated in a flattering epistle of eleven pages to the reigning pope, Sixtus IV. The fifty scudi which the pope sent in acknowledgment of the dedication copy Gaza is said to have thrown in disgust into the Tiber. ”

“ No trace of it has since been found and Panzer and Hain were able only to copy the catalogue description. Philippe (1885) described Heynlin's copy, which is preserved in the library of the University of Basel, as consisting of one first blank leaf, forty-nine printed leaves and two blank leaves at the end. Claudin (1898) , with a second copy discovered meantime in the Bibliothèque d'Angers at his command, finds one first blank and forty-nine printed leaves, and remarks that the two blank leaves placed by Philippe at the beginning [should be end] are only independent fly-leaves. ”

“ The brief scholia he expanded later into full and valuable commentaries, on the Letters to Atticus in 1547, on the Letters to Brutus and Quintus in 1557.
It was Petrarch who in 1345 discovered in a Verona MS. the long lost Letters to Atticus, Brutus and Quintus and copied them with his own hand. Both the MS. and Petrarch's copy are lost. But of the MS. another transcript, procured by Petrarch's friend Salutati in 1389, is preserved in the Laurentian Library, and of the Petrarch copy we have here a replica in the type which Aldus characterized as manum mentiens. ”

“ In the preface is found the often quoted inscription placed over the door of Aldus to discourage the idle visitor: Quisquis es: rogat te Aldus etiam: atque etiam: ut, si quid est, quod a se velis: perpaucis agas, etc. The edition of 1533, with the imprint in ædibus haeredum Aldi Manutii Romani & Andreae Asulani Soceri and a short preface by Paulus Manutius (it was his first book as director of the press) is also essentially unchanged, but his edition of 1546, in octavo, was thoroughly revised in text and accompanied by a folio volume of variorum commentaries. ”

“ The [17] references are not, as in later editions, to book and chapter, but to chapters only. The index, alphabetized by the first letter of the word only, printed on different paper and forming a separate quire, is here placed at the beginning of the volume; but traces of earlier manuscript signatures still remaining, bear witness to a former order in which the text preceded the index, as is still the case in some copies of this edition.
Most of Jenson's early books were folios. But notwithstanding the size of the leaf (13 × 8 in.) ”

“ Copies of all three works, printed alike on vellum and bound together in one volume, formerly in the Mac-Carthy Collection (Catalogue, Paris, 1815, no. 3595) , are now in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Vélins 1964) . In the present copy of De amoris remedio the manuscript signatures b and c, partly cut away, point to an earlier binding, in which the Historieta consisting of only twelve leaves may possibly have formed the signature a. ”

“ According to the testimony of a fellow printer, de Lignamine, in the "Chronica summorum Pontificum," Rome, 1474, Mentelin as early as 1458 was printing at Strassburg 300 sheets a day. The third Latin Bible (1460-1461) and the first German Bible came from his press, but the first work to which he affixed his name and a date was the Speculum historiale of Vincent of Beauvais in 1473. He died in 1478.
The Wodhull copy, bought at "Hayes's sale" in 1794 for £5.5s., and bound in russia gilt, with Wodhull arms on side, by Mrs. Weir for £1.2s. Leaf 15 3/4 × 11 in. ”

“ Storr & Ridge upon many of the Thorold books, "not only those bound by themselves, but also those bound by far better men." Examples of both kinds are found in the present collection.
As an illustration of the first Greek type of Aldus there is joined to this collection a finely executed manuscript facsimile on vellum of his Musaeus of 1495, his second book (preceded by the Grammar of Lascaris) , but the first in which the font appeared in its completed state. From the Syston Park library. ”

“ In Seymour de Ricci's "Catalogue raisonné des premières impressions de Mayence (1445-1467) ," Mainz, 1911, 61 known copies of this Bible, 36 of them on vellum, are enumerated and 41 copies which cannot now be traced. The fragment in our possession is entered (No. 115) as one leaf only, instead of two.
The second dated Bible, the eleventh in the series of printed Bibles, was that of Sweynheym and Pannartz, Rome, 1471; the third was a reprint by Schoeffer in 1472 of the present edition, page for page, line for line and in the same type. ”

“ To the present Latin translation, made by an unknown hand from the Arabic, is appended (fol. 25) this subscription: Facta est translatio haec Tolosae Cal. Iunii [51] Anno Domini MCXLIIII. The revival of the study of the Greek mathematicians in the sixteenth century was largely due to the admirable translations and commentaries of Federigo Commandino of Urbino (1509-75) . This edition of Ptolemy's Planisphere still remains the best. In the same year Paulus printed Archimedis Opera nonnulla a Federico Commandino Vrbinate nuper in latinum conversa et commentariis illustrata. ”

“ It was his custom (well illustrated in the present collection) to enter on the fly-leaf of each purchase the source and the cost, adding as a separate item the binding, often by Roger Payne, and to affix his name and the date. His visé "Collat: & complet:" is seldom wanting and often bibliographical notes and references to authorities are added. Justinian's Novellae, printed by Schoeffer, and all the Aldine press books save one are from the library gathered at Syston Park, Lincolnshire, [viii] by Sir John Thorold and his son, Sir John Hayford Thorold, between 1775 and 1831 and sold in 1884. ”

“ Without the last blank leaf.
Andreas Portilia was the first printer at Parma, where his press was established in 1472 and continued, with two brief transfers to Bologna and Reggio, till 1486.
Mr. Wodhull's copy, for which he paid, at the sale of Dr. Chauncy's library in 1790, £2. Bound in red morocco, with rich gold tooling on back and sides, and book-plate of Charles Chauncy, M.D. (1706-1777) . Leaf 12 × 8 in.
19. PIUS II. (AENEAS SILVIUS PICCOLOMINI) . De duobus amantibus. [Paris, Michael Friburger, Ulric Gering and Martin Crantz, 1472.] ”

“ Folio. 1. Novellae: quires [110, 28, 3-610, 7-86, 910, 108, 11-1210, 138, 1410, 158, 166, 17-1810, 1910-1 (the blank second leaf cut away) ] , 169 leaves. 2. Consuetudines feudorum: quires [1-310, 46] , 36 leaves. 3. Codicis libri X-XII: quires [18, 210, 3-58, 610, 78, 84, 9-1010, 1110+1 (the additional leaf prefixed) ] , 95 leaves. In all 300 leaves, two columns of text and two of commentary, 51 lines of text and 66 of commentary to the column, gothic letter, without printed signatures, catchwords or pagination. ”

“ Fol. 245a, Colophon: VENETIIS IN AEDIBVS ALDI, ET ANDREAE SOCERI MENSE OCTOBRI M.D.XXI. [Blank leaf with anchor on verso] .
Quarto. Sign. *, **, a-k8, l4, m-z, A-G8, H10. 16 unnumbered preliminary leaves, containing preface by Aldus addressed to Andrea Navagero and alphabetical index (the blank last leaf wanting in this copy) ; 245 numbered leaves of text and final blank leaf with anchor. Sign. * and ** have eight leaves each, not ten as stated in the register on p. 245. Italic letter, 39 lines to the page, three- to seven-line spaces with guide-letters left for initials. ”

“ Of the Polychronicon, Seymour de Ricci's "Census of Caxtons" (1909) enumerates forty known copies (very few of them entirely complete) , evenly divided between public and private libraries. To this list he adds, under the heading "Present owners untraced," forty-eight copies (nos. 41-88) which appeared at sales between 1698 and 1901, some of them possibly identical with copies already described as "known." ”

“ Not all copies have all the three parts, nor are they always bound in the same order. The present copy, though in all respects complete, is bound irregularly, as follows: 1. Fabulae selectae. 2. Fabulae græce. 3. Vita Aesopi græce. 4. Vita et fabulae latine. On the verso of the last blank leaf is written in an early hand "olim fuit Reverendissimi magistri georgii de casali."
Mr. Wodhull paid "Edwards" for this copy, in 1799, £14.14s. Bound by Mrs. Weir in green morocco extra, gilt edges. Leaf 9 × 6 in.
[28]
18. ”

“ Caroli Sigonii Scholia, with separate title and device, 109 numbered leaves and blank end leaf. Part 3. Caroli Sigonii Livianorum Scholiorum aliquot Defensiones adversus Glareanum et Robortellum, with separate title and device, 52 numbered pages. Roman character, except epitomae i-xlv and index which are in the italic type of the Ptolemy commentary, and the preface which is a large and unusual italic, first found in a notice prefixed to the Medici antiqui of 1547, once as a text type in 1550, afterwards only in an occasional preface or title-page. ”

“ Huic editioni adiectus est Index rerum et sententiarum vetris et noui testamenti. [Printer's device (shield bearing the initials T. K. suspended from a tree and supported by two unicorns, with name THIELMAN.KERVER. at foot) , both the title and the device framed in a woodcut border] . Fol. 562a, Colophon: Parisijs, ex officina libraria yolande bonhomme, Uidue spectabilis viri Thielmanni Keruer, sub signo vnicornis in vico sancti Jacobi vbi et venundatur. Absolutum Anno domini Millesimo quingentesimo quadragesimo nono Decimo nono Calendas Septembris. [Printer's device on verso] .
Octavo. Sign. ”

“ He was educated as a physician, but when Robert withdrew to Geneva to escape the persecutions of the Sorbonne, he took charge of the Paris press and conducted it with ability from 1551 to 1561, printing one hundred volumes and receiving the appointment of king's printer. Aside from this attractive volume no vellum copy of his books is known.
From the Wodhull sale, with the Wodhull arms stamped in gold on the front cover. Mem. within: "Payne's sale. £3 3s. M. Wodhull, Apr. 14th 1792. Collat & complet." On the last blank leaf is entered the date "Oct. ”

“ Fol. 1a. Title: Thordinary of Crysten men [woodcut below.] Fol. 1b-4b, table of contents. Fol. 5a [woodcut above] : Here begynneth a notable treatyse and ful necessarye to all crysten men for to knowe & it is named the Ordynary of Crystyens or of crysten men. Fol. 217b: Here endeth the book named the ordynarye of crysten men newely hystoryed and translated out of Frensshe in to Englysshe. Enprynted in the cyte of London in the Fletestrete in the sygne of ye sonne by Wnykyn de worde. ye yere of our lorde .M.CCCCC.vi. Fol. 218a, title repeated over woodcut. Fol. 218b, [Printer's Device]
Quarto. ”

“ Uncut copy, bound in blue morocco, with vellum fly-leaves. Leaf 8 3/4 × 6 1/2 in. From the Syston Park library with book-plate and monogram of Sir John Hayford Thorold.
34. LIVIUS, Titus. Historiarum ab urbe condita libri. Venetiis, in ædibus Manutianis, 1572.
Title: T.LIVII PATAVINI, Historiarum ab urbe condita, LIBRI. QVI. EXSTANT XXXV CVM. VNIVERSAE. HISTORIAE. EPITOMIS Caroli Sigonij Scholia, quibus ijdem libri, atque epitomae partim emendantur, partim etiam explanantur, Ab Auctore multis in partibus aucta. [Printer's device] VENETIIS ∞ DLXXII. In Aedibus Manutianis.
Folio. Part 1. ”

“ Claudin, A. The first Paris press: an account of the books printed for G. Fichet and J. Heynlin in the Sorbonne 1470-72. [Bibl. Soc. Illust. Monogr. vi.] 4o. Lond., 1897.
Copinger, W. A. Incunabula Biblica. 4o. Lond., 1892.
—— Supplement to Hain's Repertorium bibliographicum. 2 pt. in 3 v. 8o. Lond., 1895-1902.
Crevenna, P. A. Bolongaro. Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de M. Pierre-Antoine Bolongaro-Crevenna. 5 v. 8o. Amsterdam, 1789.
De Vinne, T. L. Notable printers of Italy during the fifteenth century. 4o. New York, 1910. ”

“ From the Syston Park library, with book-plate. Bound by Roger Payne, in blue morocco, gilt edges. Leaf 6 1/2 × 4 in.
32. CICERO, Marcus Tullius. Orationes. Venetiis, apud Aldi filios, 1546.
Title: M. TVLLII CICERONIS ORATIONVM PARS I. [Aldine anchor] CORRIGENTE PAVLO MANVTIO, ALDI FILIO. VENETIIS, M.D.XLVI. Fol. 308a, Colophon: VENETIIS, APVD ALDI FILIOS, M.D.XXXXVI.
Octavo. ”