Transcriber's Note: Inconsistencies in hyphenation and spelling found in the original book have been retained in this version. A list of these inconsistencies is found at the end of the text.
CATALOGUE OF EARLY PRINTED BOOKS
CATALOGUE
OF THE
William Loring Andrews
Collection of Early Books
IN THE
LIBRARY OF YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MCMXIII
Copyright, 1913
by
Yale University Press
Printed from type October, 1913. 300 copies
PREFACE
The collection of early printed books presented to the Library of Yale University in 1894 by Mr. William Loring Andrews, of New York, was formed to illustrate the first century of printing, which is a better boundary for the survey than the half-century ending with the year 1500, more often chosen. The latter, the so-styled cradle period of the art, is wanting in real definition, being at most a convenient halting place, not a completed stage, whereas at the middle of the sixteenth century the printed book of the better class had acquired most of its maturer features and no longer has for us an unfamiliar look. Designed to serve as a permanent exhibition, it is a selection rather than a collection, not large, but wisely chosen, and no less attractive than instructive, having been formed a quarter of a century ago, at a time when opportunities were unusually favorable.
The surviving books of the first presses, which are the chief sources of our knowledge of the early art, are at the same time, when obtainable, the most efficient teachers. For the illustration of the typography, the feature of first importance, there is nothing comparable to the open pages of a representative series of the original books, such as are here spread out before us. The best of the available substitutes, phototype reproductions of specimen pages, apart from other limitations, must always lack the authority and the impressiveness of the originals.
While it is the main office of the present collection to set before the students of the University as a whole the more general features of the art of the early printer, a further service which it is prepared to render must not be overlooked. To such as are prompted to go into the subject more deeply it offers an excellent body of the original material upon which any serious study must of necessity be based.
The two fine fifteenth century MSS. at the head of the collection, far from serving a merely ornamental purpose, like their own illuminated initials for example, are a needful introduction. It is obvious that from such sources the first printers got the models of their types, and the MSS. in which Jenson found the prototypes of his famous roman characters, which in the judgment of some are still unsurpassed, could not have been very remote from these. Some of the more striking features which distinguish the early printed books from the later were not original with them, but only survivals from the MSS. The abbreviations and contractions in which both abound were the labor-saving devices of the copyists, adopted without hesitation by the printers who used the MSS. as copy and only slowly abandoned. The copyist left spaces in his MS. for initials to be supplied by the illuminator, without which his work was not considered complete, and for about a hundred years the printer continued to do the same. If the copyist saw fit to attach his name to his work, we look for it at the end of the volume and there also the printer placed his colophon. 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. A general chronological order underlies the geographical even where it does not come to the surface. By right of seniority Germany stands at the head, and Mainz, the birthplace of 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. Placed in the order thus indicated, the books, as befits so small a total, are numbered consecutively in one series. The conspectus, which brings into one view the titles, dates, places and printers' names, will serve also as a sufficient index.
While we are here most concerned with the genealogy and family history of the books, or in other words with their press relationships, the personal history attaching to them—habent sua fata libelli—is not without interest. The Zeno MS. and the Philo, printed on vellum, are the dedication copies, not merely set apart, but specially prepared for this use. In a few of the volumes are found the names or the arms of early owners. The Livy MS. and one-half of the printed books are from the library, dispersed in 1886, of Michael Wodhull (1740-1816) of Thenford, Northamptonshire, the first translator into English verse of all the extant works of Euripides, the most assiduous and painstaking and in some departments of bibliography the best equipped among the book collectors of his day. 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, by Sir John Thorold and his son, Sir John Hayford Thorold, between 1775 and 1831 and sold in 1884.
One valued mark of ownership, common to all the volumes, is the ex libris of the lover of choice books who united them in one family, not again to be separated, and gave them into the keeping of the University Library.
The accompanying list of Authorities, as will be apparent, is intended to supply merely the details necessary to complete the references of the catalogue.
Acknowledgments are due from the compiler to his associates in the
Addison Van Name, Librarian Emeritus.
Yale University Library, September, 1913.
AUTHORITIES.
Ames, J. Typographical antiquities, or, History of printing in England, Scotland and Ireland, enlarged by T. F. Dibdin. 4 v. 4o. Lond., 1810-19.
Blades, W. The life and typography of William Caxton. 2 v. 4o. Lond., 1861-3.
British Museum. Catalogue of books printed in the XVth century now in the British Museum. Pt. i, ii. 4o. Lond., 1908-12.
Brown, H. F. The Venetian printing press. 4o. N.Y. and Lond., 1891.
Brunet, J. C. Manuel du libraire. 5e éd. 6 v. 8o. Paris, 1860-5.
Burger, K. Deutsche und italienische Inkunabeln. Lief. i-ix. fo. Berlin, 1892-1912.
Campbell, M. F. A. G. Annales de l'imprimerie néerlandaise au XVe siècle. 8o. La Haye, 1874-90.
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.
Didot, A. Firmin. Alde Manuce et l'Hellénisme à Venise. 8o. Paris, 1875.
Duff, E. Gordon. A century of the English book trade. 4o. Lond., 1905.
—— Hand-lists of English printers 1501-1556. Pt. i, ii. 4o. Lond., 1895-6.
Hain, L. Repertorium bibliographicum. 2 v. in 4 pt. 8o. Stuttgart, 1826-38.
Le Long, J. Bibliotheca sacra, continuata ab A. G. Masch. 2 pt. in 5 v. 4o. Halae, 1778-90.
Morgan, J. Pierpont. Catalogue of manuscripts and early printed books now forming a portion of the library of J. Pierpont Morgan. 3 v. fo. Lond., 1907.
Panzer, G. W. Annales typographici ab artis inventae origine ad annum MDXXXVI. 11 v. 4o. Norimbergae, 1793-1803.
Pellechet, M. Catalogue général des incunables des bibliothèques publiques de France. T. i-iii. 8o. Paris, 1897-1909.
Philippe, J. Origine de l'imprimerie à Paris. 8o. Paris, 1885.
Pollard, A. W. An essay on colophons. [Caxton Club]. 4o. Chicago, 1905.
Proctor, R. An index to the early printed books in the British Museum. 8o. Lond., 1898.
—— The printing of Greek in the fifteenth century. [Bibl. Soc. Illust. Monogr. viii]. 4o. Lond., 1900.
Quaritch, B., ed. Contributions toward a dictionary of English book-collectors. Pt. i-xiii. 8o. Lond., 1892-9.
Renouard, A. A. Annales de l'imprimerie des Alde. 3e éd. 8o. Paris, 1834.
—— Annales de l'imprimerie des Estienne. 2e éd. 8o. Paris, 1843.
Ricci, Seymour de. Catalogue raisonné des premières impressions de Mayence (1445-1467). [Veröff. der Gutenberg-Gesellseh. viii-ix]. 4o. Mainz, 1911.
—— A census of Caxtons. [Bibl. Soc. Illust. Monogr. xvi]. 4o. Lond., 1909.
CONSPECTUS
MANUSCRIPTS
PAGE 1. Zeno. Vita Caroli Zeni 1 2. Livius. Historiarum libri I-X 3PRINTED BOOKS
1. Biblia Latina Mainz J. Fust & P. Schoeffer 1462 5 2. Justinianus. Novellae " P. Schoeffer 1477 6 3. Isidorus. Etymologiae [Strassburg] [J. Mentelin] [c. 1473] 8 4. Gesta Romanorum [Cologne] [U. Zell] [c. 1473] 10 5. Gregorius I. Homiliae [Augsburg] [G. Zainer] 1473 11 6.MANUSCRIPTS
1. ZENO, Jacopo. Vitæ, morum, rerumque gestarum Caroli Zeni libri X. 1458.
Fine white vellum, 192 leaves, in 19 quires of ten leaves each and two additional leaves at the end, the last of which is blank. Signed on the lower inner angle of the last page of each quire by a letter (A-T) which is repeated at the point directly facing it on the first page of the next quire. Leaves four to seven of the first quire and all of quires three to eight, a total of sixty-four leaves, have 28 lines to the page, the rest 27 lines. Ruled on one side only with a hard point. Leaf 10 1/2 × 7 in., text-page 7 × 3 3/4 in.
Written in
The subject of the memoir is the distinguished Venetian Admiral Carlo Zeno (1334-1418), brother of Nicolo and Antonio, reputed discoverers of America. His biographer, Jacopo Zeno (1417-1481), Bishop of Feltre and Belluno, and later of Padua, was his grandson. The work is dedicated to Pius II. in honor of his recent elevation to the papal throne, and since this is evidently the dedication copy, the accession of Enea Silvio Piccolomini in August, 1458, fixes approximately the date of the MS. In April, 1460, Jacopo Zeno was translated to the see of Padua.
The execution and the decoration of the MS. are in keeping with its special use. The gratulatory preface occupying ten pages is introduced by the following heading in letters of burnished gold:
IN LIBROS VITÆ MORVM RERVMQ: GESTARVM CAROLI ZENI VENETI. AD PIVM SECVNDVM PONTIFICEM MAXIMVM. IACOBI FELTRENSIS ET BELLVNENSIS ANTISTITIS PRAEFATIO: [G]LORIOSA.... The ornamentation of the ten-line illuminated initial G is of the interlaced style, and a border of similar pattern surrounds the entire page, enclosing on the front margin vignettes—a vase, two rabbits and a stork—and at the foot the Piccolomini arms, supported by kneeling angels and surmounted by the papal keys and tiara. Each of the ten books has a heading in burnished gold in which the dedication to Pius II. is repeated, and an initial of like character to that of the preface, with a marginal ornament. The occasional marginal subject-headings and the book-number at the top of each leaf are likewise in gold.
The Latin text has thus far been printed only in Muratori's Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (of which a new edition is now in progress), vol. xix, Milan, 1731, from a MS. then, and still, preserved in the library of the Episcopal Seminary at Padua. This MS., the only one which he was able to discover, Muratori describes in the following language: "Codex autem Patavinus quamquam pervetustus a non satis docto Librario profectus est ac proinde occurrunt ibi quaedam parum castigata, quaedam etiam plane vitiata. Mutilus praeterea est in fine, ubi non multa quidem sed tamen aliqua desiderantur." Muratori's text breaks off in the middle of a sentence at the end of the nineteenth (i.e. the last full) quire of our MS., and accordingly lacks only the seventeen lines contained on the next leaf, which is the last. If, as seems quite possible, the quiring of the two MSS. is the same, the loss of the single unprotected leaf at the end is the more readily explained.
In 1591 there was published at Bergamo an abridged Italian version, made from an illuminated MS. which had once belonged to the famous library of Matthias Corvinus, but was then in the possession of Caterino Zeno, governor of Bergamo. It had been among the spoils carried to Constantinople after the capture of Buda by the Turks in 1526. There, seven years later, it had been bought and carried back to Italy by Caterino's father, the younger Nicolo, who, in 1558, first gave to the world the narrative of his ancestors' voyages. For no better reasons than that the Paduan MS. also was illuminated in gold and colors, and that it had been bought twenty-five years before (c. 1700) in Venice where this branch of the Zeno family had become extinct, Muratori was inclined to identify it with the Corvinus MS. The relations between Pius II. and the king of Hungary, who was his ally in the proposed crusade against the Turks upon which he was just embarking when overtaken by death, and to whom the 48,000 ducats which he left behind him were sent in aid of the prosecution of war, suggest another possibility. It may be safely assumed that between the present MS., given only an opportunity to acquire it, and any other copy the king's choice could not have hesitated.
The MS. is in 18th-century Italian binding, red morocco, gilt edges. Sold with other MSS. from the library of the Trivulzio family of Milan at Leavitt's auction, New York City, November, 1886.
2. LIVIUS, Titus. Historiarum Romanarum libri I-X. Late 15th century.
Vellum. 336 leaves, the last blank. 34 quires all having ten leaves, except the 17th and 34th which have eight each. 31 lines to the page; catchword placed at right angles with the last line of the quire; ruled on both sides with plummet. Leaf 14 1/2 × 10 in., text-page 9 × 6 in.
Written in very regular, bold Italian minuscules of the period of the Renaissance.
The first page of the preface is surrounded by an illuminated border in gold and colors in the Renaissance style of ornament, into which are introduced the Caraccioli arms belonging to the distinguished Neapolitan family of that name. The initial F on this page is historiated with a view of Rome, and each of the ten books has an eight-line initial of dull gold on a background of red, blue and green, with marginal ornamentation.
From the close agreement, even in punctuation, between this MS. and the edition printed at Milan in 1495 by Ulrich Scinzenzeler for Alexander Minutianus, and from other features which forbid the supposition that one is taken directly from the other, we must conclude that they both reproduce a common ancestor.
This MS. of the first Decade of Livy is in unusually fine preservation, and is bound in russia extra, with broad borders of gold and gilt marbled edges.
Brought from Palermo by Dr. Anthony Askew (1722-1772), it was sold with his collection of MSS. in 1785. Michael Wodhull, Esq., of Thenford, Northamptonshire, who gave seven guineas for the volume at "White's sale" in March, 1798, added to his customary entry of these details on the fly-leaf this note: "This appears to be the very Book which I saw Sir W. Burrell purchase at Dr. Askew's manuscript Auction (No. 482) for thirty-two guineas; in Sir W. Burrell's Auction, May, 1796, it is said to have gone for about five (No. 657). The note in Bib. Askev. manuscripta is: 'Ex Panormo in Sicilia hunc cod. adduxit secum Cl. Askevius.' & '300 annor. MSS. longe pulcherrimus.'"
At the sale of the Wodhull library in January, 1886, the Livy MS. and the greater part of the 15th-century books hereinafter described were acquired by the donor of the collection, William Loring Andrews, M.A., of New York City.
PRINTED BOOKS
1. BIBLIA LATINA. Moguntiae, Johannes Fust et Petrus Schoeffer, 14 August, 1462.
[Folio. 481 leaves, 2 columns, 48 lines to the column, gothic letter, without signatures, catchwords or pagination.]
Leaves 204, 205 containing Judith xiv. 17—Esther iv. 4.
Fol. 204b, col. 1 (red): explicit liber iudith secundum ieronimum. Incipit prologus in librum hester. Col. 2 (red): Explicit prologus. Incip. liber hester. Hain *3050. Pellechet 2281. Copinger 4. Brit. Mus. 15th cent., I, p. 22. Burger pl. 74. De Ricci 79.
Five-line initial of prologue and fourteen-line initial I of Esther i. 1 supplied in colors. Heading of leaf in alternate red and blue capitals. Initial-strokes in red on text capitals. Measurement 16 1/4 × 11 1/2 in.
The fourth printed Bible, and the first in which place, printers' names and date are given. These details, which are wanting in so many of the books of the early printers, Fust and Schoeffer—and Schoeffer when he carried on
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.
2. JUSTINIANUS. Novellae constitutiones, sive Authenticum. Consuetudines feudorum. Codicis libri X-XII. Moguntiae, Petrus Schoeffer, 21 August, 1477.
Fol. 1a. [Text (red)]: In nomine domini nostri ihesu christi. de heredibus et falcidia constitutio prima si heres legata soluere noluerit Incipit constitutio Imperatoris Iustiniani. a. Iohanni pape secundo. [Commentary]: [I]N nomine domini. Iustinianus opus suum laudabile deo attribuit. Fol. 169b. Explicit liber autenticorum. Fol. 170a. [Text (red)]: Incipiunt consuetudines feudorum. Fol. 206a. [Text (red)]: Codicis domini iustiniani sacratissimi principis perpetui augusti repetite prelectionis incipit liber decimus. Fol. 300b, Colophon (red): Anno incarnacionis dominice .M.cccc.lxxvii. xii. kalendis septembrijs! Sanctissimo in christo patre ac domino, domino Sixto papa .iiii. pontifice maximo. Illustrissimo noblissime domus austrie domino, domino Friderico Romanorum Imperatore inuictissimo, monarchie christiane dominis! Reuerendissimo deoque amabili in Christo patre ac domino, domino Diethero archipresule Maguntino; in ciuitate Maguncia impressorie artis inuentrice atque elimatrice prima .x. collacionum triumque librorum Codicum opus egregium, Petrus Schoiffer de Gernsheim, glorioso fauente deo suis consignando scutis, feliciter finiuit. [Printer's Device in red.]
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. Two- to six-line spaces, some with guide-letters, left for capitals. Two pinholes, the use of which Schoeffer was thought to have abandoned a little earlier than the date of this volume. Titles and colophon printed in red. The text type is that of the Bible of 1462. Hain *9623. Brit. Mus. 15th cent., I, p. 33 (IC. 217).
The first page of each of the three works is ornamented with a floral scroll border in colors. At the head of the several books are thirteen initials in gold and colors. Chapter initials in alternate red and blue; initial-strokes in red in both text and commentary.
The present volume agrees in contents with the fifth and last volume of the Corpus juris as it is found arranged in the medieval MSS., except for the omission of the Institutiones, already sufficiently accessible in separate editions, of which no less than fifty were printed in the 15th century, the first of them by Schoeffer himself in 1468. The first three volumes of the Corpus were occupied by the Digests, the fourth by the Codex lib. i-ix. The last three books of the Codex relate mainly to public law and having lost much of their importance were transferred to the fifth volume.
That the order of the three parts in the present copy, viz. 1. Novellae, 2. Consuetudines, 3. Codex lib. x-xii, is that intended by the printer, is clear both from the position and from the language of the colophon—the position because the colophon is attached to the Codex, and the language because it describes the volume as consisting of "the ten Collations and the three books of the Codes." The Novellae were usually divided by the commentators into nine Collations, perhaps, as Savigny suggests, to parallel the first nine books of the Codex. Sometimes, however, as in the present case, the Consuetudines feudorum were joined with them and reckoned as a tenth collation. Notwithstanding these plain indications, in the copy described by Hain *9623, and in the British Museum copy (as at present, though not as originally, bound), the Codex x-xii is placed between the Novellae and the Consuetudines, thus removing the colophon from its natural place at the end of the volume. In the first edition of these works, printed by Vitus Puecher, Rome, 1476, they were placed in the order last named, but the colophon was there attached to the Consuetudines.
After the death of his father-in-law and partner Fust, late in 1466 or early in 1467, Schoeffer conducted the press alone until his death in 1502. After 1478, however, his activity as a printer was much diminished.
The present large and fine copy (leaf 15 3/4 × 11 1/4 in.), with the manuscript signatures still in part preserved, is from the library of Sir John Hayford Thorold (1773-1831) of Syston Park, Lincolnshire, sold in December, 1884. In the Meerman sale at the Hague, 1824, this same copy, bound as at present in russia gilt, sold for 64 florins.