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
Library and the University for assistance in the catalogue.
ADDISON VAN NAME, _Librarian Emeritus_.
Yale University Library, September, 1913.