TITLE: M. TVLLII CICERONIS ORATIONVM PARS I. [Aldine anchor] CORRIGENTE
PAVLO MANVTIO, ALDI FILIO. VENETIIS, M.D.XLVI. _Fol. 308^a_, COLOPHON:
VENETIIS, APVD ALDI FILIOS, M.D.XXXXVI.
Octavo. 4 unnumbered preliminary leaves, containing title and
preface of Paulus Manutius addressed to Cardinal Benedetto Accolto,
303 numbered leaves of text and a final leaf with register and
colophon on the recto and anchor on the verso. Italic letter, 30
lines to the page, five-line spaces with guide-letters left for
initials. Renouard, p. 136.
The second edition of the Orations printed by Paulus, vol. I only (II,
III wanting), on large paper. Renouard (who knew of no complete copy of
the three volumes l.p.) remarks, p. 141, on the too elongated form of
most of the Aldine large paper octavos, in which all the increased space
is at the bottom. In the present copy it is divided between the bottom
and the outer margin, the inner margin and the top having no increase of
width--an arrangement well adapted for marginal annotations and perhaps
designed for that use. An early owner of this copy has in fact added to
the printed title (_Orationum Pars I_) with a pen the word _Commentata_,
but proceeded no further with his plan than simply to underscore a
number of words on the first three pages, leaving the margins untouched.
The most important of the commentaries of Paulus was that on the
Orations, completed not long before his death and printed by his son
Aldus in 1578-9 in three folio volumes.
From the Syston Park library, with book-plate and the monogram of Sir
J.H. Thorold. Bound in red morocco, gilt edges, with Aldine anchor in
gold on sides. Leaf 8 × 5-1/4 in.
33. PTOLEMAEUS, CLAUDIUS. Planisphærium. JORDANUS NEMORANUS. Planisphærium.
Venetiis, [apud Paulum Manutium], 1558.
TITLE: PTOLEMAEI PLANISPHAERIVM. IORDANI PLANISPHAERIVM. FEDERICI
COMMANDINI VRBINATIS IN PTOLEMAEI PLANISPHAERIVM COMMENTARIVS. In quo
uniuersa Scenographices ratio quam breuissime traditur, ac
demonstrationibus confirmatur. [Aldine anchor] VENETIIS, M.D.LVIII.
Quarto (not octavo, as described by Renouard). _Part 1._ 4
unnumbered preliminary leaves containing title and dedicatory
preface of Commandino to Cardinal Rainuccio Farnese, 37 numbered
leaves of text (1-25 Ptolemy, 26-37 Jordanus), final blank leaf
with anchor on verso. _Part 2._ 28 numbered leaves of commentary,
with separate title, anchor both on title and on verso of last
leaf. Text in roman, 25 lines to the page; commentary in italic, 34
lines to the page. Many woodcut diagrams. Both text and commentary
are introduced by a seven-line woodcut initial belonging to a
mythological series found in other books of Paulus of this period,
C picturing Calypso bidding adieu to Ulysses, I, Juno seated on a
car drawn by peacocks. The original italic font of Aldus, the
so-called _Aldino_ type, which appears to have passed into the
possession of the Torresani relatives at about this date, is here
replaced by a new font having a perceptibly larger face, though
only a slightly larger body (20 lines of the new equalling 21 of
the old) and consequently showing less white between the lines.
Renouard, p. 173.
In 1554 the subscription assumed the new form _apud Paulum Manutium Aldi
F._, showing that Paulus had acquired his brothers' rights in the press.
At the same time he returned to the earlier and simpler form of the
anchor with the name _Aldus_, instead of the _Aldi filii_ and the
ornamental border in use since 1546. Sometimes, as in the present
volume, the subscription is omitted altogether and the anchor with the
name Aldus alone used. Here moreover the place and date appear only on
the title-page and the colophon is dropped as no longer useful.
The original Greek text of Ptolemy's Planisphere is lost. 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 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_.
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. 48 unnumbered preliminary leaves containing title,
preface of Sigonius, _Veterum scriptorum de T. Liuio testimonia ab
Aldo Manutio Paulli F. Aldi N. collecta, Libri primi epitome, Rerum
et vocum apud T. Liuium index copiosissimus_; 399 numbered leaves
of text (blank last leaf wanting). Part 2. _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. Like the smaller italic of
Paulus it is provided with capitals. The large woodcut initials of
the several books belong to the mythological series found in the
Ptolemy but are here much worn. Renouard, p. 215.
Editions of Livy with the Scholia of Sigonius were issued from the
Aldine press in 1555, 1566, 1572 and 1592. This third edition is
distinguished from those which preceded it by some additions to the
Scholia and an appendix in which the editor defends his views on the
chronology of Livy against the attacks of two opponents. But
typographically it is inferior to the second edition as the second was
inferior to the first, which alone was printed under the active
supervision of Paulus. In 1561 he went to Rome to undertake the
direction of a press which Pius IV. was about to establish and died
there in 1574, having made only one brief visit to Venice in the
intervening thirteen years. In his absence the Venice press, when not
inactive or leased, was mainly in the charge of his son, the younger
Aldus (1547-97), who in spite of the promise of his early years failed
both as a scholar and as a printer to sustain the reputation of his
father and grandfather. To the present edition Aldus contributed the
_Veterum scriptorum de T. Liuio testimonia_, and he is also
unquestionably responsible for the large and strange device which
replaces the simple anchor for which his father had shown so marked a
preference. It consists of the arms granted to Paulus in 1571 by the
Emperor Maximilian II. (in which the Aldine anchor occupies a
subordinate place) surrounded by a border of heavy ornament with the
addition: _Ex privilegio Maximiliani II. Imp. Caes. Aug._ When his
father's death had made him the head of the press he continued for some
years to employ the same device. For the Livy of 1592, much inferior to
the present edition, and of interest only as showing the decline into
which the Aldine press, and the Italian presses in general, had fallen
at the end of the sixteenth century, he was only indirectly responsible.
He left Venice in 1585 and spent the last years of his life at Rome, as
professor of belles-lettres and joint director of the Vatican press.
35. BIBLIA LATINA. Parisiis, Yolande Bonhomme, vidua Thielmanni Kerver,
August 14, 1549.
TITLE: Biblia sacra, integru_m_ vtriusq_ue_ testame_n_ti corpus
co_m_plecte_n_s, dilige_n_ter recognita et eme_n_data. Cu_m_
concorda_n_tijs simul et argume_n_tis: cu_m_q_ue_ iuris canoni_c_i
allegationib_us_ passim adnotatis. Insup_er_ i_n_ calce eiusde_m_ annexe
su_n_t no_m_i_nu_m Hebraico_rum_, Chaldeo_rum_, atq_ue_ Greco_rum_
interp_re_tatio_n_es. Huic editio_n_i adiect_us_ e_st_ Index re_rum_ et
sente_n_tia_rum_ vetr_is_ _et_ noui testame_nti_. [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. 562^a_, COLOPHON:
Parisijs, ex officina libraria yola_n_de 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. A^8, B^4, a-z, aa-zz, A-Y^8, Z^6, aaa-eee^8. 602
leaves, comprising 12 preliminary unnumbered leaves containing
title, _Ad divinarum literarum verarumque divitiarum amatores
exhortatio, Librorum ordo, Biblie summarium_. Gabriel Bruno's
_Tabula alphabetica historiarum_; fol. i-cccccxx, text; 30
unnumbered leaves _Index rerum et sententiarum_; 40 unnumbered
leaves _Interpretationes nominum Hebraicorum_, etc. Very small
gothic letter, double columns, 58 lines to the column. Six- to
eight-line woodcut initials of the several books, the unicorns of
Kerver's device appearing in that of Gen. i. Le Long-Masch iii, 2,
149.
The octavo Latin Bibles of the Kerver press, fifteen editions of which
appeared between 1508 and 1560, were closely patterned after Froben's
edition, Basel, 1591 (the first Bible printed in octavo form), both as
regards the text, based on the "Fontibus ex Græcis" editions, 1478 ff.,
and the introductory and supplementary matter of various origin
accompanying it. The earliest of these supplements, _Interpretationes
nominum Hebraicorum_, an etymological index of Hebrew proper names,
appeared first in the Bible of Sweynheym and Pannartz, Rome, 1471, and
was reprinted without change in most of the editions previous to 1515.
In the Complutensian Polyglot it underwent revision and the revised form
appears in all the editions of Yolande Bonhomme, with due
acknowledgment to Cardinal Ximenes. The _Index rerum et sententiarum_,
however, announced in the title as a new addition to this edition (as it
had been also announced in the edition of 1546, not mentioned by Masch
and Copinger, of which this is an exact duplicate) was borrowed from the
Bible of Robert Stephens, Paris, 1534, without acknowledgment, perhaps
in order the better to escape the suspicion of heresy attached to his
work. In Copinger's chronological table of the printed editions of the
Latin Bible during the 15th and 16th centuries (_Incunabula Biblica_, p.
207) this is no. 339, total number 562.
The Kerver press was less celebrated for its Bibles than for liturgical
works, and for the books of private devotion (_Horae, Heures_) of which
Brunet (_Manuel_, v, col. 1614-27) enumerates no less than fifty-six,
printed by Thielmann, his widow, or his sons, between 1497 and 1571. The
wood-engravings with which they were illustrated were repeated in the
successive editions and occasionally also in the Bibles. Two of these
borrowed cuts are found in the present edition, facing the Old and the
New Testament. The first represents the Expulsion from the Garden, but
the verse printed underneath (Gen. ii. 7) calls for the Creation of
Adam, which in Yolande's editions of 1526 and 1534 is actually present,
while here another engraving has been substituted, but the verse left
standing. Facing the New Testament, under the heading _Jesu Christi
secundum carnem genealogia_, is a genealogical tree springing from "the
root of Jesse."
Following the usual alphabetical order of the signatures (A-Z, aaa-eee),
the _Index rerum et sententiarum_ (sign. U-Z) is here placed before the
_Interpretationes_ (sign. aaa-eee). This is contrary to the direction of
the _Collectio codicum_ found on the last leaf of the _Index_ (Z6),
where the order prescribed is A-T, aaa-eee, U-Z, which is further
supported by the colophon and printer's device on Z6. The _Index_ as the
latest supplement was meant to stand at the end of the volume.
Bound in oak boards covered with stamped leather, brass corners and
bosses, gilt gauffred edges. Around the central boss of the back cover
is stamped the date A.D. 1571, and on the front cover, in corresponding
position and order, the initials F E P L P F.
From the Osterley Park sale, May, 1885, with the book-plate of Victor
Albert George Child Villiers, Earl of Jersey. Leaf 6-1/2 × 4-1/2 in.
36. PHILO JUDÆUS. De divinis decem oraculis. Lutetiæ, apud Carolum
Stephanum, 1554.
TITLE: Philonis Iudæi DE DIVINIS DECEM oraculis, quæ summa sunt legum
capita Liber, Iohanne Væuræo interprete. [Printer's device] LVTETIAE,
Apud Carolum Stephanum, Typographum Regium. M.D.LIIII.
Octavo. 72 numbered pages, followed by one leaf _Ad lectorem_ and
one blank. Pp. 3-6, dedication by the translator to Charles de
Guise, Cardinal de Lorraine, Archbishop of Reims, to whom was also
dedicated the first edition of the works of Philo in Greek, printed
by Turnebus, Paris 1552. Printed on vellum. On p. 7 a beautiful
seven-line engraved initial R. The device is that chosen by the
printer's brother Robert, the olive tree and the motto _Noli altum
sapere_, without the addition _sed time_.
Renouard, _Annales de l'impr. des Estienne_, 2^e éd., p. 106; adds to
his description of the volume the following note: "Dédié au cardinal de
Lorraine, pour lequel il en fut tiré sur vélin un exemplaire que depuis
l'on a vu relié en maroq. jaune ancien, avec une tête en or sur la
couverture. Il a passé dans une Bibliothèque inconnue." The present copy
answers completely to this description and is without doubt the
dedication copy in question. The binding (17th cent.) is yellow morocco,
browned by age, gilt edges, with a medallion head in gold embossed on
the back cover. Within are written names of former owners; on the title
page _N. Tetel_, _1644 datum Remis_ and _Claude Henry Corrard_; on the
cover linings _ex Libris Claudii Tetel ad Mussey_(?); _Ce livre
appartient à m^{lle} Jean Collot_.
By an oversight Renouard omitted this volume from his list (p. 271) of
"Editions Stéphaniennes dont on connoit un on plusieurs exemplaires
imprimés sur vélin." It increases the number to twenty-three, seventeen
of them printed by the first Henri and only six by his descendants.
Charles Estienne (1504?-1564), a member of a second remarkable family of
scholar-printers of the sixteenth century, whose history forms so
interesting a parallel to that of Aldus and his descendants, though he
does not rank with his brother Robert, or Robert's son the second Henry,
certainly brought no discredit on the family name. 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. 14^{th}
1792. Collat & complet." On the last blank leaf is entered the date
"Oct. 17^{th} 1808," a record possibly of a later "visitation." Similar
dates, some years later than the date of purchase are found on the end
leaves of other Wodhull books. Leaf 7 × 4-1/2 in.
Transcriber's Note:
The following inconsistencies found in the text have been retained:
head-line / headline
Homiliæ / Homiliae (in referring to the same book)
De Vinne / DeVinne
Prohemye / Proheyme