[2] Reprinted, by leave of the editor, from 'The Library,' 1902.
The search for old books has been so assiduous of late years that no
little surprise was felt when it was announced in 1900 that two copies
had been found, almost simultaneously, of a handsomely illustrated folio
edition of the Italian Bible of Niccolo Malermi, printed at Venice in
1493, and similar to but quite distinct from the illustrated editions
already known. A third copy has since been discovered, and this has been
acquired by the British Museum, which since 1897 has also possessed the
first of the editions with the original woodcuts, that printed in 1490
for Lucantonio Giunta. As both editions are very rare, and no comparison
has yet been made between them, an attempt is here to be made to
describe and contrast them.
The first edition of Malermi's Italian version of the Bible was printed
by Jenson, who finished it on August 1st, 1470, apparently the same year
in which the translator entered the monastery of S. Michele in Murano,
near Venice, at the age of forty-eight. He was then stated to be 'natus
quondam spectabilis et generosi viri domini Philippi de Malerbis, de
Venetiis'; but nothing else is known of his family or early life, and
the subsequent records only refer to his transfer from one monastery to
another. Besides the Bible he also translated into Italian the lives of
the saints from the 'Golden Legend' of Jacobus de Voragine, with
additions of his own. This book also was printed for him by Jenson, and
published in 1475.
Malermi's translation of the Bible was a great popular success, at least
nine, and probably ten editions being printed during the fifteenth
century, and the British Museum possessing six others issued in 1517,
1546, 1553, 1558, 1566, and 1567. By a curious chance another
translation by an anonymous author must have been already in the press
while Jenson was printing Malermi's first edition. It appeared exactly
two months later, on October 1st, 1471, without the name of its printer,
but in the types of Adam of Ammergau. That two rival translations of the
Bible were thus among the first-fruits of the Italian press is one of
the facts which Protestant controversialists are not apt to emphasise.
It is possible, as Dr. Garnett, I think, has suggested, that Venice,
which was wont to show great independence in its relations with the
Papal Court, was the only city in Italy in which a vernacular Bible
would have found a publisher. The earliest Italian Bible printed in any
other Italian town does, indeed, appear to be one with Doré's
illustrations, published at Milan at some date between 1866, when the
illustrations first appeared in English and French Bibles, and 1880,
when it attained a third edition. No doubt the Holy See had little
enthusiasm for vernacular Bibles, and the Italian governments, which
were more susceptible than Venice to the feeling of Rome, did nothing to
encourage them. But discouragement, whether we approve of it or not (and
the subsequent religious history of Europe shows that the Roman
objection to unannotated vernacular texts was not wholly unfounded), is
very different from prohibition, and next to the eighteen
prae-Reformation German editions, the ten printed at Venice during the
fifteenth century offer the most convincing proof that, except in the
actual presence of heresy, vernacular translations enjoyed a practically
unimpeded circulation long before the leaders of the Reformation made
free access to the Scriptures one of their main demands. It is
remarkable, indeed, that during the middle of the sixteenth century,
when the Inquisition was tightening its hold on Venice, and the 'Index
Librorum Prohibitorum' had come into being, the Italian Bibles printed
there increased notably. The British Museum possesses five editions of
Malermi's version published in the twenty-two years 1546-1567, six of
Brucioli's published in the twenty years 1532-1551, two of Santi
Marmochino's, printed respectively in 1538 and 1545, a total of thirteen
editions published within thirty-six years, now on the shelves of a
single library. After 1567 there is another tale to tell. Until the
Milan edition already mentioned, Geneva, Nuremberg, Leipsic and London
are the only imprints to be found on Italian editions of the complete
Bible. In the face of what she considered heretical interpretations, the
Church of Rome would no longer trust her people with vernacular Bibles;
but it is one of the small services which Bibliography can render to
History to note that this had not been her policy so long as the
Scriptures were desired for edification and not for controversy, and the
popularity of the Malermi Bible is so decisive a proof of this that it
would be unfair to leave it unmentioned.
The main object of this article is far removed from the weighty question
of religious policy on which we have incidentally touched. The first
edition of the Malermi Bible is a very rare book, and the British
Museum, sad to say, possesses no copy of it. The only copy in England of
which I know is in the John Rylands Library at Manchester, and this
possesses six coloured illustrations representing the six days of
Creation, the colouring being so heavy as nearly, though not quite, to
obscure the fact that it is imposed upon woodcuts.
In the years 1470-1472 there are fairly numerous examples of woodcut
borders and initials being used in books printed at Venice, not as
substantive decorations in themselves, but as outlines for the guidance
of illuminators. We may probably take it that the six designs in the
first Malermi Bible, which do not seem to occur in all copies, were of
this character, and were not intended to stand by themselves. The first
Venetian woodcuts not intended to be coloured are found in books printed
by Erhard Ratdolt, and their use spread very slowly until nearly 1490.
Thus the Malermi Bibles of 1477, 1481, 1484, and 1487 are all innocent
of woodcuts, though there are blank leaves and spaces left in some of
them, which may have been intended for illumination.
There seems to have been a project of making the 'Biblia cum postillis
Nicolai de Lyra,' published by Octavianus Scotus in 1489, into a
handsome illustrated book; but if this was so the project was soon
abandoned, as the illustrations come in little patches at different
points at which the book may have been put in hand on different presses,
and between these points there are long stretches without any pictures
at all. Thus not only the first Italian Bible, but the first Bible
printed in Italy in which illustrations form an important feature, is
the edition of Malermi's version printed in October 1490, by Giovanni
Ragazzo for Lucantonio Giunta. If long delayed, this was a fine enough
book to be worth waiting for. It is in double columns, measuring 250×76
mm. apiece, and each containing sixty-one lines of a respectably round
type about the size of pica. For convenience of printing rather than of
binding it is divided into two parts (the second beginning with the Book
of Proverbs), which are always, as far as I know, found united in a
single volume. Part I. contains: (i.) a frontispiece made up (within a
border) of six cuts measuring 56×57 mm. each, representing the six days
of Creation, obviously influenced by the illumination with underlying
woodcuts of the 1471 edition; (ii.) a pictorial initial N for the 'Nel
principio' of Genesis; (iii.) 208 small woodcuts or vignettes, measuring
about 45×75 mm., of which 199 are different and 9 are repetitions. Part
II. contains a large picture and border for the opening chapter of
Proverbs, and 175 small cuts, of which 166 are different and 9 are
repetitions. Deducting the repeats, but counting the initial and each of
the Creation woodcuts separately, we have thus a grand total of 373
different designs, almost all of them well drawn, though many have been
sadly mangled by the wood-cutter.
[Illustration: S. JEROME. FROM THE MALERMI BIBLE. VENICE, GIUNTA, 1490]
[Illustration: AN AUTHOR AT WORK. FROM THE MALERMI BIBLE. VENICE,
GIUNTA, 1490]
It is to the credit of the Venetian public that Giunta's edition of this
big book sold quickly. For reasons hereafter to be given I think it
possible that a reprint with some additional cuts was published as early
as 1491. We know for certain that a new edition (printed again by
Giovanni Ragazzo) was ready for sale in July 1492. Like most reprints of
illustrated books this aimed at an appearance of greater liberality at a
comparatively small expense. Thus in the book Genesis there are 27
woodcuts in 1492 against 16 in 1490, a too realistic picture of
Potiphar's wife tempting Joseph being judiciously omitted, while twelve
new subjects are added. In Exodus we have 29 cuts against 25, four new
ones being added, while on the other hand the representations of the
Burning Bush (in which a dog is shown barking at the Almighty) and of
the Slaying of the Firstborn are withdrawn and replaced without
appropriateness by cuts taken from Deuteronomy ix. and Leviticus x. In
Leviticus one cut (that to chap. vii.) is changed and a new one added to
chap. xviii. In Numbers an illustration of the zeal of Phineas in chap.
xxv. is omitted, and two new cuts added to chaps. xxix. and xxxiii.; in
Deuteronomy we have six new cuts and a repeat. To these 26 additions
(against two omissions) in the Pentateuch, we have to add 14 more
(against one repeat omitted) from Joshua to Kings. From Chronicles to
Acts the woodcuts in the two editions are substantially the same, six
cuts being changed, while one is omitted. In the Epistles, besides two
changes, there are 12 additions, but these are mostly either repeats or
taken from other books. In the Apocalypse and the Life of S. Joseph,
with which the book ends, the illustrations in the two editions agree.
The number of different cuts (deducting 12 and 9 respectively for
repetitions) is 240 in Part I. and 178 in Part II., or a total of 418
different cuts against 373 in the 1490 edition, the increase being
practically confined to the books Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy and the
Epistles.
[Illustration: S. JEROME. FROM THE MALERMI BIBLE. VENICE, 'ANIMA MIA,'
1493]
[Illustration: AN AUTHOR AT WORK. FROM THE MALERMI BIBLE. VENICE, 'ANIMA
MIA,' 1493]
Turning now to the 'Anima Mia' edition of 1493, three copies of which
have recently come to light after its existence had remained unsuspected
for generations, we have only to place it side by side with one of the
Giunta texts to find that it is a not too scrupulous attempt to cut into
the profits of the firm which was first in the field. The worst evil of
the publishing trade at the present day is that if one publisher strikes
out a new line, whether in the form of his books, or the prices at which
they are issued, or by bringing into notice some hitherto neglected
author or subject, one or more of his competitors immediately tries to
put similar editions on the market, and to offer purchasers a little
more for their money. The result is that the first publisher finds his
profits sensibly diminished, while the second very probably burns his
fingers. Few modern publishers, however, would plagiarise quite as
freely as did 'Anima Mia' in his new Bible. Not only did he copy Giunta
closely in the form and size of his book, the arrangement of the page
and the size of the illustrations; but in a great number of cases he
allowed his artists to take precisely the same subjects for
illustration, and even to copy the designs themselves quite closely,
sometimes by the lazy method which, by imitating the model on the block
of wood, without first reversing it, caused the printed picture itself
to appear in reverse.
[Illustration: JOSHUA AND THE GIBEONITES. FROM THE MALERMI BIBLE.
VENICE, GIUNTA, 1490]
[Illustration: 'EXCEPT THE LORD BUILD THE HOUSE.' FROM THE MALERMI
BIBLE. VENICE, 'ANIMA MIA,' 1493]
A curious question now arises as to which of the Giunta editions 'Anima
Mia' elected to copy from. That of 1490 was clearly not the one chosen,
since among 'Anima Mia's' pictures we find illustrations to Genesis
xiii., xv., xvii., xx., xxiv., and xxvi., none of which were illustrated
in the 1490 edition, while pictures on the same subjects are found in
that of 1492. Again, in the four books of Kings the 1493 edition agrees
with the 1492 in having forty-nine cuts as against forty-three in the
original edition of 1490. More conclusive still is the evidence of a
mistake in Joshua ix., where it is impossible that the artist can have
had before him the pretty little cut of the Gibeonites as hewers of wood
and drawers of water, which is one of our illustrations. By 1492 the
block for this had apparently been damaged and is replaced by a larger
cut (56 mm. in height), representing a king and two councillors,
apparently taken from some other book. The 1493 illustrator was clearly
puzzled by this, and for lack of anything better repeated a cut of Moses
and Miriam from Exodus. Clearly he had not in this case the 1490 edition
before him. But neither am I at all sure that he had that of 1492. While
he copies six of the new pictures in Genesis he omits six others; in
Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy he agrees with the 1490 edition against
that of 1492; in Judges, Ruth, and Kings, with 1492 as against 1490; in
Genesis, Leviticus, and Joshua, partly with one, partly with the other.
In two other cases he steers a middle course. The 1490 artist had
illustrated far too realistically both the temptation of Joseph and the
sin which called forth the zeal of Phineas. In the 1492 edition these
subjects are very wisely omitted. In that of 1493 they appear, but in a
modified form. My own theory to account for these discrepancies is that
between 1490 and 1492--presumably in 1491--Giunta published yet another
issue of the Bible, adding a few illustrations, but not so many as in
1492, and substituting two new cuts of the subjects unpleasantly
illustrated in 1490, which he subsequently thought well to pass over
altogether. Such an intermediate edition would supply a model which
would explain all the early illustrations in the edition of 1493, and
would also allow a more reasonable time to 'Anima Mia' to get them made,
and his book printed, than the nine months which separate the editions
of July 1492, and April 1493. 'Anima Mia,' however, was by no means
wholly a plagiarist, as is proved by the fact that while in his first
volume the 236 illustrations stand midways numerically between the 215
and the 252 of the two Giunta editions of 1490 and 1492; for his second
volume he provided no fewer than 208 against the 176 and 187 of his
predecessors, the new cuts being fairly evenly distributed through the
different books, while their artistic merit is of average quality.
[Illustration: 'THE FOOL HATH SAID IN HIS HEART.' FROM THE MALERMI
BIBLE. VENICE, GIUNTA, 1490]
[Illustration: THE ENTRY INTO THE ARK. FROM THE MALERMI BIBLE.
VENICE, 'ANIMA MIA,' 1493]
It is by this touchstone of artistic merit, and not by considerations of
quantity that the comparative claims of the two rival editions must be
decided; and on the whole there can be no doubt that both for
originality of design and for the highest merit in execution the palm
must be given to the artists and craftsmen employed by Giunta.
Unfortunately in both editions large numbers of the woodcuts were
intrusted to cutters quite incompetent to deal with such delicate work.
Giunta's illustrations to the Gospels are quite painfully bad, while
those of 'Anima Mia' are here only mediocre, his worst craftsman having
been employed on some of the middle books of the Old Testament. His
worst work is almost as bad as the worst of Giunta's, though less
painful, as not introducing the figure of Christ. The proportion of
mediocre cuts is far greater, and of these we give (p. 46) a generously
chosen example in that prefixed to Psalm lii. It should really be an
illustration, it may be imagined, to the text, 'Except the Lord build
the house their labour is but vain that build it,' but in any case it is
strikingly inferior to the brilliant cut in the 1490 edition, which
illustrates the heading 'Dixit insipiens' with all possible cogency.
[Illustration: JACOB DECEIVING ISAAC. FROM THE MALERMI BIBLE. VENICE,
'ANIMA MIA,' 1493]
Lastly, his best work, though really good, is not so good as that of his
predecessor. One reason for this is, no doubt, that part of the space
available in the column was occupied by the little border-pieces which,
though offering a pleasing setting to the pictures, diminish the space
available for illustration by nearly a quarter. The effect of this is
especially noticeable when the 1493 artist is copying his predecessor,
the necessity for 'selection' sometimes leading to the omission of
important parts of the composition. But at the outset of both volumes,
before the work began to be hurried, there is plenty of originality, and
excellent use is made of the space at the designer's disposal. The cut
of the animals entering the ark here shown is delightful, and in that of
Jacob deceiving Isaac we seem to feel instinctively the blindness of the
old man, who stretches out his hand to feel for the dish his false son
is bringing him. As the 1493 edition is so little known compared with
that of 1490, both our remaining illustrations are taken from it. The
first, the frontispiece to the second volume, shown at the beginning of
this article, compares very favourably with the similar design in the
earlier edition. The second, the picture of S. Jerome in the Desert, is
one of the best things in the book, both in design and cutting; but it
differs from everything else in it, and may possibly belong to some
other set.
[Illustration: S. JEROME IN THE DESERT. FROM THE MALERMI BIBLE. VENICE,
'ANIMA MIA,' 1493]
It may have been noted that in writing of the edition of 1490 I have not
thought it necessary to write of the various theories which have been
built on the little letter 'b' with which many of the cuts are signed,
_e.g._, that of 'an author at work' reproduced on p. 42. It is now
generally acknowledged that it is the mark, not of any designer, nor
even perhaps of any individual woodcutter, but merely of the workshop in
which the little blocks were cut.