lord, Lord Johannes de Turrecremata, formerly cardinal of S.
Sixtus, and in the walls of the cloisters of S. Maria Minerva
not only in words and letters but also in pictorial figures
set forth and painted, come to a happy end, in the year of
Salvation 1472, on December 24th, in the pontificate of Sixtus
IV.
So again the colophon[10] of the Verona Valturius notes not only that
John of Verona was the first printer in his native town, but also that
the book appeared with most elegant types “et figuratis signis,” by which
we must understand the pictorial representations of the numerous military
engines he describes. In some of the French Horae the illustrations
are just alluded to in the titles or colophons, and in Meidenbach’s
“Ortus Sanitatis” there is a fairly long reference, in the Address to
the Reader, to the “effigies et figuras” with which the book is so
successfully adorned. But the only colophon which really does justice
to the illustrations of a fifteenth-century book is that to Hartmann
Schedel’s “Liber Chronicarum,” or “Nuremberg Chronicle.”
[A]Dest nunc studiose lector finis libri Cronicarum per viam
epithomatis et breuiarii compilati, opus quidem preclarum
et a doctissimo quoque comparandum. Continet enim gesta
quecunque digniora sunt notatu ab initio mundi ad hanc usque
temporis nostri calamitatem. Castigatumque a uiris doctissimis
ut magis elaboratum in lucem prodiret. Ad intuitum autem
et preces prouidorum ciuium Sebaldi Schreyer et Sebastiani
Kamermaister hunc librum dominus Anthonius Koberger Nuremberge
impressit. Adhibitis tamen uiris mathematicis pingendique arte
peritissimis, Michaele Wolgemut et Wilhelmo Pleydenwurff,
quorum solerti acuratissimaque animaduersione tum ciuitatum
tum illustrium uirorum figure inserte sunt. Consummatum autem
duodecima mensis Iulii. Anno salutis nostre 1493.
You have here, studious reader, the end of the book of
Chronicles, compiled by way of an epitome and abridgment, a
notable work indeed, and one to be bought by every learned man.
For it records all the matters specially worthy of note from
the beginning of the world to these last distressful times of
our own. And it has been corrected by very learned men, that
it may make a more finished appearance. Now at the respect
and prayers of those prudent citizens, Sebald Schreyer and
Sebastian Kamermaister, this book has been printed by Master
Anton Koberger at Nuremberg, with the assistance, nevertheless,
of mathematical men, well skilled in the art of painting,
Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, by whose skilful and
most accurate annotation the pictures both of cities and of
illustrious men have been inserted. It has been brought to an
end on July 12th. In the year of our salvation 1493.
Out of all the hundreds of fifteenth-century books with interesting
pictures, this is the only one I can call to mind which gives explicit
information as to its illustrations. Perhaps the publishers thought
that the woodcuts were themselves more conspicuous in the books than
the colophons. But it is certainly strange that when authors, editors,
press-correctors, printers, patrons, and booksellers all get their due,
the illustrators, save in this one instance, should have been kept in
anonymous obscurity.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
VI
COLOPHONS OF AUTHORS AND EDITORS
Booksellers are a much more learned body than they used to be, but
few readers of second-hand catalogues can have failed to meet with
ascriptions of dates for the printing of books long anterior to the
invention of the art, on the ground of colophons which they know at once
to have been written by the authors. Where only a few years separate
the dates of composition and publication the mistake is easily made
and not always easily detected. The retention of the author’s original
colophon is, however, common enough for cataloguers to be prepared for
it; and there are plenty of cases in which a book possesses two quite
distinct colophons, the first by the author, the second by the printer or
publisher. Thus, to take a simple example from a famous book, we find at
the end of the text of the “Hypnerotomachia” the author’s colophon:
Taruisii cum decorissimis Poliae amore lorulis distineretur
misellus Poliphilus. M.cccc.lxvii. Kalendis Maii.
At Treviso, while the wretched Polifilo was confined by love of
Polia with glittering nets. May 1, 1467.
That of the printer is thirty-two years later:
Venetiis mense Decembri M I D in aedibus Aldi Manutii,
accuratissime.
At Venice, in the month of December, 1499, in the house of Aldo
Manuzio, with very great accuracy.
A more interesting instance of a double colophon occurs in an equally
famous book, the “Morte d’Arthur” of Sir Thomas Malory. In this Malory
writes:
Here is the end of the booke of Kyng Arthur and of his noble
Knyghtes of the Round Table, that when they were hole togyders
there was euer an C and xl, and here is the ende of the deth
of Arthur. I praye you all Ientyl men and Ientyl wymmen that
redeth this book of Arthur and his knyghtes from the begynnyng
to the endyng, praye for me whyle I am on lyue that God sende
me good delyuerance, and whan I am deed I praye you all praye
for my soule. For this book was ended the ix yere of the reygne
of Kyng Edward the fourth, by Syr Thomas Maleore Knyght. As
Ihesu helpe hym for hys grete myght, as he is the seruaunt of
Ihesu bothe day and nyght.
This colophon was written between Malory’s outlawry in 1468 and his death
on March 14, 1471, and its request for the reader’s prayers for his
“delyuerance” and for the repose of his soul after death is made all the
more pathetic when we remember the author’s declaration that by sickness
“al welthe is birafte” from a prisoner (Book ix, ch. 37). Caxton’s
preface as editor, printer, and publisher, on the other hand, is purely
businesslike, and gives us no more information about the author.
¶ Thus endyth thys noble and joyous book entytled Le Morte
D’Arthur. Notwythstondyng it treateth of the byrth, lyf and
actes of the sayd Kyng Arthur, of his noble knyghtes of the
Rounde Table, theyr meruayllous enquestes and aduentures,
thacheuyng of the Sangreal, & in thende the dolorous deth &
departyng out of thys world of them al. Whiche book was reduced
into englysshe by Syr Thomas Malory Knyght as afore is sayd,
and by me deuyded in to xxi bookes, chapytred and enprynted,
and fynysshed in thabbey westmestre the last day of Iuyl the
yere of our Lord Mcccclxxxv.
¶ Caxton me fieri fecit.
Despite outlawry, sickness, and probably imprisonment, Malory finished
his book. In the troublous days of the fifteenth century war and
disease must often have proved sad interruptions to authors, and in his
“Repetitio de verborum significatione” (Hain 11679) Georgius Natta is
evidently as proud of having triumphed over these hindrances as of his
official position. Thus he writes:
Reliquum est Deo summo gratias agere quo auctor huic operi,
iam bis armis et pestilentia Pisis intermisso, Georgius Natta,
iuris utriusque doctor, ciuis Astensis ac illustrissimi et
excellentissimi Marchionis Montisferrati consiliarius, multis
additis et priori ordine in aliquibus mutato, extremam manum
imposuit anno dominice natiuitatis Millesimo.cccc.lxxxii,
quo tempore pro memorabili Guilielmo Montisferrati Marchione
ac ducali capitaneo generali Mediolani oratorem agebat apud
illustrissimum Io. Galeam Mariam Sfortiam uicecomitem Ducem
sextum, Ludouico patruo mira integritate gubernante, quippe
qui Mediolanensium res iam tunc adeo gnauiter ampliabat et
oranti Italie pacem adeo largiter elargiebatur ut nec superior
etas optabiliorem habuerit nec nostra uiderit prestantiorem.
Profecto mira res quod diuinus ille preses Marti pariter et
Minerue satisfaceret.
Impressum Papie per Christoforum de Canibus Anno a natiuitate
domini. M.cccc.lxxxxii. die xv septembris.
[Illustration: Georgius Natta. Repetitiones. Pavia: C. de
Canibus, 1492.]
It remains to give thanks to the Most High God, by whose grace
the author, Georgius Natta, doctor of both laws, a citizen of
Asti and councillor of the most illustrious and most excellent
Marquis of Monferrat, to this work, which had been twice
interrupted by war and plague at Pisa, with many additions and
some changes in the former arrangement, put the finishing touch
in the year of the Lord’s nativity 1482, at which time, on
behalf of the memorable Guglielmo, Marquis of Monferrat, and
ducal captain-general, he was acting as ambassador at Milan, at
the court of the most illustrious Viscount Giovanni Galea Maria
Sforza, sixth duke, whose uncle Lodovico was governing with
wondrous uprightness, inasmuch as he was already so skilfully
enlarging the fortunes of the Milanese, and so liberally
imparting peace to Italy which craved it, that neither did any
earlier age present a more enviable person nor did our own
behold one of greater excellence. Wonderful indeed was it that
that heroic ruler gave their due alike to Mars and to Minerva.
Printed at Pavia by Cristoforo degli Cani in the year from the
Lord’s nativity 1492, on the fifteenth day of September.
Less contented with his lot, Henricus Bruno, in his lectures “Super
Institutionibus” published at Louvain, after writing the formal colophon
takes up his pen anew to give eloquent expression to the woes of the
professional man who devotes his leisure not to rest but to literature.
Ad laudem et honorem summi ac omnipotentis deique marie matris
sue intacte Explicit Henricus de piro super Institutionibus Per
Egidium van der Heerstraten in alma Louaniensi uniuersitate
Impressus duodecima die Nouembris. Nouissime domini et fratres
dilectissimi reminiscite queso ac tacite in animis vestris
cogitate quantis laboribus quantisque capitis vexationibus
Ego Henricus Brunonis alias de Piro de Colonia inter legum
dectores [_sic_] minimus hoc opusculum ex scriptis aliorum pro
vestris beniuolenciis atque augmentatione huius nouelli studii
Louaniensis expleuerim Qui singulis diebus post lectionem
fftorum mihi a publico deputatam in continenti hoc opus quasi
intollerabili onere assumpsi. Quare fratres humanissimi si
quicquid erroris vel dignum correctionis inueneritis oro, rogo
atque obtestor vestros immortales animos vt illud benigne non
mordaciter, caritatis zelo non liuoris aculeo, corrigendum ac
emendandum curetis. Ad laudem summi dei qui viuit et regnat in
secula benedictus. Amen.
[Illustration: Henricus Bruno. Super Institutionibus. Louvain:
Aeg. van der Heerstraten [1488?].]
To the praise and honor of the Most High and Almighty God
and of Mary his Virgin Mother there comes to an end Henricus
de Piro on the Institutions, printed by Egidius van der
Heerstraten in the bounteous University of Louvain, on the
twelfth day of November. Lastly, masters and most beloved
brothers, remember, I pray you, and silently in your minds
consider with how great toils and how great harassments of the
head I, Henricus, the son of Bruno, otherwise Henricus de Piro
of Cologne, the least among the doctors and readers of the law,
have completed this little work out of the writings of other
men for your profiting and for the advancement of this new
university of Louvain. Now I, day by day, after lecturing on
the Pandects according to the terms of my public appointment,
forthwith took up this work, though intolerably burdensome.
Wherefore, my most courteous brethren, if you find any trace
of error or anything worthy of correction, I request, pray,
and entreat you, by your immortal souls, that you see to its
correction and amendment in a kindly rather than a biting
spirit, with the zeal of love rather than the spur of envy. To
the praise of the Most High God, who lives and reigns, blessed
to all ages. Amen.
Even as late as 1580 an author, a musician this time, used the colophon
to pour out the griefs of which nowadays we disburden ourselves in
prefaces. It is thus that, in his “Cantiones seu Harmoniae sacrae quas
vulgo Moteta vocant,” Johann von Cleve took advantage of the tradition of
the colophon to bespeak the sympathy of students and amateurs of music
for his troubles in bringing out his book:
Sub calce operis, Musicae studiosos & amatores admonere, operae
pretium visum est hoc Motetorum opus, primo Philippo Vlhardo,
ciui et Typographo Augustano, ad imprimendum esse delegatum,
qui ob aduersam corporis valetudinem (vt fieri solet) aequo
morosior, saepe nostram intentionem non est assecutus, meque
opus ipsum, praetermissis quibusdam mutetis (quae tamen breui,
vita comite & Deo fauente, in lucem prodibunt) abbreuiare
coegit, praesertim cum idem Typographus, opere nondum finito,
diem suum clauserit extremum: ac deinceps idem opus Andreae
Reinheckel, ad finem deducendum, sit commissum. Quare si quid,
quod curiosum turbare posset occurrerit, Musici (oro) animam
ferunt aequiore. Valete. Anno Domini M.D.lxxx. Mense Ianuario.
As I come to the end of my task it seems worth while to
inform students and amateurs of music that this collection
of Motets was in the first place entrusted to Philip Ulhard,
citizen and printer of Augsburg, to be printed, and that he
(as often happens), being made unreasonably capricious by
bodily ill-health, often did not carry out our intention, and
compelled me, by leaving out some motets (which, however,
if life bears me company and God helps, will shortly be
published), to abridge the work, and more especially as the
same printer, when the work was not yet finished, came to an
end of his days, and thereupon the said work was entrusted to
Andreas Reinheckel to be completed, if anything, therefore,
is found which might disturb a connoisseur, I pray musicians
to bear it with equanimity. Farewell. In the year of the Lord
1580, in the month of January.
An earlier author, Bonetus de Latis, when he came to the end of his
“Annulus astronomicus siue de utilitate astrologiae” (Rome, Andreas
Freitag, c. 1496; Hain 9926), dedicated to the Pope, had no complaints
to make of his printer or of working after office hours, but used the
colophon to ask for lenient criticism of any flaws in his Jewish Latin.
Hec sunt, Beatissime Pater, Anuli astronomici puncta peregregia
una mecum ad S. tue pedes humillime oblata que positis
superciliis hilari uultu, ut spes fovet, recipias. Nec mirum
si grammatice methas qui hebreus sum latinitatis expers
nonnunquam excesserim. Nolens utile per inutile viciari malui
S. T. rosulas uili quam urticas loliumue in preciosa offerre
sportula: ut que ad S. T. totiusque reipublice commodum
omniumque rerum Opificis laudem utilia comperta sunt ob
connexiones verborum enormes non obmitterentur, summa verum
auctoritate tua interposita a cunctis patule agnoscerentur.
Parce precor rudibus que sunt errata latine:
Lex hebraea mihi est: lingua latina minus.
These notable points of the Astronomical Ring are most humbly
offered, most blessed Father, together with myself, at the feet
of your Holiness. May you lay aside all disdain and receive
them, as hope encourages, with a joyful countenance. Nor is it
any wonder if a Hebrew such as I am, with no scholarship in
Latin, should sometimes have overstepped the bounds of grammar.
In my unwillingness that the useful should be made of no
effect by the useless, I preferred to offer to your Holiness
rosebuds in a cheap basket rather than nettles or tares in a
precious one, so that such useful discoveries as have been made
for the advantage of your Holiness and of the whole state,
and to the praise of the Artificer of all things, should not
be passed over on account of unusual collocations of words,
but by the interposition of your authority should be plainly
recognized by all.
Be lenient, you who find some Latin flaw:
Not Latin I profess, but Hebrew law.
Jacobus Bergomensis, when he finishes his “Supplementum Chronicarum,” can
boast proudly of promises performed, and gives not only the dates of its
completion and printing, but his own age.
Hic igitur terminum ponam Supplementi historiarum: quam [_sic_]
me promisi cum omni veritate traditurum. Nisus autem sum sine
errore successiones regum principum et actus eorum: ac virorum
in disciplinis excellentium et origines religionum: sicut ex
libris hystoricorum descriptio continet. Hoc enim in exordio
huius operis me facere compromisi. Perfectum autem per me opus
fuit anno salutis nostre 1483. 3º Kalendas Iulii in ciuitate
Bergomi: mihi vero a natiuitate quadragesimo nono. Impressum
autem hoc opus in inclita Venetiarum ciuitate: per Bernardinum
de Benaliis bergomensem eodem anno. die 23º Augusti.
Here, then, I will make an end of the Supplement of Histories,
which I promised that I would relate with all truth. Now I have
tried to set down without mistake the successions of kings and
princes, and the activities of them and of the men who excelled
in studies, and the origins of religions as they are embraced
in the description taken from the books of the historians. For
in the introduction of this work I pledged myself to do this.
The work has been finished by me in the year of our salvation
1483, on June 29th, in the city of Bergamo, and as regards
myself in the forty-ninth year from my birth. Now this book was
printed in the renowned city of Venice by Bernardino dei Benali
of Bergamo on August 23d of the same year.
When the “Supplementum Chronicarum” was reprinted in 1485-86, Bergomensis
duly altered his statement as to his age to fifty-one and fifty-two. In
the 1490 edition the author’s colophon still reads:
Perfectum autem est et denuo castigatum atque auctum per
me opus fuit Idibus Octobris: anno a Natali Christiano
M.cccc.lxxxvi, in ciuitate nostra Bergomi: mihi vero a
natiuitate quinquagesimo secundo.
That of the printer, on the other hand, is duly brought up to date:
Impressum autem Venetiis per Bernardum Rizum de Nouaria anno
a Natiuitate domini M.cccc.lxxxx. die decimo quinto Madii,
regnante inclito duce Augustino Barbadico.
It is thus evident that with this and later editions Bergomensis, though
he lived to be eighty-six, did not concern himself.
An author’s colophon must often have been omitted by the scribe or
printer who was copying his book precisely because a double colophon
seemed confusing, and the scribe or printer wished to have his own
say. Nicolaus de Auximo in his Supplement to the Summa of Pisanella
ingeniously forestalled any such tampering by linking his remarks to his
exposition of the word “Zelus,” the last which he had to explain. After
quoting from the Psalms the text “Zelus domus tue comedit me,” “The zeal
of thy house has eaten me up,” he proceeds:
et hic zelus me fratrem Nicolaum de Ausmo, ordinis minorum
indignum pro aliquali simpliciorum subsidio ad huius
supplementi compilationem quod struente domino nostro Iesu
Cristo, excepta tabula capitulorum et abbreuiaturarum et
rubricarum expletum est apud nostrum locum prope Mediolanum
sancte Marie de Angelis nuncupatum, et uulgariter Sancti
Angeli, M.cccc.xliiii, nouembris xxviii, die Sabbati ante
aduentum, hora quasi sexta. Et omnia quae in eo ac ceteris
opusculis per me compilatis compilandisue incaute seu minus
perite posita continentur peritiorum et praesertim sacrosancte
ecclesie submitto correctioni, et cetera.
And this zeal hath urged me, Nicholas of Osimo, an unworthy
brother of the order of Friars Minor, to the compilation, for
some aid of more simple men, of this Supplement, which by the
power of our Lord Jesus Christ, save for the table of chapters
and abbreviations and rubrics, has been completed at our abode
near Milan, called Saint Mary of the Angels, and vulgarly Sant
Angelo, in 1444, on November 28, the Saturday before Advent,
at about the sixth hour. And both in it and in the other works
which either have been or are to be compiled by me, all things
which are found stated incautiously or unskilfully I submit to
the correction of the better skilled and especially of the Holy
Church, etc.
The submission of a book, more particularly a theological one, to the
correction of the learned and the church was of course “common form”
while the Roman dominion was undisputed, and many colophons containing
such phrases could be collected. We must pass on now, however, from
authors to editors, taking William Caxton, by the way, as an editor and
translator who put so much of himself into his work that he deserves
honorary rank among authors. That he was his own printer and publisher
as well has certainly rather hindered the appreciation of his literary
merits, but gives to his colophons, prologues, and epilogues a special
flavor of their own. As to which of these opportunities of talking to his
readers he should use, Caxton seems to have cared little; but even if we
confine ourselves fairly strictly to colophons properly so called, there
is no difficulty in finding interesting examples, as, for instance, this
from his “Godefroy of Boloyne”:
Thus endeth this book Intitled the laste siege and conqueste
of Iherusalem with many other historyes therin comprysed,
Fyrst of Eracles and of the meseases of the cristen men in the
holy lande, And of their releef & conquest of Iherusalem, and
how Godeffroy of Boloyne was fyrst kyng of the latyns in that
royamme, & of his deth, translated & reduced out of frensshe in
to Englysshe by me symple persone Wylliam Caxton to thende that
euery cristen man may be the better encoraged tenterprise warre
for the defense of Christendom, and to recouer the sayd Cyte of
Iherusalem in whiche oure blessyd sauyour Ihesu Criste suffred
deth for al mankynde, and roose fro deth to lyf, And fro the
same holy londe ascended in to heuen. And also that Cristen
peple one vnyed in a veray peas myght empryse to goo theder in
pylgremage with strong honde for to expelle the sarasyns and
turkes out of the same, that our lord myght be ther seruyd &
worshipped of his chosen cristen peple in that holy & blessed
londe in which he was Incarnate and blissyd it with the
presence of his blessyd body whyles he was here in erthe emonge
vs, by whiche conquest we myght deserue after this present
short and transitorye lyf the celestial lyf to dwelle in heuen
eternally in ioye without ende Amen. Which book I presente
vnto the mooste Cristen kynge, kynge Edward the fourth, humbly
besechyng his hyenes to take no displesyr at me so presumyng.
Whiche book I began in Marche the xii daye and fynysshyd the
vii day of Juyn, the yere of our lord M.cccc.lxxxi, & the xxi
yere of the regne of our sayd souerayn lord kyng Edward the
fourth, & in this maner sette in forme and enprynted the xx day
of nouembre the yere a forsayd in thabbay of Westmester, by the
said Wylliam Caxton.
Here, it will have been noticed, Caxton runs epilogue, colophon, and
dedication all into one after his own happy and unpretentious fashion.
Our next example is from a book which had indeed a royal patron in
France, but in England was brought out at the request of an unnamed
London merchant, though its name, “The Royal Book,” has probably had
something to do with its high pecuniary value among Caxton’s productions.
This colophon runs: