Fraunce, in the yere of thyncarnacyon of our lord M.cc.lxxix,
and translated or reduced out of frensshe in to englysshe by
me Wyllyam Caxton, atte requeste of a worshipful marchaunt
and mercer of London, whyche instauntly requyred me to reduce
it for the wele of alle them that shal rede or here it, as
for a specyal book to knowe al vyces and braunches of them,
and also al vertues by whiche wel vnderstonden and seen may
dyrecte a persone to euerlastyng blysse, whyche book is callyd
in frensshe le liure Royal, that is to say the ryal book, or
a book for a kyng. For the holy scrypture calleth euery man
a kyng whiche wysely and parfytly can gouerne and dyrecte
hymselfe after vertu, and this book sheweth and enseygneth it
so subtylly, so shortly, so perceuyngly and so parfyghtly that
for the short comprehencion of the noble clergye and of the
right grete substaunce which is comprysed therin It may and
ought to be called wel by ryghte and quycke reason aboue al
other bookes in frensshe or in englysshe, the book ryal or the
book for a kyng, and also bycause that it was made and ordeyned
atte request of that ryght noble kyng Phelyp le bele kynge of
Fraunce ought it to be called Ryall, as tofore is sayd, whiche
translacyon or reducyng oute of frensshe in to englysshe was
achyeued, fynysshed and accomplysshed the xiii day of Septembre
in the yere of thyncarnacyon of our lord M.cccc.lxxxiiii And in
the second yere of the Regne of Kyng Rychard the thyrd.
Our third Caxton colophon belongs to another book which had no royal or
princely patron, only Master William Daubeney, keeper of the jewels.
There are certainly, however, no lack of kings in the colophon to
“Charles the Great”; for Caxton, who had good reason to be attached to
the House of York, alludes very ceremoniously to “his late master Edward
IV,” while chronology compels him to name also both Richard III and Henry
VII, though in neither case does he bestow any complimentary epithets.
And by cause I Wylliam Caxton was desyred & requyred by a good
and synguler frende of myn, Maister Wylliam Daubeney, one of
the tresorers of the Iewellys of the noble & moost crysten kyng
our naturel and souerayn lord late of noble memorye kyng Edward
the fourth, on whos soule Ihesu haue mercy, to reduce al these
sayd hystoryes in to our englysshe tongue, I haue put me in
deuoyr to translate thys sayd book as ye here tofore may se, al
a long and playn, prayeng alle them that shall rede see or here
it to pardon me of thys symple & rude translacyon and reducyng,
bysechyng theym that shal fynde faute to correcte it, & in so
doyng they shal deserue thankynges and I shal praye god for
them, who brynge them and me after this short and transytorye
lyf to euerlastyng blysse Amen. The whyche werke was fynysshed
in the reducyng of hit in to englysshe the xviii day of Iuyn
the second yere of kyng Rychard the thyrd, And the yere of our
lord M.cccc.lxxxv. And enprynted the fyrst day of decembre
the same yere of our lord & the fyrst yere of kyng Harry the
seuenth.
Explicit per William Caxton.
The double dating which the worthy translator and printer gives so calmly
has here a special interest as (unless indeed he began setting up the
translation before it was finished) it shows that he was able to print a
book of considerable size between June 18th and December 1st, and also
because between these two dates Bosworth Field was lost and won, and the
English throne had passed to a new king, on whom Caxton was perhaps
at first inclined to look with rather critical eyes. If this was so,
however, Henry VII found a sure way to conciliate him, for in the “Fayts
of Arms” of Christine de Pisan we find that the translation and printing
of the book were undertaken at the king’s request, and there is now no
lack of honorific epithets attached to the mention of him.
Thus endeth this boke whiche Cristyne of Pyse made and drewe
out of the boke named Vegecius de Re Militari and out of th’
Arbre of Bataylles wyth many other thynges sett in to the
same requisite to werre and batailles. Whiche boke beyng in
Frenshe was delyuered to me William Caxton by the most crysten
kynge and redoubted prynce my natural and souerayn lord kyng
Henry the VII, kyng of Englond and of Fraunce in his palais
of Westmestre the xxiii day of Ianyuere the iiii yere of his
regne and desired and wylled me to translate this said boke and
reduce it in to our English and natural tonge, and to put it
in enprynte to thende that euery gentylman born to armes and
all manere men of werre, captayns, souldiours, vytayllers and
all other, shold haue knowlege how they ought to behaue theym
in the fayttes of warre and of bataylles, and so delyuered me
the said book thenne, my lord th’ Erle of Oxenford awayting on
his said grace, Whyche volume conteynyng four bokes I receyued
of his said grace and according to his desire, whiche to me I
repute a comandement, and verili glad to obeye, and after the
lityl connyng that God hath lente me I haue endeuoyrd me to the
vtterest of my power to fulfylle and accomplisshe his desire
and comaundement, as wel to reduce it in to englyshe as to put
it in enprinte, to thende that it may come to the sight and
knowlege of euery gentylman and man of warre. And for certayn
in myn oppinyon it is as necessary a boke and as requisite as
ony may be for euery estate hye and lowe that entende to the
fayttes of werre, whether it be in bataylles, sieges, rescowse,
and all other fayttes, subtyltees and remedyes for meschieues.
Whiche translacyon was finysshed the viii day of Iuyll the
sayd yere and enprynted the xiiii day of Iuyll next folowyng
and ful fynyshyd. Thenne syth I haue obeyed his most dredeful
comaundement I humbly byseche his most exellent and bounteuous
hyenes to pardone me of this symple and rude translacion, where
in be no curyous ne gaye termes of rethoryk, but I hope to
almighti God that it shal be entendyble and vnderstanden to
euery man and also that it shal not moche varye in sentence
fro the copye receyued of my said souerayn lord. And where as
I haue erryd or made defaulte I beseche them that fynde suche
to correcte it and so dooyng I shal praye for them, and yf
ther be ony thyng therin to his pleasir I am glad and thinke
my labour wel enployed for to haue the name to be one of the
litel seruantes to the hiest and most cristen kyng and prince
of the world, whom I byseche almyghty God to preserue kepe and
contynue in his noble and most redoubted enterpryses, as wel in
Bretayn, Flaundres and other placis, that he may haue victorie,
honour and renommee to his perpetual glorye. For I haue not
herd ne redde that ony prynce hath subdued his subgettis with
lasse hurte &c and also holpen his neighbours and frendis out
of this londe, In whyche hye enterprises I byseche almyghty God
that he may remayne alleway vyctoryous And dayly encreace fro
vertu to vertue, and fro better to better to his laude & honour
in this present lyf, that after thys short and transitorye lyf
he may atteyne to euerlastyng lyf in heuen, whiche God graunte
to hym and to alle his lyege peple Amen.
Passing now from authors and semi-authors (if we may invent such a class
to do honor to Caxton) to editors of a more ordinary stamp, we shall
find that they, or the printers who hired them, in their anxiety to
magnify their achievements, have frequent recourse to the opportunities
offered by colophons. For unflinching and pretentious self-advertisement
the palm, as far as my experience reaches, must be given to Bartolommeo
Cepolla, who collected and edited the “consilia,” or counsel’s opinions,
of Paulus de Castro, a celebrated jurist:
Si quis rerum omnium naturas inspexerit: vnamquamque non minus
suo ordine quam partibus constare facile intelliget. Nec qui
pro construendis edibus structori materiam parat sed qui pro
consummati operis expeditione dispositam artificiose connectit
domum edificare perhibetur: eique iure optimo architecti dum
taxat nomen indidimus. Nemo namque sane mentis plineturgos
aut cementarios edificatores merito nuncupabit, hi licet
coctilia ac reliquia pro ceteris conglutinandis particulis
administrent: hominem neque progenuisse naturam iudicaremus si
hominis crura vertebris vero ac inguinibus caput et humeros
addidisset, quando quidem et si nullius portiuncule integritate
caruisset solius tamen situs incongruitate monstruosa res non
rationis particeps animal diceretur. Cum itaque clarissimi ac
excellentissimi iureconsulti Pauli Castrensis dilapsa undique
neque in unum corpus redacta consilia cernerentur non ea fuisse
edita seu composita dici posse videbant[ur], ac deperiisse
potius tantum opus tamque elegantissimum quam in lucem
peruenisse merito arbitraretur, communi studentium utilitati
parens, quibus maxima pro eorum beniuolentia summisque in
eum benemeritis seipsum debere fatetur, insignis eques et
comes ac iuris ciuilis et pontificii interpres famosissimus
Bartholomeus Cepolla Veronensis, aduocatus consistorialis,
in florentissimo gymnasio Patauino ordinariam iuris ciuilis
de mane publice legens, singula queque ab eo clarissimo uiro
hinc inde consulta colligere elaborauit: fieri etiam unum
reintegratum volumen (quod merito Repertorium Pauli Castrensis
appellamus) ad faciliorem doctrinam capescendam curauit ac
omnibus eius professionis imposterum accomodatum patere
studuit. Idque impressoria arte Nurnberge de mense Octobris
M.cccc.lxxxv Indictione tercia: per Anthonium Koburger actum
est et diligentia completum.
Any one who has examined the natures of things in general
will easily understand that each of them is the result quite
as much of its arrangement as of its parts. Nor is he who
makes ready the material for the mason to construct a dwelling
considered to be the builder of the house, but rather he who
skilfully combines the material available for the furtherance
of the complete work, and by the best right it is only to this
man that we have given the name of architect. For no one in
his right mind will entitle tilers and bricklayers builders,
although they furnish the bricks and what else is wanted
for cementing together the other parts, nor should we judge
nature to have given birth to a man if a man’s legs had been
added to his vertebræ and a head and shoulders to his middle,
since although every portion were there in its entirety, yet
merely from the incongruity of their position the result
would be called a monstrosity, not an animal partaking of
reason. So when of the most famous and excellent counsellor
Paulus Castrensis the Opinions were perceived to have been
scattered abroad and not brought together into one body, it
seemed impossible to speak of them as having been edited or
compiled, and it might justly be thought that this great and
most elegant work had rather utterly perished than been brought
to the light of day. Obeying therefore the convenience of
students, to whom he acknowledges himself indebted for their
great good will and many services to him, a noble knight and
count and very renowned exponent alike of civil and papal
law, Bartholomeus Cepolla of Verona, an advocate of the
consistorial court, who lectures publicly of a morning in the
most flourishing University of Padua on the ordinary course of
civil law, has taken the pains to gather from all sides all the
individual opinions given by that most distinguished man, and
has arranged, in order that his teaching may more easily be
understood, for the publication of a single renovated volume,
which we rightly call the Repertory of Paulus Castrensis, and
has made it his care that this should be available in future
for all of his profession, and this by the printer’s art has
been finished and diligently completed at Nuremberg in October,
1485, the third indiction, by Anton Koburger.
A more normal example of the custom of blaming previous printers and
editors—and it must be owned that the accusations hurled at them are,
as a rule, much better justified than the vituperator’s assertions of
his own superiority—may be taken from another law-book, a lecture or
commentary by Petrus de Ancharano, printed and, as he asserts, edited by
Benedictus Hectoris at Bologna.
[Illustration: Petrus de Ancharano. Repetitio. Bologna: Jo.
Jac. de Benedictis for Benedictus Hectoris, 1493.]
Opus pene diuinum celeberrimi vtriusque censure interpretis d.
Petri de Ancharano in materia statutorum super caput canonum
statuta de constitutionibus, quod prius Rome tum Bononie
Impressum fuerat, adeo corruptum atque inemendatum fuerat
vitio scriptorum et impressorum incuria vt vix tanti viri opus
obtenebratum foret: nunc vero per Benedictum Hectoris librarium
prius magna arte castigatum, demum originali proprio reperto
enucleatius emendatum, editum est, quo si vera fateri licet
et multa frustra addita detraxit et maiora detracta addidit
impressitque fideliter in eadem ciuitate Bononie. Anno Domini
M.cccc.lxxxxiij. tertio nonas Augusti.
The little less than divine work of the most famous interpreter
of both codes, Dom. Petrus de Ancharano, in the matter of the
statutes, on the chapter “Canonum statuta de constitutionibus,”
which first at Rome, afterwards at Bologna, had been printed,
by the fault of copyists and the carelessness of the printers,
so corruptly and with so little correction that the work of so
great a man was hardly shadowed out, now, on the other hand, by
Benedictus Hectoris, stationer, has first with great skill been
corrected and then by the discovery of the author’s original
more purely emended, and so published, whereby, if truth may
be told, he has both removed many vain additions and has added
more things that had been removed, and has faithfully printed
it in the same city of Bologna in the year of the Lord 1493, on
August 3d.
Legal works are usually crabbed reading in themselves, and in the
fifteenth century were made infinitely more so by the multiplicity of
contractions used in printing them. It might seem natural, therefore,
that there should be a special difficulty in obtaining correctness
in these texts. But, as a matter of fact, to whatever department of
knowledge we turn, we shall still find the fifteenth-century editor
exclaiming against the wickedness of his predecessors. Thus, if we go
to divinity, we may find as loud complaints as any law lecturer could
formulate in the colophon to the Hagenau edition of Gabriel Biel’s sermon
on the Lord’s Passion.
Dominice passionis trium partium notabilium sermo preclarus
domini Gabrielis Biel supranotati. Qui olim negligenter: ex
mendoso exemplari: et sub falso titulo impressus, postea
emendatus ex originali et per prefatum Florentium diel
diligenter revisus: in laudem altissimi innovatus clariusque
interstinctus atque emendatus: non modo in sententiarum
quarundam defectibus: verum etiam in orthographia. Et in
imperiali opido hagenau impressus.
The excellent sermon of the above-mentioned Dom Gabriel Biel
on the three noteworthy parts of the Lord’s Passion, which
formerly was carelessly printed from a faulty copy and under
a wrong title, afterwards corrected from the original and
diligently revised by the aforesaid Florentinus Diel, unto
the glory of the Most High has been renovated, more clearly
divided, and emended, not only in the defects of certain
sentences but also in the spelling, and printed in the imperial
town of Hagenau.
To print a book (i) carelessly, (ii) from a faulty copy, and (iii) under
a wrong title was really reprehensible, yet after all this detraction
there is something quite pleasing in coming across a colophon like that
to S. Augustine’s Exposition on the Psalms, in which Johann von Amerbach
of Basel, instead of vilifying his predecessors, is content to appeal to
the judgment of experts in matters of editing and textual criticism.
Post exactam diligentemque emendationem. Auctore deo:
perfectum est insigne atque preclarum hoc opus explanationis
psalmorum: Diui ac magni doctoris Augustini. Opus reuera maiori
commendatione se dignum exhibens legentibus, quam quibusvis
verbis explicari possit: vt ex prefatione et prologo ipsius
evidenter colligi potest. Quanto vero studio et accuratione
castigatum: emendatum: et ordinatum sit: hi iudicent qui illud
aliis similibus sibi: siue manuscriptis: siue ere impressis
litteris contulerint. Consummatum Basilee per magistrum Ioannem
de Amerbach Anno Domini M.cccc.lxxxix.
After exact and diligent revision, by the help of God, this
renowned and excellent work has been completed, the Explanation
of the Psalms of the divine and great doctor Augustine, a
work in very truth approving itself to its readers as worthy
of greater praise than can be unfolded in any words, as can
plainly be gathered from its preface and prologue. But with how
much study and accuracy it has been corrected, emended, and set
in order, let those judge who have compared it with other texts
like itself, whether in manuscript or in brass-printed letters.
Finished at Basel by Master Johann von Amerbach A.D. 1489.
Perhaps even more cheering than this pleasant and reasonable
self-confidence is the mild shadow of an oath, a simple “Hercule,” with
which Heinrich Quentell asseverates that his edition of the De Veritate
of S. Thomas Aquinas truly rejoices in the true title of truth! We may
note also the little arrangement by which the printer contrived to bring
his work to an end on the very day of the saint’s festival.
Diui Thome aquinatis doctoris angelici illuminatissimi summa
de veritate, per theozophie professorem eximium, Magistrum
Theodericum de Susteren, insignis conuentus Coloniensis ordinis
fratrum Predicatorum regentem profundissimum, denuo peruigili
studio in luculentam erecta consonantiam, adeo hercule vt
vere vero veritatis titulo gaudeat. Impressa Agrippine
opera atque impensis prouidi viri Henrici Quentell, ciuis
eiusdem. Anno salutis humane nonagesimonono supra millesimum
quadringentesimum Ipso die celebritatis autoris cursu felici ad
finem vsque perducta.
The Summa de Veritate (Epitome of Truth) of St. Thomas Aquinas,
the angelic and most illuminate doctor, by the distinguished
professor of divine learning Theoderic of Susteren, a regent
deeply versed of the famous Cologne Convent of the order of
Preaching Friars, newly by assiduous study restored to a
fruitful harmony, so by Hercules that it truly rejoices in the
true title of Truth, and printed at Cologne by the efforts and
at the expense of the prudent Heinrich Quentell, citizen of the
same, in the year of man’s salvation 1499, has been brought
with favorable course even unto completion on the very festival
of its author.
In all these books editors could have had no difficulties to deal with
save those which arise when texts are copied and recopied with the
inevitable introduction of small errors at every stage, and perhaps
some even more dangerous attempts to correct those already made. But
in one class of printing, that of liturgical books, in which absolute
accuracy of text and punctuation was of supreme importance, the need
for careful supervision was really very great,—so much so, indeed, that
the great bulk of liturgical printing was entrusted to firms who made a
specialty of it. It is not surprising, therefore, to find some special
insistence on the editorial virtues of a missal-printer; and the colophon
to the Salzburg Missal printed by Georg Stuchs at Nuremberg in 1498 is
interesting for its detailed account of the system of punctuation.
Missale et de tempore et de sanctis non modo secundum notulam
metropolitane ecclesie Salisburgensis ordinatum, verum
etiam haud exigua opera adhibita, tum in quottis foliorum
locandis, tum in remissionis discreto numero tam circa
quamlibet lectionem vel prophetalem vel apostolicam quam
circa quodlibet euangelium alio in loco plenarie locatum,
situando reuisum. Deinde autem per cola et comata distinctum.
Simplici puncto in collectis secretis complendis lectionibus
epistolis et euangeliis locato colum indicante, gemino
uero puncto coma significante: sed in introitu graduali
alleluia sequentiis offertoris et communione puncto simplici
locato mediam distinctionem que comatis appellatione venit
presentante, gemino autem puncto subdistinctionem que colum
nuncupatur signante. Demum uero in officina Georii [_sic_]
Stöchs ex Sulczpach, ciuis Nurnbergensis, expensa Ioannis
Ryman impressum. Idibus Augusti anni ab incarnatione Messye
nonagesimi octaui supra millesimum quadragintesimum: finit.
A missal both for the seasons and saints’ days, not only
arranged according to the order of the metropolitan church of
Salzburg, but also revised with no small pains, both in setting
down the numbers of the leaves and in assigning a distinctly
numbered reference for every lesson, whether taken from the
books of the Prophets or of the Apostles, and also for every
gospel placed elsewhere in its full form: Distinguished,
moreover, by colons and commas: in the Collects, Secrets,
Post Communions, Lessons, Epistles and Gospels, the placing
of a single point denoting a colon, a double point signifying
a comma; but in the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Sequences,
Offertory and Communion the placing of a single point
indicating the middle distinction which goes by the name of a
comma, the double point the subdistinction which is called a
colon. Now at last printed in the workshop of Georg Stuchs of
Sulzbach, citizen of Nuremberg, at the expense of Johann Ryman,
and completed on the 13th August of the year from the Messiah’s
incarnation 1498.
In a Roman missal printed by G. Arrivabenus & P. de Paganinis at Venice
in 1484 the colophon alludes to the common practice of correcting the
text of a printed missal by hand, sometimes to bring it up to date, but
also for the elimination of the printer’s errors. In this case the
printers make bold to say that their text is so correct that any one who
tampers with it rashly is as likely to turn right into wrong as wrong
into right.
[Illustration: Roman Missal. Venice: G. Arriuabenus and P. de
Paganinis, 1484.]
Explicit missale secundum morem romane ecclesie, summa cum
diligentia et fideli studio purgatum ab his erroribus quibus
uel ignorantia uel incuria librariorum adductis communis
abusus inualuit. Quocirca quicunque legerit obsecratum uelim
ne adhibeat manum precipitem ad corrigendam uel potius
corrumpendam libri rectitudinem magno partam labore, sed
multiplicato sincero examine postmodum exequatur quicquid recta
ratio et spiritus veritatis ingesserit. Ad laudem omnipotentis
dei et sanctissime uirginis matris eius, totiusque curie
celestis. Impressum Venetiis arte et impensis Georgii de
Riuabenis Mantuani et Paganini de Paganinis Brixiani sociorum:
sub Inclyto duce Ioanne Mocenico, quinto kalendas octobris.
M.cccclxxxiiii. Amen.
Here ends the Missal according to the custom of the Roman
Church, with the utmost diligence and faithful study purged
from the errors with which, introduced by the ignorance
and carelessness of copyists, the common perversion became
established. Wherefore I would pray whoever reads it not to
lay hasty hands to the correction, or rather corruption, of
the accuracy of the book, which was obtained only by great
labor; but let him examine it again and again with a single
heart and thereafter carry out whatever right reason and the
spirit of truth suggest. To the praise of Almighty God and
of the most holy Virgin his Mother, and of all the court of
heaven. Printed at Venice by the skill and at the charges of
Georgio di Arrivabene of Mantua and Paganino dei Paganini of
Brescia, partners, under the renowned doge Giovanni Mocenigo,
27 September, 1484. Amen.
Somewhat in the same spirit as the boast of the Venetian missal-printers,
we find Koberger declaring—let us hope, after consulting ecclesiastical
authorities—that his edition of the Revelations of S. Bridget is so
complete that if any one produces additional revelations they may be
dismissed as spurious.
Finit diuinum volumen omnium celestium Reuelationum preelecte
sponse christi sancte Birgitte de regno Suetie. A religiosis
patribus originalis monasterii sanctarum Marie et Brigitte in
Watzstenis, prematuro studio et exquisita diligentia, in hos
suprascriptos numerum et ordinem accuratius comportatum. Et
si forte alique alie reuelationes, sicut repertum est, beate
Brigitte per errorem aut temerarie a quoque quomodolibet
ascribantur, preter has que in hoc presenti volumine aut in
vita seu legenda sancte Birgitte maiori continentur, tanquam
false et erronee decernentur.
Insuper iam alterato per Anthonium Koberger ciuem
Nurembergensem impresse finiunt. Anno domini M.ccccc. xxi.
mensis Septembris. Laus omnipotenti deo. Amen.