the preëlect spouse of Christ, Saint Bridget of the kingdom
of Sweden. The religious fathers of the original monastery of
Saints Mary and Bridget in Wadstena, by most mature study and
extraordinary diligence, have reduced them more accurately
to the above number and arrangement. And if haply, as has
been found the case, other revelations are through error or
carelessness by any one or in any manner ascribed to the
blessed Bridget besides those contained in this present volume
or in the larger Life or Legend of Saint Bridget, they shall be
treated as false and erroneous.
Printed now for the second time by Anton Koberger, citizen of
Nuremberg, and brought to an end on September 21st, A.D. 1500.
Praise be to Almighty God. Amen.
Of the views of the editors of classical texts we have already had some
specimens in some of the early Venetian colophons. That of Filippo da
Lavagna to his edition of the Epistolae Familiares of Cicero (Milan,
1472) is, however, of considerable interest, and tells us, moreover, the
number of copies printed, besides conveying a stray hint to the students
of the day that the production of further editions of the same excellence
would depend on the liberality of their support.
[Illustration: Cicero. Epistolae Familiares. Milan: Lavagna,
1472.]
Epistolarum Familiarium M. Tull. Cic. multa uolumina in
diuersis Italiae locis hac noua impressorum arte transcripta
sunt, que si ut plurima numero ita etiam studio satis correcta
essent nouo hoc labore non fuisset opus. Sed tanto errorum
numero confunduntur ut non modo littere pro litteris et pro
uerbis uerba perturbatissime inuoluta, uerum etiam epistole
in epistolas, libri in libros, sic inueniantur confusi, ne
tam doctorum diligentia ad communem utilitatem confecta quam
auarissimorum hominum cupiditate lucri gratia festinando
conuoluta contorta contaminataque manifeste uideantur. Que
cum audirem ex uiris cum doctissimis tum etiam prudentissimis
ego Philippus Lauagna, ciuis Mediolanensis, ut pro uirili
mea aliqua ex parte meis ciuibus prodessem, nactus exemplar
correctissimum, studio diligentissimo hominum doctrina
prestantium, trecenta uolumina exscribenda curaui, opera
adhibita ut singule pagine antea quam imprimerentur ab aliquo
doctorum perlecte essent et castigate: quem ego laborem nisi
profudisse uidebor pleraque in futurum accuratissime ut
transcribantur laborabo non minori publice quam mee utilitatis
ratione seruata.
Barbara cum Marci uerbis admixta legebas:
Hunc lege quod verum est hoc Ciceronis opus.
Virgo decus coeli Christi sanctissime mater
Laus tibi cum nato sit sine fine tuo.
M.cccc.lxxii. viii kal. Apriles.
Of the Familiar Letters of M. Tullius Cicero many volumes have
been copied in different places of Italy by this new art of the
printers, and if these, as they are many in number, were also
zealously and sufficiently corrected, there had been no need
for this new work. But they are confused by so many errors that
not only are letters and words substituted for one another in
a most disorderly tangle, but also whole epistles and books
are found so confused with others that the result plainly
appears not so much a compilation by the diligence of learned
men for the common profit, as some tangled and contorted mass
of corruptions produced by the greed of the avaricious by
hurrying for the sake of gain. This when, by the report of most
learned and also prudent men, I, Philip Lavagna, a citizen
of Milan, understood, in the hope of doing a man’s part in
benefiting in some respect my fellow-citizens, I obtained
by the most diligent zeal a very correct copy with the help
of distinguished scholars, and made it my business to have
300 volumes written out, attention being paid that each page,
before it was printed off, should be read over and corrected by
one of the doctors. And unless I shall find that I have wasted
this labor, I will make it my business that many other texts
for the future shall be most accurately copied, the interests
of the public being as carefully preserved as my own.
With Tully’s words once phrases rude were twined:
Here uncorrupted Cicero you shall find.
Glory of heaven, Christ’s mother, holiest maid,
Ever to thee, with him, all praise be paid.
25 March, 1472.
Even better than this, however, is the colophon to the Brescia Lucretius,
in which we see the editor dismayed at first by the obvious defects of
his copy, but resolving at length to print it on the ground that his
inability to find any other was the best proof of its rarity.
Titi Lucretii Cari finis. Lucretii unicum meas in manus cum
pervenisset exemplar de eo imprimendo hesitaui: quod erat
difficile unico de exemplo quae librarii essent praeterita
negligentia illa corrigere. Verum ubi alterum perquisitum
exemplar adinuenire non potui, hac ipsa motus difficultate
unico etiam de exemplari volui librum quam maxime rarum
communem multis facere studiosis: siquidem facilius erit
pauca loca uel aliunde altero exemplari extricato uel suo
studio castigare et diligentia: quam integro carere uolumine.
Presertim cum a fabulis quae uacuas (ut inquit poeta) delectant
mentes remotus Lucretius noster de rerum natura questiones
tractet acutissimas tanto ingenii acumine tantoque lepore
uerborum ut omnes qui illum secuti poete sunt: eum ita suis in
descriptionibus imitentur, et Virgilius presertim, poetarum
princeps, ut ipsis cum uerbis tria interdum et amplius metra
suscipiant. Thoma Ferando auctore.
The end of Titus Lucretius Carus. When a single copy of
Lucretius came into my hands I hesitated as to printing it,
because it was difficult from a single copy to correct the
slips due to the carelessness of the copyist. But when by
diligent search I could find no second copy, moved by this
very difficulty I was minded even from a single copy to make
a book of the greatest rarity common to many scholars, since
it will be easier to correct a few places, either by a second
copy unearthed from another quarter or by one’s own study and
diligence, than to lack a whole volume. Especially since, far
removed from the fables which (as the poet says) delight empty
minds, our Lucretius handles the keenest questions concerning
the nature of things with so much intellectual acumen and
verbal elegance that all the poets who have followed him
imitate him so in their descriptions, more especially Virgil,
the prince of poets, that with his very words they sometimes
make three lines and more. Thomas Ferrandus.
The name of Lucretius seldom appears in any of the medieval catalogues,
and the number of manuscripts of his “De Rerum Natura” now extant is
so small that his first printer’s plea may well be received. Even in
comparatively modern books, indeed, a satisfactory text was not always
to be obtained for the asking. Chaucer has had no more devout lover
than William Caxton, and yet when Caxton printed the “Canterbury Tales”
he only succeeded in obtaining a manuscript of the worst class to work
from, and when a friend offered him a better text for his second edition
the improvement was very slight. In the same way we find the anonymous
Florentine editor of two tracts of Domenico Cavalca (we cannot be wrong
in assuming that the same editor worked on both) apologizing for the
bad text from which he printed the first few pages of the “Frutti della
Lingua,” and telling how in the case of the “Specchio di Croce” he had
to collate a number of copies in order to replace them by a good printed
edition.
(i) Frutti della Lingua.
Impresso in Firenze con somma diligentia emendato e correcto,
excepto alcuni fogli del principio di decto tractato: e
tale defecto non da nostra inaduertentia, ma da una copia
o uero exemplo tutto corropto e falsificato, impresso per
lo adrieto in firenze per un altro non diligente impressore
procedette. Onde noi cio conoscendo, inuestigando altra copia
emendatissima, secondo quella, quanto ledebole forze del nostro
ingegno ci hanno porto, habbiamo imposto emendato fine al
presente tractato.
Printed in Florence, emended and corrected with the greatest
diligence, except for some leaves of the beginning of the
said tract, and such defect not through our inadvertence, but
from a copy or example wholly corrupt and falsified, printed
heretofore in Florence by another printer by no means diligent.
Whence we, on learning this, sought out another copy of the
greatest correctness, according to which, to the best of the
poor powers of our mind, we have put a revised ending to the
present tract.
(ii) Specchio di Croce.
Impresso in Firenze con somma diligentia correcti: nella quale
correptione non poco habbiamo insudato & affatichatoci: concio
sia che di moltissime copie, o vero exempli di questa utile
operetta, parte scripti in penna e parte impressi, nessuno
nhabbiamo trouato correcto, ma tutti aequalmente incorrecti.
Onde noi (benche insufficienti) con quel poco sapere che la
natura ci ha porto, habbiamo transcorrendo di molti corropti
facto uno quasi correpto: Si che preghiamo li lectori di
questa operetta da noi impressa se in epsa alcuna scorreptione
troueranno, non ci debbino biasimare, se di quella non pocha
faticha che spesa ci habbiamo laudare non ci vorranno: Solo in
dio regna perfectione.
Printed in Florence, corrected with the utmost diligence: in
the which correction we have sweated and wearied ourselves
more than a little; whereas of very many copies or examples of
the said useful booklet, some written with pen, some printed,
we have found not one correct, but all equally incorrect.
Whence we (though ill equipped), with such little skill as
nature has given us, have by much revision made out of many
corrupt copies one which may be taken as correct. So that we
pray the readers of this booklet printed by us, if they shall
find any incorrectness in it, not to reproach us therefor, if
they will not praise us for the great trouble which we have
expended. Perfection reigns only in God.
No doubt the early printers and the editors whom they employed made the
most of all these difficulties; yet they must have been real enough, so
that, despite the affected language in which it is phrased, the colophon
of Nicolas Kessler of Basel to his edition of the “Homeliarius Doctorum”
may well command our sympathy.
[Illustration: Homiliae. Basel: N. Kessler, 1498.]
Preclarum Omeliarum opus plurimorum sanctorum aliorumue
famosissimorum doctorum super euangeliis de tempore et sanctis,
quibusdam eorundem adiunctis sermonibus, Tam verborum ornatu
limatum, tamque sententiarum grauitate vbertateque sparsim
plantatum, in mercuriali Nicolai Kessler officina Basilee
impressum (Imperante illustrissimo Maximiliano rege Romanorum
inuictissimo). Non igitur in factorem liuoris tractus aculeo
theonino dente correctionis insanias, Sed potius beneficii
non ingratus ad exhibita donaria discretionis oculos
adhibeas columbinos. Anno incarnationis dominice millesimo
quadringentesimo nonagesimo octauo decimo Nonas Augusti. Finit
feliciter.
An excellent book of Homilies of many saints and other most
famous teachers on the Gospels of the Seasons and the Saints,
with certain of their sermons added, polished with verbal
ornament and with weighty and fruitful sayings scattered all
over it: printed in the mercurial workshop of Nicolas Kessler
at Basel (the most illustrious Maximilian the Unconquered, King
of the Romans, being Emperor). Do not therefore, impelled by
the sting of malice, rage against the compiler with the small
satirist’s fang of correction; but rather, not ungrateful for a
benefit, turn to the offerings before you the dovelike eyes of
discretion. In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 1498, on the
tenth of the Nones of August, happily finished.
It is to be feared that the pay of a fifteenth-century “corrector,” when
he was paid at all, was far from princely. It is pleasant, therefore, to
find that at least one printer, the veteran Ulrich Zell, was so genuinely
grateful to a friendly priest who had helped him in seeing Harderwyck’s
“Commentaries on Logic” through the press as to make most handsome
acknowledgment in his colophon and in verses added to it.
Commentarii in quatuor libros noue logice processum burse
Laurentiane famosissimi Agrippinensis Colonie gymnasii
continentes per honorabilem virum artium magistrum necnon
sacre theologie licentiatum Gerardum Herdarwiccensem
actu in eodem regentem, ex diuersis et potissimum Magni
Alberti comentarius collecti, et per Udalricum Zell prope
Lyskirchen impressoria artis in sancta Coloniensi ciuitate
protomagistrum fabre characterizati. Anno virginalis partu
Millesimo quadragintesimo super nonagesimum quarto in profesto
Conuersionis euangelice tube Pauli Apostoli ad finem optatum
sunt perducti, de quo sit deo uni et trino laus honor et gloria
per infinita seculorum secula. Amen. Ex quo in hoc tomorum
stromateo opere non paruo adiumento mihi fuit honorabilis
dominus diue memorie Iacobus Amsfordensis, artium liberalium
et sacrarum litterarum professor dum vitam in humanis ageret
profundissimus, Ecclesie sancti Iohannis Baptiste pastor,
mihi ut frater amicissimus, decreui in calce horum titulum
sepulcralem, trito sermone epitaphium appellatum, quem
prestantissimus et generosus dominus Rodolphus Langius, vir
omnium litterarum laude cumulatissimus, ecclesie Monasteriensis
Canonicus, in eundem defunctum, precibus amicorum impulsus,
exornauit subjungere, ut dum hunc quos ab errore salutari
exhortatione reuocauerit legerint apud altissimum pro anima
eius vitificum sacrificium offerant.
The notes on the four books of the new logic containing the
process of the Laurentian bursary of the most famous school of
Cologne, by an honorable man, master of arts and licentiate
of sacred theology, Gerard of Harderwyck, president at that
function, brought together from divers notes and specially
from those of Albertus Magnus, and by Ulrich Zell, near
the Lyskirche, chief practiser of the printer’s art in the
holy city of Cologne, skilfully set in type, in the year of
the Virgin Birth 1494, on the eve of the Conversion of the
Gospel-trumpet, the Apostle Paul, have been brought to their
wished-for end, for which to God the One and Three let there
be praise, honor, and glory through infinite ages of ages.
Amen. And because in this laying down of volumes I received no
small help from an honorable master of sacred memory, Jakob of
Amsfort, while he lived among men a most profound professor
of liberal arts and sacred literature, minister of the church
of Saint John Baptist, and to me as a most friendly brother,
I determined to subjoin at the end of all this a sepulchral
inscription, commonly called an epitaph, which the most
excellent and well-born Dom. Rudolph Lange, a man of great
distinction in every kind of literature, canon of the monastic
church, urged by the prayers of friends, furnished in honor of
the dead, that while those whom by his wholesome exhortation he
recalled from error read this, they may offer before the Most
High the life-giving sacrifice for his soul.
And the Epitaph duly follows, though it need not be quoted here.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
VII
REPETITIONS, THEFTS, AND ADAPTATIONS
In our opening chapter it was suggested that if all early books were
provided with colophons the work of bibliographers would be much
simplified. Some qualifying epithet ought, however, to have been
inserted; for there are some colophons which, instead of simplifying the
task of assigning to every book its place, printer, and date, greatly
aggravate the bibliographer’s troubles. Of deliberately untruthful
colophons I can, indeed, only think of a single fifteenth-century
example—that in the “Incunabulum of Brescia hitherto ascribed to
Florence,” which the late Mr. R. C. Christie tracked down so neatly in
the fourth volume of the Bibliographical Society’s Transactions. This
occurs in a copy of some of the works of Politian, and reads:
Impressum Florentiae: et accuratissime castigatum opera et
impensa Leonardi de Arigis de Gesoriaco Die decimo Augusti
M.I.D.
Printed at Florence and most accurately corrected by the work
and at the cost of Leonardo dei Arigi of Gesoriaco, on the
tenth day of August, 1499.
As a matter of fact, the book, as Mr. Christie showed (and Mr. Proctor
accepted his conclusions), was printed with the types of Bernardinus
Misinta of Brescia, and the colophon which looks so simple and
straightforward deceived bibliographers for some four centuries. Even the
increased study of types would by itself hardly have sufficed to detect
the fraud, but the fact that it was alluded to, though without mention
of the name of the book, in the petition of Aldus to the Venetian Senate
(17th October, 1502) put Mr. Christie on the track, and he ran it down
with his accustomed neatness and precision. The fraud, of course, was
the direct outcome of the first imperfect attempts to give the producers
of books a reasonable copyright in them by means of privileges. As
Brescia was subject to the Venetian Senate, Misinta, had he put his
name in the colophon, could have been punished, and he therefore used a
false imprint in order to divert suspicion. When restrictions, right and
wrong, multiplied during the sixteenth century, false imprints became
increasingly common, and they form a subject by themselves with which
we must not here meddle farther. While Misinta’s “Politian” stands by
itself, as far as I know, in deliberately trying to mislead purchasers as
to its place of imprint, there are quite a considerable number of early
books which reprint the colophons of previous editions, and thus tempt
the unwary to mistake them for the originals which they copied. Since the
decision in the case of Parry _v._ Moring and another, English publishers
and those they employ are likely to be much more careful; but in the
years immediately preceding it the carelessness with which one “editor”
used the text of his predecessor to print from was often extraordinary,
one reprint even including a number of duly initialled and copyright
notes from another which had appeared only a year or two earlier. If
this could be done in our own day, despite the existence of reviewers
and the law courts, we may easily imagine that the smaller printers and
publishers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, who could not afford
to keep their own scholarly “corrector,” simply handed over existing
texts to their workmen and printed them as they stood. In most cases, of
course, they had the sense to stop when they came to the colophon; but
they did not always do so, and, more especially, when the colophon was
in verse an unlearned compositor might easily imagine that it formed an
essential part of the book. Thus twelve Latin couplets from the Milan
edition of the “Confessionale,” of Bartholomaeus de Chaimis, though they
end with the clear statement that Christopher Valdarfer of Ratisbon came
to the help of the Milanese and printed this book (October, 1474), were
reprinted as they stood in several anonymous Strasburg editions, while
Creusner at Nuremberg and Schoeffer at Mainz compromised by leaving out
the last six lines, which contain Valdarfer’s name.
Occasionally this careless reprinting leads to a book possessing a double
colophon, as in the 1478 Naples edition of the “De Officiis” and other
works of Cicero, which uses for his “Letters to Atticus” Jenson’s text of
1470. The colophon begins exactly (save for differences in contractions,
punctuation, etc.) as in the Jenson edition already quoted (Chapter III):
M. T. C. epistolae ad Atticum Brutum et Q. Fratrem cum ipsius
Attici uita foeliciter expliciunt. M.cccc.lxx
Attice, nunc totus Veneta diffunderis urbe,
Cum quondam fuerit copia rara tui.
Gallicus hoc Ienson Nicolaus muneris orbi
Attulit ingenio Daedalicaque manu.
Christophorus Mauro plenus bonitate fideque
Dux erat. Auctorem, lector, opusque tenes.
and then proceeds:
Principis Latine eloquentie M. T. C. liber quinque operum
intitulatus finit foeliciter. Impressus Neapoli sub pacifico
Ferdinando Sicilie rege anno salutis M.cccc.lxxviii. sedente
Xisto quarto Pontifice maximo.
The book of the five works of the prince of Latin eloquence,
Marcus Tullius Cicero, comes happily to an end. Printed at
Naples under Ferdinand the Peaceful, King of Sicily, in the
year of salvation 1478, Sixtus IV being Pope.
Such an instance as this shows clearly enough that colophons could be
copied verbatim without any intention to make the purchaser believe that
he was purchasing the original edition, though it must be owned that many
printers took no pains to inform him that he was _not_ purchasing it.
It is thus a matter of opinion as to whether they deserve the severest
condemnation, or whether this should not rather be reserved for the
pirates—for such they really were—who seized another printer’s book,
colophon and all, merely substituting their own name for his, and thus
claiming in some cases all the credit for the preparation of an original
edition.
A striking instance of piracy of this kind, with a curious after-story
to it, is that of Conrad of Westphalia’s appropriation of Veldener’s
edition of Maneken’s “Epistolarum Formulae,” and of the colophon attached
to it. Though a wordy and dull composition, this colophon is certainly
distinctive enough:
Si te forsan, amice dilecte, nouisse iuuabit quis huius
voluminis Impressorie artis productor fuerit atque magister,
Accipito huic artifici nomen esse magistro Iohanni Veldener,
cui quam certa manu insculpendi, celandi, intorculandi,
caracterandi [_sic_] assit industria: adde et figurandi
et effigiandi et si quid in arte secreti est quod tectius
oculitur: quamque etiam fidorum comitum perspicax diligentia,
ut omnium litterarum imagines splendeant ad gratiam ac etiam
cohesione congrua gratiaque congerie mendis castigatis
compendeant, tanta quidem concinnitate quod partes inter se et
suo congruant universo, ut quoque delectu materie splendoreque
forme lucida queque promineant, quo pictionis et connexionis
pulchre politure clarique nitoris ecrescat multa uenustas, sunt
oculi iudices. Idnam satis facies huius libelli demonstrat,
quem multiplicatum magni numeri globo sub placidis atramenti
lituris spreto calamo inchoauit, anni septuagesimi sexti
aprilis primus perfecitque dies ultimus! Quem artis memorate
magistrum si tibi hoc predicto aprili mense cure fuisset
querere, facile poteras eundem Louanii impressioni uacantem
in monte Calci inuenire. Hoc ideo dixisse uelim ne eius rei
inscius permanseris, si forsitan ambegeris. Ubi ars illi sua
census erit Ouidius inquit. Ubi et etiam uiuit sua sic sorte
et arte contentus, tam felicibus astris, tantaque fortune
clementia, ut non inducar credere quod eidem adhuc adesse
possit abeundi, ne cogitandi quidem, animi impulsio: id etiam
adiecerim quo tam quid poteris quam quid potuisses agnoscas.
Vale.