ITALY.
Italian historians have several times attempted to bring forward
Pamphilo Castaldi as the inventor of printing. It is little use to
recapitulate here the various unsupported assertions on which this
claim is based,—a claim which, if it ever had, has now ceased to have
any sensible supporters.
We may safely assume, with our present knowledge, that the art of
printing was introduced into Italy in 1465 by two Germans, Conrad
Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz. On their arrival in Italy they
settled first in the Monastery of Saint Scholastica at Subiaco, an
establishment of Benedictines, of which Cardinal Turrecremata was
Abbot, where they would be in congenial society, since, as Cardinal
Quirini says, many of the inmates were Germans.
The first book which they printed was a _Donatus pro puerulis_, of
which they said in their list, printed in 1472, ‘unde imprimendi
initium sumpsimus.’ Unfortunately, of this _Donatus_ no copy is known,
though rumours of a copy in a private collection in Italy have from
time to time been circulated. The earliest book from their press of
which copies are in existence, is the Cicero _De Oratore_, printed
before 30th September 1465.[16] It has been always a moot point whether
this Cicero _De Oratore_ or the Mainz _Ciceronis Officia et Paradoxa_,
printed in the same year, can justly claim to be the first printed
Latin classic, while the claims of the _De Officiis_ of Zel, which,
though, undated, is very probably as early, have been entirely ignored.
[16] This book has usually been dated later than the _Lactantius_, that
is, after 29th October 1465; but M. Fumagalli, in his _Dei primi libri
a stampa in Italia_, Lugano, 1875, 8vo, describes a copy containing a
manuscript note dated ‘Pridie Kal. Octobres, M.cccc.lxv.,’ so that the
_Cicero_ must be considered the first known book printed in Italy. On
the other hand, it should be noticed that some authorities consider the
inscription to be a forgery.
The Subiaco _De Oratore_ is a large quarto of 109 leaves, with thirty
lines to the page. Like the first German books, it is beautifully
printed, and shows few signs of being an early production. Sweynheym
and Pannartz must have learnt their business carefully, for this their
first book is printed by half sheets, _i.e._ two pages at a time,
though other printers were still printing their quartos page by page.
On the 29th October 1465 these printers issued their first dated book,
the first edition of Lactantius _De divinis institutionibus_. Of this
book 275 copies were printed. It is a small folio of 188 leaves, and
thirty-six lines to the page, printed in a type which, though Roman,
is very Gothic in appearance, and is sometimes called semi-Gothic. The
smaller letters have a curious resemblance to those used by Zainer at
Ulm and by Schussler at Augsburg in their earliest books, though the
capital letters are quite different.
The fourth and last book printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz at Subiaco
was an edition of the _De civitate dei_ of Saint Augustine. This is a
large folio, of 270 leaves, with two columns, and forty-four lines to
the page. It was issued on the 12th June 1467; and though it contains
no name of either printer or place, can be easily identified by the
type. A copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale has an extremely interesting
manuscript note, which tells us that Leonardus Dathus, ‘Episcopus
Massanus,’ bought the book from the Germans themselves, living at Rome,
who were producing innumerable books of that sort by means of printing,
not writing, in November 1467, This note is valuable in two ways; it
puts it beyond doubt who the printers of the book were, and it also
enables us to determine more precisely the date when they left Subiaco.
The _Augustine_ was finished in June, and by November the printers were
at Rome. As they issued a book in Rome in 1467, and would take some
time to settle in their new establishment and prepare their new types,
we may take it as probable that they left the Monastery of Subiaco as
soon as possible after the printing of the _Augustine_.
About June, then, Sweynheym and Pannartz left the Monastery of Subiaco
and transferred their printing materials to Rome, finding a home in
a house belonging to the brothers Peter and Francis de Maximis. The
semi-Gothic fount of type which had been used at Subiaco was discarded
in favour of one more Roman in character, though heavily cut and not so
graceful as the Venetian of the same period. A curious appearance is
given to it by the invariable use of the long s. Their first venture
was again a work of Cicero, the _Epistolæ ad familiares_, a large
quarto of thirty-one lines to the page. It has the following colophon:—
‘Hoc Conradus opus Suueynheym ordine miro
Arnoldusque simul pannarts una aede colendi
Gente theotonica: romæ expediere sodales.
In domo Petri de Maximo. M.CCCC.LXVII.’
From this time forward, under the able supervision of the Bishop of
Aleria, Sweynheym and Pannartz continued to print with the greatest
industry, but they did not meet with the support which they merited.
In 1472 they had become so badly off that a letter was written to Pope
Sixtus IV. pointing out their distress, and asking for assistance. This
letter, printed on one sheet, is usually found in the fifth volume of
Nicholas de Lyra’s _Commentary on the Bible_, printed in 1472. Its
great bibliographical interest lies in the fact that the printers gave
a list of what they had printed and the number of copies they issued.
In the list twenty-eight works are mentioned, and the number of volumes
amounted altogether to 11,475. They usually issued 275 copies of each
work which they printed.
This list also clearly shows the extraordinary influence of the new
learning so actively promoted by Cosmo de Medici and encouraged by his
grandson Lorenzo. The majority of the books in this list are classics,
either in their original Latin or in Latin translations from the Greek;
and that the printers were anxious to benefit scholars, is shown by
the assertion of the Bishop of Aleria in the prefatory letter to the
_Ciceronis Epistolæ ad Atticum_ of 1470, where it is said that they had
produced their editions of Cicero at the lowest possible price, “ad
pauperum commoditatem.”
To judge from the results, the appeal to the Pope was of little
effect, for in 1473 Conrad Sweynheym gave up the business of printing,
and confined his attention to engraving on metal; while Pannartz
continued to print by himself up till the end of 1476, issuing in
those three years about twelve books. The last book on which Pannartz
was engaged was a new edition of the _Letters of St. Jerome_, but he
only finished one volume. Three years later, George Laver, who seems
to have acquired the type, issued the second volume. It is therefore
quite probable, as is generally asserted, that Pannartz died in 1476
or early in 1477. Sweynheym, ever since he had given up printing, had
been engaged in engraving a series of maps to illustrate Ptolemy’s
_Geography_; but, after working three years upon them, died before they
were finished. The edition of Ptolemy was finally issued in 1478 by
Arnold Buckinck, a German, who in his preface said that he was anxious
‘that the emendations of Calderinus--who also died before the book
was printed--and the results of Sweynheym’s most ingenious mechanical
contrivances might not be lost to the learned world.’
‘Magister vero Conradus Sweynheym, Germanus, a quo formandorum Romæ
librorum ars primum profecta est, occasione hinc sumpta posteritati
consulens animum primum ad hanc doctrinam capescendam applicuit.
Subinde mathematicis adhibitis viris quemadmodum tabulis eneis
imprimerentur edocuit, triennioque in hac cura consumpto diem obiit.
In cujus vigilarum laborumque partem non inferiori ingenio ac studio
Arnoldus Buckinck e Germania vir apprime eruditus ad imperfectum opus
succedens, ne Domitii Conradique obitu eorum vigilæ emendationesque
sine testimonio perirent neve virorum eruditorum censuram fugerent
immensæ subtilitatis machinimenta, examussim ad unum perfecit.’
The book contains twenty-seven maps, each map being printed on two
separate leaves facing each other, and printed only on one side. The
letters which occur on the maps in the names of places are evidently
punched from single dies, and not cut on the plate, as would have been
expected. The letterpress of the book is not printed in any type used
by Sweynheym or Pannartz, which shows that Buckinck was the absolute
printer of the book.
Ulric Hahn, who contests with Sweynheym and Pannartz for the honour of
having introduced printing into Rome, issued as his first book, in
1467, the _Meditations_ of Cardinal Torquemada, better known perhaps as
Turrecremata. It is illustrated with thirty-three woodcuts of inferior
execution, and is printed in a large Gothic type. This type the printer
discarded the following year for one of Roman letter; but odd types
from the Gothic fount frequently make their appearance among the
Roman, and serve as a means of distinguishing Hahn’s books from others
in similar Roman type. As a case in point, we may mention the early
and probably first edition of _Catullus_, wrongly ascribed to Andrea
Belfortis of Ferrara and other printers. This book is in Hahn’s Roman
type, and contains three capital letters from his Gothic fount;—a more
sure means of identification than a fancied allusion to a printer’s
name.[17] For a short time, from 1470 to 1472, Hahn’s books were edited
by Campanus, a scholar of such fame and erudition, that the printer was
able to rival Sweynheym and Pannartz, with their editor the Bishop of
Aleria; but on Campanus taking his departure for Ratisbon, the prestige
of Hahn’s press declined. From the pen of Campanus came perhaps the
punning colophons which play upon the name of Hahn, in Latin, Gallus,
meaning in English a cock. Upon the departure of Campanus, Hahn, took
in partnership one Simon Nicolai Chardella of Lucca, who seems to have
supplied the money as well as superintended the publishing, and they
continued to work together till 1474. From this date till 1478, Hahn
continued to work alone, ending in that year as he had begun, with an
edition of the _Meditationes_ of Torquemada. His former partner, Simon
Nicolai, started a press on his own account, having as an associate his
cousin.
[17] The edition of _Catullus_, mentioned above, is ascribed to Andrea
Belfortis, because the words ‘cui Francia nomen’ occur in the prefatory
verses; and the same words occur, referring to Belfortis, in a book
printed by him. But the types of the _Catullus_ and those used by
Andrea Belfortis are certainly different, while both the types of the
_Catullus_ are found in other books printed by Hahn. The _Catullus_
has also a Registrum Chartarum, which was almost invariably put to his
books by Hahn.
The latest writer[18] on the early history of printing in Venice has
again revived the question as to the correctness of the date of the
_Decor Puellarum_. Though he still clings to the possibility of the
date 1461 being trustworthy, the weight of evidence, all of which is
carefully stated, is decisively in favour of its being a misprint for
1471.
[18] _The Venetian Printing Press._ By Horatio F. Brown. London, 1891.
4to.
It would be useless to recapitulate here all the arguments in favour of
Jenson having printed in 1461, when it is now generally admitted that
John of Spire was the first printer at Venice, and that his first book
was the _Epistolæ familiares_ of Cicero, issued in 1469. Of this book
only one hundred copies were printed. On the 18th September 1469, the
Collegio of Venice granted to John of Spire a monopoly of printing in
that district for five years; and this document distinctly indicates
that he was the first printer at Venice. He did not, however, live to
obtain the advantage of this privilege, ‘nullius est vigoris quia obiit
magister et auctor,’ says a contemporary marginal note to the record,
for he died in 1470. Previous to his death he printed a _Pliny_, the
first volume of a _Livy_, two editions of the _Epistolæ ad familiares_,
and part of the Augustine _De civitate dei_, which was finished by his
brother Windelin.
‘Subita sed morte peremptus
Non potuit cœptum Venetis finire volumen.’
Windelin of Spire was a very prolific printer, and continued to issue
books without intermission from the time of his brother’s death, in
1470, to his own in 1478. But among the early Venetian printers the
most important was certainly Nicholas Jenson. A Frenchman by birth,
he passed his apprenticeship in the Paris Mint, and became afterwards
the head of the Mint at Tours. In 1458, in consequence of the stories
of the invention of printing, he was sent by Charles VII. to Mainz
to learn the art, and introduce it into France. Jenson returned in
1461, when Louis XI. had just been crowned; but he does not seem to
have settled in France, and we first hear of him again in 1470 as a
printer at Venice. From 1470 to 1480 he printed continuously, issuing,
according to Sardini, at least one hundred and fifty-five editions,
though this number must be considerably under the mark. His will was
drawn up on the 7th September 1480, and he died in the same month. The
fame of Jenson rests on the extraordinary beauty of his Roman type,
of which he had but one fount, and which, though frequently copied,
was never equalled. In 1474 he began to use Gothic type, owing to its
great saving of space; and in 1471, in the _Epistolæ familiares_, he
used Greek type in the quotations, the first instance of its employment
in Venice. It is curious that, with its devotion to the new learning,
Venice should not have been the first to issue a Greek book. Jenson
had frequently to use Greek type in his books, but he never printed a
complete work in that language. Milan led the way, printing the _Greek
Grammar_ of Lascaris in 1476; and it was not till 1485 that Venice
issued its first Greek book, the _Erotemata_ of Chrysoloras.
In 1470, another German, Christopher Valdarfer of Ratisbon, began to
print. He left Venice in 1473, and settled at Milan, and the books
which he printed at the former-place are very rare and few in number.
The best known is the _Decameron_ of 1471, the first edition of the
book, familiar to all readers of Dibdin.
In 1471 was issued the _De medicinis universalibus_, printed by Clemens
Sacerdos (Clement of Padua), the first Italian printer in Venice; and
in the year following, Philippus Petri,[19] the first native Venetian
printer, began to print.
[19] This printer’s name seems to have led to a certain amount of
confusion. He was Filippo the son of Piero, in Latin, Philippus Petri;
but after his father’s death, about the end of 1477, he calls himself
Philippus quondam Petri, Filippo son of the late Piero.
Between 1470 and 1480 at least fifty printers were at work in Venice,
and among the most important were John de Colonia, John Manthen de
Gerretzem, Erhard Ratdolt, Octavianus Scotus. Erhard Ratdolt is
especially of importance, for he was practically the first to introduce
wood engravings in his books. In 1476, Ratdolt and his partners, Peter
Loeslein and Bernard Pictor, began their work together by issuing
a _Calendar_ of Regiomontanus, with a very beautiful title-page
surrounded by a woodcut border. From that time onwards, woodcuts were
used in many Venetian books; and at last, in 1499, there appeared there
that unsurpassed illustrated book the _Hypnerotomachia_ of Franciscus
Columna.
The history of the later Venetian press during the last ten years of
the fifteenth century would require at least a volume. So far as the
history of typography itself is concerned, there is nothing of interest
to be noticed; but in the general history of printing Venice holds the
highest place; for more printers printed there than in any other city
of Europe. Of course, amongst this endless outpour of the press many
important books were issued, but there are few which have any interest
for the historian of printing.
There is, however, one printer who must always make this period
celebrated. Aldus Manutius was born at Bassiano in 1450, and began to
print at Venice in 1494. His main idea when he commenced to work was to
print Greek books; and it was perhaps for that reason that he settled
in Venice, where so many manuscripts were preserved, and where so many
Greeks resided. His first two books, both issued in 1494, are the
_Galeomyomachia_ and the _De Herone et Leandro_ of Musæus. In 1496 he
obtained a copyright for twenty years in such Greek books as he might
print, and from this time forward a large number were issued as fast as
possible. So great was the hurry, that the editors in some cases did
not scruple to hand over to the compositors the original manuscripts
themselves from which the edition was taken, with their own emendations
and corrections scribbled upon them. But this custom was not confined
to the Aldine press, for Martin[20] tells us that the Codex Ravennas of
Aristophanes was actually used by the compositors as the working copy
from which part of the Giunta edition of 1515 was set up.
[20] Martin, _Les scholies du Manuscrit d’Aristophane à Ravenna_.
In 1499, Aldus married the daughter of Andrea de Torresani, himself
a great printer, and in 1500 founded the Aldine Academy, the home of
so many editors, and the source of so many scholarly editions of the
sixteenth century. The end of the fifteenth century saw, at any rate,
two rivals in Greek printing to Aldus: Gabriel da Brasichella, who with
his associates published in 1498 the _Epistles of Phalaris_ and _Æsop’s
Fables_; and, in 1499, Zaccharia Caliergi of Crete, who printed with
others or alone up till 1509. Caliergi, it would appear, was hardly a
rival of Aldus; they were, at any rate, so far friendly that Aldus sold
Caliergi’s editions along with his own.
In 1476 a press was set up at Foligno, in the house of Emilianus de
Orsinis, by John Numeister, a native of Mainz, who is generally said
to have been an associate and pupil of Gutenberg. This story seems to
be founded upon an assertion put forward by Fischer, that a copy of
the _Tractatus de celebratione missarum_, in the University Library at
Mainz, contains a rubric stating that the book was printed by Gutenberg
and Numeister in 1463. If this note ever existed, which is very
doubtful, it is clearly a forgery, for the book in which it is said to
occur was not printed till about 1480.
The first book in which we find Numeister’s name is the _De bello
Italico contra Gothos_, by Aretinus, printed in 1470; and about the
same date he printed an edition of the _Epistolæ familiares_ of
Cicero. In 1472 appeared the first edition of _Dante_; between that
year and 1479 we hear nothing of Numeister. In 1479 an edition of the
_Meditationes_ of Turrecremata appeared with his name, printed in a
large church type, not unlike, though not, as is often said, the same
as, the type of the forty-two line Bible, and containing very fine
engraved cuts. This book is generally stated, for some unknown reason,
to have been printed at Mainz. After this date we find no further
mention of Numeister; but M. Claudin[21] has written a monograph to
show that he was the printer of the edition of the _Meditationes_
of Turrecremata issued at Albi in 1481, a book remarkable for its
wonderful engravings on metal, and of the _Missale Lugdunense_,
printed at Lyons in 1487, which is stated in the colophon to have been
printed by ‘Magistrum Jo. alemanum de magontia impressorem.’
[21] _Origine de l’Imprimerie à Albi et en Languedoc._
After 1470 the spread of printing in Italy was very rapid. In 1471 we
find it beginning at Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, Milan, Naples, Pavia,
and Treviso.
The first complete edition of _Ovid_ was produced in 1471, and is the
first book printed at Bologna, the printer being Balthasar Azzoguidi,
‘primus in sua civitate artis impressoriæ inventor,’ as he calls
himself in the preface to the book. Andrea Portilia must also have been
amongst the earliest printers at Bologna, though his only dated book is
1473, for in that year he returned to Parma. Among the many printers
who worked in the town, none are better known, from the frequency with
which their names occur in colophons, than the various members of the
family ‘de Benedictis,’ who worked from 1488 onwards.
Andreas Belfortis, a Frenchman, was the first to print at Ferrara,
issuing in 1471 at least three books, of which the earliest, published
in July, is an edition of _Martial_ (which has catchwords to the quires
in the latter portion). This was followed by editions of _Poggio_ and
_Augustinus Dathus_. Belfortis continued to print till 1493. A certain
Augustinus Carner, who printed a few books between 1474 and 1476,
printed in 1475 the rare _Teseide_ of Boccaccio, the first printed
poem in the Italian language. De Rossi, in his tract, _De typographia
Ebræo-Ferrariensi_, gives a long description of some Hebrew books
printed at Ferrara in 1477, which must be the first printed in that
language, though some words are found in a book printed at Esslingen in
1475.
The first printer at Milan was Anthony Zarotus, and his earliest book,
with both name and date, is the _Virgil_ of 1472. In the previous
year, four books had been issued without any printer’s name, but the
identity of the type with that of the _Virgil_ shows Zarotus to have
printed these also. Mention has often been made of a certain _Terence_,
printed in 1470, March 13. It is quoted by Hain (15,371), who had not
seen it, and by Panzer (ii. 11. 2), and a copy was said to be in the
library of the Earl of Pembroke, the home of many mysterious books. It
is often quoted as the first book with signatures. It was doubtless a
copy of the edition of March 13, 1481, in which some ingenious person
had erased the last two figures, xi, of the date. It is very probable
that there was at first some connection between Zarotus and Philip de
Lavagna; and it was perhaps at the latter’s expense, and through his
means, that Zarotus first printed. Certainly, in the colophon of a book
printed in 1473, probably by Christopher Valdarfer, are the words ‘per
Philippum de Lavagnia, hujus artis stampandi in hac urbe primum latorem
atque inventorem;’ but it is quite possible that the words should not
be taken in too narrow a sense, and that Philip de Lavagna simply means
to speak of himself as the first person to introduce printing into
Milan, not as printer, but as patron.
The history of the first printers in this town is very interesting,
for they entered into various partnerships, and the documents relating
to these have been preserved and published,[22] throwing a good deal of
light on some of the customs and methods of the early printers. In 1476
was printed at Milan the _Grammar_ of Constantine Lascaris, the first
book printed in Greek; and in 1481, a Greek version of the _Psalms_,
the first portion of the Bible printed in this language.
[22] Saxius, _Bibliothecá scriptorum Mediolanensium_. Milan, 1745. Fol.
At Florence, Bernard Cennini, the celebrated goldsmith and assistant of
Ghiberti, printed, with the assistance of two of his sons, an edition
of the Commentary of Servius on Virgil. It was begun towards the end
of 1471, and not finished till October 1472, but is the first book
printed at Florence. This is the only book known to have been printed
by Cennini; but it is not unlikely that in his capacity of goldsmith
he did work for other printers in cutting type. The most interesting
press at Florence in the fifteenth century, was that founded in the
Monastery of St. James of Ripoli by Dominic de Pistoia, the head of
the establishment. Beginning with a _Donatus_, of which every copy has
disappeared, it was carried on briskly up till the time of his death
in 1484, issuing, according to Hain, just over fifty works; according
to De Rossi, nearly one hundred. The account books connected with
this press have been preserved, and from them we can learn the price
of the various articles used by the printers, such as paper, ink,
type-metal. Several kinds of paper are mentioned, and identified, as a
rule, by their watermarks. We have paper from Fabriano with the mark of
a crossbow, a different paper from the same place marked with a cross,
and two sorts of paper from Pescia marked with spectacles and a glove.
There are several celebrated books printed at Florence before 1500
which cannot be passed over. In 1477 was issued the _Monte Santo di
Dio_, said to contain the first copperplate engraving; and in 1481, the
celebrated _Dante_, with engravings by Baccio Baldini after the designs
of Botticelli. Most copies of this book contain only a few of the
plates, while about eight copies are known with the full number. Some
celebrated Greek books also were issued at Florence, notably in 1488
the first edition of _Homer_ printed by Demetrius Chalcondylas at the
expense of two brothers, Bernardus and Nerius Nerlii. There is a copy
of this book in the British Museum, which was bought by Mr. Barnard,
librarian to George III., for seven shillings. One complete copy on
vellum is known, in the library of St. Mark’s at Venice.
Towards the end of the fifteenth century, Francis de Alopa printed five
Greek books entirely in capital letters, the _Anthologia_ of 1494,
_Callimachus_, _Euripides_ (four plays only), _Apollonius Rhodius_,
1496, _Poetae Gnomici_, and _Musæus_. It is very probable that the
‘editio princeps’ of _Lucian_, which was printed at Florence, but is
ascribed by Ebert to Caliergi at Venice, was also printed at this press.
Under the patronage of Ferdinand I., King of Naples, Sixtus Riessinger
of Strasburg began to print there in 1471, and continued till 1479.
He seems to have been in high favour with the king, who offered
him a bishopric, which was, however, refused. In 1472, Arnaldus de
Bruxella set up his press, using (unlike most other printers) Roman
type only. The large M and small _y_ are of a curious form and easily
recognisable, while the final _us_ in words is always represented by
an abbreviation. Most of the books printed by him are rare; of the
_Horace_ and _Petrarch_, only single copies are known; and it was
for the sake of acquiring these two books, so Dibdin tells us, that
Lord Spencer bought the Cassano Library. Hain mentions seventeen
books printed by this Arnaldus de Bruxella, and out of that number he
had seen only one. Van der Meersch gives twenty-three; but some are
doubtful.
Pavia is more celebrated for the number of books it produced than for
their interest, and it is only mentioned here as one of the towns to
which printing is said to have been introduced in 1471.
The last town to be mentioned in this group is Treviso, where, in 1471,
that wandering printer Gerardus de Lisa began to print. In his first
year he printed several books, but his industry gradually got less.
In 1477 we find him at Venice, in 1480 at Cividad di Friuli (Civitas
Austriæ), and in 1484 at Udina.
1472 saw printing established in Cremona, Mantua, Monreale, Padua,
Parma, and Verona, and from this time onwards it spread rapidly over
the whole of Italy, being introduced into seventy-one towns before
the end of the fifteenth century. For the study of typography the
Italian presses are not nearly so interesting as those of other
countries, but from a literary point of view they are immeasurably
superior. The Renaissance movement had been at work in Italy during
the whole of the fifteenth century, and the great impetus given by the
fall of Constantinople was acting most powerfully when the printing
press was introduced. Italy was then the sole guardian of the ancient
civilisation, and was prepared for a more rapid method of reproducing
its early treasures and spreading the learning of its newer scholars.