SPAIN AND PORTUGAL--DENMARK AND SWEDEN.
The first book printed in Spain, according to some authorities, is
a small volume of poems by Bernardo Fenollar and others, written in
honour of the Virgin on the occasion of a congress held at Valentia in
March 1474. It is said to have been printed in that town in the same
year; but it has never been fully described, nor is it known where a
copy is preserved.
According to M. Salvá, the first two books printed in Spain with a
certain date are the _Comprehensorium_ (23rd February 1475), and the
_Sallust_ (13th July 1475), both printed at Valentia. As, however, the
year began on Easter Day, the second book is really the earlier, and
with it the authentic history of printing in Spain begins. The book
itself is a small quarto, printed in Roman letter, without signatures
or catchwords, and but two copies seem to be known, one in the Royal
Library of Madrid, the other in the Barberini Library at Rome. The
printers were Lambert Palmart, a German, and Alonzo Fernandez of
Cordova; but their names are found, for the first time, in a _Bible_ of
1478 known only from four leaves, one of them fortunately containing
the colophon. It is very probable that Alonzo Fernandez, whose name
only occurs in this one colophon, was not a printer, though it is not
known in what capacity he was associated with Palmart. He was certainly
known as a celebrated astronomer. Lambert Palmart continued to print
at Valentia up to the year 1494, and by that time other printers had
settled in the town. Jacobus de Villa is mentioned by Panzer in 1493
and 1495; and in this latter year we find also Peter Hagembach, who
later on, at Toledo, printed the celebrated _Mozarabic Missal_ and
_Breviary_.
In 1475 a certain Matthæus Flandrus printed an edition of the
_Manipulus Curatorum_ at Saragossa. He is supposed to have been a
wandering printer, and considered by some to be the Matthew Vendrell
who printed at Barcelona in 1482, and at Gerona in 1483. Between 1475
and 1485 no book is known to have been printed at Saragossa; but
in the latter year a press was started by Paul Hurus, a native of
Constance, who printed till almost the end of the fifteenth century;
and was followed by three Germans, George Cock, Leonard Butz, and Lupus
Appentegger.
Seville was the third city of Spain where printing was practised, and
the first dated book issued there was the _Sacramental_ of Clemente
Sanchez de Vercial, printed by three partners, Anton Martinez,
Bartholomé Segura, and Alphonso del Puerto, in 1477. An undated edition
of the same work is ascribed by Mendez and others to an earlier
date, and a third edition was issued in May 1478. Another book, the
_Manuale seu Repertorium super Abbatem Panormitanum per Alphonsum Diaz
de Montalvo_, was issued by the same printers in the same year. Hain
mentions sixteen printers who worked in Seville during the fifteenth
century; and of these many were Germans.
The first printers at Barcelona were Peter Brun and Nicholas Spindeler,
who issued, in 1478, two books by Aquinas, commentaries on parts of
Aristotle. These are almost certainly the first two books printed in
that town, though a large number of supposititious books, with dates
from 1473 onwards, are quoted by different writers. Amongst other
printers who worked at Barcelona may be mentioned John Rosembach of
Heidelberg, who paid visits to various towns, being found at Tarragona
in 1499, and at Perpignan in 1500. Another printer, Jaques de Gurniel,
left Barcelona about the end of the century and went to Valladolid,
where he printed during the first years of the sixteenth century.
The first book printed at Lerida has a curious history. It is a
_Breviary_, according to the use of the church at Lerida, printed by a
German, Henry Botel, in 1479, and the whole expense of its publication
was undertaken by a certain Antonio Palares, the bell-ringer of the
church. It is an extremely rare book; but there is a copy of it in the
Bodleian Library, and another in the Carmelite convent at Barcelona.
Two other books were printed in this town in the fifteenth century, but
they bear no printer’s name; they are both commentaries on parts of
Aristotle by Petrus de Castrovol, and were printed in 1488 and 1489.
A book is quoted by Caballero as having been printed at Segorbe in
1479, the _Constitutiones synodales Bartholomæi Marti_; but its
existence is a little doubtful. Besides this one book, no other is
known to have been printed at Segorbe until well on in the sixteenth
century; and it is therefore quite probable that the book, if it really
exists, was printed at some other town, and that the writer who saw it
was misled by the occurrence of the name in the title.
Printing is said to have been introduced at Toledo in 1480. The book
which bears this date, _Leyes originales de los Reyes de España_, has
no name of place, but has been assigned to Toledo by several Spanish
bibliographers who have examined a copy, and who are clear that it
is printed in the same type as the _Confutatorium errorum_ of Peter
Ximenes de Prexamo, which was printed there by John Vasqui in July
1486. This latter book has been considered by many to be the first,
since, as it was written by a canon of Toledo in 1478, it is argued
that had that city possessed a press it would have been issued before
1486.
Salamanca, Zamora, Gerona, follow in 1481, 1482, and 1483 respectively,
though the existence of a press at the last place is very doubtful.
The one book said to have been printed there, _Memorial del pecador
remut_, has the following words in the colophon: ‘impressa a despeses
de Matheu Vendrell mercader en la ciutat de Girona.’ This Matthew
Vendrell appears also at Barcelona in 1484; but he seems to have been
a stationer rather than a printer, and the wording of the colophon
mentioned above tends to confirm that idea. Unfortunately, the very
great rarity of early Spanish books, at any rate in this country,
precludes the comparative study of the types, and very little has yet
been done to distinguish them. If this were done, it would be easy
to settle the printers of such doubtful books. As there is no other
book known to have been printed at Gerona till near the middle of
the sixteenth century, it will be safer, until a fuller account be
forthcoming, to ascribe this book, following M. Nèe de la Rochelle, to
a press at Barcelona.
In 1485 we have Burgos, where Frederick of Basle (at one time an
associate of Wenssler’s) printed; Palma, where Nicolas Calafati
printed; and probably also Xeres, though the existence of the press
in this latter place is doubtful. The only known book quoted by
M. Caballero is the _Constitutiones synodales urbis vel ecclesiæ
Xericanæ_, per Barth: Marti, 1485. This bibliographer, however, gives
no information about the book, or any indication of the size or type;
and as no other book is known to have been printed at Xeres within the
next fifty years, it is quite probable that the book mentioned above,
though relating to the town, was not printed there.
At Murcia only two or three books were issued in the fifteenth century,
printed by a German named Lope de Roca. The first is the _Copilacion
de las Batallas campales_, finished the 28th of May 1487. Panzer,
Maittaire, and others speak erroneously of the printer as Juan de Roca.
Lope de Roca, after printing two or three books in Murcia, left there
and went to Valentia, where he printed in 1495 and 1497.
In 1489, printing was introduced into San Cucufat, into Coria, where
only one book was printed in the fifteenth century, the _Blason
general de todas las insignias del universo_, printed by Bartholomeus
de Lila (Lille), a Fleming; and it is usually said into Tolosa. The
history of printing in the latter town offers many difficulties.
Bibliographers have confused Toulouse in France with Tolosa in Biscay;
and the difficulty increases when we find that some Spanish books
were certainly printed at the former place. The best authorities seem
unfortunately to agree that the _Cronica de España_, by Diego de
Valera, is the earliest book; printed by Henry Meyer or Mayer in 1489.
M. Nèe de la Rochelle speaks of this _Chronicle_ as printed in 1488,
and also quotes a work by Guillaume de Deguilleville, a translation
into Spanish of the _Pelerinage de la vie humaine_, printed by the
same printer as early as 1480. The date should be 1490, but is given
as 1480 in the _Bibl. Hisp. vetus_ of Antonio (ii. 311), and also by
Hain (No. 7848). This Henry Mayer, however, was certainly a printer
of Toulouse in France, and not of Tolosa, so that all the remarks of
the bibliographers are beside the point. His name is found mentioned
in 1488 in registers at Toulouse; and he says in the colophon to the
_Boethius_ of the same year, ‘impresso en Tolosa de Francia.’ It is
not at all improbable that all the early books with ‘Tolosæ’ in the
colophon were printed in France, and that there was no fifteenth
century press at Tolosa.
The first book printed at Valladolid is the _Tractado breve de
Confession_ of 1492; but it has no printer’s name. In the following
year another book was printed, which gives the name of the printer as
Johan de Francour. The next two places, Cagliari and Monterey, have
each only one book printed in the fifteenth century. The book printed
at Cagliari is a _Speculum Ecclesiæ_, and was printed by Salvador de
Bolonga (Bologna), at the request of Nicholas Dagreda. The only known
copy is in the Municipal Library at Palma. The book printed at Monterey
was a _Missal_, printed by two partners, Gundisalvus Rodericus de la
Passera and Johannes de Porres. Granada (1496), Tarragona (1498), the
Monastery of the Blessed Virgin of Monserrat (1499), Madrid (1499), and
perhaps Jaen (1500), complete the list of places where printing was
practised in Spain before the end of the fifteenth century.
Numerous writers have asserted that printing began at Leiria in
Estremadura as early as 1466. Antonio Ribeiro dos Santos, who wrote
a learned dissertation on the subject, seems to place his chief
reliance on a statement made by Pedro Affonso de Vasconcellos in
1588, that Leiria was the first town to receive the art; and on a
further assertion by Soares de Silva, that he had seen a quarto volume
containing the poems of the Infante Dom Pedro, which had at the end a
note that it was printed nine years after the invention of printing.
The particular copy here referred to was destroyed in 1755; other
copies of the book contain no imprint. Whatever may be said about
the probability of printing having been introduced at an early date
into Portugal, the fact remains that the first authentic dated book
appeared at Lisbon in 1489. It is a _Commentary on the Pentateuch_, by
Moses ben Nachman, and was printed by two Jews, Rabbi Samuel Zorba and
Rabbi Eliezer. It was through the Jews, shortly to be so ungratefully
treated, that printing was introduced into two out of the three towns
of Portugal in which it was practised in the fifteenth century. They
were, however, a people apart, and the books which they printed were
for their own use, and in a tongue not understood by others. It was not
till 1495 that two other printers, Nicolaus de Saxonia and Valentinus
de Moravia, started at Lisbon to issue books in other languages than
Hebrew. Another Jew, Abraham, son of Don Samuel Dortas or de Orta,
printed the earliest books of Leiria, The first book, the _Proverbs
of Solomon_, with a commentary, was issued in 1492; and other books
appeared in 1494 and 1496. The third and last town in Portugal where
we find a printing press in the fifteenth century was Braga. Here, in
1494, a certain German named John Gherlinc, who seems to have printed
later at Barcelona, printed a _Breviary_ according to the use of the
church of Braga. No other book is known to have been printed in this
important town for the next forty years.
In the British Museum is a _Hebrew Pentateuch_, printed at ‘Taro’ in
1487. It is not known where this place was; but it has been conjectured
that the name is a misprint for Faro, a town of Portugal (though it
might stand for Toro in Leon); and if this is so, the date of the
introduction of printing into Portugal must be placed two years farther
back.
DENMARK AND SWEDEN.
The first book printed in Denmark, or indeed in the whole of the
Northern countries, was an edition of _Gulielmi Caorsini de obsidione
et bello Rhodiano_, of which a single copy is now preserved in
the library at Upsala. It was printed in 1482 at Odensee, by John
Snell, with the colophon: ‘Per venerabilem virum Johannem Snel artis
impressorie magistrum in Ottonia impressa sub anno domini 1482.’ After
the printing of this one book, Snell went to Stockholm. In 1486 one
book was printed at Schleswig, by Stephen Arndes, who had already
printed at Perusia, and who in 1487 appears at Lubeck. The book was
the _Missale secundum Ordinarium et ritum Ecclesiæ Sleswicensis_, and
no other was issued at this town in the fifteenth century. Next in
order comes Copenhagen, to which, about 1490, Govaert van Ghemen moved
from the Netherlands. The first dated book issued was the _Regulæ
de figuratis constructionibus grammaticis_ of 1493. According to M.
Deschamps, this was preceded by a _Donatus_, without date, but having
the name of the printer; and it is supposed that Govaert van Ghemen
began to print in March 1490. He seems to have printed up to the year
1510.
John Snell, who has already been noticed as a printer at Odensee,
came to Stockholm in 1483, and in that year printed the _Dialogus
Creaturarum Moralizatus_, a small quarto of 156 leaves, with
twenty-three lines to the page. [Hain, 6128.] Of this book four
examples were known; one unfortunately perished in the fire at Abö in
1827. Of the others, two are at Upsala, and the third at Copenhagen.
No other book appears at Stockholm until 1495, when the _Breviarium
Strengenense_ was printed. The printer’s name is given as Johannes
Fabri. And some writers would have this to be another form of the
name Snell; Snell, they say, being the same ‘practically’ as Smed,
Smed being our Smith, and Faber or Fabri the Latin. This alteration,
however, is not quite satisfactory.
In the same year as the _Breviarium Strengenense_ was issued, the
first book in Swedish was printed by the same printer. It is the _Bok
af Djäfvulsens frästilse_, by John Gerson. The printer, John Fabri,
died in the course of this year; for in the year following we find
issued the _Breviarium secundum ritum ecclesiæ Upsalensis_, printed
by the widow of John Fabri. One other book must be noticed as printed
in the fifteenth century; it is the _De dignitate psalterii_, by
Alanus de Rupe, printed probably at Stockholm, but with no printer’s
name. One book only is known to have been printed at Wadsten in the
fifteenth century; it is an edition of the _Breviarium ad usum cœnobii
Wadstenensis de ordine S. Brigittæ_, printed in 1495, an octavo with
twelve lines to the page. Only one copy is known, which passed after
the Reformation, with the rest of the books belonging to the monastery,
into the library of Upsala. The printing press of this monastery came
to an untimely end, for in the middle of October 1495 the whole of the
part of the building where it stood was destroyed by fire. Of this
occurrence an account is preserved; and we learn from it that not only
did the monastery lose all its printing materials, but that a tub
full of the _Revelaciones Sanctæ Brigittæ_, which had been printed
in 1492 at Lubeck, by Bartholomæus Ghotan, and which the printer had
sent up for sale, were also destroyed. Stockholm and Wadsten are the
only places in Sweden where any books were produced in the fifteenth
century; and the total number of books issued, according to Schröder’s
_Incunabula artis typographicæ in Suecia_, was six.