A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany Volume II Part 5

As the ART of PRINTING rather suddenly, than gradually, checked the progress of that of writing and illuminating--and as the pressman in consequence pretty speedily tripped up the heels of the scribe--it will be a natural and necessary result...that I take you with me to the collection of PRINTED BOOKS. Accordingly, let us ascend the forementioned lofty flight of stone steps, and paying attention to the affiche of "wiping our shoes,"

let us enter: go straight forward: make our obeisance to Monsieur Van Praet, and sit down doggedly but joyfully to the glorious volumes...many of them

Rough with barbaric gold,

which, through his polite directions, are placed before us. To come to plain matter of fact. Receive, my good friend, in right earnest and with the strictest adherence to truth, a list of some of those rarer and more magnificent productions of the ancient art of printing, which I have been so many years desirous of inspecting, and which now, for the first time, present themselves to my notice and admiration. After the respectable example of M. Van Praet,[43] I shall generally, add the sizes, or measurement[44] of the respective books examined--not so much for the sake of making those unhappy whose copies are of less capacious dimensions, as for the consolation of those whose copies may lift up their heads in a yet more aspiring att.i.tude. One further preliminary remark. I send you this list precisely in the order in which chance, rather than a preconcerted plan, happened to present the books to me.

RECUEIL DES HISTOIRES DE TROYE. _Printed by Caxton_. Folio. The late M. De La Serna Santander, who was Head Librarian of the public Library at Brussels, purchased this book for the Royal Library for 150 francs.[45] It is in the finest possible state of preservation; and is bound in red morocco, with rather a tawdry lining of light blue water-tabby silk.

THE SAME WORK. _Printed by Verard, without date_. Folio. This copy is UPON VELLUM; in the finest possible condition both for size and colour. It is printed in Verard's small gothic type, in long lines, with a very broad margin. The wood-cuts are coloured. The last leaf of the first book is MS.: containing only sixteen lines upon the recto of the leaf. This fine copy is bound in red morocco.

HORae BEATae VIRGINIS, Gr. _Printed by Aldus_. 1497. 12mo. Perhaps the rarest Aldine volume in the world:--when found in a perfect state. M. Renouard had not been able to discover a copy to enrich his instructive annals of the Aldine typography.[46] The present copy is four inches and five eighths, by three inches and a half. It is in its original clasp binding, with stamped leather-outsides.[47]

THE SHYPPE OF FOOLES. _Printed by Wynkyn de Worde_. 1509. 8vo. At length this far-famed and long talked of volume has been examined. It is doubtless a prodigious curiosity, and unique--inasmuch as this copy is UPON VELLUM.

The vellum is stout but soft. I suspect this copy to be rather cropt. It is bound in red morocco, and is perfectly clean and sound throughout.

ROMAN DE JASON. In French. _Printed by Caxton_. Folio. A little history is attached to the acquisition of this book, which may be worth recital. An unknown, and I may add an unknowing, person, bought this most exceedingly rare volume, with the _Qudriloge of Alain Chartier_, 1477, Folio, in one and the same ancient wooden binding, for the marvellously moderate sum of-- _one louis_! The purchaser brought the volume to M. de La Serna Santander, and asked him if he thought _two_ louis too much for their value. That wary Bibliographer only replied, "I do not think it is." He became the purchaser; and instantly and generously consigned the volumes to their present place of destination.[48] You may remember that the collection of Anthony Storer, in the library of Eton College, also possesses this book-- at present wanting in Lord Spencer's library. The present copy contains one hundred and thirty-two leaves, including a blank leaf; and is in a perfect state of preservation.

PSALTERIUM, Latine. _Printed by Fust and Schoiffher_. 1457. Folio. EDITIO PRINCEPS. This celebrated volume is a recent acquisition. It was formerly the copy of Girardot de Prefond, and latterly that of Count M'Carthy; at whose sale it was bought for 12,000 francs. It is cruelly cropt, especially at the side margins; and is of too sombre and sallow a tint. Measurement-- fourteen inches, by nine and a half. It is doubtless an absolutely necessary volume in a collection like the present. Only SEVEN known copies in the world.

PSALTERIUM, Latine. _Printed by the same_. 1459: Folio. _Editio Secunda_.

The first six leaves have been evidently much thumbed; and the copy, from the appearance of the first leaf alone, is as evidently cropt. For the colophon, both of this and of the preceding edition, examine the catalogue of Lord Spencer's library.[49] Upon the whole, it strikes me, as far as recollection may serve, that his Lords.h.i.+p's copy of each edition is preferable to those under consideration.[50] This copy measures sixteen inches and a quarter, by twelve and one-eighth.

PSALTERIUM, Latine. _Printed by Schoiffher_. 1490. Folio. A magnificent volume: and what renders it still more desirable, it is printed UPON VELLUM. Lord Spencer's copy is upon paper. The _previous_ editions are _always_ found upon vellum. Fine and imposing as is the copy before me, it is nevertheless evident--from the mutilated ancient numerals at top--that it has been somewhat cropt. This fine book measures sixteen inches and five eighths, by eleven inches and seven eighths.

PSALTERIUM, Latine. _Printed by Schoiffher_. 1502. Folio. This book (wanting in the cabinet at St. James's Place) is upon paper. As far as folio Cx.x.xvij. the leaves are numbered: afterwards, the printed numerals cease. A ms. note, in the first leaf, says, that the text of the first sixteen leaves precisely follows that of the first edition of 1457. The present volume will be always held dear in the estimation of the typographical antiquary. It is THE LAST in which the name of _Peter Schoiffher_, the son-in-law of Fust, appears to have been introduced. That printer died probably a short time afterwards. It measures fifteen inches and one eighth in height, by ten inches and seven eighths in width.

PSALTERIUM, Latine. _Printed by Schoiffher's Son_. 1516. Folio. A fine and desirable copy, printed UPON VELLUM. It is tolerably fair: measuring fifteen inches, by ten inches and three quarters.

I have little hesitation in estimating _these five copies_ of the earlier editions of the Psalter, to be worth, at least, one thousand pounds.

BIBLIA LATINA. (_Supposed to have been printed in 1455.)_ Folio. This is the famous edition called the MAZARINE BIBLE, from the first known copy of it having been discovered in the library of that Cardinal, in the college founded by himself. Bibliography has nearly exhausted itself in disquisitions upon it. But this copy--which is upon paper--is THE COPY _of all copies_; inasmuch as it contains the memorable inscription, or coeval ms. memorandum, of its having been illuminated in 1456.[51] In the first volume, this inscription occurs at the end of the printed text, in three short lines, but to the best of my recollection, the memorandum resembles the printed text rather more than the fac-simile of it formerly published by me. In the second volume, this inscription is in three long lines and is well enough copied in the M'Carthy catalogue. It may be as well to give you a transcript of this celebrated memorandum, as it proves unquestionably the impression to have been executed before any known volume with a printed date. It is taken from the end of the second volume.[52]

THE SAME EDITION.--This is a sound and desirable copy, printed UPON VELLUM; but much inferior in every respect, to another similar copy in the possession of Messrs. G. and W. Nicol, booksellers to his Majesty.[53] It measures fifteen inches and three-fourths, by nearly eleven and six eighths.

BIBLIA LATINA. _Printed by Pfister, at Bamberg_. Folio. Three volumes. The rarest of all Latin Bibles, when found in a perfect state. This was Lord Oxford's copy, and is not to be equalled for its beauty and soundness of condition. What renders it precious and unique, is an undoubted coeval ms.

date, in red ink, of 1461. Some of the leaves in the first volume are wholly uncut. It is in handsome, substantial russia binding.

DURANDI RATIONALE DIV. OFF. _Printed by Fust and Schoiffher_. 1459. Folio.

Here are not fewer than _three_ copies of this early, and much coveted volume: all of course UPON VELLUM. The tallest of them measures sixteen inches and a half, by twelve and one eighth; and is in red morocco binding.

BIBLIA GERMANICA. _Supposed to be printed by Mentelin_. _Without date_.

Folio. If we except the earlier leaves--of which the first is in ms., upon vellum, and the three succeeding, which are a little tender and soiled-- this is a very fine copy; so large, as to have many bottom rough margins.

At the end of the second volume an ancient ms. memorandum absurdly a.s.signs the printing of this edition to Fust, and its date to 1472. The paper of this impression is certainly not very unlike that of the _Catholicon_ of 1460.

BIBLIA PAUPERUM. A block-book. This is a cropt, but clean and uncoloured copy. I suspect, however, that it has been washed in some parts. It is in red morocco binding.

BIBLIA POLONICA. 1563. Folio. This is the famous Protestant Polish Bible, put forth under the patronage of Prince Radziwill; and concerning which a good deal has been already submitted to the public attention.[54] But the copy under consideration was a _presentation_ copy from a descendant of Prince Radziwill--to the public Library of Sedan, to be there deposited through the intervention of Lord James Russell; as the following memorandum, in the Prince's own hand writing, attests: "_Hoc sacrarum Literarum Veteris Nouique Testamenti opus, fidelissima Cura Maiorum meorum vetustis Typis Polonicis excusum, In Bibliothecam Sedanensem per n.o.bilem Virum Dominum Jacob.u.m Russelium, Ill^{mi} Principis Friderici Mauritii Bullionei ad me exlegatum inferendum committo_.

_H. Radziwill_."

It is nevertheless an imperfect copy, as it wants the t.i.tle-page. M. Van Praet thinks it otherwise complete, but I suspect that it is not so.

BIBLIA SCLAVONICA; 1587. Folio. Of this exceedingly scarce volume--which M.

Van Praet placed before me as almost unique--the present is a fine and desirable copy: in its original binding--with a stamped ornament of the Crucifixion on each side. One of these ornaments is quite perfect: the other is somewhat injured.

BIBLIA BOHEMICA. _Printed in 1488_. Folio. Among the rarest of the early-printed versions of the sacred text: and this copy happens to be a most beautiful and desirable one. It is wanting in Lord Spencer's collection; which renders a minute description of it the more desirable.

The first signature, _a i_, appears to be blank. On _a ii_ begins a prologue or prefatory proheme, ending on the reverse of _a vj_. It has a prefix, or t.i.tle, in fifteen lines, printed in red. The text is uniformly printed in double columns, in a sharp secretary-gothic character, with ink sufficiently black, upon paper not remarkably stout, but well manufactured.

There are running t.i.tles, throughout. The last eight leaves upon signature _i_ are printed in red and black lines alternately, and appear to be an index. The colophon, in nineteen lines, is at the bottom of the second column, on the reverse of _mm viij_. This book is thought to have been printed at _Prague_. The present copy is bound in blue morocco.

NEW TESTAMENT: _in the Dutch and Russian languages_. This volume, which is considered to be unique, and of which indeed I never saw, or heard of, another copy, bears the imprint of "_'T Gravenhage--Iohannes Van Duren, Boecverkoper_. MDCCXVII." Folio. The Dutch text is uniformly printed in capital letters; the Russian, in what I conceive to be lowercase, and about two-thirds the size of the Dutch.

The cause of the scarcity of perfect copies is, that very nearly the whole of the impression was _lost at sea_. The present copy undoubtedly affords decided demonstrations of a marine soaking: parts of it being in the most piteous condition. The first volume contains 255 leaves: the second, 196 leaves. The copy is yet in boards, in the most tender condition. M. Van Praet thinks it _just_ possible that there may be a _second_ similar copy.

The _third_ (if there be a second) is known to have perished in the flames at Moscow.

THE PENTATEUCH: _in Hebrew_. _Printed in 1491_. _Folio_. A very fine copy, printed UPON VELLUM. The press work has a rich and black appearance; but the vellum is rather soiled. One leaf presents us with the recto covered by ms. of a brown tint--and the reverse covered by printed text. The last page is certainly ms. This however is a rare and costly tome.

TRACTS PRINTED BY PFISTER, _at Bamberg_; Folio. This is really a matchless volume, on the score of rarity and curiosity. It begins with a tract, or moral treatise, upon death. The wood cuts, five in number, are very large, filling nearly the whole page. One of them presents us with death upon a white horse; and the other was immediately recognised by me, as being the identical subject of which a fac-simile of a portion is given to the public in Lord Spencer's Catalogue[55]--but which, at that time, I was unable to appropriate. This tract contains twenty-four leaves, having twenty-eight lines in a full page. In all probability it was the _first_ of the tracts printed by Pfister in the present volume. The FOUR HISTORIES, so fully detailed in the work just referred to, immediately follow. This is of the date of 1462. Then the BIBLIA PAUPERUM, also fully described in the same work. This treatise is without date, and contains seventeen leaves; with a profusion of wood cuts, of which fac-similes have been given by me to the public. These three copies are in remarkably fine preservation; and this volume will be always highly treasured in the estimation of the typographical antiquary. The Latin Bible, by Pfister, has been just described to you. There was a yet MORE PRECIOUS typographical gem ... in this very library; by the same printer--with very curious wood cuts,--of one of which Heineken has indulged us with a fac-simile. I mean the FABLES ... with the express date of 1461. But recent events have caused it to be restored to its original quarters.[56]

LACTANTII INSt.i.tUTIONES, &C. _Printed in the Soubiaco Monastery_. 1465.

Folio. This was Lord Oxford's copy, and may be called almost uncut. You are to learn, that copies of this beautifully printed book are by no means very uncommon--although formerly, if I remember rightly, De Bure knew but of one copy in France--but copies in a fine state, and of such dimensions as are Mr. Grenville's and the one now before me, must be considered as of extremely rare occurrence. This copy measures thirteen inches, one-eighth, and one-sixteenth--by very nearly nine inches one-eighth. You will smile at this particularity; but depend upon it there are ruler-carrying collectors who will thank me heartily for such a rigidly minute measurement.

STS. AUGUSTINUS DE CIVITATE DEI. _Printed in the Soubiaco Monastery_. 1467.

Folio. It always does the heart of a bibliographer good to gaze upon a fine copy of this resplendent volume. It is truly among the master-pieces of early printing: but what will be your notions of the copy NOW under description, when I tell you, not only that it once belonged to our beloved FRANCIS I., but that, for amplitude and condition, it rivals the copy in the library at _St. James's Place_? In short, it was precisely between _this very copy_, and that of my Lord Spencer, that M. Van Praet paused-- ("J'ai balance" were, I think, the words used to me by that knowing bibliographer) and pondered and hesitated ... again and again ... ere he could decide upon which of the two was to be parted with! But, supposing the size and condition of each to be fairly "balanced" against the other, M. Van Praet could not, in honour and conscience, surrender the copy which had been formerly in the library of one of the greatest of the French monarchs ... and so the spirit of Francis I. rests in peace ... as far as the retention of this copy may contribute to its repose. It is doubtless more brilliant and more attractive than Lord Spencer's--which, however, has no equal on the _other_ side of the channel: but it is more beaten, and I suspect, somewhat more cropt. I forgot to say, that there are several capital initials in this copy tolerably well illuminated, apparently of the time of Francis--who, I am persuaded, loved illuminators of books to his heart.

I shall now continue literally as I began:--without any regard to dates, or places where printed.

CATHOLICON. _Printed by Gutenburg_: 1460. Folio. 2 vols. This copy is UPON VELLUM; but yet much inferior to the absolutely unrivalled membranaceous copy in Mr. Grenville's precious library. This copy measures fifteen inches one eighth, by eleven inches one eighth. It is bound in red morocco.

GRAMMATICA RHYTHMICA. _Printed by Fust and Schoiffher_; 1466. Folio. How you would start back with surprise--peradventure mingled with indignation-- to be told that, for this very meagre little folio, somewhat cropt, consisting but of eleven leaves cruelly scribbled upon ... not fewer than _three thousand three hundred livres_ were given--at the sale of Cardinal Lomenie's library, about thirty years ago! It is even so. And wherefore?

Because only _one_ other copy of it is known:--and that "other" is luckily reposing upon the mahogany shelves in St. James's Place. The present copy measures ten inches seven eighths, by eight inches.

VOCABULARIUS. _Printed by Bechtermuntze_; 1467. Quarto. EDITIO PRINCEPS-- one of the rarest books in the world. Indeed I apprehend this copy to be absolutely UNIQUE. This work is a Latin and German Vocabulary, of which a good notion may be formed by the account of the _second_ edition of it, in 1469, in a certain descriptive catalogue.[57] To be perfect, there should be 215 leaves. A full page has thirty-five lines. This copy is in as fine, clean, and crackling condition, as is that of Lord Spencer of the second impression. It is eight inches and a half in height, by five inches and five eighths in width.

HARTLIEB'S BOOK OF CHIROMANCY. _Supposed to have been printed with wooden blocks_. Folio. You may remember the amus.e.m.e.nt which you said was afforded you by the account of, and the fac-similes from, this very strange and bizarre production--in the _Bibliographical Decameron_. The copy before me is much larger and finer than that in Lord Spencer's collection. The figure of the Doctor and of the Princess Anna are also much clearer in their respective impressions; and the latter has really no very remote resemblance to what is given in the _Bibl. Spenceriana_[58] of one of the Queens of Hungary. If so, perhaps the period of its execution may not be quite so remote as is generally imagined: for the Hungarian Chronicle, from which that regal figure was taken, is of the date of 1485.

HISTORIA BEATae VIRGINIS. _Without date_. This is doubtless rather an extraordinary volume. The text is printed only on one side of the leaf: so as to leave, alternately, the reverses and rectos blank--facing each other.

But this _alone_ is no proof of its antiquity; for, from the character both of the wood cuts and the type, I am quite persuaded that this volume could not have been executed much before the year 1480. It is not improbable that this book might have been printed at _Ulm_. It is a very beautiful copy, and bound in blue morocco.

VIRGILIUS. _Printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz_. 1469. Folio. EDITIO PRINCEPS. The enormous worth and rarity of this exceedingly precious volume may be estimated from this very copy having been purchased, at the sale of the Duke de la Valliere's library, in 1783, for four thousand one hundred and one livres. The first leaf of the _Bucolics_, of which the margin of the page is surrounded by an ancient illumination, gives unfortunate evidence of the binding of Chamot.[59] In other words, this copy, although in other respects white and sound, has been too much cropt. It measures eleven inches and six eighths, by nearly seven inches and five eighths.

VIRGILIUS. _Printed by Vindelin de Spira_. 1470. Here are not fewer than _two_ delicious copies of this exceedingly rare impression--and the most delicious happens to be UPON VELLUM. "O rare felicity!... (you exclaim) to spend so many hours within scarcely more than an arm's length of such cherished and long-sought after treasures!" But it is true nevertheless.

The vellum copy demands our more immediate attention. It is very rarely, indeed, that this volume can be obtained in any state, whether upon vellum or paper;[60] but in the condition in which it is here found, it is a very precious acquisition. Some few leaves are a little tawny or foxy, and the top of the very first page makes it manifest that the volume has suffered a slight degree of amputation. But such defects are only as specks upon the sun's disk. This copy, bound in old yellow morocco binding of the Gaignat period, measures very nearly twelve inches and three quarters, by eight inches and five eighths.

The SAME EDITION. A copy upon paper: in the most unusual condition. The pages are numbered with a pen, rather neatly: but these numerals had better have been away. A frightful (gratuitous) ms. t.i.tle--copied in a modern hand, from another of the date of 1474--strikes us; on opening the volume, in a very disagreeable manner. At top we read "_Ad usum H.D. Henrici E.C.M.C._" The first page of the text is surrounded by an old illumination: and the t.i.tle to the Bucolics is inserted, by the hand, in gold capital letters. From the impression appearing on the six following leaves, it should seem that this illuminated border had been stamped, after the book was bound. The condition of this cla.s.sical treasure may be p.r.o.nounced, upon the whole, to be equally beautiful and desirable. Perhaps there has been the slightest possible cropping; as the ancient ms. numerals are occasionally somewhat invisible. However, this is a most lovely book: measuring thirteen inches and one quarter, in height, by nine inches and very nearly one quarter in width.

VIRGILIUS. _Printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz_. 1471. Folio. SECOND ROMAN EDITION; of yet greater scarcity than the first. This was Politian's own copy, and is so large as to be almost _uncut_: having the margins filled with Scholia, and critical observations, in almost the smallest hand-writing to be met with: supposed to be also from the pen of Politian.

The autograph and subscription of that eminent scholar meet our eye at the top of the very first fly leaf.

Of all ancient editions of Virgil, this is probably not only the most estimable, but is so scarce as to have been, till lately, perfectly unknown. According to the ancient ms. numerals in this copy, there should be 225 leaves--to render the volume perfect. In our own country, it is-- with a sigh I speak it!--only to be found (and _that_, in an _imperfect_ state) in the library of Dr. Wm. Hunter at Glasgow.[61] This invaluable volume is preserved in good, sound, characteristic old binding.