ARS MEMORANDI, &c. Here are not fewer than _five copies_ of this well known--and perhaps first--effort of block-book printing. These are of the earliest dates, yet with trifling variations. The wood cuts in all the copies are coloured; some more heavily than others; and in one of them you observe, in the figure of St. Matthew, that red or crimson glossy wash, or colour, so common in the earliest prints--and which is here carried over the whole figure. One of these five copies is unbound.
ARS MORIENDI. Here are two editions, of which one copy is indisputably the most ancient--like that in Lord Spencer"s library,[52]--but of a considerably larger size, in quarto. There can be no doubt of the whole of this production being xylographical. Unluckily this fine copy has the first and last pages of text in ms. The other pages, with blank-reverses, are faintly impressed in brown ink: especially the first, which seems to be injured. A double-line border is round each page. This copy, which is bound in blue morocco, has also received injury from a stain. I consider the second copy, which is bound in red morocco, to be printed with moveable _metal_ types. The ink is however of a palish brown. I never saw another copy of this latter impression.
BIBLIA PAUPERUM. _In Latin_. I doubt whether this be the first edition; but at any rate it is imperfect. _In German_: with the date of 1470. Here are two copies; of which I was anxious to obtain the duplicate (the largest and uncoloured,) for the library in St. James"s Place; but the value fixed upon it was too high; indeed a little extravagant.
The APOSTLES CREED. _In German_. Only seven leaves, but pasted together--so that, the work is an opistographised production. This is a very rare, and indeed unique volume; and utterly unknown to bibliographers. Each cut is about the same size, and there are twelve in the whole. There is no other text but the barbarous letters introduced at the bottom of the cut.
MIRABILIA URBIS ROMae. Another generally unknown xylographic performance; printed in the German language: being a small quarto. I have secured a duplicate of this singular volume for Lord Spencer"s library, intending to describe it in the _aedes Althorpianae_.[53]
The LIFE OF ST. MEINRAT; _in German_, in a series of wood-cut representations. This Saint was murdered by two men, whose Christian names were Peter and Richard, and who were always afterwards haunted by a couple of crows. There is a German introduction of two pages, preceding the cuts.
These cuts are forty-eight in number. At the thirtieth cut, the Saint is murdered; the earlier series representing the leading events of his life.
The thirty-first cut represents the murderers running away; an angel being above them; In the thirty-second cut, they continue to be pursued. The thirty-third cut thus describes them; the German and the version being as follow; "_Hie furt man die mord vo danne un wil schleisse vn redern die rappen volget alle zit hin nach vn stechet sy_." "Here they bring the murderers, in order to drag them upon the hurdle to execution, and to break them upon the wheel. The crows follow and peck them."
In the thirty-fourth cut Peter and Richard are tied and dragged at the heels, of a horse. In the thirty-fifth they are broken upon the wheel.
The _Calendar of Regiomonta.n.u.s_--A decidedly xylographical production; the first date is 1475, the last 1525. A fine sound copy, but cropt. In a duplicate copy the name of the mathematician is given at the end.
CANTICA CANTICORUM. First edition. A beautiful copy; cropt, but clean.
Sixteen cuts, uncoloured. The leaves have been evidently pasted together.
Another copy, coloured; but of a later date. In fine preservation. A third copy; apparently the first edition; washed all over with a slight brown tint, and again coa.r.s.ely coloured in parts: This copy singularly enough, is intermixed with portions of the first edition (as I take it) of the _Apocalypse_: very clumsily coloured. A fourth copy, also, as I conceive, of the first edition; rather heavily coloured. The back grounds are uncoloured. This is larger than the other copies.
DEFENSIO IMMACULATae CONCEPTIONIS B.M.V. _Without place; of the date of 1470_. This is a Latin treatise; having four cuts in each page, with the exception of the first two pages, which exhibit only Saints Ambrose, Austin, Jerom and Gregory. At the bottom of the figure of St. Austin, second column, first page, it is thus written; "_f.w. 1470_." In the whole sixteen pages. The style of art is similar to that used in the Antichrist.[54] Of this tract, evidently xylographical, I never saw or heard of another copy.
The foregoing list may be said to comprise the _chief rarities_ among the BLOCK BOOKS in the Public Library at Munich; and if I am not mistaken, they will afford no very unserviceable supplement to the celebrated work of Heineken upon the same subject. From this department in the art of printing, we descend naturally to that which is connected with metal types; and accordingly I proceed to lay before you another list of _Book-Rarities_--taken from the earlier _printed volumes_ in this most extraordinary Library.
We will begin with the best and most ancient of all Books:--the BIBLE. They have a very singular copy of what is called the _Mazarine edition_: or rather the parent impression of the sacred text:--inasmuch as it contains (what, I believe, no other copy in Europe contains, and therefore M.
Bernhard properly considers it as unique) _four printed leaves of a table_, as directions to the Rubricator. At the end of the Psalter is a ms. note thus: "_Explicit Psalterium, 61_." This copy is in other respects far from being desirable, for it is cropt, and in very ordinary calf binding.
_Mentelin"s German Bible_. Here are two copies of this first impression of the Bible in the German language: both of which have distinct claims to render them very desirable. In the one is an inscription, in the German language, of which M. Bernhard supplied me with the following literal version: "_Hector Mulich and Otilia his wife; who bought this Bible in the year of Our Lord, 1466, on the twenty-seventh day of June, for twelve florins_." Their arms are below. The whole is decidedly a coeval inscription. Here, therefore, is another testimony[55] of the printing of this Bible at least as early as the year 1466. At the end of the book of Jeremiah, in the same copy, is a ms. entry of 1467; "_sub Papa Paulo Secundo et sub Imperatore Frederico tertio_." The second copy of this edition, preserved in the same library, has a German ms. memorandum, executed in red ink, stating that this edition is "_well translated, without the addition of a single word, faithful to the Latin: printed at Strasbourg with great care_." This memorandum is doubtless of the time of the publication of the edition; and the Curators of the library very judiciously keep both copies.
A third, or triplicate copy, of Mentelin"s edition--much finer than either of the preceding--and indeed abounding with rough edges--was purchased by me for the library in St. James"s place; but it was not obtained for a sum beneath its full value.[56]
Here is a copy of _Eggesteyn"s Latin Bible_, containing forty-five lines in a full page, with the important date of "_24th May, 1466_"--in a coeval ms.
memorandum. Thus, you see, here is a date two years earlier[57] than that in a copy of the same Bible in the Public Library at Strasbourg; and I think, from hence, we are well warranted in supposing that both Mentelin and Eggesteyn had their presses in full play at Strasbourg in 1466--if not earlier. This copy of Eggesteyn"s first Bible, which is in its original binding of wood, is as fine and large as it is precious.
I shall continue, miscellaneously, with the earlier printed books. _T.
Aquinas de Virtutibus et Vitiis_; printed by _Mentelin_ in his smallest character. At the end, there is the following inscription, in faded green ink; _Johannes Bamler de Augusta hui^9 libri Illuiator Anno 1468_. Thus Bamler should seem to be an illuminator as well as printer,[58] and Panzer is wrong in supposing that Bamler _printed_ this book. Of course Panzer formed his judgment from a copy which wanted such accidental attestation.
_Ptolemy_, 1462: with all the maps, coloured. _Livy_ (1469): very fine--in its original binding--full sixteen inches high. _Caesar_, 1469: very fine, in the original binding. _Lucan_, 1469: equally fine, and coated in the same manner. _Apuleius_, 1469: imperfect and dirty. The foregoing, you know, are all EDITIONES PRINCIPES. But judge of my surprise on finding neither the first edition of _Terence_, nor of _Valerius Maximus_, nor of _Virgil_[59]--all by Mentelin. I enquired for the first _Roman_ or _Bologna Ovid_: but in vain. It seemed that I was enquiring for "blue diamonds;"[60]--so precious and rare are these two latter works.
Here are very fine copies of the _Philosophical works of Cicero, printed by Ulric Han_--with the exception of the Tusculan Questions and the treatise upon Oratory, of the dates of 1468, 1469--which are unluckily wanting. M.
Bernhard preserves _four_ copies of the _Euclid_ of 1482, because they have printed variations in the margins. One of these copies has the prefix, or preface of one page, printed in letters of gold. I saw another such a copy at Paris. Here is the _Milan Horace of 1474_--the text only. The _Catholicon by Gutenberg, of 1460_: UPON VELLUM: quite perfect as to the text, but much cropt, and many pieces sliced out of the margins--for purposes, which it were now idle to enquire after; although I have heard of a Durandus of 1459 in our own country, which, in ancient times, had been so served for the purpose of writing directions on parcels of game, &c.
_Catholicon of 1469 by G. Zeiner_; also UPON VELLUM, and equally cropt--but otherwise sound and clean. This copy contains an ancient ma.n.u.script note which must be erroneous; as it professes the first owner to have got possession of the book before it was _printed_: in other words, an _unit_ was omitted in the date, and we should read 1469 for 1468.[61]
Among the more precious ITALIAN BOOKS, is a remarkably fine copy of the old edition of the _Decameron of Boccaccio_, called the _Deo Gracias_--which Lord Spencer purchased at the sale of the Borromeo library in London, last year. It is quite perfect, and in a fine, large condition. It was taken to Paris on a certain memorable occasion, and returned hither on an occasion equally memorable. It contains 253 leaves of text and two of table; and has red ms. prefixes. It came originally from the library of Petrus Victorius, from which indeed there are many books in this collection, and was bought by the King of Bavaria at Rome. What was curious, M. Bernhard shewed me a minute valuation of this very rare volume, which he had estimated at 1100 florins--somewhere about 20. below the price given by Lord Spencer for his copy, of which four leaves are supplied by ms. Here is a magnificent copy of the _Dante of 1481_, with XX CUTS; the twentieth being precisely similar to that of which a fac-simile appears in the B.S. This copy was _demanded_ by the library at Paris, and xix. cuts only were specified in the demand; the twentieth cut was therefore secreted, from another copy--which other copy has a duplicate of the first cut, pasted at the end of the preface.
The impressions of the cuts, in the copy under description, are worthy of the condition of the text and of the amplitude of the margins. It is a n.o.ble book, in every point of view.
I was shewn a great curiosity by this able bibliographer; nothing less than a sheet, or _broadside_, containing _specimens of types from Ratdolf"s press_. This sheet is in beautiful preservation, and is executed in double columns. The first ten specimens are in the _gothic_ letter, with a gradually diminishing type. The last is thus:
_Hunc adeas mira quicunq: volumina queris Arte uel ex animo pressa fuisse tuo Seruiet iste tibi: n.o.bis (sic) iure sorores Incolumem seruet vsq: rogare licet._
This is succeeded by three gradually diminishing specimens of the printer"s _roman_ letter. Then, four lines of Greek, in the Jensonian or Venetian character: next, in large black letter, as below.[62]
But a still greater curiosity, in my estimation, was a small leaf; by way of _advertis.e.m.e.nt_, containing a list of publications issuing from the press of a printer whose name has not yet been discovered, and attached apparently to a copy of the _Fortalitium Fidei_; in which it was found.
Luckily there was a duplicate of this little broadside--or advertis.e.m.e.nt--and I prevailed upon the curators, or rather upon M.
Bernhard (whose exclusive property it was) to part with this Sibylline leaf, containing only nineteen lines, for a copy of the _aedes Althorpianae-- _as soon as that work should be published.[63] Of course, this is secured for the library in St. James"s Place.
I am now hastening to the close of this catalogue of the Munich book-treasures. You remember my having mentioned a sort of oblong cabinet, where they keep the books PRINTED UPON VELLUM--together with block books, and a few of the more ancient and highly illuminated MSS. I visited this cabinet the first thing on entering--and the last thing on leaving--the Public Library. "Where are your _Vellum Alduses_, good Mr. Bernhard?" said I to my willing and instructive guide. "You shall see only _two_ of them"--(rejoined he) but from these you must not judge of the remainder. So saying, he put into my hands the _first editions of Horace and Virgil_, each of 1501, and bound in one volume, in old red morocco. They were gems--almost of the very first order, and--almost of their original magnitude: measuring six inches and three eighths, by three inches and seven eighths. They are likewise sound and clean: but the Virgil is not equal to Lord Spencer"s similar copy, in whiteness of colour, or beauty of illumination. Indeed the illuminations in the Munich copy are left in an unfinished state. In the ardour of the moment I talked of these two precious volumes being worth "120 louis d"or." M.B. smiled gently, as he heard me, and deliberately returned the volumes to their stations--intimating, by his manner, that not thrice that sum should dispossess the library of such treasures. I have lost my memoranda as to the number of these vellum Alduses; but the impression upon my mind is, that they have not more than _six_.
Of course, I asked for a VELLUM _Tewrdanckhs_ of 1517, and my guide forthwith placed _two_ MEMBRANACEOUS copies of this impression before me:--adding, that almost every copy contained variations, more or less, in the text. Indeed I found M.B. "doctissimus" upon this work; and I think he said that he had published upon it as well as Camus.[64] This is about the ninety-ninth time that I have most sensibly regretted my utter ignorance, of the language (German) in which it pleaseth M. Bernhard to put forth his instructive bibliographical lucubrations. Of these two copies, one has the cuts coloured, and is very little cropt: the other has the cuts uncoloured, and is decidedly cropt.
With the Tewrdanckhs, I take my leave both of the public library of Munich and (for the present) of its obliging and well-informed Second Librarian.
But I must not leave this WORLD OF BOOKS without imparting to you the satisfaction which I felt on witnessing half a dozen grave-looking scribes employed, chiefly under the direction of M. Bernhard, in making out a cla.s.sed catalogue of _Fifteeners_--preparatory to the sale of their Duplicates. This catalogue will be important in many respects; and I hope to see it in my own country within two years from the date of the present epistle.[65]
And now methinks it is high time to put the concluding paragraph to this said epistle--so charged with bibliographical intelligence respecting the capital of Bavaria. You must give it more than _one_ perusal if you wish to digest it thoroughly. My next, within forty-eight hours hereof, will leave me on the eve of departure from hence. In the meanwhile, prepare for some pleasant BOOK TIDINGS in my ensuing despatch.
[40] Both the nave and towers appear in Hartmann Schedel"s view of Munich, in the _Nuremberg Chronicle_ of 1493: see fol. ccxxvi. The "pepper-box" terminations are, I conceive, of a later date.
[41] I take this to be the famous Albert who died in 1500; and who, in Schedel"s time, kept lions for his disport--at Munich: "qui sua magnificentia plures nutrit leones" _Chron. Norimb._ 1493.
_Ibid._
[42] The steeple fell down in the year 1599, and has never been rebuilt.
[43] See p. 87 ante.
[44] See p. 66 ante.
[45] [Sir J. Reynolds criticised these pictures when they were in the _Dusseldorf Gallery_: but I cannot just now lay my hand upon his remarks.]
[46] [It has made, and is yet making, great strides towards the accomplishment of the above-mentioned objects--since the above pa.s.sage was written.]
[47] [With the exception of the first, (although I do not make this exception with _confidence_) all the above-named gentlemen have CEASED TO EXIST. Mr. Bernhard I believe died before the publication of the preceding edition of this work: and I add, with perfect sincerity, that _his_ decease, and that of _M. Adam Bartsch_ (vide post) were, to me, among the bitterest regrets which I ever experienced in my intercourse with foreign literati.
[48] The able editor of the Romance of Sir TRISTREAM, ascribed to Thomas of Ercildoune, appears to have been entirely ignorant of the existence of this highly curious and coeval German version. I regret that I am unable to give the reader a complete a.n.a.lysis of the whole.
From this account, I select the following very small portion--of fidelity of version--with a fac-simile of one of the Embellishments.
So all his thoughts were wavering:
_Wilen abe vn wilent an_-- One while above, and one while down, _Er tet wol an im selben schin_ He truly on himself made shew, _Daz der minnende mot_ That an amorous mind behaves _Reht als der vrie fogel tot_ Even as the bird in the open air, _Der durch die friheit dier hat_ Who, by the liberty he enjoys, _Vf daz gelimde twi gestat_ Slightly sits on the lime-twig down; _Als er des limes danne entsebet_ As soon as he the lime descrys, _Vnd er sieh vf ze fluhte hebet_ And rises up to fly in haste, _So chlebet er mit den fossen an_.
His feet are clinging to the twig.
This simile of the bird seems expressed in the illumination, of which the outline has been faithfully copied by Mr. Lewis:
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[49] See page 33 ante.
[50] It appeared in the year 1808, and was sold for 2l. 12s. 6d. But a blank s.p.a.ce was left in the middle--which, in the original, is occupied by a heavy gothic text. The publication of the continuation by Lucas Cranach appeared in 1818.