The Complutensian Polyglot (6 vols. folio, 1514-17) is said to have cost Cardinal Ximenes ?40,000. Six hundred copies were printed.
The following prices have been paid for the one vellum copy in the market, and for some paper copies:--
_Three on vellum_--(1) Royal Library, Madrid; (2) Royal Library, Turin; (3) supposed to have been reserved for the Cardinal.
Pinelli, 1789, ?483, bought by MacCarthy. MacCarthy, 1817 ?676 (16,000 francs), bought by Hibbert. Hibbert, 1829, ?525.
_On paper_--Harleian copy, sold by Osborne for ?42. Maittaire?s imperfect copy sold for 50s. Sunderland, ?195. Earl of Crawford, 1887 (general t.i.tle wanting), ?56. Beresford Hope, 1882, ?166. W. H. Crawford (Lakelands), 1891, ?100.
The vellum copy sold in the Pinelli sale was, according to Dibdin, taken to Dr. Gosset when on a bed of sickness, in the hopes that the sight might work a cure on that ardent book-lover.[55]
John Brocario, son of Arnoldus Brocario, the printer of this polyglot, when a lad, was deputed to take the last sheets to the Cardinal. He dressed himself in his best clothes, and delivered his charge into Ximenes? hand, who exclaimed, ?I render thanks to Thee, O G.o.d, that Thou hast protracted my life to the completion of these biblical labours.? He told his friends that the surmounting of the various difficulties of his political situation did not afford him half the solace which arose from the finishing of his Polyglot.[56] A few weeks after the n.o.ble enthusiast died.
Plantin Polyglot Bible, 1569-72, 5 vols. Five hundred copies printed; greater part lost at sea.
Earl of Ashburnham, 1897, on vellum (wanting the ?Apparatus?), ?79.
Walton?s Polyglot Bible, 6 vols. folio, 1657 (with Castell?s Lexicon), does not keep up its price.
Seaman, 1676, ?8, 2s. Bernard, 1698, ?10. Duke of Grafton (without Castell), ?38, 13s. Edwards, ?61. Heath, ?73, 10s. (bought by the Earl of Ess.e.x). H. Perkins, 1873, ?19, 15s. At the Wimpole library sale (Lord Chancellor Hardwicke), 1888, a copy of Walton without Castell fetched ?9, 5s. The Ashburnham copy, which had belonged to Henry, Duke of Gloucester, fourth son of Charles I., with his name on the binding, which was in blue morocco, sold in 1897 for ?28.
EDITIONES PRINCIPES OF THE CLa.s.sICS
?SOPUS. Fabul? Latine et Italice. Neapoli, 1485; first edition of ?sop with the Italian version. Hibbert?s, ?17; Libri, 480 francs; Earl of Ashburnham, ?203.
ANACREON. Luteti?, 1554, on vellum. Sunderland, 1881, ?221.
ARISTOTELES. Opera varia. Venetiis, 1483, 2 vols. Earl of Ashburnham, 1897 (printed on vellum), each volume decorated in the highest style of Italian art of the period, fifty-nine beautiful historical and ornamental initials, ?800.
CICERO. Opera Omnia _Mediolani_, per Alex. Minutianum et Gulielmos fratres, 1498-99 [first edition of the collected works], four vols. in two, folio, old yellow morocco. Sunderland, ?30, 10s.
---- Epistol? ad familiares. Rom? (Sweynheym et Pannartz), 1467, folio, the first edition and the first book printed in Rome and in Roman letters. Sunderland, ?295.
---- Epistol?. Venetiis, a Nicolao Jenson, 1471, folio. Mead, ?3, 3s.; Askew, ?11, 16s.; Sunderland, ?12.
---- Orationes. Adam de Ambergau, 1472, folio. Askew gave ?3, 5s.
for his copy, which was bought by Dr. Hunter at his sale for ?12. It is now at Glasgow University. Sunderland, ?18.
CLAUDIa.n.u.s. Opera. Veneti?, 1482, first edition. Mead, ?2, 2s.; Askew, ?7, 15s.; Pinelli, ?9, 9s.; Sunderland (broken binding), ?4.
GELLIUS (AULUS). Noctes Attic?. Rom? (Sweynheym et Pannartz), 1469, folio, first edition. Pinelli, ?58, 16s. (printed on vellum); Sunderland, ?790.
---- Noctes. Venetiis, per Nicolaum Jenson, 1472, folio. Mead, ?2, 12s. 6d.; Askew, ?11, 10s.; Sunderland, ?13, 10s.
HOMERUS. Opera Omnia. Florenti? sumpt. Bern. et Nerii Nerliorum, 1488, two vols. folio, first edition. The British Museum copy was purchased for ?17; Wodhull, ?200; Sunderland, ?48.
---- Homeri Odyssea Gr?ce. Florenti?, 1488, first edition. Duke of Hamilton, 1884, very large and fine copy, red morocco, by Clarke & Bedford, ?25.
---- On vellum (one of the four known to exist). Dent, part 1, 1827, ?142, 16s.
HORATIUS. Opera. 1470, small folio, first edition, with a date.
Sunderland, ?29. The Naples edition of 1474 is called by Dibdin ?the rarest cla.s.sical volume in the world,? and it was chiefly to possess this book that Earl Spencer bought the famous library of the Duke of Ca.s.sano.
JUSTINUS. Venetiis, per Nicolaum Jenson, 1470, small folio, first edition. Mead, ?3, 3s.; Askew, ?13, 13s. (sold to the British Museum); Pinelli, ?18, 7s. 6d.; Sunderland, ?15.
JUVENALIS ET PERSIUS. Editio Princeps. Dr. Askew gave ?3 for his copy; at his sale it was purchased by the British Museum for thirteen guineas.
LIVIUS. The first edition, printed at Rome by Sweynheym and Pannartz, as is supposed, in 1469. The only copy printed on vellum which is known to exist is now in the Grenville Library (British Museum). It was for years in the possession of the Benedictine Library at Milan. It was bought by Sykes at J.
Edwards?s sale (1815) for ?903. At Sykes?s sale (1824) it was bought by Payne and Foss for ?472, 10s. These booksellers sold it to Dent, and at Dent?s sale (1827) bought it again for Grenville for ?262, 10s., a remarkable instance of depreciation in price of a unique book.
The editor of this series contributed an article on this copy to _The Library_ (vol. i. p. 106). The arms of the Borgia family are beautifully painted on the first page of the text, and it has usually been supposed that Cardinal Roderigo Borgia (afterwards Pope Alexander VI.), to whom it belonged, was Abbot of the monastery of Subiaco (where the first productions of Sweynheym and Pannartz were executed) at the time the book was printed. It is proved in the article, however, that the abbey was not conferred upon Borgia by Sixtus IV. until 1471, so that the connection is merely a coincidence. This magnificent volume was probably executed for Borgia, whose character, as delineated by Raphael Volaterra.n.u.s, is evidently imitated from Livy?s character of Hannibal.
---- Venet. Vindelin de Spira, 1470, two vols. folio, printed on vellum. Sunderland, ?520.
LUCa.n.u.s. Pharsalia. Rom? (Sweynheym and Pannartz), 1469, folio; fine edition, of which only 250 copies were printed. Askew gave ?6, 16s. 6d. for his copy, which was bought at his sale by De Bure for ?16; Sunderland, ?38.
LUCIa.n.u.s. Opera. Florenti?, 1496, folio, first edition. Askew gave ?2, 12s. 6d. for his copy, which was sold at the sale of his library for ?19, 8s. 6d.; Pinelli, ?8, 18s. 6d.; copy on vellum in the Sunderland library, ?59.
MARTIALIS Epigrammata. Ferrara, 1471, quarto, first edition of Martial, and the first book printed at Ferrara. Mead, ?4, 14s.
6d.; Askew, ?17; Combes, ?60, bought for the Bodleian.
OVIDIUS. Opera. First edition. Mead, ?2, 12s. 6d.; Askew, ?10, 15s.
---- Rom? (Sweynheym et Pannartz), 1471, three vols. folio, probably second edition. Sunderland, ?85.
---- Venet. in ?dibus Aldi, 1502-3, three vols. 8vo, first Aldine edition. Sunderland, ?9; copy on vellum (Askew, ?63) sold to Lord Spencer.
PLATO. Omnia Platonis Opera. Venet. in ?dibus Aldi, 1513, folio, first edition. Sunderland, ?31. Copy on vellum, Lord Orford gave ?105 for it; Askew purchased it for one-fifth of that price. At his sale it was bought by Dr. William Hunter for ?52, 10s. It is now in the library at Glasgow University.
PLINIUS. Venetiis, Joannes de Spira, 1469, first edition. The British Museum copy was purchased in 1775 for ?43; Sunderland, ?82; another copy, ?70.
---- Venetiis, Nicolaus Jenson, 1472. The British Museum copy was bought at Askew?s sale for ?23; printed on vellum, Sunderland, ?220.
---- Parm?, 1476. Sunderland, ?7, 15s. Douce gave Payne & Foss three hundred guineas for his copy on vellum. It is now in the Bodleian Library.
QUINTILIa.n.u.s. Inst.i.tutionum Oratoriarum lib. xii. Rom?, 1470, folio, printed on vellum. Sunderland, ?290.
---- Inst.i.tutiones Oratori?. Rom? (Sweynheym et Pannartz), circa 1470, folio. Paris library, ?26, 5s., now in Cracherode library (British Museum); Sunderland, ?26.
SALl.u.s.tIUS. Venetiis, Vindelin de Spira, 1470, quarto or folio.
Mead, ?5, 17s.; Askew, ?14, 3s. 6d.; Sunderland, ?19, 10s.
SILIUS ITALICUS. Rom? (Sweynheym et Pannartz), 1471, folio, first edition. Askew gave three guineas for his copy, which was bought for the British Museum at his sale for ?13, 2s. 6d.; Pinelli, ?48; Sunderland, ?20, 10s.
VALERIUS MAXIMUS. Moguntin?, per Petrum Schoyffer de Gernsheim, 1471, folio, first edition, with a date. Askew gave ?4, 14s. 6d.
for his copy, which sold at his sale for ?26; Sunderland, ?32.
---- Another copy, printed on vellum, sold at the Sunderland sale for ?194.