Part 7

Hec ego Ioannes de Paderborne in Westfalia, florentissima in uniuersitate Louaniensi residens, ut in manus uenerunt imprimere curaui: nonnullorum egregiorum uirorum desideriis obsecutus, qui prenominatum pronosticantem futura uere, inculto quamuis stilo, compluribus annis prenunciasse ferunt. Non reuera quo utilitatem magnam ipse consequerer (utilius enim opus eam ob rem suspendi) sed quo simul plurimorum comodis ac uoluptati pariter inseruiens, stilum meum nouum, quo posthac maiori et minori in uolumine uti propono, signi mei testimonio curiosis ac bonarum rerum studiosis palam facerem.

These things have I, John of Paderborn in Westphalia, residing in the most flourishing University of Louvain, caused to be printed as they came to hand, following the desires of some noble gentlemen who say that the aforesaid prognosticator has in many years truly foretold future things, though in an uncultivated style. Of a truth my object was not to obtain any great advantage for myself (for I held over, on account of this, a more profitable work), but that, while at the same time serving alike the convenience and pleasure of many, I might make publicly known to the curious and connoisseurs my new style which hereafter, both in greater and smaller size, I propose to use as a witness of my sign.

Laet’s Prognostications were the Moore’s Almanacs of the fifteenth century, and by putting his new device (which he used again about the same time in the “Breviarium super codice” of Iohannes Faber) on such a publication John of Westphalia secured a wide advertisement.

The arts of advertisement must assuredly have been needed by the early printers when they came as strangers and aliens to a new town and began issuing books at their own risk. Even with the help of Latin as a universal language, and with the guidance of native patrons and scholars, pushing their wares must have been a difficult matter. Sweynheym and Pannartz at Rome tried to make their names known, and to express at the same time their obligations to their patron, by a set of verses which recur frequently in their books:

Aspicis illustris lector quicunque libellos Si cupis artificum nomina nosse lege. Aspera ridebis cognomina Teutona: forsan Mitiget ars musis inscia uerba uirum. Conradus Suueynheym Arnoldus pannartzque magistri Rome impresserunt talia multa simul. Petrus cum fratre Francisco Maximus ambo Huic operi aptatam contribuere domum.

.M.CCCC.LXXI.

Illustrious reader, whoever you are, who see these books, if you would know the names of their craftsmen, read on. You will smile at the rough Teutonic surnames: perhaps this art the Muses knew not will soften them. Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz have printed many such books together at Rome. Pietro da Massimi and his brother Francis have lent a house fitted[8] for the work.

1471.

Ulrich Han, another German printer at Rome, advertised himself in many of his books in another set of verses, perhaps the only instance of a colophon deliberately intended to raise a laugh, which recall the part played by the Sacred Geese in defending the Capitol against the Gauls (Galli), Gallus being also the Latinized form of Han’s name (Cock).

Anser Tarpeii custos Iouis: unde quod alis Constreperes: Gallus decidit: ultor adest. Udalricus Gallus, ne quem poscantur in usum Edocuit pennis nil opus esse tuis. Imprimit ille die quantum non scribitur anno Ingenio: haud noceas: omnia vincit homo.

Bird of Tarpeian Jove, though died the Gaul ’Gainst whom thou flap’dst thy wings, see vengeance fall. Another Gallus comes and thy pen-feather Goes out of fashion, beaten altogether. For what a quill can write the whole year through, This in a day, and more, his press will do. So, Goose, give over: there’s no other plan; Own yourself beaten by all-conquering man.

In addition to their colophons, the printers, at least in Germany, used many modern forms of advertisement. When he returned to Augsburg from Venice, Ratdolt issued a splendid type-sheet with specimens of all his different founts. Schoeffer, the Brothers of the Common Life, Koberger, and other firms printed lists of their new books as broadsides, and gave their travellers similar sheets in which purchasers were promised “bonum venditorem” (a kindly seller), and a space was left for the name of the inn at which he displayed his wares, to be filled in by hand. We have all heard of Caxton’s advertisement of his Sarum Directory (most indigestible of “Pies”) and its final prayer, “Please don’t tear down the bill.” In 1474 Johann Müller of Königsberg (Iohannes Regiomontanus), the mathematician-printer, issued what I take to be the first fully developed publisher’s announcement, with a list of books “now ready” (haec duo explicita sunt), “shortly” (haec duo opera iam prope absoluta sunt), and those he hoped to undertake. Its last sentence is not strictly a colophon, but I am sure that I shall be forgiven for quoting it. “Postremo omnium,” it runs, “artem illam mirificam litterarum formatricem monimentis stabilibus mandare decretum est (deus bone faueas) qua re explicita si mox obdormierit opifex mors acerba non erit, quom tantum munus posteris in haereditate reliquerit, quo ipsi se ab inopia librorum perpetuo poterunt vindicare.”—“Lastly it has been determined to commit to abiding monuments that wondrous art of putting letters together (God of thy goodness be favorable!), and when this is done if the craftsman presently fall asleep death will not be bitter, in the assurance that he has left as a legacy to posterity this great gift by which they will forever be able to free themselves from lack of books.” Shortly after writing these words Müller was called to Rome by Sixtus IV to give his help in reforming the calendar, but his foreboding was not unfulfilled, for death came to him in 1476, only two years after this announcement was written.

V

PUBLISHERS’ COLOPHONS

The heading adopted for this chapter is not intended to imply that the colophons here grouped together are separated by any hard line from those already considered, only that they deal with the publishers’ side of book-making, the praises by which the printers and publishers recommended their wares, the financial help by which the issue of expensive and slow-selling books was made possible, the growth of competition, and the endeavors to secure artificially protected markets.

If colophons could be implicitly believed, the early printers would have to be reckoned as the most devout and altruistic of men. As a matter of fact, books of devotion and popular theology were probably the safest and most profitable which they could take up. Yet we need not doubt that the thought that they were engaged on a pious work, and so “accumulating merit,” gave them genuine satisfaction, and that colophons like this of Arnold therhoernen’s were prompted by real religious feeling:

Ad laudem et gloriam individue trinitatis ac gloriose virginis marie et ad utilitatem ecclesie impressi ac consummati sunt sermones magistri alberti ordinis predicatorum in colonia per me Arnoldum therhurnen sub annis domini M.cccc. Lxxiiii ipso die gloriosi ac sancti profesti nativitatis domini nostri Iesu Christi.

To the praise and glory of the undivided Trinity and of the glorious Virgin Mary, and to the profit of the church, the sermons of Master Albert of the order of Preachers were printed and finished in Cologne by me, Arnold therhoernen, in the year of our Lord 1474, on the very day of the glorious and holy vigil of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Examples of colophons in this vein could be multiplied almost indefinitely. That appended by the Brothers of the Common Life, at their convent of Hortus Viridis (Green Garden) at Rostock, to an edition of the “Sermones de Tempore” of Johannes Herolt is much more distinctive. Herolt’s name is duly recorded in editions printed at Reutlingen and Nuremberg, but his work was usually quoted as the “Sermones Discipuli,” and the good brothers begin by commenting on his modesty.

Humilibus placent humilia. Huius gratia rei Doctor hic precellens supresso proprio nomini uocabulo Sermones hos prehabitos Discipuli prenotatosque alias maluit nuncupari. Quique tamen, ut luce clarius patet, de sub manibus euasit Doctor magistri. Huic applaudere, hunc efferre laudibus, hunc predicatum iri, miretur nemo, cum certissime constat inter modernos sermonistas eum in uulgi scientia tenere principatum. Huius igitur zeli cupientes fore consortes nos fratres presbiteri et clerici Viridis Horti in Rostock ad sanctum Michaelem, non uerbo sed scripto predicantes, virum hunc preclarum apud paucos in conclauis iactitantem foras eduximus Arte impressoria, artium omnium ecclesie sancte commodo magistra, in notitiam plurimorum ad laudem cunctipotentis Dei. Anno incarnationis Dominice M.cccc.Lxxvi. tercio Kalendas Novembris.

Humble courses please the humble. For which cause this eminent Doctor preferred to suppress his own name and have these Sermons, already delivered and set down elsewhere, announced as the Sermons of a Disciple. And yet he, as is clearer than day, has passed as a Doctor from the rule of his master. Let no one wonder that he should be applauded, that men should extol him with their praises, that he should be preached, since it is most assuredly true that among modern sermon-writers he, in knowledge of the people, holds the first place. Desiring, therefore, to be partners of this zeal, we, the brothers, priests, and clergy of Green Garden in Rostock attached to S. Michael, preaching not orally but from manuscript, have thought that this admirable book, which was lurking in the hands of a few in their cells, should be published abroad by the printing art, chief of all arts for the advantage of holy church, that it may become known to many, to the praise of Almighty God. In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 1476, on October 30th.

Of the dated editions of the Sermons this of Rostock is the earliest, so that the claim of the brothers to have rescued it from neglect was apparently justified. Their praise of printing as “chief of all arts for the advantage of holy church” is very notable, though quite in accordance with German feeling. In the sixteenth century the doctors of the Sorbonne were much more doubtful on the subject. The brothers printed a few secular works at Rostock, _e.g._ the Metamorphoses of Ovid and Guido delle Colonne’s History of the Destruction of Troy. But the bulk of their work was theological or devotional, and their desire to improve their own sermons seems touchingly genuine and by no means commercial.

In the same year as the Rostock brothers printed the “Sermones Discipuli,” Leonardus Achates of Basel issued at Vicenza a Latin Bible to which was appended a lengthy colophon in praise of the study of the Scriptures, almost the only eulogy of the kind with which I have met.

Lector quisquis es, si christiane sentis, te non pigeat hoc opus sanctissimum, que biblia inscribitur, magna cum animi voluptate degustare, degustandumque aliis persuadere: nuper impressum a Leonardo Basileensi magna cum diligentia. In eo enim fidei nostre fundamentum situm est: et christiane religionis decus ac radix. Ex eo tibi cognitionem rerum omnium in quibus salus nostra consistit legendo comparabis: quod eo libentius facere debes quo in tam felici seculo codex hic preciosissimus in lucem emendatissimus uenit, pontificatus uidelicet sanctissimi domini nostri pape domini Xisti [Sixti] quarti anno quinto, et imperii christianissimi Frederici tertii anno uigesimo sexto, et Andree Vendramini ducis inclyti uenetorum anno primo. MCCCCLXXVI sexto ydus maias.

Reader, whoever you are, if you have Christian feelings let it not annoy you to acquaint yourself with great pleasure of mind with this most sacred work which is entitled the Bible, and to persuade others to acquaint themselves with it, as it has lately been printed by Leonard of Basel with great diligence. For in it is seated the foundation of our faith, and the glory and root of the Christian religion. From reading it you will provide yourself with knowledge of all the things in which our salvation consists, and you should do this the more willingly because this most precious manuscript has been published in a most correct form at so happy an epoch, in the fifth year namely of the pontificate of our most holy lord Pope Sixtus IV, the twenty-sixth of the imperial rule of the most Christian Frederick III, and the first of the noble doge of Venice Andrea Vendramini. May 10, 1476.

As a rule, the books chosen for praise were of less self-evident merit, notably grammatical works by which a royal road was promised to the mysteries of Latin. Thus an unidentified Strassburg printer (possibly Husner, but known only as the “Printer of the 1493 Casus breues Decretalium”) recommended his “Exercitium Puerorum Grammaticale” not only to boys, but to friars, nuns, merchants, and every one else who needed Latin, in these glowing terms:

Finit tractatus secundus exercitii puerorum grammaticalis, in quo de regimine et constructione omnium dictionum secundum ordinem octo partium orationis processum est per regulas et questiunculas adeo lucidas faciles atque breues, doctissimorum virorum exemplis creberrimis roboratas, ut quisque sine preceptore eas discere, scire et intelligere possit. In quo si qui grammatici studiosi, cuiuscunque status fuerint, pueri, fratres, sorores, mercatores, ceterique seculares aut religiosi legerint, studuerint atque se oblectauerint, Finem grammatice ausim dicere breuissime sine magno labore consequentur. Impressum Argentine et finitus Anno &c M.cccc.xciiij.

Here ends the second treatise of the boys’ grammatical exercise, in which a course is given on the government and construction of all phrases according to the order of the eight parts of speech, by rules and little questions so clear, easy, and short, and confirmed by very numerous examples from the works of most learned men, that any one without a teacher can learn, know, and understand them. If any grammatical students, of whatever rank they be, whether boys, friars, nuns, merchants, or any one else, secular or religious, have read, studied, and delighted themselves in this, I make bold to say that very shortly and without much labor they will quickly reach the end of grammar. Printed at Strassburg and finished in the year, &c., 1494.

So, again, Arnold Pannartz, one of the prototypographers at Rome, vaunted the “De Elegantia Linguae Latinae” of Laurentius Valla as affording diligent students (they are warned that they must bring care and zeal to the task) a chance of making rapid progress.

Laurentii Vallae uiri eruditissimi et oratoris clarissimi de Elegantia linguae latinae Liber Sextus et ultimus diligenti emendatione finitus ab incarnatione domini anno M.CCCC.LXXV. die uero secunda mensis Iulii: sedente Sixto IIII Pon. Max. Anno eius quarto. Hos uero libros impressit Clarus ac diligentissimus artifex Arnoldus Pannartz, Natione Germanus, in domo nobilis uiri Petri de maximis, ciuis Romani. Tu qui Latine loqui cupis hos tibi eme libros, in quibus legendis si curam studiumque adhibueris, breui te haud parum profecisse intelliges.

The sixth and last book of Laurentius Valla, a man of the greatest learning and a most distinguished orator, on the Elegance of the Latin Tongue, after diligent correction, has been completed in the year from the Lord’s incarnation 1475, on July 2d, in the fourth year of the papacy of Sixtus IV. Now these books were printed by a distinguished and most diligent craftsman, Arnold Pannartz, a German, in the house of the noble Pietro dei Massimi, a Roman citizen. You who desire to speak Latin buy yourself these books, for in reading them, if you bring care and zeal to the task, in a short time you will understand that you have made no small progress.

Perhaps the eulogies of their own wares by publishers reaches its climax in the praises by Paulus Johannis de Puzbach of his edition of the “Expositio Problematum Aristotelis,” of which it is said that it will be useful to every creature in the universal world, though with the wise proviso that the said creature must use great diligence in its study (cuius utilitas erit omni creature in universo orbe que apponet huic operi studium summa cum diligentia).

Publishers who offered their readers a chance of buying books like these naturally posed as public benefactors, and in the colophon to a collection of the works of various illustrious men (Diui Athanasii contra Arium, etc.) printed at Paris in 1500 the reader is informed categorically that he owes four several debts of gratitude which apparently no such trifling consideration as the price demanded for the book could affect.

Finis. Habes, lector candidissime, sex opuscula, etc. Reliquum est igitur vt iis qui hec peperere grati animi significationem feceritis. Atque adeo in primis prestantissimo viro domino Simoni Radin, qui hec situ victa in lucem edenda curauit. Deinde F. Cypriano Beneti: qui castigatrices manus apposuit. Tum iohanni paruo bibliopolarum optimo qui suo ere imprimenda tradidit. Nec minus M. Andree Bocard calcographo solertissimo qui tam terse atque ad amussim castigata compressit: Ad quartum Calendas Iulias. Anno Millesimoquingentesimo. Deo sit laus et gloria.

Here you have, most honest reader, six works, etc. It remains, therefore, for you to make grateful acknowledgment to those who have produced them: in the first place to that eminent man Master Simon Radin, who saw to their being brought to light from the obscurity in which they were buried; next to F. Cyprian Beneti for his editorial care; then to Jean Petit, best of booksellers, who caused them to be printed at his expense; nor less than these to Andrieu Bocard, the skilful chalcographer, who printed them so elegantly and with scrupulous correctness, June 28, 1500. Praise and glory to God.

In this book, printed at the very end of the century in Paris, where the book trade had for centuries been highly organized, it is natural to find printer and publisher clearly separated, both being tradesmen working for gain. The lines for such a distinction already existed in the days of manuscripts, the scribes and the stationers belonging to quite separate classes, though they might assume each other’s functions. In the earliest days of printing the craftsmen were, as a rule, their own publishers; but the system of patronage and the desire of well-to-do persons in various ranks of society to get special books printed led to divers bargains and agreements. We find the Earl of Arundel encouraging Caxton to proceed with his translation of the “Golden Legend,” not only by the promise of a buck in summer and a doe in winter by way of yearly fee, but by agreeing to take “a reasonable quantity” of copies when the work was finished. The “Mirrour of the World” was paid for by Hugh Brice, afterward Lord Mayor of London. Whether William Pratt, who on his death-bed bade Caxton publish the “Book of Good Manners,” or William Daubeney, Treasurer of the King’s Jewels, who urged him to issue the “Charles the Great,” offered any money help, we are not told. Caxton was probably a man of some wealth when he began printing, and could doubtless afford to take his own risks; but other printers were less fortunate, and references in colophons to patrons, and to men of various ranks who gave commissions for books, are sufficiently numerous. Thus at Pescia we find two brothers, Sebastian and Raphael dei Orlandi, who subsidized works printed at two, if not three or even four, different presses. Most of the books they helped to finance were legal treatises, as for instance the Commentaries of Accoltus on Acquiring Possession, printed by Franciscus and Laurentius de Cennis, 1486.

Finiunt Commentaria singularia et admiranda super titulo de acquirenda possessione, quem titulum mirabiliter prefatus dominus Franciscus novissime commentatus est in studio Pisano, Anno Redentionis domini nostri Iesu cristi, M.cccc Lxxx. ultima Iulii. Impressa vero Piscie et ex proprio auctoris exemplari sumpta Anno M.cccc Lxxxvi. die Iovis. IIII. ianuarii. Impensis nobilium iuvenum Bastiani et Raphaelis fratres [_sic_] filiorum Ser Iacobi Gerardi de Orlandis de Piscia. Opera venerabilis religiosi Presbiteri Laurentii et Francisci Fratrum et filiorum Cennis Florentinorum ad gloriam omnipotentis Dei.

Here end the singular and wonderful Commentaries on the title Of Acquiring Possession, which title the aforesaid Master Franciscus lately lectured on marvellously in the University of Pisa, in the year of the Redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ 1480, on the last day of July. Printed at Pescia and taken from the author’s own copy, Thursday, January 4, 1486, at the charges of the noble youths the brothers Bastian and Raphael, sons of Ser Jacopo Gerardo dei Orlandi of Pescia, with the help of the venerable religious priest Lorenzo de Cennis and Francis his brother, Florentines, to the glory of Almighty God.

Another law-book was printed for them by the same firm also in 1486, and three others in that year and in 1489 by firms not yet identified. But their interests though mainly were not entirely legal, and in 1488, from the press of Sigismund Rodt, there appeared an edition of Vegetius, in the colophon to which their views on the physical degeneration question of the day were very vigorously set forth.

Non sunt passi diutius situ et squalore delitescere illustrem Vegetium De militari disciplina loquentem, uirum omni laude dignissimum, ingenui adolescentes Sebastianus et Raphael de Orlandis. Quem ob eam maxime causam imprimi curauerunt ut et antique uirtutis exemplo Italici iuuenes, longa desidia ignauiaque torpentes, tandem expergiscerentur: cum preter singularem de arte doctrinam ita in omni genere uirtutum consummatum iudicamus: ut non solum illius artis meditatione tyro optimus miles fiat, sed omnis etas solertior, omnis spiritus uigilantior omne denique humanum ingenium prestantius efficiatur. Piscie, iiii Nonas Aprilis. M. cccc.lxxxviii. Sigismondo Rodt de Bitsche operis architecto.