Chapter 5

Richard Pynson, a Norman by birth, established himself in London about 1490, taking over, as there is good reason to believe, the business of Machlinia, a printer of law books, for which his knowledge of Norman-French especially fitted him. In 1508 he was made Printer to the King and in that year also he printed two books in roman type, the first use of that character in England. He is known to have printed at least 371 books, a much smaller number than de Worde, but as a rule larger and more important books. He is regarded as the best English printer of his time and the _Liber Intrationum_ is one of his finest books.

Bound in red velvet, with silk linings and gilt edges. Leaf 12-3/4 × 9-1/4 in.

From the Syston Park library, with the book-plate and monogram of Sir John Henry Thorold.

27. PLUTARCHUS. Moralia Graece. Venetiis, in ædibus Aldi et Andreæ soceri, 1509.

TITLE: PLVTARCHI OPVSCVLA. LXXXXII. Index Moralium omnium, & eorum quæ in ipsis tractantur, habetur in hoc quaternione. Numerus autem Arithmeticus remittit lectorem ad semipagina_m_, ubi tractantur singula. [Aldine anchor]. _P. 1050_, COLOPHON: Venetiis, in ædibus Aldi & Andreæ Asulani Soceri. mense Martio. M. D. IX. [Blank leaf with anchor on verso.]

Quarto. Sign. *, a-z, &, aa-zz, aaa-sss^8, ttt^6. 8 unnumbered preliminary leaves (sign * not included in register on p. 1050) containing title, dedicatory epistle of Aldus to Jacopo Antiquario, index, four couplets of Jerome Aleander, preface of the editor Demetrius Doukas (all except title and dedication in Greek); 1050 numbered pages of Greek text, final blank leaf with anchor on verso. The type is Aldus's fourth Greek font, 46 lines to the page, five- to eight-line spaces left for initials. The _semipagina_ (the equivalent of our _page_) to which the index directs the reader, shows that _pagina_ still had its older meaning _leaf_, and incidentally that the numbering of the page instead of the leaf was an innovation. The anchor and dolphin device, the symbol of the motto _Festina lente_, which first appeared in the Dante of 1502, is here in its first form, but of the larger size suitable for folios and enclosed in double lines, on the title-page without name, but on the last leaf with the addition ALDVS.MA.RO. Although on the evidence of the chain-lines and the water-mark technically a quarto, the volume on account of its unusual size was doubtless printed like a folio on half sheets. Renouard, p. 55. Firmin-Didot, p. 317.

Plutarch's _Moralia_ belongs to that imposing series of first editions of the Greek classics which among all the services of Aldus Manutius to the revival of learning are perhaps his best title to enduring fame. When he set up his press in 1495 five in all, and but one, Homer, of the first rank, had been printed. When he died twenty years later his first editions outnumbered those of all his contemporaries put together, and the rank was even more significant than the number, for among them were included Aristotle, Plato, Thucydides, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar and Demosthenes. The Plutarch was printed from MSS. still preserved in the library of St. Mark.

The Greek type of Aldus was a new departure, based on the cursive or business handwriting of his day in distinction from the older book-hand which had served as the model for the first Greek fonts. It gained immediate popularity and for more than two hundred years, either directly or through fonts based upon it, dominated the Greek printing of Europe. At length, mainly because of the ligatures and contractions, it was supplanted by type of more open and regular forms.

In 1508 Aldus took as partner his father-in-law, Andrea Torresano d'Asola, a Venetian printer who in 1480 had taken over the business of Nicolas Jenson. The imprint which had hitherto been _apud Aldum_ or _in aedibus Aldi_ now became _in aedibus Aldi et Andreae soceri_. After the death of Aldus in 1515 the press was conducted without change of name by the surviving partner until his own death in 1529.

Thick paper copy. Leaf 10-3/4 × 7 in. On p. 1050 is written _Collegii Societatis Jesu Embricae 1605_.

From the library of Sir J.H. Thorold of Syston Park, with book-plate. Bound by R. Storr, Grantham, in red morocco, gilt edges, with anchor on sides. The "Dictionary of English Book-collectors," pt. 2, calls attention to the Aldine anchor (made more realistic by an end of rope cable twisted about it) stamped by the Grantham bookbinders Messrs. Storr & Ridge upon many of the Thorold books, "not only those bound by themselves, but also those bound by far better men." Examples of both kinds are found in the present collection.

As an illustration of the first Greek type of Aldus there is joined to this collection a finely executed manuscript facsimile on vellum of his _Musaeus_ of 1495, his second book (preceded by the Grammar of Lascaris), but the first in which the font appeared in its completed state. From the Syston Park library. Bound by Bozérian Jeune, in blue morocco extra.

28. SCRIPTORES REI RUSTICAE. Venetiis, in ædibus Aldi et Andreae soceri, 1514.

TITLE: LIBRI DE RE RVSTICA. M. CATONIS LIB. I. M. TERENTII VARRONIS LIB. III. L. IVNII MODERATI COLVMELLAE LIB. XII. Eiusdem de arboribus liber separatus ab alijs, quare autem id factum fuerit: ostenditur in epistola ad lectorem. PALLADII LIB. XIIII. De duobus dierum generibus: simulq_ue_ de umbris, et horis, quæ apud Palladium, in alia epistola ad lectorem. Georgij Alexandrini enarrationes priscarum dictionum, quæ in his libris Catonis: Varronis: Columellæ. [Aldine anchor]. Hos libros Pontificis etiam Leonis decreto, nequis alius usquam locorum impune imprimat, cautum est. _Fol. 308^a_: COLOPHON: VENETIIS IN AEDIBVS ALDI ET ANDREAE SOCERI MENSE MAIO M.D.XIIII. [Aldine anchor on verso].

Quarto. Sign. *, aa, bb^8, cc^{10}, a-h^8, i^4, k-z, A-Q^8. 8 unnumbered preliminary leaves containing title, privilege of Leo X. countersigned by P. Bembo, papal secretary, preface of the editor, Fra Giocondo, addressed to Leo X., _Aldus lectori_ (two epistles, the first relating to the position of the _De arboribus_ of Columella, an independent treatise, in previous editions inserted in his _De re rustica_ as liber lii, but here correctly placed after that work, the second, to the hours of Palladius, varying in length with the seasons, and the use of the gnomon in determining them), _errata_; 26 unnumbered leaves (preceded by a second title with anchor and mention of the privileges of Alexander VI., Julius II. and Leo. X.) containing explanations of unfamiliar words and table of contents, last leaf blank; 308 numbered leaves of text, Sign. * is not included in the register on fol. 308^a and being followed by a second title-page its absence, if accidentally omitted, might pass unnoticed. Italic letter, 39 lines to the page, six- to seven-line spaces with guide-letters left for the initials of the thirty books, which in the present copy are supplied in gold and colors. Numerous paragraph-marks in alternate red and blue. Ruled in red. Renouard, p. 66. Firmin-Didot, p. 370.

The italic type of Aldus, a cursive or semi-cursive roman, the counterpart of his cursive Greek, was modeled as he himself informs us on the handwriting of Petrarch _a lettra per lettra_. It first appeared in the Vergil of 1501, the first of his octavo series of classics and only three months later, as was but just, in _Le cose volgari_ of Petrarch. It had at the outset, corresponding to the Greek ligatures, many double letters and even groups of three cast on the same body, which were for the most part eliminated later by Paulus Manutius. Originally it consisted only of lower-case letters and borrowed the capitals of the roman font, using for economy of space small capitals which DeVinne points out as the useful invention of Aldus. Aldus was sensible of the deficiency and the last clause of his will was a request to his partner, Andrea, to have suitable capitals made by the celebrated engraver, Giulio Campagnola. It was, however, not until 1558 that they were finally supplied by Paulus, in connection with a new italic font. What has now ceased to be anything more than a useful auxiliary type was by Aldus employed as a text type, a chief recommendation being that it was more condensed than the roman and enabled him to greatly reduce the price of his books by making an octavo do the work of a quarto or folio. In 1501 he printed six, and in 1502 eleven octavos, whereas all his earlier books, with one unimportant exception, had been of the larger forms.

In 1496 the Venetian Senate granted to Aldus protection for his Greek type and the books printed with it for the period of twenty years, and in 1502 a like privilege covering both his italic and Greek type for ten years. A similar grant made by Alexander VI. in 1502 was renewed by Julius II. in January, 1513, for fifteen years and confirmed by his successor, Leo X., in December of the same year.

From the library of Robert Samuel Turner, sold in 1888.

Bound in red morocco extra, with gold tooling in the Grolier style, edges gilt over red. Leaf 8-1/2 × 5-1/4 in. Book-stamp on verso of last leaf: "Ex libris J.B.P.H. Caqué, D.M. Rem. 1775".

29. CICERO, MARCUS TULLIUS. Rhetorica. Venetiis, in ædibus Aldi et Andreae soceri, 1521.

TITLE: IN HOC VOLVMINE HAEC CONTINENTVR. Rhetoricorum ad C. Herennium lib. IIII. M.T. Ciceronis de inuentione lib. II. Eiusdem de oratore ad Quintum fratrem lib. III. Eiusdem de claris oratoribus, q_ui_ dicitur Brutus lib. I. Eiusdem Orator ad Brutum lib. I. Eiusdem Topica ad Trebatium lib. I. Eiusdem oratoriæ partitiones lib. I. Eiusdem de optimo genere oratorum præfatio quædam. Index rerum notabilium, quæ toto opere continentur, per ordinem alphabeti. [Aldine anchor] Hos libros etiam Pontificum Alexandri, Iulij, ac Leonis demum decretis, neq_u_is alius usquam locorum impune imprimat, cautum est. _Fol. 245^a_, COLOPHON: VENETIIS IN AEDIBVS ALDI, ET ANDREAE SOCERI MENSE OCTOBRI M.D.XXI. [Blank leaf with anchor on verso].

Quarto. Sign. *, **, a-k^8, l^4, m-z, A-G^8, H^{10}. 16 unnumbered preliminary leaves, containing preface by Aldus addressed to Andrea Navagero and alphabetical index (the blank last leaf wanting in this copy); 245 numbered leaves of text and final blank leaf with anchor. Sign. * and ** have eight leaves each, not ten as stated in the register on p. 245. Italic letter, 39 lines to the page, three- to seven-line spaces with guide-letters left for initials. The anchor is of the second, somewhat ungraceful, pattern in use 1519-1524, after which there was for some years a return to the first form. Renouard, p. 93.

Reprinted, with only the addition of the index, from the 1514 edition of Aldus. In the preface is found the often quoted inscription placed over the door of Aldus to discourage the idle visitor: _Quisquis es: rogat te Aldus etiam: atque etiam: ut, si quid est, quod a se velis: perpaucis agas_, etc. The edition of 1533, with the imprint _in ædibus haeredum Aldi Manutii Romani & Andreae Asulani Soceri_ and a short preface by Paulus Manutius (it was his first book as director of the press) is also essentially unchanged, but his edition of 1546, in octavo, was thoroughly revised in text and accompanied by a folio volume of variorum commentaries.

Bound by Roger Payne, in blue morocco, gilt edges, with cipher of Sir Mark Masterman Sykes on back, at whose sale in 1824 it brought £1.11s.6d. The Syston Park copy with book-plate, and monogram of Sir John Hayford Thorold. Leaf 8-1/2 × 5-1/4 in.

30. CELSUS, AURELIUS CORNELIUS. De medicina. SERENUS, QUINTUS. De medicina. Venetiis, in ædibus Aldi et Andreæ soceri, 1528.

TITLE: IN HOC VOLVMINE HAEC CONTINENTVR. AVRELII CORNELII CELSI MEDICINAE LIBRI .VIII. QVAM EMENDATISSIMI, GRAECIS ETIAM OMNIBVS DICTIONIBVS RESTITVTIS. QVINTI SERENI LIBER DE MEDICINA ET IPSE CASTIGATISS. ACCEDIT INDEX IN CELSVM ET SERENVM SANE QVAM COPIOSVS. [Aldine anchor] Venetorum decreto, ne quis aliquo in loco Venetæ ditionis hos libros imprimat, impressosue alibi uendat, cautum est. _Fol. 1^a_: AVRELII CORNELII CELSI ARTIVM LIBER SEXTVS, IDEM MEDICINAE LIBER PRIMVS. _Fol. 164^a_: COLOPHON: VENETIIS IN AEDIBVS ALDI, ET ANDREAE ASVLANI SOCERI MENSE MARTIO. M.D.XXVIII. [Aldine anchor on verso].

Quarto. 8 preliminary unnumbered leaves containing title, dedicatory epistle of the editor, Giovanni Baptista Egnazio, to Cardinal Hercules Gonzaga and index; 164 numbered leaves of text (fol. 148 blank). Italic letter, three- to seven-line spaces with guide-letter left for initials. Renouard, p. 105.

The _De Medicina_ of Celsus is the second and only surviving part of his Encyclopædia entitled _Artes_, in five divisions. The first division, _De Agricultura_, consisted of five books, so that the sixth book of _Artes_ was at the same time the first of _De Medicina_.

The Syston Park copy, uncut. Bound by Roger Payne in red morocco. Leaf 9 × 5-1/2 in.

31. CICERO, MARCUS TULLIUS. Epistolæ ad Atticum, ad M. Brutum, ad Quintum fratrem. Venetiis, apud Aldi filios, 1540.

TITLE: M.TVLLII CICERONIS EPISTOLAE ad Atticum, ad M. Brutum, ad Quintu_m_ fratrem, summa diligentia castigatæ, ut in ijs menda, quæ plurima erant, paucissima jam supersint. PAVLI MANVTII IN EASDEM EPISTOLAS Scholia, quibus abditi locorum sensus ostenduntur, cum explicatione castigationum, quæ in his epistolis pene innumerabilis factæ sunt. [Aldine anchor] PAVLVS MANVTIVS ALDI F. VENETIIS, M.D.XL. _Fol. 344^a_, COLOPHON: APVD ALDI FILIOS. VENETIIS, M.D.XL. MENSE AVGVSTO. [Aldine anchor on verso]

Octavo. 2 preliminary leaves containing title and dedication by Paulus Manutius to Guillaume Pellicier, Bishop of Montpellier, 331 numbered leaves of text, 10 unnumbered leaves of translations of the Greek passages, conjectural emendations which the editor "would not hesitate to adopt it he should ever find an ancient MS. to confirm them" and a final leaf with colophon and anchor. The Scholia, 24 unnumbered leaves, have a separate title, with notice of copyright granted by Paul III. (the fourth pope to grant this privilege) and the Venetian senate; colophon and anchor repeated on last leaf. Italic letter, 30 lines to the page, five-line spaces with guide-letters left for initials. Renouard, p. 120.

Except for the interval 1533-6 the press was inactive from 1529 to 1540, on account of dissensions between the heirs of Andrea and Aldus. The partnership having been dissolved the press was reopened in 1540 by the sons of Aldus (_apud Aldi filios_) under the direction of the youngest, Paulus Manutius (1512-74), who restored and added to its lustre. Of Cicero, his favorite author, he revised the entire text and printed repeated editions of some of the works: e.g. of the _Epistolae ad Atticum, ad M. Brutum, ad Quintum fratrem_ not less than ten, of which this is the first. The brief scholia he expanded later into full and valuable commentaries, on the Letters to Atticus in 1547, on the Letters to Brutus and Quintus in 1557.

It was Petrarch who in 1345 discovered in a Verona MS. the long lost Letters to Atticus, Brutus and Quintus and copied them with his own hand. Both the MS. and Petrarch's copy are lost. But of the MS. another transcript, procured by Petrarch's friend Salutati in 1389, is preserved in the Laurentian Library, and of the Petrarch copy we have here a replica in the type which Aldus characterized as _manum mentiens_.

From the Syston Park library, with book-plate. Bound by Roger Payne, in blue morocco, gilt edges. Leaf 6-1/2 × 4 in.

32. CICERO, MARCUS TULLIUS. Orationes. Venetiis, apud Aldi filios, 1546.

TITLE: M. TVLLII CICERONIS ORATIONVM PARS I. [Aldine anchor] CORRIGENTE PAVLO MANVTIO, ALDI FILIO. VENETIIS, M.D.XLVI. _Fol. 308^a_, COLOPHON: VENETIIS, APVD ALDI FILIOS, M.D.XXXXVI.

Octavo. 4 unnumbered preliminary leaves, containing title and preface of Paulus Manutius addressed to Cardinal Benedetto Accolto, 303 numbered leaves of text and a final leaf with register and colophon on the recto and anchor on the verso. Italic letter, 30 lines to the page, five-line spaces with guide-letters left for initials. Renouard, p. 136.

The second edition of the Orations printed by Paulus, vol. I only (II, III wanting), on large paper. Renouard (who knew of no complete copy of the three volumes l.p.) remarks, p. 141, on the too elongated form of most of the Aldine large paper octavos, in which all the increased space is at the bottom. In the present copy it is divided between the bottom and the outer margin, the inner margin and the top having no increase of width--an arrangement well adapted for marginal annotations and perhaps designed for that use. An early owner of this copy has in fact added to the printed title (_Orationum Pars I_) with a pen the word _Commentata_, but proceeded no further with his plan than simply to underscore a number of words on the first three pages, leaving the margins untouched.

The most important of the commentaries of Paulus was that on the Orations, completed not long before his death and printed by his son Aldus in 1578-9 in three folio volumes.

From the Syston Park library, with book-plate and the monogram of Sir J.H. Thorold. Bound in red morocco, gilt edges, with Aldine anchor in gold on sides. Leaf 8 × 5-1/4 in.

33. PTOLEMAEUS, CLAUDIUS. Planisphærium. JORDANUS NEMORANUS. Planisphærium. Venetiis, [apud Paulum Manutium], 1558.

TITLE: PTOLEMAEI PLANISPHAERIVM. IORDANI PLANISPHAERIVM. FEDERICI COMMANDINI VRBINATIS IN PTOLEMAEI PLANISPHAERIVM COMMENTARIVS. In quo uniuersa Scenographices ratio quam breuissime traditur, ac demonstrationibus confirmatur. [Aldine anchor] VENETIIS, M.D.LVIII.

Quarto (not octavo, as described by Renouard). _Part 1._ 4 unnumbered preliminary leaves containing title and dedicatory preface of Commandino to Cardinal Rainuccio Farnese, 37 numbered leaves of text (1-25 Ptolemy, 26-37 Jordanus), final blank leaf with anchor on verso. _Part 2._ 28 numbered leaves of commentary, with separate title, anchor both on title and on verso of last leaf. Text in roman, 25 lines to the page; commentary in italic, 34 lines to the page. Many woodcut diagrams. Both text and commentary are introduced by a seven-line woodcut initial belonging to a mythological series found in other books of Paulus of this period, C picturing Calypso bidding adieu to Ulysses, I, Juno seated on a car drawn by peacocks. The original italic font of Aldus, the so-called _Aldino_ type, which appears to have passed into the possession of the Torresani relatives at about this date, is here replaced by a new font having a perceptibly larger face, though only a slightly larger body (20 lines of the new equalling 21 of the old) and consequently showing less white between the lines. Renouard, p. 173.

In 1554 the subscription assumed the new form _apud Paulum Manutium Aldi F._, showing that Paulus had acquired his brothers' rights in the press. At the same time he returned to the earlier and simpler form of the anchor with the name _Aldus_, instead of the _Aldi filii_ and the ornamental border in use since 1546. Sometimes, as in the present volume, the subscription is omitted altogether and the anchor with the name Aldus alone used. Here moreover the place and date appear only on the title-page and the colophon is dropped as no longer useful.

The original Greek text of Ptolemy's Planisphere is lost. To the present Latin translation, made by an unknown hand from the Arabic, is appended (fol. 25) this subscription: _Facta est translatio haec Tolosae Cal. Iunii Anno Domini MCXLIIII_. The revival of the study of the Greek mathematicians in the sixteenth century was largely due to the admirable translations and commentaries of Federigo Commandino of Urbino (1509-75). This edition of Ptolemy's Planisphere still remains the best. In the same year Paulus printed _Archimedis Opera nonnulla a Federico Commandino Vrbinate nuper in latinum conversa et commentariis illustrata_.

Uncut copy, bound in blue morocco, with vellum fly-leaves. Leaf 8-3/4 × 6-1/2 in. From the Syston Park library with book-plate and monogram of Sir John Hayford Thorold.

34. LIVIUS, TITUS. Historiarum ab urbe condita libri. Venetiis, in ædibus Manutianis, 1572.

TITLE: T.LIVII PATAVINI, Historiarum ab urbe condita, LIBRI. QVI. EXSTANT XXXV CVM. VNIVERSAE. HISTORIAE. EPITOMIS Caroli Sigonij Scholia, quibus ijdem libri, atque epitomae partim emendantur, partim etiam explanantur, Ab Auctore multis in partibus aucta. [Printer's device] VENETIIS ∞ DLXXII. In Aedibus Manutianis.

Folio. Part 1. 48 unnumbered preliminary leaves containing title, preface of Sigonius, _Veterum scriptorum de T. Liuio testimonia ab Aldo Manutio Paulli F. Aldi N. collecta, Libri primi epitome, Rerum et vocum apud T. Liuium index copiosissimus_; 399 numbered leaves of text (blank last leaf wanting). Part 2. _Caroli Sigonii Scholia_, with separate title and device, 109 numbered leaves and blank end leaf. Part 3. _Caroli Sigonii Livianorum Scholiorum aliquot Defensiones adversus Glareanum et Robortellum_, with separate title and device, 52 numbered pages. Roman character, except _epitomae_ i-xlv and _index_ which are in the italic type of the Ptolemy commentary, and the preface which is a large and unusual italic, first found in a notice prefixed to the _Medici antiqui_ of 1547, once as a text type in 1550, afterwards only in an occasional preface or title-page. Like the smaller italic of Paulus it is provided with capitals. The large woodcut initials of the several books belong to the mythological series found in the Ptolemy but are here much worn. Renouard, p. 215.