Part 6

Editions of Livy with the Scholia of Sigonius were issued from the Aldine press in 1555, 1566, 1572 and 1592. This third edition is distinguished from those which preceded it by some additions to the Scholia and an appendix in which the editor defends his views on the chronology of Livy against the attacks of two opponents. But typographically it is inferior to the second edition as the second was inferior to the first, which alone was printed under the active supervision of Paulus. In 1561 he went to Rome to undertake the direction of a press which Pius IV. was about to establish and died there in 1574, having made only one brief visit to Venice in the intervening thirteen years. In his absence the Venice press, when not inactive or leased, was mainly in the charge of his son, the younger Aldus (1547-97), who in spite of the promise of his early years failed both as a scholar and as a printer to sustain the reputation of his father and grandfather. To the present edition Aldus contributed the _Veterum scriptorum de T. Liuio testimonia_, and he is also unquestionably responsible for the large and strange device which replaces the simple anchor for which his father had shown so marked a preference. It consists of the arms granted to Paulus in 1571 by the Emperor Maximilian II. (in which the Aldine anchor occupies a subordinate place) surrounded by a border of heavy ornament with the addition: _Ex privilegio Maximiliani II. Imp. Caes. Aug._ When his father's death had made him the head of the press he continued for some years to employ the same device. For the Livy of 1592, much inferior to the present edition, and of interest only as showing the decline into which the Aldine press, and the Italian presses in general, had fallen at the end of the sixteenth century, he was only indirectly responsible. He left Venice in 1585 and spent the last years of his life at Rome, as professor of belles-lettres and joint director of the Vatican press.

35. BIBLIA LATINA. Parisiis, Yolande Bonhomme, vidua Thielmanni Kerver, August 14, 1549.

TITLE: Biblia sacra, integru_m_ vtriusq_ue_ testame_n_ti corpus co_m_plecte_n_s, dilige_n_ter recognita et eme_n_data. Cu_m_ concorda_n_tijs simul et argume_n_tis: cu_m_q_ue_ iuris canoni_c_i allegationib_us_ passim adnotatis. Insup_er_ i_n_ calce eiusde_m_ annexe su_n_t no_m_i_nu_m Hebraico_rum_, Chaldeo_rum_, atq_ue_ Greco_rum_ interp_re_tatio_n_es. Huic editio_n_i adiect_us_ e_st_ Index re_rum_ et sente_n_tia_rum_ vetr_is_ _et_ noui testame_nti_. [Printer's device (shield bearing the initials T.K. suspended from a tree and supported by two unicorns, with name THIELMAN.KERVER. at foot), both the title and the device framed in a woodcut border]. _Fol. 562^a_, COLOPHON: Parisijs, ex officina libraria yola_n_de bonhomme, Uidue spectabilis viri Thielmanni Keruer, sub signo vnicornis in vico sancti Jacobi vbi et venundatur. Absolutum Anno domini Millesimo quingentesimo quadragesimo nono Decimo nono Calendas Septembris. [Printer's device on verso].

Octavo. Sign. A^8, B^4, a-z, aa-zz, A-Y^8, Z^6, aaa-eee^8. 602 leaves, comprising 12 preliminary unnumbered leaves containing title, _Ad divinarum literarum verarumque divitiarum amatores exhortatio, Librorum ordo, Biblie summarium_. Gabriel Bruno's _Tabula alphabetica historiarum_; fol. i-cccccxx, text; 30 unnumbered leaves _Index rerum et sententiarum_; 40 unnumbered leaves _Interpretationes nominum Hebraicorum_, etc. Very small gothic letter, double columns, 58 lines to the column. Six- to eight-line woodcut initials of the several books, the unicorns of Kerver's device appearing in that of Gen. i. Le Long-Masch iii, 2, 149.

The octavo Latin Bibles of the Kerver press, fifteen editions of which appeared between 1508 and 1560, were closely patterned after Froben's edition, Basel, 1591 (the first Bible printed in octavo form), both as regards the text, based on the "Fontibus ex Græcis" editions, 1478 ff., and the introductory and supplementary matter of various origin accompanying it. The earliest of these supplements, _Interpretationes nominum Hebraicorum_, an etymological index of Hebrew proper names, appeared first in the Bible of Sweynheym and Pannartz, Rome, 1471, and was reprinted without change in most of the editions previous to 1515. In the Complutensian Polyglot it underwent revision and the revised form appears in all the editions of Yolande Bonhomme, with due acknowledgment to Cardinal Ximenes. The _Index rerum et sententiarum_, however, announced in the title as a new addition to this edition (as it had been also announced in the edition of 1546, not mentioned by Masch and Copinger, of which this is an exact duplicate) was borrowed from the Bible of Robert Stephens, Paris, 1534, without acknowledgment, perhaps in order the better to escape the suspicion of heresy attached to his work. In Copinger's chronological table of the printed editions of the Latin Bible during the 15th and 16th centuries (_Incunabula Biblica_, p. 207) this is no. 339, total number 562.

The Kerver press was less celebrated for its Bibles than for liturgical works, and for the books of private devotion (_Horae, Heures_) of which Brunet (_Manuel_, v, col. 1614-27) enumerates no less than fifty-six, printed by Thielmann, his widow, or his sons, between 1497 and 1571. The wood-engravings with which they were illustrated were repeated in the successive editions and occasionally also in the Bibles. Two of these borrowed cuts are found in the present edition, facing the Old and the New Testament. The first represents the Expulsion from the Garden, but the verse printed underneath (Gen. ii. 7) calls for the Creation of Adam, which in Yolande's editions of 1526 and 1534 is actually present, while here another engraving has been substituted, but the verse left standing. Facing the New Testament, under the heading _Jesu Christi secundum carnem genealogia_, is a genealogical tree springing from "the root of Jesse."

Following the usual alphabetical order of the signatures (A-Z, aaa-eee), the _Index rerum et sententiarum_ (sign. U-Z) is here placed before the _Interpretationes_ (sign. aaa-eee). This is contrary to the direction of the _Collectio codicum_ found on the last leaf of the _Index_ (Z6), where the order prescribed is A-T, aaa-eee, U-Z, which is further supported by the colophon and printer's device on Z6. The _Index_ as the latest supplement was meant to stand at the end of the volume.

Bound in oak boards covered with stamped leather, brass corners and bosses, gilt gauffred edges. Around the central boss of the back cover is stamped the date A.D. 1571, and on the front cover, in corresponding position and order, the initials F E P L P F.

From the Osterley Park sale, May, 1885, with the book-plate of Victor Albert George Child Villiers, Earl of Jersey. Leaf 6-1/2 × 4-1/2 in.

36. PHILO JUDÆUS. De divinis decem oraculis. Lutetiæ, apud Carolum Stephanum, 1554.

TITLE: Philonis Iudæi DE DIVINIS DECEM oraculis, quæ summa sunt legum capita Liber, Iohanne Væuræo interprete. [Printer's device] LVTETIAE, Apud Carolum Stephanum, Typographum Regium. M.D.LIIII.

Octavo. 72 numbered pages, followed by one leaf _Ad lectorem_ and one blank. Pp. 3-6, dedication by the translator to Charles de Guise, Cardinal de Lorraine, Archbishop of Reims, to whom was also dedicated the first edition of the works of Philo in Greek, printed by Turnebus, Paris 1552. Printed on vellum. On p. 7 a beautiful seven-line engraved initial R. The device is that chosen by the printer's brother Robert, the olive tree and the motto _Noli altum sapere_, without the addition _sed time_.

Renouard, _Annales de l'impr. des Estienne_, 2^e éd., p. 106; adds to his description of the volume the following note: "Dédié au cardinal de Lorraine, pour lequel il en fut tiré sur vélin un exemplaire que depuis l'on a vu relié en maroq. jaune ancien, avec une tête en or sur la couverture. Il a passé dans une Bibliothèque inconnue." The present copy answers completely to this description and is without doubt the dedication copy in question. The binding (17th cent.) is yellow morocco, browned by age, gilt edges, with a medallion head in gold embossed on the back cover. Within are written names of former owners; on the title page _N. Tetel_, _1644 datum Remis_ and _Claude Henry Corrard_; on the cover linings _ex Libris Claudii Tetel ad Mussey_(?); _Ce livre appartient à m^{lle} Jean Collot_.

By an oversight Renouard omitted this volume from his list (p. 271) of "Editions Stéphaniennes dont on connoit un on plusieurs exemplaires imprimés sur vélin." It increases the number to twenty-three, seventeen of them printed by the first Henri and only six by his descendants.

Charles Estienne (1504?-1564), a member of a second remarkable family of scholar-printers of the sixteenth century, whose history forms so interesting a parallel to that of Aldus and his descendants, though he does not rank with his brother Robert, or Robert's son the second Henry, certainly brought no discredit on the family name. He was educated as a physician, but when Robert withdrew to Geneva to escape the persecutions of the Sorbonne, he took charge of the Paris press and conducted it with ability from 1551 to 1561, printing one hundred volumes and receiving the appointment of king's printer. Aside from this attractive volume no vellum copy of his books is known.

From the Wodhull sale, with the Wodhull arms stamped in gold on the front cover. Mem. within: "Payne's sale. £3 3s. M. Wodhull, Apr. 14^{th} 1792. Collat & complet." On the last blank leaf is entered the date "Oct. 17^{th} 1808," a record possibly of a later "visitation." Similar dates, some years later than the date of purchase are found on the end leaves of other Wodhull books. Leaf 7 × 4-1/2 in.

Transcriber's Note:

The following inconsistencies found in the text have been retained:

head-line / headline Homiliæ / Homiliae (in referring to the same book) De Vinne / DeVinne Prohemye / Proheyme