CHAPTER IX

OTHER ITALIAN TOWNS

_Rome_

We have alluded in the preceding chapter to the paucity of woodcut initials in early works printed at Rome, and it is well known that the opinions of the clergy were divided with respect to the propriety of adding decorative embellishments to books. Some church dignitaries considered it a pious occupation, whilst others, who looked upon the copying of manuscripts as a sure way of attaining salvation,[28] were entirely against book ornamentation. It is probably on account of some such hostility on the part of the ecclesiastical authorities that ornamental initials are so seldom met with in books of the early Roman printers. In a list, for instance, of seventy-nine works published by Planck, only one, a _Pontificale_ of 1485, is mentioned as having woodcut initials; in the same list, of thirty-nine books by Eucharius Silber, there is one only with ornamental letters. Lastly, of one hundred and seventy-eight other works by seventeen known and six unknown printers, only two are reported as being so embellished. Of the earlier printers, Sweynheim and Pannartz used some very handsome initials in a few of their publications after 1470, the D reproduced being from their Suetonius, _Vitæ Cæsarum_. We give also a P from one of E. Silber’s publications, and a C with the portrait of Ariosto from a work published by Jacobus Mazochius, 1515.

[28] A propos of manuscript copying, there was an anecdote current in _Scriptoria_ concerning a brother who had sinned very constantly whilst in the flesh, and who was challenged by St. Peter at the Gate of Paradise. The tally at first seemed to go against the applicant, but at last it was found that he had been for some time a scribe; written letters were checked against sins, and the frater was found to have a small but sufficient balance in his favour.

Siennese impressions are anything but common, and as the early typography of this town still awaits a historian, a short account of a few works from its chief press will not be out of place. The most important is no doubt the Datus, printed by Simeon Nardi in 1503. The title consists of two lines in small Gothic characters, _Augustini dati senensis opera_, and underneath come three sonnets by admirers of Datus (for the name is spelt indifferently, Datus or Dathus), in each of which he is compared to Cicero. ‘Read through,’ says Angelus Fundius, ‘this venerable volume of the facund Dathus, but take care I advise you to glance first at the title page.’ ‘Nam si forte vagus legeres, mihi crede putares non esse hoc Dathi sed Ciceronis opus.’ The others are equally complimentary. The volume is a folio collection of speeches and essays on all kinds of subjects, and consists of fourteen preliminary, followed by two hundred and ninety numbered leaves, or twice as many pages. There are sixty lines to the page of small, clear Roman type, pleasantly relieved by curious little capitals. The colophon gives ‘Impressum Senis ex Architypo per Symeonem Nicolai Nardi, Anno salutis MDIII Sexto Kal Novembris,’ and on the verso is Nardi’s mark representing a child holding a banneret astride a wolf, which is suckling another child beneath. The whole is surrounded by a highly ornamented border.

The most interesting feature, however, of the book is its series of large initials, which, taking into consideration the two different states of the Q, are fourteen in number.[29] The most characteristic, and perhaps the most effective, are those on a black ground, but the others are equally free and vigorous in treatment. One of them, the R, has the same subject (Romulus and Remus with the wolf) as the printer’s mark, a subject which is used in other volumes as a pictorial title-page. The reason of this is explained in the motto at the bottom of the mark in another book,

‘ROMAE QUE ORIGO SENAE INSIGNIA.’

[29] In some of the proofs the Q is a white letter, the original block being cut away.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the impressions are not all equally good, but it is easy to see that where anything is wanting, it is the fault of the printing and not of the artist.

The letters of this series were much used in subsequent publications, but with the exception of an ornamental M of the same style which comes from a book of poetry published by Simon Rubeo in 1513, and an I in a tract by Marcellus Beringhuccius not of the same merit, we have not seen any Sienna letters that are not in the Dathus. It is to be remarked that the volumes which have an ornamental title-page have no printer’s mark, and _vice versa_, the first not occurring in publications before 1539.

Two of the Nardi initials, the P and the C, are to be met with in a quarto volume, ‘C Plinio de li homini illustri in lingua senese traducto et brevemente commentato,’ which is printed in the _Inclyta & Excelsa citta di Sena_ by that accurate man Symeone di Nicolao Carrolaro Senese, 1506. The mark is different in some details, although practically the same as in the Dathus.

The _Vespertinæ lectiones_ of Marcellus Beringhuccius has the H and some others. The printer’s name varies again, being given as ‘Impressum per Calistrum Symeonis Senen. Ad instantiam Ioannis Alixandri Libraio 1511.’ The title is surrounded by a border of oak leaves and acorns. On the verso of the first page the dedication to Cosmo de Medici begins with the handsome H, and is followed on the next page by an interesting cut representing the burial of Christ. The text on the verso of this page begins with the L. The second part of the book, ‘For the comfort of those who wish to live well, etc.,’ begins with the historiated N, ‘Impresso in Siena per Calisto Francese di Simeone Bindi, 1541. Ad instantiam d’Giovanni di Alisandro Libraio.’

Another volume of _Vespertinæ lectiones_ of the same author was published in 1539, the printer’s name being given in the same way, and the same bookseller being mentioned. It has the N and the D, as well as a new I, mentioned above. The book, published on the 5th of March, has a title-page with a border of foliated branches that spring below from a common trunk and meet together above. The lower third is occupied by the Siennese wolf and children, with a town in the distance. Two tracts of Marcus Antonius Belarmatus on legal subjects were published by Symeon Nicolai in 1539, with the same ornamental border. In one of them the only large initial is the N. In the other, the title is printed in black, and the D and the Q of the white variety complete its ornamentation. The last book chronologically in which we have met with the Nardi initials is a _Life_ by Feo Belcari of Beato Columbini da Siena, ‘fondatore del ordine di poveri giesuati.’

Like so many of the Venetian ornaments, the borders and initials of Fossombrone are mostly with a black ground, but this is _criblé_ in a special manner.

The most important book of this town, where printing was introduced in 1513 by Ottaviano dei Petrucci, is a treatise by Paul de Middelburg with beautiful borders and initials, _On the right way of celebrating Easter, and the day of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ_, a work of great rarity and filled with singular researches for fixing Easter Day, and the date of the death of our Saviour.

The initials have branching ornaments, and children playing with one another, one holding up a mask, or with birds. One of them can be seen in Butsch.

The principal printer of Pavia, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, was Jacobus Paucidrapensis de Burgofranco, whose books have very handsome ornamental and historiated initials, the latter with portraits of celebrated men. His _Hyginus de Stellis_, published in 1513 at the expense of the heirs of ‘that late nobleman Octavianus Scot and his associates,’ has several. The D given here is from this volume. The O with another portrait, and the four other letters F, L, N, P, are also specimens of this press, but we have not been able to identify them more particularly.

J. de Burgofranco also uses a smaller alphabet in the same style of ornament.

Printing was introduced at Como in 1521, the seven initials given being taken from the first book printed there, the treatise of Vitruvius on Architecture. In this remarkably handsome volume, full of architectural diagrams and plans, there is, amongst others, an ‘elevation’ of the cathedral of Milan. Como had long been celebrated for the beauty of its situation, for the colophon, after giving the names of the ‘magnificent’ and ‘noble commentators,’ ‘emendators,’ and ‘castigators,’ states that the volume was printed by Gotardus de Ponte in the _Amoena & delecteuole citate de Como_. In one of the initials, a D, there is a view of a lake with sailing boats in a shower of rain, no doubt intended to be Como.

The U with the Crucifixion and the O representing St. Jerome are our only specimens of the press of Guillaume le Signerre, a Rouen printer who set up at the beginning of the sixteenth century at Saluzzo.

The book from which they are taken is an extremely handsome edition of the _Aureum Opus_ of Vivaldus, so often reprinted, and it has a full-page engraving with St. Jerome, the same subject as in one of the initials, and on another page the portrait of Le Signerre’s patron; at the end the printer’s mark. The colophon states that it was printed at Saluzzo by the most deserving brothers, Le Signerre of Rouen, at the expense of that most illustrious and clement prince, Lodovicus, Marquis of Saluzzo, and viceregent of Naples. With the exception of an insignificant floral letter at the beginning of the preface, the two initials given are the only ones in the book, the T with the Crucifixion occurring twice. The brothers Signerre would appear to have tried their fortune elsewhere before going to Saluzzo. In 1496 they were printing at Milan, giving the _Practica Musice_ of Franchini Gafori, with fine borders and initials.

_Ferrara,[30] Milan, etc._--One of the most celebrated books of its day was the _De plurimis claris selectisque mulieribus_ of Philip Bergomensis, described as being revised and ‘castigated’ with great diligence by that ‘great doctor in theology, Master Albert de Placentia and brother Augustinus de Casili maiori,’ _Ferrarie impressum opera et impensa magistri Laurentii de Rubeis de Valencia_.

[30] Ferrara is known to art students in connection with initial letters by the alphabet of Fra Vespasiano Amphiareo, a Renaissance calligraphist, which is often reproduced in works on manuscript ornamentation.

For the general student this work, which took rank at once as one of the most artistic publications of the time, is chiefly interesting on account of the portraits of the celebrated women whose histories it relates, but besides these there is a nearly complete alphabet of initials which harmonise perfectly with the woodcut engravings. Although different in treatment, the design is very similar to that used by Regiomontanus of Nuremberg, but with the addition of an occasional mascaron, or head of a dolphin. Very decorative, although simple, on the printed page, they lose some of their effect when brought together as an alphabet.

The volume begins with a linear M representing the Virgin and child.

The other set of initials, of an entirely different kind, is taken from the _Missale Carthusiense_, printed by the monks at their monastery at Ferrara in 1503, and generally known as the Missal of Ferrara. _Missale secundum ordinem Carthusiensem. Impressum in Monasterio Carthusie Ferrarie Diligenter emendatum per Monachos ejusdem Domus Regnante Excellentissimo D.D. Duce Hercule Esten. Anno a nativitate domini MCCCCCIII._

In many of the other Italian towns, although printing was established at an early date, the ornamentation of books was comparatively neglected, and there are few or no initials of interest to be mentioned.

Foligno, for example, was one of the first places where the art of printing was introduced. J. Neumeister, one of the workmen and associates of Gutenberg, published there in 1470 a superb folio, _Leonardi Aretini Bruni de bello italico adversus Gothos_.

At Milan, Philip of Lavagna gave a small quarto, the _Miracoli de la Gloriosa Verzene Maria_, dated 1469; but this date is a mistake, and it was really in 1474 or 1479 that the tract appeared.

Zarotus was printing at this town in 1471, and three years later Christopher Valdarfer began operations.

When initials occur in the books of these printers they resemble somewhat those of Venice, but they are of unequal merit, some being coarsely cut and merely curious, others of the highest artistic excellence. Of the first, the M and T from the _Opus auree et inexplicabilis bonitatis et continentie_, printed by Joannes de Castellione in 1513, will serve as an example.

The six other letters are from works by Gotardus de Ponte, and are to be found also in a book called _Calipsychia_ of 1511; in the _Life of Saint Veronica_ by Isidorus de Isolanis, of 1518; also in an _Opus auree_ which seems to have been printed everywhere, dated 1513.

The Q with a very black border, a circle of white dots, an ornament in each corner, and a saint with crozier looking to the right, comes from the _Sermons of St. Bernard_, Milan, Leonard Pachel, 1495.

The smallest series is from a volume of Decretals by Ulric Scinzenzeller.

At Florence printing was introduced in 1471 by Bernardo Cennini, who commenced at once the composition of the Commentaries of Servius on Virgil, which was published the following year.

To Giovanni Tedesco we are indebted for editions of the _Philocolo_ of Boccaccio and the _Trionfi_ of Petrarch. But the most celebrated Florence printer of the fifteenth century was Nicolo di Lorenzo (Nicolaus Laurentii) of Breslau, the publisher of the celebrated Dante with engravings of 1481.

Books printed at Verona at the beginning of the sixteenth century are not common, and woodcut initials are even more seldom met with, but we have been able to find one or two in a tract printed by Lucas Antonius, or Luc Antonio Giunta, of Florence, in 1504, which is extremely curious in many ways. The text on the title-page is arranged in the form of a cross, and runs as follows: _Delitiosam explicationem de sensibilibus deliciis paradisi a D. Celso Mapheo Veronense Canonico regulari editam hoc libello lector agnoscere poteris et ipsa plurimum oblectari valebis._ On the verso of the last page is a very fine mark of Lucas Antonius. The ornamentation of the book is completed by numerous woodcut initials of various sizes, but mostly as badly cut as printed. There are several letters of an interlaced pattern, but the two we have selected are the most interesting, the C with the gladiator and lion occurring at the beginning of the first chapter, the Q being repeated twice. There is also a historiated P with a child, a little smaller.

Books of the beginning of the fifteenth century published at Brescia have a few good initials, more or less in the Venetian style. An S, with a winged child with bow and arrows, probably a Cupid, is to be met with in several impressions. The P, with a saint in the same style, and a somewhat larger P, prolonged as a border, have the same origin.

The very wide C, with a monk at a latticed window, is from a volume of Brescia, in which there are also three or four insignificant floral initials in the style of Grüninger’s least interesting letters, an engraved title-page with the portraits of celebrated men in compartments, and on the verso of the last page a Virgin and child with irradiating flames. The title, _Theophrasti Natalii Cychuthoe Teutonici Invectivae_, _Maxima cum diligentia Brixiae impressum_, it is said, but without giving the printer’s name.

At Vicenza initials were also mostly in the Venetian style, but inferior as a rule to the originals. In one volume, a _Catalogus Sanctorum_, printed by Henricus de Sancto Urso in 1493, there are two typographical eccentricities which, as they have to do with initials, are worth pointing out. In some early volumes ornamental initials are occasionally met with of such primitive execution, that the only possible explanation is, that the necessary letter being wanting, it was cut on the spur of the moment by an entirely unskilled hand. Amongst the initials which occur the least often at the beginning of Latin paragraphs are the B and G, and of course such letters as X, Y, Z. It is probable that when this _Catalogus_ was being set up, there was no G amongst the ornamental alphabets available, for no other paragraph in the book begins with this letter. To meet this contingency, the required initial was cut forthwith, the result being the G in question, roughly representing a human face. The other singularity is an instance of the transposition of letters, of which examples have been already given, but here, instead of turning an A or a C upside down to serve as a V or a D, it is an F that does duty both for an F and an E. At the beginning of the eighth book there is an E for St. Ezekiel, which has evidently been made from an F, the lower transversal part having been cut afterwards, as can be seen by the rough execution and the disturbance of the general ornamentation. But the transposition of an F into an E is a thing that often occurs. The peculiarity here is that at the tenth book, which begins with the feast of All Saints, _Festivitas omnium Sanctorum_, an F being required, the same block is used as for Ezekiel, the letter being restored to its first condition by a plug, but showing clearly traces of its transformations.