Part 88
The title which George Gascoigne, who had great merit in his day, has given to his collection, may be considered as a specimen of the titles of his times. It was printed in 1576. He calls it "A hundred sundrie Floures bounde up in one small Poesie; gathered partly by translation in the fyne and outlandish gardens of Euripides, Ovid, Petrarche, Ariosto, and others; and partly by invention out of our own fruitefull orchardes in Englande; yielding sundrie sweet savours of tragicall, comicall, and morall discourses, both pleasaunt and profitable to the well-swelling noses of learned readers."
LITERARY LABOUR AND PERSEVERANCE.--The Rev. William Davy, curate of Lustleigh, Devon, in the year 1807, finished a work in twenty-six volumes, of which the following is the title:--
"A System of Divinity, in a Course of Sermons on the first Institutions of Religion--on the Being and Attributes of God--on some of the most important Articles of the Christian Religion, in Connection--and on the several Virtues and Vices of Mankind; with Occasional Discourses. Being a Compilation of the best Sentiments of the Polite Writers and eminent sound Divines, both ancient and modern, on the same subjects, properly connected, with Improvements; particularly adapted for the Use of Chief Families, and Students in Divinity, for Churches, and for the Benefit of Mankind in general."
The author of the work bearing this astounding title, once attempted to publish it by subscription; in which he failed: he being poor, and unable to venture its publication, resolved to print it himself; for which purpose he procured as many worn-out types from a country printing-office as enabled him to print two pages at once; which, with the addition of a press of his own manufacture, he set to work in the year 1795, serving every office himself, from compositor to printer's-devil; and proceeding regularly page by page, he struck off forty copies of the first three hundred pages, half of which he distributed among the reviews, the bishops, and the universities, with a view of attracting public attention; but here also he failed: when he became determined to treat a misjudging world with contempt, and accordingly continued to print off fourteen copies of each, and at the end of twelve years finished the whole six-and-twenty volumes.
Curious account of the SCARCITY OF BOOKS--Of the scarcity and value of books during the seventh and many subsequent centuries, the following curious account is given by Mr. Warton, in his History of English Poetry, vol. i. "Towards the close of the seventh century, (says he,) even in the papal library at Rome, the number of books was so inconsiderable, that pope St. Martin requested Sanctamand, bishop of Maestricht, if possible, to supply this defect from the remotest parts of Germany. In 855, Lupus, abbot of Ferriers, in France, sent two of his monks to pope Benedict III. to beg a copy of _Cicero de Oratore_, and Quintilian's Institutes, and some other books: 'for (says the abbot) although we have part of these books, yet there is no whole or complete copy of them in all France.' Albert, abbot of Gemblours, who with incredible labour and immense expense had collected one hundred volumes on theological, and fifty on profane subjects, imagined he had formed a splendid library. About A. D. 790, Charlemagne granted an unlimited right of hunting, to the abbot and monks of Sithin, for making covers for their books of the skins of the deer they killed. These religious were probably more fond of hunting than reading; and, under these circumstances, did not manufacture many volumes. At the beginning of the tenth century, books were so scarce in Spain, that one copy of the Bible, St. Jerome's epistles, and some volumes of ecclesiastical offices and martyrologies, often served several different monasteries. In an inventory of the goods of John de Pontissara, bishop of Winchester, in his palace of Wulvesey, all the books are only _septemdecim speciem librorum de diversis scientiis_. This was in 1294. The same prelate, in 1299, borrows of his cathedral convent of St. Swithin, at Winchester, _Bibliam bene glossatam_; i. e. the Bible with marginal annotations, in two large folio volumes; but gives a bond for due return of the loan, drawn up with great solemnity. This Bible had been bequeathed to the convent by Pontissara's predecessor, bishop Nicholas de Ely: and in consideration of so important a bequest, _pro bona Biblia dicti episcopi bene glossata_, and one hundred marks in money, the monks founded a daily mass for the soul of the donor. When a single book was bequeathed to a friend, it was seldom without many restrictions. If any person gave a book to a religious house, he believed that so valuable a donation merited eternal salvation; and he offered it on the altar with great ceremony. The most formidable anathemas were peremptorily denounced against those who should dare to alienate a book presented to the cloister, or library of a religious house. The prior and convent of Rochester declare, that they will every year pronounce the irrevocable sentence of damnation on him who shall purloin or conceal a Latin translation of Aristotle's Physics, or even obliterate the title. Sometimes a book was given to a monastery, on condition that the donor should have the use of it during his life; and sometimes to a private person, on the terms that he who received it should pray for the soul of his benefactor. When a book was bought, the affair was of so much importance, that it was customary to assemble persons of consequence and character, and to make a formal record that they were present."
Among the royal manuscripts in the book of the Sentences of Peter Lombard, an archdeacon of Lincoln has left this entry: "This book of the Sentences belongs to master Robert, archdeacon of Lincoln, which he bought of Geoffrey the chaplain, brother of Henry, vicar of Northelkington, in the presence of master Robert de Lee, master John of Lirling, Richard of Luda, clerk, Richard the almoner, the said Henry the vicar, and his clerk, and others: and the said archdeacon gave the said book to God and St. Oswald, and to Peter abbot of Barton, and the convent of Barden." The disputed property of a book often occasioned the most violent altercations. Many claims appear to have been made to a manuscript of Matthew Paris, belonging to the last mentioned library; in which John Russel, bishop of Lincoln, conditionally defends or explains his right of possession; and concludes thus, A. D. 1488, "Whoever shall obliterate or destroy this writing, let him be anathema."
About 1225, Roger de Insula, dean of York, gave several Latin Bibles to the university of Oxford, on the condition, that the students who perused them should deposit a cautionary pledge. The library of that university, before A. D. 1300, consisted only of a few tracts, chained or kept in chests in the choir of St. Mary's church. In 1327, the scholars and citizens of Oxford pillaged the opulent Benedictine abbey of the neighbouring town of Abingdon. Among the books they found there, were one hundred psalters, as many grayles, forty missals, which undoubtedly belonged to the choir of the church, and twenty-two codices, on common subjects. And although the invention of paper, at the close of the eleventh century, contributed to multiply manuscripts, and consequently to facilitate knowledge, yet, even so late as the reign of Henry VI. the following remarkable instance occurred of the inconveniences and impediments to study, which must have been produced by a scarcity of books. It is in the statutes of St. Mary's college at Oxford, founded as a seminary to Oseney abbey, in 1446: "Let no scholar occupy a book in the library above one hour, or two hours at most; so that others shall not be hindered from the use of the same!" The famous library established in the university of Oxford, by that munificent patron of literature, Humphrey duke of Gloucester, contained only six hundred volumes. About the commencement of the fourteenth century, there were only four classics in the royal library at Paris. There was one copy of Cicero, Ovid, Lucan, and Boetius. The rest were chiefly books of devotion, which included but few of the Fathers: many treatises of astrology, geomancy, chiromancy, and medicine, originally written in Arabic, and translated into Latin or French: pandects, chronicles, and romances. This collection was principally made by Charles V. who began his reign in 1365. This monarch was passionately fond of reading; and it was the fashion to send him presents of books from every part of the kingdom of France. These he ordered to be elegantly transcribed, and richly illuminated; and he placed them in a tower of the Louvre, from thence called _La Toure de la Libraire_. The whole consisted of nine hundred volumes. They were deposited in three chambers, wainscoted with Irish oak, and ceiled with cypress curiously carved. The windows were of painted glass, fenced with iron bars and copper wire. The English became masters of Paris in the year 1425; on which event the Duke of Bedford, regent of France, sent the whole library, then consisting of only eight hundred and fifty-three volumes, and valued at 2223 livres, into England; where perhaps they became the groundwork of Duke Humphrey's library. Even so late as the year 1471, when Louis XI. of France borrowed the works of the Arabian physician, Rhasis, from the faculty of medicine at Paris, he not only deposited by way of pledge a quantity of valuable plate, but was obliged to procure a nobleman to join with him as a surety in a deed, by which he bound himself to return it, under a considerable forfeiture. The excessive prices of books in the middle ages afford numerous and curious proofs of the caution with which literary property was secured in those times of general ignorance.
In 1174, Walter, prior of St. Swithin's at Winchester, a writer in Latin of the lives of the bishops who were his patrons, purchased of the monks of Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, Bede's Homilies and St. Austin's Psalter, for twelve measures of barley, and a pall, on which was richly embroidered in silver the history of St. Birinus converting a Saxon king. Among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum, there is Comestor's Scholastic History in French; which, as it is recorded in a blank page at the beginning, was taken from the king of France at the battle of Poictiers; and being purchased by William Montague, Earl of Salisbury, for 100 marcs, was ordered to be sold by the last will of his countess, Elizabeth, for 40 livres. About A. D. 1400, a copy of John of Meun's Romance de la Rose, was sold before the palace gate at Paris for a sum equal to £33. 6s. 6d.
CELEBRATED LIBRARIES.--The first who erected a library at Athens was the tyrant Pisistratus. This was transported by Xerxes into Persia, and afterwards brought back by Seleucus Nicanor to Athens. Plutarch says, that under Eumenes there was a library at Pergamus which contained two hundred thousand books. That of Ptolemy Philadelphus, according to A. Gellius, contained forty thousand, which were all burnt by Cæsar's soldiers. The celebrated library of Alexandria, begun by Ptolemy Soter, and enlarged by his successors, consisting of seven hundred thousand volumes, contained nearly all the literary treasures of the world. This was burnt by order of the Caliph Omar, in the seventh century, and the loss must for ever remain irreparable. On this calamity, literature can never reflect without a sigh. Constantine and his successor erected a magnificent one at Constantinople, which in the eighth century contained three hundred thousand volumes, and among the rest, one in which the Iliad and Odyssey were written in letters of gold, on the entrails of a serpent; but this library was burnt, by order of Leo Isaurus. The most celebrated libraries of ancient Rome, were the Ulpian and the Palatine; and in modern Rome, that of the Vatican, the foundation of which was laid by Pope Nicholas in the year 1450. It was afterwards diminished in the sacking of Rome by the constable of Bourbon, and restored by Pope Sixtus V. and has been considerably enriched with the ruins of that of Heidelberg, plundered by count Tilly in 1682. One of the most complete libraries in Europe, was that erected by Cosmo de Medicis; though it was afterwards exceeded by that of the French king, which was begun by Francis I. augmented by cardinal Richelieu, and completed by M. Colbert. The emperor's library at Vienna, according to Lambecius, consists of eighty thousand volumes, and fifteen thousand nine hundred and forty curious medals. The Bodleian library at Oxford exceeds that of any university in Europe, and even those of any of the sovereigns, except those of the emperors of France and Germany, which are each of them older by a hundred years. It was first opened in 1602, and has since been increased by a great number of benefactors: indeed the Medicean library, that of Bessarion at Venice, and those just mentioned, exceed it in Greek manuscripts, but it outdoes them all in Oriental manuscripts; and as to printed books, the Ambrosian at Milan, and that of Wolfenbuttle, are two of the most famous libraries on the continent, and yet both are considerably inferior to the Bodleian. The Cottonian library consists wholly of manuscripts, particularly of such as relate to the history and antiquities of England; which, as they are now bound, make about one thousand volumes.
BOOK OF BLUNDERS.--One of the most egregious, shall we add illustrious, of all literary blunders, is that of the edition of the Vulgate, by Sixtus V. His holiness carefully superintended every sheet as it passed through the press; and, to the amazement of the world, the work remained without a rival--it swarmed with errata! A multitude of scraps were printed, to paste over the erroneous passages, in order to give the true text. The book makes a whimsical appearance with these pasted corrections; and the heretics exulted in the demonstration of papal infallibility! The copies were called in, and violent attempts made to suppress it; however, a few still remain for the pursuit of biblical collectors: at a late sale, the Bible of Sixtus V. fetched above sixty guineas--a tolerable sum for a mere book of blunders! The world was highly amused at the bull of the Pope and editor prefixed to the first volume, which excommunicates all printers, &c. who in reprinting the work should make any alteration in the text!
Curious account of THE MEANS OF INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT IN LONDON.--The following is an estimate made of the means of intellectual improvement in London. There are four hundred and seven places of public worship; four thousand and fifty seminaries for education, including two hundred and thirty-seven parish charity schools; eight societies for the express purpose of promoting good morals; twelve societies for promoting the learned, the useful, and the polite arts; one hundred and twenty-two asylums and alms-houses for the helpless and indigent, including the Philanthropic Society for reclaiming criminal children; thirty hospitals and dispensaries for sick and lame, and for the delivery of poor pregnant women; seven hundred friendly or benefit societies; about thirty institutions for charitable and humane purposes; about thirty institutions for teaching some thousands of poor children the arts of reading, writing, and arithmetic, on the plans of Mr. Lancaster and Dr. Bell; and these several establishments, including the poor's rate, are supported at the almost incredible cost of one million per annum.
CHAP. LXXXI.
CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE.--(_Continued._)
_Origin of the Word "News"--Origin of Newspapers--Instances of New Studies in Old Age--Literary Shoemakers--Imprisonment of the Learned--Singular Customs annually observed by the Company of Stationers--Book of Sports--Origin of Cards--Explanation of all the Letters on a Guinea._
ORIGIN OF THE WORD "NEWS."--The four cardinal points of the compass, marked with the letters N. E. W. S. standing for North, East, West, and South, form the word News, which coming from all parts of the world, gave derivation to the word.
ORIGIN OF NEWSPAPERS.--We are indebted to the Italians for the idea of Newspapers. The title of the _Gazettas_, was perhaps derived from _Gazzera_, a magpie or chatterer; or more probably from a farthing coin, peculiar to the city of Venice, called _Gazetta_, which was the common price of the newspapers. Another learned etymologist is for deriving it from the Latin Gaza, which would colloquially lengthen into _Gazetta_, and signify a little treasury of news. The Spanish derive it indeed from the Latin _Gaza_; and likewise their _Gazatero_, and our _Gazetteer_, for a writer of the _Gazette_; and, what is peculiar to themselves, _Gazetista_, for a lover of the _Gazette_.
Newspapers then took their birth in that principal land of modern politicians, Italy, and under the government of that aristocratical republic, Venice. The first paper was a Venetian one, and only monthly: but it was the newspaper of the government only. Other governments afterwards adopted the Venetian name for it; and from one solitary government Gazette, we see what an inundation of newspapers has burst out upon us in this country.
Mr. Chalmers gives, in his life of Ruddiman, a curious particular of these Venetian Gazettes. "A jealous government did not allow a printed newspaper; and the Venetian Gazetta continued long after the invention of printing to the close of the sixteenth century, and even to our own days, to be distributed in manuscript." In the Magliabechian library at Florence are thirty volumes of Venetian Gazettas, all in manuscript.
Those who first wrote newspapers, were called by the Italians _Menanti_; because, says Vossius, they intended commonly by these loose papers to spread about defamatory reflections, and were therefore prohibited in Italy by Gregory XIII. in a particular bull, under the name of _Menantes_, from the Latin _Minantes_, threatening. Menage, however, derives it from the Italian _Menare_, which signifies, to lead at large, or spread afar.
Mr. Chalmers discovers in England the first newspaper. It may gratify national pride, says he, to be told, that mankind are indebted to the wisdom of Elizabeth and the prudence of Burleigh for the first newspaper. The epoch of the Spanish Armada is also the epoch of a genuine newspaper. In the British Museum are several newspapers which had been printed while the Spanish fleet was in the English Channel, during the year 1588. It was a wise policy to prevent, during a moment of general anxiety, the danger of false reports, by publishing real information. The earliest newspaper is entitled "The English Mercurie," which by authority "was imprinted at London by her highness's printer, 1588." These were, however, but extraordinary Gazettes, not regularly published.
The following are curious INSTANCES OF NEW STUDIES IN OLD AGE.--Socrates learnt to play on musical instruments in his old age; Cato, at eighty, thought proper to learn Greek; and Plutarch, almost as late in life, Latin.
Theophrastus began his admirable work on the characters of men, at the extreme age of ninety. He only terminated his literary labours by his death.
Peter Ronsard, one of the fathers of French poetry, applied himself late to study. His acute genius, and ardent application, rivalled those poetic models which he admired.
The great Arnauld retained the vigour of his genius, and the command of his pen, to his last day; and at the age of eighty-two was still the great Arnauld.
Sir Henry Spelman neglected the sciences in his youth, but cultivated them at fifty years of age, and produced good fruit. His early years were chiefly passed in farming, which greatly diverted him from his studies; but a remarkable disappointment respecting a contested estate, disgusted him with these rustic occupations, and resolving to attach himself to regular studies and literary society, he sold his farms, and became a most learned antiquary and lawyer.
Colbert, the famous French minister, almost at sixty returned to his Latin and law studies.
Tellier, the chancellor of France, learnt logic, merely for an amusement, to dispute with his grandchildren.
Dr. Johnson applied himself to the Dutch language but a few years before his death. But on this head the Marquis de Saint Anlaire may be regarded as a prodigy; at the age of seventy he began to court the Muses, and they crowned him with their freshest flowers. His verses are full of fire, delicacy, and sweetness. Voltaire says, that Anacreon, less old, produced less charming compositions.
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were the composition of his latest years: they were begun in his fifty-fourth year, and finished in his sixty-first: it is on these works his fame is established, at least they are those which are most adapted to attract all classes of poetical readers.
The celebrated Boccacio was thirty-five years of age when he began his studies in polite literature. He has, however, excelled many whose whole life has been devoted to this branch of letters. Such is the privilege of genius.
Ludovico Monaldesco, at the extraordinary age of 115, wrote the memoirs of his time: a singular exertion, noticed by Voltaire, who himself is one of the most remarkable instances of the progress of age in new studies.
Koonhert began at forty to learn the Latin and Greek languages, of which he became a master; several students, who afterwards distinguished themselves, have commenced as late in life their literary pursuits. Ogilby, the translator of Homer and Virgil, knew little of Latin or Greek, till he was past fifty; and Franklin's philosophical pursuits began when he had nearly reached his fiftieth year.
Accorso, a great lawyer, being asked why he began the study of the law so late, answered, that indeed he began it late, but should therefore master it the sooner.
Dryden's complete works form the largest body of poetry from the pen of one writer in the English language; yet he gave no public testimony of poetical abilities till his twenty-seventh year. In his sixty-eighth year he proposed to translate the whole Ilias; his most pleasing productions were written in his old age.
Michael Angelo preserved his creative genius even in extreme old age; for he worked almost to his last day, and he reached his ninetieth year. He alludes, doubtless, to himself in an ingenious device, if it be of his own invention: A venerable old man is represented in a go-cart, an hour-glass upon it, with the inscription, ANCORA IMPARO! YET I AM LEARNING!
LITERARY SHOEMAKERS.--The fraternity of shoemakers have unquestionably given rise to some characters of worth and genius. The late Mr. Holcroft was originally a shoemaker. His dramatic pieces must rank among the best of those on the English stage. Robert Bloomfield wrote his poem of "The Farmer's Boy," while employed at this business, and Dr. William Carey, professor of Sanscrit and Bengalee at the college of Fort William, Calcutta, and the able and indefatigable translator of the Scriptures into many of the Eastern languages, was in early life a shoemaker in Northamptonshire. The present Mr. Gifford, the translator of Juvenal, and the supposed editor of the Quarterly Review, spent some of his early days in learning the "craft and mystery" of a shoemaker; as he tells us, in one of the most interesting pieces of auto-biography ever penned, and prefixed to his nervous and elegant version of the great Roman satirist.
IMPRISONMENT OF THE LEARNED.--Imprisonment seems not much to have disturbed the men of letters in the progress of their studies.
It was in prison that Boethius composed his excellent book on the Consolations of Philosophy.
Grotius wrote, in his confinement, his Commentary on St. Matthew.