ITALY.

Italian historians have several times attempted to bring forward Pamphilo Castaldi as the inventor of printing. It is little use to recapitulate here the various unsupported assertions on which this claim is based,—a claim which, if it ever had, has now ceased to have any sensible supporters.

We may safely assume, with our present knowledge, that the art of printing was introduced into Italy in 1465 by two Germans, Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz. On their arrival in Italy they settled first in the Monastery of Saint Scholastica at Subiaco, an establishment of Benedictines, of which Cardinal Turrecremata was Abbot, where they would be in congenial society, since, as Cardinal Quirini says, many of the inmates were Germans.

The first book which they printed was a Donatus pro puerulis, of which they said in their list, printed in 1472, ‘unde imprimendi initium sumpsimus.’ Unfortunately, of this Donatus no copy is known, though rumours of a copy in a private collection in Italy have from time to time been circulated. The earliest book from their press of which copies are in existence, is the Cicero De Oratore, printed before 30th September 1465.[16] It has been always a moot point whether this Cicero De Oratore or the Mainz Ciceronis Officia et Paradoxa, printed in the same year, can justly claim to be the first printed Latin classic, while the claims of the De Officiis of Zel, which, though, undated, is very probably as early, have been entirely ignored.

The Subiaco De Oratore is a large quarto of 109 leaves, with thirty lines to the page. Like the first German books, it is beautifully printed, and shows few signs of being an early production. Sweynheym and Pannartz must have learnt their business carefully, for this their first book is printed by half sheets, i.e. two pages at a time, though other printers were still printing their quartos page by page.

On the 29th October 1465 these printers issued their first dated book, the first edition of Lactantius De divinis institutionibus. Of this book 275 copies were printed. It is a small folio of 188 leaves, and thirty-six lines to the page, printed in a type which, though Roman, is very Gothic in appearance, and is sometimes called semi-Gothic. The smaller letters have a curious resemblance to those used by Zainer at Ulm and by Schussler at Augsburg in their earliest books, though the capital letters are quite different.

The fourth and last book printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz at Subiaco was an edition of the De civitate dei of Saint Augustine. This is a large folio, of 270 leaves, with two columns, and forty-four lines to the page. It was issued on the 12th June 1467; and though it contains no name of either printer or place, can be easily identified by the type. A copy in the BibliothÈque Nationale has an extremely interesting manuscript note, which tells us that Leonardus Dathus, ‘Episcopus Massanus,’ bought the book from the Germans themselves, living at Rome, who were producing innumerable books of that sort by means of printing, not writing, in November 1467, This note is valuable in two ways; it puts it beyond doubt who the printers of the book were, and it also enables us to determine more precisely the date when they left Subiaco. The Augustine was finished in June, and by November the printers were at Rome. As they issued a book in Rome in 1467, and would take some time to settle in their new establishment and prepare their new types, we may take it as probable that they left the Monastery of Subiaco as soon as possible after the printing of the Augustine.

About June, then, Sweynheym and Pannartz left the Monastery of Subiaco and transferred their printing materials to Rome, finding a home in a house belonging to the brothers Peter and Francis de Maximis. The semi-Gothic fount of type which had been used at Subiaco was discarded in favour of one more Roman in character, though heavily cut and not so graceful as the Venetian of the same period. A curious appearance is given to it by the invariable use of the long s. Their first venture was again a work of Cicero, the EpistolÆ ad familiares, a large quarto of thirty-one lines to the page. It has the following colophon:—

From this time forward, under the able supervision of the Bishop of Aleria, Sweynheym and Pannartz continued to print with the greatest industry, but they did not meet with the support which they merited. In 1472 they had become so badly off that a letter was written to Pope Sixtus IV. pointing out their distress, and asking for assistance. This letter, printed on one sheet, is usually found in the fifth volume of Nicholas de Lyra’s Commentary on the Bible, printed in 1472. Its great bibliographical interest lies in the fact that the printers gave a list of what they had printed and the number of copies they issued. In the list twenty-eight works are mentioned, and the number of volumes amounted altogether to 11,475. They usually issued 275 copies of each work which they printed.

This list also clearly shows the extraordinary influence of the new learning so actively promoted by Cosmo de Medici and encouraged by his grandson Lorenzo. The majority of the books in this list are classics, either in their original Latin or in Latin translations from the Greek; and that the printers were anxious to benefit scholars, is shown by the assertion of the Bishop of Aleria in the prefatory letter to the Ciceronis EpistolÆ ad Atticum of 1470, where it is said that they had produced their editions of Cicero at the lowest possible price, “ad pauperum commoditatem.”

To judge from the results, the appeal to the Pope was of little effect, for in 1473 Conrad Sweynheym gave up the business of printing, and confined his attention to engraving on metal; while Pannartz continued to print by himself up till the end of 1476, issuing in those three years about twelve books. The last book on which Pannartz was engaged was a new edition of the Letters of St. Jerome, but he only finished one volume. Three years later, George Laver, who seems to have acquired the type, issued the second volume. It is therefore quite probable, as is generally asserted, that Pannartz died in 1476 or early in 1477. Sweynheym, ever since he had given up printing, had been engaged in engraving a series of maps to illustrate Ptolemy’s Geography; but, after working three years upon them, died before they were finished. The edition of Ptolemy was finally issued in 1478 by Arnold Buckinck, a German, who in his preface said that he was anxious ‘that the emendations of Calderinus—who also died before the book was printed—and the results of Sweynheym’s most ingenious mechanical contrivances might not be lost to the learned world.’

‘Magister vero Conradus Sweynheym, Germanus, a quo formandorum RomÆ librorum ars primum profecta est, occasione hinc sumpta posteritati consulens animum primum ad hanc doctrinam capescendam applicuit. Subinde mathematicis adhibitis viris quemadmodum tabulis eneis imprimerentur edocuit, triennioque in hac cura consumpto diem obiit. In cujus vigilarum laborumque partem non inferiori ingenio ac studio Arnoldus Buckinck e Germania vir apprime eruditus ad imperfectum opus succedens, ne Domitii Conradique obitu eorum vigilÆ emendationesque sine testimonio perirent neve virorum eruditorum censuram fugerent immensÆ subtilitatis machinimenta, examussim ad unum perfecit.’

The book contains twenty-seven maps, each map being printed on two separate leaves facing each other, and printed only on one side. The letters which occur on the maps in the names of places are evidently punched from single dies, and not cut on the plate, as would have been expected. The letterpress of the book is not printed in any type used by Sweynheym or Pannartz, which shows that Buckinck was the absolute printer of the book.

Ulric Hahn, who contests with Sweynheym and Pannartz for the honour of having introduced printing into Rome, issued as his first book, in 1467, the Meditations of Cardinal Torquemada, better known perhaps as Turrecremata. It is illustrated with thirty-three woodcuts of inferior execution, and is printed in a large Gothic type. This type the printer discarded the following year for one of Roman letter; but odd types from the Gothic fount frequently make their appearance among the Roman, and serve as a means of distinguishing Hahn’s books from others in similar Roman type. As a case in point, we may mention the early and probably first edition of Catullus, wrongly ascribed to Andrea Belfortis of Ferrara and other printers. This book is in Hahn’s Roman type, and contains three capital letters from his Gothic fount;—a more sure means of identification than a fancied allusion to a printer’s name.[17] For a short time, from 1470 to 1472, Hahn’s books were edited by Campanus, a scholar of such fame and erudition, that the printer was able to rival Sweynheym and Pannartz, with their editor the Bishop of Aleria; but on Campanus taking his departure for Ratisbon, the prestige of Hahn’s press declined. From the pen of Campanus came perhaps the punning colophons which play upon the name of Hahn, in Latin, Gallus, meaning in English a cock. Upon the departure of Campanus, Hahn, took in partnership one Simon Nicolai Chardella of Lucca, who seems to have supplied the money as well as superintended the publishing, and they continued to work together till 1474. From this date till 1478, Hahn continued to work alone, ending in that year as he had begun, with an edition of the Meditationes of Torquemada. His former partner, Simon Nicolai, started a press on his own account, having as an associate his cousin.

The latest writer [18] on the early history of printing in Venice has again revived the question as to the correctness of the date of the Decor Puellarum. Though he still clings to the possibility of the date 1461 being trustworthy, the weight of evidence, all of which is carefully stated, is decisively in favour of its being a misprint for 1471.

It would be useless to recapitulate here all the arguments in favour of Jenson having printed in 1461, when it is now generally admitted that John of Spire was the first printer at Venice, and that his first book was the EpistolÆ familiares of Cicero, issued in 1469. Of this book only one hundred copies were printed. On the 18th September 1469, the Collegio of Venice granted to John of Spire a monopoly of printing in that district for five years; and this document distinctly indicates that he was the first printer at Venice. He did not, however, live to obtain the advantage of this privilege, ‘nullius est vigoris quia obiit magister et auctor,’ says a contemporary marginal note to the record, for he died in 1470. Previous to his death he printed a Pliny, the first volume of a Livy, two editions of the EpistolÆ ad familiares, and part of the Augustine De civitate dei, which was finished by his brother Windelin.

Windelin of Spire was a very prolific printer, and continued to issue books without intermission from the time of his brother’s death, in 1470, to his own in 1478. But among the early Venetian printers the most important was certainly Nicholas Jenson. A Frenchman by birth, he passed his apprenticeship in the Paris Mint, and became afterwards the head of the Mint at Tours. In 1458, in consequence of the stories of the invention of printing, he was sent by Charles VII. to Mainz to learn the art, and introduce it into France. Jenson returned in 1461, when Louis XI. had just been crowned; but he does not seem to have settled in France, and we first hear of him again in 1470 as a printer at Venice. From 1470 to 1480 he printed continuously, issuing, according to Sardini, at least one hundred and fifty-five editions, though this number must be considerably under the mark. His will was drawn up on the 7th September 1480, and he died in the same month. The fame of Jenson rests on the extraordinary beauty of his Roman type, of which he had but one fount, and which, though frequently copied, was never equalled. In 1474 he began to use Gothic type, owing to its great saving of space; and in 1471, in the EpistolÆ familiares, he used Greek type in the quotations, the first instance of its employment in Venice. It is curious that, with its devotion to the new learning, Venice should not have been the first to issue a Greek book. Jenson had frequently to use Greek type in his books, but he never printed a complete work in that language. Milan led the way, printing the Greek Grammar of Lascaris in 1476; and it was not till 1485 that Venice issued its first Greek book, the Erotemata of Chrysoloras.

In 1470, another German, Christopher Valdarfer of Ratisbon, began to print. He left Venice in 1473, and settled at Milan, and the books which he printed at the former-place are very rare and few in number. The best known is the Decameron of 1471, the first edition of the book, familiar to all readers of Dibdin.

In 1471 was issued the De medicinis universalibus, printed by Clemens Sacerdos (Clement of Padua), the first Italian printer in Venice; and in the year following, Philippus Petri,[19] the first native Venetian printer, began to print.

Between 1470 and 1480 at least fifty printers were at work in Venice, and among the most important were John de Colonia, John Manthen de Gerretzem, Erhard Ratdolt, Octavianus Scotus. Erhard Ratdolt is especially of importance, for he was practically the first to introduce wood engravings in his books. In 1476, Ratdolt and his partners, Peter Loeslein and Bernard Pictor, began their work together by issuing a Calendar of Regiomontanus, with a very beautiful title-page surrounded by a woodcut border. From that time onwards, woodcuts were used in many Venetian books; and at last, in 1499, there appeared there that unsurpassed illustrated book the Hypnerotomachia of Franciscus Columna.

The history of the later Venetian press during the last ten years of the fifteenth century would require at least a volume. So far as the history of typography itself is concerned, there is nothing of interest to be noticed; but in the general history of printing Venice holds the highest place; for more printers printed there than in any other city of Europe. Of course, amongst this endless outpour of the press many important books were issued, but there are few which have any interest for the historian of printing.

There is, however, one printer who must always make this period celebrated. Aldus Manutius was born at Bassiano in 1450, and began to print at Venice in 1494. His main idea when he commenced to work was to print Greek books; and it was perhaps for that reason that he settled in Venice, where so many manuscripts were preserved, and where so many Greeks resided. His first two books, both issued in 1494, are the Galeomyomachia and the De Herone et Leandro of MusÆus. In 1496 he obtained a copyright for twenty years in such Greek books as he might print, and from this time forward a large number were issued as fast as possible. So great was the hurry, that the editors in some cases did not scruple to hand over to the compositors the original manuscripts themselves from which the edition was taken, with their own emendations and corrections scribbled upon them. But this custom was not confined to the Aldine press, for Martin[20] tells us that the Codex Ravennas of Aristophanes was actually used by the compositors as the working copy from which part of the Giunta edition of 1515 was set up.

In 1499, Aldus married the daughter of Andrea de Torresani, himself a great printer, and in 1500 founded the Aldine Academy, the home of so many editors, and the source of so many scholarly editions of the sixteenth century. The end of the fifteenth century saw, at any rate, two rivals in Greek printing to Aldus: Gabriel da Brasichella, who with his associates published in 1498 the Epistles of Phalaris and Æsop’s Fables; and, in 1499, Zaccharia Caliergi of Crete, who printed with others or alone up till 1509. Caliergi, it would appear, was hardly a rival of Aldus; they were, at any rate, so far friendly that Aldus sold Caliergi’s editions along with his own.

In 1476 a press was set up at Foligno, in the house of Emilianus de Orsinis, by John Numeister, a native of Mainz, who is generally said to have been an associate and pupil of Gutenberg. This story seems to be founded upon an assertion put forward by Fischer, that a copy of the Tractatus de celebratione missarum, in the University Library at Mainz, contains a rubric stating that the book was printed by Gutenberg and Numeister in 1463. If this note ever existed, which is very doubtful, it is clearly a forgery, for the book in which it is said to occur was not printed till about 1480.

The first book in which we find Numeister’s name is the De bello Italico contra Gothos, by Aretinus, printed in 1470; and about the same date he printed an edition of the EpistolÆ familiares of Cicero. In 1472 appeared the first edition of Dante; between that year and 1479 we hear nothing of Numeister. In 1479 an edition of the Meditationes of Turrecremata appeared with his name, printed in a large church type, not unlike, though not, as is often said, the same as, the type of the forty-two line Bible, and containing very fine engraved cuts. This book is generally stated, for some unknown reason, to have been printed at Mainz. After this date we find no further mention of Numeister; but M. Claudin[21] has written a monograph to show that he was the printer of the edition of the Meditationes of Turrecremata issued at Albi in 1481, a book remarkable for its wonderful engravings on metal, and of the Missale Lugdunense, printed at Lyons in 1487, which is stated in the colophon to have been printed by ‘Magistrum Jo. alemanum de magontia impressorem.’

After 1470 the spread of printing in Italy was very rapid. In 1471 we find it beginning at Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, Milan, Naples, Pavia, and Treviso.

The first complete edition of Ovid was produced in 1471, and is the first book printed at Bologna, the printer being Balthasar Azzoguidi, ‘primus in sua civitate artis impressoriÆ inventor,’ as he calls himself in the preface to the book. Andrea Portilia must also have been amongst the earliest printers at Bologna, though his only dated book is 1473, for in that year he returned to Parma. Among the many printers who worked in the town, none are better known, from the frequency with which their names occur in colophons, than the various members of the family ‘de Benedictis,’ who worked from 1488 onwards.

Andreas Belfortis, a Frenchman, was the first to print at Ferrara, issuing in 1471 at least three books, of which the earliest, published in July, is an edition of Martial (which has catchwords to the quires in the latter portion). This was followed by editions of Poggio and Augustinus Dathus. Belfortis continued to print till 1493. A certain Augustinus Carner, who printed a few books between 1474 and 1476, printed in 1475 the rare Teseide of Boccaccio, the first printed poem in the Italian language. De Rossi, in his tract, De typographia EbrÆo-Ferrariensi, gives a long description of some Hebrew books printed at Ferrara in 1477, which must be the first printed in that language, though some words are found in a book printed at Esslingen in 1475.

The first printer at Milan was Anthony Zarotus, and his earliest book, with both name and date, is the Virgil of 1472. In the previous year, four books had been issued without any printer’s name, but the identity of the type with that of the Virgil shows Zarotus to have printed these also. Mention has often been made of a certain Terence, printed in 1470, March 13. It is quoted by Hain (15,371), who had not seen it, and by Panzer (ii. 11. 2), and a copy was said to be in the library of the Earl of Pembroke, the home of many mysterious books. It is often quoted as the first book with signatures. It was doubtless a copy of the edition of March 13, 1481, in which some ingenious person had erased the last two figures, xi, of the date. It is very probable that there was at first some connection between Zarotus and Philip de Lavagna; and it was perhaps at the latter’s expense, and through his means, that Zarotus first printed. Certainly, in the colophon of a book printed in 1473, probably by Christopher Valdarfer, are the words ‘per Philippum de Lavagnia, hujus artis stampandi in hac urbe primum latorem atque inventorem;’ but it is quite possible that the words should not be taken in too narrow a sense, and that Philip de Lavagna simply means to speak of himself as the first person to introduce printing into Milan, not as printer, but as patron.

The history of the first printers in this town is very interesting, for they entered into various partnerships, and the documents relating to these have been preserved and published,[22] throwing a good deal of light on some of the customs and methods of the early printers. In 1476 was printed at Milan the Grammar of Constantine Lascaris, the first book printed in Greek; and in 1481, a Greek version of the Psalms, the first portion of the Bible printed in this language.

At Florence, Bernard Cennini, the celebrated goldsmith and assistant of Ghiberti, printed, with the assistance of two of his sons, an edition of the Commentary of Servius on Virgil. It was begun towards the end of 1471, and not finished till October 1472, but is the first book printed at Florence. This is the only book known to have been printed by Cennini; but it is not unlikely that in his capacity of goldsmith he did work for other printers in cutting type. The most interesting press at Florence in the fifteenth century, was that founded in the Monastery of St. James of Ripoli by Dominic de Pistoia, the head of the establishment. Beginning with a Donatus, of which every copy has disappeared, it was carried on briskly up till the time of his death in 1484, issuing, according to Hain, just over fifty works; according to De Rossi, nearly one hundred. The account books connected with this press have been preserved, and from them we can learn the price of the various articles used by the printers, such as paper, ink, type-metal. Several kinds of paper are mentioned, and identified, as a rule, by their watermarks. We have paper from Fabriano with the mark of a crossbow, a different paper from the same place marked with a cross, and two sorts of paper from Pescia marked with spectacles and a glove. There are several celebrated books printed at Florence before 1500 which cannot be passed over. In 1477 was issued the Monte Santo di Dio, said to contain the first copperplate engraving; and in 1481, the celebrated Dante, with engravings by Baccio Baldini after the designs of Botticelli. Most copies of this book contain only a few of the plates, while about eight copies are known with the full number. Some celebrated Greek books also were issued at Florence, notably in 1488 the first edition of Homer printed by Demetrius Chalcondylas at the expense of two brothers, Bernardus and Nerius Nerlii. There is a copy of this book in the British Museum, which was bought by Mr. Barnard, librarian to George III., for seven shillings. One complete copy on vellum is known, in the library of St. Mark’s at Venice.

Towards the end of the fifteenth century, Francis de Alopa printed five Greek books entirely in capital letters, the Anthologia of 1494, Callimachus, Euripides (four plays only), Apollonius Rhodius, 1496, Poetae Gnomici, and MusÆus. It is very probable that the ‘editio princeps’ of Lucian, which was printed at Florence, but is ascribed by Ebert to Caliergi at Venice, was also printed at this press.

Under the patronage of Ferdinand I., King of Naples, Sixtus Riessinger of Strasburg began to print there in 1471, and continued till 1479. He seems to have been in high favour with the king, who offered him a bishopric, which was, however, refused. In 1472, Arnaldus de Bruxella set up his press, using (unlike most other printers) Roman type only. The large M and small y are of a curious form and easily recognisable, while the final us in words is always represented by an abbreviation. Most of the books printed by him are rare; of the Horace and Petrarch, only single copies are known; and it was for the sake of acquiring these two books, so Dibdin tells us, that Lord Spencer bought the Cassano Library. Hain mentions seventeen books printed by this Arnaldus de Bruxella, and out of that number he had seen only one. Van der Meersch gives twenty-three; but some are doubtful.

Pavia is more celebrated for the number of books it produced than for their interest, and it is only mentioned here as one of the towns to which printing is said to have been introduced in 1471.

The last town to be mentioned in this group is Treviso, where, in 1471, that wandering printer Gerardus de Lisa began to print. In his first year he printed several books, but his industry gradually got less. In 1477 we find him at Venice, in 1480 at Cividad di Friuli (Civitas AustriÆ), and in 1484 at Udina.

1472 saw printing established in Cremona, Mantua, Monreale, Padua, Parma, and Verona, and from this time onwards it spread rapidly over the whole of Italy, being introduced into seventy-one towns before the end of the fifteenth century. For the study of typography the Italian presses are not nearly so interesting as those of other countries, but from a literary point of view they are immeasurably superior. The Renaissance movement had been at work in Italy during the whole of the fifteenth century, and the great impetus given by the fall of Constantinople was acting most powerfully when the printing press was introduced. Italy was then the sole guardian of the ancient civilisation, and was prepared for a more rapid method of reproducing its early treasures and spreading the learning of its newer scholars.