  The heading adopted for this chapter is not intended to imply that the colophons here grouped together are separated by any hard line from those already considered, only that they deal with the publishers’ side of book-making, the praises by which the printers and publishers recommended their wares, the financial help by which the issue of expensive and slow-selling books was made possible, the growth of competition, and the endeavors to secure artificially protected markets. If colophons could be implicitly believed, the early printers would have to be reckoned as the most devout and altruistic of men. As a matter of fact, books of devotion and popular theology were probably the safest and most profitable which they could take up. Yet we need not doubt that the thought that they were engaged on a Ad laudem et gloriam individue trinitatis ac gloriose virginis marie et ad utilitatem ecclesie impressi ac consummati sunt sermones magistri alberti ordinis predicatorum in colonia per me Arnoldum therhurnen sub annis domini M.cccc. Lxxiiii ipso die gloriosi ac sancti profesti nativitatis domini nostri Iesu Christi. To the praise and glory of the undivided Trinity and of the glorious Virgin Mary, and to the profit of the church, the sermons of Master Albert of the order of Preachers were printed and finished in Cologne by me, Arnold therhoernen, in the year of our Lord 1474, on the very day of the glorious and holy vigil of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Examples of colophons in this vein could be multiplied almost indefinitely. That appended by the Brothers of the Common Life, at their convent of Hortus Viridis (Green Garden) at Rostock, to an edition of the “Sermones de Tempore” of Johannes Herolt is much more distinctive. Herolt’s name is duly recorded in editions printed at Reutlingen and Nuremberg, but his work was usually quoted as the “Sermones Discipuli,” and the good brothers begin by commenting on his modesty. Humilibus placent humilia. Huius gratia rei Doctor hic precellens supresso proprio nomini uocabulo Sermones hos prehabitos Discipuli prenotatosque alias maluit nuncupari. Quique tamen, ut luce clarius patet, de sub manibus euasit Doctor magistri. Huic applaudere, hunc efferre laudibus, hunc predicatum iri, miretur nemo, cum certissime constat inter modernos sermonistas eum in uulgi scientia tenere principatum. Huius igitur zeli cupientes fore consortes nos fratres presbiteri Humble courses please the humble. For which cause this eminent Doctor preferred to suppress his own name and have these Sermons, already delivered and set down elsewhere, announced as the Sermons of a Disciple. And yet he, as is clearer than day, has passed as a Doctor from the rule of his master. Let no one wonder that he should be applauded, that men should extol him with their praises, that he should be preached, since it is most assuredly true that among modern sermon-writers he, in knowledge of the people, holds the first place. Desiring, therefore, to be partners of this zeal, we, the brothers, priests, and clergy of Green Garden in Rostock attached to S. Michael, preaching not orally but from manuscript, have thought that this admirable book, which was lurking in the hands of a few in their cells, should be published abroad by the printing art, chief of all arts for the advantage of holy church, that it may become known to many, to the praise of Almighty God. In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 1476, on October 30th. Of the dated editions of the Sermons this of Rostock is the earliest, so that the claim of the brothers to have rescued it from neglect was apparently justified. Their praise of printing as “chief of all arts for the advantage of holy church” is very notable, though quite in accordance with German feeling. In the sixteenth century the doctors of the Sorbonne were much more doubtful on the subject. The brothers printed a few secular works at Rostock, e.g. the Metamorphoses of Ovid and Guido delle Colonne’s History of the Destruction of Troy. But the bulk of their work was theological or devotional, In the same year as the Rostock brothers printed the “Sermones Discipuli,” Leonardus Achates of Basel issued at Vicenza a Latin Bible to which was appended a lengthy colophon in praise of the study of the Scriptures, almost the only eulogy of the kind with which I have met. Latin Bible. Vicenza: Leonardus Achates, 1476. Lector quisquis es, si christiane sentis, te non pigeat hoc opus sanctissimum, que biblia inscribitur, magna cum animi voluptate degustare, degustandumque aliis persuadere: nuper impressum a Leonardo Basileensi magna cum diligentia. In eo enim fidei nostre fundamentum situm est: et christiane religionis decus ac radix. Ex eo tibi cognitionem rerum omnium in quibus salus nostra consistit legendo comparabis: quod eo libentius facere debes quo in tam felici seculo codex hic preciosissimus in lucem emendatissimus uenit, pontificatus uidelicet sanctissimi domini nostri pape domini Xisti [Sixti] quarti anno quinto, et imperii christianissimi Frederici tertii anno uigesimo sexto, et Andree Vendramini ducis inclyti uenetorum anno primo. MCCCCLXXVI sexto ydus maias. Reader, whoever you are, if you have Christian feelings let it not annoy you to acquaint yourself with great pleasure of mind with this most sacred work which is entitled the Bible, and to persuade others to acquaint themselves with it, as it has lately been printed by Leonard of Basel with great diligence. For in it is seated the foundation of our faith, and the glory and root of the Christian religion. From reading it you will provide yourself with knowledge of all the things in which our salvation consists, and you should do this the more willingly because this most precious manuscript has been published in a most correct form at so happy an epoch, in the fifth year namely of the pontificate of our most holy lord Pope Sixtus IV, the twenty-sixth of the imperial rule of the most Christian Frederick III, and the first of the noble doge of Venice Andrea Vendramini. May 10, 1476. As a rule, the books chosen for praise were of less self-evident merit, notably grammatical works by which a royal road was promised to the mysteries of Latin. Thus an unidentified Strassburg printer (possibly Husner, but known only as the “Printer of the 1493 Casus breues Decretalium”) recommended his “Exercitium Puerorum Grammaticale” not only to boys, but to friars, nuns, merchants, and every one else who needed Latin, in these glowing terms: Finit tractatus secundus exercitii puerorum grammaticalis, in quo de regimine et constructione omnium dictionum secundum ordinem octo partium orationis processum est per regulas et questiunculas adeo lucidas faciles atque breues, doctissimorum virorum exemplis creberrimis roboratas, ut quisque sine preceptore eas discere, scire et intelligere possit. In quo si qui grammatici studiosi, cuiuscunque status fuerint, pueri, fratres, sorores, mercatores, ceterique seculares aut religiosi legerint, studuerint atque se oblectauerint, Finem grammatice ausim dicere breuissime sine magno labore consequentur. Impressum Argentine et finitus Anno &c M.cccc.xciiij. Here ends the second treatise of the boys’ grammatical exercise, in which a course is given on the government and construction of all phrases according to the order of the eight parts of speech, by rules and little questions so clear, easy, and short, and confirmed by very numerous examples from the works of most learned men, that any one without a teacher can learn, know, and understand them. If any grammatical students, of whatever rank they be, whether boys, friars, nuns, merchants, or any one else, secular or religious, have read, studied, and delighted themselves in this, I make bold to say that very shortly and without much labor they will quickly reach the end of grammar. Printed at Strassburg and finished in the year, &c., 1494. So, again, Arnold Pannartz, one of the prototypographers at Rome, vaunted the “De Elegantia Linguae Latinae” of Laurentius Valla as affording diligent students (they are warned that they must bring care and zeal to the task) a chance of making rapid progress. Laurentius Valla. Elegantiae. Rome: Arnold Pannartz, 1475. Laurentii Vallae uiri eruditissimi et oratoris clarissimi de Elegantia linguae latinae Liber Sextus et ultimus diligenti emendatione finitus ab incarnatione domini anno M.CCCC.LXXV. die uero secunda mensis Iulii: sedente Sixto IIII Pon. Max. Anno eius quarto. Hos uero libros impressit Clarus ac diligentissimus artifex Arnoldus Pannartz, Natione Germanus, in domo nobilis uiri Petri de maximis, ciuis Romani. Tu qui Latine loqui cupis hos tibi eme libros, in quibus legendis si curam studiumque adhibueris, breui te haud parum profecisse intelliges. The sixth and last book of Laurentius Valla, a man of the greatest learning and a most distinguished orator, on the Elegance of the Latin Tongue, after diligent correction, has been completed in the year from the Lord’s incarnation 1475, on July 2d, in the fourth year of the papacy of Sixtus IV. Now these books were printed by a distinguished and most diligent craftsman, Arnold Pannartz, a German, in the house of the noble Pietro dei Massimi, a Roman citizen. You who desire to speak Latin buy yourself these books, for in reading them, if you bring care and zeal to the task, in a short time you will understand that you have made no small progress. Perhaps the eulogies of their own wares by publishers reaches its climax in the praises by Paulus Johannis de Puzbach of his edition of the “Expositio Problematum Aristotelis,” of which it is said that it will be useful to every creature in the universal world, though with the wise proviso that the said creature must use great diligence in its study (cuius utilitas erit omni creature in universo orbe que apponet huic operi studium summa cum diligentia). Publishers who offered their readers a chance of buying books like these naturally posed as public benefactors, and in the colophon to a collection of the works of various illustrious men (Diui Athanasii contra Arium, etc.) printed at Paris in 1500 the reader is informed categorically that he owes four several debts of gratitude which Finis. Habes, lector candidissime, sex opuscula, etc. Reliquum est igitur vt iis qui hec peperere grati animi significationem feceritis. Atque adeo in primis prestantissimo viro domino Simoni Radin, qui hec situ victa in lucem edenda curauit. Deinde F. Cypriano Beneti: qui castigatrices manus apposuit. Tum iohanni paruo bibliopolarum optimo qui suo ere imprimenda tradidit. Nec minus M. Andree Bocard calcographo solertissimo qui tam terse atque ad amussim castigata compressit: Ad quartum Calendas Iulias. Anno Millesimoquingentesimo. Deo sit laus et gloria. Here you have, most honest reader, six works, etc. It remains, therefore, for you to make grateful acknowledgment to those who have produced them: in the first place to that eminent man Master Simon Radin, who saw to their being brought to light from the obscurity in which they were buried; next to F. Cyprian Beneti for his editorial care; then to Jean Petit, best of booksellers, who caused them to be printed at his expense; nor less than these to Andrieu Bocard, the skilful chalcographer, who printed them so elegantly and with scrupulous correctness, June 28, 1500. Praise and glory to God. In this book, printed at the very end of the century in Paris, where the book trade had for centuries been highly organized, it is natural to find printer and publisher clearly separated, both being tradesmen working for gain. The lines for such a distinction already existed in the days of manuscripts, the scribes and the stationers belonging to quite separate classes, though they might assume each other’s functions. In the earliest days of printing the craftsmen were, as a rule, their own publishers; but the system of patronage and the desire of well-to-do persons in various ranks of society to get special Finiunt Commentaria singularia et admiranda super titulo de acquirenda possessione, quem titulum mirabiliter prefatus dominus Franciscus novissime commentatus est in studio Pisano, Anno Redentionis domini nostri Iesu cristi, M.cccc Lxxx. ultima Iulii. Impressa vero Piscie et ex proprio auctoris exemplari sumpta Anno M.cccc Lxxxvi. die Iovis. IIII. ianuarii. Impensis nobilium iuvenum Bastiani et Raphaelis fratres [sic] filiorum Ser Iacobi Gerardi de Orlandis de Piscia. Opera venerabilis religiosi Presbiteri Laurentii et Francisci Fratrum et filiorum Cennis Florentinorum ad gloriam omnipotentis Dei. Here end the singular and wonderful Commentaries on the title Of Acquiring Possession, which title the aforesaid Master Franciscus lately lectured on marvellously in the University of Pisa, in the year of the Redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ 1480, on the last day of July. Printed at Pescia and taken from the author’s own copy, Thursday, January 4, 1486, at the charges of the noble youths the brothers Bastian and Raphael, sons of Ser Jacopo Gerardo dei Orlandi of Pescia, with the help of the venerable religious priest Lorenzo de Cennis and Francis his brother, Florentines, to the glory of Almighty God. Another law-book was printed for them by the same firm also in 1486, and three others in that year and in 1489 by firms not yet identified. But their interests though mainly were not entirely legal, and in 1488, from the press of Sigismund Rodt, there appeared an edition of Vegetius, in the colophon to which their views on the physical degeneration question of the day were very vigorously set forth. Non sunt passi diutius situ et squalore delitescere illustrem Vegetium De militari disciplina loquentem, uirum omni laude dignissimum, ingenui adolescentes Sebastianus et Raphael de Orlandis. Quem ob eam maxime causam imprimi curauerunt ut et antique uirtutis exemplo Italici iuuenes, longa desidia ignauiaque torpentes, tandem expergiscerentur: cum preter singularem de arte doctrinam ita in omni genere uirtutum consummatum iudicamus: ut non solum illius artis meditatione tyro optimus miles fiat, sed omnis etas solertior, omnis spiritus uigilantior omne denique humanum ingenium prestantius efficiatur. Piscie, iiii Nonas Aprilis. M. cccc.lxxxviii. Sigismondo Rodt de Bitsche operis architecto. The noble youths Sebastian and Raphael dei Orlandi have not suffered the illustrious Vegetius (a man most worthy of every praise), in his speech On Military Discipline, any longer Between 1471 and 1474 Ulrich Han printed a dozen or more books at Rome with Simon Chardella, a merchant of Lucca, whose help, if we may trust the colophon to the Commentary of Antonio de Butrio on the Decretals, was given from the purest philanthropy. Finis est huius secundi libri eximii ac celeberrimi utriusque iuris doctoris domini Anthonii de Butrio super primo decretalium in duobus voluminibus: quem quidem et nonnullos diuersorum electorumque librorum a domino Vdalrico Gallo almano feliciter impressos a prudenti equidem uiro Simone Nicholai chardella de lucha merchatore fide dignissimo: sua facultate cura diligentia amplexos: quia pauperum census diuitumque auariciam miseratus, ab egregiis uero uiris emendatos, in lucem reddidit anno salutis M.cccc.lxxiii. die xv nouembris III anno pontificatus Sixti IV. Here ends this second book of the distinguished and most renowned doctor of both laws, Master Antonio de Butrio, on the first of the Decretals, in two volumes. And this and some of the divers selected books successfully printed by Master Ulrich Han, a German, have been financed and diligently supervised, in his compassion for the means of the poor and the avarice of the rich, by the prudent Simone di Niccolo Chardella of Lucca, a merchant of the highest credit; corrected by noble scholars Single books, of course, were financed by people of many classes and ranks, from kings, princesses, and archbishops down to the Spanish bell-ringer who paid for a Lerida Breviary, as its colophon very explicitly sets forth. Breuiarii opus secundum Illerdensis ecclesie consuetudinem ex noua regula editum clareque emendatum per dominum Laurentium Fornes, virum doctum, eiusdem ecclesie presbiterum succentoremque, prehabita tamen ab egregio Decano ceterisque Canonicis eiusdem ecclesie licentia, Anthonius Palares campanarum eiusdem ecclesie pulsator propriis expensis fieri fecit. Impressitque venerabilis magister Henricus Botel de Saxonia alamanus, vir eruditus, qui huic clarissimo operi in urbe Illerde xvi Augusti anno incarnationis dominice millesimo quadringentesimo lxxixº finem fecit. Amen. A Breviary according to the use of the church of Lerida, edited in accordance with the new rule and clearly corrected by Master LourenÇo Fornes, a man of learning, priest and sub-cantor of the said church, with allowance previously obtained from the illustrious Dean and the rest of the Canons, published at his own cost by Antonio Palares the bell-ringer. Printed by the venerable master Heinrich Botel, a German of Saxony, an erudite man, who brought this glorious work to an end in the town of Lerida on August 16th, in the year of the Lord’s incarnation 1479. Amen. We might have imagined that, a bell-ringer being sometimes equivalent to a sacristan, and the sacristan being often responsible for the choir-books, the commission to print this Breviary was given by Palares only in the name of the chapter. We are, however, so distinctly informed that he caused the book to be printed “propriis expensis” (at his own cost), that no such explanation is tenable, and we must imagine either that the bell-ringer was actuated Gasparo Visconti. Rithmi. Milan: Ant. Zarotus, 1493. Ne elegantissimi operis lepos mellifluus temporis edacis iniuria tibi, lector optime, aliquando periret, aut illustrissimi auctoris inclyta memoria aeuo obliteraretur, ne etiam posteritas, hac delectatione defraudata, cupidineis lusibus careret, Franciscus Tantius Corniger, poeta Mediolanensis, hos rithmos Gasparis Vicecomitis lingua uernacula compositos, quanquam inuito domino, in mille exempla imprimi iussit, Mediolani anno a salutifero Virginis partu M.cccc.lxxxxiii. Quarto Calendas Martias. Finis. Lest to your loss, excellent reader, the honeyed grace of a most elegant book should some day perish by the wrongs of devouring time, or the noble memory of the most illustrious author be blotted out by age, lest also posterity, defrauded of their pleasure, should lack amorous toys, Franciscus Tantius Corniger, a Milanese poet, ordered these Rhythms of Gasparo Visconti, written in the vernacular tongue, to be printed, against their master’s will, in an edition of a thousand copies, at Milan, in the year from the Virgin’s salvation-bringing delivery 1493, on February 26th. Finis. No doubt Gasparo Visconti duly repaid the admiration thus shown for his poems; but though the admiring friend or patron was not without his uses in the fifteenth century, and even now is occasionally indispensable, when all is said and done the success of a book depends on the reception it meets from an unbiased public, and it is to the public, therefore, that its appeal must finally be made. Colophons recognize this in different ways—sometimes, as we have seen, by praising the book, sometimes by drawing attention to its cheapness, very often by the care with which they give the exact address of the publisher at whose shop it can be bought. VÉrard’s colophons are particularly notable in this respect. What could be more precise than the oft-repeated directions which we may quote from his edition of “Le Journal Spirituel” because of the careful arrangement of its lines? Journal Spirituel. Paris: VÉrard, 1505. Cy finist le Journal spirituel Imprime a paris pour honnorable homme Anthoine Verard bourgoys marchant et libraire demorant a paris deuant la Rue neufue notre dame a lymage sainct Jehan leuangeliste ou au palais deuant la cha- pelle ou lon chante la messe de mes- seigneurs les presidentz. Lan mil cinq cens et cinq le seziesme iour de decembre. Here ends the Spiritual Journal printed at Paris for an estimable man Antoine VÉrard burgess, shopkeeper, and bookseller dwelling at Paris before the New Street of Our Lady at the image of Saint John the Evangelist or at the palace before the cha- pel where is chanted the Mass of the Lords Presidents. In the year one thousand five hundred and five, the sixteenth day of December. Occasionally a verse colophon would be employed to tempt a purchaser to come to the publisher’s shop, as in the case of the French translation of the “Ship of Fools” by Jodocus Badius from the German of Sebastian Brant, printed by Geoffroy de Marnef in 1497. This ends: Hommes mortels qui desirez sauoir Comment on peut en ce monde bien vivre Et mal laisser: approchez, venez veoir Et visiter ce present joyeux livre. A tous estats bonne doctrine il livre Notant les maux et vices des mondains. Venez y tous et ne faictes dedains Du dit livre nomme Des Fols la Nef Si vous voulez vous en trouuerez maints Au Pellican cheux Geoffroy de Marnef. Mortal men who fain would know How well to live in this world below, And evil quit: come hither, see, And with this book acquainted be. To each estate good rede it gives, Notes all the evils in men’s lives. Come hither, all, and think no shame Of this said book, which has to name The Ship of Fools. You’ll find good store if in you’ll drop At honest Geoffroy Marnef’s shop, Where the Pelican rules. As to advertisements of cheapness, in addition to instances already incidentally noted we may take as our example another colophon partly in verse—that to the edition of the “Liber cibalis et medicinalis pandectarum” of Matthaeus Silvaticus printed at Naples by Arnold of Brussels in 1474. Explicit liber Pandectarum quem Angelus Cato Supinas de Beneuento philosophus et medicus magna cum diligentia et emendate imprimendum curauit, et in clarissima et nobilissima atque praestantissima dulcissimaque ciuitate Neapoli, regum, ducum, procerumque matre, prima Aprilis M.cccc.Lxxiiii. Idcirco excelso deo gratias agamus. Noscere qui causas et certa uocabula rerum Et medicas artes per breue queris iter, Me lege: nec multo mercaberis: Angelus en me Sic et diuitibus pauperibusque parat. Cui tantum me nunc fas est debere, Salernum, Urbs debet quantum, patria terra, mihi. Here ends the book of the Pandects which Angelus Cato Supinas of Benevento, a philosopher and physician, has procured to be printed, with great diligence and correctly, in the most illustrious, most noble, most excellent, and most delightful city of Naples, mother of kings, dukes, and nobles, April 1, 1474. For which cause let us give thanks to God on high. Who’d quickly learn each ill to diagnose, The terms of art and all a doctor knows, Let him read me, nor will the cost be great, My Angel editor asks no monstrous rate. To whom, Salernum, I as great thanks owe As thou upon thy offspring canst bestow. No doubt in this instance the book was much obliged to its editor for his care in revising it, and the great medical school of Salerno might justly be expected to be grateful for the publication of an important medical work: the trouble of the situation was that there were so many of these not wholly disinterested benefactors in the field at the same time. Editions, it is true, were mostly small, owing to the slowness of the presswork; and, no doubt, each several printer reckoned that he had all literary Finiunt decretales correctissime: impresse alma urbe Roma totius mundi regina per egregios uiros magistrum Udalricum Gallum Alamanum et Symonem Nicolai de Luca: cum glosis ordinariis Bernardi Parmensis et additionibus suis: que paucis in libris habentur: summa diligentia et impresse ac correcte. Quas, emptor, securo animo eme. Talia siquidem in hoc uolumine reperies ut merito alias impressiones faciliter floccipendes. Anno domini M.cccc.Lxxiiii. die xx mensis Septembris, Pontificatus uero Sixti diuina prouidentia Pape quarti anno quarto. Here end the Decretals, most correctly printed in the bounteous city of Rome, queen of the whole world, by those excellent men Master Ulrich Han, a German, and Simon di Niccolo of Lucca: with the ordinary glosses of Bernard of Parma and his additions, which are found in few copies; both printed and corrected with the greatest diligence. Purchase these, book-buyer, with a light heart, for you will find such excellence in this volume that you will be right in easily reckoning other editions as worth no more If Han relied on the superiority of his work to defeat his rivals, other publishers preferred to have the advantage of coming earlier to market, and we find Stephanus Corallus, at Parma, actually apologizing with a very vivid metaphor for misprints in his edition of the “Achilleis” of Statius on the ground that he had rushed it through the press to forestall rivals. Of course, the rivals were envious and malevolent,—that might be taken for granted,—but the assumption that a purchaser was to acquiesce in bad work in order that Corallus might hurry his book out quickly only for his own profit was merely impudent. Statius. Achilleis. Parma: Steph. Corallus, 1473. Si quas, optime lector, hoc in opere lituras inueneris nasum ponito; nam Stephanus Corallus Lugdunensis inuidorum quorundam maliuolentia lacessitus, qui idem imprimere tentarunt, citius quam asparagi coquantur id absoluit, ac summo studio emendatum literarum studiosis legendum tradidit Parme M.cccc.lxxiii. x Cal. April. Should you find any blots in this work, excellent reader, lay scorn aside; for Stephanus Corallus of Lyons, provoked by the When publishers were as ready as this to forestall each other, a cry for some kind of regulation of the industry was sure to be raised, and at Venice, the greatest book-mart in the world, regulation came in the form of the privilege and spread thence to various countries of Europe. I do not at all agree with the opinion which Mr. Gordon Duff has expressed so strongly, that the power of freely importing books given by Richard III was by any means an unmixed blessing, or that its revocation by Henry VIII fifty years later had disastrous effects on English printing. Printing started late in England and was handicapped by the impoverishment wrought by the Wars of the Roses. The facility with which all learned books were supplied from abroad quickened the growth of English learning, but restricted the English printers to printing and reprinting a few vernacular books of some literary pretensions and an endless stream of works of popular devotion and catch-penny trifles. Neither Oxford nor Cambridge could support a permanent printer, and English scholars were obliged to have their books printed abroad. Nevertheless, free trade, however hardly it might press on a backward industry, was infinitely better than the privilege system, which was altogether haphazard and liable to gross abuse. For the story of its introduction and development at Venice, the reader must be referred to Mr. Horatio Brown’s “The Venetian Printing Press” (Nimmo, 1891), a book which leaves a good deal to be desired on its purely typographical side, but which is quite admirable as regards the regulation of the industry. Our concern here Impressum Venetiis die 25 Septembris, 1492, opera Bernardini Ricii de Nouaria, impensa vero excellentissimi artium et medicine doctoris domini magistri Ioannis dominici de Nigro, qui obtinuit ex speciali gratia ab illustrissimo ducali dominio Venetorum Quod nemini, quicumque fuerit, liceat tam Venetiis quam in universa ditione Veneto dominio subiecta, imprimere seu imprimi facere hunc librum, aut alibi impressum in predicta ditione vendere, per X annos, sub pena immediate et irremissibilis omnium librorum, et librarum quinquaginta pro quolibet volumine. Que quidem pena applicetur recuperationi Montis Noui. Printed at Venice on September 25, 1492, by the pains of Bernardinus Ricius of Novara, at the expense of the most excellent doctor of arts and medicine, Master Giovanni Dominico di Nigro, who obtained, by special grace, from the most illustrious dogal government of the Venetians that no one soever should be allowed, either at Venice or in the entire dominion subject to the Venetian government, himself to print this book or cause it to be printed, or to sell in the aforesaid dominion a copy printed elsewhere, for ten years, under the penalty of the immediate and irremissible forfeiture of all the books, and a fine of fifty lire for any volume, the penalty to be applied to the restoration of the Monte Novo. The three points as to the duration of the privilege, the amount of the fine, and the charity to which it was to be Et sic est finis huius utilis et suauis postille super totum psalterium. Impressa autem fuit Venetiis per Iohannem et Gregorium de Gregoriis fratres, impensis Stefani et Bernardini de Nallis fratrum, suasu reuerendissimi patris et predicatoris egregii fratris Dominici Ponzoni. Habita tamen gratia ab excelso Venetorum dominio ne quis per decennium primum imprimere possit aut imprimi facere seu alibi impressam vendere per totum dominium &c. sub penis &c. prout in ipsa gratia plenius continetur. Completa uero fuit die 12 Nouembris, 1496. Thus ends this useful and delightful lecture on the whole Psalter. And it was printed at Venice by the brothers Giovanni and Gregorio dei Gregorii, at the expense of the brothers Stefano and Bernardino dei Nalli, on the persuasion of the most reverend father and preacher, the noble brother Dominico Ponzoni. Grace was granted by the exalted government of the Venetians that no one for the first ten years should print it, or cause it to be printed, or sell a copy printed elsewhere, throughout the whole dominion, &c., under penalty, &c., as is more fully contained in the grace itself. And it was finished on November 12, 1496. The Gregorii followed the same course, in their 1498 edition of S. Jerome’s Commentary on the Bible, a work (rather condescendingly praised by the printers) which it is amazing to find on the privileged list at all. Habes itaque, studiosissime lector, Ioannis et Graegorii de Gregoriis fretus officio, ea nouiter impraessa commentaria: Vnde totius ueteris et noui testamenti ueritatem rectumque sensum Thus you have, most studious reader, thanks to the good offices of Giovanni and Gregorio dei Gregorii, these commentaries newly printed, whence you can very easily apprehend the truth and right meaning of all the Old and New Testament, and by adding these to your library you will obtain a great pleasure and receive daily greater profit. At Venice by the aforesaid brothers Giovanni and Gregorio dei Gregorii. With a privilege that no one within ten years may print them or bring for sale copies printed elsewhere into territories subject to the most excellent government of the Venetians, under the penalties therein contained. The instances we have quoted so far are of references in colophons to privileges granted to the printer-publishers. They were granted also (as in the case of Sabellico) to authors, and from his translation of Seneca’s plays we learn that Evangelio Fossa obtained from the Senate protection for all his writings. Finisse la nona Tragedia di Senecha ditta Agamemnone in uulgare composta per el uenerabile Frate Euangelista Fossa da Cremona. Impressa in Venesia per Maestro piero bergamascho a le spese de zuan antonio de Monsera. Nel anno M.cccc.lxxxxvii. adi xxviii zenaro. El Venerabile Frate Euangelista Fossa compositore de la presente opera a Impetrado gratia che nesuno possa imprimere ne far imprimere opera chel compona hic per anni x. poi che la hara data fora, sotto pena da ducati x. per ogni uolume come apare nella gratia. Amen. Here ends the ninth Tragedy of Seneca, called Agamemnon, composed in the vulgar tongue by the venerable Brother Evangelista Fossa of Cremona. Printed in Venice by Master Piero Bergamascho at the expense of Juan Antonio of Monsera. In the year 1497 on the twenty-eighth day of January. The venerable Brother Evangelista Fossa, the composer of the present work, has obtained a grace that no one may print or cause to be printed a work of his composition for ten years after his publication of it, under penalty of ten ducats for every volume, as appears in the grace. Amen. Privileges were obtainable not only by publishers in Venice itself, but also by those in the towns under Venetian rule, and the two following examples are taken respectively from a Quadragesimale printed by Angelus Britannicus at Brescia in 1497, and a Martianus Capella printed by Henricus de Sancto Urso at Vicenza in 1499. Explicit quadragesimale quod dicitur lima vitiorum. Diuino huic operi Angelus Britannicus ciuis Brixianus optimo fauente deo: eiusque genetrice Maria: finem optatum imposuit: cuius fidem solertiamque principes veneti charipendentes: ne quis alius opus ipsum infra sex annos imprimat: aut impressum vendat in ditione sua: preter ipsius angeli nutum: Senatusconsulto pena promulgata cauerunt: anno domini M.cccc.lxxxxvii. die xviii Aprilis. Here ends the Quadragesimal which is called the File of Vices. To this divine work by the favor of God the Most High, and of his Mother Mary, the desired end has been put by Angelo Britannico, a citizen of Brescia, whose loyalty and skill the Venetian princes held so dear that by a decree of the Senate and by the promulgation of a penalty they gave warning that no one else should print this work within six years, or sell it, if printed elsewhere, in their dominion, against the will of the said Angelo. In the year of the Lord 1497, on the eighteenth day of April. Martiani Capellae Liber finit: Impressus Vicentiae Anno Salutis M.cccc.xcix. xvii Kalendas Ianuarias per Henricum de Sancto Vrso. Cum gratia et priuilegio decem annorum: ne imprimatur neque cum commentariis: neque sine: & cetera: quae in ipso priuilegio continentur. Laus deo & beatae Virgini. Here ends the book of Martianus Capella, printed at Vicenza in the year of salvation 1499, on December 16th, by Henricus de Sancto Urso. With a grace and privilege for ten years, that it be not printed either with commentaries or without, and the other particulars which are contained in the privilege itself. Praise be to God and the Blessed Virgin. As publishers went on applying for these privileges, it is to be presumed that they found them profitable; but they were certainly sometimes contravened, and the fines do not appear to have been enforced. Nevertheless they soon spread beyond the Venetian dominions. Thus in 1496, for instance, we find Scinzenzeler obtaining one at Milan, and warning other booksellers, with effusive friendliness, not to incur these dreadful penalties by ignorant piracy. Famosissimi iureconsulti Francisci Curtii ex proprio exemplari exceptum Consiliorum volumen primum per Iohannem Vinzalium Turrianum summa cum diligentia reuisum, ac Ulderici Scinzenzeler artificio operoso impressum Mediolani M.cccc.lxxxxvi die xx Decembris. Ne in penam non paruam imprudenter incurras, O bibliopola au[i]dissime, scias obtentum esse ab Illustrissimo et Sapientissimo Mediolani principe rescriptum ne Curtiana Consilia ad decimum usque annum, aut imprimi possint, aut alibi impressa importari venalia in eius districtum sub poena indignationis Caesaree et eris in eo contenta. Itaque ne ignarus erres te admonitum esse voluit Iohannes Vinzalius. Franciscus Curtius. Consilia. Milan: U. Scinzenzeler, 1496. The first volume of the Opinions of the most famous jurist Franciscus Curtius, taken from his own copy, revised with the greatest diligence by Giovanni Vinzalio Turriano, and by the busy skill of Ulrich Scinzenzeler printed at Milan on December 20, 1496. To save you from rashly incurring no small penalty, most greedy bookseller, you are to know that a decree has been obtained from the most illustrious and most wise prince of Milan, that until the tenth year from now no copies of the Opinions of Curtius may be printed, or if printed elsewhere may be imported for sale into his district, under the penalty of his royal Without attempting to follow the subject of Privileges all over Europe, it may be worth while to note a few other instances of them in different countries. Thus they begin to make their appearance in VÉrard’s colophons at Paris in 1508, the earliest I can find set forth in Mr. Macfarlane’s Bibliography being that in the “Epistres Saint Pol” of 17th January of that year, called 1507 because of the Paris custom of reckoning from Easter. This reads: Ce present liure a este acheue dimprimer par ledit Verard le xvii? iour de ianuier mil cinq cens et sept. Et a le roy nostre sire donne audit Verard lectres de priuilege et terme de trois ans pour vendre et distribuer ledit pour soy rembourser des fraiz et mises par luy faictes. Et deffend le roy nostredit seigneur a tous inprimeurs libraires et autres du royaulme de france de non imprimer ledit liure de trois ans sur paine de confiscation desditz liures. This present book has been finished printing by the said VÉrard the 17th day of January, 1507. And the king our master has given to the said VÉrard letters of privilege and a term of three years to sell and distribute the said book to recoup himself for the costs and charges he has been at. And the king our said lord forbids all printers, booksellers, and others of the kingdom of France to print the said book under pain of the confiscation of the copies. From this date onwards an allusion to a privilege is found in most of VÉrard’s books, but it will be noted that its term is the very moderate one of three years. In England, in the earliest instance I have noted,—Pynson’s edition Impressa Londini anno verbi incarnati M.D.xviii. idibus Nouembris per Richardum Pynson regium impressorem, cum priuilegio a rege indulto, ne quis hanc orationem intra biennium in regno Angliae imprimat aut alibi impressam et importatam in eodem regno Angliae vendat. Printed at London in the year of the Incarnate Word 1518, on November 13th, by Richard Pynson, the royal printer, with a privilege granted by the king that no one is to print this speech within two years in the kingdom of England, or to sell it, if printed elsewhere and imported, in the same kingdom of England. Herbert notes of this book, “this is the first dated book, wholly in the Roman or white letter, that I have seen of his [Pynson’s] printing, or indeed printed in England.” The foreign custom of privileges seems to have made its appearance with the foreign type. In Spain the duration of the earliest privilege I have found (in an edition of the “Capitulos de governadores” printed in June, 1500, with the types of Pegnitzer and Herbst of Seville) is the same as in those granted to VÉrard in France, and the benevolent Spanish government accompanies it by a stipulation as to the price to be charged to purchasers. Por quanto maestre Garcia de la Torre librero vezino de Toledo & Alonso LorenÇo librero vezino de Seuilla se obligaron de dar los dichos capitulos a precio de xvi [sic] mrs: manda su alteza & los del su muy alto consejo que ninguno no sea osado de los empremir ni vender en todos sus reynos & seÑorios desde el dia dela fecha destos capitulos fasta tres aÑos primeros siguientes sin licencia d’los dichos maestre Garcia de la Torre & Alonso LorenÇo libreros: so pena que el que los emprimiere Forasmuch as Master Garcia de la Torre, bookseller, of Toledo, and Alonso LorenÇo, bookseller, of Seville, bind themselves to offer the said Ordinances at the price of sixteen maravedis, His Highness, with those of his illustrious Council, commands that no one presume to print nor to sell copies in all his kingdoms and dominions from the day of the ratification of the said Ordinances for the first three years following, without the license of the said Master Garcia de la Torre and Alonso LorenÇo, booksellers, under penalty that the unlicensed printer or vendor shall pay ten thousand maravedis for the Chamber of their Highnesses. In Germany, on the other hand, the longer period favored in Italy seems to have been adopted. Here the earliest privileges I have come across are those granted to the Sodalitas Celtica of Nuremberg—i.e., to Conrad Celtes and his partners or friends—for printing books in which he was interested. In the first of these privileges—that for the Comedies of the nun Hroswitha—the period for which it held good is not specified; The instances of privileges here quoted may not be the very earliest in their several countries, but they at least Contemplaciones deuotissime per reuerendissimum dominum dominum Iohannem de Turrecremata cardinalem quondam Sancti Sixti edite, atque in parietibus circuitus Marie Minerue nedum litterarum caracteribus verum eciam ymaginum figuris ornatissime descripte atque depicte, feliciter finiunt Anno salutis M.cccc.lxxii. die uero uigesima quarta mensis decembris sedente Sixto quarta [sic] pontifice magno, etc. The most devout contemplations published by the most reverend lord, Lord Johannes de Turrecremata, formerly cardinal of S. Sixtus, and in the walls of the cloisters of S. Maria Minerva not only in words and letters but also in pictorial figures set forth and painted, come to a happy end, in the year of Salvation 1472, on December 24th, in the pontificate of Sixtus IV. So again the colophon [A]Dest nunc studiose lector finis libri Cronicarum per viam epithomatis et breuiarii compilati, opus quidem preclarum et a doctissimo quoque comparandum. Continet enim gesta quecunque digniora sunt notatu ab initio mundi ad hanc usque temporis nostri calamitatem. Castigatumque a uiris doctissimis ut magis elaboratum in lucem prodiret. Ad intuitum autem et preces prouidorum ciuium Sebaldi Schreyer et Sebastiani Kamermaister hunc librum dominus Anthonius Koberger Nuremberge impressit. Adhibitis tamen uiris mathematicis pingendique arte peritissimis, Michaele Wolgemut et Wilhelmo Pleydenwurff, quorum solerti acuratissimaque animaduersione tum ciuitatum tum illustrium uirorum figure inserte sunt. Consummatum autem duodecima mensis Iulii. Anno salutis nostre 1493. You have here, studious reader, the end of the book of Chronicles, compiled by way of an epitome and abridgment, a notable work indeed, and one to be bought by every learned man. For it records all the matters specially worthy of note from the beginning of the world to these last distressful times of our own. And it has been corrected by very learned men, that it may make a more finished appearance. Now at the respect and prayers of those prudent citizens, Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kamermaister, this book has been printed by Master Anton Koberger at Nuremberg, with the assistance, nevertheless, of mathematical men, well skilled in the art of painting, Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, by whose skilful and most accurate annotation the pictures both of cities and of illustrious men have Out of all the hundreds of fifteenth-century books with interesting pictures, this is the only one I can call to mind which gives explicit information as to its illustrations. Perhaps the publishers thought that the woodcuts were themselves more conspicuous in the books than the colophons. But it is certainly strange that when authors, editors, press-correctors, printers, patrons, and booksellers all get their due, the illustrators, save in this one instance, should have been kept in anonymous obscurity. Decorative footer image Decorative header image
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