TWENTY-THREE ADDITIONAL EARLY PRINTED BOOKS

Turnbull Library Record, Volume X, 1 January 1953, Page 11

TWENTY-THREE ADDITIONAL EARLY PRINTED BOOKS

G.M.G.

The Library has recently acquired from Mr. J. M. A. Ilott a collection of early printed books, consisting of twenty-three volumes, three of which are examples of Dutch and English later seventeenth century printing, and the rest representative of important features of the first century of the history of printing. Since the Alexander Turnbull Library is already rich in seventeenth century works it is the earlier printing that is significant to us in acquiring this collection.

The late Mr. Turnbull did not cover the whole field of book collecting, so that there are some sections of the Library that appear disproportionately developed. Early printing was lightly but usefully represented in relation to the Library as a whole, but he had not specialized in incunabula or manuscript books, which were therefore represented by relatively few examples. The interest of the present Librarian in the history of the printed book has led to the addition of further manuscript books and incunabula in recent years.

Intermittently throughout the first century of the history of printing the luxurious manuscript book owned only by the princely class remained as model and rival to the printed book, and it was to the market for such books that makers of the printed book, unable to liberate themselves from the old outlook, constantly reverted. Only slowly was the idea accepted that the printed book was a new and different medium, opening new horizons of enlightenment to classes who had not previously had books, and amenable to cheap production for a larger and less elite market —in effect, as the present Archbishop of Canterbury has recently said of television, becoming “a mass-produced means of education”.

Early moveable metal types were cast in direct imitation of manuscript styles. We have a manuscript, “Officium: Praeparatio Episcopi ad Missam Celebrandum ,

dec”, written in a style recognizable as a near relative of the model that Gutenberg of Mainz took in the first printed book, in about 1455. Our earliest book associated with the inventor of printing is the Constitutions of Clement printed on vellum by Gutenberg’s successor, Peter Schoeffer (1471). In the new collection is a small book, Hortulus Animae , printed by the same press under Johann Schoeffer in 1511.

Once established in' Mainz the art of printing rapidly spread to other European cities, but took root and flourished most vigorously in Italy, then the home of learning. Two Mainz printers, Sweynheym and Pannartz, carried the art to Italy in 1464, it is supposed with the encouragement of Juan Turrecremata Abbot of the monastery of Saint Scholastica in Subiaco, about thirty miles from Rome, where the first press was set up. Among the new collection is a reprint of one of Turrecremata’s many important religious works, Questiones Evangeliorium , printed at Deventer (1484).

From Subiaco the art passed to Rome, and then to Venice, which quickly assumed pre-eminence. It is estimated that before 1500 two million books (not titles) were printed in Venice, thus providing an enormous field for the collector. Mr. Turnbull took a particular interest in the enterprising Venetian printer Ratdolt, collecting a number of examples of his work, and we have also examples of the work of Jenson, the designer of Roman typeface, and of several other early Venetian printers. The earliest dated book in Mr. Ilott’s collection is a Venetian impression by Reynaldus de Novimagio of the Breviarium Medicinae of Johannes Serapion (1479). There are also an edition of Ovid printed by Baldassare Assoguidi of Bologna (1480), and a very fine example of the “emblem book”, that type of lighter literature originated by Andrea Alciati of Milan the Symbolicarum questionem de universo genere of Achilles Bocchius, founder of the Academy of Bologna, printed in Bologna (1531).

The greatest figure in Italian printing, however, and perhaps the greatest in the whole history of printing, is Aldus Manutius of Venice. Among the books acquired in this new collection there is a copy of the Sophoclis

Trageodiae Septem printed by Aldus (1502). This book is the first of the Aldine series of Greek classics, and thus typical of Aldus’ whole work. Aldus was the printer through whom the Italian Renaissance materialized, who gave to the modern world and preserved for posterity the learning of the ancient world, previously only surviving in rare manuscript form. There are also three other Aldine classics in this new collection: Plinii Epistoli (1508); Orationes Rhetorum , first Aldine edition (1513); and Caesaris Commentariorum (1519). Aldus was well, if slenderly, represented ,in Mr. Turnbull’s collection, one of the Library’s -choicest treasures being Poliphili Hypnerotomachia , recognized as the best-printed illustrated book of the fifteenth century.

The earliest example of German printing in the Ilott collection is the Summa de Casibus Conscientiae of Astexanus de Ast, printed by Koburger of Nuremberg (1482). We had already several other books printed by Koburger, notably the great Nuremberg Chronicle , the “Picture Book of the Middle Ages”, illustrated copiously with woodcuts by Pleydenwurff and Wolgemuth, who was Durer’s master.

The revolution in book production took place in France later than in Italy, awaiting the impetus given it by the patronage of Francis I. Two examples of early Parisian Books of Hours are added by the new collection. One is on vellum, choicely illuminated. The enormous output of Books of Hours by early Parisian printers satisfied a popular demand for illustrated devotional books of this kind, pre-dating Francis I and Geoffrey Tory, the greatest of early French typographers, whom he appointed Royal Printer in 1530. The Library possesses a fine copy of Tory’s classic exposition of typography, printed in 1549.

Thus, by the early part of the sixteenth century, the vital role which the printed book was to play in the history of European nations had become apparent. The Italian masses, becoming aware of the power given them by their new access to knowledge, had commenced a period of political unrest against the rulers of the cities. From this time the standard of production of the Italian printed book degenerates, while the press is used as the

instrument of expression of epoch-making political thought. This is powerfully illustrated by the contrast of the examples of fine printing we have been discussing with the character of another special collection in the Library, the M. Trimble collection of Italian books surrounding sixteenth century Italian political development; in this collection the emphasis is on the thought, not the printer, and one forgets to consider craftsmanship. Throughout its history printing has been subject to this kind of variation, from the high standard set by the great craftsman ,in some particular field or nation, to the abandonment of standards in the heat of controversy or the dullness of lethargy. Thus the gems of printing occur at points of history discoverable only by the careful collector. So brief an account as this can give only a general view of the relation of our collection to the study of history and the significance of these new additions, leaving the detailed work to be done by the student.

The three seventeenth century books in the new collection are Dutch and English examples, the emphasis of interest having by this time passed to these countries. These three books are of relatively minor importance in relation to the Alexander Turnbull Library collection, since we have many early Dutch voyages, Milton items, as well as miscellaneous works, giving altogether a wide seventeenth century coverage. The three are: Methodus ad facilem Historiarum Cognitionem by Jean Bodin (1530-96), founder of the philosophy of history in France, printed by Joannes Ravesteiny, Amsterdam; (1650) De Generations Insectorum , by Franciscus Redus, printed by Henry Wetsten, Amsterdam (1670); and A Short View of the Late Troubles in England , by Dugdale, printed at Oxford for Moses Pitt (1681), this last exemplifying the high standard of the Oxford University press reorganised under the autocratic and energetic domination of Dr. John Fell after the period of degeneration in printing brought about by the Civil Wars in England.