Volume III Part 15 (1/2)

OVIDII FASTI. _Printed by Azoguidi._ 1471. Folio. This is the whole of what they possess of this wonderfully rare EDIT. PRIN. of Ovid, printed at Bologna by the above printer:--and of this small portion the first leaf is wanting.

----, OPERA OMNIA, _Printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz_. 1471. Folio. 2 vols. This is a clean, large copy; supplied from two old libraries. The volumes are equally large, but the first is in the finer condition.

----, EPISTOLae et FASTI. I know nothing of the printer of this edition, nor can I safely guess where it was printed. The Epistles begin on the recto of _aa ii_ to _gg v_; the Fasti on A i to VV ix, including some few other opuscula; of which my memorandum is misplaced. At the end, we read the word FINIS.

PLINIUS SENIOR. _Printed by I. de Spira_. 1469. Folio. Editio Princeps. We have here the identical copy--printed UPON VELLUM--of which I remember to have heard it said, that the Abbe Strattman, when he was at the head of this library, declared, that whenever the French should approach Vienna, he would march off with _this_ book under _one_ arm, and with the FIRST Psalter under the other! This was heroically said; but whether such declaration was ever _acted_ upon, is a point upon which the bibliographical annals of that period are profoundly silent. To revert to this membranaceous treasure. It is in one volume, beautifully white and clean; but (”horresco referens;”) it has been cruelly deprived of its legitimate dimensions. In other words, it is a palpably cropt copy. The very first glance of the illumination at the first page confirms this. In other respects, also, it can bear no comparison with the VELLUM copy in the Royal Library at Paris.[123] Yet is it a book ... for which I know more than _one_ Roxburgher who would promptly put pen to paper and draw a check for 300 guineas--to become its possessor.

PLINIUS SENIOR. _Printed by Jenson._ 1472. Folio. Another early Pliny--UPON VELLUM: very fine, undoubtedly; but somewhat cropt, as the encroachment upon the arms, at the bottom of the first illuminated page, evidently proves. The initial letters are coloured in that sober style of decoration, which we frequently observe in the illuminated volumes of Sweynheym and Pannartz; but they generally appear to have received some injury. Upon the whole, I doubt if this copy be so fine as the similar copies, upon vellum, in the libraries of the Duke of Devons.h.i.+re and the late Sir M. M. Sykes.

This book is bound in the highly ornamented style of French binding of the XVIIth century; and it measures almost sixteen inches one eighth, by ten inches five eighths.

PLINIUS. Italice. _Printed by Jenson._ 1476. Folio. A fine, large, pure, crackling copy; in yellow morocco binding. It was Prince Eugene's copy; but is yet inferior, in magnitude, to the copy at Paris.[124]

SILIUS ITALICUS. _Printed by Laver._ 1471. Folio. The largest, soundest, and cleanest copy of this very rare impression, which I remember to have seen:--with the exception, perhaps, of that in the Bodleian Library.

SUETONIUS. _Printed by S. and Pannartz._ 1470. Folio. Second Edition. A fine, sound copy, yet somewhat cropt. The first page of the text has the usual border printed ornament of the time of printing the book. This was Prince Eugene's copy.

SUIDAS, Gr. 1499. Folio. 2 vols. This editio princeps of Suidas is always, when in tolerable condition, a wonderfully striking book: a masterpiece of solid, laborious, and beautiful Greek printing. But the copy under consideration--which is in its pristine boards, covered with black leather--was LAMBECIUS'S OWN COPY, and has his autograph. It is, moreover, one of the largest, fairest, and most genuine copies ever opened.

TACITUS. _Printed by I. de Spira._ Folio. Edit. Prin. This is the whitest and soundest copy, of this not very uncommon book, which I have seen. It has however lost something of its proper dimensions by the cropping of the binder.

TERENTIUS. _Printed by Mentelin, without date._ Folio. Editio Princeps. Of exceedingly great rarity. The present copy, which is in boards--but which richly deserves a russia or morocco binding--is a very good, sound, and desirable copy.

VALERIUS MAXIMUS. _Printed by Schoeffher._ 1472. Fol. UPON VELLUM; a charming, sound copy. This book is not very uncommon upon vellum.

VIRGILIUS. _Printed by Mentelin._ _Without date._ Folio. Perhaps the rarest of all the early Mentelin cla.s.sics; and probably the second edition of the author. The present is a beautiful, white, sound copy, and yet probably somewhat cropt. It is in red morocco binding. Next to the very extraordinary copy of this edition, in the possession of Mr. George Hibbert, I should say that _this_ was the finest I had ever seen.

---- _Printed by V. de Spira._ 1470. Folio. It is difficult to find a thoroughly beautiful copy of this very rare book. The present is tolerably fair and rather large, but I suspect washed. The beginning is brown, and the end very brown.

---- _Printed by the Same._ 1471. Folio. This copy is perhaps the most beautiful in the world of the edition in question. It has the old ms.

signatures in the corner, which proves how important the preservation of these _witnesses_ is to the confirmation of the size and genuineness of a copy of an old book. No wonder the French got possession of this matchless volume on their memorable visit to Vienna in 1805 or 1809. It was bound in France, in red morocco, and is honestly bound. This is, in short, a perfect book.

---- _Printed by Jenson._ 1475. Folio. A very fine, crackling copy, in the old wooden binding; but the beginning and end are somewhat stained.

MISCELLANEOUS LATIN.[125]

aeNEAS SYLVIUS DE DUOBUS AMANTIBUS. Without date. Quarto. This is the only copy which I have seen, of probably what may be considered the FIRST EDITION of this interesting work. It has twenty-three lines in a full page, and is printed in the large and early roman type of _Gering_, _Crantz_, and _Friburger_. Caesar and Stoll doubtless reprinted this edition. In the whole, there are forty-four leaves. The present is a fair sound copy.

ALEXANDER GALLUS: vulg DE VILLA DEI: DOCTRINALE. _Without date._ Folio.

There are few books which I had so much wished to see as the present. The bibliographers of the old school had a great notion of the typographical antiquity of this _work_ if not of _this edition_ of it: but I have very little hesitation, in the first place, of attributing it to the press of _Vindelin de Spira_--and, in the second place, of a.s.signing no higher antiquity to it than that of the year 1471. It is however a book of some intrinsic curiosity, and of unquestionably great rarity. I saw it here for the first time. The present copy is a decidedly much-cropt folio; but in most excellent condition.

AQUINAS THOMAS. SECUNDA SECONDae. _Printed by Schoeffher._ 1467. Folio. A fine, large copy, printed UPON VELLUM: the vellum is rather too yellow; but this is a magnificent book, and exceedingly rare in such a state. It is bound in red morocco.

---- OPUS QUARTISCRIPTUM. _Printed by Schoeffher._ 1469. Folio. We have here another magnificent specimen of the early Mentz press, struck off UPON VELLUM, and executed in the smallest gothic type of the printer. This is a gloriously genuine copy; having the old pieces of vellum pasted to the edges of the leaves, by way of facilitating the references to the body of the text. There is a duplicate copy of this edition, upon paper, wanting some of the earlier leaves, and which had formerly belonged to Prince Eugene. It is, in other respects, fair and desirable.

---- IN EVANG. MATTH. ET MARC. _Printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz._ 1470.

Folio. A fine, large, white, and crackling copy; but somewhat cut; and not quite free from the usual foxy tint of the books executed by these earliest Roman printers.

BARTHOLUS. LECTURA. _Printed by V. de Spira._.1471, Folio. One of the finest specimens imaginable of the press of V. de Spira. It is a thick folio, executed in double columns. The first page of this copy is elegantly illuminated with portraits, &c.; but the arms at bottom prove that some portion of the margin has been cut away--even of this magnificent copy. At the end--just before the date, and the four colophonic verses of the printer--we read: ”_Finis primi ptis lecture dni Bartoli super ffto nouo_.”