Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/179

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170

HISTORY OF PRINTING.

loved masculine exercises, such as hawking, hunting, &c. With these sports she used to recreate herself; and so skilled was she in them, that she wrote treatises on hawking, hunting, and heraldry. " From an abbess disposed to turn author," says Warton, "we might more reasonably have expected a manual of medita- tions for the closet, or select rules for making salves, or distilling strong waters. But the diversions of the field were not thought incon- sistent with the character of a religious lady of this eminent rank, who resembled an abbot in respect of exercising an extensive manorial junsdiction, and who hawked and hunted in common with other ladies of distinction." So well esteemed were Juliana Bemers's treatises, and, indeetl, so popular were the subjects on which they were written, that they were pub- lished in the very infancy of the art of printing. Perhaps the conformity between dame Juliana's book and Le Liver du Roi ]Hodus,mB.y be found to consist chiefly in the miscellaneous maxims or moralities in which each work abounds. These dame Juliana, like queen Racio, scatters pro- fusely; and sometimeS in a strain of coarseness alike incompatible with modern notions of female delicacy. Some, howe\'er, of the remarks of the lady prioress evince strong sense and accurate observation. Witness her celebrated poetical effusion which commences thus : —

" A fay thful frende volde J fayne fynde To fynde taym there, he mjrglite be founde Bot DOW is the worlde. wcxt vnkynde That ftenship Is fall, to the grounde ' Now a frende J haue founde That J woll nother. taanne ne curse Bat of all firendes. in fclde or towne Kner gramercy. myn own purse. &e,"

1481. GeofFroyor Godefroy, Enguilbert, and Jean Mamef, three brothers, and who were asso- ciated together, at least on some occasions, com- menced their typographic labours in the city of Paris. Their earliest impression, according to Panzer, bear this date.

Jean Dupre, or Joannes de Pratis or de Prato, commenced his zealous labour, in the city of Paris, by the impression of two Missals, bearing date 1481 Missale ad usum Eedesite RomatUB, folio; and Missale Parisiense, are the only two specimens at present known to bibliographers. A copy of the Missale ad usum ecclesueRmnaruE, is in the library of T. W. Coke, Esq. of Holk- ham,* in Norfolk. This splendid book, says Mr. Gresswell, who had inspected it, fully justifies

  • The Holkham library abounds not only in booluwliich

comUne the perfection of early typo^rraphy with the superb embellishment usually bestowed upon the most highly valued Codices manu scriptif but also in ancient manuscripts : many of which will probably be found very valuable and hiffhiy interesting to literature. Amongst such literary curiosities I observed manuscripts of Livy; of Tacitus; of various parts of the works of Cicero; of Ovid i a fine Codex of the IV Evangrelia. Grseca; the Ora- cuta Sibyltina^ Greece; many of the opuscula of the Greek fathers \ besides numerous manuscripts of works of the most esteemed early authors of Italy, &c. These are in g:eneral beautifully illuminated and well preserved, aiid constitute a comparatively small part only of the Holkham collection; which is said to possess almost six hundred Codices manuscripti of these sin^lar and interesting de- scriptions.— Gresswell's Parisian Typographu .

every thing that con be said of the magnificence of the Parisian Gothic press. It is printed upon the finest vellum, in a bold Gothic character, and double columns : and with the aid of its splendid illuminations and paintings exhibits the most exact resemblance of a beautiful manu- script. In this fine volume the capitals are supplied by the illuminator in inks of various colours: the rubrics or directory sentences are not printed en rovge but are distinguished in the column merely by a smaller Goliic character. The volume in the Holkham librarj- is splen- didly bound in crimson velvet, and decorated with the crest of the respectable proprietor; and its preservation is so perfect that it might be sup- posed but recently to have issued from the press. 1481. Printing introduced into the following places in the course of this year : —

Salamanca, by L. Alemanus and Lupus Sanz. Leipsic, by Marcus Brand. Casal, G. de. Canepa NovadeCampanilihus. Uribino, by Henry de Colonia. Vienne (in France) Peter Schenck. Aurach, (in Wirtemberg) Conrad Fjmer. John Amerbach, one of the most excellentand learned printers of his time, began to exercise the art at Basil, where he continued printing until the vear 1538, in which year he died.

From the invention of the art, to about this , period, printed books were, generally speaking, without title-pages; and when first introduced, a simple line, or a line and a half, or at most three or four lines, towards the top of the page, constituted the whole of the decoration,till about the year 1490, when ornamental title-pages came into use, the most common of whicn was the repi«sentation of the author or writer at bis desk; but subsequently, other devices were invented, some of them of the character of vig- nettes, others displaying the monagram, &c. of the printer.

1481. Thymage or Myrrour of the Worlde. Emprysed and Fynysshed in the xxi yere of the regne of the most crysten kyng, kynge Edward the fourth. Folio. With cuts.

Our venerable printer in his prologue, says that the book was translated " out of latyn into frensshe by the ordynaunce of the noble duk, Johan of Berry ana Auuergne the year of lorde M.cc.xLV, and now (he adds) at this tyme rudely translated out of frensshe in to Englisshe by me syinple persone ^yllm Caxton, ^e."

The following is the conclusion of the work : — " And where is it so, that I have presumed and emprised this forsayd translacion tnto our Eng- lisshe and maternal tonge, in xvhiche I am not wel parfyght, and yet lasse in Frensshe; yet I haue endeuoured me therein, atte request and de- syre, cnste and dispence of the honourable and u'orshipfut man Hugh Bryce, cytezen and alder- man aj London, which hath sayd to me that he entended to present it unto the puissant, noble, and vertuous lord, my lord Ilastynges, chamber - Inyn vnto our somerayn lord the kynge, and hit lieutenaunt of the town of Calais axd marches there. In whiche translacion I knowleche tm/

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