190
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
manner were covered with dlk curtains, or hangings, adorned with silver and gold, or bro- caded. The lower recesses next to the floor, were appropriated to something like cupboards, which contfuned manuscripts too large for their proper places, or of a character not easily ad- mitting of classification. The exterior of this lower division, or probably the cupboard doors, were skilfully and curiously carved. The books were chiefly vellum manuscripts bound in bro- cade, and protected by knobs and clasps of sil- ver, or other precious metal; and were orna- mented or marked with the device or insignia of the owner, which was that of a black crow with a ring in his mouth, in allusion to the e^mon of his name, Cormu, a crow, or raven. The library was likewise celebrated for the mag- nificent celestial globe it contained, and for the silver and marble fountains which played in th^ adjoining gallery, or court. When Buda was captured by the Turks, under Solyman II. in 1626, cartUnal Bozmanni oflered for this inesti- mable collection 200,000 pieces of the imperial money, but without efi"ect, for the barbarous be- siegers defaced or destroyed most of the books, for the sake of their splendid covers, and the silver bosses and clasps with which they were enriched. Those which escaped the rapacity of the Turkish soldiery, were thrown into a sort of subterraneous vault, there to moulder or perish, as it might happen. In 1666, Lambecius, the learned librarian of the imnerial library at Vien- na, was sent to Buda, for the purpose of recover- ing the remains of the Con'inian library. He found there, in a crypt of the citadel, barely lighted with one window, and ventilated with one door, about 400 volumes in number, lying upon an earthen floor, and covered with dirt and fifth. Three manuscript copies of the Fathers were all that he was permitted to carry away. But in the year 1686, Buda was captured by the Austrian arms, when the remainder, though comparatively of little value, were removed to Vienna. Some of the most valuable volumes formerly belonging to this library, have been discovered in the imperial library at Vienna, in the Wolfenbuttel library, and in that of Morelli, the learned librarian of St. Mark's, at Venice. In the public library of Brussels, there are two exquisitely finished manuscripts which once graced the library of Corvinus. The first is a Latin Evangelistarium, written in letters of gold, upon the most beautiful vellum, and not inaptly called the Golden Book. It had become the property of Philip II. of Spain, who kept it in the Escurial library, under lock and key ; and is said to have been formerly shown to strangers with great ceremony, and by torch light! The oAer is a magnificent Missal, highly illumi- nated.
Alexander Brassicanus, who saw the library at Buda before it was dispersed, noticed, amongst an immense number of other valuable works, the whole of the writings of Hyperides, the Grecian orator, with valuable scholia; a large book of the apostolical csuions ; the com-
mentary of Theodoret on the Psahat; the woHk of Ch^sostoni, Cyril, Nazianzen, Basil the Great, Griegory of Nyssa, Theophanus, 8tc.— Dibdin's Bih. Uecam. vol. 2.
1490. The earliest exclusive privilege of print- ing books, is that which was g^nted by Henry Bishop of Bamberg, to the following work, " Lt- ber mtssalU secundum tndinem ecetaia Bamber- gentis." — Beekmann.
1490. Printing introduced into the following places in the course of this year : —
Orleans, by Matthew Vivan. Porto, in Uie Venetian territory, by Barthol. Zanni.
Zamora, no printer's name.
1491. Died William Caxton, the Father of the British Press.
Having treated at some length on the works of Caxton, and given such extracts, as, we trust, may prove interesting ; we must, in couclurion, state that twenty-eight of his known publications are without dates. Some of these have been already noticed; a fewf of the remainder will supply some interesting matter. Caxton printed Chaucer's Canterbury Tales twice ; each edition is without date, but the first is supposed to have been one of the earliest productions of his press. Mr. Warton regards it as much more to his honour, than it can be to his discredit, that he printed them very incorrectly. " He probably took the first manuscript that he could procure to print from, and it happened unluckily to be one of the worst in all respects thathecoold possibly have met with." As soon, however, as he found out these imperfections and errors, he began a second edition "for to satisfy the author, whereas tofore, by ignorance, I had erred in hurting and defa'mymg his boke." Caxton's extreme and conscientious desire to fulfil one of the most important duties of an editor and printer, (and he acted as both) by giving the works as the author himself wrote them, as well as his candour and ingenuousness, are depicted in a clear and interesting manner, in the preface to his second edition.
He seems to have had a veneration for the memory of this poet, and to have formed, with sound judgment and good taste, a most correct and precise estimate of the peculiar merits of his poetry. As a proof of the former, we may men- tion that Caxton, at his own expense, procured a long epitaph to be written in honour of Chaucer. In the Boke of Consolacion of Phi- Sophie, he thus expresses himself: — /, William Caxton, have done my debuoir and payne ten- prynte it in fourme, as is here afore made, in hopyng that it shall piouffite mocke peple, to ihf wele and 'heWt of their soules, and for to leme to haue and keep the better pacience in advertitees. And furthermore, I desire and require you, that of your charite ye wold pray for the sorde of the sayd worshipfuUman, Geffrey Chaucer Jirst trrnu- latour of this sayd boke tnto Englissh and emhel- lissher in making the sayd langage ornate andfayr, whiche shal endure perpetuelly, and therefore he ought etemelhj to be remembrid, of whom the body
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