SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
411
dency to use the art of printiiig. The com- missioners appointed by the council could hring him to nothing, but still he continued to print what he pleased without allowance, by his own authority, and such books as were warranted by her highness's letters patent to other men; anj sold and uttered the same in city and country, toymen of other arts : whereby the company sus- tained great loss, in taking the sale of them ; and particularly to the decay of seven young men, who executed a privilege granted to Wm. Seres for a yearly rent. This man, notwith- standing, had given two several bonds to the queeu, the one not to print any more disorderly, the other to bring in such books as he had so printed ; but none performed. All this was laid open in the said petition ; the signers of it were John Harrison, master ; and Richard Watkins and Ralph Newbury, wardens ; and besides them Christopher Barker, John Day, William Norton, George Bishop, John Judson, and Francis Col- dock ; all booksellers in these times of thechiefest repuution. His first work is dated 1582, and the last in 1693. Ten books bear his imprint.
In 1585, Roger Ward printed the Chotce of Change, containing the trivlida of divinitie, pht- lomphy, andpoetrie,hy J. R. student in Cam- bridge.
1590. A table of the two twaimes. Wherein is comprehended the original and increase of the river Lee) commonly called Ware river; together with the antiquitie of sundrie places and townes seated upon the same. Pleasant to be read, and not unprotitableto be understood, by W. Vallans. In thi» work mention is made of a paper mill at Hartford, belonging to John Tate, whose father VHU lord mayor of London (perhaps the pei-son mentioned at page 201, ante.) Printed by Roger Ward, for John Sheldrake. 24 pages 4to.
1590. Sabionetta, a populous town of Austrian Italy, famous for an Hebrew printing establish- ment, which was commenced in the year 1551, was in this year put down by authority, on account of the intemperate and improper language used in some of its productions; the types were carried to Venice, and there used for au edition of the Bible in 1615 and 1616.
From De Rossi, who has written a specific treatise on this establishment, we are informed, that it was carried on chiefly in the house of Tobias Foa, a wealthy Jew, who was assisted by Jacobus Tedesco Potavinus and several other persons : that Tedesco was corrector and editor, and Jacob ben Napthali Cohen the printer: that it continued to work with some interruptions until this time. The same author also observes, that this press reached its height of perfection in the year 1653, while under the direction of a celebrated printer named Adel-kind, who had been sent for from Venice to undertake the management of the establishment at Sabionetta. He enumerates thirty-four editions which Lssued fronti it between the years 1551 and 1590, the earliest of which, the Sabionetta typography, is a Commentary on Deuteronomy by R. Isa;ic Abarbanel, consisting of one hundred and forty-
six leaves in folio. De Rossi states this edition to be one of the rarest books any where to be met with. [A copy of it is in the Oppenheimer collection,now deposited in the Bodleian library.] He gives to the productions of this press gene- rally, the merit of being original and genuine editions, as well as that of great neatness of type and execution, declaring that almost all of tnem are scarce, and diligently sought for by collectors of books. Several of these Sabionetta volumes, some of them printed upon vellum, may be seen in the Bodleian library.' — Cotton.
1690. Printing introduced into Angra, a sea- port town, capital of Tercera, one of the Azores islands. "Perhaps," says Dr. Cotton, "there are few of us who would have expected to find the art of printing established in the Azores, and that at so early a period as nearly two centuries and a half ago ; but it is a fact of which existing evidence will not allow us to doubt for a moment The Bodleian library con- tains a very rare and curious specimen of ty- po^phy from these islands, being a volume in lolio, entitled, Relacion de la iomada, expugna- don, y eonquista de la isla Tercera, y las denuu circuntezinat, q hizo don Albaro de Bafan, tnar-
?<uez de Santacruz, &c. It consists of twelve eaves only; at the end occurs the following colophon, Fecha en la ciudad de Angra de la isla Tercera, a onze de Agosto, mil y qtiinientos y ochenta y tres. 1 have never seen nor heard of either a second specimen or a second copy of the book here described. — Cotton.
1590. An edition of the bible was printed at Rome, in three vols, folio, with the following title, Biblia sacra vulgata editions, tribu* tomis distinctajussu Sixt. V.pontificis maximiedita ;) Roma, ex typographia apostolia valieana, in fol. red; and prefixed to the first volume is the bull of pope Sixtus v., which excommunicates all printers, editors, IfC., who in reprinting ttte work shall tnake any alterations in the text. Of all literary blunders, none equalled that of this edition of the Vulgate.* His holiness carefully superintended every sheet as it passed through the press, and to the amazement of the world, the work remained without a rival — ^it swarmed with Errata! A multitude of scraps were printed to paste over the erroneous passages, in order to give the true text. The book makes a whimsical appearance with these patches ; and the heretics exulted in the demonstration of papal infallibility! Gregory XIV., successor to Sixtus, caused it to be entirely suppressed. Clement VIII., who succeeded Gregory, caused a new edition to be made; and having made alterations in the text, he was to all intents and purposes excommunicated by the bull of Sixtus. But pope Clement VII. detected in this edition two thousand errors, and recalled all the copies, and in two years after published an amended edition, with another anathema.
- A stiperb copy (the only one known in England, on
large paper) was sold for 1,310 Uvres (^60 Sa. id.) at the sale of Mr. de Limare. At M. Paiis's sale it was pur- chased by the duke of Qraftou for ^6l K.
VjOOQ IC
