Page:De Vinne, Invention of Printing (1876).djvu/297

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE WORKS OF AN UNKNOWN PRINTER.
287

Type V. The forty-fifth page and all subsequent pages of the book previously described are devoted to a Treatise and Epitaphs by Pope Pius ii, and a Eulogy on Lorenzo Valla. In these names we find sure indications of the probable age of the book: Cardinal Piccolomini

Type IV. Fac-simile of the Types of the Peculiarities of Criminal Law.
[From Koning.]

or Æneas Sylvius was made Pope Pius ii in the year 1458; Lorenzo Valla died in 1457. The book must have been written and printed after these dates. The workmanship of this part of the book is of superior character: the types were fairly founded on a body about the size of Great-primer; they were decently printed in good black ink and on both sides of the paper, but the remarkable defect of embossed letters which has been noticed as one of the blemishes of the Speculum is also noticeable in this book.

This Type V seems to have been more frequently used than any other type in the list, but it was always on petty books or pamphlets. One book printed in it has only twenty-four pages, but it is made up of four distinct tracts: William of Saliceto on the Health of the Body; Torquemada on the Health of the Soul; A Treatise on Love, etc., by Pope Pius ii; The Iliad of Homer, or more definitely, a commendation of the Iliad. Two editions of this book have been discovered. A fragment of one edition was found in the binding of a work printed by Jan Andrieszoon, of Haarlem, in the year