explanation; (11) Library of the Royal Gymnasium at Freiberg in Sachsen where the 14 leaves of quire c are said to be preserved, but which in June 1908 could not be found.
In the Florence, Munich (University Library), Vienna and (Inglis) Lennox copies, all four belonging to this (unmixed) Latin edition, the three scrolls on the last vignette of the book (over col. 116), representing Daniel before Belshazzar, and the “handwriting on the wall,” appear black (see Sotheby, Principia typogr. i. pl. xxx., xxxvii., xxxviii.), but blank in all other copies of this and the other editions. From this fact some authors have concluded that the unmixed Latin edition, here called the last, was, in reality, the first, as the black scrolls show that the pieces of wood which caused these black impressions had not yet been cut away when the copies were printed off. But as its type and other circumstances connected with this unmixed Latin edition make it impossible to regard it as the first, we have to look for another explanation of these black scrolls. First of all, scrolls, especially scrolls proceeding from the mouth of some individual, were already common in the pictures or illustrations of the manuscript- and block-printing periods, just as they are now. They were then, as they are now, intended in all cases to convey to the reader some memorable saying, quotation, inscription or motto. As black scrolls, therefore, could have had no object, we should have to assume that the practised engraver of the Speculum had prepared this last engraving carelessly and only saw his mistake after some copies had been printed off, which yet he allowed to pass into circulation. In some copies the Bible words Mane thecel phares have been written in the blank scrolls, as was to be expected; other copies vary this by adding the Latin interpretations, numerus, appensio, divisio. But in one of the Haarlem copies the scrolls have been coloured yellow with a brush, and it would seem that to some such operation the black scrolls are due; the colour in none of the impressions looks exactly like that of the vignette. It is, however, more than probable that, for some purpose or another, some of these scrolls were intended to be black, and that, while they were printed, something was placed in the block in the hollow of the scrolls to produce a black impression.
Sotheby, in his Principia typogr. p. 178 sqq., calls attention to an imitation of this Speculum vignette by Jacobus de Breda, who began printing at Deventer about 1483. This imitation (having one scroll which proceeds from the mouth of a figure supposed to represent Jacobus himself) he used for the first (?) time in Matthaei Bossi Sermo, c. 1491, the scroll being blank. But when he uses the engraving for the second (?) time, in P. Ovidi Naso. metamor. Liber Secundus, c. 1493 (copy in the Cambridge University Library), his name, “Jacob' de Breda” appears in the scroll (upside down when reading from right to left). A third time the vignette appears in his edition of Pub. Ov. Nas. Metamorphoseos lib. tertius (copy in the Cambridge Library) with his name in the ordinary way. A fourth time it is on the title-page of Seneca de quattuor virtutibus, c. 1495 (also in the Cambridge Library), with the name “Seneca” in the scroll. Sotheby shows that it occurs a fifth time on the title page of a Donatus published by J. de Breda, again with his name in the scroll. A sixth time (says Sotheby) the engraving occurs on the title-page of a tract Dominus que Pars, again with his name in the scroll. And finally (says Sotheby) it is on the title-page of Secunda Pars Doctrinalis Alexandri, with the date 1511 and the name “Joānes Bergis” in the scroll. Seeing then the use made of this imitation till 1511, Sotheby, not unreasonably, suggests that the original scroll in the Speculum was from the beginning meant to contain the name of the printer (the inventor of printing). See also Dibdin, Bibliographical Decameron, ii. 285-296. One thing seems certain, the scrolls in the Speculum were not intended to be black in all cases, but to contain something or other, and not always the words Mene, &c., as in that case it would have been as easy for the engraver to cut them on the block as any other words or figures, pillars, &c. The printer probably wished to leave the choice to his purchasers. Incidentally the use made by Jacobus de Breda of his scroll points to his having been aware of the use for which the original scroll, which he imitated, was intended; and as the printer of the Speculum was undoubtedly the first printer of Holland, it is not improbable that Jacobus learnt his craft from him.
The above descriptions and explanations, based on bibliographical and typographical facts, deal exclusively with the editions and issues of editions of the Speculum now known to us. They by themselves make it clear (1) that their printer began as a xylographer and block-printer; (2) that the six editions which he published of this one work cannot be placed later than 1471, as this date is written in a copy of the latest of them; (3) that, for the printing of his five type-printed editions (Dutch and Latin), he manufactured no less than three different types.
When round these editions and types we now group the various other incunabula which must be ascribed to him, as being printed with the same types or others related to them by a striking family likeness and other circumstances, we obtain the following sequence for this printer's work.
A.-The Xylographic Period.
1. One or two folio editions of the Speculum in Latin, printed (pictures and text) from wooden blocks, and consisting most likely of 32 if not more chapters, but of which only ten sheets (twenty leaves), and six separate woodcuts (cut up into twelve halves, for the Veldener 4to edition of 1483) have come down to us. Of one of these xylographic editions, at least of ten sheets of it, three issues are known to have been made in combination with type-printed leaves (see below).
2. As various circumstances compel us to regard the printer of the Speculum as having been a xylographer before he invented printing with movable types, it is necessary to mention here a small block of wood which is known to have been preserved for nearly 300 years at Haarlem as a remnant of Coster's printing-office. On it is engraved part of an Horarium; its first lines beginning with Servu[m] tuum in pace Quia viderunt oculi mei Salutare, &c., of the hymn of Simeon. About 1628 it was in the possession of Adriaen Rooman, printer to the Haarlem Corporation, who had obtained it from one of Coster's descendants, a man of great age. Rooman gave it to Dr Johan Vlasveld, of Haarlem, at whose death, in 1684, it came into the hands of his children; in 1734 it was bought by Jan Maas of Haarlem, who left it at his death to his son-in-law the Rev. Jacobus Mandt, a pastor at Gorinchem; at whose death it was bought by Jacobus Koning, the well known author on the invention of printing, and after his death it was acquired by the Haarlem Town Library where it now is (see A. de Vries, de Uitvinding der Boekdrukkunst, 1862, p. 35).
B.-Printing with movable Metal Types.
Type I., also called the Abecedarium type, with which were printed: (1) The Abecedarium, 4 leaves, 16mo, on vellum, now preserved at Haarlem (Town Library), where M. Joh. Enschedé discovered it in 1751, in a MS. Breviarium of the 15th century; (2) An edition of Donatus, 31 lines, 4to, two vellum leaves, printed on one side, discovered in 1844, in the ancient binding of a Dutch Book of Hours, printed at Delft in 1484; it is now preserved in the Hague Royal Library.
Type II. (Speculum type 1; see p. 525; hitherto erroneously regarded as identical with Speculum type 3); (1) First Dutch edition of the Speculum, of 31 paper sheets (62 leaves) printed on one side, folio, hitherto known as the first or unmixed Dutch edition. Two issues: (a), printed entirely in this type, represented by copies at Lille and Haarlem (No. 4); (b), having some of its leaves replaced by leaves of the third Dutch edition, represented by the Pembroke and Haarlem (No. 5) copies. (2)[1] An edition of Donatus, 28 lines, 4to; two vellum leaves in the Haarlem Town Library, found pasted in the original binding of an account book of 1474 of the cathedral of that town, in which an entry testifies that this account-book was bound by Cornelis the bookbinder, whom Junius asserts to have been the servant of Lourens Janszoon Coster (Meerman, Orig. typ. Tab. VI.*). (3) Another Donatus of 28 lines, two leaves of which are in the Haarlem Town Library, and were discovered in the original bindings of account-books of the Haarlem Cathedral Church of 1476, also bound by “Cornelis the bookbinder.” Fragments of this same edition are also in the Paris National Library, and in various other public and private collections. (4) Donatus, 28 lines, 4to, one vellum leaf, in the Hague Royal Library (BRH. 2; Ca. 612; Holtrop, Mon. pl. 13), discovered in the binding of a book belonging formerly to the Sion Convent at Cologne containing several treatises printed by Ulrich Zell, one being dated 1467. (5) Donatus, 30 lines, 4to. Two unrubricated vellum leaves in the Cambridge University Library (Inc. 4. E. 1.1), discovered in the binding of a copy of J. Mile's Reportorium, Louvain, 1475, now also in the same library. The first leaf contains the chapters xiv. 11 to xvi. 4, the second chapter xxvi. 6 to xxix. 10. The text is abridged, having amabamus, batis, bant, &c., where other editions have amabamus, amabatis, amabant, &c. (6) Donatus, 30 lines, abridged edition, 4to, one unrubricated vellum leaf, cut into halves. Wrongly described by Holtrop (BRH5) and Campbell (614) as part of No. 7 (below). (7) Donatus, 30 lines, 4to; two rubricated vellum leaves, in the Paris National Library (Van Praet, Velins, No. 8; now 1040). (8) Donatus, 30 uneven lines, 4to. Two rubricated vellum leaves, in the Hague Royal Library (BRH 5; Ca. 614). (9) Donatus, 30 lines 4to. Two vellum leaves in the Haarlem Town Library, discovered in 1750 by M. Joh. Enschedé at Haarlem in the binding of a MS. (Handvesten . . . van Kennemerland, 1330 to 1477). (10) A liturgical book, containing rules for saying Mass, in 16mo (12 lines to a page [Holtrop, Mon. pl. 14] 2 vellum leaves, pp. 3-6), in the Brussels Royal Library. (11) Alex. Galli Doctrinale, on vellum, 32 lines,
- ↑ The present writer is certain that Speculum type 1 differs from Speculum type 3 in size, and somewhat in form too. But he is still uncertain whether the Donatuses (2 to 7) here enumerated are in the same type as the first Dutch Speculum, though he travelled twice to the places where they are preserved to examine them. It would seem that the Donatuses are in a different type, more compact, regular and better cast than that used for this edition of the Speculum. But if there is any difference between the types it is so minute that it is well nigh impossible to detect it.
