A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three | Page 8

ten inches high) UPON VELLUM; in the original wooden binding. The first two or three leaves have undergone a little martyrdom, by being scribbled upon. Of J. de Spira's edition of the Epistles of Cicero, of 1469--having the colophon on the recto of the last leaf--here is a fine, broad-margined copy, which however ought to be cleansed from the stains which disfigure it. I was grieved to see so indifferent a copy of the Edit. Prin. of Tacitus: but rejoiced at beholding so large and beautiful a one (in its original wooden binding) of the Lucan of 1475, with the Commentary of Omnibonus; printed as I conceive, by _I. de Colonia and M. de Gherretzem_.[11]
But I had nearly forgotten to acquaint you with a remarkably fine, thick-leaved, crackling copy--yet perhaps somewhat cropt--of Cardinal Bessarion's Epistles, printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz at Rome in 1469. It is in old gilt edges, in a sort of binding of wood.
I now come to the notice of a few choice and rare Italian books: and first, for Dante. Here is probably the rarest of all the earlier editions of this poet: that is to say, the edition printed at Naples by Tuppo, in two columns, having forty-two lines in a full column. At the end of the Inferno, we read "Gloria in excelsis Deo," in the gothic letter; the text being uniformly roman. At the end of the Purgatorio:
SOLI DEO GLORIA. Erubescat Judeus Infelir.
At the end of the Paradiso: DEO GRATIAS--followed by Tuppo's address to Honofrius Carazolus of Naples. A register is on the recto of the following and last leaf. This copy is large, but in a dreadfully loose, shattered, and dingy state--in the original wooden binding. So precious an edition should be instantly rebound. Here is the Dante of 1478, with the Commentary of Guido Terzago, printed at Milan in 1478, folio. The text of the poet is in a fine, round, and legible roman type--that of the commentator, in a small and disagreeable gothic character.
Petrarch shall follow. The rarest edition of him, which I have been able to put my hand upon, is that printed at Bologna in 1476 with the commentary of Franciscus Philelphus. Each sonnet is followed by its particular comment. The type is a small roman, not very unlike the smallest of Ulric Han, or Reisinger's usual type, and a full page-contains forty-one lines.
Of Boccaccio, here is nothing which I could observe particularly worthy of description, save the very rare edition of the Nimphale of 1477, printed by Bruno Valla of Piedmont, and Thomaso of Alexandria. A full page has thirty-two lines.
I shall conclude the account of the rarer books, which it was my chance to examine in the Public Library of Stuttgart, with what ought perhaps, more correctly, to have formed the earliest articles in this partial catalogue:--I mean, the Block Books. Here is a remarkably beautiful, and uncoloured copy of the first Latin edition of the _Speculum Human? Salvationis. It has_ been bound--although it be now unbound, and has been unmercifully cut. As far as I can trust to my memory, the impressions of the cuts in this copy are sharper and clearer than any which I have seen. Of the Apocalypse, there is a copy of the second edition, wanting a leaf. It is sound and clean, but coloured and cut. Unbound, but formerly bound. Here is a late German edition of the Ars Moriendi, having thirty-four lines on the first page. Of the Historia Beat? Virginis, here is a copy of what I should consider to be the second Latin edition; precisely like a German edition of the Biblia Pauperum, with the express date of 1470,--which is also here. The similarity is in the style of art and character of the type, which latter has much of a Bamberg cast about it. But of the Latin Biblia Pauperum here is a copy of the first edition, very imperfect, and in wretched condition. And thus much, or rather thus little, for Block Books.
A word or two now for the MANUSCRIPTS--which, indeed, according to the order usually observed in these Letters, should have preceded the description of the printed books. I will begin with a Psalter, in small folio, which I should have almost the hardihood to pronounce of the tenth--but certainly of the early part of the eleventh--century. The text is executed in lower-case roman letters, large and round. It abounds with illuminations, of about two inches in height, and six in length--running horizontally, and embedded as it were in the text. The figures are, therefore, necessarily small. Most of these illuminations, have a greenish back-ground. The armour is generally in the Roman fashion: the helmets being of a low conical form, and the shields having a large knob in the centre.
Next comes an Evangelistarium