A propos de cet article
Third edition of Quintilian (preceeded by two Rome editions printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz); folio (323 x 220 mm.), [211] of 212 leaves (lacking the terminal blank leaf; nos. 67-68 in excellent facsimile); leaves 1 and 2 of the Tabula bound in at the back instead of the front; ruled in red throughout; 4 initials on first two leaves in red; initial spaces without guide-letters, and lacunae left for the Greek; 18th-century full crimson goat, gilt-decorated spine in 7 compartments, gilt-lettered direct in 1; the first leaf with paper infill at the lower margin (not touching and text), several old library stamps (on the blank recto of the first leaf, on the verso of the last leaf, and on the Berestard bookplate); bookplates of Alexander I. Beresford and Charles Lemuel Nichols (1851-1929, president of the AAS, esteemed physician, etc.), 18th-century ownership signature on recto of front free endpaper; in all, a clean and quite handsome volume. One of the earliest books printed in Venice, the first, printed by the German Johannes de Spira, bearing a date of 1469. His first competitor was the Frenchman, Nicholas Jenson. "The first roman characters, which were used by John De Spire, and for which De Spire obtained an exclusive priviledge for five years, have been sometimes attributed to Jenson. In any case, De Spire's death in 1470 lifted the restrictions on roman types from other Venetian printing houses, and Jenson produced in that year his famous roman letter. The tractate De Praeparatione Evangelica of Eusebius is generally considered his first book [and used again here in his Quintillian]. If we look at the best Humanistic manuscripts of the period, it is readily seen whence he derived his inspiration . Jenson's roman types have been the accepted models for roman letters ever since he made them, and repeatedly copied in our own day, have never be en equaled" (Updike, Printing Types, I, 73). "The roman type of [Jenson's] Eusebius is invested with the mark of genius. His type has great clarity and liveness, and at the same time an element of divine repose" (Blumenthal, Art of the Printed Book). Jenson's roman letter served as a model for many later type designers, and can be traced from Aldus' Aetna type of 1495, through Baskerville, to William Morris' Golden type, and Bruce Roger's Centaur. Based on the excellence of his texts and type, Jenson was created Count Palatine by Pope Sixtus IV by 1475. In his address to the Bishop of Belluno, Leoniceno undoubtedly with the tacit approval of Jenson refers to Jenson as the inventor of printing: "qui librariae artis mirabilis inventor: non ut scribantus calamo libri: sed veluti gemma imprimantur." Dibdin (1827): "A beautiful and magnificent work." BMC V 168; Goff Q-26; GW M36818; ISTC iq00026000.
N° de réf. du vendeur 69552
Contacter le vendeur
Signaler cet article
