Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/436



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SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

427

librarian, he says, " I pmy you put as many to binding of the boolcs as you shall think con- venient, of which I would have some dozen of the better paper, to be trimmed with yuilding and strings;" and sends, at another time, money for their bindings, chainings, placings, &c. Sir Thomas Bodley displays a perfect knowledge of every thing connected with the subject In his various letters to Dr. James, he is continually giving directions relative to the bindings of the books in vellum and leather; ordering them to be rubbed by the keeper with clean dotbs, as a precaution against moulds and worms ; and making provision for a proper supply of bars, locks, nasps, grates, clasps, wires, chains, and ginions of iron, " belonging to the fastening and rivetting of the books," the establishment of the Bodleian gave a stimulus to evenr thing con- nected with books in Oxford, which though in some repute as respected binding, still must have been limited in extent, as the libraries there were not previously remarkable for superiority; and according to sir Thomas Bodley, Cambridge was less so, as he remarks after his visit to that university, " the libraries are meanly stored, and Trinity college worst of all." — Heame.

1597. The last Easter catalogue of George Wilier, of Augsburg, (see page 320, ante,) is of this date, on the title Pteriqve libri in ttdibut Elia et Georgii WUlerii fratrum bibliopolarum Augutttnurrutn habentur. It is printea also by Bassseus, at Frankfort. Oeorge and Elias Wilier, were perhaps sons of the former. Reim- mann says, that after the death of Oeorge Wil- ier, the catalogue was published by the Leipzig bookseller, Heaming Grosse, and by his son and grandson. The council of Frankfort caused several regulations to be issued respecting cata- logues, an account of which may be seen in D. Orth's Treatise On the imperial fairs at Frank- fort. After the business of bookselling was drawn from Frankfort to Leipzig, occasioned principally by the restrictions to which it was subjected at the former by the censors, no more catalogues were printed there, and the shops in Book-street were generally converted into ta- verns. — See \60i, post.

1597, Oct. 10. Died, Aldus Mandtics, the YoDNOER, with whom terminated a family who have been justly called the glory of literature and typography ; and whose reputation will con- tinue so long as one single volume exists of the numerous and excellent works which they printed during the long period of one hundred and four years. He was toe son of Paul, and grandson to the celebrated Aldus : was born in the year 1547, and gave extraordinary proofs of precocity of talent by publishing a work in his eleventh year. The success of this publication was not less extraordinary. In 1562, he accompanied his father to Rome. In the year 1566, he pub- lished his celebrated work, De Veterum Notarum expUmatione, which the learned mav consult with advantage. In 1572, he married into the Giunta family, by espousing Frances Lucretia, the daughter either of Bernard or Thomas

Giunta. Upon the death of his father in 1574, he became the sole proprietor and conductor of his press, and from this time he almost wholly abandoned the simple Dolphin and Anchor, as g^ven by his progenitors, and assumed the arms which Maximilian had granted to his father. In 1585, he left Venice, and in the following rear set up his press at Bologna ; and though he had leftVenice, his presses continued to work under the direction of Nicolao Manassi and other able superintendents. M. Renouard sus- pects, from the style of Manassi's prefaces, that he was not a manager of tlie Alduie printing- office, but became actual proprietor of it, on the departure of Aldus for Rome. On the death of pope SixtusV. in 1690, Clement VII. ascended the papal throne, and conferred on our Aldus the direction of the Vatican printing-office; and hither he transported his press and Targe library, amounting to the almost incredible number of 80,000 volumes. He was professor of eloquence (though with little success) at Venice, Bologna, Pisa, and Rome. It appears that he cultivated literary pursuits more than the art of printing ; he was, however, well skilled in the typographic art, and executed many valuable works. The editions, latterly executed by Paul Manutius and his son Aldus, are executed with far less beauty and correctness than the early printed editions of the Aldine press ; and frequently betray evident marks of negligence. It is to be much regretted, that Aldus died deeply in debt, and that his presses and library were seized upon by his creditors, and broken up.

1597. John Alde dwelt at the long shop ad- joining to St. Mildred's church, in the Poultry. In 156U he printed his first work, being a short treatise declaring the destitute wickedneu of ma- gical sciences ; as, necromancie, conjurations, curious astrologie, and such like, made bg Fr. Cox. l2mo.

1597. Henry Ballard, dwelt at the taga of the Bear without Temple-bar, over against St. Clement's church, where he printed two works in this year.

1697. John de Beauchesne's name appears to one work of this year, though he is considered more of an ingenious schoolmaster, whose dwel- ling was in Black Friars. In 1602, he pub- lished a copy book to teach writing, done in wood, printed by Kichard Field, his neighbour.

1598. Richard Bradcocke printed the two following works in 1598 : Virgidemiarum, sixe books. First diree books of toothlesse satyrs. — Poeticall. — Academical!. — Morall. Corrected and amended. Sixty-eight leaves, 12mo.

Virgidemiarum. The three last bookes of byting satyres. With vinets at top and bottom. 106 pages. 12mo.

1598. Ralph Blower, John Bowen, John BusBiE, Henry Kirkham, William Barley, Thomas Mann, William Holme, Richard Walker, H. Hooper, R. Dexter, Thomas Gardiner, and John Brown, carried on the art of printing or employed others to work for them, al>out this time.

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