Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/131

 i. FEB. 6, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

103

of the carucate rests on the assumption that they ploughed eight abreast.

S. O. ADDY. (To be continued.)

THE FIRST EDITION OF HORACE. THE first edition of the works of Horace has neither imprint nor date, but it is be- lieved to have been printed in Venice; an approximate date can, however, be assigned to it, because an edition of the l De Vita Solitaria' of St. Basil, printed in the same type, bears the date 1471. The types may be recognized by the e of the lower case ; in this letter the horizontal stroke is extended considerably beyond the loop. There are several books in the same types, viz., Basi- lius, ' De Vita Solitaria,' 1471 ; Donatus, ' De Barbarismo ' ; Plutarchus, 'Apophthegmata'; Florus, ' Epitome'; a Lucan ; Lodovico Bruni, ' La Prima Guerra Punica ' ; and there may be others.

The printer of this editio princeps had another peculiarity : he was not contented with placing the word " Finis " at the end of the book ; he also puts it at the end of each part, and the reason is supposed to be that they might be sold separately ; but be this as it may, the binders, having no signatures to guide them, have bound the four parts in all kinds of different ways. This printer makes the same use of the word " Finis " in the edition of Plutarch's 'Apophthegmata.' In the Grenville copy in the British Museum the arrangement of the four parts, each of which ends with the word "Finis," is as follows :

Part I. fol. la, "Quinti Oratii Flacci Car | minum Liber Primus."

Fol. 18b, " Quinti Oracii Flacci Car | minum Liber Secundus."

Fol. 30a, " Quinti Oracii Flacci Car | minum Liber Tertius."

Fol. 50a, "QuintiOfacii Flacci Ser | monum [misprint for Carminum] Liber Quartus." Fol. 61 b, "Quinti Oracii Flacci Epodos." Fol. 74a, "Quinti Oracii Flacci Carmen Seculare."

Fol. 75b, " finis "; then four lines as follows Hoc quicunqwe dedit Venusini carmen Horatii : Et studio formis correctum effinxit in istis Viuat & seterno sic nomine ssecula uincat Omnia: ceu nunquam numeris abolebitur auctor

Part II. fol. 76a, "Quinti Oratii Flacc Sermonum | Liber Primus."

Fol. 96a, " Quinti Oracii Flacci Ser | monum Liber Secundus."

Fol. 117a, "finis."

Part III. fol. 118a, " Quinti Oracii Flacc Poetria [s?'c]."

Fol. 127a," finis."

Part IV. fol. 128a, "Quinti Oratii Flacci

i | stolarum Liber Primus."

Fol. 147b, " Quinti Oratii Flacci Episto | arum Liber Secundus."

Fol. 157a, "Finis."

In the copy in the King's Library, British Vluseum, the arrangement is in this manner r

Part I. fol. la, " Quinti Oratii Flacci Ser- monum | Liber Primus."

Fol.21a, "Quinti Oracii Flacci Ser | mcnuo* T iber Secundus."

Fol. 42a, "finis."

Part II. fol. 43a, "Quinti Oratii Flacci

pi | stolarum Liber Primus. 1 '

Fol. 62b, " Quinti Oratii Flacci Episto | arum Liber Secundus."

Fol. 72a, "finis."

Part III. fol. 73a, " Quinti Oratii Flacci Jar | minum Liber Primus.' 5

Fol.OOb, "Quinti Oracii Flacci Car \ minum Liber Secundus."

Fol. 102a, "Quinti Oracii Flacci Car | minum Liber Tertius."

Fol. 122a, "Quinti Oracii Flacci Ser | monum [for Carminum] Liber Quartus."

Fol. 133b, "Quinti Oracii Flacci Epodos."

Part IV. fol. 142, 151, first and last leaves- of the ' Ars Poetica,' wanting.

Fol. 156a, "Quinti Oracii Flacci | Carmen Seculare.!'

Fol. 157b," Finis."

Signor Pasquale Castorina, in a pamphlet entitled 'Intornoad una Prima Edizione di Q. Orazio Flacco Cenni Bibliografici,' pub- lished at Catania in 1887, describes a copy in the Biblioteca Universitaria di Catania, in which the four parts are arranged thus : Parti., 'Epistohe'; Part II., 'Ars Poetica';. Part III., 'Sermones'; Part IV., ' Carmina, ' Epodes,' ' Carmen,' ' Carmen Sseculare.' This edition is supposed to have been printed at Venice, because some copies contain a border which is found nowhere else, Vindelinus de- Spira being one of the printers who used it. The watermarks, the cardinal's hat, pair of shears, and the column (the arms of the Colonna family), occur also in St. Augustine's ' De Civitate Dei,' printed by Joannes and Vindelinus de Spira in 1470.

This edition is interesting from a literary as well as from a typographical point of view. In the Epistles, bk. ii. ep. ii. 1. 140, there is an extraordinary reading : the words per vim, mentis read "pretium mentis." I give the- complete sentence :

"Pol nie occidistis, amici, Non servastis," ait, "cui sic extorta voluptas, Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error."

The first edition reads :