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FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
gxltmtl cmenttttg fiMes 
 
 STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 WENDELL^ PRIME 
 
 m 
 
 NEW YORK 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH AND COMPANY 
 
 MDCCCLXXXVIII 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, 
 
 By Wendell Prime, 
 
 In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
 PRESS OF EUGENE R. COLE, T WM. ST. AND d MAIDEN LANE, N. Y. 
 
8ro tije Beatrcr: 
 
 iWans iDj&o fjafac a genuine refiarlr for olir ani 
 flooir fioofes j&abe not matre t$e acquaintance of tjfiose fioofes 
 ii)|)ic5 are 6otf) t{)e ol&est an& fiest of printetr bolumes. 
 E^ia stu&2 of tije JStfiles of tje jFifteentfj ffienturs inclu&es 
 ti)e oltrest of printetr booi^s, and onl^ tijose bDf)icj^ are 
 inclutreir in tfje class callelr INCUNABULA, namelg, tioofes 
 jprintcS Irurinfl tije first 5alf=centurs of tj&e art, 1450*1500, 
 ^. 30. Sjbus tije ijistorg of tfje printeir 3Si6Ie is tfft j&istors 
 of t^e inbention anDr progress of tlje art of printing. 
 
 SSaentreU prime. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 ■i^ 
 
 Z^t ^Mm( (iJingbonu 
 
 THE FIRST BOOK IS THE BIBLE. It is the 
 first complete book which was printed with 
 movable types. It is the first book in the 
 number of its editions, copies and translations. In this 
 respect it exceeds every other book so immensely that 
 there is no other book with which it may be compared. 
 Considered entirely apart from its contents, character 
 and claims, it is easily the first book, standing alone 
 among books of all languages, nations and ages. 
 
 The first book printed with movable types was 
 printed by John Gutenberg at Mentz, Germany, between 
 1450 and 1456 A. D. This claim to be the Alpha of all 
 printed books, as it is daily the Omega of all printed 
 books, has been disputed with all possible ingenuity and 
 erudition. But no other volume, up to the present hour, 
 has found any recognition as its predecessor. Holland 
 
6 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 makes the most persistent and plausible rival claim to 
 the invention of printing. If Laurens Janszoon Coster 
 of Haarlem should ever be acknowledged as an earlier 
 printer than Gutenberg, which is not at all probable, 
 this would not in the least degree affect the position of 
 
 THE GUTENBERG BIBLE AS THE FIRST BOOK in the annals 
 
 of Typography. 
 
 It is considered the most splendid specimen of 
 typography extant. Like the sculpture of Phidias, it 
 sprang into being, without a predecessor, in defiance 
 of the theory of evolution. Its successors number, it 
 may be, 250,000,000, No one need dispute about these 
 figures, for more Bibles are now printed daily, than at 
 any previous period, and therefore every day adds to 
 their number by thousands. No other book ever 
 influenced men to bestow their treasures of time, 
 learning and money to print, publish and send it forth 
 by millions. There are Shakespeare Societies and 
 Browning Societies, but their sphere is comparatively 
 narrow and insignificant. All endeavors of every kind 
 to exalt or disseminate published writings serve to show 
 that the Bible as a successful book has no peer. All 
 other books follow at so vast a distance that it shines 
 alone, a sun among the planets. The Bible is the only 
 book for which languages are invented that it may be 
 multiplied in regions where written and printed words 
 were previously unknown. 
 
 Astronomers endeavor to aid us in our conception of 
 stellar distances by comparing them with the greatest 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 7 
 
 terrestrial distances with which we are familiar. By 
 similar comparison we may obtain some conception of 
 the vastness of the Biblical sphere compared with that 
 of the most popular of all other publications. The world 
 has produced less than six books which have been trans- 
 lated into thirty or forty languages and whose editions 
 can be counted by a few hundreds. But the Bible has 
 been translated into more than 200 languages, and many 
 years ago its known editions were at least 30,000. 
 
 It is believed by those who have devoted the most 
 attention to bibliography that Thomas-a-Kempis's 
 
 JJmitation of (Jtijrist 
 
 ranks next to the Bible in the number of its editions, 
 translations and copies. It was first printed at Augsburg, 
 by Giinther Zainer, in 1468, a small folio of seventy-six 
 leaves, and was reprinted more than twenty times before 
 the end of the century. But before the end of this same 
 century nearly a thousand editions of the Bible had 
 been issued. In 1864, the late celebrated bibliographer, 
 Augustine de Backer, published a bibliographical 
 " Essai " on the " Imitation " in which he enumerated 
 about three thousand editions. Before his death, in 1873, 
 he had collected evidence of more than three thousand 
 additional editions. His learned brother, Aloys de 
 Backer, took up his brother's work, and was preparing a 
 second edition of the *' Essai," inclusive of still more 
 editions, when death ended his labors in 1883. In 1838, 
 a collection of different editions of the " Imitation " 
 
8 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 was given to the municipal library of Cologne which 
 contained 400 copies. 
 
 by John Bunyan, probably ranks next to the " Imitation " 
 in the number of its editions, translations and copies. 
 The first part was first printed in London, 1678, a copy 
 of which is in the Lenox Library. In the Bunyan 
 collection in this library there are 278 editions of the 
 first part, 196 of the second part, and 73 of the third 
 part. 
 
 JBon (JUrtttpotr, 
 
 by Cervantes, is probably the third most popular book 
 ever printed. Its first part was first printed at Madrid, 
 1605, and its second part was first printed in the same 
 place 16x2. It has been translated into all European 
 languages, including Turkish and Greek, and several 
 times in all the leading languages. About 300 editions 
 are known, only one-third of which were printed in 
 Spain. 
 
 It is not probable that there is a fourth book in any 
 language which approaches any one of these three 
 mentioned, in the number of its copies, translations and 
 editions. Whatever may be the circulation of these or 
 any other world-famous books, none has been or is so 
 successful as to alter the relative position of the Bible 
 in the world of printing, for its editions are numbered 
 by the tens of thousands, and its translations by the 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 9 
 
 hundreds. Practically, its editions are innumerable 
 because it has been printed in so vast a variety of forms. 
 These different forms and issues could not be estimated 
 with any approach to accuracy unless several persons 
 in every generation were devoted to this one biblio- 
 graphical endeavor. Doubtless the majority of these 
 editions have in their number of copies averaged larger 
 than the ordinary editions of other books, and this adds 
 greatly to its relative supremacy. 
 
 In this numerical comparison the Koran is not 
 forgotten. Though it is read or heard by the millions 
 of Islam, its character and usage remove it from the 
 category in which the Bible is considered. It is among 
 reading, printing, progressive nations that the Bible is 
 the first book, the " Book of Books," every year more 
 and more without a rival. This Biblical conquest 
 seems more marvelous when we consider that it has 
 been achieved, in spite of the deadly hostility of what 
 was known throughout the world as Christianity, when 
 printing was invented. 
 
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 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MUCH is written, especially by scientists, about 
 the conflict between science and religion. 
 Science ought not to complain. Its conflict is 
 a mere lover's quarrel compared with the conflict of the 
 Bible with religion. This entire book, closely printed, 
 would not suffice for a record of the bulls, canons, 
 edicts, confiscations, imprisonments, tortures, stranglings, 
 burnings and other ecclesiastical demonstrations to sup- 
 press and exterminate the Bible, its translators, editors, 
 printers, publishers, disseminators and readers. Pagan 
 Rome was not more ferocious in her endeavor to 
 obliterate the Gospel than papal Rome in her attempt 
 to exterminate the Scriptures. 
 
 This conflict of the printed Bible was inevitable in 
 view of the position occupied by the Church of Rome 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. II 
 
 for several centuries. We record briefly a few of the 
 most significant incidents in this most tragical chapter 
 in the annals of bibliography. 
 
 In 1080, Uratislaus, the King of Bohemia, asked 
 Hildebrand if he might have the offices, or prayers of 
 the church, performed in the Slavonian tongue, at that 
 time the common language of the north of Europe. To 
 this the Pontiff replied : " I will never consent for 
 services to be performed in the Slavonian tongue. // is 
 the will of God that his ivord should be hidden, lest it 
 should be despised if read by every one j and if, in 
 condescension to the weakness of the people, the 
 contrary has been permitted, it is a fault which ought 
 to be corrected. The demand of your subjects is 
 imprudent ; I shall oppose it with the authority of St. 
 Peter ; and you ought, for the glory of God, to resist it 
 with all your power." 
 
 In 1229, the Council of Toulouse, held by Romanus, 
 Cardinal of St. Angelo, and the Pope's legate, formed the 
 first courts of Inquisition, and published the first canon 
 which forbade the Scriptures to the laity. Forty-five 
 canons were passed by this Council of Toulouse for the 
 extinction of heresy, and the very first of them all 
 forbade the laity to possess any of the books of the Old 
 or New Testaments except, perhaps, the Psalter. Having 
 any of these translated into the vulgar tongue was 
 strictly forbidden. This same Council established the 
 Inquisition by the decree which erected in every city a 
 Council of Inquisitors, and thus the papal condemnation 
 
12 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 of the Bible is forever associated with the most infamous 
 judicial horror which has disgraced humanity. 
 
 The canon prohibiting the Scriptures is in the 
 following terms : — 
 
 Prohibemus etiam^ ne libros Veteris Testamenti 
 aut Laid permittantur habere : nisi forte Psal- 
 ierium, vel breviariuni pro divinis officis, aut 
 Horas Beatce Maria, aliquis ex devotione habere 
 velit, sed ne prcemissos libros habeant in vulgari 
 translates, arctissime inhibemus. 
 
 " We also forbid the laity to possess any of the 
 books of the Old or New Testaments, except perhaps 
 some one out of devotion wishes to have the Psalter or 
 Breviary for the divine offices, or the Hours of the 
 Blessed Virgin. But we strictly forbid them having 
 any of these books translated into the vulgar tongue."* 
 
 In the middle of the fifteenth century, lightnings 
 flashed from Gutenberg's printing-press in Mentz. 
 Thunders soon followed from the palaces of priests. 
 Though at first welcoming the new and wonderful art as 
 an aid and ally, they soon discovered its real significance 
 and power. Berthold, Archbishop of Mentz, in i486, 
 issued an edict forbidding the printing of any religious 
 book in German without permission from ecclesiastical 
 
 * See Labbei, Sacro-Sancta Concilia^ tome ii., pt. i., p. 430. 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. I3 
 
 authority. Before the date of this edict, there were laws 
 in regard to the censorship of books and instances of 
 books printed by permission. But the oldest mandate, 
 appointing a Book-censor^ with which we are acquainted, 
 is that issued by Berthold, Archbishop of Mentz, in the 
 year i486, which the curious reader will not be displeased 
 to see at full length, in an English version, with the 
 Instructions given to the censors : — 
 
 Penal Mandate, forbidding the Translation into 
 the Vulgar Tongue, etc., of Greek, Latin, and 
 other Books, without the previous approbation of 
 the doctors, etc. 
 
 " BERTHOLD, by the grace of God, Archbishop of the 
 Holy See of Mentz, arch-chancellor of Germany, 
 and electoral Prince of the Holy Roman Empire." 
 "Although, by a certain divine art of printing, 
 abundant and easy access is obtained to books on every 
 science necessary to the attainment of human learning; 
 yet we have perceived that certain men, led by the 
 desire of vain-glory, or money, do abuse this art ; and 
 that what was given for the instruction of human life is 
 perverted to purposes of mischief and calumny. For, to 
 the dishonoring of religion, we have seen in the hands 
 of the vulgar certain books of the divine offices, and 
 writings of our religion, translated from the Latin into 
 the German tongue. And what shall we -say of the 
 sacred laws and canons, which, though they have been 
 written in the most suitable and careful manner by men 
 
14 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 acquainted with law, and endowed with the greatest skill 
 and eloquence, yet the science itself is so intricate, that 
 the utmost extent of the life of the wisest and most 
 eloquent man is scarcely equal to it ? Some volumes on 
 this subject certain rash and unlearned simpletons have 
 dared to translate into the vulgar tongue, whose trans- 
 lation, many persons who have seen it, and those, too, 
 learned men, have declared to be unintelligible, in 
 consequence of the very great misapplication and abuse 
 of words. Or, what is to be said of works on the other 
 sciences, with which they sometimes even intermingle 
 things that are false ; and which, in order the more 
 readily to find purchasers for them, ' they inscribe with 
 false titles, and attribute to notable authors what are 
 merely their own productions ? ' " 
 
 " Let such translators, whether they do this with a 
 good or with a bad intention, let them, if they pay any 
 regard to truth, say whether the German tongue be 
 capable of expressing that which excellent writers, both 
 Greek and Latin, have most accurately and argumenta- 
 tively written on the sublime speculations of the Christian 
 religion, and on the knowledge of things. They must 
 acknowledge that the poverty of our idiom renders it 
 insufficient; and that it will be necessary for them to 
 invent, from their own minds, new terms for things; or 
 that, supposing them to make use only of the old ones, 
 they must corrupt the sense of the truth, which, from the 
 greatness of the danger attendant upon it, in the sacred 
 writings, we greatly dread ; for who would leave it to 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. I5 
 
 ignorant and unlearned men, and to the female sex, 
 into whose hands copies of the Scriptures may have 
 fallen, to find out the true meaning of them ? For 
 instance, let the text of the Holy Gospels, or of St. Paul's 
 Epistles, be examined, and no one of any knowledge will 
 deny that there is a necessity for many things to be 
 supplied, or understood, from other writings." 
 
 " These things have occurred to our minds, because 
 they are the most common. But, what shall we think of 
 those which are pending in very sharp disputes among 
 writers in the Catholic Church ? Many other instances 
 might be brought forward, but it is sufficient for our 
 purpose to have named a few." 
 
 " But, since the beginning of this art arose divinely (to 
 give it its proper appellation) in this our golden city of 
 Mentz, and continues in it to this day in its most 
 improved and perfect state, it is with the greatest justice 
 that we defend the glory of the art, and it becomes our 
 duty to preserve the unspotted purity of the divine 
 writings. Wherefore, with a view of meeting and 
 restraining, as with a bridle, the aforesaid errors, and the 
 daring attempts of shameless or wicked men, as far as 
 we are able by the will of God, whose cause is in 
 question : — we do, by strictly charging the observance 
 of these presents, command all and every the ecclesi- 
 astical and secular persons subject to our jurisdiction, or 
 transacting business within its limits, of whatever 
 degree, order, profession, dignity, or condition they may 
 be, that they translate no works on any science, art, or 
 
l6 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 knowledge, whatsoever, from the Greek, Latin, or other 
 language, into the vulgar German ; nor, when translated, 
 either dispose of, or obtain copies, publicly or privately, 
 directly or indirectly, by any kind of barter, unless 
 before their impression they shall have been admitted, 
 by patent, to be sold, by the most noble and honourable 
 our beloved Doctors and Masters of the University in 
 our City of Mentz, John Bertram de Nuremberg, 
 in Theology ; Alexander Diethrich, in Law ; Theo- 
 DORic DE Meschede, in Medicine; and Alexander 
 Eler, in Arts ; — the Doctors and Masters deputed for 
 this purpose in the University of our City of Erfurt ; or 
 if in the town of Frankfurt, the books exposed for sale 
 shall have been seen and approved by an honourable, 
 devout, and beloved master in theology, belonging to 
 the place, and one or two Doctors and Licentiates, 
 annually paid for that purpose by the Governor of the 
 said town. And whoever shall treat with contempt this 
 our provision, or shall lend his counsel, assistance, or 
 favor, in any way, directly or indirectly, in opposition to 
 this our mandate, let him know that he has by so doing 
 incurred the sentence of excommunication ; and besides 
 the loss of books exposed for sale, a penalty of one 
 hundred florins of gold, to be paid into our treasury; 
 from which sentence none may absolve him without 
 special authority." 
 
 " Given at the chancery of St. Martin, in our City of 
 Mentz, under our seal, on the Fourth day of the month 
 January, MCCCCLXXXVL" 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. l^ 
 
 The following are the ''^Instructions " issued to the 
 Censors, and accompanying this Mandate : — 
 
 *' BERTHOLD, etc., to the honourable, most learned, 
 
 and beloved in Christ, Jo. Bertram, doctor in 
 
 Theology ; Al. Diethrich, doctor in Law j Th, 
 
 DE Meschede, doctor in Medicine; and Al. Eler, 
 
 master of Arts ; — Health, and attention to the 
 
 things underwritten." 
 
 " Having found out several scandals and frauds, 
 
 committed by certain translators of literary works and 
 
 printers of Books, and wishing to counteract them, and 
 
 according to our power to block up their way, we 
 
 command that no one in our diocess, or under our 
 
 jurisdiction, translate any books into the German 
 
 tongue, or print, or sell them when printed, unless, in 
 
 our City of Mentz, such works or books have first, 
 
 according to the form of the mandate above published, 
 
 been by you seen, and as to their matter approved of, 
 
 both for translation and for sale." 
 
 " We do, therefore, by the tenor of these presents, 
 (having great confidence in your prudence and circum- 
 spection), charge you, that if at any time, any works, or 
 Books, intended to be translated, printed, or sold, be 
 brought to you, you shall weigh their matter, and, if they 
 cannot be easily translated according to the true sense, 
 but would rather beget errors and offences, or be 
 injurious to modesty, you shall reject them ; and 
 whatever Books you shall judge worthy to be allowed. 
 
l8 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 two of you, at least, shall sign them at the end, with 
 your own hand, in order that it may more readily appear 
 what Books have been seen and allowed by you. In so 
 doing you will perform an office pleasing to our God, 
 and useful to the state." 
 
 " Given at the chancery of St. Martin, under our 
 privy seal, the Tenth of January, MCCCCLXXXVI." * 
 
 What the Council of Trent did in the middle of the 
 sixteenth century to prevent the knowledge of the Bible 
 is too well known to repeat at length. Its prohibitions 
 were as humorous as numerous. Pious scholars were not 
 allowed to read versions of the Old Testament made by 
 heretics unless they obtained permission of the Bishop. 
 No scholar, however pious, was allowed to read such 
 versions of the New Testament. As vernacular versions 
 were not made and multiplied except by heretics, of 
 course all this was meant to be prohibitory. 
 
 William Tyndale, after years of secret translating and 
 printing, was caught in Antwerp, strangled and burned 
 in the prison yard of the castle of Vilvorden, October 
 6th, 1536. His New Testaments were burned in the 
 public squares of Antwerp and London. 
 
 John Rogers edited, revised and prepared for the 
 press the folio Bible known as Matthew's Bible, 1537. 
 He was burned alive at Smithfield in the presence of his 
 wife and eleven children — Queen Mary's first victim. 
 
 * See Beckmann's Hist, of Inventions^ vol. iiii., pp. 108-113, for the Latin; 
 where, also, reference is given to Guden's Codex Diplomaticus, tome vi. 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. I9 
 
 Nothing less than a translator or editor of the Bible was 
 worthy of such glory, honor and immortality. 
 
 Thirty years after the invention of printing, the 
 Inquisition was in completely successful operation in 
 Spain. Of 342,000 persons punished by it in that country 
 32,000 were burned alive. It was the Bible which 
 brought them to the flames of martyrdom. Equally 
 terrible was this engine of destruction in Italy, both 
 at the north and south. Archbishops, aided by the 
 Inquisition, were consuming fires for both Bibles and 
 their readers. Nero made some Christians shine as 
 lights in the world by setting them on fire, sewed up 
 in sacks, covered with pitch, using them as candles to 
 illuminate the scene of his debaucheries. But the streets 
 of European cities blazed with Bible bonfires. Bibles 
 were not like readers who could be impoverished, 
 stripped, tortured, mutilated and cast out. Even a leaf 
 surviving might pierce the blackness of this darkness 
 like a star. Just as to the Western frontier men there 
 were no good Indians but dead Indians, so to terrified 
 ecclesiastics there were no good Bibles but burnt Bibles. 
 These holy fires had been far more frequent and brilliant 
 but for the lack of fuel. In many places there were no 
 Bible bonfires merely because authority was so vigilant 
 that there were no Bibles to burn. Bibles were preserved 
 by being carried away by exiles, or by being concealed 
 like precious stones and metals in times of distress and 
 danger. 
 
 This fury was not local and political, peculiar to 
 
20 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 some place or nation. Robert Stephens, the prince of 
 French printers, though shielded by King Francis, 
 could not escape prosecution, ruin and exile for his 
 Bibles of 1545 and 1549. Generations later, even in 
 France, the Bible fared no better. Pasquier Quesnel's 
 edition of the French New Testament, 1693-4, in 4 vols., 
 8vo., including " Moral Reflections on the Gospels, Acts 
 of the Apostles, and the Epistles," was anathematized 
 by Pope Clement XI., 17 13. His famous bull, Uni- 
 genitus, is the indelible record of Rome's hostility to the 
 circulation of the Scriptures. Forty French Bishops 
 accepted this bull, which denounced the idea that all 
 should read the Bible, or that Christians should be 
 allowed to read it on the Sabbath Day. 
 
 Does any one fancy that this warfare with the Bible 
 ended with the eighteenth century.'' He should know 
 of Matamoras, Marin, Carasco, Gonzalez and other 
 blameless young men, who, but a few years ago, 
 languished in Spanish prisons until released by the 
 indignant intercession of the Bible-reading world. 
 George Borrow was one of the most remarkable English- 
 men of this generation. Singularly gifted with physical, 
 mental and personal characteristics for the work, he 
 spent five years in Spain, endeavoring to circulate the 
 Scriptures, as he says, " in spite of the opposition and the 
 furious cry of the sanguinary priesthood and the edicts 
 of a deceitful government. Throughout my residence 
 in Spain the clergy were the party from which I 
 experienced the strongest opposition, and it was at their 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 21 
 
 instigation that the government originally adopted those 
 measures which prevented any extensive circulation of 
 the volume through the land." Within a few months 
 Spanish secular newspapers have entreated priests and 
 people not to maltreat and mob the Bible colporteur, as 
 the accounts of his sufferings printed in foreign journals 
 are commented upon as though he were exposed to all 
 the dangers of the missionary among savage tribes. 
 
 Within our recollection, English travelers have been 
 arrested and imprisoned because single copies of Italian 
 Bibles were found in their portmanteaus when entering 
 the Roman States. Many who read this will remember 
 that before the days of Victor Emmanuel, they found it 
 wise to conceal their copies of Italian Testaments when 
 traveling in Italy, in order to avoid detention and an 
 appeal to the help of their government. 
 
 How does the record of the Greek Church compare 
 with that of the Roman, in respect to the Bible ? It is 
 better, but at the best it is a record of mere toleration. 
 Neither of these historic churches has ceased to dread 
 the Bible. Its supremacy in the world of printed 
 thought has been attained in the face of a religious 
 hatred deeper and deadlier than that of infidels and 
 atheists. 
 
 Literature and printing have furnished no book which 
 remotely resembles the Bible in its career of conflict and 
 triumph; in its universal translation, distribution and 
 domination. Its linguistic influence on the leading 
 languages of civilization is without a parallel. Its 
 
22 
 
 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 authority in morals and religion among enlightened 
 nations has no rival. It is the most powerful ray which 
 penetrates the darkness of this sinful and suffering 
 world. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 •*- 
 
 (Mlanufcripte* 
 
 BOOKS were written, multiplied and circulated 
 during many centuries before the invention of 
 printing. Wiclif translated the Bible into Eng- 
 lish and multiplied manuscript copies nearly one hundred 
 years before Gutenberg printed his Bible in Latin. 
 Many manuscript copies were made at one time as the 
 transcribers took the words from the lips of a reader. 
 Notwithstanding the Papal war of extermination which 
 followed this effort to give the Bible to the people, a 
 large number of these manuscripts have survived. 
 
 Any one familiar with Mediaeval writing cannot fail 
 to observe how much the first printed book resembles 
 the best ancient manuscripts. It has been said that this 
 was designed for the purpose of deceiving buyers, who 
 would pay the price of a manuscript for what had been 
 
24 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 produced by the secret art. There is no proof of this, 
 however, and the resemblance to manuscript is sufficiently- 
 accounted for by the fact that the type-maker had no 
 other letters to copy. It cannot be denied that there 
 was great temptation to deceive, for a printed Bible sold 
 at 60 crowns, if equally well done in manuscript, would 
 have cost 500 crowns. 
 
 Manuscripts were the employment, enjoyment and 
 glory of the monasteries. Those monks who were 
 specially qualified by learning and skill were appointed 
 to work in the scriJ>torm?n or domus antiquariorum. In 
 Birch and Jenner's work on " Early Drawings and 
 Illuminations in the British Museum," there is an 
 account of their labors. The antiquarii prepared copies 
 of old and valuble manuscripts. The librarii transcribed 
 more modern works. Here the art of illumination was 
 developed and carried to perfection, in painting mini- 
 atures, initials and borders to decorate the pages of 
 written text. Illumination was most richly bestowed on 
 service books for use in the church by ecclesiastics and 
 the more wealthy private worshippers. These books are 
 chiefly Missals, Psalters, and Books of Hours. 
 
 The Missal is a volume which includes the services 
 relating to the Eucharist, or the celebration of Mass, 
 namely : 
 
 I. The Sacra??ientary, containing the Collects, Pre- 
 faces, and Canon of the Mass, with occasionally some 
 other Services, such as that of Baptism, etc. 2. The 
 Lectionary, containing the Epistles and Gospels, which 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 25 
 
 are sometimes found in separate books, the Epistle 
 book being then often called the Lectionary. 3. The 
 Evangeliary, ( Evangelarium ), containing the Gospels 
 arranged for various days ; or, the Evangelia, containing 
 the four Gospels in their usual order; generally having 
 a portrait of the Evangelist attached to each Gospel. 
 4. The Gradual, containing the Introits, Graduals, (/. e., 
 Psalms and Antiphons preceding the Gospels), Offertories, 
 Communions, etc., set to music. This is still used as a 
 choir book. It is to the Missal what the Antiphonary is 
 to the Breviary, and resembles the latter in size and 
 ornament. But in later times the Missal became the 
 only book absolutely necessary for the celebration of 
 Mass. 
 
 The Psalter illuminated was largely used before the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. When complete 
 Breviaries became the rule, these were in a great 
 measure superseded, their contents being included in 
 the Breviaries. The Breviary itself is nothing more 
 than the form of recitation of the Psalter distributed 
 throughout the one nocturnal and seven daily Services 
 arranged for the seven days of the week, with accom- 
 panying lessons, hymns, collects, antiphons, etc., for the 
 most part varying with the season. 
 
 The Book of Hours, Horce Beaice Mar ice Virginis, 
 " Prymer," or by whatever other title it may be known, 
 contains chiefly the "Office of our Lady," from the 
 Breviary; with the addition of various prayers and 
 other material. The book was intended for the use of 
 
26 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 the laity, and was generally adorned with miniatures 
 representing chiefly events in the life of the Virgin 
 Mary. Beautiful specimens of all these sacred and 
 many other manuscript books are to be seen in many of 
 our public and private libraries. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BLOCK BOOKS, or, Books of Images, were the 
 immediate precursors of printing. Their origin 
 and date are doubtful, but they are usually 
 attributed to the early part of the fifteenth century, and 
 to Germany or Holland. They consist of pictorial 
 matter only or mainly. Where they contain any text, it 
 is carved upon the block and thus printed with the 
 pictures. This art of printing from wooden blocks is 
 called Xylography. It is more closely related to the art 
 of wood-engraving than to the art of printing. Both 
 these arts originate in the seals used by the Babylonians 
 in the earliest ages of which we possess historic records. 
 Stamping designs in color from engraved stamps was 
 undoubtedly Roman and Mediaeval custom. In the 
 fourteenth century, form-schneiders (model cutters) were 
 
28 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 abundant in Germany who engraved on wood blocks, 
 patterns to be printed and then colored by hand. It is 
 certain that playing-cards were thus made, and it is 
 probable also that religious pictures and other pictures 
 were produced on this system of pattern-printing and 
 subsequent coloring. 
 
 For a long time it was supposed that the oldest 
 extant picture thus made was the St. Christopher of 1423, 
 now in the British Museum. There are, however, 
 numerous pictures, without date, which may be earlier 
 products, and it has never been certain that the date 
 on the St. Christopher was the date of its manufacture. 
 Nor can it be determined whether playing-cards were 
 produced by the form-schneiders' art before religious or 
 other pictures. Much has been written about it, but the 
 subject is in reality of little importance, because the art 
 which produced them was not what we know as either 
 the art of printing or the art of wood-engraving. Printing 
 with movable types was not invented until the middle 
 of the fifteenth century, when Gutenberg produced 
 his Bible at Mentz. Wood-engraving, which produces 
 complete finished pictures printed in ink, was not in 
 use till in the time of Albert Durer toward the end of 
 the fifteenth century. Prior to that time the wood block 
 only impressed a pattern, to be colored by hand, and the 
 picture was complete only when it came from the hand 
 of the painter. All block book pictures and prints prior 
 to Durer's time belong rather to the painter's than the 
 engraver's or printer's art. Durer invented wood- 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 29 
 
 engraving as we know it, the art by which an artist is 
 enabled to reach the public, with his own thoughts, in 
 his own lines, through the printing-press. 
 
 Block Books are, nevertheless, among the most 
 precious treasures of bibliography. But few of these 
 xylographic works are known, and of these the most 
 celebrated are the Biblia Pauperum and the Speculum 
 Salvationis. 
 
 The Biblia Pauperum, or Bible of the Poor, consists 
 of forty plates, with extracts and sentences analogous to 
 the figures and images represented. The whole is 
 engraven on wood, and printed on one side of the leaves 
 of paper. When folded, the white side of the leaves may 
 be pasted together, so that the number is reduced to 
 twenty. Copies, however, are found, the leaves of which 
 not having been cemented on their blank side, are forty 
 in number, like the plates. Each plate or page contains 
 four busts, two at the top, and two at the bottom, 
 together with three historical subjects; the two upper 
 busts represent the prophets or other persons, whose 
 names are always written beneath them ; the two lower 
 busts are anonymous. The middle of the plates, which 
 are all marked by letters of the alphabet in the centre of 
 the upper compartment, is occupied by three historical 
 pictures, one of which is taken from the New Testament. 
 This is the type or principal subject, and occupies the 
 centre of the page between two anti-types or other 
 subjects, which relate to it. The inscriptions at the top 
 
3© FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 and bottom of the page consist of texts of Scripture and 
 Leonine verses. 
 
 Heinecken, who examined several copies of this work 
 with minute attention, has discovered five different 
 editions of the Biblia Pauperum ; the fifth is easily 
 known, as it has fifty plates. In executing the other 
 four editions, the engravers, he observes, have worked 
 with such exactness, that there is very little difference 
 between any of them, so that it is impossible to determine 
 which is the first. 
 
 Though this work is called the " Bible of the Poor," 
 it is not probable that it had any general circulation 
 among the masses. It is more probable that it was used 
 by the poor friars and others who were engaged in 
 religious work. 
 
 The Speculum Humance Salvationist or Mirror of 
 Salvation, is the most perfect in design and execution 
 of the Books of Images which preceded the invention of 
 printing. It is a small folio, containing sixty-three plates, 
 with accompanying text. There are two Latin editions 
 extant, both of extreme rarity. It was translated into 
 German, Flemish and other languages. The Preface is 
 in rhyming Latin verses printed in long lines. The first 
 two thus announce the title : 
 
 )Prof|emtum cujustiam tnctptt nobar tomptla^ 
 
 tionis ; 
 Cujus nomen et titulus est speculum l)umanae 
 
 salbattonts* 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 31 
 
 The expository matter, at the foot of the different 
 plates, is in two columns. The first plate of the earliest 
 edition is divided into two compartments, separated (as 
 all the other plates are) by a small pillar: that on the 
 left hand exhibits the fall of Lucifer and his angels ; in 
 the dentre is represented the Saviour, denouncing 
 vengeance against his rebellious subjects, while the 
 angels who retained their allegiance are thrusting them 
 headlong down to hell, whose jaws are widely distended 
 to receive them. Horror and anguish are depicted in 
 the countenances of the fallen spirits who are delineated 
 in the most grotesque attitudes imaginable. Beneath 
 this compartment is inscribed Casus Luciferi. 
 
 In the right hand compartment is represented the 
 creation of Eve, who is springing out of Adam's side, 
 and is apparently receiving her instructions from the 
 lips of her Creator. The inscription beneath this 
 compartment is, Dominus creavit homines ad ijnagines et 
 similitudines suas. The verses beneath the two columns 
 are illustrative of the general subject of the work. They 
 are as follow : 
 
 Kncipit <Sp0CttItim Ijumanar .Saluacionis, 
 Xn quo patet cajsus tominis ct motius 
 
 reparacionis. 
 Kn i^oc speciilo potest t)omo consttierarc 
 (iiuam oil causam creator omnfutn trtcrcijit 
 
 l^omtnem crearr. 
 
32 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 Soulier autem in patatriso est formata, 
 Be costts btrt trormtenttsi est parata. 
 
 These remarks apply to what is reputed to be the first 
 edition, the date of which is not known, but was probably 
 between 1440 and 1457 : the second Latin edition differs 
 from it only in having the whole of the explanatory text 
 printed with fusile types, exactly resembling those 
 emyloyed for part of the letter-press of the first edition. 
 Of the translations into other European languages, the 
 most celebrated is the Flemish ; two editions of this are 
 extant, both in folio ; and the second differs from the 
 first, chiefly in having the explanatory letter-press of 
 plates 4S and 46 printed with a smaller type. 
 
 In the Lenox Library, there is perhaps the finest 
 collection of Block Books in the world. Of the Biblia 
 Fauperum there is a copy in a remarkably clean and 
 perfect condition, with the leaves unpasted at the backs 
 and the cuts uncolored ; another copy, the first edition 
 in Italian, the only known Italian xylographic work ; still 
 another, the second edition in Italian, and two copies in 
 German. There are also copies of other equally rare 
 and celebrated specimens of block books, such as have 
 been bought and sold for several thousand dollars each. 
 
 Baron Heinecken published a work on this subject, 
 with the title : " Id^e Ginirale d'une Collection complette 
 d'EstampeSy avec une Dissertation sur VOrigine de la 
 Gravure, et sur les premiers Livres des Images. Leipsic 
 et Vienne, 1771, 8°." Thomas Hart well Home gives an 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 33 
 
 abridgment of this work as far as it relates to Block Books 
 or Books of Images, in his " Introduction to the Study of 
 Bibliography," It is an interesting fact that the author 
 of that monumental work, " An Introduction to the 
 Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures," 
 which has been an invaluable class-book for thousands 
 of theological students in Great Britain and America, 
 was also the author of two interesting and instructive 
 volumes constituting " An Introduction to the Study of 
 Bibliography, to which is prefixed a Memoir in the 
 Public Libraries of the Antients, 1814, 2 vols., 8vo." 
 
7 ■» "i""' «', tl-JLLJ' *' " '' " " J^ZZ 
 
 1 II I I I I n n II II II ■■ ■' '"^ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE FIRST PRINTED BOOK. 
 
 THE FIRST printed book, generally known as The 
 Gutenberg Bible, was produced at Mentz by 
 Gutenberg, some time between 1450 and 1456. 
 It is also known as the Mazarin Bible, from the fact 
 that a copy of it was found in the Library of Cardinal 
 Mazarin by William Francis De Bure the younger, who 
 gives an account of the discovery in his " Bibliographic 
 Instructive, tome i., Paris, 1763." 
 
 Like many others of the earliest printed books, the 
 Gutenberg Bible has no date, but an inscription by 
 Cremer, the illuminator and binder of the copy in the 
 National Library at Paris, shows that it was printed 
 before 1456. 
 
 This splendid production is not only the first printed 
 book, but it is believed to be the first specimen of 
 
36 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 printing with movable types extant, with the exception 
 of certain 
 
 aetUrs of Kntfttlflence. 
 
 These letters are the earliest dated specimens of 
 printing. Eighteen copies of these are known, all 
 bearing the printed dates of 1454 or 1455. Bigmore 
 and Wyman, in their "Bibliography of Printing," say: 
 " It is probable that prior to 1450, Gutenberg printed 
 several small productions, for, had he been uniformly 
 unsuccessful all these years, he could hardly have been 
 able to borrow money from time to time. He possibly 
 had to leave over, for a more auspicious time, his pro- 
 jects for printing a large book, and to content himself 
 with 'jobbing-work,' as it would now be called." 
 
 Dr. Dibdin, in his " Bibliotheca Spenceriana," gives 
 a transcript of one of these Letters of Indulgence, in 
 connection with historic details, referring to the labors 
 of Lambinet and Haeberlin. He says : " In the year 
 1452 the Turks carried fire and sword into Epirus, and 
 almost the whole of Greece. Cyprus was menaced ; the 
 Pontiff wrote to John II. to fortify the walls of his 
 capital, Nicosia, and to resist the attacks of the Mussul- 
 man : promising to defray the expenses attending this 
 measure, by the sums of money which his Letters of 
 Indulgence might produce. This epistle is dated in 
 June, 1452. Pope Nicolas V., died at Rome in March, 
 1455." To one of the copies of these earliest surviving 
 specimens of printing, is still appended the original 
 Papal seal. 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 37 
 
 As no other book equals in bibliographical interest, 
 
 we give the following description at length. The first 
 volume begins as follows : 
 
 Snctptt epiCtola fanctt iijetonimi atr 
 ijaulinum prcCiiiterum Tre omniijus 
 trCutne f^iitotit Utiris. capitultt pmu. 
 
 [f] SB^atcr amttottuff 
 tua mici)i iitanuf- 
 tula pfetens. tjetulit 
 (i(^ rt CuauiiKmas 
 Iras: q a pn'nctpto 
 amicicia^ filre. pi)a= 
 te iam tititi : t \ittttiu amicicie noua 
 
 The Jirs^ volume has 324 leaves, the second 317 
 leaves, being 641 to the whole work. In the first nine 
 pages there are 40 lines in a column ; in the tenth, 41 ; 
 and in the remainder, 42 lines. The columns, two in 
 number on each page, are ii:^ inches in height; 3f in 
 breadth ; and there is a space of seven-eighths of an 
 inch between them. The type is a large Gothic or 
 German character. The letter (i) is printed in various 
 ways : sometimes it has a dot (i), at others a dash (t)^ 
 and frequently a circumflex (i). Masch {Bibltotheca 
 Sacra, vol. iii., /. 67) considers the latter to have been 
 used when the / was to be pronounced long ; but this is 
 not borne out by the instances which every page can 
 
38 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 afford. De Bure regards it as the effect of an imperfection 
 in the art of printing. There are neither signatures, 
 catchwords, numerals, nor running titles. The paper is 
 of very firm and good texture, and the water-marks are 
 a Bull's Head, with a Star and a Bunch of Grapes. 
 
 The First Volume contains the Prologues of St. 
 Jerome, (8 pages), the Pentateuch, and the other books 
 of the Old Testament as far as the Psalms. The Second 
 Volume begins with the Prologue of St. Jerome on the 
 books of Solomon, and contains the remaining books 
 of the Old Testament, and the whole of the New 
 Testament. 
 
 There are two copies in the National Library at Paris, 
 one upon vellum, bound in four volumes, and the other 
 upon paper, in two volumes. The latter copy has a 
 subscription in red ink at the end of each volume. That 
 at the end of the first volume, of which a fac-simile is 
 given in the Classical Journal, vol. IV., /. 481, is as 
 follows : 
 
 2Et lit eft finis prime partis tiitilie 
 feu Deteris teCtamenti. Xlluminata 
 Cett rufiricata et U'^ata p tenricum 
 Eltct) alius Ctremer ^nno trm mccec 
 (t)t Cefto iSarttolomet apU 
 Heo flracias Alleluia. 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 "Here ends the first part of the Bible or Old Testament. 
 Illuminated, or rubricated, and bound, by Hetiry Albch or Cremer, 
 on St. Barlholomeiv' s day, April, A. D. 14J6. Thanks be to 
 God. Hallelujah." 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 39 
 
 At the end of the second volume the subscription is : 
 
 Kfte imv niumCnatUB ICflatus tt tomjjlectus 
 eCt p Jjenricum (Bremer, bicariu eccleite coUe= 
 QiaU Canctt .StepljanC nraflunttni Cuii anno 
 trni tJTiUefimo quatcinficnteitmo fluinauaseCmo 
 Cepto, feito aCTumptionis filoriofe bfrflinis 
 IHarie. Heo <25raciai3» ^Uclufa. 
 
 TRANSLATION, 
 
 " TAis book, illufninaied and bound by Henry Cremer, vicar of 
 the collegiate church of St. Stephen, at Mentz, was completed on 
 the feast of the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, A. D. 
 14^6. Thanks be to God. Hallelujah." 
 
 In order to produce this great folio Bible Gutenberg 
 had exhausted his resources, and borrowed from relatives 
 and friends. John Fust, or Faust, twice lent him 800 
 guilders, taking a mortgage on all his printing materials. 
 Gutenberg's splendid achievement in the new art was 
 not a financial success. In order to recover his money 
 Fust brought a suit against the inventor, which resulted 
 in the removal of all his printing materials to the house 
 of Fust, and Gutenberg went forth penniless. He was 
 assisted by Dr. Humery in establishing another press in 
 the same neighborhood, but he did not prosper. In 
 1465 he became a pensioner at the court of Archbishop 
 Adolphus, and died soon after in 1468. 
 
 His invention has always been a marvel in respect to 
 the perfection of its beginning. No one looks at the 
 
4© FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 earliest specimens of printing without being astonished 
 at their clearness and beauty. " It is a very striking 
 circumstance," says Hallam," " that the high-minded 
 inventors of this great art tried, at the very outset, so 
 bold a flight as the printing of an entire Bible, and 
 executed it with astonishing success. It was Minerva 
 leaping on earth in her divine strength and radiant 
 armor, ready at the moment of her nativity to subdue 
 and destroy her enemies. We may see in imagination 
 this venerable and splendid volume leading up the 
 crowded myriads of its followers, and imploring, as it 
 were, a blessing on the new art, by dedicating its first 
 fruits to the service of Heaven." 
 
 Just what Gutenberg accomplished in perfecting the 
 art of printing, is made plain by Mr. De Vinne in his 
 " Invention of Printing," when he says that Gutenberg's 
 brass mould for making types was the key to the 
 invention : 
 
 " Gutenberg, first of all, made types in brass moulds 
 and matrices. In other words, it was only through the 
 invention of matrices and type-mould in brass that 
 printing became a great art. Considered from a 
 mechanical point of view, the merit of Gutenberg's 
 invention may be inferred from its permanency. His 
 type-mould was not merely the first, it is the only 
 practical mechanism in making types. For more than 
 four hundred years this mould has been under critical 
 examination, and many attempts have been made to 
 supplant it. Contrivances have been invented for 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 4I 
 
 casting fifty or more types at one operation ; for swaging 
 types, like nails, out of cold metal; for stamping types 
 from cylindrical steel dyes upon the ends of thin copper 
 rods, but experience has shown that these and like 
 inventions in the department of type-making machinery 
 are impracticable. There is no better method than 
 Gutenberg's. Modem type-casting machines have 
 moulds attached to them which are more exact and 
 more carefully finished, and which have many little 
 attachments of which Gutenberg never dreamed, but 
 in principle and in all the more important features, 
 the modern moulds may be regarded as the moulds 
 of Gutenberg." Every one who reads should know 
 this, at least, of the first printer and the first printed 
 book. 
 
 Besides the Letters of Indulgence, the Bible, a few 
 pamphlets and small quartos of a few leaves each, 
 Gutenberg printed a splendid volume — a folio of 748 
 pages — The Catholicon. It was written or edited by 
 John, of Genoa, a mendicant friar, and contains a Latin 
 Grammar and Dictionary. The colophon states that it 
 was printed at Mentz in 1460, but does not give the 
 name of the printer, A copy of the Catholicon is to be 
 seen in the Lenox Library, and also in the Astor 
 Library. Another remarkably fine copy is in the 
 library of Mr. Brayton Ives, New York City. The 
 copy from the Syston Park Library, recently sold in 
 London for $2,000, is in the Brown Library, at Provi- 
 dence, R. I. 
 
42 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 Mr. De Vinne says : " The silence of Gutenberg 
 concerning his services is remarkable, all the more so 
 when this silence is contrasted with the silly chatterings 
 of several printers during the last quarter of the fifteenth 
 century — of whom Peter Schoeffer may be considered 
 as the first, and Trechsel of Lyons the last — each 
 insisting that he, whatever others might have done 
 before him, was the true perfecter of printing. There is 
 no other instance in modern history, excepting possibly 
 that of Shakespeare, of a man who did so much and who 
 said so little about it." 
 
 There is evidence that Gutenberg died before 
 February, 1468. It was believed that he was buried in 
 the Church of St. Frances, at Mentz. This church, 
 which contained his tomb, \yas destroyed in 1742. Ivo 
 Wittig, Chancellor and Rector of the University of 
 Mayence, placed a tablet in the court of the house of 
 the Gensfleisch family at Mayence, with the inscription : 
 *' To John Gutenberg, of Mayence, who first of all 
 invented printing-letters in brass, [matrices and moulds], 
 by which art he has deserved honour from the whole 
 world." 
 
 In 1837, Thorwaldsen's monument to Gutenberg was 
 erected at Mayence, in one of the public squares, called 
 Gutenberg Platz. Gutenberg is represented as standing 
 with one foot slightly advanced, holding his Bible 
 clasped to his breast with one hand, while several 
 punches are lightly grasped in the other. In a series of 
 bas-reliefs upon the pedestal are seen the processes of 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 43 
 
 the art in its earliest stages. The inscription states that 
 the monument was erected by the citizens of Mayence, 
 with the assistance of the whole of Europe. 
 
 In 1840, a statue of Gutenberg, by the celebrated 
 French sculptor, David d'Angers, was erected in the 
 market-place of Strasburg, called La Place Gutenberg. 
 The figure stands erect holding forth a sheet with the 
 words from Genesis, " Et la lumiere fut." Upon the 
 pedestal four bas-reliefs illustrate the dissemination of 
 knowledge by means of the printing-press, and on the 
 front various great authors of Europe are grouped around 
 a printing-press. A copy of the David monument 
 stands in the great court of the Imprimerie Nationale 
 at Paris. 
 
 There is a monument to Gutenberg in the city of 
 Frankfort. Upon a lofty pedestal of fine, red sandstone 
 stand three colossal figures in electro-plated copper, the 
 central figure being Gutenberg, with a type in his hand, 
 while Schoeffer stands on his right and Fust on his 
 left. Four sitting figures on the corners of the 
 pedestal represent Theology, Poetry, Natural Science, 
 and Industry. Upon the upper part of the pedestal, 
 medallions contain the heads of celebrated printers. 
 "But why," says Madden, ** should we speak of mon- 
 uments of bronze or stone to commemorate the 
 services of Gutenberg.-* His monument is in every 
 quarter of the world : more frail than all, it is more 
 enduring than all —it is the BOOK ! " 
 
44 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 The following list of known copies of the Gutenberg 
 Bible was compiled by Dr. S. Austin Allibone of the 
 Lenox Library, New York, in 1882 : 
 
 COPIES ON VELLUM. 
 
 1. National Library, Paris. 
 
 2. Royal Library, Berlin. 
 J. British Museum. 
 
 4. Earl of Ashburton s Library. 
 
 5. Leipsic Library. 
 
 6. Heifirich Klernm, Dresden. 
 
 7. Library at Dresden : a fragment only. 
 
 COPIES ON PAPER. 
 
 1. National Library, Paris. 
 
 2. Mazarin Library, Paris. 
 J. Imperial Library, Vienna. 
 4. Public Library, Treves. 
 
 J. Bodleian Library, Oxford. 
 
 6. Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. 
 
 7. Geo. I 11'^'" Library, British Museum. 
 
 8. Duke of Sussex's Library. 
 
 g. Duke of Devonshire' s Library. 
 
 10. Earl Spencer s Library. 
 
 11. Lenox Library, New York. 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 45 
 
 12. Library of John Fuller. 
 
 ij. Lloyd's Library. 
 
 14. Leipsic Library. 
 
 i^. Munich Library. 
 
 16. Frankfort Library. 
 
 ly. Hanover Library. 
 
 18. Emperor of Russia's Library. 
 
 ig. Library at Mentz. 
 
 20. Huth Library. 
 
 21. Library of Hamilton Cole, New York, (now 
 
 in the Library of Brayton Ives, New York), 
 
 To this list must be added the Syston Park copy 
 recently sold, and the Earl of Crawford's copy, sold still 
 more recently, unless both of these copies are in the list 
 under names that have changed with ownership during 
 recent years. It is worthy of note that there is no record 
 of a copy being in the Vatican Library at Rome. These 
 copies are not all alike in size, or in the style of their 
 illumination, or in the number of lines on all pages. It 
 appears that there were two issues, one with 42 lines on 
 all the pages, the other with 40 lines on the first eight 
 pages, 41 lines on the ninth page, and the rest with 42 
 lines. Other variations in the number of lines are 
 mentioned by different bibliographers. 
 
 The Lenox Copy is on paper, in two volumes. It 
 was formerly in the Library of George Hibbert, Esq., 
 which was sold at auction in London in 1829, It was 
 bought by Mr. Wilkes for ^^215, about $1,075. ^^ 
 
46 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 was sold again in 1848, and bought by Mr. Lenox for 
 about $2,500, This copy is now worth as many 
 thousand dollars as it then cost hundreds. 
 
 Until recently, the highest price ever paid for a 
 printed book was at the Henry Perkins Library Sale in 
 London, 1873, when a vellum copy of the Gutenberg 
 Bible sold for ;^3,4oo, or about $16,500. A paper 
 copy brought at the same sale, ^^2,690. These figures 
 have since been surpassed at the Syston Park Library 
 Sale in London, when a paper copy was sold to 
 Mr. Quaritch, the bookseller, for ;!^3,90o, or nearly 
 $20,000. 
 
 Unless the descriptions of this copy by foreign 
 correspondents are grossly incorrect, the Lenox copy 
 is much finer, and therefore much more valuable than 
 the one recently sold for nearly $20,000. 
 
 But the highest price known to have been paid for a 
 printed book was given at this Syston Park Sale for the 
 book which is the subject of the next chapter. 
 
 The only other copy of the Gutenberg Bible in 
 America is The Bravton Ives Copy. In size and 
 condition it is a splendid specimen, not having suffered, 
 as other famous copies, at the hands of the binders. Its 
 ancient binding still remains to show the wisdom, taste 
 and skill with which it was first protected and adorned. 
 Seventeen leaves scattered through the two volumes are 
 in facsimile^ but in other respects this copy is superior 
 to copies which have escaped this necessity. It is the 
 42 line issue, which is considered the first. With its 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 47 
 
 unimpaired margins, beautiful print, perfect register, 
 cleanly condition, interesting binding and other features, 
 it ranks very high among the few specimens remaining 
 of the first printed book and the first printed Bible. 
 
 Mr. Theodore Irwin, of Oswego, N. Y., has a volume 
 of the Gutenberg Bible, containing the Old Testament 
 and Apocrypha to the end of the Books of Maccabees. 
 It is one of the 42 line copies, and has 513 leaves, 
 with only one leaf and a portion of another in fac- 
 sittiile. When bought, this copy was in the original 
 pigskin binding, in oak boards. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 * 
 
 Z^t (ttltnt^ ^faUtx. U57* 
 
 THE FIRST BOOK WITH DATE — THE SECOND PRINTED BOOK. 
 
 THE MENTZ PSALTER, or, Psalmorum Codex, 
 being an edition of the Psalms in Latin, is the 
 first book known which contains the name of its 
 printer together with the name of the place where it was 
 printed, and the date of its execution. It is a folio of 
 175 leaves, with initial letters in two colors. It was 
 printed by Fust and Schoffer at Mentz, and was finished 
 August 14th, 1457, during the brief period between the 
 first and second printed Bibles. Its extreme rarity has 
 given it extraordinary pecuniary value, a very few copies 
 being known. Until recently, the highest price ever paid 
 for a printed book was given for a copy of the Gutenberg 
 Bible, $16,500, at the Perkins Sale, London, 1873. 
 This was surpassed at the Syston Park Sale, London, 
 December, 1884, when a paper copy of the Gutenberg 
 
50 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 Bible was sold for ^{^3,900, and a vellum copy of the 
 Mentz Psalter was sold for ;^4,95o, nearly $25,000. 
 
 After Gutenberg had printed the first Bible, his 
 creditor, Fust, obtained possession of all his printing 
 materials. Fust formed a partnership with Peter 
 Schoffer, who became his son-in-law. Their first 
 publication was the Mentz Psalter, the first printed 
 book with a complete date. This was reprinted with 
 the same types in 1459, 1490, 1502 and 1516. The copy 
 recently sold for nearly $25,000 is the second edition. 
 It is entered in the Sale Catalogue of the Syston Park 
 Library as follows : 
 
 "Psalmorum Codex, Latine cum ffymnis, Oratione 
 Dominica Symbolis ei Notts musicis. Printed on Vellum, 
 very fine copy, with painted capitals, in red morocco 
 extra, borders of gold, gilt edges, by Staggemeier, folio. 
 Moguntise, J. Fust et P. Schoffer, 1459. 
 
 *' This excessively rare edition is the second book 
 with a date, and contains the Athanasian Creed, printed 
 for the first time. In rarity it nearly equals that printed 
 in 1457, of which only eight copies are known, and of 
 this only ten, all printed on vellum. This copy sold for 
 3,350 francs in the MacCarthy Sale, and j£,iz(> 10 s. in 
 that of Sir M. Sykes." 
 
 A copy of this edition is in the British Museum, and 
 also a copy of the first edition, printed on vellum, which 
 is not only the first book printed with a date, but the 
 first example of printing in colors. 
 
 Beautiful facsimiles of pages of this Psalter are in 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 51 
 
 Dibdin's " Bibliotheca Spenceriana," and in Humphrey's 
 "History of Printing," and also in the more accessible 
 volume, Theodore L. De Vinne's " Invention of 
 Printing." 
 
 In the Caxton Exhibition, London, 1877, the 1457 
 copy of this Psalter was lent by the Queen, and the 1459 
 copy by the Earl of Leicester. No copy of this book is 
 in America. 
 
 The most perfect copy known is in the Imperial 
 Library of Vienna. It was discovered in the year 1665, 
 near Innspruck, in the castle of Ambras, where the arch- 
 duke, Francis Sigismund, had collected an immense 
 number of manuscripts and printed books, taken for the 
 most part from the famous library of Matthias Corvinus, 
 King of Hungary. It is a folio of 175 leaves, printed on 
 vellum, of which the Psalter occupies the first 135 and 
 the recto of the 136th. The remainder is appropriated to 
 the litany, prayers, responses, vigils, etc. The psalms are 
 executed in larger characters than the hymns, similar to 
 those used for missals prior to the invention of printing, 
 but all are distinguished for their uncommon blackness. 
 The capital letters, 288 in number, are cut on wood, 
 with a degree of delicacy and boldness which are sur- 
 prising. The largest of these, the initial letters of the 
 Psalms, which are black, red and blue, must have passed 
 three times through the press. A facsimile of the first 
 initial letter of this splendid Psalter is given with a few 
 sentences of the first psalm, in Dibdin's Bibliotheca 
 Spenceriana^ vol. i., p. 107, colored exactly after the 
 
52 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 original. As it is scarcely possible that this masterpiece 
 of the typographical art could be executed within 
 eighteen months after the dissolution of partnership 
 between Gutenberg and Fust, Fournier and Meerraan 
 conjecture that it was begun during its continuance, 
 though finished by Fust and Schoffer. 
 
 This Mentz Psalter, being second only to the Gutenberg 
 Bible in bibliographical interest, we give the following 
 description : 
 
 The work begins on the recto of the first leaf, with 
 two musical-scored lines at top. The lines and the 
 notes are inserted in manuscript as well as the words 
 " Venite exulte," etc. The text begins about three 
 inches below. A full page, which is 7 inches and f in 
 breadth, by about ii:^ in height, contains 20 lines. It 
 is not printed in type of uniform size. The collects, 
 responses, verses and prayers, are generally in a smaller 
 type. The colophon, which is also printed in the small 
 type, and with red ink, is literally as follows : 
 
 Jttns Cpalmo?^ cotrep.benuftate capitaliutfecolt^ 
 2iuUricationifiut(0 fu^cicnttt triCtinctus, 
 ^trfnuftionc artificofa impmentri ac caractfrij=: 
 antfi. atjfq^ calami bUa cparacone 0c elKfliatus, 
 I2t atr eutetjiam trei lutruftrie eft 3Cuntmattts, 
 per Joij'em iFuCt <ti\xz maflutmu. ISt petru 
 Scijofiter tre (&txxii\%z'vxi, ^nno Jfiii jttiUcfio. 
 cccc.lbij. Jti bifiria ^0tupcUts. 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 53 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 ** This work of the Psalms, a book embellished with beautiful 
 capitals, and sufficiently distinguished with rubric letters, was thus 
 formed by an ingenious invention of printing, with separate 
 characters, without any writing of the pen, and carefully finished 
 for the worship of God, by John Fust, Citizen of Mentz, and 
 Peter Schoffer, of Gemszheim ; in the year of the Lord one 
 thousand four hundred and fifty-seven. On tke eve of the Assump- 
 tion (August 14,) " 
 
 The second edition of this Psalter, printed in 1459, 
 a folio, by the same printers, varies in many respects 
 from the preceding. Though executed with the same 
 types and capital letters, the lines are longer in this 
 second edition, with 23 on a page, whereas the ^rsf 
 edition has but 20 lines on a page. According to 
 Heinecken, who is followed by Lichtenberger and others, 
 a complete copy contains 163 leaves; but Wurdtwein, 
 who appears to have examined it with more minuteness, 
 states it to consist of only 136. Dibdin conjectures the 
 difference to have been caused by the figures being 
 transposed by Heinecken's printer. 
 
 The text begins at the top of the page with the 
 following words : 
 
 Mtatnu t)tr qui no attjt in toUlio tmpto^. 
 
54 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 The colophon, which we transcribe verbatim et 
 literatim^ is on the reverse of fol. 151, and is printed in 
 red ink : 
 
 ^^ ^ccotatus. tutricationiHufq? fuCKcirntet 
 trittinctus. aTr inurncone attificiofa fmprimentii 
 ac caractetif antri : aijft^ uUa calami tparacone 
 Itc elKfiCatus. et ati lautrem trei ac l)onorf (ancti 
 JJacotJi rCt 3Cuatt>. ^tr JloJj'em ifuft cibf tnaflu= 
 tfnu. ct 4|ctru Sci)oifi)ct tre <Sfrrn(ri)0im clrticii 
 ^itno true fW^illeitmo cccc. Up. jrpip Iiu menfts 
 
 ^UflUCtt. [Mentz.] 1459- >^- 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Z^t Qgrtw6«5 (giMt, (w6o!) 
 
 THE SECOND PRINTED BIBLE. 
 
 THE SECOND BIBLE is generally known as 
 T/ie Bamberg Bible, from the place where it is 
 believed to have been printed ; or the Pfister 
 Bible^ from the name of its supposed printer; or the 
 Bible of Thirty-six Lines, from the number of lines on a 
 page. Like other printed books of this period, it has no 
 title-page or date. In the Catalogue of the Caxton 
 Exhibition the copy of this Bible, lent by Earl Spencer, 
 is entered as follows : 
 
 "Bible (Second Latin). Gothic Letter. (Bamberg: 
 Albert Pfister, 1460.?). Folio: 15! by 11 inches. 
 Without title, pagination or signatures. 882 leaves; 
 printed in double columns, 2>^ lines to a full column. A 
 copy in the Paris Library has the rubrication dated 1461, 
 proving that this Bible was printed prior to that date. 
 
5^ FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 But the cover of the Church Register of Bamberg being 
 composed partly of waste leaves of this Bible, and the 
 Register beginning with 21 March, 1460, it follows that 
 these leaves were printed prior to this latter date." 
 
 Albert Pfister is believed to have been a workman of 
 Gutenberg, who established a press at Bamberg, near 
 which city nearly all the copies of this Bible were 
 found. 
 
 Mr. De Vinne, in his work on the " Invention of 
 Printing," gives at length the reasons for the opinion that 
 this Bible is not the work of Pfister, but one of the 
 earlier works of Gutenberg, and therefore not the second 
 Bible, but the first. He says : " In nearly all the popular 
 treatises on printing the Bible of Forty-two Lines is 
 specified as the first book of Gutenberg, but it is the 
 belief of many of the most learned bibliographers, from 
 Zapf to Didot and Madden, that the Bible of thirty-six 
 lines is the older edition." Mr. Hawkins favors this 
 view, saying: " It seems to me that this Bible must have 
 been produced by the same set of workmen who printed 
 the Gutenberg Bible; many points of resemblance in 
 each edition lead to this conclusion. I am not of those 
 who believe that the Gutenberg Bible was the result of a 
 first experiment. Years of patient labor must have been 
 spent and many vexatious failures and partial successes 
 experienced before this splendid work was produced. 
 Might not the Bible of thirty-six lines have been pro- 
 duced by Gutenberg during these years of experiment ? 
 I do not assert this, but merely suggest its probability. 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 57 
 
 At all events, I venture the assertion that there is no 
 convincing evidence that it was printed by Pfister at 
 Bamberg or elsewhere," 
 
 Notwithstanding these well-considered views of 
 American students of early printing, we are compelled 
 to record this Bible of thirty-six lines as the second, as 
 there is as yet no evidence that it was printed before 
 1455, the latest date assigned to the Gutenberg Bible. 
 Of Pfister nothing is known but his name and a few 
 books and pamphlets attributed to him. His earliest 
 dated book is the Book of JFables, 1461. Mr. De Vinne 
 says that the profusion of wood-cuts in this and his 
 other books indicates that he was an engraver on wood. 
 He thinks that he bought an old font of type to use in 
 printing the explanations of these pictures. His Book of 
 Four Stones, with his imprint, Bamberg, 1462, is printed 
 with the types of the Bible of Thirty-six Lines, and this 
 gave the impression that he printed this Bible also. 
 Sebastian Pfister, supposed to be his son, had a printing 
 office at Bamberg in 1470. Although next to nothing is 
 known of Albert Pfister, his name has been used as a 
 rival to that of Gutenberg for the honor of the invention 
 of the art of printing. 
 
 We give the following descriptive points which are 
 sufficient to enable any one to identify a copy of this one 
 of the earliest printed books : 
 
 iitOIta Sacra Hattna. [Bamberg: Albert Pfister, 
 1460 .'' ] Gothic letter, 3 vols., folio. 
 
58 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES, 
 
 The work commences on the recto of the first leaf, 
 at the top of the first column, which begins five lines 
 below the top of the second, thus — 
 
 [f] Batec ant' 
 firoCius mi= 
 ciji tua mtmuCcula perfereus tre= 
 tulit Cimul. rt CuauiHi^mas Htte= 
 van : que a principio amicicia^ 
 Watm iam ptjate U^ti ct betects 
 amtctcte noua ptefercliant. Wit- 
 
 The first chapter of Genesis begins at the top of the 
 first column, on the reverse of fol. VI., as follows^ — 
 
 [in] principio creauit treus crlii t 
 trtram. Ktvva aut erat inanis 
 et uacu: et tendbre erat (up (a= 
 ciem alJiflt: et Cptrtt^ tftii (tretas 
 tur aqas. 
 
 The first volume ends at the bottom of the first 
 column of the last leaf, thus — 
 
 tefle per tCngulos tries omnifi') 
 tfietus uite fue. 
 
 The second volume begins with St. Jerome's Prologue 
 to the Books of Chronicles ; and ends with Maccabees 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 59 
 
 at the bottom of the last column, on the recto of the 
 
 last leaf. 
 
 The third volume begins with St. Jerome's Letter to 
 
 Pope Damasus concerning the Four Gospels. The first 
 
 five lines are indented, to make room for the letter B. 
 
 It ends on the reverse of the last leaf, at top of the 
 
 second column, with : 
 
 23icit, 5 ttttU 
 tnontntn prrtiftet iCtorum lEti= 
 am. 33enio cito amen. Witni ^o= 
 mine if)tin, CSfracia Tiomtnt no= 
 Ctrl ii)efu criCti cum omnia} u(i= 
 fits amen. 
 
 Without pagination or signatures; printed in double 
 columns, ^6 lines to a full column. According to Hain, 
 and Masch, a perfect copy contains 264 leaves in the 
 first volume, 310 in the second, and 296 in the third: 
 870 leaves in the whole work. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Z^t (men^efin ^iUu (1460-U61!) 
 
 THE THIRD PRINTED BIBLE. 
 
 THE THIRD BIBLE is generally known as The 
 Mentelin Bible from the name of its printer, 
 Johannes Mentelin, or, The Strasburg Bible., 
 from the name of the place where it was printed. 
 
 It is thus entered in the Catalogue of the Caxton 
 Exhibition : 
 
 iSttlta .Sacraf Hattna, (Third Latin Bible.) 
 Strasburg: Jo. Mentelin, 1460 and 1461 } 2 vols., folio. 
 iSf by I if inches. Lent by Earl Spencer. Without 
 title-page, pagination, or signatures ; 477 leaves, printed 
 in double columns, 49 lines to a full column. The 
 rubrics and initials are in MS. throughout. A copy 
 of this Bible is preserved in the library of Freiburg in 
 Breisgau, with the rubrications of the volumes dated 
 1460 and 1461, ranking this edition as the third Latin 
 Bible." 
 
62 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 There is a copy of this Bible on exhibition in the 
 Lenox Library. 
 
 Mr. Hawkins gives this Bible the second place, and 
 says : "A copy of this Bible in the University Library at 
 Freiburg, in Breisgau, Baden, is in two volumes ; has 
 at the end of the first this inscription : ' Explicit 
 psalteriu 1460;' and at the end of the second, 'Explicit 
 Apocalipsis Anno dfii MoCCCCLXL' The authenticity 
 of the inscriptions is vouched for by the fact that they 
 were made by the same hand which rubricated every 
 page in both volumes. Accepting these dates as made 
 in good faith, a press must have been set up at Strasburg 
 as early as 1459, which would entitle that city to the 
 position, in the history of printing, which has usually 
 been assigned to Bamberg, since the first volume of the 
 Mentelin edition has an implied earlier date than any 
 known copy of the so-called Bamberg Bible. I am 
 therefore compelled to give Strasburg the second 
 place in the chronological arrangement which I have 
 adopted." 
 
 Lack of positive information makes abundant room 
 for difference of opinion and arrangement. Such 
 historical puzzles are an agreeable form of intellectual 
 recreation. They also keep inquiring minds from those 
 prophetic problems which lead so many uninspired men 
 into manifest absurdities. The future never fails to 
 make itself known in good season, but we must look 
 after the past, or it will escape us entirely. 
 
 It is now considered probable that Strasburg received 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 63 
 
 the art of printing from Mentz, at least as early as 
 Bamberg. Mentelin is believed to have printed the first 
 Bible in German, the Epistles of St. Jerome, and several 
 other large folios. He was buried in the Strasburg 
 Cathedral, which contains a tablet with a magniloquent 
 inscription, attributing to him the invention and develop- 
 ment of the art of printing. This claim, like that of 
 many others, was not made until long after his death, 
 and is not supported by public or private records. He 
 was for a time in partnership with Henry Eggesteyn, 
 became prosperous as a publisher, issued descriptive 
 catalogues, and employed agents for the sale of his 
 works. Philip de Lignamine, of Rome, in 1474, said 
 that Mentelin printed in Strasburg after 1458. 
 
 We give the following descriptive points of The 
 Third Bible : 
 
 ]3tl)lta <&acta Hattna. [strasburg: Jo. Mentelin, 
 1460 and 1461 .?] 2 vols., folio. 
 
 (F. la :) iiater antbroCtus ttta/micl)i munuf^ 
 cula petfe/rfsj. tietulit ti^ ct fuauiflifmas leas, q 
 apn'ncipio/ amiciciaru. fiUc ptobate/^/r. 
 
 (F.jb., col. I, I. j6:j [n] prmcipio cttauit treus 
 criu et teram./^Terra autem etat inants et bacua : 
 ct ttnttvt/tvant iup faciT abifft'. &" Cpus tixu fer- 
 fbat inptv/etc. 
 
 ( F. 215a, col. 2, /. 46., explicit. Psalt. :) OtltntS (pit= 
 
 itus lautret ^omfnum. Alleluia. 
 
 (F. 2i6a :) [ ] unsat rpiftola quos iu0tt Cater* 
 
64 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 trotium : fmmo / carta non ^iuitrat : quos V9i 
 nectit amor, ton/eu. 
 
 (F. 342a, col. I, I. 38, term. V. T.:) ItOU ttXt 
 
 fitattts : ijic trgo erit confummatiis. 
 
 (Seq. Ep. S. Hieronytni:) [ ] ratt0tmO pape 
 
 tramaCo irro=/nimus. TJCouum opus me/facrrt 
 tofiis ep beteri: utpoCt/epemplaria Ccripturarti 
 toto/^/<r. 
 
 ri\^. r. expi.foi. 427a, col. I, I. 42 :) <3rratta TlRl 
 nf ( ilj^tt ppi cu omiij^ uotiis amen. 
 
 Gothic Letter. Without date, place of imprint, and 
 name of printer; 477 leaves, printed in double columns, 
 49 lines to a full column, and without pagination, or 
 signatures. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 t^t Si^H 'S>Akt) Q^iBfe. (1462). 
 
 THE FOURTH PRINTED BIBLE. 
 
 THE FOURTH BIBLE is unique in this respect, 
 that it is ^/le first edition of the Bible with the date, 
 name of printer, and place where printed. It was 
 printed by Fust and Schoffer, at Mentz, 1462. 2 vols. 
 Gothic letter. Three copies of this were in the Caxton 
 Exhibition, one on pure vellum richly illuminated in 
 gold and colors, lent by Earl Spencer, another equally 
 rich lent by Earl Jersey, and a third copy, on paper, 
 lent by Mr. Stevens. At the Syston Park Sale, a copy 
 of this Bible on vellum sold for $5,000. 
 
 This fourth Bible brings us back to the city where 
 the art of printing originated. Gutenberg's first book 
 and Bible, though cherished to this day as one of the 
 most splendid specimens of typography, was a financial 
 disaster. As the result of a law suit, his office and 
 materials passed into the hands of his creditor, Fust, 
 
66 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 who formed a partnership with Peter Schoffer, and 
 these two became Gutenberg's successors in Mentz. 
 Their Bible, the first with a date and name of printer, 
 and place where printed, is usually called the Bible of 
 1462. Both the Lenox and Astor Libraries have a 
 copy of this Bible on exhibition. This Fust, who is so 
 closely associated with Gutenberg, has been confused in 
 literature and legend with Dr. John Faust, a somewhat 
 mythical character, who was born after the death of 
 Gutenberg, and whose career as a magician is the foun- 
 dation of many tales in prose and poetry. Historical 
 students do not give any credit to the old, old story, thus 
 told by DTsraeli, relating to this very Bible of 1462 : 
 
 " A considerable number of copies of the Bible were 
 printed to imitate Manuscripts, and the sale of them in 
 Paris entrusted to Fust, as MSS. Consequent upon his 
 selling them at sixty crowns per copy, whilst the other 
 scribes demanded five hundred, universal astonishment 
 was created, and still more when he produced copies as 
 fast as they were wanted, and even lowered the price. 
 The uniformity of the copies increased the wonder. 
 Informations were given in to the magistrates against 
 him as a magician, and on searching his lodgings a great 
 number of copies were found. The red ink (and Fust's 
 red ink is peculiarly brilliant) which embellished his 
 copies was said to be his blood, and it was solemnly 
 adjudged that he was in league with the infernals. Fust 
 at length was obliged (to save himself from a bonfire) 
 to reveal his art to the parliament of Paris, who 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 67 
 
 discharged him from all prosecution in consideration 
 of the wonderful invention." 
 
 Mr. De Vinne sums up the facts of the case in the 
 following paragraph : " Eager to prevent the threatened 
 rivalry of Jenson, Fust appeared in Paris, in 1462, with 
 copies of the Bible, while Jenson was ineffectually 
 soliciting the new King to aid him. So far from being 
 persecuted in Paris, Fust was received with high 
 consideration, not only by the King, but by the leading 
 men of the city. He was encouraged to establish in 
 Paris a store for the sale of his books and to repeat his 
 visit." He is believed to have died of the plague in 
 Paris in 1466, where he was buried in the Church 
 of Saint Victor. 
 
 Besides his famous Bible of 1462 and the equally 
 famous Mentz Psalters, 1457-59, etc., Fust published the 
 Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, i459> 3.n exposition of 
 the services of the church by Durandus. This is the 
 third book with a date. Copies of this book can be 
 seen at both the Astor and Lenox Libraries. Besides 
 other large theological works, Fust and Schoffer printed 
 the first edition of a classic, Cicero de Officiis, 1465, a 
 small quarto of eighty-eight leaves. It contains the 
 following colophon: "This very celebrated work of 
 Marcus Tullius, I, John Fust, a citizen of Mentz, have 
 happily completed through the hands of Peter, my son, 
 not with writing ink, nor with pen, nor yet in brass, but 
 with a certain art exceedingly beautiful. Dated 1465." 
 It is pleasant to know that the first secular writing of 
 
6S FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 any importance to be committed to the press was one 
 of the purest and noblest of the productions of antiquity, 
 a work akin to the Bible in being a treatise on moral 
 obligations, and by its very excellence revealing the 
 infinite distance between the Word of God and the best 
 utterances of an uninspired mind. It is fitting that the 
 first and grandest of the earliest printed books should 
 be the Bible. It is also fitting that the first classic 
 author to appear in this marvelous form should be one 
 who was an enthusiastic lover and collector of literary 
 treasures. A copy of this book is to be seen at the 
 Astor Library. 
 
 We give a few descriptive points that identify the 
 Fourth Printed Bible: 
 
 Volume First ends with the Psalms, and contains 
 242 leaves. The Epistle of St. Jerome begins at the top 
 of the first column, on the recto of the first leaf, the first 
 two lines, forming the prefix, are printed in red. 
 
 Jncip rpl^a Cci ii)etonimi atr jjaulinu ^ihitt^ 
 ru: 'at omita Triuine tiftorie litirts.ca.jpmu* 
 
 [f] J^atrr amtjroftus tua 
 miciji munufcula pfe= 
 tens, tretuttt itmui et 
 fuauifCimas Iras : IJ a 
 pitcipio. amicicia?: fh 
 trem. ptate iam filfci: 
 et tJtUrts amicicte no* 
 tta prtrtiant. bera ml lUa uccciKtuTro ?. 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 69 
 
 At the bottom of the second column on the verso of 
 the last leaf is the date, and device of the printers, 
 printed in red: 
 
 ^nno 5fW. .ccccJpif. 
 
 Volume Second, contains 239 leaves, and begins 
 with the following summary printed in red : 
 
 ISpiCtola Cancti itvonimi prcCtJiteri ati ci)co 
 mattti et tUoTioru epos tit Ulitin falomonis» 
 
 The volume concludes with the Apocalypse : " Explicit 
 liber apocalipsis beati iohannis apl'l," printed in red, and 
 the following colophon, also in red : 
 
 3ttns l)oc opuCctilu ^vtiUtioia atrtnuettone 
 ^^ im^mtnlii Uu caratterijantri afifq? calami 
 eparacon. in cfuitate JWoguntu itc ef&'fliatu. 
 I atr euCetia trei intruftric pec Joi)*ef iFuCt ciue 
 }^ttvu Cci)oiflft)et Tre flernrijegm, elericii Tri= 
 otef^ efunrem eft co^^:umatu^ ^nno tint |E. 
 ccec. Ipi). Jn iiiQilia affumpcois tJirfl. marie. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ^atin Qg>i6fe«. 
 
 THE DISPERSION OF PRINTING: I462-1471. 
 
 IN 1462, during a war between two archbishops, 
 Mentz was besieged and captured, many of its 
 citizens were exiled, and the art of printing was 
 introduced into many European cities. 
 
 Throughout the remainder of the century the Bible 
 in Latin continued to be printed in frequent and splendid 
 editions. Mr. Stevens says that during the first forty 
 years of printing, the Bible exceeded in amount all other 
 books put together, and that " its quality, style and 
 variety were not a whit behind its quantity." Not less 
 than a thousand editions of the Bible were printed 
 before the end of the century, most of them of the 
 largest and costliest kind, and nearly all of them in 
 Latin. During this period Bibles were printed also 
 in German, Italian, and other modern languages, but 
 
72 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 these will not be considered until after this brief sketch 
 of the best known Latin Bibles which followed the first 
 four that have been described. 
 
 The Eggesteyn Bibles are usually catalogued as 
 the fifths sixth and seventh Latin Bibles, and attributed 
 to Heinrich Eggesteyn, Sirasburg, 1468, '69, '70. For a 
 time he was a partner of Mentelin, the printer of the 
 Third Latin and First German Bible, and was himself 
 the printer of the Second German Bible. Eggesteyn 
 published many other large folios. He was a man of 
 considerable prominence, being a master of arts and 
 philosophy, an officer of the city, and the chancellor of 
 the Bishop at Strasburg. 
 
 Two of Eggesteyn 's Latin Bibles were in the Caxton 
 Exhibition, both from the Althorp Library, lent by Earl 
 Spencer, one entered as the First Edition, 1468, (.?) the 
 other as " 1469, (.?) sometimes attributed to J. Baemler, 
 of Augsburg, but the type the same as that generally 
 attributed to Eggesteyn, and the paper-mark undoubt- 
 edly his." 
 
 Three of Eggesteyn's Bibles are on exhibition in the 
 Lenox Library, one marked " 1468-70, (.?) the fifth 
 Latin Bible," another marked " 1470, (.'') " and another 
 marked "Eggesteyn's second edition, Duke of Sussex 
 Copy, The Seventh Latin Bible." 
 
 The Zell Bibles bring us to Cologne, the third city 
 to receive the art of printing from Mentz, where Ulrtc 
 Zell, probably a workman of Schoffer, is believed to 
 have printed two folio editions of the Latin Bible, 1470 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 73 
 
 and 147 1. The first book with a date, known to have 
 been printed at Cologne, is St Chrysostom on the Fiftieth 
 Psalm, 1466. It is attributed to Zell, whose name is of 
 special interest to us, because he has been mentioned as 
 the chief instructor of William Caxton, the first English 
 printer. Mr. Blades, who has written most exhaustively 
 in regard to Caxton, does not admit this, though he 
 recognizes the fact that Caxton was in Cologne during 
 his residence on the Continent. He attributes Caxton *s 
 typographical work entirely to his association with 
 Colard Mansion at Bruges or elsewhere. Two of Zell's 
 Cologne Bibles were in the Caxton Exhibition, one from 
 the Althorp and the other from the Bodleian Library. 
 Though Zell's first dated book was printed in 1466, 
 some bibliographers believe that he began to print as 
 early as 1462. He was not only one of the earliest 
 printers, but one who introduced improvements. After 
 1467 he always spaced out the lines of his books to an 
 even length. Mr. Blades argues from this that Mansion 
 and Caxton did not learn their art from him, or they 
 would have made use of this improvement in their first 
 productions. 
 
 By this time Italy, Bohemia, Switzerland and France 
 had printing-presses, Italy being the first to receive the 
 art from Germany. 
 
 The SwEYNHEYM AND Pannartz Bible, printed at 
 Rome, 147 1, is the first Bible printed out of Germany. 
 In the same year two different translations into Italian 
 were printed at Venice. 
 
74 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 Arnold Pannartz and Conrad Sweynheym were Ger- 
 mans, probably workmen of Gutenberg and Fust. They 
 were invited and welcomed to Subiaco, near Rome, by 
 Cardinal Torquemada, the head of the Benedictine 
 monastery, in which they established their press. Lead- 
 ing ecclesiastical officials gave them encouragement and 
 help, not dreaming that this magic art would in a few 
 generations completely destroy their temporal power and 
 vastly impair their spiritual supremacy. Sweynheym 
 and Pannartz's first known work, Cicero de Oratore, is 
 believed to have been printed at Subiaco in 1465. 
 
 In 1467 they had removed to Rome, where they were 
 established in the house and under the protection of 
 Prince Massimo, and published over eight volumes a 
 year for five years, producing 12,000 copies of books 
 before 1474. Their works were mainly editions of 
 classic authors, and were not so profitable as the large 
 theological folios by which Mentelin, of Strasburg, had 
 been enriched. There is a letter extant in which these 
 printers appeal to Pope Sixtus IV. for help, giving a list 
 of their works. Sweynheym retired from the firm and 
 devoted himself to copper-plate engraving. Their last 
 dated book was issued in December, 1473, though 
 Pannartz continued to print for a few years. Both are 
 said to have died before 1477. 
 
 This Roman Latin Bible, 147 1, contains the name of 
 the printers and the place and date, being the Second 
 Bible with a date. Only 275 copies were printed. 
 
 The wonderful Althorp or Spencer Library furnished 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 75 
 
 the copy in the Caxton Exhibition. This Library is one 
 of the richest in the world in specimens illustrating the 
 early history of typography, and especially the early 
 history of the printed Bible, In this latter respect it is 
 surpassed by the Lenox Library, of which Mr. Stevens 
 says : " The collection of Bibles and parts thereof in the 
 Lenox Library of New York, in all languages, is probably 
 unsurpassed in rare and valuable editions, especially in 
 the English language, by any library, public or private." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ^atin (gme^ 
 
 BASLE AND NUREMBERG: I471-1480. 
 
 IN MAKING THIS RECORD of Fifteenth Century 
 Latin Bibles we have journeyed from Mentz to 
 Strasburg, Cologne and Rome, where Sweynheym 
 and Pannartz printed their Bible in 147 1. There is a 
 Latin Bible by Schoffer^ Mentz, 1472, which very closely 
 resembles that of 1462, but these Bibles are not 
 identical. 
 
 Switzerland was the next country after Italy to 
 receive printing from Germany. Bohemia received it 
 about the same time, and the third place in this respect 
 is given to it by Mr. Hawkins. But the next Bibles 
 on record are attributed to Basle. In the Caxton 
 Exhibition there were three different folio Latin Bibles 
 which may be called The Rodt and Richel Bibles, 
 as they are attributed to Berthold Rodt and Bernard 
 
78 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 Richel, of Basle, Switzerland. They are all without 
 names and dates, their origin being inferred from the 
 type used, and other indications. In the Catalogue they 
 are entered as follows : 
 
 The one with 436 leaves, Rodt and Richel, 1473 {?). 
 The one with 537 leaves, Rodt, 1474 (?). 
 The one with 460 leaves, Richel, 1474 (?). 
 
 The Rodt and Richel Bible on exhibition in the 
 Lenox Library corresponds with the first of these, having 
 436 leaves in the two volumes. 
 
 Berthold Rodt, called also Berthold Ruppel de 
 Hanau, was a witness in the famous law suit between 
 Gutenberg and Fust at Mentz. When these Bibles were 
 printed at Basle, the city was not yet a member of the 
 Swiss confederation, but being Swiss in spirit, and about 
 to be so in fact, it is considered as belonging to that 
 country in this connection. 
 
 Very erroneous notions prevail as to the money value 
 of old Bibles, because large prices are paid for certain 
 rare and interesting copies. It is only less remarkable 
 to observe how small a price is asked for other examples 
 of very early printing. In the catalogue of a London 
 bookseller recently received, there is a Latin Bible, 
 entered as "in the types of Rodt and Richel, Basle, 
 about 1470, 2 vols., folio, very fine copy, tall and clean, 
 half vellum, with ties, j£$, 15s. 6d." It ought to modify 
 the expectations of those who have old books to sell, to 
 know that beautiful and perfect volumes, Bibles and 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 79 
 
 Other books, genuine incunabula^ printed by famous 
 printers during the first half century of printing, can be 
 bought in London and New York for ten, twenty or 
 thirty dollars each, and often for much less. 
 
 Other Basle Bibles. This city has the distinction 
 of being the first city to produce the Bible in octavo, that 
 is, a Bible of the size of the vast majority of books 
 now printed for ordinary reading. This Bible has 
 consequently been called the first edition of the " poor 
 man's Bible." The "poor man" in this connection 
 must mean the poor scholar, for poor men in that day 
 could not read in their own tongue, much less in Latin. 
 It was doubtless very welcome to poor students and 
 ecclesiastics. This Latin Bible was printed by John 
 Froben de Hammelbruck at Basle 1491, and is one of his 
 first books, if not the first. The splendidly bound and 
 illuminated copy of this Bible in the Bodleian Library 
 does not look like a "poor man's Bible." Froben 
 printed a quarto Latin Bible in 1495, and a folio Latin 
 Bible in 1498. 
 
 His name is inseparably associated with that of 
 Erasmus, the greatest scholar and man of letters of his 
 day. Soon after the beginning of the next century 
 Erasmus settled permanently in Basle, and became 
 Froben's editor and literary adviser. This association 
 resulted in making Basle for the time the great literary 
 centre of Europe, and Froben's press the most celebrated. 
 His New Testaments in Greek and Latin, and other 
 works, belong to a later period. 
 
8o FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 In this same year there was also a folio Latin Bible 
 by Nicolas Keslers, Basle, 1491. 
 
 After 1474 great Bibles were multiplied in both Latin 
 and German. Among the most famous of these were 
 The CoBURGER Bibles, the first of which was the folio 
 Latin Bible, printed by Anthony Coburger at Nuremberg^ 
 1475. He is said to have had twenty-four presses and 
 one hundred men employed daily, besides furnishing 
 work to printers at Basle, Lyons, and other places. 
 Coburger printed thirteen editions of the Bible in 
 twenty-six years, twelve in Latin and one in German, all 
 large and handsome folios. Copies of his Latin Bibles 
 were in the Caxton Exhibition dated 1475, i477> 147^, 
 1479, 1480. His Latin Bibles of 1477 ^"^ 1480 are on 
 exhibition at the Lenox Library. The broad margins of 
 the 1477 copy are completely covered with commentaries, 
 emendations and interlineations in the handwriting of 
 Philip Melancthon. 
 
 Some time ago I saw a copy of the 1477 Coburger 
 Bible for sale at the rooms of the Presbyterian Board of 
 Publication in Philadelphia, where it had been placed 
 by the owner, who was waiting for an offer. A copy 
 of this same Bible is thus entered in a bookseller's 
 catalogue recently sent from London : 
 
 Bttllia Sacra Hatina, 2 vols, in i, folio; in the 
 original oak boards, covered with stamped pigskin, very 
 rare, ;^3o. In regia civitate, Nurnbergn. p. Antonium 
 Coburger, 1477. 
 
 "A remarkably fine, clean and large copy, a number 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 8l 
 
 of the leaves having rough, uncut edges. The end 
 leaves bear the water-marks of the Bull's Head and the 
 Arms of John the Fearless. Laing's sold in 1879 
 for j^S^. The present copy contains a bookseller's 
 description of one priced ^z^ioo." 
 
 Other Nuremberg Bibles. Nuremberg produced 
 another great folio Latin Bible in the same year in which 
 Coburger printed his first edition. It was printed by 
 A. Frisner and J. Sensenschttttd, Nuremberg^ i475- 
 
 The first book printed at Nuremberg with a date is 
 Franciscus de Retza's Comestiorium Vitiorum, 1470, and 
 is attributed to Sensenschmid and Keffer. Sensenschmid 
 is said to have been a man of wealth. He associated 
 himself with Henry Keffer, a workman of Gutenberg, 
 who appeared as a witness in the law suit with Fust. 
 Keffer is supposed to have established himself as a 
 printer in Nuremberg as early as 1469. Mr. Hawkins 
 attributes to Keffer and Sensenschmid a book printed at 
 Nuremberg in 1470, according to its colophon. But 
 Nuremberg became famous in the history of printing 
 from the extraordinary enterprise of Coburger. He was 
 the publisher of that large and entertaining volume, The 
 Nuremberg Chronichy 1493, containing more than two 
 thousand impressions from wood-cuts, being a summary 
 of history, geography and general information, edited or 
 compiled by Hartman Schedel. It is a royal folio, and 
 is sold for more or less than $200, according to the size 
 and condition of the copy. A London bookseller's 
 catalogue, recently received, offers a very tall copy, 18^ 
 
82 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 inches by 12^, beautifully bound in morocco super 
 extra, by Riviere, for ^^5- It is said that there were 
 seventeen master type printers and many block-book 
 printers in Nuremberg before 1500. It was just at this 
 period, at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 
 i6th century, that Albert Durer began to make his art, 
 himself and Nuremberg illustrious. It was the Bible 
 which made him, as well as Wiclif, a morning star of the 
 Reformation. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FRANCE AND ITALY : 1470-150O. 
 
 PLACENTIA OR PIACENZA, ITALY, is credited 
 with f^e first Bible printed in Quarto. It is 
 a Latin Bible printed by Johannes Petrus 
 d'Ferraiisy Placeniia, 1475. Copies of this Bible are in 
 the Ambrosian Library at Milan, and the Althorp Library, 
 England. 
 
 In the Caxton Exhibition there was a folio Latin 
 Bible attributed to Strasburg, 1475, with no name of 
 printer, lent by Dr. Ginsburg. His collection of Bibles 
 numbers two or three thousand editions, including many 
 of the earliest and rarest in different languages. 
 
 The year 1476 was a remarkable year for splendid 
 folio editions of the Bible in Latin. No less than five 
 are well known, one of which, by Sensenschmid, has 
 already been mentioned in connection with Nuremberg. 
 
84 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 Another of these folios brings us to France, the next 
 great country after Germany and Italy, to receive the 
 Art of Printing. Guillaume Fichet and Jean de la 
 Pierre, members of the Sorbonne, induced three German 
 printers, Ulric Gering, Martinus Crantz and Michael 
 Friburger, to come to Paris, where they fitted up a room 
 for them in the Sorbonne, in which they began to print 
 in 1470. There is a copy of their Bible in the Lenox 
 Library, which is described as by Gering, Crajitz a?id 
 Friburger (1476 ?), folio. The first Bible printed at 
 Paris. Panzer says that there were 85 printers and 790 
 works printed in Paris during the fifteenth century. 
 
 Another folio Latin Bible printed in this year brings 
 us to Naples, where printing was introduced by Sixtus 
 Riessinger, a priest of Strasburg, in 147 1. Florence, 
 Bologna, Ferrara, and many other Italian cities received 
 it about the same time. Matt. Moravus printed at 
 Genoa with Michael de Monacho in 1474. He removed 
 the next year to Naples, and in the year following 
 printed his folio Latin Bible, a copy of which is in 
 the Lenox Library, entered as : By Matt. Moravus, 
 Naples, 1476. 
 
 Two other Latin Bibles of this date were printed at 
 Venice, and will be considered later. In this year an 
 edition of the Aurea Biblia, was printed by Johan Zeiner 
 de Reutlingen, at Ulni, 1476. This is a manual of Bible 
 Histories by Ant. Eampigollis, which had been previously 
 printed in one dated and several undated editions. 
 Venice occupies a proud position in the early history 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 85 
 
 of printing, both for the amount and excellence of her 
 work. Even among the unlearned the names of some of 
 her great printers are better known than the names of her 
 wealthiest merchants or most magnificent rulers. It is 
 estimated that Venice produced 2,000,000 of volumes 
 during the first half century of printing. This may- 
 lessen our wonder that nearly every lover of old books 
 in Europe or America has in his library more than one 
 book over four hundred years old. Before 1500, Venice 
 had had more than two hundred printers, who had 
 printed about 3,000 editions, including Venetian Bibles, 
 to the extent of twenty editions. 
 
 Her first printer was John de Spira, supposed to have 
 been of Spire on the Rhine. His first dated work is 
 Cicero's Epistolce ad FamiliareSy 1468, a folio of 125 
 leaves. 
 
 Two translations of the Bible into Italian were 
 printed at Venice in 147 1, one by Vindelin, brother of 
 John de Spira, the other by N. Jenson. But the first 
 Latin Bible printed at Venice, is the small folio by F. 
 de Hailbrun and N. de Frankfordia, I475- Hailbrun 
 printed a Latin Bible in Quarto, 1480. 
 
 In the next year two folio Latin Bibles appeared at 
 Venice : one by these same printers, F. de Hailbrun 
 and N. de Frankfordia, 1476; the other by Nicolas 
 Jenson, 1476. There is a copy of this 1476 Jenson 
 Bible at the Lenox Library, in the same case with three 
 other Latin Bibles of the same date, all of which have 
 just been mentioned. 
 
86 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 Jenson is pre-eminent among printers of the fifteenth 
 century for the perfection of his work, his skill as an 
 engraver enabling him to surpass his rivals in many 
 respects. He had been employed at the mint in Paris, 
 and was sent by Charles VII, in 1458 to Mentz to 
 learn the new art from Gutenberg. Louis XI. did 
 not encourage his father's project, and Jenson was 
 unable to establish a press at Paris. He removed to 
 Venice, where his books in improved Roman type soon 
 made him famous. He received a title from Pope 
 Sixtus IV., and died in 1482. Mr. De Vinne says : "As 
 a type-founder, printer and ink-maker, Jenson had no 
 rival, and left no proper successor." Another folio 
 Latin Bible by Jenson, Venice^ i479j was in the Caxton 
 Exhibition, lent by the British and Foreign Bible Society. 
 There were two folio Latin Bibles in the previous year, 
 by different printers, one by Leonardus Vuild de Ratisbon 
 and N. de Frankfordia, Venice, 1478, the other by 
 T. de Reynsburck and Reynaldi de Novimagio, Venice, 
 1478. Among the numerous Bibles of the closing years 
 of the century were a Latin yi?//'^, by Herbort de Siligenstat, 
 Venice, 1483, and another Latin folio by Paganinus de 
 Paganinis, Venice, 1495. 
 
 Two Quarto Bibles have been mentioned in this 
 connection. Another Quarto Latin Bible, by Georgius 
 Ravabenis, Venice, 1487, is the first Bible with a separate 
 title-page. There were Quarto Latin Bibles by Simon 
 Bevilaqua, Venice, 1494 and 1498. 
 
 The Latin Bible, by Hieronimus de Paganinis, Venice, 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 87 
 
 1492, is the earliest Bible with an illustration on the 
 title-page. There is a Latin Bible, Octavo, by the same 
 printer, 1497, 
 
 Hebrew and Greek. The first complete edition of 
 the Bible in Hebrew was printed at Soncino by Abraham 
 ben Chayin de' Tintori, i^?>2,, folio. The Pentateuch had 
 been printed by the same printer at Bologna in 1482, 
 and other portions of the Old Testament later. 
 
 The Psalms were printed in Greek and Latin at 
 Milan, 1481. 
 
 The great editions of the Bible in Greek belong to 
 the sixteenth century. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 IT IS NOT KNOWN at what time the Bible was 
 translated into the German, though fragments 
 of such translations have come down from 
 comparatively early times. There must have been 
 a German translation early in the fifteenth century, for 
 about ten years after the invention of printing, the First 
 German Bible was printed at Strasburg about 1466, by 
 Johannes Mentelin, the printer of The Third Latin 
 Bible. It is a folio, containing 405 leaves, printed in 
 double columns, 60 lines to a column. Two copies of 
 this Bible were in the Caxton Exhibition, one lent by 
 the Queen, the other by Earl Spencer. Both are richly 
 illuminated in gold and colors, but in entirely different 
 styles. The size and richness of the book indicate that 
 
9© FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 it was not designed for popular reading. The Second 
 German Bible is also a folio. It is attributed to Heinrich 
 Eggesteyn, Strasburg, 1466, and, like the preceding, has 
 405 leaves, printed in double columns, 60 lines to a 
 column. 
 
 These earliest Bibles in German were followed by 
 twelve more editions in High German and three in Low 
 German, all printed before Luther issued his New 
 Testament in 1522. Do these editions discredit the 
 familiar statement that Luther gave to the people the 
 Bible in the vernacular ? Not in the least. For all these 
 fourteen editions in High German and three editions 
 in Low German are known, classed, and described by 
 bibliographers as important, splendid, sumptuous. In this 
 respect they were like the numerous Latin Bibles of the 
 fifteenth century, some of which we have enumerated 
 and described. Even now, when learning and wealth are 
 widely distributed among the masses, it would not be 
 possible to give the Bible to any nation, if it were 
 printed only in magnificent Library editions. No book 
 of any kind ever became a people's book which was 
 not printed in an inexpensive form. No other books 
 compete with the Bible, the "Imitation of Christ," and 
 Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and no other books have 
 been issued in so vast a number of cheap editions. Let 
 us bear this in mind in enumerating the expensive 
 folio German Bibles which preceded the translations 
 of Luther. They are thus recorded, beginning with the 
 two already mentioned : 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 91 
 
 (I 
 (2 
 (3 
 (4 
 (5 
 (6 
 
 (7 
 (8 
 
 (9 
 (10 
 
 (II 
 (12 
 
 (13 
 (14 
 
 Johannes Mentelin, Strasburg, circa 1464-66. 
 
 Heinrich Eggesteyn, Strasburg, circa 1466, 
 
 Jodocus Pflanzmann, Augsburg, «nra 1470 — 73. 
 
 Frisner and Sensenschmid, Niirnburg, circa 1470-73. 
 
 GUnter Zeiner, Augsburg, circa 1473-75. 
 
 Gunter Zeiner, Augsburg, dated 1477. 
 
 Anton Sorg, Augsburg, 1477. 
 
 Anton Sorg, Augsburg, 1480. 
 
 Anton Coburger, Niirnburg, 1483. 
 
 Johann Gruninger, Strasburg, 1485. 
 
 Hans Schonsperger, Augsburg, 1487. 
 
 Hans Schonsperger, Strasburg, 1490. 
 
 Hans Otmar, Augsburg, 1507. 
 
 Silvan Otmar, Augsburg, 1518. 
 
 Besides these splendid editions in High German, 
 there were three equally grand editions published in 
 Low German : 
 
 (i.) Quentel, Cologne, 1480. 
 
 (2.) Stephan Arndes, Liibeck, 1494. 
 
 (3.) Halberstadt, 1522. 
 
 Of these Bibles eight are in the British Museum. 
 Dr. Ginsburgh is said to have all the fourteen in High 
 German. A beautiful copy of the Eggesteyn Bible is in 
 the Lenox Library. One of the Augsburg 1477 Bibles 
 is the first German Bible with a date. 
 
 Italy comes next to Germany in obtaining the 
 Scriptures printed in a native tongue. Two translations 
 were issued in 147 1. Both were printed at Venice, one 
 by Vindelin de Spira, the other by Nicolas Jenson, the 
 best printer of the fifteenth century. Earl Spencer's 
 
92 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 copy of the Italian Bible, printed by N. Jenson, at 
 Venice, 147 1, was in the Caxton Exhibition. Like the 
 other Bibles of the period, it is a folio i6| by 11 inches, 
 without title-page, pagination or signatures, fifty lines to 
 a full page. Its date in Roman letters is at the end of 
 the New Testament. An Italian Bible, with the history 
 of the Septuagint by Aristeas, translated into Italian by 
 N. de Malermi, was printed in Venice, 1477, by Antonio 
 Bolognese. It is a folio in two parts. Another folio 
 Italian Bible was printed at Venice by Joan Rosso 
 Vercellese, 1487. 
 
 France furnished still less of the Bible in the 
 vernacular during this period. There was a New 
 Testament in French, quarto, printed by Buyer, at 
 Lyons, in about 1477. There was a Bible in French 
 paraphrase printed about 1487. 
 
 Even the Dutch language does not furnish much 
 more than this. Mr. Hawkins mentions the Bible in 
 Dutch as the first book printed at Delft, 1477, by Jacob 
 Jacobs Zoen and Mauritius Temants Zoen. It is in 
 two volumes, folio. 
 
 Bohemia produced a Bible in 1488, a folio, printed 
 at Prague. Mr. Hawkins mentions another Bohemian 
 Bible, as one of the very rarest of early Bibles, a folio 
 printed at Kuttenberg, 1489. 
 
 Though this is not given as a complete record of 
 ante-reformation translations of the Scriptures, it includes 
 the best known editions of the Bible in continental 
 tongues printed in the first half century of the art. 
 
A STUDY IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. 93 
 
 During this period there was no Bible printed in 
 English. So great is our poverty in this respect, that 
 in the technical sense there are no old English Bibles — 
 none that is included in the class of books called 
 incunabula. All that can be said is that early English 
 printing is not actually destitute of all traces of the 
 Scriptures. William Caxton, our first English printer, 
 whose life and work were very obscurely known until 
 our own day, printed in 1483, the first year of the reign 
 of Richard III., a folio called The Golden Legende. 
 This contains an English translation of nearly all the 
 Pentateuch and the Gospels. How much it was read 
 we do not know, but it was the forerunner of Tyndale 
 and Coverdale, preparing the way for the Reformation. 
 In Gen. iii., 7, it reads: ** ^tltl t!)US tijefi l^netDC 
 
 ttjat tijrfi ioere nafeetr. ^ntr tijeg tofee fiflfle 
 leufs antr jsetocTr tfjem tofigtrcr for to couere 
 t^egt tnemares in matter of trecijis.** This 
 
 anticipates the reading of the famous " Breeches Bible," 
 which is the Genevan Version of 1560. 
 
 All that bibliographical students have discovered in 
 regard to early Vernacular Bibles confirms the statement 
 that before the Reformation they were comparatively 
 unknown. They were not printed in any country, in a 
 way that would bring them within the reach of large 
 numbers. Perhaps it would have been impossible to do 
 this, there were so few who knew how to read. 
 
 Not until the second quarter of the following century 
 were those German and English versions of the Bible 
 
94 FIFTEENTH CENTURY BIBLES. 
 
 printed which have moulded the language, literature and 
 life of these great peoples. All these earliest Bibles, 
 Latin and Vernacular, which have been mentioned in 
 this volume, are of interest chiefly on account of their 
 connection with the history of the art of printing. Those 
 who appreciate books as historic objects, and especially 
 those who cherish ancient Bibles, may find something 
 that interests them in this study in bibliography. 
 
I^tintetr at tije Jlrinting 
 montt of 3E. U, (tolt 
 1 SSaiUiam cSt 
 
 Keto ¥orfe 
 
 * * 
 
iJnUer* 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Adolphus, Archbishop 39 
 
 Albch, or Cremer, Henry. 38 
 
 Ambras, Castle of 51 
 
 Antwerp 18 
 
 Athanasian Creed 50 
 
 Augsburg 7-72 
 
 Bibles. 
 
 Burning of 18-19 
 
 Collection of Dr. Ginsburg 83-91 
 
 Copies of 6 
 
 Editions of 7-8-9 
 
 Languages of 7 
 
 Prohibition of 10-22 
 
 Bibles, Latin, in Germany 35-82 
 
 First Printed, Gutenberg or Mazarin 5-6-35-47-49-50-65 
 
 Extant Copies of Gutenberg or Mazarin 44-47 
 
 Lenox Library Copy " " 45-46 
 
 Bray ton Ives Copy " " 46-47 
 
 Theodore Irwin Volume " " 47 
 
 Water-Marks of " " 38 
 
 Second Printed, Pfister, or Bamberg Bible of Thirty- 
 Six Lines 55-59 
 
 Third Printed, Mentelin or Strasburg 61-64 
 
 Fourth Printed, First Dated, or Bible of 1462 65-69 
 
 Eggesteyn, or, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Printed 72 
 
 Zell, Ulric 72-73 
 
 Coburger, 1475, etc 80 
 
 Frisner and Sensenschmid's 81 
 
 Schoffer, (1472) 77 
 
 Folio, (Strasburg, 1475). 83 
 
 Bibles, Latin, in Italy 73-74-83-87 
 
 Rome ; First Printed in, — Sweynheym and Pannartz, 
 
 1471 73-74 
 
 Placentia ; First Quarto, 1475 83 
 
 Naples ; Folio, (1476) 84 
 
ii. INDEX. 
 
 Bibles, Latin, in Italy — Continued. 
 
 Venice ; Small Folio, 1475 85 
 
 Hailbrun and Frankfordia's Folio, (1476) 85 
 
 Jenson's Folio, (1476) 85 
 
 Jensen's Folio, (1479) 86 
 
 de Ratisbon and de Frankfordia's Folio, (147S) 86 
 
 de Reynsburck and de Novimagio's Folio, (1478). ... 86 
 
 Hailbrun's Quarto, (1480) 85 
 
 de Siligenstat's Folio, (1483) 86 
 
 P. de Paganinis' Folio, (1495) 86 
 
 H. de Paganinis' Folio, (1492) 87 
 
 H. de Paganinis' Octavo, (1497) 87 
 
 Ravabenis' Quarto, 1487 86 
 
 Bevilaqua's Quarto, (1494) 86 
 
 Bevilaqua's Quarto, (1498) 86 
 
 Bibles, Latin, in Basle, Switzerland 77-8o 
 
 Rodt and Richel, (1473-74) 77-78 
 
 First in Octavo, or. Poor Man's Bible, 1491 79 
 
 Nicolas Kessler's Folio, 1491 80 
 
 Froben's Quarto, 1495 79 
 
 Froben's Folio, 1498 79 
 
 First Paris Latin Folio, (1476) 84 
 
 Bibles, Vernacular 89-94 
 
 German ; First Folio, Strasburg, (1466) 189 
 
 Second Folio, Strasburg, (1466) 90 
 
 List of 14 High German 91 
 
 List of 3 Low German 91 
 
 Italian ; Vind. de Spira's Folio, Venice, (1471) 91 
 
 Jenson's Folio, Venice, (1471) 91-92 
 
 Bolognese's Folio, Venice, (1477) 92 
 
 Vercellese's Folio, Venice, (1487) 92 
 
 Dutch ; Folio, Delft, 1477 92 
 
 French ; Quarto, New Testament, (1477) 92 
 
 Paraphrase, (1487) 92 
 
 Bohemian ; Folio, Prague, 1488 92 
 
 Folio, Kuttenberg, 1489 92 
 
 Bibles, Miscellaneous. 
 
 Biblia Pauperum 29-30-32 
 
 Aurea Biblia, Ulm, (1476) 84 
 
 First Hebrew, Soncino, {1488) 87 
 
INDEX. iii. 
 
 Bibles, Miscellaneous — Continued. 
 
 Pentateuch, Hebrew, Bologna. 87 
 
 Psalms in Greek, Milan, 1481 87 
 
 Psalms in Latin, Milan, 1481 87 
 
 Bibles in Greek, i6th Century 87 
 
 Breeches Bible, Genevan Version, 1560 93 
 
 Matthew's Bible 18 
 
 Babylonian Seals 27 
 
 Baemler, J., of Augsburg 72 
 
 Berthold, Archbishop 12 
 
 Berthold, Mandate of 13-18 
 
 Bevilaqua, Simon 86 
 
 Block Books 27-33 
 
 Bohemia 77 
 
 Bologna 84-87 
 
 Bolognese, Antonio 92 
 
 Book of Fables 57 
 
 Book of Four Stories 57 
 
 Books of Hours. 25 
 
 Breviaries 25 
 
 British and Foreign Bible Society 86 
 
 Bruges 73 
 
 Bunyan, John 8 
 
 Catholicon, The 41 
 
 Caxton, William 73-93 
 
 Caxton Exhibition, (1877) 51-55-61-65-72-73-80-86-89-92 
 
 Cervantes 8 
 
 Charles VII 86 
 
 Cicero's Epistola ad Familiares, (1468) 85 
 
 Cicero de Officiis, (1465) 67 
 
 Cicero de Oratore, (1465) 74 
 
 Clement XL, Pope 20 
 
 Cologne S-72-73 
 
 Comestiorium Vitiorum, (1470) 81 
 
 Coster, Laurens Janszoon 6 
 
 Coverdale 93 
 
 Crantz, Martinus 84 
 
 Cremer, or Albch, Henry 35-38-39 
 
 De Bure, William Francis 35-38 
 
 Diethrich, Alexander 16-17 
 
iv. INDEX. 
 
 Don Quixote 8 
 
 Durandus 67 
 
 Durer, Albert 28-82 
 
 Eggesteyn, Henry 63-72-90 
 
 Eler, Alexander 16-17 
 
 Epirus 36 
 
 Erasmus 79 
 
 Erfurt, University of 16 
 
 Faust, Dr. John 66 
 
 Ferrara 84 
 
 d'Ferratis, Johannes Petrus 83 
 
 Fichet, Guillaume 84 
 
 Florence 84 
 
 Form-Schneiders 27-28 
 
 Francis, King of France 20 
 
 Frankfordia, N. de 85-86 
 
 Frankfurt 16 
 
 Friburger, Michael 84 
 
 Froben de Hammelbruck 79 
 
 Fust or Faust, John 39-6? 
 
 Fust, Peter 67 
 
 Fust and Schoffer 49-50-52-53-65-66-67 
 
 Gensfleisch Family 42 
 
 Gering, Ulric 84 
 
 Golden Legende, The 93 
 
 Greek Church 21; 
 
 Gutenberg, John 5 
 
 Gutenberg, Monuments to 42-43 
 
 Haarlem 6 
 
 Hailbrun, F. de 85 
 
 Hildebrand 11 
 
 Humery, Dr 39 
 
 Images, Books of 27-33 
 
 Imitation of Christ 7 
 
 Incunabula 3-79 
 
 Indulgence, Letters of 36 
 
 Inquisition 19 
 
 Inquisition, Establishment of 11 
 
 Innspruck 51 
 
 Jenson, Nicolas 67-85-86 
 
INDEX. V. 
 
 John II 36 
 
 John of Genoa 41 
 
 KefTer, Henry 81 
 
 Kempis, Thomas-^ 7 
 
 Koran, The 9 
 
 Library, Althorp or Spencer 72-73-74-75-83 
 
 Ambrosian, Milan 83 
 
 Astor 41-66-67-68 
 
 Bodleian 73-79 
 
 Brayton Ives 41 
 
 British Museum 50-91 
 
 Brown, (Providence, R. I.) 41 
 
 Cologne 8 
 
 Corvinus, Matthias, King of Hungary 51 
 
 Freiburg 61-62 
 
 Hibbert 45 
 
 Imperial of Vienna 51 
 
 Lenox (New York) 8-32-41-62-66-72-75-78-80-84-85-91 
 
 Mazarin, Cardinal 35 
 
 National, of Paris 35-38-55 
 
 Perkins, Henry 46 
 
 Perkins, Henry, Sale of 49 
 
 Sigismund, Arch-Duke 51 
 
 Syston Park 41-46 
 
 Syston Park, Sale of 46-49-50-65 
 
 Louis XI 86 
 
 Luther, Martin 90 
 
 Madrid 8 
 
 Malermi, N. de 92 
 
 Mansion, Colard 73 
 
 Manuscripts 23-26 
 
 Massimo, Prince 74 
 
 Melancthon, Philip 80 
 
 Mentelin, Johannes 61-63-72-74-89 
 
 Mentz 5-13-35-41-65 
 
 Mentz, University of 16 
 
 Meschede, Theodoric de 16-17 
 
 Milan 87 
 
 Missals 24 
 
 Monacho, Michael de 84 
 
vi. INDEX. 
 
 Monasteries 24 
 
 Monastery, Benedictine 74 
 
 Moravus, Matt 84 
 
 Naples 84 
 
 Nicolas v., Pope 36 
 
 Nicosia 36 
 
 Novimagio, Reynaldi de 86 
 
 Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493 81 
 
 Nuremberg, John Bertram de 16-17 
 
 Paganinis, Hieronimus de 86 
 
 Paganinis, Paganinus de 86 
 
 Pfister, Albert 55-57 
 
 Pfister, Sebastian 57 
 
 Pierre, Jean de la 84 
 
 Pilgrim's Progress 8 
 
 Pope Sixtus IV 74 
 
 Presbyterian Board of Publication, (Philadelphia) 80 
 
 Printers, Paris 84-86 
 
 Printing, Dispersion of 71 
 
 Printing, Earliest 36 
 
 Printing in Colors, Earliest 50 
 
 Printing, Invention of 40-41 
 
 Psalters 25 
 
 Psalter, Meniz, (Psalmorum Codex) 49-54-67 
 
 Psalter, Mentz, Fac-simile of 50-54 
 
 Quaritch, Bernard 46 
 
 Quesnel, Pasquier 20 
 
 Rampigollis, Ant 84 
 
 Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, 1459 67 
 
 Ratisbon, Leonardus Wild de 86 
 
 Ravabenis, Georgius 86 
 
 Retza, Franciscus de 81 
 
 Reutlingen, Johan Zeiner de 84 
 
 Reynsburck, T. de 86 
 
 Riessinger, Sixtus 84 
 
 Rogers, John 18 
 
 Romanus, Cardinal 11 
 
 Rome, City of. , 74 
 
 Rome, Pagan 10 
 
 Rome, Papal 10 
 
INDEX. vii. 
 
 Schedel, Hartman 8i 
 
 Schoffer, Peter 42 
 
 Science and Religion 10 
 
 Siligenstat, Herbert de 86 
 
 Septuagint, Aristeas, History of 92 
 
 Smithfield 18 
 
 Soncino 87 
 
 Sorbonne, Paris 84 
 
 Speculum Humanae Sal vationis 30-32 
 
 Spira, John de 85 
 
 Staggemeier 50 
 
 Stephens, Robert 20 
 
 Strasburg 62-63-89-90-gi 
 
 Subiaco 74 
 
 St. Christopher of 1423 28 
 
 St. Chrysostom on the Fiftieth Psalm 73 
 
 St. Francis, Church of 42 
 
 St. Jerome, Epistles of 63 
 
 St. Jerome, Prologues of 38 
 
 St. Victor, Church of 67 
 
 Tintori, Abraham ben Chayin de 87 
 
 Torquemada, Cardinal 74 
 
 Toulouse, Council of 11 
 
 Trechsel of Lyons 42 
 
 Trent, Council of 18 
 
 Tyndale, William 18-93 
 
 Type-moulds 40 
 
 Unigenitus, Bull 20 
 
 Uratislaus, of Bohemia 11 
 
 Venice 84-85-86-87 
 
 Vercellese, John Rosso 92 
 
 A^ilvorden, Castle of 18 
 
 Wiclif, John 23 
 
 Wittig, Ivo 42 
 
 Wood Engraving 28 
 
 Xylography 27 
 
 Zainer, Giinther 7 
 
 Zell, Ulric 72-73 
 
 Zoen, Jacob Jacobs 92 
 
 Zoen, Mauritius Temants 92 
 
Mtitvtnttn. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Allibone, S. Austin 44 
 
 Backer, Aloys de 7 
 
 Backer, Augustine de 7 
 
 Bigmore and Wsrman 36 
 
 Birch and Jenner 24 
 
 Blades, William 73 
 
 Borrow, George 20 
 
 De Bure, William Francis 35-38 
 
 De Vinne, Theodore L 40-42-51-56-67-86 
 
 Dibdin, Thomas Frognall 36-51 
 
 D'Israeli, Isaac 66 
 
 Foumier, le jeune P. S 52 
 
 Haeberlin, F. D 36 
 
 Hain, Ludwig 59 
 
 HaUam, Henry 40 
 
 Hetnecken, Carl Heinrich 30-32-53 
 
 Hawkins, Rush C 56-62-81-92 
 
 Home, Thomas Hartwell 32-33 
 
 Humphreys, Noel 51 
 
 Lambinet, P 36 
 
 Lichtenberger, Jo. Fred 53 
 
 Lignamine, Joh. Philip de 63 
 
 Masch, A.J 37-59 
 
 Meerman, G 52 
 
 Panzer, G. W. F 84 
 
 Stevens, Henry 71-75 
 
 Wurdtwein, S. A 53 
 

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