editions of Cicero, see Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, vol. 4. 1478. Printing introduced into the following cities and towns in this year:— Cosenza, by Octavius Salamonius de Manfredania. Colle, by Joannes Allemanus de Medemblick. Eachstett (Neustad) Michael Reyser. Paria, by Francis de St. Petao. calde season. Folio. This is a translation by earl Rivers, from a French work, intituled, Les Proverbes Moraux et la Prudence par Christine de Pisan fille de M. Thomas de Pisan, autrement dic de Bologne.* It is a small poem, consisting of about 200 lines, and begins thus: The Morale Proverbes of Cristyne. The grete vertus of oure elders notable, An happy hous is, where dwelleth prudence, For where she is, raison is in presence, &c. The poem ends with the following homely couplets: There is noothing so riche I you enseur For him, that wole not the contraire flee. Explicit. The Moral Proverbs are in rhyme, and the Book of Prudence in prose. It is considered a very rare book, and is sometimes bound with the Dictes, &c. 1479. Tractatus brevis and utilis de Originali Peccato. Editus a Fratre Egidio Romano, Ordinis Fratrum Heremitarum Sancti Augustinio Impressus and finitus Oxonie, a Navitate Domini. This book is a very great rarity, represented to be the first that was printed at Oxford, in a catalogue of the first printed books at the end of Pancirollus; but it may be the second or third. That title above, taken from the colophon, at the end, is printed with red ink; and there is nothing more of that colour throughout the book, than a little dash of an ornament at divided into six chapters; but the first letter of the beginning of the first letter. The work is every chapter is left out, which should be a with a short, strong, legible letter, much like capital. It is printed on a good thick paper, the German cast; has signatures at bottom, which I think is somewhat earlier than Caxton had them; but no words of direction there, or numbers of the pages at top. Moreover, Theo. Rood used several marks and letters of abbreviation, and several combined letters; few stops, and they commonly ill shapen points. 1479. Breviarum Parisiense.-This is the earliest impression pertaining to the ecclesiastical ritual that occurs in the annals of the Parisian press. Missals, breviaries, heures, &c. are soon found amongst its most frequent productions. In such works the Gothic typography generally appears in all the splendour of rude magnificence. The exquisite glossiness of the inks, the striking contrast of the red and black, the boldness and magnitude of the letter, the To these succeed the following stanzas by ornamented capitals, the profusion of wood cuts Carton: Of these sayynges Cristyne was the auctresse, in Frenssh languaige was writen this sentence, Go thou litil quayer and recommaund me In Feuerer the colde season. The fair authoress of the original work," says M. De Le,"was born at Bologna (la Grasse) in the 4. At five years of age she was taken to Paris to aber father, who was Grand Judiciary Astrologer; and on account of his celebrity, had been invited by V. surnamed the Wise, to be near his person at Christina, in her fifteenth year, was married to ra Castel, a young gentleman of Picardy; who died the age of thirty-four, A.D. 1389, and left her a widow two sons and one daughter. Having received as od a literary education as the times could afford, she menced authoress at the age of thirty-five, and seems Lave enthusiastically devoted herself to all sorts of positions, whether in prose or verse: so much so, that, her book of Visions, she mentions that she had already posed fifteen volumes." which generally ornament the margins, and many quaint verses and devices, and wonderful notices of pardons expressed in the rubrics, constitute such books singular objects of modern curiosity. In fact, says Mr. Cresswell, many of the earliest productions of our English press can be satisfactorily illustrated only by a comparison with the cotemporary history of French typography. However numerous the impressions of these rituals and religious manuals were, well preserved printed specimens are not very frequent at present. Many highly ornamented missals in manuscript are indeed extant, and often present themselves to the notice of the curious, having perhaps been preserved more carefully than printed copies. Printing in red and black was more especially appropriated to psalters, breviaries, and other works relating to the ecclesiastical ritual. This mixture of red and black, which gives a cheerful and pleasing variety to the is found in page, the Psalterium of Mentz, 1457, and the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum of 1459; at the end of which we read this subscription, Præsens Codex venustate Capitalium decoratus, Rubricationibusque sufficienter distinctus, &c." Gering occasionally used red ink in other works; but in his Psalterium, 1494; his Diurnale Ecclesiæ, 1496; his Breviarium Cameracense, 1497; his Missale, folio, 1497; and his Hora B. Virginis, 1498; and also in his Corpus Juris Canonici cum Glossis, 3 vols. folio, and similar works, he used red and black inks in every page, in all their brilliancy. It is scarce necessary to mention the use of these rubriques in the rituals of the church. The name of rubric is still given to those directory sentences which are found in our Common Prayer; though the practice of distinguishing them by red letters has been long discontinued. Chevillier says that Antoine Zarot was the first who printed missals furnished with these distinctions, for the convenience of the clergy. He had seen a copy of the Missale Romanum, printed by him with rubrics (rubriques rouges) at Milan, 1478, in folio, with this subscription: copi Lugdunensis Summa de Virtutibus: the other is a Bible, with the following conclusion: "In the year of the incarnation of our Lord 1479, on the vigil of Matthew the apostle; when this notable work, of the Old and New Testament, with the canons of the Gospels, and their harmonies, to the praise and glory of the holy and undivided Trinity, and the immaculate virgin Mary, was printed in the city of Cologne, by Conrad de Homborch; allowed and ap proved by the university of Cologne. Many centuries, however, before the invention of printing, books were forbidden by different governments, and even condemned to the flames A variety of proofs can be produced that this was the case among both the antient Greek and Romans. At Athens the works of Protago ras were prohibited; and all the copies of them which could be colleeted were burnt by th public crier. At Rome the writings of Numa which had been found in his grave, were, b "Antoni, Patria Parmensis, gente Zarote, Primus Misales imprimis arte libros. order of the senate, condemned to the fire, be Nemo repertorem nimium se jactet. In arte Addere plus tantum quam peperisse valet." cause they were contrary to the religion whic he had introduced. As the populace at Rom 1479. Soon after the discovery of printing were in times of public calamity more addicte laws were made for subjecting books to examination: and the establishment of book-censors, vernment, an order was issued that all super to superstition than seemed proper to the go and licensers of the press, was strenuously sup- stitious and astrological books should be de ported by many of the Romish clergy, who livered into the hands of the prætor. This orde feared the circulation of publications inimical to their religious views, or their ecclesiastical caused more than twenty thousand of the was often repeated; and the emperor Augusti domination. The earliest instance of a book books to be burnt at one time. Under the sam printed with a permission from government, emperor the satirical works of Labienus we commonly supposed to occur in the year 1480; condemned to the fire, which was the first in but professor Beckmann mentions two books printed early in this year, with the approbation of stance of this nature; and it is related as som the public censor. The first is, Wilhelmi epis-ings of the person who had been the cause thing singular, that, a few years after, the wri is *The manuscript of the Missale Romanum, from which the above was printed, is of a description so dazzling, that words alone cannot convey the ideas requisite to form a conception of its singular attractions.-It commences with a portrait, and on the opposite leaf, armorial bearings, doubtless those of the individual whose likeness is represented, and for whom this magnificent volume was executed. Next appears the calendar, which occupies twenty-six pages, on the first of which occurs the date M.CCCC.X. Each leaf of this calendar is appropriately ornamented with miniatures, which display in the most delightful manner, such avocations or amusements as are peculiar to the different months, while the picturesque effect of the pages is admirably completed by borders which nothing but genius of the most refined order could have designed.-After the calendar follow the prayers, opposite the first of which appears a miniature, representing a full length figure of the person whose portrait previously occurs, on his knees, at the altar. This miniature is surrounded by a border to which the opposite page corresponds, thus forming a striking picture. There are eleven other large miniatures from scriptural subjects, with borders on both pages, and thirty small miniatures of saints and martyrs, with ornamental sides of flowers, &c. besides the decorations above described; and the almost innumerable.-To dwell upon the peculiarities of this superb book, adequate to its deserts, would far outstrip our proper limits, but it may be finally observed, initials, which are illuminated in gold and colours, are that the artist who has shewn so much skill in his outline of the figures, and knowledge of perspective, must have been far above the level of his fellow illuminators,-the brilliancy of colour and gold, the minute and correct finishing of the faces, the inventive skill displayed in the borders, in short, the un-relaxed display of excellence throughout this attractive volume, must ever rank it as a work of art, unexcelled by any missal which has yet been offered to the notice and admiration of the public. It was valued in a trade catalogue at £250. the order for that purpose shared the same fai The burning of these works having induce Cassius Severus to say, in a sneering manne that it would be necessary to burn him alive, he had got by heart the writings of his frie Labienus, this expression gave rise to a law Augustus against abusive writings. When Cr mutius Cordus, in his history, called C. Cassi the last of the Romans, the senate, in order flatter Tiberius, caused the book to be burn but a number of copies were saved by heir concealed. Antiochus Epiphanes caused t books of the Jews to be burnt; and in the fi centuries of our era the books of the Christia were treated with equal severity, of which Ar bius that Diocletian caused the sacred scriptur bius bitterly complains. We are told by Eus to be burnt. After the spreading of the Chr tian religion, the clergy exercised against boo that were either unfavourable or disagreeable them, the same severity which they had ce sured in the heathens as foolish and prejudic to their own cause. Thus were the writings Arius condemned to the flames at the council Nice; and Constantine threatened with t punishment of death those who should conce them. The clergy assembled at the council Ephesus requested the emperor Theodosius. to cause the works of Nestorius to be burn and this desire was complied with. The writ- | is not likely, as his unskilfulness is such that Ties of Eutyches shared the like fate at the Caxton would scarcely have invited or even uncil of Chalcedon; and it would not be dif- encouraged such a bad workman. The types he å ult to collect instances of the same kind from employed in the only two books he is known Each of the following centuries.-Beckmann. to have printed himself, are rude and broken. 1479. Printing introduced into the following After he had published them, he was taken into places in the course of this year:the printing office of William de MachliniaGenre, by Gerard de Leen. first, it is supposed as a journeyman, and afterLeia, by Henry Botel. wards as a partner. Machlinia also was a foreigner; the only celebrity that can attach to the name of these partners, arises from their having printed the first edition of Littleton's Tenures, in a small folio, without date, title, numerals, or catchwords, the type barbarous and broken, and the text crowded with abbreviations. neguen, no printer's name. Perol, by Jacob de Rubeis. Factiers, by J. Bouyer and G. Bouchet. Talouse, by Johannes Teutonicus. Wartzburg, by S. Dold, J. Ryser, and J. five copies only are known to be extant. Their Bekenhub. Zwell. by Johannes de Vallehoe. printing-office was near All-Hallows church; their letter, a coarse Gothic one. The partnership was of short duration; for, in 1483, Machlinia's name alone appears. 1480. The second instance of a book printed with permission from government is commonly pposed to occur in this year; and Dom. Liron, Sir Thomas Littleton, author of the English Benedictine monk, is the first person who made Tenures, was not only an eminent lawyer, but also at remark. He was the author of a work en- holds a high place in the annals of literature. ded Singularites Historiques et Litiraires; in The celebrity and usefulness of this work, which last part of which, where he speaks of the Hei- was commented upon by Sir Edward Coke, have Berg edition of a work named Nosce te ipsum, subsisted to the present day, and no work on the dated in this year, he says "This is the first municipal laws is more esteemed by lawyers, iration I found accompanied with solemn for, notwithstanding the prodigious accession of pation and attestations in its favour." It statutes and reports, the large alterations both in fur approbations, the first and last of which the knowledge and practice of the law, and the worth preserving, as they will serve to show accumulation of publications, Littleton, with power of the clergy at this period:Coke's Commentary, will ever continue to de1 Philip Rota, doctor of laws, though the mand the attention and applause of our ablest of all, have read over carefully, and dili- advocates. Bishop Nicholson, in his Historical ly examined, this small work, Nosce te; and Library, speaking of Littleton's Tenures remarks, I have not only found it composed devotely "That his book of Tenures is in every one's hand catholically, but abounding also with matter and head that pretends to the profession or study wonderful utility, I do not hesitate, in testi- of the municipal laws of this kingdom, and has of the above, to subscribe my name.” been more frequently printed than any other law The last of the approbations is as follows: book whatever. This distinguished lawyer and scholar died August 23, 1481, and was buried in the cathedral at Worcester. : I Mapheus Girado, by the divine mercy riarch of Venice, and primate of Dalmatia, ling in the fidelity of the above gentlemen, have examined the above-mentioned book, testify that it is a devout and orthodox work." it appears, that this divine censor gave his tion of books without reading them. 1480 Printing introduced into the following es, in the course of this year:Genzano, printer unknown. Jelenarde, by Arnold Cesaris. Haselt, no printer's name. Heidelberg, first printer unknown. Eacker, began to print in 1485. Santola, by Geo. and Anselm de Mischinis. Fra, by Gerrard de Flandria, most probably e person who printed at Treviso. Caen, by J. Durandus and Egidius Quijoue. St. Albans, the schoolmaster. Jacobus In the public library at Cambridge, there are two manuscript copies of Littleton's Tenures, one on vellum and the other on paper, with a memorandum annexed to the last, that it was bought in Paul's church yard on the 27th of July, 20th of Edward IV. anno 1481. As an author, and among men of literature in general, Sir John Fortescue, chief justice of the king's bench,* will probably be regarded as en In the year 1461, (1st Edw. IV.) the chief justice of the king's bench had one hundred and seventy marks per annum, £5 6s. 6d, for his winter robes, and the same sum for whitsuntide robes. In the year 1485, (1st Hen. VII.) the chief justice had the yearly fee of one hundred and forty marks granted to him for his better support: further he had 5 6s. 114d. and the sixth part of a halfpenny, (such is the accuracy of Sir William Dugdale, and the London, by John Lettou and William Mach- strangeness of the sum) for his winter robes, and £3 68. 6d. Quilembourg, printer's name unknown. 1480. John Lettou, a foreigner, commenced art of printing in the city of London. He is to have come over to this country on the Invitation of William Caxton. This, however, for his robes at whitsuntide. Most of the judges had the honour of knighthood; some of them were knights bannerets; and some had the order of the Bath. Until the first year of the reign of Edward IV. the king's attorney was the only law officer of the crown; when we find Richard Fowler was made solicitor to the king; and in the appointed attorney-general in England, (the first mention 11th year of the same king's reign William Hussee was of that title.) This officer was then appointed for life. titled to the greatest commendation of any writer of this period. He was born in Devonshire, and educated at Oxford, from whence he removed to Lincoln's-inn. In 1442 he was appointed to the chief justiceship of the king's bench. He composed both in Latin and English; and the subjects he treated upon, together with the sentiments which were delivered by him concerning them, will always endear his memory to true Englishmen. In Latin he wrote upon the praises of the laws of England, and in English on the difference between absolute and limited monarchy. In these works he hath done justice to the excellence of our constitution and laws, and has shown himself to have been a firm friend to the cause of liberty. He was some time in Flanders, and while abroad wrote his famous book, entitled De Laudibus Legum Anglia, which, however, was not published till the reign of Henry VIII. since which time it has been frequently printed. He returned to England with queen Margaret, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Tewkesbury, in 1471. Edward IV. granted him a pardon, on which he retired to his seat at Ebrington, in Gloucestershire, where he died at the advanced age of 90. 1480. The Book named Cordyale: or Memorare Novissima: which treateth of The foure last Thinges. Began on the morn after the Purification of our blissid Lady (2d Feb. 1478), &c. And finisshed on the even of thannunciacion of our said blissid Lady, fallying on the wednesdaye the xxiiij daye of Marche In the xix yere of Kyng Edwarde the fourthe. Folio. This work opens with the following exhortation to the reader: "Al ingratitude utterly settyng apart, we owe to calle to our myndes the manyfolde gyftes of grace, with the benefaittis, that our lorde of his moost plentiueus bonte hath ymen vs wretches, in this present transitoire lif, whiche remembraunce of right directly shulde induce us to give his Godhede therefore continale and immortale louingis and thankis, and in no wise to falle to thignorance or forgetfulness thereof." &c. Mr. Dibdin calls this a rare production: the preface of which is said to have proceeded from the pen of earl Rivers. It is printed in long lines, with small capital letters in the spaces intended for the large ones; it has neither catchwords nor signatures: the leaves, consisting of seventy-six, are not numbered; the words are often differently spelt; in his punctuation he used a cross and little oblique dashes. 1480. Ouyde his booke of Metamorphose Translated and fynnysshed by me William Caxton at Westmestre the xxii day of Apryll, the yere of our lord m. iiije. iiijxx. And the xx yere of the Regne kyng Edward the fourth. [A manuscript in folio.] copy has not yet been brought to light. M Dibdin concludes his remarks upon this subje as follows:-"I cannot dismiss this curio article, without indulging the hope that t labours of some more successful bibliograph may bring a printed copy of the book to ligh none of the kind has hitherto, I believe, be seen or heard of. It is not improbable that t love of the marvellous, which seems to have strongly possessed our venerable typographer, a which was also the ruling literary passion of day, might have induced Caxton to print, well as translate, the Metamorphoses of Ovid 1480. The Chronicles of Englond &c. Enpn by me William Caxton In thabbey of Westm stre by london &c. the v day of Juyn the yer thincarnacion of our lord god m.cccc.lxxx. Folio. With which is usually bound, The Descripcion of Britayne &c. Fynysshed me William Caxton the xviii day of August yere of our lord god m.cccc.lxxx &c. Folio. These two small volumes, it is said, are to found in most collections of Caxton's pie He concludes his Chronicle with this pi wish :— "That there may be a very final peace in christian realms; that the infidels and miscre may be withstauden and destroyed, and our fi enhanced which in these days is sore minished the puissance of the Turks and heathen men. 4 after this present and short life, we may com the everlasting life in the bliss of heaven, Ame In the following August, Caxton publis his Description of England, which contains tw ty-eight chapters; it is comprised of twenty-n leaves, and has neither signatures, numerals catchwords. These were very popular, hav been reprinted four times in this century, (tw however, without the Description;) and se times in the sixteenth century. 1480. This year exhibits the name and c mencement of Antoine Verard, who with resp both to the variety and curious description his impressions, may justly be considered as of the most interesting of all the early typog phers of Paris. Very numerous indeed the impressions executed by this zealous prin separately or in conjunction with others. D Caille renders the same testimony. "Vera says he, "was one of those who gave to public the greatest number of works; and ticularly of romances:* of which" he a "there are extant more than a hundred volu printed upon vellum, ornamented with bea ful miniatures, and exhibiting the most stu and exact imitations of the manuscripts fi which they were copied." Such very magi A very early edition of the Romance of the Rose, out date or place, or name of the printer; but printe Of all our typographer's productions, not one Verard, about 1496. This volume is a most brilliant of them (according to Mr. Dibdin) appears so magnificent specimen of Verard's printing upon vel The work is ornamented with one large and one hun difficult to investigate, as the subject before us. small miniature paintings, very spiritedly executed. We are informed, that a manuscript copy of the heightened with gold. A copy, having the title and latter part of the above is in the library of Mag-pages supplied by fac-similes in manuscript, was sold Wheatley and Adlard, Piccadilly, London, Dec. 9, dalen college, Cambridge, but that a perfect for 16 168 M. CCCC. LXXXVI.* cent, ingenious, and costly ornaments bestowed | lation or compilation:-" Here now endyth the upon these Gothic productions of the French boke of blaysyng of armys translatyt and compress, give a characteristic peculiarity to them, pylyt togedyr at Seynt Albons the yere, &c. perhaps above those of most other countries. The letter indeed chiefly employed in them, though often denominated by the general term Gothic, is rather a species of semi-Gothic; and probably was cast in imitation of the character usually met with in exquisitely finished manuscripts which were of an age not very remote from the invention of printing; at which period, also, it is very probable that the art of illumiBating, and embellishing with miniatures in gold and colours, was cultivated in its highest luxury. The impressions of Antoine Verard, aad of several of his cotemporaries, having often been taken off on the finest vellum, for the gratification of the rich, and at their liberal expence thus superbly ornamented; exhibit a most agreeable union between the labours of the printer, and of the scribe and illuminator. And since the art of the latter has long been lost through disuse, they are treasured up with the greatest care as monuments of former national magnificence, and the only remains of a species of art which was once so extensively and ingeniously practised. In the above work, the following singular passage occurs, concerning the kings of France, and one which may almost be deemed a prophecy, "Tharmes of the Kynge of Fraunce were certaynly sent by an angel from heven, that is to saye, thre floures in manere of swerdes in a feld of azure, the whyche certer armes were given to the forsayd Kynge of Fraunce in sygne of everlastynge trowble, and that he and his successours alway with batayle and swerdes sholde be punysshyd." Antoine Verard used for his device the arms of France, under which, in a compartment, is a pher, probably intended to express the whole of his surname. These, with other minor ornats, are included in a parallelogram, round the external margin of which is an inscription Gothic characters. 1480. A printing-press was established in the Benedictine monastery at St. Albans, of which William Wallingford was at that time prior, but who the person was that introduced it, we have not been able to learn. Wynkyn de Worde forms us the printer was "sometime a schoolmaster;" and most probably a monk. He is mentioned as a man of merit, and a friend of Caxton. The types of the book, which is a Treatise on Rhetoric, in Latin, are very rude. He continued his typographic labours from 1480 1486, and produced several works, from which tre there is no account of any press in that place until the year 1536. The Boke of Seynt Albons, which is otherwise titled a Treatise of Hawking, Hunting, Fishand of Court Armour, is attributed to dame Juliana Berners, prioress of the nunnery at Sopewell, near St. Albans. Whether this celebrated , which was first printed in the year 1486, ed of which Wynkyn de Worde appears to have give an impression about the year 1496, in lalia, was partially compiled from a French Burk printed at Chamberry, by Antony Neyret, 1456, under this title, Le livre du Roy Modus de la Rayne Racio, &c. and other French works of a similar description, there are no means of ertaining. The Boke of Blasyng of Armys, the last of the treatises contained in the "Boke of Seynt Albus," which by some has been attributed to a different hand, seems to be confessedly a trans The following record of a curious piece of heraldry is also given in this book: "Of the offspring of the gentilman Jafeth come Habraham, Moyses, Aron, and the Profettys, and also the Kyng of the right lyne of Mary, of whom that Gentilman Jhesus was born, very God and Man. After his Manhode, Kyng of the land of Jude and Jues. Gentilman by his Moder Mary, Prynce of Cote Armure," &c. &c. Wretched situation of intellect! Who reads but pities the condition of his forefathers? Warton mentions his having seen a copy of a will belonging to this period, which begun, "in the name of Almighty God, and Mary his Moder." The book of Hunting is the only one written in rhyme. Lady Juliana Berners, on account of her being one of the earliest English poetesses, is entitled to honorable notice in this work. She is frequently called Juliana Barnes, but Berners was her more proper name. She was an Essex lady, and, according to Ballard, was, probably, born at Roding, in that county, about the beginning of the fifteenth century; being the daughter of Sir James Berners, of Berners Roding, and sister of Richard, Lord Berners. If, however, as is generally agreed, Sir James Berners was her father, her birth could have been very little after 1388; for, in that year, Sir James Berners was beheaded, together with other favourites and corrupt ministers of king Richard II. The education of Juliana seems to have been the very best which that age could afford, and her attainments were such, that she is celebrated by various authors for her uncommon learning and her other accomplishments, which rendered her every way capable and deserving of the of fice she afterwards bore; which was that of prioress of Sopewell Nunnery. This was a cell attached to, and very near St. Albans; and the remains of it are still standing. Here she lived in high esteem, and flourished about the year 1460, or perhaps, somewhat earlier. She was very beautiful, of great spirit, and |