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- Original Leaves from Famous Books
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Show moreCaption: "The Koran, the book of laws and religion of over 200 million Moslems, was dictacted by the prophet Mohammed after extensive travels to Syria and Palestine with a wealthy uncle. It was on these expeditions that Mohammed gained his concepts of monotheism and star worship. The 114 chapter of the Koran, arranged according to their length, have strange titles such as The Ant, The Spider, The Greeks and The Sun. The followers of Mohammed believed that the text contained revelations from the angel Gabriel, given to Mohammed in dreams after the year 600. The Koran gave all believers equality and eliminated the priestly class. It is held in great respect by Moslems, who, according to George Sale, the first translator of the Koran into English, do not dare to touch it without first being washed, nor to hold it below their girdles, nor knowingly suffer it to be in the possession of any person of a different persuasion. They swear by it and carry it into battle. This book was likely written in Cairo. With religious fervor rivaling that on the medieval monks, and with an alphabet surpassing the European one in artistic possibilities, the Moslem calligraphers of the Koran gained just honor and lasting renown. The art of writing is regarded by the Moslems as the finest of the arts, but few wrote before the time of Mohammed; in his own tribe, the Koreishites, only seventeen knew how to write. The prophet is not numbered among these. This leaf was written by the Egyptian calligrapher Mohammed ibn Kuzel Al Isawai with a reed, on egg-glazed paper that antedates any European-made paper by half a century." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"Paulus Jovis, the author of the Lives of illustrious Men, was befriended by Pope Leo X, and made a Bishop by Clement VIII, but because of his scandalous living was retired by Paul III. This work is his most important writing, done in excellent "law style". It consists of nearly two hundred biographical sketches. The contemporary characters selected as candidates for his early "Who's Who" were approached for financial contributions by Jovius almost in the guise of a blackmailer, for "no man ever asked for a present with less reserve than he did". One cardinal presented him with two houses; a villain, for whom Jovius invented a most noble and ancient lineage, gave him a princely gift. For Don Juan III of Portugal, at a price, Jovius added several additional victories. For these he used his "pen of gold", for other who refused his demands he used his "pen of iron". To Jovius, the historian of his age, we are indebted for much information regarding the personal lives of the great who lived in and molded that great half century from 1500 from 1550. In this book we have, in a number of instances, the only surviving portraits of some of these famous people. The finer of these portrait wood engravings are by Tobias Stimmer and Christopher Sichem. The family of Petri is famous in the annals of printing. Andrew, the father of Henri, was formerly associated with Froben, and a relative of Henri had printed a number of works for Luther. Henri himself was knighted by Emperor Rudolf II. Generally, the works of German printers of the late sixteenth century "are discouraging as typographical productions", but these of Petri, using the Roman or "antiqua" letter which condensed italics, give the pages a distinction about equal to that of Estienne in France and the Aldine works in Italy which are produced at the same time" (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show moreCaption: "Diogenes Laertius' Lives of the Philosophers is a collection of eighty-two sketches, divided into ten books. It is the only extant work of this third century biographer. Although full of anecdotes and highly colored narratives, it is still the chief source of information concerning the history of Greek philosophy and the private lives and habits of the most eminent philosophers of antiquity. There are also many valuable quotations from lost works included in the compilation. This translation of The Lives of the Philosophers was made by the brilliant Ambrogio Traversari, the only great monastic scholar of the Renaissance. Jenson, the most noted of all fifteenth century printers, produced about one hundred and fifty books in about ten years. Updike, in his monumental volumes Printing Types, states, "Jenson's roman type have been accepted models for roman letters ever since he made them, and, repeatedly copied in our day, have never been equaled". Our contemporary types which have been inspired by the Jenson letter include the "Golden" type of William Morris, the "Doves" type of Sir Emery Walker and T.J Cobden Sanderson, and the "Montaigne" and "Centaur" types by Bruce Rogers. Jenson's successor, Herbort, in a broadside, extols the virtues of these types in the following glowing phrases. "(They) ought to ascribe (this design) rather to divine than to human wit... His books do not produce weariness but rather give delight by their exactness and precision; they do not harm one?s eye but rather help them and do them good?, hence our debt to that excellent man, Master Nicolas Jenson, is great indeed"." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show moreCaption: "The great value of Suctonius' account of the Lives of the Twelve Roman Emperors, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, lies in the information it gives on the manners and customs of that period. This work, written about the year 100 A.D. is a racy biography, filled with anecdotes, gossip and scandal which has "influenced posterity's evaluation of his subjects." As secretary to the Emperor Hadrian, Suetonius no doubt has access to secret sources. He regarded the world with disillusioned eyes after discovering that many "idols had feet of clay." He gave us what he saw. Robert Estienne, in the year 1524, at the age of twenty-one, established his press in Paris. He was the great scholar in a famous family of printers, and a close personal friend, of his patron, Francis I, who gave him the title "Printer to the King." Francis frequently had to come to his friend's rescue when the troublesome theological censors ransacked his home and press. Associated with Estienne was the famous type cutter, Claude Garamond, to whom the italic type used in his book has been attributed. Daniel Berkeley Updike says of his types that they "...have a delightful unconventionality of design, free and spirited, yet noble; full of contrast and movement, yet with elegance and precision of line that marks them as French."
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Show moreCaption: "Under the patronage of Emperor Augustus poetry reached a high level. The three great poets in Augustan Age, 43 B.C. to 14 A.D., were Virgil, Horace and Ovid. The greatest work of Ovid is the longest poem of 11,000 hexameters, Metamorphoses. It is highly imaginative collection of Greek and Gerco-German myths. It sets forth the change of form which people and things had undergone from the creation of world to his day. Julius Caesar changes into a star! Love is the dominant theme in the collection of stories, some great, some trivial. All are written with a cold cynicism, are lively in imagination, and are most ingeniously linked together like the tales of the Arabian Nights. The Metamorphoses has had an immense influence on modern literature. Meres, in praising Shakespeare for his comedies and tragedies, wrote in the year, 1598, "The sweete wittie soul of Ovid liues in mellifluous and honey tongued Shakespeare, witness his Venus and Adonis." The name of the printer, Helizabeth, indicates that the widow of de Rusconibus continued the printshop after her husband's death. The woodcuts, rather primitive, follow the usual custom of having the character indicated by letter or name inside the frame. They also occasionally portray more than one incident in the same setting."
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Show moreCaption: "Pliny the Elder, the busy state official and naval officer, spent his nights and all his spare time in the acquisition of scientific data. He had tracts read to him while he ate and often dictated from his bath. His Natural History appeared about 77 A.D. This digest of over two thousand books is a "great storehouse of misinformation as well as information; legend and magic are intermingled with historical fact and ancient science." The thirty-six books cover such miscellaneous subjects as ancient painting, geography of the Roman Empire, gladiatorial contests, industrial processes, Mediterranean trade, mining in ancient Spain, fluctuation of prices in antiquity, nature of ancient beverages, the pagan attitude towards immortality. This work "was ransacked for more than a thousand years by every important searcher for scientific data." This is the first edition of Pliny edited by the great scholar Erasmus and the first to appear under the title of Historia Mundi instead of Historia Naturalis. It was sumptuously printed by Forben, the noted printer of Basle, who was a friend and patron of Erasmus, the scholar, as well as Holbein, the artist. He established his press in 1491 and continued printing until he died in 1527. In this long period he printed no less than two-hundred and fifty-seven works. Nearly all were large volumes of distinctive importance for scholars. Forben's imprint appears in no book printed in German. Many of the texts which were printed in Latin, Greek or Hebrew were edited and proofread by the printer himself."
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Show more"Samuel Johnson was an Episcopal minister in Connecticut. He refused Benjamin Franklin's offer of first presidency of the Academy of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pennsylvania). Three years later, he accepted the same office at King's College (now Columbia University). Johnson, did, however, prepare two texts for the students of Franklin's academy, who ranged from fourteen to sixteen years of age. The first of these was Noetica. The title page states, "The First PRINCIPLES of Human Knowledge, Being a LOGICK including both METAPHYSICS and DIALETIC or the art of REASONING with a brief PATHOLOGY, and an Account of the gradual progress of the HUMAN MIND, from the first Dawnings of Sense to the Highest Perfection". The full title for Ethica, the second work is, "The First PRINCIPLE of Moral Philosophy and especially that part which is called ETHICS in a CHAIN of necessary CONSEQUENCES from certain FACTS" Benjamin Franklin, because of his wide interest, important inventions, searching intellect and epoch-making contribution to democratic government, is considered one of the most distinguished of men, as well as the outstanding printer in his own period. During his long and busy life, here and abroad, his interest in printing never lessened. When he wrote his will in his closing days of his life, it began: "I, Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia, Printer, Late Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States to the court of France..." (Ege, Otto F.) "The first college textbooks to be written and printed in North America"
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Show moreCaption: "Dr. Hartmann Schedel, the compiler of this Nuremberg Chronicle or Weltchronik, spent more time reading history than practicing medicine. Italian, English, and French chroniclers had treated German history rather slightingly; to correct this condition, Dr. Schedel persuaded two wealthy merchants of Nuremberg, Sebald Schreyder and Sebastian Kamermaister, to underwrite a new chronicle. The book holds great fascination for us, not for its text but for the lavish abundance of woodcuts. Two noted artists, Michael Wolgemut, the master of Albrecht Durer, and his stepson, William Pleydenwurff, were engaged to make the wood-cut illustrations. A total of 1809 pictures, made from 645 blocks, appear in the book with complete disregard for validity. Ninety-six blocks were used to portray 596 portraits, so that the portrait assigned to Nebuchadnezzar earlier appears later as several of the German emperors; the block for the town of Mainz does service also for Naples. The characters with elongated fingers and unkempt hair have been attributed to Wolgemut. The famous printer Anton Koberger, formerly a baker, established his first press about the year 1470, and continued to print and publish for more than fifty years. He employed, at various times, over one hundred workmen on his twenty-four presses as binders, illuminators, and artists. Koberger became the first wholesale printer and publisher. He exchanged his books with other printers over a wide area. The Nuremberg Chronicle was Koberger?s most successful venture. In the year 1493, two editions, one in Latin and one in German, appeared. These editions must have been large ; over a hundred copies are now owned in America, four hundred and fifty years after they were issued." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show moreCaption: "This work, On Duty, (De Officiis) was addressed to Cicero?s son Marcus in the year 43 B.C. In it Cicero gives his viewpoints on many philosophical and ethical questions which center mainly around the theme borrowed from the Stoics. "Man must be virtuous in order to be happy". Like many wealthy Romans, Cicero had sent his son to study philosophy in Athens under the philosopher Cratippus. From Cicero?s famous letter, we learn that he exchanged books with Cleopatra, who was in Rome when this text was written. We wonder whether she received a copy of the De Officiis and, if she did, whether she read it. Cicero?s diction and style established Latin as a vehicle for great prose. This work has a distinction of being the first classical book that appeared in print. In the year 1469, John of Spire and his brother Wendelin, Germans from Rhenish, Bavaria, were well established and encouraged by the city senate of Venice to establish themselves as the first printers in that city and were given an exclusive five year privilege. When John died the following year from the plague, the senate decided that the grant or "patent" given to the brothers had lapsed. Wendelin, however, continued to print four or five years longer, until competition forced him into bankruptcy. Venice soon became the printing center of Europe; before 1480, more than fifty printing establishment were in operation. Daniel Berkeley Updike states that the two brothers, John and Wendelin, made and used the first truly Roman type. It is also thought by some scholars of printing history that Nicolas Jenson worked for the de Spires in the year 1469. It is possible that he really was the creator of the first type used by this press." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"Milton's brilliant and profound mind, which illuminated so many aspects of life in one of the most important of eras, the seventeenth century, still challenges us today, three centuries later, in our struggle for human and individual liberty. To deep thought Milton added consummate art. Milton's position as the "greatest" pamphleteer and as the author of the "greatest" ode in the English language, the "supreme" monody, and the "mightiest" sonnet in any language, is rarely questioned. Dr. Johnson once commented, "Milton, madam, has a genius that could cut a colossus from a rock, but could not carve heads on a cherry stone." Paradise Lost is generally conceded to be Milton's greatest work, but he himself, as well as Coleridge and Wordsworth, considered Paradise Regained to be his masterpiece. This work was published in 1671, four years after Paradise Lost, upon which he had spent at least twenty years. It is not a sequel to other. The text is concerned with St. Luke's account of the temptation of Christ and is written in less ornate and figurative language than was used in Paradise Lost. The poem Samson Agonistes is memorable for the fusion of a Semitic theme, Greek tragic manner and matchless English verse. In 1900, Cobden Sanderson, the mystic, established the Doves Press. His books were, according to his own words, "...to be symbols of a vision of Cosmic Order, Order wrought in Rhythm and touched with Beauty and Delight." He wished "...to print in suitable form some of the great literary achievements of man's creative and constructive genius." The Roman type of Jenson was the model for the Dove Press. Pollard calls it the finest roman type in existence. Ransom, commenting on the Doves Press books, states, "They approach dangerously near to absolute perfection in composition, presswork, and page placement." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more".Virgil was the national poet of Augustan Rome. Under the patronage of rich and powerful Maecenas he was enabled to live the tranquil and secluded life which so well fitted into his own ideals and temperament. In 37 B.C. he finished the Bucolica, which idealizes the farm life which he knew and loved so well in his youth. His second great work was the Georgica, a didactic, realistic poem. Both were written to make farm life in the country so attractive that a migration would start from the city. In the later period Virgil wrote his epic, the Aeneid, to glorify Rome and its rulers. This work bears a close relationship to the writings of Homer. Virgil in these poems assumes the tone of the prophet: 'Rome has equally a mission to fulfill, which is to establish peace and order, and to rule the world through law. ' Virgil excels, in all his writings, in 'that subtle fusion of the music and the meaning of language which touches the deepest and most secret springs of emotion'. His influence on Dante, Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth and Tennyson is clearly evident. Dante selected Virgil to represent human wisdom and to act his own guide through the Inferno" (Ege, Otto F.) "In the year 1750, John Baskerville decided to print, as an avocation, '?.books of consequences ?.and which the public may be pleased to see in an elegant dress and to purchase at such a price as will pay the extraordinary care and expense that must necessarily be bestowed upon them'. Seven years later his publication, this 'Virgil', appeared. According to Macaulay, it 'went forth to astonish all the librarians of Europe'. The type of the day was modernized, the press improved, the paper 'woven' instead of 'laid' (a radical departure), and the freshly printed sheets were pressed between hot plates to 'glaze', thus giving such 'perfect polish that we could suppose the paper made of silk rather than a linen'." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"James Thomson, like Virgil, with leisure assured by patrons and political pension, had unusual opportunities to observe nature and to write and rewrite his poems. The various parts of The Seasons first appeared between the years 1726 and 1730 and in their final polished form in 1744. With their swelling phrases and Latinized diction, these poems of Thomson are superficially Miltonic. Dr. Johnson wrote of Thomson, "The reader of The Seasons wonders that he never saw before what Thomson shows hum that he never felt what Thomson impresses". Today we still enjoy the sensitiveness to light and movement, the ultimate knowledge of the ways of animals and birds, and the ability of Thomson in his Seasons to lure us from a real world to imaginative reverie. With a subtle appreciation of quiet rural life is coupled a conception of a God in nature, as well as an unquestioning in the God of orthodox Christianity, and there is also an apparently unrelated enthusiasm for economic progress in Britain. "It seems paradoxical that Bodoni, the founder of "classic" formalism in printing, chose to print Thomson's romantic Seasons in sumptuous format and to include the following in the dedication to his patron, David Steuart, of Edinburgh: "If I particularly wish immortality to any of my works it is to this, that the testimony of my respect and gratitude for a person of so much worth and eminence may be handed down to future ages". Bodoni is often called "The King of Typographers and the Typographer of Kings". According to Peddie, Bodoni "incontestably represents the highest point of aestheticism that can be reached by typography." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"Early in 1509, the translation of Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff by the English priest, Alexander Barclay, was first printed in England. This work of Barclay's called 'Ship of fooles of the world' is more a ship of fools of sixteenth century England than it is a translation of the earlier work. It presents an understanding of the poverty-stricken priest and court-ridden life of the common people during the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Both the original author, Brant, and the translator, Barclay, held to the general design 'to ridicule the prevailing follies and vices of every rank and profession under the allegory of a ship freighted with fools. Fools are evil and malicious people to be displayed and scolded'. Barclay installs himself as a captain, 'I am the first fole of all the hole navy'. These writers found hundred and ten categories, even in those simple days, to ridicule. It is done in delightful verse. Zeydal states that this book 'played an important role in outmoding medieval allegory and mortality and in directing literature into the channels of the drama, the essay and the novel of character'. The woodcuts which added much to the popularity of Barclay?s translation are crude copies of those who appeared in the original Basle edition, often attributed to young Dürer" "John Cawood, who printed this second edition of the Ship of fooles in 1570, was appointed Royal Printer by Queen Mary in 1553. Strangely enough, he retained this lucrative post under Queen Elizabeth, who, however, made him share the honor and privileges of this title with another printer, Richard Jugge" (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show moreCaption: "Aeschylus, (525-456 B.C.), the first great writer of tragedies, is distinguished not only for the epic sweep of his plays, their exalted dialogue and fine characterization, but also for his daring and epoch-making innovations. Today Aeschylus would be the answer to Gordon Craig's prayer for a super-man in the theatre. Aeschylus not only was a play-wright and an actor but he also trained the choruses in their singing and dancing; added mechanical accessories; used expressive masks; added and additional actor to complement the chorus; and, most significant, his plays, for the first time, dealt with contemporary scenes. One legend tells us that once, when young Aeschylus was asleep, Dionysius appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to compose tragedies. He started to write the next morning and "succeeded very easily." He won, in all, thirteen first honors in the great contests. Another legend tells us that Aeschylus met his death when an eagle mistook his bald head for a rock and dropped a tortoise on it. The scholar-printer Adrian Turnebus, born in Normandy in 1512, had reached such proficiency in the learned languages at the early age of nine that he surpasses his preceptors. Later, many contemporary German professors, after citing him as an authority in their lectures, always touched their hats in token of respect. Montaigne was fond of interrogating Turnebus in the Boswellian manner. Turnebus at various times served as a professor of Greek and of philosophy, in addition to following the profession of "Typographus Regius." This edition of Aeschylus printed by Turnebus was particularly valued for the accuracy of the text. In it he corrected the notoriously inaccurate Aldine issue."
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Show more"This first complete edition of Haklyut's Voyages gathers and describes the "Principal Navigations, Voyages, Tarrifques and Discoveries of the English Nation Made by Sea or Overland to the Remote and Farthest Distant Quarters of the Earth at any time within the compass of these 1600 years". This new and enlarged work extended into three volumes. The third volume deals with America and comprises eighty-one voyages to the new continent, ranging from the period of discovery to the end of the sixteenth century. Here we find the ringing tales of achievements of the Cabots, Cartier, Frobisher, Raleigh and Drake. Inspiration from this important and exciting compilation of England's searchings "further than ever any Christian hitherto hath pierced" was, as has been frequently stated, largely responsible for Britain's subsequent domination of the sea. The modern Hakluyt Society has issued over two-hundred volumes, each dealing with a separate voyage, with and introduction by an eminent scholar. The printing of a volume as large as this was a major undertaking and required all the material and financial resources of Robert Barker (also the printer and one of the sponsors of the first issue of the King James Version of the Bible), as well as the help of George Bishop, a wealthy alderman of the city of London and deputy printer to the Queen, and of Rolfe Newberrie." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show moreCaption: "Hieronymus, more generally known as St. Jerome, finished his Herculean task, the preparation of the "Edition of the Holy Scriptures in General Use", or the Vulgate Bible, in the year 414 A.D. Fourteen years were spent in reading and checking the innumerable texts in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The later language Jerome began to learn only at the age of forty. This Vulgate version of the bible is one of the most important ever compiled. It became the standard Bible of the western world for over a thousand years, although it required several hundred years to win the place it deserved. It gave birth to ecclesiastical Latin, the international language of the medieval world. Many of the existing letters of Jerome give us a picture not only of his violent temper, but also of the resulting controversies regarding his version of the Bible. In one, he called a critic a "two-legged ass", in another, he accused certain copyists of "being more asleep than a wake." With almost superhuman skill and patience, and without the aid of eyeglasses, the Dominicans produced a large number of these "Miniature" or "Portable" Bibles to be used in the Sorbonne, the newly established school of theology of the University of Paris, as well as by the wandering friars of this order. The well executed gothic book-hand of nine lines of writing to an inch was done with a crow or eagle quill. The vellum used was obtained from the internal organs of the newly born or calves and is finer than our present "india" paper. Four hundred leaves measured slightly less than an inch in thickness." (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"It has been the privilege of few human beings to enjoy the breadth and variety of personal experiences of life that were the lot of England's first great poet, Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400). He was a page in the royal household, prisoner of war, foreign diplomat, collector of customs, member of Parliament and clerk of the King's works. His personal background and wide reading in Latin, French and Italian ("of bokes rede I ofte, as I you tolde") , is mirrored in his Canterbury Tales. According to Dryden, "The matter and the manner of these tales and of their telling are so suited to their different Education, Humor and Calling, that each would be improper in any other mouth". These tales represent almost every type of medieval literature: the pious tale, the saint's legend, the sermon, the metrical romance and the romantic epic. The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer's most famous and varied work. Troilus and Criseyde, the most finished work of Chaucer, is one of the finest narratives in the English language. The poem, while dealing with the unimportant event of the Trojan war, becomes a great psychological study of the dealing character, Troilus, son of King Priam, and of his love of his widow Criseyde. In mood, the work ranges from gay wit to tragic grief. Chaucer's Romaunt of the Roses is a masterful translation of the great French allegory of refined love. "Adam Islip printed in London from the year 1594 to 1603. His first edition of Chaucer?s work was issued in 1598. Many "reforms" and "improvements" were made in the second Islip edition, "Sentences and proverbs noted... obscure words prooued, the Latine and French not Englished by the Chaucer, translated". (Ege, Otto F.)
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Show more"Hippocrates' (460-357 B.C) enormous influence on the progress of medicine is due to the fact that he separated medicine from religion and superstition and placed it on a scientific basis. He formulated its ideals in what is known as the Hippocratic Oath, which is administered with great solemnity to graduates of medicine in many universities of today. Almost as universally known as this oath are the aphorisms of the author, such as : "Life is short and the art is long, the occasion fleeting": "Experiences is fallacious and judgment difficult": "The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and the externals cooperate". Hippocrates' ideas and observations, with few exceptions, were a profound anticipation of modern knowledge. One exception is his theory of the four humors which make up the body-blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile, whose healthy or unhealthy mixtures depend upon the influence of the heavenly bodies. The famous house of Giunta, printers and publisher, was founded by Niccola in the latter part of the fifteenth century and continued for hundred years. It established important presses in Venice and Florence. Lucantonio in Venice was active from 1482 to 1536. His heirs continued to print under the same fine printers' devices and in the same tradition until the end of the sixteenth century. Many of the Giunta types are attributed to the famous designer, Le Bé. This work of Hippocrates is one of the finer of the later issues from the noted Venetian branch of the Giunta family" (Ege, Otto F.)
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