- Browse Repository
- Case Western Reserve University Special Collections
- Kelvin Smith Library
- Manuscript Collections
- The Otto F. Ege Collection
- Early printed books--16th century (x)
- Original Leaves from Famous Books
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Show moreCaption: "Desiderius Erasmus' travels and writings made him the great international humanist of his day. To a profound and extensive learning Erasmus joined a refined taste and a delicate wit. He was an extraordinary linguist, a textual scholar, and a fine Latin stylist, and therefore was able to render invaluable service to the great printers of his day, Aldus and Venice and Froben of Basle. Although he was favorably impressed with the Reformation he remained with the Catholic church, hopping to correct some of it's fault. With this in mind he wrote Adages, a collection of Latin phrases and allusions designed to polish and enrich the sermons of the priests, and more significantly to illustrate the fusion of Christianity and Humanism. After the invention of printing, Erasmus was probably the first author who profited by the opportunity for wide circulation, 3200 copies for the Adages, which was in his day even more popular than the now famous Praise of Folly. The first issue of the Adages, a small volume was hastily prepared, was printed by Aldus in the year 1500, while Erasmus was in Paris and apparently in need for money. In 1520, it was reprinted by Aldus ? son, Paul, but issued as the work of a certain "certain Hollander," because of the increasing hostility of the church against Erasmus. This edition of the Adages was nearly finished when Erasmus' friend, the famous printer and scholar of Basle, John Froben, died. "A truer friend that Forben I could not wish from the gods," Erasmus said of this generous patron. This work was completed by Forben's son, Jerome."
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
Show less
Show moreCaption: "In the year 1540, at the age of twenty-five, Andreas Vesalius, the founder of modern anatomy, planned this work on anatomy, generally known as the Fabrica from the title De Humani Corporis. This title was given this study because Vesalius considered "the human body a perfect fabric conceived by the creator and achieved by the supreme artist, Nature." "Here are collected," states Dr. Arturo Castiglioni, "the experiences of a teacher who understands the necessity of performing dissections accurately, not according to classical books, but according to critical observations and individual findings." Vesalius, the gallant fighter, courageously attacked the scholastic doctrines from the time of Galen to his own teacher, Sylvius. After this book was issued, a physician no longer had to be a philosopher, able to discuss health and disease in syllogistic form and with the help of classic quotations. Vesalius, enlisted the service of Titian's brilliant pupil Stephen van Calcar, also an ardent anatomist. Calcar's illustrations are the finest that have appeared in any medical book and have only been excelled by the anatomical drawings od Leonardo da Vinci. The delightful woodcuts initials, with the animated putti, in a subtle way supplement the anatomic plates. These initials are also supposed to have been designed by the celebrated Calcar. The printer Johannes Oporinus, who assumed this Latin name from the German "Herbst," was one of the most brilliant scholars of his time. His folio editions of the Fabrica, (the first issued in 1543, and this second edition in 1555); are master pieces of printing. The second edition, printed in a larger font of Garamond type, with added illustrations, is considered as finer issue of "one of the greatest book of Renaissance" for the text as well as format."
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
Show less
Show moreCaption: "This Chronycle of Englande with the "fruyte of times," a compilation of the chronicles of Nennius, Douglas of Glastonbury, and Geoffrey of Monmouth, begin with the creating of the world and ends in the region of Henry VI. It is also know as the Chronicle of Brute, so-called from the opening chapter dealing with the story of Albina and her twenty-eight sisters, daughters of a king in Greece, who discovered Britain and called it Albion. They consorted with Incumbi and bore a race of giants which held the island until the coming of Brut, the grandson of Aeneas, who became the first king of Britain. Two pages tell us "how Kynge Lear was driven out of his londe through his folks, and how Cordeill his youngest doughter help hyme in his need." This story was accepted as authentic until the seventeenth century. The Chronycle also introduces us to the immortal King Arthur, and to Lancelot, Tristan and Perceval. The work was publicly read at the court of the Norman Kings so as to inspire the young squires with emulation. Fair ladies recited it at the bedside of wounded knights to assuage their pain. Julian Notary, who printed from the year 1498 until his death in 1520, is considered as one of the four most important early printers in England, taking his place with Caxton, De Worde, and Pynson, and this edition of the Chronycle is one of the most important issues from his press."
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
Show less
Show moreCaption: "Herodotus read his immortal History in Athens about 477 B.C. It had won such popular approval from the Athenians that two years later, by a decree, the author was awarded a literary prize of ten talents ($120,000 to $150,000). As a youth, Herodotus apparently had sufficient means to travel for almost twenty years. His insatiable curiosity led him to converse with priests, merchants, farmers in the field, and even women in their spinning wheels. His easy graceful style, together with his delightful stories, won for him the titles of "prince of story-tellers" and "the first great prose writer." The lt;i>Historylt;/i> of Herodotus deals with a Persian wars of invasion. It is divided into nine books. The first six of these are filled with the migration, commerce, arts, and religious beliefs of the Greeks. It is told as a fascinating narrative and is filed with human sympathy, so that there is, even to this day, no complaint of this method of writing, nor of the long introduction. This edition, the first printed in Greek, uses the famous Greek type of Aldus. The characters, with the numerous ligatures and contractions, were based, it is said, on the handwriting of Aldus' friend, the great scholar Musurus. This History was issued as "the book of the month" for September, 1502, by the Aldine Academy, "Neacademia." This was founded in 1500 by Aldus and his many scholar friends. Their ambition was to edit and print one classic every month, in an edition of one thousand copies. George Haven Putman states, "This list of undertakings (by the Academy) is in my judgment by far the greatest and most honorable in the whole history of publishing." (Ege, Otto F.)
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
Show less
Show moreCaption: "Justinian's greatest accomplishment was the codification of the Roman law now known as "The Justinian Code." This was done under the direction of Justinian by his principal law officer, Tribonian, assisted by ten learned civilians, between the year 529 and 533 A.D. The formulation of Roman law has often been acclaimed the greatest triumph of the ancient world. Its reorganization and transmission in the Justinian Code was one of the greatest gifts of the Middle Ages to the western world. Roman law established man's rights in regard to his labor and property. It was a useful tool in the struggle between the secular rulers and the potentates of the church. The code stresses the principal of representative government. This, together with the ideas of justice and equality which it embodies, is now part of our American government. Meynial summarizes well the force of the Corpus Juris of Justinian when he writes, "Fourteen hundred years old in its latest recension, eighteen hundred years in the majority of its fragments, it has continued to rule the world through the greatest political and social upheavals ever known, and has outlived by all these long centuries the civilization which gave it birth." Thielman Kerver started printing in Paris in 1497. He was one of the few French printers who continued to print in Gothic manuscript tradition well into the sixteenth century. Kerver was famous for his excellent work in red and black as well as his beautiful designed Books of Hours. After his death in 1522, the press was continued for a quarter of a century longer by his widow, Yolande Bonhomme." (Ege, Otto F.)
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
Show less
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.)
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
Show less
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."
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
Show less
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."
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
Show less
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."
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
Show less
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."
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
Show less
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.)
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
Show less