Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Raking in the 500-year-old Leaves, Part II

by Cokie Anderson



Inspired by last week's scintillating post, you are no doubt champing at the bit to start your own printed leaf collection. But Cokie, you say, what do I look for? How do dealers determine what book the leaf came from? How can I verify what they say is true? Guide me!!

Never fear, little ones, I'm here for you. A GREAT place to start educating yourself about incunabula is on the National Diet Library of Japan's website Dawn of Western Printing. It is by far the most clear and comprehensive description of early printing in the West that I have found online. It covers the invention of movable type in the west, the mechanics of early printing presses, the major printers of the day, the identification of typefaces, the design and making of books, and bookbinding. It also provides a chronology, a glossary, and examples of typefaces.




A description of a printed leaf offered by a dealer will read something like this one, written for the leaf shown above:

A PRINTED LEAF FROM A BIBLE IN LATIN. TEXT FROM NUMBERS. (Venice: Nicolaus Jenson, 1476) 305 x 197 mm. (12 x 7 3/4"). Double column, 52 lines of text and headline, gothic type. With two two-line painted initials in red or blue. Goff B-457; BMC V, 176. Upper outer corner with mild dampstain just touching text, tail edge with faint two-inch dampstain, three very small holes in the (generous) fore margin, but still a fresh, bright, and quite attractive leaf from Jenson's first Latin bible. $175

The first clue in determining what book a leaf came from is content. The heading and text here indicate that this a page from a Bible, from the book of Numbers. It is said to have been published in Venice by the printer Nicolaus Jenson in 1476. The citations at the end of the first paragraph were instrumental in establishing that provenance. Goff refers to Incunabula in American Libraries by Frederick Richmond Goff (1916-82), a rare book librarian at the Library of Congress for 32 years and probably America's best-known expert on early books. This listing and brief description of all incunables held by American libraries was published in 1964 and supplemented in 1973, and it remains a standard reference in the field. A digital version of Goff's catalogue is available as the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue on the British Library's website. It may be searched by printer, location, title, author, date, or a combination thereof. It also allows you to browse by printer, city, or region. A search for "Jenson" and "1476" will retrieve this record for the bible described above:


In addition to author, title, and imprint information, the entry tells you the size of the book (here "fo", meaning folio. For an explanation of book sizes and their abbreviations, see here). It also gives the bibliographical references, beginning with Goff. One of these is an active link to Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (abbreviated "GW"), the first detailed catalogue of incunabula, first published in 1925. Clicking on the link will retrieve this information:



Yes, it's in German. And it's not a great image. But bear with me. Even if you, like me, do not read German, this record still contains valuable information you can use. The first line gives the GW reference number (04222), the title, imprint information, and size. In the second line, "470 Bl" refers to the number of leaves in the book. The string of letters following that refers to the signatures of the leaves. Next is the information that you can link to the leaf description provided above. "2 Sp. 52 Z" corresponds to "Double column, 52 lines of text." When I catalogue leaves, I spend hours counting lines of text and comparing the total to the bibliographic reference books. Yes, it's just as thrilling as it sounds, but it's also necessary if we are to establish the provenance of our leaf.

Another important reference tool is the British Museum Catalogue of XVth Century Books, refenced in the description above as "BMC V, 176" (page 176 in volume five of the work). This was compiled by some of the most OCD librarians in history, which is saying something. It is an excruciatingly detailed description of the incunabula held by the British Museum, and is divided by region, with Germany and Italy taking up eight of its 13 volumes. Printers are arranged by city, and then alphabetically. A brief introduction tells you what is known of the printer, and then lists his works by date of publication.

In addition to author, title, imprint, and size, BMC also gives us the measurements of the text block, the arrangement of the page (i.e, single column, double column, text surrounded by commentary), the typeface and its size, and the number of lines per page. Two companion volumes contain facsimiles of hundreds of typefaces used by early priters, which the researcher can check against the typeface on their leaf to verify its publisher. Dawn of Western Printing has a section that demonstrates this and allows you to test your text ID skills.


The last part of the dealer's description above lists gives you the "faults", telling you about any imperfections. Leaves from books over 500 years old are rarely flawless, but many are in better condition than you would expect. The handmade paper used in the 15th century has stood the test of time far better than the mass-produced papers of the 19th century.

The price of a printed leaf is determined by the condition it's in, the importance of the book it came from and the printer who printed it, and its content. Because bibles and other religious books were more common, leaves from books with secular content are especially prized. Below are examples of leaves priced from $45 to $450.

 
A PRINTED LEAF FROM "SCRIPTORES ASTRONOMICI VETERES" BY JULIUS FIRMICUS MATERNUS. (Venice: Aldus, 1499) 273 x 178 mm. (10 3/4 x 7"). Single column, 38 lines of text in roman type, with capital spaces and guide letters. Goff F-191; BMC V, 560. Large but faint dampstain, a few trivial spots, otherwise excellent, still quite fresh. $45


 
A PRINTED LEAF FROM "THE PLENARIUM" ["EPISTOLAE ET EVANGELIA"]. (Augsburg: Anton Sorg, 1480) 267 x 197 mm. (10 1/2 x 7 3/4"). Single column, 34 lines of text in gothic type. Goff E-78; not in Hain or BMC. Excellent condition. $65

 
A PRINTED LEAF FROM A BIBLE IN LATIN. TEXT FROM NUMBERS. (Venice: Nicolaus Jenson, 1476) 305 x 197 mm. (12 x 7 3/4"). Double column, 52 lines of text and headline, gothic type. With two two-line painted initials in red or blue. Goff B-457; BMC V, 176. Upper outer corner with mild dampstain just touching text, tail edge with faint two-inch dampstain, three very small holes in the (generous) fore margin, but still a fresh, bright, and quite attractive leaf from Jenson's first Latin bible. $175

 
A PRINTED LEAF FROM JACOBUS DE VORAGINE'S "GOLDEN LEGEND" IN ENGLISH. TEXT FROM "THE LYF OF SAYNT JAMES THE LASSE" (SAINT JAMES THE LESSER). (Westminster: Wynkyn de Worde, 1498) 260 x 172 mm. (10 1/4 x 6 3/4"). Double column, 47 lines of text in black letter type. STC 24876; Duff, p. 115 and plate 14; Goff J-151. Head corners rounded (not affecting headlines or text), small marginal tear, faintly toned, otherwise in excellent condition, fresh and clean. A leaf from the fourth printing in English, the first two by Caxton, the next two by his successor. $450

Why is the last leaf so much more expensive than the others? First and foremost, because it's in English. It's also printed by Wynkyn de Worde, successor to the first great English printer, William Caxton. The "STC" citation you see there refers to the Short Title Catalogue, a listing of early English books compiled by the British Library. The online version is available here.

You can find early printed leaves from ABAA booksellers, at antiquarian books fairs, and by searching sites like viaLibri for "printed leaf" in the keywords or title field. A dealer's description should tell you the author, title, printer and place of publication, date, size, and the number of lines of text, and a bibliographic citation, along with any faults.

I've crammed a lot of esoteric information in this post, and I fear it may be a bit confusing. If you have questions or need clarification on any point, please feel free to post them in the comments. Otherwise, happy leaf raking!

__________

Images of printed leaves courtesy of Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books & Manuscripts.
__________
__________

No comments:

Post a Comment

 
Subscribe to BOOKTRYST by Email