First Printed Edition Of The Torah In Hebrew $1,400,000 - $2,000,000 At Christie's

by Stephen J. Gertz

"The educated man knows, indeed, from his knowledge of history that the art of Gutenberg saw its inception with a Latin Bible in the middle of the XVth century. Yet what layman knows when the original text appeared for the first time? Not even the bibliophile knows; although a non-Jewish expert, Count Giacomo Manzoni, asserts in his enthusiasm for the book that the first edition of the Hebrew Bible is the most precious book on earth" (Lazarus Goldschmidt, 1950)

A newly discovered, large and complete copy in very fine condition of the first printed edition of the Pentateuch - the first five books of the Bible aka Torah - in Hebrew is being offered by Christie's-Paris in its Importants livres anciens, livres d'artistes & manuscrits, Wednesday, April 30, 2014.


Printed on vellum in Bologna by Abraham ben Hayim of Pesaro for Joseph ben Abraham Caravita, this, the Hamishah humshe Torah was published on January, 25, 1482 with Aramaic paraphrase (Targum Onkelos) and commentary by Rashi (Solomon ben Isaac).


Rarer than copies of the Gutenberg Bible (49, per last census), and one of only twenty-eight surviving copies on vellum (with eleven survivors on paper), most incomplete, it is estimated to sell for $1,400,000 - $2,000,000 (€1,000,000-1,500,000; £900,000-1,300,000).

Arguably the most important book in the history of Hebrew printing and publishing, it incorporates the first appearance in print of the ancient Targum attributed to Onkelos. Rashi’s commentary, also included, was first published in Rome around a dozen years earlier. This first edition of the Pentateuch in its original language is the first Hebrew book with printed vowel and cantillation signs (those symbols beneath the letters).

Abraham ben Hayim may have started as a textile printer and dyer and/or bookbinder in Pesaro. His first recorded printing press stood at Ferrara in 1477, which produced two books, beginning with Levi ben Gershom’s Be’ur sefer lyov (Commentary on the Book of Job), edited and/or financed by Nathan of Salò; then it completed - about two thirds of the text - Jacob ben Asher’s Tur yoreh de’ah (Teacher of Knowledge), which had been started at the press of Abraham ben Solomon Conat in Mantua. At his second press, in Bologna, Abraham ben Hayim worked for Joseph ben Abraham, a member of the Caravita, an influential Jewish family of bankers.

In Bologna, Abraham ben Hayim first printed this fully vocalized biblical text with cantillation marks, a landmark in the history of Hebrew book production not only for the importance of its text, but no less for its pioneering technique of casting and setting accents; this fully developed typographical accomplishment can only be compared with Francesco Griffo’s solution for adding accents to the Aldine Greek founts some dozen years later.


Abraham ben Hayim da Pesaro and Francesco Griffo da Bologna are likely to have known each other and it's possible that Griffo cut Abraham’s punches; both were subsequently associated with the Soncino family of printers in Italy, although at dates about two decades apart. An earlier typographical attempt at adding Hebrew accents, in a 1477 folio edition of the Psalms printed by a consortium of typographers in Northern Italy, was aborted after a few pages. The only other surviving Bolognese production by Abraham ben Hayim is slightly later in date than this Torah, a folio edition of the Five Scrolls (Megillot), now recorded in two copies (Vatican and Parma Bibl. Palatina).


Liturgical readings of the Torah in synagogue, then as now, must be done from manuscript scrolls. This, the Bologna editio princeps, combining the text with the Aramaic targum and Rashi’s commentary, was aimed at an educational market, the codex format being most efficient for study.

Rashi’s commentary was first printed in Rome c. 1470 as a separate edition by three Jewish contemporaries of the Christian proto-typographers, Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz. The second separate edition - the first dated Hebrew printed book - appeared on February 18, 1475 from the press of Abraham ben Garton at Reggio di Calabria (a single copy known), while the third edition of 1476 is the first Hebrew book printed in Spain.

Another edition of the Pentateuch with Targum Onkelos, Haftarot and Megillot, also vocalized and with cantillation accents, was printed somewhere in Italy by Isaac ben Aron d’Este and Moses ben Eliezer Raphael (3 copies extant and 7 single leaves); its date has in the past been assigned to c. 1480 (Goff Heb-13; Offenberg 25), based on research on by A. Spanier (Soncino Blätter I, 77), but it is now more accurately dated to c. 1489 from paper and watermark evidence in the Vatican Library copy (Piccard, Wasserzeichen Lilie II, 945).

Two obscure Iberian editions of the Torah - little known because of their extreme rarity - may also belong to the early 1480s, and may also be candidates for the first printed edition of the Torah in Hebrew: Offenberg 23=Goff Heb-16(III) recorded only in fragments of eight leaves (New York JTSL), one leaf (Oxford Bodleian) and a partial leaf (Jerusalem NLI); Offenberg 26=Goff Heb-16(II) surviving in a single copy (Florence Laurenziana) and a fragment of of 4 leaves (JTSL).

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BIBLE, Pentateuch, in Hebrew – Hamishah humshe Torah, with Aramaic paraphrase (Targum Onkelos) and commentary by Rashi (Solomon ben Isaac). Edited by Joseph Hayim ben Aaron Strasbourg Zarfati. Bologna: Abraham ben Hayim of Pesaro for Joseph ben Abraham Caravita, 5 Adar I [5]242 = 25th January 1482.

Median folio (320 x 230 mm). Printed on vellum (flesh side to flesh side, hair side to hair side, the sheets highly polished to minimize contrast). Collation: 110 28 310 48(-7) 58(-8) 62 710 8-98 106 1110 124 13-146 (Genesis-Exodus); 1510 168 176 18-218.10 228 234 248 256 2610 27-288 296 (Leviticus-Deuteronomy, 19/1v beginning of Numbers, 29/5v colophon, 29/6 blank). 219 leaves: Complete (but without final blank).

Vocalized biblical text with accents, surrounded by paraphrase in a narrow outer column and commentary in long lines above and below, the pages set in formes (the outer forme of the outermost vellum sheet of each quire printed on the fesh side). Square Hebrew type 1:180 (text, headlines), semi-cursive Hebrew type 2:90 (paraphrase, commentary and colophon). 20-21 lines of text and headline and 40-42 lines of paraphrase to the full page, numbers of commentary lines varying, no printed signatures or catchwords. (Light yellowing of the hair sides of the sheets, some minor stains, a few small wormholes at beginning and end, but in VERY FINE CONDITION, WITH LARGE MARGINS.) 18th-century binding of brown sheep over pasteboard (front cover and spine gone, back cover preserved but worn and detached, original sewing somewhat defective, frst quire detached from the book block). Modern folding box.

Provenance: inscribed, signed and dated by three Italian censors. Luigi da Bologna, Dominican friar, March 1599 – Camillo Jaghel 1613 – Fra Renato da Modena 1626. Individual words or short phrases censored, scored through in ink on 1/2r, 1/6r, 2/3v, 5/2v and 22/4r and several words erased on 10/6v and 11/3v, all in Rashi’s commentary. – There is no evidence of more recent provenance, except for the modest 18th-century binding, which is probably French. – French Private Collection, by descent to the present owner.

Hain 12568; GW M30624; BMC XIII, 26-27 (C.49.d.2); Proctor 6557; Goff Heb-18; CIBN Heb-4; IDL 2440; IGI E-12; Oates 2482; Bod-inc Heb-8. De Rossi I, 7; Steinschneider 2; Thesaurus A15; Van Straalen p. 29; Zedner p. 106; Marx 7; Goldstein 20; HSTC 22; Offenberg 13. ISTC ib00525570.

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5/1/2014: UPDATE: Sold for €2,785,500 ($3,850,679).
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Images courtesy of Christies, with our thanks.
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England's Greatest Type Designer Is Not Who You Think It Is

By Stephen J. Gertz

William Caslon, John Baskerville, Eric Gill, and Matthew Carter: these are the names we associate with great British type design. To the top of that list add Richard Austin. Modern typeface design begins with him.

Who was Richard Austin and why are his typefaces so important? And who, by the way, was Richard Austin, wood-cut engraver?

Rich. Austin
Engraver of Dies, Stamps & CopperPlates

Cuts all Sorts of Musick, Engravers Tools, Steel Letters,
& Figures for Letter Founders, Mathematical Instument
Makers, Steel Engravers, & all Arts -
N.B. Copper Plates neatly Printed on the
Shortest Notice.

Richard Austin (1756-1833), type-cutter, created the types for Bell & Stephenson's British Letter Foundry in 1788, as well as types for other foundries. In 1812, Austin produced the types known as Scotch Roman. He also perfected the revolutionary Porson Greek typeface of Cambridge University Press. He established the Imperial Letter Foundry in 1815. Richard Austin, "who changed the whole character of Type Founding from the old face style (as it is now termed), with its disproportionate letters and long s's, into the truly elegant characters of the present day" (James Mosley) was the father of modern English typefaces. To his everlasting credit, he killed the traditional f-like long "s" that bedevils modern readers of eighteenth century and earlier texts in english.

His son, Richard Turner Austin (1781-1842), was a prolific wood-cut engraver. It was once thought that Richard Austin, typeface designer, and Richard Austin, wood-cut engraver, were one and the same person. Alastair M. Johnston, in his new book, Transitional Faces, sets the record straight.

This is the first full-length study of the Austins and their place within British printing and publishing history. Based upon previously unpublished material, Johnston, the printer and publisher (of Poltroon Press in Berkeley, California), has written a rich, vibrant, and engaging account of the Austins, their times and the milieu within they lived and worked.

This exhaustive investigation, which includes 158 pages of text plus an illustrated survey of Richard Turner Austin's engravings (with 130 examples) and appendices totaling an additional 205 pages, might, as is so often the case with scholastic work on a somewhat obscure subject, be an arid affair, desiccating the frontal lobes of readers. Fortunately, Mr. Johnston (a contributor to Booktryst) is incapable of producing such a work. His analysis of type design and its particulars, which might otherwise cause eyes to glaze, is, in Johnston's narrative, enlivened by his liberal wash of colorful detail and vivid characterization of people and places. 

The book's title, Transitional Faces, refers to British printing during the Georgian era when type-designer Austin flourished. The British government, protective of industry, had prevented foreign craftsmen from working in the trade but their skill could not be ignored. The French were doing marvelous things and their influence upon type-design in Britain was enormous. Richard Austin's incorporation of French type aesthetics into British design, "began an era in English type founding (referred to as 'transitional' by Updike, II, 116, 142), a glorious but short-lived time of harmonious types that had the larger-on-the-body proportions of the Romain du roi with the modeling of Baskerville but with more color and fine serifs…'it represents in fact our first independent design,' said [Stanley] Morison, 'owing only its scale to continental models…the type possesses a harmony in serif formation as between roman and italic not possessed by the French type.'"

It's impossible to discuss the career of Richard Turner Austin, the wood-engraving son of Richard Austin, without surveying the work of the great Thomas Bewick and the world of eighteenth century wood-cut book illustrations. Johnston has, thankfully, devoted an introductory chapter to printed eighteenth century art to prime us on Austin Jr.

Because of Thomas Bewick's influence on wood-cut illustration, Richard Turner Austin is often presumed to have been a pupil or apprentice of his; Austin hewed closely to Bewick's style in his natural imagery. Indeed, many of Austin's unsigned blocks have been attributed to Bewick. and, too, much of Austin's early work copied stock blocks or the work of Bewick. For this reason, early historians neglected him.

But Austin Jr. made connections and was soon executing engravings after paintings by William Marshall Craig (c. 1765-1828). In 1819 he moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he worked consistently for the next ten years, his blocks, alas, unsigned. We know he did the work simply because, as Johnston points out, there were no alternative engravers who might have produced the scores of woodblocks that suddenly appeared in the "Athens of the North."

Yet by 1839, Richard Turner Austin's reputation and work were in critical decline. His wood-cuts, rarely signed, slowly fell from notice and he became a footnote in wood engraving history.

It's a direct line from Richard Austin Sr. to W.A. Dwiggins, the great twentieth century typeface designer. In 1939, Dwiggins modeled his Caledonia for linotype after Austin's Scotch Roman. Austin's Bell and Scotch Roman faces were major influences upon Matthew Carter's digital typefaces.

"Thus," as Johnston concludes, "the essence of Austin, diluted somewhat by modern technology, is still a part of our typographical experience."

With Transitional Faces Alastair Johnston has resurrected the lives of the father and son, and reevaluated their careers. The Austins now take their rightful place in the history of British printing and engraving.

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JOHNSTON, Alastair M. Transitional Faces. The Lives & Work of Richard Austin, Type-Cutter, & Richard Turner Austin, Wood-Engraver. Berkeley: Poltroon Press, 2013. First edition. Octavo. x, [2],, 387, [1] pp. Illustrated throughout. Burgundy cloth, gilt lettered. Illustrated endpapers. Dust jacket.

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Meet John Guttemberg, Printer

by Stephen J. Gertz

In 1657, London stationer William Lee issued the fifth (sixth) edition of Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives. of the Noble Greeks and Romans. In addition to the usual suspects, Lee added twenty biographies of people Plutarch never wrote a word about, including (in translations mostly by the playwright George Gerbier d’Ouvilly) Aristotle, Homer, Sappho, Charlemagne, Tamburlaine, Atabalipa King of Peru, and Johann Gutenberg, with a two-page paean celebrating his life and "the Excellency of the Art of Printing."

"Amongst the rarest and laudablest Inventions which were derived by the Ingenuity of man, we must needs confess, The Art of Printing may at present justly claim the best and highest esteem; whereby all the other Arts and Sciences are so plainly and accurately rendered unto us; and whereby two men, in one day, may dispatch and Print off more Books then several men could before have written in a whole year. This Art (as it is generally believed) was first invented in Moguntia, or Mentz, a City in Germany, in the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred forty and two, by John Guttemberg, a German Knight from honorable Family; who first of all did there make the experiment of the said Art, so did also make the first trial of that Ink which to this very day is used by the Printers: Although some other Writers do affirm that John Faustus, and Yves Shefey, two years before invented this said Art, and so gave them praise of it; And only say that this John Guttemberg, John Mantel, John Pres, Adolph Rusch, Peter Shesser, Martin Flache, Uldric Hen, John Froben, Adam Peter, Thomas Wolff, and others did all at once very much perfect this said Art of Printing, which they did spread throughout all Germany and the adjacent Countries. And indeed Conradus did use this Art at Rome, in the year fourteen hundred. In the beginning of which Profession on the grounds of it were known but to a very few persons; for at such times as they had any thing to Set, they brought their Characters with them in bags, and when they had done, they carried them back again. And in those daies, both the Printers, and such as did make the Letter-Moulds, were in great repute, wealthy and opulent, and reverenced as Noble personages, making a vast profit by the said Art.  But at present, by reason of the infinite multitude of Books which are printed, and that all men are permitted to profess that Science, although they have never so little insight in it; it so fals out, that both the composers and Printers, reap thereby neither profit no praise, but only imply their labour and time to the benefit of the Publick, with a very little profit or Thanks to themselves…"  

Encouraged "to venture upon a new and fifth impression,"  Lee, desirous to render it "both acceptable to the present Age, and famous to Posterity,"  added  the "quintessence" of André Thevet’s Pourtraits et vies des Hommes illustres Grecz, Latin, et Payens (Paris, 1584), as they were "the very marrow of his observations during his twenty three yeers travails and Peregrinations, throughout the chiefest and remotest parts in the world … (never as yet extant nor seen in English)."

Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch, first appearing in 1579 and immediately celebrated, was a major resource for Shakespeare, providing the background material for Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens, and Coriolanus. More than that, however,  North's "long passages of … magnificent prose" were so impressive that Shakespeare rendered them "into blank verse with little change" (F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion). Halliwell-Phillipps asserts of North's translation that “it is one of the books that can positively be said to have been in [Shakespeare's] own hands.”

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PLUTARCH.  The Lives of the noble Grecians & Romans, compared together by that grave learned Philosopher & Historiographer Plutarch of Chæronea. Translated out of Greek into French by James Amiot … With the Lives of Hannibal & Scipio African; translated out of Latin into French, by Charles del’Escluse, and out of French into English by Sir Thomas North, Knight. Hereunto are added the Lives of Epaminondas, of Philip of Macedon, of Dionysius the Elder, Tyrant of Sicilia, of Augustus Cæsar, of Plutarch, and of Seneca: with the Lives of nine other excellent Chieftains of Warre: collected out of Æmylius Probus, by S. G. S. and Englished by the aforesaid Translator. And now also in this Edition are further added, the Lives of twenty selected eminent Persons, of ancient and latter Times; translated out of the Work of that famous Historiographer to the King of France and Poland, Andrew Thevet …   London, Printed by Abraham Miller, and are to be sold by William Lee … 1657.

Folio, mostly in sixes, pp. [16], 443, 446-1031, [27], 76, [34], with an engraved title, dated 1656, designed by Francis Barlow, and integral engraved portrait vignettes.  Title printed in red and black. Separate title pages for ‘The Lives of Epaminondas [etc.]’, dated 1656, and for ‘Prosopographia: or some select Pourtraitures and Lives … by Andrew Thevet’, dated 1657 (mistakenly bound before the ‘Notes and Explanations’ at 3T1); with an advertisement leaf and thirty-four pages of index.

Wing P 2633.
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Image courtesy of Bernard Quaritch Ltd, currently offering this title, with our thanks.

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Henry Lemoine: The Last of the Walking Booksellers

by Alastair Johnston

The world of books has smaller worlds within it. In the already stifling cupboard of books about books there is a subset of books about printing (or the making of books) of which I am an asphyxionado. 

Of the many works in English on printing, most simply cribbed the text about the origin of the art preservative from earlier writers, particularly (before the eighteenth century) books written in German, Latin or Dutch. Those in English, like Moxon's Mechanick Exercises (London, 1683), were undecided about the origin of printing in Europe. Three centuries later, we are still unsure of what Gutenberg actually did to make his Bible.

Henry Lemoine's Typographical Antiquities, or History of the Art of Printing (London, 1797) contains a history of the origins, as well as a chronological list of the printers of England, Scotland, and Ireland, an account of Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill Press ("The institution of a printing-office at Lord Orford's seat at Strawberry Hill, is a worthy example to the nobility; and reflects more honour on the founder, than studs of horses bred from the most exact genealogy." p. 91), an essay on literary property, a checklist of English Bibles, an essay on paper and so on. Lemoine was also a printer and he dismisses the Dutch claims to the origin of printing by stating Laurence Coster printed from woodblocks, and he is confident in awarding the laurels to Gutenberg for casting moveable type. 

In his lifetime, Lemoine (1756-1812) was known as a compiler of tracts, with which London abounded at one time, and a frequent contributor of poetical pieces to the Gentleman's Magazine. He and his wife Ann were prolific. Roy Bearden White has compiled a bibliography of them both which will greatly aid further investigations, though many of Lemoine's journalistic efforts were unsigned. Lemoine published many narratives of voyage and adventure from Baron Munchausen to Fletcher Christian. He produced an edition of Fanny Hill after Cleland's death, but one of his biggest successes was with an anonymous pamphlet, The Cuckold's Chronicle, compiled from court records of trials for ravishment, imbecility, adultery, and the case of the missing testicles.

A friend, John McVey, stumbled upon a biographical sketch of Lemoine in John Davidson's Sentences and Paragraphs (London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1893, pp. 64–70). First Davidson describes the used book dealers who walk around in shabby greasy-looking broadcloth overcoats with oversize top hats and a black sack, "the last of the walking booksellers." The king of these anomalous dealers in "mouldy sheepskin, vellum and black-letter" is Henry Lemoine. Born to French immigrant parents who were Huguenots, he had been a writer, playwright, journalist, a baker, and a French teacher. He in fact passed himself off as a Frenchman in order to get a job teaching French but once he was found out was sacked -- with a good character. (So perhaps we should add "actor" to his accomplishments.) On receiving an inheritance he opened a bookstall and also dealt in medicines such as "bug-water" (DNB).

His lack of thrift -- "improvident and of too convivial habits"-- meant he was soon reduced to walking the streets of Holborn peddling books which he bought at one stall for sale at another. "With his long drooping nose, black sack, and slouching gait, he was often derided as a Jew old-clothes man." This is indeed how he appears in an engraving published in The New Wonderful Museum and Extraordinary Magazine, 1802.

Nevertheless, Lemoine was one of the best judges of an old book in England and was indeed something of a Hebrew scholar. He translated Lavater's Physiognomy, collaborated on a new edition of Culpeper's Herbal and edited three successive magazines, The Conjuror's Magazine, the Wonderful Magazine, and the Eccentric Magazine. The Conjuror's Magazine, or, Magical and Physiognomical Mirror, which ran from 1791 to 1793, took advantage of a parliamentary repeal of a law forbidding occult publications. It reprinted the plates from Lavater (pointing out to readers that if they continued buying the magazine they would eventually get the entire book "free" which otherwise would cost them several guineas), and included sections on astrology, apparitions & palmistry. 

He spun off some of his pieces into a book titled Visits from the World of Spirits (London, L. Wayland, 1791). The journal was succeeded in 1793 by The Wonderful Magazine, and Marvellous Chronicle of Extraordinary Productions, Events, and Occurrences, in Nature and Art -- a fantastic news magazine that ran for 60 weeks until 1795, "consisting entirely of such curious matters as come under the denominations of miraculous queer odd strange supernatural whimsical absurd out of the way and unaccountable." Again each number contained engraved plates, probably printed by Lemoine himself. The Eccentric Magazine ran for 2 volumes from 1812 and contained "Lives and Portraits of Remarkable Characters," but Lemoine died before the first issue appeared. As Davidson said, "He studied in the street and produced his copy in public-houses."

 

But to return to his Typographical Antiquities. Origin & History of the Art of Printing. There are several dramatically written paragraphs in Lemoine's account worth rereading today, viz:

"Some writers relate, that Faustus having printed off a considerable number of copies of the Bible, to imitate those which were commonly sold in MS. Fust undertook the sale of them at Paris, where the art of Printing was then unknown. As he sold his printed copies for 60 crowns, while the scribes demanded 500, this created universal astonishment; but when he produced copies as fast as they were wanted, and lowered the price to 30 crowns, all Paris was agitated. The uniformity of the copies increased the wonder; informations were given to the police against him as a magician; his lodgings were searched; and a great number of copies being found, they were seized: the red ink with which they were embellished, was said to be his blood; it was seriously adjudged that he was in league with the devil; and if he had not fled, most probably he would have shared the fate of those whom ignorant and superstitious judges condemned, in those days, for witchcraft; from thence arose the origin of the story of the Devil and Dr. Faustus" (page 7).

On page 100 Lemoine -- despite his last name -- brings up the superstitious priesthood again: 

"Before the invention of this DIVINE ART, Mankind were absorbed in the grossest ignorance, and oppressed under the most abject despotism of tyranny. The clergy, who before this aera held the key of all the learning in Europe, were themselves ignorant, though proud, presumptuous, arrogant, and artful; their devices were soon detected through the invention of Typography. Many of them, as it may naturally be imagined, were very averse to the progress of this invention; as well as the brief-men or writers, who lived by their manuscripts for the laity. They went so far as to attribute this blessed invention to the Devil; and some of them warned their hearers from using such diabolical books as were written with the blood of the victims who devoted themselves to Hell for the profit or fame of instructing others."

Bigmore and Wyman thought "the notices of contemporary printers worthy of perusal." They also cite his "Account of the Louvre Press" and "State of Printing in America" (reprinted in Chicago by D. C. McMurtrie in 1929) from the Gentleman's Magazine.

As we've seen, Lemoine was something of a newspaper man, suggesting his Typographical Antiquities was a compendium of some of his articles, including the histories of paper, engraving and etching. The second printing of 1813 drops the article on "the Adjudication of Literary Property," but the book is not from the same type-setting as the first printing (as Bigmore and Wyman assert). The first 110 pages are numbered in roman but after cx the typesetters switch to arabic numerals. Even more dramatic is a switch from old-face type with the long "s" to a modern typeface without it between pages 112 and 113:

As a coda, Lemoine included a poem on the "Invention of Letters," reprinted from an anonymous source in an American newspaper (which had no doubt lain tucked in a book for 40 years). The poem, dedicated to printer/author Samuel Richardson, had been written in 1758 by someone who knew Pope and had suggested to the great man "that it was peculiarly ungrateful in him, not to celebrate such a subject as the Invention of Letters, or to suffer it to be disgraced by a meaner hand." In short that is a warning of what we are about to get: the disgraceful effort of that meaner hand. The style is imitation Pope and the best parts are the footnotes by Lemoine which give us a crash course in the history of paper and parchment, and trivia such as (according to him) the words book and bark are the same in Latin (see pp. 150-1).

Lemoine lets the author have his say about Koster:

Ah! let not Faustus rob great Koster's name;
Like him* who since usurp'd Columbus' fame.

* The "him," in case you hadn't guest, is Americus Vesputius. (Lemoine corrects the author on Koster in another footnote.) Of course, Lemoine allows the poet free rein to bash the (Catholic) clergy:

Thus Mexico's plum'd envoys sent to court,
Of strange invaders a portray'd report,
But mental speculations so convey'd
Were wrapt in ambiguity and shade.
Such representatives, to meaning strain'd,
Complex conceptions, but in part explain'd;
Part by analogy was known, part guest,
And venal priests interpreted the rest.

Ultimately some of us will need a footnote to understand:

Now num'rous moons th'Italic tube descries,

Peoples the planets, and reveals the Skies.

-- "th'Italic Tube" refers to Galileo's telescope.
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Homer and the Fabulous Foulis Brothers Top the Charts With "Iliad" and "Odyssey"

by Stephen J. Gertz

In 1756-1758, Robert and Andrew the Younger, the Foulis brothers, printers in Glasgow, hooked up with Homer, a poet from Greece, and produced a number one hit, one of the great antiquarian golden oldies, critically acclaimed upon its release and since as one of the most esteemed volumes to ever make the rare book Top 40 - Printing.

"I give it a ten. It has great typography and you can dance with it" (Dick Clark, American Bookstand).

I'm with Dick, though I don't recommend swingin' 'n swayin' it to the Lindy Hop. The layout, margins, line spacing, font -  I can't understand a word on the page but I can't take my eyes off the leaves; drawn in and spellbound, at times I feel like I'm actually reading them. Aesthetically and practically it's  very easy on the eyes. It's no wonder people can't stop talking about it.

"Robert Foulis (1707-1776) and Andrew Foulis (1712-1775) were at the forefront of the print trade in 18th century Glasgow and they contributed greatly to the development of Enlightenment print culture in the city…The editions of the classics produced by the Foulis brothers were renowned for their textual accuracy and the beauty of their type. Their greatest publication achievement is said to be that of a folio edition of Homer (1756-58) which contemporaries recognised as a masterpiece of literary and typographical accuracy" (Young, John R. The Glasgow Story).

"The partnership of the Foulis brothers marked the most significant period for Glasgow in publishing and printing during the eighteenth century. They printed some 586 editions together during their active partnership, 1744–75, producing books at a rate which varied from nine in 1764 to forty-three in 1751, an average of almost seventeen a year. Their connections with the university formed the basis of their success, with works written or edited by Glasgow professors such as Francis Hutcheson, George Muirhead, James Moor, and William Leechman dominating the British authors, and classical texts required for studies in the college such as Cicero, Xenophon, Epictetus, and the poets of the Anacreonta, frequently reprinted or re-edited by the brothers...

"Of greatest significance, however, were the four volumes of the works of Homer issued in 1756–8 in folio...The Homer was financed by an informal group of professors at Glasgow led by William Rouat...The texts were printed in a new fount of Greek type designed and cut by the Glasgow typefounder Alexander Wilson. After three sets of corrections at the printers' expense, the text was proof-read, sheet by sheet, by professors Moor and Muirhead: the corrected proofs are now in the National Library of Scotland. Despite the importance of the edition for classical scholarship and the history of printing and publishing in the Enlightenment, the venture was a financial disaster for the brothers" (Oxford DNB).

"Edited by [University of Glasgow] Professors James Moor and George Muirhead, whose prefaces are dated Ides November 1756 (Illiad) and Ides May 1758 (Odyssey)...{It was] awarded the Silver Medal of the Select Society of Edinburgh in 1756 and 1757" (Gaskell).

"'One of the most splendid editions of Homer ever delivered to the world' says Harwood, 'and I am informed that its accuracy is equal to its magnificence.' The reader, on perusing the preface, will see with what pains this sumptuous work was executed; each sheet, before it was finally committed to the press, was six times corrected by various literary men" (Dibdin).

The copy at Cambridge appears to be that submitted for judgment as an example of fine typography. Within it is a manuscript note stating: "We are of the opinion this edition of Homer's Odyssey is entitled to the prize for the best printed & most correct Greek Book," apparently signed by two of the judges.

I had a copy with marvelous, eye-popping provenance pass through my hands. It had been originally owned by William Danby (1752-1833), the extravagantly wealthy, accomplished scholar and writer of Thoughts, Chiefly on Serious Subjects (1821), Ideas and Realities, or, Thoughts on Various Subjects (1827), Extracts from and observations on Cicero's dialogues De senectute and De amicitia (1829), and a translation of his Somnium Scipionis, with notes (1829), and Thoughts on Various Subjects (1831).

Later, Bloomsbury member, biographer and literary critic Lytton Strachey (1880-1932) possessed it.  The next owner was head of publishing house Secker & Warburg, Roger Senhouse (1899-1970),  who possessed Lytton Strachey.

In The Letters of Lytton Strachey, edited by Paul Levy (2005), it is revealed that Strachey and Senhouse had a torrid, long-term sado-masochistic love affair. With Senhouse the sadist, the two would enact an erotic recreation of Christ's crucifixion, Strachey blissfully absorbing the wounds. (Levy, Paul. Bloomsbury's Final Secret, in the Telegraph, March 14, 2005).

A video of that twisted tune has yet to surface on YouTube.

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HOMER. [Works in Greek] Tes Ton Homerou Illiadae… [et] Tes Tou Homerou Odysseias… [Transliterated from the Greek]. Rurus, Quid Virtus, et Quid Sapientia Possit, Util Proposuit Nobis Exemplar Ulyssem. Glasguae: In Aedibus Academicis, Excudebant Robertus et Andreas Foulis Academieae Typographi, 1756-58.

First edition. Four tomes in two folio volumes (12 7/8 x 8 in; 200 x 325 mm). [2, blank], 312; 336, [2, blank]; [2, blank], 297, [1]; 336, [2, blank] pp on fine laid paper watermarked Pro Patria. Separate title pages. Commonly lacking the general title ("Rarely found" - Gaskell).

Gaskell 319. ESTC T090250. Dibdin I, p. 385. Rothchild 2674.

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Images courtesy of Blackwell's Rare Books, with our thanks.

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