Better than this is the frank plea that misprints in a learned book are very hard to avoid, put forward by Anima Mia at the end of a book by Raphael Regius containing discussions on a letter of Pliny’s and on passages in Persius and Quintilian:
Si quid forte litterarum immutatione: transpositione: inuersione omissione offenderis studiose lector: id non ulli negligentiae sed correctionis difficultati ascribas: quoniam nihil verborum praetermissum esse depraehendis: rogat Gulielmus Tridinensis cognomento Anima Mia: cuius opera hoc opusculum Venetiis fuit descriptum. Principe Augustino Barbadico decimo Calendas Iunias. M.cccc.lxxxx.
Studious reader, if by chance you find a stumbling-block in any alteration, transposal, inversion, or omission of letters, ascribe it not to any carelessness, but to the difficulty of correction, since you find that none of the words have been omitted. This is the prayer of Guglielmo of Tridino, called Anima Mia, by whose exertion this little work has been set forth at Venice, when Agostino Barbadico was doge, on May 23, 1490.
From the colophon of the Lecture of Antonius de Alexandro “super secundo codicis Iustiniani,” printed at Naples by Sixtus Riessinger in 1473-74, we learn, though only by mysterious hints, that at least some printers had other enemies besides war and pestilence to contend against. This colophon appears to have been written by the literary partner in the firm, Francesco Tuppo, since no one but himself would have used the Chinese humility of the phrase “inter trecentos studentes minimus.” From the books which he took up, Tuppo must have been a man of some culture; but his Latin, if we may judge by this colophon, was not his strong point.
Finis huius utilissime lecture ordinarie codicis Iustiniani Almani In florenti studio Neapolitano impresse per expertissimum ac clarum Sixtum Riessinger Almanum, qui inter sua aduersa floret uiret atque claret Nec perfidos maliuolos ac uersutos existimat maiora perficiet [sic] ad gloriam eterni Dei et felicitatem Ferdinandi Regis patrie. Et licet non miniis apparet ornata Attamen claret decisionibus et singularibus iurium ciuilis et poli ut lector studendo doctissimus perfici poterit mendisque caret. Nam summis uigiliis et laboribus fideliter correcta est per Franciscum Tuppi Partenopensem tanti clarissimi utriusque iuris interpretis Antonii de Alexandro legum perule [sic][6] inter trecentos studentes minimus [sic]. Qui una cum fido sodali Sixto hanc preclaram et lucidam lecturam de propriis sumptibus sumpserunt [sic] Finieruntque xxi. die mensis Februarii Anni .M.cccc.lxxiiii. Feliciter. Amen.
The end of this very useful ordinary exposition of the Codex of Justinian the German, printed in the flourishing University of Naples by the most expert and renowned Sixtus Riessinger, a German, who, amid his obstacles, flourishes, thrives, and wins renown, nor thinks that traitors, malignants, and shifty rogues will accomplish more for the glory of Eternal God and the welfare of the country of King Ferdinand. And although it appears unadorned by red printing, yet it is clearly set forth with decisions and single points of the civil and heavenly laws, so that a reader by studying it may be able to become very learned. Moreover, it is free from errors, for it has been faithfully corrected with the utmost watchfulness and toil by Francesco Tuppo of Naples, the least among the three hundred students of that so renowned interpreter of both codes, Antonius de Alexandro. He and his trusty partner, Sixtus, at their own cost have taken up this noble and lucid exposition and have brought it successfully to an end on the twenty-first day of February, 1474.
One would like to hear something more about the traitors, malignants, and shifty rogues (perfidos, maliuolos ac versutos) against whom the colophon declaims; but I have failed to discover any other references to them. The phrase “cum fido sodali,” used of Tuppo’s relations to Riessinger, raises the question as to whether any real partnership existed between them. In the colophons to three other books their names appear conjointly; three more of later date (1480-89), of which Riessinger appears to have been the actual printer, are stated to have been printed by Tuppo. The point is of some little interest as possibly throwing some light on the vext question of who were the “fidelissimi Germani” who printed Tuppo’s Aesop in 1485, and also in the same year the account of the process of King Ferdinand against his rebellious nobles. As to this Mr. Proctor wavered between the claims of Johann Tresser and Martin of Amsterdam on the one hand, and “Matthias of Olmutz and his German workmen” on the other. (See his Index, p. 450, and “CCC Notable Books,” pp. 107 sq.) But Riessinger also was a German, and from his relations both to Tuppo and to the king (of whom he calls himself, in the “Super feudis” of Andreas de Ysernia in 1477, the “devotus atque fidelis servus”) seems to have some claim to consideration. The phrase “fidelissimi Germani” is in itself a very curious one, as it leaves us wondering whether they were “fidelissimi” in the abstract, or to one another, or to the king. If to one another, we may find a parallel in the frequency with which John of Cologne and Manthen of Gerretzem proclaim their loyalty to each other. Thus in their first dated book, the Sallust of 23d March, 1474, we find them writing:
Haec Crispi Sallustii opera quam optime emendata Venetiis fuere impressa, ductu et impensa Iohannis Colonie Agripinensis, necnon Iohannis Manthen de Gherretsem, qui una fideliter uiuunt. Anno a natali Christi M.cccc.lxxiiii. die xxiii Martii.
These works of Crispus Sallustius, most excellently corrected, were printed at Venice under the guidance and at the expense of Johann of Köln and also of Johann Manthen of Gherretsem, who loyally live together. In the year from the birth of Christ 1474, on the twenty-third day of March.
As another example we may take their Bartolus of 1476, where a phrase of the same kind is followed by another of some interest: