TITLE PAGE, LYONS, 1541
This edition, printed in Lyons, France, in 1541, by Sebastian Gryphius is said to have been pirated from the Torinus edition given at Basel in the same year. Early printers stole copiously from one another, frequently reproduced books with hundreds of illustrations with startling speed. Gryphius corrected Torinus’ spelling of “P” [Bartholomæus] Platina, but note the spelling of “Lvg[v]dvni” (Lyons). Inscription by a contemporary reader over the griffin: “This [book] amuses me! Why make fun of me?”
Strange enough, there is another edition of this work, bearing the same editor’s name, printed at Lyons, France, in the same year. This edition, printed by Gryphius, bears the abbreviated title as follows:
NO. 6, A.D. 1541, LYONS
Cælii || Apitii Svm || mi Advlatricis || Medicinæ Artificis, || De re Culinaria libri || Decem || B. Platinæ Cremonen || sis De Tuenda ualetudine, Natura rerum & Popinæ || scientia Libri X, || Pauli Æginetæ De Facultatibus Alimentorum Tractatus, || Albano Torino Inter || prete.
The lower center of the title page is occupied by the Gryphius printer’s device, a griffin standing on a box-like pedestal, supported by a winged globe. On the left of the device: “virtute duci,” on the right: “comite fortuna”; directly underneath: “Apvd Seb. Gryphivm, Lvgvdvni [sic], 1541.” Sm. 8vo. Pages numbered, commencing with verso of title from 2-314. Sheets lettered same as Basel edition; on verso of title “Katalogos” etc. exactly like Basel. Page 3 commences with the same epistola dedicatoria. This dedication and the entire corpus of the book is printed in an awkward Italic type, except the captions which are in 6 pt. and 8 pt. Roman. The book is quite an unpleasant contrast with the fine Antiqua type and the generous margins of the Basel edition. Some woodcut initials but of small interest. The index, contrary to Basel, is in the back. The last page shows another printer’s device, differing from that on the title, another griffin.
This edition, though bearing Platina’s correct initial, B., has the fictitious title given to his work by Torinus, who probably possessed one of the earliest editions of Platina’s De honesta Voluptate, printed without a title page.
Altogether, this Lyons edition looks very much like a hurried job, and we would not be surprised to learn that it was pirated from the Basel edition.