'This most elegant and useful work on architecture of Leo Baptista Albertus of Florence, a man of great distinction, was printed with great accuracy at Paris at the Golden Sun in the street of St. Jacques, at the expense of Master Berthold Rembolt and Louis Hornken, who live in the same street, at the sign of the Three Crowns, near St. Benedict, A.D. 1512, 23rd day of August.'
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ITINERARIVM PROVINCIARUM OMNIUM ANTONINI AUGUSTI, CUM FRAGMENTO EIUSDEM, NECNON INDICE HAUD QUAQUAM ASPERNANDO.—CUM PRIVILEGIO, NE QUIS TEMERE HOC AB HINC DUOS ANNOS IMPRIMAT.—Venale habetur ubi impressum est, in domo Henrici Stephani, e regione Scholæ decretorum, Parrhisiis.
Sixteenmo (printed as 16s.); 120 leaves (signatures A to T), plus 8 preliminary leaves. [1512.] Printed in black and red.
The volume begins with this dedicatory epistle:—
Geofroy Tory of Bourges to Philibert Babou, most modest of men, heartiest greeting.[216]
The 'Itinerarium,' most illustrious of men, which for many years had lain in almost entire neglect, I first received four years ago from a friend whom I must ever cherish, Christophe de Longueil, who is beyond question a scholar of the highest standing in all branches of polite learning. He gave it to me that I might make a copy of it. It had occurred to me to send to you from Paris to Tours a copy which, though written in my own hand, was not wholly without elegance of form. I had given it to a man to bring to you whose name I purposely spare, but he, regardless alike of both of us and of his trust, quite shamelessly made a present of it to some one else. Thus cheated of the fruit of my labour, I was preparing to make for you another copy, when Longueil himself, who had formerly brought the original from Picardy, and, as I have said, had given it to me, having recently come to Paris from Poictiers, urged me to have the work printed. This I have done, having arranged the names of the towns separately and in order, and also added in the proper places some matter taken from another manuscript. I have also made an index, to facilitate the finding of the name of any town or place in the whole work. Some perhaps will wonder at the style of the work, and also occasionally in places at the Latinity. The style, however, will receive sufficient approval from the student, while the Latinity, in consideration of the early time in which the work was written, will be condoned by the well-disposed reader. I should have been disposed to make a number of emendations, using for the purpose Ptolemy, Strabo, Dionysius, Mela, Pliny, Solinus, and some others who are not at all to be despised, but out of regard for the venerable author and in the desire to keep the manuscript, which is very old, unchanged, I determined to make no alterations. I am waiting for my friend Longueil to subject it some day to his scrutinizing study, or for some Hermolaus to apply his exacting file. One thing there is here which I shall not hesitate to touch: the author's name in the manuscript was, in my judgement, wrong, for it is written 'Antonius Augustus.' Hermolaus, a man of culture withal, calls it in a number of places in his Corrections to Pliny, 'Antoninus.' Those who read will see for themselves. In the text I have followed the manuscript itself; in the title of the book I have followed Hermolaus. The fruit of my labour, such as it is, I dedicate, as in duty bound, to you personally, in a spirit abounding in gratitude. Accept it, I pray, with the favour with which you are accustomed to accept all good things, and allow the studious to pass, under your guidance, with this Itinerary in hand, through a thousand famous cities. Farewell, most cultured patron of my studies.
Paris, near the College Coqueret, August 19, 1512.
CIVIS.
Then comes a letter from the publisher to the reader:—
Tory to the Reader, greeting.[217]
In order, gentle reader, that you may be able to use this 'Itinerarium' to better advantage, you must be advised that whatever you find marked with a red virgule was larger in number in the old manuscript than in the other which is more recent. Words which had a different reading in the recent manuscript have small red letters printed above in the proper places. Whenever the sign (˄) occurs between words, a word or number should be marked above or at the side by the same sign. The sign 'mpm.,' so written, also frequently occurs in the text, and signifies 'milia plus minus.' It was written thus so that the reader might not be wearied by the frequent repetition of the long form. In the index you will sometimes find the letter b alone, either following or between the page-numbers: this signifies that the word in question is found at least twice on the same page. Pay attention, therefore, and kindly see to it that in case you notice any who are displeased with my work, you may say to yourself with reference to them that Persian saying: 'that they may see virtue, and pine away leaving it behind.' I write this because at the time of printing there were some who, understanding nothing of this sort, condemned the matter according to their usual practice. Farewell and live long in happiness.
CIVIS.
Next to this comes a summary of the life of Antoninus, and, lastly, some verses by the Burgundian Gérard de Vercel, in laudation of Tory and against poor printers. Here are the verses:—