7. Lomazzo, Giovanni Paolo (Lomatius). [engraved title:—] A | TRACTE CONTAI=|NING THE ARTES | of curious Paintinge Caruinge & | Buildinge | written first in Italian by Jo: | Paul Lomatius painter of Milan | AND ENGLISHED BY | R. H. student in Physik | [motto.]
Impr. 21, as colophon: 1598: (sixes) la. 8o: pp. [24] + 119 + [1] + 218 + [2]: p. 11 beg. hardly bee able, 111 wise a master: English Roman. Contents:—p. (1) engraved title, see below: (3–4) dedication to sir Thomas Bodley, signed “Richard Haydocke,” New coll., Oxford, 24 Aug. 1598: (5–12) (the Translator) to the ingenuous Reader: (13–14) “Iohn Case D. of Physicke to his friende R. H. of New Colledge”: (15) “The titles of the bookes,” five in all: (17–23) “A table of the Chapters ...”: 1–7, “The preface to the worke” by Lomazzo: 9–11, “The division of the worke”: 13–119, and 1–218, the work: (1) Device and colophon.
See Wood’s Ath. Oxon., i. 678. Lomazzo’s Trattato dell’ arte de la pittura was published at Milan in 1584, and Haydocke’s Preface gives an account of its rarity in England. Only five out of the seven books of the original are here published. In the dedication the translator alludes to Bodley’s design of “erecting and restoring of this worthie Panbiblion or Temple of all the Muses,” the Bodleian.
The title is an elaborate engraving on metal, the words on an oval in the centre: at top “IO: PAOLO LOMAZZO:” surrounding his bust: on either side Juno and Apollo (?): on either side the oval, the arms of the University and of New College: below, in the centre a bust of the translator surmounted by his arms, between figures derived from classical mythology. In the book are thirteen full-page engravings marked A-I, K-N, and a profusion of woodcut ornaments. On the last page but one occurs the large device of the University arms, within a border: then the colophon: then a woodcut of the arms of New College between two Ws (William of Wykeham). By some confusion this book is dated 1605 by Bagford (Brit. Mus. MS. Harl. 5901, fol. 66).
8. Richard de Bury, bp. of Durham, d. 1345. PHILOBIBLON | RICHARDI | DUNELMENSIS | sive | DE AMORE LIBRORVM, ET INSTI-|TVTIONE BIBLIOTHECÆ, | tractatus pulcherrimus. | Ex collatione cum varijs manuscriptis edi-|tio jam secunda; | cui | Accessit appendix de manuscriptis Oxoniensibus. | Omnia hæc, | Opera & studio T. I. Novi Coll. in alma Academia | Oxoniensi Socij. [motto, preceded by “B. P. N.,” then woodcuts.]
Impr. 11: 1599: sm. 4o: pp. [8] + 62 + [10]: p. 11 beg. tiqui pro: Pica Roman. Contents:—p. (1) title: (3–6) Epistola dedicatoria to sir Thomas Bodley, “ex Musæo meo in Collegio Novo. Iulij. 6. 1599,” signed “Thomas James”: (7) “Vita ex Balæo”: 1–4, “Præfatio auctoris ad lectorem”: 5, “Capitula libri sequentis”: 7–62, the work in 20 chapters: (3–10) “Appendix de manuscriptis Oxoniensibus.”
Rare. See Wood’s Ath. Oxon., ii. 466. This is the first English edition of the first book on the love of books. The editio princeps is that of 1473 printed at Cologne: the next Spires, 1483 and Paris 1500. An account of these editions and of the known MSS. of the Philobiblon will be found in E. C. Thomas’s edition (Lond., 1888). The mysterious “B. P. N.” on the titlepage (followed by “Non quæro quod mihi vtile est, sed quod multis”) is explained by him as perhaps “Bibliothecae Praefectus Novae” or “Nostrae” or rather “Bono Publico Natus:” it has been suggested that they may stand for “Beati Pauli Norma,” alluding to 1 Cor. x. 33. The Editor explains that it was intended that the work should be followed by an Appendix containing a catalogue of all MSS. at Oxford, a purpose which seriously delayed the issue of the book. In fact the whole of the text of the Philobiblon was printed off in 1598, as is proved by a single copy still preserved in the Bodleian dated in that year but containing only the titlepage, (identical in type with the published one, except in one figure of the date) and pp. 1 to 62 + [2 blank]. As it is, the Appendix only contains an alphabetical list, without references, of the authors of which manuscripts were preserved at Oxford: the intended catalogue appears in the Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis, Lond., 1600. The preface alludes to the founding of the Bodleian, but dr. James had not yet been appointed Librarian. There is no sufficient ground for supposing with mr. Thomas (ut supra, p. lv) and mr. Macray (Annals of the Bodleian, 2nd ed., p. 25) that the single advance copy of 1598 implies an issue or edition of that year.
9. Roche, Robert. EVSTATHIA | or the | CONSTANCIE OF SVSANNA | CONTAINING THE PRESER-|vation of the Godly, subversion of the wic-|ked, precepts for the aged, instructi-|ons for youth, pleasure | with profitte. | Penned by R. R. G. [motto, then woodcuts.]
Impr. 19a: 1599: (eights) 12o: pp. [128], signn. A-H8: sign. B 1r beg. Then clims: Pica Roman. Contents:—sign. A 1r, title: A 2r-A 2v, dedication to “Mistris M.B. wife to ... D.B. Esquier,” signed Robert Roche: A 3r-A 4r “To the Reader,” a poem: A 4v-A 5v, “Coricæus to the Author,” a poem signed “C. A. R.”: A 5v-B 1v, “An induction to the story”: B 2r-H 7r, the poem: H 7r, “Faultes escaped.”
The Bodleian copy, which belonged to Robert Burton, is perhaps unique. See Wood’s Ath. Oxon., i. 682, where extracts are given from this poem, which is chiefly in a peculiar 7-line stanza, ABABBCC. G. on the titlepage is no doubt Gentleman.