Books and their makers during the Middle Ages

by George Haven Putnam

Milan.

—During the fifteenth century, Italy presents a curiously complex and varied series of pictures and conditions. We find, together with constantly recurring civil strife, successive wars of invasion from the North and from the East, and in the train of the frequent armies, those inevitable camp followers, pestilence, famine, and misery. To the contests against the French and German invaders and the strifes between states and cities, were added schism and discord in the Church itself, and there were long periods during which pope was contending against anti-pope for the right to rule the world as the infallible head of an infallible church. Yet these years, when the land was troubled by schism and devastated by strife and pestilence, were years during which the cities of Italy were becoming rich with an active and prosperous trade; while it was also at this time that the art of Italy brought forth its greatest production and that the development of its literature made most important advances. The vitality of the people was so exuberant, its productive force so enormous, that notwithstanding the frightful waste caused by war and pestilence, its energies were still sufficient for some of the greatest of artistic creations, for active and scholarly work in the new learning and literature, and for a sharp competition for the leadership of the world’s commerce and industries. A typical example of the life and strife of the time is afforded by Milan, the capital of Lombardy. Its position as the northernmost of the great cities and in the centre of the open territory of the plains, exposed it to the first attacks of invaders from across the Alps, while the ambition of the rulers and of the people kept it in frequent strife with its Italian rivals. Its trade seems to have continued active, however, (except when armies were actually at its gates) and while in art more important work was done in Florence, the first steps in the new literature, that is, in the literature connected with printing, were taken in Lombardy.

The first printing in Milan was done in 1469 by Philip of Lavagna, who was followed in 1470 by Antonio Zarotus. In the printing of books Milan holds precedence, therefore, over all the towns of Italy except Subiaco and Rome, antedating Venice by about a year. The publishing undertakings of the Lombardy capital never, however, rivalled in importance those of Venice. In 1476, Paravisinus, printed an edition of the Greek Grammar of Laskaris, the first volume printed in Europe in Greek characters. In the previous volumes containing Greek text, this had been printed in Latin characters. The editor of the Grammar was Demetrius, a refugee from Crete. He was also the editor of the first edition in Greek of Homer. The first Missal was printed by Zarotus in 1475.

While in Rome the work of printing was begun by a German and in Venice by a Frenchman, the first printers in Milan were native Italians. Among the earlier of the Lombard printer-publishers, we find the name of Alexander Minutianus, a learned professor, who devoted himself to the editing of a valuable series of Latin classics, and whose publishing activities extended over a term of twenty years. Minutianus published in 1498-99, in four folio volumes, the first complete edition of Cicero. The relations of Milan with the cities north of the Alps were more intimate at this time than those of any other Italian city, and it was natural, therefore, that as the printing business in Lombardy increased in importance, German printers should begin to seek employment there. The first whose name is recorded was Waldorfer (or Valdarfer) from Regensburg, whose work began in 1474, and who brought with him fonts of Gothic type. Waldorfer printed an edition of Pliny’s Letters and a selection of the Orations of Cicero. These were followed by the Commentary of Servius on Virgil, and by the first issue in print of the famous Decameron of Boccaccio. The Decameron had been written in 1353, and had, therefore, waited 120 years for a publisher. In 1493, Henricus Germanus and Sebastian Pontremulo printed the first Greek edition of Isocrates. In Milan, however, work in law, science, and medicine constituted a more important proportion of the earlier publications than in Venice or in Rome. The De Honate Brothers were printing as early as 1472, works in jurisprudence, and Frommann is of opinion that before 1480 several firms were devoting their presses exclusively to the departments of law and science. In 1472, a company was formed for the printing and publishing of books, probably the first publishing association in existence. There were at first five members or associates, as follows:

Antonio Zarotus, a printer from Parma; Gabriel degli Orsoni, a priest; Colla Montana, an instructor in the High School (he was concerned some years later in the murder of the Duke Galeazzo Maria); Pavero de’ Fontana, a professor of Latin, afterwards editor of Horace; and Pedro Antonio de’ Burgo, of Castiglione, a lawyer. Subsequently a sixth associate was added, Nicolao, a physician and a brother of the last named.

The Association was organised for a term of three years and its purpose was stated to be the instituting of a printing-office, with not less than four presses, and the carrying on of a book-manufacturing and publishing business. The capital was to be contributed in equal shares by four of the associates, the printer, Zarotus, investing no money, but contributing his knowledge of the business and undertaking its general management. The printer was to receive one third of the net proceeds, and the remaining two thirds were to be divided equally among his four associates. From the printer’s share were to be repaid the first expenditures contributed by the other four. The subsequent expenditures were to be met by the sales of the books. The person acting as corrector for the press, usually one of the scholarly associates, secured as his compensation one or two copies of the work corrected.

The selection of the books to be printed was to be made by the unanimous decision of the whole board, and the selling price was also to be fixed by the board. The organisation was to remain secret, and all employees were to take an oath of secrecy and obedience. Each member bound himself to give no council or aid to any other publishing concern and to print no work with another printer except under the permission of his associates. At the termination of the agreement, the printer was to have a right to purchase at a valuation the presses and the manuscripts.

The capitalist of the concern was the lawyer Antonio de’ Burgo, and he found the funds (100 ducats) with which the first operations were initiated. Under a supplementary agreement, the lawyer Burgo and his brother the physician assumed for their individual account one half of the rent of the premises and purchased three additional presses. These presses were kept at work exclusively in the production of a series of works in the departments of law and medicine. The printer Zarotus took charge of the manufacture of these books for the brothers Burgo, in addition to those printed for the Association. The editorial work in selecting the material and in preparing them for the press was cared for by the Burgos, who also appear to have attended to the publishing details.

The brothers paid over to the treasury of the Association twenty-five ducats for the use of the plant (type, etc.) outside of the presses, and were to pay also one fourth of the proceeds of the sales of their series. Each associate was also to receive a copy of each book printed.

The brothers agreed to print no books excepting in the departments of canon and civil law and of medicine, and the Association was to include in its list no works in these departments. The penalty for infringing this provision was fixed at 200 ducats.