[342] From a memorial presented by these printers to Sixtus IV. in 1472 we ascertain some facts about their industry. They had at that date printed in all 12,495 volumes. It was their custom to issue 265 copies each edition; the double of that number for Virgil, Cicero's separate works, and theological books in request. Cantù, Lett. It. p. 112. See Cantù, p. 110, for details of the earliest Latin books.
[344] It is supposed that the earliest paper factory established in Italy was at Fabriano. Colle, a little town near Volterra, made paper from a remote period; by a deed, dated March 6, 1377, now preserved in the Florentine Archivio Diplomatico, one Colo da Colle rented a fall of water there et gualcheriam ad faciendas cartas for twenty years. Both places are still celebrated for their paper mills.
[345] Sansovino, in his Famiglie Illustri, after giving a fabulous pedigree of the Pio family, dates their signorial importance from the reign of Frederick II.
[346] Executed for the Church of the Cordeliers by Paulus Pontius.
[347] Poliziano's epigram addressed to these earliest Greek printers may be quoted here:
|
Qui colis Aonidas, Grajos quoque volve libellos; Namque illas genuit Græcia, non Latium. En Paravisinus quantâ hos Dionysius arte Imprimit, en quanto cernitis ingenio! Te quoque, Demetri, ponto circumsona Crete Tanti operis nobis edidit artificem. Turce, quid insultas? tu Græca volumina perdis; Hi pariunt: hydræ nunc age colla seca! |
[348] See Didot's Alde Manuce, p. 417, the passage beginning 'Vix credas.' In the Latin preface to the Thesaurus Cornucopiæ et Horti Adonidis, 1495, Aldo complains that he has not been able to rest for one hour during seven years.
[349] 'Tot illico oborta sunt impedimenta malorumque invidiâ et domesticorum καὶ ταῖς τῶν καταράτων καὶ δραπετευόντων δούλων ἐπιβούλαις.' Preface to the Poetæ Christiani Veteres, 1501. Again in the 'monitum' of the same, 'quater jam in ædibus nostris ab operariis et stipendiariis in me conspiratum et duce malorum omnium matre avaritiâ quos Deo adjuvante sic fregi ut valde omnes pœniteat suæ perfidiæ.'
[350] The French publishers of Lyons, the Giunti of Rome, and Soncino of Fano, were particularly troublesome. Didot has extracted some curious information about their tricks as well as Aldo's exposure of them. Pp. 167, 482-486.