[G] This book was printed at Bolt Court during the apprenticeship of the printer of this edit. of Biblio., who speaking from remembrance, ventures to suggest that the above remark is rather too strong—although there was confessedly a great deal of trouble in procuring good vellum. He believes only one copy was done; it was the property of Alexander Davidson, Esq. Banker, and, being in his library in Ireland, when the mansion was burned down, it was destroyed. He had insured it for £600—the Insurance office disputed his claim, and a trial at Dublin took place. The late Mr. Bensley was subpœnaed to give evidence of its value, but, being reluctant to go, he persuaded the parties that Warwick, one of his pressmen, who worked it off, was a better witness; he accordingly went, his evidence succeeding in establishing Mr. Davidson's claim. This same Warwick worked off many of the splendid specimens of typography mentioned in Bibliomania, being one of the very best workmen in the Printing business—particularly in wood-cuts. He afterwards became private printer to the late Sir Egerton Bridges, Bart., at Lee Priory—and is long since dead.
Lis. I could go on, 'till midnight, indulging my wishes of having favourite books printed upon vellum leaves; and at the head of these I would put Crammer's Bible for I want scholarship sufficient to understand the Complutensian Polyglott of Cardinal Ximenes.[447]
[447] See pages [160], [407], ante.
Berlin. So much for the Vellum Symptom. Proceed we now to the sixth: which upon looking at my memoranda, I find to be the First Editions. What is the meaning of this odd symptom?
Lysand. From the time of Ancillon to Askew, there has been a very strong desire expressed for the possesssion of original or first published editions[448] of works; as they are in general superintended and corrected by the author himself, and, like the first impressions of prints are considered more valuable. Whoever is possessed with a passion for collecting books of this kind, may unquestionably be said to exhibit a strong symptom of the Bibliomania: but such a case is not quite hopeless, nor is it deserving of severe treatment or censure. All bibliographers have dwelt on the importance of these editions[449] for the sake of collation with subsequent ones; and of detecting, as is frequently the case, the carelessness displayed by future editors. Of such importance is the first edition Shakspeare[450] considered, on the score of correctness, that a fac-simile reprint of it has been recently published. In regard to the Greek and Latin Classics, the possession of these original editions is of the first consequence to editors who are anxious to republish the legitimate text of an author. Wakefield, I believe, always regretted that the first edition of Lucretius had not been earlier inspected by him. When he began his edition, the Editio Princeps was not (as I have understood) in that storehouse of almost every thing which is exquisite and rare in ancient and modern classical literature—need I add the library of Earl Spencer?[451]
[448] All German and French bibliographers class these first editions among rare books; and nothing is more apt to seduce a noviciate in bibliography into error than the tempting manner in which, by aid of capital or italic types, these Editiones Primariæ or Editiones Principes are set forth in the most respectable catalogues published abroad as well as at home. But before we enter into particulars, we must not forget that this sixth sympton of the Bibliomania has been thus pungently described in the poetical strains of an "aspirant!"
SIXTH MAXIM.
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Who of Editions recks the least, But, when that hog, his mind would feast Fattens the intellectual beast With old, or new, without ambition,— I'll teach the pig to soar on high, (If pigs had pinions, by the bye) How'er the last may satisfy, The bonne bouche is the "First Edition." Bibliosophia; p. vi. |
These first editions are generally, with respect to foreign works, printed in the fifteenth or in the early part of the sixteenth century: and indeed we have a pretty rich sprinkling of a similar description of first editions executed in our own country. It is not, therefore, without justice that we are described, by foreign bibliographers, as being much addicted to this class of books: "With what avidity, and at what great prices, this character of books is obtained by the Dutch, and especially by the English, the very illustrious Zach. Conrad ab Uffenbach shews, in the preface to the second volume of his catalogue." Vogt; p. xx., edit. 1793. There is a curious and amusing article in Bayle (English edition, vol i., 672, &c.) about the elder Ancillon, who frankly confessed that he "was troubled with the Bibliomania, or disease of buying books." Mr. D'Israeli says that he "always purchased first editions, and never waited for second ones," but I find it, in the English Bayle, note D, "he chose the best editions." The manner in which Ancillon's library was pillaged by the Ecclesiastics of Metz (where it was considered as the most valuable curiosity in the town) is thus told by Bayle: "Ancillon was obliged to leave Metz: a company of Ecclesiastics, of all orders, came from every part, to lay hands on this fine and copious library, which had been collected with the utmost care during forty years. They took away a great number of the books together; and gave a little money, as they went out, to a young girl, of twelve or thirteen years of age, who looked after them, that they might have it to say they had paid for them. Thus Ancillon saw that valuable collection dispersed, in which, as he was wont to say, his chief pleasure and even his heart was placed!"—Edit. 1734. A pleasant circumstance, connected with our present subject, occurred to the Rev. Dr. Charles Burney. At a small sale of books which took place at Messrs. King and Lochée's, some few years ago, the Doctor sent a commission, for some old grammatical treatises; and calling with Mr. Edwards to see the success of the commission, the latter, in the true spirit of bibliomaniacism, pounced upon an anciently-bound book, in the lot, which turned out to be—nothing less than the first edition of Manilius by Regiomontanus: one of the very scarcest books in the class of those of which we are treating! By the liberality of the purchaser, this primary bijou now adorns the noble library of the Bishop of Ely.
[449] An instance of this kind may be adduced from the first edition of Fabian, printed in 1516; of which Chronicle Messrs. Longman, Hurst, and Co. have just published a new edition, superintended by Mr. H. Ellis, and containing various readings from all the editions at the foot of the text. "The antiquary," says the late Mr. Brand, "is desired to consult the edition of Fabian, printed by Pynson, in 1516, because there are others, and I remember to have seen one in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, with a continuation to the end of Queen Mary, 1559, in which the language is much modernized." Shakspeare, edit. 1803, vol. xviii., pp. 85, 86. See also what has been before said (p. 233.) of an after edition of Speed.