Among the men who first helped to clear away the rubbish that impeded the progress of the student, was the learned and modest Conrad Gesner; at once a scholar, a philosopher, and a bibliographer: and upon whom Julius Scaliger, Theodore Beza, and De Thou, have pronounced noble eulogiums.[101] His Bibliotheca Universalis was the first thing, since the discovery of the art of printing, which enabled the curious to become acquainted with the works of preceding authors: thus kindling, by the light of such a lamp, the fire of emulation among his contemporaries and successors. I do not pretend to say that the Bibliotheca of Gesner is any thing like perfect, even as far as it goes: but, considering that the author had to work with his own materials alone, and that the degree of fame and profit attached to such a publication was purely speculative, he undoubtedly merits the thanks of posterity for having completed it even in the manner in which it has come down to us. Consider Gesner as the father of bibliography; and if, at the sale of Malvolio's busts, there be one of this great man, purchase it, good Lisardo, and place it over the portico of your library.
[101] His Bibliotheca, or Catalogus Universalis, &c., was first printed in a handsome folio volume at Zurich, 1545. Lycosthyne put forth a wretched abridgement of this work, which was printed by the learned Oporinus, in 4to., 1551. Robert Constantine, the lexicographer, also abridged and published it in 1555, Paris, 8vo.; and William Canter is said by Labbe to have written notes upon Simler's edition, which Baillet took for granted to be in existence, and laments not to have seen them; but he is properly corrected by De La Monnoye, who reminds us that it was a mere report, which Labbe gave as he found it. I never saw Simler's own editions of his excellent abridgement and enlargement of it in 1555 and 1574; but Frisius published it, with great improvements, in 1583, fol., adding many articles, and abridging and omitting many others. Although this latter edition be called the edit. opt. it will be evident that the editio originalis is yet a desideratum in every bibliographical collection. Nor indeed does Frisius's edition take away the necessity of consulting a supplement to Gesner, which appeared at the end of the Bibliothéque Françoise of Du Verdier, 1584. It may be worth stating that Hallevordius's Bibliotheca Curiòsa, 1656, 1687, 4to., is little better than a supplement to the preceding work.
The Pandects of Gesner, 1548, fol. are also well worth the bibliographer's notice. Each of the 20 books, of which the volume is composed, is preceded by an interesting dedicatory epistle to some eminent printer of day. Consult Baillet's Jugemens des Savans, vol. ii. p. 11. Bibl. Creven. vol. v. p. 278; upon this latter work more particularly; and Morhof's Polyhistor. Literar. vol. i. 197, and Vogt's Catalog. Libr. Rarior., p. 164: upon the former. Although the Dictionnaire Historique, published at Caen, in 1789, notices the botanical and lexicographical works of Gesner, it has omitted to mention these Pandects: which however, are uncommon.
Lis. All this is very well. Proceed with the patriarchal age of your beloved bibliography.
Lysand. I was about resuming, with observing that our Bale speedily imitated the example of Gesner, in putting forth his Britanniæ Scriptores;[102] the materials of the greater part of which were supplied by Leland. This work is undoubtedly necessary to every Englishman, but its errors are manifold. Let me now introduce to your notice the little work of Florian Trefler, published in 1560;[103] also the first thing in its kind, and intimately connected with our present subject. The learned, it is true, were not much pleased with it; but it afforded a rough outline upon which Naudæus afterwards worked, and produced, as you will find, a more pleasing and perfect picture. A few years after this, appeared the Erotemata of Michael Neander;[104] in the long and learned preface to which, and in the catalogue of his and of Melancthon's works subjoined, some brilliant hints of a bibliographical nature were thrown out, quite sufficient to inflame the lover of book-anecdotes with a desire of seeing a work perfected according to such a plan: but Neander was unwilling, or unable, to put his design into execution. Bibliography, however, now began to make rather a rapid progress; and, in France, the ancient writers of history and poetry seemed to live again in the Bibliotheque Françoise of La Croix du Maine and Du Verdier.[105] Nor were the contemporaneous similar efforts of Cardona to be despised: a man, indeed, skilled in various erudition, and distinguished for his unabating perseverance in examining all the mss. and printed books that came in his way. The manner, slight as it was, in which Cardona[106] mentioned the Vatican library, aroused the patriotic ardor of Pansa; who published his Bibliotheca Vaticana, in the Italian language, in the year 1590; and in the subsequent year appeared the rival production of Angelus Roccha, written in Latin, under the same title.[107] The magnificent establishment of the Vatican press, under the auspices of Pope Sixtus V. and Clement VIII. and under the typographical direction of the grandson of Aldus,[108] called forth these publications—which might, however, have been executed with more splendour and credit.
[102] The first edition of this work, under the title of "Illustrium maioris Britanniæ Scriptorum, hoc est, Anglæ, Cambriæ, ac Scotiæ summarium, in quasnam centurias divisum, &c.," was printed at Ipswich, in 1548, 4to., containing three supposed portraits of Bale, and a spurious one of Wicliffe. Of the half length portrait of Bale, upon a single leaf, as noticed by Herbert, vol. iii. 1457, I have doubts about its appearance in all the copies. The above work was again published at Basil, by Opornius, in 1559, fol., greatly enlarged and corrected, with a magnificent half length portrait of Bale, from which the one in a subsequent part of this work was either copied on a reduced scale, or of which it was the prototype. His majesty has perhaps the finest copy of this last edition of Bale's Scriptores Britanniæ, in existence.
[103] "Les Savans n'ont nullemont été satisfaits des règles prescrites par Florian Treffer (Trefler) le premièr dont on connoisse un écrit sur ce sujet [de la disposition des livres dans une bibliothèque]. Sa méthode de classer les livres fut imprimée à Augsbourg en 1560." Camus: Memoires de l'Institut. vol. i. 646. The title is "Methodus Ordinandi Bibliothecam," Augustæ, 1560. The extreme rarity of this book does not appear to have arisen from its utility—if the authority quoted by Vogt, p. 857, edit. 1793, may be credited. Bauer repeats Vogt's account; and Teisser, Morhof, and Baillet, overlook the work.
[104] It would appear, from Morhof, that Neander meditated the publication of a work similar to the Pandects of Gesner; which would, in all probability, have greatly excelled it. The "Erotemata Græcæ Linguæ" was published at Basil in 1565, 8vo. Consult Polyhist. Liter. vol. i. 199: Jugemens des Savans, vol. iii. art. 887, but more particularly Niceron's Memoires des Hommes Illustres, vol. xxx. In regard to Neander, Vogt has given the title at length (a sufficiently tempting one!) calling the work "very rare," and the preface of Neander (which is twice the length of the work) "curious and erudite." See his Catalog. Libror. Rarior., p. 614, edit. 1793.
[105] La Croix Du Maine's book appeared toward the end of the year 1584; and that of his coadjutor, Anthony Verdier, in the beginning of the subsequent year. They are both in folio, and are usually bound in one volume. Of these works, the first is the rarest and best executed; but the very excellent edition of both of them, by De La Monnoye and Juvigny, in six volumes, 4to., 1772, which has realized the patriotic wishes of Baillet, leaves nothing to be desired in the old editions—and these are accordingly dropping fast into annihilation. It would appear from an advertisement of De Bure, subjoined to his catalogue of Count Macarty's books, 1779, 8vo., that there were then remaining only eleven copies of this new edition upon large paper, which were sold for one hundred and twenty livres. Claude Verdier, son of Antony, who published a supplement to Gesner's Bibliotheca, and a "Censio auctorum omnium veterum et recentiorum," affected to censure his father's work, and declared that nothing but parental respect could have induced him to consent to its publication—but consult the Jugemens des Savans, vol. ii. 87-8, upon Claude's filial affection; and Morhof's Polyhist. Literar., vol. i., 176, concerning the "Censio," &c.—"misere," exclaims Morhof, "ille corvos deludit hiantes: nam ubi censuram suam exercet, manifestum hominis phrenesin facile deprehendas!" The ancient editions are well described in Bibl. Creven., vol. v., 277-8, edit. 1776—but more particularly by De Bure, nos. 6020-1. A copy of the ancient edition was sold at West's sale for 2l. 15s. See Bibl. West., No. 934.
[106] John Baptist Cardona, a learned and industrious writer, and bishop of Tortosa, published a quarto volume at Tarracona, in 1537, 4to.—comprehending the following four pieces: 1. De regia Sancti Lamentii Bibliotheca: 2. De Bibliothecis (Ex Fulvio Ursino,) et De Bibliotheca Vaticana (ex Omphrii Schedis): 3. De Expurgandis hæreticorum propriis nominibus: 4. De Dipthycis. Of these, the first, in which he treats of collecting all manner of useful books, and having able librarians, and in which he strongly exhorts Philip II. to put the Escurial library into good order, is the most valuable to the bibliographer. Vogt, p. 224, gives us two authorities to shew the rarity of this book; and Baillet refers us to the Bibliotheca Hispana of Antonio.