Esop, which the translator has thought fit to bestow on it. The name of this translator has not yet been discovered, nor is likely to be, unless by examination of a copy in which the prologue has been preserved, for it sometimes happens that the old French poets acrosticize their names at the commencement of their works. At folio 102 we have the translator's epilogue to the above Fables, from which we collect, that he translated them for the ladies only, and that he was not an ecclesiastic. We may therefore venture to conclude that he was of the minstrel or fableour class of poets.

At folio 104 begin the fables of Avienus, there strangely disguised under the appellation of Amouret, which the ignorance of the scribe, who often betrays his want of knowledge in the Latin and even in the French languages, has corrupted from Avionet, the real word. The French translator, having called Esop Ysopet,

makes use of a similar term in Avionet.

On collation of Mr. Grenville's MS. of the Latin part of Avienus, it will be found that the moralities, as in the Romulus, are more ample than in the printed copies, and the French translator has taken his usual liberties. The last fable is not Avienus's.

The mention of "Madame Jeanne de Bourgogne" in the French translator's epilogue, has misled some former possessor of the MS., and induced him to give the composition of the translation a wrong date. He had supposed that Jeanne de Bourgogne, the wife of Philippe Le Long was alluded to, but this is not the case. It is Jeanne, the daughter of Robert II. Duke of Burgundy, married 1313 to the Dauphin Philip, afterwards Philip II. de Valois, who reigned from 1328 to 1350. Jeanne died 1348. The above is manifest from the subsequent mention in the Epilogue of Lainsne fil dou bon roy de France and Madame Bonne sa compaigne. The Dauphin John (afterwards Jean le Bon, prisoner at the battle of Poitiers) is this Fils Ainé, who in 1332 married Bonne, the daughter of John de Luxembourgh, the blind and heroic king of Bohemia, slain at the battle of Crecy. She died 1349, a year before her husband came to the throne, after having had several children by him, and therefore this translation must have been made between 1332 and 1348, and probably near the latter year on account of the mention of Madame Bonne's children. The MS. has been written a few years afterwards. In Montfaucon's Catalogue of the MSS. in the R. Library at Paris, there appears to be only one of the present work, and it may be doubted whether England can produce another.

The accompanying translation of part of Köning's Dutch work (on the continuation of printing at Haerlem from Coster's types) and also Mr. Ottley's letter, sufficiently describe this extraordinary book.

From Köning's Essay on the Origin of Printing. Haerlem, 1816.

"We are of Meerman's opinion that the Art of Printing was continued at Haerlem for some time after the death of Coster. This not only agrees with the well known "English Manuscript," (?) which says, that printing was brought over to England by a workman in the Haerlem printing office, but is also more than probable, if we take into consideration ;

1st. That it is not probable Thomas Pieterszoon, who was an experienced workman, should abandon the undertaking suddenly after the death of his father-in-law Coster, particularly, as he could have the assistance of Cornelis, who, as an apprentice of Coster's, no doubt must have acquired some knowledge of the business.

2ndly. That some of the first printers quitted Haerlem when the art had utterly declined there: among others, N. Pieterszoon Van Haerlem printed at Padua, in 1476, and at Vicenza, in 1477. Hen. Van Haerlem in various towns in Italy, from 1482 to 1499, and Gerard Van Haerlem at Florence, in 1498. Santander, Dict. Bibl.

3rdly. But principally because the two undermentioned works are still extant; one of which, in our opinion, appeared between 1440 and 1450, and the other be

C

tween 1465 and 1470, and which from the shape of the type, the mechanism of the press-work, and the water mark, evidently come from the Haerlem press.

These two works, which are in the rich collection of Mr. Enschedé of Haerlem, deserve more particular mention.

The first consists of two separate tracts, printed together, one of which is entitled: Facecie morales Laurentii Vallensis al's Esopus grecus per dictum laurentiu translatus, containing 33 fables, ending at page 22; and the other: Francisci petrarche de salibus virorum illustrium ac faceciis Tractatus. It is in 4to., on twenty-four leaves, or 48 pages.

That this little tract comes from the Haerlem press, appears to me evident from the following peculiarities, wherein it resembles the Speculum Hum. Salvat.

1st. That like the different Speculums it has neither folios, signatures, numerals, nor catchwords, and simply the full stop.

2dly. That the type is not only like others in the Dutch taste of the 15th century, but it is particularly like the two Dutch and both the Latin Speculums as well as the Haerlem Donatus.

3dly. That the types are sometimes founded two or three together, and are shallow and crooked in the mould, badly cut, &c., as may principally be seen in the capital M, standing constantly out of the line and often deeply impressed in the paper-proofs of the imperfection of the utensils, in comparison with those used at Mentz, or afterwards in the Netherlands.

4thly. The lines are of unequal length, and the pages of different breadths, &c.

5thly. That the type of a whole page placed perhaps in an oaken frame, of which the upper side may have been level with the letter-press, has caused some letters not to take the ink and left blank places on the page.

6thly. That the water-marks, which consist of a lily, the letter p, and the bull's head, are similar to those in various old prints and Speculums.

That this book was not printed by Coster himself, but by his successors, appears from

1st. The author, Laurence Valla's having dated his preface the 1st. May, 1438, a sufficient interval took place for a copy to come from Italy to Haerlem to be printed, and it is therefore not probable it should have appeared before the year 1440 or 1441, which was after Coster's decease.

2dly. That although the type in shape and execution resembles that of the Speculum, and therefore denotes the same country and fabrication, it is in no part exactly the same, as may be ascertained from a tracing on transparent paper.

3dly. That the work gives proofs of improvement in the art, for the printing is more distinct than that of the Speculum, the ink is exceedingly black, and there are no traces of blank letters."

Mr. Ottley's letter.

"I have examined this little volume very carefully; and though the characters are very rude, and of very unequal dimensions -that is particular letters, or pieces of two letters joined, as oo, œ, &c., are much smaller than certain other letters, throughout the book.-Still I am decidedly of opinion that the type it is printed with is cast type.

The m is, in every instance, larger, that is taller, than almost all the other letters, and I think the identity of numerous specimens of that character, as well as of others, is clearly to be perceived upon a careful examination. Again, the different specimens of particular Capital letters, nay, I might say of all of them, have that close resemblance to each other, which could not have happened had the letters been cut by hand upon blocks of wood.

Certain letters, as I have said, are always larger than certain other letters. Had the book been printed from blocks of wood engraved upon the hand-writing of an ordinary scribe, (for nothing here indicates the hand of a calligraphist) defects of this kind might have occurred in every page, but not the same particular defect. writer employed to trace the characters on the blocks, would sometimes have erred in making one letter too big, sometimes another.

The

But although I think the characters are cast type, I do not insist that all the different specimens of the same piece-the capital D, for example-came from the same identical mould or matrix: two, if not three varieties of form are to be perceived in different specimens of that letter, and so of some others, and I suspect, that in order to multiply the type, more moulds than one were made of most or all of the pieces; which moulds I do not suppose to have been struck with a steel 'poinçon' or punch, in the way invented by P. Schoeffer, but by some other less perfect process.

I would observe, that this type has some peculiarities, which appear to me so far to connect it with the type of the Speculum as to justify the belief that it was made in the same printing-office from which that work issued: viz. the final t, with the fine perpendicular stroke added to the cross-stroke of that letter, and the character used to express con or com at the beginning of words, (see fol. 15), which

"P.S. I have mentioned above that certain peculiarities in this type appear to connect it with the printing establishment from whence issued the Speculum - I may add that I strongly suspect that the two pages in the latter part of the first Dutch Edition of that work, which are printed with type different from the rest, are printed with this type. Lord Spencer's copy of this Dutch Speculum being removed to Althorp, I have not now the means of making the comparison; but I find the Capitals in the Facecie Morales, to agree so well with those copied from the two pages of the Dutch Speculum, in a small plate in my Inquiry into the Origin of Engraving' as to lead me to form this opinion.

Dec. 7, 1835.

W. Y. O."

Vita Esopi fabulatoris clarissimi latina per Rimicium facta ad reverendiss. patrem dominum Ant. tituli sancti Chrisogonum presbiterum Card. Æsopi Fabularum libri IV., carmine latino. Æsopi Fabulæ XVII. extravagantes. Fabulæ XVII. novæ Æsopi ex translatione Rimicii sermone soluto. Aviani Fabulæ carm. lat. Fabulæ collectæ XXVIII. sermone soluto. Finis diversarum Fabularum. S. 1. a. et typ. n. (sed Aug. Vindel. per a Sorg.) Wood cuts. Fol. G. M. One hundred and twentynine leaves, beginning with a wood cut of Æsop.

This is one of the earliest Latin editions of the author; certainly much earlier than the edition quoted by Dibdin in Bibl. Spencer. I. 246, of which there is a copy in the British Museum. The accurate Panzer, I. 137, justly attributes it to the press of Sorg of Augsburg, who probably printed it between 1475 and 1480, and has placed it as the earliest Latin edition. Panzer's references are to Zapf, II. 247, from Grass, 223. See also Haym Repertorium Bibliograph. p. 36.

travagantes. Fabulæ Rimicii. Fabulæ Avieni. Fabulæ Collectæ (Latine). S. 1. a. et typ. n. Wood cuts. Fol. G. M.

These early Latin Editions have almost all the same cuts, evidently taken from those of the Latin edition by Sorg. This edition differs from that quoted by Dibdin from Bib. Spencer. I. 246, and from that quoted by Laire Ind. p. 76, as it has 43 lines to a full page. The reverse of the First leaf is occupied by a wood cut of Æsop, and the text commences on the following leaf A. It contains one hundred and fourteen leaves.

This edition is evidently not so early as that of Sorg.

Vita (et Fabula) e greco latina per Rimicium facta, ad Reverendissimum patrem dñm Antonium, tituli sancti Chrysogoni presbiterum Cardinalem. Impressit Mediolani, Antonius Zarotus Parmensis, MCCCCLXXIIII. 4to. Fifty leaves. R. M.

This is a beautiful copy of an edition of the greatest rarity. "Editio secunda hactenus ignota" says Panzer, II. p. 17, (and quotes a first Edition, Romæ, 1473, Phil. de Lignamine, 4to. but does not state where it has been found.) "Editio hucusque penitus ignota, etiam P. Audifredi ignoravit et Saxius, Laire Index, p. 322. Haym. Repert. Bibl. p. 32.

See

Verba libri ad emptorem. Si placet hybernas libris tibi fallere noctes; Non alium queras. ipse satisfacias. Esopi invenies et dicta et facta legendo,

Que risum mesto cuique movere queant. Et qui me e greco voluit fecisse latinum Doctus erat. lege me non tibi vilis ero. Impressit Mediolani Antonius Zarotus

Parmensis, MCCCCLXXIIII. 4to. Vita, una cum suis fabulis per Rynuntium, e greco in latinum, translata finit feliciter. S. 1. a. et typ. n. (sed Romæ per Guldinbeck). 4to.

Although this edition is sine anno et loco, from similarity of type Audifredi attributes it very properly to the press of Guldinbech at Rome, perhaps about 1476. Dibdin adopts this opinion in Bibl. Spenc. VII. 127. There is reason to think that the version of Rynuncius is from a purer MS. than those of B. Accursius, Valla, &c.

This edition is also very uncommon. Vita (et Fabulæ) fabulatoris clarissimi e greco latina per Rimicium facta ad Reverendiss. patrem dnm Antonium &c.

Omnes hæ editiones versionis Remicianæ eo magis notabiles sunt quod scripturam exhibeant interpolationibus Boni Accursii immunem et Græco textui convenientem." This edition consists of forty-two leaves, the first containing two epistles of Rynuncius, followed by the Life. There are no signatures, but the reverse of the last leaf contains a register.

cum commento optimo et morali. Finit Esopus fabulator preclarissimus cum suis moralisationibus ad nostram instructionem pulcherrime appositis. Impressus Da

"La premiere edition Latine de 1473 est très rare, et l'edition de Lavagna 1480 n'est pas beaucoup plus commune." Brunet, I. 26. Panzer, II. 37.

-

Panzer, I. 358.

Fabulæ de græco in latinum per panagathum Vincentinum traductæ. S. 1. (sed Brixiæ,) per D. Presbyterum Baptistam de Farfengo, MCCCCLXXXXII. 4to.

B. M.

Mr. Burges in his MS. note states, that Panagathus Vincentinus and Omnibonus Leon. are the same person, as appears by a collation of this translation with that by Omnibonus Leonicenus. At the same time

he thinks that the style and Latinity are by far too elegant to have been entirely the composition of Omnibonus, but must have been of far higher antiquity. In Achaintre's Edition of Juvenal, Præf. II. tom. II. p. 77, this Omnibonus is said to have been P. F. O'Molloy vel Molloy, Hibernus Medensis ordinis min. stric. observ. in collegio S. Isidori de Urbe.

Esopus Moralisatus cum bono commento. S. 1. (sed Haganoæ, typis Henr. Gran.) 1494. 4to.