Chapter III (2)

“I am delighted to learn that so many men of distinction in the great city of Brescia are, under your guidance, devoting themselves with ardour to Greek studies. The expectations with which I undertook the publication of Greek texts are being more than realised. I am, in fact, not a little astonished to find that even in these sad times of war in which my undertakings have been begun, so many are found ready to give the same ardour to scholarly pursuits that they are giving to fighting against the infidel and to civil strife. Thus it happens that even from the midst of war arises literature, which has for so many years lain buried. And it is not only in Italy, but also in Germany, in France, in Pannonia, in Spain, and in England, and wherever the Latin language is known, that young and old are devoting themselves to the study of Greek. The joy that this brings to me causes me to forget my fatigues, and redoubles my zeal to do what is in my power for the service of scholarship, and particularly for the students who are growing up in this time of the renaissance of letters.”

During the first years of the sixteenth century, the difficulties in the transmission either of merchandise or of money were many. The packages of books which Aldus had occasion to send to Reuchlin in Stuttgart, for instance, came forward sometimes by way of Milan, Vienna, or Basel, and later through Augsburg. The Augsburg banking-house of Függer, founded about 1450, possessed in 1500 (and for half a century thereafter) connections which enabled them to take charge not only of what we should call mercantile bills and banking credits, but also of the forwarding and delivery of the goods against which the bills were drawn. They carried on what to-day would be called an express business, and in a majority of instances the instructions were evidently to make collections on delivery. During the first half of the sixteenth century, the Függers, with their branch houses in Florence, Venice, and Genoa, supplied the most valuable machinery for the transaction of business between Italy and Germany. These communications, however, were of necessity very frequently interrupted by the troubles of the times.

In 1510, Mutianus Rufus writes to Urban that “in connection with the conflicts between the French and the Venetian soldiers, the passes of the Alps have been blocked, so that literature from Venice can no longer find its way into Germany. I had hoped with the next Frankfort Fair, to be able to place in the hands of my students the beautiful Aldine editions. But my hopes were in vain. When the Fair was opened, there was not a single volume from Italy. We shall be able this spring to do nothing in our classical schools. Oh, the stupidities of war!”

In 1514, the Elector Frederic the Wise of Saxony applied to the several powers interested for a safe conduct for his librarian, Spalatin, whom he desired to send to Venice to purchase directly from Aldus the Aldine classics for the library of Wittenberg. Some difficulties intervened, however, as Spalatin appears never to have reached Venice. It was doubtless due to the long-continued wars between the Emperor and the States of Italy, that Aldus was unable, during his own lifetime, to establish direct agencies in Germany for his publications. We find record of such agencies in Frankfort, Basel, Augsburg, and Nuremberg, first in the time of his son, agencies which were extended by the grandson.

The active work of Aldus extended over a period of twenty years, from 1495 to 1515. This time included the wars of 1500, 1506, 1510, and 1511, in which Venice was directly engaged, wars which had of necessity much to do with the interference with his business, and with the difficulties, of which he makes continual complaint, in securing returns for his sales. “For seven years,” writes Aldus in 1510, “books have had to contend against arms.” There appears to have been no single year of the twenty in which he was free from pressing financial cares, while from time to time the work of the presses and in the composing room came to an actual standstill for want of funds. During these twenty years he printed not less than 126 works which previously existed only in manuscript form, and the manuscript copies of which had to be secured and carefully edited.

It is probable that Aldus, in his own enthusiasm concerning the value and importance of the re-discovered classics, had overestimated the extent of the interest that could be depended upon for these classics throughout the world. It is evident, however, that there were enough scholars in Italy, Germany, France, and the Low Countries, to assure a widespread demand for the Aldine editions, and that the larger part of the publisher’s difficulties consisted in the lack of convenient machinery for making known to these scholars the fact that such books had been prepared, for the delivery of such copies as might be ordered, and for the collection of the payments due.

Another serious difficulty with which Aldus had to contend was the competition of the piratical copies of his editions which promptly appeared in Cologne, Tübingen, Lyons, and even so close at home as Florence. The most serious interference with his undertakings appears to have come from the printers of Lyons, who in their enterprising appropriations from Paris on the one hand and from Nuremberg, Basel, and Venice on the other, speedily won for their city notoriety as the centre of piratical publishing. The Lyons printers printed editions of the Aldine Latin classics, making a very close imitation of the cursive or italic type, and issued the volumes without imprint, date, or place of publication.

The privileges secured from the government of Venice had effect, of course, only in Venetian territory. Privileges were given by the Pope for a number of the Aldine publications, and these covered, in form, at least, not only the States of the Church but the territory of all States recognising the papal authority, while the penalties for infringing such papal privileges were not infrequently made to include excommunication. There was, however, no machinery by means of which the papal authority could be brought to bear upon Catholics infringing or disregarding the privileges, and as a fact the papal privileges proved of very little service in protecting the literary property either of Aldus or of later literary workers. A further word concerning the privileges issued in Venice and in the other States of Italy will be given in a later division of this narrative.

Apart from this important work in the scholarly and editorial divisions of publishing, Aldus made several distinctive contributions to the art of book-making. He was, as before stated, the first printer who founded complete and perfect fonts of Greek type, fonts which for many years served as models for the printers of Europe. He invented the type which was first called cursive, and which is known to-day as italic, a type having the advantage of presenting the text in a very compact form. (The cursive font was said to have been modelled on the script of Petrarch.) And finally, he was the first publisher who ventured upon the experiment of replacing the costly and cumbersome folios and quartos, in which form alone all important works had heretofore been issued, with convenient crown octavo volumes, the moderate price of which brought them within the reach of scholars of all classes and helped to popularise the knowledge and the influence of classic literature. This constituted a practical revolution in publishing methods.

Aldus had possibly read the remark of Callimachus, the librarian of the Alexandrian library in 290 B.C., that “A big book is a big nuisance.” These Aldine classics, while printed in octavo (_i. e._, upon a sheet folded in eights), were of a size corresponding more nearly to what would to-day be known as a sixteenmo, the size of the sheet of paper being smaller than that used to-day. Aldus had no presses which would print sheets large enough to fold in sixteen or even in twelve. The price of these small octavos averaged three _marcelli_ or two francs, say forty cents. Making allowance for the difference in the purchasing power of money between the year 1500 and the year 1895, I judge that this may represent about $2.00 of our currency.

For centuries the Aldine editions served as the authoritative texts for the authors presented, and even to-day they stand as a wonderful monument of the imagination, the learning, the courage, and the persistency of their publisher. Good Italian though he were, Aldus was by some of his countrymen charged with want of patriotism on the ground that if he helped to make the study of the classics easy for the Barbarians of the outer world, they would no longer need to come for their learning to Italy, heretofore the centre and source of all scholarly enlightenment. To this effect writes Beatus Rhenanus in his introduction to the Works of Erasmus:

_Quidam Venetiis olim Aldo Manutio commentarios Græcos in Euripidem et Sophoclem edere paranti dixit: Cave, cave hoc facias, ne barbari istis adjuti domi maneant et pauciores in Italiam ventilent._

Kapp is of opinion that the dread was well founded and that the distribution throughout Germany and France of popular editions of the classics, did have the result of keeping at home many students who would otherwise have crossed the Alps. That they were now able to secure, at moderate cost and in their own homes, learning for which heretofore they had been obliged to make long and costly journeys, was due to the unselfish and public-spirited labours of Aldus. It was, therefore, with good reason that he was held in high regard by the Humanists of Germany. They sought his friendship and nearly overwhelmed him with correspondence. In 1498, Conrad Celtes and Vincenzo Longinus commemorated his service in verse. Aldus thanked them for their courtesy, and in sending them as an acknowledgment copies of his _Horace_ and _Virgil_, he asked them to bring him into communication with any scholarly Germans who were interested in the classics. Aldus did not, however, consider it wise to print the ode of eulogy that Celtes had written upon the Emperor Maximilian, because he was afraid of causing offence to the Bohemians and Hungarians through whose scholars he had secured not a few rare manuscripts.

Throughout Germany the productions of the Aldine presses were received with enthusiasm. Mutianus Rufus speaks of himself as weeping with joy when there came to him from a friend the precious gift of the editions of _Cicero_, _Lucretius_, and other classics. He and his friends Urban and Spalatin deprived themselves almost of the necessaries of life, in order to save moneys with which to bring across the Alps the other volumes of the series. Pirckheimer and Reuchlin were among the first of the German buyers of the Aldine classics. Hummelsburger writes in 1512 to Anselm in Tübingen, “I shall buy my Hebrew books in Italy, where Aldus has printed them in beautiful texts.... Germany no less than Latium owes a great debt to Aldus.”

The political status of Italy and its division into a number of states or principalities which carried on independent policies and which were frequently in active warfare with each other, entailed serious difficulties upon the new business of publishing, difficulties which, while troublesome enough for Aldus in Venice, were still more serious for his competitors in Florence and Milan. A privilege secured for Venice was not binding even in times of peace outside of Venetian territory, while in the frequently recurring times of war, any privileges which a Venetian or a Milanese publisher had been fortunate enough to secure in the Italian States were abrogated in fact if not in form. In this respect, the early publishers of Paris, whose privileges covered (nominally at least) the territory of the kingdom, had a decided advantage over their rivals in the much divided territory of Italy or of Germany.

Aldus had the feeling, for which in his case there appears to have been sufficient ground, that his business undertakings, with which were connected far-reaching plans for furthering scholarly knowledge, were absolutely dependent upon his own continued and persistent personal attention. While he had succeeded in securing the services of scholarly associates to share with himself the editorial responsibilities of his work, he does not appear to have been able, with the material at his command, to train up any assistants competent to take any important share in the business management. One of his many complaints concerning the repeated interruptions which interfere with his important daily labours, might have been uttered by many a publisher of later times. He writes in 1514 (the year before his death) to his friend Navagerus:

“I am hampered in my work by a thousand interruptions.... Nearly every hour comes a letter from some scholar, and if I undertook to reply to them all, I should be obliged to devote day and night to scribbling. Then, through the day come calls from all kinds of visitors. Some desire merely to give a word of greeting, others want to know what there is new, while the greater number come to my office because they happen to have nothing else to do. ‘Let us look in upon Aldus,’ they say to each other. Then they loaf in and sit and chatter to no purpose. Even these people with no business are not so bad as those who have a poem to offer or something in prose (usually very prosy indeed) which they wish to see printed with the name of Aldus. These interruptions are now becoming too serious for me, and I must take steps to lessen them. Many letters I simply leave unanswered, while to others I send very brief replies; and as I do this not from pride or from discourtesy, but simply in order to be able to go on with my task of printing good books, it must not be taken hardly.... As a warning to the heedless visitors who use up my office hours to no purpose, I have now put up a big notice on the door of my office to the following effect: ‘Whoever thou art, thou art earnestly requested by Aldus, to state thy business briefly and to take thy departure promptly. In this way thou mayst be of service even as was Hercules to the weary Atlas. For this is a place of work for all who may enter.’”

Aldus Manutius died January 25, 1515, (Venetian style, corresponding to February 6, 1515, modern style) aged sixty-five years. Until 1529, the business was carried on for the heirs by his father-in-law, Torresano, and in that year was taken over by Paul Manutius, the son of Aldus. In 1540, Paul took into partnership his son, Aldus the younger, and the firm took the title of _Aldi Filii_. With the death of Aldus the grandson, in 1597, the family, in its main line, became extinct, and the work of the Aldine Press, which had continued for a little more than a century, came to a close. To his children, Aldus was able to bequeath little besides his fame and the value of his name. The moneys that had been earned during his work of twenty-five years from the successful undertakings had been for the most part absorbed in other ventures which were either unremunerative, or from which the returns came but slowly. The carrying out of such great publishing plans required, in fact, business connections and methods which did not yet exist, and was dependent also upon the continuance of peace in Europe for a quarter of a century, an impossible condition for the beginning of the sixteenth century.

In entering upon business ventures under such difficult circumstances, Aldus was doubtless, from a business point of view, unwisely optimistic; but it is difficult not to admire the public spirit and the pluck with which, in the face of all difficulties, he persisted till the day of his death in the great schemes he had marked out for himself.

While his work had brought no wealth, his life had been rich in the accomplishment of great things and in the appreciation given to his labours. It was also his fortune to gather about him and to come into relations with many noteworthy men, who as friends and co-workers shared his enthusiasm, and who gave with him unselfish labour for a scholarly ideal. Partly because the editors and the publishers were working for results other than profits, partly because the books published were (with a few noteworthy exceptions, like the writings of Erasmus) not original works, but editions of old classics, and partly because the whole business of publishing was still in its infancy, the history of the Aldine Press does not present any important precedents as to the compensation earned by authors for their productions, or as to the protection of the author’s property rights in these productions. The relations of Aldus with all the authors, editors, and scholars with whom he had to do were however more than satisfactory; they were cordial, resting in a number of cases on a close personal friendship. The scholars regarded the publisher as one of themselves, and, in fact, accepted him as a leader.

It is evident that Erasmus, whose writings formed an important property, was satisfied with the returns secured for him by Aldus. He speaks with cordial appreciation of the services rendered by his “authorised publishers,” Aldus of Venice, and Froben of Basel, and speaks further of the losses caused to himself by the competition of the piracy reprints of Lyons and Paris. It appears, therefore, that he retained a continued interest in the sale of his authorised editions, but unfortunately no details of his publishing arrangements have been preserved.

The history of the publishing work of Aldus, while not presenting precedents for royalty or copyright arrangements, constitutes nevertheless a very important chapter in the history of property in literature. Aldus was able, by combining skilled editorial labour with selected classics, to create a great literary property, which needed only distributing machinery and a peaceable Europe to become commercially valuable. He set the example also, for Italy at least, of securing privileges in each of the Italian States possessing any literary centres, and although he was not always able to prevent piratical reprinting on the part of his competitors in Florence, or even always to keep out of other cities in Italy the piracy editions from Lyons, he accomplished something towards the ideal of a copyright that should hold good for Italian territory. He even had hopes of securing, through the authority of the Pope, a system of copyright that should prove effective in all Catholic States, and it was not until long after Aldus’s death that the attempts to establish a Catholic copyright system were given up by publishers as practically futile.

His latest biographer, Didot, himself both a fine scholar and a great publisher, contends that Aldus accomplished more than the greatest scholars of his time for the spread of learning and the development of literature; and the testimony of the three great scholars who were contemporaries and near personal friends of the Venetian publisher, Musurus, Reuchlin, and Erasmus, fully bears out M. Didot’s opinion. It was the exceptional combination of a creative imagination and scholarly knowledge with practical business ability and unfailing pluck and persistency, that enabled the young tutor to create the Aldine Press, the work of which will cause to be held in continued honour, in the history alike of scholarship and of publishing, the memory of Aldus Manutius.

=The Successors of Aldus.=--Paul Manutius, the son of Aldus, continued for some years the business of the Aldine Press, giving special attention to editions of the writings of Cicero. In 1561, he accepted an invitation from Pope Pius IV. to come to Rome and to take charge there of the publication of the writings of the Fathers of the Church, and of such other works as might be selected. The amount required for the organisation of an adequate printing-office was to be supplied from the papal treasury. Paul was to receive an annual stipend of 500 ducats, together with one half of the net profits realised from the sales of the works published, and the contract was to continue for twelve years.

An interesting series of letters has been preserved, written by Paul to his brother Manutius in Asola, and to his son, Aldus the younger, in Venice. These letters, which are quoted by Renouard, Frommann, and Didot, contain a number of details and references which throw light not only upon the personal relations of the writers, but upon the business conditions of the time. We learn that Paul was a good deal of an invalid throughout his working years, and we gather the impression that his feeble health was an important ground for the apparent lack of ambition which made him willing to give up his work as an independent publisher in Venice and to accept the position of Pope’s printer in Rome.

We also learn that his son Aldus, while bright-witted, was lacking in persistency and in industry. The youngster never, in fact, accomplished anything of importance. Paul had himself inherited the scholarly tastes of his father, and had received a good classical education, but he does not appear to have possessed very good business faculty, and he made no distinctive mark as a publisher. The Pope had, however, asked for his aid rather as a scholarly editor than as an experienced man of business.

Pius appears to have been impressed with the belief that the printing-press, under scholarly management, could be made of service to the cause of the Church in withstanding the pernicious influence of the increasing mass of the publications of the German heretics. These Protestant pamphlets and books were not merely undermining the authority of the Church in Germany, Switzerland, and France, but were even making their way into Italy itself. The first issues of the Aldine Press in Rome were the _Decrees_ of the Council of Trent, in a variety of editions, the writings of Cyprian, and the letters of S. Jerome.

Pius V., who in 1565 succeeded Pius IV., was equally favourable to the undertakings of the printing-office, and gave to Paul the necessary support. The work was carried on in a building which was the property of the municipality, and some issues arose with the magistrates concerning its continued use as a printing-office. From a letter dated September 27, 1567, it appears that the magistrates had required that Paul should pay taxes or license-fees on his printing business, which they classed as a trade. He took the ground that printing was not a trade but an art, and that it was so defined in the invitation given to him to come to Rome, and in the agreement executed with him by the Pope. He contended, further, that, as the Pope’s printer, whose work was devoted to the Church, he was in any case entitled to exemption from the municipal taxes imposed on traders. The Pope does not appear to have fully backed up his printer in this contention, and a compromise was finally arrived at under which a portion of the proceeds of the business was paid to the magistracy. The precise terms of the arrangement are not clearly stated, but it seems probable that the half share of the profits previously payable to the papal treasury was divided into two portions, one of which went to the municipality.

The profitable part of the business was in the printing of the official editions of the Catechisms and Breviaries. Paul complains, in fact, that the presses are so occupied with the work of the Breviaries, that he is not able to make progress with the printing of his own _Commentaries on the Letters of Cicero_. In June, 1568, Paul writes to his son Aldus, who was now of age, expressing his regret that the young man was not interested in devoting himself to carrying on the printing-office in Venice. Aldus had, it seems, expressed a preference for the study of law. The business in Venice was finally turned over to Basa, who paid, for a term of five years, twenty _scudi_ gold a month for the use of the existing material and for the good-will.

In July, 1569, difficulties began to accumulate about the printing-office in Rome. The Pope was less interested and the magistrates were troubling the office with what Paul calls unintelligent interference. There were, in fact, too many parties interested in the management of the business to enable its control to be easily or consistently exercised. Paul’s health was also failing seriously and he was longing for rest and for leisure to carry on his scholarly undertakings. In 1570, the ownership of the receipts of the printing-office was somewhat simplified, the change being probably due, in part at least, to the representations of Paul that the many-headed control was unworkable.

In May, 1570, Paul writes rather pathetically to Aldus: “In my case, scholarship and industry have never brought rest or fortune.... I pray God that you may be better favoured.... I must beseech you, however, to put away childish things. It is full time that you recalled to yourself the honourable traditions of our family.... My own active work must be nearly over.”

In June, of the same year, he again counsels Aldus, who had for some time been betrothed, to make a speedy marriage, and then to concentrate himself upon the work of the printing-office in Venice. He advises against a a plan that the young man had in view, of opening a retail book-shop. He emphasises, however, that there is no chance of success for a printer-publisher without the most persistent and arduous labour.

In 1571, Paul’s failing strength compelled him to leave Rome, resigning (as he hoped, for a time only) the income of the papal printing-office. He devoted the winter months to the completion of his _Commentaries on the Orations of Cicero_. The work was published in 1578-9 (after the author’s death) by his son Aldus in Venice, and, under arrangement, by Plantin in Antwerp. The negotiations with Plantin had been completed by Paul. He had specified the form and style of the Antwerp edition, and had arranged to take his share of the profits in the shape of a royalty on the sales.

In 1572, Paul being yet in Milan, one of his hopes was fulfilled in the marriage of his son Aldus. “Now,” he wrote, “I can pass my days in peace. I feel hopeful for your future and rejoice that our line is to be continued.” Later in the year, with no little difficulty (partly on the ground of his feeble health, and partly because of the floods and wretched roads) he made his way to Venice for a brief visit. He wanted to see his son’s wife, and he desired also to give personal instructions for the printing of his _Commentaries_. “I feel very hopeful,” he writes, “concerning the sale of my _Cicero_, and hopeful also that it will not be reprinted (in piracy editions) during my lifetime.”

Paul was obliged to leave Venice before the printing of his work was begun, and the letter written after the receipt of the first sheets expresses his bitter disappointment at the manner in which this all-important commission had been attended to. “If you had had in your hands some utterly contemptible scribble,” he writes, “you could hardly have printed it in a more tasteless and slovenly style ... and you knew I had this undertaking so much at heart!... I have instructed Basa to burn all the sheets that have been printed, and to print these signatures again, with a proper selection of type and on decent paper.”

Aldus the younger seems never to have had his heart fairly in his business, and under his management (or lack of management), the prestige of the Aldine Press in Venice fell off sadly. He appears to have been extravagant, or at least uncalculating, in his expenditures, and was also spending moneys which he could ill afford, not like his grandfather for manuscripts and type, but for clothes and artistic curiosities.

Paul had accepted the pressing invitation of the new Pope, Gregory XII.; to resume his place as manager of the printing-office in Rome, but with less exacting duties, and with a fixed salary. A plan was even talked over between the Pope and Paul for the establishment of another printing-office, which should be devoted entirely to the publication of classical works and of “expurgated” editions of works, portions of which had been condemned in the Index. Paul was to act as editor and supervisor of the series, because his name was already recognised as that of a scholarly authority. The scheme never, however, took shape. Paul’s strength failed rapidly, and he died in the spring of 1574.

While he had devoted many years to his business as a printer-publisher, and had maintained the reputation of his name for a high standard as well of typography as of scholarly writing, his own preference had been for a scholarly rather than a business career. He went on with the work of his Press very largely because he felt that it was a duty he owed to his father’s name and memory. His own memory is, however, chiefly to be honoured for his scholarly edition of _Cicero_, with its comprehensive and analytical commentaries, an edition which long remained the accepted authority for Europe.

A few years after the death of Paul, his son Aldus gave up the attempt to carry on the Press in Venice, a work for which he had never been really fitted, and accepted a position in the University of Bologna, as professor of archæology. The printing business was sold, and the Aldine Press, after a century of work, came to an end.

=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.

The brothers were not at liberty to dispose of their portion of the printing-office to any other parties. At the end of three years, the presses and publications belonging to the two Burgos were transferred, on an appraisal, to Zarotus.

No records have been preserved of the results of their undertakings, or of those of the Association as a whole. The fact, however, that as early as 1472, only eight years after the introduction of printing into Italy, there should have been sufficient business, or even expectation of business, to warrant the organisation of such a publishing company, is certainly noteworthy, if only as evidence of the intellectual activity and business enterprise of the Italy of the fifteenth century. It is curious also that special provision should have been made for legal and medical publications, as the literary interests of the period of the Renaissance, which had so much influence in furthering the activities of the earlier Italian printers, were so largely classical.

It was necessary for the first publishers to be both printers and scholars, and this necessary condition of early publishing undertakings, the association of adequate scholarship with technical knowledge required for the making of books, was fully provided for in the Milan company, which included, as we have seen, two classical professors, one theologian, one jurist, and one physician.

More than a century later, in 1589, was organised the Guild of the Printers, Publishers, and Booksellers of Milan. During the hundred years that had passed since the printing-press began its work in Lombardy, the city had known various rulers, and had, for a brief term, enjoyed independence. By far the larger portion of the century had been for Lombardy periods of turmoil, and the years of uninterrupted peace had been few. It was, therefore, not surprising that the business of the production of books had developed more rapidly and more prosperously in Venice, Rome, and Bologna, which were from their position better protected against the mischances of war.

In 1589, Lombardy was a portion of the great Spanish Empire, and (as it contained few heretics) it was enjoying under the rule of Philip II., a period of peace and of comparative prosperity. The charter of the Guild or Corporation of the Printers and Publishers was confirmed by King Philip himself. The Stationers’ Company of England had received its charter from Queen Mary in 1556, or thirty-three years earlier. The Guild of the Venetian Printers dated from 1548, and was the earliest association of the kind in Europe. The affairs of the Guild of Milan were managed by a board of directors, comprising a Prior, a Bursar, and two Councillors. The Board had charge of the property of the corporation, and was responsible also for the protection of its privileges under the charter, and for the defence of any of its members whose rights might be assailed. It rested also with the Board to see that the regulations of the Corporation were properly carried out, and in the event of any assessment being laid upon the organised Printers and Publishers, it was the duty of the Bursar to apportion the payments equitably among the members of the Guild.

To the Board was also given authority to adjudicate disputes not only between members of the Guild, but between the members and outsiders, and its jurisdiction extended over the entire duchy. From the decisions of the Board there was, as a rule, no appeal. In case, however, the issue involved any complicated questions of law, so that it became necessary for the Board to call in the counsel of a jurist, an appeal could be made from the decision arrived at to a special court of arbitration, which was also, however, to be made up of members of the Guild. The roster of the Guild was in the special control of the Prior, and this record was of special importance, because no one whose name was not on this roster as a member in good standing was permitted to print or to sell books in Milan, under a penalty for each offence of fifty gold _scudi_.

No one was eligible for membership who had not served an apprenticeship of eight years to a printer or book-dealer in Milan. The fee for admission was, for one born in Milan, thirty lire, for others one hundred lire.

One purpose of the organisation of the Guild was to prevent the competition of foreign printers and booksellers from breaking down the trade of the Milanese. A more legitimate object was to keep the business of printing, publishing, and selling books in the hands of trained men of high character, good education, and technical training, who should conduct their work in a manner worthy of the repute of Milan. It had been the complaint that many unworthy and unskilled men had crowded into the business of making and selling books, lowering the standard of the trade and diminishing the profits. It was complained also that the paper-manufacturers or paper-dealers had undertaken to sell books, notwithstanding a specific statute prohibiting them from so doing. The royal commissioner, whose sanction was required to validate on behalf of the King the regulations of the new Guild, stipulated, however, in confirming the renewal of this prohibition, that the paper-makers should still be permitted to sell certain special books which had for some years been in their hands, but that no other publications must be sold by any paper-dealer who had not secured membership in the Guild as a properly qualified bookseller.

It is not easy, after an interval of three centuries, to decide whether this undertaking for the closer organisation of the book-trade was really prompted, as was contended, by the desire to keep on the highest possible plane the business of making and selling books, or whether it was the result of a selfish desire on the part of the older Milanese dealers to increase their profits and to keep out competitors. It is probable there was a mixture of motives, but it is certain that in Milan, as in other book centres, the formation of the Guild gave an important incentive to printing and publishing, improved the quality of the work done, and tended to keep the business in the hands of a good class of men, and it is evident also that such results must have brought advantages also to the general public.

The more important of the regulations of the Guild can be summarised as follows:

1. No member of the Guild shall reprint or shall sell any book issued by another member, provided such book has not before been printed in Milan, and provided also that the edition claiming protection shall itself have been printed in Milan. A book printed outside of the duchy cannot secure the protection of a Milanese privilege. The penalty for infringement is the forfeiture of the copies printed and the payment of ten gold _scudi_.

2. Each publication shall bear the imprint of its printer or publisher (usually, of course, the same person).

3. Apprentices and assistants must be registered on the records of the Guild.

4. The sale of books in any places other than the registered shops or places of business is forbidden; and the purchase of books from apprentices or from any not known to be duly authorised dealers is also made a misdemeanour.

5. The sale of books on Sundays or holidays, either in the shops or in the dwellings, is forbidden.

6. No printer or dealer must use for his sign a token identical with or closely similar to that already in use with an authorised printer or dealer.

These regulations appear to have had the desired effect of repressing if not of entirely exterminating the business of the unauthorised printers and traders. In 1614, however probably for the purpose of impressing a fresh generation of unauthorised traders, the Guild secured a fresh royal edict, which again confirmed the authority of the Guild and enjoined, under heavy penalties, the strictest obedience to its regulations.

Frommann points out that in the application for this new decree, the Guild no longer lays stress upon the necessity of upholding the dignity and honourable standard of the book-trade, but emphasises the risk to the Church and to the community of believers if uneducated and irresponsible persons, not familiar with the lists of forbidden works, should be permitted to print or to sell books. Experience had evidently made clear to the publishers that with a government like that of Spain (which might be described as despotism tempered by the Inquisition) this class of considerations would be much more influential than any thought of upholding the dignity of the business of making and selling books.

The petitioners make reference to the decree accompanying the latest _Index Expurgatorius_, which forbids any one from carrying on business as a printer, publisher, or bookseller, who has not taken oath before the ecclesiastical superiors or the Inquisitor of his district to conduct his business in full loyalty to the holy Catholic Church, and to give explicit obedience to all the decrees and enactments of the Church and of the Inquisitor for the regulation and supervision of the press.

The petitioners go on to state that this edict of the Church has largely fallen into disregard because ordinary traders, _merzeranii_, uneducated and irresponsible men, not trained to the book-business and having no knowledge of or no respect for the _Index Expurgatorius_, have been allowed to print and to sell books, to the detriment not only of the legitimate book-trade, but of the Church and of the community. The King (Philip III.) appears to have agreed with the Guild that this interference with an organised book-trade (which from the very fact of its organisation could be and was effectively supervised by the Church) constituted a very dangerous abuse.

The new edict, with its severe penalties, and with the effective co-operation of the local inquisitors and other ecclesiastics, appears to have had the effect desired. We hear no more from the publishers of Milan about irresponsible competition, and the business prospered as far as was practicable within the rather narrow limits fixed by the censorship of the Church. The most noteworthy productions of the Milanese presses between the years 1500 and 1700, were, as stated, in the departments of jurisprudence and medicine. The greater activity of publishing in these two departments may very possibly have been in part due to the fact that they were less affected by the ecclesiastical censorship.

=Lucca and Foligno.=--The little city of Lucca is entitled to mention in connection with the introduction of printing into Italy, if only because it was the only city in Italy (and possibly the only one in Europe), in which the new art secured the direct support and co-operation of the government in the form, first of a municipal decree in favour of the printing-press, and secondly of a direct subvention from the municipal treasury in encouragement of the first printer. The printer was Clemente, a native of Padua, who was engaged in business in Lucca as a scribe and illuminator. It was made a condition of the appropriation (the amount of which is not stated) that the printer, who was to be classed as a public functionary, was to hold himself in readiness to teach the art to all who might desire to learn. Clemente established his press in Lucca in 1477, and printed there in that year, an edition of the _Triumphs of Petrarch_. He had previously printed in Venice a work by John Mesne, of Damascus, on universal medicine, a large folio of 400 pages.

A still smaller city than Lucca, Foligno in Umbria, enjoys the distinction of having received as its first printer, Johann Numeister, who had been a pupil and assistant of Gutenberg himself. After the death of his master, Numeister came to Italy with the intention of setting up a press in Rome. He was induced to settle at Foligno at the instance of Orfinis, a wealthy citizen, who supplied the funds necessary for the undertaking. The first publication of the Foligno Press was _Leonardi Aretini Bruni de Bello Italico adversus Gothos_, which bears date 1470.

The imprint states that the book was “printed by Numeister in the house of Emilianus de Orfinis.” The second work selected was an edition of the _Divina Commedia_ of Dante, the manuscript copy of which had been collated and corrected for the press by Orfinis. Orfinis died in 1472, just before the printing of the _Commedia_ was completed. Numeister paid a tribute to his patron in the last line of the rhyming imprint:

_Nel milla quatro cente septe e due
Nel quarto mese; a di cinque et sei,
Questa opera gentile impresso fue,
Io maestro Johanni Numeister opera dei
Alla dicta impressione, et meco fue,
El Elfuginato, Evangelista mei._

--Humphreys interprets the words “Evangelist mine” as standing for “the one who made me known to the world.”[450] M. Bernard writes, “better Evangelist than I am.” The last volume bearing the name of Numeister was an edition of Torquemada’s _Contemplations_. With his death in 1479, the brief record of the press of Foligno comes to a close.

=Florence.=--Florence, which for a century or more had been the centre of the intellectual life of Italy, and which presented in its great collection of manuscripts, its central position, and its important trade connections, distinctive advantages for the work of book-publishing, was comparatively late in giving attention to the new art, and the issues from the Florentine presses before the close of the fifteenth century, were much less important than those of Venice and of Milan.

The first book printed in Florence, a commentary on Virgil, by Servius, bears date 1471. It was issued by Bernardo Cennino, and appears to have been his sole publication.

Cennino was by trade a goldsmith, and had been associated with Ghiberti in the work on the famous gates of the Baptistery.[451] An enthusiast about the artistic pre-eminence of Florence and of Italy, he was said to have been jealous of the glory that had come to Germany through the invention of printing, and he determined to master the art without German aid.[452] In the colophon to his work, he describes the labour of the creation of his press, a labour which included the engraving of the steel punches and the casting of the type. His publishing venture was costly and probably unprofitable, and he appears to have printed no second book. He continued, however, in connection with his trade as a goldsmith, the work of engraving punches for type.

The German printers speedily found their way to Florence as they had already done to Rome, Venice, and Milan. In 1472, a certain Peter, describing himself as “de Moguntia,” (of Mayence) printed an edition of the _Philocolo_ of Boccaccio, and in the same year, he issued the _Triumphs of Petrarch_.

The subscription reads: “Master Peter, son of John of Mayence, wrote (_scripsit_) this work in Florence, the 12th day of November, 1472.”

Humphreys points out that this imprint is an example of the habit of the early printers of considering their art as a kind of magical _writing_ rather than as a mechanical contrivance.