Glasgow Incunabula Project update (21/4/11)

By Julie Gardham on April 21, 2011 • ( 0 )

Details of another ten books have been added to the project website:

Mancinellus, Antonius: Lima in Vallam [Leipzig: Wolfgang Stöckel, after June 1497]
Albertus Magnus: De mineralibus Venice: Johannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis, de Forlivio, 22 June 1495
Albertus Magnus [pseudo-]: Liber aggregationis, seu Liber secretorum de virtutibus herbarum, lapidum et animalium quorundam [Paris: Antoine Caillaut, ca. 1492]
Boethius: De consolatione philosophiae Louvain: Johannes de Westfalia, 1484
Cornazzano, Antonio: La vita di Cristo [Venice?: Printer of Cornazzano (GW 7550)], 1472
Ludolphus de Suchen: Iter ad Terram Sanctam [Gouda: Gerard Leeu, between 1483 and 10 June 1484]
Polo, Marco: De consuetudinibus et conditionibus orientalium regionum [Gouda: Gerard Leeu, between 1483 and 11 June 1484]
Quaestiones naturales antiquorum philosophorum Cologne: Cornelis de Zierikzee, [ca. 1505]
Michael Scotus: Liber physiognomiae [Passau: Johann Petri, not after 1489] 2 copies

Device of the printer Antoine Caillaut (Sp Coll Ferguson Ai-a.27)

Jack Baldwin and I recently gave a talk to the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society about the project.

As well as sketching a background to the collection and highlighting some of the discoveries made so far, we gave a demonstration of the website and its various indexes. In the discussion that followed, it was suggested that including woodcut initials in the woodcuts index might be a useful addition for art historians. This information was previously only recorded in the main library catalogue versions of the records.

I have to agree that surveying the different styles of initials used throughout the 15th century is fascinating, and I have therefore “revisited” the books described so far and added initials in to the index – hopefully this will now provide a useful short cut to researchers interested in the development of the use of initials.

At the same time, I thought I would also include printer’s devices in the woodcuts index (although strictly speaking, some of the devices are actually metal cuts … perhaps we should rename this index “illustrations”?). Since we hold a large collection of emblem books in our Stirling Maxwell Collection, these marks are potentially of interest for those who are studying emblematic illustrations. Printer’s devices were, of course, originally used as trademarks to safeguard books against piracy. As time went on and their use grew in popularity, they acted as advertisements for a printer’s output and became increasingly decorative. They were often cut by skilled artists.

As it happens, this latest batch of books includes a few examples of printer’s devices, including that of Antoine Caillaut, as shown here. This is a particularly elaborate example found on the title-page of the book, which was printed in about 1492. It is similar to a device used by another Parisian printer, Antoine Verard. It incorporates the arms of France, supported by angels.