Farfel Notebook 03: Leaves 135-222

201 Feb. 85 S.F. Bookfair N+N Pavlov, Dobba Ferry NY $15 Biblia Latina. Venice: Nicolaus Jenson, 1476. folio Ref: Goff B-547 HC 3061 BMC V 176 Pr. 4100 GW 4220. Cop: HEHL, PML Marcus K5 -rubricated with 2l. initals in alternate red +blue. (302x198mm) unnumbered - 470 leaves, I + 340 blank. 2 coL. b in register. 3a: 521. + headline, 197 (213)x127mm. Types 106 G, headlines (names of books), 1st words of each books - large text type, broad + angular, 7 or 8 Vellum copies known the captials with little ornament, A D N P S V diamonded. In use from 1474-77 for text *84 (75)G, text, chapter numbers - Text type in use in + after 1476. Captial spaces. Printed signatures. (93G) - Among the earliest, if not the 1st Bible with signatures printed within the text. The 1st Bible from the famous press of Jenson, the French printer from whose Venetian press came nearly 100 of the finest books published in the 35th C. When Jenson issued a 2nd ed. of the Latin Bible [inserted] See #271 [end inserted] in 1479, Pope Sixtus IV conferred upon him the honorary title of Count Palatine. (b. 1420) Jenson - a native of Sommevaire, come 35 miles east of Troyes (about 150m south east of Paris) - Up to the year 1501 the Bible had appeared in more than 90 Latin ed. as well as some 30 vernacular ed. in 6 languages. Harvard Library Bulletin Oct. 1980 Vol. XXVIII #4 Roman type + the printing programs with which it is closely associated can thus be regarded as an intergral part of the Renaissance humanism which gave no linear perspective, proportioned architecture, + the empirical measurement of astronomical phenomenon. The type faces first used in Italian printing were not simply part of a copying system They were rather a direct manifestation of the pricviples which, in the most advanced circles, were thought to motivate the texts most worthy of preservation + distribution. Roman letters were in themselves evidence of an all-pervasive underlying rational order. It was the guest for this order that

justified the studying of ancient literature + made printing itself worthy of enlightened patronage - - It was the message of the Renaissance that fashioned the media of its presentation." -N. Jenson, a Frenchman from Sommevoire near Troyes, trained as a die-cutter before learning the art of printing, almost certainly in German. During his career in Venice (1470-1480) he designed not only the most beautiful Rman type of the period, but also a splendid Gothic rotunda. HEHL (43631) unusual - rubricated only in blue Marcus begins K2 (of 10) my leaf K5 ends K9 (of 10) last 1/4 of volume

202 Feb 85 SF. Bookfair N+N Pavlov $10 Dobbs Ferry, NY. Brant, Sebastian. (1458-1520). (1475?-1552) Barclay, Alexander, O.S.B. (Transl.) Stultifera Navis ... The Ship of Fooles. With the Latin translation of (1471-1528) Jacob Locher. p.23+22 London: John Cawood-Printer 1546-72, 1570. -340 leaves. 1982- L1500 Ref S.T.C 3546 "Of contempt or despising of holy scripture." Pforzheimer 41 (11 1/8x 7 1/2") With 116 woodcuts (a few repeats) Folio in sixes. (275x187mm) of which 8 are repeated twice + 1 once. Black letter. Barclay's translation of Brant's Nauenschiff, in the 2nd English ed. The famous series of woodcuts are printed here from the same blocks used in the 1509 Pynson ed. except for 3 which were apparently 1st or damaged. All the original poems by Barclay which he inserted throughout the work are present excpt the "Balade .... in honoure of the blessyd Virgyn Mary." The passage relating to the discovery America is on leaf 131 r of this ed. John Cawood - the Royal printer to Queen Mary + Queen Elizabeth - replaced Richard Grafton. The Latin througout is printed in Roman. Brant was a leading German humanist + a prolific author. His Nauenschiff, a brilliant satire on man's follies + vices, has, however, overshadowed the rest of this works, as both the text + the woodcuts have become a part of the whole world's literary + pictorial heritage. The popularity of the "Ship of Fooles" greatly exceeded that of any other didactic poem Barcly's "Mirror of Goon Manners" + "Certain Egloges" are printed at the end, + added considerable importance ot this edition (they were not included in Pynson's ed.) In the present ed. the Balade of our Lady which concluded the 1509 ed. is omitted, while the verses excusing the rudeness of the translation are transposed form the beginning to the end.

In 1509 the wave fo popularity had carried the Ship of Fools to England. So great was the public demand that 2 editions had to be published within the year, one a prose version by Henry Watson issued by W. ed Worde + the other, the poetic translation by A. Barclay, issued from R. Pynson's press. Barclay's ed. gave the book its lasting fame in England. Barclay's sympathy with the lower classes in modan, + the denunciation of corruptuion in high places looks forwart to Protestantism. Barclay adds a sermon at the end o feach chapter. In this he preaches to the particular set of fools he has just exposed telling them how wrong they are + how they should attempt to reform. In so doing he nearly doubles the length of the 1st German ed. In 1498 - J. Cicler von K. (friend of S. Brant.) wrote a series of 146 sermosn based on the Ship of Fools a 3 line motto closes most of the chapters (112 total) - 112 p. p., 259, 69 numb. l. illus. 28-9 cm. Latin + English text; the Latin that of J Locher (1497) with reproductions of the original ed. of 1494. THe English portions of the work is in Gothic type, the Latin in Roman. HEHL #69628 before Of breating + hurting of amitic and frendship after of fools without provision.

#11 in original German ed of 1494 (Verachtung der Gschrift) Contempt of Holy Writ. Barclay's Shyp is a ship of fools of 16th C England rather than a translation of Brant. Otto Ege - Famous books - collection

203 Feb 85 S.F. Bookfair Maggs Bros London $180=160L (opaque watercolors + ink on paper) Shahnama. (Book of Kings) Firdawsi. Manuscript leaf with miniature (4x6 1/4") - Persian Southern Iran (Shiraz) Artist 1530-50 with 21 lines to the page in 4 columns of nasta'liq script, souble intercolumar rules in gold, margins ruled in red, blue + gold, headings in red. On paper. (167x242mm.) See "Maggs Bulletin No 40, 39 #65 Dec '85. #126 Oct 186 L 300 1L=$1.50 Rustam + Esfandiyar?? Rustam - National epic poem of Iran (Persia). Begun by Daqiqi who came to an untimely end, it was completed by Firdawsi in A.D. 1010. This monumental work, which recounts the legends + history of 4 Iranian dynasties ending with the death of the last sassanian king was completed by Firsowsi in some 50 to 60 thousand rhyminh couplets (myth, legend + historical fact are woven together). G.M. Meredith-Owens: Illustrated Persian Manuscripts. London, 1973.

- 3 cities above all others in Persia, are assoc. with the arts in the 15th C Tabriz in the West, Herat in the east, + Shiraz - almost equidistant between the two - in the south-west. Tabriz, throughout most of the country, was the Turkman capital. Herat, meanwhile, continued to be the chief capital of the Timurids. It was at Herat, under Sultan Hussayn, that printing + the book arts in general, reached their highest pitch of excellence - printing was first introduced inot Persia about 1815.

Naskhi - principal script for copying the Koran in eastern Islamic countries Nastaliq - developed in Persia in the later 14th C + used mostly for secular writing. Kufic - named after Kufah in Iraq where according to tradition it was derived during the reighn of Ali (AD 656-61). The paper used for Persian manuscripts was made from coarse rags + had a somewhat uneven surface. It was sized either with egg white or a starch solutin + then burnished with mother of