Beykaneer or Bicanere

IV.

Of the Classics.

It is remarked by Mr Roscoe, " that the coinci dence of the discovery of the art of Printing, with the spirit of the times in which it had birth, was highly fortunate. Had it been made known at a much earlier period, it would have been disregarded or forgotten, from the mere want of materials on which to exercise it ; and, had it been farther post poned, it is probable, that many works would have been totally lost, which are now justly regarded as the noblest monuments of the human intellect." (Lorenzo di Medici, chap. i.) The rapid diffusion of the art, and the speedy appearance of the Classics in an imperishable form, afford sufficient proofs of the bent of the age, and the opportuneness of this great discovery. Gabriel Nandi observes, that almost all the good as well as bad Books then in Europe, had passed through the Press before the year 1474; • that is, within twenty years of the earliest date to which the use of moveable types can be carried. Within this period, editions had been printed of Pearly all the Latin Classics. The whole works of some of them, of Cicero, for example, had not yet appeared in one uniform edition ; but several of his treatises, the whole of Pliny the Elder, of Livy, Sal.

lust,

Cesar, Tacitus, Suetonius, Justin, Lucan, Vir gil, and of Horace, had been published before the end of 1470. Most of these early editions of the Classics were published in Italy. England re mained greatly behind her Continental neighbours in the naturalization of these precious remains of ancient learning. Of all the Classics, only Terence, and Cicero's feces, had, in 154.0, been published in this country in their original tongue. Caxton and Others made use only of French trans lations in the early 'versions and abridgments pub lished in England. Gawin Douglas, Bishop of Dun keld, so well known for his Scottish poetical version of Virgil, has, in his preface to that work, comme morated his indignation at the injustice done to " the divine Poet" by Caxton's second-hand translation, in the following curious and emphatic lines : Almost all the Latin Classics had appeared is print, before the art was employed upon any one Greek author. But the desire to possess printed editions of the latter became general and urgent to wards the end of the fifteenth century ; and Aldus had the glory of ministering to that desire, by pub lishing in rapid succession, and with singular beau ty and correctness, almost all the principal authors in that tongue. Beginning in 1494 with Musteues Hero and Leander, he printed before 1515, the year of his death, upwards of sixty considerable works in Grecian literature, frequently joining the learning and the cares of the Editor to those of the Printer. " Yet his glory," to use the words of Mr Gibbon, " must not tempt us to forget, that the first Greek Book, the Grammar of Constantine Lascaris, was printed at Milan in 1476; and that the Florence Homer of 1488 displays all the luxury of the Typo graphical art." (History, Chap. 66.) Besides these works, there had been published before 1494, some Greek Psalters, the Batrachomyomachia of Homer, and the Orations of Isocrates ; during that year, the Anthologia Grceca was published at Florence ; and the works of Callimachus, of Apollonius Rho dins, and of Lucian, were published at the same place within two years after the first essays of Aldus in Greek printing. Thus, though we have no sort of wish to detract from the just fame of this learned and beautiful Printer, we cannot admit the propriety of those eulogies of his late Biographer M. Renouard, in which he is represented as having given an entirely new direction to the art of Printing, and, indeed, to the literary taste of Europe. s' It is as incorrect in point of fact, as it is unphilo sophical, to ascribe to Aldus the production of that taste for Grecian literature which he himself imbibed from the spirit of his age. He saw that there was a great and growing want of Greek Books ; and his peculiar praise lies in this that he applied himself to supply this want, with much more constancy and skill, and with much more learning, than any other Printer of that period. All that we have said on this point, is fully corro borated by the account which he himself has given, in his Preface to Aristotle's Organon, pub lished in 1495, of the circumstances which induced him to undertake the publication of the Greek Classics. The passage is translated by Mr Roscoe in his Life of Leo the Tenth (Vol. 1. p. 110), and is as follows :—" The necessity of Greek literature is now universally acknowledged ; insomuch, that not only our youth endeavour to acquire it, but it is studied even by those advanced in years. We read but of one Cato among the Romans who studied Greek in his old age, but in our times we have many Catos ; and the number of our youth, who ap ply themselves to the study of Greek, is almost as great as of those who study the Latin tongue ; so that Greek Books, of which there are but few in ex istence, are now eagerly sought after. But by the assistance of Jesus Christ, I hope ere long to sup ply this deficiency, although it can only be accom plished by great labour, inconvenience, and loss of time. Those who cultivate letters must be supplied with Books necessary for their purpose, and till this supply be obtained, I shall not be at rest." • The Editions Principas of the Classics have al ways formed capital objects in Bibliography, and are sometimes spoken of with a degree of rapture in Bibliographical works, which is apt to appear inap propriate and unreasonable to those who covet books solely as they are calculated afford delight or in formation. The lover of first editions has, however, some plausible reasons to assign in justification of this expensive, and, as some think, factitious passion. These editions, it is said, are valuable, in the first place, as curious monuments of early Typography, and, in the next place, as being more faithful re presentatives of the beet ancient Manuscripts, than any other editions. Earwig editionuns audio

ritatens, says Maittaire, aliis omnibus. esse pe renduns, gusppe qua sold MSS. fida nitatur. This ground of preference, however, has some learn ed oppugners. Schelhorn, in his Ansonsitates Lite raria, speaks of those to whom we are indebted for the first editions of the Classics, as, in general, very ignorant men ; quite incapable to collate Manuscripts themselves, and seldom taking assistance from those who were. The first Manuscript that could be pro cured, it has been said by others, and not that which, after a careful collation, appeared entitled to a pre ference, was hastily committed to the Press, in order to take advantage of the recent discovery. Thus Grievius, in the Preface to his edition of Cicero De Cyliciis, states, that the celebrated editio prineeps of that work, by Faust, was printed from a very inac curate manuscript. t On the other hand, there are many who view those editions in the same light with Maittaire. M. La Grange assures us, in the Preface to his French translation of Seneca's works, that he never, in any case of difficulty, consulted the editio princeps of 1475, without finding there a solution of his doubts ;. adding generally, que awn qui studies* lea auteurs widens, snit pour en done er des Editions corredes, soft pour lea traduire dana une mitre longue, doivent avoir sans cease sons les yens lea premiers Editions de en auteurs. To the same purpose, M. Serna Santander observes, that the Editio Print:cps of Pliny the Elder, printed at Venice by Spire in 1469, is in many places more accurate than the ce lebrated edition of Father Hardouin. The truth seems to be, that though many first editions have a real literary value for such purposes as are specified by M. La Grange, there are others which have no value save what their extreme rareness gives them ;—that, therefore, they who scoff at, and they who laud in discriminately these literary rarities, are equally in the wrong ;—in a word, that we must apply a different rule of estimation to the first editions of such a Prin ter as Aldus, and those of Sweynheim and Pannartz.$ The Classics have often been published in Sets more or less complete, and more or less estimable for beauty, correctness, commentaries, and so forth. Lists of all these sets, with remarks on their relative extent and merits, will be found in the Bibliographi cal works to be immediately mentioned. As the origin of the Delphin Collection forms an interesting piece of Literary History, it may not be improper to notice it more particularly. This celebrated body of Latin Classics was originally destined for the use of the Dauphin, son of Louis XI V.; and was projected by his Governor the Duke of Montausier. This nobleman, who, though a Courtier and Soldier, was both a Philo sopher and a Scholar, had been in the habit of •carry ing some of the Classics along with him in all his cam pales ; and had often experienced impediments to their satisfactory perusal, from the recurrence of dif ficulties and allusions, which could not be removed or explained, without Books of reference, too bulky for transport on such occasions. It was in these circumstances that the idea first occurred to him of the great utility of a uniform edition of the prin cipal Classics, in which the text of each should be accompanied with explanatory notes and illus trative comments ; and when be became Gover nor to the Dauphin, he thought that a fit oppor tunity to set on foot an undertaking Calculated to prove so useful to the studies of the young Prince. Huet, Bishop of Avranches, then one of the Dau phin's Preceptors, was accordingly commissioned to employ a sufficient number of learned men for this purpose, and to direct and animate the whole under taking. Once every fortnight they came to him on a stated day, each with the portion of his work which he had finished in the interval, to undergo his inspec tion and judgment. The copious verbal indexes, which constitute so valuable a portion of these editions, were added at his suggestion ; but not without consi derable opposition on the part of his assistants, who were appalled by the prospect of so much irksome labour as would be necessary to do justice to this prt of the plan. (Memoirs of Huet's Life, Book 5.) The collection, including Danet's Dictionary of An tiquities, extends to sixty-four volumes quarto. " It is remarkable," says Dr Aikin, in one of the notes to his excellent translation of Huet's Memoirs, " that Lucan is not among the number. He was too much the Poet of liberty to suit the age of Louis XIV." The following are the most useful Bibliographical accounts of the Classics : 1. A View of the Various Editions of the Greek and Roman Classics, with Re marks, by Dr Harwood. This work, first published in 1776, has gone throufh editions ; the larger works of the same kind, to which it gave rise, not having superseded it as a convenient manual in this department of Bibliography. 2. Degli Autori Classici sacri profani, Graci e Latini, Bibliotheca portatile ; 2 vole. 12mo, Venice, 1793. This work was compiled by the Abbe Boni, and Bartholomew Giunba ; and contains a translation of the preceding, with corrections and large additions, besides criti cisms on the works of Bibliographers, and a view of the origin and history of Printing. 3. An Introduc tion to the Knowledge of Rare and Valuable Editions of the Classics, by T. F. Dibdin. The first edition was published in 12nao, in 1803 ; but it has since been greatly enlarged in two octavo editions, the lest of which appeared in 1808. The utility of this work is considerably enhanced by the full account which of Polyglott Bibles, of the Greek and Latin editions of the Septuagint and New Testa ment, and of Lexicons and Grammars.