Note 131 — The Cabinet.

A compendious account of Maittaire will be found in the third edition of my Introduction to the Knowledge of rare and valuable Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics, vol. i., p. 148. See too Mr. Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, &c., vol iii., p. ix. The various volumes of his Annales Typographici are well described in the Bibl. Crevenn., vol. v. p. 287. To these may be added, in the bibliographical department, his Historia Stephanorum, vitas ipsorum ac libros complectens, 1709, 8vo.—and the Historia Typographorum aliquot Parisiensium vitas et libros complectens, 1717, 8vo.—Of these two latter works, (which, from a contemporaneous catalogue, I find were originally published at 4s. the common paper,) Mr. T. Grenville has beautiful copies upon large paper. The books are rare in any shape. The principal merit of Maittaire's Annales Typographici consists in a great deal of curious matter detailed in the notes; but the absence of the "lucidus ordo" renders the perusal of these fatiguing and unsatisfactory. The author brought a full and well-informed mind to the task he undertook—but he wanted taste and precision in the arrangement of his materials. The eye wanders over a vast indigested mass; and information, when it is to be acquired with excessive toil, is, comparatively, seldom acquired. Panzer has adopted an infinitely better plan, on the model of Orlandi; and if his materials had been printed with the same beauty with which they appear to have been composed, and his annals had descended to as late a period as those of Maittaire, his work must have made us eventually forget that of his predecessor. The bibliographer is, no doubt, aware that of Maittaire's first volume there are two editions: why the author did not reprint, in the second edition (1733), the fac-simile of the epigram and epistle of Lascar prefixed to the edition of the Anthology, 1496, and the Disquisition concerning the ancient editions of Quintilian (both of which were in the first edition of 1719), is absolutely inexplicable. Maittaire was sharply attacked for this absurdity, in the "Catalogus Auctorum," of the "Annus Tertius Sæcularis Inv. Art. Typog.," Harlem, 1741, 8vo., p. 11. "Rara certe Librum augendi methodus! (exclaims the author) Satis patet auctorem hoc eo fecisse concilio, ut et primæ et secundæ Libri sui editioni pretium suum constaret, et una æque ac altera Lectoribus necessaria esset." Copies of the Typographical Antiquities by Maittaire, upon large paper, are now exceedingly scarce. The work, in this shape, has a noble appearance. While Maittaire was publishing his Typographical Annals, Orlandi put forth a similar work under the title of "Origine e Progressi della Stampa o sia dell' Arte Impressoria, e Notizie dell' Opere stampate dall' Anno 1462, sino all' Anno 1500." Bologna, 1722, 4to. Of this work, which is rather a compendious account of the several books published in the period above specified, there are copies upon strong writing paper—which the curious prefer. Although I have a long time considered it as superseded by the labours of Maittaire and Panzer, yet I will not withhold from the reader the following critique: "Cet ouvrage doit presque nécessairement être annexé à celui de Maittaire à cause de plusieurs notices et recherches, qui le rendent fort curieux et intéressant." Bibl. Crevenn., vol. v., 286-7. As we are upon publications treating of Typography, we may notice the "Annalium Typographicorum selecta quædam capita," Hamb., 1740, 4to., of Lackman; and Hirschius's supplement to the typographical labours of his predecessors—in the "Librorum ab Anno I. usque ad Annum L. Sec. xvi. Typis exscriptorum ex Libraria quadam supellectile, Norimbergæ collecta et observata, Millenarius I." &c. Noriberg, 1746, 4to. About this period was published a very curious, and now uncommon, octavo volume, of about 250 pages, by Seiz; called "Annus Tertius Sæcularis Inventæ Artis Typographicæ," Harlem, 1741—with several very interesting cuts relating to Coster, the supposed inventor of the art of printing. It is a little strange that Lysander, in the above account of eminent typographical writers, should omit to mention Chevillier—whose L'Origine de l'Imprimerie de Paris, &c., 1694, 4to., is a work of great merit, and is generally found upon every bibliographer's shelf. Baillet had supplied him with a pretty strong outline, in his short account of Parisian printers. All the copies of Chevillier's book, which I have seen, are printed upon what is called Foxey paper. I believe there are none upon large paper. We may just notice La Caille's Histoire de l'Imprimerie et de la Librarie, 1689, 4to., as a work full of errors. In order that nothing may be wanting to complete the typographical collection of the curious, let the "portraits of booksellers and printers, from ancient times to our own," published at Nuremberg, in 1726, folio—and "the Devices and Emblems" of the same, published at the same place, in 1730, folio, be procured, if possible. The Latin titles of these two latter works, both by Scholtzius, will be found in the Bibl. Crevenn. vol. v. 281. Renouard mentions the last in his "Annales de l'Imprimerie des Alde," vol. ii. p. 63. Meanwhile the Monumenta Typographica of Wolfius, Hamb., 1740, 2 vols., 8vo., embraces a number of curious and scattered dissertations upon this interesting and valuable art. It may be obtained for 8s. or 10s. at present! The Amœnitatus Literariæ, &c., of Schelhorn had like to have been passed over. It was published in 14 small octavo volumes, at Frankfort and Leipsic, from the year 1725 to 1731 inclusive. The Amœnitates Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ et Literariæ, of the same person, and published at the same place in two octavo volumes, 1738, should accompany the foregoing work. Both are scarce and sought after in this country. In the former there are some curious dissertations, with cuts, upon early printed books. Concerning the most ancient edition of the Latin Bibles, Schelhorn put forth an express treatise, which was published at Ulm in 1760, 4to. This latter work is very desirable to the curious in biblical researches, as one meets with constant mention of Schelhorn's bible. Let me not omit Zapf's Annales Typographiæ Augustanæ, Aug. Vindel., 1778; which was republished, with copious additions, at Augsbourg, in two parts, 1786, 4to.—but unluckily, this latter is printed in the German language. Upon Spanish Typography (a very interesting subject), there is a dissertation by Raymond Diosdado Caballero, entitled "De Prima Typographiæ Hispanicæ Ætate Specimen," Rome, 1793, 4to.