FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
185
tlte Latin language. They were published from tlie press of Albert Pfister, at Bamberg; al- though they are without date, and are considered the earliest examples of books printed on both sides of the page, with metal types, and decora- ted with wood cuts. The earliest printed book, containing text and eagravingt iUustrative of scriptural subjects is called the Histories of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Either, printed by P&ster in this year. It is iunong the rarest typo- graphical curiosities in existence, there being at present only two known copies of it — one in the royal library at Paris, and another in the collec- tion of Earl Spencer. The following is a metri- cal Tersion of the original metrical colophon in the German language.
Sach man with eagerness desires
TD leant, and to be wise aspires.
But books and masters make us ao;
^d an men cannot Latin know.
Thereon I hare for sometimes thought,
And HisTomiBS Vovk tofether bronght :
Josirn, and Daotii., and Jqoith,
With good Intent ; Estbir therewith,
To these did Ood protection glTe,
As new to all who godly lire.
If bjr It we oar Uves amend.
This little book bath gained its end.
Which certainly in Bamberg town
By Albcrt PnsTiB's nress was done,
In/omrteen hundred tijrn.twoj
As men now reckon g mat is troe.
Soon alter good St. Walbonrgh's day.
Whom to procnre for us we pimy.
Peace and eternal live to lire i
Tlte which to all of us God gira. Amen,
l^iis rersion is literally accurate, and was sup- plied by my friend Mr. R. W. Wade.— 2>»Mtn.
It is probable that this partial impression of the sacred text, thus decorated, gave the idea of publishing the entire text of the bible, with simi- lar einbellighments.and in the same language, at Augsburg, about the year 1473, and a similar one l^ Jryner, of Eslingen, between the years 1474 rad 1477 : a practice frequently adopted after- wards, both in the German imd other remacular translations, and in various editions of the Latin bible. Pfister is also supposed to have published a bible, described in the Sibliotheea Speneeriana.
1463. On the application of the card-makers of London to Parliament, an act was made against the importation of playing-cards. From tWs statute it appears, that boUi card-playing and card-making were known and practised in England before this period, or about fifty years after the era of thejr supposed invention.
Austis, in his Hiitory of the Order of the Garter, 1277, produces a passage, cited from a wardrobe commUtu, made in the sixth year of King Edward I. in which mention is made of a rame entitled the Four Kings VII Is. Yd. and hence that writer conjectures that playing cards were then used in England, a supposition which might seem the less imreasonable, since we have DO account of any game played in Europe, in which four kings were used except in cards. — Edward I. resided five years in Syria.
1464, ^ti^iut I . Died Cosmo de Medicis, called the elder, was born at Florence, in 1399, and he became an eminent merchant. Cosmo de Medicis
deserves to be recorded as one of the most mu- nificent patrons of literature of his time ; he collected a noble library, which he enriched with inestimable manuscripts from Greece and other countries. The envy excited against him by his riches and eminent qualities, raised him many enemies, by whose intrigues he was obliged to quit his native country He then retired to Venice, where he was received as a prince. His fellow citizens afterwards recalled nim, and he bore a principal share in the government of the republic for tnirty-four years. On his tomb waa engraven this inscription : The Father of his People, and the Deliverer of his Country.
An historical account of the pagents, and a short notice of the most interesting, may serve to illustrate the manners and customs of the times, as marking things, " though familiar to a few, will be new no more." Stnitt, in his SporU and Paitimet, observes, that the old chronicles con- tains large particulars of these and similar exhi- bitions, ana even up to fiiVy or sixty years ago in the lord mayor's show ; but the pageants and orations have long been discontinued, and the lord mayor's itself is so much contracted, that it is in r^dity altogether unworthy of such aa appellation.
Warton thinks that the Pageants, which on civil occasions derived gseax. part of their de- corations and actors from historical fact, and consequently made pro&ne characters the subject of public exhibition, dictated ideas of a regular drama much sooner than the Mysteries. Whether this were so or not, the Pageants sometimes par- took of the nature of Mysteries, and were of a mixed character. This is particularly exem- plified in the prints to the descriptive volume of the great Haerlem show. There were on that occasion personifications of Vanity, Wisdom, War, Cruelty, Faith, Hope, Charity, Learning, Pride, Poverty, Blindness, Drunkenness, Evil Conscience, Wickedness, Despair, Fame, Bad Report, Envy, Hypocrisy, Hunger, Thirst, Pain: personations of Christ, Judas, Ajianias, Sapphira, Zaccheus, Cornelius, Tabitha, Tobias, Midas, Mercury, Soldiers,Murderers,Merchant8, Priests, &c. Riches is there represented as a man richly habited, accompanied by Covetousness, a female with a high ruff open at the neck in front, from whence springs a large branch that falls hori- zontally over her shoulder, to Achan, Ahab, and Judas, who follow in the procession, pluck- ing the fruit from the bough. In another of these prints, Christ barefooted, and in a close vest, precedes a penitent-looking man, and grasps a sword in his right hand, which he turns round and points at we devil, who holds a prong, and is at the man's heels with Hell and Death follow- ing. Hell is denoted by a black monk-like figure walking without a head, flame and smoke issuing forth at the top instead ; Death, gaunt and naked, holds a large dart -, the Devil has a human face with horns, and blunt tail, rather thickened at the end. Trailing on the ground like a rope. A procession in one of these plates represents the story of Hatto, Bishop of Mentz,
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