FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
forms his readers that a very serious reason in- duced him to undertake this task ; for it is, says he, to furestal the artifiets of Satan. He sup- poses that the devil, to ruin the fruit of this wore, employed two very malicious frauds ; the first before it was printed, by drenching the manu- script in a kennel, and having reduced it to a most pitiable state, rendered several parts ille- gible; the second, in obliging the printers to commit such numerous blunders, never yet equalled in so small a work. To combat tnis double machination of Satan he was obliged carefiilly to reperuse the work, and to form this ringular Ust ot the blunders of printers, under the influence of the devil. All this he relates in an adTCTtisement prefixed to the errata.
The following ^cimen of notice of errata, oc- enisin a work entitled the Practice of Preaching,
frinted in 1577. " An admonition to the reader, or thy better expedition and furtherance in reading of this book, I pray thee (gentle reader) take thy pen and (before sal things) correct and amend these faults escaped in printing.
ToOo ftge Line FtoUs Coirectioiu
14 a 1 7 for we arrest our hope read we erect our hope
I Signifies the first side of the leaf. i The seco'd."
The book which is distinguished by the great- est number of errata on record, is that contain- ing the works of Pica Mirandula, printed at Strasburg in 1507, by a printer of the name of Knoblench. The errata of this volume occupy no less than fifteen folio pages. — ^The subject might be veir far extended, and many curious anecdotes might be introduced. These errors proceeded as often from ignorance as mistake.
One of the most remarkable complaints on errata is that of Edward Leigh,' appended to his carious treatise On Religion and Learning. It consists of two folio pages, in a very minute character, and exhibits an incalculable number of printer's blunders. " We have not," he says, « Flantin nor Stephens amongst us ; and it is no easy task to specify the chiefest errata ; false interpunctions there are too many ; here a letter wantug, there a letter too much ; a syllable too much; one letter for another; words parted where they should be joined ; words joined which should be severed; words misplaced; chronological mistakes, &c." This unfortunate folio was printed in 1656. Are we to infer by such frequent complaints of the authors of that day, that either they did not receive proofs from the printers, or that the printers never attended to the corrected proofs ? Each single erratum seems to have been felt as stab to the literary feelings of the poor author !
It appears by a calculation made by the printer of Stee\-ens's edition of Shakspeare, that every octavo page of that work, text and notes, contains 2680 distinct pieces of metal; which in a sheet amount to 42,880 — the misplacing of any one of which would inevitably cause a blun- der ! With this curious fact before us, the accu-
rate state of our printing, in general, is to be admired, and errata ought more freely to be pardoned than the fastidious minuteness of the insect eye of certain critics has allowed.
Whether such a miracle as an immaculate edition of a classical author does exist, I have never learnt ; but an attempt has been made to obtain this glorious singularity — and was as nearly realised as is perhaps possible in the magnificent edition of As Lutiadat of Camoens, by Dom Joze Souza, in 1817. This amateur spared no prodigality of cost and labour, and nattered himself that by the assistance of Didot, not a single typographical error should be found in that splendid volume. But an error was af- terwards discovered in some of the copies, occa- sioned by one of the letters in the word Ltuitano having got misplaced during the working of one of the sheets. It must be confessed that this was an accident or mitfortune — rather than an erratum !*
Many other curious anecdotes concerning the errors of printers and errata, will be given under the dates in which they occur.
1478. Died, Theodore Gaza, a learned Greek, was born at Thessalonica, and when that place was taken by the Turks in 1430, he escaped to Italy, where he studied the Latin lang^uage with so much assiduity that he became an elegant writer and speaker of it. He was for several years a professor at Ferrara, and at length rector of that university. From thence he went to
- It become* me, perhap*, to lar aomethiiiK of the
Errata that may occur In this work. 1 am aware that maof will onaroidably arlM ^ and they who have much to do ^th dates, with the transcript of books, or the labooia of the prtntiDK-hoaae, will know that these cannot, even with the utmost care, be avoided. To those who may col- lect these Errata of mine with a friendly care, I shall be very thanliiul ; but to those, who with a coDtnrr dlapoai- tion, I can only make the same appeal that much greater men than myself have done before. Quoting the words of an old author, " I know I have herein made myself subject unto a worid of Judges, and am likeat to receive moat con- tronlment of such as ate least able to sentence me. Well I wote that the works of no writers have appeared in a more curious age than this ; and that, therefore, the more drcumspection and wariness is required in the poblisliiiig of any thing that must endure so many sharp sights and censures. The consideration wliereof, aa it hsih made me the more heedy not to displease any, so bath it given me the less hope of pleasing all."
As a humble labourer in the vineyard of Uteratnre, and possessing little learning and leas leisure, I do not fKCtead to approach near to the knowledge and industry of sodi eminent names as Dibdin, Home, Beloe, Nichols, and many others, whose talents and researches have added so much to illustrate the beaatie* of BibUography, and explora the deep and interesting mine* of Typography. Asajoamey- man printer, compelled to labour for my daily means, ne task I have undertaken may appear, perhaps to many, too much for my abilities : X would request sudi to defer their judgment until the completion of the work. To those who have witnessed my exertions, for the last nine years, in collecting the matoisls, no ajiology will, I hope, be neceasaty. Every mean* within my reach have been em- ployed to elucidate the truth, and my only aim in the com. pilation, is an ardent desire to add something, however Uttle, to the stock of typographical Uteratore, and produce a work which every lover of the ait, may refer to as a book of instruction and amusement. One more apology I must not fbrget to state, and one which I* da&y expe- rienced, that me worst editor of an author's wiiUng* is Umself. And
" He who madly prints his name Invites bis foe to take sure aim." C. II. T.
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