SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
219
la iotennixtaie of red and black in every page Hattsiie thinks not unpleasing. Of this rare Tolume be procured in his own time a kind of fiie-omile impression, which is known to col- lectors.
Milan and Venice, then, produced the earliest Greek impressions; but whilst they were satis- fied with such as were of a minor description, Florence contemplated a gigantic project, which was to throw all past efforts into the shade. It was nothing less than that noble edition of the whole works of Homer, Homeri Opera Omnia, Grxce; which was finished anno 1488, in two fine Tolumes, folio, by the skill and industry of tbe same Demetrius of Crete, (who appears now to have transferred his residence &om Milan to FkKence,) under the special revision of Deme- tiias Cbalcondyles, and at the expense of two patriotic Florentine citizens. Here then was an imtaDoe of art, starting as it were from its first nidiments into sudden and absolute perfection. Wkether, says Mattaire, one regards the texture and colour of the paper, the agreeable form of the characters, the reguUir intenrals of the lines, the fine proportion of the ma^pns, or the loM membU, the combined execution and effect of the whole, eren in later times nothing more ele- gant and finished has appeared.
Thus Greek typography seemed already to hare attained in a measure its (ix/i^ and matu- rity; as was evinced by the specimens which we hare enumerated. It had already forced its way through the difficulties of so novel and ex- taordinary an undertaking. Nothing now re- niined but to secure and amplify the glory which had been acquired : and this object was elected by a new series of adventurers, who soon began to display an honourable emulation in the same career.
In the year 1488, which was signalized by the noble impression of the works of Homer last mentioaed, we find that the Grammatica Gneca d Lascaris, together with the IrUerpreUUio La- l<M of John the monk of Placentia, issued from the press of Leonardus de Basilea, at Vicenza, in 4to. The operations of the Greek press, how- ever, continued as yet very slow : and it was not till after a further mtervsil of about five years, that another Greek impression appeared. In U93, a splendid addition was made to the typo- graphic gloiy of Milan by a magnificent impres- oon of ItocTota, Grace. The editor of this fine hook, which is said to exhibit a remarkably pure and correct text, was Demetrius Cbalcondyles; the printers, Henricus de Germanus and Sebas- tianos ex Pontremulo. Before the conclusion 0^ the fifteenth century the same city also dis- tinguished itself by the earliest edition of Suidas : Smda Lexicon, Grace, Mediolani, per Joan. Bmolim et Benedictttm Mangimn, 1499: to which is prefixed an amusing Greek diadogue between a bookseller and a student, firom the peo of Strahanus Niger, a native of Cremona and disciple of Demetrius Cbalcondyles.
b 1496, Florence produced the celebrated Eiitio primaria of the works of Lucian, LMciani
Opera, Grace; of which the printer's name is not specified.
To Joannes Lascaris the verfication and intro- duction into use of Greek Capitals are attri- buted : and it appears from these specimens, he thought it expedient that the whole text of each Greek poet, the pars lihri nobilior, as Mattaire expresses it, should be printed litterit maiiaculis, and the scholia or notes only in the smaller cha- racter. The fine capitals of Lascaris were, as we know, admitted into use by subsequent prin- ters only 80 far as to distinguish proper names, and the commencement of poetical lines or verses; and in some early editions of the Greek scholiasts upon Homer and Sophocles, to distin- guish the whole words or passages of the poet commented on from those of the aimotator.
This preface is addressed by Lascaris to Pc- trus Medices. It abounds with honourable tes- timonies to the family of the Medici; which, he says, has of all others shewn the most conspicu- ous zeal in collecting the various monuments of antiquity; and the justest discernment of their value. He records the special munificence of Lorenzo de Medici, by means of which two hun- dred manuscripts, ducenta antiguorum volumina, had lately been brought to Florence from Greece ard the neighbouring countries : and he alludes to a magnificent " Bibliotbeca," or edifice, which Piero was then constructing as a depository for those and similar literary treasures : to the latter he expresses his own personal obligations, and the hopes which all the learned reposed in him as the hereditary patron of letters. Tbe pillage of Horence, however, by Charles VIII. of France, the ruin of the fortunes of the house of Medici, the banishment of Piero and his speedy death, most of which events either anticipated or soon followed the publication of this impression of the Anlhologia Graca, not only rendered nu- gatory the preceding expectations, but probably occasioned the otherwise unaccountable suppres- sion of this interesting preface itself; which is actually found In very few of the copies at pre- sent known to be extant. Mattaire, in his An- naUt, torn, i., p. 270, seqq. has given a fac- simile of it.
Chevillier observes, on the authority of Aldus himself, in his preface to the edition of Slepha- nus de Urbibui, Gr., fol. 1602, that he first en- gs^d in Greek impressions when war broke out in Italy; meaning in 1494, in which year Charles VIII. of France passed the Alps, in order to the conquest of Naples. Chevillier considered his impression of the works of Aristotle, the first volume of which appeared in November 1495, as the earliest fruit of his press. But M. Re- nouard, in his catalogue of the Aldine impres- sions, first mentioning Conilantitu Latcarit Ero- temata, says it is the earliest work printed by Aldus with a date, and probably the first which he gave to the public. But some, he adds, con- sider his Mtuaiu in 4to, without date, as the earliest impression : the reasons for which may be seen in his work. The most extensive and volumnious efforts of
VjOOQ IC
