Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/63

AND ITS PRINTER. 51 Basel incunabula those that are most nearly allied to it typographically are the ' Niuicellensis ' of 1489 which has already been mentioned, and an undated Latin 'Aesop,' with illustrations, the text type of which is the heavy-faced type common to the Breviary and the c Niuicellensis/ and which was, like this last, assigned by Proftor (nos. 7577,7629) to Amerbach. The black-ground capitals give no further help, as they were used with very slight variations by at least four printers in Basel at this time. Proflor's attribution of the two books to Amerbach was no doubt made largely on general grounds, for the heavy-faced type does not occur in this printer's signed work at all, but it is by no means unreasonable, and we should thus acquiesce in the Breviary being handed over to Amerbach also, were it not for the information afforded by the 'Regesten '* of Dr. Stehlin. That invaluable store- house of knowledge not only provides us with more detail about the printing and distribution of the Breviary than probably about any other book mentioned in it, but also, by telling us that its printer was a certain Adam von Speier, enables us to assign a definite rank and place to one who has hitherto been little more than a name. In view of his newly recognized significance, the following brief sketch of his circumstances and career, as disclosed in the ' Regesten,' may be of interest. At the time of his first appearance in 1473 Adam von Speier was already a citizen of Basel, 2 * Regesten zur Geschichte des Buchdrucks im 15. Jahrhundert,' in 'Archiv far Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels', vol. xix. There are some eighty entries in all relating to Adam von Speier.