An Essay on Colophons, with Specimens and TranslationsPollard, Alfred W. (Alfred William)
History
An Essay on Colophons, with Specimens and Translations
Pollard, Alfred W. (Alfred William)
Books -- History -- 1450-1600; Colophons; Incunabula -- Bibliography
“Presens Marci tulii clarissimum opus Iohannes Fust Moguntinus ciuis, non
atramento plumali, canna neque aerea, sed arte quadam perpulcra, Petri
manu pueri mei feliciter effeci finitum, Anno 1465.” This statement,
that “I, Johann Fust, citizen of Mainz, completed the book by the labor
or instrumentality (manu) of my son Peter,” was repeated in the reprint
of February 4, 1466, and thenceforth the name of Fust disappears from the
annals of printing.
In 1467 we find the colophon attributed by Maittaire to some copies of
the “Sextus Decretalium” repeated (with the omission of Fust’s name) in
the “Secunda Secundae” of S. Thomas Aquinas and the second edition of
the Clementine Constitutions, and this became for some time Schoeffer’s
normal colophon. In 1470, however, he varied it in his edition of S.
Jerome’s Epistles in order to introduce a compliment paid by the saint
to the city of Mainz, which made it peculiarly appropriate that his work
should be popularized by a Mainz printer. This colophon runs:
[I]gitur Sophronii Eusebii Ieronimi orthodoxi, Ecclesie Christi
propugnatoris clarissimi, Liber Ieronimianus, aut si mauis,
quod et ipse velim, Liber Epistolaris explicit, ut dignitas
nominis Ieronimiani egregio viro Johanni Andree permaneat,
qui hoc ipsum zelo deuotionis erga virum sanctum affectus
tempore prisco vulgauit in orbem. Est autem presens opus arte
impressoria feliciter consummatum per Petrum schoiffer de
Gernsshem in ciuitate nobili Moguntina. Cuius nobilitati vir
beatus Ieronimus scribens ad Agerutiam de monogamia testimonium
perhibet sempiternum multis milibus incolarum eiusdem in
ecclesia pro fide catholica sanguine proprio laureatis.
Huic laudatori reddit moguntia vicem,
Tot sua scripta parans usibus ecclesie.
Anno domini M.cccc.lxx. Die septima mensis septembris que fuit
vigilia natiuitatis Marie. Da gloriam Deo.
[Illustration: S. Jerome’s Epistles. Mainz: P. Schoeffer,
1470.]
Thus of Sophronius Eusebius Hieronimus [_i.e._, S. Jerome], the
Orthodox, the most renowned champion of the Church of Christ,
there comes to an end the book called after him Hieronominian,
or if you prefer it the Book of his Epistles, the title I
myself should wish to give it in order that the honor of the
title Hieronimian may be reserved for the illustrious Johannes
Andreae, who in olden time published to the world this very
work from the zeal of his devotion to the holy man. Now the
present work by the printing art has been happily brought to
completion by Peter Schoiffer of Gernsheim in the noble city of
Mainz, as to whose nobility the blessed man Jerome, writing to
Agerutia concerning monogamy, bears eternal witness to the many
thousands of its inhabitants who with their own blood have won
crowns of laurel in the church for the catholic faith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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