Early Printed BooksDuff, E. Gordon (Edward Gordon)
History
Early Printed Books
Duff, E. Gordon (Edward Gordon)
Incunabula -- Bibliography; Printing -- History -- Origin and antecedents
According to M. Salvá, the first two books printed in Spain with a
certain date are the _Comprehensorium_ (23rd February 1475), and the
_Sallust_ (13th July 1475), both printed at Valentia. As, however, the
year began on Easter Day, the second book is really the earlier, and
with it the authentic history of printing in Spain begins. The book
itself is a small quarto, printed in Roman letter, without signatures
or catchwords, and but two copies seem to be known, one in the Royal
Library of Madrid, the other in the Barberini Library at Rome. The
printers were Lambert Palmart, a German, and Alonzo Fernandez of
Cordova; but their names are found, for the first time, in a _Bible_ of
1478 known only from four leaves, one of them fortunately containing
the colophon. It is very probable that Alonzo Fernandez, whose name
only occurs in this one colophon, was not a printer, though it is not
known in what capacity he was associated with Palmart. He was certainly
known as a celebrated astronomer. Lambert Palmart continued to print
at Valentia up to the year 1494, and by that time other printers had
settled in the town. Jacobus de Villa is mentioned by Panzer in 1493
and 1495; and in this latter year we find also Peter Hagembach, who
later on, at Toledo, printed the celebrated _Mozarabic Missal_ and
_Breviary_.
In 1475 a certain Matthæus Flandrus printed an edition of the
_Manipulus Curatorum_ at Saragossa. He is supposed to have been a
wandering printer, and considered by some to be the Matthew Vendrell
who printed at Barcelona in 1482, and at Gerona in 1483. Between 1475
and 1485 no book is known to have been printed at Saragossa; but
in the latter year a press was started by Paul Hurus, a native of
Constance, who printed till almost the end of the fifteenth century;
and was followed by three Germans, George Cock, Leonard Butz, and Lupus
Appentegger.
Seville was the third city of Spain where printing was practised, and
the first dated book issued there was the _Sacramental_ of Clemente
Sanchez de Vercial, printed by three partners, Anton Martinez,
Bartholomé Segura, and Alphonso del Puerto, in 1477. An undated edition
of the same work is ascribed by Mendez and others to an earlier
date, and a third edition was issued in May 1478. Another book, the
_Manuale seu Repertorium super Abbatem Panormitanum per Alphonsum Diaz
de Montalvo_, was issued by the same printers in the same year. Hain
mentions sixteen printers who worked in Seville during the fifteenth
century; and of these many were Germans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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