Three Centuries of a City Library Part 4

[1485?] LOUVAIN. Johannes de Westphalia.

[ROLEWINCK, Werner]. De Regimine Rusticorum. Quarto.

Campbell *1480. Proctor 9274.

1487 VENICE. Georgius de Arrivabenis.

Biblia Latina. Quarto.

Hain *3099. Proctor 4912.

1490 STRa.s.sBURG. [Printer of Jorda.n.u.s de Quedlinburg].

Modus legendi abbreuiaturas in utroque iure, etc. Folio. Hain 11485. B.M. p. 140 (IB. 2030).

1491 MAINZ. Jacobus Meydenbach.

Hortus Sanitatis. Folio.

Hain *8944. B.M. p. 44 (IB. 343).

Imperfect, wanting seven leaves at the end.

1492 PARIS. Antoine Caillaut.

GUILLERMUS PARISIENSIS. Super septem sacramentis. Quarto.

?Hain 8313. Not described.

1493 NUREMBERG. Anton Koberger.

SCHEDEL, Hartmann. Liber Cronicarum.

Folio.

Hain *14508. B.M. p. 437 (1C. 7451).

1494 NUREMBERG. Anton Koberger.

DURANTI, Guilelmus. Rationale diuinorum officiorum. Quarto.

Hain *6497. B.M. p. 439 (IB. 7478).

1494 NUREMBERG. Anton Koberger.

HEROLT, Joannes. Sermones de tempore et de sanctis. Folio.

Hain *8504. B.M. p. 440 (IB. 7485).

1494 STRa.s.sBURG. [Martin Flach].

MARCHESINUS, Joannes. Mammotrectus super Bibliam. Quarto.

Hain *10573. B.M. p. 153 (IA. 2184).

1495 PARIS. Jean Pet.i.t.

Postilles des dimenches et des festes de lanee. Quarto.

Not described.

[1495?] VENICE. Bernardus Benalius.

TERTULLIa.n.u.s. Apologeticus aduersus Gentes. Folio. Hain 15443. Proctor 4899.

[About 1495] [FRANCE?]

BURLEY, Walter. De vita et moribus philosophorum. Quarto.

Copinger 1387. Copy in University Library, Cambridge.

1496 NUREMBERG. Anton Koberger.

GREGORY IX. Decretales c.u.m summariis. Folio.

Hain *8034. B.M. p. 442 (IB. 7519).

1496 VENICE. Baptista de Tortis.

GREGORY IX. Decretales c.u.m summariis. Folio.

Hain *8035. Proctor 4656.

1497 BOLOGNA. Benedictus Hectoris Faelli.

PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA (Giov. Fran.).

De morte Christi, etc. Quarto.

Hain *13002. Proctor 6634.

1497 LONDON. Richard Pynson.

Expositio Hymnorum secundum usum Sarum.

Expositio Sequentiarum secundum usum Sarum. Quarto.

Other copies known are at the Bodleian Library and St. John's College, Oxford.

1497 NUREMBERG. Anton Koberger.

Biblia Latina c.u.m postillis Nicolai de Lyra et additionibus Pauli Burgensis. Folio.

A complete copy has four parts. This contains only the first and about half of the second. Wrongly lettered 1481.

Hain *3171. B.M. p. 443 (IB. 7535).

1497 VENICE. Simon Bevilaqua.

LACTANTIUS. De diuinis inst.i.tutionibus, etc. Folio.

Hain *9818. Proctor 5401.

1497 VENICE. Bonetus Locatellus for Octavia.n.u.s Scotus.

GUAINERIUS, Antonius. Practica.

Folio.

Hain *8099. Proctor 5076.

1498 etc. BASEL. Johann Froben & Johann Petri.

Biblia Latina c.u.m glosa ordinaria et expositione Nicolai de Lyra. Folio.

Hain *3172. B.M. p. 791 (IB. 37895).

Imperfect, wanting parts 3, 5 and 6.

1499 VENICE. Simon de Luere for Andreas Torresa.n.u.s.

BARTHOLOMAEUS MONTAGNANA. Consilia medica. Folio.

Proctor 5622.

1499 STRa.s.sBURG. Johannes Gruninger.

SIBYLLA, Bartholomaeus. Speculum peregrinarum quaestionum. Quarto.

Hain *14720. B.M. p. 113 (IA. 1486).

1500 VENICE. Johann Emerich for L. A.

Giunta.

JOANNES FRANCISCUS BRIXIa.n.u.s.

Quattuor viuendi regulae. Quarto.

Hain *13827. Proctor 5504.

In addition to the foregoing early printed books the Library includes examples from the English presses of Wynkyn de Worde, Julian Notary, Peter Treveris, Thomas Berthelet, Richard Grafton, John Day, Richard Tottell, Christopher Barker, Robert Barker, John Norton (celebrated for his magnificent edition of St. Chrysostom's Works in 8 vols., printed at Eton, 1610-1612--a copy of which is in the Library--which T. B. Reed described as "one of the most splendid examples of Greek printing in this country"), Thomas Roycroft, etc. Continental typography is also represented by specimens from many presses, including those of Jean du Pre, Jodocus Badius Ascensius (Josse Bade of Asch), the Estiennes, the Elzevirs, Christopher Plantin, John Koberger, H. Petrus, Peter Perna, etc.

Coming to early Norwich printed books there are unfortunately no examples of the rare works from the first Norwich press set up about 1566 by Anthony de Solemne or Solempne, whose first extant printed work is dated 1570, and whose last is dated 1579. The Library, however, possesses an example from the press established by Francis Burges, who in 1701 styled himself "the first printer in Norwich." It is a copy of Erasmus Warren's "A Rule for Shewing Mercy," printed by F. Burges, and "sold by the widow Oliver, Bookseller in Norwich, 1706." When Burges died in 1706 his business was carried on by his widow, and the 1706 catalogue of the City Library (see page 47) "Printed by Eliz. Burges, near the Red-Well," is a specimen from her establishment. The press of Freeman Collins is represented by Dean Prideaux's "The Original and Right of t.i.thes,"

printed in 1710. The second catalogue of the City Library, printed in 1732, (see page 48) was printed by "William Chase, in the c.o.c.key Lane,"

who founded the _Norwich Mercury_.

A perusal of the 1883 catalogue will shew that the Library had indeed "no inconsiderable Collection of Divinity Book[s], for that time especially,"

as was said by Brett in his Catalogue of 1706, and repeated by Mackerell.

There are sixteen printed Bibles and five New Testaments in the Library, including the second and fourth of the great Polyglots, the Plantin edition (1572) and Brian Walton's (1655-57), and the following English versions: Matthew's Bible (1549), The Great Bible (1553), and the first edition of the Geneva version (1560). It is curious that there should be no copy of any edition of the Bishops' Bible.

Most of the princ.i.p.al Fathers are represented by some of their writings.

Of the ante-Nicene Fathers there are writings by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen and Cyprian, and of the post-Nicene Fathers there are writings by Eusebius of Caesarea, Hilary of Poitiers, Athanasius, Basil, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Augustine, Cyril of Alexandria, Gregory the Great, and John of Damascus.

The literature of the theological controversies which raged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the writings of the princ.i.p.al theologians of those centuries are fairly well represented in the Library.

Belonging to the period of the Revival of Learning are Hugh Latimer's "Frutefull Sermons" (1575) Cranmer's "Defence of the True and Catholike doctrine of the sacrament of the body and bloud of our Savior Christ"

(London: R. Wolfe, 1550), Thomas Becon's Works (London: various dates), and others. The theological literature of the Elizabethan period is represented by such works as the "Ecclesiastical Polity" (London, 1622) by Richard Hooker--that great champion of Anglicanism--and some of the published writings of the famous controversy between Bishop Jewel and the Roman Catholic Thomas Harding.

The works of Dutch scholars of the first half of the seventeenth century, when Dutch scholarship was the ripest in Europe, are represented by five works of G. J. Vossius (a German by birth), including his valuable "Historia Pelagiana" (Leyden, 1618), three works of Daniel Heinsius, and five works of Hugo Grotius, the great Dutch jurist and theologian. The latter include an edition of "De Jure Belli ac Pads" (Amsterdam, 1667), which was translated into the princ.i.p.al European languages, and "De veritate religionis Christiana" (Paris, 1640), a popular treatise which became for a time the cla.s.sical manual of apologetics in Protestant colleges.

The "Annales Ecclesiastici" of the Italian Cardinal, Caesar Baronius--of which the Library has an edition in twelve volumes, (Cologne, 1609)--a work characterized by great learning and research, greatly stimulated Protestant study no less than it provoked criticism. Its most important critic was Isaac Casaubon, who issued a fragment of the ma.s.sive criticism which he contemplated, "Exercitationes in Baronium." The Library has a copy of the edition printed in Frankfort, 1615.

The Jacobean period was "The Golden Age of the English Pulpit," the period when sermons were extremely popular, and discharged, with the playhouse, some of the functions of the modern newspaper. At this time Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, who was eminent in the capacities of prelate, preacher, and writer, was generally regarded as the very "stella praedicantium." Of his published sermons the Library now possesses "XCVI Sermons," 3rd ed. (London, 1635), and "Nineteen Sermons concerning Prayer" (Cambridge, 1641). The most erudite of theologians in this erudite time was James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, described by Selden as "learned to a miracle." Of his works the Library contains eight, including his "Annales Veteris et Novi Testamenti"