Research Guides: HIST 111: Introduction to Western Civilization (HC): Introduction

Exploring Early Printed Books

On Thursday, November 14, class will meet for hands-on experience with early printed books. The titles listed below will be available for you to examine with the assistance of librarians. We'll go over any special handling required of these materials, and you can explore the rich selection at your own pace.

To start things off, there will be brief presentations about the way early printed books were produced and used.

Then in small groups you will closely examine one of the books and answer questions concerning its history and structure, the transmission of texts, types of readers and categories of literature. Please ask questions as you work closely with the original resources and supporting secondary literature.

Medieval Manuscripts for Analysis

Bible from Northern France, MS J2.16.10
Geographic Area: Northern France
Date: circa 1225-1250
Origins: Probably made for a priest because it includes the Canon of the Mass. Possibly written by an English student in Paris, since the illustrations are French and the writing shows some English characteristics.
Provenance: Richard Wyll (?) 1482 (fol. 218r); William Add/// (?) (fol. 337va); Robert Mirfield (1523) (fol. 358va); names John and James scrawled at fol. 336rb. Acquired by John Pemberton from John Kendall, Colchester (6/13/1787) (Iv; see also his name at fol. 401rb); given by Pemberton to the library of the Friends Meeting, Philadelphia (IFC with label of the Meeting's library on which is written "no. 10"); loaned indefinitely to Haverford College in 2002.
Contents: 452 leaves of vellum, 2 column of 55-57 lines. 24 x 16 cm.
Illustrations: Miniatures throughout, usually at beginning of both prologue and text. Miniature and historiated initial at head of the Canon (fol. 192ra).
Miniatures excised at fol. 173rb, 176va, 260vb, 293rb, 367va, 396ra.
fol. 401v blank
fol. 402ra-436va Stephen Langton (?), Liber interpretationum nominum Hebraeorum
Fol. 438ra-450vb Jerome, Liber interpretationis nominum Hebraeorum
Fol. 450vc-452vc Propers and additional prayers for masses
Contents: fol. 450vc-451ra Mass of the Holy Trinity; fol. 451ra-b Mass of the Holy Spirit; fol. 451rb-c Mass of the Holy Cross; fol. 451rc-va Mass of the Vigin Mary; fol. 451va-b Mass of the Annunciation; fol. 451vb-452rb Various additional prayers; fol. 452rb-vc Mass for the Faithful departed; fol. 452va-c additional prayers in another hand.
Gasparino Barzizza manuscript, MS RH 47a
Humanist educational text about rhetoric based on the ideas of Cicero. Originally part of a larger manuscript. Northern Italian, dated 1400-1499..
Oration to the Doge, Pasquale Malapietro, manuscript, MS RH 44a
Padua, 1457. Arms of the doge Pasquale Malapiero (r. 1457-1462) on fol. [1]r flanked by letters P & M. Illuminated D on same folio. Names mentioned in the oration are copied in the margins in red. Modern binding done in London, England, by Zaehnsdorf.
Likely made as a presentation copy for the doge.
Psalms and Song of Songs manuscript, MS RH 42
Calendar and scribal hand locate the psalter in England., written likely in the early 15th century. Prayers to be recited by the book's owner have feminine endings. .

Early Printed Books for Analysis

Alberti Dvreri pictoris et architecti praestantissimi de vrbibvs, arcibvs, castellísque condendis, ac muniendis rationes aliquot, praesenti bellorum necessitati accommodatissimae
Artist Albrecht Durer wrote treatises in German on geometric theory and perspective and on military fortifications. Here the texts were translated into Latin and published in Paris by C. Wecheli, 1535.
The volume is particularly notable for the detailed illustrations included.
La divina commedia
Published in Foligno, Italy by Johann Neumeister,, in 1472. Note the hand decorated initials.
Les illvstrations de Gavle et singvlaritez de Troye
Court poet Jean Lemaire de Belges wrote this prose romance in 1511-13. for the king of France. In the three volumes the author traces the family connections between the Trojans and their descendants, the French.
Printed in Lyon : Par Iean de Tovrnes, auec priuilege du Roy pour dix ans, M.D.XLIX.
A noble fragment : being a leaf of the Gutenberg Bible, 1450-1455
Single pages from an incomplete copy of the Gutenburg Bible were sold in 1921 to many libraries and collectors.

		Margaret Schaus Haverford College Contact