Part 7 (2/2)

I. THE CASTELL OF LABOURE.--Wynkyn de Worde. 1506. Small Quarto. Black letter.

The t.i.tle, ”The castell of laboure,” is within a scroll above a woodcut of men over a tub: on the verso, a cut of a man sitting at a desk. At sign. a ii. (recto) ”Here begynneth the prologue of this present treatyse.” [The Brit. Mus. copy has this on the verso of the t.i.tle instead of the cut, a peculiarity which may ent.i.tle it to be called a separate edition, though it appears to agree otherwise with the copy described.] There are many curious woodcuts. Colophon on the reverse of sign. i iii. (51^b): ”Thus endeth the castell of labour, wherin is rychesse, vertue, and honour. Enprynted at London in Fletestrete in the sygne of the sonne. by Wynkyn de worde. Anno d[=n]i M.ccccc.vi.” There is no indication of authors.h.i.+p. Signatures: a b c d e f g h, alternately 8s and 4s, i 4; 52 leaves, not numbered. The British Museum and Cambridge University Library copies of this book have been collated, but as the former ends with H 3 and the latter wants the last leaf, that leaf must remain undescribed. Mr Bradshaw, however, says, ”it almost certainly contained a woodcut on the recto, and one of the devices on the verso.”

A copy of this very scarce book was sold among Mr. West's books in 1773 for 2.

I.a. THE CASTELL OF LABOURE.--Pynson. No date. Small Quarto. Black letter.

The t.i.tle, ”Here begynneth the castell of laboure,” is over a woodcut; and on the reverse is a woodcut; both the same as those in the previous edition. In the body of the work there are 30 woodcuts, which differ from those of the first edition, one of these (at G 6) is a repet.i.tion of that on the t.i.tle page. Colophon: ”Thus endeth the castell of labour wherin is rychesse, vertue and honoure. Enprynted be me Richarde Pynson.” After the colophon comes another leaf (I 6), on the recto of which is the printer's device, and on the verso a woodcut representing a city on the banks of a river. Without indication of authors.h.i.+p.

Signatures: A, 8 leaves; B--I, in sixes.

”Neither Ames nor Herbert appear to have seen this rare volume; which is probably a reprint of Wynkyn de Worde's impression of 1506.”

(Dibdin's Typ. Antiq., II. 557.) There is a copy in the Library of H.

Huth, Esq.

II. THE s.h.i.+P OF FOLYS OF THE WORLDE.--Pynson. 1509. Folio.

On the recto of the first leaf there is a large woodcut of Pynson's arms, or device No. VII., similar to that which is on the reverse of the last leaf of each of the volumes of his edition of Lord Berners'

translation of Froissart's Chronicles; on the back of the first leaf is the translator's dedication to ”Thomas Cornisshe, bishop of Tine, and suffragan bishop of Bath;” on the next leaf begins ”The regyster or table of this present boke in Englyshe,” (all as on pp. cxiii.--cxx.), succeeded by a Latin table. Then on sign. a i. and fol. i. a large woodcut, the same as is used for the t.i.tle page of Cawood's edition (and on p. 313, Vol. II.), with a Latin description in the margin.

Beneath is the t.i.tle in Latin. On the back, ”Alexander Barclay excusynge the rudeness of his translacion,” followed with ”An exhortacion of Alexander Barclay.” Then on fol. ii., etc., follow in Latin, ”Epigramma,” ”Epistola” in prose, and various ”Carmina.” On the back of fol. v. ”The exhortacion of Brant to the fools” in Latin verse, followed by Barclay's version with the heading ”Barclay the Translatour tho the Foles.” On fol. iiii. the ”Prologus Jacobi Locher ... incipit,”

followed by its translation into English. On fol. ix., etc., ”Hecatastichon in proludium auctoris et Libelli Narragonici” and the English translation, ”Here begynneth the prologe.” On xii. ”The Argument” in Latin and English, and then on xiii. commences the first chapter, ”De inutilibus libris,” in Latin, and then in English, which is the order throughout, with the cuts at the beginning of either the one or other as the page suited. The book concludes with a ballad in honour of the virgin Mary, consisting of twelve octave stanzas: at the end of which is the colophon in a stanza of seven lines. On the verso of the last leaf is the printer's device, No. v.

The Latin is uniformly printed in the Roman type, and the English in the Gothic. Herbert supposes the diphthongs to be ”the first perhaps used in this kingdom.”

The cuts are rude, coa.r.s.e, English imitations of those in the original editions. They are, including the preliminary one, 118 in number. The cut ill.u.s.trating the chapter, ”Of them that correct other,” etc., fol.

liii. has been exchanged with the cut of the succeeding chapter. The cut ill.u.s.trating ”The unyuersall shyp and generall Barke,” fol.

cclxii., is repeated at the succeeding chapter. The one ill.u.s.trating Barclay's new chapter ”Of folys that ar ouer worldly” is an imitation of the ill.u.s.tration of ”De singularitate quorundam novorum fatuorum” in the Latin edition of March 1497. The cut ill.u.s.trating the ballad of the Virgin appears in the original at the head of ”Excusatio Jacobi Locher Philomusi,” and ill.u.s.trates, according to the margin, ”Deris...o...b..ni operis.”

The word ”Folium” is on the left hand page, and the number, in Roman capitals, on the right throughout the book; the last is cclxxiiii.

Including the dedication and table (4 folios) there are 283 folios. The numbering is a model of irregularity: iiii. is repeated for vi., xx.

stands for xv., xviii. is repeated, xx. is wanting, xxii. is repeated, xxiv. is wanting, x.x.x. is repeated, x.x.xvi. is wanting, x.x.xix. is repeated in place of xliv., xlviii. is wanting, xlix. is repeated, lvii is repeated after lxi., lviii follows twice, lix., lx., lxi. being repeated in succession after lviii., lxvii., lxviii. are repeated after lxviii., lx.x.xii. is wanting, lx.x.xiii. is repeated, lx.x.xii. stands for lx.x.xvii., lx.x.xiii. succeeds for lx.x.xviiii, cclxv. succeeds for lx.x.xix., lx.x.xxii. is repeated for lx.x.xxvii., [in the Grenville copy this leaf is correctly numbered], cx.x.xii is wanting, cxl. stands for cx.x.xviii., cxlxi. stands for cxlvi., clxxiv. is wanting, clx.x.xxxi. stands for cci., ccxii. is repeated for ccxvii., ccx.x.xviii. is wanting, cclx.

stands for ccl., cclviii. is repeated for cclx.

The numeration by signatures is as follows: + iiij; a, 8; b--p, 6 s; q, 7; r, s, t, v, x, y, z, &, 6 s; A--Y, 6 s.

The book is extremely rare. There is a fine copy in the Bodleian Library among Selden's books, another in the British Museum, Grenville Collection, and another in the Library of St. John's College, Oxford.

The following are the more notable prices: Farmer, 1798, 2. 4s.; Sotheby's, 1821, 28; Dent, 30. 9s.; Bib. Anglo-Poetica, 105; Perkins, 1873, 130.

The following amusing note on prices is taken from Renouard's ”Catalogue d'un Amateur.” ”Les premieres editions latines de ce singulier livre, celles des traductions francoises, toutes egalement remplies de figures en bois, ne deplaisent pas aux amateurs, mais jamais ils ne les ont payees un haut prix. La traduction angloise faite en 1509, sur le francois, et avec des figures en bois, plus mauvaises encore que leurs modeles, se paye en Angleterre 25, 30 et meme 60 guinees; c'est la, si l'on veut, du zele patriotique, de l'esprit national.”

II.a. STULTIFERA NAUIS.... THE s.h.i.+P OF FOOLES..... With diuers other workes.... very profitable and fruitfull for all men.... Cawood. 1570.

Folio.

A large cut of vessels filled with fools (the same as on p. 313, Vol.

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