To this portion of the work various notes are added by the prefent editor. Perhaps we may as well paufe in limine, to give Mr. Dibdin a friendly intimation to be cautious in the progrefs of his work, of fwelling it with too great a num ber of annotations. He will find his materials without these accumulate fufficiently upon his hands. But we are aware that the difpofition to write notes is a fort of hobby-horse, which may be ridden too hard. The third article is Herbert's preface, and here alfo are abundance of notes. This is followed by a very entertaining as well as interesting account of Herbert, part of which we extract: "When occupied in taking extracts from the Caxtonian volumes in his Majefty's library, his ufual custom was to come to rown for a week or ten days (during the moon-light nights) to his friends Mr. and Mrs. Dennis, in Cowper's-row, Crutched Friars; and, rifing betimes in the morning, and making a hearty breakfast upon tepid water gruel, he would fally forth, with the fpirit of a knight of chivalty, in purfuit of his favourite objects : nor would he, in general, return till the evening; when reign'd Full-orb'd the moon, and with more pleafing light Par. Loft, book v. 1. 42. Such was the fingularity and the ardour of our typographical anti quary, while engaged in the career of his great work! probable. Quoique je m'arrête peu aux fimples conjectures, je ne laiffe pas de les rapporter quand elles ont de la vraisemblance. Si je m'étends en certains endroits plus qu'à l'ordinaire, c'eft lorfque je trouve quelque jour à éclaircir des chofes ou contestées, ou mal expliquées, par ceux qui m'ont précedé. Generalement parlant, je fuis court prefque par tout; en fuppofant toujours que mon lecteur n'eft pas un ignorant, ni un homme fans efprit, qui ne puiffe faire aucun progrès dans des routes déja applanies,' p. vii. Preface Antiquités Expliquées. , "They who grieve that the hand of death has for ever fufpended the labours of fuch a man, may receive fome confolation upon reflecting, that his mantle has fallen upon thofe who have already convinced the public of their fitnefs to receive it. The name of Lyfons will remind the reader of those tafteful and most useful antiquarian publications to which it is fubjoined- FORTUNATI AMBO!'"' * " Mr. Dennis is brother of the late Rev, Dr. Dennis, Pre. fident of St. John's College, Oxford, whofe interment, in the cha. pel of his own college, I attended in the year 1795." B 2 "In the company of ftrangers he was fhy and referved, but in that of his intimate acquaintance he was frank and communicative. At all times Herbert was prone to admire literary eminence; and had a general refpect for antiquaries and fcholars. If he be taxed, in confequence, with pufhing this deference too far-into pufillanimous obfequioufnefs--it must be remembered, that he had always a ftrong, and perhaps too unfavourable, a notion of the deficiencies of his own claffical education. This made him too eafily furrender his judgment to the opinion of another,, and frequently to exprefs doubt and diffidence upon the moft fimple and palpable propofi tions. If, therefore, he was defective in thofe points which thew an accomplished mind, and a ftrong and original manner of thinking and writing, he has avoided the more common and culpable error of rafhnefs, precipitancy, and felf-importance. With him, igno rance was tempered by diffidence, and fought to correct itfelf by a judicious application to the more experienced: it was not, therefore, (as we fometimes obferve it) endeavouring to disguise itfelf by a contemptible vanity, and a callous indifference to what predeceffors have written, or to what contemporaries and fucceffors may fay! "It remains only to obferve, that in regard to his moral and religious character, Herbert was correct and devout. In principles, he was a ftrict prefbyterian; but had the good fenfe never to exact a conformity of opinion, on religious fubjects, from those who were more clofely united with him. His laft wife ufually accompanied him to his own place of worship, but regularly took the facrament at the established church. Herbert would exprefs no difapprobation at her conduct; faying, that God judged the heart, and not the outward form.' P. 88. Mr. Dibdin's opinion of Herbert's work is thus expreffed "He who looks into the Typographical Antiquities of Great Britain, (as edited by Herbert) for elegant or interesting digref ffons relating to the ancient literature of his country, will, unquef tionably, be disappointed in his fearch., The editor's aim appears to have been purely typographical: to give a faithful lift of the productions of the prefs, without engrafting thereon any account of the various works of authors, or collecting the opinions of the best critics upon their merits and demerits. Now and then, fome brilhant paffages from Wartos, or fome curious extracts from Strype. and Collier, throw a gleam of amusement over eighteen hundred and thirty-eight clofely printed quarto pages, of a catalogue of books published in our own country; but, to the generality of readers, Herbert's work will always continue to be a fealed book. The bibliographer, book-collector, and antiquary, will, however, rarely be difappointed in their expectations; for to this latter clafs of readers it is replete with useful and curious informa tion. While Herbert has equalled the industry of Bagford *, and eclipfed the reputation of Ames, he has evinced fuch diligence, patience, * "As the name and labours of Bagford are fo often mentioned in the course of this volume, it may not be unacceptable to the reader to perufe the following account of this typographical antiquary's vifit to the Haarlem Book' and to Cotter's Statue, as tranfmitted by him to the Royal Society, and publifhed among the Philofophical Tranfactions, Vol xxv. p. 2401. 5. "Since my fecond voyage to Holland, to fatisfy my curio fity, and remove fome fcruples about the book at Harlem, and the tatue of Cofter, having recollected myfeif after my firft voyage, and difcourfing with Mr. Talman, jun. about Holland and the statue of Cofter, he told me he had seen the fame in Holland, and that it was in the Harlemer-fireet in Leyden. This very much run in my mind, to be further fatisfied that it fhould be in Leyden, and not Harlem, although afferted by feveral of our modern travellers. "At my laft being in Holland, for my further fatisfaction, though I had got Mr. Ball to take the infcription for me the year before, in June 1705, having an opportunity in the company of my good friend Walter Clarel, Efq. on Wednesday, the 23d of October, 1706, we took boat for Leyden, where we arrived about fix the fame day; and next day, in the morning, in the company of Mr. Bovell, a ftudent there, who was our guide into the Harle mer-ftreet, fo called becaufe it leadeth to the Harlem parts, over the door of a glazier's houfe was the figure of Cofter cut in wood, and painted with the infcription. This ftatue was not fet up by any public authority of the magiftrates of that city, but by a pri vate man; and, if I miftake not, by the owner of the houfe, perhaps for the name and fake of the street, and, as I fuppofe, not older than 1630. This ftatue is done after the graved print that is in the book at Harlem, or the painting over the door of Laurence Johnson Cofter, where they fay he first practifed the art of printing; but I rather take it that he lived in this houfe in his old age, and was church-keeper, or, as we call it, fexton, for fo the word fignifies both in the German and Dutch language. "Some days after leaving Leyden, in company of my friends, Mr. John Bullord, and Mr. John Murray, we fet forth from Amfterdam, in a waggon, for Harlem, to compare and collate the book, which Mr. Bullord had prepared for me, with that at Harlem, it being another impreffion in quarto. The name of the book, at the latter end, runs thus : "This book was finished in the good eity of Culenburgh, by me John Veldener, in the year of our Lord 1483, on the Saturday after St. Matthew's day. With the device of the printer hanging on the bough or fnag of a tree, a custom they much ufed in those days; as may be feen by the monuments of the ancients cut on B 2 grave patience, and minute fidelity, as have fcarcely been exhibited by the moft diftinguished foreign bibliographers; and if he does not difplay grave-ftones, not only in the great church at Harlem, but feveral other cities in Holland, which device I will infert. The title of the book in low Dutch, the language in which it is printed, is, De Spigel onfer Bebondenife. In English, The Mirror of Salvation. <<<When we arrived at Harlem, much to my furprife, we found the houfe of Cofter new faced with plaifter, and the picture of his ftatue (for it is no other than a picture in oil-colours) painted on a board, let into the wall near the top of the house, although it be a small one, This houfe was new repaired, and to be let, although, when I was there before, it was inhabited by a cheefemonger. After viewing the house and the great church, we directed our way to the rector, who is the school-mafter, put in by the magiftrates of the city. He not being in the way, his fervant-maid took the key, and readily gave us admiffion into the Prince's garden, in order to fhew us the book, which was removed from the ftair-head of the Prince's houffe, or houfe, where we saw it laft, to the further end of the garden, in a little houfe fitted up for that purpose, facing the garden. On the cheft that it was kept in, there was the date of 1618 inlaid in the wood. Opening it, the maid fhewed us the book, where Mr. Bullord collated it with the other we brought with us from Amfterdam, and found it to agree both in the words of the text, and alfo the pictures they only differed in this, that being in folio, with two pictures in a page, and the words column.wife, and lines in a column, containing 60 pages, and printed but on one fide, and not pafted together as thofe at Oxford and Cambridge. 25 After I had gratified the maid for her trouble, we addreffed ourfelves to an old gardener that was at work in the garden, for Mr. Bullord had enquired of him when we came firft into the garden, whether he knew any thing of the ftatue of Cofter, and he readily told him he could fhew him it. At the entrance into the garden, at the upper end of the fummer-house, on the right hand, he pointed to it: where we faw it leaning with its left hand on the infcription, which bore date 1440, and in its right hand, the letter A in a fquare, with other figures-as little boys naked, and in their hand A B C, with the picture of Fame holding the letters CD and E. This was taken from the ftory of Junius, in his Hiftory of the Low Countries, and others from him. There are other ftories painted on the walls of the fummer-houfe, as one of the lords of the Harlem in his armour, but they not being to my purpose I fhall pafs them by. All thefe pictures, with the ftatue of Cofter, are painted in diftemper, and are no older (as appears by difplay the livelinefs of Chevillier, and the tafte of Renouard, he unites in himself all the accuracy of Audiffredi, and the perfeverance of Panzer. No fingle country, can boast of such an acquifi." tion to its history of ancient literature as our own, in the typo. graphical labours of Herbert !" P. 91. The fifth article is a preliminary difquifition on the early ftate of engraving and ornamental printing in Great Britain. Here the editor feems to have put forth all his firength; and this part of the work is moreover illuftrated and embellished by a great number of very curious and fplendid wood-cuts. We agree with Mr. Dibdin, that a complete hiftory of printing is not at present to be found in any one individual work. The following are Mr. Dibdin's opinions on the fubject, which we infert with pleasure, at the fame time advifing him, that the hypothesis of Meerman has been before exploded. "A complete General Hiftory of Printing is a great defideratum. In this country we have nothing that deferves the name of it. He who fhall undertake this arduous and inftructive task, will do well to read the treatifes of his predeceffors; to compare their accounts of books with the books themfelves; to lop away their tedious digreffions, and to fubftitute, in many inftances, fomething like reafon and fact for chimera and fiction. A free admiffion into the cabinets of the curious, and an honeft ufe of the privilege granted-an infpection, probably, of the chief libraries upon the continent, and especially of thofe in the low countries would alfo be requifite to the fuccefs of fuch an undertaking. The great error, as I humbly fubmit, in almoft all preceding treatifes upon the Origin and Progrefs of Printing, has been the determination of each writer to fupport, through the moft formidable objections, the claims of that country, and of that typographical artist in whose cause he fat out as the avowed champion. The ftrong attachment of Junius to Holland and Cofter, in aid of which he exercifed a poetical fancy, has been even exceeded by the enthusiasm (or, fome might call it, obftinacy) of Meerman towards the fame objects. When the latter commenced his enquiries, it is certain that he had no very extenfive information upon the fubject. Dr. Ducarel threw out fome hints relating to the claims of Holland, by the date of the cieling) than 1655.' Philof. Tranf. Vol. xxv. 2401-5. "An analyfis of Bagford's papers (in the British Mufeum) relating to printing, with fome other curious particulars concern. ing their former owner, will, as has been elsewhere remarked, be publifhed by me in another bibliographical work. I fall only here add, that there are fome good impreffions of Cofter's fuppofed portrait, as well as of his ftatue, in the Annus Tertiu: Secularis invente Artis Typographica, Harlem, 8vo. 1742." |