Colloquia Maruliana ..., Vol. 7 , 1998.
Original scientific paper
Palaestra Christianarum Virtutum - A Book Unique in the History of Typography
Franz Leschinkohl
Abstract
The author starts with the fact that two editions of Marulić' s De institutione divided in time - Dictorum factorumque memorabilium libri sex (1609) and Palaestra Christianorum virtutum (1686) - show the same number of pages (736) and from p. 17 to the end of the books identical typefaces and layouts: the height and width of lettering, number and boundaries of lines; even the blots are identical.
The 1609 edition was printed by Stephan Hemmerden for the publisher Bemardus Gualtheri. Running for the first 16 pages of the edition is Gualtheri's dedication to abbot Nicholas from the monastery in Gerode, Eichsfeld. Follows a dedication to the Father of the Company of Jesus, Carmen de doctrina and Index capitulorum, with which the first quire ends. The rest of the book, from the second quire on, is occupied by the text of De institutione.
Gulatheri become partners with another printer Konrad Butegen. After their deaths, the work was carried on by the new owners of the firm. One of them was Wilhelm Friessen II. When in mid-seventies the publishing activity in Köln started to diminish owing to the Thirty Years' War, Friessen decided to print Marulić's De institutione, expecting probably good sale. But how could he print such an ample work in such straitened circumstances? The only plausible explanation is that solely the first quire got printed again, for Gaultheri's dedication, which was no longer to the point, had to be eliminated. The rest of quires he found in the unsold Hemmerden's edition of 1609. He had only to replace Hemmerden's first quire with a new one and the book was finished. In this way quires printed at a distance of almost 80 years appeared in the same edition, which makes this case unique in the history of European typography.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
25986
URI
Publication date:
22.4.1998.
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