4.2.3. Loys Garbin, Geneva

The most important of the early Genevan printers was Aloys (or Louis) Cruse, otherwise known as Louis Guerbin (Garbin), said to have been the son of a doctor named Guerbin de la Cruse (Clair 1976: 82). He was engaged in printing in Geneva from c.1479 until 1513 (BMC: VIII, 364). Garbin printed two editions of the CA; the only ones printed outside of France. 4.2.3.1. Garbin c.1485 (G1) Only one copy now exists of Garbin's first edition of the CA, and both title page and colophon are missing from it. It is dated c.1485 by GKW (VI, n° 6229).

Garbin copied Vérard's edition of the CA very closely, including all of the changes in both macro- and micro-structure, and many of the typographical errors as well. 4.2.3.2. Garbin 1487 (G2) Garbin's second edition, dated June 15, 1487, is preserved in two copies. Although the title page is lacking from both, each copy is catalogued as Catholicum parvum. The colophon still exists in both:

There are few changes in G2 apart from variations in orthography and correction of some of the typographical errors in V. However, other typographical errors inevitably occurred.

Garbin did not reprint the CA but his second edition moved to Lyons where its reproduction followed two different paths.

4.2.4. Matthias Huss, Lyons

Clair (1976: 62) writes, "Lyons proved to be a good market for printed books and before the end of the fifteenth century more than 160 printers had worked there, among whom Germans were predominant to such an extent that printers as a class became known in that city as 'les allemands'." This group included Matthias Huss (Husz), who established himself at Lyons c.1482 (Vingtrinier 1894: 67). 4.2.4.1. Huss 1489/90 (HU) Two copies of Huss's edition survive. The title page and colophon are intact in both copies, and the title is Catholicon parvum (see Plate 6). The colophon, again in French, is very similar to that in V and in G1: Huss was apparently an innovator. His edition is the only one of the CA in which text of second and succeeding lines of an article is indented from the left margin (see 8.1.2.2.3.), and it is the only edition of Series 1 to have a printer's plaque on the last page.

Huss copied G2 closely, but he changed some of the French definitions (see 4.3.4.). Orthographical variants are common.

The Bibliothèque nationale in Paris holds a copy of the CA which it attributes to Huss. We do not believe it is his work, and discuss it in 4.2.9.

4.2.5. Unknown [printer of Guido, Casus Longi], Lyons

Printing of the CA continued at Lyons in a line deriving from an unknown printer, identified by GKW  [77] as the printer of Casus Longi. 4.2.5.1. Unknown c.1490 (UL1) At about the same time that Huss printed his edition of the CA, an unknown printer combined Caillaut's first edition (C1) with material from Garbin's second edition (G2), to produce an excellent dictionary. He restored some of the definitions eliminated in V, combined some definitions from C1 and G2, and selected the remainder from one or the other. He also corrected a number of typographical errors although, inevitably, he committed others.

The title page is still intact in the only surviving copy of this edition. It reads: Catholicum parvum (see Plate 7), and it is this title which is used at Lyons until the end of Series 1. The last page is also intact but it does not include a colophon. The text simply ends at the bottom of the last column: Laus deo, a motto which persists in several later editions.

4.2.6. Engelhard Schultis, Lyons

The British Library has an undated edition of the CA which it attributes (BMC: VIII, 309) to Engelhard Schultis. Schultis was another German printer, who began printing at Lyons c.1491 (Vingtrinier 1894: 29). 4.2.6.1. Schultis c.1495 (S) The title page of Schultis's edition bears the words Catholicum parvum (see Plate 8), and the text closes Laus deo at the bottom of the last column. The edition is a close copy of UL1, and variants are, for the most part, orthographical changes or typographical errors.

This edition of the CA was the predecessor of three different editions before printing of Series 1 came to an end.

4.2.7. Martin Havard, Lyons

It appears that Havard (Havart) began printing at Lyons near the end of the fifteenth century, probably c. 1499 (Vingtrinier 1894: 136). If this is the case, the CA must have been one of his earliest productions. 4.2.7.1 Havard 1499/1500 (HA) The only adornment on a title page in Series 1 is found in HA: an elaborate woodcut initial 'C' (see Plate 9). Catholicum parvum is the title of Havard's edition, just as it is in UL1 and S. Unlike them, however, the colophon includes the printer's name and a date: HA is a very corrupt edition. It includes most of the typographical errors from S, as well as a substantial quantity of new ones. A number of articles are omitted entirely, and some French glosses are left out of other articles.

4.2.8. Jean de Vingle, Lyons

Jean de Vingle, Picard by birth, printed at Lyons from 1494 to 1511 (Vingtrinier 1894: 117). The only existing copy of his CA is attributed to de Vingle and dated c.1500 by Péligry (1982: 95). 4.2.8.1. de Vingle c.1500 (DV) The surviving copy of this edition lacks a title page and is catalogued as Catholicon abbreviatum. There is not any indication of the printer or the date, and the text ends: FINIS. Laus deo.

This edition appears to descend directly from S, and corresponds closely to it.

4.2.9. Unknown, Lyons

A copy of the CA held by the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris under the shelf number Rés.8°Z Don 594(360), is attributed to Matthias Huss and dated c.1508. We have not inspected this text  [78] and rely in our remarks on notes taken by Prof. B.S. Merrilees during his examination of it in 1996. 4.2.9.1. Unknown c.1508 (UL2) The title of this edition is Catholicum parvum and it is attributed to Matthias Huss. However, we assign it the siglum UL2.

As we remarked earlier (see 4.2.4.1.) Huss's edition of 1489 differed from other editions of the CA in its typography and in some of its French forms. These innovations are absent from the edition c.1508. Firstly, all of the text is set flush to the left margin, i.e. there is no indentation. Secondly, there are a number of articles in which the definitions do not correspond to those in HU. More importantly, they correspond to definitions in S. Thirdly, the title of Huss's edition is Catholicon parvum.

It is possible that Huss may have printed another edition of the CA without indenting the text, and also that he changed the title of the dictionary. However, we do not believe that he would reject his own alterations in definitions and replace them with the very words he had changed earlier when he took G2 as his source text.

Schultis adopted UL1 for his edition (S), and Havard and de Vingle based their editions (HA and DV) on S. Many articles are identical in S, HA, DV and some of them, at least, are found in the edition which we call UL2. We are certain the latter is in the line of descent from S, but without further analysis we cannot say whether it came directly or through HA or DV. In Exhibit 31 we show it as an independent successor to S.

4.2.10. Missing Editions of Series 1

In addition to the twelve editions described above, we have found two other bibliographical references to editions which certainly belong to Series 1 but whose present locations we do not know. 4.2.10.1. Catholicum parvum, c.1487 Beaulieux (1904: 378) has a terse reference under the rubric Catholicum parvum which reads: 'Autre édition. - (Catal. J. Bignon)'.

The note refers to a document conserved by the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris as n° 7335. Its title is:

and the specific reference is: We treat this reference as defining an original edition, although it is possible that the document described is a copy of another edition (for example, G1), from which the colophon is lacking. 4.2.10.2. Unknown, printer of Ars memoriae, Lyons, c.1500 GKW (VI: 262, n° 6240) attributes an undated edition of the CA by an unidentified printer, to the printer of Baldovinus Sabaudiensis, Ars memoriae, Lyons, with a date of c.1500. According to the description in GKW, the document is entitled Catholicum parvum and concludes Laus deo, which would seem to put it in the line descending from UL1, but we cannot be sure of its precise location in the filiation.

The dictionary was apparently in the collection of the Zentralbibliothek of Solothurn but is noted as missing by GKW. The Chief Librarian confirms that the document is missing and speculates that it may be "a second or third item in a volume with several titles, in the uncatalogued part" of the Library's collection.

Before printing of Series 1 ended at Lyons, printing of Series 2 had begun at Rouen.

4.2.11. Martin Morin, Rouen

Clair (1976: 71) writes, "Although Rouen had no press until about 1487, it was not long before it became important in the history of French printing." Indeed, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century Rouen was the third-ranking printing centre in France, after Paris and Lyons. It shared some of the same characteristics as Lyons: both lacked a University but were very active commercially (Girard 1986: 464f.).

Rouen's first printer was a native of the town, named Guillaume le Talleur, whose first dated work, Les Chroniques de Normandie was published in May 1487 (Clair 1976: 71). Among Le Talleur's work is a large Latin-French dictionary, Vocabularius familiaris et compendiosus (VFC) (see 5.0.), probably printed c.1490.

Martin Morin, who exercised his trade in Rouen until 1523 (Girard 1986: 470), acquired Le Talleur's atelier on the latter's death, likely "towards the end of 1491 or the beginning of 1492" (BMC: VIII, 389). As we have illustrated in 4.1.2., Morin very soon used the VFC in preparing a new edition of the CA. 4.2.11.1. Martin Morin pour Pierre Regnault 1492 (MM) In contrast with the simple title pages of Series 1, those in Series 2 are much more elaborate. Morin, the initiator of Series 2, introduced a title page with the words Catholicon abbreviatum above the plaque of Pierre Regnault, for whom he printed the dictionary (see Plate 10). Morin's own plaque is found on the last page of the text.

Morin included a prologue which outlines the dictionary's objectives and describes some of its features:

The colophon is modelled on that of the VFC: Morin used Caillaut's first edition (C1) as his basic text, correcting some (although not all) of the faulty readings, and added new material taken from VFC.

Morin published a new edition of the VFC in 1500, but he did not reissue the CA. However, his 1492 edition was the source for another thirteen editions, flowing in two streams, one from Paris and the other from Rouen. We will first examine the Paris filiation.

4.2.12. Unknown [type used by Jean Bonhomme], Paris

The title page and colophon are lacking from the only copy of this edition, but judging by the inclusion of the prologue from MM, Aquilon (1990: n° 198) concludes that it was printed after June 30, 1492. He remarks that the type, with two minor exceptions, is identical to that used by the Parisian bookseller-printer Jean Bonhomme until he gave up printing in 1490.

We have put this edition into a timeframe of c.1492-1496 because its first successor was printed in Paris early in 1497. 4.2.12.1. Unknown c.1492-1496 (UP) There is a faulty reading (shown in italic) in the prologue which is repeated in all later Parisian editions of the CA until 1510:

The reference to Rouen (urbs metropolitana Rothomagensis) in the prologue to MM appears in this edition and in some later Parisian editions. The two typographical errors in the last paragraph of MM (masuclini and commue) have been corrected, but another such error (in Italic) occurs in the same paragraph in this edition: The dictionary ends with the word: Finis at the bottom of the last column of text.

Apart from minor typographical errors and some omissions of French equivalents, UP is a fairly careful copy of MM.

[Next] -- [Table of Contents]