Bibliographical notes on histories of inventions and books of secrets.

  • Ferguson, John, 1838-1916.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bibliographical notes on histories of inventions and books of secrets. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    the two copies tally, and so once more we meet with Plieronymus Soncinus on the title page, but in the colophon “Jo. Franc. & Jo. Antonius de Rusconi- bus, Fratres.” Notwithstanding the appearance of this probably unknown copy, the book remains as rare as ever. Doubtless copies of it exist in Italian libraries and collections, but meantime, if there be such copies, they are unknown, and we can enumerate only the half-dozen which I have described. 13. With the rarity of Faustinus’ ptean of folly, copies of which are to be counted by units, may be contrasted the abundance of Cornelius Agrippa’s fantasia on the same motivo; “ The Vanity of Sciences,” editions of which are to be counted almost by the score. The great circulation which it had shows that it responded to some necessity of the time, but it is too much to suppose that its scepticism produced any effect on the progress of science and of the arts, or prevented men from pursuing any path—whether of labour, study, amusement, or dissipation—which allured them. The book itself, however, is particularly attractive to the bibliographer and chronicler. It presents many fine points of interest; the number of editions, the rarity of some of them, the excisions in the expurgated and licensed copies, the trans- lations ; these and others lend themselves agreeably to investigation. To treat these details in full would take too much space here; besides I considered some of them in a communication to the Society of Antiquaries in London. Since then, however, additional matter has come into my hands which requires new treatment. Here, however, I may briefly state certain points of importance. The book was printed in 1530, in qto, of which rare edition I got a duplicate in 1888. There followed some seven or eight issues, all dated 1531, and all at different places. Edition after edition appeared, and then, about 1536, the book was expurgated, and thereafter the emasculated editions went widely into circulation. The excisions and varia- tions were tabulated by Clement, and they are useful for comparison to ascertain whether an edition is complete or not. Only the earlier editions are complete, and on that account desirable. The book was translated into various languages—French, English, Dutch, German. There are two English versions—the earlier, 1569, and 1575, both in qto, and the later in 8vo, dated 1676, 1684, 1694. It is not probable that the book is ever looked at at the