Bibliographical notes on the English translation of Polydore Vergil's work, 'De inventoribus rerum' / communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by John Ferguson.

  • John Ferguson
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bibliographical notes on the English translation of Polydore Vergil's work, 'De inventoribus rerum' / communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by John Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    these, some thirty consist of translations into Italian, Spanish, French, German, and English. The remainder are in Latin, and it is remarkable that, although the author was in everything, except birth and parentage, an Englishman, and although the book must have been in circulation here, not one of the Latin editions, so far as I know, was printed in England. It is also remarkable that the English abridgment was not printed till 1546; that is, till within four or five years of Vergil’s final departure for Italy. 18. According to the author’s own account, he compiled the first three books in about nine months. It is impossible, however, that he can have done all the reading for them in that time. It is more likely that, while perusing ancient and medieval writers, he noted down particulars about arts, and inventions, and antiquities, under different heads, so that when the time came to use them he had them only to arrange. The first version, however, did not satisfy him, for alterations were introduced in later editions. Thus, comparing the editions of Venice 1499, Paris 1528—29, Basel 1544, Elzevir’s 1671, which I have had before me, I find that the 1528 copy contains additions to the first; that that of 1544 contains, besides, passages not in that of 1528; while the 1671 copy does not differ from that of 1544. If it were required to determine precisely when the alterations were made, it could be best done by a comparison of the above editions with those of 1521, 1525, and 1532; but, so far as I know, the text underwent no modification after 1544, at latest. By this time, perhaps earlier (in 1532? §§ 8, 25), Vergil was content to let the book be; and hence, subse- quent editions, except the expurgated one of 1576 and its fraudulent re-issue in 1585,a its reprints, and some of the translations, are repetitions of this last form of the work. 19. The first edition, containing the first three books only, was printed in 1499, at Venice, by Christopher de Pensis, in a small quarto volume of eighty- eight leaves. It is by no means a common book. The copy I have was formerly in the Sunderland library. One or two authorities have given 1498 as the date of the first edition. As I have elsewhere given my reasons for considering that this is an error, it is unnecessary to enter again upon the subject.13 The extremely rare edition, printed by Senant at Paris, without date, contains three books. So also do the second Venice edition of 1503, the first German edition of 1509,° and that now to be described. a Trans. Archaeol. Soc. Glasgow (N. S.), i. p, 195. b Ibid. i. p. ]96. c Ibid. 1883, ii. p. 237, and (1ST. S.), i. p. 198. Of Senant’s edition the only copy I know of and have seen is in the Bodleian. b