Volume 2

Bibliographical notes on histories of inventions and books of secrets : Six papers read to the Archæological society of Glasgow April 1882-January 1888 / by John Ferguson.

  • John Ferguson
Date:
1895-1915
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bibliographical notes on histories of inventions and books of secrets : Six papers read to the Archæological society of Glasgow April 1882-January 1888 / by John Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    110/408 (page 8)
    I have just got another edition of this work, printed by Han, but dated 1556. I have some difficulty in deciding which of the two is the earlier. Although similar in all respects they are not identical. The title page in black and red, the woodcut border containing in compartments the most prominent physicians of antiquity, the ornamental capitals, the woodcuts, the type, and the same number of leaves, are contained in both; but details of typography, the arrangement of the title page, the position of the signatures, the use of capitals, and so on, show that the books were printed at different times. In the note referred to it is implied, erroneously, that the edition of 1540 of Raynalde’s book is in the Hunterian Museum. The editions there are of 1545, 1565 and 1598. I have myself acquired copies of the two earlier editions. That of 1545 is in 8vo, printed in bold black letter. The signatures are: A in four, B to I, Hh, in eights, Hhh in six, K to Q in eights, R in four, S to X in eights, Y in ten. There are four leaves of engravings in this copy, but, two, if not four, are wanting. There is no copy of this edition in the British Museum. The 1565 edition is a large 8vo, or small 4to, printed with two sizes of black letter. The signatures are: A in four, B to S in eights, T in six, and there are four leaves of woodcuts, which form a complete set. The copy I have belonged to Herbert, and is described by him in the Typographical Antiquities, London, 1785, I., p. 581. This edition is in the British Museum. The edition of London, 1598, is much inferior to both the preceding. It, too, is in black letter, but it is a poor fount, and the paper is soft and weak. It is in small 4to, A in four, B to O in eight, or pp. [8] 204. The woodcuts—poorly executed—are included in the signatures and pagina- tion as well. There is a copy in the Hunterian Library, and in the British Museum. Other editions followed in the seventeenth century.] 9. A collection of receipts in French, professing to be translated from the Italian, has come into my possession. As it was obviously a chap- book of some time last century, I was sceptical about its being a translation, and thought that this statement might be a ruse to procure for the book a currency which it might not have enjoyed if it had been