From the Library: Four of the Oldest Books

While the Warburg Library is distinguished by the number of pre-1900 books that can be found on its open shelves, the rarest books in the Warburg Library’s collection are kept in the Rare Books Room and can be viewed by appointment only.

Want to find out more? Warburg Graduate Library Trainee, Louisa McKenzie, takes a journey through four of the oldest books in the Library’s collection in this insightful blog.

Leon Battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria, Florence 1485

De re aedificatoria, or On the Art of Building, is a seminal work on architecture and aesthetics. Florentine artist, author and architect Leon Battista Alberti took his inspiration from Vitruvius, the ancient Roman architect and engineer, and his own text De architectura. Split, like Vitruvius’s  work, into ten books, De re aedificatoria has been highly influential for centuries, emphasizing symmetry and harmony in construction, something reflected in Alberti’s own practical work on buildings such as the Palazzo Rucellai and the façade of Santa Maria Novella (both in Florence). For this reason, it is perhaps Alberti’s best-known written work, though he was a prolific author of treatises and texts ranging from moral philosophy (for example, Della famiglia) to religious satire (Momus).

Held at classmark CNH 1015 Rare Books, the Warburg’s copy of De re aedificatoria is a first edition of the work. Published in 1485 by Nicolaus Laurentii ‘Alamanus’, or ‘the German’ (a sobriquet used to denote the printer’s origins), it was the first-ever printed book on architecture. The same printer published Vitruvius’ work the following year. Rather than a title page (see the entry on Liber de nativitatibus below), details about the book and its printing are present in the form of the colophon at the end of the text. The dedicatory preface by Angelo Polizano to his patron Lorenzo de’ Medici, who also sponsored this inaugural publication, tells us that Alberti’s brother, Bernardo, edited the text.

In addition to Alberti’s architectural treatise, this edition includes a poem, Carmen ad lectorem, by Baptista Siculus. You can also browse a digital version of the Warburg’s copy. Find more recent editions on the open shelves of the Library, also at classmark CNH 1015. 

Want to learn more about Leon Battista Alberti? Watch this recorded talk as part of the Warburg Institute’s Renaissance Lives series. 

Abraham ben Meier ibn Ezra, [Liber de nativitatibus], Venice 1485 

Were you born under a lucky star? This early printed edition of a 12th-century work explains how to interpret a birth horoscope (the ‘nativity’ or ‘nativitatibus’ of the title) through twelve chapters. Each chapter corresponds to one of the astrological houses. The text is attributed to Abraham Ibn Ezra (sometimes Avenezra).

The Warburg’s copy was printed in Venice in 1485 by Erhard Ratdolt, an Augsburg native who made La Serenissima his home in the late 1470s to early 1480s. Ratdolt’s work, which later went on to inspire William Morris, of Arts & Crafts fame, is prized for its technical and stylistic innovation. Ratdolt’s firm was, for example, the first one to introduce a 'modern' title page, as well as to print in multiple colours. He was also the first printer known to have produced a type specimen – a 1486 broadsheet that illustrated the different kinds of fonts in which he could print.[1] Nonetheless, in common with other relatively early printed books, this copy of the Liber de nativitatibus displays some features derived from manuscript tradition. Printed floriated initials mark the starts of chapters, while rubrication has been added. 

You can find the Warburg's copy of Liber de nativitatibus at classmark FAH 875 Rare Books. A facsimile copy can also be found at the same classmark in the main collection. Browse the digitised version.

Giacomo Mazzocchi, Epigrammata antiquae urbis: cautum edicto Leonis X Pont. Opt. Max. ne quis in septennium hoc opus excudat alioqui reus esto noxamque pendito, Rome 1521

Mazzocchi’s work, published in 1521, was the first to produce a printed repository of Roman inscriptions from the time of the Roman Republic to the reign of Emperor Justinian I (6th-century AD). Despite certain flaws and errors in transcription, the monumental work has proved a key resource for inscriptions and buildings destroyed in the Sack of Rome in 1527, six years after the book’s publication. Woodcut illustrations of some of Rome’s principal monuments, such as the Castel Sant’Angelo and the Arch of Constantine, accompany the text. What is perhaps most interesting about the Warburg copy is that it is currently unbound. This allows us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the components that can make up a book. The sheets are folios i.e. each sheet is folded once, producing two leaves and four pages. The individual pages are large – just over A4 in modern paper sizes. These folios would have been sewn together – the holes are still visible on the pages (see photo) - and then bound. A facsimile version is available at classmark CKN 336.M19 in the main collection, with the original in Rare Books. 

Hug. Grotii Syntagma Arateorum: opus poeticae et astronomiae studiosis utilissimum : quo quae contineantur versa pagella indicabit, Leiden 1600

Dutch humanist and author Hugo Grotius’s astrological compendium was published in Leiden in 1600. It comprised an edition of the Phaenomena, an introduction to the constellations in hexameter, by 3rd-century BC Greek poet Aratus, as well as the same author’s Diosemeia, which marries astrology and weather forecasting. The book was inspired by a 9th-century manuscript of Aratus’s work acquired by Grotius. The beautifully illuminated manuscript, still in the collection of the University of Leiden’s library,[2] was produced at the court of Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne. It reflects a version of the text translated into Latin by Germanicus Caesar (composed c. 16-17AD), interspersed with elements from a translation by Avienus (composed mid-4th century AD). The manuscript’s illustrations were among those studied by Fritz Saxl in his 4-volume consideration of astrological and mythological illuminated manuscripts, Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters.[3] Find this at classmark RR 284 or FAF 770. In his book, Grotius combined the two texts by Aratus with some of Cicero’s work on the text as well as Grotius’s own commentary. The text was completed with 44 sumptuous engravings by painter and engraver Jacob de Gheyn. These plates reproduce the illustrations from the Leiden manuscript, representing various celestial symbols. The Warburg copy is a first edition of Grotius’s work. Find it at classmark FAH 145 Rare Books. 

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References

[1] Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, BSB-Ink R-14 GW M37128.