Lodovico Castelvetro. Poetica d’Aristotele vulgarizzata et sposta. Basel: Pietro de Sedabonis, 1576.
Rare Book PN1010.A73 P1 1576
Lodovico Castelvetro (1505-1571) was an Italian humanist who had Protestant sympathies. He was excommunicated in 1560. Castelvetro’s complete works were placed on the Catholic Church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Prohibited Books) beginning in 1590. The entry for his works in the Index reads: “All works of Lodovico Castelvetro [are prohibited] unless expurgated beforehand.”
This copy of Castelvetro’s translation and commentary on Aristotle’s Poetics has been expurgated. The expurgated text is still readable: the point of the censorship in the case of this book was to highlight what the censors found objectionable in the text.
Pope Innocent III. De miseria condicionis humanae. Germany? before 1474. Incunabula 67
Certain parts of books are more likely to be missing than others. Plates and maps can be detached for display, and first and last pages are often damaged or lost. Incomplete books don’t command the same price or prestige, so booksellers and owners often doctor defective copies.
The original last leaf in this book has been replaced with a facsimile. The facsimile isn’t evident from a casual glance, but a closer look reveals it: the paper is from a different paper stock than the rest of the book, it does not have the same kind of soiling as the opposite page, and on the other side of the last leaf (not visible), there is no impression from the type. If you look at the page on the left, you can see the impression on the paper that the type has made.
Samuel Johnson. A Dictionary of the English Language … Abstracted from the Folio Edition by the Author. London: I. Walker and others, 1825. Val 825 .J63 P712
Humble books, such as this abridgement of Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language published in 1825, can become collectors’ pieces when they are linked to someone famous. The bookseller’s description boldly declares it to be from Charles Dickens’ library:
“Inscribed in the autograph of Dickens on front end-leaf with his initials, and monogram, place of residence and date “Tavistock House, London, W.C., Christmas-Day 1854,” and eight other words in his autograph including the title of one of his works Great Expectations. The ‘C.D.’ and probably other words are evidently in a hand other than that of Dickens.”
The quotation on the bookplate of collector A. Edward Newton shows the appeal that such a copy has for collectors: “Sir the biographical part of literature is what I love most.”
For an account of how the forgery was detected, see: Jerome Meckier, “Dickens, Great Expectations, and the Dartmouth College Notes” in: Papers on Languages & Literature 28.2 (1992), 111-32.
Guillaume Caorsin, De obsidionis Rhodiae urbis descriptio. Venice? Erhard Ratdolt, after 19 August 1480. Incunabula 37
Rare books have always been a tempting target for thieves. This book may have been stolen, since both the first and last leaves have been crudely torn in the same place on the page – perhaps to remove library stamps?
The ownership stamp seen here belongs to the bibliophile and rare book dealer Giuseppe Martini (1870-1944), Martini offered this copy for sale in 1901. In the same year he spent a few days in jail for stealing a book from a library...
[Evangeliary. (France, ca. 1280)]. MS Codex 003152
This evangeliary (a book containing excerpts from the gospels used in the liturgy) shows the work of scribes writing hundreds of years apart. Parts of the text are crossed out, showing places where the liturgical use changed over time.