Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis. Jaargang 5

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Summaries/résumés

Manuel Stoffers & Pieter Thijs, De Logica memorativa van Thomas Murner. Het eerste educatieve kaartspel en zijn publicatiegeschiedenis
[Thomas Murner's Logica memorativa. The Earliest Educational Card Game and Its Publishing History]

Thomas Murner's Logica memorativa, dating from the first decade of the sixteenth century, is the first educational card game in the history of the playing card. Scholars disagree on the year of its conception and on its publishing history. The present contribution tries to resolve the existing confusions and contradictions. The results may be summarized in the following points.

1 Murner's logical card game was the first educational card game he designed. He did this during his stay in Kraków in 1499-1500. His other (juridical) educational card game was first mentioned in 1502.

2 There have been four editions of the logical card game:

K Chartiludium logices seu Logica poetica vel memorativa. Kraków: Johannes Haller, 1507. This edition, which was probably non-authorized and not known to Murner himself, is lost.

S Logica memorativa. Chartiludium logice, sive totius dialectice memoria. Strasbourg: Johannes Grüninger, 1508. This edition, usually dated 1509 (see 3), has two variants:

S1: S containing an additional introductory chapter, with a separate page numbering (A, Aij, Aiij, [Aiiij]), entitled Modus practicandi. This text is also found apart from the Logica memorativa.

S2: S not containing the Modus practicandi. The facsimile-edition (Nieuwkoop: Miland Publishers 1967), was based on the copy of S2 in the Royal Library, The Hague.

B Logica memorativa. Chartiludium logice, sive totius dialectice memoria. Brussels: Thomas vander Noot, 1509. This edition, which was very probably non-authorized, was based on S2.

P Chartiludium logicae seu Logica Poetica, vel Memorativa, edited by Jean Balesdens. Paris: Toussaint du Bray, 1629. This edition was based on B.

3 The Strasbourg edition which is usually dated 1509, was actually published at the end of 1508. In Strasbourg at that time the new year began, not on the first of January, but on Christmas Day. According to Grüninger's impressum, he published the Logica memorativa on the 29th of December 1509; in our own terms this means that it was published on the 29th of December 1508.

4 The Brussels edition was published, not before but eight months after the Strasbourg edition. Probably, neither Murner nor Grüninger knew about this edition. The woodcuts are not printed from the same woodblocks used in S, but appear to be quite exact and skillful copies of the woodcuts from Grüninger's printing office.

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5 One conclusion may be added to complete our findings on the publishing history of the Logica memorativa: Murner's logical text is certainly not based on Gregor Reisch's Margarita philosophica (Freiburg 1503 and many later editions) but probably on the Expositio in Summulas Petri Hispani by Petrus Ta(r)taretus (Freiburg 1494) or a text similar to that of Ta(r)taretus.

Pierre Delsaerdt, Libri Liberti. De bibliotheek van Libertus Fromondus (1587-1653)
[Libri Liberti. La bibliothèque de Libert Froidmont (1587-1653)]

Libert Froidmont, professeur à l'université de Louvain, est surtout connu comme astronome opposé aux idées de Galilée et comme théologien défenseur de son ami Corneille Jansénius, l'évêque d'Ypres dont il édita le fameux Augustinus. Dans le présent article, l'auteur analyse la bibliothèque privée de Froidmont telle qu'elle se présentait à la fin de sa vie. Pour ce faire, il dispose des comptes du libraire louvaniste Georges Lipsius (1608-1682), qui vendit publiquement la bibliothèque de Froidmont en décembre 1653. Le registre avec ses comptes, conservé aux Archives générales du Royaume à Bruxelles, permet de savoir quels titres furent vendus à quels prix, et qui en furent les acheteurs.

Dans son testament, Froidmont avait déclaré que ses propres ouvrages ainsi qu'une édition des oeuvres de Saint-Augustin, annotée de sa main, ne pouvaient être vendus. Restait une collection de 806 titres, constituée pour presque la moitié de livres théologiques, tandis que l'histoire et la catégorie sciences & arts représentaient chacune un cinquième du total. Les belles-lettres et la jurisprudence, par contre, n'étaient présentes qu'avec 8 et 6% de l'ensemble des titres.

La bibliothèque théologique est constituée de bon nombre d'ouvrages d'exégèse, d'un ensemble important de patrologie et de scholastique, et des principaux auteurs catholiques de la controverse théologique. La catégorie sciences & arts est dominée par des ouvrages de philosophie, de médecine et de mathématiques appliquées; la tradition (Aristote surtout, puis Archimède, Hippocrate, Vitruve, ...) et la modernité (Gassendi, Descartes, Gilbert, Sennert, Nonnius, Santorio, Brahe, Mersenne, Kepler, Galilée, ...) y vont de pair. Les livres d'histoire concernent tant l'histoire ecclésiastique que l'histoire profane.

Prise dans son ensemble, la collection est remarquable par la forte présence d'auteurs jésuites. D'autre part, le caractère savant en est souligné par un nombre impressionnant de dictionnaires et d'ouvrages de référence à caractère bibliographique. Tant la bibliothèque théologique que la bibliothèque scientifique, finalement, portent l'empreinte de la controverse et de la polémique. Ainsi, la bibliothèque de Libert Froidmont reflète bien ses engagements intellectuels durant la première moitié du dix-septième siècle.

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R.G. Fuks-Mansfeld, Het ‘heilig ambacht’ in Amsterdam. Titelbladen, colofons en rabbinale goedkeuringen als bron van gegevens over joodse drukkers en zetters in de zeventiende eeuw
[The ‘Sacred Trade’. Title Pages, Colophons and Rabbinical Approbations as a Source of Information about Jewish Printers and Composers in the Seventeenth Century]

Historians of the Jewish book are handicapped by the vastness of the Jewish diaspora and the ensuing difficulties of tracing local sources of Jewish printing-houses. They are helped, however, by three distinctive features within Hebrew and Yiddish books printed in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which make it possible to gather information about the printers.

The first feature is the colophon which in Hebrew typography survived the incunabulaperiod and remained in use up till the end of the eighteenth century. In the colophons the printer and typesetters give information about themselves and sometimes about the date of finishing of the work. The second feature is the mention of the financier on the title-page. This may be the printer himself, but more often an external financier is mentioned. A third additional source of information are the rabbinical approbations, haskamot in Hebrew, in the prelims of a book which give an appraisal of the contents but serve also as a protection of the edition for the duration of a given time.

An analysis of these three distinctive features of Hebrew typography in the output of Jewish printers in Amsterdam in the seventeenth century, yields interesting facts which otherwise would have remained unknown. The study of the colophons show the development of the careers of many Amsterdam Jewish printers from type-setters to independent printers and the other way round in times of economic setbacks. The mention of financiers on the title-pages, sometimes in combination with notarial records in the Amsterdam municipal archives, give an insight into the economic background of Hebrew printing. Financing Hebrew editions appeared to be an attractive investment for many non-Jewish Amsterdam merchants. A network of international trade in Jewish books for the German, Polish and Levantine market can be discerned in which Jewish as well as non-Jewish merchants are engaged. The haskamot also reveal an international network, as a host of famous rabbis from Poland, Germany and Italy showed their interest in Amsterdam Hebrew printing.

P.G. Hoftijzer, Het Nederlandse boekenbedrijf en de verspreiding van Engelse wetenschap in de zeventiende en vroege achttiende eeuw
[The Dutch Booktrade and the Dissemination of English Science in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries]

This article presents a comparison of the conditions for scholarly publishing in Britain and the Netherlands during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as well as an analysis of the Anglo-Dutch trade in scientific books in the decades around 1700. It is argued, that whereas English booksellers for various reasons (e.g. the organisation of the book trade, the small market for such books in Britain, the preference for English language publication) were confronted with great difficulties in publishing and selling works of contemporary British scientists, their Dutch colleagues on the other hand, because of their strong position in the international book trade and

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by undercutting the original English editions through pirated editions and translations, were able to play an important part in the distribution of the ‘New Science’ on the European Continent.

Jos van Heel, Bolongaro Crevenna: een Italiaans koopman en bibliofiel in Amsterdam
[Bolongaro Crevenna: négociant italien et bibliophile à Amsterdam]

Né à Milan en 1736, Pietro Antonio Crevenna s'établit en 1756 à Amsterdam où il devait passer le reste de sa vie. Il parvint à une grande prospérité par son mariage, en 1761, avec la fille de Giacomo Filippo Bolongaro, négociant en tabac. Dans la grande tradition de la bibliophilie française, en se laissant guider en particulier par la Bibliographie instructive du libraire De Bure (1763 et années suivantes), il rassembla à partir de 1770 environ une magnifique collection de livres, dans laquelle les auteurs classiques et ceux d'histoire naturelle étaient le mieux représentés mais où ne manquaient pas pour cela les ouvrages des autres divisions. Avec ses plus de mille incunables et ses plus de 250 manuscrits médiévaux sur vélin, la collection de Crevenna figurait parmi les plus importantes de l'époque, ce dont le monde des lettres put se convaincre en 1775-1776 par le grand catalogue, riche en annotations bibliographiques, qui en parut alors. Loin de se ralentir, les enrichissements continuèrent de plus belle, notamment par des achats considérables faits à la fameuse vente du duc de La Vallière en 1784. Empêtré dans des difficultés financières en 1787, Crevenna en fut ensuite réduit à vendre la plus grande partie de sa bibliothèque. Le catalogue de la vente avait été préparé avec le plus grand soin par le propriétaire lui-même et son bibliothécaire. Un an après la mort de Crevenna, survenue en 1792, furent encore livrées aux enchères une dernière partie des livres (toujours impressionnante), ainsi que la collection des tableaux, dessins et autres objets d'art et de curiosité.

Le présent article s'efforce de montrer les différents stades du développement de la bibliothèque de Crevenna, développement lié aux vicissitudes de la vie même du collectionneur. L'intérêt porte aussi sur l'importance des catalogues, ainsi que sur le rôle des bibliothécaires. Le tout étant fondé sur des sources imprimées, mais aussi sur des documents tirés des archives de la famille de Bolongaro Crevenna, comprenant en particulier plusieurs textes de Crevenna à caractère autobiographique.

Berry Dongelmans en Silvia Zwaaneveldt, De ‘Naamlijst der Inteekenaren’ als bron voor onderzoek naar lokale leescultuur
[Subscription Lists as a Source for Research into Local Reading Cultures]

The article attempts to establish the extent to which subscription lists may be used as a source for research about readers and buyers of books. Notwithstanding a number of reservations, local lists would appear to be useful means to gain information about the book buying public in a particular city, especially where no other sources are available. This hypothesis is tested on the local Haarlem subscription list for Nagelaten gedichten (Posthumous Poems, 1825) by R.H. Arntzenius of Haarlem (149 private local subscriptions), as well as a corpus of similar lists from the period 1820-1825, featuring the names of some 449 private Haarlem subscribers. The article concludes that a single local subscription list offers an insufficient basis for pronouncements about the size of the book buying public in Haarlem in 1825. An extensive corpus of such lists, on the other hand,

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does appear to be a reliable alternative. Rather suprisingly, the majority of Haarlemmers subscribed very rarely to new publications.

W. van der Molen, Een Nederlandse zakenman in de Javaanse letteren. Daniël Hartevelt (1824-1896) en de Javaanse pers
[A Dutch Businessman in Javanese Literature. Daniël Hartevelt (1824-1896) and the Javanese Press]

In the nineteenth century, Javanese texts were still distributed by means of handwritten books. The Dutch businessman Daniël Hartevelt (1824-1896), who worked in Java in the middle of the century, had a keen eye for the possibilities this offered to printers. In 1854/1855, after having overcome government restrictions on publishing, he launched a Javanese almanac, a Javanese magazine and a Javanese newspaper.

The almanac became a great success; it found a wide range of readers and continued to be printed long after it had been taken over by a succession of other firms. It was cheap and well distributed, but the attractiveness of its contents must also have contributed to its success: the almanac not only contained all kinds of useful tables and names, but also entertainment in the form of classical Javanese literature.

Hartevelt's two other publications were far less successful. The magazine was a failure; the reason for this is not clear. But the newspaper too had to close, despite a seemingly successful start. This may have had to do with its contents: in spite of its Javanese appearance, it was, in fact, a Dutch newspaper, reporting mainly on the Dutch bureaucracy in Batavia and on political developments in far-away Europe, matters of little appeal to Javanese readers. The newspaper did not last for more than two years.

What will last is Hartevelt's merit to have made the Javanese familiar with the printed book and with the media of newspaper and almanac, and to have initiated the distribution of literature on a much larger scale than had ever been possible before.

Ernest Claassen, Het Nederlandsch Magazijn, Het Nederlandsch Museum en De Honigbij. Drie geïllustreerde tijdschriften in de jaren dertig en veertig van de negentiende eeuw
[The Nederlandsch Magazijn, The Nederlandsch Museum and De Honigbij. Three Illustrated Magazines in the 1830s and 1840s]

The large growth of illustrated magazines in The Netherlands, and of printed matter in general, is often set in the second half of the nineteenth century. This article contradicts the view that all magazines published before 1850 were exceptions or ‘forerunners’ as expressed by, among others, Hemels and De Vegt in their recent selective bibliography on periodicals.

Unfortunately it cannot be answered decisively which audiences these illustrated magazines targeted, and whether they were successful. The publishers' archives have not been preserved. So the magazines themselves are the main source for this study. Besides, prospectuses and forewords have been used, be it with certain caution in view of their commercial purposes. Sometimes circulation numbers are given by publishers, or a description of the magazine's readership.

This study has not been able to establish beyond doubt whether the market for illustrated

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periodicals in general started to grow between 1830 and 1850. But it becomes clear publishers could adopt different strategies for magazine publishing during this period. Based on the diversity of supply and the apparent high circulation figures, the conclusion is drawn that a wide choice of illustrated magazines was available during the thirties and forties of the nineteenth century.