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Two vols., 4to. Ad 1: xi, [1], 260 pp. Ad 2: viii, 312 pp. + [2] pp. (Avis au Relieur). COMPLETE with 2 engraved portraits (Meerman and Coster), 1 double-page letterpress genealogical table of the Coster family (vol. 1, opposite p. 54), engraved coat of arms of Johann Schott, and 10 engraved plates of early documents and type facsimiles (plates numbered I-VI, VI* and VII-IX). Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, red edges (endbands chipped off, wear along spines and extremities). Our copy was printed with two different paper stocks, here distinguished as A (white) and B (slightly browning). A = vol. 1: *2 **4 Ii4 and Kk2; vol. 2: *4 I-Aa4 Rr2 and singleton "Avis au Relieur." B = vol. 1: A-Hh4; vol. 2: A-H4 (SEE THE 48 IMAGES ON OUR WEBSITE). Text and plates very clean and unmarked. THE FIRST TRULY IMPORTANT DETAILED STUDY ON THE HISTORY OF THE EARLIEST PRINTERS, IN WHICH ARE PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME NUMEROUS KEY DOCUMENTS, SOME TRANSCRIBED IN TYPE, OTHERS CAREFULLY REPRODUCED ON TEN ENGRAVED PLATES, INCLUDING XYLOGRAPHY, EARLY ORIENTAL PRINTING, PROTOTYPOGRAPHY, THE 42- AND 36-LINE BIBLES, THE MENTELIN BIBLE, AND OTHER INCUNABULA. Our zealous author traveled all over Europe (and perhaps even to England) to undertake first-hand examination of incunabula, post-incunabula, and hitherto unknown documents, and his industry continues to impress, particularly when one considers the fact that "travel" in the mid-18th century was grueling in the extreme, and that the exchange of information by "mail" was glacial in speed. The number of "foreign correspondents" who contributed to the present work is remarkable (typefounder Johannes Enschede being the most significant). While Meerman wrongly claimed that Laurens Jansz. Coster (and not Gutenberg) was the inventor of movable type, the importance of his "Origines Typographicae" cannot be overestimated because of the degree to which it promoted and perpetuated incunabula research throughout every European country and beyond. Indeed, the "Origines Typographicae" went through several translations and editions, and continues to be cited today. Gerard Meerman (1722-1771) was celebrated not only as a jurist and statesman, but also a humanist who spent a large part of his considerable fortune collecting books, manuscripts and antiquities; indeed, he is justly considered to be Holland's first truly great scholar-collector. His collection of manuscripts and early printed books is still preserved in The Hague at the Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum. Meerman's "Origines Typographicae" was soon followed by "De Chartae Vulgaris seu lineae origine" (1767), one of the first studies of the watermarks in the paper used by the earliest printers. Bigmore and Wyman II, 32. Enschedé, Typefoundries, pp. xix and 206.
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