Re: Hermathena and Cicero

Conrad, et al. --

> Your dictionary researches
> are interesting to the extent
> that they indicate no great
> precision, in times long gone
> by, in distinguishing between
> copper and bronze... and then
> there is brass as I earlier
> pointed out.

I have now heard back from my Latinist friend, Chet Van Duzer, who 
writes that

	"... I also end up agreeing with Conrad. I have not found
	anything significant about Renaissance printing using bronze,
	and it would strike me as a strange project to undertake. And
	couldn't it be that Watson was just copying from Julius III
	regarding the bronze, and thus does not represent an
	independent source?"

Chet also notes that

	"as far as I know there is no dictionary of Renaissance
	Latin, which I have often found curious. That is what you
	would need to settle the linguistic question, but anyway the
	use of bronze seems quite unlikely on general principles."

So a "scholarly" consensus is forming around your argument (even 
before you've made tests of engraving with bronze plates in your flat ;-).

One more thing I've thought of that may or may not be relevant: the 
Hermathena pic I posted to my website at

http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/Bocchi1574_Symbol102.jpg

is from the second edn. of Bocchi's _Symbolicae Quaestiones_ in 1574, 
with imprint:

	Bononiae: Apud Societatem Typographiæ Bononiensis, 1574.

and Watson notes that the plates were retouched for this 2nd printing 
by a different press.

Based on what you've already said, I assume that it would be extremely 
difficult -- if not impossible -- to "retouch" bronze plates?

Also, just in case any of you can discern more evidence for Conrad's 
argument from digital facsimiles of the Hermathena prints, I've posted 
a 300dpi scan of Watson's reproduction of the original untouched plate 
from a 1555 copy of Bocchi's book held by the Folger Shakespeare 
Library to:

http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/Bocchi1555_Symbol102.jpg

(Unfortunately, Watson's own reproduction of this is quite small, and 
this is the best I can do. But I did at least include a ruler, as 
Hendrik requires. ;-)

It occurs to me, also, that some of you might want to look at an 
original printed copy of Bocchi's _Symbolicae Quaestiones_ from 1555 
-- with untouched plates -- for yourselves, which is easily done at 
the British Library.

According to Watson,

	"What may have served as the printer's copy is the manuscript
	_Symbolicae Quaestiones_ now in the British Library (MS.
	Sloane 5185). The scattered revisions (made in a poor and
	often shaky hand) to text and mottoes in this manuscript were
	all incorporated into the printed version. The varying
	hands, the changes in page numbers in some sections and
	emblem numbers in others, and the overlapping section between
	folios 53r to 56v all testify that this manuscript was pieced
	together from several almost complete, but not identical,
	manuscripts. Cut down to their frames, tiny engravings were
	glued into the manuscript."

&

	"Variant 1555 copies that I have found are the following:
	Vatican (additions to the poems in Symbols III, XLIII, and
	CXXIII and duplication of engravings for XCIX and CII);
	Kunsthistorisches lnstitut Firenze (duplication of engravings
	in XLI and XLII); Folger Shakespeare Library (duplication of
	engravings in LXXXIII and LXXXV); Princeton University
	Library (duplication of engravings in CXXIX and CXXXVI in
	copy 1); and British Library (two of three copies in the
	General Catalogue of Printed Books, London, 1965, have
	differing variations)."

&

	"[Dennis] Rhodes compared two British library copies of the
	_Symbolicae Quaestiones_ with at least six other works
	printed by Giaccarelli between 1551 and 1556; a third copy,
	however, lacks the decorated initials and may represent an
	entirely different printing. See Dennis E. Rhodes, 'Due
	questioni di bibliografia bolognese del Cinquecento,"
	_Archiginnasio_ 81 (1986): 321-4."

(Needless to say, I am *not* moving on from this perplexing issue with 
anywhere near the speed I had hoped! ;-)

Deborah
_____

Deborah Taylor-Pearce
[email protected]
___________________________________________________________________

Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: 
 [email protected]

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit:
 http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe

For all Information Design matters:
 http://InformationDesign.org

Problems? Write to:
 [email protected]
___________________________________________________________________