Untitled - Monoskop

DELETION IN CERTAIN COPIES
There were, however, customers who saw no need at all to omit mention of
the printer or of the privilege when they ordered a special copy.
A sumptuous vellum copy exists in the Bibliotheque Nationale of the
Quodlibeta of Henry of Ghent (Velins 343-4) in which the privilege (CH 1518,
and summarised on the verso of the last
5(1) ) is advertised on the title-page
leaf exactly as in the ordinary paper copies. To Josse Radius Ascensius, the
printer and publisher of the book, it had been a work of piety to produce the
first edition of his illustrious compatriot's philosophical writings, and he
inserted a dedication of his own to Louis de Flandres, a magistrate of Ghent.
But the editor was Friar Alfonso de Villa Sancta, a Spanish Franciscan
resident at the Recollect convent in Paris, using a manuscript lent by the Paris
Carmelites, and his dedication aimed higher, to the Archduke Charles who
had recently become king of Spain, the future Emperor Charles V: was not
Charles count of Flanders, and was not Ghent his birthplace? And so in this
special copy, facing the dedication, there is a miniature of Charles, crowned
and enthroned as king, holding sword and orb. The miniature is not a
presentation scene, and Van Praet may have gone
too far 1
in assuming that
this was the copy actually presented to Charles, but it must at least have been
made for someone closely connected with his court. Though relations between
him and Francis I were still amicable in it 1518, would not have been
surprising if reference to the king of France's privilege
as this.
had been deleted as
incongruous or irrelevant in such a copy
The vellum presentation copy of Petrus de Biaxio's Opus confaiundarum
electionum directorium (PA 1511,3) was certainly prepared to the instructions of
the author, a councillor of the king of Navarre, who dedicated it to Cardinal
d'Albret (d. 1520). It is ruled throughout in red, with the initials decorated in
gold and colour, and a miniature (on
f. 2OV
) of the cardinal receiving the book
from the author. But noattempt was made to remove mention of the privilege.
On the contrary, the privilege is decorated by hand in the same manner as the
rest of the book. Another very grand vellum copy treating the privilege
(PA 1524, 3) with ceremony is that of the first edition of Commynes now in
the Bibliotheque Nationale (Velins 754). The owner of this copy, or the
person who presented it to him, had it decorated by hand and embellished
with his coat of arms, a trotting white horse: the Parlement privilege printed
on the verso of the title-page shows the Arms of France and the initial V
coloured or gilded, and all the capital letters in the text of the privilege are
touched up with yellow in the same way as the text of Commynes. Other
examples of fine vellum copies in which the privilege is left intact are
Chastellain, Le Temple de Jean Boccace (CH 1517, 1(2) BN ) Velins 775
Fichet, Consolatio luctus et mortis (PA 1521, 4) BN Velins 1920
Patricius, De regno (CH 1519, 3(1) BN )
Velins 408-9
1
J. B. B. Van Praet, Catalogue des livres imprimis sur velin de la bibliotheque du roi, 6 vols. (1822-8), i,
no. 41 1.
163