Conrad Gessner and the Mobility of the Book: Zurich, Frankfurt, Venice (1543)

Nelles, Paul

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-53366-7_3

Paul Nelles⁶

Part of the book series: New Directions in Book History ((NDBH))

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Abstract

This chapter explores the mechanisms that facilitated communication about books in sixteenth-century Europe. It follows the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner as he consolidated information about the state of printing at the tail end of the first century of print. Gessner’s Bibliotheca universalis of 1545 attempted to record all books published in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The chapter locates Gessner within three early modern book spaces: in the print shop of his Zurich publisher, Cristoph Froschauer; among the stalls of the Frankfurt book fair; and amidst Venetian manuscript collections. Nelles shows how Gessner appropriated workaday tools of the early modern trade in printed books and manuscripts to create a self-styled ‘universal library’ and, in so doing, produce a landmark work in the history of bibliography.

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Notes

1.
The most comprehensive work on Froschauer remains P. Leemann-Van Elck, Die Offizin Froschauer, Zürichs berühmte Druckerei im 16. Jahrhundert (Zurich, 1940); supplemented by M. Vischer, Bibliographie der Zürcher Druckschriften des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts (Baden-Baden, 1991); also the brief but insightful treatment by G.R. Potter, ‘Zwingli and his publisher’, in Bibliographical Studies in Honor of Rudolf Hirsch, ed. W.E. Miller et al. (Philadelphia, 1975), 108–117; also I.L. Snavely, ‘Zwingli, Froschauer, and the word of god in print’, Journal of Religious and Theological Information, 3 (2000), 65–87.
2.
Bibliotheca universalis (Zurich: Froschauer, 1545), Zurich, Zentralbibliothek: Dr M 3. On Gessner, see now the biography by U.B. Leu, Conrad Gessner (1516–1565): Universalgelehrter und Naturforscher der Renaissance (Zurich, 2016).
3.
See P.O. Long, Artisan Practitioners and the Rise of the New Sciences, 1400–1600 (Corvallis, 2011). On the forms of knowledge associated with the stages of production and consumption of commodities, see A. Appadurai, ‘Introduction: commodities and the politics of value’, in The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, ed. A. Appadurai (Cambridge, 1986), 3–63, esp. 41–43; also J.A. Secord, ‘Knowledge in transit’, Isis, 95.4 (2004), 654–672, esp. 663–664.
4.
As a broader issue in the history of communications media, see W. Behringer, ‘Introduction: communication in historiography’, German History, 24 (2006), 325–332.
5.
See P. Adey, Mobility (New York, 2010).
6.
A. Nuovo, The Book Trade in the Italian Renaissance, trans. L.G. Cochrane (Leiden, 2013); J.L. Flood, ‘The printed book as a commercial commodity in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries’, Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 76 (2001), 172–182; A. Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (New Haven, 2010), esp. 65–90, 249–270; I. Maclean, Scholarship, Commerce, Religion. The Learned Book in the Age of Confessions, 1560–1630 (Cambridge, 2012), esp. 171–210.
7.
The classic study remains G. Pollard and A. Ehrman, The Distribution of Books by Catalogue from the Invention of Printing to A.D. 1800 (Cambridge, 1965); see also C. Lesage, E. Netchine, and V. Sarrazin, Catalogues de libraires, 1473–1800 (Paris, 2006); G. Richter, Verlegerplakate des XVI und XVII Jahrhunderts bis zum Beginn des Dreissigjährigen Krieges (Wiesbaden, 1965); Bücherkataloge als buchgeschichtliche Quellen in der frühen Neuzeit, ed. R. Wittman (Wiesbaden, 1985); Books for Sale: The Advertising and Promotion of Print since the Fifteenth Century, ed. R. Myers, M. Harris, and G. Mandelbrote (London, 2009); Nuovo, The Book Trade; Maclean, Scholarship, Commerce, Religion, 179–192; Documenting the Early Modern Book World. Inventories and Catalogues in Manuscript and Print, ed. M. Walsby and N. Constantinidou (Leiden, 2013).
8.
On the Bibliotheca universalis as a work of bibliography, see A. Serrai, Conrad Gesner (Rome, 1990); H. Zedelmaier, Bibliotheca universalis und Bibliotheca selecta: Das Problem der Ordnung des gelehrten Wissens in der frühen Neuzeit (Cologne, 1992); F. Sabba, La ‘Bibliotheca Universalis’ di Conrad Gesner: monumento della cultura europea (Rome, 2012).
9.
Gessner, Bibliotheca universalis, 179v–83r.
10.
Gessner, Pandectarum sive partitionum universalium…libri XXI (Zurich: Froschauer, 1548–1549). The first 19 parts were published in 1548, while the section on theology appeared in 1549. A projected volume on medicine was not published.
11.
On Gessner’s intellectual practices, see Zedelmaier, Bibliotheca universalis und Bibliotheca selecta; P. Nelles, ‘Reading and memory in the universal library: Conrad Gessner and the Renaissance book’, in Ars Reminiscendi: Mind and Memory in Renaissance Culture, ed. D. Beecher and G. Williams (Toronto, 2009), 147–169; A. Blair, Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age (New Haven, 2010), passim; F. Kramer and H. Zedelmaier, ‘Instruments of invention in Renaissance Europe: the cases of Conrad Gesner and Ulisse Aldrovandi’, Intellectual History Review, 24.3 (2014), 321–341. On Gessner’s books, see U.B. Leu, R. Keller, and S. Weidmann, Conrad Gessner’s Private Library (Leiden, 2008).
12.
Gessner, ‘Ep. ded.’, in Ioannis Stobaei Sententiae ex thesauris Graecorum delectae (Zurich: Froschauer, 1543), sig. α6v.
13.
Sabba, La ‘Bibliotheca Universalis’, 39.
14.
Index librorum, quos Christophorus Froschoverus Tiguri hactenus suis typis excudit (Zurich: Froschauer, 1543).
15.
The best account in English of the Frankfurt fair is J.L. Flood, ‘Omnium totius orbis emporiorum compendium: The Frankfurt fair in the early modern period’, in Fairs, Markets and the Itinerant Book Trade, ed. R. Myers, M. Harris, and G. Mandelbrote (London, 2007), 1–40; see also Maclean, Scholarship, Commerce, Religion, 171–178; J.W. Thompson, The Frankfurt Book Fair (Chicago, 1911; repr. New York, 1968).
16.
See E. Zerubavel, Hidden Rhythms: Schedules and Calendars in Social Life (Chicago, 1981).
17.
Cornelis Batt to Erasmus, 22.4.1517, in Collected Works of Erasmus, ed. J. McConica. R. Schoeffel, et al. (Toronto, 1974–; hereafter CWE) 4, 335.
18.
J.-F. Gilmont, John Calvin and the Printed Book, trans. K. Maag (Kirksville, 2005), 243.
19.
D. MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life (New Haven, 1996), 176.
20.
Gessner to J. Kentmann, 3.3.1551, in Gessner, Epistolarum medicinalium…liber quartus (Wittenberg, 1584), A2r. On the circulation of images within Gessner’s circle, see S. Kusukawa, ‘The sources of Gessner’s pictures for the Historia animalium’, Annals of Science, 67 (2010), 303–328.
21.
Gilmont, John Calvin and the Printed Book, 243.
22.
Wilhelm Nesen to Erasmus, [9.1516], CWE 4, 81.
23.
CWE 3, 75, 83.
24.
F. Kapp, Geschichte des Deutschen Buchhandels bis in das siebzehnte Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1886), 465.
25.
G. Smith, ‘The Frankfort book-mart’, The Library, new ser. 1 (1900), 167–179, 170.
26.
J. Harris, ‘The religious position of Abraham Ortelius’, in The Low Countries as a Crossroads of Religious Beliefs, ed. A.J. Gelderblom, J.L. de Jong, and M. van Vaeck (Leiden, 2004), 89–139, 109.
27.
Beatus Rhenanus to Erasmus, 10.4.1517, CWE 4, 349.
28.
Erasmus to Polydore Vergil, 6.10.1524, CWE 10, 375.
29.
Cratander to Capito, 20.9.1521, The Correspondence of Wolfgang Capito, ed. and trans. E. Rummel, with M. Kooistra, 3 vols. (Toronto, 2005–2015), vol. 1, 170.
30.
Based on a comparison of W. Brückner, ‘Eine Messbuchhändlerliste von 1579 und Beiträge zur Geschichte der Bücherkommission’, Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 3 (1961), 1630–1648 and L. Voet, The Golden Compasses: A History and Evaluation of the Printing and Publishing Activities of the Officina Plantiniana at Antwerp, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1969–1972), vol. 2, Appendix 5, 500–505.
31.
Froschauer to Vadian, 10.10.1534, in Die Vadianische Briefsammlung der Stadtbibliothek St. Gallen, ed. E. Arbenz, 7 vols. (St. Gall, 1891–1913), vol. 5, 190. An oft-cited anecdote; see C. Clair, A History of European Printing (London, 1976), 223; Flood, ‘The Frankfurt fair’, 6.
32.
Pollard and Ehrman, Distribution, 52–59; C. Coppens, ‘Sixteenth-century octavo publishers’ catalogues mainly from the Omont collection’, De Gulden Passer, 70 (1992), 5–34.
33.
Libri in officina Simonis Colinaei (Paris: Simon de Colines, [ca. 1540]), Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine (BM) 44967/10.
34.
E.g. Libri in officina Roberti Stephani…partim nati, partim restituti et excusi (Paris: Estienne, [ca. 1540]), Paris, BM 44967/9; Libri vaenales in bibliopolio Roberti Stephani…tum ab Henrico Stephano patre, tum a Simone Colineo eius vitrico excusi (Paris: Estienne, [early 1540s]), Paris, BM 34344 (5); Libri in officina Roberti Stephani…partim nati, partim restituti et excusi (Paris: Estienne, 1546), Paris, BM 34344 (3).
35.
Librorum omnium, quos suis typis excudit Christianus Wechelius, index (Paris: Wechel, [post–1541]), Paris, BM 34344 (6); Index librorum omnium, quos suis typis excudit Christianus Wechelus (Paris: Wechel, 1543), London, British Library (BL) 820.d.12.
36.
E.g. Index librorum qui in Guil. Morelii, in Graecis typographi Regii, officina typis cusi sunt (Paris: Morel, 1558), London, BL 820.d.18.
37.
Librorum per Ioannem Oporinum partim excusorum hactenus, partimin eiusdem Officina venalium, index (Basel: Oporinus, 1552), London, BL 820.d.17.
38.
Pollard and Ehrman, Distribution, 48.
39.
Gessner, Pandectae, fol. 21r. See also Sabba, La ‘Bibliotheca Universalis’, 145 ff.
40.
On Arlenio, see B.R. Jenny, ‘Arlenius in Basel’, Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Alterthumskunde, 64 (1964), 5–45; A. Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting. Jean Grolier and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, their Books and Bindings (Cambridge, 1999), 70–92; Sabba, La ‘Bibliotheca Universalis’, 83–89; there is also much useful information in G. Mercati, ‘Un indice di codici greci posseduti da Arnoldo Arlenio’, in Opere minori, ed. G. Mercati, 6 vols. (Rome, 1937–1984), vol. 4, 358–371.
41.
See Sabba, La ‘Bibliotheca Universalis’, 83–105; Leu, Conrad Gessner, 127–136.
42.
H. Wolf, Catalogus Graecorum librorum manu scriptorum Augustanae bibliothecae (Augsburg: M. Manger, 1575).
43.
M. Zorzi, La Libreria di San Marco. Libri, lettori, società nella Venezia dei Dogi (Milan, 1987), 87–119; M. Zorzi, ‘La circolazazione del libro a Venezia nel Cinquecento: biblioteche private e pubbliche’, Ateneo Veneto, 177 (1990), 117–189; T. Freudenberger, ‘Die Bibliotek des Kardinals Domenico Grimani’, Historisches Jahrbuch, 56 (1936), 15–45; M.J.C. Lowry, ‘Two great Venetian libraries in the age of Aldus Manutius’, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library, 57 (1974–1975), 128–166; S. Marcon, ‘Per la biblioteca a stampa del Domenicano Giochino Torriano’, Miscellanea Marciana, 1 (1986), 223–248; S. Marcon, ‘I libri del generale domenicano Gioachino Torriano (+1500) nel convento veneziano di S. Zanipolo’, Miscellanea Marciana, 2–4 (1987–1989), 81–116.
44.
E. Layton, ‘The history of a sixteenth-sentury Greek type revisited’, The Historical Review, 1 (2004), 35–50.
45.
See D.J. Geanakoplos, Greek Scholars in Venice (Cambridge, 1962); E. Layton, The Sixteenth Century Greek Book in Italy. Printers and Publishers for the Greek World (Venice, 1994).
46.
A. Cataldi Palau, Gian Francesco d’Asola e la tipografia aldina: la vita, le edizioni, la biblioteca dell’Asolano (Genoa, 1998).
47.
Antonio Eparchus to Marcello Cervini, 30.8.1544, in L. Dorez, ‘Antoine Eparque. Recherches sur le commerce des manuscrits grecs en Italie au XVIe siècle’, Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire, 13 (1893), 307: ‘Et con questo modo, pigliaremo la impresa de stampar quanti libri graeci se potrano mai trovar, che sii liciti de stampar.’ For the projected edition of the Acta of the Council of Florence, see 297.
48.
A. Cataldi Palau, ‘Bartolomeo Zanetti stampatore e copista di manoscritti Greci’, in The Greek Script in the 15th and 16th Centuries, ed. S. Potoyra (Athens, 2000), 83–143 (94).
49.
Dorez, ‘Antoine Eparque’; J. Irigoin, ‘Les ambassadeurs à Venise et le commerce des manuscrits grecs dans les années 1540–1550’, in Venezia centro di mediazione tra oriente e occidenti. Secoli XV–XVI, aspetti e problemi, ed. H.G. Beck, M. Manoussacas, and A. Pertusi, 2 vols. (Florence, 1977), vol. 2, 399–415; P. Canart, ‘Jean Nathanaël et le commerce des manuscrits grecs à Venise au XVIe siècle’, in idem, vol. 2, 417–438.
50.
Irigoin, ‘Les ambassadeurs et les manuscrits grecs’, 404; A. Palau, ‘Les copistes de Guillaume Pellicier, évêque de Montpellier (1490–1567)’, Scrittura e civiltà, 10 (1986), 199–237.
51.
Palau, ‘Bartolomeo Zanetti’, 97–99.
52.
Palau, Gian Francesco d’Asola.
53.
Jenny, ‘Arlenius in Basel’.
54.
Gessner, Bibliotheca, 57v: ‘Antonius Eparchus…aliquot Polybii historiarum libros (ut ipse mihi retulit) nondum aut Graece aut Latine evulgatos, in Latinum sermonem transtulit.’ For Sophiano, see 523v.
55.
See L. Labowsky, Bessarion’s Library and the Biblioteca Marciana. Six Early Inventories (Rome, 1979).
56.
See Irigoin, ‘Les ambassadeurs et les manuscrits grecs’, 406–408; G. Pellicier to P. Duchastel (librarian at Fontainebleu), 12.8.1540, in A. Tausserat-Radel (ed.), Correspondance politique de Guillaume Pellicier, 2 vols. (Paris, 1899), vol. 1, 57–58.
57.
Rome, Vatican Library, MS Vat. lat. 3960. The first Grimani catalogue is a quarto catalogue sewn into the folio volume after it was originally compiled and bound. The second version is the first catalogue in the volume as originally bound, fol. 1r–46v, ‘Index Graecorum voluminum Rv.mi D.D. Dominici Grimani.’ This is a topographical list, by ‘capsae’, each of which have been assigned an identifying alphabetical letter. The alphabetical index is in a different hand, and is on fol. 49r–66v, ‘Index Bibliothecae Sig. Ant.ii Venetiarum quae fuit Cardina. Grimani.’ The inventory of the Medici library (140r–87v) is a copy of the inventory of Fabio Vigili.
58.
See now Sabba, La ‘Bibliotheca Universalis’, 79 ff.
59.
Gessner, Bibliotheca, 63r: ‘Cum superiore anno 1543. Ferrariae per aliquot dies immorarer, ab authore [i.e. Brasavola] audivi hoc opus [Brasavola’s Examen omnium simplicium] multoquam antea locupletius praelo a se destinatum esse, Venetiis excudendum.’
60.
Gessner, Pandectae, fol. 22r, e.g. ‘Vaticanae sive Pontificiae, Romae: index Graecus copiosissimus. Latinum non habui.’
61.
Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting, 233–243; Sabba, La ‘Bibliotheca Universalis’, 123.
62.
See again Gessner’s entry for Photius in Bibliotheca, 562v, where he copies entries for an ‘Epistola ad anatolicos thronos’ and other works ‘in alio quodam nescio cuius Italicae bibliotheca Graeco catalogo’. Or Dioscorides, 542r, a Liber de anipharmacis found ‘in catalogo cuiusdam bibliothecae Italicae’.
63.
See B. Mondrain, ‘Antoine Eparque et Augsbourg: le catalogue de vente des manuscrits grecs acquis par la ville d’empire’, Bollettino della Badia greca di Grottaferrata, n.s. 47 (1993), 227–243; H. Zah, ‘Wolfgang Musculus und der Ankauf griechischer Handschriften für die Augsburger Stadtbibliothek 1543/44’, in Wolfgang Musculus (1497–1563) und die oberdeutsche Reformation, ed. R. Dellsperger, R. Freudenberger, and W. Weber (Berlin, 1997), 226–235.
64.
Gessner mentions the Augsburg catalogue directly in the Pandectae, fol. 21r. Its contents are dispersed throughout the Bibliotheca, e.g. 514r, entry for Moschion, whose Gynaeciorum Gessner had seen in Venice and which ‘extat etiam in bibliotheca Augustae Vindelicorum’.
65.
Gessner, Bibliotheca, 230r.
66.
Gessner, Bibliotheca, 605r–v.

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Paul Nelles

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Institute for the Study of the Book, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
Daniel Bellingradt
Carleton University , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Paul Nelles
University of Utrecht , Utrecht, The Netherlands
Jeroen Salman

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Nelles, P. (2017). Conrad Gessner and the Mobility of the Book: Zurich, Frankfurt, Venice (1543). In: Bellingradt, D., Nelles, P., Salman, J. (eds) Books in Motion in Early Modern Europe. New Directions in Book History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53366-7_3

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53366-7_3
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