University of Virginia Library

The British Museum's Copy of a Rare Book From Brescia: A Problem in Dating.
by
D. E. Rhodes

Giordano Ruffo, a Calabrian of the thirteenth century, who describes himself as 'cavaliere' to the Emperor Frederick II, wrote in Latin a treatise on the care of horses which was many times printed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It became the standard work of reference in its field, and more than one Italian translation was made. One of these, by Frate Gabriele Bruno, entitled "Arte de cognoscere la natura d' cauael" was first printed by Petrus de Quarengiis at Venice, probably in 1492. The edition of the same translation which is to be considered in the present note came from the press of Thomas Ferrandus at Brescia, who is represented in the British Museum's fifteenth century collection by not more than three books. His known dates as a printer (or possibly as a publisher only) are from 1473 to 1493, although evidence exists to prove that he lived on into the following century.

The edition which Ferrandus produced of Ruffo's book on horses seems to have become singularly rare; there is a copy in the British Museum, but I have failed to trace one elsewhere in the British Isles, and none at all in Italy. The Museum copy, unfortunately, has had its date erased and a totally false one substituted in ink. This erroneous date, 1611, was long ago accepted by the catalogue, and it is now my purpose to piece together the scanty threads of evidence provided by the book itself in order to date it more accurately. As yet, I have not found the edition catalogued by any other major library. The book is printed in a plain roman type, which can be identified with Ferrandus's early 83R, such as appears in a Ludovico de Puppio of 1493, a copy of which is in the Marciana Library at Venice. It is however impossible to place the Museum's edition of Ruffo in the last decade of the fifteenth century (tempting as it is to try to do so) for the following simple reason: there is not enough space left in the place where the true date has been erased for the requisite number of capital Roman letters to form a date preceding 1500. The colophon reads thus: "Fato stampare per messere Tomaso Ferante in citadella uechia // apresso al conte Piero da Gambara nela cita de Bressa : nel anno // del Signore. M[DC.XI] del mese de Augusto." Of this date, the 'M' is printed, while the 'DC.XI' are in ink. There seems to be no good reason why the forger should have wished to substitute a date which is clearly at least a hundred years too late for the book in question.

Thus for reasons of space it seems necessary at once to assign the book to the early years of the sixteenth century. There is enough corroborative evidence respecting both the publisher and Count Pietro Gambara to make this hypothesis more than possible. Luigi Lechi, the historian of Brescian printing, has shown that Tomaso Ferrando, the date of whose birth is unknown, after publishing several books between 1473 and 1493, was still alive but in penurious circumstances

in 1498.[1] More than that, he was still in Brescia in the early years of the new century, as is seen from a letter which he wrote to the celebrated humanist Marino Becichemo, a Dalmatian from Scutari who had been educated in Brescia and who returned there to teach. The letter in question is printed in Becichemo's book entitled Marini Becichemi Scodrensis Elegans ac docta in C. Plinium Praelectio, Paris, 1519, pt. 1, p. xc : 'Sequitur epistola Thomae Ferandi Veterani Grammatici . . .'

Now Becichemo, who was born in 1468, after studying in Brescia as a youth, returned to Dalmatia, and afterwards lived in Venice, where he achieved such a reputation as a humanist teacher that his services were invited by many Italian towns. It was not until 1502 that he returned to Brescia, and therefore Ferrandus probably wrote to him in 1503 or 1504 the letter to which we have already referred.[2]

Count Pietro Gambara's dates are not known for certain, but several facts concerning his life are available. In 1473 he shared with his brothers the inheritance of his father's property and a house in Brescia. In 1486 he gave a dowry of 6,000 ducats to his daughter Paola, who was later canonised. Pietro married Taddea, a daughter of the celebrated family of Martinengo, who is said to have been still alive in the sack of Brescia in 1512. In 1504, she had become tutrice (governess or guardian) to her two sons Federico and Lodovico.[3] The date of her husband's death cannot be ascertained, but the inference is that he was dead when his wife took upon herself full responsibility for maintaining her sons.

The result of adding together the above shreds of evidence is that the most suitable date which can be ascribed to Ferrandus's edition of Giordano Ruffo's book is at the latest 1504. This date, expressed in Roman fashion—MDIIII— would also contain the correct number of letters to account for the space caused by the man who so infuriatingly scratched out the true printed date in what now appears to be the last surviving copy in a public library (at least in Europe) of this particular edition. The present writer hopes that the publication of this note will lead to the location of a perfect copy, which will then give us further proof of the curiously sporadic output of Thomas Ferrandus of Brescia.

Notes