A list of bookish Firsts

April 4th, 2010

• First dated woodcut: The “Brussels Virgin,” of 1418.
• First dated engravings: The “Berlin Passion,” of 1446.
• First dated etching: Urs Graf’s Girl Bathing Her Feet, of 1513.
• First dated mezzotint: Ludwig von Siegen’s portrait of the Landgravine Amelia Elizabeth, of 1643.
• First lithograph: made by Alois Senefelder, at Munich, in 1797.
• First dated printing from movable type: Papal Indul¬gence, of November 12, 1454 (probably printed at Mainz).
• First dated book printed from movable type: Psalter, Mainz, Fust & Schoeffer, 1457.
• First dated book with woodcut illustrations: Boner’s Edelstein, Bamberg, Pfister, 1461.
• First dated book with engraved illustrations: Bettini’s Monte Sancto di Dio, Florence, Laurentii, 1477.
• First dated book with woodcuts by a known artist: Breydenbach’s Peregrinations, Mainz, 1486, illustrated by Erhard Reuwich.
• First dated book with illustrations printed in color: Sacrobosco’s Sphaera Mundi, Venice, Ratdolt, 1485.
• First dated book with engravings by a known artist: Ptolemy’s Cosmographia, Rome, Buckinck, 1478, with plates by Conrad Sweynheim.
• First dated book with engraved maps: Ptolemy’s Cosmographia, Rome, Buckinck, 1478, with plates by Conrad Sweynheim.
• First book printed in Roman type: probably Durandus’s Rationale, Strassburg, (Rusch, about 1464).
• First book printed in Italic type: Virgil, Venice, Aldus, 1501.
• First use of Greek type: in Lactantius, Subiaco, Sweynheim & Pannartz, 1465.
• First book printed in Greek type: Laskaris’s Greek Grammar, Milan, Paravisinus, 1476.
• First music printed from type: in Higden’s Polychronicon, Westminster, DeWorde, 1495.
• First book with names of printers: Psalter, Mainz, Fust & Schoeffer, 1457.
• First title page: in a Papal Bull, Mainz, Fust & Schoeffer, about 1463.
• First dated title page: in Rolewink’s Sermo in festo praesentationis beatae virginis, Cologne, ther Hoernen, 1470.
• First title page giving name of author, title, place, printer or publisher, and date: Regiomontanus’s Calendar, Venice, Ratdolt, Loslein & Maler, 1476.
• First decorated title page: Regiomontanus’s Calendar, Venice, Ratdolt, Loslein & Mater, 1476.
• First signature marks: in Johann Nider’s Expositio Decalogi, Koelhoff, Cologne, 1472.

From: A Guide to An Exhibition of the ARTS OF THE BOOK. Wm. Ivins, Jr., Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1924, New York

Entry Filed under: learning