The Rhetorica

The illuminated manuscript images below are owned by Fondation Martin Bodmer in the Geneva municipality of Cologny and hosted online through the esteemed Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland.

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(All the images above have been cropped slightly)

Guillaume Fichet (1433-?1480) was a leading humanist figure during the French Renaissance. As a lecturer in theology, philosophy and rhetoric, Fichet was awarded a doctorate and professorship and became Rector of the University of Paris (Sorbonne).

Together with an academic colleague, Fichet was responsible for bringing the newly created printing press to Paris for the first time in 1471, where it was installed at the Sorbonne.

It is with some measure of irony that the manuscript seen above from 1471 - essentially a record, in Latin, of 10 years of secular teachings by Fichet on the art of rhetoric - was also among the earliest books to be published by Fichet's printing press in that first year.

The top image above shows this manuscript of Fichet's teachings being presented to a representative from the royal family who sponsored the work, Princess Yolanda of Savoy. A total of four hand-written manuscripts of 'The Rhetoric' were known to have been produced.

There appears to be few details online about the scriptorium origins for the Fondation Martin Bodmer illuminated manuscript version, as seen above. It consists of about 180 parchment folio pages with text by a couple of different hands (at least) in Latin, with beautiful, detailed initials and floriated border and full page decoration, including a few drollery inclusions.

• 'The Rhetorica' by Guillaume Fichet, 1471 (Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer Cod. Bodmer 176) is available through the Virtual Manuscripts Library of Switzerland (thumbnail page).
• 'Guillaume Fichet's Literary Gift to Duke François II of Brittany' 2009 by Diane Booton IN: Nottingham Medieval Studies is available in full from Academia.edu.
• The first page of 'The Rhetorica' by Guillaume Fichet by George Kennedy 1987 (IN: Rhetorica) is available for free via JSTOR.
• Wikipedia (on Fichet) : English & French [T].
• 'The first Paris Press; an Account of the Books Printed for G. Fichet and J. Heynlin in the Sorbonne, 1470-1472' (1897) at the Internet Archive. [Amazon]

Lurking in the Shadows

Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass

That I may see my shadow as I pass

Shakespeare: Richard III Act 1 Scene 2**

A Foolscap

A Greedy Pig

A Parrot

A Crocodile

A Pump

A Bantom

A Little Duck

An Old Fashion

'Shadows' title page

[all images were cropped from the full page layouts and were lightly cleaned of background spots]

"Charles Bennett (1829-67) was a talented illustrator who worked mainly as a caricaturist for periodicals such as the Comic Times and Comic News; he joined Punch in 1865, but died in poverty only two years later. He wrote stories for his own children and illustrated them with delightful comic details, often cutting his own wood blocks."
[source ::: home]

"He also illustrated children's books like 'Papernose Woodensconce' (1854), 'The Faithless Parrott' (1858) and 'Mr. Wind and Madame Rain' (1864). The stories Charles Bennett drew for Punch often showed a sequence, and can be seen as an early form of comics."
[source]

• 'Shadows' by Charles Henry Bennett was published in London in the 1850s and has been digitised by Widener Library at Harvard University. It contains about 24 coloured lithographs and was the first volume from (I think) a 2 or 3 book set. The caricatures were quite popular at the time for the comical way they allegedly revealed the subject's true character through the shadow cast.
• Via Tip of the Iceberg: Unique & Unusual Finds at the Harvard Library.
• Wikipedia article on CH Bennett.
• The Mary Evans Picture Library has a collection of Bennett illustrations, including a set of drawings similar to those above from 'Shadow and Substance', 1860. [They sell prints via Amazon too]
• The Optical Toys site has a couple of covers of 'Shadows' books. [home]
• There are references to Bennett all over the place, but none are particularly comprehensive. He was a prolific and versatile artist who is regarded as a pioneer in the comic illustration form. You can get a bit of an overview of his range from a google images search.

**The Shakespeare passage^ up top has Richard being reminded by a mirror ("glass") that he is always on stage and that a reflection, like a shadow (metaphor), is divorced from the true nature of character portrayed in reflected or shadowed form.