Unisa Library’s oldest book

The Works of Horace printed in 1482

While browsing through the colourful rows of books in the Unisa Library at the Muckleneuk Campus, staff and students may have wondered at some point what the oldest book in the Unisa Library is; who is the author and what language it was written in.

With over two million books available from the library, the history on books bought for Unisa is a rich one. Apart from boasting a variety of books on different subjects, the Unisa Library is also the first library in South Africa to have had one million books available to users.

Records at Unisa’s Library Archives indicate that the oldest book in the Unisa Library is titled The Works of Horace, printed in 1482 by Miscomini of Florence. The book was purchased by Unisa on 20 June 1976. The complete title of the book, which is written in Latin, is Christopher Landini Florentini in Q. Horatii Flacci libros omnes ad illustrissimum Guidonem Fletrium magni federici ducis filium interpretationes incipient feliciter.

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, who was born in Venusia on 8 December 865 BC, and who died in Rome on 27 November 278 BC, is known in the English-speaking world as Horace. He was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.

Horace is considered as one of the greatest Latin poets of all time, and has greatly influenced the literature of the Western world. Horace is popularly known for having invented many Latin phrases that are still used today. One of the most famous phrases is ‘carpe diem’ – which loosely translated means ‘seize the day’, ‘make the most of today’, or ‘enjoy the present’. Horace’s works were often autobiographical and dealt with moral and political issues. Other frequent themes that influenced Horace’s writing were love; pleasures of friendship and simple life; and the art of poetry. The Works of Horace edition in the Unisa Library is printed in Latin and includes many of the odes and epistles written by Horace.

The book is also an example of texts produced in the ‘incunabula’ period, from 1456 to 1500. The term ‘incunabula’ is derived from the Latin meaning ‘cradles’ and refers to the books printed during the infancy of typography. Printers at the time aimed to produce printed texts that could not be distinguished from the handwritten manuscripts.

Like most early books, this book had no title page or page numbers and bold initial letters were still illuminated by hand. Because typography had just begun and readers were accustomed to handwritten books with attractive and striking artwork, certain pages in the newly printed books were personalised by some form of artwork.

The Works of Horace may be a book that many Unisa Library users might never be able to understand; however, it is a book worth looking at in order to learn more about the production of books in the infancy stages.