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1ST EXTENSIVELY ILLUSTRATED ED. OF ST. BERNARD'S SERMONS
BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX, Saint (BERNARDUS CLARAVALLENSIS). Sermones [de Tempore et de Sanctis] Bernardi in Duytssche.
[Colophon:] Zwolle, Peter van Os, 27 May 1495. Folio (27.5 x 20.5 cm). Sermons, translated from the Latin into Dutch, with a full-page woodcut on the title-page (with the letterpress title above it) showing Mary and Jesus appearing before the author, a full-page woodcut of the Annunciation, a full-page woodcut of Jesus at the end ("speciosus forma pre filys homi[num]" Psalm 45:3), 17 smaller woodcut illustrations plus 1 repeat (mostly 10.5 x 8 & 7.5 x 6 cm) in the text (6 flanked by any 2 of 6 woodcut decorative strips), and the woodcut armorial device of the printer-publisher (plus 1 repeat). Set in textura types. With 2 large blue manuscript uncial initials with interior decoration left white and red penwork decoration, numerous uncial initials in red or blue (a few with interior decoration left white), rubricated throughout. Contemporary black calf, blind-tooled in a panel design, over (modern) wooden boards, 2 brass catchplates (clasps lacking).
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Second Dutch-language edition (the first extensively illustrated edition in any language) of the Sermones de Tempore et de Sanctis by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), first published in Latin at Mainz in 1475. The first Dutch edition, by the same printer-publisher (1484-85), has no woodcuts except that of Mary and Jesus appearing before the author ("one of the best Dutch woodcuts of the period" -- Hind) and that with the publisher's armorial device. Van Os used the full-page Annunciation woodcut in 1490 and Gerard Leeu in Antwerp used 9 of the other cuts (plus the decorative strips) in 1487 and 1488. The BMC notes no earlier use for the remaining nine woodcuts, including a matching series of six (7.5 x 6 cm) illustrating scenes from the lives of Jesus and Mary.
With extensive marginal restorations in a few leaves, not affecting the text or woodcuts, and with the title-page slightly worn, but otherwise in very good condition and with generous margins. The binding is worn and the original wooden boards have been replaced by modern ones, but most of the tooling is still clear enough to identify. The first well-illustrated edition of Saint Bernard's sermons.
