Early Printing & Manuscripts

[INCUNABLE - COLOGNE EDITION OF THE ARS MORIENDI]. Speculu[m] artis bene morie[n]di [= Ars moriendi].
[Cologne, Heinrich Quentell, ca. 1493/97]. Small (Chancery) 4to (20.5 x 14.5 cm). With a large woodcut (10.0 x 8.8 cm) on the title-page: depicting a teacher (Pope Gregory the Great ca. 600 CE, declared a saint in 1295) with a dove on his shoulder (his attribute), seated behind a lectern with an open book, instructing two of his pupils, seated before him, each with a book in his hands.Recent marbled paper over boards by the Geneva bookbinder Jean-Luc Honegger (b. 1953) who set up his atelier ca. 1978 (signed with his "honegger" stamp in blue ink at the foot of the back paste-down), sewn on 3 recessed supports, the marbled paper in an antique spot pattern (see Wolfe 162-163) with black spots on unusually fine-grained grey Stormont spots and with veins in red, turquoise, orange, dark blue and white, black morocco spine label with the title in gold roman capitals, reading up the spine. [31], [1 blank] pp. Full description

[INCUNABLE - GERMANY]. [12 leaves from: Statuta synodalia herbipolensia].
[Würzburg, Georg Reyser, ca. 1486]. Folio. Printed in red and black in rotunda type (32 lines; printed area: 18 x 12 cm; type: 112a). With illustrations cut from 19th- or 20th-century reproductions of early woodcuts (ca. 21 x 14 cm) pasted on the front (Annunciation) and back pastedown (Christophorus, with the year "cccc xx tercio").. Later bound in two leaves from a 13th-century vellum theological manuscript, rubricated and decorated with alternating red and blue initials with penwork. [12] ll. Full description

[INCUNABLE - GOUDA]. Historia septem sapientiu[m] Rom[a]e.
[Gouda, Gheraert Leeu, before 3 June 1480]. 4to (20.5 x 14 cm). With 4 full-page woodcuts plus 14 repeats. The first initial is supplied in manuscript, in a rich ornamental uncial style in red and blue with brown penwork. All other initials are supplied by hand in simple red uncials. The text is rubricated throughout. Most of the plates are lightly highlighted in yellow and red, by a contemporary hand. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment without a spine, so that the sewing is completely visible. Kept in a modern brown half morocco clamshell box. [79], [1 blank] ll. Full description

INDAGINE VON HAGEN (ROSENBACH), Johannes. Chiromantia 1 Physiognomia, ex aspectu membrorum hominis. 2 Periaxiomata, de faciebus signorum. 3 Canones astrologici, de judiciis aegritudinum. 4 Astrologia naturalis. 5 Complexionum noticia, juxta dominium planetarium.
(Colophon: Strasbourg, Johann Schott, 1534). Folio (31 x 21.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author on the title-page, the author's full-page woodcut coat-of-arms on the recto of the otherwise blank last leaf, about 93 woodblock illustrations (including 3 hand blocks and a few square astrological diagram blocks used repeatedly with varying content). 20th-century half maroon goatskin morocco. 126, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

JEROME (HIERONYMUS), Saint (subject). Epistola Beati Euseby ad Damasium Portunensem Episcopum & ad Theodomum senatorem Romanum de morte gloriosi Hieronimi doctoris eximy.
[d7:] Epistola Beati Augustini Episcopi ad Cirillum venerabilem Archiepiscopium Hierosolimitanum de vita obitu & miraculis Beatissimi Hieronimi prespiteri & doctoris eximy.
[e5:] Epistola Cirilli Archiepiscopi ad Beatimi Augustinum Episcopium de miraculis gloriosi Hieronimi necnon & de morte Beati Euseby discipuli Sancti Hieronimi.
[Blaubeuren, Conrad Mancz, ca. 1475/77]. Small folio (27.5 x 20 cm). Set in what is sometimes called a gotico-antiqua type (119 mm/20 lines, with 31 lines per page), in this case mixing some roman influences into what is largely a rotunda gothic type. With about 150 "Lombardic" initials in red ink: 2 4-line, 4 3-line, about 140 2-line (1 with pen-work decorations in brown ink) and 4 1-line, in spaces left for that purpose and capitals rubricated throughout.Modern parchment. [130] pp. Full description

JEROME (HIERONYMUS), Saint (pseudo), Eucherius of LYON (attributed). De essentia divinatis.
Including: AQUINAS, Thomas. De articulis fidei et ecclesiae sacramentis.
[Augsburg, Günther Zainer, before 1473]. Folio. With manuscript initials in red throughout. 20th-century quarter vellum. [11]; [21] [2 blank] pp. Full description

JOHN XXI, Pope. Thesaurus pauperum Petri hispani pontificis romani, philosophi ac medici doctissimi, de medendis morbis humani corporis liber: experimenta particularia per simplicia medicamenta ex probatissimis autoribus, & propriis observationibus collecta, continens.
Frankfurt, heirs of Christian Egenolff, 1576. 8vo. Title-page in red and black, Egenolffs woodcut burning heart device below the colophon, 3 woodcut arabesque tailpieces, and 3 woodcut decorated initials (3 different series). Contemporary limp vellum, faded manuscript title on spine. 112, [7, last 3 pages blank] ll. Full description

JOHN XXI, Pope. Thesaurus pauperum Petri Hispani pontificis Romani, philosophi ac medici dictissimi, de medendis morbis humani corporis liber: experimenta particularia per simplicia medicamenta ex probatissimis autoribus, & propiis observationibus collecta, continens.
Frankfurt, heirs of Christian Egenolff, 1578 8vo. With title-page in red and black, Egenolffs woodcut burning heart device below the colophon, 3 woodcut arabesque tailpieces, and 3 woodcut decorated initials (3 different series). With the main text in italic type but the preface in roman. Modern half sheepskin. 112, [5] ll. Full description

[JORIS, David]. Die eerste sullen die laetste, die laetste die eerste sijn.
With: (2) [JORIS, David]. Een twesprake tusschen man unde wijff, namelick Christus un[de] de gemeente oder verlorene mensch.
[Rostock, Ludwig Dietz, ca. 1550/52]. 8vo (15.5 x 11 cm). With gothic initials and a vine-leaf ornament. Set in schwabacher types with incidental and fraktur. Vellum (ca. 1680?). [211], [1 blank]; [71], [1 blank] pp. Full description

JORIS, David. T'Wonder-boeck: waer in dat van der wereldt aen versloten gheopenbaert is.
[Vianen, printed by Dirck Mullem and distributed via a merchant in Emden, 1584]. 4 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With a half-page engraving of the Lamb of God in part 1, a spectacular full-page engraving of the nude bride of Christ in part 3 (by Hieronymus Wierix) and an engraved landscape with the way to eternal life in the sky in part 3. Blind-tooled calf over wooden boards (ca. 1645), each board in a panel design with three ornamental rolls, 2 brass clasps and catchplates with engraved decoration. [9 of 10], 125, [3]; [5 of 6], 164, [2]; [4], 50, [2]; [2], 34, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description