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All the world is a chessboard: the first mention of chess in a printed work

GALLENSIS, Johannes (John of WALES). Co[m]muniloquium sive su[m]ma collationu[m].
(Colophon:) Strasbourg, [Printer of the 1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg = Georg Husner], (colophon:) 25 May 1489. Small folio. Printed in Gothic type in 2 columns, with 52 lines to the page, and a headline. Modern vellum, reusing an old manuscript antiphonary leaf. [79] ll. Full description
€ 25,000
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Rare first Deventer edition of an immensely popular confessional handbook for priests in the Low Countries

[GARLANDIA, Johannes de, or Petrus BLESENSIS]. Libellus de modo confitendi et penitendi. [= Modus poenitendi = Poeniteas cito].
[colophon:] Deventer, [Richard Pafraet], 20 December 1488. 4to. The text opens with a 6-line blue lombardic initial supplied in manuscript. Text set in one column in a rotunda gothic type with the headings in a larger textura gothic. 19th-century marbled paper over boards, blue paper spine label lettered in gold, preserved in a 20th-century orange cloth box from the St. Matthias' Abbey in Trier. [25] ll. Full description
€ 15,000
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Early edition of a bestseller of the incunable period, throwing light on the popular understanding of the Epistles and Gospels

[HEROLT, Johannes], edited by Guillermus PARISIENSIS. Postilla super Epistolas et Evangelia.
[Cologne, Ulrich Zell, 1483/87]. Small folio. Printed in 2 columns, each with 49 lines to the page. Set in a late example of a hybrid form type, with lombardic initials in red gouache. Rubricated on c4v-d2r. Mid- or late-18th-century gold-tooled French(?) red goatskin morocco, the spine with a dark green gold-tooled morocco label in the 2nd of 6 compartments, gold fillets on the board edges, gold-tooled turn-ins, gilt edges, French marbled endpapers. With the first page (the only preliminary page) in facsimile, but further complete. [130] ll. Full description
€ 13,500
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Attractive 15th-century prayer book, showing influences of the Cult of Saint Joseph

[MANUSCRIPT - PRAYER AND HYMN BOOK - LATIN]. [Devotionarium].[Incipit leaf 2r:] Or[ati]o deuota q[ue] debet dici[t] i[n] ficem diei ante dormitione[m].
[Northern Germany(?), 15th century]. 8vo. Written in Latin on relatively thin parchment (leaf 11.5 x 8.5 cm, text block 7.8 x 5.2 cm), in a gothic hand in one column of 17 lines per page using black/dark brown ink. The manuscript is rubricated throughout, with a 3-line red and blue initial at the start of each part, and 2- or 1-line lombards, alternating in red and blue, at the start of each smaller section, ruled in pencil. Early 19th-century(?) gold-tooled vellum showing a gold-tooled floral frame on both boards, with a leather closing tie on the front, gold-tooled board eges, gilt edges. [131] ll. Full description
€ 15,000
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First edition of a famous collection of nearly 200 sermons: the earliest dated book printed in Zwolle
and a rare early experiment labelling double-page openings, this copy in an unrecorded variant

[SERVASANCTUS DE FAENZA and others] (spuriously attributed to Saint BONAVENTURA). [Sermones de tempore et de sanctis].
(Colophon: Zwolle, [Johannes de Vollenhoe], 1479). Small (Chancery) folio (27.5 x 20.5 cm). With one 5-line and hundreds of 2- and 3-line spaces left for initials, filled in with manuscript "Lombardic" capitals in red; manuscript paragraph marks in red; and capitals rubricated throughout. Set entirely in a single textura gothic type (103 mm/20 lines) in 2 columns of 39 lines to the page. Early 18th-century tanned sheepskin. [1 blank], [340] ll. Full description
€ 35,000
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5 books found