Early Printing & Manuscripts / 15th Century

AL-SAMARQANDI, Najib Al-Din. [Arabic title in red]. [Fi-qawanin tarkib al-adwiyat al-qalbiya, minkalam Mawla-na Najib ad-in al-Samarqandi = Rules for the making of heart drugs from the words of our Revered Master Najib ad-Din al-Samarqandi].
[Iran/ Iraq?], (colophon:) 11 Rabi ath-Thani 894 AH [= March 1489 CE]. 8vo. Arabic manuscript written in black ink, rubricated throughout, in a small and neat naskh Arabic hand (19 lines per page with corresponding blind ruling visible in the paper). 18th-century(?) sprinkeled brown calf with a gold- and red-tooled arabesque center-piece on both boards, modern reddish-brown calf spine. [4] pp. Full description

ARDUINO, Sante. [Incipit:] Incipit liber de venenis ...
(Colophon: Venice, Bernardino Rizzo, 1492). Folio (42 x 28 cm). Set in in 2 columns in 2 sizes of rotunda gothic types, with spaces left for numerous 3-line and 4-line and a few larger initials (with printed guide letters), none filled in. Modern black- and gold-tooled calf. [4], 101, [1] ll. Full description

AUGUSTINE of Hippo (Saint AUGUSTINE). De la cita d'Dio.
[Venice?, Antonio di Bartolommeo Miscomini, ca. 1477? (not after 1483)]. Folio. Printed in two columns, each 47 lines, with spaces for 3-6 line initials left blank. Early 19th-century gold-tooled calf. [1 blank], [322], [1 blank] ll. Full description

AUGUSTINE of Hippo (Saint AUGUSTINE). Explanatio Psalmorum. [Incipit:] Annotatio principaliu[m] sententiariu[m]/ principaliu[m] sente[n]tiariu[m] in expla-natione psamo[rum]...
(Colophon:) Basel, Johann Amerbach, 1489. 3 parts in 1 volume. Folio (ca. 31 x 21.5 cm).
Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, with 1 brass clasp and remnants of a 2nd. [1 blank], [14], [1 blank]; [146]; [192]; [192], [5 blank] ll. Full description

ALVERNUS, Guillelmus (William of AUVERGNE). Libri ... de fide et legibus.
[Augsburg, Günther Zainer, ca. 1475/1476]. Small folio. Set in a hybrid roman type with gothic elements (a single column of 43 lines per page plus running heads), with the first 3 lines, including the title, in a slightly larger rotunda gothic. With all initials supplied in manuscript in red, rubricated throughout. Contemporary, richly blind-tooled vellum over wooden boards, two brass clasps, blue edges, "Nr. 56" in red ink written at the foot of the spine. [139] ll. Full description

[BERSE, Gaspar, Francis XAVIER et al.]. Epistolae Indicae et Iapanicae de multarum gentium ad Christi fidem, per Societatem Iesu conversione. Item de Tartarorum potentia, moribus, & totius penè Asiae religione. Tertia editio cum indice castigatior & auctior.
Including: Epistolae Iapanicae, de multorum in variis insulis gentilium ad Christi sidem conversione.
Leuven, Rutger Velpius, 1570. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Each part with woodcut publisher's device on last blank. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [24], 361[=316], [20]; 401[=399], [25] pp. Full description

[BINDO GUERRI of Siena] with a prologue by Antonius de RAMPIGOLLIS. Reportatorium Biblie aureum [= Biblia aurea].
[Augsburg], [printing office of the Abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra], [in the period 1473 to early 1475]. Chancery (Foolscap) folio (28 x 22 cm). With the title in a note following the prologue, at the foot of the first page (and abbreviated at the end of the book), a 2-page alphabetical table of contents and the main text comprising 139 entries.
Burgundy goatskin morocco (ca. 1890?). With the armorial bookplate of Robert Proctor. [231], [1 blank] pp. Full description

CARACCIOLO, Roberto. Sermones per adventu[m] domini cu[m] multis aliis inclusis. sermocionanti per utiles. famosissimi predicatoris Maiistri Ruberti de Licio Italici ordinis minoru[m]. [= Sermones de adventu, Sermo de S. Joseph, Sermo de Beatitudine, Sermones de divina caritate, Sermones de immortalitate animae].
Including: BOLLANI, Dominico (Dominicus BOLLANUS). De co[n]ceptione gloriosissime Virginis Marie [= De conceptione Beatae Virginis Mariae].
[Strasbourg, Martin Schott, 1484]. Small (Chancery) folio mostly in 8s (28.5 x 20.5 cm). Printed in 2 columns, set in 2 sizes of rotunda gothic type that Schott used for the first time in the present publication. With spaces left (without guide letters) for perhaps a hundred 3-line and dozens of larger manuscript initials, not filled in in the present copy.
Near contemporary (ca. 1500?), richly blind-tooled pigskin over square-edge boards (Eindbanddatenbank workshop w002296, active in Bavaria ca. 1473(?)-1502). With the remains of one strap-fastening (brass anchor-plate, remnants of the alum-tawed leather strap, but catchplate and clasp lost), blue-green edges. Vellum manuscript waste used for reinforcement, showing bits of Isaias 5:8-26 from a Vulgate Bible in a large textura hand. [100], [17], [1 blank] ll. Full description

CARACCIOLO, Roberto. Sermones de laudibus sanctorum.
[Reutlingen, Michael Greyff, not after 1492]. 4to. Contemporary half pigskin, blind-tooled initials on the front board, with white pigskin restorations on the upper and lower third of the spine, gold-tooled parchment label on the spine, remnants of a central clasp, manuscript waste pastedowns. [230] ll. Full description

[DAMASCUS – VENETIAN TAXES]. [Promissory note for Venetian customs taxes on goods from Damascus].
Venice, 22 Feb. / 5 March 1488. Italian notarial document on vellum (44.5 x 16 cm; text block ca. 27 x 14 cm). Written in two fine cursive hands. Full description

DURAND, Guillaume (Guillelmus DURANDUS or DURANTI). Rationale divinorum officiorum.
Strasbourg, [Johann Prüss], 1486. Chancery folio (32.5 x 22 cm). Printed in 2 columns, with 48 lines to the column. Set in 2 sizes of rotunda gothic types, Prüss types 2 (180G) and 3 (90G), with spaces left (some with and some without printed guide letters) for manuscript initials (1 8-line, 2 7-line, 4 6-line, 3 5-line and numerous 3- and 4-line). From the beginning to h3r these spaced have been filled in with manuscript lombardic initials in red and the text has been rubricated (the first fifth of the book). Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden (beechwood?) boards by an Augsburg bindery (Eindbanddatenbank workshop w002998, active ca. 1488-1497). [3], 272 ll. Full description

HONORIUS AUGUSTODUNENSIS (HONORIUS OF AUTUN). [Incipit:] ... de ymagine mundi.
[Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 1472(?)]. Folio (31 x 22 cm).Rubricated throughout and about half of the spaces left for initials filled in by hand in red ink. 19th-century red sheepskin. [46], [1 blank] ll. Full description

[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT - BOOK OF HOURS (DIOCESE OF UTRECHT)]. [Incipit, A2r:] Alst my gaet niet nae mij[n] syn / Soe wil ic my liden en[de] swyghe stil ...
[Diocese of Utrecht, the County of Holland], 1488. Large 8vo (19 x 13.5 x 4 cm). Written in Dutch on vellum by 2 gothic textura hands in 1 column (20 lines/page for the first hand for the main text and calendar; 22 lines/page for the additions written by the second hand). All leaves are numbered in pencil in the upper margin of the rectos by a 19th- or 20th-century hand. Richly iluminated by the Master of the Brussels Hours of the Bezborodko Group, being one of the stylistic groups of the Masters of the Dark Eyes, with 6 full-page miniatures, 2 historiated initials and 4 larger decorated initials, several smaller decorated initials, and many 1-line lombardic initials in blue and red. Also with a 6-line blue penwork initial on a red penwork ground, being a contemporary addition. Also with three- and four-marginal border decoration (an uncoloured background filled in with small dots or short tendrils in black, show acanthus leaves in different colours, various flowers and several brightly coloured birds and fabulous beings, with gold and black/white dots among them). Contemporary blind-tooled calf over rounded ("cushioned") wooden boards. With the original brass catch- and anchor-plates, the latter with remnants of the leather fastenings, and the later silk red ribbon markers loosely preserved. 144 ll. including 6 inserted leaves with miniatures and 2 blank endpapers used as paste-downs. Full description

[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 on the title-page. Set in a single column, with 36 lines to the page, in a rotunda gothic type, with a larger textura gothic for the first line of the title. With spaces left for manuscript initials with manuscript guide letters in black ink. Most pages with a few words underscored in black ink. Recent marbled paper over boards by the Geneva bookbinder Jean-Luc Honegger (signed with his "honegger" stamp in blue ink at the foot of the back paste-down), the marbled paper in an antique spot pattern, 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

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

LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus and Giovanni Andrea BUSSI) (editor) [and others]. Opera [and additional works].
Comprising:
(1) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De divinis institutionibus
(2) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De ira Dei.
(3) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De opificio Dei.
(4) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. De phoenice carmina.
(5) LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. [Epitome divinarum institutionem]. Nephytomon.
Additional works:
(6) RAUDENSIS, Antonius. [Lactantii Firmiani errata].
(7) GENUENSIS, Adam. His carminibus frater Adam Genuensis increpat fratrem Antonium. [Incipit:] Hic male corripuit stolidis Antonius aussis.
(8) BUSSI, Giovanni Andrea. Ioannis Andreae episcopi Aleriensis ad Paulum secundum Venetum pontificem maximum epistola.
(9) OVIDIUS, Publius Naso. Metamorphoses (extract).
(10) ALIGHIERI, Dante. Comedia, inferno XXV (extract).
(11) FORTUNATUS, Venantius. [De christi resurrectione]. [Incipit:] Lactantii fir. de resurrectio[n]is dominicae die/ [S]alve festa dies toto venerabilis aevo.
(Colophon:) Venice, Theodorus de Ragazonibus, 1390 [=1490]. 5 works and 6 additional texts in 1 volume. Folio. The text is set in Roman type with some incidental Greek.20th-century goatskin parchment, with the author and title stamped on the spine with black foil, the name of the author added in manuscript on the bottom edge of the book block. [1 blank], [147] ll. Full description

MAGNI, Jacobus [Jacques Legrand]. Sophologium.
[Strasbourg, R-printer (Adolf Rusch), ca. 1468]. Folio (21 × 28.2 cm). With the text set in 35 lines, spaces for initials show tiny guide letters, rubricated throughout, with 3- and 5-line blue or red Lombardic initials. 18th-century gold-tooled red morocco, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. 217 (of 218) ff. (lacking the final blank).Roman type, Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - CALENDAR]. [Calendar for calculating the date of Easter].
[Auxerre, France?], [ca. 1400?]. Small 4to. Latin manuscript in red, brown and black ink on paper, written in an upright French gothic semi-cursive hand with short texts in a textura hand, with 6 round diagrams for calendrical calculations containing text and 2 more with no text filled in. Leaves A4-A6 (6 pages) written in two columns contain 12 tables for the 12 months (January to December) providing data for each day of the month, and the manuscript includes further data for calendrical calculations in several more rectangular tables. The final blank leaf has holes pricked to form a circle, but no diagram has been drawn using them. Sewn through 3 holes in a (ca. 1550?) paper wrapper, the whole in paperboards lined with printed waste paper from a (17th-century?) Latin Breviary. [18], [2 blank] pp. (pp. 2 & 5 also blank). Full description

[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

OTTO VAN PASSAU. Boeck des gulden throene of der xxiiij ouden.
Utrecht, [printer with monogram "tC"], [30 March] 1480. Folio. With 24 illustrations in text (ca. 9 x 6.2 cm), printed from 1 complete woodcut (plus 4 repeats) and 15 components assembled in different combinations, all rubricated and with architectural frames. The book has no printed initials, but spaces for manuscript initials, which have been filled with letters in the uncial style. Each of the 24 chapters begins with a large manuscript initial (the first 5-line with a penwork face in profile and further 4-line), 11 with two or more colours (mostly with penwork decoration extending into the margin), and others with interior white decoration. A smaller (2-line) initial with penwork extending into the margin opens the book's first page and there are numerous further 1-line and 2-line initials. Set in a textura type with capitals rubricated throughout. Woodcut printer's device at the end: a date palm tree with monogram "tC" (6.5 x 5.5 cm), the "t" perhaps also (or instead) representing a cross. Contemporary (Utrecht?) blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, each board in a panel design with the central part ruled in a lozenge pattern with about 200 impressions of 4 small separate stamps; re-backed, with modern morocco title label. [4], 197 ll. Full description

OTTO VON PASSAU. Boec des gulden throe[n]s of der xxiiij. ouden en[de] hoemen elke[n] vinden mach en[de] va[n] hoerre leringhen die si leren om te comen totten ewighen leven.
(colophon: Haarlem, [Jacob Bellaert], 25 October 1484). Folio (29 x 21.5 cm). With large woodcut printer's device (142 x 82 mm) on verso of last leaf (with the arms of the city of Haarlem above an eagle holding a larger blank shield, here filled in by a contemporary owner); 4 woodcut illustrations and 20 repeats, representing the 24 elders, each showing one of the male elders, standing, teaching a female novice kneeling before him. Further with spaces left for initials, all filled in with uncials by hand, about 25 with penwork decoration in 1 or 2 additional colours: 1 blue 6-line initial with decorations in red and violate extending far into the margin, about 24 red 3 to 9-line (mostly 7-line) initials with lavendar penwork (1 with 2 green dots), some extending into the margin, and more than 70 2-line red initials without penwork decoration; a few spaces left for ¶-marks, also filled in in red; capitals rubricated throughout. Set entirely in Baellart's textura (99 or 100 mm/20 lines or about 14.5 point). Lacking leaf 137 (the second to last text leaf) and the final blank. Modern sheepskin. [1 blank, 3], "136" [= 135 (of 136)], [1] ll. Full description

[POST-INCUNABLE - ROOKLOOSTER - WINDESHEIM]. Ordinarius divini officii pro ordine Canonicorum Regularium, Capittuli sive Congregationis Wyndesemensis. Anno Domini. M.CCCCC.XXI.
Deventer, Albert Pafraet, April 1521.
With: (2) [POST-INCUNABLE]. Statuta capituli Windeshemensis. - Incipiunt statuta capituli de windesim. impressa amstelredammis Et primo de elecione intronisatione & confirmatione novi prioris.
Den Hem (near Schoonhoven), Regular canon Frater N., 1508.
(3) [MANUSCRIPT - LATIN]. Forma inclusionis.
[Rooklooster, after 1480 (ca. 1490)].
4to. Ad 1: With the title set within a magnificent woodcut frame consisting of four pieces. Further with two smaller woodcuts in the text, woodcut initials and a full-page woodcut illustration at the end. All illustrations are beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand. The text is set in roman type (with some occasional Gothic type), rubricated throughout. Ad 2: With a large handcoloured woodcut beneath the two lines of the title, the text is set in Gothic type, rubricated throughout. Ad 3: Latin manuscript written in a neat littera hybrida with the titles written in a littera textualis, rubricated throughout. In a beautifully and richly paneled original and signed binding of the famous Rooklooster (the "Red monastery"), the Augustinian Abbey of St. Paul in Oudergem (Auderghem) in the "Soniënbos" (Forest of Zonia) near Brussels: contemporary polished calf over wooden boards with (on both sides) two borders of three lines with rolls in between and a stamp of the Holy Lamb in the four corners and lozenge-shaped floral ornaments in the centre divided by three lines with a little floral double-rose stamp on the crossings; below the central panel on the front side a stamp "Roedencloester" flanked by eight little stamps of a star within a circle; one brass clasp and catch at the fore edge, brass strips at the edges of the corners; vellum pastedowns. [16], LXXIV; 63; 17 ll. Full description

SÁNCHEZ DE ARÉVALO, Rodrigo (Rodericus SANCIUS or ZAMORENSIS). Speculum vit[a]e human[a]e.
Rome, Joannes Philippus de Lignamine, 31 July 1473. Small folio (26.5 x 20 cm). With spaces left for 2 large (6-line) and about 80 small (3-line) initials. Text block 19.5 x 11.5 mm with 31 lines per page. Set in a single roman type throughout (Lignamine 125R). Limp sheepskin parchment (ca. 1740/50). [163] ll. Full description

[SINDBAD – SEVEN SAGES]. Historia septem sapientum Rome.
Cologne, Johann Koelhoff the Elder, of Lübeck, (before 6 November) 1490. 4to (200 x 128 mm), 34-37 lines, gothic type, rubricated in red. Illustrated with a large armorial woodcut printers device at the end and 23 full-page woodcuts, with two of the woodcuts repeated several times. Bound in contemporary blind-tooled full calf over wooden boards. Remains of clasps. Endpapers from a rubricated incunabular edition of the Biblia cum glossa ordinaria. [50] ff. [a–g6, H8]. Full description

THEOCRITUS, HESIOD, and others. [Indication of contents in Greek followed by Latin:] Haec insunt in hoc libro. Theocriti Eclogae triginta. Genus Theocriti & De inventione bucolicorum. Catonis Romani sententiae paraeneticae Distichi. Sententiae septem sapientum. De invidia. Theognidis megarensis siculi sententiae Elegiacae. Sententiae monostichi per capita ex variis poetis. Aurea carmina Pythagorae. Phocylidae Poema admonitorium. Carmina Sibyllae erythraeae De Christo Jesu domino n[ost]ro. Differentia vocis. Hesiodi Theogonia. Eiusdem Scutum Herculis. Eiusdem Georgicon libri duo.
Venice, Aldus Manutius, February "1495" [=1496]. Folio. With 8 fine woodcut headpieces (2 by the famous Poliphilus master) plus 29 repeats, and 23 woodcut outline interlaced initials (3 series: 3-line, 5-line and 7-line) plus 16 repeats. Modern red morocco, gold- and blind-blocked. [140] ll. Full description

TORQUEMADA, Juan de (Johannes de TURRECREMATA). [Expositio super toto psalterio, incipit:] Ad sanctissimum ac beatissimum dominum dominum Pium Secundum Pontificem Maximum editio in librum psalmorum quem alii soliloquium dicunt incipit feliciter ... [colophon:] Explanatio in psalterium ...
(Colophon:) Augsburg, printed by Johann Schüssler, [1470/71]. Folio (30 x 22 cm). Set in a single type, largely a rotunda gothic but with some roman influences with 35 lines per page, with about 150 manuscript "Lombardic" initials in red ink, the lines introducing the commentary for each psalm underscored and with manuscript paragraph marks, both in red ink. Late 19th-century(?) half vellum, boards covered with 2 leaves from a Latin Vulgate Bible printed on vellum. [266], [2 blank] pp. ([133], [1 blank] ll.) Full description

TRITHEMIUS, Johannes. De statu et ruina monastici ordinis.
[Mainz, Peter von Friedberg, after April 1493]. 4to. 20th-century quarter vellum, decorated paper sides. With the author, title, and place and date of publication in manuscript on the spine. [29], [1 blank] ll. Full description

VORAGINE, Jacobus de. Legenda sanctorum al[ia]s Lombardica historia. [= Legenda aurea sanctorum].
[Colophon:] Basel, Nikolaus Kessler, 25 June 1486 Small (Chancery) folio (28.5 x 22 cm). With Kesslers 1485 woodcut armorial device below the colophon (double shield hanging from a branch, the dexter shield with 3 kettle hooks and the sinister shield with a K and cross). Blind-tooled tanned sheepskin (ca. 1870/1900), with a hollow back, sewn on 4 recessed cords but with 5 false bands on the spine, gold-tooled black morocco spine-label in the 2nd compartment and "BASEL 1486" in gold at the foot. [255] ll. Full description