Early Printing & Manuscripts / Religion & Devotion

AGRICOLA, Daniel [and Urs GRAF (illustrator)]. Passio domini nostri Jesu Christi s[ecundu]m serie[m] q[ua]ttuor eva[n]gelistaru[m].
(Colophon: Basel, Adam Petri de Langendorff, 31 July 1514). 4to. With large woodcut (12 x 9.5 cm) on title-page and 20 small woodcuts in text (ca. 4.5 x 3.5 cm), all by Urs Graf. Modern light-brown calf. 39, [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). Collectanea, ex universo opere librorum D. Aurelii Augustini passim decerpta, semitam quanda[m] media[m] Christianis, nu[n]c misere dissentie[n]bus[!] mon[s]trantia, qua unanimiter ad ecclesiam Christi redeant.
Deventer, Albert Paffraet, 1529. 8vo (16.5 x 10.5 cm). With the title in letterpress in a woodcut border and one woodcut initial. With a contemporary manuscript index (31 1/2 pp.) and contemporary manuscript notes (1 1/2 pp.) giving quotations from Saint Augustine on 16 leaves bound at the front. Contemporary blind-tooled brown calf over wooden boards (the back board replaced with paperboard), with a brass catch-plate in the middle of the fore-edge (clasp and anchor plate lacking and binding repaired). 196 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

AUGUSTINUS DE LEONISSA. Sermones pulcherrimi sup[er] d[omi]nica[m] or[ati]o[n]em Pater noster & angelicam salutat[i]o[n]em Ave Maria. Unicuiq[ue] ad populu[m] vole[n]ti declamat[i]o[n]es facere acco[m]modati. editi p[er] venera[n]du[m] patre[m] Augustinu[m] de Leonissa ...
(Colophon: Cologne, heirs of Heinrich Quentel, 1505). With 3 decorated woodcut initials, many 3-line and 2 larger Lombardic initials. With the first decorated initial hand coloured, and rubricated throughout.
With: (2) BONAVENTURA, Saint (pseudo). Sermo[n]es Quattuor novissimorum perutiles et n[e]cc[ess]arii. unu[m]que[m]que in devot[i]o[n]is ardorem dei quam timore[m] i[n]ducentes. a Beato Bonaventura editi.
(Colophon : Cologne), [Cornelis de Zierikzee, ca. 1502]. With a small woodcut of Christ at the Last Judgement on the title-page framed by 4 decorative woodcut strip borders, a full-page woodcut of King David meeting Christ at the Last Judgement (repeated at the end), a few 3-line Lombardic initials and spaces left for a few larger manuscript initials (not filled in). 2 works in 1 volume. Small 8vo (14.5 x 10.5 cm). Modern blind-tooled brown goatskin morocco. [92]; [128] 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

BEAUXAMIS, Thomas. In sacro sancta Coenae mysteria, passionem, et resurrectionem domini nostri Jesu, homeliae, & tabulae, annexis quibusdam scholiis, ex primis ecclesiae patribus. Ad amplissimum, & illustrissimum principem carolum cardinalem Lotharingum.
Mons (Belgium), Claude de Bronchin [printed in Paris by Guillaume Chaudière], 1570. 8vo. With Chaudières woodcut device on the title-page (Chronos, with the motto, "hancas iem sol retundit virtus"), a woodcut headpiece, 2 woodcut tailpieces and 2 woodcut initials (from 2 different series). Limp vellum (ca. 1700?). [6], 321, [1] ll. Full description

[BECKET, Thomas à (subject)]. [Diego Afonso de MIRANDA, translator]. Historea da vida e martyrio do glorioso Sancto Thomas Arcebispo, Senhor de Cantuaria, Primas de Inglaterra, legado perpetuo da sancta see apostolica, trelada da novamente de Latim em lingoagé Portugues.
(Colophon: Coimbra, João Alvarez, printer to the University, 12 November) 1554. 4to. With several woodcut decorated initials. With the 4 preliminary leaves in facsimile. 20th-century Portuguese tree calf, gold-tooled spine, red spine label, brown sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. [8], “CCCI” [= 303], [1 blank], [20] pp. Full description

BEDA VENERABILIS (The Venerable BEDE). Ecclesiasticae historiae gentis Anglorum libri quinque diligenti studio à mendis, quibus hactenus scatebant, vindicati.
Including: BEDA VENERABILIS. Epitome sive breviarium totius praecedentis historiae Anglorum ...
Antwerp, Joannes de Grave (Gravius), 1550. Folio. With De Grave's woodcut armorial device on title-page (repeated on the otherwise blank final leaf) and 30 woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf, each board with a double border made from a roll with 4 heads in profile, not labelled but showing Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Desiderius Erasmus and apparently the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V rather than the more common Jan Hus, each in an oval wreath and separated by foliage (bilaterally symmetrical both vertically and horizontally). [6], 263, [1 blank], [12] pp. Full description

[BERSE, Gaspar, Francis XAVIER etc.]. Epistolae Indicae et Iapanicae de multarum gentium ad Christi fidem, per Societatem Iesu conversione.
Louvain, Rutger Velpius, 1570.
With: (2) GARETIUS, Johannes. De sanctorum invocatione liber...
Ghent, Gislenus Manilius, 1570.
2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1 with the title-page in a frame built up from fleurons, and a woodcut publisher's device on last blank, ad 2 with the title-page in a frame built up from fleurons, the woodcut coat-of-arms of Cunerus Petri (bishop of Leeuwarden) on the back of the title-page and on the last leaf a woodcut printer's device within a frame built up from fleurons.
Contemporary limp vellum sewn on 3 leather supports laced through the joints, with the manuscript title on the spine, leather ties, red edges. [24], “361”[=316], [20] pp.; [16], 103, [9] ll. Full description