Early Printing & Manuscripts / 15th Century

[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