Rare first and only edition of the meditations of the Belgian Benedictine Guilhelmus Lapidanus (or Willem Vander Steen, ca. 1506-after 1540) on the seven penitential psalms. The present work was printed by Henricus Baers (or Barsius, also known as Vekenstyl), a Louvain printer of extremely limited output. Only four works by him are known, including the present work.
Baers was also known as a mathematician and musician, and in 1532 described himself in correspondence to Johannes Dantiscus (1485-1548), the Polish ambassador and treasurer of St. Peters Church, as a composer of music and builder of mathematical and musical instruments. His limited press activities vary from the publication of astronomical works to the meditations by Lapidanus. On leaves 55 verso-56 recto, the book contains a poetical eulogy of the printer in the form of a dialogue between Mervellius and Calcographia, reflecting Baers' pride in his press.
Bound at the end are 8 leaves containing early 16th-century manuscript text; the first 4 pages comprise a text by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) and the final 4 pages contain a Latin poem of 28 quatrains by Sebastian Brant (ca. 1457-1521).
With contemporary Latin manuscript annotations on the recto and verso of the title page, reflecting on divine will and the fragility of human hope, further annotations on the verso of the third leaf concerning the threefold act of worship "latria, dulia, and hyperdulia" as outlined in the text, explaining the proper veneration due to God, the saints, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, an additional manuscript annotation on the final leaf with the woodcut device. At the end are eight leaves from another contemporary hand, containing a Latin text and a poem, the final page bearing annotations in the same hand as those on the title page and the third leaf, with some minor damp staining at the beginning. Otherwise in very good condition. CCPB000362833-7; Nijhoff & Kronenberg 3362; Pettegree and Walsby 17985; USTC 437510 (4 copies); WorldCat 1418144191, 1415385500 (2 copies); not in STCV.