75 Incunables From The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica

75 Incunables
from the
Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica
Shapero Rare Books

75 Incunables
from the
(original size)
Shapero Rare Books

Introduction
Shapero Rare Books are proud to offer in this catalogue one of the best selections of incunabula in recent
times. The books come from the renowned Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (BPH).
This unparalleled collection was carefully assembled over the past 40 years by Dr. Joost R. Ritman. An important
theme was the study of a component of Renaissance culture: the revival of Antiquity and Platonism in their
relationship to Christianity.This meant taking also into consideration pre-platonic authors, such as Hermes, ‘the
Father of theology’, fundamental works of the Church fathers like Augustine and Origen, and contemporary
late 15th-century writings, due mainly to Italian humanists. That would also need to involve authors of the
‘Renaissance of the 12th century’ and Church reformists preceding Luther.
Another guiding principle of Dr. Ritman’s collection was to gather a coherent corpus of printed texts in the
earliest and most important editions, in the finest possible examples. Hence the remarkable quantity of first
editions offered in this catalogue. The impressive array of provenances adorning them. The overwhelming
majority of complete copies, often in contemporary bindings, illuminated, hand-coloured. Also, from a
bibliophilic perspective, the superb union of ‘firsts’: represented here is the first book printed in Augsburg;
the first dated book printed in Lübeck; the first book printed by Johann Schüssler; the first by Johann Bämler;
productions of the first printers of Paris (and indeed France), Nuremberg, Cologne, Zwolle, Ghent, Haarlem…
Some editions are also astonishing for their rarity: the BPH copy is sometimes one of a handful known; issued
from a press which published only six or eight works.
Exceptional highlights include an illuminated example of the 1459 Durandus – the fourth printed book,
Caxton’s illustrated Myrroure, the 1470 Flavius Josephus illuminated and in contemporary binding, Schedel’s
coloured copy of Bergamo’s De claris mulieribus, Oronce Finé’s copy of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and
the best example of the Argonautika, printed on vellum with illuminations.
The jewel in the crown, however, may be the best production of Gutenberg’s celebrated workman, Peter
Schöffer: a fresh example, in a contemporary binding, of the 48-line Bible printed in 1462, the first one to
bear a date.
As an important research library, the BPH accumulated large holdings of material spanning the centuries. Most
of this remains intact at the library in Amsterdam.
‘That which is manifested; that which has been or shall be, is unmanifested, but not dead; for soul, the eternal activity
of God, animates all things.’
Bernard Shapero and Pierre-Yves Guillemet
The following books are broadly presented in chronological order. They are 75 ‘items’ – not exactly ’75 incunables’, as some
editions are made of several volumes, or bound together (under the same item). All copies bear the bookplate of the Bibliotheca,
as shown in the descriptions, which also mentions their number in the BPH collection. All books bearing a number up to 192 were
described by Margaret Ford in the BPH publication Christ, Plato, Hermes Trismegistus. The Dawn of Printing, Amsterdam, 1990
– from which we borrowed quotations. We have limited our bibliographic references, because most of them are available online
using the number of the Incunable Short Title Catalogue (ISTC), which is an amazing tool.
Index of cities and printers Short-title index
AUGSBURG NUREMBERG ALANUS DE INSULIS. De maximis theologiae, not after 1492......41 LACTANTIUS. Opera, 1478......21
Bämler 7 Koberger 14, 22, 32, 60 ALEXANDER DE VILLA DEI. Doctrinale, 1490-91......50 LUDOLPHUS DE SAXONIA. Vita Christi, 1478......22
Schüssler 6, 11, 12 Sensenschmidt & Kefer 13 AMBROSIUS, Hexameron, 1472......12 LUDOLPHUS DE SAXONIA. Vita Christi, 1495......60
Sorg 20 AMBROSIUS. Expositio in envangelium Lucae, 1476......20 MYTHOGRAPHUS. Poeticon astronomicon, 1482......30
ANGELUS. Astrolabium,1494......59 NEBRISSENSIS. Vafre dicta philosophorum, ca.1498-1500......70
G. Zainer 4 PARIS APOLLONIUS RHODIUS. Argonautika, 1496......63 NIDER. Die vierundzwanzig goldenen Harfen, not after 1470......7
Bocard (for Petit) 74 APULEIUS, HERMES and ALBINUS. Opera, Asclepius, Epitoma, 1488......43, 44 ORIGENES. Contra Celsum, 1481......27
BASEL Gering, Crantz & Friburger 18 ARISTOPHANES. Komodiai ennea, 1498......71 ORPHEUS. Argonautika, 1500......75
Amerbach 55, 67 Martineau & Caillaut 34 AUGUSTINUS. De civitate dei, 1475......17 OTTO VON PASSAU. Die vierundzwanzig Alten, 1484......36
Amerbach & Langendorff 45, 46 Mittelhus 57 AUGUSTINUS. De civitate dei, 1479......24 PANCIERA DA PRATO. Trattati, 1492......56
Furter 66 AUGUSTINUS. Explanatio psalmorum, 1489......46 PETRARCA. Opera Latina, 1496......67
Wenssler & Richel 24 AUGUSTINUS [pseudo-] and BERNARDUS CLARAV. Meditationes and PICUS DE MIRANDULA. Apologia, 1487......39
Wolff 41
ROME other works, 1480-82......26 PICUS DE MIRANDULA. Heptaplus, not after 1489......47
Herolt 27 BEDA. Historia ecclesiastica, not after 1475......16 PICUS DE MIRANDULA. Opera, 1496-95[96......65
BERGAMO. De claris mulieribus, 1497......69 PICUS DE MIRANDULA. Opera, not after 1498......67
BOLOGNA BERNARDUS CLARAVALLENSIS. De consideratione, 1474......20 PLATO. Opera, 1484......35
Hectoris 65
SALAMANCA BERNARDUS CLARAVALLENSIS. Meditationes, ca.1484/85......34 PLATO and FICINUS. Opera, Platonica theologia, 1491......52
Porras 70 BERTHOLDUS. Horologium devotionis, not after 1489-90......45 PLOTINUS. Opera, 1492......53
Biblia germanica, 1483......32 Rudimentum Novitiorum, 1475......19
COLOGNE Biblia latina, 1462......2 Sermones Sensati, 1482......28
Bumgart 62
SPEYER
BIRGITTA OF SWEDEN. Revelationes,1492......54 THEOCRITUS, HESIOD and others. Eidullia.Theogonia, and others, 1496......61
Koelhoff of Lübeck 29 Drach 33
BOETHIUS. De consolatione philosophiae, 1473......14 ZAMORENSIS. Speculum Vitae Humanae, 1475......18
Zell 5, 40 BOETHIUS. De consolatione philosophiae, 1482......29
STRASSBURG BOETHIUS. De consolatione philosophiae, 1485......37
FERRARA Eggestein 8, 16 BONAVENTURA [pseudo-]. Meditationes vitae Christi, 1468......4
BONAVENTURA [pseudo-]. Sermones de tempore, 1479......25
Laurentius de Rebeis 69 Flach 50 BONAVENTURA [pseudo-].. Speculum vite Cristi, ca.1490......49
Husner 38
BONAVENTURA [pseudo-]. Stimulus amoris, 1493......57
FLORENCE BONIFACIUS VIII. Liber sextus decretalium, 1465......3
Alopa 35, 63 TREVISO BONIFACIUS VIII. Liber Sextus Decretalium, ca.1470-72......8
Miscomini 31, 48, 53 Lisa 10 BRUTUS. Corona aurea de anima, 1497......58
Libri 47, 75 CASSIODORUS. Historia ecclesiastica tripartite, 1472......11
Morgiani & Petri 56 COLUMNA. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, 1499......73
ULM DE CLUSA and others. Tractatus de apparitionibus, Visio Tundali, and
J. Zainer 42 others, 1496......62
GHENT DE PISIS. Pantheologia 1473......13
Keysere 37 Defensorium fidei and other works, ca.1473......15
UTRECHT DURANDUS. Rationale divinorum officiorum, 1459......1
Ketelaer & Leempt 15 FICINUS. De triplici vita, 1489......48
GOUDA Veldener 23 FICINUS. Platonica theologia, 1482......31
Leeu 28 FIRMICUS MATERNUS, ARATUS and others. De nativitatibus,
Phaenomena and others, 1499......72
VENICE GERARDUS ZERBOLD DE ZUTPHANIA. De reformatione, 1492......55
HAARLEM Butricis 51 GERARDUS ZERBOLD DE ZUTPHANIA. De spiritualibus ascensionibus,
Bellaert 36 Choris & Luere (for Torresanus) 52 ca.1488......40
Colonia & Manthen 21 GERARDUS ZERBOLD DE ZUTPHANIA and AUGUSTA. De
LÜBECK Jenson 9 spiritualibus ascensionibus. De exterioris, not after 1489-1490......45
Manutius 61, 64, 71, 72, 73 GERSON. Alphabetum divini amoris and other works, 1466-1472......5
Brandis 19
Pietro 17 [Gloria mulierum and Parole]. Ordine del bem viver, 1471......9
Ghotan, for Wadstena Monastery 54 GREGORIUS I. Commentum super Cantica canticorum, Homiliae super
Ratdolt 30
Sancto Ursio 43, 44 Ezechielem, Dialogorum and Pastorale 1496......66
LYONS Spira for Lucantonio Giunta 59 GREGORIUS I. Omelien in duutschen, 1479......23
Tacuinus, Tridino & Mediolano de Gorgonzola 58 HENRICUS DE HERP[F]. Sermones de tempore, after 1484......33
Suigus & Benedictus 68
HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. De potestate, 1471......10
HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. De potestate, 1491......51
MAINZ WESTMINSTER HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. De potestate, 1493......58
Fust & Schoeffer 1, 2, 3 Caxton 49 HUGO DE Sto VICTORE. De sacramentis christianae fidei, 1485......38
Illustrium virorum opuscula, 1500......74
JAMBLICHUS and others. De mysteriis Aegypt., and others, 1497......64
MILAN ZWOLLE JOSEPHUS. De antiquitate Judaica, 1470......6
Antonius & Honate 26 Vollenhoe 25 KEMPIS. De vita et beneficiis Jesu Christi, not after 1489-1490......45
KEMPIS and GERSON. Imitatio Christi, De imitatione cordis, 1487......42
NAPLES
Tuppo 39
8 Shapero Rare Books Shapero Rare Books 9

A beautiful production of gutenberg’s bankruptors
the Parmentier-Doheny copy, illuminated
1 DURANDUS, Guillelmus. Rationale divinorum officiorum.

Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, Mainz, 6 October 1459.
First edition of the first substantial writing by a known and named author to be published.
The fourth printed book of significance, the third with a full date.
One of only three copies known in private hands and one of ten only illuminated by the fust master.
Printed on vellum.
Printed by Peter Schoeffer (ca. 1425-1503), Gutenberg’s most talented collaborator. ‘Johannes Fust was the
financial backer of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of printing. He gained possession of the printing equipment
in a lawsuit [...] in which Schoeffer is named as a witness on Fust’s side. While there is no book known naming
Gutenberg before or after the break, Fust and Schoeffer continued in partnership until Fust’s death in 1466 when
Schoeffer, having married Fust’s daughter, took over the printing shop alone’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Only two other precisely dated books, containing Psalters and also published by Fust and Schoeffer, precede
Durandus’ work which is the first substantial writing by a known and named author to be published. However,
its production was started before the press finished their Bursfeld Psalter of 29 August 1459. Together with the
Liturgical Psalter of 14 August 1457 they are the only signed and dated editions in the first decade of printing.The
small text type in ‘Rationale’ represents the first use of this fount, which later reoccurs in various states (and leaded
in the 1465-66 Mainz Ciceros); the colophon type is the first manifestation of the so-called 1462 Bible fount.
The ‘Rationale’ was printed almost exclusively on vellum (only one paper copy appears to exist at Munich) and
copies were sold in two distinct forms: some with printed initials in red or blue, belonging to the stock of the
Psalters; or, as in this copy, with blank spaces for illuminated initials. At four of these places (including the preserved
140r and 154v of this copy), lines of type were reset to create a larger initial-space. No two copies are therefore
alike depending on the presence or absence of printed chapter initials, paragraph marks and rubricated elements.
Most surviving copies intended for illumination are by the Fust Master, who probably worked at the Fust and
Schoeffer printing shop. He was also responsible for illuminating some of the late copies of the 42-line Gutenberg
Bible, as well as other works such as Pope Boniface’s 1465 ‘Liber sextus’ also included in the present catalogue.
Guillaume Durand was one of the most important medieval liturgical writers and one of the principal canonists of
his day. Born about 1237, in the Diocese of Béziers, Provence; he died at Rome in 1296. This compendium on the
mystical origins and meaning of the liturgies is his most influential work. Written in 1286 its eight books contain a
detailed account of the laws ceremonies, customs, and mystical interpretation of the Roman Rite.
Of great rarity: only two other copies in private hands are known, one of which is not illuminated. Not in H.P.
Kraus’ catalogue ‘The Cradle of Printing’ part I and II.
Provenance: Parmentier Collection; Estelle Doheny (gilt red morocco label, purchased from Rosenbach in 1946;
sale, Christie’s NY, 22 Oct. 1987, lot 3); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #78, acquired from Tenschert, 1989).
Folio (41 x 29.6 cm). 156 leaves (of 160, without 1, 14 (2/4), 20 (2/10), 27 (3/7) ), 63 lines, double column, gothic type, 3-line Lombard chapter
initials printed in red, rubric headings and occasional paragraph-marks printed in red, rubricated and illuminated; four 8-line initials (68r, 82r, 140r,
154v) illuminated in colours and liquid gold with elaborate floral and vegetal borders by the “Fust Master” of Mainz, chapter initials heightened with
purple penwork, unprinted chapter initials supplied by the rubricator mostly in blue, paragraph-marks (when not printed) are rubricated in alternating
red and blue; lacking leaves all supplied in facsimile on vellum with appropriate illumination which is flaking on leaf 1, the colophon on leaf 160 heavily
deleted with photofacsimile mounted below, first illuminated initial with some flaking, border of initial on leaf 154v partially smudged with brown ink,
marginal stains on leaf 2, top edge a bit short just shaving the tops of the illuminated initials.
Twentieth-century full russet crushed morocco blindstamped in antique style, by Riviere & Son, edges plain; a bit rubbed.
HR 6471; BMC I, 20; Goff D-403; ISTC id00403000; on the illuminator see E. König, “Für Johannes Fust,” Festgabe Corsten, pp. 285-313.
10 Shapero Rare Books

The fourth edition of the Latin bible, the first dated bible
A beautiful example produced by Fust & Schoeffer
2 Biblia latina.
Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, Mainz, 14 August 1462.
A beautiful copy, in contemporary binding, of the rare paper version of “perhaps the finest of all the early
Bibles” (Fine Books, p.57). The fourth edition of the Vulgate Bible.
The compositors set the text from a copy of the Gutenberg Bible. Appearing barely ten years after the invention
of printing with movable type, the Bible of 1462 is the fourth edition of the Latin Bible, preceded only by the 42-
line Gutenberg Bible, the 36-line Pfister Bible (Bamberg) and the 49-line Mentelin Bible (Strasbourg).
This striking work is one of Fust and Schoeffer’s greatest achievements, it is the first book to bear
the names of its printers, and the place and date of its completion. The volumes were printed by Peter
Schoeffer, Gutenberg’s most talented collaborator. After the bankruptcy of Gutenberg’s firm, Schoeffer concluded
a partnership with Fust, whose financial support paved the way for his career as one of the best and most
successful printers of the incunable age. Fust and Schoeffer signed their publications with a woodcut device
printed in red: two linked shields hanging on a branch. This is the first printer’s mark ever used.
The 1462 Bible has a longer tradition of collecting by connoisseurs as a masterwork of early printing
than almost any other incunable.
‘The 1462 Bible is one of the few incunables to contain printing in three colors. [...] The painstaking technique of
simultaneous three-color printing was introduced in the Fust-Schoeffer Psalter of 1457 and rarely repeated’ (M.
Ford, BPH catalogue). Like the Gutenberg Bible, the 1462 bible was printed and issued both on vellum and on
paper - but in its case the paper issue was less numerous than the vellum. Printing-house production of the bible
was very complex. Six gatherings are found in either of two distinct settings. The present copy, like the majority
of paper copies, has setting B of all these pages. This includes the third setting of the colophon on II 239r, that is,
the transcription corresponding to GW’s note 2, without the one-line explicit to the Apocalypse. The first leaf
of volume II also occurs in two settings, of which this copy, like most on paper, has setting B, with the corrected
reading “turbarum” instead of “tubarum” at line b36.
Although ISTC lists around hundred copies worldwide, half of these, however, are a single volume only, or imperfect
(in large part only fragments or single leaves). While single leaves of the 48-line bible appear quite frequently on
the market, complete copies are very rare, and becoming more so: we could trace only five copies selling at
auction in the last 35 years, the most recent being the Longleat copy, sold in 2002.
Provenance: Stiftsbibliothek in Klosterneuburg near Vienna (inked note by its librarian, Dr V.O. Ludwig, dated 1919,
recording the gift from the Bishop of Linz, Gregor Thomas Ziegler, 1770-1852); Martin Bodmer (pencilled shelf-
marks and catalogue card); H.P. Kraus (‘The Cradle of Printing’ part II, catalogue 131, 1971, #7); J.R. Ritman (BPH
bookplate, #39, acquired from Kraus, 1988).
Two volumes royal folio (39.7 x 29.5 cm). 481 (242 + 239) leaves, double-column, 48 lines, 2-line incipit, explicit, book incipits and explicits, psalm tituli,
many chapter initials (h, p, r, u) and numbers all printed in red, other chapter numbers and initials printed in blue and some in blind, 7-line colophon
and woodcut printer’s device at end of vol. 2 printed in red, rubricated throughout: initial-strokes and headlines in red, two-line capitals and chapter
numbers in red and occasionally blue, prologue five-line initials and seven-line book initials, some with penwork decoration, supplied in red, full floral
and leafy vine border in penwork incorporating initial to the first leaf, intended for illumination not supplied; scattered textual emendations supplied by
an early hand, a few minute wormholes in vol. 1, light marginal soiling, occasional marginal tears expertly restored, final leaf reattached.
Presumably an Ulm binding of contemporary calf over bevelled wooden boards blindstamped with wide border and intersecting diagonals tooled
to all-over hatched diaper pattern, single stamps of feathery quatrefoil, “maria”, rosette, fleur-de-lys and stag, five raised bands, brass corner guards,
two brass and leather fore-edge clasps to each volume, original paper endleaves of northern Italian paper, 15th-c. vellum pastedowns recording legal
transactions at Ulm; rebacked and restored, vol. 1 with later clasps; kept in modern morocco-backed clamshell cases.

Of great rarity and illuminated by the Fust Master
3 BONIFACIUS VIII, Pope [Benedetto GAETANO] and Johannes ANDREAE. Liber sextus decretalium.
Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, Mainz, 17 December 1465.
First edition of the first work of cannon law to be printed, and one of the first two books with
commentary surrounding the text.The Dyson Perrins-Rattey copy illuminated by the Fust master. Printed
on vellum.
Very rare: we could not trace any copy or fragment of more than three leaves at auction in the last 35 years. Not
in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, which owns all Fust & Schoeffer productions except the 1457 Psalter. Not in H.P.
Kraus’ catalogue ‘The Cradle of Printing’ part I and II. A complete illuminated copy was offered by Joseph Baer &
Co. in 1910 for 20,000 marks, more than four times the price of a coloured ‘tadellos sauber’ ‘Rudimentum novitiorum’.
The 1298 ‘Liber sextus’ was the second supplement to the ‘Decretum’ of Gratian, the first being the five ‘Decretales’
commissioned in 1230 by Gregory IX. However, editions of the ‘Decretum’ and ‘Decretales’ were not printed until
the early 1470s, by Schoeffer and by Eggestein in Strassburg. But as an indispensable ingredient of medieval canon
law the text had become so essential during the second half of the 15th century that some 58 editions were
printed by the year 1500.
It is here published with the standard gloss of the period, due to Johannes Andreae Mugellanus (c. 1270-1348).
Like the Munich copy, the beginning of the text was illuminated by the Fust Master, an anonymous Mainz artist
who supplied illuminations of high quality to two copies of the Gutenberg Bible, and to various copies of Fust
and Schoeffer’s early editions, such as the BPH copy of the 1459 Durandus. All except two surviving copies of the
1465 Boniface were printed on vellum.There is a paper copy in Trier, and another in the Rylands Library, the latter,
as Dr Hellinga has shown, being a collection of proof sheets. The present copy includes the full text of books I-IV
of the ‘Liber sextus decretalium’.
Provenance: Obliterated library stamp on first leaf; George Reid, 1897 (dated inscription on last leaf); J. Rosenthal,
Munich (photocopy from Katalog 7 loosely inserted); Charles William Dyson Perrins (1864-1958, booklabel,
sale Sotheby’s, 10 March 1947, lot 580); Maggs (extract from sale catalogue pasted at front); Clifford Rattey
(booklabel); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #59, acquired from Tenschert, 1989).
Folio (39.8 x 27.5 cm). 100 leaves (of 142), double column, 70 lines of commentary, red-printed headings, the major initial [2/1r] illuminated in green
on a pink ground with head- and tail-pieces, 2- to 4- line initials in red and blue, rubricated with paragraph-marks in red and blue; early ms headlines
and annotations, often trimmed, lacking first ([a]4) and four final quires ([m8 n-p10]) with Andreae’s ‘Super arboribus consanguinitatis et affinitatis’
and chapters V-VI.
Twentieth-century antiqued vellum with dark red morocco labels lettered in gilt.
HC*3586; GW 4848; BMC I, 23; Goff B-976; ISTC ib00976000; Van Praet, Vélins du roi II, 9; Joseph Baer & Co, Incunabula xylographica et
typographica. 1450-1500. Suppl. sec., Lagerkatalog 585iii, 838 (with fold. ill.); Hellinga, ‘The Rylands incunabula: an international perspective’, Bulletin
du bibliophile I, 1989, p.47.

The first book printed in Augsburg - illuminated
4 BONAVENTURA [pseudo-]. Meditationes vitae Christi.

Günther Zainer, Augsburg, 12 March [14]68.
First edition of this important devotional text, and the first book printed in Augsburg: a fine copy with
a beautifully executed illuminated initial, possibly the work of an Augsburg artist.
Günther and Johann Zainer were originally of Reutlingen and lived in Strassburg in the 1460s, where they probably
worked with the city’s first printer, Johann Mentelin. After having estbalished the first press in Augsburg, Günther
(d.1498) presumably maintained connections with Reutlingen, for his earliest printing used paper imported from
a local mill whose watermark was the municipal arms.
Unlike most other incunable editions, Zainer’s edition, which contains the complete text (in 95 chapters instead of
40, usually in smaller formats), follows the manuscript tradition in presenting the text anonymously. It is only later
that this spiritual narrative of the life of Christ was attributed to Saint Bonaventura, but it was in fact written in
the early 1400s by an anonymous Tuscan Franciscan (who is thought to be Johannes a Caulibus) for a nun of the
Poor Clares. However, the ‘Meditationes vitae Christi’ does contain a ‘Meditationes de Passione’ which is a genuine
Bonaventuran work (see M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
The ‘Meditationes’ was one of the most beloved texts of the Franciscan movement and exerted a profound and
lasting influence on mystery plays and devotional literature until well into the 17th century. It testifies to a wide
range of influences, embracing the theological direction of St. Bernard and building on the philosophical conception
of Hugo de S. Victore. Circulating most widely in Italy, and to a lesser extent in France, England, and Spain, the text
was hardly known in Germany and the Low Countries, where its role as principal guide to contemplation of the
divine mysteries was filled by the closely related ‘Vita Christi’ of Ludolphus of Saxony. Its influence and popularity
is evidenced in the more than 60 editions published before 1501 - of which this first edition is one of only four
printed in Germany.
Scarce: we could trace four different copies at auction in the last 35 years, of which only one was similarly
illuminated. None in older binding.
Provenance: Benedictines of Rott am Inn, Upper Bavaria (17th-c. inscription ‘Benedictorum oeno-rothensium’ on
opening page); R[everendus] D[ominus] Magister Otto Steger (18th-c. inscription on first page, cropped); Clifford
Rattey (bookplate); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #53, acquired from L. C. Harper, 1988).
Folio (28 x 20.5 cm). 71 leaves (of 72, without first blank), 35 lines, elaborate handcoloured opening initial “I” on gilt ground with floral extensions
forming a two-part border, other Lombard initials in alternating red and blue, rubricated with contrasting blue and red paragraph-marks, red underlining
and initial-strokes, marginalia in red, later ms foliation keyed to the contents table and pagination; trimmed affecting ms pagination, but still wide
margins, very occasional minor staining or soiling.
Twentieth-century crushed dark green morocco by Bayntun Riviere, Bath, for C. Rattey, red-sprinkled edges, spine gilt with raised bands.
H*3557; GW 4739; BMC II, 315; Goff B-893; ISTC ib00893000.

Eight first editions, from Cologne’s first printer
5 GERSON, Johannes. Alphabetum divini amoris. [Bound with all following works:] De cognitione castitatis et
de pollutionibus diurnis; forma absolutionis sacramentalis. De pollutione nocturna. Opus tripartitum de praeceptis
decalogi, de confessione, et de arte moriendi. De meditatione cordis; de oratione et valore eius; expositio super psalmos
poenitentiales. De efficacia orationis; de tentationibus diaboli; de exercitiis discretis devotorum simplicium. De custodia
linguae et corde bene ruminanda. De remediis contra pusillanimitatem contra deceptorias inimici consolationes eiusque
tentationes. Conclusiones de diversis materiis moralibus, sive de regulis mandatorum.
[Ulrich Zell, Cologne, about 1466-72].
Lovely fresh copy, with aristocratic provenance, of an important Sammelband of nine works by or
attributed to Gerson, eight in first edition. ‘De pollutione nocturna’ is here a second edition, following closely
the first, also due to Zell.
Produced by the first printer established in Cologne, the fourth city to develop printing. After having learned the
trade in Schoeffer’s workshop in Mainz, Ulrich Zell (d. 1503) began to print in Cologne in about 1463-64. The
‘Alphabetum divini amoris’ is one of five printed works with the first state of his first type, one of which is dated 1466.
The ‘Alphabetum’ is here, as in other incunable editions, attributed to Gerson but is in fact of unknown authorship.
The numerous treatises circulating in manuscript under Gerson’s name were the largest single component of
Zell’s first publishing programme. His quartos were typically acquired in small groups by the original buyers and
bound together, but the large majority of such collective volumes were broken up in the rare book trade and
by libraries in the 19th century, with the loss of significant contextual evidence. These individual works are now
scarcely found on the market - and such Sammelbände are therefore of the greatest rarity.
Provenance : Duke of Arenberg (rose to covers); J.R. Ritman, (BPH bookplate, #10, 94, 101, 99, 98, 97, 96, 102, 95,
acquired from Kraus, 1988).
Nine works in a volume 4to (21.3 x 13.8 cm). All 27 lines and initial-spaces, uniformly rubricated in red and blue throughout, incl. initials, paragraph-
marks and underlining, I. 28 leaves, 6-line initial in red and blue with a ground of gold paint and red penwork flourishing, highlighted with green wash,
two other initials treated similarly, contemporary catchwords written at the foot of last p. of several quires, original ms quiring in brown or red ink
preserved on scattered other leaves; II. 17 leaves, the 17th added as a singleton to the second quire, 4-line initial on first leaf in red with penwork
extensions; III. 16 leaves (last blank), 4-line initial in blue with red penwork extensions highlighted in green; IV. 30 leaves (of 32, without first and last
blanks, but leaves 3 and 4-5 supplied in contemporary manuscript), 4-line initial in blue with red penwork extensions highlighted in green; V. 55 leaves
(of 56, without final blank); VI. 38 leaves; VII. 6 leaves; VIII. 13 leaves (of 16, without first and final 2 blanks); IX. 38 leaves (of 40, without first and last
blanks), 4-line initial in blue with red penwork extensions highlighted in green; only some spotting to first work and a wormhole repaired.
Late 19th-c. full tan polished calf, blindstamped in period style, with medlar rose to centre dyed red, spine with raised bands, vellum pastedowns,
contemporary vellum ms contents list now pasted to verso of front free endpaper; minor rubbing to extremities.
I. HC *7631, H *7690 = 7704 (II), 7697 = 7704 (I), HC 7653, *7628, H*7687, *7682, *7705 and HC 7640; GW 1554, 10728, 10809, 10774,
10767, 10843, 10754, 10825 and 10733; BMC I, 179, 180, 184 and I, 180 but II. and VIII. not in BMC; Goff A-524, G-194, G-255; G-238, G-231,
G-227, G-218, G-265, G-202; ISTC ia00524000, ig00194000, ig00255000, ig00238000, ig00231000, ig00227000, ig00218000, ig00265000,
ig00202000.

First edition of this celebrated eyewitness account: illuminated and
in contemporary binding
6 JOSEPHUS, Flavius. De antiquitate Judaica. De bello Judaico.

Johann Schüssler, [Augsburg], 28 June and 23 August 1470.
A beautiful illuminated example of the first edition, in an identified contemporary binding. ‘An exceptionally
large and fine copy [...] Many original signature marks are present, and many of the fore edges are untrimmed’
(H. P. Kraus, who attributes the illumination to Hector Muelich of Augsburg).
The first book printed by schüssler, and one of the few classiscs first issued in Germany. Schüssler took
over the types of Zainer, whose last dated book with them was printed on 22 January 1470, and he finished the
first part of the Josephus six months later. He printed only 13 works, all with the same typeface.
‘Josephus (c.38-after 100), a prolific and controversial chronicler of the Jews, wrote his first book, ‘De bello Judaico’,
under imperial patronage at Rome. An eyewitness to the Jewish wars, he was able to portray the Jewish nation as
having succumbed to a fanatic few who brought on the war and the fall of Jerusalem. ‘De antiquitate Judaica’, his
comprehensive history of the Jews, begins with Creation and progresses up to the war with Rome (66 AD). With
the aim of proving the antiquity of the Jews, Josephus was stimulated by his observations of Jews living in Rome
outside a Jewish environment while still maintaining their religion. Aside from being a valuable sourcebook of early
Jewish history, ‘De antiquitate Judaica’ provides first-hand information on pre-Christian monastic communities such
as the Pharisaic, Sadducean and Essene movements. Josephus himself had been a member of a communalistic
religious sect, possibly the Essenes, and he describes in detail their ascetic life’ (M.Ford, BPH catalogue).
Provenance: Probably Saurzapf family of Augsburg (armorial shield to page opening text); H.P. Kraus (‘The Cradle
of Printing’ part II, catalogue 131, 1971, #11); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #129, acquired from Kraus, 1988).
Two parts in one volume royal folio (40 x 29.5 cm). 287 leaves (of 288, without initial blank), two columns, as BMC notes, either fo.2 or 11 is a cancel
since both have a watermark, and in this copy all leaves except 11 have ms foliation in the inside bottom margin, 10-line initial in blue and white on
gold background with red and green frame, vine extension with carnations and roses forming 3/4 border in blue, green, pink and red, herald holding an
armorial shield at centre of lower margin, similar initial in gold or silver with colours opening each of the 27 books, Maiblumen-initials on the 7 supplied
leaves in green, grey and red, rubricated with smaller initials, paragraph-marks and headlines (to L3r) in red, some ms guide-letters; blank leaf inserted
after v8, seven leaves (fos. d4, h10, i8, n7, v1, A1, G10) from another copy, first leaf illumination a bit chipped.
Contemporary Augsburg binding of black calf over bevelled wooden boards, blindstamped with an ‘Ave Maria’ scroll, palmetter, interlaced cords, double
rosette, quatrefoil, identified as Kyriss Workshop 76 and 89, two brass fore-edge clasps with leather tongues, in calf-backed folding box; repaired.
HC *9451; BMC II, 327; Goff J-481; ISTC ij00481000; Kyriss IVa, pl. 153-4, 181-2.

7 NIDER, Johannes. Die vierundzwanzig goldenen Harfen.
Johann Bämler, Augsburg, [not after 1470].
A tall copy, in an attractive contemporary binding, of the very rare first edition of Nider’s only work
in German. The first book printed by Bämler.
We could not trace any complete copy at auction in the last 35 years. ISTC lists no complete copy in France and
only two in the USA (Yale and Pierpont Morgan).
Johannes Nider (ca. 1380-1438) was a Dominican theologian and reformist. He wrote in ca. 1430 this free
rendering of John Cassian’s ‘Collationes patrum XXIV’, recounting the latter’s conversations with 4th- and 5th-
century leaders of eastern monasticism. ‘Otto von Passau had earlier used the 24 elders as the structure of his
work, and Nider adopts it here to illustrate the phases of spiritual and religious lives marked by the ascetism of the
early Desert Fathers. A renowned preacher, as Eckhart and Tauler had been, the prologue [...] contains excerpts
from sermons preached at Neremberg.
A copy at the Bavarian National Library in Munich (BSB) bears the rubricator’s date of 1470, making it the first
book printed by Bämler (ca.1430–1503). A former copyist and rubricator, he was thought to have begun printing
in 1472 only (Goff, BPH catalogue). He mainly printed works in German and published three of the first four
editions of the present work, within eight years.
Provenance: Benedictines of Saint Mang, Füssen, Bavaria (ms exlibris on front pastedown and on first page of text
dated 1578, with note of purchase in [15]72); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate #199).
Folio (31.6 x 21.1 cm). 172 leaves (of 173, without final blank), 28 lines, 5- to 8-line initials illuminated in green and gold with red and brown penwork
infill; clean diagonal tear in first leaf and upper outer corner mended, first two leaves strengthened in gutter margin, some light marginal soiling and
worming, two marginal closed tears.
Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards in a panel design with rosettes, lily shields and inscribed banners, blind-ruled diagonals forming
two central lozenges, brass bosses and corner-pieces, brass catch, contemporary paper title label and shelfmark label on upper cover; a bit worn, brass
clasp renewed, old spine repairs and 18th-c. gilt title.
H*11846; GW M26853; BMC II, 330; Goff N-222 (‘before 22 April 1472’); ISTC in00222000.

8 BONIFACIUS VIII, Pope [Benedetto GAETANO] and Johannes ANDREAE. Liber Sextus Decretalium.
[Heinrich Eggestein, Strassburg, about 1470-72].
A crisp copy, in a contemporary binding: the second edition of this important text, after the first by Fust &
Schoeffer in 1465 (see No 3 of the present catalogue).
Rare: we could not find another copy at auction in the last 35 years.
Pope Boniface (ca. 1235–1303) ‘instituted a patronage of the arts and sciences which could be compared to the
later Medici and was unprecedented at that time in the papacy. Under Boniface the cathedral of Orvieto was
largely completed, several churches at Rome, including St. Peter’s, were restored for the Jubilee of 1300 (the first),
and Giotto was called to Rome. Boniface also founded the universities at Rome and Fermo, and he gave fresh
impetus to building the Vatican library collection. The thirty-three Greek manuscripts at the Vatican as of 1311
constituted ‘the earliest known, and long the most important, medieval collection of Greek works in the West’ (Th.
Oestreich, Catholic Encyclopedia. N.Y., 1913, 2, p.669)’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Heinrich Eggestein (ca. 1420-ca.1488) was the second printer established in Strassburg, where he worked from
1464 until 1488. After his probable journey to Mainz and meeting with Gutenberg, he produced a celebrated
Bible (also in the BPH collection until recently) and mainly works in Latin: antique classics, Medieval authors and
also legal works of canon and civil law - such as the ‘Decretales’ of Gregory IX and their supplement, which is
Boniface’s present work - which put him in direct competition with Peter Schoeffer. The latter printed his second
‘Liber sextus’ on 17 April 1470, sometimes considered as the third, or second edition of the text.
Provenance: Johann Kruckemperger (signature on first leaf); Pease-Wardington family (booklabel to lower
pastedown); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #60, acquired from Tenschert, 1989, from Christie’s, 7 Dec. 1988, lot 96).
Royal folio (41 x 29 cm). 199 leaves (of 201, without 21/4 and blank 11/4), two columns, commentary surround, 2-line incipit and rubrics printed in
red in a separate press pull after printing the black, initials supplied alternately in red and blue, some with both colours intertwined, paragraph-marks
and underlining in red, 18th-century ms foliation and book number as headline, ms register at end of each book, vellum quire guards; occasional
waterstains, mostly marginal, stronger at beginning and end.
Contemporary pigskin over beechwood boards blindstamped to diamond pattern with leafy tool, foliate rope-work as outer border; darkened and a
bit soiled, wormholes, foot of spine worn and anciently repaired, without all metal fittings.
HC*3583; GW 4849; BMC I,70; Goff B-977; ISTC ib00977000; not in IDL.

The Doheny illuminated copy of a very rare early production of Jenson
9 Ordine del bem viver delle donne maridade chiamato gloria mulierum. [With] Parole devote de lanima inamorata in
Misser Iesu.
Nicolaus Jenson, [Venice], 6 April 1471.
A fine, illuminated example of the very rare first editions of ‘Gloria Mulierum’ and ‘Parole’, both printed
in Italian in the second year of Jenson’s activity.
No copy in America, none in Germany, only two copies of ‘Parole’ in Italy. Except the present example, ISTC
lists only ten complete copies of ‘Gloria mulierum’ and six of ‘Parole’ - in Italy, Austria, the UK (two only of ‘Parole’)
and France (only one ‘Parole’). No other copy, even fragmentary, could be traced at auction in the last four decades.
Usually treated separately in bibliographies, both works are now considered as being both part of a single edition,
as detailed in the BPH catalogue and argued by F. de Marez Oyens and P. Needham.
‘Gloria mulierum’ is a sequel of the ‘Decor Puellarum’, printed by Nicolas Jenson (1420-80) the same year, just
after having opened his famous printing shop in Venice in 1470. The ‘Decor’ has led in the past to some confusion,
as its colophon was erroneously dated 1461, insted of giving the correct date of 1471. Jenson was in fact, in 1461,
finishing his three-year stay in Gutenberg’s workshop in Mainz. He then established a successful press in Venice,
where he developed his celebrated typeface based on Humanistic scripts and beautifully used here.
This manual of Christian conduct and the verse dialogue between Christ and the soul were certainly written in
a Carthusian tradition and circulated widely in Latin manuscripts. Jenson had close contacts to the Carthusian
monastery of St. Andrea in Lido, which was visited and supported by the humanists Bernardo Giustiniani and
Ludovico Foscarini. The virtues of married women praised in the first text are faith, ‘poverta del spirito’, spiritual
and temporary obedience, honesty, strength, confidentiality, charity, and love for the husband and God. The ‘Parole’,
written in verse, employs the language of ecstatic rapture. The soul of the woman pleads to ascend the ladder
to heaven, to be embraced by Christ, and through the force of love she will achive eternal life with the Saviour.
Provenance: Estelle Doheny (gilt red morocco label, sale Christie’s NY, 22 Oct. 1987, lot 85, to); J.R. Ritman (BPH
bookplate, #103).
Quarto (17.9 x 13 cm). 18 (initial and final blank) and 10 leaves, 21 and 22 lines in Jenson’s Roman type, 4-line initial Q to begin the introduction to the
first work illuminated in gold and colors on 1/2r, 1- to 4-line initials alternating in red or blue, faint mamuscript guide-letters; very light occasional foxing only.
Nineteenth-century maroon straight-grained morocco, gilt and blind-tooled, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers; housed in a pale linen slipcase and chemise.
HC 7783 and HCR 12422; GW 10940 and M29471; BMC V, 168; Goff G-308 and P-119; ISCT ig00308000 and ip00119000.
(original size)

Ficino’s first publication: one of the core texts of the
10 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. De potestate et sapientia dei.

Gerardus de Lisa, de Flandria, Treviso, 18 December 1471.
Large copy of the first edition of Ficino’s first text, a foundation work of the Renaissance. One of the
first four books printed at the first press in Treviso.
Rare: we could trace only the Sullivan-Stonyhurst College copy three times at auction in the last half-century.
This was the first portion to come into print of the Corpus Hermeticum, a large body of writings attributed to
an apocryphal Hermes Trismegistus, but in fact the work of different authors written at various times in the first
centuries after Christ. Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) relates in the dedicatory letter of his Plotinus 20 years later (also
present in this catalogue), how Cosimo de’ Medici, having heard Pletho’s lectures on Plato, had commissioned
Ficino to translate the Platonic corpus. So important were the works of Hermes Trismegistus that when a Greek
manuscript was found in Macedonia by Lionardo of Pistoia and brought to Florence (a 14th-c. manuscript that
survives at the Laurentiana), Cosimo ordered Ficino to interrupt his work translating Plato in order first to
translate Hermes. Ficino’s translation of ‘De potestate’ was completed in April 1463. It circulated in numerous
manuscript copies before being printed in 1471, with a dedication to Cosimo de Medici.
The work consists of 14 dialogues describing a vision seen under the guidance of Pimander, a semi-divine being. It
describes the creation of the universe and man, the union of spirit and matter following the Fall, and the method
of redemption by knowledge. Ficino thought he recognized an ancient source of philosophy pre-dating both
Greek Philosophy and the Bible, ‘with evidence that Hermes was indeed the ‘father of theology’ since its account
of creation had obvious parallels to Genesis, it prophesied Christianity, and it taught devotion to God in this life’
(M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
The editor of the work was Francesco Rolandello, a humanist and teacher of rhetoric who was later employed in
Venice as a tutor to the children of Leonardo Loredano (1436–1521), doge of Venice during 20 years. In his brief
preface, Rolandello emphasised the low price at which so much wisdom could be had, as also the central miracle of
printing, because Rolandello had supplied the printer with a manuscript and he had transformed it into many copies
for others to read. Rolandello’s own ‘Exeminationes grammaticales’ was one of the first books printed by the Flemish
Gerardus de Lisa and he might have been instrumental in the setting up of the first printing workshop in Treviso.
Provenance: J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #113, acquired from a sale at Drouot, 26-27 May 1986, lot 324).
Octavo on quarter-sheets (20.3 x 14.5 cm). 56 leaves, 24 lines, spaces for Greek text, variant with reading ‘FRAH’ on A1v, line 16; occasional light
marginal spotting, first leaf repaired in the margins and with abrasion slightly affecting text.
Later vellum manuscript binding over stiff boards, modern morocco clamshell case by G. van Daal.
HR 8456; GW 12310; BMC VI, 83; Goff H-77; ISTC ih00077000.

11 CASSIODORUS, Magnus Aurelius. Historia ecclesiastica tripartita.
Johann Schüssler, Augsburg, ‘circiter’ 5 February 1472.
Fresh copy in a contemporary binding of the first edition of this major history of the Church, as well
as a history of the dominate, starting with Constantine the great (306).
Rare: we could trace only one complete copy at auction in the last 35 years.
Cassiodorus (ca. 485-580) is the giant of late Roman culture, standing between the fast-vanishing ancient world
and the beginnings of Christian learning. he had been consul of Rome in 514, head of the civil service (by 526) and
praetorian prefect in 533. He retired from public service in 540 and founded a monastery at his ancestral home
near Scylletium (Calabria), which he named Vivarium.
‘He encouraged knowledge through study not only of theological works but also of pagan antiquity. The library
became a central feature of the monastery, built up by avid copying, writing and translating.The ‘Historia ecclesiastica
tripartita’ is a result of this work, composed of translations of the church histories written by Socrates Scholasticus,
Sozomen and Theodoret. Originally written in Greek, they each continued Eusebius’s ‘Historia ecclesiatica’, bringing
it up to the Council of Nicea and the Arian controversy. This Cassiodorus compilation in twelve books became
one of the most important sources for church history during the Middle Ages’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
The three Greek sources were translated for Cassiodorus by his friend at Vivarium monastery, Epiphanius
Scholasticus, who sometimes is also credited with the compilation.
Johann Schüssler (d.1473/74) was probably a papermaker and bookbinder, before he started the second printing
workshop in Augsburg. Only 13 printings left his press from 1470 onwards, all printed with the same typeface
purchased from Günther Zainer. In 1473, he sold his house to Zainer, his five presses and equipment to the
monastery St. Ulrich and Afra (cf. Augsburger Buchdruck und Verlagswesen, ed. by H. Gier and J. Janota, 1997, p. 76, 1206f).
The colophon of gives the date ‘Circiter nonas februarias’.
Provenance: Benedictine Abbey of Scheyern (binding, contemporary inscription on first leaf and above beginning
of text); Royal Library, Munich (shelfmark “Inc. Typ. No. 1420” and duplicate label); C.S. Ascherson (booklabel); J.R.
Ritman (BPH bookplate, #69, acquired from Quaritch, 1989).
Folio (31 x 21.5 cm). 194 leaves (of 195, without one of the final blanks), 35 lines, two 7-line initials in red, rubricated.
Contemporary dark brown calf over bevelled wooden boards, blindstamped with rosettes, “maria” scrolls, fleur-de-lys and other floral stamps, from the
workshop of the Benedictine Abbey of Scheyern in Bavaria (Kyriss, workshop 30), vellum leaves of a 15th-c. manuscript used as pastedowns, covering
half of the inner covers; some surface wear, without central bosses and clasps.
HC *4573; GW 6164; BMC II, 329; Goff C-237; ISTC ic00237000.

12 AMBROSIUS [Saint]. Hexameron.
Johann Schüssler, Augsburg, “circiter” 5 May 1472.
Unusually large copy of the first edition of this homiletic commentary by Saint Ambrose, fourth-century
bishop of Milan, one of the four original doctors of the Church, who baptised Augustine in 386.
‘Ambrosius’ exegesis in nine sermons on the six days of Creation is based on the work by St. Basil on the same
subject, but Ambrosius enlarges on the story’s allegorical aspects. In poetically observing nature - the ocean, its
movements and colours - Ambrosius passes easily into its relationship with God and sees in it the virtues of
moderation, security, tranquillity, interprets it as the Church with waves of prayer, and finally asserts its effect
by asking ‘And what of the wave that washes sin away and the life-giving breezes of the Holy Spirit?’ (E.K. Rand,
‘Founders of the Middle Ages’, Cambridge, Mass., 1929, p.98). On the creation of human beings Ambrosius maps
out the symbolism of the body, first likening it to the world, then to a royal palace, then to Noah’s Ark, before
seeing it as the resting place of God’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
This work is an established source for Bede’s commentaries on Genesis, Aelfric’s own ‘Hexameron’, and, along
with Lactantius’ ‘Carmen de ave phoenice’, the ninth-century Old English poem ‘The Phoenix’.
Very rare on the market: we could trace only the Broxbourne copy, without the last leaf, rebound too and
significantly smaller (24 x 17.5 cm), appearing at auction, twice, for over 35 years.
Provenance: Vatican library (duplicate stamp on first and penultimate leaves); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #14,
acquired from Tenschert, 1989).
Folio (31.2 x 21.4 cm). 76 leaves (of 77, without final blank), spaces left for Greek terms, 35 lines, 7-line woodcut floral initial on first leaf, coloured
in turqoise and brown, other initials in red or blue with green, gold or red penwork, paragraph marks, initial strokes and guide letters mostly in red
throughout; the initial and two final leaves with paper restorations and carefully extended margins, a few leaves mounted on hinges, incl. the last one,
which has been reversed. Recent brown calf, tooled and lettered in blind to style, modern clamshell case.
H *903; GW 1603; BMC II, 329; Goff A-555; ISTC ia00555000.

From the first printer in Nuremberg
13 DE PISIS, Rainerius. Pantheologia, sive summa universae theologiae.

Johann Sensenschmidt and Heinrich Kefer, Nuremberg, 8 April 1473.
Beautiful large copy of the first edition of the oldest theological encyclopedia, bound for the Archduke
of Austria.
This compendium of important theological concepts, arranged alphabetically and written around 1331 by
Rainerius de Pisis (d. 1348), a Dominican, ‘represents the practical inheritance of scholasticism. It brings together
the main themes of theology, drawing most heavily on Alexander von Hales, Bonaventura and, of course, Thomas
Aquinas. The thoroughness of the ‘Pantheologia’ is demonstrated in the number of little known authors and texts
it cites’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
This is also the only book signed by both Johann Sensenschmidt and his occasional partner Heinrich Kefer, who
had been one of Gutenberg’s workmen.The partners considered it worthy of advertising in a separate broadside
- one of the earliest such. This enormous work, ‘more than twice as large as any book which had hitherto left
his press, is also the last book in which the two founts designed for [Heinrich] Rummel by Sensenschmidt occur’
(Scholderer, in Fifty Essays, 1966, p. 237). Rummel, a doctor of Laws, was a member of an important Nuremberg
family and had Sensenschmidt coming to Nuremberg after he probably learnt his trade in Mainz. The work
became popular in the 15th century and went through seven incunable editions.
Scarce: although well represented in institutions, we could trace only two other complete copies selling at
auction in the last 35 years.
Provenance: Archduke of Austria (gilt arms to spines, oval armorial library stamp in lower margin of first page);
‘A Nobleman’, sale Sotheby’s sale, 14 May 1979, lot 102, to Traylen); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #164, acquired
from Tenschert, 1988).
Three volumes royal folio (39.4 x 28 cm). 858 leaves (of 865, without 5 blank leaves, but with initial and final 3 blank leaves), 57 lines, double
column, some 15-line and many smaller capitals supplied in red and/or blue, some with penwork flourishes extending into the margins, running titles,
paragraph-marks and initial-strokes in red; a few marginal repairs and tears, occasional light marginal soiling, marginal worm puncture at beginning of vol. III.
Eighteenth-century russet morocco, gilt-ruled triple fillet border, spines richly gilt in compartments, pastedowns and endleaves of decorated paper;
lightly rubbed, some small repairs, light dampstains on upper cover of vol. III.
H *13015; GW M36929; BMC II, 405; Goff R-5; ISTC ir00005000.

The Broxbourne-Friedlander copy of Koberger’s first signed book
14 BOETHIUS. De consolatione philosophae. [Das Puech von dem Trost der Weisshait].
Anton Koberger, Nuremberg, 24 July 1473.
Attractively decorated copy of the possible first edition, and the first edition of the German translation of
this extremely popular text.The first book bearing the name of Anton Koberger, and his second dated book.
Of great rarity: we could not trace any other copy at auction during the past half-century.
Although a Latin edition was printed anonymously in Basle by Michael Wenssler ca. 1473, its priority has not
been established and the present edition is thought to be the first by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB Ink.
B-593).The Johannes Glim edition printed at Savigliano, dated ca. 1471 in the GW, should be dated to ca. 1473-74
(see BMC VII, 61). The identities of the commentator (Thomas Waleys as pseudo-Thomas Aquinas?) and of the
translator are both disputed.
Written in prose and verse while the senator and consul Boethius (ca. 480–ca.524) was in prison at Pavia on
charges of treachery, or in exile under arrest, the ‘Consolation of Philosophy’ is a dialogue between the author and
Philosophy, who has come to console him in his autobiographical desolation. After helping Boethius understand
himself, his good fortune and his misfortune, and free will, Philosophy leads him to true happiness, which is
knowledge of God. Incorporating large parts of Plato’s ‘Timaeus’, it was a chief source of Platonic and Neoplatonic
philosophy in the Middle Ages. It also introduces the celebrated ‘Boethian wheel’, an image of historical cycle,
concerning men in particular, and their rise and fall. Boethius’ most famous work became quickly popular, and it
was the most widely copied work of secular literature in Europe, before being printed more than 70 times in all
major European languages before 1501.
Provenance: Cistercian monastery of Lilienfeld (Austria, 18th-c. inscription in upper margin of first page of
commentary “Sum: Monasterij Campilili[ensis]”); unidentified 19th-c. armorial bookplate;William Knighton (armorial
bookplate with motto ‘Labore et perseverantia’); Albert Ehrman (1 890-1969; armorial bookplate with motto ‘Pro
viribus summis contendo’, and bookplate of Broxbourne Library, sale Sotheby’s, 8 May 8 1978, lot 397, to Harper);
Helmut Friedlaender (booklabel, sale Christie’s NY, 23 April 2001, lot 27); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #275).
Folio (33.2 x 24.2 cm). 192 leaves (of 200, without blanks 1, 7, 82, 98-101, 200 but with blank leaf 166), Latin text with 23 lines interspaced, German
text with 46 lines, commentary with 46 lines, text single column, commentary double column, three 11-line Maiblumen initials in red with green
penwork infill, also reversed, many 3-, 4-, and 5-line initials in alternating red and green, a few in maroon, rubricated with paragraph-marks and initial-
strokes in red; some marginal soiling and staining in first and last few leaves and occasionally elsewhere, small tear in fore-margin of one leaf mended.
Eighteenth-century English gold-tooled dark calf, large interlocking double-fillet lozenge and rectangle in centre of each cover, four corner ornaments
of flowers, leafy plants, handles, circles and arabesques on a dotted ground, border roll-tooled in blind with stylised plants, spine gold- and blind-tooled
with gilt-stamped title and imprint, dentelles, all edges gilt; rebacked with original spine laid down, various scrapes and scuffmarks, housed in a gilt full
olive morocco drop-box by Hans van der Horst, Eenhoorn Binderij.

15 Defensorium fidei dialogos septem contra iudeos, hereticos et sarracenos. Johannes de TURRECREMATA. De salute
animae. CASSIODORUS. Constantii imperatoris et Liberii Pape pro defensione Athanasii dialogus.
[Nicolaus Ketelaer and Gerardus de Leempt, Utrecht, 1473-74].
The only edition, rare, printed by the first identified Dutch press: a crisp, very tall copy, printed on thick paper.
This apology of the Christian faith was published anonymously and addresses the learned but not theologically
educated audience in developing a popular Christology, martyrology and describing miracles. Its seven books
dealing with all sorts of infidels - Jews, Muslims and Christian heretics - are written in the style of a public oration
and in dialogue form, and seems to have been little studied by scholars.
The Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana and the Widener Collection at Harvard incorporated this tilte in their Judaica
collections because of the anti-semitism permeating the text. Cassiodorus’ work published with it is actually the
book V of his ‘Historia ecclesiastica tripartita’.
Of great rarity: we could not trace any other copy selling at auction in the past half-century. ISTC records only
five complete copies in the USA.
Provenance: Mid-20th-c. typewritten bookdealer’s description, in German tipped onto inside of front cover; J.R.
Ritman (BPH bookplate, #264, probably acquired from Hartung & Hartung, 1999, sale 96, lot 141).
Folio (27.9 x 20.2 cm). 79 leaves (of 80, without initial blank), 31 lines, 3-, 4- and 6-line initials in gold, red and blue with marginal pen work decoration
with printed guide-letters, rubricated with paragraph-marks, underlining and initial-strokes in red, marginal annotations in an early hand; some light
paper toning. Later stiff marbled paper wrappers; minor wear.
HC *6083; GW 8246; BMC IX, 8; Goff D-136; ISTC id00136000; IDL 1498.

The earliest printed history of England
16 BEDA VENERABILIS. Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.

[Heinrich Eggestein, Strassburg, not after 1475].
Very attractive copy of the only incunable edition, the first of only four Bede’s works printed before
1501. The Doheny copy.
Bede’s ‘Historia ecclesiastica’ echoes Eusebius’ work of the same title and established him as the ‘Father of English
History’.The Venerable Bede (673-735) was a monk active at a Northumbrian monastery with access to a superb
library and works by the classical authors. His intent was to write a history of the Church of England, yet he also
gives a detailed account of historical events and clearly draws from the works of Roman secular historiography
and the Bible itself.
Sometimes recorded as printed in 1475-78. However Eggestein apparently produced this edition concurrently
with various large-format works including an edition of Eusebius’ ‘Historia ecclesiastica’, with which it shares paper
stock (Royal paper watermarked with a crown) type font and layout. The Wloclawek Seminary copy of Bede was
bound together with Eusebius and has a rubrication date of 1475.
Provenance: Robert Stayner Holford (1808–92; sold by his son Sir George Holford to Rosenbach, 1925, and
by him on 19 Nov. 1932 to:); Estelle Doheny (gilt red morocco label, sale Christie’s NY, 22 Oct. 1987, lot 17, to
Quaritch, who sold it in 1989 to); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #34).
Folio (28.1 x 20.6 cm). 97 leaves (of 98, without final blank), double column, 40 lines, 2- to 9-line initials, rubricated with paragraph-marks and initial-
strokes in red; paper tears repaired on outer margin of ff.1-2.
Later English crushed crimson morocco by Charles Lewis, London with his leather ticket, covers lettered in gilt and tooled in blind, all edges gilt, vellum
endpapers; joints a touch rubbed.
H*2732; GW 3756; BMC I,71; Goff B-293; ISTC ib00293000.

17 AUGUSTINUS, Aurelius [Saint]. De civitate dei.
Gabriele di Pietro, Venice, 1475.
Fine copy with wide margins in a lovely binding, possibly Venetian.
One of the four great Fathers of the Church, Augustinus (354-430) wrote his great ‘theology of history’ in ca. 413-
426. It made him ‘considered as the founder of a new science, to which Voltaire assigned the name ‘philosohpy of
history’. For the first time a comprehensive survey of human history is presented. History, he maintained, has a
goal. Slavation by God’s grace is not just a cyclical, haphazard occurence of events’ (PMM).
‘One of the most authoritative witness to the work and philosophy of Hermes, [...] Augustine was a focal point
in both the humanist and Neoplatonist movements of the Renaissance. [...] Up to the 12th century [he] was the
chief source of philosophical ideas in the Latin world and [...] remained the primary influence in mystical and
ascetical circles’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
The text was therefore very popular in the 15th century, and went through about 20 incunable editions. This
seventh edition without commentary is a close reprint of Jenson’s edition of the same year, copying even Jenson’s
unusual innovation of printing his name in the headline of the first text leaf a1 - here of course replaced with
Pietro’s. This copy reads ‘Tarusio’ in the colophon.
Provenance: Gilbert R. Redgrave (1894 bookplate and manuscript note on first fly-leaf, dated 1890); Edward
Cheney (bookplate with motto ‘Patio prudentia major’); Albert Ehrman (1890-1969; armorial bookplate with
motto ‘Pro viribus summis contendo’, and bookplate of Broxbourne Library, sale Sotheby’s, 9 May 1978, lot 636,
to Francis Edwards); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #194).
Folio (28.2 x 19.4 cm). 293 leaves (of 296, without 3 blanks), double column, 46 lines and headline, 2-, 5-, 8- and 11-line initial spaces with printed
guides, rubricated with guide-letters in red and blue; occasional ms notes to margins, slightly spotted and dampstained in places.
Contemporary Italian calf over wooden boards, blindstamped with fillets and two ornamental rolls, three diamond-shaped knots in central panel, with
original metal clasps; joints slightly worn, lacks bosses, two straps detached but preserved, housed in custom-made clamshell box.
HC*2052; GW 2880; BMC V, 201; Goff A-1236; ISTC ia01236000; cf. PMM 3 (1467 edition).

From the first press established in France
18 ZAMORENSIS, Rodericus. Speculum Vitae Humanae.

Ulrich Gering, Martin Crantz and Michael Friburger, Paris, 1 August 1475.
The Fairfax Murray-Broxbourne-Abrams copy of this beautiful specimen of french typography in the 15th
century, from the first Parisian printers. ‘A striking fount of gothic minuscules and antiqua capitals’
(Abrams catalogue).
Very rare: except the UK, ISTC lists 17 other complete copies worldwide, including only one in Germany
(Stuttgart), six in France and three in the USA (Lilly, Pierpont Morgan and Williams College). Apparently no other
copy at auction for over 30 years.
This is the first use of these beautiful semigothic characters. Ulrich Gering (ca. 1445-1510) was called by the
chancellor of the Sorbonne to set up a printing press in 1469. Together with Michael Friburger (ca. 1440-1510),
who learnt his trade in Basel, and Martin Crantz (fl. 1460-80), he produced 22 works between 1470 and 1472,
before the three printers became independent from the univeristy and worked without patron. 1472 is also
probably the publication year of the trio’s first edition of Zamorensis’ work.
Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo (1401-70) is the original Spanish name of the author of the popular ‘Mirror of
Human Life’, a sum of the medieval social order, describing the role of the nobility and military officials, monarchy
and Papacy. In an encyclopedic manner the Spanish bishop and diplomat deals with the liberal arts, such as theatre,
as well with legal questions, government and the administration of the church. Written in the 1460s, it was first
printed in Rome in 1468 and became very popular, going through more than 20 editions before 1490.
GW calls mistakenly for 136 leaves. Our copy is complete with all blanks, retaining even the front fly-leaf, apparently
from the same paper stock.
Provenance: original owner’s manuscript motto ‘jatends mon heure’ and his cypher preserved on original fly-leaf;
Charles Fairfax Murray (number label, Catalogue of Early French Books, 487, sale Christie’s, 21 March 1918, lot 674);
Albert Ehrman (1890-1969; armorial bookplate with motto ‘Pro viribus summis contendo’, handwritten monogram
to lower pastedown and bookplate of Broxbourne Library, sale Sotheby’s II, 8 May 1978, lot 423, to Quaritch);
George Abrams (booklabel, sale Sotheby’s 1989, lot 110, to Quaritch); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #208).
Folio (28.8 x 20.3 cm). 142 leaves (1/1 and 14/12 blanks), 32 lines, 3- and 6-line initial spaces, the two book initials illuminated by a French hand,
gilt letters on ground of red and blue with white ink filigree, rubricated with chapter initials and paragraph-marks alternately in red and blue, capitals
with yellow wash, a few contemporary marginalia; most of the blue rubrication washed away, a few short marginal tears.
Modern red crushed morocco by Leighton, spine with raised bands and lettered in gilt inner dentelles gilt, all edges gilt.
HC 13945; GW M38492; BMC VIII, 7; Goff R-223; ISTC ir00223000.

The first dated Lübeck printing and the first maps, beautifully hand-coloured
19 Rudimentum Novitiorum. Epithoma partes in sex juxta mundi sex aetates divisum, prius alibi non receptum quod by either walls or waterways. Nebenzahl suggests the map originates from an account of the Holy Land by
placuit rudimentum noviciorum intitulari. Burchardus de Monte Sion from Magdeburg, who spent ten years there in the 13th century. Copies of the account
Lucas Brandis, Lübeck, 5 August 1475. exist in manuscript but, to date, none of these has been discovered with an accompanying map. However, leaves
164-188 of the ‘Rudimentum’ include a version of his travels in Armenia, Palestine and Egypt that demonstrates a
The first chronicle of the world and the first work to contain printed maps that are more than
considerable knowledge of his work; including the fact that he measured the stones of the Pyramids of Gizeh in
order to give the exact size!
diagrams. A superb illuminated example of the earliest dated book printed in Lübeck, with manuscript
foliation apparently done in the printing shop (see BPH catalogue).
Provenance: J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #172, acquired from Tenschert, 1989).
‘The ‘Rudimentum Novitiorum’ is an encyclopedic history of the world, offering, as it title indicates, the basic of Two parts in one volume royal folio (37 x 28 cm). 474 leaves (blank 11 bound first), leaves 12-446 numbered by hand in red ‘i-ccccxxxiii’ with errors,
historical knowledge to young clerics’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue). Probably conceived and written by a theologian, 47 lines, double column, 12- to 7-line woodcut initials, coloured alternately in salmon, green, pink or blue with contrasting filling on burnished gold
this compilation comprises the six ages of the world, from the Creation and the earliest urban development, to grounds in coloured frames, two double-page woodcut maps (at leaves 74-75 and 162-163), numerous full-page woodcut genealogical charts and
the sixth book, which covers the Christian period. It incorporates 29 Aesop’s fables and mentions Hermes, giving column-wide woodcuts, all richly hand-coloured; a few contemporary marginal notes, occasional soiling, leaves a bit short catching some of the letters
his genealogy following Augustine. labelling the genealogical chains along with image edges of maps and printed label “oriens” at top of world map, mended tears in a few margins and
lower outer corner of final leaf, spots from coloured wash at leaf”ccxxxi”, colour occasionally smudged, small patch of mildew in margin leaf “ccccii”,
bifolium numbered ccccii-cccciii supplied from another copy, a map newly hinged.
The first printed maps of the world and of Palestine, and more than 200 woodcuts and tables. The Modern dark-brown pigskin decorated in an antique style, in a brown cloth drop-box.
extraordinary production ‘marks a turning point in illustrated books with its maps, portraits showing the subject H *4996; GW M39062; BMC II, 550; Goff R-345; ISTC ir00345000; not in Bodmer.
engaged in a relevant activity, and scenes from Biblical history’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue). All the pictorial woodcuts
and genealogical tables, of which some are employed more than once, were credited to a single author. The
different styles, however, suggest two different hands.The printer, Lucas Brandis, is often cited as a possible author, as
well as Johannes de Columpna (Giovanni da Colonna), although neither of these suggestions is currently accepted.
An example of ‘Doppeldruck’, the ‘Rudimentum’ was a highly complex book to print, a project of groundbreaking
ambition. Brandis (before 1450-after 1500) had also been active in Merseburg and Magdeburg, and produced
here his most famous work. Unusually for the time, he announced it in a separate advertisement, the only copy of
which to have surfaced was purchased in 1955 by Albert Ehrmann (ISTC ib01073550).
Cartography.The maps of the ‘Rudimentum Novitiorum’ pre-date the first published atlas, the Bologna Ptolemy, by
two years. They are the first ‘to try to show land forms and countries in topographical relation to each other. The
world map derives from a Christianised medieval tradition without any reference to either Ptolemaic or Portolan
sources, and is a vivid piece of cartographical design’ (Shirley).
In the world map, observed locations are represented relatively, but without admitting actual measurement and are
set within a reassuring and suitable array of mythological artifacts. What makes the world map of the ‘Rudimentum’
so fascinating and puzzling, is the fact that it presents plausible geographic knowledge within ‘the unyielding outlines
of the T-O schema’ (Campbell): it is as if the modern, ‘tangible’ world has been shoe-horned into a circular medieval
world view. There are stylised elements that show each continent as an island and each country as a separate hill,
surmounted either with a sovereign’s bust or with the conventional symbol for a town separated by imaginary
waterways, but these are real places and they are set in (reasonably) accurate relation to one another.
The mythological aspects of the map include illustrations of the phoenix, the Tree of the Sun and the Moon, and
the figures of the Devil and the Armless man. Traditionally, medieval maps were bounded at the west and east by
the Pillars of Hercules and Paradise respectively. The ‘Rudimentum’ places the pillars astride the entrance to the
Mediterranean and shows, at the other extremity, an enclosed mound from which flows the four rivers of Paradise.
It is also worth note that, next to Sweden (Gothia), ‘Vinland’ is named on the world map. This is, however, likely to
be Finland, as opposed to a representation of the Viking landings in the New World.
In contrast to the world map, the map of Palestine admits an entirely ‘observed’ view by presenting the Holy Land
from a bird’s-eye perspective. In doing so, it may be said to be the first modern printed map. It is oriented with
east at the top and extends from Damascas and Sion in the north to the Red Sea in the south. Jerusalem is shown
as a walled city at the centre of the map, with Calvary nearby. Eight heads around the periphery represent the
winds or compass directions. As with the world map, each town or country is represented as a hillock bounded

20 AMBROSIUS [Saint]. Expositio in evangelium S. Lucae. [With] BERNARDUS CLARAVALLENSIS. De consideratione
ad Eugenium.
I. Anton Sorg, Augsburg, 1476. II. Nicolaus Ketelaer and Gerardus de Leempt, Utrecht, 1474.
First editions of both works, in a contemporary binding - very rare such. We could trace only three copies
of the first work selling at auction in the last 35 years, none in contemporary binding, while none of Bernardus’
edition could be found. Of the latter, ISTC lists only one copy in France (BnF) and six in the USA.
This is the only incunable edition of Ambrosius’ commentary on the book of Luke, his only exegesis of the New
Testament. It ‘is among the most thorough of Luke commentaries. Focusing on the life of Christ told in that book
and handling the episodes chronologically, the doctor of the Church applies a method of scriptural exegesis
derived from Origen and Clement which reveals the literal, moral and allegorical meaning of the Bible. Perhaps
not the first to introduce this method to the West, Ambrosius was, through his popularization of it, a chief link
between the Eastern and Western Church’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue, quoting also Rand, p. 85).
Bernard of Clairvaux’ ‘De consideratione’ originates from the earliest named printing press in the Netherlands and the
manuscript used for typesetting it is preserved as the property of the Canons Regular in Utrecht. In this small tract, his
last work, written around 1148, Bernard (ca. 1090-1153) addresses his former disciple, Pope Eugenius III on meditation
and consideration, which is for him search for truth, distinguished from contemplation, which is the certainty of truth. A
fellow member of the Cistercian community at Clairvaux, Eugenius had just been elected, in 1145.
Provenance: Joseph Bohland (booklabel); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #13; 36, acquired from de Graaf, 1989).
Two works in one volume folio (29.9 x 20.6 cm). I. 159 leaves, 36 to 38 lines and headline, 3- and 10-line woodcut floral initials, rubricated and
hand-coloured, paragraph marks, initial strokes and capitals in red, one with blue extension. II. 40 leaves (initial blank), 31 lines, 4-line initial spaces
with printed guides, rubricated, paragraph marks, initial strokes and capitals in red, catchwords and manuscript signature at the end of each quire; first
leaf of I. with large piece cut away and repaired (not affecting text) and almost loose, a few marginal wormholes at the beginning and end, occasional
small spotting.
Contemporary blind-ruled pigskin over wooden boards, spine with six raised bands; head of spine with wear, later endpapers, two functioning brass
clasps, but brass rests removed, traces of worming; preserved in a drop-back cloth box.
H *900 and HCR 976; GW 1602 and 3913; BMC II, 344 and IX, 7; Goff A-554 and B-367; ISTC ia00554000 and ib00367000; IDL 746 (for II.).

21 LACTANTIUS, Lucius Coelius Firmianus. Opera. Venantius FORTUNATUS. De resurrectione Christi.
Johannes de Colonia and Johannes Manthen, Venice, 27 August 1478.
Fine, fresh copy with an attractive illuminated page, of the first works to be printed in Italy with a date, by
Sweynheym and Pannartz in Subiaco in 1465. ‘Lactantius, writing in the 3rd century AD, is one of the earliest
authorities on Hermes [...]. In Hermes, [he] found a pagan prophesying the advent of Christianity and used the
Hermetic writings to prove the truth of the Church. It was a weaving of philosophical ideas which was later to
exercise great influence on Renaissance thought, particularly that of Ficino and Pico’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
This is the third Venice edition, a reprint of the 1471 Ambergau edition, but with the addition of the ‘Epitomon’.
Johannes de Colonia and Johannes Manthen took over the printing offices from Johannes de Spira who had
founded his first Venice press in 1469. De Spira’s brother Vindelius managed the press in 1470-73 but near
bankruptcy during the book production crisis forced him to give up responsibility and hand it over to Colonia and
Manthen. Under the new owners the printing offices became one of the two main associations that dominated
the Venetian book trade during the final quarter of the 15th century.
Provenance: FG (stamp to first and last page); J.P. Harris (19th-c. signature on front pastedown and initials on first
leaf); Warwick Castle (red pencil pressmark, bought from Marlborough in 1972); W.R. Jeudwine (booklabel, sale
Bloomsbury, 18 Sept. 1984, lot 16, to Taylor); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #131, acquired from Sloan, 1986).
Folio (26.1 x 18.4 cm). 228 leaves, 37 lines, register in four columns, guide-letters in red and blue, 5-line illuminated initial on B1r coloured in blue, green,
magenta and gold, with garland border and wreath in lower margin, final quire with Epitomon with 6-line illuminated initial and floral design coloured
in blue, green, magenta and gold, but unrubricated, leaf with notes from the 19th century inserted between a1 and a2.
Nineteenth-century polished calf, blindstamped roll-tooled borders, blindstamped spine in compartments, lettered in gilt, all edges gilt, mint green moire
endpapers, two brass catches; lacking clasps.
HC *9814; GW M16555; BMC V, 233; Goff L-9; ISTC il00009000.

22 LUDOLPHUS DE SAXONIA. Vita Christi. 23 GREGORIUS I, Pope. Omelie in duutschen.
Anton Koberger, Nuremberg, 20 December 1478. Johan Veldener, Utrecht, 22 April 1479.
Crisp copy with beautifully illuminated initials. The wide-margined broxbourne copy of the only dutch edition of the ‘homiliae super evangeliis’. Rare: only
one copy could be traced at auction, 33 years ago, lacking both blanks and 16 leaves. ISTC lists many imperfect copies,
Scarce: we could trace only three complete copies at auction for over 30 years, none in the last 27 years. only 16 complete: none in Belgium, only four in the Netherlands and four in the USA.
This is the first of three editions printed by Koberger (see No. 60 for the third, of smaller format), and the fifth edition ‘The Father of Christian Worship’, Gregory the Great (ca. 540-604) was familiar with the Neo-Platonic corpus
overall of this popular and influential work written in 1374. ascribed to Dionysius Areopagita. He deals here with the struggle of the soul for light and freedom from the physical
restrictions; and laid the foundations of Western Christian mysticism.
Provenance: Conventus novem ecclesiensis (early inscription on Ir; 17th-c. inscription on upper margin of same leaf,
trimmed); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #135, acquired from Howell, 1985, probably from sale Butterfield-Swann, 25 Johan Veldener (fl. 1477-81), of German origin, is one of the earliest known printers of the Netherlands. He was a
Apr. 1985, lot 387). draughtsman, punch-cutter and typefounder; probably a bookbinder as well. It is generally assumed that he learned
his trade in Cologne, before printing in several places in the Netherlands, specializing in works in Dutch. Inspired by
Folio (37.7 x 27 cm). 372 leaves, 60 lines, two columns, headlines, major illuminated initials on air, a4r, and Air in gold and colour with extensions, and on Flemish hands of that period, Veldener’s types influenced type design for printing in the vernacular on both sides of
a4r a floral border along the bottom extending the length of middle margin in gold, other initials, paragraph marks and capital-strokes supplied in red or the Channel. It has been suggested that William Caxton, also a Cologne guest, commisioned types from him for the
blue; paper repairs to final two leaves with minor loss of text, leaves trimmed affecting annotations on 1r and border on a4r. first edition of the ‘Chronicles of England’. (see Holbrook Jackson, William Caxton, 1933).
Seventeenth-century alum-tawed blindstamped pigskin with small scenes and profile portraits of prophets and other notables, spine with raised bands, red
edges; a bit rubbed and soiled, rebacked preserving original spine.
H *10292; GW M19215; BMC II, 417; Goff L-339; ISTC il00339000.
Provenance: Faded manuscript notes in Flemish dated 1629 on initial blank; Albert Ehrman (1890-1969; armorial bookplate
with motto ‘Pro viribus summis contendo’, bookplate of Broxbourne Library and monogram stamp inside lower cover, sale
Sotheby’s, 9 May 1978, lot 620, to Nico Israel); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #106, acquired from Forum, 1988).
Quarto (20.5 x 13.9 cm). 303 leaves (of 312, without ll. 51, 52, 134, 137, 186-189 and the final blank), 24 lines, foliation (with errors), rubricated with
2- to 6-line initials in red or blue, paragraph-marks in red or blue, initial-strokes in blue; occasional light soiling and marginal waterstain.
Twentieth-century crushed red morocco tooled in blind, spine gilt in compartments; lightly rubbed.
HC 7954; GW 11424; BMC IX, 11; Goff G-422; ISTC ig00422000; IDL 2092.
24 AUGUSTINUS, Aurelius [Saint], Thomas WALEYS and Nicolaus TRIVET (comment.). De civitate dei.
Michael Wenssler [and Bernhard Richel], Basel, [25 March] 1479.
A crisp copy, with wide margins and in contemporary binding, of this celebrated text by one of the great
Fathers of the Church, quoted more than 4,000 times by Calvin and ‘second only to the Bible’ for the
‘devotio moderna’ movement (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Scarce: only two copies could be traced at auction in the past three decades.
This is the third commentated edition of Augustinus’ major work. The fourteenth-century commentaries by
the Oxford Dominicans Nicolaus Trevet (c.1297-1334) and Thomas Waleys (d.1349) were previously published
by Mentelin at Strassburg before 1469 and by Schoeffer at Mainz in 1473. In all three edition, they are printed
separately from the text, and, interestingly, all three editions are the first to be printed outside Italy. Wenssler
however used a larger type for his impressive folio, and its primary intended use may well have been as a refectory
book - unlike the smaller previous editions. All succeeding commentated editions of ‘City of God’ were printed
with surrounding commentary, and in smaller format.
‘Quire [k] and the first three leaves of quire [1] are printed with the type of Bernhard Richel, also a Basel printer.
Richel, Wenssler and Berthold Ruppell (the first Basel printer) had published together the six-volume ‘Lectura
super V libris Decretalium of Nicolaus Panormitanus’ (Goff P-45) two years earlier, and Wenssler and Richel
apparently maintained a business relationship for this volume as well’ (M.Ford, BPH catalogue).
Provenance: wide inscription dated 1627 mentioning the Polish brother Laurentius on penultimate leaf; inscription
erased from first leaf; Messenger (armorial bookplate); illegible ink stamp to upper pastedown; J.R.Ritman (BPH
bookplate, #27, acquired from Quaritch, 1988).
Folio (47.2 x 33 cm). 247 leaves (of 248, without initial blank), 56 and 73 lines, two columns, variant on 1/2 reading ‘libro’ and variant title on 22/1,
incipits, colophon and printer’s device in red, 3-line initials alternating red and blue, red paragraph marks and capital-strokes; first and last page a bit
soiled, occasional light waterstain on upper margin.
Contemporary pigskin over wooden bards blindstamped with roundels and lozenges containing single- and double-headed eagles, five-leaf rosette,
fleur-de-lis, etc., brass clasps decorated with rosette; rubbed and scratched, some stains and wornholes, spine head defective.
HC 2058; GW 2885; BMC III, 726; Goff A-1241; ISTC ia01241000; cf. PMM 3 (1467 ed.).

25 BONAVENTURA [pseudo-, i.e. Servasanctus FAVENTINUS]. Sermones de tempore et de sanctis.
[Johannes de Vollenhoe], Zwolle, 1479.
A large copy, with many deckle edges, of an unusual example of ‘doppeldruck’.The first edition of one of
the earliest books printed in Zwolle by its first printer.
‘Doppeldruck’ is the process when pages are set twice resulting in variant copies. Here, quires a-c, Q-V and the
inner formes of D-K, N-P are the same in all copies, but the remaining pages exist in two settings (G. Kohlstedt,
‘Einige Faelle von Inkunabel-Doppeldrucken’, ZfB, 20, 1903, pp. 375-8). The printer is also recorded as Pieter van
Os, who was associated (and had conflicting interests) with the Vollenhoe workshop.
Usually ascribed to Bonaventura, like in this edition, these medieval sermons are now thought be mainly the work
of Servasanctus Faventinus (d. ca. 1300).
Provenance: Lucini---Roma abiit (partially illegible inscription on II/5); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #56, acquired
from Rosenthal, 1988)
Folio (29.5 x 20.8 cm). 340 leaves (of 344, without I/I, 2/I and 43/5,6, all blanks), 39 lines, two columns, some guide-letters, rubricated with initials,
capital strokes and paragraph marks in red, early ms quiring in lower right corners, untrimmed; margins with toning, occasional marginal waterstains.
Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards, fore-edge with author’s name; rebound preserving original leather of covers, clasps renewed,
some abrasions and wear.
H *3511 = HCR 3512 = HC 8976; GW 4810; BMC IX, 80; Goff B-948; ISTC ib00948000; IDL 968; Le Cinquième centenaire de l’imprimerie dans
les anciens Pays-Bas, exhibition cat. Brussels, 1973, p. 327.

26 AUGUSTINUS [pseudo-] and Masellus BENEVENTANUS (comment.). Meditationes. Soliloquia. Manuale. Scala
paradisi. De xii abusionem gradibus. [pseudo-] BERNARDUS CLARAVALLENSIS. Meditationes. De conscientia
aedificanda. Epistola de gubernatione familiae. Rhythmus ad membra Christi patientis.
[Johannes Antonius and Beninus de Honate, Milan, about 1480-82].
A beautiful copy of the only incunable edition of this collection, in a rare identified contemporary
binding, very well preserved. It appears that this copy was bound at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Georgenberg,
as a handful of other works (such as the Sexton copy of the same edition. See also Weale-Taylor, Early Stamped
Bookbindings in the British Museum, 124-6).
‘The small size of this volume reflects the character of its content. Meditation is an interior, personal activity meant
to excite the will in devotion. It is individual. The meditations, spuriously attributed to St. Augustine and taken, if
not always accurately, from his work, are prayers for understanding, guidance and salvation. They are meditations
on the divine mysteries, the two natures of Christ, the Passion, the love of God for man, and the soul’s desire for
heaven and God. Heaven is the state of unceasing contemplation of God, and the individual’s aim is to ‘believe, to
meditate upon, to understand, and ardently to thirst after God, [and ultimately] to possess Him’ (tr. G. Stanhope).
Meditation is a guided effort reaching for spiritual improvement, and these works were instrumental in leading the
individual towards that higher spirituality’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Scarce on the market: apparently only two complete copies selling at auction for over 35 years.
Provenance: Benedictine Abbey of St. Georgenberg above Stans, Tyrol (inscriptions, partly erased, dated 1652 and
1659 on I/2r and 1659 and 1654 on 26/4v); London Library, the Allen Library (stamps, sale Sotheby’s, 14 June
1966, lot 33, to Maggs); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #31, acquired from Breslauer, 1987).
Octavo (19.4 x 13.7 cm). 185 leaves (probably printed in half-sheets), leaves 7 and 8 of the first quire misbound so that two gatherings are formed,
the order being 1, 2, 7, 8, and 3-6, guide-letters, some initials supplied in red.
Contemporary calf over wooden boards, blindstamped to an elaborate design of central diapered panel with double-rose, palm spray and cinquefoil in
each lozenge, surrounded by ‘Ave Maria’ scrolls, five circular brass bosses to each cover, two chased brass clasps, contemporary lettered title-label on
front cover and 17th-c. lettered title-label in all four spine compartments, free vellum endleaves from a 15th century legal manuscript; spine repaired
at head and foot, lower corners repaired, one clasp with leather tongue renewed; kept in a cloth slipcase.
CR 733; GW 2970; BMC VI, 740; Goff A-1292; ISTC ia01292000.

27 ORIGENES. Contra Celsum et in fidei Christianae defensionem libri.
Georgius Herolt, Rome, January 1481.
A complete, fresh and unsophisticated copy of the first edition of this Church Father, in a contemporary
binding - rare such: only two other complete copies could be traced at auction in the past three decades, both
in later bindings.
One of only two dated productions from Herolt’s press, out of an general output of four printings.
Although BMC and Goff cite this edition as folio and quarto, all sheets in this copy are folio. Copies are also known
with a dedicatory letter to Ferdinand of Aragon in place of that to Giovanni Mocenigo (for example in Bologna),
and to Sixtus IV (at Oxford Bodleian, or the Vatican).
Born in Alexandria and now considered a Father of the Church, Origen (also Origen Adamantius, ca. 185–253)
excelled in multiple branches of theological scholarship. He wrote an abundant work, of which much is now lost, or
known though other authors, in particular Eusebius of Caesarea, our chief witness to Origen’s life. In 248, ‘Origen
wrote this Christian apology in response to the ‘True doctrine’ of Celsus, a middle Platonic work defending ancient
pagan religions from the ‘corrupting’ influences of Judaism and Christianity. Ironically, Celsus’ work has survived only
through Origen’s ‘Contra Celsum’ where significant passages of it are quoted’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue). Translated
by Christophorus Persona (1416-86).
Provenance: J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #145, acquired from Salloch, 1984, probably from sale Sotheby’s NY, 14
Dec. 1983, lot 28).
Folio (28.4 x 21 cm). 264 leaves, 33 lines, capital spaces at the beginnings of books, unrubricated, quire [d] misbound after quire [a] (also according
to register); occasional foxing, later ms note to first flyleaf.
Contemporary vellum, lettered along spine; a bit soiled, backstrip repaired, lacking ties; housed in a morocco-backed clamshell-box.
HC (+Add) *12078; GW M28390; BMC IV, 126; Goff O-95; ISTC io00095000.

28 Sermones sensati.
Gerard Leeu, Gouda, 20 February 1482.
Fine, complete example, with wide margins, of the rare first edition. The Sexton-Broxbourne-Abrams copy,
and only one complete to appear at auction for over 40 years. ISTC lists only five copies in North America.
Wrongly attributed to Sensatus, this collection of 49 sermons is preceded by two tables, one a summary of the
messages of each sermon, the other the contents proper.The first table is supplied with keys in the form of letters
which correspond to paragraphs marked by the same letters in the text.
Provenance: Eric Hyde, Lord Sexton (1902-80, shelf label and gilt brown morocco label, sale Christie’s NY, 8 Apr.
1981, lot 72); George Abrams (booklabel, sale Sotheby’s 16 Nov. 1989, lot 117, to Tenschert); J.R. Ritman (BPH
bookplate, #205, acquired 1990).
Folio (29 x 21 cm). 212 leaves (first and last blanks), 35 lines, 12-line woodcut initial on a1, variant BX (see ISTC), rubricated throughout in red,
occasional guide-letters in blue. Nineteenth century half calf over speckled paperboards.
C 5376; GW M41752; BMC IX, 34; Goff S-442; ISTC is00472500; IDL 4096.
29 BOETHIUS and [pseudo-] Thomas AQUINAS (comment.). De consolatione philosophiae.

Johannes Koelhoff thet Elder, Cologne, 1482.
A very good copy, with very wide lower margins, of this rare edition of one of the most widely read and
influential texts of western philosophy. The second printing given by Koelhoff, just a year after his first.
We could not trace any copy of any of Koelhoff ’s editions at auction in the last half century.
Johann Koelhoff the Elder (d.1493) set up one of the first printshops in Cologne, after arriving from Lübeck
in 1472, via Venice, where he had learned printing from Wendelin von Speyer. He introduced the signatures of
gatherings for the correct placement of printed sheets and later used the Venetian rotunda type.
Provenance: J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #299).
Folio (28.5 x 18.5 cm). 202 leaves (of 204, without initial and final blank), rubricated, 10-line initial supplied in red, blue and green, numerous small
initials in red and blue; occasional light browning and soiling, stains on a7v and a8. Recent brown calf.
HC 3375; GW 4531; BMC I, 225; Goff B-775; ISTC ib00775000.

30 HYGINUS, Caius Julius [but Hyginus MYTHOGRAPHUS], Jacobus SENTINUS and Johannes Lucilius 31 FICINUS, Marsilius. Platonica theologia de immortalitate animorum.
SANTRITTER (editors). Poeticon astronomicon. Antonio di Bartolommeo Miscomini, Florence, 7 November 1482.
Erhard Ratdolt, Venice, 14 October 1482.
Crisp copy of the first edition of ficino’s most important philosophical writing.
The first printed illustrations of the ancient figures of the sun, moon, planets and constellations: the
attractive redgrave-honeyman-abrams copy of the first illustrated edition, the second overall, preceded by Rare on the market: apparently no copy offered at auction in the last 30 years.
the 1475 Ferrara edition, which included blank spaces intended to be illustrated by hand. The attractive woodcuts
in the present edition stayed in Ratdolt’s possession and were re-used by him in his 1485 reprint and then in his Tranlator of Hermes and Plato, Marisilio Ficino (1433-99) was the founder and for many years the spiritual head of
1488 Augsburg printing of Johannes Angelus’ ‘Astrolabium’. the Platonic Academy of Florence. Shortly after having completed his corpus of Plato translations, Ficino finished the
present ‘Theologia’, which he dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici, il Magnifico. Kristeller has characterised it as ‘a summa
The traditional attribution to Hyginus (64 BCE-17 AD), librarian of the Palatine Library and friend of Ovid’s, on the immortality of the soul’. At this time the immortality of the soul had not yet been asserted as a dogma of
seems incorrect. The text would have rather been written in the 2nd century, by the same author as the ‘Fabulae’, the Catholic Church, and immediately before the colophon Ficino wrote that ‘here and elsewhere only so much is
therefore called Hyginus Mythographus. asserted as has the approbation of the church’. Interestingly, the 7-page corrigendum to this edition demonstrates
how much Ficino continued amending and correcting the work during the printing process by Miscomini.
Provenance: Gilbert R. Redgrave (1844-1941, architectural draughtsman, bibliographer of Ratdolt in particular, and
art historian, 1894 bookplate, annotations and extensive catalogue descriptions pasted at end); Robert Honeyman Provenance: Benedictines of Monreale (later ownership inscription on f10r); sale Sotheby’s, 26 May 1983, lot 404,
IV (gilt red morocco label, sale Sotheby’s, 6 Nov. 1979, lot 1735, to:); George Abrams (bookplate, sale Sotheby’s, to Quaritch; J.R. Ritman, (BPH bookplate, #84, acquired from Gabler, 1983)
16 Nov. 1989, lot 69, to Tenschert); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #279).
Folio and 4to (24.9 x 18.8 cm). 318 leaves (incl. f9 blank and the final leaf of register), 33 lines, guide-letters, some Greek, unrubricated, some
Quarto (18.5 x 14.2 cm). 58 leaves (first blank), 31 lines, title printed in red, 2-, 5-, 6- and 11-line woodcut initials, 47 half-page woodcuts of the contemporary ms marginalia, the 4to sheets are (differing from BMC) x1,4; y1; dd3,4; ee2,4; ff1; gg2,4; occasional spotting and faint marginal
constellation and planet figures, probably designed by Santritter; first page a bit darkened, very occasional light spotting. dampstaining.
Eighteenth-century Italian quarter calf over marbled boards, spine gilt with raised bands.
Nineteenth-century polished calf, ruled with spine lettered in gilt, sprinkled edges; extremities rubbed, housed in red cloth chemise and slipcase.
H*7075; GW 9881; BMC VI, 637; Goff F-157; ISTCif00157000.
HC *9062; GW N0374; BMC V, 286; Goff H-560; ISTC ih00560000.
In the best possible variant
32 Biblia germanica.
Anton Koberger, Nuremberg, 17 February 1483.
A magnificently handcoloured and illuminated example of koberger’s celebrated ninth german bible, in a
contemporary binding. One of the most representative incunable productions, a beautiful achievement by one
of the most successful printing entreprises of the time.
It appears that Koberger issued his high German Bible at three prices: with cuts uncoloured; with cuts coloured;
and with cuts coloured in a broader palette, and the major initials and first woodcut illuminated with gold leaf -
like the present copy.
While he based the text on the 1474-76 Zainer Bible, Koberger acquired the woodcuts from Heinrich Quentell
in Cologne, who had used them in two royal folio editions of the Bible in Low German, c. 1478; it is supposed
that Koberger had a financial share in the second of these Cologne editions. Six of the original Cologne woodcuts
were lost by the time the blocks were exported to Nuremberg. Koberger nonetheless did a remarkable use of
these illustrations, influencing subsequent editions of the Bibles up to 1522, as well as Dürer’s 1498 Apocalypse.
Although showing strong links with the creations of the Master of the Cologne Bibles and other Rhenish masters,
the artist remain unknown.
Provenance: Hans Dolchinger, 1524 (inscription in vol. II); Brno, Moravia (inscription on f.296 of vol. 2 ‘catalogo
inscriptus domus probationis societ Jesu Brunensis Anno 1625. 3. January’); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #41,
acquired from Tenschert, 1989).
Two volumes folio (41.5 x 29.5 cm). 584 leaves (of 588 without final and 2 initial blanks), double column, 50 lines and headline, 109 woodcuts (from
108 blocks), woodcuts coloured by a contemporary hand, the first heightened in gold, 4 initials illuminated in gold and colours, 3- to 8-line initials in red,
blue, green and purple with penwork decoration, rubricated with paragraph-marks and initial-strokes in red; very occasional soiling.
Contemporary calf over wooden boards, iron clasps, volume I blindstamped with pine-branch ornament, volume 2 with a similar ornament combined
with a griffin motif; rebacked, some restoration to edges; housed in modern cloth clamshell case.

33 HENRICUS DE HERP[F]. Sermones de tempore et de sanctis. 34 BERNARDUS CLARAVALLENSIS. Meditationes de interiori homine.
Peter Drach, Speyer, [after 17 January 1484, not after 1486]. [Louis Martineau and Antoine Caillaut, Paris, around 1484/85].
Fresh, complete example of the first edition, in a scarce contemporary binding and preserving many deckle Lovely, complete copy of a very scarce edition of this work, not found in Hain, BMC and Goff.
edges - rare such: although well represented in public holding, no complete copy could be traced at auction in
the last 35 years. ISTC records two complete copies in institutions (Evora BPADE and RNL in St. Petersburg) and two more
without the last leaf (Edinburgh and Vienna). GW was unable to confirm the existence of the last leaf present
The Dutch mystic Henricus de Herp (d. 1477) was a rector of the Brothers of the Common Life in Delft and here, since it was lacking in the two copies then located (Vienna and Lübeck, apparently now lost). The printers
Gouda, where he encouraged book production in particular. ‘He left aside his exploration of mysticism in his however published at least six other editions, similar to the present one, between ca. 1489-93.
sermons concentrating instead on the explication of text and teaching through Scripture. [The third, for instance,
‘De quatuor in quibus gula com-mititur’, deals at length with drinking to excess.] Perhaps because of his reputation These meditations, to be distinguished from Bernard’s ‘consideration’, investigate the nature of spirituality and also
as a great preacher, Herp is mistakenly identified here as a member of the ‘predicatorum’. The mistake was caught offer advice on combating sin and overcoming demons. It is usually attributed to St. Bernard or, less frequently, to
during the press-run, and corrected in print in some later copies to ‘minorum’, This copy has the identification Hugh of St. Victor.
corrected in a contemporary hand, probably that of an employee in the printing shop’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Provenance: Quaritch (note at end); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #37, acquired from Sotheby’s, 19 May 1989, lot 54)
Provenance: Benedictine monastery at Asbach; J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #110, acquired from Rosenthal, 1985)
Small 4to (19.4 x 13.1 cm). 16 leaves (last blank), 33 lines, 2- to 4-line initials supplied in red or blue, capital strokes in yellow wash, ruled in magenta;
Folio (31.4 x 21.5 cm). 428 leaves, 48 lines, two columns, rubricated throughout in red with initials and capital strokes, leaves d1-3, 6-8, N3 and 6 minor spotting in places, small rust or burn hole to margin of A3 and A4.
printed on smaller (chancery) and untrimmed sheets, printer’s device; light occasional spotting, slight worming at beginning and end, contemporary ms Eighteenth-century olive sheep, covers with gilt fillet,, flat spine gilt in compartments, red morocco label lettered in gilt; a bit rubbed.
note to first and small ownership inscription to second leaf; occasional light marginal staining. GW 4027; ISTC ib00402300; not in Hain, BMC and Goff.
Contemporary blindstamped calf over beechwood boards, ms title vellum on upper cover; rubbed at extremities, without central and corner bosses
and clasps, joints cracked but firm, a few wormholes; kept in a cloth clamshell box.
HC 8527; GW 12225; BMC II, 493; Goff H-38; ISTC ih00038000; Simon, Bibl. Bacchia I, 118 & Gastronomica 839.
Ficino’s Plato ‘was a bestseller; it is a fame which succeeding ages have
not diminished’ (pmm)
35 PLATO and Marsilius FICINUS (transl. and comment.). Opera.

Laurentius (Francisci) de Alopa, Florence, [1484].
Ficino’s Opus Magnus: first edition of Plato and first Latin translation of the complete works in any
form, of great rarity. A copy with important contemporary provenance.
Marsilio Ficino completed his translation of Plato’s works in 1468, after having first translated Hermes, believed to
be Plato’s chief source (see No. 10 above). ‘The translation circulated first in manuscript before being published in
1484 with Ficino’s commentary and financed by Filippo Valori with Francesco Berlinghieri. Printed on two presses,
each using a different type, the ‘Opera’ were completed and delivered to Valori in sections, thus explaining the
fragmentary state of most copies. This copy consists of those parts completed first: [Ficino’s] compendium on
‘Timaeus’, ‘Timaeus’, ‘Critias’, ‘De legibus’, ‘Epinomis’ and ‘Epistolae’.
This copy is of particular interest as it once belonged to Franchino Gafori (1451-1522) and contains his inscription
with date of purchase and his marginal notes paraphrasing passages in the text. [Gafori was choir master at Milan
cathedral and] also professor of music at the university of Pavia, a position unique in Italy up to that time. He had
already published ‘Theorica musicae’ in 1480, and it appeared in a second edition in 1492 after he had read and
annotated this copy of Ficino’s Plato. Its influence is evident in several passages quoting Ficino and Plato’ (M. Ford,
BPH catalogue).
Very rare: we could trace only another copy, also fragmentary, appearing at auction in the last half-century.
This seminal edition is well represented in public, particularly academic, holdings. In most cases however it is
incomplete and consists of some gatherings, like the present copy.
Provenance: Franchino Gafori (inscription at end: ‘franchini gaffori musices p[ro]fessoris/ est his liber die vi maii
1489 emptus’); Biblioteca Lucini Passalaqua (bookplate removed); Adrianna R. Salem (monogram booklabel
removed); J.R. Ritman (BPH binding, #158, acquired at Drouot, 28 May 1986, lot 18).
Folio (25.5 x 20 cm). 160 leaves (of 562), two columns, 46 lines, headlines, marginal notes and diagrams in ink by a contemporary hand, margins
trimmed by a later binder slightly affecting annotations, later endpapers.
Collation conform with GW, apart from mm, there described as consisting of eight leaves, while ours is composed of six leaves and seems complete.
Indeed the signature runs up to mm3, and the text runs on and is congruent with the text passage in a later edition we were able to consult.
Recent crushed morocco by Hans van der Horst, Eenhoorn Bindereij, Amsterdam, for the BPH, ruled and lettered in blind, blue speckled edges, with
matching clamshell box.
H *13062; GW M33912; BMC VI, 666; Goff P-771; ISTC ip00771000; PMM 27.

36 OTTO VON PASSAU. Dat boeck des gulden throens.
[Jacob Bellaert], Haarlem, 25 October 1484.
First publication of these woocuts, by the first printer in Haarlem, famous for the quality of his
publications and illustrations: ‘[Jacob Bellaert] allait éditer un fonds essentiellement néerlandais d’un niveau
littéraire très élevé, et d’un style plutôt luxueux. [...] [Ses publications] frappent par la particulière beauté des bois
qui illustrent le texte’ (Cinquième centenaire, p. 283).
These charming woodcuts appear here for the first time, with the exception of the device, first printed in 1483.
Only four different blocks were used for the 24 impressions, each depicting an Elder talking to a kneeling woman,
representing the soul, in a room with tiled floor. They are attributed to the ‘Haarlem Woodcutter’ (Conway), also
called the ‘Bellaert Master’, as his works appeared at first in publications of this printed. As Bellaert abandoned his
printing shop in 1486, the master worked afterwards for Gerard Leeu, with whom Bellaert was closely associated.
The same cuts were later used in six incunable editions of Bonaventura’s ‘Soliloquium’ in Dutch, all printed in Antwerp.
Otto of Passau (fl. 1362-85), was reader of theology at the Franciscan convent of Basel. According to the epilogue,
he finished ‘Die vierundzwanzig Alten oder der goldene Thron der minnenden Seele’ on 2 February 1386. However,
the earliest manuscript of this work is definitely dated 1383 (Karlsruhe, LB, cod. St. Georgen Pap. germ. LXIV).
An edifying work, it is a compilation of Scripture and patristic and pagan thought, grouped under 24 aspects of
Christian life and faith, which Otto relates to the 24 wise men of the Apocalypse. ‘In an acknowledgement beginning
the book Otto names the sources, more than one hundred, from which he culled his anthology, and they include
pseudo-Dionysius, Origen, Eusebius, Augustine, Hugh of St. Victor, Macrobius, Plato, Pythagoras and Boethius. [...]
Although Otto hides any of his own theological thoughts behind that of his many sources, he was apparently
involved with the Friends of God (Gottesfreunde). [They] were a loosely organised group composed primarily of
lay people sharing a similar mystical theology. [...] The way to friendship began in an ascetic life and ended in union
with God. Among the chief adherents to the Gottesfreunde were Meister Eckhart, Tauler, Suso, and Merswin’ (M.
Ford, BPH catalogue, and Anna Seesholtz, ‘Friends of God’, 1934).
Otto’s work enjoyed an enormous popularity with nuns in Germany and the Netherlands: more than 120
manuscripts in various dialects survived and six German incunable editions were published, as well as two Dutch,
of which this is the second.
Very rare: we could not trace any other copy selling at auction in the last 35 years.
With a fine 19th-century provenance, including William Morris and John Pierpont Morgan.
Provenance: Jules Capron,Ypres (1829-97, Ypres, founder member of the Société des Bibliophiles in Belgium,
armorial bookplate; his sale, Brussels, 1875); William Horatio Crawford of Lakelands (1812-88, Cork, bookplate;
his sale, London, 1891, lot 2297, to Quaritch); William Morris (1834-96, his Kelmscott booklabel); Richard Bennett
(1849-c.1910, bookplate); John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913, leather label and withdrawal slip of the Morgan
library); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #148).
Folio (24.5 x 18.4 cm). [4], CXXXVII, [2], that is 140 leaves (of 142, without initial and final blanks), foliation with errors, two columns, 39 lines, 24
woodcuts from 4 blocks by the Haarlem woodcutter, printer’s device, rubricated with initials and capital-strokes in red; rubrication a bit faded and
occasionnally offsetting, a few contemporary notes.
Modern brown morocco by Devauchelle, Paris, 1989, blindstamped in antique style, together with custom-made box.
HC 12132; GW M28517; BMC IX,101; Goff O-125; ISTC io00125000; IDL 3463; Le Cinquième centenaire de l’imprimerie dans les anciens Pays-
Bas, exhibition cat. Brussels, 1973; Conway, The Woodcutters of the Netherlands, Cambridge, 1884, I, p. 65 and II, sect. 11, no. 1 and 4A; I. Kok, De
Houtsneden in de Incunabelen van de Lage Landen, Diss. Amsterdam 1994, no. 11.4:1-4 (Elders) and 11.1 (device).

37 BOETHIUS. De consolatione Philosophiae [Latin and Dutch].
Arend de Keysere, Ghent, 3 May 1485.
The first Dutch edition, one of only eight works in Dutch printed at the first press in Ghent. It is also
the longest commentary printed for ‘The Consolation’.
Rare: we could trace in recent years only the Broxbourne copy, sold at auction in 1977.
Considered to be a masterpiece of Arend de Keysere (d. 1490), the prototypographer of Ghent, this is probably
one of the most beautifully printed early Dutch books using two sizes of gothic type. De Keysere had previously
set up the first press in nearby Oudenaarde in 1480 and was possibly associated with printing in Louvain before
moving to Ghent.
‘Boethius’s text, which appears in both Dutch and Latin, is accompanied by an extensive commentary in Dutch.
The commentator remains anonymous but was evidently associated with the chapter of St. Pharailde at Ghent
where, he says in the preface, he deposited his corrected manuscript for the use and benefit (tot elcx nutscap
ende profite) of all. A large section of the first page beginning each book has been left blank, apparently to contain
an original drawing’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Provenance: Library of the Academy of George Augustus (ownership and withdrawal stamps); Ilfeld Library
(ownership and withdrawal stamps; inscription inked over on a3.2r); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #49, acquired
from Karl & Hartung, 13-16 May 1986, lot 190).
Folio (36.6 x 25.7 cm). 356 leaves (of 360, without blanks a3.I, b6, aI, V8), 52 lines, two columns, headlines, some guide-letters, printer’s device,
rubricated in red, occasional marginal notes, leaf with title lettered by hand added, ms philological notes on front flyleaf; occasional staining, a few
leaves with old marginal repairs.
Eighteenth-century mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments with raised bands, gilt ruled covers, speckled egdes; rubbed and worn in places.
HC 3400; GW 4574; BMC IX, 206; Goff B-812; ISTC ib00812000; IDL 908; Le Cinquième centenaire de l’imprimerie dans les anciens Pays-Bas,
exhibition cat. Brussels, 1973, 160 (ill.).

38 HUGO de SANCTO VICTORE. De sacramentis christianae fidei.
[Printer of the 1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg (Georg Husner)], Strassburg, 30 July 1485.
First edition, in a very fresh, crisp copy attractively bound.
This is the greatest work of Hugh of St. Victor (ca.1078/96-1141), an important mystic, whose writings and
teachings from the Augustinian Abbey of Saint Victor in Paris became one of the foundations of Scholastic theology.
As an ordered compendium of Christian theology, ‘De sacramentis christianae fiedei’ is the precedent for all later
‘Summae’ and it provides the foundations of Hugo’s allegorical exegesis.
Provenance: Benedictine monastery of St. Peter the Apostle at Oberaltaich (contemporary inscription on first
leaf); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #120, acquired from Salloch, 1986).
Folio (29 x 20.7 cm). 160 leaves, two columns, headlines, guide-letters, blind impressions on N6vb using part of headline and on k5b, k6b.
2- to 6-line initials, capital-strokes, paragraph marks and underlining supplied in red, most sheets in quires I, K, L and N unrubricated; minor marginal
hole at beginning and marginal waterstain at end.
Sixteenth-century pigskin over wooden boards blindstamped with central tool depicting crucifixion and IHS within sunburst on front cover and
madonna with child in sunburst on rear cover, edges dyed green; a bit darkened and stained, without two fore-edge clasps.
HC *9025; GW n0295; BMC I, 133; Goff H-535; ISTC ih00535000.
39 PICUS DE MIRANDULA, Johannes. Apologia conclusionum suorum.

[Francesco del Tuppo, Naples, after (?) 31 May 1487].
Firstedition: a wide-margined copy. Rare: no copy could be traced at auction for over 30 years, and ISTC
records only three copies in North America (Dallas, Harvard and Lib. of Congress), two complete in the UK (BL
and Durham), four in Italy (incl. two in the Vatican) and none in France.
This is the second work of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94), Ficino’s very gifted and short-lived younger
contemporary. He wrote the ‘Apologia’ ‘in defense of thirteen of his nine-hundred ‘conclusiones’ with which he
had arrived in Rome the previous year to debate in public and through which he claimed to reconcile a multitude
of philosophers and philosophical schools. The debate never took place, and Pope Innocent VIII condemned
the ‘Conclusiones’ upon publication’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue). Pico agreed in writing to retract, but he did not
change his mind about their validity, and proceeded to write this ‘Apologia’. When the Pope was apprised of the
circulation of this manuscript, he set up an inquisitorial tribunal, forcing Pico to renounce the ‘Apologia’ as well
which he also agreed to do.
Provenance: Faded note on (a)2r: Bibl. Coll. [--]; J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #151, acquired from Soave, 1987).
Folio (28.6 x 20.5 cm). 60 leaves, spaces for Greek, woodcut capitals, early ms foliation, some marginal corrections or notes; light marginal staining.
Modern vellum.
H 13000?; GW M33291; BMC VI, 871; Goff P-635; ISTC ip00635000.

40 GERARDUS ZERBOLD DE ZUTPHANIA. Tractatus de spiritualibus ascensionibus.
[Ulrich Zell], ‘apud Lijskyrchen’, Cologne, [about 1488].
The Duff-Doheny copy of an unusually small incunable, issued from the press of the first printer in Cologne.
Probably sold separately, this third edition is sometimes found bound together at the time with two of his other
small formats, the ‘Horologium’ by Bertholdus and Thomas a Kempis’ ‘Meditationes’.
The Dutch mystical theologian Gerard Zerbolt (1367-98) was an early member of the Brethren of the Common
Life at Deventer, a lay community formed from the ‘Devotio Moderna’ movement, who led lives which renounced
all worldly things. He describes the path leading to a mystical union with God, but not the experience itself.
‘For him [...] contemplation, but not direct knowledge, of God is the higest attainable goal in life’ (M. Ford, BPH
catalogue). Gerard’s work greatly influenced Ignatius of Loyola’s ‘Spiritual Exercises’.
Scarce: we could trace only another copy at auction in the last 35 years, in 1979, also in later morocco.
Provenance: Early owner (perhaps a representative of the ‘Devotio Moderna’, inscription in lower margin of dd2r,
chapter 18, ‘lege et relege istum capitulum et invenies graciam’); Edward Gordon Duff,
Nov. 1891 (inscription and collation note, sale Sotheby’s 18 March 1925, lot 404); Estelle Doheny (gilt red morocco
booklabel, sale Christie’s NY, 22 Oct. 1987, lot 29, to Kraus); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #90).
Sextodecimo (10.8 x 7.7 cm). 119 leaves (of 120, without final blank), 22 lines, rubricated with 2- and 4-line initials, paragraph-marks and capital
strokes in red.
Nineteenth-century full brown crushed morocco by Fazakerley of Liverpool, all edges gilt, spine gilt with original strip rebacked.
H 8931 (II) = 2995 (II) = HC 2995 (III); GW 10687; BMC I, 199; Goff G-175; ISTC ig00175000.
41 ALANUS DE INSULIS. De maximis theologiae.

[Jakob Wolff or Johann Amerbach, Basel, not after 1492].
Lovely crisp copy, dated by the rubricator, of the first edition of a summary of theological cosmology, written
by a French 12th-century anti-scholastic theologian and also one of the foremost didactic poets of his day. Alain
de Lille was ‘a Cistercian, honored by his contemporaries as the Universal Doctor. He was born in Lille; he taught
at Paris and Montpellier before retiring to Cîteaux. Alain attempted to give rational support to the tenets of
Christian faith in his writings. He held that the mind unaided by revelation can know the universe, but by faith
alone can man know God. Although his thought was largely Neoplatonic, he made use of numerous Aristotelian
and neo-Pythagorean elements. The mathematical and deductive method had an important place in the working
out of his theology’ (Encyclpaedia Orbis Latini).
Some bibliographers (Goff, GW, Proctor) ascribe this printing to Johann Amerbach.
Provenance:WS, 1495 (rubricator’s mark of three crossed arrows, initials and date on the first leaf in red, highlighted
with yellow wash); J.R.Ritman (BPH bookplate, #4, acquired from W. Salloch, 1984).
Quarto (19.6 x 14 cm). 40 ll., 32 to 35 lines, 7-line initial supplied in red with yellow-wash highlighting, some strokes in yellow wash; initial and final
leaves a little spotted in places. Modern vellum.
HC *389; GW 510; BMC III, 776; Goff A-181; ISTC ia00181000; Proctor 7624.

42 THOMAS A KEMPIS. Imitatio Christi. [With] Johannes GERSON. De meditatione cordis.
[Johann Zainer, Ulm], 1487.
Fresh and interestingly bound copy of this bestseller of religious literature, ‘the most widely read
devotional manual apart from the Bible [and of] undeniable universal appeal’ (PMM).
‘Zainer had already printed in 1487 an edition of the ‘Imitatio Christi’. This is a page-for-page reprint of it, but
Zainer’s name and place of printing are absent. Also absent in this reprint is the attribution made in the earlier
edition to Jean Gerson. Had Zainer altered his opinion? [...]
The work of Gerson, [himself very much attracted by the ‘Devotio Moderna’ and Kempis’ instruction], is frequently
found with that of Thomas a Kempis which, along with a shared spirituality, undoubtedly led to the attribution of
the ‘Imitatio Christi’ to Gerson. Curiously, Gerson’s ‘De meditatione cordis’ came to be so closely connected with
the ‘Imitatio Christi’ that it even appears in the 1494 edition of Thomas a Kempis’s works’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Provenance: Rubricator, 1488 (his date on first leaf, and possibly his signature ‘per Johannis Cheselij ... 1488’);
Carthusian monastery in Gaming, Austria (contemporary inscription at head of the second leaf); Madeleine and
Rene Junod (bookplate); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #186, acquired from Schäfer, 1987).
Octavo (15 x 10.8 cm). [viii, the last blank], clxxxii, [2, blank] leaves, running titles and 22 lines, 3- to 4-line initials, some with extensions, rubricated
with paragraph-marks and capital-strokes supplied in red; extensive contemporary ms notes on pastedowns and flyleaves in Latin, notes on rear
pastedown in German, light spotting in places only, a few wormholes towards the end, final printed leaf with old repaired paperflaw to upper margin.
Contemporary red stained goatskin over wooden boards, blindstamped with fleurons, perforated leather overlap extending from spine head and foot,
brass corner and central bosses, single brass fore-edge clasp, paper label on front cover and lower spine, vellum end-leaves, the rear one a manuscript
fragment; a bit restored, four metalpieces missing; housed in a modern green cloth drop-back box.
HC(+Add) *9091; GW M46804; BMC II, 530; Goff I-13; ISTC ii00013000; cf. PMM 13 (1473 ed.).
(Original size)

43 APULEIUS MADAURENSIS, Lucius and Joannes ANDREAE (editor). Opera. HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. Asclepius.
ALBINUS. Epitoma disciplinarum Platonis. [Bound with] Lucius Coelius Firmianus LACTANTIUS and Joannes
ANDREAE (editor). Opera.
I. Henricus de Sancto Ursio, Zenus, Vicenza, 9 August 1488. II. Vicentius Benalius, Venice, 22 March 1493.
Fine gathering of Neoplatonic works related to magic, the last being heavily annotated and one of only
six known books printed by V. Benalius in Venice rare on the market, as we could trace only two other copies
selling at auction in the past 35 years.
The only Latin novel to survive in its entirety. Apuleius’ works, here in their second edition 24 years after
the first, include his best-known work ‘Asinus aureus, sive Metamorphosis’, that is ‘The Golden Ass’. Telling the
transformations of a young Greek, the novel presents occult magic, ritual and Egyptian religion. It find therefore a
natural place next to Herme’s ‘Asclepius’, of which Apuleius was considered the translator. The only philosophical
Hermetic work known in the West in the Middle Ages, ‘Asclepius’ ‘illustrates man’s power to create. By combining
plants, stones and other natural substances one may make talismans into which spirits are drawn, again attracted
[...] by ritual, including sacrifices and hymns imitating the harmony of heaven.’
Interestingly, Lactantius’ works are also related to magic - linking it to cabala. ‘The Word contains divine power
for cabala, and Hebrew, the language in which God spoke, and its characters, are the most important means of
effecting cabalistic magic’ (both quotes M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Provenance: Monastery of Wetzlar (gift of D. de Biss, with 17th century presentation inscription); unidentified owner
(modern booklabel, fist with arrows and motto ‘esto memore conjugere’); sale Christie’s, 8 Nov 1978, lot 109
(unrestored, with initial blank), to Thorp; J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #22 & 132, acquired from Goldschmidt, 1988).
Five works in two editions in one volume folio (30.9 x 21 cm). I. 177 leaves, (of 178, without initial blank), 38 lines and headline, printer’s device; II. 140
leaves, 45 lines and headline; both with guide-letters, rubricated in red including a few text indicators in margin; marginal notes in Latin and Greek,
extensive in II., ms foliation, occasional stains, more at beginning and end.
Contemporary beechwood boards, blindstamped calf back renewed, contemporary lettering to upper board and fore-edge, two brass fore-edge catches
without clasps.
HC *1316 and *9816; GW 2302 and M16552 ; BMC VII, 1047 and V, 525; Goff A-935 and L-11; ISTC ia00935000 and il00011000.

44 APULEIUS MADAURENSIS, Lucius and Joannes ANDREAE (editor). Opera. HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. Asclepius.
ALBINUS. Epitoma disciplinarum Platonis.
Henricus de Sancto Ursio, Zenus, Vicenza, 9 August 1488.
A fresh and tall copy of this second edition, published 24 years after the first, of which it is a close reprint.
All three works are central to Renaissance humanism, and include the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety:
Apuleius’ ‘Asinus aureus, sive Metamorphosis’ [‘The Golden Ass’].
They were edited, introduced and dedicated to cardinal Bessarion by Giovanni Andrea de Bussi (‘Joannes
Andreae’, 1417-75), Bishop of Aleria and secretary to Nicolaus de Cusa (1401-64), a cardinal and one of the
great geniuses and polymaths of the 15th century. ‘Andrea recalls De Cusa, ‘the most wise in the teachings of
Plato and Pythagoras’ and commends Bessarion’s own recently published defense of Plato, ‘Adversus Platonis
calumniatorem’.The Albinus work, which [Andrea] includes on the grounds of its summary importance to Platonic
thought, was translated by Petrus Balbus and dedicated to De Cusa for whom Balbus had undertaken other
translations. Ficino, a great admirer of De Cusa and correspondent of Bessarion also recognized the value of
Albinus’s ‘Epitoma’ and translated it himself, although it was first printed posthumously in 1532’ (M. Ford, BPH
catalogue). Owing to a misreading, it was also ascribed to ‘Alcinous’, as in this edition.
Provenance: Robert Finch (bookplate and withdrawal stamp; given to Taylor Institution, Baillol College, Oxford); J.R.
Ritman (BPH bookplate, #21, acquired from Harper, 1982)
Folio (32.8 x 21 cm). 178 leaves, 38 lines and headline, guide-letters, printer’s device; occasional contemporary ms annotations to margins.
Eighteenthh century vellum, gilt spine, red leather spine labels, split to front cover along joint.
HC *1316; GW 2302; BMC VII, 1047; Goff A-935; ISTC ia00935000.

45 BERTHOLDUS. Horologium devotionis circa vitam Christi. [Bound with] Thomas a KEMPIS. De vita et beneficiis
salvatoris Jesu Christi devotissime meditationes cum gratiaru[m] actione. [And with] GERARDUS ZERBOLD DE
ZUTPHANIA. Tractatus de spiritualibus ascensionibus. David de AUGUSTA. De exterioris et interioris hominis
compositione Lib. II, 1 (de quatuor in quibus incipientes deo servire debent esse cauti).
Johann Amerbach and Johann Petri de Langendorff , Basel, [not after 1489-1490].
Lovely hand-coloured Sammelband in an attractive contemporary binding.
Amerbach’s production is noteworthy for its woodcuts. From the 36 printed in Bertholdus’ second Basel edition,
seven are due to the Master of the Haintz Narr, and 23 are clearly inspired from the Cologne tradition, as found
in Zell’s 1488 edition. Intertwined with a text in different type sizes, they lead the reader and show, next to the
Passion, the traditional key events of the life of Christ.
Bertholdus was a Dominican of the mid-14th century, who first wrote his ‘Zeitglöcklein des Lebens’ und ‘Leidens
Christi’ in his native language, German. They were however never published in the original German, but the Latin
version (by the author himself) was first published in about 1488 at Cologne and enjoyed considerable popularity
up to about 1510, mostly in Germany (see GW 4166 sqq.).
Like in the present case, it often found bound together with the two other works. They were indeed popular
devotional texts, in particular in the ‘Devotio Moderna’ movement, a remarkable religious phenomenon of the
late 14th century. Thomas a Kempis is probably the most famous name associated, as he wrote biographies of
prominent members, Gerard Groote the founder, Florens Randewijns, John van de Gronde and John Brinckerinck.
Provenance: Ludovicus Anetenwyl, 1569 (date purchase inscription on first title; ‘monasterii s[ancti] urbani’); J.R.
Ritman (BPH bookplate, #300-302, acquired 1990).
Four works published in three editions (the last edition consisting of two works) in one volume octavo (13.9 x 10 cm). I. 65 leaves (of 66, without final
blank), 30 lines, 36 near half-page woodcuts hand-coloured, 3- and 5-line initials in red or blue; II. 72 leaves, 30 lines, 3-line initials in red, II. 68 leaves,
30 lines, 3-line initials in red, all three works rubricated with printed guide-letters, paragraph-marks and initial-strokes in red, margins ruled; occasional
marginal soiling, I. with marginal notes washed on leaves a3-4, II. with tear in lower margin of last leaf mended without affecting text, old ms note on
final blank and on front pastedown in same hand, III. with outer third of title page and lower half of last leaf renewed without loss of text.
Contemporary blindstamped pigskin over wooden boards, spine in compartments, panel design with crossed diagonal rules and small floral stamps
in central panel, brass bosses and cornerpieces, clasps and catches; a bit rubbed, lacking 3 of 8 cornerpieces, a few small tears and repairs on spine,
housed in a green cloth drop-box.
H *2990 = HC *2993 = H*8928, HC*10992 and *16296; GW 4175, M46915 and 10689; BMC III, 753 and 752; Goff B-506, M-432 and G-177;
ISTC ib00506000, im00432000 and ig00177000.

46 AUGUSTINUS, Aurelius [Saint]. Explanatio psalmorum. 47 PICUS DE MIRANDULA, Johannes. Heptaplus de septi formi sex dierum Geneseos enarratione.
Johann Amerbach, [and Johann Petri de Langendorff], Basel, [not after 8 September] 1489. [Bartholomeo di Libri, Florence, not after November 1489].
The fresh doheny copy of the second edition, following the very rare first, printed in an unidentified press The crisp Sexton copy of the first edition of one of only three of Pico’s works published in his lifetime.
around 1486-7. Rare on the market: apparently no other complete copy at auction for more than 35 years.
‘Under the influence of Ambrose, Augustine turned to the Old Testament, which he had rejected earlier as a After his arrest in France and imprisonment in Vincennes, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94) could move
Manichean, to find the authority of faith. Within the framework of the Psalms, expressing the individual’s personal to Florence, under the protection of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Written in a villa near Fiesole prepared for him by Il
relationship with God, Augustine developed a theological explication which went beyond Biblical exegesis. Magnifico, Pico’s ‘Heptaplus’ links Christianity and cabala, and in turn, Hermetism, here in the context of creation,
According to Butler, the ‘Explanatio psalmorum’ contains Augustine’s most complete description of a mystical elaborates on the idea that different religions and traditions describe the same God.
experience’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
In a letter of 24 November 1489, Bartolommeo Fonzio thanks the editor Salviati - also mentioned in Pico’s
Provenance: Carthusian monastery at Wuerzburg (inscription); Estelle Doheny (gilt red morocco label, sale prefatory letter to Lorenzo - for sending him a copy; putting the publication date before 1490 (ISTC).
Christie’s NY, 22 Oct. 1987, lot 61, to Maggs); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #30, acquired from Quaritch, 1989).
Provenance: Sale Sotheby’s, 17 June 1974, lot 45, to Maggs; Eric Hyde, Lord Sexton (1902-80, shelf label and gilt
Three volumes folio (30.8 x 21.2 cm). 162 leaves, (of 164, without blanks ai and b8); 194 leaves; 192 leaves, two columns, 41 lines, headlines, guide-
letters, printed marginalia, vol. I with 8-line initial in green, violet, yellow, and grey on a3r, rubricated with six initials in interlocking red and blue, small
brown morocco label, sale Christie’s N.Y., 8 April 1981, lot 61 to Salloch for); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate loosely
initials and paragraph marks alternating in red and blue, capital-strokes and underlining in red; vol. I with tear in margin of g3, vol. III with paper flaw inserted, #152).
and tear to lower margin of 10/5 repaired.
Eighteenth century tree sheep, spines gilt in compartments with red and dark green morocco labels, front covers with oval gilt centre piece with Folio (26.4 x 20 cm). 57 leaves (of 58, without final blank), 29 lines, Lombard capitals, printed marginalia, spaces for Hebrew, 5-line initial supplied in
twin angels beneath the three of love and lettered ‘Cartusiae horti Angelorum’, oval gilt-arabesque stamp to back covers, edges dyed red, marbled brown ink; ms headlines and chapter numbers, early ms notation of author and title washed from first leaf.
endpapers; vols. I and II both lacking a spine label, light overall wear. Modern dark green morocco by Gozzi, Modena, with elaborately gilt covers and spine to style, marbled endpapers, housed in dark green morocco
HC 1971; GW 2909; BMC III, 751; Goff A-1272; ISTC ia01272000. clamshell box lettered in gilt, by Eenhoorn Binderij.
HC *13001; GW M33319; BMC VI, 662; Goff P-641; ISTC ip00641000.
48 FICINUS, Marsilius. De triplici vita.
[Antonio di Bartolommeo Miscomini, Florence, 3 December 1489].
First edition in a wide-margined example. Scarce: apparently only one complete copy sold at auction for
over 30 years.
A trained physician, the leading Florentine humanist Marsilio Ficino (1433–99) incorporates in this medical manual
much astrological material and astral influence, for instance Saturn would induce melancholy. It was published
when Pico della Mirandola was near Fiesole, where he composed, with Ficino’s advice and praise, his famous
attack on astrology ‘Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinicatrium’. Ficino’s text combines medical theory with
Neo-Platonic philosophy and exerted much influence in both fields, including Dürer’s engraving ‘Melancholia’ and,
much later, romanticism. The authorial colophon bears the date 16 September 1489, Miscomini’s edition being
completed less than three months later, ‘set from the [author’s] archetype’.
This copy has an initial leaf blank, which would suggest a first quire of four leaves, not two as usually described in
the bibliography.
Provenance : J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #85, acquired from Breslauer, 1987).
Folio (27.9 x 20.3 cm). 91 leaves (of 92, without [a]4 blank but with initial blank), table in two columns, 32 lines, guide-letters, printer’s device, some
contemporary ms marginalia and slightly later foliation, indicating the work was once part of a Sammelband; occasional isolated foxing, sometimes
stronger, c8 with small oxidation hole in outer margin, slight worming to lower margin of last two leaves.
Nineteenth-century half vellum over tan paper boards, spine lettered in gilt; a bit rubbed and soiled, front hinge weak and joint split.
HC(+Add) *7065; GW 9882; BMC VI, 639; Goff F-158; ISTC if00158000; Wellcome 2.e.13.

49 BONAVENTURA [pseudo-]. Speculum vite Cristi [...] Myrroure of the blessyd lyf of Jhesu Cryste.
[William Caxton, Westminster, ca. 1489-90].
An extremely rare illustrated production of William Caxton, the first and most celebrated printer in English.
In a spectacular Kalthoeber binding, with a superb line of ownership, including the 18th-century Caxton collector
Ratcliffe, Earl spencer, Huth and Earl Beauchamp, who presented it at the 1877 Caxton Celebration exhibition.
This fine production of Caxton’s press is adorned with 26 woodcuts, showing in the first one the translator
Nicholas Love (d. ca. 1424), a Carthusian prior in Yorkshire, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Arundel
(1353-1414). Love translated this popular text into English before 1410, and it circulated widely in manuscript.
Then attributed to Saint Bonaventura, the ‘Meditationes’ is a spiritual narrative of the life of Christ and was in fact
written by an anonymous Tuscan Franciscan, thought to be Johannes a Caulibus.
Caxton might have seen a lucrative opportunity to tap into the demand, and published the ‘Myrroure’ first in ca.
1484, with woodcuts probably ordered from the continent. However, only one incomplete copy at Cambridge
and a few fragments kept in Lambeth Palace are known to have survived. The present second edition is a close
reprint of the first.
Of greatest rarity: 10 copies are known in public institutions, of which only half are complete, and only three
without supplied leaves. ISTC records eight copies in the UK and two only in the USA, both complete but one
with supplied leaves (Pierpont Morgan and Library of Congress, which is the other Huth copy (Sotheby’s 21 Nov.
1911, lot 824) with three leaves supplied from the present copy). In the UK, one vellum copy is kept at the BL,
one on paper in Cambridge - these are the only perfect examples. The Roxburghe-Spencer copy in Manchester
contains the remaining leaves from the present example. All other copies are incomplete: in the BL and London
Lambeth Palace, in Glasgow and in Oxford, where the Bodleian owns only a fragment of eight leaves.
Provenance: John Ratcliffe (1707–76, chandler and celebrated Caxton collector, sale Christie’s, 27 March 1776, lot
1424bis, to Thane);Thomas Allen (sale Sotheby’s, 1 June 1795, lot 1407, to Elmsley); George John, 2nd Earl Spencer
(1758–1834); Sir Francis Freeling (1764-1836, postal reformer, bookplate, sale Evans, 25 Nov. 1836, lot 420, to
Rodd); Rev.Thomas Corser (1793-1876, bibliographer, sale Sotheby’s, 30 July 1868, lot 470, incorrectly identified as
the Roxburghe copy, to Lilly); Henry Huth (1815-78); Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp (1830-91, bookplate,
Caxton Celebration exhibition, 1877, no. 141); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #198).
Quarto (21.4 x 17.3 cm). 145 leaves (of 148, without initial blank, c2, p6, s7 supplied in skillfull facsimile), 33 lines, running titles and marginal notes,
25 woodcuts (of 26, the one on c2 in facsimile), 1 repeat ; occasionally spotted, a few headlines and marginal notes cropped by the binder, g2-7 neatly
repaired mainly in lower margins, portrait of Caxton tipped in on recto of blank leaf at beginning, t2 and t3 supplied from another copy, t2 remargined,
last leaf extensively restored with device skilfully inlaid and completed in pen facsimile.
Nineteenth-century blue morocco elaborately gilt by Samuel Charles Kalthoeber, London, with his ticket, Greek key border, leafy border and central
panel surrounded by fan-shaped panels, spine in compartments gilt, all edges gilt, pink endpapers; front free endpaper detached and with 19th-
century ms note and later auction catalogue entry pasted down, joints rubbed.
HC 3564; GW 4764; BMC XI, 172; Goff B-903; ISTC ib00903000.
(original size)

(original size)
Doheny’s illuminated complete copy in a Melk binding
50 ALEXANDER DE VILLA DEI. Doctrinale, pars I [II, III-IV].

Martin Flach, Strassburg, 19 July 1490, 5 February 1490, and 1491.
The authoritative Latin grammar for three centuries: a fine copy, with initials in gold, red, pink, green and
blue, in a fresh identified and contemporary binding; the Doheny copy from the Melk monastery, complete
with all parts.
Of great rarity: according to ISTC, all three parts of any Flach separate edition in 1488-93 are present only
six institutions (Melk, Klagenfurt, Karlsruhe, Basel, Bratislava and Krakow). No complete copy in North America,
not either of the Flach’s editions of all parts together (six copies also recorded by ISTC, at the BL and in Basel,
Austria and Germany). We could not trace any other copy at auction in the last 35 years; only a copy of the 1488
pars I 19 years ago and, 18 years ago, a copy of the 1493 partes III-IV, bound together with incomplete copies of
Koberger’s pars I and II.
A very popular work, here with comments by Gerardus Zerbold de Zutphania. ‘The ‘Doctrinale’, written in
hexameters about 1199, was a standard Latin grammar for advanced students which very nearly divorced
the study of Latin from the study of classical (pagan) literature. For the purpose of protecting pupils from the
purported moral dangers of such reading, Alexander wrote many examples of usage himself. This approach to
learning was in accordance with Gerhard’s [Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen] views as well [whose] ‘glossa notabilis’
[...] was the most published commentary in Germany on Alexander’s ‘Doctrinale’, and it highlights the moral and
religious intents which defined education for both Alexander and Gerard’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Provenance: Benedictine monastery at Melk (binding clasps, ‘Catalogo Monasterij Mellicensis hunc librum inscripsi
1664’ and shelfmark L.116, corresponding to the copy in Schachinger); Estelle Doheny (gilt red morocco booklabel,
sale Christie’s NY, 22 Oct. 1987, lot 25); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, # 7, 8 & 9).
Three parts in one volume 4to (20.6 x 14.6 cm). 144, 130 and 52 leaves, headlines, lombards, guide-letters, multi-line initials on I-a4r coloured in
red, pink and green with floral extensions on a background of gold with a blue border, on II-a5r coloured in pale pink, green and blue with extended
leaf design, and on III-IV-a2v coloured in red, pale pink, green, blue and gold with extended leaf design, smaller initials and paragraph marks supplied
alternately in green or red, capital strokes in yellow-orange wash on first pages only of quires b-i.
Contemporary calf over wooden boards, blindstamped with vine-work, brass centre and corner pieces with floral decoration, spine in four compartments
with five raised bands, single brass clasp stamped M M (Monasterii Mellicensis); spine a bit rubbed, head and foot defective, a few wormholes.
H 752, HC *701 and HC *735; GW 1055, 1089 and 1192; Goff A-441, A-450 and A-453; ISTC ia00441000, ia00450000 and ia00453000; only
pars II. in BMC I, 150; R.Schachinger, ‘Die Wiegendrucke der Stiftsbibliothek in Melk’, 49. Jahresbericht des k.k. Stiftsgymnasiums der Benedictiner zu
Melk, 1899, no.30-34 (this copy).

51 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. De potestate et sapientia dei.
[Maximus de Butricis, Venice, 29 July 1491].
The Bute copy, elaborately illuminated, of the fourth edition of the text of ‘the Father of theology’ in the
authoritative translation of Marsilio Ficino (1433-99). The first edition had been printed in Treviso in 1471 (see
No. 10 of the present catalogue).
Although now known to have been written by various authors in Egypt in the 2nd-3rd centuries, these 14
treatises were considered up until the 17th century to be the work of Hermes, an ancient philosopher-priest. His
supposed genealogy, which is set forth here in Ficino’s preface, placed Hermes before even Moses, and thus gave
Hermetic texts an authority on which was based the Christian humanism of Renaissance philosophy.
A rare edition: no other complete copy could be traced selling at auction for the past half-century. ISTC records
only five examples in North America.
Provenance: Marquess of Bute (probably John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess, 1847–1900, scholar,
philanthropist and patron of the arts, sale Christie’s, 15 March 1995, lot 284, probably to Quaritch, with pencil
notes, for); J. R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #260).
Quarto (19 x 13.7 cm). 26 leaves (final blank), 36 to 38 lines, illuminated with a3r surrounded by an elaborate frame of ornamental strapwork,
incorporating two delicate medallions (bird and deer) carried out in ink, gold, blue, green and red, the initial of this page ornamented in matching style
and colours, initials rubricated in red and with the occasional ornamental marking of headlines in blue, a few contemporary marginalia in ink at the
beginning; frame on a3r a bit cropped by a later binder.
Early 19th-century British black crushed morocco, spine with raised bands and lettered in gilt, ruled in gilt, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers; somewhat rubbed.
HC 8460; GW 12313; BMC XII, 35; Goff H-80; ISTC ih00080000.
(original size)

‘The germs of all ideas can be found in Plato’ (PMM)
52 PLATO and Marsilius FICINUS (transl. and comment.). Opera. Marsilius FICINUS. Platonica theologia de
immortalitate animorum.
Bernardinus de Choris, de Cremona, and Simon de Luere, for Andreas Torresanus, Venice, 13 August 1491.
Attractive illuminated and rubricated copy, with wide margins in contemporary binding.
The second edition of Ficino’s legacy to Western cultural history, with the second edition of his ‘Platonica theologia’
(see No. 31 for the 1482 first edition). It brings together the most important Renaissance interpretation of
Platonism with the source texts in the translation of the interpreter, who made special effort to ensure the
typographical correctness of this edition, in contrast with the first of Florence - which contained an errata list of
twenty-six pages!
Provenance : Sale Christie’s NY, 20 Nov. 1981, lot 498; J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #159, acquired from Dailey, 1984).
Folio (30.8 x 21 cm). 448 leaves, 62 lines and headline, two columns, four 12- to 8-line initials illuminated in burnished gold with red or blue infill on
grounds of combinations of green, red or blue, many other 6-line Maiblumen-initials in red or blue with penwork infill and flourishes in the margins,
many 3-line chapter initials in alternating red and blue; some waterstaining, in particular at beginning and end, occasional soiling and worming, first
initial smudged, a few marginal repairs.
Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards, panel design with roll-tools of stylised flowers in two frames, floral stamps in alternating frames
and ropework in the central panel, two brass bosses and two non-matching clasps, manuscript title on fore-edge; partly rebacked and restored to style,
endpapers renewed, housed in a half-morocco clamshell box.
HC *13063; GW M33918; BMC V, 465; Goff P-772; ISTC ip00772000; cf. PMM 27 (first ed.).

53 PLOTINUS and Marsilio FICINO (transl. and comment.). Opera.
Antonio di Bartolommeo Miscomini, Florence, 7 May 1492.
A beautiful illuminated copy of the only incunable edition of the primary documents of Neoplatonism.
With a fine chain of provenance.
The works of Plotinus (ca. 205-70), the most important Greek philosopher of the late Classical period, were
gathered by his disciple Porphyry, who organised the 54 treatises into groups of nine (Greek: ennea) or ‘Enneads’.
He also wrote the ‘Vita’ of Plotinus as an introduction.
Ficino considered Plotinus the ‘summus interpres’ of Plato. Encouraged by Pico della Mirandola, he translated the
works from Greek into Latin from a manuscript discovered in the fifteenth century. He completed the translation
in 1486 and his commentary in 1491, but his patron, Lorenzo de’ Medici, died one month before their publication.
Ficino’s dedicatory letter to him is an importvant document in the history of Florentine Platonism, as it describes
his work on Plato and Hermes, on commission from Lorenzo’s father, Cosimo. The publication of Ficino’s work by
Miscomini, a printer from Bologna who first established a press in Venice and then Florence, played an key role in the
revival of Plato in the Renaissance.The translation was so influential that the Greek text was not published until 1560.
‘Plotinus ignored Christianity, but elements in his thought were instrumental in shaping early Christian thought.The
Plotinian triad, which consisted of the One (or the Good), the Mind, and the Soul, was one of the building blocks
of the Christian Trinity, and the Contemplation that Plotinus describes was an important influence on Christian
mystical thought. These concepts influenced the thinking of Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, who
transmitted a Christian form of Plotinian ideas to Medieval, Reformation, and Counter-Reformation theologians’
(G. Campbell, ‘The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance’, 2003, pp. 624 f).
Provenance: Earl Spencer (probably George John, 1758-1834, manuscript note on flyleaf: duplicate); Charles
Barclay (gilt arms on covers, bookplate, sale Sotheby’s, 17 Nov. 1916, lot 513, to Leighton for:); Charles Harry
St John Hornby (1867-1946, Shelley House, Chelsea, booklabel and pencil notes on the binding work); Clifford
Rattey (bookplate); J. R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #292, acquired from Christie’s, 2 June 2004, lot 94).
Folio (35 x 23.7 cm). 441 leaves (of 442, only first blank missing), 45 lines, printed guide-letters, woodcut printer’s device, opening text page
illuminated with a historiated initial depicting a scholar in his study and a border with classical ornament by a contemporary north-Italian artist, three-
to eight-line initials and paragraph marks supplied alternating in red or blue; early manuscript quiring partly visible, a page very lightly soiled, repaired
small hole in last leaf affecting 3 letters.
Nineteenth-c. red straight-grained morocco by Kalthoeber, with his ticket, gilt arms on covers, gilt turn-ins, edges gilt and gauffered, marbled endpapers;
recased after 1916 by W.H. Smith & Son for St. Hornby.
H 13121; GW M34374; BMC IV, 640, XII, 46; Goff P-815; ISTC ip00815000. [ref: 85310 ]

The basis for subsequent editions and illustrations
54 BIRGITTA OF SWEDEN [BRIDGIT, Saint]. Revelationes. Bartholomaeus Ghotan [for Wadstena Monastery,
Lübeck, before 25 Nov] 1492.
The earliest extant Latin edition of the ‘Revelationes’ - the fine Broxbourne copy with contemporary provenance.
Only two earlier editions are mentioned by GW, but only known from printer’s waste, neither of which was
completed. The present edition is known to have been printed for the monastery at Vadstena, the motherhouse
of the Bridgettine order, from the ‘Diarium Vazstenese’, where it is stated that a priest, Petrus Ingemari, and a lay
brother, Gerhardus, went to Lübeck in 1491 to see the edition through the presses. 16 copies of the ‘Revelationes’
were printed on vellum as well as 800 paper copies. Printing was completed the following year, probably in the
autumn, as the two returned to Vadstena on 24 November 1492. Gerhardus is described in the Diarium for 1487
as a German “qui novit sculpere & depingere” (“who knows how to engrave and draw”), and it is probable that
he executed the superb woodcuts in this volume.
Especially remarkable are the full-page illustrations composed of several smaller woodcuts combined with
explanatory type-printed text. This system allows repeating the depictions of Christ and the Virgin Mary in
heaven and of St Bridget receiving her vision, while the subjects of the revelations change. This illustration was of
considerable influence, as a copy of the present edition served as a prototype to Anton Koberger for his reprint
of the ‘Revelatione’ in 1500.
As far as their religious as well as artistic impact is concerned, the ‘Revelations’, literary bequest of St Bridget
(1303-73, canonized in 1391, founder of the Order of St Saviour or Bridgettine Order), are the most important
representative of Scandinavian literature of the Middle Ages. Written and dictated in Swedish by Bridget herself,
they were translated into Latin by her spiritual advisors. The most important portion of the text comprises
revelations, in the narrow sense of the word, that are rich in ideas and that show an affinity to German mysticism.
One theme pervades the entire text: powerful warnings are addressed to princes and to the popes concerning
mostly the decadence of the church.
Prologues of Magister Mathias of Sweden and Johannes de Turrecremata, the papal bull of Bridget’s canonisation,
and her vita complement the edition.
Rare: often fragmentary in public institutions and only five copies in the USA (ISTC). We could trace three
copies at auction in the last 35 years, none in the last 13 years: the Nils Rabenius copy (sold 1974), the present
Broxbourne copy and the Trolle-Bonde copy (sold several times, last in 1998).
Provenance: Johannes and Cunigunde Schwan (dated inscription on dd10v “in. nomine Ihesu Christi filii Virginis
Marie amen. Ego iohannes Schwan: coniux mea Cunigundis fecimus [?] per mea petitionem in Altomunster anno
etc. 93 die proxima post assumptionis Marie [16 August 1493]”, the date 1493 occurs again in manuscript at the
end of the ‘Tabula’); Altomunster abbey (contemporary ownership inscription at end, partly shaved; note dated
Altomunster 1651; binding stamped with abbey’s initials ‘A.M’); Broxbourne copy (Sotheby’s, sale 15 Nov. 1977, lot
321); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #234).
Folio (31 x 21.5 cm). 422 leaves, double column, 46 lines and headline, gothic letter, 16 (14 historiated, 2 ornamental) woodcut initials, woodcut
printer’s device and 15 woodcut illustrations: 4 full-page woodcuts, 1 half-page cut, and 10 full-page illustrations composed of 22 woodblocks and
printed text; f.1 recto (blank) laid down onto flyleaf obscuring early inscriptions, some early mss notes and underscores, very little brown-staining, minor
worming at the upper margins of the final leaves.
German 17th-century blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, five raised bands, two clasps.
H *3204; GW 4391; BMC II, 554; Goff B-687; ISTC ib00687000.

55 GERARDUS ZERBOLD DE ZUTPHANIA. De reformatione virium animae. 56 PANCIERA DA PRATO, Ugo. Trattati.
Johann Amerbach, Basel, 1492. [Lorenzo Morgiani and Johannes Petri, Florence, 15 December 1492].
First edition of Gerardus’ earliest work. A handsome copy of this small format incunable. Prince d’Essling’s copy of this lovely work, scarce. ISTC records only six copies worldwide outside Italy and
the USA, and we could find only two examples sold at auction in the past 35 years, the Schaeffer copy and an
‘’De reformatione virium animae’ is, along with ‘De spiritualibus ascensionibus’ [published earlier], one of the two incomplete one.
main theological works of Gerard Zerbolt (1367-98), an early member of the ‘devotio moderna’ and librarian to
the Brethren of the Common Life at Deventer. [...] As in all of Gerard’s works, the key to coming to God is humility, This is the second edition of this collection of mystic treatises in the vernacular, printed merely half a year after
abstention from vice, practice of virtue, and prayer and meditation. Practical as the Brethren of the Common Life a local competitor (Miscomini) published the first. As the title indicates, it advertises its additional 14th tract as
were, Gerard provides guide-lines for following these virtues and for meditative devotion to excite in the soul the new material, as well as ‘piu altre cose che non sono in quello primo’ (i7v). This claim was sufficient incitement for
love of God’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue). Miscomini to print that tract separately and append it to his unsold copies of his ‘Trattati’ in order to keep up with
the competition of Morgiani and Petri.
Uncommon: only two copies apparently sold at auction in the last three decades, both bound together with the
same two other works. Provenance: Victor Massena, Prince d’Essling (1836-1910, bibliophile and bibliographer, gilt arms and cypher on
binding); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #150, acquired from Schumann, 1988).
Provenance: Norbert de Vos (inscription dated 1827; pencilled note ‘from the Arenberg collection’); J.R. Ritman,
(BPH bookplate, #89, acquired from Rosenthal, 1989). Quarto (20 x 13.4 cm). 71 leaves (of 74, without blank i8 and [*]² with the table), 36 lines, a1r with large woodcut, a2r with ornamental woodcut
initial, without Polain B 2983 variants; only very light marginal spotting, pressed at an early date.
Nineteenth-century maroon crushed morocco by Lortic, spine with raised bands and initials in gilt, coat-of-arms in gilt on covers, inner dentelles richly
Octavo (14 x 9.7 cm). 60 leaves, 27 lines, headlines, full-page woodcut on a1r with woodcut border surround, first 4-line initial in blue with red
gilt, all edges gilt and marbled endpapers.
penwork extensions, other initials and paragraph marks alternating in red and blue, capital-strokes in red.
HCR 12303; GW M29282; BMC VI, 682; Goff P-26; ISTC ip00026000; Sander 5409.
Eighteenth-century tree calf, gilt floreated border to covers, gilt spine with leather label, all edges gilt; extremities and joints rubbed.
HC *16291; GW 10698; BMC III, 755; Goff G-171; ISTC ig00171000.
57 BONAVENTURA [pseudo-] and Johannes QUENTIN (editor). Stimulus amoris. 58 BRUTUS, Jacobus. Corona aurea de anima. [Bound with] Hermes TRISMEGISTUS. De potestate et sapientia dei.
Georg Mittelhus, Paris, 4 April 1493. I. Johannes Tacuinus, de Tridino,Venice, 15 January 1497. II. Damianus de Mediolano, de Gorgonzola,Venice, 10 May 1493.
Fourth Latin edition of this text, which was very popular in the Low Countries and mainly in France (‘L’Aiguillon Fresh copy in an attractive contemporary binding of the only incunable edition of Brutus’ work, very
d’amour divine’), where it was printed 11 times in 10 years. rare on the market, as we could not find any copy at auction in the last four decades.
Scarce however: only two copies apparently sold at auction in the last three decades. In France, ISTC records The author of ‘Corona aurea’, a theological treatise, was a teacher of dialectic and theology at the monastery
only six copies. of San Salvatore in Venice and a self-styled professor of ‘divinae philosophiae’. He handles at great length the
immortality of the soul, presenting all natural and theological arguments of philosophers, poets and orators who
The ‘Stimulus amoris’ is often attributed to Bonaventura but also to Henri or Bernard de Baume (Henricus de have contributed to the subject (see M.Ford, BPH catalogue).
Balma). However, it was probably written at the end of the 13th century by James of Milan (Jacobus Mediolanensis).
His text is the so-called ‘Stimulus major’ but chapters were added to the work throughout the 14th and 15th ‘De potestate et sapientia dei’ is here in the authoritative translation by Ficino, in its fifth edition, a reprint of the
centuries. 1491 Venice edition by De Butricis.
Provenance: Minorite monastery of St. Francis (Cordeliers) at Dijon, 1731 (inscription); Dawson Turner (1775- Provenance: J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #66, 115, acquired from Harper, 1981).
1858, banker, botanist and collector, his note, bought at Paris, 1819); gift of E. Harvey to the Unitarian Chapel,
Renshaw St., 21 Jan. 1856 (inscription and booklabel); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #58, acquired from Sinibaldi, Two works in one volume 4to (21 x 15 cm). I. 208 leaves, 39 lines and headline, white-on-black woodcut initials, unrubricated; II. 32 leaves, 29 lines,
1988, from Sotheby’s, 10 May 1985, lot 413). guide letters, spaces for Greek, rubricated with initials and paragraph-marks in red; some early ms corrections and annotations, light worming affecting
text in both works.
Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards, central panel surrounded by triple-fillet borders and a foliate border, metal clasps and bosses;
Small 8vo (13.3 x 8.7 cm). 136 leaves, 26 lines, some initials in brown ink to E6v, then guide letters; extensive ms text to first flyleaves, notes to title,
rebacked and repaired at extremities, new clasps, one boss absent, kept in a full calf folding box.
corrections and highlights throughout, slight marginal browning.
HC *4026 and *8461; GW 5657 and 12314; BMC V, 531 and 543; Goff B-1262 and H-81; ISTC ib01262000 and ih00081000.
Nineteenth-century brown straight-grained morocco, spine lettered in gilt, covers with single gilt-ruled border, all edges gilt; extremities rubbed, upper
cover detached.
HC 3480; GW 4823; BMC VIII, 126; Goff B-965; ISTC ib00965000.
59 ANGELUS, Johannes. Astrolabium.
Johannes Emericus de Spira, for Lucantonio Giunta, Venice, 9 June 1494.
More than 400 hand-coloured woodcuts: an attractive copy, of German aristocratic provenance, of
the only one of Angelus’ works (in 13 editions) to be printed outside of Germany. The second edition.
The woodcuts are based on those of the first edition printed by Ratdolt in Augsburg in 1488, originally created
for his 1482 ‘Poeticon astronomicon’, also present in this catalogue. They were however dramatically multiplied,
since only 47 were used in 1482. ‘While there is no direct link between Ratdolt and Emericus or Giunta, Ratdolt
had printed in Venice, managing a successful shop, until 1487 when he returned to Augsburg. Emericus was also
one of a number of German immigrants printing in Venice, and if he did not know Ratdolt personally, he would
no doubt have known him and his books. In Augsburg Ratdolt implemented an extensive program of publishing
scientific and mathematical works for which he employed Angelus as corrector to insure accuracy’ (M. Ford, in
BPH catalogue).
Angelus, or Johannes Engel (before 1463-1512), was professor at Vienna and Ingolstadt. A mathematician, he
was keenly involved in astronomics. ‘An important astrological work containing tables of the sign and degree of
the ascendent for each hour and minute [...] equations of the astrological houses [...] and nearly 400 illustrations
showing the potential occupations and types of persons born under given auspices’ (Stillwell, ‘The Awakening
Interest in Scienc’e, 51n).
Provenance: Jesuit device on fore-edge; inkstamp with erased interior on title; Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-
Altenburg (1745-1802, gilt initial on front cover, dated 1777; ducal Library, Gotha, shelfmark on front pastedown);
J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #16, acquired from Tenschert, 1988).
Quarto (21.3 x 14.5 cm). 176 leaves, 44 lines and headline, 420 hand-coloured woodcuts, decorative hand-coloured woodcut initials of varying sizes,
mainly in blue, green, yellow and red, Giunta device on title, printer’s device at end, underlined and rubricated in red, first leaf loose, f1 with repaired tear.
Eighteenth-century half sheep over speckled boards, central crowned initial “E” gilt on upper cover dated 1777, fore-edge dyed red at an earlier date,
with a partial Jesuit symbol; a bit rubbed.
HC *1101; GW 1901; BMC V, 539; Goff A-712; ISTC ia00712000.

60 LUDOLPHUS DE SAXONIA. Vita Christi.
Anton Koberger, Nuremberg, 1495.
Fine copy, illuminated, in a beautiful binding.
This is the third and last Koberger’s edition of this celebrated work (see No. 22 for the first, of larger format).
Written in 1374, the ‘Vita Christi’ is Ludolphus de Saxonia’s (ca.1300–78) most important book. He was particular
indebted to the ‘Meditationes Vitae Christi’ attributed to Bonaventura: ‘The Vita Christi comprises large sections
of earlier theological, ascetical and mystical works. [...] The ‘Meditationes vitae Christi’ were particularly significant
for their exhortation to employ the imagination in meditating on the life of Christ, and this is taken over and
enlarged upon by Ludolphus. He encourages the reader to imagine not only the words and actions of Christ but
his physical being, his very countenance. The liberty taken in the ‘Meditationes vitae Christi’ to extrapolate from
Biblical fact is thus adapted in the ‘Vita Christi’ to emphasize the new heightened stress placed on the humanity
of Christ’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Ludolphus’ approach and writings remained popular throughout the centuries and greatly influenced the ‘Devotio
Moderna’ movement. It went through more than 30 incunable editions and later inspired Ignatius of Loyola..
A rare edition: we could trace only one copy, of lower quality without illumination, selling at auction in the last
half-century.
Provenance: Monastic male congregation near the Saint Elisabeth monastery of the Poor Clares, outside Brixen/
Bressanone, South Tyrol (contemporary two-line inscription at head of title); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #220).
Folio (31.1 x 22.5 cm). 312 leaves, running titles and 67 lines, two columns, illuminated A2r with 6-line initial in gold and blue, heightened with white,
fine floral border in blue, red, green and brown ink, rubricated initials throughout; marginal annotations in ink, initial and ultimate leaf with inoffensive
fraying to margins, occasionalvery short marginal tears, light foxing in places, f3-f6 browned.
Contemporary full tan calf over wooden boards, elaborately blindstamped, including a roll-tool of a stag hunting scene to front cover, brass clasps, eight
embossed and ornamented brass corner-pieces, front cover with ornamental brass centrepiece, spine with raised bands; brittle and a bit rubbed, spine
worn at extremities; housed in a clamshell cloth box.
HC *10296; GW M19220; BMC II, 440; Goff L-346; ISTC il00346000.

The Doheny copy of the first issue of an early Greek Aldus
61 THEOCRITUS. Eidullia HESIOD. Theogonia. [and other works, in Greek].

Aldus Manutius, Venice, February 1495 [1496].
First edition of twelve Theocritean idylls and Hesiod’s ‘Theogony’: a fresh wide-margined example, with
a fine chain of provenance, of an early production of Aldus Manutius. This is the first issue, with the text
on Z.F5r in its uncorrected state. Late in the press run a manuscript was found which supplied lines missing from
that particular idyll, and Aldus reset the two outermost sheets of quire F and all of quire G to correct the text.
Next to Hesiod’s ‘Theogony’ and twelve idylls of Theocritus, the father of pastoral poetry who influenced Virgil
and Milton, this is also the first edition of Theognis’s ‘Sentences of the Seven Sages’ and Heracles’s ‘Shield’ - as well
as the first edition in Greek of Cato’s ‘Distichs’, and the second edition in Greek of eighteen Theocritean idylls,
Hesiod’s celebrated ‘Works and Days’, the Phythgorean ‘Golden verses’ and Phocylides.
The present collection is on of the most interesting of all Greek Aldus editions, containing a wide variety of linguistic
forms and packed with mythological or moralizing passages. It is as such of high interest for the educationalist and
the history of humanism in general, and the beginning of the study of Greek language and literature in particular.
According to the Latin dedication, Aldus published this compendium of Greek verse at the request of his former
teacher, Battista Guarino, who wanted to lecture on the texts at Ferrara
Aldus Manutius (1450-1515) was one of the giants of the Renaissance and among its significant benefactors. He
combined the gifts of scholarship and art with the capacities of a man of action. He was a tutor to princes who
gave him financial support when, towards 1495, when 45, he set up his press in Venice. His primary purpose was
to print and publish the classics in Greek and Latin. He was the first printer to produce small books in relatively
large editions, which placed books within reach of a new generation of readers throughout Europe. His types -
Greek, Roman, and italic - broke new ground and dominated European printing for two centuries.
Provenance: Sir Rowland Hill (1800-75, signature and armorial bookplate, Hawkstone Library sale, Sotheby’s, 24
July 1888, lot 844, sale catalogue description tipped in on flyleaf); Charles George Milnes Gaskell (1842-1919,
bookplate); Albert May Todd (1850-1931, the ‘Peppermint King’, bookplate); Estelle Doheny, gilt red morocco label,
sale Christie’s NY, 22 Oct. 1987, lot 106); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #181).
Folio (30.2 x 19.5 cm). 140 leaves, 30 lines, Greek type with table, dedication and colophon in Roman type, first state with the uncorrected setting of
quires Z.F and O.G., 38 woodcut floral or interlaced headpieces from 20 blocks, 40 woodcut initials from 20 blocks, ruled in red; light water-staining
to upper margin.
Sixteenth-century French red morocco, gilt arabesque centrepiece on covers, small gilt ornament in spine compartments, all edges gilt; a bit rubbed.
HC *15477; GW M45831; BMC V, 554; Goff T-144; ISTC it00144000.

62 DE CLUSA, Jacobus. Tractatus de apparitionibus et receptaculis animarum exutarum corporibus. TUNDALUS. De
raptu animae et eius visione. Johannes GOBIUS. De spiritu Guidonis. Guillermus HOUPPELANDE. De immortalitate
animae. Antonius LIBER. Epigramma in laudem urbis Coloniae.
Hermann Bumgart, Cologne, 8 May 1496.
Very attractive hand-coloured example of this rare edition of four works on ghosts, visions of afterlife
in Ireland and immortality of the soul. ISTC lists 13 complete copies outside Germany, only three in North
America (Houston, Yale and Lib. of Congress) and two in the UK (BL and Rylands). No copy could be traced at
auction in the past 35 years.
Each four work is preceded here by a lovely woodcut, one of which, of different composition, showing ‘Tundalus
der Sitter’ in full armour.They were copied from the series used by the Johann and Conrad Hist, printers in Speyer,
to illustrate their editions of the ‘Visio Tundali’ from 1483 onwards.
The ‘Visio Tundali’ is a 12th-c. elaborate text reporting the otherworldly visions of the Irish knight Tnugdalus during
the journey of soul through Heaven and Hell. Brother Marcus, an itinerant monk, wrote this fantastic and religious
tale in ca. 1150 in the Scots Monastery in Regensburg; being Irish, he set the story in Cork, Ireland in 1148. The
work became a very popular piece of visionary infernal literature, and more than 170 manuscript copies are now
known.
Jacobus de Clusa (1381-1465, also J. de Jüterbog) was a Carthusian of Erfurt and zealous reformer of the Church.
He wrote about 80 treatises, mostly on theological and canonical subjects, and the present one deals with the
condition of the human soul after death. It is accompanied by the dialogue-vision of Guido, attributed to the early
14th-century French Dominican Johannes Gobius (the source of the Middle English poem ‘The Ghost of Guy’),
and the ‘Treatise on the Immortality of the Soul’ by Guillaume Houpppelande (d. 1492), a theology master at the
University of Paris and canon of Notre-Dame.
The last page hosts distichs in praise of the city of Cologne, asserting its superiority to Rome, Athens, Venice and
Paris.
Provenance : J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #271, possibly from Quaritch, pencil note, 2001).
Five works in one volume 4to (19.6 x 13.6 cm.). 40 leaves (final blank), 46 lines, rubricated, 4 woodcuts with contemporary hand-colour, 5- and 6-line
initials in blue with red flourishing, 2- and 3-line initials in blue and red; lightly annotated in an early hand, a few leaves at beginning and end reattached
in gutter. Modern morocco gilt, extremities slightly rubbed.
HC 15543; GW M10837; BMC I, 300; Goff J-24; ISTC ij00024000.
(original size)

A superlative copy, ‘de toute beaute’´ (brunet)
63 RHODIUS, Apollonius and Janus LASCARIS (editor). Argonautika [in Greek].

[Laurentius (Francisci) de Alopa], Florence, 1496.
A beautifully illuminated example of the first edition of Jason’s epic quest for the Golden Fleece.
One of only five known copies printed on vellum, in a fine dutch binding with a splendid line of ownership:
Kämmerer von Worms-Dros de Boze-Cotte-Gaignat-Girardot de Préfond-Maccarthy Reagh-Spencer-Rylands.
Before Gros de Boze the volume must have been owned by an unidentified Dutch connoisseur who commissioned
the binding. The original owner was Johannes Kämmerer von Dalberg (1455-1503), Bishop of Worms from 1482.
He owned a number of fine incunables, including others printed on vellum, now widely dispersed.
With the scholia of Lucillus, Sophocles and Theon edited by Lorenzo de’ Medici’s librarian. Janus Lascaris (ca.
1445-1535), a Greek refugee scholar, not only edited the ‘Argonautica’ but also designed the type used to print it.
The work is also important for its first use of Alopa’s second Greek font, with conventional minuscules, used for
the surrounding scholia. His first Greek font used for the main text is entirely in majuscules, with a set of larger
majuscules used as capital letters.
‘Apollonius (fl. before ca. 200 BC), who succeeded Zenodotus [...] as director of the Alexandrian library, wrote this
epic in four books defying his former teacher, Callimachus, who railed against the epic as a defunct and invalid form
of poetry. Apollonius seems to have proved his teacher wrong and the ‘Argonautica’ is one of the best surviving
accounts of the mythical story of Jason and the Argonauts and the quest for the Golden Fleece on which all later
versions are to some degree dependent’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Provenance: Kämmerer von Worms family (arms in border on a2); Claude Gros de Boze (sale Paris, 1753, lot 832,
but the sale did not happen, library bought by Boutin and Cotte, who sold some books to); Louis Jean Gaignat
(sale Paris, 10 April 1769, lot 1532); Paul Girardot de Préfond (gilt red morocco booklabel; his library sold to);
Count Justin Maccarthy Reagh (sale Paris, 1817, lot 2452, to); George John, Earl Spencer (1758-1836); John
Rylands University Library of Manchester (withdrawal bookplate, sale Sotheby’s, 14 April 1988, lot 5, to Quaritch
for); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #18).
Quarto (23.2 x 16.6 cm). 171 leaves (of 172, without final blank), 31 lines, two Greek fonts, illuminated 3-line initial in gold on blue background with
floral decoration and penwork on a1r, 4-line initial in gold and coloured with Florentine white vineleaf ornament on a2r, also full-page border on a2
with arms in lower margin, cameo author portrait in right border; border on a2 very slightly shaved.
Eighteenth-century Dutch crimson morocco gilt, covers roll-tooled in gilt in a panel design with corner fleurons and large gilt centrepiece, spine gilt in
compartments, edges gauffered and gilt, gilt inner dentelles added in France in the 18th century, vellum paste-downs; extremities rubbed, spine slightly faded.
HC *1292; GW 2271; BMC VI, 667; Goff A-924; ISTC ia00924000; Van Praet, Vélins du Roi IV, 71 (this being his copy 3); Brunet I, 348, mentioning this copy.
(original size)
64 JAMBLICHUS, Marsilius FICINUS (transl. and editor) and others. De mysteriis Aegyptiorum [and other works].
Aldus Manutius, Venice, September 1497.
First edition of this collection of Neoplatonist works, all printed for the first time, uniting two great
figures of classical scholarship in Italian Renaissance: Aldus Manutius and Marsilio Ficino.
An example with an impressive chain of ownership, starting with the German humanist Pirckheimer and
including J.C. Christie, whose large collection had a core of Aldine editions. Willibald Pirckheimer ‘began collecting
books as a student in Pavia and Padua where he was under instructions from his father to buy any works by
Ficino for him; Willibald did send ‘De triplici vita’ to his father from Italy in 1491. Pirckheimer himself was intrigued
by the occult, alchemy and astrology. [...] Among his friends he numbered some of the greatest intellectuals of
his time: Reuchlin, [...] Dürer, who designed a bookplate for him, Martin Luther, in whose support he himself was
condemned by the Pope, and Erasmus. In light of the association of this copy of Iamblichus, Erasmus’s description
of his friend is of particular note: ‘You are absolutely the rarest bird of this century, for you join extraordinary
erudition with such a brilliant fortune, again, with such great friendliness and humanity’’ (M.Ford, BPH catalogue).
Ficino’s original 1489 dedication of Jamblichus to Giovanni de’ Medici, the future Pope Leo X, congratulating him on
attaining the cardinalate (at the age of 14), is here placed as a general dedication of the volume. The other works
included by Ficino are: Proclus’ ‘In Platonicum Alcibiadem’ and ‘De sacrificio et magia’, Porphyrius’ ‘De occasionibus’
and ‘De abstinentia’, ‘De somniis’ by Synesius, ‘De daemonibus’ by Psellus, ‘In Theophrastum De sensu’ by Priscianus
Lydos, ‘De doctrina Platonis’ by Alcinous (that is, Albinus), Speusippus’ ‘De Platonis definitionibus’, Pythagoras’
‘Aurea Verba et Symbola’, Xenocrates’ ‘De morte’ and Ficino’s own ‘De voluptate’, written in 1457.
Provenance : Willibald Pirckheimer (1470-1530, with his ms corrections to misprinted headlines, as indentified in
catalogue entries tipped-in: Quaritch, Rough List 135, 1893, Sotheby’s Nov. 1894 and Sotheby’s 5 April 1898, by
descent to his son-in-law:); Willibald Imhoff (whose heirs sold in 1636 to); Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel
(1586-1646, presented by his grandson Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk, in 1667 to); the Royal Society (sale
stamp at end of text, to Quaritch); William Copeland Borlase (1848-99, sale Sotheby’s, 21 February 1887); Richard
Copley Christie (1830-1901, bookplate); John Rylands University Library of Manchester (inkstamp and withdrawal
booklabel, sale Sotheby’s, 14 April 1988, lot 44, to Quaritch, pencil note, for); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #127).
Folio (31.6 x 21.1 cm). 185 leaves (of 186, without final blank), 37 lines and headline, initial spaces with guide-letters, one woodcut initial, rubricated
and hand-coloured, initials supplied in red or blue with wash penwork, another woodcut initial hand-coloured in blue and purple ink, notes in two hands
in the margins; occasional marginal spotting and worming, fore-margins of a4-b2 repaired.
Later full crushed navy morocco gilt by Bedford, all edges gilt, binding rubbed at edges.
HC*9358; GW m11750; BMC V, 557; Goff J-216; ISTC ij00216000.

65 PICUS DE MIRANDULA, Johannes and Johannes Franciscus PICUS MIRANDULANUS (editor). Opera.
Benedictus Hectoris, Bologna, 20 March 1496 and 16 July 1495[96].
Fine copy of the first edition of Pico’s works, and of his first biography, owned by successive major
bibliophiles and collectors.
A prodigy of learning, admired by Ficino, protected by Lorenzo de’ Medici, censored by the Pope, Count Giovanni
Pico della Mirandola was born in 1463 and died mysteriously in 1494, at the age of 31. He is famed for the events
of 1486, when at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and
magic, which are a good example of humanist syncretism, combining Platonism, Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism,
Hermeticism and cabala.
Edited by Pico’s 26-year old nephew, Giovanni Francesco (1470-1533), the works contain in particular Pico’s
argumented attack on astrology, ‘Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem’, influenced by St. Augustine and
Ficino. They also include the ‘Heptaplus’ and the ‘Apologia’, both present in first editions in this catalogue, as well
as letters and the detailed biography due to Giovanni Francesco and published here for the first time.
Rare: only another complete copy could be traced at auction in the last 35 years.
Provenance: Possibly Gian Vincenzo Pinelli (1535–1601, Paduan humanist and mentor of Galileo, note from:);
Michael Wodhull (1740–1816, poet and translator, gilt arms on covers and bibliographic notes identifying this as
Pinelli’s copy and recording binding price, dated Jan 17, 1791); Richard Heber (1773-1833,‘bibliomaniac’ (Campbell)
collector of approx. 150,000 volumes, Hodnet Hall sale Sotheby’s, 11 April 1836, lot 2500); Severne sale, Sotheby’s,
11 Jan 1886, lot 1984; J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #153, acquired from Sotheby’s NY, 2 Feb. 1985, lot 206).
Two parts in one volume folio (30.1 x 20.6 cm). 319 leaves (of 176 and 143 respectively, with blank at end of part I but without blank at end of part
II), 40 lines and marginalia, two leaves of errata at end, 3- to 8-line initial spaces with printed guides, woodcut printer’s device at end of both parts;
notes in a contemporary hand on first leaf identifying authors of the ‘testimonia’, light stain through quire QQ.
Eighteenth-century red morocco (by Roger Payne?), spine gilt, arms stamped in gilt at centre of both covers; rebacked with original spine laid down,
extremities a little rubbed.
HC(Add) *12992; GW m33276; BMC VI, 843; Goff P-632; ISTC ip00632000.

66 GREGORIUS I, Pope. Commentum super Cantica canticorum. [Bound with] Homiliae super Ezechielem. [With]
Dialogorum libri quattuor. [And with] Pastorale sive Regula pastoralis.
[Michael Furter], Basel, 1496 [I. 13 March, IV. 15 February].
Clean and crisp example. Rare: apparently no copy of any of the four editions sold at auction in the last 35 years.
Second edition of this interpretation of the Song of Songs and a scarce collection of all four works, printed
by Furter in 1496 in quick succession. The blind impression of the word ‘canticorum’ on the first page of the
‘Homiliae super Ezechielem’ indicates that those two works were printed at the same time (BMC). All four tracts
were bound together in this and the Huntington Library copies; the British Library had a copy with three of them.
Early references to it by Columban and Ildefonsus support the ascription to Gregorius. While the ‘Homiliae’ and
‘Pastorale’ express his personal thoughts on religious experience, the ‘Dialogues’, in keeping with their didactic
intent, contain primarily the religious experiences of others which Gregory interprets according to his own
understanding of church dogma (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
Provenance: Nathan Comfort Starr (bookplate); sale Sotheby’s NY, 25 June 1982, lot 58; J.R. Ritman (BPH
bookplate, #104, acquired from Rosenthal, 1988).
Four works in one volume 4to (22 x 15.8 cm). 22, 102, 58 and 42 leaves, 47 lines and double columns, headlines, 3-, 6- and 8-initials in red and blue,
paragraph marks, capital-strokes and underlining in red throughout.
Contemporary calf over wooden boards, blindstamped with quadruple fillets, two brass catches, vellum endpapers; some rubbing, corners bumped,
lacking clasps, rebacked retaining most of the original backstrip, joint cracked but firm, housed in recent cloth box.
HC *7938, *7946, *7966 and H *7988; GW 11415, 11427, 11403 and 11447; BMC III, 783 and 784; Goff G-395, G-425, G-407 and G-441;
ISTC ig00395000, ig00425000, ig00407000 and ig00441000.
67 PICUS DE MIRANDULA, Johannes and Johannes Franciscus PICUS MIRANDULANUS (editor). Opera.
Benedictus Hectoris, Bologna, 20 Mar. 1496 [but Jacobinus Suigus and Nicolaus de Benedictus, Lyons, not after 1498].
A ‘counterfeit’ of the first edition of pico’s works (see No. 65). The entire text, edited by Pico’s nephew and
biographer, as well as the full colophon are here reprinted, about two years after the original was issued.
Jacobinus Suigus and Nicolaus de Benedictus originally set up a shop in Turin in 1490 and had moved to Lyons by
1496.They may have printed their books anonymously because a French imprint would make them less attractive
to the lucrative northern Italian market (see BMC VIII, lxv).
Scarce: ISTC lists only five copies in North America, and only two copies apparently sold at auction in the past
three decades.
Provenance : De Lahaulle Duchemin (contemporary inscription on first leaf); inked out ownership inscription in
upper margin; Kenneth, Lord Clark of Saltwood (1903-83, art historian, booklabel); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate,
#155, acquired from Quaritch, 1988).
Two parts in one volume folio (29 x 20.4 cm). 151 leaves (of 152, without final blank) and 126 leaves, 42 lines plus headline, printed marginal notes,
roman letter with some woodcut Hebrew and Greek, 2- to 8-line initial spaces with printed guides, one woodcut diagram, woodcut ornamental capitals;
beginning and end a little browned or spotted, a few marginal wormholes towards end, final leaf with old repair to marginal tear.
Early nineteenth-century speckled calf, black morocco spine label lettered in gilt, yellow edges, marbled endpapers; rubbed, rebacked retaining original
spine, later label.
C 12992; GW M33284; Goff P-633; ISTC ip00633000.

68 PETRARCA, Francesco. Opera Latina.
Johann Amerbach, Basel, 1496.
The Fürstenberg-Friedlaender copy of the first collected edition of the Latin works of Petrarch (1304-
74), often called the “father of humanism”. Edited by Sebastian Brant two years after his famous ‘Narrenschiff ’.
This edition was highly ambitious regarding both publishing and philological aspects. The printer and publisher
Johann Amerbach (c. 1440-1513) is well-known for his friendly relationships to numerous important humanists,
such as Johannes Reuchlin and Jakob Wimpheling, who were most interested in his editions of classical and
humanist authors. A professor of law in Basel and a famous poet and satirist, Sebastian Brant (1457/58-1521) also
collaborated several times with Amerbach’s publishing house. He provided an ‘Elogium’ for Petrarch on A1v and
probably prepared and edited the texts of this edition, considered outstanding in its time.
An enthusiastic Latin scholar, Petrarch actually did most of his writing in this language and covered subjects as
diverse as pastoral poetry, introspective reflection, letters and self-help advice. Each work or section is here
separately titled and signed, allowing some variation in the order of binding. The present copy contains the works
as following: ‘Bucolicum carmen’ - ‘De vita solitaria’ - Pseudo-Petrarca: ‘Dialogus de vera sapientia’ - ‘De remediis
utriusque fortunae’ - ‘Secretum’ - ‘De rebus memorandis’ - ‘Invectivae contra medicum obiurgantem’ - ‘Opus
epistolarum’: Epistulae familiares; Epistulae sine nomine; Epistula ad Carolum IV Romanorum regem; Epistula de
studiorum suorum successibus ad posteritatem; Psalmi poenitentiales - ‘De viris illustribus’, with the continuation
of Lombardus a Serico. - Benevenutus Imolensis: ‘Libellus Augustalis’ - Alphabetical index of Petrach’s ‘sententiae’.
Provenance: Mourier, 1643 (ownership inscription to title, cancelled by a later owner:); Charbonier; Moutonnet
de Clairfons (Julien-Jacques?, French author and editor, 1740-1813, his purchase note and comment on the edition
on pastedown); Jean Fürstenberg (1890-1982, red morocco bookplate lettered in gilt); Helmut N. Friedlaender
(1913-2008, booklabel); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #259).
Small folio (26.3 x 18.5 cm). 389 leaves, 55 lines and headline, printed marginal letter-indexing, guide-letters; occasional slight foxing, minor worming
towards the end. Probably 17th-century deerskin; rubbed, spine worn.
H 12749; GW M31505; BMC III, 757; Goff P-365; ISTC ip00365000; Mary Fowler, Petrarch Collection Willard Fiske, p. 1f.; Speck, Bibliotheca
Petrarchesca 3-4; Geiß, “Herausgeber, Korrektor, Verlagslektor? Sebastian Brant und die Petrarca-Ausgabe von 1496” in Thomas Wilhelmi (ed.),
Sebastian Brant, Basel 2002.

From a chronicler to the other: a fine association copy
69 BERGAMO, Jacobus Philippus and Albertus de PLACENTIA and Augustinus de CASALI MAIORI (editors). De
claris mulieribus.
Laurentius de Rebeis, de Valentia, Ferrara, 29 April 1497.
The beautiful Schedel-Fugger-Landau hand-coloured copy of the first edition of the first encyclopedia
of women, one of the finest early Italian illustrated books and the first to attempt life-like portraits. The
final seven portraits were indeed of contemporaries of the author and are of recognisable likeness. Unlike other
woodcuts in the book, those used for them were not repeated. An Augustinian monk, Giacomo Filippo Foresti da
Bergamo (1434–1520) draws here from Boccaccio’s own ‘De claris mulieribus’, but develops a different approach
than choosing lesser known female figures to ‘rediscover’ them for posterity. He rather makes a catalogue of
important women in the history of humanity, including for example the lives of Joan of Arc, Pope Joan, Margaret
Queen of England and Margaret Queen of Scotland - as well as mystics such as Birgitta and Catherine of Siena.
The fine woodcuts appear here for the first time. They range from full architectural borders to the numerous
portrait cuts of women. Although unidentified, two artists may be detected in the woodcuts, working in contrasting
Florentine and Venetian styles. One woodcut border is signed ‘S’ and dated 1493. This detail, coupled with the
fact that Beatrice of Aragon, the book’s dedicatee, died in 1491, suggests that the work was planned for earlier
publication but then delayed.
With a superb contemporary provenance. Bergamo’s other work, the ‘Supplementum chronicarum’, was first
printed in Venice in 1483 - just 10 years before the publication of one of the most famous and best selling books
of the 15th century, the ‘Nuremberg Chronicle’ of Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514). ‘The present copy [...] is from
the 15th century library of Schedel (R. Stauber, ‘Die Schedelsche Bibliothek’, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1908). [It was
rubricated and foliated by him and sold by his grandson.] It was formerly the first in a volume containing two
other works, the Polybius, ‘Historiarum libri quinque’ (Venice, 1498), now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, and
Lupoldus Bambergensis ‘Germanorum veterum principum zelus’ (Basel, 1497)’ (M.Ford, BPH catalogue).
Provenance: Hartmann Schedel (Moor’s head arms at base of each woodcut border, sold by his grandson, Melchior
Schedel in 1552 to); Johann Jakob Fugger; Royal Library, Munich (19th-c. withdrawal stamp); Baron Horace de
Landau (bookplate with monogram HL, sale Kundig, 25 June 1948, lot 19); Charles van der Elst (bookplate); J.R.
Ritman (BPH bookplate, #126, acquired from Kraus, 1987).
Folio (31.2 x 20.7 cm). 176 leaves, 45 lines and headline, printed marginalia, xylographic title-page, 2 full-page woodcuts within woodcut border, a
second border framing first text page, 172 woodcut portraits from 56 blocks, one historiated woodcut capital M, ornamental capitals, printer’s device,
full-page illustrations, borders and first two portraits hand-coloured, woodcut capitals and lombards coloured alternately in red and blue, paragraph-
marks in red or blue, capital-strokes and ms foliation (‘3-178’ apparently once including two blank preliminary leaves) supplied in red; some foxing
to extreme edges.
Nineteenth-century brown crushed morocco ‘janseniste’ by Duru et Chambolle, 1862, spine with raised bands lettered in gilt, gilt inner dentelles, all
edges marbled and gilt, marbled endpapers; lightly rubbed.
HC(+Add) *2813; BMC VI, 613; Goff J-204; ISTC ij00204000; Sander 915; Brunet I, 787 (‘édition bien imprimée et devenue rare’).

70 NEBRISSENSIS, Antonius Aelius. Vafre dicta philosophorum.
[Printer of Nebrissensis’ ‘Gramática’, possibly Juan de Porras, Salamanca, ca.1498-1500].
Tall example of this extremely rare first edition, not in Hain: only seven other copies known, listed by ISTC
in Spain (Madrid, Toledo and Zamora), Italy (Bologna and Perugia), Uppsala and New York (Hisp. Soc.).
Antonio de Lebrija (1444-1522), professor at Salamanca and then at Alcalà, was the leading Spanish humanist and
educator of the Renaissance. His ‘Vafre dicta philosophorum’ was based on the ‘Vitae et sententiae philosophorum’
of Diogenes Laertius; it is made up of brief prose notes on Greek philosophers followed by Latin couplets on
each. It became popular and was printed in at least nine editions.
Since a second part, a commentary by Nebrissensis, uses a type that Porras is not known to have possessed
before 1502, Norton argumented that the present edition could be a post-incunable. This seems however to be
a misapprehension: Nebrissensis’ commentary is to be seen as an independent edition, produced several years
after the ‘Vafre’ had been printed and sold. The commentary is known in only one copy in Toledo, where it is in a
Sammelband containing inter alia also the ‘Vafre’, but the two works are not contiguous with each other.
Provenance: Maggs catalogue 656, Bibliotheca Incunabulorum, 1938, no. 395; sale Sotheby’s NY, 14 Dec. 1983, lot
3, probably to; George Abrams (booklabel, sale Sotheby’s, 16 Nov. 1989, lot 8, to Quaritch, pencil note); J.R. Ritman
(BPH bookplate, #286, acquired 1990).
Quarto (20.5 x 15.2 cm). 30 leaves, 29 lines, single 4-line initial space with printed guide-letter, 3- and 5-line woodcut initials; early ms foliation and
occasional annotations washed out.
Full brown crushed morocco gilt by Riviere, all edges gilt; joints a touch rubbed.
GW 2244; Goff A-911; ISTC ia00911000; Norton, A Descriptive Catalogue of Printing in Spain and Portugal 1501-1520, 1978, 463; not in Hain nor BMC.

71 ARISTOPHANES and Marcus MUSURUS (editor). Komodiai ennea [Comoediae novem, in Greek].
Aldus Manutius, Venice, 15 July 1498.
Beautifully illuminated copy of Aldus’ edition princeps of Aristophanes’ comedies, the only complete plays
from the ‘old Athenian Comedy’ to survive up to now. With an important Russian provenance.
A Greek scholar, born in Crete and linked with Venice, Marcus Musurus (ca. 1470–1517) translated and
commented extensively nine of Aristophanes’ eleven complete comedies which reached us. Having consulted
diverse manuscript copies, he selected and edited the scholia, also included. The two other comedies, ‘Lysistrata’
and ‘Thesmophoriazusae’, could not be found complete and Musurus decided not to present them - the latter
one was not published until 1515-16.
The Moscow Theological Academy began as the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy in 1685, the first higher education
institute in Russia, founded by the Greek Likhudy brothers, and then run by Fedor Polikarpov, the Greco-Slavonicist
who ran a productive printing press. It merged in the late 18th century with the Theological seminary at the
monastery of the Trinity-St Sergius and was closed down in 1918 by the Bolshevik government, at which point its
treasures were plundered and sold. The Trinity-St Sergius Lavra is Russia’s largest and most important monastery;
it was founded in the 14th century and had an impressive library of books and manuscripts.
Provenance: Pauli Terhaerii (inscription on title page); S.Thaumaturgi Sergii, Bibliotheca seminarii ad Lavrae ssta
Triados (inscriptions on title page, i.e. the Library of the Ecclesiastical Seminary in the grounds of the Trinity-St
Sergius Lavra, which became); Bibl. Mosk. Dukhovnoy Akademii (Library of the Moscow Theological Academy, ink
stamp to title); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #281, acquired from Christie’s, 26 June 1991, lot 48).
Folio (30.5 x 20.6 cm). 348 leaves, 41 lines of commentary, Greek type, hand-coloured and illuminated woodcut decorative headpieces and 3- to
7-line initials, coat-of-arms within a laurel wreath supported by two cherubs and two (Aldine?) dolphins at foot of a1, rubricated, guide-letter, paragraph-
marks and underlining; occasional ms annotations to margins, title leaf slightly soiled, decoration at foot of a1 a bit rubbed.
Eighteenth-century mottled calf with central arms gilt, spine gilt in compartments with later morocco lettering-piece; joints cracked and weak,
extremities rubbed, a few small repairs to spine, housed in calf-backed folding box.
HC*1656; GW 2333; BMC V, 559; Goff A958; ISTC ia00958000; Brunet I, 451 (‘édition belle et rare’).

72 FIRMICUS MATERNUS, Julius and Franciscus NIGER (editor). Mathesis (De nativitatibus). Marcus MANILIUS.
Astronomicon. ARATUS. Phaenomena [in Greek and Latin]. THEON. Commentaria in Aratum [in Greek]. PROCLUS.
Diadochus. Sphaera [in Greek and in Latin].
Aldus Manutius, Venice, June and [17] October 1499.
Hand-coloured example, with a beautifully illuminated initial and lovely historiated decorations, of this
important Aldine collection of classical astronomic texts, presenting the first edition in Greek of Aratus’
‘Phaenomena’ and Proclus’ ‘Sphaera’.
The major extant work of the Greek poet Aratus (ca. 310–240 BC), the ‘Phaenomena’ was popular in Antiquity
and much translated. In his typical scholarly approach, Aldus publishes here, next to his own introduction, altogether
three main Latin versions, due to Germanicus Caesar, Cicero and Rufius Festus Avienus - before the Greek text
itself, surrounded with abundant Greek commentary. He also decided to enhances Germanicus’ text with lovely
woodcuts, inspired from the influential Ratdolt’s 1482 edition of Hyginus (see No. 30).
Firmicus Maternus’ ‘De nativitatibus’, also entitled ‘Mathesis’ ‘ranks as the most comprehensive textbook of
astrology of ancient times’ (Stillwell, Awakening, I:56). It The work represents popular traditions and sets out
practical astrological method, citing Hermes, Orpheus, Abraham and Aesculapius as sources. It also comprises a
defense of astrology, the effects of the planets, the moon, the signs, and horoscopes. Book VII ‘is marked by undue
attention to sexual and moral deviates’ (DSB IV, 622).
After Bevilaqua’s 1497 edition, this is the second of the text; since however Niger’s dedication to Hyppolyto d’Este
is dated 1497 also, it seems that work was clearly well underway when Bevilaqua’s edition emerged on the market.
The present copy is annotated throughout by the councillor of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Marquardus
Husen, showing him an intelligent reader engaging deeply with the text.
Provenance: Husen and Hall de Suntheim families (contemporary inscription and arms on title); Christopher von
Husen, canon at the cathedral church at Speier (inscription on pi6v recording his gift to Joannes Marquardus
Husen juris consultus and councillor to Emperor Charles V, annotations throughout, including one noting an event
on 24 April 1547); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #273, acquired from Christie’s, 29 Nov. 2000, lot 49, possibly
through Quaritch, pencil note).
Six works in one volume folio (31 x 21.1 cm). 376 leaves, 38 lines and headline, 2- to 10-line initial spaces with guide-letters, Greek texts with 40 and
42 lines, opening text page (a1) illuminated with 10-line foliate initial in pink and ochre with burnished gold infill with damascene effect of scrolling
fronds in yellow wash, polychrome foliate extensions, lower margin with a bird and arms in silver, orange and blue, woodcut diagrams, 39 astrological
woodcuts, all with contemporary hand-colour, 6- to 8-line book initials in red or blue, often interlocking, with purple penwork decoration, occasionally
historiated with a face or animal, 6- to 8-line polychrome initials with foliate decoration and historiated penwork extensions, 3- to 4-line initials in red
or blue, paragraph marks and capital strokes in red, blue paragraph marks in headline; very occasional light spotting, small stain on title, a1 lower
margin reinforced on verso and preserved by folding in, neat repaired tear in B3 and H7, sheet F2.5 browned.
Early 20th-century vellum, spine lettered and with painted astrological design, green edges; damage to hinge, lower edge of rear cover bumped.
H *14559; GW 9981; BMC V, 560; Goff F-191; ISTC if00191000; Sander 2781.

An exceptional achievement with an exceptional provenance
73 COLUMNA, Franciscus [but Eliseo da TREVISO] and Benedetto BORDONE (artist; attributed to).
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.
Aldus Manutius, Romanus, Venice, December 1499.
The Oronce Finé-Enschedé-Fiske Harris copy of the most admired of Renaissance illustrated books, a
celebrated masterpiece of Italian art and typography, bringing ‘together the Aldine mastery of type, illustration,
design and execution’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
It is of utmost rarity to find a work which belonged to Oronce Finé, one the greatest minds of the early
16th century. Son and grandson of physicians, Finé (1494-1555) was a significant and prolific mathematician and
cartographer. His most important contributions to human knowledge were a close approximation of ‘pi’ as well
as a groundbreaking map of the world, represented for the first time in the shape of a heart. This cordiform map
became very famous thanks to the frequent use by other cartographers such as Apian and Mercator.
The work takes the author and the reader in fantastic poetical, artistic, magic and even alchemical journey through
a dream-world of pyramids and obelisks, classical gardens, ruined temples and bacchanalian festivals, before gaining
ultimate enlightenment at the temple of Venus. The unique title summarises the intrication of the text: it is a
specific construction, based on Greek words blending dream, passion, struggle, antiquity, love, ‘Polia’ (the author’s
love) and multiplicity. Interpretations among scholars have been many, up to Carl Jung’s description of ‘the black
tulip in the midst of [Alde’s] classical texts’; a recent investigation into explicative near-contemporary annotations
written into a copy at Modena shows that it served as a sort of humanist encyclopedia.
Recent scholarship ascribes the ‘Hypnerotomachia’ to Eliseo da Treviso rather than Columna/Colonna, whose
name appears in the acrostic formed by the woodcut initials.
Provenance: Oronce Finé (inscriptions on first and fifth leaves; 18th-c. inscription about Finé in Dutch, maybe
by); Johannes Enschedé (probably Johannes I or II, 18th-c. Dutch typographers and three generations of book
collectors, sale Muller & Nijhoff in 1867, to); Caleb Fiske Harris (1818-81, important American collector, armorial
bookplate with motto ‘Kur deu res pur tra’); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #72, acquired from Quaritch, 1984).
Folio (30.3 x 20.2 cm). 233 leaves (of 234, without final F4 with errata and colophon), Greek and Hebrew catchwords, 172 woodcuts, including 11
full-page woodcuts, several hand-coloured in red, blue and yellow-wash, woodcut initials forming acrostic giving author’s name; light occasional spotting,
mainly marginal, a bit stronger at beginning and end, first leaf with erased inscription and repaired abrasions in places.
Eigheenth-century French polished calf, triple fillet border to covers, spine with raised bands gilt in compartments, brown morocco label lettered in
gilt, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers; paper shelflabel on spine partly gone, joints and spine extremities repaired, a bit rubbed and stained overall.
HC*5501; GW 7223; BMC V,561; Goff C-767; ISTC ic00767000; Sander 2056; for provenance Rogers, ‘Private libraries of Providence’, Providence, 1878, 190.

74 Illustrium virorum opuscula. [Containing] ATHANASIUS. De homousio contra Arrium. DIDYMUS ALEXANDRINUS.
De spirito sancto. CASSIODORUS. Liber de anima [and] Diffinitiones plurimorum praestantium virorum. CYPRIANUS.
De cardinalibus Christi operibus.
André Bocard for Jean Petit, Paris, 28 June 1500.
A crisp example with wide margins of the first appearance in print of all of these treatises showing Eastern
influences on the Church and edited here by Simon Radin and Cyprianus Beneti.
The first tract is attributed to St. Athanasius (ca. 297–373), one of the four great Doctors of the Church and
celebrated for his leading role against the Arians in the first Council of Nicaea in 325. Dydimus the Blind (ca.
313–98), from Alexandria like Athanasius, was his follower, upheld the Neo-Platonic ideas of Origen, and argued
for the pre-existence of the soul. One of his few works to have survived destruction, ‘De spirito sancto’ exists only
in this Latin translation - due to St. Jerome, one of his pupils
‘Cassiodorus (ca. 485-580), a physical link between the eastern and western churches through his migration to
Rome and then Marseilles, wrote ‘Liber de anima’ shortly before his retreat to his monastery ‘Vivarium’. [Along
the lines of his predecessors, he] proves the spirituality of the soul, arguing that it is not part of God but is
everpresent in the body and that it is immaterial’ (M. Ford, BPH catalogue).
With a typographical particularity: the blind impressions of large types on the first leaf of gathering g are bearer
types, which were used by printers on typeset pages which were not filled with text, in order to prevent tilting of
the typeset surface and thus uneven printing. These types were not inked in and only embossed the paper.
Provenance: Clara and Irwin Straburger (gilt blue morocco label); J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #122, acquired
from Quaritch, 1989).
Five works in a volume folio (27.4 x 19.5 cm). 58 leaves, 53 lines, printed marginalia, title with printer’s metalcut device, 5-line metalcut initials
throughout text, impressions of large letters at lower margin of g1r; slight browning to edges, more general on two central leaves.
Twentieth-century reversed calf-backed paper-covered boards, raised bands to spine; extremities somewhat worn.
H 1906; GW M27856; BMC VIII, 158; Goff A-1173; ISTC ia01173000.

75 ORPHEUS. Argonautika; Hymni [in Greek].
[Bartolommeo di Libri] for Philippus Giunta, Florence, 19 September 1500.
The Spencer-Rylands copy of the first edition of the Greek text.
One of only four printed books in the Greek type used by Bartolommeo di Libri to print the first edition of
Homer’s works in 1488, which had itself been recut from the type Danilas used to print Lascaris’s grammar in
Milan in 1476 (Goff L65). Printing and/or editing is also ascribed to Benedictus Ricardinus, who was a corrector in
Giunta’s shop and is named in another work printed with this type (cf. ISTC).
‘This is one of the most elegantly printed ancient volumes of Greek poetry with which I am acquainted [...] the
scholar will rejoice that he is in possession of such a correct ‘Editio Princeps’ [...] The present is a truly beautiful
copy of this desirable volume; and is of such ample dimensions, that many of the leaves have rough fore-edges. It
is bound in blue morocco’ (Dibdin, ‘Bibliotheca Spenceriana’ III, p. 188).
According to tradition, Orpheus was the son of Oeagrus, King of Thrace, and a talented poet and musician.
This poem, drawing from Apollonius’ own ‘Argonautika’, is an account of his deeds during the expedition of the
Argonauts from Thrace which he joined when Jason was told that only Orpheus’ music could save them all from
the lure of the Sirens.
‘This edition of the Argonautica contains short cosmogonies sung by Orpheus to charm the Sirens, but it also
includes the first appearance in print of any of the Orphic hymns. Ficino, however, had known the hymns through
manuscripts and had translated both the Argonautica and some hymns into Latin as early as 1462. Orphic hymns
were performed at the Platonic Academy, often by Ficino’ (M. Ford, in BPH catalogue).
Scarce: we could trace only two other copies sold at auction in the last 35 years.
Provenance: George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834, gilt arms on covers and red morocco label
lettered in gilt, sold in 1892 to:); Enriqueta Rylands, John Rylands Library, Manchester, 1894 (dated armorial
bookplate, withdrawal label dated 1988 on final flyleaf; sale at Sotheby’s, 14 April 1988, lot 61, to); J.R. Ritman (BPH
bookplate, #146).
Quarto (23.7 x 17 cm). 52 leaves, 28 lines, titles, woodcut headpiece and two capitals with vinework (Kristeller 307) on 1r and 26r printed in red,
several leaves uncut; first leaf slightly spotted.
Straight-grained blue morocco by Samuel Charles Kalthoeber, with his ticket, all edges gilt, three-line border, gilt arms in the centre of both covers, spine
gilt with urns in compartments, marbled endpapers.
HC *12106; GW M28424; BMC VI, 690; Goff O-103; ISTC io00103000.

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Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica

Shapero Rare Books

Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica

Shapero Rare Books

Bernard Shapero and Pierre-Yves Guillemet

8 Shapero Rare Books Shapero Rare Books 9

1 DURANDUS, Guillelmus. Rationale divinorum officiorum.

10 Shapero Rare Books

14 Shapero Rare Books

18 Shapero Rare Books

4 BONAVENTURA [pseudo-]. Meditationes vitae Christi.

20 Shapero Rare Books

22 Shapero Rare Books

6 JOSEPHUS, Flavius. De antiquitate Judaica. De bello Judaico.

24 Shapero Rare Books

28 Shapero Rare Books

30 Shapero Rare Books

32 Shapero Rare Books

10 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. De potestate et sapientia dei.

34 Shapero Rare Books

36 Shapero Rare Books

38 Shapero Rare Books

13 DE PISIS, Rainerius. Pantheologia, sive summa universae theologiae.

40 Shapero Rare Books

42 Shapero Rare Books

46 Shapero Rare Books

16 BEDA VENERABILIS. Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.

48 Shapero Rare Books

Fine copy with wide margins in a lovely binding, possibly Venetian.

50 Shapero Rare Books

18 ZAMORENSIS, Rodericus. Speculum Vitae Humanae.

52 Shapero Rare Books

54 Shapero Rare Books

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60 Shapero Rare Books

64 Shapero Rare Books

66 Shapero Rare Books

68 Shapero Rare Books

70 Shapero Rare Books

29 BOETHIUS and [pseudo-] Thomas AQUINAS (comment.). De consolatione philosophiae.

Provenance: J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #299).

72 Shapero Rare Books

76 Shapero Rare Books

35 PLATO and Marsilius FICINUS (transl. and comment.). Opera.

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84 Shapero Rare Books

86 Shapero Rare Books

First edition, in a very fresh, crisp copy attractively bound.

39 PICUS DE MIRANDULA, Johannes. Apologia conclusionum suorum.

88 Shapero Rare Books

41 ALANUS DE INSULIS. De maximis theologiae.

90 Shapero Rare Books

92 Shapero Rare Books

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96 Shapero Rare Books

Lovely hand-coloured Sammelband in an attractive contemporary binding.

98 Shapero Rare Books

102 Shapero Rare Books

104 Shapero Rare Books

50 ALEXANDER DE VILLA DEI. Doctrinale, pars I [II, III-IV].

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