(INCUNABLE). AQUINAS, THOMAS

Opuscula.

Venice, Hermann Liechtenstein, 1490, September 7. 25 x 18 x 8 cm. Contemporary pig leather binding with rich blindstamping over beveled wooden covers, bound strongly on three double cords. 436 leaves. Gothic type. Some wear and wormholes. Some underlining, a few tiny marginal notes, well readable. Collection of 72 pamphlets and short essays, edited by Aquinas' biographer Antonio Pizamano (or Pizzamano, 1462-1512), a friend of Domenico Grimani and later bishop of Feltre. Attractive typography. Many detailed and lovingly drawn red lombards, partly with playful appendages. According to an inscription in red ink (dating from the early 16th century) this book was owned by the Dominican monastery of Wimpfen ('Wympina') in Baden-Württemberg, especially for the use of 'Michaeli Vhe', one of the most important monks of the monastery: Michael Vehe (1485-1539), an apologetic theologian, also the editor of the first Catholic hymn book with music. Wimpfen was Vehe's main residence in 1500-1506 and 1513-1515. Also with a 19th-century rubber stamp of the Grossherzoglich Hessische Hofbibliothek (Darmstadt). And with a 1929 inserted invoice of a Darmstadt antiquarian bookshop, with the name of typographer C.H. Kleukens (1880-1954), who was at that time professor at the Arts and Crafts School in Mainz. Goff T 258. In all, a clean and impressive incunable with a fine provenance.

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Book number: 272997

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

(INCUNABLE). PSEUDO-BONAVENTURA

Meditationes vitae Christi, (or in full:) Meditationes devotissime totius vite domini nostri Jesu Christi.

Venice, Manfredus de Bonellis, de Monteferrato, December 14, 1497. At the end two poems: Bonaventura, 'Lignum vitae'; and Johannes Peckham, 'Canticum de sanctissimo nomine Jesu Christi'. 15 x 11 cm. Overlapping vellum. 66 leaves, the last blank (with mistakes in the page numbering). Title page with a woodcut of the Pietà on recto and another of the Crucifixion on verso. Text printed in two columns. One 5-line woodcut capital and numerous 2-line capitals. Reprint of a very popular book written by an unknown Franciscan. Large bookplate of Manfred Mehl, elegant bookplate (embossed, gilt, in colors) of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica. A little soiling and browning, vague light brown stain on title page, marginal inkstain at the end. Meditations about the life of Christ. Long attributed to St. Bonaventura. Second edition with illustrations, a small book. Goff B 899. 42 complete copies in libraries, but not in Belgium or the Netherlands (only BPH is mentioned, which is this copy).

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Book number: 267842

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

(INCUNABLE). CICERO, MARCUS TULLIUS

Tusculanae disputationes. Cum commento.

Venice, [Antonius de Strata], December 5, 1491. 29 x 21 cm. Vellum-backed boards with title label (20th century). 58 leaves. First blank with some handwritten notes of a slightly later date (citations of Quintillian and Juvenal) and owner's inscription 'Joannes antonius de paula'. Some repairs and humidity stains. Tiny worm holes with loss of a few letters. With one handwritten guide letter, no initials or rubrication. Marginal notes, hands, lines and some inkstains, partly cut short. Philosophic disputations in the city of Tusculum. Attractive incunable: the text between commentaries in narrower colums. Complete. Pleasant modern binding. Goff C638.

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Book number: 265137

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

(INCUNABLE). EUSEBIUS

De evangelica praeparatione.

Venice, [Bartholomaeus de Zanis], 10 November 1500. Translated from the Greek by Georgius Trapezuntius. Folio. 31 x 20 cm. Modern vellum, flyleaves renewed, last blank missing. Bookplate of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica. 65 leaves. With large and small woodcut initials, of which the first has been colored. With owner's mark on the title page, many contemporary marginalia, pointing fingers and underlining in various hands and colors, and on the colophon page some owner's marks and the handwritten date 1515. Some creasing. A charming incunable, one of the last that was published. Funny small woodcut initials decorated with rabbits, winged mice, flowers and birds, but also renaissance men and monsters. A few times an inverted A has been used as a V! Goff E 123.

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Book number: 267853

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

(INCUNABLE). FERRARIENSIS, JOHANNES

De Coelesti vita.

Venice, Matteo Capcasa (di Codeca), per Hieronymus Blondus, 19 December, 1494. 30 x 22 cm. Bound in morocco-backed boards around 1800-1850, with title label, a bit worn at the edges. Bookplate of Thomas South and of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (Ritman). 72 leaves. Title printed in RED, with printer's mark and decorated woodcut initials. Handwritten notes on title page and flyleaves. Broad-margined theological work. With large metalcut initial 'N' and 3 large woodcut initials (B, C, and M) plus numerous smaller woodcut or metalcut initials. Title page printed in red with a list of the essays contained in this book and a phoenix. Goff J313.

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Book number: 267851

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

HAEBLER, KONRAD

Handbuch der Inkunabelkunde.

Stuttgart, Anton Hiersemann, 1966. OLn mit OU. (8), 192 S. 2. Auflage (unveränderter Abdruck der EA). Umschlag etwas berieben, sonst sehr schön. Unentbehrlich! Exemplar aus dem Besitz von dem niederländischen Typografen Ger Kleis (Sub Signo Libelli).

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Book number: 272482

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

(INCUNABLE). IAMBLICHUS

De mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum. (And other texts by a.o. Proclus, Porphyrius, Synesius, Psellus, Speusippus, Priscianus of Lydia, Alcinous, Pythagoras, Xenocrates and Marsilio Ficino. Edited and translations by Marsilio Ficino.).

Venice, Aldus Manutius, September 1497. 29 x 21 cm. Full calf (probably bound in the early 18th century, with a few restorations). 186 p. First edition. Bookblock edges sprinkled red and blue. Last blank missing. Owner's inscription on title dated 1558. Inscription on flyleaf by former owner James Ralston Skinner, dated 1875. A few marginal notes. Some small defects, but in general a remarkably clean and white copy. Editio princeps of Iamblichus, Porphyrius and Proclus and others. An early Aldus Manutius edition of great harmony and simplicity, an important collection of translations and editions by Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) of various Platonist philosophers, sprinkled with texts of his own and concluded with the first printing of Ficino's essay 'De Voluptate' (written in 1457). Goff J216.Title page with index of the book, followed on verso by the printed dedication to Giovanni de' Medici (later Pope Leo X). Large woodcut open initial at the beginning of the text. Spaces for initials with guide letters (not filled in).The 1558 inscription on the title is hard to read; the name could be something like Petrus (...) Mecklenburgius, with an interesting monogram involving a P and a noughts and crosses grid (tic-tac-toe). James Ralston Skinner (1830-1893) was an attorney from Cincinnati, important in the theosophic world and a correspondent of Blavatsky. The American wrote a number of books about Egypt (especially the pyramid of Gizeh), about metrology and about the kabbala. He bought this book from the Leipsic antiquarian firm of List and Francke.

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Book number: 270913

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

(INCUNABLE). SILIUS ITALICUS

Punica. Cum commentariis Petri Marsi.

Venice, Bonetus Locatellus for Octavianus Scotus, May 18, 1492. 31 x 20 cm. Flexible vellum, probably from the 17th century. 156 leaves. Watermark: cross, snake and oxhead. With introductory letter by Marsus to Virginio Orsini and a Life of Silius Italicus. Text with commentary on each page. With several nice woodcut and metalcut initials and a large woodcut printer’s mark 'OSM' at the end. 2nd Venetian edition. All edges gilt. With double (old) spine inscription. A bit soiled and worn, title in ballpoint on upper cover. Some text pages browned. Two old inscriptions in brown ink on the first two unprinted leaves, one crossed out, the other reads: 'Vi sono monete di Smirne, che ricordano questo poeto consolare'. Punica, the largest epic poem that survived from Roman antiquity, was written in dactylic hexameters by poet and politician Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus (about 28-103 AD). In seventeen Books containing more than twelve thousand verse the Second Punic War is painted, from the moment Hannibal Barcas laid siege to Saguntum in 219 BC to the victory of Scipio the Younger at Zama (near Carthage, 202 BC). The epos contains many classical heroic accounts of large battles in Spain, Italy and Carthago, but also praise for Silius' contemporary employers, the emperors Vespasian and Domitian. Silius admired Cicero and Vergil so much that he acquired Cicero's property at Tusculum and set Vergil's birthday above his own. The inscription on the inside upper cover points to a coin occasioned by Silius when he was proconsul in Asia (minted in 77-79) honoring Titus and Domitian as caesars. Petrus Marsus (Pietro Marso, 1442-1512) was a student and close friend of Pomponius Laetus, who also wrote a commentary on Silius Italicus. This incunable is a masterwork of austere Venetian book art, printed in firm text blocks from an attractive antiqua, awash in a sea of commentary in a harmonic smaller type. Plain title page stating only 'Syllius Italicus. Cum com-/ mentariis Petri Marsi'. Goff S-508. BSB S-386. == Inkunabel, Venedig, 1492.

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Book number: 265151

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

(INCUNABLE). LACTANTIUS, LUCIUS COELIUS FIRMIANUS

De divinis institutionibus libri septem; De Ira dei; et Opificio hominis cum Epithomon eiusdem.

Venice, Vincentius Benalius, 22 march 1493. 30 x 21 cm. Early 19th cent. vellum with old marks of the University of Leiden. 139 leaves (first blank missing). Capital spaces with guide letters. Roman type with some sprinklings of Greek. At the beginning a written register of words for this Lactantius. At the end part of a written register extracted from Cassius Dio. At the first text page a stamp of Leiden University that the book was sold, signed by W.N. du Rieu, Librarian 1880-1897. Marginal notes in old hands (mainly one hand, the same as the author of the registers). Some old page numbers partly cut off, in the beginning some stains. Austerely elegant incunable, discarded in the 19th century from Leiden University, with alphabetical registers and learned notes (handwritten) probably from the 16th century. 135 complete copies in ISTC. Goff L-11.

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Book number: 268885

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

(INCUNABLE). MARCHESINUS, JOHANNES

Mamotrectus super bibliam. (1492).

Venice, Simon Bevilaqua, July 12, 1492. 16 x 12 cm. Old vellum with written spine title. 273 leaves. Title page (with just the word 'Mamotrectus') in photocopy. At the end, part of a benediction leaflet was used to fasten the book block to its binding. Two identical leaflets plus four strips of a woodcut decoration were used to fill up the binding. Some inscriptions at the beginning and the end (a.o. a drawing of a flower vase on one of the last pages). Although soiled and a bit damaged, this is an unpolished, authentic incunable. It is the 21st of the 23 incunable editions of this text, usually called ‘Mammotrectus super bibliam’, however, in this book consistently spelled with one M: Mamotrectus, without 'super Bibliam'. The meaning of this curious title is ‘nourisher on the Bible’, strongly suggesting ‘the Bible’s Breast Milk’. It's a handbook explaining words and notions of the Bible and other important texts, such as the letters of Saint Jerome to Paulinus and Desiderius, but also about clothes of priests, Latin accents and other practical subjects. The Mammotrectus would be useful if you were preparing a sermon or some other priestly act. In the colophon another version of the title is used: Mamotrectus tam bibliae quam aliorum plurimorum librorum, 'Mamotrectus from the Bible as well as from many other books'. Goff M252; BSB M-167. Extensive description on request (and in our catalogue 64). = Inkunabel Venedig 1492.

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Book number: 263390

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

INCUNABULA IN ROMANIA

Catalogul incunabulelor.

Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 1979. Gilt cloth with dust jacket. 124 p. Illustrated. In Rumanian. Excellent condition. Detailed and illustrated descriptions of 84 incunables of the Central University Library of Cluj in Romania and 5 others from the National Museum of Romanian History in Bucharest in alphabetical order. = Inkunabel-Katalog Rumänien.

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Book number: 257652

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

(INCUNABLE). SENECA, LUCIUS ANNAEUS

Opera philosophica. Epistolae.

[Venice, Johannes & Gregorius de Gregoriis, de Forlivio, about 1492]. Folio (31,8 x 21,8 cm). 18th century vellum with seven ribs. 237 folios (of 238, lacking only the final blank C10). 60 lines plus head line. Roman type. Capital spaces with guide letters. Binding a bit worn at lower corners, spine soiled and with an old ticket. 18th century bookplate (Joseph Mazarin?). Marginal notes (some trimmed) in a neat cursive contemporary hand, perfectly legible. A bit soiled and some stains. Tiny wormhole in margin starting from leaf cii to the end. A few restorations in margins. Some insignificant pinpoint holes in the text. In all a good copy. This attractive incunable contains the philosophical works and letters of Seneca, including his correspondence with Saint Paul (which is in fact a forgery from the 4th century), and also some works of the philosopher's father Seneca the Elder, in the Middle Ages thought to be the son's work. No colophon was printed in this book, the explicit ends with a quire register. Contemporary handwritten title on first blank with the Epitaph of Seneca ('Cura, labor, meritum') as a motto. With some misprints in the pagination and elsewhere (e.g. 'Epitsolarum' instead of 'Epistolarum' on leaf II). BMC, V, 595; Goff S-372, BSB-Ink S-269 (the copy that was used for reproduction has some slight differences in the typesetting). 59 copies (45 complete) in the various libraries (but not in the Dutch or the Belgian). = Inkunabel Venedig 1492.

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Book number: 258967

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

(INCUNABLE). SENECA, LUCIUS ANNAEUS

Opera philosophica. Epistolae.

Venice, Bernardinus de Choris, de Cremona and Simon the Luere, 1490. Folio. 33 x 23 cm. 19th-century vellum-backed boards with 4 ribs and 2 title labels. 216 leaves. 62-63 lines plus header. Roman type. Space for capitals with guide letters. Binding in good condition. Inscription on the side of the book block (‘Opera Seneci', sic). 20th-century bookplate of Georg Bachem. Name (16th century, hard to read) on title page. Marginal notes in Latin (some of these partly cut off). A few worm holes at the end. A good copy with wide margins. Early collected edition of the philosophical works and letters, as usual with the writings of the older and the younger Seneca mixed up indiscriminately. Notes on first endpaper about a previous owner, the lawyer Conrad Cohn (1901-1942), who died in Oranienburg (or Mauthausen, according to Wikipedia), with a commentary on Breslauer, Venator and other incunable sellers. Goff S-370. 135 complete copies in libraries, one in Belgium (Brussels KB) and one in the Netherlands (Leiden). Attractive book in decorative binding, excellent condition.

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Book number: 267532

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula

(GUTENBERG). ZEDLER, GOTTFRIED

Die Mainzer Ablaßbriefe der Jahre 1454 und 1455. Mit 16 Tafeln in Lichtdruck, einer Tafel in Zinkätzung und 14 Textabbildungen, darunter zwei Typentafeln.

Mainz, Verlag der Gutenberg-Gesellschaft, 1913. 2 vols. 29 x 22 and 38 x 26 cm. Original grey printed wrappers. First volume (8), 116 p. with 14 pictures in the text. Second volume contains 17 printed b/w plates (complete!). 1st edition. Covers rather worn, creased and soiled. Detailed study in German about the printed indulgences of 1454 and 1455 that were issued by Gutenberg. A sumptuous publication printed on handmade paper. Poor copy, but complete: usually the second volume with the 17 plates is missing - not so in this case.

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Book number: 273531

Catalogue: 15th century - Incunabula