Jacobus de Voragine, Legendario di Sancti, Venice, 1492, old velllum

Jacobus de Voragine

Legenda aurea sanctorum, sive Lombardia historia [Italian] Legendario di sancti [translated by Niccolò Malermi]. [Venice: Manfredus de Bonellis, de Monteferrato, 10 December 1492]

Chancery folio (298 x 204mm.), 225 leaves (of 226), a-z⁸ &⁸ [con]⁸ [rum]⁸ A⁸ B¹⁰, double column, 61 lines plus headline, gothic type, woodcut illustrations, a2r within an architectural woodcut border, woodcut initials, later Italian reused vellum, lacking final leaf with colophon, first leaf somewhat browned and defective, a2 repaired at edges, a3-b1 repaired in margins with some leaves trimmed, a few other leaves repaired in gutter, occasional light staining, slightly heavier towards end of volume, quire B repaired in gutter, B9 damaged and repaired with some loss of text, binding slightly worn, tear at foot of spine, upper joint cracking at head

An uncommon edition of Jacobus de Voragine's lives of the saints, in Malermi's translation, with numerous woodcut illustrations depicting the life and death of the saints. Some of the woodcuts appeared in an earlier edition of the Bible, and the blocks were reused for subsequent Venetian editions of the Legenda aurea. A few of the woodcuts seem to have been lightly inked over to hide any indecency (for instance on St Sebastian on e3v).

REFERENCES: ISTC ij00179000 (listing 7 copies); Sander 7716

PROVENANCE: Early notes on title-page, including "Iste liber pertinet ad locus..." and "questo libro e del Convento di S..."; S.C., initials inked on head of textblock (from a convent of St C-?)