Nicolaus de Lyra, Postilla in Bibliam, Rome, Sweynheym and Pannartz, 1471, modern half morocco

NICOLAUS DE LYRA

Postilla super totam Bibliam. Rome: Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz, 18 November 1471

volume 1 only (of 5), Royal folio (403 x 278mm.), 449 leaves (of 452, lacking initial blank and text leaves 14/4 and 14/9; for detailed collation see printed catalogue), 46 lines, roman type, small initials supplied in red or blue, large initials illuminated with white vine-stem decoration (one outlined in ink but not coloured), second leaf of text with a three-part white vine-stem border incorporating an illuminated initial and ecclesiastical arms at foot, early twentieth-century binding of half brown morocco, spine lettered in gilt with owner's name at foot of the spine, first text leaf supplied, section of the right hand margin of the second leaf cut away, leaf 2/9 rubbed with slight loss of text, leaf 199 with decorated initial excised with some loss of text, last leaf slightly soiled and repaired at foredge with old tape, binding rubbed

A VERY TALL COPY. FIRST EDITION of Lyra's postilla litteralis of the Bible, the fundamental reference tool for the study of the Bible in the late Middle Ages, in which he expounded the literal meaning of the Bible based on a knowledge of Hebrew sources (as opposed to the moral interpretations provided by the glossa ordinaria). Sweynheym and Pannartz's edition, prepared by Giovanni Andrea Bussi and completed in May 1472, was the largest production of Sweynheym and Pannartz's shop, comprising more than 1,800 Royal folio leaves; this first volume covers Genesis to II Chronicles. On various pages spaces were left for drawings of Noah's Ark, the Tabernacle, and other Old Testament materials described in detail by Lyra. In this copy, as in most, the spaces were left blank.

Later editions of the Bible (from 1481 onwards) often incorporated Nicolaus de Lyra's postilla, though Sweynheym and Pannartz printed the text of the Bible separately, also in 1471. Unlike other early Bibles, this one was in roman type in a single column of text, the same as other Sweynheym and Pannartz printings of classical or patristic texts, and the same as the present work.

LITERATURE:

ISTC in00131000

PROVENANCE:

Michele Cavaleri (nineteenth-century Milanese art collector), his Museo Cavaleri stamp on second leaf; David N. Carvalho (1848-1925, of New York City), name on spine with the date 1906 (his incunabula sold by auction, New York, 1917), with extract from his catalogue pasted to inside front cover; Mayer Sulzberger, bookplate; Jewish Theological Seminary, bookplate