Bonaventura [Pseudo, i.e., Servasanctus Faventinus]

Sermones de tempore et de sanctis. [Ulm]: Johann Zainer, 1481



Folio (11 x 7 3/4 in.; 280 x 197 mm.). Gothic types, collation: [a-p8, q10, r10] = [140] ff.; part II of 2 only, 3 small holes in f. [10], one affecting a few letters, occasional stains. 3-line initials supplied in red (one in blue), a few flourished, paragraph marks in red.



[Bound with:]
Bonaventura [Pseudo, i.e. Conrad Holzinger de Saxonia]. Speculum beatae Marie virginis. Augsburg: Anton Sorg, 20 September 1477
Gothic type. 38 lines. collation: [a-d10, e10+1] = [51] ff. including initial blank. 10-line woodcut Maiblumen initial opening text, 3-line woodcut outline initials, all neatly colored in red, capital strokes and paragraph marks in red.



[Bound with:]



Nicolaus Cisterciensis. Imago beatae virginis.  [Augsburg: Anton Sorg, 1477]



Gothic type. 38 lines. collation: [a-c10, d12] = [42] ff., including final blank. Opening 10-line initial supplied in red with fanciful anthropomorphic infill, 2- to 4-line woodcut outline initials, colored in red, a few initials omitted and supplied by the rubricator, capital strokes, paragraph marks, and a few underlines in red. 




[Bound with:]



Johannes de Peckham [i.e, Petrus de Limoges]. De oculo morali.  [With:] Matthias Farinator. Tabula.  [Augsburg: Anton Sorg, c. 1477]



Gothic type. 38 lines and headline. collation: [a8, b10, c8, d-f10, g6] = [62] ff., including initial blank. 10-line woodcut Maiblumen initial opening text, smaller woodcut outline initials colored in red, a few omitted and supplied by the rubricator, capital strokes, paragraph marks, and a few underlines in red.




[Bound with:]



Bernardus Claravallensis. De consideratione. [With:] Pseudo-Bernardus. De conflictu civitatis Babylon et Jerusalem.  [With:] Ciprianus Episcopus [or Pseudo-Augustinus]. De duodecim abusionum gradibus.  [Augsburg: Anton Sorg, c. 1475-1477]
Gothic type. 38 lines (variable). collation: [a-c10, d6, e8+1] = [45] ff.; patched tear to blank lower corner of f. [4]6. Three 10-line woodcut Maiblumen initials, colored in red; capital strokes, paragraph marks, and a few underlines in red. 




[Bound with:]
Andreae, Johannes. Super arboribus consanguinitatis, affinitatis et cognationis spiritualis. Nuremberg, Friedrich Creussner, 1477
Gothic type. 34 lines. collation: [a10] = [10] ff. 3 full-page woodcuts of the trees of consanguinity etc., the first folding; bottom of first two woodcuts shaved, the first also at top. Four 6- to 3-line initials supplied in red. Capital strokes in text and woodcut in red, contemporary marginalia in two different hands. Original South German binding of blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, covers divided into panels by parallel rows of blind fillets and stamped with individual tools of large and small rosettes, large and small flowering plants, a lozenge with double fleur-de-lys, and a large circular double(?) eagle tool at corners of upper cover, contemporary ms. paper title label on upper cover, below it another larger paper label with ms. contents list, 8 brass bosses, pair of long (195 mm.) decorative brass-and-leather fore-edge clasp straps fastening on two metal pins near center of front cover, one clasp with braided leather thong attached, hole on lower cover for chain hasp, upper and lower compartments of spine painted white and lettered in the 18th century, 19th-century paper label on spine, original leather index tabs, endleaves from a 15th-century manuscript on vellum, pastedowns renewed in the 16th century, folding cloth case; covers rubbed, joints cracked. Two inscriptions on front pastedown dated February 1561.

I: GW 4812; H 3513; BMC II, 527; Goff B-949; II: GW 4818; H 3567; BMC II, 345; Goff B-960; BSB-Ink C-523; Pell 2682; III: H 11759; BMC II, 345; Goff N-95; IGI 6802; IV: HC 9427; BMC II, 345; Goff J-391; BSB-Ink P-357; CIBN J-257; V: GW 3914; H 2887; BMC II, 345; Goff B-368; BSB-Ink B-308; IGI 1512; VI: GW 1688; H 1030; BMC II, 449; Goff A-604; BSB-Ink I-289; Pell 645; Pol 176; Schramm XVIII, p. 14

A beautifully preserved monastic Sammelband, assembled and bound in the early 1480's, containing six incunabula, four from the Augsburg press of Anton Sorg, one printed at Ulm's first press by Johann Zainer, and one from the active Nuremberg shop of Friedrich Creussner.

Ad I: Part II of a collection of sermons traditionally attributed to Bonaventura but in fact largely written by Servasanctus Faventinus. This is the third edition and the first printed in Germany. The British Library copy is also of the Sermones de sanctis only; the two parts were apparently issued separately.

Ad II-V: Four Sorg editions of devotional tracts, printed at about the same time and often found bound together, indicating that they may have been issued for purchase either separately or together. All are printed in Anton Sorg's first type, which was previously used in 1473/74 by the press of the Augsburg Benedictines of Sts. Ulrich and Afra: whether Sorg originally supplied the type to the monastery remains unclear. The four tracts are here uniformly rubricated. These are the second editions of the Speculum beatae Mariae virginis and De oculo morali, first printed by Sorg in 1476. The latter treatise, ascribed to Peckham in Sorg's editions but in fact the work of Peter of Limoges (fl. 1272), canon of Evreux, contains, notwithstanding its moralizing content, one of the earliest printed descriptions of the eye, as well as a brief account of eye diseases and their treatment.

These two tracts are bound with the first and only 15th-century edition of the Imago beate virginis and the second edition of Bernardus Claravallensis, De consideratione, first printed at Utrecht in 1474. This is the only 15th-century edition to include the short supplementary tracts.

Ad VI: One of 17 recorded editions by Creussner of this useful and frequently printed treatise on canonical impediments to marriage due to blood relationships or those caused by marriage. The tract appeared alone or in editions of the Decretales; most editions, including this one, contain an additional Lectura super arboribus cognationis spiritualis by an unknown editor.

Although its overall pattern of decoration is typical of Augsburg work (cf. Rabenau, Schwenke-Sammlung II, p. 5), the tools are not identified in Kyriss or Schwenke-Sammlung, making a closer identification difficult.