Gerson, Jean.

Chancery folio (c.28 x 21 cms.), 167 leaves (of 170, lacking blank at end and two leaves of tables), Gothic letter, 3- to 6-line initials supplied in red, the first initial in blue (faded) with red penwork decoration, initial-strokes and paragraph-marks in red, early nineteenth-century half calf, [d]10 and [h]7 with neat marginal paper repairs, [i]9-10 damaged and repaired with slight loss of text, splitting at joints, binding rubbed

H 7717; GW 10765; BMC ii 512; Goff G199; Toledo  Musem of Art, "The Printed Note" [exhibition catalogue, 1957], no.4 

first edition of Gerson's work, which contains the first appearance of music in print. It comprises five descending square notes representing sol, fa, mi, re and ut with the vowels a, e, i, o and u underneath; in the treatise Gerson "attributed moral significance to the musical notes... and the five vowels" (New Grove Dictionary of Music, 9, p.763).  There is no stave, but the notes are so accurately placed that copies are known where one has been drawn in.

According to Victor Scholderer (Fifty Essays, 1966, p.224), Fyner probably learned his trade in the workshop of Heinrich Eggestein.  Because of the similarity of their typefaces, he considers this work to be the product of Fyner's press, although this has since been disputed.