Nicolaus de Lyra

Postilla super totam Bibliam (with Additiones of Paulus Burgensis). [Strassburg: Johann Mentelin] (not after 20 July) 1472



Royal folio, vols. I and IV only of 4 (16 × 11 3/8 in.; 406 × 288 mm [vol. I; vol. IV slightly smaller]). Type 5:92B. Double column, 62 lines. Initial spaces, and spaces for illustrations in vol. I (not supplied). Collation: Vol. I: [1–6^{10 712 8–1510 168 (+2* c°. Ad hoc) 178 18–2010 21-226 23–2710 282 29–3710 386 39–4210 438]: 404 (of 407) leaves, lacking sheet 35/2.9 and leaf 39/6. Text Units: quires 1–12 = fos. 1–122 (Genesis-Exodus); quires 13–17 = fos. 123–169 (Leviticus-Numbers); quires 18-28 = fos. 170–263 (Deuteronomy-II Regum); quires 29–38 = fos. 264–359 (III Regum-Judith); quires 39–43 = fos. 360–407 (Esther-Job). Vol. IV: [1–610 712 8–1310 14–168 17–2210 238 246 25–2610 2710 (+10* Circa primum) 2812 29–3310 342 (+2*) 35–3610 374]: 348 (of 350) leaves, lacking only 37/3–4, blanks. Text units: quires 1–16 = fos. 937-1092 (Gospels); quires 17–27 = fos. 1093–1197 (Pauline Epistles); quire 28 = fos. 1198–1209 (Additiones of Paulus Burgensis to Pauline Epistles); quires 29–37 = fos. 1210–1286 (Acts-Apocalypse). Vol. I rubricated red (lombard initials, capital strokes, underlining and bracketing to mark out the lemmata), the first initial in blue with red and green Maiblumen flourishing, headlines not supplied (except first few leaves, in brown ink). Vol. IV similarly rubricated but by a different hand (first initial not supplied) and with consistent headlines.  Vol. I in contemporary calf with Kopfstempel tools over unbevelled wooden boards, edges light yellow-stained, many original index tabs of red leather, the upper cover loose; formerly chained, worm punctures in outer margin of first quire. Vol. IV in later wooden boards, pigskin spine, two (early) fore-edge clasps supplied, edges plain. In vol. IV the first leaf browned, a single wormhole, last leaf with frayed margins, minor dampstain in upper margin of a few quires.}

Vol. I: Baumburg, Augustinian convent — Munich State Library duplicate. Vol. IV: Egidius Han, plebanus in Buhel — his gift to: Rohrhalden, Pauline Hermits

Goff N–133; H 10366*; BMC I 56 (IC.574); BSB-Ink. N–111; Bod-inc. N–57

Folio (18 3/8 x 11 in.; 468 x 280 mm). Engraved double-page title and 42 double-page engraved plates by Pieter de Jode, Pierre Clouwet, Pieter van Lisebetten, C. van Caukercken, Lucas Vorstermans, or Lommelin, after Abraham van Diepenbeeck, text diagrams, engraved vignette, woodcut historiated and decorative initials; some marginal spotting and soiling on title, text leaves and many plates lightly browned, clean tear in image of plate 1, repaired tear at lower right platemark of plate 3, occasional marginal spots. Contemporary mottled calf, spine richly gilt, gold-stamped title label on spine; corners and edges rubbed, scuff marks on both covers, backstrip cracked.
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Second edition presumably, but overlapping in time with the first edition printed Rome: Sweynheym and Pannartz, 18 November 1471-26 May 1472 (Goff N-131). Several copies of Mentelin's edition have purchase or rubrication dates of 1472; one or two copies have the printed date 1472 on the last text page; and the copy in the Seminary Library, Rottenburg am Neckar, has a purchase date of 20 July 1472 (Hummel-Wilhelmi 455). Sweynheym and Pannartz's edition included only the Postilla of the Franciscan Nicholas of Lyra (d.1349).

Mentelin's edition added the Additiones of Paul of Burgos alias Paulus de Sancta Maria (d. 1435), a converted Jew, author also of the Scrutinium scripturarum of which Mentelin produced the editio princeps, not after 1470 (Goff P–201). Later printings, including Latin Bibles with the Lyra Postilla in commentary surround, added further the Replicationes of the Franciscan Matthias Doering (d. 1469), defending Lyra against the criticisms of Paul of Burgos; and the Expositiones of William Brito (d. by 1285) on the traditional Vulgate Bible prefaces.

Unlike the Sweynheym and Pannartz edition, Mentelin's edition does not have clearly marked individual volumes, and copies vary in the number of quires per volume, although the New Testament Postilla was almost always treated as a distinct volume. In the New Testament, leaf 34/2* is printed with only a single column on each page, and in this copy the outer half of the leaf has been removed. In this copy as in others, on 6/1r of the New Testament a missing line of text is supplied in manuscript at the foot of col. a, and the first line of col. b (whose text is, erroneously, the first line of 6/1v col. a) is crossed through in red. The stated collation of the New Testament volume differs from that of BMC (and of Polain 2820), but is correct: Leslie Sheppard arrived at the same collation for the Bodleian copy.