Carpenter, Alexander

Royal Folio (15 1/4 x 11 1/4 in.; 387 x 288 mm). Collation: a-d⁸; e-x A⁸ B-D¹⁰ E-V⁸ X-Z⁶ [ZZ]⁸: 355 of 358 leaves, lacking only the three blanks a1, [ZZ]7-8. 2 columns, 53 lines, types 2:150G (headlines and headings), 1:102G (text). Initial spaces of 2- to 10lines. A four-part woodcut border, partially coloured in yellow; rubricated red and blue (alternating lombard initials). A few marginal contemporary annotations.
Contemporary blind-stamped dark brown calf (Koblenz?) over wooden boards, rebacked with original spine. Lacking first and final 2 blank leaves, small tear on lower margin of a2 not affecting text, marginal dampstain on first 3 quires, some worming and occasional foxing. 

Premonstratensians of Rommersdorf near Koblenz (a2r: Liber Bibliothecae Romersdorfiensis).

Goff A-391; Hain-Copinger 649; GW 865; BMC I, 262 (IC.4378); Schreiber 3812; Schramm VIII Abb. 464; Simon, Bibliotheca bacchica 113. See Richard Sharpe, Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540 (1997), p. 49. Binding tool: Schwenke-Sammlung Sonne 57 (Schunke: “Zur Trier Verkündigung”).

Contemporary blind-stamped dark brown calf (Koblenz?) over wooden boards, rebacked with original spine. Lacking first and final 2 blank leaves, small tear on lower margin of a2 not affecting text, marginal dampstain on first 3 quires, some worming and occasional foxing.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

First edition of this treatise on the excesses and abuses of the Church and on the decent behaviour of priests, written in 1429 by Alexander Carpenter, an English ecclesiastic about whom almost no biographical detail survives, and whose name even is uncertain. Quentell’s colophon identifies the author as “the son of some carpenter” (nuncupata a cuiusdam fabrilignarii filio) as does a manuscript at Balliol College; the given name Alexander first appears in the 1497 Paris edition (Goff A-394). The first 9 chapters concern gluttony. The Destructorium Vitiorum is Carpenter’s only known work, and a good example of the potential of printing to revive dormant medieval texts. Only three to four manuscripts are known, but there are four fifteenth-century printings as well as several of the early sixteenth century, and it was printed in Venice as late as 1582.

The historiated woodcut border was used by Quentell in various of his Royal folio editions of 1479-1480, including both of his Low German Bibles, Goff B-636 and B-637.