Brant, Sebastian

Folio (10 7/8 x 7 3/8 in.; 275 x 187 mm). Black letter (with roman and italic types), single and double column text, 118 woodcut illustrations printed from 107 blocks, including the emblematic title-page cut, woodcut initials and type ornaments; title-page laid down and restored at margins, small holes on L5 and N1 costing a few letters, lower fore-edge corner of final leaf lost, a little scattered minor soiling. Eighteenth-century vellum, red-sprinkled edges; lightly soiled.

Albert Ehrman (armorial bookplate, press-mark on rear pastedown, AE: R.616) — John Ehrman (Bibliotheca Broxbourniana bookplate; Sotheby's London, 15 November 1977, lot 283)

STC 3546; ESTC S107135; Pforzheimer 41; Luborsky and Ingram, English Illustrated Books 1536–1603, I, p. 251

Folio (10 7/8 x 7 3/8 in.; 275 x 187 mm). Black letter (with roman and italic types), single and double column text, 118 woodcut illustrations printed from 107 blocks, including the emblematic title-page cut, woodcut initials and type ornaments; title-page laid down and restored at margins, small holes on L5 and N1 costing a few letters, lower fore-edge corner of final leaf lost, a little scattered minor soiling. Eighteenth-century vellum, red-sprinkled edges; lightly soiled.
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.

The Broxbourne Library copy of the second English-language edition. Brant's satire was first published in German in 1494, with Jacob Locher's Latin translation following in 1497. Locher's Latin text is here interspersed with a translation into English by Alexander Barclay (c. 1484–1552) that was first published in 1509 (STC 3545). The "other Workes adioyned" are Barclay's translations of Domenico Mancini's Mirror of Good Manners and Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini's (later Pius II) Certayne Egloges; the latter were first published in the 1520s and are considered to be the first pastoral poems to be written in English. The numerous woodcut illustrations are closely based on those by Dürer and others that appeared in the first and subsequent editions printed by Johann Bergmann de Olpe in Basel from 1494, and in the French translation of Rivière published in Paris in 1497. They were originally used in Pynson's 1509 edition (Hodnett 1824–1881, 1883–1899, 1901–1931).