Rolewinck, Werner

Folio (11 5/8 x 8 in.; 302 x 204 mm), Gothic type;  blank, 7 leaves (table in three columns) 64 leaves (including the prologue), 2 woodcut initials, 14 woodcut illustrations in the text, (including mythical symbols such as Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel Tower, Temple of Solomon or views of Rome,  Istanbul (Byzantium/Constantinople), Athens, Venice, and a portrait. All illustrations delicately colored by hand, probably at the time of the binding, i.e. first half of the eighteenth century, woodcut roundels throughout. Complete copy with 72 leaves; dampstaining in margin of first 19 leaves, wormhole repairs on first 15 leaves (lower inside corner) and small tears repairs on last leaf, not affecting text or illustrations. Eighteenth century calf, double thick gilt frame, floral gilt ornament in the inside corner of inside frame and in the center of panels, Grotesque style gilt design on spine; slightly rubbed, wormhole at bottom of the spine.

Brunet, II, 1187; BMC V, 274; Hain-Copinger 6924*; Goff R260; ISTC ir00260000.

Seventh incunable edition (first edition Cologne 1474) and first Italian edition.

The Fasciculus temporum is Rolewinck's history of the world from Creation to Pope Sixtus VI. Rolewinck (1425–1502), a monk from the Carthusian Monastery of Santa Barbara in Cologne, used the Chronicles of Marianus Scotus as source for his early history. The Fasciculus was printed more than 40 times during the author's life and was used as a school book for the students of this time. 

The 1479 edition is the first Italian edition, made by Georg Walch in Venice. It has the very first printed view of Venice (the Piazza San Marco from the Grand Canal - verso of leaf 37). Walch, a German wandering printer, probably illustrated this edition to earn local sponsors. 

A superb and large copy, complete and delicately handcolored.