Dionysius Carthusianus, In quatuor Evangelistas enarrationes, Cologne, 1543, blind-tooled calf with an early fore-edge painting

Folio (310 x 200 mm). Roman type, 60 lines plus headline. collation: πA⁸ A-Z⁶ a-g⁶ h⁸ i-z⁶ 2a-2r⁶ 2s⁴: 378 leaves (of 380, lacking πA1.8). Woodcut initials. (Lacking woodcut title-page and last leaf of index, tear without loss to foot of πA6, some light staining.)

binding: Plausibly a remboîtage of a German binding from the first half of the sixteenth century (323 x 210 mm), blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, border of floriate roll, same roll repeated 3 times vertically in central panel, fore-edge decorated in ink, traces of 2 clasps, remains of metal shoes. (Head of spine renewed, new endpapers, lacking both straps.)

provenance: Initials S F branded on head- and tail-edge, designating an unidentified Franciscan convent, plausibly seventeenth-century — Swann Galleries, Early printed books: including 18th-century English literature, incunabula, law, religion, Spanish books, New York, 26 April 2001, lot 99. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: USTC 626400; VD16 D 1920