Rainerius de Pisis, Pantheologia, Venice, 1486, volume 1 only, Augsburg plaited-headband binding
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December 10, 04:10 PM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 GBP
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Description
RAINERIUS DE PISIS. Pantheologia, sive Summa universae theologiae. Venice: Hermannus Liechtenstein, 12 September 1486
A fine copy of Rainerius' Pantheologia, the oldest surviving encyclopedia of theology. This copy contains two illuminated initials (of a master and pupils on a2r, and a penitent and a confessor on a3r), and is bound in a contemporary Augsburg binding, notable for its plaited head- and tailbands.
The volume also has a fascinating early modern provenance, with an inscription stating that in 1493 it was owned by Joannes Stadelmann of Arbon, Prior of the Augustinerkloster, Konstanz; another volume owned by Stadelmann (Alexander de Villa Dei, Doctrinale, Venice, 1482), with a very similar inscription, is now in the National Library of Vienna. Another inscription following this records that in 1503 the book was given to Caspar Amman (ca 1450-1524), prior of the Augustinian monastery in Lauingen, an eminent Hebraist and Catholic sympathizer of Luther. Some leaves have fifteenth-century annotations in the margins, very plausibly in the same hand as the inscription recording the gift of the volume to Amman. By 1637, the volume was in the library of the Jesuit college of Neuburg an der Donau, and in the twentieth century, it was in the collection of Harry Pratley, the longstanding proprietor of Hall's Bookshop in Tunbridge Wells, before being sold in these rooms in 1988.
Several of the binding stamps are also found on a volume now in Munich (4to Inc.c.a. 814 a), a Venetian imprint dated 1491 (EBDB w002303).
Part one (only, of 2), Chancery folio (328 x 217 mm). Gothic type, double column, 65 lines plus headline. collation: a10 b-x8 y6 z8 &8 aa-ll8 mm-nn6: 292 leaves. Illuminated initials supplied on a2r and a3r, elsewhere initials supplied in red, paragraph marks, initial strokes, and marginal headings supplied in red throughout, contemporary manuscript notes at the head of inside upper cover, a few early annotations in the margins. (Very slight worming from 2i3 to end).
binding: Contemporary Augsburg(?) plaited-headband binding (353 x 224 mm), blind-tooled pigskin over thick wooden boards, upper cover with a frame of multiple blind fillets with a quadrilobe at corners and leafy stamps along sides, inside the frame repeated Maria scrolls, in the centre a diapered panel containing double roses, fleur-de-lys, eagle, and floriate tools; lower cover: similar except a deer alternating with palmette along spine and the frame with an angular knotwork stamp; spine lettered in ink at head with "B" shelfmark towards foot, 2 clasps, plain edges, on top edge "CASPAR" (name of second owner) in ink, on fore-edge horizontally "prima pars|pa[n]theologie|MCA" above upper clasp and "Q K|1" between clasps. (Tear to pigskin on lower board, slight worming).
provenance: Joannes Stadelmann, Prior of the Augustinerkloster, Konstanz, ownership inscription on a3r ("Fr. Johannes Stadelman d'arbona l[e]ctor et p[ri]or huius conventus anno 1493"), repeated above colophon — probably given by Stadelmann to Caspar Amman (ca 1450-1524), inscription beneath Stadelmann's on A3r ("dedit m[agist]ro Caspar Amman de langing[—] (Lauingen?) anno 1503"), on top edge ("Caspar"), and probably also on fore-edge ("M[agister] C[aspar] A[mman]") — Jesuit College, Neuburg an der Donau, inscription on a1r dated 1637 — bibliographical description by an English bookdealer pasted to flyleaf (dated 1903?) — Arnold Hoffman (1886-1966, American artist), bookplate dated 1911 — Harry W. Pratley (1905-1987), sale, Sotheby's London, 13-14 January 1988, lot 291, bought by H.G. Fletcher, London, for £660 — Kenneth John Hewett (1919-1994), London bookseller and art dealer, booklabel to rear pastedown. acquisition: Purchased in 1999 from Patrick King, Stony Stratford. references: ISTC ir00010000