(Durer, Albrecht) — Lucianus of Samosata — Willibald Pirckheimer (trans.) | An ornamental woodcut titlepage by Durer

(Durer, Albrecht) — Lucian of Samosata — Willibald Pirckheimer (trans.)

De ratione conscribendae historiae, ex graeco in latinum traductus. Nuremberg: F. Peypus, 1515

4to (201 x 146 mm). Ornamental title page featuring a woodcut border by Albrecht Durer; a few minor stains in the margins, text block trimmed close to printed marginalia without loss of text. Old pastepaper boards; spine perished, front board detached but retaining the endpaper.

This book includes an ornamental woodcut title page made by Albrecht Durer for his closest friend, Willibald Pirckheimer. The title page was used in five of Pirckheimer’s publications, first appearing in 1513.

Willibald Pirckheimer, the text’s translator, was an important humanist scholar and art patron in Nuremberg. He notably encouraged Durer’s classical humanist education through their scholarly discussions and with a loan that allowed the artist to travel to Venice from 1507 to 1509. This text is a translation from Greek to Latin of Lucian of Samosata’s How to Write History.

REFERENCES

British Museum catalogue number 1904,0206.28 (Pirckheimer’s own copy); Hollstein VII, 225

PROVENANCE

Dr. George Kloss (Bookplate on front pastedown; manuscript label, “no. 2343,” on front board; the collection sold at Sotheby and Son, London, starting on 7 May 1835) — manuscript note on rear free endpaper, “Bought by L. H. N. at Hyatt sale in Feb. 1838 for 60 Cents” (this likely the sale at Cooley & Bangs, New York, Catalogue of Rare Scarce and Early Printed Books, 21 February 1838)