![LEIDEN CHRISTI, in Italian -- Preghiere sulla Passione di Cristo, abridged translation from the German of illustrated devotional meditations on the Lord's Passion. [Northern Italy (? Bologna or Ferrara): perhaps Ulrich Han, ca 1462-63]. Chancery quarter-sheet 8° (135 x 105mm).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1998/CKS/1998_CKS_06055_0018_000(112211).jpg?w=1)
Details
LEIDEN CHRISTI, in Italian -- Preghiere sulla Passione di Cristo, abridged translation from the German of illustrated devotional meditations on the Lord's Passion. [Northern Italy (? Bologna or Ferrara): perhaps Ulrich Han, ca 1462-63]. Chancery quarter-sheet 8° (135 x 105mm).
COLLATION
[116(8+1)] (1r blank, 1v full-page metalcut illustration Schreiber 2222 Entry into Jerusalem, 2r letterpress text of prayer relating to Entry, 2v typographical prayer relating to Washing, 3r metalcut Schr 2232 Washing of the Feet, 3v cut Schr 2243 Mount of Olives, 4r prayer Mount, 4v prayer Betrayal, 5r cut Schr 2253 Betrayal, 5v cut Schr 2262 Christ before Caiaphas, 6r prayer Caiaphas, incipit: O sumo redemptore del mundo, 6v prayer Flagellation, incipit: O signor ihesu xpo agnelo de dio che remove li peccati del mundo, 7r cut Schr 2281 Flagellation, 7v cut Schr 2288 Crown of Thorns, 8r prayer Crown, incipit: O ihesu cristo re invincibil il qual portasti una corana de spine, 8v prayer Pilate, incipit: O piissimo ihesu ilqual a la prima hora como agnello innocente fusti menato a pilato cum falso testimonio, 8+1r cut Schr 2273 Christ before Pilate, 8+1v cut Schr 2442 Sudarium of St Veronica, 9r prayer Veronica, incipit: O dio te salvi o faza del nostro redemtore, 9v prayer Crucifixion, incipit: O serpente figurato in lo deserto per moyses o fontana sorgente, 10r cut Schr 2324 Crucifxion, 10v cut Schr 2364 Entombment, 11r prayer Entombment, incipit: O ihesu xpo principio de tute le cose, 11v prayer Descent, incipit: O ihesu xpo re de gloria il qual da po che in croce cum el gran cridar spirando moristi cum gran possansa descendisti alinferno, 12r cut Schr 2424 Descent into Hell, 12v cut Schr 2376 Resurrection, 13r prayer Resurrection, incipit: O ihesu xpo lion fortissimo il qual cum la possanza de la tua divinita el di terzo cum gran possanza resusitasti da morte, 13v prayer Ascension, incipit: O ihesu xpo omnipotente il qual el quadragesimo di. dopo la toa santta resurectio guardando li discipuli toi e la gloriosa madre li celi ascendisti, 14r cut Schr 2395 Ascension, 14v cut Schr 2400 Pentecost, 15r prayer Pentecost, incipit: Veni o santo spirito rempisse li cor de li toi fideli e del to amor, 15v prayer Last Judgement, incipit: O iustisimo iudicio de dio, 16r cut Schr 2408 Last Judgement, 16v blank).
CONDITION
8 leaves only (of 17: lacking fos 1-5 comprising two text-leaves and five illustrations; fos 8+1, 10, 12 and 14 comprising eight illustrations). Present are fos 6-8, 9, 11, 13, 15-16 comprising six text-leaves and three illustrations (those on fo. 7 fragmentary, as just over half the leaf has been torn off diagonally), and identifiable stubs of missing fos 8+1, 12 and 14 (all containing very narrow strips of their recto and verso illustrations). Tear in outer margin of final leaf not affecting illustration, some tiny marginal slits not affecting text, light staining and soiling, stubs strengthened with tissue paper.
BINDING
Ca 1927, russet morocco, spine lettered in gilt, board edges roll-tooled in gilt, signed on turn-in by K. Ebert of Munich, with matching slipcase. The binding was commissioned by Jacques Rosenthal, shortly after Haebler finished his monograph.
PROVENANCE
The manuscript contraction strokes added to the single printed dot for the letter r, the manuscript cedilla and all corrections in pale ink of typographical errors (including the completion of c into e, which had been cast from the same matrix) were almost certainly accomplished in the printer's shop. -- Two 15th-century Italian inscriptions on the blank verso of the last leaf, one of them the beginning of an epistolary exercise, the other a prayer (both unmentioned by Haebler). -- Jacques Rosenthal, antiquarian booksellers of Munich, who discovered the fragment before 1925 and published Haebler's monograph on it in 1927 (his pencilled stock number on front pastedown). Rosenthal was almost alone in realising the historical importance of printed fragments - sometimes tiny fragments - and did a not-so-flourishing trade in them; he preserved and exploited unique evidence of a large number of editions, but this bibliographical insight did not extend to recording the medieval codices and bookbindings from which he recovered strips of Mainz Donatuses as vellum spine-lining or sewing guards, and cut-up indulgences, almanacs and other broadsides. (Only the printdealer Theodor Oswald Weigel, also from Munich, who a generation earlier had specialised in the rare survivals of Briefdrucke, can be compared to him.) Thus, nothing is known of the circumstances, let alone context, in which the Parsons Fragment was saved. -- The Hon. Edward Alexander Parsons (1878-1962) of New Orleans, Louisiana, who bought the fragment in 1928; author of The Alexandrian Library, Glory of the Hellenic World (1952) and The Wonder and the Glory: Confessions of a Southern Bibliophile (1962). Subsequently, as the property of his wife, the fragment was the only book retained when the Bibliotheca Parsoniana was acquired by the University of Texas Library (now the Harry H. Ransom Research Center). -- By descent to the present owners.
PAPER
Although much ink has flowed on the origin of this Italian Passion (and its German antecedents), no bibliographer since Haebler (1927) has physically examined it, while he entirely ignored the possibility of any evidence provided by its paper, concentrating his considerable powers of bibliographical analysis on typographical evidence, the evolving states of the metalcuts and, to a lesser extent, linguistic matters. The unique, imperfect copy of the earliest extant German-language edition (British Museum Print Room IA. 15112 [BMC III, 706]) shows fragments of a grapes watermark in fos 10 and 18, apparently a Piemontese stock. The unique, complete copy of the last extant German-language edition (Bavarian State Library [SBS L-94]) - the one most immediately preceding the Italian-language edition - was evidently printed on unwatermarked paper. The unique Parsons copy of the only extant Italian edition shows fragments of watermarks (presumably twins) in fos 8 and 11, which may tentatively be identified as a half-figure unicorn; variant of Piccard Fabeltiere Abteilung III nos 1361-1378, the watermark indicates a paper stock from a North Italian mill, with a distribution in the Romagna during the early-mid 1460s, particularly Ferrara.
TYPE AND COMPOSITION
Gothic rotunda type, measuring 162mm over 20 lines and consisting of only two capitals (O, V), a full set of lower-case sorts including a bizarre v, as well as punctuation and contraction sorts; the typecase also contained alternative "abutting" sorts with smooth left sides (Anschlussbuchstaben) for i, p, r and u (but not for m and n despite their pronounced serifs), in fact no less than four alternative forms of i, all cast to accommodate the relative position of these letters within a word (specifically, where they were set to follow the right-projecting neighbouring letters c, e, f, r, s and the striking g). THE USE OF THIS FOUNT IS UNIQUE TO THE PARSONS FRAGMENT, its design highly uncommon - larger than the Gutenberg Bible textura type (B42) and only marginally smaller than the Donatus-Kalender type (DK type), Gutenberg's first, later employed in the Pfister Bible (B36) - and its system essentially Gutenbergian, although "abutment" is hardly appropriate to the Italianate rotunda. The somewhat primitive-looking fount contains no ligatures, but through filing an impression of ligaturing is created for de, do, he, pe, po and pp. (Laboriously filing down type had been an important element in the evolution of Gutenberg's B42 fount.) Haebler (1927) provides a detailed survey of the different u-forms and i-forms, and the occasional use of one of the latter in improvising m and n. There are 15 lines to the page, printed in a single column, presumably page by page on a tabletop press with a small platen; justification is consistently attempted, but poorly realised, with liberal arbitrary use of the dot to fill out lines. For the original manuscript strokes and marks where the fount fell short, see the paragraph on provenance.
EDITION
Seven editions of Leiden Christi in German - illustrated with the same metalcuts - are extant, each in a single copy or fragment. Only ed. 7 survives complete, but not all editions were necessarily published with the full complement of Passion scenes and prayers. The suggested chronology of the following list, which deviates only slightly from Haebler's order and includes one edition (B4) unknown to him, is based on the states of the metalcuts (Schreiber, Dodgson), particularly the appearance of nail-holes (see the paragraph on illustration), and on the evolution of the Passion printer's typecase (Haebler 1927). The Passion series without typography came first (A; see para. on ill. for a list). The editions with back-to-back illustration/text leaves followed (B), while the editions with back-to-back illustration bifolia and back-to-back text bifolia came last (C); in order to achieve correct imposition and for the relevant prayer to face each cut, a single leaf had to be inserted in the middle of the quire (as was also the case in the Italian edition, see collation above): a singleton of recto/verso text for the B editions, the same for ed. C5 which opened with a prayer on the verso of the first leaf (recto blank), a singleton of recto/verso illustration for the other C editions which opened with a metalcut on the verso of the first leaf (recto blank). All German quarter-sheet 8° editions precede the unique Italian fragment of the same format (ed. F8) and must be dated to 1460-1461, before the chancery-broadsheet Vienna Blood-Letting Calendar of late 1461 (E). Their type is a textura gothic of 140/136mm, close in appearance and treatment to Gutenberg's DK type, the first fount ever cast, but smaller even than his B42 type. They were probably printed in a Bavarian town (such as Bamberg) or even Vienna.
B1. London, British Museum, Print Room (ex-Weigel, BMC III 706, IA. 15112): fos 10.11 and 12-17. Collation: [120(10+1)]. Type 140mm, 14 lines. Metalcuts: Schr 2302, 2416, 2324, 2474, 2364, 2424, 2376, 2386; Dodgson I, 171 (B4); Pr 3239A.
B2. London, British Museum, Print Room (ex-Weigel, BMC III 706, IA. 15111): fo. 12. Collation: same as B1. 14 lines. Metalcut: Schr 2324; Dodgson I, 175 (B5); Pr 3239B.
B3. Dresden, Kupferstichkabinett: fos 4 and 13. Collation: same as B1. 14 lines. Metalcuts: Schr 2253, 2364.
B4. Weimar, formerly Schlossmuseum (Geldner [1979] fn 35; unknown to Haebler): fo. 18. Collation: presumably the same as B1. Metalcut: Schr 2395.
C5. Braunau (Mähren), formerly Dr Ed. Langer collection: fo. 9. Probable collation: [120(10+1)]. 14 lines. Typography only: prayers relating to Schr 2273 and 2442.
C6. Oxford, Bodleian Library: fo. 3. Probable collation: same as C7. Metalcuts: Schr 2232, 2243.
C7. Munich, Bavarian State Library (BSB-Ink L-94; Dibdin [1821] 280; Stöger [1833]): complete. Collation: [120(10+1)]. Type 136mm, 13-14 lines. Metalcuts: 20 (16 as described in the para. on collation, plus Schr 2302 Carrying the Cross, Schr 2416 Nailing to the Cross, Schr 2474 Deposition, Schr 2386 Appearance to Mary Magdalene).
C7 survives bound - in 18th-century morocco - together with the unique copy of a very similar production (D), which shows two states of the same type (the earlier 140mm fitting somewhere between B2 and C5, the later 136mm between C5 and C7) and 8 unique metalcuts:
D. Sieben Freuden Mariae, complete: Munich, BSB (Stöger [1833]). Chancery quarter-sheet 8° (123 x 90mm). Collation: [18(4+1)] (1r blank, 1v typographical prayer, incipit: Im nomen der heiligen und ungetailten trinaltikait, 2r metalcut Schr 2500 Madonna and Child on Crescent, 2v metalcut Schr 2181 Annunciation, 3r-v prayers, 4r metalcut Schr 2188 Visitation, 4v metalcut Schr 2192 Nativity, 4+1r-v prayers, 5r metalcut Schr 2210 Adoration of Magi, 5v metalcut Schr 2199 Presentation in Temple, 6r-v prayers, 7r metalcut Schr 2214 Virgin finding Christ among the Doctors, 7v metalcut Schr 2432 Death of the Virgin, 8r prayer, 8v blank). Unwatermarked paper. 15 lines to the page.
The final manifestation of the Leiden Christi type - with a new set of capital letters - appears in a production of a very different kind, in a very different format:
E. Blood-Letting Calendar for Vienna, for the year 1462, in German: Princeton, Scheide Library (ex-Donaueschingen, Einblattdrucke 15; GW 1287). [?Vienna:] late 1461. Full-sheet chancery broadside. Lombardy paper, bull's head/rosette watermark (variant of Piccard Ochsenkopf Abt. XII nos 133-35). 53 lines, double column and four columns.
The Leiden Christi fount then disappears, but 16 of the 20 metalcuts make one final appearance, soon after and in essentially the same state as C7, accompanied by an Italian version of the prayers in an otherwise unrecorded type:
F8. The Parsons Fragment (Goff P-147).
INK
The type impressions are sharp and black in the editions examined for this catalogue (the 2 B.M. copies, Munich, and Parsons), even if the glossy quality of the 42-line and 36-line Bibles - caused by the high but varying contents of copper and lead in the Gutenbergian ink batches - is here not so apparent to the naked eye. In the last decade and a half cyclotron analysis of early printing inks by proton milliprobe, as developed at the University of California at Davis, has yielded exciting results to add to our knowledge of Gutenberg's productions in Mainz and Pfister's in Bamberg. If the German and Italian Passions could be submitted to this laser device, a systematic comparison of their ink recipes is likely to reveal more about how their editions relate.
ILLUSTRATION AND COLOUR
Before their use as metalcut illustrations in the various editions of German and Italian prayers in the early 1460s, the Passion series of dotted prints (manière criblée, Schrotblätter) had been published without text in a number of impressions over a short period from the mid-1450s onwards, giving the relief plates a lifespan of rather less than ten years. The metal plates were fixed to wooden blocks for printing and during their career they were reattached several times, probably because they had become unstuck from use. (It has generally been suggested, albeit not very persuasively, that wandering craftsmen or printers would detach them to lighten their load.) The old and new nail-holes, which can be seen in the impressions, form important clues to the chronology of states and editions. No set without text survives complete with twenty prints and it is not impossible that, apart from the complete series, cuts were also sold individually (rather like the Saints' images that were mounted inside boxes and chests, or inserted into manuscripts). All were printed on one side of the paper only, and some have contemporary manuscript text on their verso (e.g. Vienna, Nuremberg). Much remains to be learnt about the organisation of the print trade in the 15th century, particularly for the period before the invention of typography. The following list of the Passion cuts is arranged according to completeness and makes no attempt at a chronology of impressions.
A1. Vienna, Austrian National Library (ex-Salzburg Nonnberg, Haberditzl II, nos 33-50): 18 cuts (lacking Schr 2416 and 2400).
A2. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett (Lehrs pp 78, 80, 156-7): 13 cuts (a 14th cut grouped here, Crucifixion, apparently belongs to a different series).
A3. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France (Dutuit I, p.27): 3 cuts (Schr 2243, 2302, 2442).
A4. Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (ex-Weigel): 3 cuts (Schr 2262, 2376, 2424).
A5. London, Guildhall Library: 2 cuts (Schr 2281, 2288).
A6. Oxford, Bodleian Library: 1 cut (Schr 2376).
A7. Detroit, Michigan, formerly J.E. Scripps coll: 1 cut (Schr 2324).
A8. Munich, Hartung & Karl sale 14 (1975): 1 cut (Schr 2442), mounted in an Austrian prayerbook of 1457/58.
These fine dotted Passion prints, as well as the Seven Joys of Mary prints (D above), were certainly designed and cut by a South-German or Austrian artist. They were no doubt meant to be coloured, whether issued with or without text. Since the German issues invariably have a whole range of colours, and the editions with text show very similar treatments, it seems likely that they were published ready-coloured. The striking exception to this rule is the Italian edition; the three cuts in the Parsons fragment only show a discreet application of light brownish yellow wash.
PRINTING PLACE AND SHOP
Some disagreement exists in the literature about where the Italian Leiden Christi was printed. Apart from Haebler's, none of these opinions is based on direct examination of the fragment. Those who have disputed Haebler's perfectly natural conclusions about the date of the Parsons fragment and its place of printing, nonetheless had to turn to his excellent monograph (1927) for the facts. His localisation of the press in Northern Italy, perhaps at or near Bologna, is supported by the text (North Italian dialect with features pointing to the Romagna and Emilia, with a few Tuscan forms of individual words), the type (a striking rotunda, which despite its Gutenbergian treatment of alternative sorts, is based in general design on typical late-medieval Italian gothic script), and now also the paper (whose watermark variant seems to point mostly to distribution in Ferrara).
It is perhaps not easy to adjust to the idea that the earliest book printed in Italy is not an elegant quarto edition of a major classical text in Roman type for a market of humanists (Cicero's De Oratore, Subiaco: 1465), but a modest octavo edition in Gothic type of a devotional text in translation, illustrated with worn metalcuts imported from the Upper Rhine area. Thus, in 1958 Roberto Ridolfi challenged Haebler on a point of methodology, viz. whether the vernacular should be considered in determining the location of a press, by drawing an entirely specious analogy with Caxton's press turning out English books in the Low Countries. Victor Scholderer had already expressed a doubt in 1949 about Haebler's localisation of this press, by speculating that it was a German production to be marketed in Italy by colportage; however, he did not present any argument to support his theory, which makes some very elaborate assumptions about how trade in cheap literature was organised between Northern and Southern Europe barely a decade after Gutenberg's invention. Only Haebler's attribution then derives from evidence in the fragment itself and conforms to well-tested bibliographical convention.
The only other early rotunda fount in use before 1470 -- apart perhaps from those found in a Franciscan Missal of equally mysterious North or Central Italian origin (Goff M-643) -- was employed at Rome in 1467 [1466?] by Ulrich Han for his first edition of Turrecremata Meditationes (Hain 15722). Although it is much more developed than the Italian Passion type, there are definite similarities in size and design, but most notably Han's gothic is the only other Italian fount to contain Anschlussbuchstaben. (Incidentally, the Meditationes is the earliest Italian book illustrated with woodcuts.) Han was a native of Ingolstadt, matriculated at Leipzig University in 1443 and later presumably became a citizen of Vienna, as he often styled himself Ulrich Han of Vienna. He is the only printer to be plausibly -- albeit tentatively - connected with the Vienna Blood-Letting Calendar (E, above). Thus, by two different routes Ulrich Han can be advanced as the most likely printer responsible for the Italian Leiden Christi. By extension, Han may have printed the German Leiden Christi editions, somewhere in Bavaria, before producing his broadside (illustrated with two small woodcuts) in Vienna, crossing the Alps and on his way down to Rome pausing long enough in Northern Italy to print one last edition of the illustrated Passion Prayers, this time in Italian. Other printers have been suggested (Damiano Moilli at Parma by L. Donati, Johann Neumeister at Foligno by F. Geldner), but their claims are very much weaker. C. Wehmer went so far as to dismiss Han as printer of the Vienna Aderlasstafel, by making him a citizen of Vienne-en-Dauphiné!
DATE
THE PARSONS FRAGMENT IS THE FIRST PRINTED BOOK IN ITALIAN, AS WELL AS THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED IN ITALY, and belongs with the German editions of Leiden Christi to the earliest group of illustrated printed books (with metalcuts), no later than the Pfister group of illustrated books from Bamberg (with woodcuts) or the Dutch prototypographical editions of Speculum Humanae Salvationis (with xylographic illustrations). To designate the Parsons Fragment as prototyography is to suggest an analogy with the earliest Netherlandish printing; in Italy as well as in the Low Countries, typography - not so much experimental as mysterious, anonymous and difficult to localise - was practised some time before the establishment of fully fledged, identified presses (at Subiaco in 1465, at Utrecht and Alost in 1473).
The chronology of the Leiden Christi editions is not in doubt; the state of the metalcuts shows that the German editions precede the Italian one (see the paragraphs on Edition and Illustration). The metalcuts, which make their first appearance without text, were created in the 1450s. The text editions were printed in a type inspired by the DK-B36 fount, whose further evolution can be seen in the Vienna Blood-Letting Calendar (1461-62). The German Leiden Christi editions can therefore be dated ca 1460-61. Proctor (1898) already assigned them that date, although BMC (1913) without giving any reasons put them later. More modern catalogues and bibliographers accept the evidence for an early date (BSB, Haebler, Ridolfi, Geldner, Needham). It is clear that the Italian edition (F8) cannot be earlier than 1461; nor, however, can it be much later. Except for one or two very minor differences, the state of its surviving metalcuts is the same as in the last German edition (C7), its type obviously predates the only Italian fount with which it can remotely be compared, Han's Turrecremata 150G rotunda (1466; see para. on Printing Shop), its setting follows the Gutenbergian system (see para. on Composition), while its watermarks too point to the early 1460s (see para. on Paper). Haebler's dating of the fragment as 1462 or shortly afterwards has found general acceptance, the main exception being Lamberto Donati, whose dating of it in the 1470s requires a contorted argument to explain a long interval and the anachronism of type and cuts.
TEXT AND MARKET
The Italian text comprises sixteen of the twenty known German prayers on the theme of Christ's Passion. The translation is lightly adapted, but follows the original fairly closely. Haebler consulted the famous Dante scholar, Prof. Karl Vossler of Munich, who left no doubt as to the North Italian origin of the dialect, but warned that the text does not allow a more precise localisation (see para. on Printing Place); all subsequent scholars have shared this opinion.
Donati (1954) postulated that the German and Italian versions are independent of each other, and went to considerable lengths to demonstrate that a Latin text must have been their common source. He pointed out the presence of brief Latin quotations in three metalcuts of the series. The early publishing history of these illustrations involve manuscript prayers, if any, but there is no trace of a Latin original. The small prayerbook was clearly meant for private use, by laity and presumably also simple clerics ignorant of Latin.
RARITY
The popular market for these vernacular, illustrated meditations perhaps accounts for their extreme rarity. All surviving copies - however fragmentary - represent different editions; only one is complete (C7). It is highly probable that one or more German editions are lost. The Parsons Fragment is the unique witness to the only Italian edition extant, and the two Italian inscriptions on the verso of the final leaf testify to its contemporary use.
ESTIMATE
£250,000-350,000
LITERATURE
BMC - Catalogue of Books printed in the XVth Century now in the British Museum. Part III (London 1913/1963)
H. Bohatta, "Ulrich Han, der erste Wiener Buchdrucker," in: Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (Mainz 1933)
BSB - Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Inkunabelkatalog. Band 3 (Wiesbaden 1993)
T.F. Dibdin, A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany. Vol. 3 (London 1821)
C. Dodgson, Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. Vol. I (London 1903)
L. Donati, "Passio Domini nostri Iesu Christi. Frammento tipografico della Biblioteca Parsoniana", in: La Bibliofilía LVI (Florence 1954)
E. Dutuit, Manuel de l'amateur d'estampes, Vol. I (Paris 1884)
Einblattdrucke des XV. Jahrhunderts (Halle a.s. 1914)
F. Geldner, Die deutschen Inkunabeldrucker, 2 vols (Stuttgart 1968-70)
F. Geldner, "Ulrich Han und Sixtus Riessinger im ältesten römischen Buchdruck," in: Archiv fr Geschichte des Buchwesens (1969)
F. Geldner, "Zum frhesten deutschen und italienischen Buchdruck", in: Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (Mainz 1979)
F.R. Goff, Incunabula in American Libraries (New York 1964)
GW -- Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. Band II (Leipzig 1926)
F.M. Haberditzl, Die Einblattdrucke des XV. Jahrhunderts der Kupferstichsammlung der Hofbibliothek zu Wien. Band 2 (Vienna 1920)
K. Haebler, Die deutschen Buchdrucker des XV. Jahrhunderts im Auslände (Munich 1924)
K. Haebler, Die italienischen Fragmente vom Leiden Christi, das älteste Druckwerk Italiens (Munich 1927)
K. Haebler, Die Erfindung der Druckkunst und ihre Ausbreitung in den Ländern Europas (Mainz 1930)
L. Hain, Repertorium Bibliographicum. Vol. II, P. II (Stuttgart 1838)
P. Heitz & K. Haebler, Hundert Kalenderinkunabeln (Strassburg 1905)
A.M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut. Vol. I (London 1935)
M. Lehrs, Geschichte und kritischer Katalog des deutschen, niederländischen und französischen Kupferstichs im XV. Jahrhundert. Band 1 (Vienna 1908)
F. de Marez Oyens, The Liverpool Copy of the 36-line Bible (Christie's 27 Nov. 1991)
P. Needham, Incunabula from the Court Library at Donaueschingen, lot 60 (Sotheby's 1 July 1994)
G. Piccard, Wasserzeichen. Fabeltiere (Stuttgart 1980)
R. Proctor, An Index to the Early Printed Books in the British Museum. Second Volume (London 1898)
R. Ridolfi, La Stampa in Firenze nel Secolo XV (Florence 1958)
V. Scholderer, "Printers and Readers in Italy in the Fifteenth Century" (1949), in: Fifty Essays, ed. D.E. Rhodes (Amsterdam 1966)
W.L. Schreiber, Manuel de l'amateur de la gravure sur bois et sur métal au XVe siècle. Tome troisième (Berlin 1893)
W.L. Schreiber, Handbuch der Holz- und Metallschnitte des XV. Jahrhunderts. Band 5 (Leipzig 1928)
F.X. Stöger, Zwei der ältesten deutschen Druckdenkmäler (Munich 1833)
C. Wehmer, "Udalricus Gallus de Bienna", in: Miscellanea in onore di Lamberto Donati (Florence 1969)
COLLATION
[116(8+1)] (1r blank, 1v full-page metalcut illustration Schreiber 2222 Entry into Jerusalem, 2r letterpress text of prayer relating to Entry, 2v typographical prayer relating to Washing, 3r metalcut Schr 2232 Washing of the Feet, 3v cut Schr 2243 Mount of Olives, 4r prayer Mount, 4v prayer Betrayal, 5r cut Schr 2253 Betrayal, 5v cut Schr 2262 Christ before Caiaphas, 6r prayer Caiaphas, incipit: O sumo redemptore del mundo, 6v prayer Flagellation, incipit: O signor ihesu xpo agnelo de dio che remove li peccati del mundo, 7r cut Schr 2281 Flagellation, 7v cut Schr 2288 Crown of Thorns, 8r prayer Crown, incipit: O ihesu cristo re invincibil il qual portasti una corana de spine, 8v prayer Pilate, incipit: O piissimo ihesu ilqual a la prima hora como agnello innocente fusti menato a pilato cum falso testimonio, 8+1r cut Schr 2273 Christ before Pilate, 8+1v cut Schr 2442 Sudarium of St Veronica, 9r prayer Veronica, incipit: O dio te salvi o faza del nostro redemtore, 9v prayer Crucifixion, incipit: O serpente figurato in lo deserto per moyses o fontana sorgente, 10r cut Schr 2324 Crucifxion, 10v cut Schr 2364 Entombment, 11r prayer Entombment, incipit: O ihesu xpo principio de tute le cose, 11v prayer Descent, incipit: O ihesu xpo re de gloria il qual da po che in croce cum el gran cridar spirando moristi cum gran possansa descendisti alinferno, 12r cut Schr 2424 Descent into Hell, 12v cut Schr 2376 Resurrection, 13r prayer Resurrection, incipit: O ihesu xpo lion fortissimo il qual cum la possanza de la tua divinita el di terzo cum gran possanza resusitasti da morte, 13v prayer Ascension, incipit: O ihesu xpo omnipotente il qual el quadragesimo di. dopo la toa santta resurectio guardando li discipuli toi e la gloriosa madre li celi ascendisti, 14r cut Schr 2395 Ascension, 14v cut Schr 2400 Pentecost, 15r prayer Pentecost, incipit: Veni o santo spirito rempisse li cor de li toi fideli e del to amor, 15v prayer Last Judgement, incipit: O iustisimo iudicio de dio, 16r cut Schr 2408 Last Judgement, 16v blank).
CONDITION
8 leaves only (of 17: lacking fos 1-5 comprising two text-leaves and five illustrations; fos 8+1, 10, 12 and 14 comprising eight illustrations). Present are fos 6-8, 9, 11, 13, 15-16 comprising six text-leaves and three illustrations (those on fo. 7 fragmentary, as just over half the leaf has been torn off diagonally), and identifiable stubs of missing fos 8+1, 12 and 14 (all containing very narrow strips of their recto and verso illustrations). Tear in outer margin of final leaf not affecting illustration, some tiny marginal slits not affecting text, light staining and soiling, stubs strengthened with tissue paper.
BINDING
Ca 1927, russet morocco, spine lettered in gilt, board edges roll-tooled in gilt, signed on turn-in by K. Ebert of Munich, with matching slipcase. The binding was commissioned by Jacques Rosenthal, shortly after Haebler finished his monograph.
PROVENANCE
The manuscript contraction strokes added to the single printed dot for the letter r, the manuscript cedilla and all corrections in pale ink of typographical errors (including the completion of c into e, which had been cast from the same matrix) were almost certainly accomplished in the printer's shop. -- Two 15th-century Italian inscriptions on the blank verso of the last leaf, one of them the beginning of an epistolary exercise, the other a prayer (both unmentioned by Haebler). -- Jacques Rosenthal, antiquarian booksellers of Munich, who discovered the fragment before 1925 and published Haebler's monograph on it in 1927 (his pencilled stock number on front pastedown). Rosenthal was almost alone in realising the historical importance of printed fragments - sometimes tiny fragments - and did a not-so-flourishing trade in them; he preserved and exploited unique evidence of a large number of editions, but this bibliographical insight did not extend to recording the medieval codices and bookbindings from which he recovered strips of Mainz Donatuses as vellum spine-lining or sewing guards, and cut-up indulgences, almanacs and other broadsides. (Only the printdealer Theodor Oswald Weigel, also from Munich, who a generation earlier had specialised in the rare survivals of Briefdrucke, can be compared to him.) Thus, nothing is known of the circumstances, let alone context, in which the Parsons Fragment was saved. -- The Hon. Edward Alexander Parsons (1878-1962) of New Orleans, Louisiana, who bought the fragment in 1928; author of The Alexandrian Library, Glory of the Hellenic World (1952) and The Wonder and the Glory: Confessions of a Southern Bibliophile (1962). Subsequently, as the property of his wife, the fragment was the only book retained when the Bibliotheca Parsoniana was acquired by the University of Texas Library (now the Harry H. Ransom Research Center). -- By descent to the present owners.
PAPER
Although much ink has flowed on the origin of this Italian Passion (and its German antecedents), no bibliographer since Haebler (1927) has physically examined it, while he entirely ignored the possibility of any evidence provided by its paper, concentrating his considerable powers of bibliographical analysis on typographical evidence, the evolving states of the metalcuts and, to a lesser extent, linguistic matters. The unique, imperfect copy of the earliest extant German-language edition (British Museum Print Room IA. 15112 [BMC III, 706]) shows fragments of a grapes watermark in fos 10 and 18, apparently a Piemontese stock. The unique, complete copy of the last extant German-language edition (Bavarian State Library [SBS L-94]) - the one most immediately preceding the Italian-language edition - was evidently printed on unwatermarked paper. The unique Parsons copy of the only extant Italian edition shows fragments of watermarks (presumably twins) in fos 8 and 11, which may tentatively be identified as a half-figure unicorn; variant of Piccard Fabeltiere Abteilung III nos 1361-1378, the watermark indicates a paper stock from a North Italian mill, with a distribution in the Romagna during the early-mid 1460s, particularly Ferrara.
TYPE AND COMPOSITION
Gothic rotunda type, measuring 162mm over 20 lines and consisting of only two capitals (O, V), a full set of lower-case sorts including a bizarre v, as well as punctuation and contraction sorts; the typecase also contained alternative "abutting" sorts with smooth left sides (Anschlussbuchstaben) for i, p, r and u (but not for m and n despite their pronounced serifs), in fact no less than four alternative forms of i, all cast to accommodate the relative position of these letters within a word (specifically, where they were set to follow the right-projecting neighbouring letters c, e, f, r, s and the striking g). THE USE OF THIS FOUNT IS UNIQUE TO THE PARSONS FRAGMENT, its design highly uncommon - larger than the Gutenberg Bible textura type (B42) and only marginally smaller than the Donatus-Kalender type (DK type), Gutenberg's first, later employed in the Pfister Bible (B36) - and its system essentially Gutenbergian, although "abutment" is hardly appropriate to the Italianate rotunda. The somewhat primitive-looking fount contains no ligatures, but through filing an impression of ligaturing is created for de, do, he, pe, po and pp. (Laboriously filing down type had been an important element in the evolution of Gutenberg's B42 fount.) Haebler (1927) provides a detailed survey of the different u-forms and i-forms, and the occasional use of one of the latter in improvising m and n. There are 15 lines to the page, printed in a single column, presumably page by page on a tabletop press with a small platen; justification is consistently attempted, but poorly realised, with liberal arbitrary use of the dot to fill out lines. For the original manuscript strokes and marks where the fount fell short, see the paragraph on provenance.
EDITION
Seven editions of Leiden Christi in German - illustrated with the same metalcuts - are extant, each in a single copy or fragment. Only ed. 7 survives complete, but not all editions were necessarily published with the full complement of Passion scenes and prayers. The suggested chronology of the following list, which deviates only slightly from Haebler's order and includes one edition (B4) unknown to him, is based on the states of the metalcuts (Schreiber, Dodgson), particularly the appearance of nail-holes (see the paragraph on illustration), and on the evolution of the Passion printer's typecase (Haebler 1927). The Passion series without typography came first (A; see para. on ill. for a list). The editions with back-to-back illustration/text leaves followed (B), while the editions with back-to-back illustration bifolia and back-to-back text bifolia came last (C); in order to achieve correct imposition and for the relevant prayer to face each cut, a single leaf had to be inserted in the middle of the quire (as was also the case in the Italian edition, see collation above): a singleton of recto/verso text for the B editions, the same for ed. C5 which opened with a prayer on the verso of the first leaf (recto blank), a singleton of recto/verso illustration for the other C editions which opened with a metalcut on the verso of the first leaf (recto blank). All German quarter-sheet 8° editions precede the unique Italian fragment of the same format (ed. F8) and must be dated to 1460-1461, before the chancery-broadsheet Vienna Blood-Letting Calendar of late 1461 (E). Their type is a textura gothic of 140/136mm, close in appearance and treatment to Gutenberg's DK type, the first fount ever cast, but smaller even than his B42 type. They were probably printed in a Bavarian town (such as Bamberg) or even Vienna.
B1. London, British Museum, Print Room (ex-Weigel, BMC III 706, IA. 15112): fos 10.11 and 12-17. Collation: [120(10+1)]. Type 140mm, 14 lines. Metalcuts: Schr 2302, 2416, 2324, 2474, 2364, 2424, 2376, 2386; Dodgson I, 171 (B4); Pr 3239A.
B2. London, British Museum, Print Room (ex-Weigel, BMC III 706, IA. 15111): fo. 12. Collation: same as B1. 14 lines. Metalcut: Schr 2324; Dodgson I, 175 (B5); Pr 3239B.
B3. Dresden, Kupferstichkabinett: fos 4 and 13. Collation: same as B1. 14 lines. Metalcuts: Schr 2253, 2364.
B4. Weimar, formerly Schlossmuseum (Geldner [1979] fn 35; unknown to Haebler): fo. 18. Collation: presumably the same as B1. Metalcut: Schr 2395.
C5. Braunau (Mähren), formerly Dr Ed. Langer collection: fo. 9. Probable collation: [120(10+1)]. 14 lines. Typography only: prayers relating to Schr 2273 and 2442.
C6. Oxford, Bodleian Library: fo. 3. Probable collation: same as C7. Metalcuts: Schr 2232, 2243.
C7. Munich, Bavarian State Library (BSB-Ink L-94; Dibdin [1821] 280; Stöger [1833]): complete. Collation: [120(10+1)]. Type 136mm, 13-14 lines. Metalcuts: 20 (16 as described in the para. on collation, plus Schr 2302 Carrying the Cross, Schr 2416 Nailing to the Cross, Schr 2474 Deposition, Schr 2386 Appearance to Mary Magdalene).
C7 survives bound - in 18th-century morocco - together with the unique copy of a very similar production (D), which shows two states of the same type (the earlier 140mm fitting somewhere between B2 and C5, the later 136mm between C5 and C7) and 8 unique metalcuts:
D. Sieben Freuden Mariae, complete: Munich, BSB (Stöger [1833]). Chancery quarter-sheet 8° (123 x 90mm). Collation: [18(4+1)] (1r blank, 1v typographical prayer, incipit: Im nomen der heiligen und ungetailten trinaltikait, 2r metalcut Schr 2500 Madonna and Child on Crescent, 2v metalcut Schr 2181 Annunciation, 3r-v prayers, 4r metalcut Schr 2188 Visitation, 4v metalcut Schr 2192 Nativity, 4+1r-v prayers, 5r metalcut Schr 2210 Adoration of Magi, 5v metalcut Schr 2199 Presentation in Temple, 6r-v prayers, 7r metalcut Schr 2214 Virgin finding Christ among the Doctors, 7v metalcut Schr 2432 Death of the Virgin, 8r prayer, 8v blank). Unwatermarked paper. 15 lines to the page.
The final manifestation of the Leiden Christi type - with a new set of capital letters - appears in a production of a very different kind, in a very different format:
E. Blood-Letting Calendar for Vienna, for the year 1462, in German: Princeton, Scheide Library (ex-Donaueschingen, Einblattdrucke 15; GW 1287). [?Vienna:] late 1461. Full-sheet chancery broadside. Lombardy paper, bull's head/rosette watermark (variant of Piccard Ochsenkopf Abt. XII nos 133-35). 53 lines, double column and four columns.
The Leiden Christi fount then disappears, but 16 of the 20 metalcuts make one final appearance, soon after and in essentially the same state as C7, accompanied by an Italian version of the prayers in an otherwise unrecorded type:
F8. The Parsons Fragment (Goff P-147).
INK
The type impressions are sharp and black in the editions examined for this catalogue (the 2 B.M. copies, Munich, and Parsons), even if the glossy quality of the 42-line and 36-line Bibles - caused by the high but varying contents of copper and lead in the Gutenbergian ink batches - is here not so apparent to the naked eye. In the last decade and a half cyclotron analysis of early printing inks by proton milliprobe, as developed at the University of California at Davis, has yielded exciting results to add to our knowledge of Gutenberg's productions in Mainz and Pfister's in Bamberg. If the German and Italian Passions could be submitted to this laser device, a systematic comparison of their ink recipes is likely to reveal more about how their editions relate.
ILLUSTRATION AND COLOUR
Before their use as metalcut illustrations in the various editions of German and Italian prayers in the early 1460s, the Passion series of dotted prints (manière criblée, Schrotblätter) had been published without text in a number of impressions over a short period from the mid-1450s onwards, giving the relief plates a lifespan of rather less than ten years. The metal plates were fixed to wooden blocks for printing and during their career they were reattached several times, probably because they had become unstuck from use. (It has generally been suggested, albeit not very persuasively, that wandering craftsmen or printers would detach them to lighten their load.) The old and new nail-holes, which can be seen in the impressions, form important clues to the chronology of states and editions. No set without text survives complete with twenty prints and it is not impossible that, apart from the complete series, cuts were also sold individually (rather like the Saints' images that were mounted inside boxes and chests, or inserted into manuscripts). All were printed on one side of the paper only, and some have contemporary manuscript text on their verso (e.g. Vienna, Nuremberg). Much remains to be learnt about the organisation of the print trade in the 15th century, particularly for the period before the invention of typography. The following list of the Passion cuts is arranged according to completeness and makes no attempt at a chronology of impressions.
A1. Vienna, Austrian National Library (ex-Salzburg Nonnberg, Haberditzl II, nos 33-50): 18 cuts (lacking Schr 2416 and 2400).
A2. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett (Lehrs pp 78, 80, 156-7): 13 cuts (a 14th cut grouped here, Crucifixion, apparently belongs to a different series).
A3. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France (Dutuit I, p.27): 3 cuts (Schr 2243, 2302, 2442).
A4. Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (ex-Weigel): 3 cuts (Schr 2262, 2376, 2424).
A5. London, Guildhall Library: 2 cuts (Schr 2281, 2288).
A6. Oxford, Bodleian Library: 1 cut (Schr 2376).
A7. Detroit, Michigan, formerly J.E. Scripps coll: 1 cut (Schr 2324).
A8. Munich, Hartung & Karl sale 14 (1975): 1 cut (Schr 2442), mounted in an Austrian prayerbook of 1457/58.
These fine dotted Passion prints, as well as the Seven Joys of Mary prints (D above), were certainly designed and cut by a South-German or Austrian artist. They were no doubt meant to be coloured, whether issued with or without text. Since the German issues invariably have a whole range of colours, and the editions with text show very similar treatments, it seems likely that they were published ready-coloured. The striking exception to this rule is the Italian edition; the three cuts in the Parsons fragment only show a discreet application of light brownish yellow wash.
PRINTING PLACE AND SHOP
Some disagreement exists in the literature about where the Italian Leiden Christi was printed. Apart from Haebler's, none of these opinions is based on direct examination of the fragment. Those who have disputed Haebler's perfectly natural conclusions about the date of the Parsons fragment and its place of printing, nonetheless had to turn to his excellent monograph (1927) for the facts. His localisation of the press in Northern Italy, perhaps at or near Bologna, is supported by the text (North Italian dialect with features pointing to the Romagna and Emilia, with a few Tuscan forms of individual words), the type (a striking rotunda, which despite its Gutenbergian treatment of alternative sorts, is based in general design on typical late-medieval Italian gothic script), and now also the paper (whose watermark variant seems to point mostly to distribution in Ferrara).
It is perhaps not easy to adjust to the idea that the earliest book printed in Italy is not an elegant quarto edition of a major classical text in Roman type for a market of humanists (Cicero's De Oratore, Subiaco: 1465), but a modest octavo edition in Gothic type of a devotional text in translation, illustrated with worn metalcuts imported from the Upper Rhine area. Thus, in 1958 Roberto Ridolfi challenged Haebler on a point of methodology, viz. whether the vernacular should be considered in determining the location of a press, by drawing an entirely specious analogy with Caxton's press turning out English books in the Low Countries. Victor Scholderer had already expressed a doubt in 1949 about Haebler's localisation of this press, by speculating that it was a German production to be marketed in Italy by colportage; however, he did not present any argument to support his theory, which makes some very elaborate assumptions about how trade in cheap literature was organised between Northern and Southern Europe barely a decade after Gutenberg's invention. Only Haebler's attribution then derives from evidence in the fragment itself and conforms to well-tested bibliographical convention.
The only other early rotunda fount in use before 1470 -- apart perhaps from those found in a Franciscan Missal of equally mysterious North or Central Italian origin (Goff M-643) -- was employed at Rome in 1467 [1466?] by Ulrich Han for his first edition of Turrecremata Meditationes (Hain 15722). Although it is much more developed than the Italian Passion type, there are definite similarities in size and design, but most notably Han's gothic is the only other Italian fount to contain Anschlussbuchstaben. (Incidentally, the Meditationes is the earliest Italian book illustrated with woodcuts.) Han was a native of Ingolstadt, matriculated at Leipzig University in 1443 and later presumably became a citizen of Vienna, as he often styled himself Ulrich Han of Vienna. He is the only printer to be plausibly -- albeit tentatively - connected with the Vienna Blood-Letting Calendar (E, above). Thus, by two different routes Ulrich Han can be advanced as the most likely printer responsible for the Italian Leiden Christi. By extension, Han may have printed the German Leiden Christi editions, somewhere in Bavaria, before producing his broadside (illustrated with two small woodcuts) in Vienna, crossing the Alps and on his way down to Rome pausing long enough in Northern Italy to print one last edition of the illustrated Passion Prayers, this time in Italian. Other printers have been suggested (Damiano Moilli at Parma by L. Donati, Johann Neumeister at Foligno by F. Geldner), but their claims are very much weaker. C. Wehmer went so far as to dismiss Han as printer of the Vienna Aderlasstafel, by making him a citizen of Vienne-en-Dauphiné!
DATE
THE PARSONS FRAGMENT IS THE FIRST PRINTED BOOK IN ITALIAN, AS WELL AS THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED IN ITALY, and belongs with the German editions of Leiden Christi to the earliest group of illustrated printed books (with metalcuts), no later than the Pfister group of illustrated books from Bamberg (with woodcuts) or the Dutch prototypographical editions of Speculum Humanae Salvationis (with xylographic illustrations). To designate the Parsons Fragment as prototyography is to suggest an analogy with the earliest Netherlandish printing; in Italy as well as in the Low Countries, typography - not so much experimental as mysterious, anonymous and difficult to localise - was practised some time before the establishment of fully fledged, identified presses (at Subiaco in 1465, at Utrecht and Alost in 1473).
The chronology of the Leiden Christi editions is not in doubt; the state of the metalcuts shows that the German editions precede the Italian one (see the paragraphs on Edition and Illustration). The metalcuts, which make their first appearance without text, were created in the 1450s. The text editions were printed in a type inspired by the DK-B36 fount, whose further evolution can be seen in the Vienna Blood-Letting Calendar (1461-62). The German Leiden Christi editions can therefore be dated ca 1460-61. Proctor (1898) already assigned them that date, although BMC (1913) without giving any reasons put them later. More modern catalogues and bibliographers accept the evidence for an early date (BSB, Haebler, Ridolfi, Geldner, Needham). It is clear that the Italian edition (F8) cannot be earlier than 1461; nor, however, can it be much later. Except for one or two very minor differences, the state of its surviving metalcuts is the same as in the last German edition (C7), its type obviously predates the only Italian fount with which it can remotely be compared, Han's Turrecremata 150G rotunda (1466; see para. on Printing Shop), its setting follows the Gutenbergian system (see para. on Composition), while its watermarks too point to the early 1460s (see para. on Paper). Haebler's dating of the fragment as 1462 or shortly afterwards has found general acceptance, the main exception being Lamberto Donati, whose dating of it in the 1470s requires a contorted argument to explain a long interval and the anachronism of type and cuts.
TEXT AND MARKET
The Italian text comprises sixteen of the twenty known German prayers on the theme of Christ's Passion. The translation is lightly adapted, but follows the original fairly closely. Haebler consulted the famous Dante scholar, Prof. Karl Vossler of Munich, who left no doubt as to the North Italian origin of the dialect, but warned that the text does not allow a more precise localisation (see para. on Printing Place); all subsequent scholars have shared this opinion.
Donati (1954) postulated that the German and Italian versions are independent of each other, and went to considerable lengths to demonstrate that a Latin text must have been their common source. He pointed out the presence of brief Latin quotations in three metalcuts of the series. The early publishing history of these illustrations involve manuscript prayers, if any, but there is no trace of a Latin original. The small prayerbook was clearly meant for private use, by laity and presumably also simple clerics ignorant of Latin.
RARITY
The popular market for these vernacular, illustrated meditations perhaps accounts for their extreme rarity. All surviving copies - however fragmentary - represent different editions; only one is complete (C7). It is highly probable that one or more German editions are lost. The Parsons Fragment is the unique witness to the only Italian edition extant, and the two Italian inscriptions on the verso of the final leaf testify to its contemporary use.
ESTIMATE
£250,000-350,000
LITERATURE
BMC - Catalogue of Books printed in the XVth Century now in the British Museum. Part III (London 1913/1963)
H. Bohatta, "Ulrich Han, der erste Wiener Buchdrucker," in: Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (Mainz 1933)
BSB - Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Inkunabelkatalog. Band 3 (Wiesbaden 1993)
T.F. Dibdin, A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany. Vol. 3 (London 1821)
C. Dodgson, Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. Vol. I (London 1903)
L. Donati, "Passio Domini nostri Iesu Christi. Frammento tipografico della Biblioteca Parsoniana", in: La Bibliofilía LVI (Florence 1954)
E. Dutuit, Manuel de l'amateur d'estampes, Vol. I (Paris 1884)
Einblattdrucke des XV. Jahrhunderts (Halle a.s. 1914)
F. Geldner, Die deutschen Inkunabeldrucker, 2 vols (Stuttgart 1968-70)
F. Geldner, "Ulrich Han und Sixtus Riessinger im ältesten römischen Buchdruck," in: Archiv fr Geschichte des Buchwesens (1969)
F. Geldner, "Zum frhesten deutschen und italienischen Buchdruck", in: Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (Mainz 1979)
F.R. Goff, Incunabula in American Libraries (New York 1964)
GW -- Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. Band II (Leipzig 1926)
F.M. Haberditzl, Die Einblattdrucke des XV. Jahrhunderts der Kupferstichsammlung der Hofbibliothek zu Wien. Band 2 (Vienna 1920)
K. Haebler, Die deutschen Buchdrucker des XV. Jahrhunderts im Auslände (Munich 1924)
K. Haebler, Die italienischen Fragmente vom Leiden Christi, das älteste Druckwerk Italiens (Munich 1927)
K. Haebler, Die Erfindung der Druckkunst und ihre Ausbreitung in den Ländern Europas (Mainz 1930)
L. Hain, Repertorium Bibliographicum. Vol. II, P. II (Stuttgart 1838)
P. Heitz & K. Haebler, Hundert Kalenderinkunabeln (Strassburg 1905)
A.M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut. Vol. I (London 1935)
M. Lehrs, Geschichte und kritischer Katalog des deutschen, niederländischen und französischen Kupferstichs im XV. Jahrhundert. Band 1 (Vienna 1908)
F. de Marez Oyens, The Liverpool Copy of the 36-line Bible (Christie's 27 Nov. 1991)
P. Needham, Incunabula from the Court Library at Donaueschingen, lot 60 (Sotheby's 1 July 1994)
G. Piccard, Wasserzeichen. Fabeltiere (Stuttgart 1980)
R. Proctor, An Index to the Early Printed Books in the British Museum. Second Volume (London 1898)
R. Ridolfi, La Stampa in Firenze nel Secolo XV (Florence 1958)
V. Scholderer, "Printers and Readers in Italy in the Fifteenth Century" (1949), in: Fifty Essays, ed. D.E. Rhodes (Amsterdam 1966)
W.L. Schreiber, Manuel de l'amateur de la gravure sur bois et sur métal au XVe siècle. Tome troisième (Berlin 1893)
W.L. Schreiber, Handbuch der Holz- und Metallschnitte des XV. Jahrhunderts. Band 5 (Leipzig 1928)
F.X. Stöger, Zwei der ältesten deutschen Druckdenkmäler (Munich 1833)
C. Wehmer, "Udalricus Gallus de Bienna", in: Miscellanea in onore di Lamberto Donati (Florence 1969)