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BRIDGET, Saint (c.1303-73). Revelationes, in German: Das puch der Himlischen offenbarung. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger for Florian Waldauf von Waldenstein (c.1450-1510), 12 July 1502.
Chancery 2° (306 x 215mm). Collation: [18 210] A6 B8 C-Z6 a-x6 y8 z6 aa-gg6 hh8, with the final blank leaf and with quire g in duplicate. Gothic types. 53 lines and headline, initial spaces with guide-letters. Full-page title woodcut of St. Bridget (repeated on y8v), full-page woodcuts of the arms of Maximiliam I, the arms of Waldauf, the Crucifixion, the Entry in Jerusalem and another portrait of St. Bridget, 51 smaller cuts. (Small wormhole in first few leaves, some light browning.) Contemporary South-German blindstamped pigskin over bevelled wooden boards, panelled with fillets and flower-head tools (lacking 2 fore-edge clasps, lightly rubbed). Provenance: early inscription erased from title-page.
FIRST EDITION IN HIGH GERMAN of the Swedish mystic's visions; it follows two Lbeck editions in Low German (c.1485 and 1496). Both this edition and the first Latin edition (1500) were printed by Koberger at the behest of Florian Waldauf von Waldenstein, secretary to Emperor Maximilian I. The same woodcuts appear in both editions, with the exception of the two full-page armorial cuts which are new to the German edition and the omission of the final small cut 'Magister Magnus'.
The woodcuts have traditionally been assigned to Albrecht Drer. The two armorial woodcuts are today considered his work, and the other cuts, perhaps more accurately given to the 'Birgitten-Meister' very likely were executed in his workshop, possibly from his sketches (see Meister um Albrecht Drer). BLSTC German p.153; VD16, B-5593; Murray German; Dodgson I, 263, passim; Hollstein VII, 227, 283, 275.
Chancery 2° (306 x 215mm). Collation: [18 210] A6 B8 C-Z6 a-x6 y8 z6 aa-gg6 hh8, with the final blank leaf and with quire g in duplicate. Gothic types. 53 lines and headline, initial spaces with guide-letters. Full-page title woodcut of St. Bridget (repeated on y8v), full-page woodcuts of the arms of Maximiliam I, the arms of Waldauf, the Crucifixion, the Entry in Jerusalem and another portrait of St. Bridget, 51 smaller cuts. (Small wormhole in first few leaves, some light browning.) Contemporary South-German blindstamped pigskin over bevelled wooden boards, panelled with fillets and flower-head tools (lacking 2 fore-edge clasps, lightly rubbed). Provenance: early inscription erased from title-page.
FIRST EDITION IN HIGH GERMAN of the Swedish mystic's visions; it follows two Lbeck editions in Low German (c.1485 and 1496). Both this edition and the first Latin edition (1500) were printed by Koberger at the behest of Florian Waldauf von Waldenstein, secretary to Emperor Maximilian I. The same woodcuts appear in both editions, with the exception of the two full-page armorial cuts which are new to the German edition and the omission of the final small cut 'Magister Magnus'.
The woodcuts have traditionally been assigned to Albrecht Drer. The two armorial woodcuts are today considered his work, and the other cuts, perhaps more accurately given to the 'Birgitten-Meister' very likely were executed in his workshop, possibly from his sketches (see Meister um Albrecht Drer). BLSTC German p.153; VD16, B-5593; Murray German; Dodgson I, 263, passim; Hollstein VII, 227, 283, 275.