![BONIFACIUS VIII (Benedetto Gaetano, ca. 1235-1303, Pope from 1294). Liber sextus Decretalium. Commentary and additions by Johannes Andreae (ca. 1270-1348). Edited by Johannes Chappuis (fl. 1500). Paris: Ulrich Gering and Berthold Rembolt, 1500-1501 [Part I dated 15 October 1500].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2000/NYR/2000_NYR_09364_0188_000(011319).jpg?w=1)
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BONIFACIUS VIII (Benedetto Gaetano, ca. 1235-1303, Pope from 1294). Liber sextus Decretalium. Commentary and additions by Johannes Andreae (ca. 1270-1348). Edited by Johannes Chappuis (fl. 1500). Paris: Ulrich Gering and Berthold Rembolt, 1500-1501 [Part I dated 15 October 1500].
Part I only (of IV). Super-median 2o (351 x 246 mm). Collation: a4 b-z A-D8 E6 +6 (a1r title, verses forming acrostic "Johannes Chappuis," printer's device, a1v commendatory letter from Johannes Gaisser to the printers, dated 13 December 1500, a2r Joannes Andreae, Super arboribus consanguinitatis et affinitatis, a3r woodcut of the tree of consanguinity, a4r woodcut of the tree of affinities and laudatory verses by Chappuis, a4v woodcut, commendatory verses, b1r Liber sextus Decretalium, E5v colophon, E6 ?blank, +1r tables). 223 leaves (of 224, without E6 ?blank). Double column, text with commentary surround. 74 lines commentary (c1r) with headlines and marginalia, 59-60 lines text (B3r, B4r). Types: 6:195G (headlines), 13:74G (text), 15:95G (commentary and marginalia). Headlines, some headings, and marginal chapter numbers printed in red. Woodcut and metalcut 8-line and smaller historiated initials from at least four sets. A few initial spaces with printed guide letters. Red-printed paragraph marks. Rembolt's metalcut device (BMC 3, Renouard 957). Three large woodcut illustrations, the first of an enthroned pope presenting a kneeling scholar with a book from which emanates a branch leading to six historiated roundels at foot of the illustration, ecclesiastical officials in the background. (Lightly washed and pressed, one or two short tears, a1 and a4 rehinged, a4 misbound before a2.)
Binding: nineteenth-century calf over wooden boards, a pastiche of a 16th-century painted entrelac binding, central compartment of covers with interlace design painted white, red, pink, blue, green, and gold, cartouche at center lettered "Phil II Austr Rex Cathol", border panels with entrelac decor and four medallions with imperial double-headed eagles painted black, spine with gilt diaper pattern and entrelac decor, chased metalwork cornerpieces with bosses and pair of matching fore-edge clasps and catches, edges gilt and gauffred with painted entrelac design, by LOUIS HAGUé-COUTIN (joints and extremities rubbed); a few deckle edges preserved.
Provenance: John Blacker (d. 1896; sale, Sotheby's, London, 11 November 1897, lot 39).
RARE FRENCH INCUNABLE IN A HAGUé BINDING. Third Paris edition, second edition printed by Ulrich Gering, of the 13th- and 14th-century decretals collected under Boniface VIII, in continuation of the five books of decretals from the 12th and 13th centuries, collected by Raymond of Peñafort by order of Gregory IX (pope 1227-1241). Part I contains the complete text of the Decretals; parts II-IV are devoted to additional material (see GW for list of contents), including the complete Decretales extravagantes of Johann XXII, of which this is the only incunable edition, other editions containing extracts only. The fine woodcut illustration of an enthroned pope is based on a woodcut used in Sebastian Brant's edition, Basel: Froben, 1494 (cf. Schreiber 3529).
The binding is a fine example of the forged or pastiche bindings produced in the late nineteenth century by the Belgian finisher Louis Hagué. Trained with Zaehnsdorf in London, Hagué supplied pseudo-Renaissance bindings to a market largely of connoisseurs, who presumably understood the nature of his work (Firmin Didot had 67 Hagué bindings, and Fairfax Murray owned a few), but he may be best known for the notorious episode of John Blacker, a South American merchant settled in London who acquired 109 Hagué bindings, believing them to be genuine. The present specimen exemplifies the peculiar amalgam of styles used by Hagué to "improve" mid-16th-century French entrelac designs. Blacker also owned a copy of Volume II of this edition, similarly bound, described as "a most remarkable specimen" in Sotheby's 1897 sale of his collection (sold separately as lot 38). See H.M. Nixon, "Binding Forgeries", in Transactions of the VIth International Congress of Bibliophiles, 1969 (Vienna 1971), pp. 76-81; and Mirjam Foot, "M. Caulin and M. Hagué", The Book Collector, Special Number for the 150th Anniversary of Bernard Quaritch, 1997, pp. 136-150.
This edition is very rare. ISTC lists 10 copies, of which 7 with all 4 parts, and only one in America (Library of Congress, volume I imperfect). There are no copies in the British Library or the Bibliothèque nationale de France. HC 3627; GW 4904; Goff B-1014.
Part I only (of IV). Super-median 2
Binding: nineteenth-century calf over wooden boards, a pastiche of a 16th-century painted entrelac binding, central compartment of covers with interlace design painted white, red, pink, blue, green, and gold, cartouche at center lettered "Phil II Austr Rex Cathol", border panels with entrelac decor and four medallions with imperial double-headed eagles painted black, spine with gilt diaper pattern and entrelac decor, chased metalwork cornerpieces with bosses and pair of matching fore-edge clasps and catches, edges gilt and gauffred with painted entrelac design, by LOUIS HAGUé-COUTIN (joints and extremities rubbed); a few deckle edges preserved.
Provenance: John Blacker (d. 1896; sale, Sotheby's, London, 11 November 1897, lot 39).
RARE FRENCH INCUNABLE IN A HAGUé BINDING. Third Paris edition, second edition printed by Ulrich Gering, of the 13th- and 14th-century decretals collected under Boniface VIII, in continuation of the five books of decretals from the 12th and 13th centuries, collected by Raymond of Peñafort by order of Gregory IX (pope 1227-1241). Part I contains the complete text of the Decretals; parts II-IV are devoted to additional material (see GW for list of contents), including the complete Decretales extravagantes of Johann XXII, of which this is the only incunable edition, other editions containing extracts only. The fine woodcut illustration of an enthroned pope is based on a woodcut used in Sebastian Brant's edition, Basel: Froben, 1494 (cf. Schreiber 3529).
The binding is a fine example of the forged or pastiche bindings produced in the late nineteenth century by the Belgian finisher Louis Hagué. Trained with Zaehnsdorf in London, Hagué supplied pseudo-Renaissance bindings to a market largely of connoisseurs, who presumably understood the nature of his work (Firmin Didot had 67 Hagué bindings, and Fairfax Murray owned a few), but he may be best known for the notorious episode of John Blacker, a South American merchant settled in London who acquired 109 Hagué bindings, believing them to be genuine. The present specimen exemplifies the peculiar amalgam of styles used by Hagué to "improve" mid-16th-century French entrelac designs. Blacker also owned a copy of Volume II of this edition, similarly bound, described as "a most remarkable specimen" in Sotheby's 1897 sale of his collection (sold separately as lot 38). See H.M. Nixon, "Binding Forgeries", in Transactions of the VIth International Congress of Bibliophiles, 1969 (Vienna 1971), pp. 76-81; and Mirjam Foot, "M. Caulin and M. Hagué", The Book Collector, Special Number for the 150th Anniversary of Bernard Quaritch, 1997, pp. 136-150.
This edition is very rare. ISTC lists 10 copies, of which 7 with all 4 parts, and only one in America (Library of Congress, volume I imperfect). There are no copies in the British Library or the Bibliothèque nationale de France. HC 3627; GW 4904; Goff B-1014.