Details
DIALOGUS CREATURARUM MORALISATUS -- Destructorium vitiorum ex similitudinum creaturarum exemplorum appropriatione per modum dyalogi. Lyons: Claude Nourry, 11 June 1509.
4° (246 x 167mm). Collation: a-r4 (a1r title printed in red and black with large ornamental initial, a1v woodcut (119 x 125mm), a2r tabula, a3r text, heading printed in red, r4r colophon, r4v blank). 68 leaves. 122 woodcuts from 115 blocks, representing 2 sets (approximately 57 x 62mm and 58 x 124mm), ornamental initials from several sets. (Tears in a few leaves discreetly repaired without loss, occasional light spotting, ink smudges on a few leaves, some marginal annotations lightly washed.) 19th-century brown morocco blindstamped in a 15th-century style by Thompson, gilt edges. Provenance: William Morris (Kelmscott House booklabel, sale Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, Dec. 5-10, 1898, lot 282, £16 to Leighton); Dyson Perrins (booklabel, sale Sotheby's 4 Nov. 1946, lot 364, £250 to Quaritch).
The woodcuts are based on, but not direct copies of, the series by "the first Gouda woodcutter" printed by Leeu in 1480 and later. They were later re-used by Nourry in his edition of 1511 with additions.
The fables in the Dialogus creaturarum rank in importance alongside the fables of Aesop and Bidpai. Their authorship is ascribed to either Nicolaus Pergamenus or a Milanese doctor, Mayno de Mayneriis (fl. 1290-5-1370), with each claim resting on a single manuscript; references in the text point to an origin in northern Italy in the 14th century. Baudrier XII, 108; Brunet II, 675.
4° (246 x 167mm). Collation: a-r4 (a1r title printed in red and black with large ornamental initial, a1v woodcut (119 x 125mm), a2r tabula, a3r text, heading printed in red, r4r colophon, r4v blank). 68 leaves. 122 woodcuts from 115 blocks, representing 2 sets (approximately 57 x 62mm and 58 x 124mm), ornamental initials from several sets. (Tears in a few leaves discreetly repaired without loss, occasional light spotting, ink smudges on a few leaves, some marginal annotations lightly washed.) 19th-century brown morocco blindstamped in a 15th-century style by Thompson, gilt edges. Provenance: William Morris (Kelmscott House booklabel, sale Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, Dec. 5-10, 1898, lot 282, £16 to Leighton); Dyson Perrins (booklabel, sale Sotheby's 4 Nov. 1946, lot 364, £250 to Quaritch).
The woodcuts are based on, but not direct copies of, the series by "the first Gouda woodcutter" printed by Leeu in 1480 and later. They were later re-used by Nourry in his edition of 1511 with additions.
The fables in the Dialogus creaturarum rank in importance alongside the fables of Aesop and Bidpai. Their authorship is ascribed to either Nicolaus Pergamenus or a Milanese doctor, Mayno de Mayneriis (fl. 1290-5-1370), with each claim resting on a single manuscript; references in the text point to an origin in northern Italy in the 14th century. Baudrier XII, 108; Brunet II, 675.