.jpg?w=1)
Details
TERENTIUS AFER, Publius (185-159 B.C.) Comoediae. Gloss and commentary by Aelius Donatus, Guido Juvenalis, and Jodocus Badius Ascensius. Strassburg: Johann (Reinhard) Grüninger, 1st November 1496.
Chancery 2o (291 x 206 mm). Collation: a6 b8 d-z6 A-E6 F8 (a1r title with full-page woodcut, a1v blank, a2r Directorium vocabulorum, a5v epitaph of Terence, a6r Vita, excerpted from Petrarca, a6v full-page woodcut, b1r text and commentary, F7v colophon, -F8 blank). 179 leaves (of 180; without final blank). Text with commentary surround, 73 lines of commentary and headline. Gothic type 17:145 (title, headlines, etc.), Roman types 22:89 (title, text), 23:64b (commentary), 4:48 (point letters). 165 woodcuts, of which 8 are full-page, large woodcut ornamental initial opening the Life, initial spaces with guide-letters. Two woodcuts colored by hand on b8r and c1v and one portion colored on B5r. Rubricated: initials, paragraph marks and capital strokes in red on approximately the first 30 leaves. (Small chips to foremargin of title, title verso with small tape repair, b1 supplied from another copy, small rust-hole on d6 catching a few letters, small marginal patch on l6, some worming, occasionally within woodcuts or catching letters, some of the manuscript marginalia cropped, some pale dampstaining.)
Binding: Early 16th-century German, perhaps Westphallian, blind-tooled calf or goatskin over wooden boards, sides divided into panels by quadruple fillets, roll-tooled historiated borders (one signed LT), small floral tools, surrounding a central panel of a triple flower-and-vine roll, date "1535" stamped at top of both covers, floral and acorn tools in center panel of back cover, two brass clasps, fore-edges lettered in ink "Terentius," vellum spine lining (few repairs along spine); quarter-morocco slipcase. Provenance: gloss and marginalia in an early hand -- purchased from Hamill & Barker, Chicago, 17 January 1973.
Second illustrated edition, the first Grüninger edition, illustrated with a remarkable series of woodcuts which begin with a full-page illustration of a theater, showing the actors on stage and spectators on two levels. The series is dependant on that of Trechsel's Lyons edition of 1493, but Grüninger's edition marks a stylistic shift in German book illustration, particularly in representing tone and dimensionality. New to this edition are the full-page woodcuts opening each play which depict the dramatis personae set within a land- or cityscape. The woodcut artist apparently was familiar with the unfinished Terence-series by Dürer, made about 1491-2 (Winkler, Narrenschiff, p.67). Grüninger re-used his series in a 1499 edition, and it was copied by Vérard for his edition of about 1500. (See M. Chivre, "Imitations et Originalité quelques Illustrations de Terence du XVIème au XVIème Siècle," Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, 1961, pp. 207-214.) HC *15431; BMC I, 110 (IB. 1437); Schreiber 5331; Schramm XX, p.22; Goff T-94.
Chancery 2o (291 x 206 mm). Collation: a6 b8 d-z6 A-E6 F8 (a1r title with full-page woodcut, a1v blank, a2r Directorium vocabulorum, a5v epitaph of Terence, a6r Vita, excerpted from Petrarca, a6v full-page woodcut, b1r text and commentary, F7v colophon, -F8 blank). 179 leaves (of 180; without final blank). Text with commentary surround, 73 lines of commentary and headline. Gothic type 17:145 (title, headlines, etc.), Roman types 22:89 (title, text), 23:64b (commentary), 4:48 (point letters). 165 woodcuts, of which 8 are full-page, large woodcut ornamental initial opening the Life, initial spaces with guide-letters. Two woodcuts colored by hand on b8r and c1v and one portion colored on B5r. Rubricated: initials, paragraph marks and capital strokes in red on approximately the first 30 leaves. (Small chips to foremargin of title, title verso with small tape repair, b1 supplied from another copy, small rust-hole on d6 catching a few letters, small marginal patch on l6, some worming, occasionally within woodcuts or catching letters, some of the manuscript marginalia cropped, some pale dampstaining.)
Binding: Early 16th-century German, perhaps Westphallian, blind-tooled calf or goatskin over wooden boards, sides divided into panels by quadruple fillets, roll-tooled historiated borders (one signed LT), small floral tools, surrounding a central panel of a triple flower-and-vine roll, date "1535" stamped at top of both covers, floral and acorn tools in center panel of back cover, two brass clasps, fore-edges lettered in ink "Terentius," vellum spine lining (few repairs along spine); quarter-morocco slipcase. Provenance: gloss and marginalia in an early hand -- purchased from Hamill & Barker, Chicago, 17 January 1973.
Second illustrated edition, the first Grüninger edition, illustrated with a remarkable series of woodcuts which begin with a full-page illustration of a theater, showing the actors on stage and spectators on two levels. The series is dependant on that of Trechsel's Lyons edition of 1493, but Grüninger's edition marks a stylistic shift in German book illustration, particularly in representing tone and dimensionality. New to this edition are the full-page woodcuts opening each play which depict the dramatis personae set within a land- or cityscape. The woodcut artist apparently was familiar with the unfinished Terence-series by Dürer, made about 1491-2 (Winkler, Narrenschiff, p.67). Grüninger re-used his series in a 1499 edition, and it was copied by Vérard for his edition of about 1500. (See M. Chivre, "Imitations et Originalité quelques Illustrations de Terence du XVIème au XVIème Siècle," Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, 1961, pp. 207-214.) HC *15431; BMC I, 110 (IB. 1437); Schreiber 5331; Schramm XX, p.22; Goff T-94.