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Dialogus creaturarum moralisatus, in Dutch: Twijspraeck der creaturen. Translated from the Latin. Gouda: Gerard Leeu, 4 April 1481.
Details
Dialogus –
Dialogus creaturarum moralisatus, in Dutch: Twijspraeck der creaturen. Translated from the Latin. Gouda: Gerard Leeu, 4 April 1481.
First edition in Dutch, with contemporary hand-colouring, of one of the finest illustrated early fable books. Extremely rare; only one other copy has been on the market in over a century (Christie’s 1996) and ISTC lists only 8 copies, 3 of which are fragmentary.
The work is a collection of 122 fables or dialogues, many derived from Aesop, concerning the natural world: the heavenly bodies, the four elements, gemstones, plants, fish, birds and animals. Each dialogue includes factual/scientific information and ends with a rhyming moral or lesson. The printed editions and most manuscripts are anonymous and authorship has been ascribed variously to Nicolaus Pergamenus and to Mayno de’ Mayneri, each from a single source; references in the text point to an origin in northern Italy in the 14th century.
The woodcuts bring the fables alive, and indeed the text’s popularity at the end of the 15th century appears to be due to the lively and original series commissioned by Gerard Leeu for his first, Latin, edition of the previous year. Leeu printed a total of 8 editions using his series of blocks in Latin, Dutch, and French by the time of his death in 1491, and he loaned the blocks once to Christian Snellaert in Delft, for another Dutch edition (CA 568). The 20 December 1483 Stockholm edition, the first printed book at that city, was very closely copied from Leeu's Latin editions.
The cancellation in this edition has apparently not been studied; f1 and f7 in this copy are cancels, agreeing with the Hague Royal Library copy and the copy in these rooms on 26 June 1996. The woodcut illustrating fable 78 is here printed right side up, as the Hague copy but unlike the 1996 copy. HC 6135; Camp 565; ILC 708; Polain(B) 1268; IDL 1508; Voull(B) 4898; GW M22277; ISTC id00159550.
Chancery folio (261 x 178mm). 114 leaves (of 126, lacking a3.4, g8, i8, o4.5, q3-8). 113 (of 122) woodcuts by 'the first Gouda woodcutter' (Conway), including repeats, almost all with contemporary vibrant hand-colouring, large woodcut initial with ‘ave Maria gratia plena’ added to the banderole and 4-part woodcut border on opening page also hand-coloured, rubricated throughout. (Fo. a1 laid down, lower portion of b1 defective with loss of a few words and part of the border, a few marginal repairs, occasional staining). Early 19th-century English diced russia tooled in gilt and blind, marbled edges (sides detached, a little worn). Provenance: Thomas Weld-Blundell, of Lulworth Castle, Dorset (1808-87; armorial bookplate; sold by Col. Joseph W. Weld, O.B.E., Christie’s, 24 July 1970, lot 11, to Maggs) – W. Senn-Dürck, Basel-Riehen (1904-2001; booklabel); by descent.
Dialogus creaturarum moralisatus, in Dutch: Twijspraeck der creaturen. Translated from the Latin. Gouda: Gerard Leeu, 4 April 1481.
First edition in Dutch, with contemporary hand-colouring, of one of the finest illustrated early fable books. Extremely rare; only one other copy has been on the market in over a century (Christie’s 1996) and ISTC lists only 8 copies, 3 of which are fragmentary.
The work is a collection of 122 fables or dialogues, many derived from Aesop, concerning the natural world: the heavenly bodies, the four elements, gemstones, plants, fish, birds and animals. Each dialogue includes factual/scientific information and ends with a rhyming moral or lesson. The printed editions and most manuscripts are anonymous and authorship has been ascribed variously to Nicolaus Pergamenus and to Mayno de’ Mayneri, each from a single source; references in the text point to an origin in northern Italy in the 14th century.
The woodcuts bring the fables alive, and indeed the text’s popularity at the end of the 15th century appears to be due to the lively and original series commissioned by Gerard Leeu for his first, Latin, edition of the previous year. Leeu printed a total of 8 editions using his series of blocks in Latin, Dutch, and French by the time of his death in 1491, and he loaned the blocks once to Christian Snellaert in Delft, for another Dutch edition (CA 568). The 20 December 1483 Stockholm edition, the first printed book at that city, was very closely copied from Leeu's Latin editions.
The cancellation in this edition has apparently not been studied; f1 and f7 in this copy are cancels, agreeing with the Hague Royal Library copy and the copy in these rooms on 26 June 1996. The woodcut illustrating fable 78 is here printed right side up, as the Hague copy but unlike the 1996 copy. HC 6135; Camp 565; ILC 708; Polain(B) 1268; IDL 1508; Voull(B) 4898; GW M22277; ISTC id00159550.
Chancery folio (261 x 178mm). 114 leaves (of 126, lacking a3.4, g8, i8, o4.5, q3-8). 113 (of 122) woodcuts by 'the first Gouda woodcutter' (Conway), including repeats, almost all with contemporary vibrant hand-colouring, large woodcut initial with ‘ave Maria gratia plena’ added to the banderole and 4-part woodcut border on opening page also hand-coloured, rubricated throughout. (Fo. a1 laid down, lower portion of b1 defective with loss of a few words and part of the border, a few marginal repairs, occasional staining). Early 19th-century English diced russia tooled in gilt and blind, marbled edges (sides detached, a little worn). Provenance: Thomas Weld-Blundell, of Lulworth Castle, Dorset (1808-87; armorial bookplate; sold by Col. Joseph W. Weld, O.B.E., Christie’s, 24 July 1970, lot 11, to Maggs) – W. Senn-Dürck, Basel-Riehen (1904-2001; booklabel); by descent.
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Sophie Meadows
Senior Specialist