Details
DIALOGUS -- Dialogus creaturarum moralisatus, in Dutch: Twijspraeck der creaturen. Translated from the Latin. Gouda: Gerard Leeu, 4th April 1481.
Chancery 2° (286 x 204mm). Collation: a6 (1. blank, 1v prologue, incipit: Als die heylighe biscop ende leerre ysidorus inden boec van dat overste goet seyt, a2v table of rubrics); b-e8 f8 (+1, +7) g-q8 (text, b1. first dialogue, incipit: Sinte bernardus dye heylighe leeraer seyt in een sermoen, q8. end of text, printer's woodcut armorial device and colophon: Hier is voleyndet bider gracien goods een boec ghehieten dyalogus creaturarum Dat vol is van ghenoechlike fabulen Die oeck profitelic sign tot leringhe der menschen En is volmaeckt ter goude in hollant bi mi gheraert leeu prenter ter goude opten vierden dach van april Int iaer MCCCCIxxxi q8v blank). 126 leaves, Gothic type 2:108, 34 lines, initial spaces (some with guides), 12-line floriated initial S, 4-piece floral woodcut border, printer's device. 122 WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS (including 3 repeats), one to each fable, cut no. 78 printed upside down. (Short tear in e1 repaired, wormhole through final quire affecting a few letters, minute tear in penultimate leaf, marginal staining towards the end, but overall in fresh condition, the paper unwashed and crisp.) Modern vellum binding. Provenance: contemporary rubrication (initials, paragraph marks, underlining and capital strokes, all in red), but no other evidence of early or later ownership.
FIRST EDITION IN DUTCH OF ONE OF THE FINEST ILLUSTRATED FABLE BOOKS OF THE INCUNABLE PERIOD. The author is sometimes given as Mayno de Mayneriis, and more rarely as Nicolaus Pergamenus, each attribution being based on a single manuscript source. A year earlier Leeu had printed the first (Latin) edition, employing the same blocks. Conway in 1884 baptised the artist of the highly original illustrations 'the first Gouda woodcutter'. The striking lay-out of the first page was clearly inspired by Johannes Veldener's 1480 Utrecht edition of Rolewinck's Fasciculus temporum in Dutch, with a wide foliate border surrounding text, a pictorial cut and a bold initial. Conway, with typical insight, also remarked that "by a careful series of measurements, it may be shown that every two or three consecutive cuts were originally carved on a long narrow block, which was afterwards divided ... It is quite possible that a more patient observer would prove the blocks to have been originally joined above and below, as well as end to end."
THE DUTCH EDITION IS OF EXTREME RARITY, much rare than Leeu's Latin editions. There are three copies in Dutch libraries, one in Belgium, an imperfect copy in Birmingham, and apparently none in the United States, France and Italy. 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, but there are possibly others, such as sheets c1.8 and d1.8. FINE, LARGE AND UNSOPHISTICATED COPY. HC 6135; CA 565; Polain 1268 (and suppl.); IDL 1508; Cinquième Centenaire p.293; W.M. Conway, The Woodcutters of the Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century pp.36-38, 216-20.
Chancery 2° (286 x 204mm). Collation: a6 (1. blank, 1v prologue, incipit: Als die heylighe biscop ende leerre ysidorus inden boec van dat overste goet seyt, a2v table of rubrics); b-e8 f8 (+1, +7) g-q8 (text, b1. first dialogue, incipit: Sinte bernardus dye heylighe leeraer seyt in een sermoen, q8. end of text, printer's woodcut armorial device and colophon: Hier is voleyndet bider gracien goods een boec ghehieten dyalogus creaturarum Dat vol is van ghenoechlike fabulen Die oeck profitelic sign tot leringhe der menschen En is volmaeckt ter goude in hollant bi mi gheraert leeu prenter ter goude opten vierden dach van april Int iaer MCCCCIxxxi q8v blank). 126 leaves, Gothic type 2:108, 34 lines, initial spaces (some with guides), 12-line floriated initial S, 4-piece floral woodcut border, printer's device. 122 WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS (including 3 repeats), one to each fable, cut no. 78 printed upside down. (Short tear in e1 repaired, wormhole through final quire affecting a few letters, minute tear in penultimate leaf, marginal staining towards the end, but overall in fresh condition, the paper unwashed and crisp.) Modern vellum binding. Provenance: contemporary rubrication (initials, paragraph marks, underlining and capital strokes, all in red), but no other evidence of early or later ownership.
FIRST EDITION IN DUTCH OF ONE OF THE FINEST ILLUSTRATED FABLE BOOKS OF THE INCUNABLE PERIOD. The author is sometimes given as Mayno de Mayneriis, and more rarely as Nicolaus Pergamenus, each attribution being based on a single manuscript source. A year earlier Leeu had printed the first (Latin) edition, employing the same blocks. Conway in 1884 baptised the artist of the highly original illustrations 'the first Gouda woodcutter'. The striking lay-out of the first page was clearly inspired by Johannes Veldener's 1480 Utrecht edition of Rolewinck's Fasciculus temporum in Dutch, with a wide foliate border surrounding text, a pictorial cut and a bold initial. Conway, with typical insight, also remarked that "by a careful series of measurements, it may be shown that every two or three consecutive cuts were originally carved on a long narrow block, which was afterwards divided ... It is quite possible that a more patient observer would prove the blocks to have been originally joined above and below, as well as end to end."
THE DUTCH EDITION IS OF EXTREME RARITY, much rare than Leeu's Latin editions. There are three copies in Dutch libraries, one in Belgium, an imperfect copy in Birmingham, and apparently none in the United States, France and Italy. 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, but there are possibly others, such as sheets c1.8 and d1.8. FINE, LARGE AND UNSOPHISTICATED COPY. HC 6135; CA 565; Polain 1268 (and suppl.); IDL 1508; Cinquième Centenaire p.293; W.M. Conway, The Woodcutters of the Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century pp.36-38, 216-20.