The Property of
A GENTLEMAN
BIBLE, Latin. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, [30 July] 1477.
Details
BIBLE, Latin. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, [30 July] 1477.
Royal folio, 406 x 285 mm. (16 x 11 1/4 in.), modern brown morocco over wooden boards, spine in five compartments with four double raised bands, by W. Pratt, original vellum marker/index tab bound in before Proverbs, extremities rubbed, a few small scrapes to covers, upper inner hinge cracked, lacking first blank leaf, ink library stamps in margins of first and last pages and 25/1r (first page of Proverbs), upper fore-corner of penultimate leaf torn and repaired affecting a few letters, a few small wormholes to lower fore-corner of first and last few leaves, 2 or 3 short marginal tears, dampstaining to lower fore-corners and to outer margins of first 3 and last 10 leaves, very occasional small stains.
Collation: [1 12 2-22 10 23 6 24 6; 25-36 10 37-38 6 39-41 10 42-43 8 44-48 10 49 6]. 467 leaves (of 468, lacking 1/1 blank). Types: 4:160G (incipits on 1/2r and 25/1r), 3:110AG (text). Double column, 51 lines. Capital spaces. Rubricated: headlines in red in an upright bastarda script, fol. 2/1r with a fine 12-line initial F illuminated in green and pink with white modelling and foliate marginal extensions, the lower margin filled with intertwining sprays and flowers in green, blue, dark red, pink and purple with white tracery, opening page of Proverbs (25/1r) with 2 11-line initials in purple and green and in red and blue with white modelling, one with floral extensions, 6- and 3-line Lombard initials and paragraph marks in alternating red and blue, a few with marginal flourishes, capital strokes in red.
Koberger's second Latin Bible, a page-for-page reprint of the Bible printed in Basel by Bernhard Richel not later than 1474 (Goff B-537). The latter was the first of a series of Bibles, all printed in Germany before 1481, to contain the tract of Menardus (abandoned in later Vulgate Bibles), the Eusebian Canons and marginal concordances to the Gospels. This is the first of five such Bibles printed by Koberger.
HC 3065*; GW 4227; Pellechet 2294; IGI 1651; BMC II, 414; Goff B-552.
Provenance: 2 sheets of notepaper containing late nineteenth-century notes on the edition, signed "J. Mead", bound in at front -- The Allan Library of Northampton, Mass., inkstamps as above -- Arthur Haddaway, bookplate (sale, Christie's, New York, 25 September 1981, lot 158).
Royal folio, 406 x 285 mm. (16 x 11 1/4 in.), modern brown morocco over wooden boards, spine in five compartments with four double raised bands, by W. Pratt, original vellum marker/index tab bound in before Proverbs, extremities rubbed, a few small scrapes to covers, upper inner hinge cracked, lacking first blank leaf, ink library stamps in margins of first and last pages and 25/1r (first page of Proverbs), upper fore-corner of penultimate leaf torn and repaired affecting a few letters, a few small wormholes to lower fore-corner of first and last few leaves, 2 or 3 short marginal tears, dampstaining to lower fore-corners and to outer margins of first 3 and last 10 leaves, very occasional small stains.
Collation: [1 12 2-22 10 23 6 24 6; 25-36 10 37-38 6 39-41 10 42-43 8 44-48 10 49 6]. 467 leaves (of 468, lacking 1/1 blank). Types: 4:160G (incipits on 1/2r and 25/1r), 3:110AG (text). Double column, 51 lines. Capital spaces. Rubricated: headlines in red in an upright bastarda script, fol. 2/1r with a fine 12-line initial F illuminated in green and pink with white modelling and foliate marginal extensions, the lower margin filled with intertwining sprays and flowers in green, blue, dark red, pink and purple with white tracery, opening page of Proverbs (25/1r) with 2 11-line initials in purple and green and in red and blue with white modelling, one with floral extensions, 6- and 3-line Lombard initials and paragraph marks in alternating red and blue, a few with marginal flourishes, capital strokes in red.
Koberger's second Latin Bible, a page-for-page reprint of the Bible printed in Basel by Bernhard Richel not later than 1474 (Goff B-537). The latter was the first of a series of Bibles, all printed in Germany before 1481, to contain the tract of Menardus (abandoned in later Vulgate Bibles), the Eusebian Canons and marginal concordances to the Gospels. This is the first of five such Bibles printed by Koberger.
HC 3065*; GW 4227; Pellechet 2294; IGI 1651; BMC II, 414; Goff B-552.
Provenance: 2 sheets of notepaper containing late nineteenth-century notes on the edition, signed "J. Mead", bound in at front -- The Allan Library of Northampton, Mass., inkstamps as above -- Arthur Haddaway, bookplate (sale, Christie's, New York, 25 September 1981, lot 158).