Details
ROLEWINCK, Werner (1425-1502). Fasciculus temporum. [Venice:] Erhard Ratdolt, 21 December 1481.
Super-chancery 2° (310 x 212 mm). Collation: [1-98] (1/1 blank, 1/2r table, 2/1r author's preface, 2/2r woodcut of God creating the world surmounted by woodcut and letterpress cosmological diagram of the Creation, 2/2v text, 9/8v colophon). 72 leaves, 9-72 foliated 1-64. Table in 3 columns. 50 lines and headline. Type 6:56(75). Woodcut ornamental initials: 10-line initial G (BMC 6a) on 2/1r, 6-line initial S (BMC 5) on 5/1v. Genealogical diagrams with printed woodcut or metalcut roundels throughout. 25 woodcuts repeated to 64, of which 19 cuts of town views, 2 cuts of the Temple of Solomon, and one cut each of the Creation, Noah's Ark with rainbow, the Tower of Babel, and Salvator Mundi, the last four colored, as are the 2 woodcut initials. (Some minor marginal foxing, a few small marginal stains, inkstain to fol. 49r [6/6r] obscuring a few letters, insignificant short tears to lower blank margins of 5 leaves.) Modern blindstamped quarter goatskin over wooden boards, original lower flyleaf.
Provenance: extensive marginal annotations in a neat 16th-century hand, a few marginalia in a different early hand, later effaced marginal inscription on last page; 18th-century Jesuit inkstamp on first leaf, stamped over an erased 17th-century ex libris, "S. Bernardini ..."
Third Venetian and second Ratdolt edition of Rolewinck's chronological history of the world. The chronology follows a double time-line, measuring time from both the Creation and the birth of Christ, demanding a remarkably complex typographical layout. The work was immensely popular, being printed 32 times in the 15th century, including translations into French, German and Dutch. The text is a page-for-page reprint of the earlier Venetian editions, but it concludes with a new note on the death (and descent to hell) of Sultan Mohammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, in May 1481.
Seven of the woodcuts are new (including five of the town views); the remainder are those of the first Ratdolt edition (24 November 1480), which included copies of 14 woodcuts from the first Venetian edition printed by Georgius Walch in 1479. Walch's blocks, based on the woodcuts of the Cologne editions, are noteworthy for replacing the block of Cologne with a woodcut of Venice, the first known printed view of that city, showing the Piazza San Marco as seen from the Gran' Canale.
HC *6928; BMC V, 285 (IB. 20508); IGI 8416; Oates 6527; Polain (B) 3374; Proctor 4381; Redgrave 21; Essling 278; Sander 6527; Schreiber 5113a; Goff R-264.
Super-chancery 2° (310 x 212 mm). Collation: [1-98] (1/1 blank, 1/2r table, 2/1r author's preface, 2/2r woodcut of God creating the world surmounted by woodcut and letterpress cosmological diagram of the Creation, 2/2v text, 9/8v colophon). 72 leaves, 9-72 foliated 1-64. Table in 3 columns. 50 lines and headline. Type 6:56(75). Woodcut ornamental initials: 10-line initial G (BMC 6a) on 2/1r, 6-line initial S (BMC 5) on 5/1v. Genealogical diagrams with printed woodcut or metalcut roundels throughout. 25 woodcuts repeated to 64, of which 19 cuts of town views, 2 cuts of the Temple of Solomon, and one cut each of the Creation, Noah's Ark with rainbow, the Tower of Babel, and Salvator Mundi, the last four colored, as are the 2 woodcut initials. (Some minor marginal foxing, a few small marginal stains, inkstain to fol. 49r [6/6r] obscuring a few letters, insignificant short tears to lower blank margins of 5 leaves.) Modern blindstamped quarter goatskin over wooden boards, original lower flyleaf.
Provenance: extensive marginal annotations in a neat 16th-century hand, a few marginalia in a different early hand, later effaced marginal inscription on last page; 18th-century Jesuit inkstamp on first leaf, stamped over an erased 17th-century ex libris, "S. Bernardini ..."
Third Venetian and second Ratdolt edition of Rolewinck's chronological history of the world. The chronology follows a double time-line, measuring time from both the Creation and the birth of Christ, demanding a remarkably complex typographical layout. The work was immensely popular, being printed 32 times in the 15th century, including translations into French, German and Dutch. The text is a page-for-page reprint of the earlier Venetian editions, but it concludes with a new note on the death (and descent to hell) of Sultan Mohammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, in May 1481.
Seven of the woodcuts are new (including five of the town views); the remainder are those of the first Ratdolt edition (24 November 1480), which included copies of 14 woodcuts from the first Venetian edition printed by Georgius Walch in 1479. Walch's blocks, based on the woodcuts of the Cologne editions, are noteworthy for replacing the block of Cologne with a woodcut of Venice, the first known printed view of that city, showing the Piazza San Marco as seen from the Gran' Canale.
HC *6928; BMC V, 285 (IB. 20508); IGI 8416; Oates 6527; Polain (B) 3374; Proctor 4381; Redgrave 21; Essling 278; Sander 6527; Schreiber 5113a; Goff R-264.