THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 
BIBLE, Latin [with additions by Menardus and Eusebian Canons]. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 10 November 1478.

Details
BIBLE, Latin [with additions by Menardus and Eusebian Canons]. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 10 November 1478.

Royal folio, 398 x 272 mm. (15 15/16 x 10 3/4 in.), eighteenth-century quarter pigskin over pasteboard, later lettering-pieces, manuscript vellum sides from a fifteenth-century antiphonal, edges blue-sprinkled, modern cloth dust-cover, rubbed, leaf 48/8 torn and repaired, a few insignificant marginal tears or repairs, minor worming to first and last few leaves catching a few letters, occasional marginal discoloration or small stains, slight dust-soiling to upper margins.

Collation: [1 12 2-22 10 23-24 6, 25-36 10 37-38 6 39-41 10 42-43 8 44-48 10 49 6], quire 49 (the tract of Menardus and the Canonic tables) bound in between quires 38 and 39 (before the Gospels). 468 leaves, 1/12-48/10 foliated i-cccclxi. Types: 4:160 (headlines and headings), 3:110a (text). Double column; 51 lines and headline, initial spaces, shoulder notes to Gospels. Rubricated: opening 14-line capital F in red and blue with penwork infill and marginal flourishes, smaller Lombard flourished initials supplied in blue and red or both, a few in brown and red, a few initial strokes in red.

Koberger's fourth Latin Bible, and the fourth of five of his Bibles to contain the tract of Menardus, Eusebian canons, and marginal concordances to the Gospels (the last one, Goff B-568, appeared in 1480).

HC 3069*; Pellechet 2297; Polain 649; Proctor 1989; BMC II, 416; GW 4234; Goff B-559.

Provenance: A few eighteenth-century marginal notes -- Royal Library of Munich, early nineteenth-century duplicate ink-stamp on first leaf, shelf-mark and duplicate inscription on front flyleaf -- Library of the Church of St. Nicholas in Passau, etched bookplate -- Adolph Lewisohn, morocco bookplate -- Benjamin R. Donaldson (sale, Christie's New York, 25 September 1981, lot 63).