The Property of
A GENTLEMAN
GEILER VON KAISERSBERG, JOHANN. Navicula sive speculum fatuorum... in sermones iuxta turmarum seriem divisa... a Jacopo Othero diligenter collecta. Compendiosa vita eiusdem descriptio per Beatum Rhenanum. Strassburg: [Johann Prüss], 16 January 1511. Chancery 4to, 205 x 148 mm. (8 1/16 x 5 7/8 in.), nineteenth-century blue morocco, sides gilt-panelled with floral tools at corners of inner panel, smooth spine divided into six compartments by five flat bands gilt, gilt-lettered, g.e., turn-ins ruled in gilt, by C. Smith, extremities rubbed, spine faded, upper inner hinge cracked; outer blank corners of fols. U7, Z7, and c7-8 repaired, lower half of woodcut on h1 insufficiently inked, a few fore-margins lightly dampstained, occasional light foxing, a few leaves browned, washed and pressed. Second edition (first illustrated), title woodcut depicting a ship of fools, 112 half-page woodcuts in the text with vertical foliate woodcut borders.
Details
GEILER VON KAISERSBERG, JOHANN. Navicula sive speculum fatuorum... in sermones iuxta turmarum seriem divisa... a Jacopo Othero diligenter collecta. Compendiosa vita eiusdem descriptio per Beatum Rhenanum. Strassburg: [Johann Prüss], 16 January 1511. Chancery 4to, 205 x 148 mm. (8 1/16 x 5 7/8 in.), nineteenth-century blue morocco, sides gilt-panelled with floral tools at corners of inner panel, smooth spine divided into six compartments by five flat bands gilt, gilt-lettered, g.e., turn-ins ruled in gilt, by C. Smith, extremities rubbed, spine faded, upper inner hinge cracked; outer blank corners of fols. U7, Z7, and c7-8 repaired, lower half of woodcut on h1 insufficiently inked, a few fore-margins lightly dampstained, occasional light foxing, a few leaves browned, washed and pressed. Second edition (first illustrated), title woodcut depicting a ship of fools, 112 half-page woodcuts in the text with vertical foliate woodcut borders.
First illustrated edition of Geiler von Kaisersberg's enlargement of and commentary on Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools, illustrated with the original woodblocks from the first edition of Das Narrenschiff (Basel 1494), of which the majority have been conclusively attributed to Albrecht Dürer. Beatus Rhenanus's three-leaf account of Geiler's life appears at the end. Adams G-316; BM/STC German, p. 335.
Provenance: Contemporary annotations on verso of last leaf; a few early marginalia -- Philip Augustus Hanrott (sale, part 2 Evans, London, August 1833, lot 602) -- William Beckford (Hamilton Palace sale, part 2, Sotheby's, December, 1882, lot 137) -- Archibald, 5th Earl of Rosebery (sale, Sotheby's, 27 October 1975, lot 73).
First illustrated edition of Geiler von Kaisersberg's enlargement of and commentary on Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools, illustrated with the original woodblocks from the first edition of Das Narrenschiff (Basel 1494), of which the majority have been conclusively attributed to Albrecht Dürer. Beatus Rhenanus's three-leaf account of Geiler's life appears at the end. Adams G-316; BM/STC German, p. 335.
Provenance: Contemporary annotations on verso of last leaf; a few early marginalia -- Philip Augustus Hanrott (sale, part 2 Evans, London, August 1833, lot 602) -- William Beckford (Hamilton Palace sale, part 2, Sotheby's, December, 1882, lot 137) -- Archibald, 5th Earl of Rosebery (sale, Sotheby's, 27 October 1975, lot 73).