![JOHANNES DE CAPUA (fl. late 13th century). Directorium humane vite alias parabole antiquorum sapientum. [Strassburg: Johann Prüss, ca 1489].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/NYR/2013_NYR_02706_0239_000(johannes_de_capua_directorium_humane_vite_alias_parabole_antiquorum_sa102709).jpg?w=1)
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JOHANNES DE CAPUA (fl. late 13th century). Directorium humane vite alias parabole antiquorum sapientum. [Strassburg: Johann Prüss, ca 1489].
Chancery 2o (285 x 197 mm). Collation: a-m6 n10 (a1r title, verso presentation cut, a2r prologue, a5v text, n10v blank). 75 leaves (of 82, lacking C1-6, N10). Gothic types 3:80 (text), 7:156 (headings), 4:300 (title). 50 lines and headline; initial-spaces, some with guide-letters. Full-page woodcut of the translator presenting the book to a king, and 106 (of 118) large woodcuts (including 6 repeats) illustrating the fables. (Lacking 7 leaves, title restored, worming in gutter margin from h1 to end.) 19th-century German boards (worn at extremities). Provenance: acquired from John Fleming, 1968.
FIRST LATIN EDITION, second issue of the title, of Bidpai's Fables, an ancient collection of Sanskrit stories that reached Medieval Europe in Persian and Arabic versions. John of Capua's Latin version was first published in a German translation by Anton von Pforr at Urach (Conrad Fyner, ca 1481, Klebs 345.1), which was also the first illustrated edition; it was reprinted in Urach, and four times in Ulm with different cuts. Prüss acquired Fyner's blocks and employed them in his two Latin editions. There followed two Spanish editions (Zaragoza 1494, Burgos 1498), but none in 15th-century Italy, where the Aesopian collection was frequently published and illustrated. HC *4411; BMC I, 125; Schramm XX, 26; Schreiber 3489; Klebs 344.1; BSB I-375; Walsh 199; Goff J-268a; Fairfax Murray German 70; F. Geissler, "Die Inkunabeln des Directorium vitae humanae," in Beiträge zur Inkunabelkunde 3. Folge 1 (Berlin 1965).
Chancery 2o (285 x 197 mm). Collation: a-m6 n10 (a1r title, verso presentation cut, a2r prologue, a5v text, n10v blank). 75 leaves (of 82, lacking C1-6, N10). Gothic types 3:80 (text), 7:156 (headings), 4:300 (title). 50 lines and headline; initial-spaces, some with guide-letters. Full-page woodcut of the translator presenting the book to a king, and 106 (of 118) large woodcuts (including 6 repeats) illustrating the fables. (Lacking 7 leaves, title restored, worming in gutter margin from h1 to end.) 19th-century German boards (worn at extremities). Provenance: acquired from John Fleming, 1968.
FIRST LATIN EDITION, second issue of the title, of Bidpai's Fables, an ancient collection of Sanskrit stories that reached Medieval Europe in Persian and Arabic versions. John of Capua's Latin version was first published in a German translation by Anton von Pforr at Urach (Conrad Fyner, ca 1481, Klebs 345.1), which was also the first illustrated edition; it was reprinted in Urach, and four times in Ulm with different cuts. Prüss acquired Fyner's blocks and employed them in his two Latin editions. There followed two Spanish editions (Zaragoza 1494, Burgos 1498), but none in 15th-century Italy, where the Aesopian collection was frequently published and illustrated. HC *4411; BMC I, 125; Schramm XX, 26; Schreiber 3489; Klebs 344.1; BSB I-375; Walsh 199; Goff J-268a; Fairfax Murray German 70; F. Geissler, "Die Inkunabeln des Directorium vitae humanae," in Beiträge zur Inkunabelkunde 3. Folge 1 (Berlin 1965).