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Details
PETRUS COMESTOR (d. ca 1179). Historia scholastica. Augsburg: Günther Zainer, 1473.
Royal 2o (397 x 275 mm). Collation: [16; 2-910 106; 11-2310] table, 1/6v blank; Genesis-I Kings; II Kings-Acts, 23/8v colophon, 23/9-10 blank). 220 (of 222, lacking two final blanks) leaves, 7-220 foliated 1-214. 54 lines and headline, double column. Type: 3:107R. Woodcut initial capitals: 24-line scrolled border initial "I" (BMC Ia), 8-line Maiblumen initials (BMC 2a), 3-line outline Lombards (BMC 3a). Rubricated: initials colored red, paragraph marks and capital strokes in red, some capital strokes and erratum corrected in black ink (some smudged). Blind impression of type from 1/4v col. 2 on 1/6r, as in BMC copy. (Upper margin of first leaf trimmed, pale stain on 17/1, some occasional pale staining/soiling in upper margin, some minor worming at beginning and end occasionally touching letters, a few creases to last leaf, generally crisp.) Contemporary blind-stamped South-German pigskin over wooden boards, covers divided into panels by triple fillets, compartments filled with rosette, leaf, and eagle tools, spine in five compartments with four raised bands, brass catches (lacking clasps, hardware removed). Provenance: contemporary five-line satirical German verse on pastedown; Balthasar Schrayvogel of Tieffenbach, Alsace (manuscript note on the text dated 1554); Augustinus Stark, Augustinian Canon Regular of St. George, acquired from inheritance from the priest Joseph (inscription on title dated 1799); George and David Wolfe Bruce, New York typographers (bookplate; donated to the Grolier Club in 1894 and sold 15 November 1968 to Goodspeed's); acquired from Goodspeed's, 1968.
Probable FIRST EDITION of this popular medieval school text. This edition is traditionally given priority over the 1473 Utrecht and Strassburg editions (Goff P-459 and P-460), although the latter undated edition must not have been printed after 6 February 1473, date of a rubricator's inscription in the ex-Stuttgart copy. The Historia Scholastica, a world history based on the Old and New Testament by the French theologian Petrus Comestor, student of Peter Lombard and one of the first commentators on his Sententia, served until well into the sixteenth century as a basic school text for theological study. Essentially an abridgement and commentary on sacred history, the Historia contains much information drawn from rabbinical sources. As the formal model for numerous translations and adaptations in Latin and vernacular languages, it formed a link between Latin scholastic textual practices and vernacular narrative.
This edition is one of a handful of books printed in Zainer's first and purest Roman type, one of the earliest Romans to be cut in Germany. After 1473 Zainer reverted mainly to gothic founts, occasionally in conjunction with a smaller, more condensed Roman typeface.
A FRESH, WIDE-MARGINED COPY. According to American Book Prices Current, the only copies to appear at auction in the past 50 years are the Friedlaender and Leighton-Hornby-Rattey-Abrams copies, both sold in 2001. H 5531*; BMC II,319 (IC.5460); BSB-Ink. P-301; CIBN P-223; Goff P-458.
Royal 2o (397 x 275 mm). Collation: [16; 2-910 106; 11-2310] table, 1/6v blank; Genesis-I Kings; II Kings-Acts, 23/8v colophon, 23/9-10 blank). 220 (of 222, lacking two final blanks) leaves, 7-220 foliated 1-214. 54 lines and headline, double column. Type: 3:107R. Woodcut initial capitals: 24-line scrolled border initial "I" (BMC Ia), 8-line Maiblumen initials (BMC 2a), 3-line outline Lombards (BMC 3a). Rubricated: initials colored red, paragraph marks and capital strokes in red, some capital strokes and erratum corrected in black ink (some smudged). Blind impression of type from 1/4v col. 2 on 1/6r, as in BMC copy. (Upper margin of first leaf trimmed, pale stain on 17/1, some occasional pale staining/soiling in upper margin, some minor worming at beginning and end occasionally touching letters, a few creases to last leaf, generally crisp.) Contemporary blind-stamped South-German pigskin over wooden boards, covers divided into panels by triple fillets, compartments filled with rosette, leaf, and eagle tools, spine in five compartments with four raised bands, brass catches (lacking clasps, hardware removed). Provenance: contemporary five-line satirical German verse on pastedown; Balthasar Schrayvogel of Tieffenbach, Alsace (manuscript note on the text dated 1554); Augustinus Stark, Augustinian Canon Regular of St. George, acquired from inheritance from the priest Joseph (inscription on title dated 1799); George and David Wolfe Bruce, New York typographers (bookplate; donated to the Grolier Club in 1894 and sold 15 November 1968 to Goodspeed's); acquired from Goodspeed's, 1968.
Probable FIRST EDITION of this popular medieval school text. This edition is traditionally given priority over the 1473 Utrecht and Strassburg editions (Goff P-459 and P-460), although the latter undated edition must not have been printed after 6 February 1473, date of a rubricator's inscription in the ex-Stuttgart copy. The Historia Scholastica, a world history based on the Old and New Testament by the French theologian Petrus Comestor, student of Peter Lombard and one of the first commentators on his Sententia, served until well into the sixteenth century as a basic school text for theological study. Essentially an abridgement and commentary on sacred history, the Historia contains much information drawn from rabbinical sources. As the formal model for numerous translations and adaptations in Latin and vernacular languages, it formed a link between Latin scholastic textual practices and vernacular narrative.
This edition is one of a handful of books printed in Zainer's first and purest Roman type, one of the earliest Romans to be cut in Germany. After 1473 Zainer reverted mainly to gothic founts, occasionally in conjunction with a smaller, more condensed Roman typeface.
A FRESH, WIDE-MARGINED COPY. According to American Book Prices Current, the only copies to appear at auction in the past 50 years are the Friedlaender and Leighton-Hornby-Rattey-Abrams copies, both sold in 2001. H 5531*; BMC II,319 (IC.5460); BSB-Ink. P-301; CIBN P-223; Goff P-458.