Catholicon

BALBUS, Johannes, O.P. (d.1298)

Verlag: [Peter Schoeffer], Mainz, 1469

Collation: [1-610, 74]: grammar, 1r incipit (P)rosodia quedam pars grammatice nuncupatur. Partes siquidem grammatice sunt quattuor(contractions resolved); [8-1910 204(4+1)]: dictionary A-H, 8/1r incipit (I)am divina potencia auxiliante supra determinavimus de quatuor particulis principalibus huius operis. Nunc restat ut de quinta parte, 20/4+1r incipitmanus cum suis derivativis, verso blank; [21-3810 394]: dictionary I-Z, 21/1r incipit (I)est imperativus de eo is it, 39/3r colophonAltissimi presidio cuius nutu infantium lingue fiunt diserte. Hic liber egregius, catholicon, dominice incarnacionis annis M cccc 1x Alma in urbe maguntina nacionis inclite germanice . Non calami, stili, aut penne suffragio, sed mira patronarum formarum que concordia proporcione et modulo, impressus atque confectus est(followed by four lines of verse), 39/3v rubrics table incipitde ortographia 1, 39/4v blank. 373 leaves, no signature marks. Collation by quires: (1)-(6)10, (7)4, (8)-(19)10, (20)4+1, (21)-(38)10, (39)4. Single paper-stock from Basel, watermarked with the seal of the Galliziani family, in third state. Gothic type 83mm, secondary casting of paired lines (indissoluble "slugs"). Double column, 66 lines (33 line-pairs), 8 pinholes to the sheet preserved. The first book to name its place of printing, the Catholicon is also the first book to refer in print to the invention of moveable metal type: "With the help of Omnipotent God, at Whose very nod the tongues of infants are made eloquent, and Who often reveals to the humble what He withholds from the wise - this excellent book, Catholicon, has been printed in the goodly city of Mainz, in the glorious German nation . . ., and it has been brought to completion in the year of our Lord's incarnation, 1460 - not by means of reed, stylus, or quill, but with the miraculous concurrence of punches and types cast in moulds . . ." DECORATION by a contemporary Dutch or Westphalian artist: 12-line penwork initial P (fo. 1r) in blue and white, with green and red infill and red surround extending down the entire inner margin, 9-line penwork initial P on the same page in red, with violet and green infill and surround; 4-13-line initials in blue and white, or in red with penwork surround, 1-3-line red lombards, paragraph-marks and capital-strokes, initial L on 24/1v omitted and later supplied in black ink, rubrication entirely omitted from 13/10r and 18/7r. (Extreme inner margin of first leaf strengthened, small tear in its lower blank margin mended, recto lightly soiled; minor repair to extreme margins or corners of 10 other leaves not affecting text, tiny hole in 16/4 affecting three letters; rubricator's stain on 11/6v, small stains on 8/3-9, 22/8v and 33/10v.) BINDING: mid-18th-century French gold-tooled red morocco over pasteboard, triple fillets on sides, spine decorated in compartments with floral ornament and lettered, marbled endpapers, probably bound for the Duke of La Vallière. Provenance: quire signatures and occasional marginalia in a 16th-century hand -- Polling, Augustinian canons regular, paper copy (DeRicci, Mayence 71), to Duc de la Valliere, by exchange for 5 early manuscripts approved by Polling's Prior, Franz Töpsl [see references at end of this description] -- Louis-César de la Baume-le-Blanc, Duc de La Vallière (rebinding, 1767 auction of duplicates, lot 2287, fr. 474) -- George Hibbert (1829 Evans sale, lot 812, £36-4-6 to Payne and Foss) -- Beriah Botfield, purchased for £45 (pencil inscription, P.& F. Acquisitions p.15). La Vallière also owned two other paper copies: De R 90.53 (third impression, now Austrian National Library) and De R 90.72 (imperfect, "disparu"), as well as a vellum impression De R 90.1 (now British Library IC.301). No cancellation is known in the second impression.The Hibbert-Botfieldcopy shows the accident of imposition on 14/7 col. a (line-pair 35/36 upside down) and the damage to 6/10 col. a (line-pair 41/42), but line-pair 53/54 on 8/7 col. a is undamaged. The. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 3672

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Catholicon
Verlag: [Peter Schoeffer], Mainz
Erscheinungsdatum: 1469
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Fine
Auflage: 1. Auflage