GUTENBERG AND THE CATHOLICON OF 1460: A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

New York: Edmund Byrne Hackett, the Brick Row Bookshop, Inc, 1936. 435 x 312 mm. (17 x 12 1/4"). x, 27, [1] pp.
Original stiff printed wrappers, housed in an attractive new dark blue cloth folding box. WITH AN ORIGINAL CATHOLICON LEAF PRINTED BY GUTENBERG. (The leaf, measuring 14 1/2 x 11", printed in double columns with 66 lines to the page and several rubricated initials. ) Front cover with a fine presentation inscription, "To Mr. Alfred W. Pollard, with sincere regards, M. B. Stillwell." ◆Minor wear and fading to paper wrappers, short tear near bottom of fore edge neatly repaired with archival tape on verso, otherwise the book with only trivial imperfections. Leaf with insignificant foxing at edges, and a narrow, light 12-inch ink smear on the verso (no text obscured); recto in fine condition.

This is a very special copy, both because the leaf's text is unusually interesting and because the printed essay was presented to a major figure in the world of early printing studies. Gutenberg's "Catholicon," while not as famous as its older brother, the 42-line Bible, is noted for being the first book to name its place of printing, and the first extensive work of a secular nature to be published. Compiled by Joannes Balbus and printed in Mainz in 1460, the text consists of a grammar and a dictionary of Medieval Latin, and treats the etymology of Latin terms in vogue during the Middle Ages. The leaf accompanying this copy is from the letter "S," and happily contains the word "Scribo" for which there is a 68-line definition that includes a discussion of books in manuscript, scribes, and the writing of letters. The recipient of the present copy of Stillwell's text copy was Alfred W. Pollard (1859-1944), the eminent bibliophile, author, scholar, and Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum, whose many important publications contributed greatly to our knowledge of early printed books. He and Stillwell were outstanding scholars of the greatest importance in the study of incunabula..