HOROLOGIUM DEVOTIONIS. [bound with] BERNARDUS CLARAEVALLENSIS. SPECULUM DIVINI AMORIS. [bound with] GERARDUS DE ZUTPHANIA. DE SPIRITUALIBUS ASCENSIONIBUS by (WOODCUTS - INCUNABULAR). (SAMMELBAND). BERTHOLDUS - not after 1490]

[Basel: Johann Amerbach not after 1490]; Cologne: Heinrich Quentel, 1505; [Basel: Johann Amerbach and Johann Petri, not after 1490]. Only Separate Edition of "Speculum Divini Amoris.. 150 x 100 mm. (5 7/8 x 4"). Bertholdus: [65] leaves (lacking final blank); single column, 30 lines in gothic type. Bernardus: [80] leaves; single column, 26 lines in roman type. Gerardus: [68] leaves; single column, 29 lines in gothic type. Three separately published works in one volume. Pleasing period pigskin, upper cover with lighter rectangle (where label once was) and beneath this an etched circle containing a geometrically generated six-petalled flower, raised bands, ink titling and shelf marking to head and tail spine panels, original brass fore-edge clasp, top and bottom edges with faded red and yellow designs. Bertholdus and Gerardus rubricated in red, Gerardus with three-line initials in red, Bertholdus WITH 36 WOODCUTS BY THE "MEISTER DES HAINTZ NARR," ATTRACTIVELY COLORED BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND. First title page with ink inscription of the Carthusian monastery in Gaming, Austria; A5r with faint ink stamp in tail margin. Bertholdus: Goff B-506; BMC III, 753; ISTC ib00506000; for the woodcuts: BSB-Ink B-398. Bernardus: VD 16 B 1963; USTC 694246. Gerardus: Goff G-177; BMC III, 752; ISTC ig00177000. Pigskin lightly soiled and with perhaps a score of tiny wormholes to boards, rear pastedown and free endpaper with one area of elongated worming (but the text with only trivial worm holes, and these all at the end of the volume), a couple of small ink stains to head margin, otherwise A FINE COPY, notably clean and fresh internally, with ample margins, the coloring precise and pleasing, and the unsophisticated binding altogether agreeable. Housed in a period binding and in remarkably fine condition throughout, this sammelband consists of one early 16th century and two incunabular works, one of the latter containing numerous woodcuts by a prominent engraver, pleasingly colored by a contemporary hand. Our engraver, the "Master of the Haintz Fool," was so named for his memorable illustrations in Sebastian Brant's "Das Narrenschiff" ["Ship of Fools"] of 1494. He was active in Basel around 1490 and contributed to several publications of this period, including, notably, the 1494 Basel edition of Christopher Columbus' "Epistola de Insulis Nuper Inventis." The woodcuts in our copy of Berthodus' "Horologium Devotionis" are attributed to his hand by the Bavarian State Library. The "Horologium" was a popular devotional work containing prayers for every hour of the day, each celebrating a moment from the life of Christ--in this case, with accompanying illustrations, from the Annunciation to the Last Judgment. Though most of the woodcuts here are small at 70 mm. tall, the specificity of location and number of figures packed into each scene is impressive. The coloring is vivid, favoring bright greens, golds, pinks, and oranges, with occasional splashes of blue and purple, an altogether appealing piece of work, especially for a contemporaneous hand. This first Basel edition of the "Horologium" (the ISTC notes four earlier printings in Paris, Cologne, Augsburg, and Nuremberg) was issued by Johann Amerbach (1430-1513), the first printer in his city to use roman type and arguably the most important Basel printer of the 15th century. Amerbach also printed the other incunable in this Sammelband, "De Spiritualibus Ascensionibus" by Gerard Zerbolt of Zütphen, a man described by Post in "The Modern Devotion" as "the most fertile and the most successful writer the Brothers [of the Common Life] ever produced." The final work here, "Speculum Divini Amoris" by Bernard of Clairvaux is the only separate edition of this work found by OCLC and KVK. It is also quite rare. Taken together, the three texts here, the colored woodcuts, and the remarkable state of preservation combine to provide a Medieval object of very considerable interest.