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Rare and Antiquarian Books

XVth Century Books

Johannes Gutenberg introduced the Western world to moveable type in 1450, but not all 15th Century books were produced using this new technology. These pages are reseved for manuscripts bound in the 15th Century using traditional means.

[Summa de virtutibus]  [On the Virtues ; The Summation of Virtues] [Quintæ Partis...
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[Summa de virtutibus] [On the Virtues ; The Summation of Virtues] [Quintæ Partis Principalis, Tractatus de Beatitudinibus]

by Peraldus, Guilelmus ca. 1190-1271 [var. Guillermus Parisiensis, Guilielmus, Guilelmus, Guillaume Perrault, Guilelmus, Willelmi de Peraldo, Wilhelm Peraldus, Guilelmus de Petra Alda, Guillaume de Peyraud] ; Michael Wenßler [Wenssler], fl. 1472-1497

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  • Hardcover
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Used - Very Good
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Hardcover
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Stockbridge, Georgia
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[Basle, Switzerland : Michael Wenßler (Wenssler), 1475], 1475. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. Folio - over 12 - 15" tall. 169 Folio leaves ; 31 cm. ; 2° ; bound in quarter suede with three raised bands, hand-written titles on spine ; an incunable from the early and important press of Michael Wenssler of Basel, Switzerland ; this partial copy without title page or colophon ; Hain 12383, Proctor 7464, British Museum 15th century III, 722 (IB.37053), Polain 3034, Goff P-83, Walsh 1114 ; single column 36 line Gothic type, with conventional 15th century printing ligatures, and with rubricized initials throughout; some generally minor edge staining and tears ; a few worm holes in the margins ; a few pages with larger stains ; this copy with no chapter headings or signature marks ; begins at Quintæ Partis Principalis, Tractatus de Beatitudinibus, with the section on Patience and the temptations of demons and ends the Beatitudes with the discourse on Peace; rubics in the same hand that… Read More
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Imitatio Christi.
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Imitatio Christi.

by (KEMPIS, THOMAS À).

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  • Fine
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Fine
Binding
Hardcover
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Great Barrington, Massachusetts
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Hardcover. Fine. Tractat[us] de meditatio[n]e cordis Joh[ann]is Gerson. Illustrated with 4 xylographic foliated initials, the first colored. 8vo. Bound in 19th century vellum. Impressum Venetijs arte [et] impensis Bernardini de benalijs, 1488. Early Edition. Hain, 9095; Goff, I-17; Bodleian Lib. 15th cent., T-105; BM 15th cent., V, p. 372 (IA.22318). The Imitatio Christi, or Imitation of Christ is often considered the greatest of all Christian manuals of devotion. In the late 15th century there was some dispute as to the authorship of this work. The present edition mistakenly ascribes it to Johannis Gerson, a French scholar, educator, reformer, poet and chancellor of the University of Paris. It has, however, been proven that this work really was written by the German monk Thomas à Kempis. Attributed variously but now definitely ascribed to Thomas à Kempis. (Goff). The first edition of Kempis work, published in 1473, did not include the Imitatio Christi, as it was believed then that Kempis was not… Read More
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Lucensium Oratio Luculentissima Pont. Maximo Alexandro Sexto per Nicolaum Tygrinu[m] Lucensem...
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Lucensium Oratio Luculentissima Pont. Maximo Alexandro Sexto per Nicolaum Tygrinu[m] Lucensem Vtriusq]ue] Iuris

by Tygrinus or Nicolaus Tegrinus or Tegrini

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PRINCETON, Massachusetts
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Rome: [Andreas Freitag],15 October 1492, 1492. Later black roan & gray boards, spine letters gilt.Binding slightly worn, first leaf lightly soiled. Ex-libris Walter Goldwater. Oration such as this are usually rare and short this one is both it is a tribute from the City of Lucca to the election of Pope Alexander VI. This is one of three almost simultaneously published prints of this on October 25, 1492 before the newly elected Borgia Pope Alexander VI. held this speech. - "This was the typical 'Oratio' - in the style of the times, both florid and unctous - which extolled the virtues of the Pope, traits which subsequent events failed to confirm!" (Bühler) According to Bühler's study, The Freitag printing was preceded by the editions of Stephan Planck (in Roman type) , whose corrections Freitag employed in his edition." CF Bühler, The Earliest Editions of the "Oratio" (1492) by Nicolaus Tygrinus (in: Gutenberg JB 1975, pp. 97-99)" Goff T563; HC 15751*; Pell Ms 10972; CIBN T-51; Nice 209; IGI… Read More
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Theologia naturalis; sive, Liber creaturarum specialiter de homine et de natura ejus in quantum...
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Theologia naturalis; sive, Liber creaturarum specialiter de homine et de natura ejus in quantum homo: et de his que sunt ei necessaria ad cognoscendum seipsum et Deum, et omne debitum ad quod homo tenetur et obligatur tam Deo quam proximo.

by De Sabunde, Raymundus (Raimundus Sabundus, Raymond of Sebonde or Ramon Sibiuda, Catalan scholar, c.1385-1436)

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  • Fine
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Fine
Binding
Hardcover
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Worcester, United Kingdom
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Strasbourg: Argentinae: Ex officina Martini Flach junioris, 1501. Half leather. Fine. Folio, printed in Strassburg by Martin Flach, 7 February 1501; 161 unnumbered leaves. BINDING: new Gothic hand-sewn oak binding by Arthur Green of Malvern; tawed quarter leather over quarter-sawn oak boards, quires hand-sewn on four double-cords creating four raised spine bands, board leather blind-tooled with period style rosettes and fleurs-de-lys within panel of diagonal blind triple fillets, hand-sewn Gothic double headbands of alternate hand-dyed indigo and undyed linen thread, hand-made brass hasps and clasps ornamented in period style; an exceptionally attractive recreation of a Gothic hand-sewn binding employing medieval techniques contemporaneous with the date the book was printed. COLLATION: [pi]6, a2-8, b-y6, z8, zeta6, antisigma8; leaf a1 excised and subsequent first few lines of a2[recto] redacted in black ink in the sixteenth century by the inquisitor for its heretical content (see below). TEXT: Double… Read More
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PRECORDIALISSIMI ac imp[re] ciabiles de adve[n]tu d[omi]ni Sermones co[m]pleti a Revere[n]do...
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Paris: Jacobeo, sub signo Pellicani ab Engleberto Marnefio, 1522. Second edition. Signatures: a-g8, h6(h5-6 both blank, half of h5 missing and lacking h6) LXII f. Bound in original vellum limp binding with hand lettering on spine "Cleree sermones/aVerdu DNI/1522": name on first page "Thomas Stevenson/Edinburgh/183. very good copy of a rare sermon. John Clérée dominican friar, preacher of the Late Middle Ages, is a little and unjustly forgotten nowadays. He was however very well known in the time of the kings Charles VIII and Louis XII, whose he has been the confessor. This study is based on the Quadragesimale said of Valenciennes. Clérée, using always of the rules of the scolastic Ars Praedicamdi, is nevertheless able to innovate by introducing in his sermons some dramatic dialogues. He is an accurate witness of the difficulties and problems of the french society about 1500 : the increasing inegalities between rich and poor ; the heaviness of the royal fiscality and of all kinds of taxes ; the… Read More
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Manipulus curatorum.
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Manipulus curatorum.

by Guido de Monte Rochen.

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Used
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Great Barrington, Massachusetts
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8vo. 19th- century ½-vellum. Venice: (Damianus de Mediolano, de Gorgonzola) 16 Nov. 1493. (ISTC No.: ig00602500; H 8207; GW 11804). Guido de Monte Rochen's Manipulus curatorum is considered the most important of the medieval pastoral manuals. (It was not made obsolete until the Council of Trent in 1566.) It is especially important as a key example of the intersection of religious doctrine and practice. The author attempts to make centuries of theology and canon law comprehensible for the priest of little learning and, in turn, for his parishioners. No other work did this as successfully. Binding slightly bent; title page a bit dusty; a few leaves misnumbered in manuscript; o/w a fine copy with large margins of this rare incunable. No known copies in the United States.
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Donatus melior
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Donatus melior: Unpublished, unique (post)incunabula

by Antonij Mancinelli

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  • Hardcover
Condition
Used
Binding
Hardcover
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Binningen, Switzerland
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8°, 20 x 14 cm. Mid-19th century cardboard binding.
41 nn leaves; there exist leaves aiii – a8; b1-b8; c1-c8; d1-d2; d6-d8 (?); e1-e8; f2-f7;
Missing are: a1, a2, d3 – d5 (?), f1, f7 and an unknown number of following leaves.
Numerous old ink notes; leaves are numbered recto at upper right; water stained throughout.
As the imprint is missing, an exact dating is difficult. The initials were used by Rosembach from ca. 1493. The initials were also used in the Missal of 1499 (M24774 Missale Tarraconense. 26.VI.1499.°). The woodblocks are still unworn in our Donatus melior, therefore, the impression was not made very much later.
Printed with Joan Rosembach`s types 1, 7 and 2. There are aberrant majuscules as Rosembach used in prints he made in Perpignan. The state of the type in this Donatus is the same as in the preface to Mancinelli's "Carmen de figuris" (according to Norton this is the Spica edition, p. 233a). An even better example is the "Vocabulario" of 1502.
Summary: This print has not been… Read More
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Highly decorative  initials, manuscript Missal leaf, c.1425
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Highly decorative initials, manuscript Missal leaf, c.1425: Large & finely illuminated in the style of a Book of Hours.

by Unknown scribe & illuminator

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Golden Square, Victoria
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Recto:Double column text in Latin written in an assured gothic bookhand in black ink on parchment. Ruled in red, with rubrics in red. One splendid two-line initial 'N' in blue outlined in black with white penwork on a burnished gold ground, infilled with a foliate design. Beside the initial is a six-line marginal panel of coloured acanthus leaves, flowers and leaves in the style of a Book of Hours. Three two-line initials in burnished gold on red and blue grounds highlighted with white penwork and alternating red and blue one-line initials.
Verso: As Recto, with six two-line illuminated initials and without a marginal panel.
Origin: Spain or Southern France.
Date: Early part of the 15th century, c. 1425
Content: The rubrics at the illuminated initial 'N' read : Sancti petri ad vincula , signifying the beginning of the mass for the Feast of St. Peter in Chains, traditionally celebrated on August 1st. The text reads: Nunc scio vere, quia misit Dominus Angelum suum : et eripuit me de manu Herodis,… Read More
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