Beschreibung:

BALBUS, Johannes (O.P., d.1298). Catholicon . Mainz: [Peter Schoeffer], 1460 [1469]. Royal 2° (385 x 270mm). Collation: [1-6 1 0 7 4]: grammar, 1r incipit (P) rosodia quedam pars grammatice nuncupatur. Partes siquidem grammatice sunt quattuor (contractions resolved); [8-19 1 0 20 4(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 incipit manus cum suis derivativis , verso blank; [21-38 1 0 39 4]: dictionary I-Z, 21/1r incipit (I) est imperativus de eo is it , 39/3r colophon Altissimi 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 incipit de ortographia 1 , 39/4v blank. 373 leaves. 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. 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, Canons Regular (1765 exchange to ) -- ? 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). SECOND IMPRESSION (of three) of the original edition. Balbus finished his work on 7th March 1286, which became the standard Latin dictionary of the later Middle Ages and appeared in more than two dozen editions during the incunable period. It was first published at Mainz in 1460, most probably by the inventor of typography himself, Johann Gutenberg (The next editions were printed by Günther Zainer in Augsburg on 30th April 1469 [GW 3183] and Mentelin and Rusch in Strassburg c.1475 [GW 3184-5] respectively.) In 1905 Gottfried Zedler in his monograph on the Mainz Catholicon demonstrated three quite separate issues of the edition, printed on distinct presses: on vellum or Bull's-Head paper (1), on Galliziani paper (2), on Tower and Crown-watermarked papers (3). Similarly, two separate issues have been recorded of two chancery half-sheet productions in the same type from the Catholicon Press: St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa de articulis fidei (C 562 and H 1425) and Matthaeus de Cracovia's Dialogus rationis et conscientiae (H 5803); for copies of the second impression of the latter sold at auction, see Christie's New York catalogues of the Friedlaender Collection (23 April 2001, lot 81) and the Doheny Collection (14