BERNARDUS CLARAVALLENSIS (pseudo-). Meditationes de interiori homine. Barcelona: Pedro Posa, 1499. Chancery 4 o (190 x 133mm). Collation : A-B 8 C 4 (A1r text, C3v colophon, C4 blank). 20 leaves (including final blank). 31 lines. Gothic types 148 [Haebler 4] (head-lines) and 93 [Haebler 6] (text). White-on-black woodcut initial at beginning, black Lombard initials. (Tiny rust-hole on B4 catching a few letters, palest dampstain to upper corner of last few leaves.) Modern blue morocco, gilt-lettered on spine, edges gilt, by Riviere; quarter-morocco folding case. Provenance : William Cole of Gray's Inn (armorial bookplate) -- Eric Sexton (bookplates) sold Christie's, New York, 8 April 1981, lot 18 -- purchased from John F. Fleming, New York, 10 June 1983. A VERY RARE IMPRINT. ONE OF ONLY 8 RECORDED COPIES OF BERNARDUS'S MEDITATIONES BY THE PRINTER OF THE LEGENDARY COLUMBUS LETTER. Although the present work is no longer considered to be by Bernard of Clairvaux, it was in the 15th century a popular work aimed to teach "How man by knowledge and understanding of himself may know god" (English edition of 1496). Between 1475 and 1499, 23 editions were printed. Books from the press of Pedro Posa (d. 1506) are notoriously scarce. The last to appear at auction was a copy of Jacobus Calicius's Solempnissimi aureique tractatus , 1518, sold at Sotheby's, London, 2 April 1985. Posa printed three books with Petrus Brun in 1481. The name of Brun afterwards disappears from Barcelona imprints and the press was operated solely by Posa. Among the few works he printed is the famously elusive Columbus letter of 1493 announcing the discovery of the New World, Epistola Christofori Colom , known only in one copy at the New York Public Library. While issued without an imprint, the Columbus letter is convincingly attributed to Posa's press at Barcelona. The present copy of Posa's edition of the Meditationes is the only known in private hands. Of the seven copies recorded in institutional collections, four are in Spain and Portugal and three are in the United States. CR 970a; GW 4039; Goff B-409.
BERNARDUS CLARAVALLENSIS (pseudo-). Meditationes de interiori homine. Barcelona: Pedro Posa, 1499. Chancery 4 o (190 x 133mm). Collation : A-B 8 C 4 (A1r text, C3v colophon, C4 blank). 20 leaves (including final blank). 31 lines. Gothic types 148 [Haebler 4] (head-lines) and 93 [Haebler 6] (text). White-on-black woodcut initial at beginning, black Lombard initials. (Tiny rust-hole on B4 catching a few letters, palest dampstain to upper corner of last few leaves.) Modern blue morocco, gilt-lettered on spine, edges gilt, by Riviere; quarter-morocco folding case. Provenance : William Cole of Gray's Inn (armorial bookplate) -- Eric Sexton (bookplates) sold Christie's, New York, 8 April 1981, lot 18 -- purchased from John F. Fleming, New York, 10 June 1983. A VERY RARE IMPRINT. ONE OF ONLY 8 RECORDED COPIES OF BERNARDUS'S MEDITATIONES BY THE PRINTER OF THE LEGENDARY COLUMBUS LETTER. Although the present work is no longer considered to be by Bernard of Clairvaux, it was in the 15th century a popular work aimed to teach "How man by knowledge and understanding of himself may know god" (English edition of 1496). Between 1475 and 1499, 23 editions were printed. Books from the press of Pedro Posa (d. 1506) are notoriously scarce. The last to appear at auction was a copy of Jacobus Calicius's Solempnissimi aureique tractatus , 1518, sold at Sotheby's, London, 2 April 1985. Posa printed three books with Petrus Brun in 1481. The name of Brun afterwards disappears from Barcelona imprints and the press was operated solely by Posa. Among the few works he printed is the famously elusive Columbus letter of 1493 announcing the discovery of the New World, Epistola Christofori Colom , known only in one copy at the New York Public Library. While issued without an imprint, the Columbus letter is convincingly attributed to Posa's press at Barcelona. The present copy of Posa's edition of the Meditationes is the only known in private hands. Of the seven copies recorded in institutional collections, four are in Spain and Portugal and three are in the United States. CR 970a; GW 4039; Goff B-409.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
