Beschreibung:

EUSEBIUS Cremonensis (St., attributed to). Epistola de morte Hieronymi , in Dutch. - AUGUSTINUS, Aurelius (St., attributed to). Epistola ad Cyrillum de magnificentiis Hieronymi , in Dutch. - CYRILLUS (St., attributed to). Epistola de miraculis Hieronymi , in Dutch. Hasselt: [Peregrinus Barmentlo], 2 January 1490. Chancery 4° (202 x 134mm). Collation: a 8 b-q 6 (a1r title with full-page woodcut of St. Jerome, a1v full-page woodcut printer's device, a2r text, i6v blank, k1r epistle attributed St. Cyril, q5v-6 blank). 97 (of 98, without final blank) leaves. 29 lines and headline (rectos only), double column. Type: 4:125G (title, headings, headlines, colophon), 3:96G (text). Corrected reading of 'Iheruzalem' on k1r. Full-page woodcut of St. Jerome, full-page printer's device of St. Stephen with the arms of Hasselt and Barmentlo [Juchhoff 40]. 3- and 5-line initial spaces on first text leaf left blank, remaining 2- to 4-line initials, paragraph marks and capital strokes in red. Printed in 2-page formes, one forme of one bifolium very slightly smudged. (Small wormholes, some light soiling, a few sheets very lightly browned.) Inserted in 16th-century half pigskin over bevelled wooden boards, tooled in blind with saints' rolls, 2 brass fore-edge catchplates on upper cover, printed fragments as pastedowns, blue edges. Provenance : 19th-century tiny owner's mark 'ABV' on three leaves (not in Lugt). FIRST EDITION IN DUTCH AND ONE OF ONLY SEVEN BOOKS PRINTED AT HASSELT IN THE 15TH CENTURY. Peregrinus Barmentlo is first named in connection with printing at Naples in 1476 in the colophon of a Psalter which also names Henricus Alding. His exact role in this venture remains unclear, but he returned to the Netherlands with the Naples type to establish the first printing press at Hasselt, five miles north of Zwolle, in 1480. He printed three editions in 1480-1481 and then ceased production. In 1488 he started printing again, now with two new types, and issued a further four editions, all either unsigned or signed only with initials 'P.B.'. Owing to his very limited output, both in Naples and in Hasselt, the Hellingas surmised that Barmentlo was a 'nobleman-printer', whose involvement was primarily financial. They further suggest that Barmentlo may have used the services of printers at Zwolle, in particular Peter van Os van Breda, for the actual printing of his editions; he certainly borrowed a series of Van Os's woodcuts to illustrate his Dutch edition of the Life and Passion of Christ. The St. Hieronymus Boeck is illustrated with two full-page woodcuts, one of St. Jerome, and one of St. Stephen, patron saint of Hasselt. It incorporates the coats-of-arms of Hasselt and of Barmentlo (two post-horns), and thus may be considered Barmentlo's device; it was a crucial piece of evidence in Holtrop's identification of Barmentlo as the printer of the Hasselt editions. Both woodcuts are the work of the 'First Zwolle Woodcutter', and are praised by Conway as 'excellent. The attitudes are easy, the expressions pleasing, the draperies well arranged, and the backgrounds pleasantly filled' (p.105). THIS IS THE ONLY APPEARANCE IN PRINT OF BOTH WOODCUTS. These three letters, attributed to SS Eusebius, Augustinus, and Cyrillus, but written in Italy in the 14th century probably by Dominicans, circulated together widely in both manuscript and print. They tell of the life, death and miracles of St. Jerome. Jerome was embraced by Renaissance humanists and was particularly venerated by important religious movements in the Low Countries in the 14th century, such as the Brothers of the Common Life and adherents of the devotio moderna . Six of Barmentlo's seven Hasselt editions, including the present one, were printed in Dutch with linguistic features of the immediate vicinity of Overijssel and the east of the Low Countries. HASSELT INCUNABULA ARE OF THE UTMOST RARITY. Of the present edition ISTC and GW list 9 copies only, of which 3 are imperfect: two in England