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JOHANNES DE CAPUA (fl.1263-78). Directorium humanae vitae . [Strassburg: Johann Prüss, c.1489.
JOHANNES DE CAPUA (fl.1263-78). Directorium humanae vitae . [Strassburg: Johann Prüss, c.1489.] Chancery 2° (239 x 168mm). Collation: a-m 6 n 1 0 (a1r title, a1v presentation woodcut, a2r prologue, a5v text, n10v blank). 82 leaves. 50 lines and headline. Type: 3:80G, 7:156G, 4:300G. 2- to 9-line initial spaces, a few guide-letters; rubricated. (Title tipped in and with minor repairs and tear, a few headlines shaved.) Modern binding re-using a vellum ms. leaf. Provenance : J.R. Ritman (Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam, bookplate; sale Sotheby's, 6 December 2000, lot 7). FIRST LATIN EDITION OF THE FABLES OF BIDPAI . These fables derive from an ancient collection of Sanskrit stories. They were translated into Persian, Arabic, Syriac, Greek and Hebrew, and it was a Hebrew version which Johannes de Capua translated into Latin for its wider dissemination in western Europe. The first Latin edition was preceded into print by German editions, first at Urach and then at Ulm. The woodcuts used here are those of the first, Urach edition. Geissler ('Die Drucke des Buches der Beispiele der alten Weisen', Beiträge zur Inkunabelkunde , 3, 3, 1967, 18-46) distinguishes various issues, which Needham (Ritman sale catalogue) identifies as in-press forme corrections. H(+Add)C *4411; BMC I, 125 (IB. 1707-9); BSB-Ink I-375; Bod-inc J-115; CIBN J-171; Schreiber 3489; Klebs 344.1; Goff J-268.