Beschreibung:

LEGRAND, Jacques (c.1365-c.1415). [ Sophologium .] [Strassburg: The Printer of the ‘R-Bizarre’ (Adolf Rusch), about 1470.] The rare first edition of Jacques Legrand’s florilegium on moral philosophy, with contemporary provenance and initial depicting the author. The collection reflects on human virtue and vice, excerpting passages on morality—as well as the natural sciences—from authors as wide-ranging as Terence, the Persian astrologer Abu Mashar, Saint Paul, and Chaucer. Extremely popular, Sophologium was reprinted numerous times throughout the Renaissance, including by William Caxton who published an English translation titled “The Book of Good Manners.” This first edition was published by Adolf Rusch, known as the “Printer of the ‘R-Bizarre’” because of the curious shape of his capital R. This copy includes an eight leaf manuscript index from A-S, written on the same paper as the printed text by early owner Fr. Henricus de Liechtstal. Only three other complete copies have appeared at auction since the 1980s; of these, this is the only copy with both integral blanks. BSB-Ink M-21; GW M17664; im00038000; Proctor 241. Folio (276 x 196mm). 219 leaves + 8 leaves of manuscript index. Rubricated, with manuscript foliation, running headlines, and paragraph wayfinding; unsigned, no catchwords. First initial with author portrait and penwork decoration, 2 other large penwork initials, smaller initials in red (a few leaves repaired at inner margin, light toning to some leaves, marginal corner dampstain affecting some leaves). 19th-century olive gilt-stamped morocco by Grantham (wear to edges). Provenance : Fr Henricus de Liechtstal (inscription and 8 leaves of manuscript index) – early marginalia in several hands – Sir John Hayford Thorold, 9th baronet (1734-1815; Syston Park bookplate) – Sir John Hayford Thorold, 10th baronet (1773-1831; monogram bookplate; sold Sotheby’s, 12 December 1884, lot 1220) – William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney (1835-1909, father of famous archaeologist Mary Rothes Margaret Cecil, 2nd Baroness Amherst of Hackney; bookplate).