Beschreibung:

[SAMMELBAND OF 8 INCUNABLES]. Historia septem sapientium Romae . Cologne: Johann Koelhoff [the Elder; before 6 November] 1490. [ Bound with :] THOMAS À KEMPIS. Imitatio Christi. - Johannes GERSON . De meditatione cordis. [Venice]: Peregrinus de Pasqualilbus and Dionysius Bertochus, 1485 (ISTC ii00008000). [ And :] [Pseudo-] THOMAS AQUINAS. De arte et vero modo praedicandi . [Leipzig: Konrad Kachelofen, c. 1489] (ISTC it00270000). [ And: ] Elegantiarum viginti praecepta . [Cologne: Heinrich Quentell, c. 1490] (ISTC ie00032050). [ And: ] GOBIUS, Johannes. De spiritu Guidonis . [Leipzig: Konrad Kachelofen, c. 1489] (ISTC ig00315000). [ And: ] BONAVENTURA, S. De Praeparatione ad missam . [Cologne: Heinrich Quentell] 1499 [i.e. 1494?] (ISTC ib00934550. [ And: ] Expositio hymnorum . [Strasbourg: Johann Prüss, c. 1491] (ISTC ie00148000). [ And: ] Sequentiae: textus sequentiarum cum optimo commento . [Strasbourg: Johann Prüss, c. 1491] (ISTC is00456500). Eight incunable editions of texts likely to have been used as homiletic support, the form of selection pointing perhaps to a Franciscan compiler. The most salient is the very rare Latin edition of the Fable of the Seven Sages of Rome (no copy in ABPC/RBH), which is bound sixth in the volume. This was one of the most popular medieval collections of tales connected by a narrative framework. Similar to Barlaam and Josaphat and the Gesta Romanorum , it derived from Persian or Indian sources. The fables reached Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries in several versions (the Latin version ‘H’ being predominant and the basis for the printed tradition). Their popularity was immense, inspiring Boccaccio and Chaucer among others. Most manuscripts of the Latin version H contain theological interpretations: taken together with the perfectly coherent homiletic assembly of the eight texts in our Sammelband, this testifies to clerical use of the fables as the source of attractive exempla for sermons. The style of the 23 fine woodcuts (from 11 blocks) is reminiscent of the Dutch Bellaert Master. The printer Koelhoff borrowed the woodcuts from Gerard Leeu in Antwerp, who had previously used them for his brother Claes Leeu’s Low German edition in 1488. Hain-Copinger 8725; ISTC is00449000; BMC I, p. 230; GW 12853; Goff 1964, S 449; Schreiber no. 5139; Schramm VIII, pp.6 and 18, figs. 301 and 303-314; Hind, p.362; F. Moldenhauer, ‘Verzeichnis der Drucke der Historia septem sapientum Rome’, Zeitschrift für Bücherfreunde NS 6,2 (1915), pp.226-231, no. 7. – Runte-Wikeley-Farrell, The Seven Sages of Rome and the Book of Sindbad: an analytical bibliography , New York 1984, no.671. Eight works in one volume, quarto (200 x 144mm) (minor worming to first and final leaves, some waterstaining to last two quires); Historia septem sapientum : 50 leaves. 34-37 lines, types 15:175G, 16:80G and 18:290G, with printer’s device and 23 full-page woodcut illustrations from 11 blocks; all other works : complete – details available upon request. Contemporary Saxonian (Leipzig?) blind-stamped calf over thick wooden boards, remains of one fore-edge clasp (worn, some loss of cover material on corners and ends of spine, new pastedowns); preserved in a modern green half morocco box. Provenance: A few old annotations - Dietrichstein of Nikolsburg (Mikulov, Moravia, shelfmarks on first flyleaf) - K. Hiersemann, Leipzig (purchase from Dietrichstein sale, Lucerne, Gilhofer & Ranschburg, November 1933, lot 205) - Ferdinand Baron Neufforge (1869-1942, a great bibliophile whose library was largely sold by Gerd Rosen in catalogues 1959-1961) - London, Sotheby’s, 13-14 March 1961, lot 75 - Otto Schäfer collection (OS 226, 1-8), acquired at Sotheby’s through Ernst Weil