Alphabetum divini amoris.
[Basel: Johann Amerbach, not after 1491]
8vo. a-d8. [32] leaves, the last blank.
The text, of unknown authorship, is variously ascribed in editions to Johannes Gerson, Thomas à Kempis, Johannes Nider or Nikolaus Kempf.
ISTC ia00528000; GW 1561; Goff A528; BMC III 753 (IA. 37480); Bod-inc A-218; BSB-Ink A-435.
| GIP number: | A50 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Veitch Eg6-e.20 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Bound with: | The third of four incunabula bound together. Bound with (1) Guillermus Alvernus, Episcopus Parisiensis, Rhetorica divina. [Basel: Johann Froben, ca. 1492]; (2) Armandus de Bellovisu, De declaratione difficilium terminorum tam theologiae quam philosophiae ac logicae. Basel: [Michael Wenssler], 1 Mar. 1491; (4) Heynlin, Johannes, de Lapide, Resolutorium dubiorum circa celebrationem missarum occurrentium. Basel: Johann Froben, 1492. |
| Provenance: | Roermond (Limburg, Netherlands), Carthusians (dissolved in 1783): on free front parchment endleaf in a late 15th/early 16th-century hand “Liber Carthusien[sium] In Ru[r]emu[n]da In hoc libello continentur [followed by a list of contents occupying nineteen lines]”; see also inscription on A1r (title-page) in item 1 (Guilelmus Alvernus, Rhetorica divina) in a late 15th/early 16th-century hand “Liber Carthusien[sium] in Ruremu[n]da.”. John Veitch (1829-1894), Professor of Logic and Rhetoric, University of Glasgow: source unknown; number “331” written in blue pencil in top left corner of front pastedown (a numbering common to many books in the Veitch collection and probably an inventory number). University of Glasgow: Veitch collection donation, 1895. |
| Binding: | Netherlands, late 15th/early 16th-century blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, bevelled edges, two clasps (both now incomplete), with catch plates on front board. Both covers are decorated with intersecting double fillets to form two frames and a centre panel. The centre panel is divided from corner to corner by a double fillet into four triangular compartments which are decorated with a circular stamp of a bunch of grapes on the vine, and a circular stamp of a six-petalled flower. The frames are decorated with the same flower stamp, a smaller circular flower stamp, and a stamp of a fleur-de-lys within a lozenge; spine undecorated, with a paper title label (now illegible) added at a later date. Pastedowns are parchment fragments from a manuscript of St Jerome Adversus Jovinianum (text in two columns enclosed within brown ink rules); paper tabs stained pink used to distinguish the four separate works. Size: 168 x 119 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 158 x 110 mm. |
| Annotations: | Brief early marginal annotations on b6r and b6v (the latter cropped by binder); occasional “nota” marks. |
| Decoration: | Four-line initial “A” on a2r supplied in blue, all other initials in red; paragraph marks, capital strokes, underlining supplied in red throughout. |
| Imperfections: | None. |
