Ludolphus de Saxonia: Vita Christi.
Cologne: Nicolaus Götz, 30 Apr. 1474.
Fol. [1-910 10-128 13-2210 23-258 26-4210 438 44-4610 478 486 498]. [468] leaves (1/1, 25/7-8 i.e. ff. 1, 237, 238 blank).
Engraved printer’s device.
ISTC il00338000; GW M19194; Goff L338; BMC I 238 (IC. 3803); CIBN L-263; BSB-Ink L-260; Polain(B) 2532.
According to Henry Bradshaw (‘On the engraved device used by Nicolaus Gotz of Sletzstat, the Cologne printer, in 1474’ in Collected papers of Henry Bradshaw, Cambridge: 1889, pp. 237-243), the printer’s device is a dotted or rather punctured print; these engravings (known as gravures criblées or Schrotblätter) were formerly looked upon as woodcuts but are now acknowledged to be specimens of goldsmith’s work.
| GIP number: | L40 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Bx.1.12 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Variants | 2/5v (f. 15v): printed text is present (in some copies the page is blank - cf. Polain); 25/6r (f. 236r), col. 2, line 16: ‘... Amē Nicola9 gotz’ as Polain, not as BMC ‘Amen. Nicola9 gotz’; 25/6r (f. 236r), col. 2, line 20: ‘... Nicolaus gotz’ as Polain, not as BMC ‘... Nicola9 gotz’; 26/1r (f. 239r), col. 1, line 1 ‘... fidei quā ...’ as Polain, not as BMC ‘... fidei. quam ...’; 49/5v (f. 465v), col. 2: final two lines of colophon read ‘mino Philippi Iaco||biq[ue] profeſto .j474. Iheſu incarnacōis anno.’ as Polain, not as BMC ‘mino philippi pro||festo 1474 Anno.’ |
| Provenance: | Trier, North Rhine-Westphalia, Benedictines, S. Maximinus (Imperiale Monasterium S. Maximini): inscription on 1/1v “Codex monasterij sancti [Maximini - erased] treuiroru[m] archipresulis iuxta treuirice ciuitatis menia situati: quem contulit honorabilis vir et prebendarius noster Johannes lemen [a second letter “e” after the first “e” of the name has been erased] eidem mo[na]st[er]io anno salut[is] Mo. ccccco. ijo. sabbato ante palmaru[m] infra s[e]c[un]dam et terciam post meridiem horas”; inscription on 1/2r “Ex libris Imperialis Monasterij [sancti maximini - erased]". Johannes Lemen (fl. 1502), of Trier - see above. Louis-Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV: Gaignat sale, 1769; lot 123 in Guillaume de Bure, Bibliographie instructive: supplément ... ou catalogue des livres de feu M. L.J. Gaignat, 2 vols (Paris: 1769). William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist: purchased by Hunter at the Gaignat sale through his agent, Jean-Baptiste Dessain, for 18 livres 1 sou according to the Dessain-Hunter correspondence (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f. 23v); but priced at 118 livres 1 sou in the priced copy of De Bure’s Catalogue in University of Glasgow Library (shelfmark BD17-g.22, 23). University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest, 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate and book-label on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Aa.4.8”. |
| Binding: | France, 18th-century red goatskin; covers decorated with a triple gold-fillet border, a small gold fleuron at each corner; gold-tooled spine; marbled endpapers; watermark on front and rear flyleaves “MGIS MOLEN”; gilt-edged leaves; turquoise silk bookmark. Size: 403 x 308 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 394 x 290 mm. |
| Annotations: | Title and shelfmark or inventory number on 1/1 “Vita ihesu D.26 Continet totum librum vite domini ihesu”; traces of early signatures in top right-hand corner of a few recto leaves. |
| Decoration: | Ten-line initial “F” supplied on 1/2r with a foliate design of shades of pink and grey; a similarly decorated initial “I” occupies a space of 24 lines in the outer margin of 3/3v (f. 23v); principal initials at the beginning of chapters supplied throughout in red and green with reserved white, in red with reserved white, in blue with reserved white, or in red and blue with reserved white; other smaller initials supplied in red, blue, or green throughout; capital strokes in red throughout; running chapter numbers in roman numerals supplied in red on verso leaves. |
| Imperfections: | None. |
