Licence: In copyright
Credit: Sales catalogue 1: Lathorp C. Harper, Inc. Source: Wellcome Collection.
17/92 page 11
![hands of Gutenberg to Fust and Schoffer. Gutenberg is supposed to have established a rival office from which emanated the Catholicon and three small, undated books. The “Catholicon is the first book in which Mainz is declared to be the first home of the new art of typography, a statement which was frequently repeated and published to the world, and which was never denied until 1561, when Jan van Zuyren of Haarlem imag- ined or discovered Laurence Coster.” The Catholicon, by Giovanni Balbi of Genoa (died 1298), was one of the first books to be printed and enjoyed a very great popularity. It is a large treatise for the study of the Latin tongue, divided into five parts: orthography, prosody, grammar, rhetoric and ety- mology. The last part is actually a dictionary—the first to be printed. Manuscripts of the Catholicon were among the few books of reference kept chained in French and English monasteries. The size of this copy is 362 x 272 mm. The manuscript headlines are cropped in some cases. Some stains on two leaves in Vol. II. The last leaf contains eight lines of the Table in the upper lefthand corner, and is otherwise blank. In this copy the lower righthand blank corner has been torn off and supplied. This last leaf is slightly smaller (about %4 inch short). It is, however, absolutely genuine, with the same watermark (“D”’) as the preceding leaves. The Viscount Strangford-Bibliotheca Suchtelen-Imperial Library of St. Petersburg copy. Described by De Ricci in his Mainz Press, Sec. X, No. 55. Stillwell B-19; GKW 3182; Hain 2254; BMI, p. 39. 12. BALBUS. Catholicon. 398 leaves, Gothic type, double columns; large initials painted in red or blue with ornamental penwork, other initials painted in red and green. Large, thick folio, original black leather binding over wooden boards, with brass bosses and corners and two very long straps expertly restored. [Strassburg: The “R”-Printer (Adolf Rusch), ca. 1470.] $1,250.00 FIRST EDITION OF THE 65-LINE CATHOLICON, COMPLETE, IN ORIGINAL BINDING. The front cover has its original lining of leaves from an early Hebrew manuscript. A REMARKABLY FINE AND VERY LARGE Copy with several leaves untrimmed. Exceedingly rare if found complete and in such outstanding condition. The copies in the British Museum and the Bibliothéque Nationale are both imperfect. Stillwell B-21 (three other copies); GKW 3184; Hain-C. 2253; BMI, p. 64. 13. BARTHOLOMAEUS ANGLICUS. De proprietate rerum. 220 leaves (first a blank and missing, 217 a blank and genuine); Gothic type, double columns; ini- tials painted in red. Folio, old calf, rebacked. [Basel: Berthold Ruppel, ca. 1470.] $850.00 EDITIO PRINCEPS Of this celebrated encyclopedia, written ca. 1230-1240 by Bartholo- mew the Englishman, erroneously called “de Glanvilla.” He was a Franciscan, born in England, and was active at Oxford, Paris and Magdeburg. He quotes Michael Scot and Grosseteste, and in turn is quoted by Roger Bacon. bald](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33160296_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
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