A catalogue of medieval literature, especially of the romances of chivalry, and books relating to the customs, costume, art, and pageantry of the middle ages.

  • Bernard Quaritch Ltd
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A catalogue of medieval literature, especially of the romances of chivalry, and books relating to the customs, costume, art, and pageantry of the middle ages. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    39/100 (page 33)
    Medieval literature: bidpai, dialogues oe creatures. A Pahlavi version existed in the sixth century after Christ, and a Syriac and an Arabic version were derived from it not long afterwards. From Syriac it was rabbinized into literary Hebrew; and in the thirteenth century John of Capua, a converted Jew, translated the Hebrew Sendebar into the Latin Directorium. The headings of the pages are in Eoman numerals, that being the criterion which Brunet gives for determining the first edition. 166 BIDPAY. Fol. 1 verso : Register in das bncli der weisen . . . Colophon: Hie endet sich das bitch der weiszhbit oder der alten weisen. von anbeginne der welt von gescblecht zu geschleclite, sm. folio, printed in Gothic letter, 35 lines per page, with about 120 full-page woodcuts; fine copy in darh brown morocco super-extra, vellum fly-leaves, gilt edges, by Ghambolle-Duru Das hat gedrucJct Gunrad DincTcmut zu Ylm . . . M.ccccdxxxv. . . (1485) 60 0 0 The woodcuts are not copies of those in the Directorium, but are much larger and more meritorious designs; drawn with simplicity and vigour, and bearing a strong stamp of individual character. 167 DER ALTER WEISBNN exempel spriicb, mit vil scLonen Beyspilen vnd figuren erleucbtet . . sm. folio, 114 woodcuts by an artist of the Strassburg school; hf. bd. Straszburg, Jacob Frblich, 1545 7 0 0 This is not the Seven Wise Masters, but another edition of the Buch der Weisheit described above. The woodcuts are new compositions of the same subjects as illustrated in that. 168 DIALOGUS CREATURARUM. Fol. 1: (P)refacio i libru qni dicit’ dyalog’ creatnrarn moralizat’ omni materie morali iocudo et edificatiuo modo applicabilis Incipit feliciter . . . Fol. 10; Dyalogus creatnrarn optime moralizatus . .. sm. folio. First Edition, Gothic letter, 102 leaves, 34 lines per full page, with 124 curious woodcuts, the first page of text decorated with a woodcut border and initial; hf. bd. with the arms and ex libris of the Bunau library on the sides . . . Per gerardum leeu in opido goudensi . . . Anno domini millesimo quadringentesimo octuagesimo . . . G LEEV. . . (1480) 16 0 0 In this copy four leaves are supplied in a hand nearly contemporaneous with the book and containing neat drawings in place of the woodcuts. 169 the same, sm. folio, perfect; a little wormed, otherwise a fine large copy in old calf 1480 32 0 0 The signatures of Thomas Ireland, Nicholas Stokesley, Bartholomew Kirkbye, and Eobert Thacker, all written in this volume between 1500 and 1570, attest its early arrival in England. There are a few English glosses in the writing of the earliest owner, Thomas Ireland. 170 THE DIALOGUES OF CREATURES MORALTSED. Applyably and edificatyfly, to euery mery and iocounde mater, of late traslated out of latyn into our Englyssbe tonge right profitable to the gouernaunce of man. And they be to sell, vpo Powlys cliurcbe yarde. Small 4to. blacft Rttet, with numerous curious woodcuts, a few leaves at the end very slightly wormed, otherwise a fine large copy, old English red morocco extra, gilt edges \_8ine notd'] 63 0 0 Excessively eaee; the first English edition. According to Lowndes, it is supposed to have been “printed, if not translated, by John Eastell.” The compiler of the Huth Catalogue, however, says, “ It was probably printed at Paris,” and later than 1520, to which date the British Museum Catalogue assigns it. Hazlitt suggests Thelman Kerver of Paris as the printer. Collation: *, A-X, and AA-TT, in fours (the last leaf containing only two woodcuts). This copy belonged to Sir Thomas Smith in 1550 (it cost him fourteen pence), and has his signature on the last page. The name is written with y, instead of i, and the T and S are united in a sort of monogram. In 1790 the book belonged to George Steevens. A MS. in the Biblioth^que Nationale has a colophon ascribing this work to magnus Nicola qui dicebatur Pergaminus qui fait homo valde expertus in curiis magnatum. Such a personage is unknown otherwise to literary history. The book, whoever was its author, seems to be a composition of the latter part of the thirteenth century. It is a body of moral precepts illustrated by apologues in which talking animals are the prominent feature.