Early Printing & Manuscripts / Religion & Devotion

MURMELLIUS, Joannus. Joannis Murmelii de discipulorum officiis q[uo]d Enchiridion scholasticon inscribitur. Ep[istol]a seu volumen divi Hieronymi ad Nepotianum de clericorum officiis cu[m] Murmellii commentariis. Hermanni Buschii carmen saphicu[m] in urbem Ruremundensem. Joa[n]nis Murmellii ode saphica de duplici voluptate.
Zwolle, Pieter van Os, ca. 1505. 4to. Woodcut title page illustration of Saint Jerome (88 x 66 mm), woodcut colophon illustration (73 x 55 mm). Later sheepskin parchment, wove paper pastedowns and late 18th-century endleaves (laid paper, watermarked 1783). [52] pp. Full description

NATALIS, Hieronymus (Jerónimo NADAL). Evangelicae historiae imagines ex ordine evangeliorum, quae toto anno in missae sacrificio recitantur, in ordinem temporis vitae Christi digestae.
Antwerp, [Martinus Nutius], 1593.With: (2) IDEM. Adnotationes et meditationes in evangelia quae in sacrosancto missae sacrificio toto anno leguntur. Cum evangeliorum concordantial historiae integritati sufficienti. ...
Antwerp, Martinus Nutius, 1594 (colophon dated 1595). 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. Each work with an engraved allegorical title-page, extensively highlighted in gold, and woodcut initials and headpieces. Ad 1 contains a print series showing the life of Christ in 153 full-page engravings by the Wierix brothers, Jan II and Adriaen Collaert and Charles de Malery after Bernardo Passari and Maarten de Vos. It also has an engraved allegorical and ornamental headpiece on A2, reading "IHS In nomine Jesu". Mid 19th-century light brown calf with a blind-tooled ornamental frame on both boards, a gold-tooled spine, a black morocco spine label with the title in gold, red edges and marbled endpapers. [5] ll. plus 153 engraved prints; [1], [3 blank], 595 [= 593], [5] pp. Full description

NAUSEA, Friedrich, and Beatus RHENANUS. In magnum illum laudatae felicisque memoriae Erasmum Roterodamum, nuper vita functum monodia. eiusdem vita ex Beati Rhenani epistola ad archiepiscopum coloniensem.
Paris, Chrestien Wechel, 1536. Small 8vo (9.7 x 16.4 cm). With Wechel's woodcut device on the title page and 3 woodcut decorated initials. Modern, marbled paper boards. [23], [2 blank] ll. Full description

NIDER, Johannes. Preceptorium divine legis [preceded by] Prologus in expositionem decalogi [= Praeceptorium divinae legis, sive expositio decalogi].
[Colophon:] Ulm, Johann Zainer the elder, [1478/79]. Chancery (Foolscap) folio. Set in a rotunda gothic type, the preliminaries in two columns, with spaces for manuscript paragraph marks and initials, filled in in red ink, the initials Lombardic, one with interior decoration. Contemporary richly blind-tooled calf over square-edged wooden boards (from an Augsburg bindery active 1473-1494: Eindbanddatenbank workshop w002141). Further with a brass catchplate on the front board and a brass anchor plate on the back board. [246] ll. Full description

OSIANDER, Andreas. Harmoniae Evangelicae libri quatuor, in quibus Evangelica historia ex quatuor Evangelistis ita in unu[m] est contexta, ut nullius verbum ullum omissum, nihil alienum immixtum, nullius ordo turbatus, nihil non suo loco positum. ... Elenchus harmoniae, ...
(Colophon: Antwerp, Matthias Crom, 1540). 8vo. With a woodcut vignette at the foot of the title-page and the head of the first page of the main text (illustrating Luke 11), 1 full-page and 97 half-page woodcut illustrations by Levinus de Witte (including a few repeats). 17th-century limp sheepskin parchment. [164] ll. Full description

OTTO VAN PASSAU. Boeck des gulden throene of der xxiiij ouden.
Utrecht, [printer with monogram "tC"], [30 March] 1480. Folio. With 24 illustrations in text (ca. 9 x 6.2 cm), printed from 1 complete woodcut (plus 4 repeats) and 15 components assembled in different combinations, all rubricated and with architectural frames. The book has no printed initials, but spaces for manuscript initials, which have been filled with letters in the uncial style. Each of the 24 chapters begins with a large manuscript initial (the first 5-line with a penwork face in profile and further 4-line), 11 with two or more colours (mostly with penwork decoration extending into the margin), and others with interior white decoration. A smaller (2-line) initial with penwork extending into the margin opens the book's first page and there are numerous further 1-line and 2-line initials. Set in a textura type with capitals rubricated throughout. Woodcut printer's device at the end: a date palm tree with monogram "tC" (6.5 x 5.5 cm), the "t" perhaps also (or instead) representing a cross. Contemporary (Utrecht?) blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, each board in a panel design with the central part ruled in a lozenge pattern with about 200 impressions of 4 small separate stamps; re-backed, with modern morocco title label. [4], 197 ll. Full description

PETRUS DE NATALIBUS. Catalogus sanctorum & gestorum eorum ex diversis voluminibus collectus: ...
(Colophon: Strasbourg, printed by Martin Flach, 1513). Folio (22.2 x 32 cm). Title-page with a woodcut decorated initial and a 4-piece woodcut border by Hans Wechtlin, 1 full-page woodcut by Urs Graf, hundreds of woodcut decorated uncial initials. Set mostly in rotunda gothic types. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, in a panel design, with 2 brass clasps on leather straps with brass catchplates and anchorplates. [4], 253 ll. Full description

PIO, Alberto. Alberti pii carporum comitis illustrissimi ad Erasmi Roterodami expostulationem resposio accurata & parenetica, Martini Lutheri & asseclarumeius he resim uesana magnis argumetis & iustis rationibus consutans.
[Paris? Pierre Vidoué?, 1526].
With: (2) ERASMUS, Desiderus. Responsio ad epistolam paraneticam Albert Pii Carporum principis.
[Paris, Pierre Vidoué], April 1529. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Ad 1 with a woodcut armorial frame on the title page and 2 woodcut decorated initials. Ad 2 with a woodcut architectural frame on the title page and 2 woodcut decorated initials. Later (18th-century?) gold-tooled calf with a red morocco title lable lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges, red edges, marbled endpapers. [152]; [56] ll. Full description

PIUS V, Pope. Freiheit und Bulla des allerheiligsten in Gott vatters und Herren, Herren Pii, des namens fünfften Bapsts, uber die Erhoehung und Schoepffung des durchleüchtigsten Fürsten und Herren, Herren Cosmi Medices, Hertzogen zu Florentz, &c. Zu einem Groszhertzoge und koenigmässigem, der provintz Ethrurien, ime underworffen. Geschehen zu Rom, den 27. Augusti. Anno M.D. LXIX.
[Germany], 1570. Small 4to (20 x 15 cm). With a woodcut figure of the Pope on the title-page. Set in Schwabacher gothic type with fraktur headings and incidental roman. Half maroon goatskin morocco (1930s?), gold-tooled spine. [12] pp. Full description

PLACENTIUS, Johannes Leo. Catalogus omnium antistitum Tungarorum, Traiectensium, ac Leodiorum, & rerum domi, bellique gestarum compendium.
Antwerp, Willem Vorsterman, [1530?; preface dated 14 September 1529]. Small 8vo (13.5 x 10 cm). Title with woodcut coat-of-arms of Cardinal Everard van de Marck in a 4-piece woodcut border, a large woodcut coat of arms on the last page, 2 woodcut illustrations, one showing Mary and Jesus with Saint Anne (63 x 42 mm), and the other a bishop in his study (45 x 43 mm), each in the same 4-piece woodcut border (different from that on the title-page). Capitals rubricated throughout, some woodcuts also rubricated and some headings and other words underlined in red. Vellum (ca. 1700?). [16], [216] pp. Full description