Department of Printed Books: Acquisitions from the ... - British Library

The only incunable printed at Lausanne. This
was the beginning of a distinguished career
in printing for Jean Belot, who went from
Lausanne to Grenoble to settle finally in
Geneva and make his fame there. He was
himself a native of Rouen; the material he used
for the present Missal reflects his itinerary. The
printing types derive from Paris, while the
woodcut was used in i486 by Guillaume le Roy
in Lyon for Le Ltvre des sainctz Anges.
Coptnger ^i^^.
AE.R.1362. IB.38600.
HOLLAND and BELGIUM
GESTAROMANORUM. Gouda : Gheraert Leeu,
23 August 1480. fol: 144 leaves, a-q^ r^ W^]-
The Cesta Romanorum was probably compiled
in England in the fourteenth century, but by the
later part of the fifteenth century the text was
wide-spread, and was printed many times. By
then the subject matter—which later was to
furnish part of the plot of Shakespeare's
Merchant of Venice—was used to enliven
sermons. This was also the purpose of the
volume that usually accompanies the present
book, the Dialogus Creaturarum, printed a few
months earlier at the same press. The British
Library copy of this book, IB.47323, which is
adorned with lively woodcuts, is on permanent
exhibition in the King's Library.
Hatn-Copinger 282.
Campbell ^2^.
AE.R.2097. IB.47324.
CuLTRiFicis, Engelbertus. Epistola brevis ac
perutilis de symonia vitanda in recepcione
noviciorum ad religionem. Nijmegen: [Printer
of Engelbertus Cultrtficis, i.e. Cerardus de
Leempt?], 23 August 1479. 4°: 8 leaves, the
last blank, a®.
Two related tracts by the same author, botb
written in the summer of 1479 in the Dominican
monastery of Nijmegen, were the only books
printed in that town during the fifteenth century.
They were probably the work of the
95
itinerant typographer Gheraert de Leempt,
who was first known as one of the partners in
Holland's first press at Utrecht. The most
substantial of these tracts was a treatise on the
rights of the mendicant order. A copy was given
to the British Museum by Albert Ehrman in
1948 (IA.48050). It is an extraordinary coincidence
that the present book, the other very
rare tract printed in Nijmegen, also found its
way to the Broxbourne Library, and from there
to the British Library.
Cesamtkatalog 7851.
Campbell s^i-
AE.R.638. IA.48049.
AuGLiSTiNL'S, St. (Pseudo). De salute animae.
Alost: [Johannes de Westfalia and Thierry
Martens, c. 1473-4]. 4" (i" divided halfsheets)
: 22 leaves, a^ b*^ c^.
Arguments have been put forward which indicate
that the present book is the first printed in
the Southern Netherlands. These were based
on the paper in a number of copies (see
Quaerendo, iii (1973), pp. 70-2). The present
copy, which was not examined at the time,
conforms to the findings of 1973.
Cesamtkatalog 2962.
Campbell 197.
A.E.— IA.49004.
LiBELLUS de modo confitendi et penitendi.
Antwerp: Cheraert Leeu, 28 January 1485. 4":
28 leaves, a-c® d"*.
This copy of a not uncommon book bears a long
contemporary note in English which shows that
it was owned by a kinsman of Thomas Yard
who lived in the county of Westmorland and
who had severe disagreements with his motherin-law.
For us this is evidence that the book, like
so many products of the press of this Antwerp
printer, was sold to England soon after completion.
Of the present book there are three other
copies in Great Britain.
Hain-Copinger 11494.
Campbell 1129.
AE.R.1500. IA.49735.