CONTINENTAL BOOKS CATALOGUE 1448 - Maggs Bros. Ltd.

2 ALBERTUS MAGNUS, ST Sermones de tempore et de sanctis. [Speyer,
Peter Drach, not after 1475]. [Bound with:] GUILLERMUS pARISIENSIS
Postilla in evangelia et epistolas. [Speyer, Peter Drach, c1476].
Two works in one volume. Folio (293 x 211mm). I 240
leaves (including f 144 blank). Gothic type, 40 lines, table
in double columns. 2 to 6-line initials, headlines, paragraph
marks and capital strokes in red, rubricator’s guideletters
and quiring sometimes visible. II 170 leaves (last
blank). Gothic type, 40 lines. Rubricated uniformly with
the above but without the headlines, manuscript quiring
often visible. Contemporary blindstamped pigskin over
wooden boards, covers panelled by fillets into a double
frame with lozenge shaped compartments inside, each
containing a round tool of an eagle or a clover leaf or a
square tool with a rosette (two different stamps), also
with lettered scrolls ‘Jhesus’ and ‘Maria’; 5 brass bosses
on each cover, clasps and catches, remains of paper labels
on front cover (expert restoration to joints). £25,000
A superb exAmple oF two rAre incunAbles From the
1470s, published by the sAme printer, And bound
together soon AFter. The tall, fresh, rubricated
copies with strong impressions of the types and
some deckle edges are bound in a fine contemporary
binding with the ten brass bosses, as well as the
clasps and catches, still intact. The small stamps
used to decorate the covers are not found in Kyriss
but point to a Rhineland origin, probably monastic.
The two undated works are catalogued in the
BMC as the earliest impressions from the press of
Peter Drach at Speyer. The first not after 1475 as a
copy at München BSB has a buyer’s date of that
year and the second assigned to the following year.
ISTC lists few copies of either printing outside
Germany, for example, the only copies of Drach’s
Sermones de tempore... and Postilla in the UK are
at the British Library, only an imperfect copy of the
first work and one of the second in France, and no
copies of either in Belgium or the Netherlands. The
USA fares somewhat better with six locations for
the first work and three for the second. They are
also extremely rare on the market with no other
copy of either book sold in Anglo-American
auctions since 1934.
This is the second edition of the Albertus
Magnus’ Sermones, first published the previous
year in Cologne. Albertus Magnus (1193/1206-
1280), Dominican preacher, Bishop of Ratisbon,
saint, and Doctor (‘Doctor Universalis’) of the
Catholic Church, was the leading intellectual
figure of his time and wrote encyclopedically on
theology, philosophy and the sciences. He applied
Aristotelian methods and principles to revealed
doctrine and was, therefore, the pioneer of the
scholastic method elaborated by his pupil, St
Thomas Aquinas.
The second work, the Postilla, first published
by Zainer in Augsburg 1472, was one of the most
popular works of the 15th century and justly
described by Goff as one of the earliest ‘best sellers’.
The supposed author, Guillermus, was a
Dominican monk and professor of theology at
Paris who compiled this work in 1437 ‘expressly
for the clergy and for those desirous of
understanding the excerpts from the Epistles and
the Evangelists, more commonly called lessons,
which are read at appropriate services throughout
the church year. It obviously filled a most pressing
need.’ (Goff, ‘The Postilla of Guillermus
Parisiensis’, in Gutenberg Jahrbuch 1959, pp73-
77). Much of the collection has also been attributed
to Johann Herolt (see Die Deutsche Literatur des
Mittelalters Verfasserlexikon (Bd 3, 1124, 8).
Provenance: Some contemporary annotations.
Early inscription ‘Pertinet ad Fabricam/BMVF’ on
front pastedown. Book label of George Dunn
(1865-1912), Woolley Hall (his sale Sotheby’s 2nd
February 1914, lot 702).
I HC*469. GW 772. BMC II, 488. BSB-Ink
A213. Goff A328. II HC*8226. GW 11924. BMC
II, 488. BSB-Ink H134. Goff G648.
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