The myrroure of the blessyd lyf of Jhesu Cryste.

Accession number: 
PML 701
Uniform title: 
Meditationes vitae Christi. English.
Published: 
[Westminster] : William Caxton, [about 1489-1490]
Description: 
[148] leaves : illus. (woodcuts) ; 27 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Notes: 

Collation: a-s⁸ t⁴: 148 leaves, leaf a1 blank.
Colophon (leaf t3r): Emprynted by wyllyam caxton.
Date based on paper stocks (see BMC).
Paper format: Chancery folio
PML copy leaf dimensions: 25.9 x 18.3 cm
PML copy leaves b2-4 with bottom edge repaired. Paper repaired (inscription abraded causing hole in paper) on leaf a8r with text on a8v replaced in manuscript; another repair affecting text on leaf i3r/v.
Printed in Caxton's type 5:113B.
Sometimes attributed to Pseudo-Bonaventura (cf. GW and ISTC) or Johannes de Caulibus (cf. BBFN Inc p.119f).
Title from incipit (leaf a2r): Incipit Speculum vite Cristi. At the begynnynge of the prohemy of the booke that is cleped the myrroure of the blessyd lyf of Jhesu Cryste...
Translated by Nicholas Love.
Woodcuts.

Binding: 
19th-century (ca. 1860?) English gilt-stamped red, hard-grained morocco over paper boards (27 x 19.5 cm), sewn on 5 supports. Marbled paper pastedowns and fly leaves with plain paper fly leaves; decorative endbands; gilt edges.
Variant Title: 

Speculum vite Cristi

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Rubrication not required, printed initials and paragraph marks. Annotations: No notations in text. Pencil inscription that a copy sold at Sir Francis Freeling's sale (Evans, 25 Nov. 1836) for £25/10/0 (third front fly leaf verso).

Provenance: 
Bertram Ashburnham (1797-1878), Earl of Ashburnham, shelf mark: 29.C. (first fly leaf verso), his sale, Sotheby's, part III, 9 May 1898, lot 3454, to Pickering for: Richard Bennett (1849-1930), armorial bookplate (front pastedown) and bibliographical notes: No. 20a, 11/5/98 and price code: lwm/-/- +com (first fly leaf verso); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Classification: 
Incunable Collection
Catalog Link: 
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Genres: 
Incunabula
Gold tooled bindings (Binding)
Morocco bindings (Binding)
Gold tooled bindings (Binding)
Morocco bindings (Binding)
Century: 
18th century
Department: 
Printed Books