The saynges or dictis of the philosophers.

Accession number:

PML 700

Uniform title:

Dits des philosophes. English.

Published:

[Westminster] : William Caxton, [about 1489]

Description:

[70] leaves ; 27 cm (fol.)

Credit Line:

Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.

Notes:

Translated from the French of Guillaume de Tignonville, by Anthony Wydeville (or Woodville), Earl Rivers
Collation: [1]²; A-G⁸ H-I⁶: 70 leaves, leaf I6 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio
Printed in Caxton's type 6:120B.
Title from translator's prologue (leaf [1]/1v-2r): ...he had there [leaf [1]/2r] a book that he trusted I shuld lyke it right wele. [and] brought it to me which bock I had never seen before. and is called the saynges or dictis of the philosophers. And as I understande it was translated out of Latyn in to Frenshe by a worshipful man callid messire Jehan de teonuylle [i.e., Guillaume de Tignonville] provost of parys. ... And at the last concluded in my selff to translate it in to thenglysshe tonge whiche in my Jugement was not before.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 26.2 x 18.7 cm
PML copy missing 4 leaves: I3-I5, replaced in facsimile, and I6 (blank). Many leaves with corners or edges cut away, replaced in modern paper.

Binding:

19th-century brown morocco blind-stamped in a pastiche of an earlier style over paper boards (27 x 20 cm), sewn on 5 supports by Clarke and Bedford. Plain paper pastedowns and fly leaves; decorative endbands; gilt edges.

Variant Title:

Dictes and sayings of the philosophers

Inscriptions/Markings:

Hand decoration: Rubrication not required, printed initials and paragraph marks. Annotations: Marginal notations, washed.

Provenance:

John Fuller Russell (1814-1884), armorial booklabel and bibliographic inscription, with a note identifying an unknown copy (not in De Ricci) for sale by Ellis with 5 facsimile leaves (front pastedown); his sale, Sotheby, Part I, 26 June 1885, lot 360, to Quaritch; Bernard Quaritch, Gen. Cat. VI (1887), no. 37905; Richard Bennett (1849-1930), armorial bookplate (front fly leaf verso) and bibliographical notes: No. 133, 22/4/96 and price code omm/-/- less 10% +com (front fly leaf recto); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.

Classification:

Incunable Collection

Catalog Link:

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Genres:

Incunabula

Retrospective bindings (Binding)

Morocco bindings (Binding)

Inscriptions (Provenance)

Department:

Printed Books