Vitas patrum

Accession number: 
PML 730
Author: 
Jerome, Saint, -419 or 420.
Published: 
Westmynstre : by my Wynkyn de Worde, M.CCCC.lxxxxv [1495, before 21 August].
Description: 
[356] leaves ; 26 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Notes: 

Title from xylographic half-title page, leaf Aa1r.
Imprint from colophon, leaf xx5v: Thus endyth the moost vertuouse hystorye of the deuoute [and] right renommed lyues of holy faders lyuynge in deserte / worthy of remebraunce to all well dysposed persones / whiche hath be translated out of Frensshe in to Englysshe by Wyllyam Caxton of Westmynstre late deed / and fynysshed it at the laste daye of his lyff. Enprynted in the sayd towne of Westmynstre by my Wynkyn de Worde the yere of our lorde .M.CCCC.lxxxxv. and the tenth yere of our souerayne lorde kyng Henry the seuenth.
Printed in De Worde's types 2:114G and 5:95G.
Signatures: Aa⁸; a-o⁸ p⁶ q-x⁸ y¹⁰ z aa-tt⁸ vv-xx⁶: 356 leaves.
Paper format: Chancery folio.
Translated by William Caxton.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 25.1 x 17.3 cm.
PML copy missing 11 leaves: Aa6, a1, vv2-xx2, xx5-6, replaced in pen facsimile; leaves l2-7, r8, ll7, nn7, vv1 replaced from a shorter copy; leaf Aa1 remargined, including part of title in pen facsimile.

Binding: 
19th-century English full brown goatskin, gilt-tooled in a retrospective style, over paper boards (26 x 18 cm), sewn on 5 supports by Riviere. Plain vellum pastedowns, with plain vellum and paper endleaves; decorative endbands; gilt edges.
Variant Title: 

Lyff of the faders

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Rubrication not required. Annotations: No marginal notations in text. Bibliographic notes (by Morris?) estimating number of words/line and words in text (front endleaf 2 recto and rear endleaf 1 recto).

Provenance: 
Frederick Perkins (1780-1860), armorial bookplate with shelfmark: L/G Fol. 73 (front pastedown), his sale, 10 July 1889, lot 1971 for £24.10 to Leighton; unidentified (Perkins or Morris?) price code: al/-/- 9/2 (front pastedown); William Morris (1834-1896), Kelmscott House, Hammersmith, booklabel (front pastedown); Richard Bennett (1849-1930), purchased Morris's library in August 1896, armorial bookplate (front endleaf 1 recto) and price code: rl/-/- +___ (front pastedown); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Classification: 
Department: