Directorium humane vite alias parabole antiquoru[m] sapientu[m].

Accession number:

PML 56

Author:

Giovanni, da Capua, active 13th century.

Published:

[Strasbourg] : [Johann Prüss], [about 1489]

Description:

[82] leaves : illus. (woodcuts) ; 29 cm (fol.)

Credit Line:

Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.

Notes:

Title from half-title page (leaf a1r).
Printed in Prüss's types 4:300G, 7:156G, and 8:80G.
Collation: a-m⁶ n¹⁰: 82 leaves. Leaf a1 not signed; leaf a2 signed a1.
Paper format: Chancery folio
On the four issues of this edition (i.e. the two states of H 4411* (A and B), H 4411a (C) and its later re-issue (D)), see F. Geissler: Die Inkunabeln des Directorium vitae humanae, Beiträge zur Inkunabelkunde, Dritte Folge, 1 (1965) pp. 7-47. According to P. Needham, H 4411a is a separable, later edition while Geissler's second state of H 4411 has 'only scattered in-press forme corrections. They do not distinguish a separate issue' (Sotheby's NY, 17 Dec. 1992, lot 13).
A translation of the Fables of Bidpai; also known as the Fables of Kalila and Dimna (Goff).
PML copy is cited as issue B in ISTC.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 28.2 x 19.6 cm.

Binding:

English gilt-tooled 18th/19th-century green morocco over paper boards (29 x 20 cm). Pink silk pastedowns and first fly leaves, vellum second fly leaf; plain endbands; all edges gilt.

Inscriptions/Markings:

Hand decoration: Rubrication unrealized. Annotations: Inscriptions, abraded and washed, largely illegible (leaves a1-2).

Provenance:

Mark Masterman Sykes (1771-1823), armorial booklabel (front pastedown); his sale, Evans, part III, 11 May 1824, lot 1014, to Thorpe for £19.8.6; Thomas Thorpe, dealer, 18[??], inscription (second fly leaf recto) and his price code, na/-/- (rear fly leaf recto); John Hayford Thorold (1773-1831), monogram booklabel and Syston Park armorial bookplate; his sale, Sotheby's, 12 Dec. 1884, lot 1534; Richard Bennett (1849-1930), armorial bookplate (rear pastedown), his notes, partially erased (first fly leaf verso) and price code, mw/l/-; Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.

Classification:

Incunable Collection

Catalog Link:

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Genres:

Incunabula

Morocco bindings (Binding)

Prices (Provenance)

Department:

Printed Books