Speculu[m] artis bene moriendi de temptat[i]o[n]ibus, penis infernalibus interrogat[i]o[n]ibus agonisantium, et varijs orat[i]o[n]ibus pro illorum salte faciendis.

Accession number: 
PML 128540.6
Uniform title: 
Ars moriendi.
Published: 
[Cologne] : [Heinrich Quentell], [about 1495].
Description: 
[16] leaves : illustration (woodcut) ; 21.5 cm (4to)
Credit Line: 
Purchased on the Gordon N. Ray Fund, 2001.
Notes: 

Sometimes attributed to Matthaeus de Cracovia or to Albertus Magnus (and in Italian editions to Dominicus Capranica, Cardinal of Fermo); cf. A. Madre, Nikolaus von Dinkelsbühl (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philos. u. Theol. des Mittelalters 40 (1965) p.292-295), and D. Mertens, Iacobus Carthusiensis (Göttingen, 1976) p.181.
Title from half-title page, leaf a1r.
Imprint from ISTC.
Printed in Quentell's types 7:80G and 10:155G.
Signatures: a⁶ b⁴ c⁶: 16 leaves.
Paper format: Chancery quarto.
Accipies woodcut on title page.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 20 x 13.5 cm.

Binding: 
15th/early 16th-century Salzburg blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards (21,5 x 15 cm), sewn on 2 supports by the bindery at the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter, Salzburg (EBDB w002790, aka Salzburg St Peter IV, active second-half of the 15th century-1564). 1 clasp. Manuscript title label on top board, with second label, perhaps former shelfmark, missing. Manuscript waste of early liturgical book with heighted neumes as binding reinforcement and quire guards.
Variant Title: 

Speculum artis bene moriendi

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Contemporary rubrication, red initials, paragraph marks, capital strokes, and underlining (same as in part 1). Minor red highlighting of woodcut. Annotations: No marginal notations in text.

Provenance: 
Unidentified shelfmarks: H.2.83 and I.A.23 (front pastedown); abraded inscription (leaf a1r of Speculum anime); Bernard M. Rosenthal, Inc. (cited in Goff Supplement); Walter Goldwater (1907-1985), his sale, Swann Galleries, part II, 5 Dec. 1985, lot 121 for $84,000; Helmut N. Friedlaender (1913-2008), booklabel (front pastedown), his sale, Christie's NY, part I, 23 April 2001, lot 119, to: Pierpont Morgan Library, purchased (via HP Kraus) on the Gordon N. Ray Fund, 2001.
Classification: 
Incunable Collection
Catalog Link: 
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Department: 
Printed Books