Scala perfecc[i]onis.

Accession number: 
PML 728
Author: 
Hilton, Walter, -1396.
Published: 
[Westminster] : [Wynkyn de Worde], M.cccc.lxxxxiiii [1494].
Description: 
[149] leaves : illustration (woodcut) ; 29.5 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Notes: 

Title from half-title page, leaf a1r.
Imprint from ISTC. Date from colophon, leaf s4+1r: Finit felicit[ur] liber intitulatus Scala perfeccionis inpressus an[n]o salutis .M.cccc.lxxxxiiii. [Printer's mark]
Printed in De Worde's type 2:114G.
Signatures: a⁴; b-q⁸ r⁶ s⁴(4+1: Lenuoye); A⁸ B⁶: 149 leaves, leaf s6 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio.
Book III ("Vita mixta") is only found in some copies, and may represent a later issue (STC): Cambridge UL, Westminster School, PML and RosML.
Printing commissioned by Lady Margaret Beaufort, 1494.
Woodcut depicting Mary breastfeeding the infant Jesus (leaf a1r).
PML copy leaf dimensions: 28.9 x 20.7 cm.

Binding: 
Contemporary plain sheep (England or Belgium?) over chamfered wooden boards (29.5 x 21 cm), sewn on 6 supports. Plain vellum pastedowns and plain paper endleaves, including two paper bifolia with manuscript multiplication tables bound at front. 1 catch plate, clasp missing.
Variant Title: 

Scala perfectionis

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Rubrication not required, printed lombards and paragraph marks. Annotations: Occasional contemporary marginal notations. Note from E. Gordon Duff to Bennett (9 Nov. 1897) stating there should be a blank leaf s6 in collation (tipped to front endleaf 1 recot).

Provenance: 
Sister Dorothy Clement (b. ca. 1532?; sister of Margaret Clement, prioress at St. Ursula, Leuven), of the convent of Poor Clares at Leuven, inscription: "Thys boke belogneth vnto syster dorothe clement" (leaf a1r); Comte de Preston, inscription: "le Comte de Preston" and shelfmark: d (front pastedown), perhaps the former canon at Liége (d. 1910); Van Leeuwen (Leiden), Catalogue d'une précieuse bibliothèque ... provenant d'une ancienne abbaye, 13 Dec. 1887, lot 101 for 3000 flourins[, to?:] Bernard Quaritch, General Catalogue, part IV (1887), no. 21860; unidentifiend French sale catalogue description, lot 763, citing Preston and 1887 sale provenance (front endleaf 1 recto); Richard Bennett (1849-1930), armorial bookplate (front pastedown) and purchase notes: No. 275, 4/11/97 and price code: rol/-/- ___ (front endleaf 1 recto); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Classification: 
Incunable Collection
Catalog Link: 
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Genres: 
Calf bindings (Binding)
Woodcuts
Department: 
Printed Books