Ortus sanitatis.

Accession number: 
PML 32
Uniform title: 
Hortus sanitatis. Latin. 1491.
Published: 
Impressum est autem hoc ipsum in inclita ciuitate Moguntina : impensis Jacobus Meydenbach, Millesimo Quadringentesimo Nonagesimo primo. Die vero Jouis vicesima tercia mensis Junij [23 June 1491].
Description: 
[454] leaves : illustrations (woodcuts) ; 30 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Notes: 

Title from xylographic half-title page, leaf A1r.
Imprint from colophon, leaf ²E5v: ... Quem quidem librum omni dilige[n]tia collectum [et] elaboratum. intelligibili caractere proprijs impensis Jacobus meydenbach ciuis Moguntinus lucule[n]tissime impressit. ... Impressum est autem hoc ip[su]m in inclita ciuitate Moguntina. que ab antiquis aurea Moguntia dicta. ac a magis id est sapientibus vt fertur primitus fundata. in quo nobilissima ciuitate [et] ars ac scientia he subtilissima caracterisandi seu imprimendi fuit primu[m] inuenta. Impressum est inquam sub Archipresularu Reuerendissimi [et] Dignissimi principis [et] d[omi]ni. domini Bertoldi archiepiscopi Mogu[n]tin[um] ac principis electoris cuius felicissimo auspicio graditur. recipitur [et] auctorisatur. Anno saluttis Millesimo Quadringentesimo Nonagesimo primo. Die vero Jouis vicesima tercia mensis Junij.
Printed in Meydenbach's types 1:92G and 2:155G.
Signatures: A-B⁸ C-Z a-l⁸/⁶ M⁸; n-t⁸/⁶; v-y⁸/⁶ z [et]⁸; aa-hh⁶/⁸ ii-ll⁶ [mm]⁸ [nn]⁶; A⁸ B-E⁶: 454 leaves, leaf ²E6 blank. Quires [mm] and [nn] signed and , respectively. Variant collation: A-C⁸ D-Z a-m⁸/⁶; n-v⁸/⁶; x-z⁸ [et]⁸; aa-hh⁶/⁸ ii-ll⁶ [mm]⁸ [nn]⁶; A⁸ B-E⁶: 454 leaves, leaf ²E6 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio.
Woodcuts.
Separate half-title pages for De animalibus: Tractatus de Animalibus vitam in terris ducentium (leaf n1r); De avibus: Tractatus de Auibus (leaf v1r); De urinis: Tractatus de Urinis (leaf [mm]1r).
PML copy leaf dimensions: 29.2 x 21 cm.
PML copy missing 1 leaf: ²E6 (blank). Leaves s2-5 from another copy: rubricated in alternating red/blue initials and paragraph marks, woodcuts not colored.

Binding: 
19th-century English half brown goatskin, sides covered in marbled paper, over paper boards (30 x 22 cm), sewn on 5 supports. Plain paper pastedownd and endleaves; red edges.
Variant Title: 

Hortus sanitatis

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Contemporary rubrication, initials in red and blue (leaves A1.8 only), remainder completed in later black ink, red paragraph marks at headline (first few quires only), and red capital strokes. Woodcuts colored by hand. Annotations: Marginal 16th-century German notations throughout, mainly alternative names of plants, some textual additions/comments, minor textual corrections, and notations in index. 15th/early 16th-century notations on bleeding on half-title page, including: "Digestio: {prima in ore, secunda in stomacho, tercia in epate, quarta in venis, quinta in membris ...," "Si tibi deficiunt medici, medici tibi fiant / Hec tua mens leta requies bona dieta," "Ver, estas, dextras, autupnus hyemsque sinistras / Percutiunt venas, tolluntque de corpore penas. Luna vetus veteres, iuvenes nova luna requirit. Ar. li. de vena bene fundunt, urna sagitta / Can. ca. pis. media, cetera quidque mala (Walther, Carm. 1387). In luna plena non scindatur tue vena / Ante diem quintum post vicesimum quoque quintum."

Provenance: 
Ownership inscriptions, abraded and cut away (leaves A1r and A2r); Johann Petrus a Märcken, of Düsseldorf (or Dusseldorp, Netherlands?), 1612, inscription: "Ex libris Jo'is Petrus à Märcken Dusseldorpij Ao 1612" (leaf A1r); Willis and Sotheran, A Catalogue of Superior Second-Hand Books, cat. CXLVIII (July 1859), no. 685 for £2 (in original binding); Frederick Perkins (1780-1860), armorial bookplate with shelf mark "DR/C Fol. 24" (front pastedown), his sale, Sotheby's, 11 July 1889, lot 519; William Morris (1834-1896), Kelmscott House, Hammersmith, booklabel (front pastedown); Richard Bennett (1849-1930), purchased Morris's library in August 1896, armorial bookplate (front pastedown) and price code: wm/-/- +___ (front pastedown); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Classification: 
Department: