Ars moriendi.

Accession number:

PML 3

Uniform title:

Ars moriendi (Block book)

Published:

[Netherlands (or Lower Rhine)], [approximately 1466-1469, impression 1468-1469]

Description:

24 unnumbered leaves : woodcuts ; 23 cm (fol.)

Credit Line:

Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902. NNPM

Notes:

Title from caption, sign. a1/leaf 1v.
Imprint from Xylo-Bav and watermark identification.
Questionably attributed to Lower Rhine production since image plates were later used in two typographic editions printed by Nicholas Götz at Cologne about 1475, see ISTC ia01114000 and ia01114200.
Collation: [1-12²]: 24 leaves. Signed on the text leaf of each bifolium: a-[m] (sometimes repeated on image plates); no signature on final bifolium, [m].
Paper format: Chancery folio, in stacked bifolium imposition.
Order of text in edition IIA (preface, Infidelity/Faith, Despair, Avarice, Impatience/Patience, Vain Glory, death) different than standard order cited in Schrieber (preface, Infidelity/Faith, Despair, Impatience/Patience, Vain Glory, Avarice, death).
Printing states differentiated by the recutting of leaves 17, 19, 21, and 23 (Schreiber identified as leaves 13, 15, 17, and 23 based on standard order) for state B.
Printed in browned ink, on one side of the paper only.
PML copy is 9 leaves (of 24): leaves 16-24 (leaves 1-15 are PML 198786); includes the first states of leaves 17, 19 , 21, and 23. NNPM

Binding:

Not bound. Individual leaves in 4-flap red cloth portfolio. NNPM

Inscriptions/Markings:

Watermark: sign. h2/leaf 16. Unicorn. Variant 1) Unicorn with longer tail and front leg closer to chain line. Stevenson dates as Metz, ca. 1466. NNPM
Watermark: sign. i2/leaf 18. Unicorn. Variant 2) Unicorn with pointy horn and thin body. NNPM
Watermark: sign. k2/leaf 20. Unicorn. Variant 2) Unicorn with pointy horn and thin body. NNPM
Watermark: sign. [l]1/leaf 21. Unicorn. Variant 1) Unicorn with longer tail and front leg closer to chain line. Stevenson dates Metz, ca. 1466. NNPM
Hand decoration: Woodcut images partially hand-colored in shades of brown, reddish-brown, green, and blue washes. Initial Q (sign. k2/leaf 16) colored blue and initial S (sign. [m]2/leaf 24) colored red. Rubricated initials and figural elements outlined or highlighted in red on signs. [m]1-2/leaves 23-24. All leaves heavily trimmed; leaves previously glued together and now separated. Staining, sometimes heavy, on many leaves from moisture and mold, as well as gluing and pigment bleed-through. 18th/19th-century roman numeral foliation; foliated by Belle Greene trying to represent bifolium recto (A) and verso (b): 7A-b, 8A-b, 9A-b, 10A, 12b, and 13A. NNPM

Provenance:

The Schönborn-Morgan (PML 198786) and Bennett-Morgan (PML 3) leaves were originally one copy, and form the only complete extant copy of edition IIA; the Bennett-Morgan leaves were separated at an unknown date, by 1900. Jacques Rosenthal (Munich), Catalogue 24, Incunabula typographica: catalogue d'une collection d'incunables décrits et offerts aux amateurs (1900), no. 143, not priced; Richard Bennett (1849-1930), unknown acquisition but likely from Rosenthal, collection purchased by: Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), 1902, collection inherited by his son: J.P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), collection transferred to: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1924. NNPM

Classification:

Incunable Collection

Catalog Link:

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Department:

Printed Books