THE "VINEGAR " BIBLE. A MAGNIFICENT COPY PRINTED ENTIRELY ON VELLUM. 36 BIBLE. The Holy Bible Containing the Old Testament and the New,. Frontispieces, Numerous Vignette Engravings and Initial Letters by Printed Entirely on Vellum (646 leaves) ruled with red lines. 2 vols. Thick large folio in contemporary binding of blue velvet, Oxford, John Baskett, 1717. £420 A MAGNIFICENT COPY--one of four known copies printed entirely upon velium. 66 This edition is called "The Vinegar Bible" from an error in the running title at THE FIRST GREEK BIBLE. A 37 BIBLE. Sacrae Scripturae veteris, novaeque omnia. (In Greek.) Folio, light brown morocco, g. e. Venice, Aldus, February, 1518. £21 A fine copy of the first edition of the complete Bible in the Greek language. This copy Edited by Andreas Asolanus, the father-in-law of Aldus Manutius. FIRST GREEK BIBLE. 38 BIBLE. Sacrae Scripturae veteris, novaeque omnia. (In Greek). £14 14s A fine copy of the first edition of the complete Bible in the Greek language, edited by This copy wants the four preliminary leaves, including title, in place of which is bound 39 BIBLE. Biblia Sacra Latina, cum prefationibus S. Hieronymi et Epistola Menardi. Black Letter, double columns, 51 lines to a full page, capital spaces. WITH FINE BORDER ILLUMINATED IN GOLD AND COLOURS ON THE TITLE-PAGE, AND LARGE INITIAL IN BLUE AND GOLD. CAPITALS AND PARAGRAPH-MARKS IN RED AND BLUE ALTERNATELY, INITIAL-STROKES IN RED. THIS COPY CONTAINS THE RARE FIRST BLANK PAGE. Folio, original wooden boards, covered with magnificently stamped Nuremberg binding (rebacked). £48 Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 30th July, 1477. Hain *3065. British Museum Catalogue, Vol. II., pp. 414-415. Pellechet 2294. Copinger (Incunabula Biblica No. 32). Only six Libraries in U.S.A. contain copies of this magficent work, one of the rarest and the finest of the Koberger Bibles. This is the second edition of the Latin Bible printed by Koberger, its arrangements correspond precisely with the first edition, but the Epistle of the monk Mesnard, and the Canons of Eusebius, have been added at the end. The type of this Bible is of a more elegant character than in the edition of 1475. 40 BIBLE. Biblia Sacra Latina. Black Letter, double columns, 51 long lines to a page, capital spaces, head-lines and headings. On the title-page is a fine illuminated capital in red, blue, green, yellow and gold, on a burnished gold background, and floral illuminated border. Initials supplied in red and blue alternately, initial strokes in red. Folio, oak boards, pigskin back, clasps (modern). £42 Hain *3076, British Museum Catalogue, Vol. II., p. 418. Pellechet 2304. Copinger (Incunabula Biblica, No. 48). Only four copies of this fine Bible in U.S.A. THE FIRST BIBLE IN ROMANSCH DIALECT OF SWITZERLAND. 41 BIBLE. La Sacra Biblia. Traduta in lingua Rumanscha d'Engadina Bassa. With woodcut frontispiece. Roman letter, double columns. Folio, brown levant morocco, panel border, fleurons at outer angles, gilt panel back, g. e., title printed in black and red. Scuol (in Lower Engadine), 1678-1679. £12 12s First edition of the complete Bible in the Romansch dialect of the Lower Engadine. 42 BIBLE. The Gospels in Slavonic. With full-page woodcut of St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John. Printed in red and black, in the Slavonic character. Svo, wooden boards covered with stamped leather, 2 clasps. £7 10s The ancient Slavonic version represents one of the earliest attempts in Europe to translate the Bible into the vulgar tongue. It is said to have been made in the second half of the ninth century, for the use of Slavs in Moravia, Pannonia, and Bulgaria, and is ascribed to Cyril (or Constantinus) and Methodius, sons of a Greek nobleman of Thessalonica, round which city were numerous Slav settlers. CARVED LEATHER (CUIR CISELE) BINDING, DATED 1478, WITH THE ARMS AND MOTTO OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF SALZBURG. 43 BINDING. Biblia Sacra Latina. Black Letter, double columns, 51-53 lines to a page, capital spaces. On the first page is a fine initial F (2) by 2 inches), painted in pale purple, on a background of gold and green, with gold scroll work, leafy marginal decorations in blue, green, brown and purple, with gold dots; in the lower margin a fine scroll border of flowers and leaves in the same colours, enclosing in the centre the double shield and motto of the Archbishop of Salzburg, "Unica Spes Mea "; initials at beginning of each book in blue, other initials, headlines, and paragraph-marks in red. FOLIO, CALF OVER WOODEN BOARDS, IN CONTEMPORARY GERMAN CARVED LEATHER BINDING (CUIR CISELE). THE UPPER COVER DECORATED ROUND THE EDGES, WITH A NARROW BORDER FORMED BY THE REPETITION OF A SMALL Z-SHAPED PUNCH, WHICH IS USED AGAIN TO ENCLOSE THE CENTRE PANEL; THE BROAD OUTER BORDERS THUS FORMED ARE DECORATED WITH LEAFY ORNAMENTAL WORK. THE BACKGROUND BEING CUT AWAY, AND THE DESIGN SHOWING IN RELIEF; THE CENTRE PANEL (9 by 4 inches) IS CARVED IN RELIEF AGAINST A CRIBLE BACKGROUND, AND IS EXTREMELY INTERESTING; IT CONTAINS THE ARCHBISHOP'S DOUBLE COAT OF ARMS, WITH HIS MITRE OF OFFICE, AND MOTTO "UNICA SPES MEA," WITH LEAFY SCROLL WORK AND SYMBOLICAL DECORATION. THE LOWER COVER HAS THE SAME BROAD LEAFY BORDERS AS THOSE DESCRIBED ABOVE, THE NARROW OUTER BORDER AND FILLETS ENCLOSING THE INNER PANEL ARE LEFT PLAIN; THE INNER PANEL IS FILLED BY INTERLACING STRAPWORK DECORATED WITH A TINY CIRCULAR PUNCH, ARRANGED IN LINES AND FORMING DIAMOND-SHAPED COMPARTMENTS, EACH CONTAINING A CONVENTIONAL FLOWER-STAMP. THE BACK HAS THE SAME LEAFY DECORATION CUT IN RELIEF AS THE SIDES. ENGRAVED BRASS CORNER-PIECES AND CENTRE BOSSES, Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 30th July, 1477. £575 EXAMPLES OF "CUIR CISELE" WORK, OR CARVED LEATHER WORK, OF WHICH THIS IS A VERY FINE SPECIMEN, ARE EXTREMELY RARE, AND ARE CONSIDERED ONE OF THE MOST PRECIOUS POSSESSIONS OF A BIBLIOPHILE. Most known examples appear to be preserved in the Germanic Museum, at Nuremberg itself, where they were probably for the most part executed. See pages 58-66, "Der Mittelalterliche Leder-Schnittband," in Jean Loubier's Der Bucheinband." 44 BOCCACCIO (G.). La Fiameta. Black Letter, double columns, 48 lines to a full page, capital spaces (SEE ILLUSTRATION, PLATE NO. VII.). Haebler 55. Not in Hain. £250 No copy of this book is known (according to Haebler) in any public library in Europe. The only copy which we have been able to trace except our own, is the Salva-Heredia copy, which is now in the John Pierpont Morgan Library. Haebler calls this a most remarkably scarce book. The translation into Spanish from the Italian of Boccaccio is attributed to Pedro Rocha, of Valencia. 44a BOCCACCIO (Giovanni). De Mulieribus claris (in Italian). Roman letters, 28 lines and headline. With large Venetian woodcut on title-page, Triumph of Famous Women," with Lucretia as its heroine, and illustrated with 104 portraits of famous women, and fine woodcut initials. FIRST EDITION. 4to, boards. Venice, Giovanni Tacuino, March 6th, 1506. Rivoli 254. £25 "For the portraits of individual women not only are the same figures made to do duty more than once-a nude holding an apple serves both for Eve and Venus-but a further economy was effected by cutting out a square in the blocks and inserting the same heads on different bodies or vice-versa." A fine copy of a well-printed and interesting Venetian woodcut book. 45 BOCCACCIO. begriffen. Die Gantz Römisch histori auffs fleissigst und Kürtzst Ein treffliche schöne Oration M. T. Ciceronis für M. Marcellum verteütscht durch Christophorum Brunonem von Hyrtzweil. Black Letter, with remarkable woodcuts by Hans Weiditz, Hans Schaufelein, etc. Folio, Russia gilt, g. e. Augsburg, H. Stainer, 1542. £14 14s The work is interesting for its remarkable series of the finest illustrations by the best illustrators of the early 16th century, who have devoted much care to the illustration and ornament of the work. 46 BONAVENTURA. Devotissimum opus passionis Christi Meditationum omnibus predicatoribus devotisque religiosis necessarium. Roman and Black letter, long lines to a full page. With 18 fine woodcuts, one full-page. 8vo, vellum. Pesaro, per Petrum Capha in domo Hieronymi Soncini, 1510. £25 Pesaro, a port on the Adriatic, was the birthplace of Rossini. Printing was introduced into the town by the famous Gerson or Jerome Soncino in 1507. He came there under the protection of John Sforza of Aragon, lord of Pesaro. It was at Pesaro that Soncino was most active and it was there that he printed his finest books. 47 BORROW (George). (The Gospel of St. Luke: 1837.) Embéo / e Majaro Lucas. / Brotoboro / randado andré la chipe griega. FIRST EDITION. F'cap. 8vo, contemporary brown calf. £10 10s *** THE FIRST EDITION of Borrow's translation of the Gospel of St. Luke into the dialect of the Spanish Gypsies. EXCEEDINGLY RARE, only 250 copies in all having been printed. "At length the Gospel of Saint Luke in the Gypsy language was in a state of readiness. I therefore deposited a certain number of copies in the despacho, and announced them for sale. The Basque was likewise advertised. For this last work there was little demand. Not so, however, for the Gypsy Luke, of which I could have easily disposed of the whole edition in less than a fortnight. Long, however, before this period had expired, the clergy were up in arms. 'Sorcery!' said one bishop. There is more in this than we can dive into,' exclaimed a second. 'He will convert all Spain by means of the Gypsy language,' cried a third. And then came the usual chorus on such occasions of Que infamia! Que picardia! At last, having consulted together, away they hurried to their tool the corregidor, or, according to the modern term, the gefe politico of Madrid. Judging from his actions, and from common report, I should say that he was a stupid wrong-headed creature, savage withal-a melange of borrico, mule, and wolf. Having an inveterate antipathy to all foreigners, he lent a willing ear to the complaint of my accusers, and forthwith gave orders to make a seizure of all the copies of the Gypsy Gospel which could be found in the despacho. The consequence was, that a numerous body of alguazils directed their steps to the Calle del principe; some thirty copies of the book in question were pounced upon. With this spoil these satellites returned in triumph to the gefatura politica, where they divided the copies of the Gypsy volume amongst themselves, selling subsequently the greater number at a large price, the book being in the greatest demand, and thus becoming unintentionally agents of an heretical society. But every one must live by his trade, say these people, and they lose no opportunity of making their words good, by disposing to the best advantage of any booty which falls into their hands." |