* INCUNABLE. - VORAGINE (Jacques de). Legenda aurea [Incipit - Lot 81

Lot n° 81
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3000 - 5000 EUR
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Result : 5 181EUR
* INCUNABLE. - VORAGINE (Jacques de). Legenda aurea [Incipit - Lot 81
* INCUNABLE. - VORAGINE (Jacques de). Legenda aurea [Incipit prologus sup Legendas / sanctorum...]. S.l.n.d. [on the colophon] : Paris, Ulrich Gering, Michael Friburger and Martin Crantz, September 1, 1475. In-folio, 281 ff.n.ch. (out of 294), burgundy half-maroquin, old red edges (Modern binding). First dated Parisian edition of the famous Légende dorée, printed by the proto-typographers of France. Printed on two columns in gothic type, 45 lines per page. (GW, 13978. - C, 6409. - Goff, J-83.) Friburger, Gering and Crantz are the first to have introduced the technique of printing in France (we do not take into account the city of Strasbourg which was at the time part of the Germanic empire). Coming from Germany on the initiative of Guillaume Fichet and Johannes Heynlin, members of the Sorbonne college, the three workers had arrived in the capital around 1469-1470 and had first established themselves in the premises of the university before moving to rue Saint-Jacques, to the Soleil d'Or (1473-1483). There are two editions of the Légende dorée printed on the presses of this workshop; this one, dated September 1, 1475, and another, undated, considered to be earlier (around 1474-1475 according to Neveu, Catalogue des incunables des bibliothèques de France, XVII, n°351, although Claudin, t. I, p. 79, has always located it around 1476). Composed in the 13th century, the Golden Legend is the main work of Jacques de Voragine (circa 1230-1298), a Dominican preacher born in Liguria and a contemporary of the great Saint Thomas Aquinas. This "legendarium", which recounts the lives of numerous saints and martyrs since the arrival of the Lombards in Italy in the sixth century, is almost in itself a history of the Christian West. The success of this work was considerable and its distribution was widespread, as attested by the numerous manuscripts that have come down to us and the incredible number of incunabula editions. The earliest known edition of this text is said to be that of Strasbourg, Eggestein, published before 1471. A precious incunabulum of the utmost rarity: only 13 copies are listed by the GW in public collections, five of which are in France (the one in the BnF is incomplete) and one in the United States. A rubricated copy, with an attractive initial U at the incipit painted in red and blue with watermarked pen decoration. It is incomplete of the first leaf, blank, and the 12 table leaves. Some old and later handwritten annotations. Stamp scratched at the foot of a leaf. First leaf rewrapped, lower margin of the last 2 leaves redone. Repair to a dozen leaves, without missing. 6 leaves of text from the very end of the volume badly bound at the beginning. Last leaf bearing the colophon washed.
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