Sales catalogues: Quaritch

Date:
1897
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/17/51
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogues: Quaritch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    83/342 (page 61)
    Quatuor Virtutibus, which was produced “ arte impressoria Spire”’ in or soon after 1472. That book had 34 lines to the page and was without signatures; the Barlaam has 36 lines, and is in ten quires signed a-k (k in six leaves, the rest in eights). Consequently the latter is posterior to the former; but not by any considerable lapse of time. The signatures do not seem to have been printed with the text but to have been stamped in after the book had been completed. From a comparison of the type with that of Peter Drach in the Aquila, one would judge that he was not the prototypographer of Speyer, and that some earlier hand than his produced the Barlaam. The paper-mark is a man’s head in profile with a short rod and . star above it. (Peter Drach, about 1472 16 CARACCIOLI. fol. 1a blank; 1b: Incipit Tabula pre- dicacionii de aduétu xpi Magistri Roberti or- | dinis mino¥ Fol. 2a: Ruberti de licio ..|.. pdicaciones a prima dnica de | aduentu..!..cum nonullis aliis suis pdicacionib3 | feliciter inciprunt... ol. 156a:.. Deo gracie infinite. Small folio, 156 leaves, 40 and 41 long lines to the page (44 in the table at the beginning); fine copy in old calf S.n. (Peter Drach at Speyer, about 1474) 2 2 0 This is undoubtedly an early book printed by Peter Drach, but there are many minute differences in the capitals between the type used here and the type used in 1480. The two chief points are first in the capital D, which is shaped like the low round 3 of tlie lower case. A diagonal stroke from right to left downwards falls through the belly of the letter, and carries at its middle a thick point. The other is in the shape of the A. Instead of falling like the Roman A, which it resembles, evenly right and left, the right arm descends nearly vertically, while the left one is flung widely to the side, leaving a space of about 33 mm. between the two extremities. The type, both in this and the Aquila, may be called semi-Gothic. —The paper in the Caraccioli is the bull’s head with short rod and star or flower. There are no signatures. mi AQUTLDA (Petrus de). > > Fol. Va blank’ -10':.?Petrr ‘de Aquila sectatoris nobilissimarum subti- | lissimi Ioannis scoti doctrinarum. libros hos sententiaru3 quatuor quisquis | enixe relegeris .. This preliminary notice occupies 28 lines under which stands” the date 1480. fol. 2a, col. 1: Numerus et ordo questionti | in primum .. J//. 178a, column 2, under ten lines of verse which recommend the study of the book, is the colophon: Hunc studiose tibi gaudet cudisse libellum. | Spirensis ciuis Drach Petrus arte sua. | 1480. Under this the woodcut double escutcheon of the printer. Folio, 178 leaves, double columns, 60 lines to the column ; gilt russia, the Wodhull arms on the sides Speyer, Peter Drach, 1480 216 0 The paper-mark is the Gothic p. The type of the book is in general identical with that of the Caraccioli.