[Brussels] - Geilhoven, Arnoldus de - Gnotosolitos, sive Speculum conscientiae. Brussels,
Estimation :
€25000/35000
Adjudication :
26000 €
Description
[Fratres Vitae Communis], 25 May 1476, large folio, mod. leather over wood (signed “P.F.”), edges bevelled inside, spine on 5 raised bands, metal clasps and catches, old red edges, new endpapers, [472] ff. (erroneous mod. pencil foliation, blank M1 on different paper, last quire of 4 instead of 6 ff., last lines on f. 332 partly erased, some marginal repairs, occ. dampstaining in top margin). Very nice compl. well-preserved fully rubricated copy. Cfr. ill. The 2nd Brussels incunable: a monumental work on Christian ethics and canon law by the Groenendaal canon Arnold Geilhoven of Rotterdam (1375-1442). It is the largest book printed by the 1st Brussels Press, founded by the Brethren of the Common Life. It is elegantly printed in gothic type in 2 cols of 50/51 lines. This is one of the rare copies having the colophon leaf present twice (at the beginning and at the end). Loosely inserted is a piece of vellum with the text of the colophon (15th c.). Illustrated with a number of penwork initials in blue and red, two of 16 ll. (f. 2r, 345v). The initial ‘S’ on f. 14r has a banderole with the text “Deum time”. On old flyleaf (bound with at front) the (18th c.?) ownership entry Cartusiae Capellae, i.e. the Brussels charterhouse of scheut. Ref. e. cockx-indestege “the gnotosolitos of arnold geilhoven published by the Brothers of the common Life in Brussels in 1476. Observations on the surviving copies as evidence for their distribution” in Incunabula. Studies... presented to Lotte Hellinga (1999) 27-77. ISTC ia01063000. GW 2512. ILC 280. Goff A-1063. Polain 1558A. IDL 417. BNParis A-567. BSB München A-749. Not in BMC.
