Voragine, Jacobus [Jacopo] De, Saint. [Medieval Manuscript On Paper].

[Legenda Aurea]...Legendas Sanctorum...Iacobus. [With at End] De Sacramento Corp(Or)is Et Sangui(N)Us D. N. Jesu Xt Sue Aitaris

      De Gaselle, scribe, September 1st, 1468. Small folio. 280 x 208mm. Bound (mostly) in 12s with catchmarks on verso of last leaf of each gathering: a-g12, h10, q12; r10; s12, t11 [lacks t9, blank? see below]; u-z12; 2z; 12; [sign 9]12; 2a12; 3'z'=B12; C-H12, I10 [I9 & 10 blank and present]. biofolium a1 & conjugate leaf a12 on vellum, single leaf I4 on vellum all else on paper. Text Complete. [3ff blank]; 399ff=804pp. Handsome period style modern blind-tooled paneled calf, spine banded with blind-tooled design; contemporary brass clasps, occ. spotting and foxing, light dampstain to upper margin of opening leaves and fore-and bottom edge at end, first leaf slightly soiled, infrequent contemporary marginalia and corrections, pinwormhole in first four leaves (some text affected) and in fore-margin at end; a very pleasing copy. Dated colophon on verso of I2. Watermarked paper with "raisin or grape cluster device" close to Briquet 12996 (1446) Piedmontese watermark group. The leaf missing and present only in a stub was not part of the text of Voragine. It stood at the spot identifying the end of the Life Of St Dominic, especially important to our author who was a Dominican and at the point of the text that a Bull of Nicholas IV declared there to be a natural break. This tradition of a break here in the text, accompanied with a different order of the listing of the saints than those followed in the rest of Europe, was only followed in France and, because it is based on a French edition, Caxton's translation of Voragine. First leaf has illuminated 9 line initial in blue on gold burnished ground, with center left blank for historiation, borders floriated on f1r, 2 and 3 line rubricated initials throughout, with chapter headings in red. In a strong slightly sloping cursive bookhand. Two columns of text with 37 lines. Contemp. collation marks in lower right corner; catchmarks on the verso of the last leaf of each gathering. 5 line colophon in French batard "Anno d(atu)m millo mjiii lxviii fuit septub pris lib(e)r...