GUILELMUS PARISIENSIS

Postille maiores sup[er] Euangelia [et] Epistolas: que[m]admodu[m] intemplis per annu[m] legunt[ur]: no[n] minus vtiles q[ua]m familiares.Monotessaron passionis Christi, ex quatuor euangelistis confectu[m], etexpositu[m] diligenter, per autores receptos

      (Adam Petri de Langendorff) Basel 1519 Contemporary light brown calf on bevelled wooden boards, rebacked with clasps from the Dülmen Charterhouse with the binder's initials "H C" (see below) 4to . Superb copy of this revised edition of this popular collection of liturgical texts attributed to Guilelmus Arvernus, bishop of Paris, with his sources including commentaries by Saints Augustine, Jerome, and Thomas Aquinas, the Venerable Bede, and Nicolas de Lyra; also included are additions by Daniel Agricola. The work went through numerous editions with the present edition revised by Petri who has added a new prefatory letter dated 10 February 1519. Richard Muther in his "German Book Illustration of the Gothic Period and Early Renaissance (1460-1530)" notes: "The first important artist who supplied the Basel printers with illustrations was Urs Graf, who was born in Solothurn, sometime between 1485 and 1490. ... The first Basel book printer who engaged him was Adam Petri, who had him illustrate Guilielmus's 'Postilla super epistolas et evangelia'. The title page woodcut is 120 x 92 mm, and his monogram is on the bottom center of the illustration. The 94 small (43 x 33) text illustrations all bear his monogram" (p. 179). The very handsome binding was done in the Duelmen (or Dülmen) Charter house (Carthusians Order) near Wedderen, in Westphalia and is similar to one described by E. Ph. Goldschmidt in his "Gothic & Renaissance Bookbindings" (see no. 165 and plate CV). The covers are covered in a frame divided double fillets with tools of two sitting birds with big beaks, rampant lion, eagles, and a fleur-de-lys. On the bottom of the back cover are two heart-shaped stamps containing the letters H and G. The back cover has three armorial shields. The binding was expertly rebacked, perhaps in the 18th century, over three raised bands. The clasps probably also date from this date but the catches are original. Goldschmidt notes that Weal (R. 630, 631) dates similar bindings on MSS and ascribes them to Cologne. "He interprets the initials H. G. as those of the 'original owner'; this obviously cannot be right, since these initials are found on many Dülmen bindings and only on bindings from that Charter house. Sometimes also Dülmen bindings, quite similar in appearance to these, bear the initials, I. O. or E. C. or B. In my opinion they must be regarded as the signature of the particular brother who bound these volumes, because they can in no way refer to the monastery as such. ... The Duelmen books remained in their original home for a long time, and were only dispersed by auction at the beginning of this century" (Text vol. pp. 249-50). Goldschmidt's bound text was printed in Cologne in 1536, some 17 years later that the present work, which, if Goldschmidt is correct, make this a very early production of the binder "H. G." From the collection of George Dunn of Woolley Hall, Maidenhead (d. 1912), who was a member of Type Facsimile Society, founded by Robert Proctor, and of the Bibliographical Society. His library, important for its collection rare imprints, were sold at Sotheby's after his death with many going to Harvard. The book plate was designed and printed by his friend William Morris at the Kelmscott Press. On the front vellum end- paper (originally pasted down?) there are notes by Dunn regarding the Urs Graf woodcuts and the Duelman binding with the note that he bought it in March 1899 2 volumes in 1. [4], 352, [12], 39, [1] leaves. Title in red and black. Two woodcut title-pages (extra woodcut title for the "Passio"), an almost full-page woodcut enclosing pockets of text in red ink (woodcut repeated in 2nd part with black text and dated 1518), and 94 text woodcuts by Urs Graf with his monogram. Wide margin copy with deckle visible on bottom margins of some leaves. Very small brown spot in outer blank margins of first few leaves. Fine fresh copy. With bookplates of George Dunn and L.G.A. Larue on front paste-down. . § VD 16 E 4395; Hieronymus Petri 24a