VORAGINE, Jacobus de.

Printed by the first printers in France Legenda aurea.

      Paris, Martin Crantz, Ulrich Gering and Michael Friburger, (ca. 1476). - Folio. 18th century light brown calf, gilt fillets along the edges, spine gilt in compartments with two red labels with gilt lettering: 'Legenda sanctorum' and 'Parisiis absque anno', gilt inner dentelles, marbled edges. Rubricated throughout with the capitals painted alternately in red and blue, the first initial in gold against a blue and red background, heightened with white interlace, with penwork extending into the right margin. Printed in two columns, 45 lines to a page. Type: 114SG. Collation: (a)-(m)10 (n)12 (o)-(z) (A)-(F)10. (292) lvs, complete with the first and last blank. One of the early incunable editions of the famous Legenda aurea, written and composed between 1260 and 1267 by Jacopo de Varazze - better known as Jacob de Voragine - in the Dominican monastery at Genua. Certainly it is the most popular and highly influential compilation of Saints' lives from the Middle Ages: at least 91 Latin, and 7 Italian, 5 English, 20 French, 2 German and 33 Dutch editions have been printed before the year 1500. The Legenda aurea contain ca. 160 lives of saints and 20 treatises on the principal feasts of the church. As there are a number of undated early editions, it is difficult to say which edition is the first, but probably the Zainer edition printed in Augsburg in 1468-70 can be considered as such.is the splendid and rare second Paris edition of the Legenda printed by the well-known combination of the three printers Martin Crantz from Strasbourg, Ulrich Gering from Constance and Michael Friburger from Colmar - all three being members of the intellectual set at the Sorbonne at Paris - who had started producing books with the financial backing of Guillaume Fichet and Jean Heynlin in the later part of 1470, establishing the very first press on French soil. After three years they moved their printing house, named 'Le soleil d'or', or 'In sole aureo', to the Rue Saint Jacques. On the first of September in 1475 their first edition of the Legenda aurea was published. The present undated edition appears to be the later one and is generally considered to be printed in the course of 1476.Contents:f. 1: blank. 2r: Prologus: Incipit prologus super legendas sanctorum; quas compilavit frater Iacobus Ianuensis natione, de ordine fratrum predicatorum; [U]NIVERSUM tempus. 2v-3v: Contents. 3v-281 r: (col. 2) Incipiunt legende sanctorum. Et primo de tempore renovationis agitur quod est adventus domini. 281v-282v: blank. 283r-291r: Tabula super legendas sanctorum incipit. 291r: Colophon: Tabula continens fere omnia notabilia legende auree desinit feliciter. Pulchre transcripta parisius per Martinum chrancz, Undalricum gering, et Michaelem friburger impressorie artis magistros. 292: blank Very beautiful copy of this extremely rare early 'Legenda aurea' edition printed by the first printers active in France; with wide margins and complete with the mostly lacking first and last blanks.- (Some occ. insignificant soiling). Cop. 6394; Oates 2876; Polain 6455 (only 4 copies, the copy in the Bibl. Nat. at Paris is incomplete); Claudin I, p. 79 (with plates of the first and last pages on p. 80-81); Hist. de l'édition franç. I, p. 166; not in NUC or Goff; cf. BMC VIII, p. 7 (1475 ed.: 294 lvs., 2 cols., and 45 lines). [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]