Psalterium. [Saint Jerome. Apocrypha. Psalms].

[Psalterio abreviato di sancto Hieronymo].

      [Florence] [Societas Colubris (i.e., Compagnia del Drago) for] Piero Pacini ca. 1498 Octavo (138 x 101 mm); a8, b4, c-h8 = 60 leaves. Type: 114G. 19 lines. Pacini's woodcut device on final page of a crow flanked by the initials S and P, and subscribed by the name "Piscia." Two woodcuts colored with lakes, ink washes, earth pigments, and genuine vermilion: the first, at a1r, is of St Jerome kneeling at the Crucifixion; the second, at c1r, is of Jerome in his study. Six-line historiated woodcut initial at c2r, and numerous three-line decorative initials. Text in Italian and Latin. Bound in 18th c. speckled sheep, undecorated and unlettered. Sprinkled pastedowns. Two white free endpapers, front and rear. Upper pastedown with old bookseller's printed ticket. Binding with some wear to extremities but sound and flexible. A number of small wormholes in the spine, none of which tunnel into the leaves. Pastedown of lower board with two worm galleries which tunnel narrowly into the margins of the last five leaves, far from text. Head margin of the first third of the book stained, diminishing until disappearing at d3. Paper deterioration in a1 affecting the woodcut, repaired long ago with a strip of paper and a bit of "archival" tape, now yellowed. The mend does not affect legibility, and the tear is quite invisible from recto. A paper flaw in tail margin of g4, not affecting text. Conjugate a1-8 guarded. Scattered minor stains. Clear dampstain to gathering e. Verso of h8 somewhat soiled. Unidentified crest stamped on lower margin of [a1]. References: (with two-line text on A1) GW M08113; IGI 8168; Reichling 1337; Rhodes, "The Three Florentine Editions of the Psalterio di sancto Hieronymo abreviato," Gutenberg Jahrbuch, (60) 1985, 153-4; Rhodes, Annali tipografici, 533; Kristeller, Early Florentine Woodcuts, 339. The Florentine editions of St. Jerome's late, apocryphal psalms have resisted classification. Dennis E. Rhodes, the British Library incunabulist, admitted as much in "The Three Florentine Editions of the Psalterio di Sancto Hieronymo Abreviato." Rhodes wrote that the Florentine editions "have caused trouble to a number of bibliographers and have consequently given rise to not a few errors." Rhodes corrects some of the errors, but adds "unfortunately I cannot yet provide the answers to all the questions raised by … these editions." The psalms attributed to St. Jerome circulated in manuscript in at least two versions in the centuries preceding printing. The present text was first published in 1476 with a Venice imprint which has since been shown to be a Milan printing (BMC VI, 733). According to Rhodes, only two copies of the first edition survive. That was followed toward the end of the century by an illustrated Florentine printing which, as Rhodes indicates, survives in at least three distinct editions. Identifying and classifying them is complicated by the habit of Florentine printers of the 1490s to issue books without imprints or dates. Typically, blocks and types were used over and over, well into the sixteenth century, further complicating reliable identification. Rhodes distinguishes three Florentine editions of the Psalterio: 1) IGI 8168 (GW M08113) published by Piero Pacini and printed by the Compagnia del Drago, datable to 1498; 2) Proctor 6299 (GW M08112) which Rhodes dates 1510; and an edition dated "1423" (a spectacular misprint for "1523") published by Pacini's son Bernardo. Of the three, the last is by far the most numerous. The present copy is identical to IGI 8168, except it has no text on A1 (where the title is printed above the woodcut in the model). Like IGI 8168, the present copy bears the letters "A.M.A." above Pacini's device on the colophon, which initials are found on two other books definitely attributed to the Societas Colubris, and which Rhodes takes to be the initials of the compositor or press reader. The present copy is clearly distinct from the other two editions described by Rhodes. We conclude that it is a unique variant of IGI 8168, or that A1 is a cancel, lacking the two-line printed title. Surviving examples of Florentine illustrated books are relatively rare, because the presses in Florence were by and large devoted to popular tracts, pamphlets and chapbooks in pocket format (10 years before Aldus), meant to be read, discarded, and reprinted. The Italian-language introduction to the Latin text recommends it as a constant companion, to be carried along in travels, and consumed whenever possible. No great names have been attached to the popular woodcuts made in the Florence of Botticelli and Ghirlandaio, but it would not have been unusual for local artists to have collaborated with a workshop specializing in cutting woodblocks, and recent scholarship has suggested the convent of San Jacopo di Ripoli, site of an active press until 1484, functioned also as a woodblock factory. While both woodcuts are hand-colored, the image on A1 appears to have roughly contemporary coloring (judging by the deterioration caused to the paper by the green pigment) while the woodcut on C2 may have been colored later. GW locates four copies only of this edition: two in Italy, one in Denmark, and one in the United States.