MARCHESINUS, Joannes

Mamotrectus Super Bibliam

      Nicolaus Jenson, Venice 1479 - FIRST JENSON EDITION 1479. xvii (inc. blank); a1-7 10; 260 leaves, 2 columns, 38 lines plus headline, gothic letter, capital spaces (5-,4-8 3-line) which guide letters, Ms catchwords at end of quires, and annotations in margin throughout all in the same neat clear contemporary hand. Index bound first (with A1 blank) before the main body of text. Recently rebound in dark brown calf, borders and diamond pattern on the covers in blind, raised bands decorated in blind, blue page edges. A fine, clean crisp complete copy. Various treatises - on orthographia, accentus, hymni, sermones and omeliae, legenda sanctorum, etc make up the last third of the book. A fine example of the typographical skills of the master printer Nicolaus Jenson (c.1420-1480). A Frenchman, Jenson the inspiration of much of the design of typefaces in the subsequent five hundred years, was a printer and publisher of finely designed books in Venice from 1470 to 1480, in Roman, Gothic, and Greek types of the greatest distinction. BMC Inc. V : p. 180. Goff M - 239. Hain, 10559* [Attributes: First Edition]