MEDER, Johannes, O.F.M..

Quadragesimale novum editum ac predicatum ... de filio prodigo.

      18 full-page woodcuts (2 repeated), measuring c. 105 x 73 mm, and printer's woodcut device on last page. Gothic type. 34 lines. 2 cols. (231) leaves (lacking final blank). 8vo (160 x 115 mm). Original blind-panelled half calf over oak boards with metal clasp (rebacked, orig. spine laid down). Old ms. entry on title "Pro Conventum Fratum Premon. Reform. Bulzanensium". Basel, Michael Furter, 1497. A beautifully illustrated collection of fifty sermons on the story of the Prodigal Son and the Passion of Christ, in its second edition, which is a page-for-page reprint of the 1495 edition, with the same expressive woodcuts except for the cut on f6v, which is a reversed copy of the original. The woodcuts are present here in fresh and excellent impressions. This is one of the most important illustrated books to appear in Basel after the young Dürer's fertile activity as a book illustrator there. The woodcuts have been attributed to the "Haintz Narr Master", Dürer's main collaborator in the illustration of Brant's "Ship of Fools" (see Winckler, p. 92). It contains a dedication on title verso by Sebastian Brant, a close friend of the author. The work was also newly published with other illustrations in 1510. Meder was a Franciscan preacher in Basel at the end of the 15th century. - Goff M-422; BSB-Ink. M-301; BMC III, 785; HC 13629; Pol 2651 (incomplete); IGI 6320; BAVI (Vatican) M-210; Kaufmann/Nabholz II, 670; Pr 7736; Schramm XXII, pp. 43 and ill. 472,474,476,478,480,485,487, 489,491,493,495,497,499,501,503,1081; Schreiber 4605; Hieronymus, Buchillustration 60 (Leihgaben aus Privatbesitz); Winkler, Dürer und die Illustrationen zum Narrenschiff (1951), pp. 91-92; cf. Schäfer Coll. 231. INCUNABLES ; GRAPHIC ARTS:ILLUSTRATED BOOKS ;