BARTHOLOMAEUS, Anglicus

De Proprietatibus Rerum

      Gothic type, 50 lines & headline to the page, double columns. Rubricated initials. 326 leaves. Small folio (287 x 197 mm.), cont. blind-tooled South German calf over wooden boards (see below for a fuller description). [Heidelberg: Printer of Lindelbach (Heinrich Knoblochtzer), 21 May 1488].pTenth edition of the first important encyclopedia of the Middle Ages; "still important for its information on political geography and its accounts of natural history."-Stillwell, The Awakening Interest in Science during the First Century of Printing 1450-1550, p. 186. This encyclopedia was immensely popular for more than three centuries. Divided into nineteen books, the contents are as follows: "(1) God; (2) angels and demons; (3) psychology; (4-5) physiology; (6) family life, domestic economy; (7) medicine; (8) cosmology, astrology; (9) time divisions; (10) form and matter, elements; (11) air, meteorology; (12) flying creatures; (13) waters and fishes, dolphins, whales; (14) physical geography; (15) political geography, (in 175 chapters; this contains a number of interesting remarks, notes on economic geography, etc.); (16) gems, minerals, metals; (17) trees and herbs; (18) animals; (19) color, odor, savor; food and drink, eggs; weights and measures; musical instruments."-Sarton, II, p. 586. "Book 16 contains 104 short chapters on as many mineral substances as earths, stone, ores, metals, salts, etc., as well as gemstones, the latter often given names that now defy identification of the materials concerned. Gemstones are alabaster, adamante, amethyst, agate, alabandina, beryl, carbuncle, chrysoprase, chalcedony, chrysolite, rock crystal, coral carnelian, hematite, heliotrope, jet, jasper, hyacinth, pearl, marble, onyx, opal, prase, sapphire, emerald, sard, sardonyx, topaz, turquoise; very brief descriptions with comments on curious or medicinal lore associated with each."-Sinkankas, Gemology, p. 70. Bartholomew (fl. 13th cent.), studied at Oxford, Paris, and Magdeburg. This was probably the first book from the second press of Heinrich Knoblochtzer, who moved from Strasbourg to Heidelberg in the mid-1480s. The edition belongs to a group commonly assigned to the eponymous "Printer(s) of Lindelbach." BMC divides this group into two parts and assigns the early productions to the brothers Johann and Conrad Hist and the later ones to Knoblochtzer. Voullieme (Die deutschen Drucker des XV. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 1922, pp. 73-74) gives reasons for identifying the Lindelbach press with Knoblochtzer and attributes all the editions from the group to him, as does Geldner (Die deutschen Inkunabeldrucker, Stuttgart, 1968, I, p. 268). If Voullieme and Geldner are right that the Lindelbach printer's output forms a single group and should not be divided, then Knoblochtzer would be the first Heiderberg printer, but the Bartholomaeus not his first publication; if BMC is correct, Knoblochtzer would be the third printer at Heidelberg and the Bartholomaeus his first work there. Binding: contemporary blind-tooled South-German calf over wooden boards (some wear, head and tail of spine defective): the covers divided by triple fillets into a double frame and central panel, the frames filled with floral rolls, the central panels tooled to an ogival saltire pattern, each compartment filled with a floral tool, "Bartholomei" stamped at top of front cover, an Augsburg binding (Kyriss shop 83: Bogenfries Rolle II); evidence of two clasps; the back pastedown fol. Cxlii from Hieronymus, Buch der Altvater (Augsburg: Anton Sorg, 5 September 1482). Provenance: Frater Johannes: contemporary inscription on DD8r -- Ziegler: 16th-century inscription on F3v -- Seitenstetten, Benedictines: armorial inkstamps on 1/1r and DD8r -- Andre L. Simon, Bibliotheca Bacchica bookplate. BMC, III, 670. GKW 3411. Goff B-139. Klebs 149.3. Simon, Bibliotheca Bacchica, 19b. Simon, Bibliotheca Gastronomica, 173. Thorndike, II, pp. 401-35.. First Edition. Hard cover.