[CARTHUSIANS.] [GUIGO DE CASTRO, compiler].

Statuta ordinis Cartusiensis.

      First printed edition of the Statutes of the Carthusian Order, a magnificent copy. Printed at the expense of the editor, Gregor Reisch (c. 1467-1525), author of the "Margarita philosophica", for distribution to the members of the Order only.The original compiler, Guigo de Castro (Gigues du Chastell), became a monk of the Grande Chartreuse in 1107, and three years later was elected prior. "To Guigo the Carthusian Order in great measure owes its fame, if not its very existence. When he became prior, only two charterhouses existed, the Grande Chartreuse and the Calabrian house where St. Bruno had died; nine more were founded during his twenty-seven years' priorship. These new foundations made it necessary to reduce to writing the traditional customs of the mother-house. Guigo's Statutes, composed in 1127 or 1128, have always remained the basis of all Carthusian legislation" (Webster).There are four large cuts representing the history of the Carthusian Order and 17 portraits of popes, all by Urs Graf (see His, Urs Graf, nos. 203-223). Koegler (Kunstchronik, N.S. XVIII, p. 290) attributes the representation of "Guillhelmus Rainaldi" to the Master DS. Basel, Johann Amerbach, 1510.