Holkot, Robert, O.P.

Opus...sup[er] sapie[n]tia[m] salomonis.

Speyer, Peter Drach d.M. 1483.

Folio (280 x 205 mm.). [xxxvi], [2 blank], [660], [2 blank]p. Gothic types, double-column, running headlines printed on rectos only, rubricated throughout with initials, paragraph markers and underlining in red — sometimes heightened with silver, majuscules stroked in red, a Drach woodcut device outlined in red on the final verso.

CONTEMPORARY NÜRNBERG BLIND-DECORATED DARK CALF OVER WOODEN BOARDS (EBDB w002085, Nachfolger des Minorite-Buchbinders), formerly chained with the attachment hole at the top of the rear board and retaining all ten original repoussé brass corner and center pieces with chased and pierced vegetal designs. The catches are lettered MA[RIA] and the surviving brass clasp (of two) similarly lettered (small piece of leather missing from the lower rear board, general wear).

Panels alike with a central rectangle enclosed in two concentric triple-ruled frames. The outer has alternating rosette and branch stamps and scattered blooms in front, the rear similarly daisies, lilies and blooms. The inner frame has repetitions of a lettered maria banderole and small blooms. Striated lozenges fill the central rectangle in front, and lilies do so in the rear. Spine with ruled bands (crown and base defective, extended crack), remnants of an 18th- century manuscript-lettered paper label.

FOUR CONSECUTIVE 14TH-CENTURY OCTAVO BIFOLIA CONTAINING ANGLO-NORMAN AND LATIN MANUSCRIPT PRAYERS MAKE UP THE PASTEDOWNS and wrap around the first and last text gatherings. The bifolia are one above the other in both front and rear, original sewing holes visible.

Second Edition. The English cleric, professor and protégé of famous bibliophile Richard de Bury composed these two hundred twelve lectures on the Book of Wisdom for his theology students as both commentary and preaching tool. He interprets the text as King Solomon’s instructions for political and social leaders to build a moral society. 
            Holkot’s style is unusually playful and digressive. He begins with an English-Latin pun on his name, and in the course of exegesis comments on, i.a., a mishap with a miniature trained pony, the ironies of hospital fundraising, contemporary experiments on optics at Oxford, details of daily life and an impressive range of ancient literature. SOME CONCEPTS ARE EXPLAINED USING A MNEMONIC DEVICE CALLED THE PICTURE TECHNIQUE. For instance, in Lectio XXI the vice of drunkenness is portrayed as “the image of a boy holding a horn and wearing a glass crown” (tr.). The boy signifies that the drunkard is as senseless as a child, the horn that he can’t shut up and the crown that he falsely believes himself to be glorious. 
           This medieval bestseller was read across Europe and saw six editions in the 15th century. The Drach press, a prolific printing and bookselling dynasty, had a wide distribution network including a warehouse in Nürnberg — the city where this book was bound.
           AN EARLY READER ADDED ABOUT 2000 WORDS OF MARGINAL ANNOTATION IN BROWN AND RED INK, as well as notes on the flyleaves comprising mnemonic verses in Latin and German and quotations from the Bible and Aquinas. The headline types in gathering c of our copy became unjustified during printing, resulting in variably deformed, and on one page dropped, sorts. Similar movement of headline type in quire c is visible in the ten copies of this edition examined, suggesting an issue with the lock up of the forme. In good condition, about half the leaves with browning likely due to the damping of the paper prior to printing (darker on some paper stocks), 18th-century ownership inscription of the Würzburg Augustinians. My thanks to Terry Belanger and Scott Vile for their advice on letterpress technique.
¶Smalley, “Robert Holcot” in Archivum fratrum praedicatorum 26 (1956) 5-97; Slotemaker & Witt, Robert Holcot passim; Kaeppli, Scriptores ord. praed. III: 3497; ISTC ih00289000; Goff H-289.  

Item #12496

Price: $17,500.00