Balbus, Johannes: Catholicon.
[Strassburg: The R-Printer (Johann Mentelin and Adolf Rusch), ca. 1475]
Fol. [1-310 48 510 6-76 88 9-2110 226 23-2810 298 30-3110 328 336 34-3810 39-408]. [372] leaves (1/1 and 40/8 blank).
ISTC ib00023000; GW 3185; Goff B23; BMC I 65 (IC. 660); Bod-inc B-012; CIBN B-16; BSB-Ink B-11.
The Doheny sale catalogue (Christie’s, NY, 14 Dec. 2001, lot 37) dates [c. 1475] and ascribes jointly to Johann Mentelin and his son-in-law, Adolf Rusch. Dated [c.1470] in GW, Bod-inc and BSB-Ink; CIBN B-16 dates [not after 1477].
| GIP number: | B2 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Bw.1.4 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Variants: | 40/7v (f. 371v), col. 2, final two lines of colophon: ‘... in || ſecula ſeculorum. Amen.’ as GW’s main transcription, not ‘... ſecul||orum. Amen.’ as GW Anm. |
| Provenance: | Matthew Bull (d. 1690), Rector of Broughton Poggs, Oxfordshire: inscription on 1/1r “Hunc Libr[um] possidett Matt Bull Brough[ton] Poggs Com[itatus] Oxon[iensis] Rec[to]r”. William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist: source unknown. University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Ag.3.6”. |
| Binding: | England, 18th-century diced brown calf; covers decorated with a gold-tooled dentelle border and a lozenge-shaped centre-piece, each made-up of separate tools including a crown, an acorn, a floral spray, and a bird with wings outstretched and head turned sideways; gold-tooled spine with two spine labels ‘CATHOLICON’ and (erroneously) ‘EDITIO || PRINCEPS || 1460’; marbled endpapers; gilt-edged leaves. Size: 427 × 310 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 417 x 296 mm. |
| Annotations: | Occasional marginal annotations in Latin in 16th/17th-century hands, occasional manicules and underlining; on 34/4r (f. 310r) is a marginal gloss in English on the word ‘sandalium’ (sandal) quoting from the Hebrew scholar, John Weemse; annotation on 40/7v (f. 371v) referring to a book (title unspecified) ‘apud Bibliothecam oxoniensem’ printed in Germany in 1465; tipped-onto the front free endaper is a lengthy bibliographical note by William Hunter discussing two earlier editions of the Catholicon with reference to copies in the King’s library. |
| Decoration: | On 1/2r, col. 1, a ten-line initial ‘P’ is supplied in gold on a square ground of blue and dull pink with white and grey pen-work decoration and with floral decoration extending into the margin, and in col. 2 is a similarly decorated seven-line initial ‘P’ and a three-line initial ‘L’; other principal initials supplied in red on a ground of brown pen-work extending into the margin, or in blue on a ground of red pen-work, and a few in red and blue with reserved white; lesser initials throughout supplied in red or blue; paragraph marks supplied in red; decorative manicules in margins of 14/7v (f. 125v), 21/3v (f. 191v), 29/4v (f. 268v) and 29/7v (f. 271v). |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the first and final blank leaves. |
