1 Leaf 1494 Incunabula Medieval Latin MAMMOTRECTUS & 4 Red Handwritten Letters

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1 Leaf 1494 Incunabula Medieval Latin MAMMOTRECTUS & 4 Red Handwritten Letters:
$30.00

First of all, I must say that this beautiful andinteresting page of the 1494 Latin Mammotrectus has four (4) handwritteninitial letters done by the original rubricator, which are very ornate (see thefirst scanned image).This leaf of the 1494 Mammotrectus was published in Strassbourg in 1494 by theprinter, Martin Flach.This is just thirty-nine years afterGutenberg\'s work of 1455! By definition, an incunabulum (thesingular of \"incunabula\") or \"incunable\" (French) or\"inkunabel\" (German) must be printed from 1455 to1500.However, those books printed in the later 1480s and the 1490s,as well as the year 1500 (which is technically the last year of the 15thcentury), had more and more woodcut printed initials. In Latin, theterm \"incunabula\" means \"baby clothes\" or \"things ofthe cradle,\" and can refer to the earliest stages or first traces in thedevelopment of anything. This leaf has red rubrication marks alladded by a scribe\'s own hand. The size of the sheet is about 5 1/2 in. x 8 in. The following are some of the translated Latin words on this leaf: \"St. Augustine\"; \"Blessed Pope Gregory,\" \"Saints,\" \"Religion,\" \"Immediately,\" \"Old,\" \"Antique,\" \"Expecting,\" \"Anguish,\" \"Resurrection,\"; \"Gain,\" \"Art\"; \"Scripture\"; \"Luxury\"; \"Cold\"; \"Hot\"; \"Middle\"; \"Intellectual\"; and \"Doubtful.\"

We need to put into context thework of Christian scribes during the 1,400 years before Gutenberg’s 1455 inventionof printing with movable type. During these centuries scribes developedtwo kinds of abbreviations in the manuscripts that were copied andre-copied. The first kind of abbreviation was the shortening orabbreviation of very common words, so that it was easier and quicker to writesuch frequently occurring words. These do not concern us here. Thesecond kind of abbreviation was for the words held sacred by Christians.In the Latin tradition, and especially in Jerome’s Latin Vulgate text, thesewere called “Nomina Sacra” meaning “Holy Names.” To Christians writingthe New Testament the word “Lord” usually referred to “The Lord Jesus Christ.”This leaf has the Nomina Sacra or Holy Name for the word “Lord,” in which theLatin word “Domini” is abbreviated to “dni”and a line is placed above the “n” to indicate that this is a Nomina Sacra (see the 4th scanned image, right-side leaf, top right).

The winner of this sale will not only receive the original 1494 LatinMammotrectus leaf, but also a xerox copy with all these English wordstranslated from the original Latin words (see the last scanned image).Very interesting sheet. Only the Biblical \"chapters\" are given,because modern-day \"verses\" were not invented until over ahalf-century later! As can seen in the scanned images, there are manyinstances on this leaf where the rubricator used red ink to highlight letters,as well as some red underlining of the text. Full bibliographic description is found in in Frederick R. Goff,\"Incunabula in American Libraries,\" M-253; also see Hain II,1,M10573; BMC I, 150. The 15th century sheet of paper is in goodcondition. A very impressive incunabula leaf. This is anoriginal15th century printed page, not a reproduction. Its authenticity is 100%guaranteed. Johannes Marchesinus or Giovanni Marchesini (around1300) was an Italian Franciscan friar or monk from Marchesio in the province ofReggio Emilia, near Modena. He taught in Imola, Faventia and Bologna. Numerousliterary works have referred to him as the author, including homiletic andeducational works. His most famous work is the Mammotrectus super Bibliam writtenaround 1300.

Guarantee of Authenticity. All of the leaves we sell (whether handwrittenmanuscripts or printed texts) are ORIGINALS. We guaranteeeverything we sell to be original and authentic. Due to their age, someimperfections can be expected, so please read our descriptions and view ourscanned images carefully. We stand behind our inventory and want to make surethat all of our clients are completely satisfied with their purchases.