Illustrated Incunabula Encyclopedia World History 1490 Incunabulum

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Illustrated Incunabula Encyclopedia World History 1490 Incunabulum :
$5550.00

AN ILLUSTRATED INCUNABULUM, printed Strasbourg, Jean Pruss, after 1490.

ROLEVINCK: Fasciculustemporum omnes antiquorum cronicas complectens, Latin for the\"Encyclopedia of History.\"

The authorof this compendium was Werner Rolewinck, who was born in Westphalia in 1425,the son of a fairly prosperous farmer. He was educated at home and probably inCologne, where in 1447 he entered the Carthusian cloister of St. Barbara. Heremained there till his death in 1502. The Abbot Trithemius who visited himabout 1495 speaks of him as an \"extraordinarily diligent and prolificauthor\" of thirty or more books. His works on theology and sacred historywere intended for the edification of his fellow monks, and most of them remainin manuscript.

TheFasciculus temporum was first printed in Cologne in 1474 and was apparently anindispensable work of reference until after 1532, when it was superseded byothers more up-to-date. It was translated into Flemish, German, and French.This is a latin edition published in Strasbourg 1490.

Ninedifferent woodcuts were used for illustration. A small one, representing thetowers and battlements of a city, is repeated several times to mark thefoundation of famous towns: Nineveh and Treves, said by Rolewinck to have beenfounded about 1950 B.C.; Athens, Rome, Byzantium; Lyons, Cologne, Berne; achoice of cities which seems to show the fields of history in which the authorwas interested. A city in flames calls the reader\'s attention to thedestruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Troy and Babylon. The Tower of Babel and anaïve drawing of Noah\'s Ark and the rainbow illustrate great moments of OldTestament history. Three other woodcuts illustrate omens and prodigies such as monstrous births. The verso of the title page has a full-pagepicture of a blind beggar, and folio 37 is an example of clever typesetting,the names of the four Evangelists with appropriate quotations from the Biblebeing arranged around the figure of Christ.

In theprinting itself, the printer has shown considerable skill in contriving amethod of reporting contemporary events. A strip across the center of each pageis separated from the rest of the text above and below by two sets of heavylines. Within this strip are placed one or two, sometimes three, circles inwhich appear the names of Hebrew worthies, beginning with Adam. Beside eachcircle is a brief statement of each man\'s length of life and number ofchildren. Above the circles is given the date, anno mundi, reckoned from thecreation of the world in 5199 B.C.; below them and printed upside down, thenumber of years before the birth of Christ. The upper section of the pagecarries extracts from Biblical history with occasional comments from St.Augustine and other fathers, while the lower section has reports of men andevents of secular history. Greek myth, Homer, Roman tradition and history arefreely used. Emphasis is laid on sacred history, and after the birth of Christthe names of the popes fill the circles in the center strips. Lists of martyrs,saints, abbots, and bishops are distributed through the book, and once in awhile the names of philosophers and literary men.

CONDITION:FOLIO, 284 mm x 205 mm. BOUND in an antiphonaryleaf. Old marginal on the title leaf. Gasparis Bersin, 1518. Some annotations by his hand in the margins.

Hain 6916, Pollain 2262.

A nice clean copy,no worming, or spot. [6] leaves, 90 leaves. Possibly two blanks missing, else complete, Customersof the European Union must pay 6% VAT upon the final price.

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