Copy number: A-252(1)

Bound with:
2. Petrus Lombardus, Sententiarum libri IV. [Basel: Printer of the 1484 ‘Modus Legendi Abbreviaturas'], 13 Aug. 1484 (P‑226).

Wanting the blank leaf a1 and sheet c5.6.

Binding: Contemporary German (Cologne, Kyriß workshop no. 96) blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, remains of two clasps; rebacked. On both covers multiple fillets form a double frame; the inner rectangle is divided by diagonal fillets into four triangular compartments. In the compartments two different rosette stamps, a stem with two leaves, a stamped scroll with the inscription ‘Ihesus' and an octagonal fleur-de-lis; for the stamps see Kyriß pl. 195, nos 2, 9, 3, and 4. Similar bindings in Munich, BSB, 4° Inc. c.a. 232 and Inc. typ. B.IX.4.

Size: 318 × 223 × 100 mm.

Size of leaf: 308 × 210 mm.

Parchment pastedowns containing manuscript legal ‘quaestiones', and what is perhaps a thematic index to ‘sedes materiae' in a lengthy canon law text.

Early marginal notes.

On a1r an eight-line initial is supplied in interlocked red and blue with floral infill on a light green ground and with foliate extension into the inner margin in red and light green; similar initial on A1r of item 2. On a1r and on A1r of item 2 coat of arms: three labels in pale, respectively of five, four, and three points, gules. Three Cologne families bore these arms but with other tinctures: Overstolz (gold on red), Lyskirchen (blue on gold), Quattermart (black on gold): see A. Fahne, Geschichte der Kölnischen, Jülichschen und Bergischen Geschlechter in Stammtafeln, Wappen, Siegeln und Urkunden (Cologne and Bonn, 1848), 251, 317, 341. Other initials and paragraph marks are supplied in red or blue, occasionally with reserved white decoration; red capital strokes and underlining.

Provenance: Joseph Niesert (1766-1841); sale (1842), lot 14132. The copy appears in the Serna Santander sale catalogue (1959), no. 8, but probably did not form part of the collection of Charles-Antoine de La Serna Santander (1752-1823), as this volume belonged to Niesert from 1820 until 1842 and the preface to the 1959 sale catalogue states that part of the Serna collection had been preserved until then. Maggs Brothers Ltd; catalogue 890 (1964), no. 69. Purchased from Maggs out of the Gordon Duff Fund in 1964; see ‘Printed Book Accessions', BLR 8,2 (1968), 104.

SHELFMARK: Inc. c. X1(1).