RUBRICATED MONASTIC COPY IN ORIGINAL AUGSBURG BINDING: Sermones Pomerii de sanctis. by Themeswar, Pelbartus de (1430-1504) - 1501

Hagenau: Hagenau: Heinrich Gran, for Johannes Rynman, 30 September 1501, 1501. Full leather. Very Good. Thick renaissance blindstamped folio. COLLATION: 13, 357 ff. TYPE: two columns, 58 lines per page plus headline, gothic letter, with guide letters and spaces for numerous four and six line ornamental capitals, contemporaneously hand rubricated in red ink throughout. BINDING: contemporary blind-stamped leather over wooden boards from an Augsburg workshop operating between 1482 and 1532 (Kyriss 79). Front board panelled with two blind rolls, one formed of arches, the other of birds and flowers, panel filled with further use of bird and flower blind roll and surmounted by blind-lettered title "POMERIUS*S". Rear board panelled with same bird and flower blind roll, panel infilled with diagonally crossing blind fillets. CONDITION: Early monastic ink title to fore-edge and ink inscription to front free endpaper, nineteenth century ink inscription to front pastedown, wormholes to opening and closing leaves, a couple of unobtrusive wormholes extending into first few quires touching a few letters, corners of two leaves torn well clear of text, leaf A8 soiled at edges and possibly supplied from another copy, occasional very light paper browning otherwise internally clean. Binding worn with minor chips and losses, spine with minor loss especially at head, paper monastic library label to foot of spine, upper edge of rear board damaged exposing wood beneath (not affecting blind rolls), remains of hasps and clasps, light marks to centre of each board where central brass bosses were once affixed. TEXT: second edition of this collection of sermons by Pelbartus de Themesvar, Hungarian Franciscan at the St.John Monastery in Buda. The popular text was first published in 1499 and saw ten further editions by 1520. PROVENANCE: The Bavarian binding and inscription to its front free endpaper indicate very early acquisition by the medieval Benedictine Monastery of the Abbey of Irsee, Bavaria. Upon the dissolution of Bavarian monasteries in 1803 the volume was acquired by Munich Court Library; a nineteenth century ink inscription to the front pastedown notes the copy to have been a duplicate and it was doubtless sold between 1815 and 1859 when the library instigated a series of large auctions to dispose of surplus items. Sometime after 1880 it was acquired by the Benedictine monastery of Erdington Abbey, Birmingham, England, established for monks expelled in Bismarck's kultur-kampf from Beuron, Prussia. In 1922 the Erdington monastery was dissolved following return of its monks to Beuron after World War I, and its library appears to have been subsequently disbursed. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES: Included in the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, ISTC ip00252500, citing holdings at 15 locations globally with none in the UK or US; Hain 12557 (describing an imperfect copy). An attractive copy of this rare early work in entirely original state with substantial provenance.