Directorium humane vite, alias, Parabole antiquorum sapientum
Contains digital mediaDetails
Type of record: Book
Title: Directorium humane vite, alias, Parabole antiquorum sapientum
Other titles: Directorium humanae vitae; Fables of Bidpai; Parabole antiquorum sapientum
Classmark: BC H de W/BID
Related people: Prüss, Johann; Howard de Walden, Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis; Brotherton, Edward Allen Brotherton
Publisher: Johann Prüss
Publication city: [Strassburg]
Date(s): [about 1489]
Language: Latin
Size and medium: [82] leaves
Manifest: https://iiif.library.leeds.ac.uk/presentation/cc/wfxp52cz
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/155821
Printed items catalogue: https://leeds.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=44LEE_INST:VU1&docid=alma991008695669705181
Collection group(s): Incunabula
Description
Signatures: a-m⁶ n¹⁰.
Imprint from ISTC.
Latin translation by Giovanni da Capua of the Hebrew version of Kalīlah wa-Dimnah (Arabic version of Fables of Bidpai).
On the four issues of this edition (i.e. the two states of H 4411* (A and B), H 4411a (C) and its later re-issue (D)), see F. Geissler: Die Inkunabeln des Directorium vitae humanae, Beiträge zur Inkunabelkunde, Dritte Folge, 1 (1965) pp. 7-47. According to P. Needham, H 4411a is a separable, later edition while Geissler's second state of H 4411 has "only scattered in-press forme corrections. They do not distinguish a separate issue" (Sotheby's NY, 17 Dec. 1992, lot 13).
Illustrated with 119 woodcuts, mostly half-page. The series is repeated from the earlier German translation of this work printed by Konrad Fyner of Urach; cf. A. Schramm, Der Bilderschmuck der Frühdrucke, IX, p. 10-13.
Full-page woodcut frontispiece representing the King of Persia with a crown and sceptre seated on a Gothic throne, and standing before him a figure presenting a bound volume, presumably a copy of the fables.
Printed with 50 long lines to a full page.
Printed headlines.
Initial spaces, some with guide-letters.
Leaves a2-4 are signed a1-3 in error.
Leaf n5 is signed n in error.
Indexed in: ISTC no. ij00268000.
Indexed in: Hain(+Add)-Copinger 4411.
Features
Very occasional marginal annotations in black and red ink manuscript, late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century, now faded or washed.
State: without woodcut from n8r repeated on n9r.
Bindings
Early twentieth-century binding of full inlaid brown goatskin over pasteboard by Riviere & Son whose name is gold-tooled on the turn-in at the bottom of the front pastedown. The binding is a facsimile of a French Valois binding executed for Francis I and found on his copy of Postel, De Magistratibus Atheniensium (Paris, 1541). The upper and lower covers are decorated with a red and gold ribbon forming a central oval to a Grolier pattern, with scrolls and grotesques inlaid in pink, light and dark blue, green and cream. The central oval contains the emblem of Francis I, a green salamander with a red tongue and a gold crown above wrapped around the letter F which is inlaid in white and gold. Surrounding the central motif are fleurons and fleurs-de-lys in gold. The spine has five raised bands each gold-tooled with a single fillet. Gold-tooled in the second panel are the words: Directorium humane vite. The other panels are decorated with a gold-tooled border and a central fleuron in red and
green and gold. The board edges are gold-tooled with a single fillet and the turn-ins with two fillets. The book has gilt edges. The book is preserved in a loose burgundy cover inside a mottled brown slipcase. Gold-tooled on the spine of the loose cover are the words: Directorium humane vite. Size: 256 x 184mm. Leaf size: 252 x 175mm.
Provenance
Library stamp and duplicate stamp of the Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) on the title page (leaf a1r).
LIbrary stamp of the Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) in the space left for the first initial on the recto of the leaf signed a1 (a2r).
Library stamp and duplicate stamp of the Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) on n10v.
Armorial bookplate of Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis, VIII Baron Howard de Walden (1880-1946), on the front pastedown.
Coloured armorial bookplate of Sir Edward Allen Brotherton on the recto of the front free endpaper. The book was most likely acquired before 17 June 1929 when Brotherton was created Baron Brotherton of Wakefield.
Access and usage
Access
This material is not subject to restrictions under Data Protection or other relevant legislation that might limit access. However, other protections, such as donor conditions or conservation considerations, may still apply where advised.
On our website
Profile: Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden (1880-1946)
Biography of Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden, who is associated with the incunabula held in Special Collections at Leeds University Library.