Malleus maleficarum

Description

Signatures: [que]⁸ a-q⁸ r¹⁰.


Imprint from colophon.


Colophon on leaf r9r reads: Anno deitat. Mcccc.xciiij. presens liber que[m] editor Malleu[m] malleficaru[m] intitulavit per Antonium koberger Nurbergen[sis] cive[m] est i[m]pressus [et] ad hu[n]c finem perductus. xvij die me[n]sis Marcij.


By Heinrich Institoris (Krämer) and Jacob Sprenger.


Includes, on [que]2v-[que]5r, Innocent VIII's bull (Summis desiderantes affectibus), dated 9 December 1484 and the approbation of the Cologne theological faculty, dated 19 May 1487.


Printed in two columns with 45 lines to a full column.


Printed on sheets of median-size paper.


Leaf m2 is signed i ij.


There are errors in foliation, with LXXIIII and LXXXIIII misnumbered CCLXXIIII and LXXIIII respectively.


Initial spaces, some with guide-letters.


Leaves [8] and [CXXXVIII] are blank.


Indexed in: ISTC no. ii00166000.


Indexed in: Hain-Copinger 9245; BMC II 438 (IA 7468); Goff I-166.

Features

Occasional marginal annotations in black ink manuscript, sixteenth-century, cropped.


A mounted leaf has been inserted before the title page with painted woodcut pasted on recto.


At the head of the inserted leaf is a note in Latin in black ink manuscript relating to leaf CVI of the text.


The words on the title page are underlined and decorated in red.


Major initials supplied in red.


Some water damage and staining.


This copy is wanting the final blank leaf.


Bindings


Early twentieth-century binding of full brown calf over wooden boards by Riviere & Son. The binding is a facsimile of a fifteenth-century German stamped binding by Johann Hagmayer of Ulm found on the copy of Expositio (Postilla) in Job (1574), now in the British Museum. The upper cover is blind-tooled with a border and frame of triple fillets containing small stamps of skulls, flowers, serpents, frogs, toads and bats. The central panel is decorated with various creatures, including dogs, a wild boar, an ape, a rabbit, a stag and a winged serpent, amongst stylised oak foliage with leaves and acorns. The lower cover is blind-tooled with a border and frame of triple fillets containing small stamps and a central panel with a grid of triple fillets and small diamond-shaped tools at each intersection. The spine has five raised bands each blind-tooled with a single fillet. The cover is the work of Mary Houston and is a faithful copy of the original except for the details in the border stamps
which have been adapted to be more in keeping with the content of the book. The leaf edges are stained pale brown. 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: Malleus maleficarum Koberger Nuremberg 1494. Size: 230 x 178mm. Leaf size: 221 x 165mm.

Provenance

Inscription in black ink manuscript at the head of [que]2r: Monasterij Augiæ Minoris. The book was once in the possession of the Praemonstratensian Abbey of Weissenau near Ravensburg, Germany.


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

Access to this material is unrestricted.

Related subjects / tags

WARNING: many of our records have not been classified by subject. So if you search our catalogue by subject using the links below then you are unlikely to find all relevant records. But you will find some...

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.

View full details...