Beschreibung:

BALBUS, Johannes (d.1298). Catholicon . [Strassburg: The R-printer type 2 (Johann Mentelin and Adolf Rusch), c. 1475]. Royal 2° (410 x 300mm). Collation: [1-3 1 0 4 8 5 1 0 6-7 6 8 8 9-21 1 0 22 6 23-28 1 0 29 8 30-31 1 0 32 8 33 6 34-38 1 0 39-40 8] (1/1 blank, 1/2r summary preface, text A-I, 23/1 text K-Z, 40/8 blank). 368 leaves (of 372, lacking 2/5-6 and without first and final blanks), two additional leaves, duplicating text, from an earlier, ca. 1470, R-Printer edition (GW 3184) inserted after 35/6 and 38/5. 67 lines, double column. Type: 2:100G, some printed guide-letters. 1- to 8-line initials supplied in red, or occasionally blue, a few initials with blue or brown decoration (the blue mostly rubbed), paragraph marks and capital strokes in red. (Staining at upper corner of first 3 quires, light dampstain in lower margin in final quire, small wormholes in first 2 and final quires.) Remboîtage of contemporary blindstamped calf over thick wooden boards, the sides differently tooled (not in Kyriss or Schwenke-Sammlung ), blue sprinkled edges (rebacked, some light wear, front board nearly detached), 20th-century russet morocco solander box. Provenance : occasional 17th-century marginal annotations; Earls of Crawford, Lindley Library (Lindesiana bookplate, Bibliotheca Lindesiana (1910), col. 529). Fourth edition of the most important Latin dictionary of the middle ages. It is the second edition printed by the 'R-printer'. The masters of this press may be established, since a letter of 1478 names Johann Mentelin, the first printer at Strassburg, and his son-in-law Adolf Rusch as the printers of another book in this type, Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum doctrinale . HC *2251; BMC I, 65 (IC. 660-661); BSB B-11; GW 3185; Pellechet 1699; Goff B-23.