Beschreibung:

BALBUS, Johannes (d. 1298). Catholicon . Venice: Hermannus Lichtenstein, 24th September 1483. Chancery 2 o (307 x 212 mm). Collation : a 1 0 b-z 8 \\i \\j 6; A-T 8 V 6. 355 leaves (of 356; without the first blank). 64 lines and headline, double column. Gothic types 6:150 (headings), 10:82 (capitals only), 5:74 (text). Capital spaces with printed guide-letters. Initials supplied in alternate red and blue. (Some mostly marginal worming occasionally catching letters, heaviest at end, browning to approximately 12 leaves, some pale staining around manuscript initials, long tear crossing text on B3, small stain on O5 affecting a few letters.) 18th-century diced russia, morocco lettering-pieces (spine rubbed, wear at extremities). Provenance : Estelle Doheny (morocco bookplate; purchased from Dawson's Bookshop, Los Angeles, 18 June 1931); donated to SMS 6 December 1937. The Catholicon , a popular Latin encyclopedia with a prefatory grammatical treatise, was a standard reference work in the later Middle Ages. It survives in many manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and was printed in 24 incunable editions. After periods of activity in Vicenza, Treviso and again in Vicenza, Hermannus Liechtenstein appeared at Venice with a printing of Thomas Aquinas's Catena aurea (4th September 1482) in which he was helped by Johannes Hamman. The present work is the first work Liechtenstein issued alone from Venice. BMC V, 356 (IB.21971); BSB-Ink. B-14; GW 3188; HC *2257; Oates 1884; Pr 4785; Goff B-26.