Beschreibung:

BIBLE, Latin (with the Glossa ordinaria). [Strassburg: Adolf Rusch for (or in part for) Anton Koberger not after 1480]. Imperial folio, 436 x 305 mm. (17 1/8 x 12 in.), sixteenth-century half blind-tooled pigskin over pasteboard covered with parchment from a fifteenth-century manuscript missal with German neumes (with remains of 6 illuminated initials), edges sprinkled red, soiled and rubbed with some leather loss, cloth slipcases, lacking the last leaf of Psalms (final leaf in vol. 2) and 2 final blanks, some soiling to first and last leaves of each volume, dust-soiling to upper margins, scattered mostly marginal dampstaining, damp damage with mildew to upper corners of first few leaves of vol. 2, occasional slight discoloration, minor worming to last 50 leaves of vol. 4 . Collation: vol. 1 : a10 9 x b8 5 x d8 d6 d10 a8 9 x d8 3 x b8 2 x b6; vol. 2 : a8 14 x c8 c10 3 x h8 c6 h6 h8 2 x h6 h8 c8 2 x c6 c8 c6 10 x e8 e10 e8 (lacking e8); vol. 3 : 5 x b8 b6 2 x b8 b10 11 x g8 2 x g6 g10 4 x d8 d6 2 x e6 2 x a8 5 x c8 2 x c6 a8 d8 3 x a8; vol. 4 : 12 x f8 f6 f9 [ie., f10 - f9] b8 b6 b10 8 x a8 2 x a6 a8 a6 a8 b8 c8 4 x a8 a10 (lacking a11 and a12 blank). 1208 (of 1211) leaves, unfoliated. Types: 2:106G (text, commentary incipits); 3:92G (commentary), 1:180G (headlines, text incipits), 4:68G (interlinear commentary). Double column, 73 lines of commentary surrounding text plus headline. Initial spaces. Eight large illuminated initials (2 opening initials at the beginning of each book) in color with white floral tracery on a burnished gold ground with incised border and floral pattern, set within segmented borders in red, green and grey and with tendril extensions in gold and colors, by a contemporary German artist, a few other initials in blue and red with green and red filigree infill, smaller initials, paragraph marks and capital strokes in red or blue. FIRST EDITION of the Latin Bible with the Glossa Ordinaria, the standard Bible commentary of the late eleventh and early twelfth century, composed by Anselm of Laon, Ralph of Laon and Gilbert the Universal. The layout preserves the traditional manuscript format, distinguishing between the surrounding commentary and the interlinear gloss (usually definitions of specific words). The unusual method of quire-signing found in this edition, in which the signatures consist of the first 7 letters of the alphabet repeated non-sequentially, does not indicate the order of the quires, and appears to be an early form of press figure, each letter referring to one of the seven presses used to print the work. Three of the four type fonts used in this edition are those used by Johann Amerbach of Basel, from whom Rusch is known to have borrowed types and with whom he corresponded regularly. HC 3173*; BMC I, 92; GW 4282; Goff B-607. On the question of the printing and dating of this edition see Ferdinand Geldner, "Amerbach-Studien" in Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens 23 (1982): col. 684-88. Provenance : A few contemporary marginalia -- A. von Hanseleder, Corbach, nineteenth-century paper labels on spines. (4)