Beschreibung:

COLOGNE CHRONICLES -- Die Cronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen . Cologne: Johann Koelhoff the younger, 23 August 1499. Median 2° (332 x 219mm). Collation: & #960;A-B 6 (A1r title, A1v blank, A2r tabula); A-I 6 K 10 L-Z 6 a-d 6 e 4 f-z 6 aa-nn 6 (A1r second title, A1v blank, A2r text, nn4r colophon, nn4v-6 blank). 368 leaves (with two final blank leaves not called for in BMC). Table in 2 columns, 49-51 lines, plus one- or two-line headings. Types 2:290G (major headings and titles), 5:140G (minor headings), 4:96G (text). Lombard initials of type 290G, woodcut border pieces, 92 WOODCUTS with repetitions, initial spaces with guide-letters, woodcuts COLOURED BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND (a few exceptions), initials, where required, supplied in alternating red or blue. (Stain in upper margin of many leaves and in fore-edges of final leaves, second title repaired at upper margin, marginal paint stains on fos. V1v-2, k1v, some leaves browned, light marginal dampstain in m2, small wormhole filled in last 3 leaves.) Elaborately blindstamped brown morocco with double-headed eagle in gilt at centre of covers, spine gilt-lettered and blindstamped, wide gilt turn-ins, green endpapers, gilt and gauffered edges, by John Mackenzie, with his stamp on front free endpaper. Provenance : a few contemporary annotations, one lengthy one on fo. lxxxviii concerning St. Ursula; early purchase note on original flyleaf: Emptus a me coloniae 2 daleris ; Johannes Antonius Eessenich, with his inscription: A me Joanne Antonio Eessenich emptus 6 Daleris Viennae 1675 ; Georg Matthaeus Vischer (1628-ca.1695), geographer, topographer, and copper engraver (ADB 40, p.65), with his inscription (marginal annotations by him or possibly by Eessenich). FIRST EDITION. Controversy has surrounded the Cologne Chronicles, the first history of that city, since its publication. Its author was kept secret (but, given hints in the book, may have been a Dominican), but that did not deter the City Council from objecting to certain passages in it, and they directed their anger at its printer, Koelhoff the younger. The Council forbade distribution, resulting in Koelhoff being forced to sell his house in order to cover the costs of printing the Chronicles. To mitigate the Council's objections, some passages were excised and revised. One example is in fo. kk5, which in the original details the less-than-gallant behaviour of Peter Langhals toward Emperor Maximilian when Maximilian fell from his horse during a tournament. The leaf was cancelled, and the passage was revised to read that Langhals sprang off his horse and helped Maximilian to his feet again. The Botfield copy retains the original reading. Later controversy has centred on the history of the beginning of printing which appears on fo. CCCxi. It states that it is based on the account of Ulrich Zell, Cologne's first printer, who learned the art at Mainz in the 1460s. It is problematic primarily in that it discusses a precursor ("Vorbyldung") of printing coming from the Netherlands with the Donatus editions. In later centuries this was seized on as important evidence by those who believed Haarlem, not Mainz, to be the birthplace of printing. In addition to the variant noted above, the Botfield copy has the early state of K3-5 and the corrected state of t3. Two of the illustrations first appeared in the first edition of the Fasciculus temporum (Cologne, Arnold ther Hoernen, 1474), and two are extremely close copies of others in that work (Schramm VIII, 86, 88; 89, 92). A VERY GOOD, LARGE COPY WITH AN IMPORTANT LATER ASSOCIATION. H *4989; GW 6688; BMC I, 299 (IB. 5073-74); Goff C-476; VK 324; Borchling & Claussen 312