Beschreibung:

JACOBUS DE VORAGINE (1230-1298). Legenda aurea . Paris: Ulrich Gering, Martin Crantz and Michael Friburger, before 1475. The very rare first edition printed in France, with figural decoration. This encyclopedia of the lives of the saints was incredibly influential in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with more incunable editions printed than the Bible. This was the first edition printed by Gering, Crantz, and Friburger, the Germans who established printing in France with their press based at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1470. After this undated edition, a second edition dated 1475 followed. The present copy was decorated for the Augustinians at Bourges, including a miniature of Saint Ursinus, the patron of that city. There are only two copies held by institutions outside France; RBH and ABPC record no copies at auction. CIBN J-66; GW M11262; ij00088300; Oates 2876; not in Goff. See Dibdin Spenceriana 796 (the second ed.; Dibdin doubts the existence of the present ed.). Folio (307 x 213mm). 290 leaves (of 292, lacking initial blank and one leaf of text before Bernard of Clairvaux). Unsigned, without catchwords, running manuscript headlines identifying saints. First leaf with bas-de-page scene of Saint Ursinus and partial border with fire-breathing dragon; red and blue decorated initials, paraphs marked in red, blue, and yellow (first leaf toned with repaired closed tear, dampstain to upper margin of final gatherings, blank bottom half of final leaf replaced, some marginalia cropped). Brown levant morocco gilt by Canape-Belz (rubbed). Provenance: Biblioteca Bituricensis (Augustinian library at Bourges; ownership inscriptions) – Henry William Poor (1844-1915, American banker; morocco bookplate, his sale, Anderson, 17 November 1908, lot 1015).