Beschreibung:

LUMEN ANIMAE -- [GOTTFRIED OF VORAU (fl.1332)]. Lumen animae . Edited by Matthias Farinator (fl. 1472-80). [Augsburg:] Anton Sorg, 3 September 1477. Chancery 2 . (274 x 207mm). Collation: [1-5 10 6 8 7-12 10 13 8 14-30 10 31 8 32-37 10 38 6 ] (1/1r blank, 1/1v title, 1/2r preface by Farinator, 1/3r table, 7/1 blank, 7/2r text, 27/7v table to second part, 27/9v part II, 38/6r colophon, 38/6v blank). 370 leaves. 40 (variable) lines, and headline in first part. Type: 1:103G. 3- and 4-line initial spaces. Woodcut Maiblumen initial opening text, woodcut outline initials. Bearer type on 3/1v from bottom of 4/6v and on 6/8v from 4/5v. (Light marginal dampstain at end, small wormholes in first and final quires, blank corner of final leaf renewed.) 18th-century calf-backed wooden boards, bevelled at inner edge, spine lettered in gilt (worn at spine), single pin catch at fore-edge, without clasp. Provenance : a few contemporary annotations, several headlines corrected -- Augsburg, Augustinian priory of the Holy Cross: 17th-century inscription -- Franz Töpsl (1711-1796), prior of Augustinian canons at Polling (engraved bookplate dated 1744) -- Munich, Royal Library, duplicate (shelfmark Inc. Typ. N . . 2174 , "Duplum" on front pastedown) -- Bernd Pattloch (20th-century bookplate; sale, Sotheby's London, 22 November 1984, lot 180. to Lathrop Harper) -- Helmut N. Friedlaender (booklabel, sale Christie's NY, 20 April 2001, lot 76). FIRST EDITION. The Lumen animae is a 14th-century collection of 'exempla' drawn from natural history for use in the composition of sermons. It has been variously attributed to Berengarius of Landora, Godfrey of Vorau, John XXII, and Matthias Farinator. M.A. Rouse has authoritatively demonstrated that three distinct works circulated under this title, all originating in the 14th century but by different compilers. For the first edition Sorg used a variant of Rouse's version B of the text, which in the earliest surviving manuscript, dating to ca. 1332, is attributed to Godfrey, an Augustinian at Vorau. Matthias Farinator, a Viennese Carmelite, edited the 1477 edition, adding a new preface and two subject indexes of naturalia and moralia. (Cf. Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 41, 1971, pp. 5-113, esp. 50ff.) This copy previously contained 5 manuscript leaves of text by Franz Töpsl, provost of Polling, with a copy of a letter from canon Antontio Zungo to Töpsl which names the author of the Lumen animae as Hermannus de Gotschah, a canon of Vorau. These leaves are currently bound with the copy of this edition retained by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, whose catalogue states that the copy to which these leaves originally belonged is no longer known. H *10329; BMC II, 344 (IB. 5811); BSB-Ink. L-286; Klebs 631.1; Goff L-393.