Beschreibung:

METHODIUS, Saint, of Olympus. [Revelationes]. De revelatione facta ab angelo beato Methodio in carcere detento . Edited by Wolfgang Aitinger. Basel: Michael Furter, 12 March 1504.
METHODIUS, Saint, of Olympus. [Revelationes]. De revelatione facta ab angelo beato Methodio in carcere detento . Edited by Wolfgang Aitinger. Basel: Michael Furter, 12 March 1504. 4 o (202 x 137 mm). 61 woodcuts in text (including a few repeats), including title-page cut of Methodius in prison listening to an angel read from a book of prophiecies. (Title a little soiled with a small marginal hole, a single wormhole through about the first half of text block.) Modern blue morocco. Provenance : Celle, Cistercians (inscription on title); acquired from Bernard Quaritch, 1973. An early illustrated edition of this book of prophecies attributed to the martyred bishop St. Methodius of Olympus, but is now believed to be the work of the Augsburg monk, Wolfgang Aitinger. Furter issued the first illustrated edition of this work in 1498, and another preceding this edition in 1500 (see previous lot). The first edition was published by Froschauer without woodcuts in 1496. The prophetic revelations and predictions were widely diffused after the Fall of Constantinople as they foretold in great detail the ultimate triumph of the Christians over the Infidels and thus became a useful piece of propaganda against the Turks. The book is dedicated by Sebastian Brandt to friar minor Johannes Meder. The illustration depicting the plurality of benefices on 17v is from the original cut from Brant's Stultifera Navis of 1494. Adams M-1367; Fairfax Murray German 289.