Beschreibung:

PLUTARCH. Vitae illustrium virorum. [Strassburg: R-Press type 1 (Johann Mentelin and/or Adolf Rusch), after 1470-71]. Royal folio, 398 x 281 mm. (15 11/16 x 11 1/16 in.) contemporary German blind-stamped alum-tawed pigskin over wooden boards, covers tooled with intersecting double fillets forming numerous lozenges filled with repeated impressions of small fleur-de-lis, flower, and leafy plant(?) roundels, the same tools repeated around the outer border, two chased brass catchplates, lacking one clasp, rubbed, upper cover detached, some old repairs to board edges; tear to fol. 207 just entering text block, a few very small wormholes, mostly marginal dampstaining to many leaves, last 2 leaves browned, washed and resized, last leaf remargined, occasional marginal soiling . Collation: [1 12 2 10 3 8 4-13 10 14 8 15-26 10 27 8 28 10; 29 10 30 12 31-40 10 41 6 42-52 10]; quires 3 and 4 misbound in reverse order. 514 leaves, including 1/1 and 28/10 blank. Type 1:103R. 49 lines. Initial spaces, some with guide letters. Opening initial P in blue with red penwork infill and full border extensions, a variety of fine 8-line Maiblumen initials in red or blue or both, some with contrasting penwork infill, others with extensions, supplied in first 7 quires only. Fols. 3-233 foliated ("1-231") in red ink probably by the rubricator, remaining foliation in a later hand. Second edition, Latin translations by Joannes Antonio Campanius and others, text including Pseudo-Rufus, Sextus, De historia Romana ; this edition set from a copy of Ulrich Han's Rome [1470-71] edition. Since the priority of the Han edition was established by Scholderer, this edition has been conventionally dated "after 1470-71", but it is now known to have been printed no earlier than 1473. The watermarked paper stocks used in this edition (including bunch of grapes, Briquet 13049, and 8-petalled flower, Briquet ?6599) and in other Strassburg Royal folios of this period are not known to have been used before 1473, and no earlier date is known for any work from the R-Press. "Thus, the R-Press type 1 is not the first roman, nor even the first roman in Germany..." (Doheny I, 16). HC 13124*; IGI 7921; Proctor 242; BMC I, 62; Goff P-831. Provenance : A few contemporary marginalia, in two different hands, in red and brown ink -- "Sum Simonis Pistorii Guttenbergis [ ] fidelis conscientia fortitudo mea", eighteenth-century inscription on first page, a few marginalia in the same hand -- Paul Schmidt, bookplate (sale, Paris, 11 April 1910, lot 50).