Beschreibung:

RICHENTHAL, Ulrich von (d. c.1535). Das Concilium so zu Constantz gehalten ist worden . Augsburg: Heinrich Steiner, December 1536. 2 (281 x 199mm). Large title woodcut, 41 (of 42) full-page woodcuts, 3 half-page woodcuts, 1147 coats-of-arms (of 1159, Kp's count), and woodcut tailpieces, THE WOODCUTS BY JRG BREU THE ELDER, COLOURED BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND. (Title worn and mounted, with text on verso replaced in manuscript, lacking M3.4, replaced with 3 leaves, including one full-page woodcut and 12 coats-of-arms with contemporary colouring, from Sorg's 1483 edition, damp damage repaired with occasional loss of some text, stains, some bifolia rehinged.) Modern vellum. Provenance : contemporary annotations. SECOND EDITION of the first printed armorial. Richenthal was an eye-witness to the Council of Constance, held from 1414-1418 in order to heal the Papal schism, reform abuses within the Church and suppress the Wycliffean heresy. His account of the Council, besides reporting on those issues (the burning at the stake of Huss and Jerome of Prague are vividly illustrated in the woodcuts), presents a lively picture of town life in medieval Constance. It also is an important source of heraldry, with its 1159 woodcut coats-of-arms of many of the participants. Steiner printed the present second edition when another council was being planned. Its woodcuts are close copies of the first edition (Augsburg: Sorg, 1483) and are attributed to the Breu workshop; the woodcut border is in the style of Hans Weiditz and the cut on the final page is taken from Bmler's Historie von der Kreuzfahrt (1482). A third edition, printed in 1575, re-used much of Steiner's material. (See Karl Kp, 'The Illustrations for Ulrich von Richenthal's Chronicle of the Council of Constance in manuscripts and books', Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America , 34, 1940, p.1-15.) Lipperheide Cg 26; Hollstein IV, 144-187