Beschreibung:

Seelen-Wurzgarten . Ulm: Conrad Dinckmut, 26 July 1483. First complete edition and first illustrated edition of a didactic work of exempla – stories used for preaching – on a variety of topics ranging from original sin, angels and devils, the coming of the Messiah, the Anti-Christ and the Apocalypse. Several chapters refute Jewish belief, and it is only this section that had appeared earlier in print. The anonymous author drew on the work of Nicolas of Lyra, Jerome, Peter Schwarz and others. This first edition is richly illustrated with 134 full-page woodcuts by an artist working in the manner of the Master of Bidpai. Dinckmut printed a second edition only 3 months later, reusing 15 of the 17 original blocks, joined by 2 new ones, but with many fewer repetitions, reducing the total number to a mere 30. In addition to his active printing shop, Dinckmut operated a prolific bindery. In addition to binding works from his own press, as here, Dinckmut was closely tied to the presses of Johann Zainer, also of Ulm, and Anton Koberger of Nuremberg (cf. Claire Bolton, ‘Links between a 15th-century printer and a binder’, Early Printed Books as Material Objects , eds. B. Wagner and M. Reed, 2010. Very rare on the market; the Arenberg copy joined the library of Otto Schaefer in 1966 via Kraus, Heilbrun and Breslauer, and RBH records only one copy sold at auction, in 1935 . C 5345; BMC II 533; Schreiber 5229; Amelung, Frühdruck I 97; Schäfer 312; Bod-inc. S-128; BSB-Ink S-241; ISTC is00364000; Goff S-364. Chancery folio (273 x 200mm). 242 leaves. 134 full-page woodcuts printed from 17 blocks, woodcut decorative initials from several sets. (Occasional light stain, old corner tabs mounted on first blank recto, narrow marginal wormtrack on first leaf.) Contemporary Ulm binding from the Dinckmut bindery [Kyriss 126]: blindstamped pigskin over wooden boards tooled with a dragon roll, single-headed eagle and rosette stamps, single fore-edge clasp, slightly later spine label, printed pastedowns (fos. 28, 29) from Dinckmut’s edition of Jacobus de Voragine, Sermones de Sanctis , 3 November 1484 [Goff J-190] (clasp leather renewed, light rubbing, small stain on rear board). Provenance : a nunnery at Meiningen, erased inscription dated 1514 -- Adolf Klinkenberg, Dortmund (1881-1957; ascription on pastedown, citing Karl & Faber auction 5-6 May 1950) – Albert Blum (1882-1952; small monogram stamps).