Lot 180: 

FRANCISCUS DE RETZA (ca 1343-1427), falsely attributed to. De generatione Christi, sive defensorium inviolatae castitiastis B.V.M. [Basel: Lienhart Ysenhut, ca 1490].

4υo (210 x 155 mm). Collation: a-cυ8 dυ6 (a1 blank, a2r text and illustrations, d6v blank). 29 of 30 leaves (lacks first blank, see below). 32 lines. Types: 3:79G (chapter titles), 1:94G (text). 2 full-page woodcuts and 51 woodcuts in text (each ca 75-62 mm). Rubricated in red. (Lower margin of a2 and d6 remargined.) Blue morocco gilt. Provenance: Fritz Kreisler (his sale Sotheby's Parke Bernet, 27 January 1927, lot 141).

Third edition of this curious text in Latin and German, comparing the relative improbabilities of mythical events and natural phenomena with that of the Immaculate Conception. The remarkable series of early Basel woodcuts faithfully interprets each scene. The two full-page cuts of the Virgin were copied from the first Strassburg edition of a decade earlier (Armin 132). The half dozen known productions from this rare Basel press are all illustrated, and Ysenhut's main activity may have been as a wood-engraver rather than a printer. Fairfax Murray points out that the first leaf of this book was blank when first issued, and it was only after some copies were distributed that the printer thought it necessary to add a title-page (supplied in facsimile and bound in at end). RARE: according to American Book Prices Current, only the Morris-Brunschwig copy has sold in the last 35 years: Christie's London, 27 November, 1991, lot 37. BMC III, 780; BSB-Ink. F-253; Fairfax-Murray German 360; Goff R-153; GW 10275; Schreiber 4047. Fact and Fantasy 5.

We’ll email you when items you want become available. Go >