farfel_n01_003_001

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1
$8.00 March 75
Rosenthal

James (Iacobus) (Varagine) (or)
Jacobus de Voragine Passional oder
III [inserted] Sommerteil und *Winterteil [end inserted] Leben der Heiligen: 5 Dec 1488 f0 German
cat.Brit. M. Vol II p433 387 painted leaves , 3 - 387 numbered I - CCCLXXXV
2 columns . 50 lines & headline (CCLXI)
302 (314) x 186mm Types 162 --> (9 1/2 x 13 13/16")
headlines (names of saints ) + headings ; Type 120 text
capital spaces . with 262 woodcuts [inserted] 183 -> summer 124 -> winter [end inserted] \ St. Andrew the Apostle \ Nov. 30 [inserted] patron St. of Scotland and Russia [end inserted]
Anton Koberger H9981 H9981 Hind II 370
(Nurenberg) Copinger III. 6505
Heiligenleben (Vitae Sanctorum) Goff J168 [inserted][Legenda] Types 10,11 A. Legenda aurea: Latin, Vernacular B. Sermones etc. [end inserted]
Proctor 2065 - das Passional
also printed by a) Schonsperger (German) in
1489 (H9982) Goff J164; 1496 (H9985) ; 1499 (H9987)
copies Koberger 13th German edition of the Legends Aurea (1488)
Huntington, San Marino
Lib. of Congress, Rare Book Dio, Wash. D.C.
Pierpont Morgan Library N.Y.C.
b) William Caxton (with 70 woodcuts) The Golden Legend IV, the
largest book he printed (22x15 3/4") 499 leaves (1483)
Goff J 90 c) Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 11 Aug. 1478 f0
I - Legenda aurea (Huntington)

II French La Légende dorée
according To Robert F.
Seybolt - 173 editions.

The Legenda aurea consists of 177
sections, each of which is devoted
to particular Saint or festival
selected according to the order of
the calendar

15th century over 70 editions in
Latin, 8 in Italian, 14 in Dutch &
3 in English
"Schwabacher' - variety of German
Bastarda

A HISTORY OF PRINTING IN BRITAIN
The Golden Legend, the largest book printed by Caxton, bears
the date of 1483. It contains 449 leaves, and it is printed on a larger
size of paper than he used for any other of his books, the full sheet
measuring 22 by 15 3/4 inches. The book is in double columns, the
headlines being in Type No. 3 and the text in Type No. 4*, a re¬
casting of Type No. 4 (smaller than Type No. 2, but similar in
design). Type No. 4* was cast on a different body from Type No. 4,
giving 19 lines as against 20 lines of the latter. Possibly a larger
edition than usual was run off, for it is one of the commonest of
Caxton’s books.
Instead of taking one existing manuscript of Jacobus de Voragine’s
Legenda Aurea, which already had been translated from the Latin
into both English and French, he chose to make a completely new
edition by collating manuscripts in all three tongues, with the result
that he almost gave up the task, and might have done so had not the
Earl of Arundel encouraged him and promised to take what Caxton
terms ‘a resonable quantite’ of them when they were finished.
In this book Caxton made use of 17 woodcuts the full width of
the page in size, as well as 50 column-width cuts of Old Testament
scenes and Saints with their emblems, some of which are repeated.
In addition, at the beginning is a cut of the Saints in Glory,
the largest block that Caxton ever used. Hodnett tells us that these
cuts were the work of two engravers.19

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