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Manchester. The John Rylands Library, Blockbook Collection, 10123

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Source
Manchester Digital Collections
Library
The John Rylands Library
Shelfmark
  • 10123
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • 1475
Language
  • Latin
Title
  • Ars moriendi Qua[m]vis secundu[m] philosophu[m] tercio ethico[rum] (Ars moriendi Quamvis secundum philosophum tercio ethicorum)
Agent
Description
  • Extent:
    [24] leaves, ill. (woodcuts), 4to.
    Binding:

    Nineteenth-century full blue goatskin over boards; single gold-tooled fillet and double blind-tooled fillets to form an outer border; blind tooling to corners; gilt monogram of The John Rylands Library (JR in roundel) stamped on front cover; sewn onto five raised supports; direct-lettered in gold: Ars Moriendi; edges gilt; board edges gilt rolled.

    Dibdin, T.F. Biblioteca Spenceriana, I, p. xv (no. 4): "In blue morocco".


    Decoration:

    Contemporary hand-colouring in green, yellow, orange, blue, pink, crimson, vermilion, dark brown,pale brown, and greyish black.

    Xylographic initial letters coloured in red; blank spaces for initials rubricated in red. Paragraph marks and capital strokes added in red ink; occasional underlining in red ink.

    Each plate appears to have been engraved on an individual block, with the grain running vertically, and printed in pairs.


    Acquisition:

    Part of the Spencer library acquired by Enriqueta Rylands in 1892 from John Poyntz Spencer (1835-1910), 5th Earl Spencer for The John Rylands Library.


    Subject(s):
    Annotations -- Germany -- 16th century.; Illustrations (Layout feature) -- Netherlands -- 15th century.; Death -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.
    Format:
    Codex
    Material:
    Paper.
    Provenance:

    Oval leather label on front paste-down: E Bibliotheca Spenceriana; from the collection of George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834).

    Armorial bookplate of The John Rylands Library 1894 on front paste-down.

    Manuscript annotation to the margin of the opening woodcut: Conventus ord [suggesting a monastic ownership].


    Additions:

    Imperfect: wanting the two-page woodcut preface.

    Annotations: Contemporary manuscript corrections to the text throughout, with occasional xylographic words crossed through and corrected in the margins. Sixteenth-century German pen-trials on first blank leaf, cropped, including: Gott allem die; Dei alley her; Salomon. Fifteenth- or sixteenth-century manuscript captions added to three openings detailing the temptations depicted, the first (present on the second woodcut opening) reading: Gott allem die ofer [God of all], a phrase repeated from the opening blank, the later captions in a different hand and in Latin. Eighteenth-century [?] manuscript annotation to front flyleaf: B.S.I VX.


    Note(s):

    Title from incipit.

    A cycle of 12 xylographic openings, the first a preface, the remaining depicting a sick man in bed facing the temptations, followed by a counter-scene and argument, showing the Good Angel, Bona Inspiration, and the advantages of faith, patience, and other virtues. The final scene depicts the dying man triumphant over temptation and the devils put to rout. Opposite each image is a xylographic commentary.

    Schreiber, Manuel de l'amateur de la gravure sur bois et sur metal au XVe siècle, IV, p. 255 posits that manuscript copies were made of the original copper engravings by the Master E.S., and that one of these copies was the source for editions IX and XII. Stevenson, The problem of the blockbooks, p. 245, states: "The designs [of the first nine editions] are closely similar to a well known series of 11 line-engravings by the Master E.S., a predecessor of Schongauer and Dürer". Catalogue of books printed in the XVth century now in the British Museum, (I, 4) states: "The designs of the individual pictures, from their similarities and differences, appear not to be copied from those of [the earlier editions of the Art Moriendi] but directly or indirectly from the same originals".

    Schreiber's edition IX, in Latin, posited by him as printed in district of the Rhine. Stevenson, The problem of the blockbooks, p. 245 states: "Though Schreiber sets down the first two editions as of the Rhine Valley ... these editions are surely Netherlandish in their cutting, and the paper is from the same mills as the early Apocalypses and Bible pauperum - the mills at Metz and Épinal and near Bar-le-Duc".

    Signatures: [a-m²].

    Printed in brown ink on one side of the paper by rubbing[?] The versos are blank, and have been pasted together.

    Some initials xylographic, elsewhere spaces left blank for initials.


    Publication:
    [Netherlands?] : [s.n.] [c. 1465?]
Place
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  • Provided by The University of Manchester. Zooming image © University of Manchester Library, All rights reserved. Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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