[CATHOLIC CHURCH].

£2,850 · Offered by Sokol Books

A good, unsophisticated copy – in an attractive, strictly contemporary binding and with early ms. annotations – of this most successful Catholic martyrology. This was the last edition printed before the Reformation. Used intensively for the writing of sermons, it is infrequently found in such well-preserved, genuine state. This copy specifies a contemporary price of 3 florins for the book, probably already bound, as the price is written on the ffep, and a later price of 17 florins, dated 1740, which provides interesting evidence for the history of book prices. First published in Basle in 1474, this anonymous compilation, like the ‘Legenda aurea’, brought together the lives of the Apostles as well as saints, martyrs, confessors and virgins from late antiquity and (fewer) from the early middle ages. Each section includes short accounts on the life, death and miracles of each exemplary figure, with a selection from saints’ days in the Breviarium Romanum (Kalendae, Idus, Nonae). The choice provides clues as to the original authorship and intended readership: e.g., Wenceslas (10th century), mostly venerated in Bohemia and England, embodied political resistance against the Holy Roman Empire and was especially dear to C15 and C16 Hussites; Winibald (8th century) was a German monk and missionary of English origin, whose relics were donated to Henry VII of England in 1492. The early C16 Germanic annotator of this copy, a cleric and preacher, copied down an abridged version o

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.