Catalogus sanctorum & gestorum eorum ex diversis voluminibus collectus . . . multis novis additionibus decoratus.   Venice: Nicolaus de Frankfordia, 1 Dec.

£3,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A wonderfully illustrated edition of this catalogue of saints , compiled by Veneto bishop Petrus de Natalibus (fl.late C14th) between 1369 and 1372. First published in Vicenza in 1493, it was an extremely popular work that ran to many editions; perhaps due to its popularity and extensive use, however, we have found few copies of this edition outside Italy. The text of this edition was edited by Antonius Verlus and subsequently revised and augmented by Dominican monk Alberto Castello. A prolific writer and editor of religious and liturgical texts, particularly those that had practical application, Castello collaborated with several printers in Venice in this period, including the Sessa and Lucantonio Giunta. His best-known work is the handbook for priests, the Liber Sacerdotalis , with copiously illustrated opening pages, similar to those here. Printed in gothic type in two columns, the saints here – both Old and New Testament – are arranged very practically and for ease of reference, by month, according to the ecclesiastical calendar. The first, Vicenza edition was unillustrated, but it was evidently a work that loaned itself to illustration; Mortimer notes the woodcuts in the Zanni-Giunta edition of 1506, along with those in the Lyon edition printed by Sacon in 1514, which contains over 250 (Mortimer, French , 384), and the blocks for which were still in use as late as 1542. In the present work, charming, 8-line historiated woodcuts introduce the entries for better-known sai

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