Post-Incunabula. Kaysersberg (Johann Geiler von), Otther (Ja...

Hammer

£1,200

Post-Incunabula. Kaysersberg (Johann Geiler von), Otther (Jacob, editor), & Rhenanus (Beatus), Navicula sive speculu[m] fatuo[rum], Prestantissimi sacarum literarum Doctoris Joannis Geyler Keyserbergii Concionatoris Argentinen. a Jacobo Othero collecta. Compendiosa vitæ eiusdem descriptio, per Beatum Rhenanum Selestatinum. Ad Narragoniam, first edition, s.l., s.n., n.d. [?Strasbourg, dated 1509 & 1510; pastedown with booksellers' listings, where they suggest a date of 1513], 2 woodcuts, Gothic letter, collates: [26], [252], [6]ff; i.e. 1-2⁸, 3⁴, 4⁶, A⁴, B-C⁸, D⁴, E-F⁸, G⁴, H-I⁸, K⁴, L⁸, M⁴, N-O⁸, P⁴, Q⁸, R⁴, S-T⁸, U-X⁴, Y⁸, Z-²A⁴, ²B⁸, ²C⁴, ²D⁸, ²E-F⁴, ²G-H⁸, ²I⁴, ²K⁸, ²L-M⁴, ²N-O⁸, ²P-Q⁴, ²R-S⁸, a⁶, contemporaneous manuscript on A1-2, E4, G3-4, title-page lower gutter starting to split, some pages irregularly trimmed, with some edges uncut, some toning in places, occasional foxed spot, a handful of small repaired tears to fore-margins only, wormhole/holes to fore-margin throughout, both points of condition never affecting text, the fore-edge with traces of contemporaneous 16th c ink lettering, 19th c vellum over boards, lettered in gilt, title and colophon leaves with Croydon Public Libraries stamps, somewhat erased on the former, 4to

The scarce first edition of Johann Geiler von Kaiserberg's thirty-seven sermons, influenced by Sebastian Brandt's Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools), in which he comments and satirises the follies and vices of his day. This edition precedes the 1511 edition, better known for its greater number of woodcuts.