Cordiale Quattuor Novissimorum. Attributed to Gerhard van de Vliederhoven and Dionysius Carthausian. Cologne: Heinrich Quentell, 1492.
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VERY RARE incunable edition of this late medieval treatise on death, judgement, hell, and heaven, beautifully bound in an incunable leaf binding; this leaf is contemporary to the printing of this book, but of course bound later. This copy lacks two textual leaves, but all obtainable copies of this edition lack these two leaves, as with the copy which last sold in 1996, and the digitised copy viewable online. BMC suggests that this was released in an issue without these two leaves and if so, this would be a textually complete copy. The woodcut on the title page is the famous printer's device of the Cologne based printer, Heinrich Quentell, which depicts St. Gregory teaching and is an early use of it, first appearing the year prior in 1491.
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Size: 141 x 200 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[a-g6 (-g3-4, g6)]
39 leaves of 42, lacking two textual leaves (g3&4, as typically encountered) and the final blank, g6. However, BMC suggests that an issue was released with only 40ff and if so, this would belong to that issue and thus be textually complete lacking only the final blank (no preliminary blank is called for in the collation). Four leaves rubricated including a lovely large entrance initial on the verso of the title leaf with some contemporary marginalia most likely written by the rubricator on this same page, marginalia in the same hand to f3. Some small holes in the a gathering slightly touching some letters of text as well as the final leaf. Some dampstaining throughout, largely faded, not rendering the text illegible. Leaf repairs to first and last leaves. An interesting small early manuscript fragment visible in the gutter of the penultimate leaf circa 11th-12th century written in a small neat Latin hand (unidentified), presumably extant from an earlier or original binding.
[HC 5707; GW 7509; ISTC ic00897000; Goff C897; BMC I, 277].
