A POETICAL PEARL IN ENGLAND
EYB, Albertus de.
Margarita poetica.
Paris, Ulrich Gering, 29 November 1478.
Chancery folio, ff. [140] (of 142, without initial and final blank leaves); a–r8 s6 (without A1 and S6, blanks); roman letter, initials supplied in red and/or blue, paraphs in red and blue; first and last few leaves washed (affecting rubrication) and slightly soiled with defects in outer margin (rust holes from clasp fixings on the original binding?), repaired tear to foot of a8, other occasional light staining, otherwise a very good copy with generous margins; bound in early nineteenth-century English diced russia with a delicate gilt fillet triple frame, the outer section with blind foliate decoration, the corners of the central section with blind fan tooling, spine gilt in compartments, edges gilt, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers; binding slightly rubbed, joints repaired with buckram, spine rubbed and slightly chipped, paper label to foot of upper cover; early Latin annotations in ink to c. 16 pages at the start of the volume (some cropped), c. 23 manicules in red or black to last few quires, sixteenth-century English inscriptions to final verso (see below), monogrammed bookplate of Sir John Hayford Thorold and the Syston Park bookplate to front pastedown (see below).
Very rare edition of a Renaissance manual on letter writing from the first Parisian press, a rubricated copy with early English provenance.
Eyb (1420–1475) had studied at university in Erfurt, Pavia, Bologna and Padua, absorbing Italian styles of rhetoric; he composed his Margarita poetica in 1459, though the present printing only comprised the first section on letter writing, Praecepta artis rhetoricae; the other sections not included here covered oratory. The whole text was first printed in Nuremberg in 1472; this is the third Paris edition, all of which contain just this first section.
Ulrich Gering (d. 1510) set up shop in Paris with Martin Crantz and Michael Friburger in 1470, at the instigation of two Sorbonne scholars, who had become acquainted with them in Basel; their partnership was prolific and lasted until 1477, after which Gering continued to print under his own name and, later, in association with others. These early Paris printers attempted to move away from the gothic lettering usual in contemporary French books; the typeface used by them for the first few years of production was roman, and Gering returned to roman type when he became sole proprietor of the printshop in the later 1470s.
The Latin annotations to the first few quires partly repeat phrases from the text, and partly expand on them; the word ‘observandi’ (‘to be observed’ or ‘pay attention’) is noted several times alongside relevant passages.
Provenance:
The final verso of the book contains three inscriptions in early English hands:
1. John Austyn, ‘m[er]catori Stapule’ (a merchant of the Staple; before 1558, the Staple trade of wool and other raw materials was based in Calais).
2. William Blackewell of Edgware (d. 1570), a member of the Company of Scriveners and a town clerk of London. There are a few Latin annotations in his hand in chapter 14, where he mentions Sallust’s use of peritia and scientia, and one in chapter 22, where he comments on a phrase about friendship which is referred to by everyone, particularly judges.
3. An early purchase note, ‘The p[ri]ce of this book is iii s’.
4. Sir John Hayford Thorold (1773–1831); this was lot 778 in the Syston Park sale (Sotheby’s, 12–20 December 1884), where it was purchased by Bernard Quaritch for £15-5s (it subsequently appeared in Quaritch’s 1888 catalogue, item 37280, £7-15s). Loosely inserted is the London bookseller William Ridler’s manuscript description (written on the back of an invoice of his, dated 4 February 1891): ‘A most precious morsel of antiquity … the present is a fine specimen quite perfect, in a noble roman letter’, now priced at only £4-4s.
ISTC records only eleven other complete copies: none in Germany, and only one in the US (Brown University).
HC 6821; BMC VIII 22; GW 9540; Goff E172; ISTC ie00172000.
