A Fine Nuremberg Gothic Typeface
GERSON, Johannes [Pseudo-].
Donatus [moralisatus]. [Nuremberg, Friedrich Creussner, c. 1475.]
[bound with:]
[EUCHARIST.] Expositio super canonem misse. [Nuremberg], [(colophon:) Friedrich Creussner], [c. 1477–1478].
Two works in one vol., Chancery folio, ff. [7] (of 8, without final blank) and [14]; gothic type, initials supplied in red (one in blue) in both works with manuscript guide letters, second work with red initial strokes and underlining; light marginal staining in first work, second work slightly foxed and with some marginal wormholes, first leaf slightly soiled; tall copies in an early nineteenth-century polished sheep, boards elaborately tooled in blind; rebacked, slightly worn at edges; ink inscription ‘Dono mihi dedit R. P. Philippus Nerius Puel […]’ to final leaf (see below), armorial bookplates of James Elwin Millard and John Vertue to front pastedown.
Early editions of two rare devotional tracts printed in a fine gothic typeface by Friedrich Creussner of Nuremberg.
The first work here, Donatus moralisatus, uses the grammatical terms from the eight parts of speech to reflect on Christian values, and the second explains the standard eucharistic prayer in the Mass, which was considered the most sacred part of the liturgy and was subjected to numerous mystical explanations. The first work is now ascribed to Pseudo-Gerson rather than the fourteenth-century chancellor of the University of Paris.
Provenance:
1. Philippus Nerius Puell (1728–1801), a Carmelite monk of Abensberg (Bavaria), his gift recorded in an inscription by the unidentified recipient dated 1795, at end of the second work.
2. James Elwin Millard (1823–1894), vicar of Basingstoke; his sale, Sotheby’s, 25 November 1890, lot 61 (under Berson), 16s to Ridler.
3. John Vertue (1826–1900), appointed the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth in 1882.
There are no copies of this edition of Gerson in the US, and only the British Library and the Bodleian in UK; of the Expositio there is a copy at the Huntington only in the US, and the British Library only in the UK. A second Creussner edition of Donatus moralisatus (c. 1477) is recorded at Knox College only in the US; and another Cruessner printing of the Expositio canonis missae (c. 1473–5) is at the Morgan and the Library of Congress.
Gerson: BMC II 447; GW 10866; Bod-inc G-140; ISTC ig00222500. Expositio: H 6798*; BMC II 450; GW 5986; BSB-Ink E-143; Goff E143; ISTC ie00143000.