THE SYSTON PARK COPY
HENRICUS DE HERP.
Speculum aureum decem praeceptorum Dei.
[(Colophon:) Mainz, Peter Schoeffer, 10 September 1474.]
Two vols, folio, ff. [407]; [a]11 [b–k]10 [l]8 [m]4 [n–q]10 [r]4, [s–x]10 [y]7 [z]10 [A–C]10 [D]6 [E–N]10 [O]6 [P]5 [Q–T]10 [V–X]8, with final blank [X]8 but without preliminary blank [a]1; printed in gothic letter in two columns, incipit printed in red, woodcut printer’s device in red below colophon, printshop rubrication comprising larger initials supplied in red and heightened with silver, a few with penwork decoration, red initial-strokes, paraphs, and underlining, final blank leaf (partially laid down) with large red ink rosette on verso, manuscript quiring and catchwords largely trimmed; light dampstain to outer margin of [a]6–7, very occasional marginal marks or smudges, neat marginal repairs to [m]4 and [P]1, but a magnificent copy; bound in eighteenth-century French red morocco by Luc-Antoine Boyet (attributed in the Syston Park catalogue, see below), spines richly gilt in compartments with gilt green morocco lettering-pieces, edges gilt, marbled endpapers, blue ribbon place-markers, traces of index tabs, offsetting from former quire guards of manuscript waste (of which some in Hebrew); spines sunned, extremities a little rubbed; contemporary or early annotations in red and brown inks to approx. 6 pp. and a few scattered reading marks, seventeenth-century ink ownership inscription ‘Fratrum Augustinensium Spirae’ to upper margin of [a]2, eighteenth-century note in French on verso of flyleaf, engraved armorial bookplate and monogram booklabel of Sir John Hayford Thorold to front pastedown, with his pencil notes (see below), later manuscript shelflabel to front boards.
First edition of this collection of sermons based on the Ten Commandments, devised for both confessors and preachers, printed by Peter Schoeffer, Gutenberg’s assistant and, after Gutenberg himself, ‘the most influential individual in the early history of the printed word’ (White, p. xi).
Henricus de Herp (or Herpf, 1410–1477) was a Dutch Franciscan and mystic, and a rector of the Brothers of the Common Life at Delft and later at Gouda: during his rectorship he ‘set up and encouraged the work most characteristic of the Brethren: book production. Books at Gouda were copied, illuminated, and bound, and Herp himself took part in collation’ (Ford, p. 229). This is his only work to be printed in his lifetime; a second edition was issued in 1481. Though not explicitly mystical per se, they ’form the basis of Herp’s mystical theology. Obedience to the ten commandments is fundamental to progressing towards spiritual perfection. Servitude to God, obedience to His law, and rejection of vice all constitute the “active” life’ (ibid., p. 231). The printer, Peter Schoeffer (c. 1425–1502/1503), began his career as an apprentice in Gutenberg’s workshop; he states in the colophon that the book was produced by the ingenious art of printing and with no ink, quill, or pen (‘imprimendi arte ingeniosa ... non atramento plumali ereaque penna cannave’).
‘Schoeffer was the only printer whose work spanned the entire infancy of printing, from the invention of the art to the beginning of the new century ... [His] career as a printer was distinguished by many firsts. In addition to participating in the printing of the Gutenberg Bible, he and Johann Fust printed a Psalter in 1457 that was the first book imprinted with its date of publication, the first book printed throughout in multiple colors, the first with decorative initials, and the first with a colophon identifying its makers. Fust and Schoeffer later printed the first book written by a post-biblical author, the first books with a publisher’s trademark, the first dated Bibles, the first books with a printed title page, the first books set in a smaller font designed for private study, the first law books, the first book written by a living author, and what is perhaps the first printed Classical text, which included the first Greek type. Schoeffer also has been credited with the artistic and technical expertise that made Fust’s commercial success possible ... Throughout, Schoeffer’s work set standards for beauty and excellence that would profoundly influence the history of the printed word’ (White, p. xi).
Provenance:
1. Seventeenth-century inscription of the Augustinians of Speyer at head of first leaf of vol. I.
2. Eighteenth-century French bibliographical notes to flyleaf stating that the copy at the Gaignat sale of 1769 (lot 341) sold for 90 francs.
3. Bought from Longman by Sir John Hayford Thorold (1773–1831), with his pencil notes to flyleaf, monogrammed bookplate, and Syston Park bookplate. The library at Syston Park, formed by Sir John Hayford Thorold and his father, Sir John Thorold (1734–1815) was notable for its extraordinary collection of incunabula, Aldines, and Greek and Latin classics, including many on vellum; when dispersed in 1884, both the Gutenberg Bible and the 1462 Fust–Schoeffer Psalter on vellum were bought by Quaritch.
4. The Syston Park sale, Sotheby’s, 12–20 December 1884, lot 915, £10 10s to Quaritch.
HC 8523*; BMC I 30; GW 12226; Goff H39; BSB-Ink H-218; Bod-Inc H-019; ISTC ih00039000; see Ford, Christ, Plato, Hermes Trismegistus I.2 (1990), and White, Peter Schoeffer, Printer of Mainz: A Quincentenary Exhibition at Bridwell Library (2003).
