MARRIAGE, THE MOON, A MANUAL FOR CONFESSORS, AND MORE
[INCUNABLE SAMMELBAND.]
Sammelband of ten works.
Rome, Stephan Plannck and Eucharius Silber, c. 1481–1491.
Ten works in one volume, 4to; occasional light staining, a few small spots; nonetheless very good copies; binding retaining panels of contemporary (German or Flemish?) blind-stamped sheep, laid down on a later calf binding, boards blind-tooled to a panel design, central panel diapered with fleur-de-lys tool, outer panels with two alternating floral tools, edges stained purple; somewhat rubbed, with a few superficial cracks, tailcap chipped; early signature ‘Gentonis’ in a French hand at foot of annotation on final leaf verso, early sixteenth-century annotations to a further c. 27 pp. in the same hand, nineteenth-century French list of contents loosely inserted.
A sammelband of ten Roman incunables, nine of which printed by Stephan Plannck, covering subjects from astronomy to usury, holy water to marriage, and ending with St Antoninus’s manual for confessors, our copy with early annotations and partially preserving its original binding.
Stephan Plannck, of Passau (c. 1457–1501), began his printing career probably as an apprentice in the workshop of Ulrich Han in Rome (active from 1467), which he then took over in 1478–9. He became the most prolific printer in Rome in the fifteenth century, in particular producing works for the Curia, a practical business decision as the papal bureaucracy then formed the primary market for books in Rome.
The first item of the present sammelband, the Lunarium of Bernat de Granollachs (1421–1485), contains lunar tables for the years 1490–1550, indicating the phases of the moon, the dates of moveable feasts, and details of eclipses visible from Barcelona. These tables were first issued in around 1484 and reprinted in various languages (including Catalan) and in various locations in Spain and Italy, as well as Lyons, up to the 1520s. This is a reprint of the 1487 Plannck edition, which was most likely the first Latin printing, though without the (then-redundant) years of 1488–9.
The other works in the volume, by authors including Aquinas, Seneca, Antoninus Florentinus, and Johannes de Turrecremata, are of practical use to canon lawyers and confessors, dealing with the Penitential Canons, the cardinal virtues and moral theology, and the sacraments. These were for the most part printed in Rome regularly in the 1470s and 1480s, indicating their utility for the workings of the Curia.
The present volume, preserving fragments of its original binding, represents a rare survival and indicates subjects of interest to the original owner. The annotations, spanning the entire volume in a single early hand, attest to an engagement with a wide variety of subject matter: for the most part they pick out phrases from the text or expand upon them, from usury to consanguinity to exorcism, with a note (to the first work) on the page with an almanack for 1535, about the death of Andreas Terbolan(?) on the penultimate day of December.
Comprising:
i. GRANOLLACHS, Bernardus de. Lunarium ab anno 1490 ad annum 1550. [Rome, Stephan Plannck, 1490.] Ff. [33] (of 34, without initial blank), last leaf blank, gothic letter, numerous small woodcut diagrams of the moon, early marginalia to 1 p. ISTC ig00339000 (listing six copies: Dillingen, Munich, Västerås, Basel, Harvard, and the Vatican); Sander 3224.
ii. ROSELLIS, Antonius de. De ieiuniis. Rome, Stephan Plannck, 21 January 1486. Ff. [6], gothic letter. ISTC ir00324000 (listing thirty-three copies).
iii. ESCOBAR, Andreas de. Canones poenitentiales. [Rome, Eucharius Silber, c. 1491.] Ff. [8], gothic letter. ISTC ia00658000 (listing twelve copies).
iv. ROSELLIS, Antonius de. De usuris. [Rome, Stephan Plannck, c. 1488.] Ff. [6]; gothic letter. Small loss to lower margin of [a]5, not affecting text. ISTC ir00332000 (listing twelve copies).
v. ANDREAE, Johannes. Summa de sponsalibus et matrimoniis. [Rome, Stephan Plannck, c. 1490.] Ff. [8]; gothic letter; marginal paperflaw to f. [2]. ISTC ia00643000 (listing seventeen copies).
vi. ‘SENECA, Lucius Annaeus’ [but Martinus DUMIENSIS, Archbishop of Braga]. De quattuor virtutibus cardinalibus, sive de formula honestae vitae. [Rome, Stephan Plannck, 1490] Ff. [4]; gothic letter. ISTC is00413000 (listing thirteen copies).
vii. TURRECREMATA, Johannes de. De efficacia aquae benedictae. [Rome, Stephan Plannck, c. 1481–1487.] Ff. [10]; gothic letter. ISTC it00511000 (listing thirty-six copies).
viii. THOMAS AQUINAS. De articulis fidei et ecclesiae sacramentis. [Rome, Stephan Plannck, c. 1488.] Ff. [12], gothic letter. ISTC it00279000 (listing thirteen copies).
ix. DEFECTUS IN MISSA OCCURRENTES. [Rome, Stephan Plannck, c. 1490.] Ff. [6]; slight loss to lower corner of final leaf, some staining to first leaf not affecting legibility. ISTC id00130000 (listing ten copies).
x. ANTONINUS FLORENTINUS. Confessionale: Defecerunt scrutantes scrutinio. Titulus de restitutionibus. Rome, Stephan Plannck, 19 November 1490. 143 leaves (of 144, without final blank), gothic letter, some deckle edges; closed tear to f. xxxix, staining to f. xvii. ISTC ia00824000 (listing twelve copies).
