AN EARLY WÜRZBURG IMPRINT IN A CONTEMPORARY WÜRZBURG BINDING
[PSALTER. BRUNO, Archbishop of Würzburg, editor.]
Psalterium.
[Würzburg, Georg Reyser, c. 1488–1489.]
Folio, ff. [278]; [*]8 [a]8 [b–z]8/6 [A–H]8/6 [I]7 [K–O]8/6 [P]9, bound without blanks I5 and P10; gothic letter, in two columns, printed in red and black throughout, first initial space with later ink initial B; a few leaves browned, occasional light dampstaining and worming, marginal paperflaws to [t]6, [y]6 and [I]1, [*]2 repaired at edges and chipped with loss of text in upper corner (affecting c. 10 words), conjoint leaf also browned and repaired, but a good copy; bound in contemporary blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards, from the bindery of the Benedictine monastery of Sankt Stephan in Würzburg (EBDB w000064), front board lettered ‘Psalteriū’ in black, two brass catchplates and remains of clasps, coloured plaited endbands, watermark to endleaves of a pot surmounted by a cross [cf. Briquet 12497, Troyes 1488]; binding slightly soiled with a few small wormholes; inscription erased from head of [*]1r (from Sankt Stephan, Würzburg?), nineteenth-century armorial bookplate of Frederic Perkins to front pastedown, with his red ink shelfmark SR/L and (his?) bibliographical note to flyleaf, subsequent bookplate of John Vertue to front pastedown (see below), small paper shelflabel to front board.
First edition of the Psalter with the commentary ascribed to the eleventh-century Bishop of Würzburg, printed at Würzburg by Georg Reyser and in a contemporary Würzburg monastic binding.
The Benedictine monastery of Sankt Stephan in Würzburg had its own bindery, active between around 1485 and 1516 (the monastery was dissolved c. 1803). The elegant printing, with the text of the Psalter in a distinctive large font to allow space for Bruno’s extensive commentary alongside it, is ascribed to Georg Reyser, who was the printer for the diocese of Würzburg from 1479; he also produced liturgies for the use of Würzburg, almanacks, and other official publications. The bishop of Würzburg at this time was Rudolf von Scherenberg, a long-term incumbent of the episcopal throne, from 1466 until his death in 1495; he was an active administrator who consolidated the finances of the diocese and, in particular, sought to standardise the liturgy.
This commentary is attributed to Bruno of Würzburg (c. 1005–1045), a Franconian nobleman appointed as bishop in 1034; it is an assembly of extracts from commentaries written by the Church Fathers as well as Bede, and in particular by Cassiodorus. In common with other eleventh-century commentaries on the Psalms, it contains anti-Semitic interpretations of numerous passages, which were subsequently used to inflame anti-Jewish feeling; in 1488 Rudolf expelled the Jews from his diocese.
Provenance:
1. Frederic Perkins (1780–1860) of Chipstead Place, Kent, brother of the bibliophile and brewer Henry Perkins (whose collection included two Gutenberg bibles and several books printed on vellum). Frederic’s library was sold at Sotheby’s on 10 July 1889 (lot 282, sold to Ridler).
2. John Vertue (1826–1900), appointed the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth in 1882.
HC 4011*; BMC II 571; GW M36219; Goff P1046; BSB-Ink P-832; Bod-Inc P-510; ISTC ip01046000.
