Johannes Balbus, 21 August 1486

BALBUS, Johannes (d. 1298). Catholicon. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 21 August 1486.

Second Koberger edition of the most important Latin dictionary and encyclopedic compendium of the Middle Ages. Universal in scope, the Catholicon draws on sources both ancient and medieval, including Isidore of Seville, Priscian, and Donatus and covers grammar, rhetoric and pronunciation as well as definitions of words; its alphabetical arrangement, now taken for granted for a work of reference, was far from standard at the time of its composition. HC *2258; BMC II 430; BSB-Ink B-15; CIBN B-20; GW 3192; ISTC ib00028000.

Royal folio (406 × 270mm). 326 leaves (of 328, without first and last blanks). Partly rubricated, printed guide-letters, a few gatherings printed on slightly smaller paper (dampstain mostly at upper gutter, a1 stained and repaired with some text in facsimile, a few other repairs at outer margins not affecting text, small stain in quire i, minor worming on first and last leaves). 16th-century German calf over wooden boards blind-tooled with unicorns, double-headed eagle, rosette, and other stamps and hunting and heart roll, catchplates and clasps (rebacked with original spine laid down, tips and endpapers renewed, catchplates and clasps restored). Provenance: Neustadt an der Saale, Carmelite house (early inscription) – Gustav Becker (19th-century inscription and occasional marginalia) – Christie’s, 12 July 2017, lot 209.