Bede the VenerableBiblio.com
VENERABILIS BEDAE Presbyteri Theologi doctissimi in Sanctum Iesu Christi Secundum IOHANNEM EUANGELIUM EXPOSITIO LUCULENTISSIMA Bede's Exposition of the Gospel of John
1539505317Michaelis Vascosani Michel Vascosan 1539. Leather. NEAR FINE. 4 218pp. 9 Index. Folio in 6's collation complete: 2 A3-T6 2. Vulgate text printed in larger font with woodcut drop caps marginal references. Nicely bound in recent vellum with hand-written spine title in a convincing antiquarian hand. Some light staining to the edges small wormhole to top margin toward the gutter not affecting text; else FINE internally; a nice fresh copy. Bede the Venerable was one of the greatest minds of the Middle Ages and his immense learning is on full display in this commentary on the Fourth Gospel drawing on the church fathers as well as interlocating Old Testament and intertextual references. Bede had a particular devotion to the Johnannine gospel; his translation of the Vulgate into Old English is held as the first vernacular translation. The value of this particular edition is due to its significance in the history of printing. Vascosan set up his press 1530 under the banner of his father in law the famed printer Badius and adorned his title pages with the Badius printer's device through the decade. For reasons unclear possibly a dispute with relatives sharing an interest in the firm in 1539 Vascosan stopped using the Badius device. Rather than cut his own device Vascosan simply printed his title pages without one remarkably becoming the first printer to forego this branding tool that was so essential to printer differentiation in an age when books were sold without bindings. While his motivations at the outset are unclear it may have been simply needing to sell some books before a proper device could be cut he took a liking to it and maintained this style throughout his career. Today he is remembered as a pioneer of this 'unadorned elegance of his editions' Oxford Companion to the Book p. 1238. His text-only title pages were 'a harbinger of a new approach to title pages. Vascosan’s decision flew in the face of the Parisian and more generally European book-trade where printers’ devices had played a vital role in the identification and marketing of printers’ and booksellers’ output. He was trail-blazing a new method of promoting his works – a minimalist style which would challenge the use of ornate devices so popular among the first generation of Parisian printers and booksellers. Coupled with his rejection of a printer’s device was what one might call his ‘purification’ of the title page for his title pages are incredibly simple in style the whiteness of the paper dominating. Henri-Jean Martin wittily calls this ‘the graphic mode’ of ‘solemnization of the title page’ as opposed to the second ‘monumental mode’ which by the end of the sixteenth century became saturated with symbols and architectural motifs.' Exhibition Catalog 'Printing in Sixteenth-Century France at the Edward Worth Library.' While we cannot speculate on the priority of printings within the year 1539 we can say that no other copies of a 1539 Vascosan imprint are available in trade at this time and only one appears in auction records. OCLC 60698411 listes 8 copies. Michaelis Vascosani [Michel Vascosan] unknown
Arches Bookhouse · États-Unis2 970,00 $US≈ 2 512,92 €
