A beautiful, rare, contemporary illuminated edition with a complete set of Urs Graf hand-coloured woodcuts. Unique copy.
A beautiful contemporary illuminated edition with a complete set of wood cuts by Urs Graf in contemporary hand colouring; these are a rarity by themselves and the 4 illuminated initials make the book unique.
Six parts in one volume. 33cm x 23cm. Small folio of calf skin over wooden boards entirely blind stamped, double set of blind rules framing a decoration of lozenges on the front board and diagonal trellis design on the rear, the whole covered with leafy flowers and roses; the spine with four raised bands decorated with flowers in the compartments; vestiges of parchment title label at the top, remains of brass clasps Old title piece in paper glued on the back and partially missing. Some of the clasps are missing. (contemporary binding). The title page has a contemporary ink inscription ‘Domines Erfordiensis’ – connecting it to the Diocese of Erfurt. Front and rear pastedowns are C14th vellum Missale manuscript leaves in red and black,
Very rare first edition of the first printed compilation of the statutes of the Carthusian order founded in 1084 by Saint Bruno. Published by Johannes Amerbach, famous printer-librarian who practiced near the Charterhouse of Basle, at the request of Dom Francois Dupuy general of the order from 1503 to 1521, under the direction of Gregor Reisch prior of the Charterhouse of Mont -Saint-Jean-Baptiste near Freiburg im Breisgau close to Erasmus. It includes the Customs drafted by dom Guigues (1127), the old statutes compiled by dom Riffier (1259), the new statutes of dom Guillaume Raynaud (1367), the Third compilation of the statutes of dom Francois Dupuy (1507-1509) a repertoire statutes and a compilation of the papal privileges granted to the order.
This beautiful edition, printed in black-letter, is decorated with 3 large full-page hand-coloured woodcuts and 23 small hand-coloured woodcuts attributed to the painter and engraver Balois urs Graf (1485? -1527?): the origins of the order in nine scenes (f.A2r des Coutumes) a genealogical tree of the first priors of the Grande Chartreuse (f.A1v of the Old Statutes) dom Guillaume Raynaud in the chapter (f.q1v of the new Statuses) dom Francois Dupuy in the chapter (f. v1v of the Third Compliation) the genealogical tree of the first priors of the Grande Chartreuse, surrounded by 17 small portraits representing the papers which granted privileges to the order (f. A1v des Privileges) the 17 portraits (including eight repeated) being drawn again in the course of the text (a single portrait being used for the popes having the same name, the 17 portraits therefore representing 33 popes).
The sixth, the most decorated part, is rarely found complete. Beautiful copy with all wood engravings as called for, plus decorated with four large initials hand illuminated at the time of publication, accompanied by superb arabesques rising or falling in the margin (A4r, a3r, q2v, v3r), the intermediate initials being painted in blue and red and one, larger adorned (h1v) painted red. Collation: Repertorium statuorum ([66]f.;a8, b-h6, i-k8), Statuta Guigonis ([26]f.: A8,B-D6, the last blank), Prima pars statuorum antiquorum ([26]f.:q-s6,t8), Tertia compilation statuorum ([28] f.:v8,x-y6,z8), Privilegia ([10] et 50f.:A10, b-h6, i8, the last 50 pages being numbered from 1 to 50. Our copy lacks only initial blank and 1 leaf from the Register; two leaves of the Customs of Dom Guigues (A1 and A3) are from another copy. Some old annotations. Wormholes just touching some text of the first 68 leaves. Some freckles and spots. A few marginal pencil lines. A few partially restored marginal tears, sometimes significant, including one affecting the text of f.48 and a restored transverse tear to f.50 of the Privilegia. The minor faults notwithstanding, this is overall a clean and crisp contemporary and unrestored copy with good margins of a very rare and beautiful edition.
Provenance: Biblioteque de l ancienne chartreuse d Erfurt (ex-libris)
Bibliographie: Muther, 1285. Adams, G-1559. VD 16, G-4071
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