Imperatorum romanorum libellus. (Strassburg, Wolfgangus Cephalaeus, 1526). [Bound with]: LAMBERT OF HERSFELD. Quisquis es gloriae Germanicae et maiorum studiosus, hoc utare ceu magustro libello. Tübingen, Ulrich Morhard, Aug.
HUTTICH, (Joannes)
I. Delightful historiated and ornamental woodcut border of playful putti cavorting among vines, squirting copious amounts of wine into fat bellied Bacchus and his wife (fore-edge just cropped); 264 medallion portraits, white on black, (with some blank in centre) of the Roman Emperors from Julius Caesar to Ferdinand I. Koepfle's device on title and a larger version on the last leaf verso.
2 works in one vol. Small 8vo. [8], "82" [i.e. 89], [3]ff.; [178]ff. 17th century blind-panelled pigskin with large ornament of Justice in centre of upper cover with "O.I.F.V.K. 1631" stamped in gilt, lower cover with large arabesque ornament in centre (lower cover a little wormed). 1525
I. Second edition, a reprint of the first of 1525, but with a new title woodcut border from Hans Weiditz, probably the most charming of all his borders (see A.F. Johnson, German Renaissance Title-Borders, no. 40). Some of the portraits are by Weiditz, the final five are particularly fine because they are based on actual likenesses of the people depicted.
II. The second book in the volume is the first edition of the chronicle of Lambert of Hersfeld, one of the best sources for the history of 11th century Germany; this copy is the issue without the letter of Melanchthon, found on the verso of the title-page in only a few copies, which reveals that Melanchthon had found the manuscript in a monastery in Wittenberg, and that he had not been able to establish the identity of the author. The editor of the work is Caspar Churrer, a Tübingen scholar, who dedicates the book to Wilhelm and Georg von Waldburg whose benificentia paid for its production.
Some contemporary MS. marginalia, particularly in second work.
A little worming affecting last three leaves, otherwise in good condition.
I) VD16 H6473. Not in Adams, BMSTC copy incomplete.
II) Adams G496. VD16 L161. Steiff, Der erste Buchdruck in Tübingen, 1881, no. 106.
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