An artful 'frankenbook'
£3,750
[Legal handbook] Flores legum sive congeries auctoritatum Juris civilis ... [bound with six further items; mostly Cologne c.1503-1510].
‘Make do with what you have’ seems to be the recurring theme behind this post-incunable legal sammelband, which shows the improvisation found in early book production.
On the most granular level, this applies to a copy here of the Tractatus iudiciorum, a work on judicial procedure by the famous Italian jurist Bartolus de Saxoferrato (1313-1357). Our copy has component quires from different editions issued about two years apart by Cologne-based printer Cornelius van Zierickzee. The result is bibliographically curious but textually coherent, as both editions cast off at the same place. Are we perhaps witnessing a printer finding a clever use for surplus (and, crucially, interoperable) material from a previous print run?
The compiler of this sammelband seems to have have been similarly resourceful, using component pieces from two anthology-style legal works and updating their title pages accordingly to show the material not available (or simply not selected) for inclusion. For example, a Tractatus iudiciorum in the final item would have been redundant, given that the text already appeared earlier in the sammelband. Some items in this volume are more worn than others, suggesting prior circulation and reinforcing the impression that our compiler was working with whatever they could get their hands on.
This economising strategy is perhaps not something we would expect to encounter in a book that later entered a grand monastic library (Buxheim Charterhouse). Interestingly, this book does not seem to have been sold along with much of Buxheim library in the 1880s, when the Bassenheim family were in financial difficulties. In the 1930s, a descendant wrote a nostalgic note on the pastedown, harking back to better times.
Contents
- Flores legum sive congeries auctoritatum Juris civilis ... [Cologne, Cornelius von Zierickzee, 1507]. VD16 F 1664.
- A ‘hybrid’ version of Bartolus de Saxoferrata’s Tractatus Iudiciorum and Tractatus Renuntiatiorum using components excerpted from two anthology-style editions (Cologne, Cornelius von Zierickzee, c. 1503 and c.1505), and possibly combined this way by the printer or bookseller. Sigs. A1-8 from VD16 M 5749 (component VD16 B 599), cf. ISTC ib00245500. Sigs. B1-6 from VD 16 B 597 (component VD16 B 607), cf. ISTC ib00245700. Quire B would have originally had 8 leaves, with the next text (Processus Sathane) starting on B7v, which the compiler has excluded (cf. title page crossing out).
- Ars notariatus [Cologne, Johann Landen, c.1506]. VD16 A 3817.
- Andreae, Johannes: Summa Johannis Andree compendiosa et utilis ordinata super secundo decretalium… [Cologne, Cornelius von Zierickzee, c. 1503]. VD16 J 350.
- Andreae, Johannes: Summa Johannis Andree super quarto decretalium … [Cologne, Cornelius von Zierickzee, c. 1503]. VD16 J 338.
- [Albericus de Rosate, Corti, Franceschino]: Tractatus de testibus practicabilis ac necessarius valde tabellionibus causidicis judicibus … Paris, Jean Petit [1510]. USTC 186718, FB 5216.
- Modus legendi abbreviaturas in utroque jure... [Cologne, Martin von Werden, 1505]. Only the first text (remaining texts accordingly crossed out on title page). VD16 M 5751; ISTC im00751830. We have not located any copies containing more content than ours. Perhaps no complete copies are extant, and the title page is misleading.
Physical Description
Printed. Seven items in one volume (item 2 a hybrid of two imprints), 13.6 x 9.8 cms in binding, octavo, ff. [52] [14] [8] [8] [12] [96] 24 (ff. 214 overall; modern pencil foliation). Selected titles crossed out on the title pages of items 2 and 7. Five woodcut illustrations (two in item 1 and one in each of item 3, 4, and 5). Decorative floral woodcuts to title page of item 1. Printer’s device to title page of item 6, and metal cut initials in the text.
Bound in blind-tooled alum-tawed pigskin over boards. Front cover stamped with initials DCS, both covers decorated with rolls depicting the Evangelists (most similar to Einbanddatenbank r004293) and various acorn stamps. Green textile ties. Buxheim shelfmark label to spine (O 30). Traces of a stamped year, perhaps ‘..67’ (i.e. 1567?) possibly faintly visible. Copper finding tabs.
Condition (textblock): early reinforcing strips to rectos of first two leaves (some of decorative woodcut to first title page supplied probably at an early date to judge from ink and nib used; recto to second leaf has loss to ends of 16 lines of text, less loss to verso). Otherwise, browning and some staining, title page of item 7 loosening, a few small tears to blank outer margins, one quire with strengthening to blank gutters probably from time of binding. Condition (binding): wear at edges, headcap lacking, some staining and soiling, ties fraying (one repaired with pink thread).
Provenance
- Unidentified initials to binding (DCS).
- Early MS annotations in multiple hands, especially in item 1. This includes underlining and notes relating to passages on women’s qualities, such as their fragility and loquaciousness (fol. [30r]).
- Formerly in Buxheim Charterhouse Library (stamp to fol. [1v] of item 1, characteristic shelfmark label to spine).
- Apparently not sold by the Waldbott von Bassenheim family when they auctioned much of Buxheim library in the 1880s due to bankruptcy, but still owned by a descendant in 1932: ‘Zur Erinnerung an unsere gemeinsame schone Heimat und anvergange bessere Tage Munchen 29 August 1932. Heinrich Graf Bassenheim’ (note to front pastedown).
- Modern notes, mostly in pencil and to endpapers.
Bibliography
Charterhouse Buxheim and its Library, website associated with project begun at Yale University in 1998, accessible via https://buxheimlibrary.org/
Voulliéme, Ernst. Der Buchdruck Köln bis zum ende des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts (Bonn, H. Behrendt, 1903), pp. lxxv-lxxvii (for Cornelius von Zierickzee).
