Leonardus de Utino, 15th cent

Sermones de sanctis

1478

1478

H 16135*; BMC II 489; Goff L160; Kaplan 314; ISTC il00160000

Shoults (Special Collections) Gc/1478/L

Speyer: Peter Drach, 9 February 1478

Oak boards covered with calf; wormed and ripped. Manuscript fragments in gutters. Three clasp joins remain. Raised bands exposed. Spine title reads: Leonhardi/De Huno/Sermones/1478.

Incipit and Prologus page with painted intital (f.1a), binding, colophon with printer's device, and detail of painted initial (f.1a).

Tne first fully dated book bearing Peter Drach's name is the Vocabularius utriusque, completed at Speyer, 18 May 1477. He printed the first edition of Malleus maleficarum [The Witches' Hammer], the foremost legal and theological handbook on witchcraft and demonology. He was known to use a heavy Gothic typeface. His device is an adaptation of the Fust and Schoeffer shield and is present under the colophon (f.349a).

This was a popular work in the Middle Ages. The first 14 leaves (containing index) have been bound at back and f.15 (blank) is wanting. Leaves 16-349 are signed at top centre in early Arabic numerals.

Paper. [350] leaves; 280 x 200 mm (fol.).
Gothic type. Double columns, 42 lines to a column.
F.16a 'Sermones Aurei de Sanctis fris Leonhardi de Utino, sacre theologie doctoris, ordinis Predicatoru feliciter Incipit Prologus.'
F.349a Colophon: 'Finiut aurei Sermonos de sanctis per anni circulu Elegantissimi sacre theologie professoris fratris Leonhardi de Utina ordinis Predicatorum iam de nuo correcti. et cum Tabula noua inuentoria postposita arte et industria Petri Drache Civi Spiren impressi Sub anno Salutis nostre M.cccc.lxxviii. ydus Februarij.'
Rubricated throughout, with some capital spaces unpainted. Hand coloured intitial and flourishes on f.16a.

1. Bibliotheque St Francis Amberge 2. Canon William Ardene Shoults 3. Selwyn College; Otago University Library