• MEDITATIONES VITAE CHRISTI. Augsburg: Günther Zainer, 12 March 1468

Collections:
Attributed name:
  • Bonaventure, Saint, Cardinal, approximately 1217-1274
  • Johannes, de Caulibus, active 14th century
Curatorial Note:
  • Günther Zainer, who brought printing to Augsburg, presumably first worked in the Strasbourg shop of Johann Mentelin: he acquired citizenship in Strasbourg in 1463 by marriage to the daughter of a burgher. Zainer’s first book, a widely popular collection of meditations on the life and resurrection of Jesus, was often attributed to St. Bonaventure, but is here presented as an anonymous writing. In the later Middle Ages, floods of unnamed theological tractates were attributed in scribal copies to the major fathers of the Church, notably Augustine and Jerome, Bonaventure and Aquinas. Zainer’s first type font possibly reflects an influence from Mentelin’s fonts, for it includes an awkwardly shaped ampersand. The paper of the Meditationes came not from Italy, the source of paper in the earliest Strasbourg printing, but from a paper mill in Zainer’s native town of Reutlingen, south of Stuttgart.
Bookseller:
  • Sotheby's (Firm)
Provenance:
  • WHS copy formerly owned by Court Library at Donaueschingen, acquired from Sotheby's London.
Former owner:
  • Fürstlich Fürstenbergische Hofbibliothek (Donaueschingen, Germany)
Language:
  • Latin
Call number:
  • 33.13
Extent:
  • 72 leaves (first leaf blank) ; 28.4 x 20.5 cm. (Chancery fol.)
Format:
  • Book
Description:
  • Formerly attributed to St. Bonaventure, now attributed to Johannes de Caulibus.
  • Signatures: 1¹⁰,2-4⁸,5-7¹⁰,8⁸.
  • WHS copy lacks blank first leaf.
  • WHS copy rubricated with initials in red or blue with contrasting red or blue penwork decoration, a few large initials with brushwork and penwork extensions, paragraph marks and capital strokes in red; occasional underlining in ink.
Publisher:
  • Augustae Vindelicorum [Augsburg] : Gintherus Zainer, 1468.
Subject:
  • Incunabula—Germany
Title sort:
  • Meditationes vitae Christi.
Binding note:
  • WHS copy in nineteenth-century glazed white paper boards, printed spine label.
References:
  • Sotheby's London. Incunabula Donaueschingen, 65
  • Goff B-893
  • GW 4739
  • Hain *3557
  • Proctor 1520 (6 Augsburg 1-1)
  • Pellechet 2700
  • Brit. Mus., v. 2, p. 315 (IB. 5402)
  • Donau. Inc. 101
  • Distelbrink 166
Printer:
  • Zainer, Günther, d. 1478
Created:
  • 1468-01-01T00:00:00Z
Date:
  • 1468
Identifier:
  • ark:/88435/nv935732x
Location:
  • WHS 33.13
Edm rights:
  • No Known Copyright
Range label:
  • Logical
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Available online: