The doctrinal of sapyence.

Accession number:

PML 699

Uniform title:

Le doctrinal de sapience English.

Published:

Westminster : William Caxton, [after 7 May 1489]

Description:

[92] leaves : illus. (woodcuts) ; 23 cm (fol.)

Credit Line:

Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.

Notes:

An additional chapter (three leaves) is found in one copy printed on vellum (Windsor RL), possibly a presentation copy (ISTC).
Caxton's device, leaf L10v.
Collation: A-I⁸ K-L¹⁰: 92 leaves.
Paper format: Chancery folio
PML copy leaf dimensions: 22.7 x 16.5 cm
PML copy missing 6 leaves: A1, A3 (with woodcut), F4, K3.8 and L3; leaves A1, A3, F4 and L3 replaced in manuscript by William Herbert, and leaf K3.8 replaced in manuscript copying Herbert's hand by Devonshire. Multiple leaves at front and end damaged and repaired (also 18th century?).
Printed in Caxton's type 5:113B.
Probably by an anonymous monk of Cluny. Ascriptions to Guy de Roye and Jean Gerson cannot be upheld (ISTC).
Title and imprint from colophon (leaf L10r): Thus endeth the doctrinal of sapyence the whyche is ryght utile and prouffytable to alle crysten men/ whyche is translated out of Frenshe in to englysshe by wyllyam Caxton at westmester fynysshed the .vii. day of may the yere of our lord / M / cccc lxxx ix. Caxton me fieri fecit.
Translated from the French by William Caxton.
Two woodcuts (Hodnett 318 & 325).

Binding:

Full russian, tooled in gilt and blind over paper boards (24 x 17 cm); rebacked, with fragments of the previous spine preserved separately (in box). Marbled paper pastedowns and fly leaves with plain paper fly leaves; decorative endbands; gilt edges.

Inscriptions/Markings:

Hand decoration: No rubrication required, printed initials. Annotations: Inscription: "Si mea penna valet melior mea littera," 15th/16th century (leaf L10v). 16th-/early 17th-century notes around colophon (leaf L10r) and former fly leaf (laid in box) regarding invention of printing in 1440 and introduction to England by "John Islip" in 1471. Several marginal notes by William Herbert (many bleached/erased) noting differences in Stanesby Alchorne's copy (now John Rylands Library), and note regarding text only found in Windsor RL copy (leaf I2v).

Provenance:

Unidentifed shelf marks: D.4 (second front fly leaf recto) and X Rar. XXB (rear fly leaf recto); William Herbert (1718-1795), manuscript replacements and marginal notes; appeared in several catalogues: Machell Stace, pencil inscription citing ms leaves by Herbert (second front fly leaf recto), A Catalogue of Books and Tracts (1796), no. 1767 (citing a few leaves replaced by Herbert), and Isaac Herbert, A Catalogue of Books (1796), no. 28 and another 1796 catalogue, no. 414; [according to Blades and De Ricci: Richard Farmer (1735-1797) purchased from Herbert but the Farmer sale (7 May 1798) was before Herbert's, also not in Bibliotheca Farmeriana catalogue]; Herbert sale, Arrowsmith and Bowley, 21 Nov. 1798, lot 414; John Towneley (1731-1813), armorial bookplate (front pastedown); his sale, Evans, 8 June 1814, lot 542 (citing 4 wanting leaves in ms), to Devonshire for £63; William Spencer Cavendish (1790-1858), Duke of Devonshire, removed leaf K3.8 to complete his first copy (now at Huntington); his duplicate sale, Evans, 29 May 1815, lot 264, to C. Hutton for £8.12.0; George Allan's sale, Sotheby's, 18 March 1822, lot 662, to Triphook for £5.7.6; Dawson Turner (1775-1858), inscription, 1807(1817?) (second front fly leaf recto); his sale, Part I, 7 March 1853, lot 777 (citing 6 wanting leaves in ms), purchased by Bateman for £28; Thomas Bateman (1821-1861), armorial bookplate (rear pastedown); his sale, Sotheby's, 25 May 1893, lot 559, to Sotheran; Richard Bennett (1849-1930), armorial bookplate (front fly leaf recto), purchased 6 June 1893; Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.

Classification:

Incunable Collection

Catalog Link:

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Genres:

Incunabula

Printers' devices (Printing)

Russia leather bindings (Binding)

Gold tooled bindings (Binding)

Blind tooled bindings (Binding)

Century:

18th century

Department:

Printed Books