Ars moriendi.

Accession number: 
PML 3
Uniform title: 
Ars moriendi (Block book)
Published: 
[Netherlands (or Lower Rhine)], [approximately 1466-1467]
Description: 
24 unnumbered leaves : woodcuts ; 23 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902. NNPM
Notes: 

Title from caption, leaf [1]/1v.
Imprint from Xylo-Bav and watermark identification.
Questionably attributed to Lower Rhine production since image plates were later used in two typographic editions printed by Nicholas Götz at Cologne about 1475, see ISTC ia01114000 and ia01114200.
Collation: [1-12²]: 24 leaves. Signed on the text leaf of each bifolium: a-[m] (sometimes repeated on image plates); no signature on final bifolium, [m].
Paper format: Chancery folio.
Order of text in edition IIA (preface, Infidelity/Faith, Despair, Avarice, Impatience/Patience, Vain Glory, death) different than standard order cited in Schrieber (preface, Infidelity/Faith, Despair, Impatience/Patience, Vain Glory, Avarice, death).
Printing states differentiated by the recutting of leaves 17, 19, 21, and 23 (Schreiber identified as leaves 13, 15, 17, and 23 based on standard order) for state B.
Printed in brown ink, on one side of the paper only.
PML copy is 9 leaves (of 24): leaves 16-24 (leaves 1-15 are PML 198786); includes the first states of leaves 17, 19 , 21, and 23. NNPM

Binding: 
Not bound. Individual leaves in 4-flap red cloth portfolio; in morocco case. NNPM
Inscriptions/Markings: 

Watermark: folio 7a. Unicorn. Variant 1) Unicorn with longer tail and front leg closer to chain line. Stevenson dates as Metz, ca. 1466. NNPM
Watermark: folio 8a. Unicorn. Variant 2) Unicorn with pointy horn and thin body. NNPM
Watermark: folio 9a. Unicorn. Variant 2) Unicorn with pointy horn and thin body. NNPM
Watermark: folio 9b. Unicorn. Variant 1) Unicorn with longer tail and front leg closer to chain line. Stevenson dates Metz, ca. 1466. NNPM
Hand decoration: Woodcut plates partially hand-colored in brown, reddish-brown, green, and blue washes. Initial Q (leaf [8]/2r/sign. k2) colored blue and initial S (leaf [12]/2r/sign. [m]2) colored red. Capitals on leaf [12]/2r/sign. [m]2 with red capital strokes. Death woodcut (leaf [12]/1v/sign. [m]1) with elements outlined or highlighted in rubricator's red, including capital strokes to capitals in banderoles. NNPM

Provenance: 
The Schönborn-Morgan (PML 198786) and Bennett-Morgan (PML 3) leaves were originally one copy, and form the only complete extant copy of edition IIA; the Bennett-Morgan leaves were separated at an unknown date, by 1900. Jacques Rosenthal (Munich), Catalogue 24, Incunabula typographica: catalogue d'une collection d'incunables décrits et offerts aux amateurs (1900), no. 143, not priced; Richard Bennett (1849-1930), unknown acquisition but likely from Rosenthal, collection purchased by: Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), 1902, collection inherited by his son: J.P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), collection transferred to: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1924. NNPM
Classification: 
Department: