Ars moriendi.

Accession number: 
PML 274
Uniform title: 
Ars moriendi (Block book). German.
Published: 
[Germany, Region of Lake Constance], [ca. 1465]
Description: 
[14] leaves : illustrated (woodcuts); 15 x 10.5 cm (8vo)
Credit Line: 
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1909.
Notes: 

11 woodcuts printed on the versos of the leaves with the manuscript text on the facing recto.
Collation: [7]²: 14 leaves, leaf [1]/1 blank. Schreiber collated as 1¹⁴.
Manuscript text begins (leaf [1]/2r): "Syd dem mol der ga[n]g des tods us disem gege[n]wirtige[n] ellend vo[n] unwissenheit des sterbe[n]s vil l[e]ute[n] geistlich un[d] weltliche[n] ze mol schwer... (f. [7]/2v)... Un[d] sprech de[n]n. H[er]re gib mir den liechte[n] schin des obe[n]des d[as] mir d[as] lebe[n] niem[er] empfall sund[er] d[er] lon dins leilige[n] (tods) mir anla[n]ge. die weige. er. AMEN."
Paper format: Chancery octavo.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 14 x 10 cm, trimmed.
PML copy missing 2 leaves: [1]/1 (blank) and [4]/2 (leaf 8), replaced in (early?) pen facsimile without manuscript text on recto but with red headlines. Facsimile image copied from Ed. IV (Southern Germany/Ulm, ca. 1475-1490).
Schreiber attributed the woodcuts to copies after Master E.S.
The text is different from that of the larger and earlier edition, but has much in common with the Speculum artis bene moriendi of Cardinal Capranica written in 1452.
Weigel dates to 1475-80 and Schreiber to ca. 1465.
Woodcuts and text are nearly identical to Edition XI (Basel, UB, A IX 23a), except the woodcut lines are slightly thicker in the Basel copy.

Binding: 
1/4 black morocco with paper sides by Duprez Lahey, 1938.
Inscriptions/Markings: 

Watermark: leaf 3. Gothic "P" with split tail, lower part. Divided between leaves [2]/2-[3]/1 (leaves 4-5) botton of letter. similar to Piccard IV, IX 1642 (Heitersheim, 1460-1461).
Watermark: leaf 4. Gothic "P", upper part.
Watermark: leaf 13. Fragment of watermark ( tip of a crown?).
Hand decoration: Woodcuts are hand colored. Red manuscript running headlines and numerals under each woodcut.

Provenance: 
T.O. Weigel (1812-1881); his sale, Leipzig, 27 May 1872, no. 239 for 141 Marks; Wilhelm Ludwig Schreiber (1855-1932), but not in his sale, Gilhofer & Ranschburg (Vienna), 3-4 March 1909; Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased from Leo Olschki, 1909.
Classification: 
Century: 
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