Aquinas's Catena aurea

Aquinas's Catena aurea
Conrad Fyner, 1475?
THOMAS AQUINAS (c.1225-1274). Catena aurea super quattuor evangelistas. [Esslingen: Conrad Fyner, 1475?].

A tall copy of a stately book from the press of Esslingen's first printer. The unusual initials, here hand-colored in red, include an outline E showing a tree, a D and I with acorns, an L with a dog, an R and foliated S. It is thought that Fyner served his apprenticeship at Strasbourg in the printing office of Heinrich Eggestein, and his first type is undoubtedly modelled on Eggestein's Type 3. HC 1329*; BMC II 515; BSB-Ink T-199; Bod-inc T-133; Goff T-228; ISTC it00228000.

Royal folio (400 x 283mm). 416 leaves (of 417, without final blank). Woodcut initials hand-colored in red, some with figural decoration, capital strokes in red (blank corners of first 4 leaves repaired, dampstaining, some worming at ends, a little toning). Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards, index tabs (joints cracked and repaired, losses to leather on boards, lacking catchplates and straps). Provenance: marginalia – acquired from Bernard M. Rosenthal, Inc, New York, 7 May 1957.