DÜRER, ALBRECHT. 1471-1528., GERSON, JOHANNES. 1362-1429.

Opera. Prima paris operum. [Bound after: ] Inventarium. [Edited by Peter Schott und Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg.] [Nuremberg: Georg Stuchs], 22 November, 1489.

GERSON, JOHANNES. 1362-1429. Opera. Prima paris operum. [Bound after: ] Inventarium. [Edited by Peter Schott und Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg.] [Nuremberg: Georg Stuchs], 22 November, 1489.
2 parts (of 4, with vol 1 of 3 of the opera and one vol Inventurium). 4to (232 x 168 mm), 240 and 52 leaves. 50 lines, 2 columns. Types. 3:68G, 4:132G. Large woodcut illustration possibly by Albrecht Dürer. (appears 2 times), initial spaces filled with red and blue Lombard initials, red paragraph marks. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, brass catch plates, backstrip and portions of leather on sides removed, upper cover starting; cloth folding case; intermittent some light browning.

Fourth edition, with the woodcut on verso of title pages possibly executed by Dürer during his apprenticeship, the second reprint of the Strasbourg edition of 1488, the model for all subsequent editions of the works of the popular French theologian and mystic Johannes Gerson, who held the position of chancellor at the Paris Sorbonne. The pretty full-page woodcut, repeated once, shows the author as a pilgrim to St. James with his coat of arms, walking stick and the small dog accompanying him in the rocky landscape. In the background a city on the water. The woodcut by the monogramist "T" (on the coat of arms in the heart) is said to be based on a template by Albrecht Dürer. "All volumes of this fourth edition have the same frontispiece.... Today the young Dürer is recognized as the creator, who above all changed the background. He shows the Inn valley at Rattenberg, whose Castle had been assigned as residence by Duke Albrecht of Bavaria to Gerson "(Schäfer). BSB-Ink G-185; Goff G-188; GW 10716; HC 7623; Schäfer 140.