Leonardus de Utino's Sermons

Leonardus de Utino's Sermons
Stephan Koblinger, 1479
LEONARDUS DE UTINO (c.1400-1469). Sermones quadragesimales de legibus dicti. Vicenza: Stephan Koblinger, 24 November 1479.

Lenten sermons, 1479, in a contemporary deerskin binding. The present edition is a reprint of the first edition, printed in 1473 at Venice by Franciscus Renner and Nicolaus de Frankfordia. Koblinger probably trained in Renner's office, as all three of Koblinger's signed Vicenza editions show connections with Renner, including the unusual method of signing using the alphabet followed by arabic numerals. By 1481 Koblinger had returned to his native Vienna, where he was almost certainly responsible for the production of a German-Italian vocabulary and seven or eight other unsigned tracts, printed in 1482 and 1485. ABPC and RBH record only one other copy since 1960, from the Nakles sale. HC 16121; BMC VII 1043; BSB-Ink L-124; Bod-inc L-077; IGI 5734; Goff L-148; ISTC il00148000

Chancery folio (307 x 199mm). 404 leaves. Large red initials with brown flourishes, red paragraph marks (some dampstaining and marginal wormholes, final leaf and rear flyleaf detached). Contemporary deerskin over wooden boards, metal bosses, clasps, leather index tabs, remains of paper label on upper board, gauffered edges (rebacked, new endpapers with window for early inscription on front board, lacking 5 bosses, boards quite soiled and worn, joints starting). Provenance: copious early marginalia, including contemporary inscription on inside board – Tyrol, Benedictine Abbey of St. Georgenberg (several inscriptions, one dated 1661).