Jacobus Magni, c.1470

MAGNI, Jacobus (c.1365–c.1415). Sophologium. [Strasbourg: The ‘R-printer’ (Adolf Rusch), c.1470].

The rare first edition of Jacobus Magni’s florilegium on medicine and moral philosophy. The collection reflects on human vice and virtue, excerpting passages on morality as well as the natural sciences from authors as wide-ranging as Terence, the Persian astrologer Abu Mashar, Saint Paul and Chaucer. Sections on medicine instruct the reader on how it can ‘vel tueter, vel restaurant salute’ (either protect [the body] or restore it to health) and later likens medicine to the work’s major subject matter: ‘Virtus medicina est corporis pariter et anime’ (Virtue is as much medicine for the body as the soul). Extremely popular, the Sophologium was reprinted numerous times throughout the Renaissance, including by William Caxton, who published an English translation entitled The Book of Good Manners. This first edition was published by Adolf Rusch, known as the 'R-Printer' due to the curious shape of his capital R. HC *10472; BMC I 61; BSB-Ink M-21; CIBN L-97; GW M17664; Goff M-38; Klebs 595.2; ISTC im00038000.

Chancery folio (279 × 204mm). 219 leaves. Larger blue initials with red pen flourishing, red, blue and particolor Lombards, red paragraph marks and underlining, Roman type (very few scattered old stains). Contemporary Hildesheim blindstamped calf [EBDB w000207, Christuskopf workshop], straps and catchplates, leather knotted index tabs dyed blue and pink, painted library label ‘F’ at foot of spine, pricking visible in lower margin and occasionally top margin (flyleaves removed, very neatly rebacked preserving original spine); custom box and chemise. Provenance: 'A.R.D. Walmer'? (gift inscription to Jesuits dated 1759).