Details
ANONYMOUS GERMAN, 15TH CENTURY
Saint Catherine of Alexandria
woodcut with hand-colouring, circa1470-80, on laid paper, a good and well-preserved impression of this large, undescribed early woodcut, the contemporary hand-colouring in red, green, yellow and light brown, with gum arabic on the red dress, the sheet mounted as a paste-down to the versoof a 15th-century German book cover, a thick, calf-covered wooden board, diapered with blind triple fillets, the sheet with various small 15th- and 16th-century ink inscriptions in Latin and Greek in the blank background and margins
Block 274 x 195 mm.
Sheet 338 x 217 mm.
Board 345 x 225 mm.
Literature
Not in Schreiber.
Special notice
-
Brought to you by
Stefano FranceschiSpecialist
A Christie's specialist may contact you to discuss this lot or to notify you if the condition changes prior to the sale.

Lot Essay

The earliest inscription on this sheet, in the upper right corner in a German hand, can be dated to the late 15th century and is near-contemporary with the print. It reads:
Nu[n]c lege nu[n]c ora nu[n]c cu[m] fervore labora
Nu[n]c co[n]templa[r]e nu[n]c scripturas meditare
No[n] sis in pausa ne mortis sis tibi causa
Sic erit hora brevis et labor levis

Just below this is an early 16th-century ownership inscription:
Ao 1518 Michi […] Dno Georgi Pobeidezas […]

The inscription in Greek to the right of the saint reads:
γνῶθι σεαυτόν ('know thyself')

The partially legible inscription to her left is roughly translatable as 'nothing is granted to God that isn’t given by God’:
phi […] ad cognita[s]
[…]
nullus ad deu[m] accedit ex se
nisi […] datur a deo

The inscription on the hem of her dress refers to the moon and the night:
ultra concavi[…] orbis lune nocturnalis […]

We are grateful to our colleague Eugenio Donadoni from the Books & Manuscripts department for deciphering these inscriptions.

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