De Bry Rare Books
Incunable 1491 folio Nuremberg Missale with Full Page Old colour woodcut by Michael Wolgemut
Incunable 1491 folio Nuremberg Missale with Full Page Old colour woodcut by Michael Wolgemut
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Rare folio incunable Missale printed for the Augustinians in Nuremberg and illustrated with a large contemporary coloured woodcut of the passion likely the from the workshop of Michael Wolgemut
-Large folio – 33 x 26cm – in 18 Century pig skin binding
-Incomplete: 248 (of 256 pages)
-Published in Nuremburg by Georg Stuchs - 1491
-[6],a-i10,k6,[6],l-q10,r8 (missing k3, 6 leaves in signature l and y1). Minor browning to sheets, repairs to several pages with losses replaced by ink on some pages. Minor worming. Trimming to 1st leaf (of calendar) and last leaf without loss of image. Old paper repairs to pages sometimes using old manuscript paper).
Printed in black and red ink. Rubrication throughout and single large coloured initial <R= in blue, green, red and yellow ink (?inserted from another copy). Calendar on opening 6 leaves.
This is an important Missale from the famous printing town of Nuremberg produced on the press of the predominantly religious printer Georg Stuchs. The Missale was commissioned by Andreas Proles (1429-1503), a provincial vicar of the Augustinian order in Germany who was an advocate for strict observance of the religious order’s rules.
The book contains a beautiful full page woodcut of the passion in contemporary colour. A second uncoloured woodcut on the final sheet depicts monks kneeling before St Augustinian.
The woodcut of the passion is typical of the period and is similar to those produced in Nuremberg for indulgences, or for use in Missals. It is likely that the print is from the workshop of Michael Wolgemut, the foremost artist and woodblock print maker in Nuremburg at this time, who was most famous for his image of the Dance of Death produced for the 1493 Nuremburg chronicle. The woodcut is very similar to a painting from the Workshop of Wolgemut which survives in St Lorenz Church, Nuremberg which was dedicated to the vicar Georg Rayl who died in 1494.
This woodcut of the passion clearly influenced later woodcuts produced by Durer, including a 1493 composition for a Missale by the Basel printer Gruninger (Meder abb 30, Kurth 85, Fischer 285), and a more elaborate woodcut of the crucifixion produced in Nuremberg in c1495 (Meder Abb 32, Kurth 88, Fischer 343). Durer (1471-1528) had finished his apprenticeship in Nuremberg in 1490, before leaving on his =wanderjahres=. He was in Basel from 1491-93, so it is unlikely that he produced this image.
This printed incunable Missale is rare, with only 20 examples known in institutions and none recorded outside of Europe
GW M23973
With German export license
£17,500
