Beschreibung:

HONORIUS AUGUSTODUNENSIS (fl.1107-1140). De imagine mundi . [Nuremberg: Anton Koberger 1472?]. Chancery 2° (282 x 199mm). Collation: [1-4 1 0 5 8] (1/1r text, 5/7-8 blank). 46 (of 48, without final two blank) leaves. 30 lines. Type: 2:115G. 6- to 8-line initials in red, paragraph marks and capital strokes in red, title written by rubricator on first leaf. (Minor repairs in last leaf, a few filled wormholes at end, lightly washed with red running slightly.) 18th-century French calf, gilt triple fillet around sides, gilt spine with red and green leather labels, marbled endpapers, red edges. Provenance : 18th-century armorial bookplate with motto: Virtus in haeredes. FIRST EDITION of this work on cosmography, geography, astronomy, meteorology and chronology. Parts of it were silently incorporated by Pierre d'Ailly into his own Imago mundi , which was particularly influential for having been closely consulted by Christopher Columbus in preparation for his voyages to the new world. One of the five earliest books printed by the great and prolific Nuremberg printer Anton Koberger the Honorius was long considered his first book (BMC II, x: '[it] strongly suggests itself for the honour of being the first work of an ambitious printer well supplied with funds'). A recent investigation into this early group has, however, shown by paper evidence that it was the fifth, not the first (cf. J.I. Freeman, 'Anton Koberger's First Books', Princeton University Library Chronicle , 1994, pp.308-322). There has been much speculation over the meaning of 'Augustodunensis '. Rather than being 'of Autun', it probably refers to the imperial city of Regensburg where Honorius was a canon (cf. V. Flint, Honorius Augustodunensis of Regensburg , 1995). H *8800; BMC II, 411 (IB. 7143); BSB-Ink. H-331; Klebs 523.1; Goff H-323.