Beschreibung:

ROLEWINCK, Werner (1425-1502). Fasciculus temporum . Venice: Erhard Ratdolt 24 November 1480.
ROLEWINCK, Werner (1425-1502). Fasciculus temporum . Venice: Erhard Ratdolt 24 November 1480. Chancery 2 o (279 x 201 mm). Collation : [1-9 8 10 4 ] (1/1r blank, 1/1v address by Ratdolt to Nicolao Mocenico, 1/2r table, 2/1 text, 10/4 colophon). 76 leaves, including first blank. Type: 4:76G (text), 9:130G (heading on 1v), 6:56G (Noah's Ark inscription on 11v). 67 woodcuts, including repeats and multiple-block scenes, genealogical diagrams, woodcut ornamental initials. (First text leaf lightly soiled, last leaf with several small holes where bookplate removed on verso, small wormhole in last few leaves touching several letters.) 18th-century Italian vellum over pasteboard (slight wear to board edges). Provenance: Hieronymus Robertus (purchase inscription dated November 1483, noting he paid 25 sols including the binding); early inscription on fol. 66v; Camuccini (inkstamp on title); Giacomo Massimiliano Collalto (bookplate); George and David Wolfe Bruce (bookplate; donated to the Grolier Club in 1894 and sold 15 November 1968); acquired from Goodspeed's Book Shop, 1968. FIRST RATDOLT EDITION. Erhard Ratdolt printed five editions of Rolewinck's popular universal history, all close reprints of one another. The chronology follows a double time-line, measuring time from both the Creation and the birth of Christ, demanding a remarkably complex typographical layout. The work was immensely popular, being printed 32 times in the 15th century, including translations into French, German and Dutch (see previous lot). The woodcuts include copies of fourteen from the first Venetian edition printed by Georgius Walch in 1479. Walch's blocks, based on the woodcuts of the Cologne editions, are noteworthy for replacing the block showing Cologne with a woodcut of Venice. THIS CUT OF VENICE IS THE FIRST KNOWN PRINTED VIEW OF THAT CITY, showing the Piazza San Marco as seen from the Gran' Canale. HC *6926; BMC V, 283 (IB. 20505); Polain(B) 3371; Essling 277; Redgrave 17; Sander 6526; Schreiber 5111a; Goff R-261.