Ars memorandi.- Rosenheim (Petrus von) Hexastichon Sebastiani Brant in memorabiles evangelistarum figuras, first edition, 18ff. including final blank, 15 fine and extraordinary large woodcut illustrations, small hole in penultimate leaf but not affecting text, lower corner of c3 missing, modern olive green morocco by Cuzin, gilt arms of the Prince d'Essling to covers, g.e., inner gilt dentelles, 4to in 6's (201 x 140mm.), Pforzheim, Thomas Anshelm, 1502.

⁂ A fine, complete copy of this curiosity of early printing - a menemonic with verses for remembering the key events of the life of Christ to accompany the unusual and highly symbolic woodcuts. For example, an eagle displays a pair of embracing lovers on its breast; an angel, a sack of grain perched on its head, carries a blazing sun in one hand and a figure of the Christ Child in the other. But the angel and eagle, as well as a lion and an ox in other images, are symbols of the four Evangelists, and the additional objects or figures refer to specific events in the Gospels.

The cuts imitate those in a blockbook of c.1470, produced in south Germany, possibily in a Bavarian monastery, but here accompanied for the first time by text, edited by Georg Simler.

Two editions were issued in 1502 by Thomas Anshelm, the first (as here) with the first line of leaf a1 ending 'memorabi-',whereas the second edition has the same line ending 'Sebastiani'.

Provenance: Victor Massena, Duc de Rivoli, Prince d’Essling (1836-1910), sale Zurich 1939, lot 245; Maurice Burrus, with ex-libris, sale Christies Paris 2015.

Literature: Brunet I: 499-500; Cf. Fairfax Murray German 43 (1503 edition); Ars Memorandi. A Facsimile of the Text and Woodcuts printed by Thomas Anshelm at Pforzheim in 1502. Houghton Library, Harvard University Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, Cambridge, Mass.1981