Brant (Sebastian) & Jakob Wimpfeling. Hortulus anime, collation: 20 numbered ff., a-z⁸ A-E⁸, printed in red and black, large xylographic initial H to title, 75 woodcut illustrations, some full-page, woodcut decorative initials, initial spaces, final f. with woodcut printer's device in red recto, otherwise blank, lacking i8 (without a woodcut), a1 small repair to upper blank corner, a few mostly marginal short repairs (that on p3 just within final line of text and foot of a small woodcut), spotting and staining, lightly browned, contemporary German blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards, spine in compartments and with later double brown morocco labels to spine, lacking ties, soiled, 8vo (125 x 83mm.), Strasbourg, Johann Wähinger, 1503.

⁂ The Mendham Collection copy of this handsomely printed devotional work, which is rare at auction (we trace only two other copies, in 2004 (defective) and 2008). It is one of only a few books printed by Wähinger, here under the auspices of the two leading humanist scholars Brant and Wimpfeling. In Brant's 'To the reader' beneath the title he tells us that Wähinger had the work printed at his own expense.

Provenance: Capuchins of Freiburg im Breisgau, founded in 1599 and dissolved in 1819 (ink inscription to title); The Mendham Collection, Property of The Law Society of England and Wales, sold Sotheby's 5th June, 2013, lot 40.

Literature: Bohatta 12; Fairfax Murray, German 208 (defective); Oldenbourg L13; VD16 H 5042; cf. Stefan Matter, 'The Hortulus animae - An archive of medieval prayer book literature', in Vernacular books and their readers in the early age of print (c.1450-1600), pp.91-108, Brill, 2023.