[Early Incunable] - Herolt - Sermones Discipuli de Sanctis et Miraculis Beatae Mariae Virginis - 1481

3 WORKS IN ONE VOLUME - RARE INCUNABULO OF 1481 — ONLY 12 COPIES OR FRAGMENTS CENSUSED
RUBRICATION COEVA — 15th-Century LEATHER BINDING, PRINTED DRY ON WOOD BOARDS
Magnificent and very rare German incunabula printed in Cologne in 1481 by Johannes Koelhoff the Elder, one of the protagonists of the city's early typographic era. The volume brings TOGETHER THREE DISTINCT WORKS by Johannes Herolt, the celebrated Dominican known by the nickname “Discipulus”: Sermones de sanctis, the Promptuarium exemplorum, and the Promptuarium de miraculis Beatae Mariae Virginis. The Sermones constitute a vast repertoire for preaching during the feasts of the saints; the Promptuarium exemplorum collects tales, moral episodes and exempla usable by the preacher to render the religious teachings immediately comprehensible; the Promptuarium de miraculis Beatae Mariae Virginis gathers narratives and miracles linked to the cult of the Virgin Mary. The whole thus represents an extraordinary practical encyclopedia of late medieval preaching, in which theology, lives of the saints, religious folklore, exemplary tales and Marian devotion coexist in a single great repertoire.
The edition, catalogued as ISTC ih00105000 and GW 12389, is exceptionally rare: GW records only 12 copies or fragments preserved in public institutions. The complete collation is 278 leaves. Of exceptional charm is the vast contemporaneous rubrication in red, with large initials, running titles, ornamental marks and hand-drawn calligraphic decorations. A blank leaf also bears a dense contemporaneous manuscript annotation. The volume is preserved in its important 15th-century fourfold binding in calfskin stamped dry on wooden boards, with restored back: an authentic artifact of the 15th century in which printing, manuscript, rubrication and medieval binding still coexist according to the codex tradition.
WHY TO BUY - COLLECTOR'S COPY
ONLY 12 COPIES OR FRAGMENTS CENSUSED! An edition of exceptional institutional rarity, today almost entirely preserved in major libraries.
THREE WORKS IN ONE INCUNABULO! Saints’ sermons, moral exempla and Virgin’s miracles form a grand repertoire of late medieval religious culture.
RUBRICATION COEVA SPECTACULAR! Initials, titles and ornaments were added by hand immediately after printing, making each copy essentially unique.
FOURTEENTH-CENTURY BINDING ON WOOD BOARDS! An original 15th-century book structure, directly belonging to the material world of the incunabulum.

MARKET VALUE
€6,000–8,000. The copy belongs to a high-end collecting bracket due to the combination of four rarely reunited elements in the same volume: early date 1481, extreme rarity of the edition, extensive contemporaneous rubrication, and the fourteenth-century binding in dry-stamped calf on wooden boards. The complete presence of the three works and the strong material character of the copy make a traditional antiquarian valuation in the order of €6,000–8,000 plausible; an especially decorative rubrication, a well-preserved contemporaneous binding, and a significant provenance can support higher asks.

PHYSICAL / CONDITION
Folio. 278 leaves. Full text. Printed in Gothic type, predominantly in two columns, 36–39 lines. Extraordinary contemporaneous rubrication in red with large initials, minor initials, running titles, ornamental marks and arabesque calligraphic decorations. A blank leaf bears a dense contemporaneous manuscript annotation. Important fourteenth-century binding in calfskin stamped dry on wooden boards; back restored. Signs of use and rubbing to the binding, more evident along the spine nerves. Tiny wormholes at the upper margins of the first leaves and lower margins of the last, without substantial text impairment. Some stains and marginal halos. Magnificent genuine exemplar, of exceptional material appeal. In old books, with a multi-century history, there may be some imperfections not always noted in the description.

FULL TITLES & AUTHORS
I. JOHANNES HEROLT “DISCIPULUS” (ca. 1390–1468).
Sermones Discipuli de sanctis.
A large collection of sermons for the feasts of the saints and practical use for preachers. The work organized theological, moral and hagiographic topics in a form ready for clergy to use throughout the liturgical year.

II. JOHANNES HEROLT “DISCIPULUS”.
Promptuarium exemplorum.
A broad repertoire of exempla, moral tales, edifying episodes, anecdotes and exemplary narratives intended for preaching. The exempla were among the most effective tools of medieval religious communication, allowing the preacher to transform abstract concepts into stories that are easily understood and memorable.

III. JOHANNES HEROLT “DISCIPULUS”.
Promptuarium de miraculis Beatae Mariae Virginis.
A collection of miracles and devotional tales dedicated to the Virgin Mary, evidence of the extraordinary spread of Marian devotion in late medieval religious culture.
Coloniae: Johannes Koelhoff de Lubeck, 1481.
THREE DISTINCT WORKS BY JOHANNES HEROLT UNITED IN A RARE INCUNABULO COLONIENSE.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Johannes Herolt, born about 1390 and died 1468, was a German Dominican, preacher and religious author among the most read of the late Middle Ages. He is universally known also as “Discipulus,” a name that became almost a second name through the enormous diffusion of his Sermones. He operated mainly in Nuremberg, where he held positions as lector and prior at the Dominican convent. His fame is primarily tied to the large collections intended for preachers and clergy. Herolt fully understood the practical needs of medieval preaching: he offered not only doctrinal treatises but built real working tools in which sermons, lives of saints, exempla, miracles, moral tales and devotional materials could be rapidly identified and adapted to the preacher’s needs. This practical structure determined the enormous manuscript and later typographic fortune of his works in the 15th century. His texts today constitute an exceptional source not only for the history of preaching but also for understanding the mentality, fears, beliefs, folklore and narrative culture of late medieval Europe.

RARITY
EXCEPTIONALLY RARE. ISTC ih00105000. GW 12389. Goff H-105. Hain-Reichling 8483. Pell Ms 5799 (5793). CIBN H-69. Polain(B) 1893. IDL 2262. Voull(B) 566. Voull(K) 772,5. Voull(Trier) 448. Oates 535. The Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke records only 12 copies or fragments preserved in public institutions, some of which are incomplete. This is thus an edition of extremely limited survival. This copy preserves 277 of the 278 leaves anticipated and the single missing leaf, a1, is bibliographically noted as blank. Its absence therefore does not entail loss of text. The combination of bibliographic rarity, textual completeness, extensive contemporaneous rubrication and authentic fourteenth-century binding on wooden boards gives the volume exceptional collecting interest.

HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
This volume constitutes an extraordinary document of European culture at the pivotal moment of the transition from manuscript to print. In 1481 typography had only a few decades of history, and the first printed books deliberately kept a manuscript appearance: Gothic type, column layout, spaces reserved for initials and manual rubrication. This exemplar spectacularly preserves exactly that transitional phase. The text was mechanically produced on Koelhoff’s press, but large initials, running titles, marks and ornaments were subsequently added by hand in red. The leather binding stamped dry on wooden boards remains fully within the medieval codicological tradition. The content itself is also of immense historical interest. The Sermones de sanctis document preaching devoted to the cult of saints; the Promptuarium exemplorum preserves a vast narrative tradition of moral stories and edifying tales; the Promptuarium de miraculis Beatae Mariae Virginis testifies to the centrality of Marian devotion in popular religion. The exempla, in particular, allow us to view the Middle Ages through its daily imaginary: sinners and saints, merchants and poor, miracles, apparitions, divine punishments, conversions and social behavior. The volume is therefore simultaneously a rare product of Cologne’s early typography, a major source for Dominican culture and a true material artifact of 15th-century Europe.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
ISTC ih00105000.
Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, GW 12389.
Goff H-105.
Hain-Reichling 8483.
Pell Ms 5799 (5793).
CIBN H-69.
Polain(B) 1893.
IDL 2262.
Voull(K) 566.
Voull(B) 772,5.
Voull(Trier) 448.
Oates 535.
Morgan Library & Museum, PML 24856.2.
Johannes Herolt, Sermones Discipuli de sanctis.
Johannes Herolt, Promptuarium exemplorum.
Johannes Herolt, Promptuarium de miraculis Beatae Mariae Virginis.