Folio, 217 (of 218) ff (missing final blank, some toning, occasional dampstaining, single wormholes in blank top margin of 1st ff. and black fore-edge margins of final quires, tear in ff [56] and [133]. 18th-c. gilt crimson morocco, covers with triple gilt ruled border frame, elaborately gilt spine with morocco label, a.e.g., gilt border sides, gilt inside dentelles, marbled endpapers, bluish flyleaves (edges rubbed, head and tail def.). Very good rubricated copy with wide margins and 3/5-line blue or red initials
"4th Latin ed. (after the 1st by the same anonymous printer about 1470) of the Sophologium of the French Augustinian preacher Jacques Legrand (Toulouse 1360- Paris 1415). This is a collection of moral maxims and wise passages from poets, orators, philosophers, and theologians, well selected and arranged in three books, containing ten treatises. The collection reflects on human virtue and vice, excerpting passages on morality - as well as the natural sciences - from authors as wide-ranging as Terence, the Persian astrologer Abu Mashar, Saint Paul, and Chaucer. Extremely popular, Sophologium was reprinted and translated serval times, including by William Caxton, who published a English translation titled 'The Book of Good Manner' (1487). Roman type, 35 ll.; capital spaces with tiny pe guide-letters. The name 'R-Printer' is derived from the peculiar majuscule R in type 103. This printer is now generally identified with Adolf Rusch of Ingeweiler, who married Johann Mentelin's daughter Salome and is said to have succeeded to Mentelin's printing business. Ref.: ISTC im000405000; Goff M-43; Polain 2459; BMC I:62; BSB-Ink M-23. Provenance: 18th-c manuscript note on the author (on the original flyleaf bound with) and a few single marginal annotations, corrections or reader's marks. Old bibliographical notes and catalogue cutting on front flyleaf"
