Codex Autographus Bibliothecae Universitatis Gandavensis

Book Description

Edited by Alberto Derolez. Ghent: in aedibus Story-Scientia, 1968. Folio. (15 1/2 x 11 inches). Title in red and black, half-title. Numerous plates and illustrations (some coloured and mounted, some folding). Original cream parchment over bevelled boards, the spine lettered in gilt (minor staining to the upper cover). The first printing of the text of a medieval manuscript encyclopedia: a limited edition of 675 copies, this number 271 of 600 copies. The Liber Floridus was compiled between 1090 and 1120 by Lambert Canon of Saint-Omer, and contains extracts from approximately 192 different sources. It takes the form of a chronological record of events to the year 1119, incorporating allusions and images of a biblical, astronomical, geographical, and philosophical nature, as well as information and images of various natural history subjects. The Liber Floridus is now known through a number of manuscript versions, but the present work reprints for the first time in its entirety the Ghent codex (which is believed to be the original). The text is presented in a carefully laid out mixture of images of the original manuscript interspersed with a printed transcription of the rest of the original text (but with later additions edited out). It is supported by extensive and valuable notes. This work was published as part of the celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the University of Ghent, and is surprisingly rare: only the Hunt copy (sold in 1986) is listed as having appeared at auction.

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