Original leaf from the Ovide Moralisé Bruges 1484. With an Introduction by Wytze & Lotte Hellinga.

Bruges: Colard Mansion, 1484. MANSION, Colard; CAXTON, William. CAXTON, William, [contributor]. An Original leaf from the Ovide Moralisé. Bruges 1484. With an Introduction by Wytze & Lotte Hellinga. Bruges: Colard Mansion, 1484.

Full Description:

[CAXTON, William, contributor]. [MANSION, Colard]. An Original leaf from the Ovide Moralisé, Bruges 1484. With an Introduction by Wytze & Lotte Hellinga. Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger & Co., 1963.

One folio leaf ((13 13/16 x 9 15/16 inches; 351 x 256 mm), printed on recto and verso of the Ovide Moralisé. Rubricated initials. Printed in in two columns in "large bastarda" (truncated) type, also know as "Mansion Type 1" It has been noted by many scholars that this Type 1 is very similar to Caxton Type 1. According to Norman's History of Information in regards to Caxton's Troy, "The printed book, entitled The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye was the first book printed in English. Caxton published the book with scribe, bookseller and printer, Colard Mansion from whom Caxton probably learned the art of printing"

Together with a first edition copy of an Essay introduction by Wytze and Lotte Hellinga, one of 40 copies. 16 pp. With frontispiece.

Leaf and essay housed together in a blue cloth portfolio. Portfolio front board lettered in gilt. Leaf tipped in to mat folder with one piece of tape. Leaf with some smudging and browning along margins. Bottom inner margin, slightly torn at an angle, not affecting the text. Portfolio with some very light rubbing and scuffing. Overall a near fine copy.

"Colard Mansion was a central figure in the early printing industry in Bruges. He was active as early as 1454 as a bookseller, and was also active as a scribe, translator and contractor for manuscripts, which meant entering into contracts with the clients, and organizing and sub-contracting the elements such as scribing, decorating and binding. From 1474 until 1476 he worked together with the early English printer William Caxton, and he continued the company on his own afterwards. Caxton probably learned the art of printing from Mansion, and it was from Mansion's press that the first books printed in English (Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye) and French came. He moved to the Burg, the commercial heart of Bruges at the time, in 1478. Mansion suffered heavily under the economic crisis in Bruges in the 1480s, and only one work was printed after the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482. Nothing is known with certainty about his life after 1484, although he may have moved to Picardy." (Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias)

BMC. Goff. GW. Hain. Polain. Proctor.

HBS 68911.

$5,500. (Inventory #: 68911)