Gratianus. Decretum (cum apparatu Bartholomaei Brixiensis)
Folio, approximately 44.5 x 29.5 cm.
Venice, Johann of Cologne and Johann Manthen, 3 January 1479/80.
416 (instead of 418) unnumbered sheet, Gothic type, printed in red and black, text surrounded by commentary. Blind embossed pigskin of the period on wooden covers.

GW 11360; Hain/Cop. 7894; Goff G 368; BMC V, 235; BSB G-260. Early edition of the Decretum in a splendid foil print on strong, wide-margined paper, rubbed throughout, with numerous painted Lombards in red or blue as well as florally decorated initials. The Decretum, made around 1140, is the main work of the camaldolese monk Gratian, considered the father of canonism. It contains the self-contained first part of the six books of law which together form the Corpus Iuris Canonici. The text follows the Jenson edition of 1477, with commentaries by Johannes Teutonicus and Bartholomaeus Brixiensis, with the Flosculum Decreti by Johannes de Deo Hispanus, edited by Petrus Albignanus Trecius and with additions by Bartholomaeus Puteus. In an impressive late Gothic pigskin binding over wooden covers with ornamental embossing. - Without batt a2 and the last white sheet. - At the beginning partly with narrow water margins, first leaves somewhat dusty in the margins, first leaf (verso with preface) somewhat stained and with backed margin glazes. Binding restored and with additions, endpapers renewed. Inside clean and with wide margins. All in all nice copy with important provenance: from the library of the heraldist, typographer and great collector of old prints Otto Hupp (1859-1949), with his ex-libris in the inside cover. (1221781) (13)