Floretus. by (INCUNABLE - ACCIPIUS WOODCUT) BERNARDUS CLARVALLENSIS (pseudo-) - 1491

1491. (Cologne, Heinrich Quentell, not after 1491). With a splendid nearly full-page title woodcut of a teacher instructing two pupils, a scroll with inscription above, a dove perched on his shoulder and an open book before him. Printed in Gothic type. Capital Spaces. 35 - 45 lines and head-line to the page. 56 leaves. 4to. 20th century boards covered with an early printed leaf, printed paper spine label. A light marginal waterstain to a very few leaves. A few leaves very slightly browned. Contemporary handwritten marginal annotations and some underlinings, in at least two different hands, one signed by Gebhardus Rem(m)inger (leaf 24 recto). Library stamp inside front cover of F. Fasting, Rio de Janeiro. A well preserved incunable. First edition with commentary of this often reprinted schoolbook. And the first version of the beautiful 'accipius' woodcut, with a scroll inscribed: 'Accipies tanti doctoris dogmata sancti'. Heinrich Quentell used this 'magister cum discipulis' woodcut for the first time in 1490, and in the following year numerous schoolbooks were illustrated with comparable woodcuts. The 'Floretus' consists of a text in rhythmic prose for easy memorization and an anonymous explanatory commentary. The work is ascribed to Saint Bernard (1090 - 1153), Abbot of Clairvaux, which under his direction soon became one of the chief centres of the Cistercian Order. The basic Christian tenets in this work include a.o. the following subjects: 'De pr(a)eceptis iuris scripti', 'De peccato gul(a)e et de malis sequentibus ebrietatem', 'De somno et vigilia', 'De custodia quinque sensuum, gustus, odoratus, auditus, visio, tactus'. [c.f. Hain-Copinger 2912; GWK 4004; BMC I, 276; Goff B-392; Janauschek no. 167; Not in IDL; for the fine accipius woodcut see: Schreiber No. 3431, Schramm VIII 20, and Schreiber-Heitz No. 18].