Binding the Medieval and Early Modern: Unattested 16th c. Martin Luther fragment, 14th century Swiss manuscript, and Blind Stamping as Cultural Commentary
Binding the Medieval and Early Modern: Unattested 16th c. Martin Luther fragment, 14th century Swiss manuscript, and Blind Stamping as Cultural Commentary
Binding the Medieval and Early Modern: Unattested 16th c. Martin Luther fragment, 14th century Swiss manuscript, and Blind Stamping as Cultural Commentary
Binding the Medieval and Early Modern: Unattested 16th c. Martin Luther fragment, 14th century Swiss manuscript, and Blind Stamping as Cultural Commentary
Binding the Medieval and Early Modern: Unattested 16th c. Martin Luther fragment, 14th century Swiss manuscript, and Blind Stamping as Cultural Commentary
Binding the Medieval and Early Modern: Unattested 16th c. Martin Luther fragment, 14th century Swiss manuscript, and Blind Stamping as Cultural Commentary
Binding the Medieval and Early Modern: Unattested 16th c. Martin Luther fragment, 14th century Swiss manuscript, and Blind Stamping as Cultural Commentary
Binding the Medieval and Early Modern: Unattested 16th c. Martin Luther fragment, 14th century Swiss manuscript, and Blind Stamping as Cultural Commentary
Binding the Medieval and Early Modern: Unattested 16th c. Martin Luther fragment, 14th century Swiss manuscript, and Blind Stamping as Cultural Commentary
Binding the Medieval and Early Modern: Unattested 16th c. Martin Luther fragment, 14th century Swiss manuscript, and Blind Stamping as Cultural Commentary
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Binding the Medieval and Early Modern: Unattested 16th c. Martin Luther fragment, 14th century Swiss manuscript, and Blind Stamping as Cultural Commentary

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Polydori Vergilii. Vrbinatis De rerum inventoribus libri octo. Eiusdem in domincam precem commentariolum. Basileae apud Isingrinium, 1546.

 

pp. [44], 524. α7 wants 1, β8, 78, a-z8, A-K8, L3. Lacks title page. Each of the 8 books opens with 8-line inhabited initial, with 5-line inhabited initials throughout. Extensive contemporary 16th century marginal annotations and underlining from at least 3 campaigns in black, brown and green inks. Bound in three quarter alum tawed pig skin with decorative blind rolls and blind stamped with rondelles of scholars, including Erasmus; monogrammed MZL and dated 1616, incorporates 14th century Swiss liturgical manuscript leaves as front and back cover and front pastedown. Back pastedown consists of two columns of leaf from ca. 1520 Martin Luther small tract, Ein Sermon von dem Gebet und Procession in der Crützwochen. Manuscript and print binding waste over canvas, likely from 19th century stabilization effort. Manuscript chipped. Fore edges in blue. Overall GOOD condition.

VD16 V 753

 

Reforming and Rebirthing Europe:

De inventoribus rerum (On the Discovery of Things) written by Polydore Vergil (c. 1470 – 1555) is a sweeping Renaissance and Reformation attempt to trace the origins of human knowledge and institutions. First published in Venice in 1499 in three books, the work opens with an inquiry into God and the gods, examining their domains and the foundations of creation, marriage, religion, and learning. It then turns toward human society: Book II investigates the emergence of law, time, money, and the arts, while Book III surveys the material and social structures of civilization, from agriculture and architecture to towns, theatres, navigation, commerce, and even prostitution.

 

In response to criticism, sparked by the work’s treatment of monasticism, clerical celibacy, and papal authority, Vergil expanded the text in 1521 with five additional books emphasizing Christianity, seeking to counter accusations of heresy and moral depravity. These efforts ultimately failed to shield the work from censure: in 1564, some twenty years after the publication of this edition, De Inventoribus Rerum was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, securing its reputation as one of the most ambitious—and controversial—intellectual syntheses of the early modern period.

 

Bound in Cultural Significance:

 

1.              Missal or Breviary, 14th century, Likely Switzerland or Southern Germany.

 

5 strips of parchment bound on exterior front and back cover, and as front pastedown with two columns of well-formed Gothic textualis in Latin. Two 2-line initials in blue, other red and blue initials throughout. Initials display typical bulges associated with Germanic region production.

 

2.              Partial leaf from Martin Luther’s Ein Sermon von dem Gebet und Procession in der Crützwochen, ca. 1520, from unidentified source.

 

Two columns in German, with single, ornate 6-line initial. Printed marginal notation. Catchword at bottom of column B. Typeset in Schwabacher. Parent text not found on VD16 database.

 

The binding of this 1546 Basel edition—printed during Polydore Vergil’s lifetime—beautifully captures a world on the brink of transformation. It brings together medieval devotion and Reformation-era thought beneath an alum-tawed, blind-stamped pigskin binding, a style widely used in the German-speaking regions of the 15th and 16th centuries.

 

A medieval Swiss manuscript leaf is preserved within the binding, creating a striking visual and intellectual contrast with the clean, contemporary lines of the pigskin cover. Even more evocative is the inclusion of a fragment from a pamphlet by Martin Luther (1483–1546), anchoring the book firmly in the religious upheavals of its time. This layered construction speaks directly to the cultural tensions the text itself would later provoke—tensions that ultimately led to its placement on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum for its criticism of Catholic doctrine.

 

The result is a compelling, tangible witness to a pivotal moment in European history, where medieval tradition and early modern reform quite literally meet between the same covers.