[BIBLIA LATINA.] [Cum glossa ordinaria Walafridi Strabonis aliorumque et interlineari Anselmi Laudunensis et cum postillis Nicolai de Lyra expositionibusque Guillelmi Britonis in omnes prologos S. Hieronymi; Nicolaus de Lyra: Contra perfidiam Judaeorum.]

[BIBLIA LATINA.] [Cum glossa ordinaria Walafridi Strabonis aliorumque et interlineari Anselmi Laudunensis et cum postillis Nicolai de Lyra expositionibusque Guillelmi Britonis in omnes prologos S. Hieronymi; Nicolaus de Lyra: Contra perfidiam Judaeorum.][BIBLIA LATINA.] [Cum glossa ordinaria Walafridi Strabonis aliorumque et interlineari Anselmi Laudunensis et cum postillis Nicolai de Lyra expositionibusque Guillelmi Britonis in omnes prologos S. Hieronymi; Nicolaus de Lyra: Contra perfidiam Judaeorum.] [Venice: Paganino Paganini. 18 April 1495.] Folio. 16th century vellum over boards, manuscript title in ink to spine; ff. 237 470 (gg1 kkk8) only (of 1512), Gothic type, 83 lines of gloss, woodcut in

[BIBLIA LATINA.] [Cum glossa ordinaria Walafridi Strabonis aliorumque et interlineari Anselmi Laudunensis et cum postillis Nicolai de Lyra expositionibusque Guillelmi Britonis in omnes prologos S. Hieronymi; Nicolaus de Lyra: Contra perfidiam Judaeorum.] [Venice: Paganino Paganini. 18 April 1495.]

Folio. 16th-century vellum over boards, manuscript title in ink to spine; ff. 237-470 (gg1-kkk8) only (of 1512), Gothic type, 83 lines of gloss, woodcut in-text illustrations, first initial of text “T” in red and blue and heightened with gilt, rubricated in red throughout; binding a little stained, head of spine worn with traces of glue, joints splitting but holding firm, early stitched repair to lower cover; occasional mostly marginal dampstaining, light variable spotting, but generally a very good, clean copy; early ink ownership inscription “Hic Liber e[st] con[ven]tus S[anc]te Cath[eri]ne de neapoli or[din]is pre: [read: praedicatorum] cong[regation]is Lombardi[ae]” and shelfmark to final verso (see below).

The second part only (of four) of an important incunable edition of the Bible, containing Nicholas of Lyra’s commentaries on Jerome, Brito on Joshua, through to the Book of Hester, with contemporary rubrication.

Paganino Paganini’s comprehensive edition of the Bible combines the usual Glossa Ordinaria – including commentaries of Walafrid Strabo, Anselm of Laon and William Brito – with the Postillae of Nicolaus of Lyra. Earlier Bible editions had contained one or the other, but this was the first to unite both, establishing a new editorial model soon imitated by other presses.

The text, edited by Bernardinus Gadolus, Eusebius Hispanus and Secundus Contarenus, is laid out in the manner of a legal text, with multiple glossing layers and marginal apparatus. According to Paganino’s own account, the production of this edition cost him a total of 4,000 ducats, a conspicuous sum, though this may be “an exaggeration” (Bajetta, pp. 3-4).

Provenance: From the library of the Dominican convent of Santa Caterina a Formiello in Naples. Originally linked to the Celestine order, the convent passed to friars of the Observant Dominican Congregation of Lombardy in 1499. It remained active until 1806, when it was expropriated and eventually converted into a wool factory: likely the period when its library was dispersed.

ISTC ib00608000. See Bajetta, Some Notes on Printing & Publishing in Renaissance Venice (2000).

SKU: 2123414