Artworks
Pseudo-Cyrillus [Boniohannes de Messana], (Speculum sapientiae, in German) Das buch der Natürlichen weißheit. Translated by Ulrich von Pottenstein. – Lehre und Unterweisung, wie ein Mensch sich halten soll.
Augsburg: Anton Sorg, 25 May 1490.
First edition in German.
242 x 173 mm. 137 leaves, 68 woodcuts
Pseudo-Cyrillus [Boniohannes de Messana], (Speculum sapientiae, in German) Das buch der Natürlichen weißheit. Translated by Ulrich von Pottenstein. – Lehre und Unterweisung, wie ein Mensch sich halten soll.
Augsburg: Anton Sorg, 25 May 1490.
First edition in German.
242 x 173 mm. 137 leaves, 68 woodcuts
Pseudo-Cyrillus [Boniohannes de Messana], (Speculum sapientiae, in German) Das buch der Natürlichen weißheit. Translated by Ulrich von Pottenstein. – Lehre und Unterweisung, wie ein Mensch sich halten soll.
Augsburg: Anton Sorg, 25 May 1490.
First edition in German.
242 x 173 mm. 137 leaves, 68 woodcuts
Pseudo-Cyrillus [Boniohannes de Messana], (Speculum sapientiae, in German) Das buch der Natürlichen weißheit. Translated by Ulrich von Pottenstein. – Lehre und Unterweisung, wie ein Mensch sich halten soll.
Augsburg: Anton Sorg, 25 May 1490.
First edition in German.
242 x 173 mm. 137 leaves, 68 woodcuts
Pseudo-Cyrillus [Boniohannes de Messana], (Speculum sapientiae, in German) Das buch der Natürlichen weißheit. Translated by Ulrich von Pottenstein. – Lehre und Unterweisung, wie ein Mensch sich halten soll.
Augsburg: Anton Sorg, 25 May 1490.
First edition in German.
242 x 173 mm. 137 leaves, 68 woodcuts
Pseudo-Cyrillus [Boniohannes de Messana], (Speculum sapientiae, in German) Das buch der Natürlichen weißheit. Translated by Ulrich von Pottenstein. – Lehre und Unterweisung, wie ein Mensch sich halten soll.
Augsburg: Anton Sorg, 25 May 1490.
First edition in German.
242 x 173 mm. 137 leaves, 68 woodcuts
This work is now sold.
The present text is the only richly illustrated, 15th-century edition of Pseudo-Cyrillus, recently accepted to have been composed by Bongiovanni da Messina, an Italian Dominica (c. 1337-1347), and the only one in German. It contains ninety-five prose fables arranged into four books: Prudentia, Fortitudo, Justitia and Temperantia.
Translated into German between 1408 and 1416 by the priest Ulrich von Pottenstein, this present edition is illustrated with sixty-eight amusing woodcuts that were crafted by unknown Augsburg artists working for Anton Sorg's press. Sorg himself added an instruction at the end of this edition advising adolescents how to behave. Examples of fables described in the text include an old fox embarking on a pilgrimage to Rome, rejecting other animals who offer to accompany him because of their vices, and a wealth-seeking raven who, after learning of the theft, avarice, and paranoia that accompanies wealth, abandons his search.
The woodcuts of this edition are neat, vivid, and expressive, adding great humour to the fables and making this rare item truly charming.
See this item in our catalogue, Heroes and Heroines, and our brochure, Precious and Precise.
