Saint Methodius | Revelationes Divinae a Sanctis Angelis Factae, Basel, 1498, crushed green morocco by Masson-Debonnelle

Saint Methodius (Sebastian Brant).

Revelationes Divinae a Sanctis Angelis Factae. Wolfgangi Aytinger tractatus super Methodium. Basel: Michael Furter, 5 January 1498

4to (220 x 145 mm), Gothic type, 36 lines, 68 leaves, a-g⁸ h-i⁶ (g6-7 misbound in quire h), 61 woodcuts, some woodcut initials, others supplied in red, chapter headings underlined in red, rubricated throughout, crushed green morocco by Masson-Debonnelle (signed), edges gilt, some light spotting and browning

FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION with woodcuts by the editor, Sebastian Brant. Traditionally attributed to Methodius, Bishop of Olympus martyred in 312, and said to have been translated by an Augsburg monk Wolfgang Aytinger, this collection of prophecies is thought by some to have been written by Aytinger himself with the intention of exciting animosity between the Christians and Turks, dealing as it does with the successive occupations of Jerusalem, schisms of the Church and the Fall of Constantinople. The first separate Latin edition was printed in 1496 by Froschauer at Augsburg. The present edition is the first of five illustrated editions printed by Furter.

PROVENANCE:

Le Cabinet de M.E.G (believed E. Gonse), sold, A. Durel, Hotel Drouot, Paris, May 1894, lot 16; Sotheby's, 17-18 November 1988, lot 15; Joost R. Ritman, Bibliotheca Hermetica, bookplate

LITERATURE:

ISTC im00524000; GW M23059