From the chess collection of Lothar Schmid
Johannes Gallensis | Summa collationum, 1489
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Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
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Description
Johannes Gallensis
Communiloquium, sive summa collationum. Strassburg: [Printer of the 1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg (Georg Husner)], 25 May 1489
Small folio (259 x 193 mm). Collation: a8 b–n6: 79 leaves (only, of 80: lacking terminal blank n6), gothic type, text in 2 columns, 52 lines plus headline, spaces for rubricated initials, modern vellum, fore-edge flaps, green silk ties, new endleaves, some light spotting
ONE OF THE EARLIEST PRINTED BOOKS ON CHESS. Johannes Gallensis (John of Wales) was a 13th century Franciscan theologian. His Communiloquium was a popular compendium of didactic morality containing extracts from a wide range of sources that was written for priests, which survives in more than 140 manuscripts and was first printed in 1470. The work includes a comparison of man's life with a game of chess ("Mundus iste totus quoddam scaccarium est").
LITERATURE:
ISTC ij00332000; Hain-Cop 7444; BMC I:138; Goff J-332
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