Petrarch | Das Glückbuch Beydes deß Gutten in Bösen, Augsburg, 1539, a popular treatise on prosperity and adversity

Petrarch

Das Glückbuch Beydes deß Gutten in Bösen. Augsburg: Heinrich Steyner, 1539.

Folio (292 x 193 mm). Collation: a–b⁶ c⁸ A–S⁶ T⁸ V⁶ X⁴ Aa–Zz⁶ aa⁴ bb1, 3–6, 8: 294 leaves (only, of 296: lacking index leaves bb2 and bb7, gathering M misbound after N6), gothic type, title-page with large woodcut device of the wheel of fortune, 261 woodcut illustrations by the Petrarca-Meister, some full-page, historiated woodcut initials, contemporary German blindstamped pigskin (likely a remboîtage), clasps, fore-edge with faded early modern manuscript title, modern endpapers, title-page with marginal repairs, some soiling, extremities rubbed, old repair to upper joint

Second edition in German (and first edition of this translation) of De remediis utriusque fortunae, a popular treatise on prosperity and adversity, and the "most comprehensive representation of German life around 1519" (Thieme-Becker, vol.XXXV, p. 271). The attractive woodcuts had first been used in Steyner's 1532 edition.

PROVENANCE:

"Sum ex libris Jacobi Speidelii at & in Vatterstorf", early modern ownership inscription to title-page of first work; small inkstamp of "B.G." on title-page

LITERATURE:

USTC 627390; VD16 P 1726