Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of printing in Italy: German Technology and Italian Humanism in Renaissance Rome

Item Details

McMinnville, OR, Bird & Bull Press for Phillip J. Pirages, 1991, Quarter morocco hardcover in tray case

1st edition, limited to 275, Book and leaf FINE, tray case very good

McMinnville, OR, Bird & Bull Press for Phillip J. Pirages, 1991. Folio in tray case. 15.5 x 11.75 inches. The book itself: 9.25 x 6.25 inches. 128, [4] pages. Published in a limited edition of 275 copies, 239 of which were for sale. This is number 53. Bound by Campbell-Logan Company in quarter morocco over marbled boards; marbled paper designed for this production by Iris Nevins. With an original leaf printed by Sweynheym & Pannartz from a "Sweynheym and Pannartz editio princeps of Nicholas of Lyra's Postilla super totam bibliam. completed on 18 November 1471 in the Palazzo Massimo in Rome". Only 239 of 452 leaves of that copy remain. Leaf housed in a mylar envelope framed behind a hinged cloth mat in the lid of a folio-sized blue cloth trayl case, with a fitted pocket for the book. (Bird & Bull B38).

Book and leaf FINE, tray case very good (with very light shelf wear and soiling)

Sweynheim and Pannartz, the earliest printers outside Germany, worked at Subiaco and Rome, making Humanist and classical texts available to a wider audience. Since their press runs were normally only 275 copies, their editions are now seldom seen and costly.