For information about incunabula at the Boston Public Library, consult the library's incunabula research guide.

On title page: "1497. Nihil sine causa. Io. de Olpe."

Imprint derived from colophon (t1 recto): Finis Narragonic[ae] nauis per Sebastianum Brant vulgari sermo[n]e theutonico quonda[m] fabricat[ae]: atq[ue] iampridem per Iacobum locher cognomento philomusum in latinu[m] traduct[ae]: perq[ue] pr[ae]tactu[m] Sebastianum Brant denuo reuis[ae]: aptissimisq[ue] concordantiis & suppletionibus exornate: In laudatissima Germani[ae] vrbe Basiliensi, nu[per] o[per]a & [pro]motione Iohannis Bergman de Olpe anno salutis no[str][ae] Millesimoquadringentesimononages​i​m​o​s​e​p​t​i​m​o kalendis Martiis. Vale inclyte lector.

Signatures: a-s⁸ t⁴.

Chancery quarto; b3 verso: 30 lines plus headline (foliation) and printed marginalia, 166 (177) x 96 (118) mm; types: 220 (title and most headings), 180 (headings on a6 verso, a7 recto, and a8 verso), 109(a) (text), 77 (marginal references); printed initials, woodcuts

Illustrations: 117 woodcuts, most repeated from the original edition in German (Basel, 1494). See Schreiber, W.L. Manuel de l'amateur de la gravure sur bois et sur metal au XVe siecle, v. 5, entry 3567. 77 of the designs have been attributed to Albrecht Durer. See: Albrecht Durer : das druckgraphische Werk / bearbeitet von Rainer Schoch, Matthias Mende und Anna Scherbaum, c2001-c2004, v. 3, pages 86-87 and entries 266.1-266.77. Others are attributed to the Master of the Haintz-Narr, so called after the lettering in one of the prints (here: leaf XVa). Woodcut borders

COPY NOTE: Boston Public Library (Rare Books Department) copy Q.404.74 with some woodcuts hand-colored. Blind impression from bearer piece comprised of a single woodcut musical stave, with notation, on fol. CXLIIII. Leaf dimensions: 210 x 153 mm.

PROVENANCE: Boston Public Library (Rare Books Department) copy Q.404.74: on front pastedown, two Latin epigrams in the same early hand. The first: "Germanos dicit stolida ebrietate teneri // Italus: Et sensus praecipitarimeo. // Italete dico pueri terebrare cloacas, // Naturae leges: et pia iura negans. // Quis tollerabilior quaeso dic Itale morbus: // Nos capit Bachus, te maledicte Venus." The second: "Nux pontica. // Nil mihi duricies prodest: si molliore essem, // Parceret a tritu petra lapisque meo." Earlier heading on pastedown -- perhaps an ownership statement -- erased and replaced with "Ex lib: St. Magni." Three impressions of the same purple ink stamp effaced on both pastedowns and on title page. Title-page inscription: "S. Magni in Fuessen." Early/contemporary marginalia throughout. Purchased from Art Ancien, S.A., in April, 1941.

BINDING: Boston Public Library (Rare Books Department) copy Q.404.74 bound in early/contemporary blind tooled calfskin over bevelled wooden boards, rebacked. Single clasp and catch. Rear pastedown comprised on 16th-century manuscript waste.

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