[Rarebooks] FS: One of the first novels ever printed!!

[Karmbooks at aol.com]

(INCUNABULA) Pius II (Aneas Silvius Piccolomini, 1405-1464; Pope from 1458). 
OPUSCULA DE DUOBUS AMANTIBUS.   Et de Remedio Amoris, cum Epistola 
Retractatoria ad Quendam Karolum. (Leipzig: Conrad Kachelofen, N.d. but between 
1489-1495). 4to. Gothic type. ff.(24), the last blank and present. Some capitals 
supplied in red, and some initial strokes in red. 19th century speckled boards, 
spine stained black. A few early manuscript notes. A few minor stains but quite a 
crisp and clean copy overall.     $8,500.00 (trade discount allowed)
DE DUOBUS AMANTIBUS (also commonly called “Eurialus and Lucretia”) is one of 
the first novels ever printed. It was enormously popular with editions 
appearing quickly in Cologne, Paris, Rome and Venice. Ours is the first to be 
printed in Leipzig, by the second printer to establish a press in that city. It is a 
story of two lovers, written in 1444, in which the amours of a German 
nobleman (commonly supposed to be Caspar Schlick, Chancellor to the Emperor Frederick 
III) and a married lady of Sienna are chronicled. Dealing with topics such as 
adultery, lust and betrayal, it was an early pot-boiler romance. All of the 
early printed editions are quite rare today. An examination of Goff shows only 
1 or 2 copies per edition in North America. Our edition is only recorded at 
the Library of Congress (Vollbehr Collection), and no copy has sold at auction 
in the past 30 years. Goff P682; Hain-Coppinger 226. Also see Gay-Lemonnyer 
BIBLIOGRAPHIE DES OUVRAGES RELATIFS A L’AMOUR, columns 31-32.

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