[Rarebooks] FS: ( Incunabla) Duranti's Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, Strassburg: ca. 1479.

[Kenneth Karmiole]

(INCUNABULA) Duranti, Guillelmus. RATIONALE DIVINORUM OFFICIORUM. (Strassburg: George Husner. ca. 1479). Folio. ff.(3),385. Complete. Large foliated color initial on first leaf of text, other smaller colored initials throughout, and text rubricated throughout. Orig. blind tooled calf covering oak boards, calf rubbed, with a few small losses. Rebacked in calf with spine painted and hand-lettered. Both fore-edge clasps present, but other brass pieces from the cover lacking. Some occasional light text soiling. Four leaves (ff.190-193) with outer blank margin tears, repaired without any loss. Folio 328 with a repaired blank corner. Overall, a rather clean and attractive copy, with full margins and numerous contemporary marginal notes and manicules in black and occasionally red ink. One contemporary ownership notation, and 2 later ("Joannes Chrysostom" and "Wenceslaus Zbrinslowskym (?)").    $10,000.00 (trade discount allowed)
A scarce edition of one of the most reprinted books of the 15th century. First printed in 1459, the ISTC records 45 editions. The text is called, "The most important treatise on the symbolism of church architecture and rituals of worship. It served as an encyclopedic compendium and text book for liturgists and remains an indispensable guide for the understanding of the significance of medieval and ecclesiastical art and worship ceremonies" (from a World Cat citation of a summary of the 2007 English translation of THE RATIONALE). ISTC idoo420000; GoffD420; H 6466.

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