Der Schatzbehalter

In-folio of 353 leaves, signed a-z6 (a6 blank), ab-ad6, ae8, A-Z6, Aa-Gg6, Hh10 (Hh10 blank).

Brown calf over wooden boards, covers decorated with blind-stamped vegetal and animal motifs within fillet frames, with five copper bosses on the corners and center, on the upper cover the title of the work [SCHATZBEHALT D'EWIGE SELIGKEIT], spine with raised bands decorated with a repeated blind-rose motif, natural edges, traces of elaborate clasps.

330 x 231 mm.

Fridolin, Stephan. The Schatzbehalter or Shrine of the True Treasures of Salvation and Eternal Bliss.
Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 8 November 1491.

First and only editionof this famous German mystical incunable recounting the life of Christ. The text was written by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Clare in Nuremberg and edited by the Sisters of Charity in Pirckheim.

Hain, 14 507; Copinger, I. p. 431; Panzer D. ann 313; Brunet, V 193; Proctor, 2070; Polland II, p. 434; Muther, 423; Dogson I, p. 240-245; Passavant, I, 67; Fairfax-Murray, II, 392; BMC II, 434; Stillwell S. 280.

One of the most beautiful and famous illustrated incunabula.

With Schedel liber chronicarum (1493) one of the “two first important books with original illustrations published at Nuremberg” (Dogson I. pp. 241.2).

Der Schatzbehalter oder Schrein der wahren Reichtümer des Heils und der ewigen Seligkeit genant [The Guardian of the Treasure, called Casket of the True Riches of Salvation and Eternal Paradise] appeared in 1491, in Nuremberg.

It is the work of the Franciscan monk Stephan Fridolin (ca 1430-1498), then preacher to the Poor Clare sisters of the city, who died in 1498. Steeped in theology, the work is based on the life of Christ. Published by Anton Koberger, the book, after Breydenbach in 1486, is virtually considered the first illustrated book in Germany in the 15th century, the woodcuts of which can be securely attributed to a known master, with several plates bearing Wolgemuth’s signature.

The iconography, absolutely superb, consists of 96 large full-page woodcut illustrations (252 x 176 mm), specially designed for the text.

Created by Michael Wolgemuth (1434-1519), Dürer’s master, they testify to the artist’s great skill in composing different scenes, the richness of facial expressions, and precision of details.

Others are the work of Guillaume Pleydenwurff, artists from Wolgemuth’s workshop, and perhaps even Dürer himself.

Michael Wolgemuth held an important position in Nuremberg and seems to have been regarded as the most eminent painter of his time.

“Dürer, who was his student, admired him so greatly that he painted his portrait twice, the second time when he was 82 years old” (Benezit, X, 778).

This superb series of different tableaux devoted to the life of Christ enabled Wolgemuth to powerfully depict the major episodes of the Bible and the New Testament.

An endless wealth of fascinating details concerns interior architecture, weaponry, ships, means of transport and customs of the time, banquets, and costumes of the 15th century, notably the women’s fashion of the period.

Copy with large margins, very clean and from a fine impression, preserved in its original binding. Made in Nuremberg, the binding’s ornamental vocabulary (bird, griffin, rosette, foliage) relates it to a Boethius belonging to the Schäfer foundation and to the Schatzbehalter from the J. R. Ritman library.

The text, adorned with a large illuminated initial, has been rubricated in red and blue.

The paper has preserved all its original qualities.

Small defects to the binding. Some minor evidence of worming in the inner margin of gatherings x, y and ab. The last leaf Hh10, blank, has not been preserved here.

Provenance: bookplate of Baron Ferdinand Hoffmann (1540-1607), engraved by Lucas Kilian (1579-1637) after M. Göndolach. Ferdinand Hoffmann, lord of Grünbüchel and Strechau, assembled a collection of over ten thousand printed works and manuscripts; he acquired the library of Hieronymus Holzschuher in its entirety, the famous Nuremberg physician and friend of Dürer, who himself had inherited the library of his father-in-law, Hieronymus Münzer, physician, cartographer, and collector of scientific books; Prince Ferdinand von Dietrichstein ( ?) (1628-1698), to whom Hoffmann’s heirs gave their ancestor's library and who, in 1669, had it moved to the castle of Nikolsburg in Moravia (two sales were held in November 1933 and June 1934, but neither catalogue mentions this copy); Paul Harth (bookplate) (sold for €44,673 on March 1, 1987—34 years ago, by Sotheby’s); Pierre Bergé; Marc Litzler.

Goff S-306; GW 10329; BMC II 434 (for a copy in contemporary binding; size: 333 x 233 mm); Arnim, Katalog der Bibliothek Otto Schäffer, 1,302 (“The edition is said to have been printed in about 150 copies”); Muther, 423 (“The first book produced by the Koburg press with illustrations that were certainly prepared under the supervision of Wolgemuth is the 1491 Schatzbehalter oder Schrein der wahren Reichtümer des Heils und ewiger Seeligkeit ”); Needham, Twelve Centuriesof Bookbindings, 400-1600, no. 30, note 9 and no. 92; Schäfer, Europaïsche Einbandkunst Aus sechs Jahrhunderten, no. 15; Seaver, Maps, Myths, and Men. The Story of Vinland Map, Stanford UP, 2004, pp. 339-352 (“A Moravian Castle Library”).