NATALI, Pietro; de. Catalogus sanctorum & gestorum eorum ex diuersis voluminibus collectus: editus a ... Petro de natalibus de venetijs ... multis nouis additionibus decoratus
Venezia, Nikolaus von Frankfurt, 1th December 1516
A wonderfully illustrated edition of this catalogue of saints, compiled by bishop Petrus de Natalibus (fl.late C14th) between 1369 and 1372. First published in Vicenza in 1493, it was an extremely popular work that ran to many editions; perhaps due to its popularity and extensive use.
The text of this edition was edited by Antonino Verlo, whose name appears in the preface, and subsequently revised and expanded by the Dominican monk Alberto Castello, named in the Colopon.
First page of text within an 11-part border composed of two panels of leafy branches, nine small vignettes of saints repeated in text, initial space with a larger vignette of a group of saints with St Laurence holding gridiron at forefront; facing page with central large woodcut of the Crucifixion, surrounded by white on black floral border, outer border composed of vignette at head of God the father, and thirteen vignettes of saints and martyrs; white-on-black device of Nicolaus von Frankfurt on recto of leaf 480 below colophon, featuring a double circle surmounted by a double cross, and printer’s initials “N.F.”; text lavishly illustrated throughout with small woodcut portraits of saints, martyrs, bishops, popes, many signed “c”, woodcut initials throughout.
Edit 16 CNCE 41625. Adams N47. Essling 1511. Sander 4941. OCLC (US: NYPL, Trinity College, UCLA & Yale only).
4to; 198x145 mm. Later cardboard binding, sprayed edges. [8], 504 leaves. Colophon on leaf 480r: « per Nicolaum de Franckfordia solertissime impressus explicit, calendis decem … M.ccccc.xvi. [1.XII.1516]». Gothic type, text in two columns, publisher’s device beneath the colophon. Ornate and figurative woodcut initials, a full-page woodcut and a figurative woodcut frame on the first page of text. The first 8 leaves are numbered, with considerable loss of text.