July 19, 2011
PRINTED 1522-1524: EXTREMELY RARE EDITIONS OF THE GREAT LATIN REFERENCE WORKS OF Johannes Despauterius
A MAGNIFICENT ZOOMORPHIC GOTHIC BINDING WITH MONKEYS AND DRAGONS
WORLDCAT CITES NO COPIES OF THE FIRST BOOK AND ONLY THE HARVARD COPY OF THE SECOND
[Johannes de Spauter; Josse Badius] Prima pars grammaticae Joannis Despauterij Niniuite diligentius ab Ascensio recognita et impressa …[Paris] : Aera merent Badiotersa, aucta, impressa per ipsum, 1524. 124, [2] lvs. small 4to., 20 cm. COMPLETE… Bound with.. Syntaxis Joannis Despauterii niniuitae tertio edita: in qua per quaestiones & rationes citra sophistarũ nugas distinctissime & facillime omnia digeruntur. [Parisiis] Aera meret Badio nomenq[ue] decusq[ue] parenti. Anno. 1522. Colophon: Lutetiae ad eid. octob. anni MDXXII, typis & accuratione Iod. Badij Ascensij. Printer’s mark on t..p. 144 lvs. COMPLETE. Occasional light browning, foxing, or staining, primarily prelim. and last leaves as usual, sympathetic re-backing as depicted and later endpapers. Generally, a VERY GOOD COPY. EXCEEDINGLY RARE. Worldcat cites NO COPIES of the first 1524 work in Institutional collections; only an undated (presumed 1524 ed) of Jean Petit at Cambridge. Similarly Worldcat only cites Harvard as having a copy of the 1522 edition here, although there are other known Petit editions and Badius Ascensius and Jean Petit were collaborators and often joint publishers.
“Jan de Spauter (Ninove, c. 1480 – Komen, 1520) was a prominent Flemish humanist. His name was Latinized to Johannes Despauterius as was common in the Middle Ages. At the age of 18 Despauterius went to the humanistic college De Lelie in Leuven where he studied for three years. In Leuven he became a Master in the Arts, which meant he had studied and mastered Latin grammar, rhetorica, dialectica, musica, arithmica, geometrica and astronomica. After his studies he starts teaching. After several years teaching, Despauterius published books with regards to Latin grammar (Syntaxis, Ars versificatoria, Grammatica pars prima and Ortographia), which became the standard works of reference for the study of Latin for the next centuries in Western Europe. ” [Wikipedia]
