Description

Bebelius, Henricus, Facetiarum Heinrici Bebelii Poetae A D. Maximiliano laureati, libri tres, à mendis repurgati, & in lucem rursus redditi. Tubingae, 1561.

Bound with three other pieces on Poggio, King Alfonso of Aragon, and a Prognostication on the end of the world. This octavo was paginated like a folio and collates as follows: (A – T)8 and (V)4. V4 is the original blank. Contents: Bebelius, folia 1-131; Sales Seu Facetiae Multum iucundae, selectae ex libro Poggii Florentini Oratoris eloquentissimi , folia 132– 140; Facetiae Sequuntur Nunc Facetiae Alphonsi Arragonum regis, et aliorum illustrium virorum breviores., folia 140b – 144b; Prognostica ab Iacobo Henrichmanno Latinitate donata, paucis quibusdam annexis, quae in vernacula lingua, ex qua haec traduxit, non reperiebantur. folia 145 – 151; Vulgaris Cantio, Ich stund an einem morgen/ec. Per Henricum Bebelium Poetam, in carmen latinum redacta, folia 151b – 153b. Printer’s device on f. 153b.

Facetiae Sequuntur Nunc Facetiae Alphonsi Arragonum regis, et aliorum illustrium virorum breviores.

Text in Latin, two stories, one about a beautiful woman and one about a nobleman.

Octavo, but pages numbered as if a small folio on the recto only, 155 mm x 105 mm. Folio 134 (R8) misnumbered as 133 (R7). Rebound in the twentieth century in its old paper boards, new gilt-decorated dark brown calf spine and corners. Page edges show old rouging. A clean, bright copy despite some yellowing of initial pages, with the marginalia of ink-drawn manicules directing the reader to the more interesting stories, like “Historia de viro in adulterio uxorem deprehendente” or “Pulchra historia de quodam nobili.” New paste downs front and back and new blanks in front and at the end.

Signed bookplate of Sir Richard Ford on front paste down, whose motto was “Que sera sera.” Brunet Vol. I, p. 275: “On a supprimé de l’édition de 1542 et probablement des autres éditions plus récentes, un carte très obscènes, qui selon Dav. Clément, se trouve dans celle de 1509, fol. ciii verso. Les éditions de Tubingue, 1561 et 1570, in-8, contiennent de plus que les précédentes: Alphonsi regis Aragonum atque Adolphi facetiae. Toutes ces facéties, assez peu plaisantes, se trouvent réunies à la suite de celles de Frischlinus dans les différentes édit. de ce dernier. V. Frischlinus.” (Nicodemus Frischlin), Brunet I, 728. In the 1758 edition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, five of Bebel’s books were listed, including the Facetiarum libri tres. Delepierre, Macaronéana, Paris: Gancia, 1852; p. 178. A copy of this imprint is at the Huntington Library.