Bidspirit auction | [HISTORY] - The Special Crimes

[HISTORY] - The Special Crimes Of Medieval Law. 10 Recorded Copies, Not In Us Libraries - Roman Curia. Casus papales, episcopales et abbatiales. [Rome: Bartholomaeus Guldinbeck, c. 1482-1488]. 4to, modern boards covered with a rubricated German incunable leaf, flat spine titled in ink, ff. [4]. Text in Latin, Gothic type 4:86G., 35 lines. Signature: a4. Rubricated throughout with a nice manuscript title on f. 1r. Extremely rare imprint of this collection of canon law, articulating the significant crimes that only popes, bishops and abbots are to adjudicate and punish. Popes, for instance, are responsible for cases involving the burning of churches, forging papal documents, assaulting clerics and church officials, bribing inquisitors, giving aid to pirates, permitting bigamy, and much more. Bishops, in turn, are to weigh in on cases related to the seduction of nuns or monks (unless said seduction takes place in a consecrated place, in which case the pope should take over), abuse of the Eucharist, murdering one’s spouse, the selling or buying of clerical offices, summoning demons for malicious purposes, and more. Those crimes over which abbots have jurisdiction include violations in the proper recruitment, enlistment, and behavior of monks. The respective sections detailing papal, episcopal, and abbatial responsibilities are set out in rubricated letters (words written in red), while each individual “case” or crime is set off by rubricated paraph marks. Condition: A fine copy. References: Not in BMC, BSB-Ink, CIBN, Goff. P. Veneziani, Besicken e il metodo degli incunabolisti, in «Gutenberg Jahrbuch» 80 (2005), p. 97 no. 6 (assigns the edition to Guldinbeck). R 111; IGI VI 2571-A; GW 6198 (assigned to Johann Besicken and dated c. 1495); GW (Nachtr) 67; Bod-inc C-112; Polain (B) 4095; IBE 1512; Hubay (Augsburg) 538; Kind (Göttingen) 1260; Sheppard 2852 (assigned to Guldinbeck as this state of the type 86 G was used by Besicken in only one book). ISTC ic00265500. Census (10): Italy (2): Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana; Roma, Biblioteca Casanatense; Belgium (1): Liège, Petit; British Isles (2): Manchester, John Rylands University Library (R152138); Oxford, Bodleian Library; Germany (1): Augsburg SStB; Göttingen, SUB; Russia (1): St Petersburg, National Library of Russia; Spain (1); Palma BP; Vatican City (1): Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. •⁠> This lot is located in and ships from the UK. No export license is required for values under £65,000; above this threshold, a UK export license will be needed. Import duties and taxes in the destination country are the buyer's responsibility.