8 - Incunabula - Post-Incunabula

Incunabula - Post-Incunabula Octavo sheet from the Halberstadt Breviary. Printed sheet from the Psalter (section GG, folios 49–56). Nuremberg, Georg Stuchs, November 13, 1515. Unbound, uncut sheet in octavo format (8 leaves = 16 pages), printed on both sides in red and black. Two columns, 36 lines and column headings, Gothic type, red Lombard letters, and large red initials. Arabic folio numbering (including 50, 52, 54, 56), signatures GG ii and GG iiii. Wvz. Ox head with mirrored “P.”—56.5 x 40.6 cm. - Partially with fold marks. - With the margin. VD16 B 8148 (listed there as 4°). Post-incunabulum, not in ISTC or GW. - Extremely rare; complete printed sheets are extremely difficult to find. - Contains Prime with Preces and Confiteor, Terce, Sixth, and None with Psalm 118, including psalm titles printed in red, as well as Sunday and Monday Vespers. On fol. 50r is the rubric specific to Halberstadt Cathedral: “Hic in choro ecclesie Halberstaden. aliquando leguntur septem psalmi .” Identical in composition to the copy held by the Bavarian State Library in Munich (Liturg. 1450). The Breviarium Halberstadense contains the texts of the Liturgy of the Hours according to the rite of the Diocese of Halberstadt and its cathedral, St. Stephen and Sixtus. It was a liturgical manual for the cathedral chapter and clergy of the diocese. The breviary brings together the texts that make up the Liturgy of the Hours and is organized according to the times of day and the liturgical year. The hours include Prime, Terce, Sext, None, and Vespers. Such a book consists of several parts: the Calendarium, the Psalterium (weekly psalter), the Proprium de tempore and de sanctis, and the Commune. The Halberstadt edition from 1515 contains one of these parts: the Psalterium. - Georg Stuchs (also Stüchs, Stöchs) was born around 1460 in Sulzbach in the Upper Palatinate and died in 1520 in Nuremberg. In 1484, he acquired Nuremberg citizenship. He became one of the city’s most prolific printers and, alongside Erhard Ratdolt, was one of the most important printers of liturgical works in Germany. His focus was on breviaries for many dioceses, including Prague, Salzburg, Magdeburg, and Lübeck. From about 1508 onward, he significantly scaled back his printing operations and went into the metal trade. His son Johann continued to run the workshop. — Uncut octavo sheets from the post-incunabula period are extremely rare. In the early 16th century, surplus or defective sheets were not collected but were sent as waste paper to bookbinders, who used them as endpapers, fore-edges, or spine reinforcements. What has survived is usually found as a trimmed, fragmented binding fragment. A complete, unfolded sheet with a deckle edge, on the other hand, still reveals the imposition layout—that is, the arrangement of the pages on the sheet—and makes the production process visible. In the case of Stuchs’ Halberstadt sheet, this is compounded by the fact that the edition itself is rare, and the VD16 lists only a few locations where it is held. The church library in Barth holds, in its incunabula collection of approximately 4,500 volumes and over 150 single-leaf prints, an outstanding, uncut eight-leaf printed sheet from a study edition of the “Laborintus” by Ebrardus Alemannus, which Wolfgang Stöckel printed in Leipzig in 1497 and which is listed in the General Catalog of Incunabula under the number GW 0920910N. Octavo sheet from the *Breviarium Halberstadense*. Printed sheet from the *Psalterium* (quire GG, ff. 49–56). Nuremberg, Georg Stuchs, November 13, 1515. Unbound, uncut sheet, in octavo format (8 leaves = 16 pp.), printed on both sides in red and black. Two columns, 36 lines, and running titles; Gothic typeface, red Lombardic capitals, and larger red initials. Arabic foliation (including 50, 52, 54, 56), signatures GG ii and GG iiii. Watermark: ox head with mirrored P. Partially with fold marks. With the deckle edge. VD16 B 8148 (listed there as 4to). Post-incunabulum, not listed in ISTC or GW. Of the utmost rarity; complete printed sheets are extremely rare to find. — Contains Prime with Preces and Confiteor, Terce, Sext, and None with Psalm 118, including the psalm titles printed in red, as well as Sunday and Monday Vespers. On f. 50r is the rubric peculiar to Halberstadt Cathedral: “Hic in choro ecclesie Halberstaden. aliquando leguntur septem psalmi.” Its typesetting is identical to that of the copy in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich (Liturg. 1450). The Breviarium Halberstadense contains the texts of the Divine Office according to the rite of the Diocese of Halberstadt and its cathedral of St. Stephen and St. Sixtus. It served as a liturgical working book for the cathedral chapter and the clergy of the diocese. The breviary compiles the texts that make up the Divine Office and is organized according to the hours of the day and the liturgical year. The hours include Prime, Terce, Sext, None, and Vespers. Such a book consists of several parts: the Calendar, the Psalter (weekly psalter), the Proprium de tempore and de sanctis, and the Commune. The Halberstadt edition of 1515 contains the Psa