Speculum Christianorum Multa Bona Continens [The Mirror of Christians Containing Many Good Things] Joannes Watton (Ed.)

1513 Thomas Kees [for Jean Petit?] (Paris), 3 7/8 x 5 5/8 inches tall octavo, modern blind-embossed full-leather bound, four raised bands and gilt-lettered burgundy leather label to spine, 55 ff., a1-g7, collates complete and includes front and rear blank flyleaves. Light dampstaining throughout, slightly darker in the second half of the volume, with a one-inch stain to the lower part of leaf 27. Corner of leaf 31 torn off, not affecting text. Otherwise, a very good copy of an exceptionally rare post-incuanble. The Universal Short-Title Catalog (No. 180892) locates only three copies worldwide, at the British Library and Cambridge University in the UK, and Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain (its digitized copy collated against this copy). OCLC also shows a copy at Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris (No. 843132781), and Universitätsbibliothek der LMU München in Munich (No. 633712131). ~SP30~ [1.0P] The Speculum Christianorum was a catechetical or devotional text, intended to provide spiritual guidance and instructions for Christians. It is a product of a genre of medieval literature known as 'speculum' or 'mirror,' which aimed to provide a comprehensive look at a particular subject - in this case, the Christian faith. It was a practical guide for Christian living that contained a wide range of material for the instruction of laymen and clergy. Topics included the Articles of Faith, the Ten Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins, among other religious topics. It was an exceptionally popular 15th century text, reproduced in dozens of manuscripts, for which Joannes Watton served only as compiler, and was derived primarily from the Cibus Animae, a devotional which goes back another hundred years in manuscripts. With the advent of the printing press, the Speculum Christiani was 'peculiarly well placed to respond to the needs of the developing lay market for works of spiritual direction, as well as to satisfy the continuing needs of the clerical market, and it is striking that a surge in copying seems to have taken place in the 1450s and 1460s, perhaps accounting for its early appearance in print.' - Vincent Gillespie, 'The Evolution of the Speculum Christiani,' in Minnis (ed.), Latin and Vernacular: Studies in Late-Medieval Texts and Manuscripts (1989 Brewer, Cambridge, England), at p. 58. Gillespie's bibliography cites this 1513 Thomas Kees imprint as likely made at the behest of well-known Paris bookseller Jean Petit, and places this edition as the fifth version to appear in print, with the prior two being 1500 and 1502 Jean Petit editions printed by Pierre le Dru in Paris. All of these early printed editions followed the 1484 text of printer William de Machlinia in London, except that the few English verses which appear in many prior manuscript editions and Machlinia's first printed edition are omitted in all the the Paris printed editions, including this one. All the Paris editions refer to the text as Speculum Christianorum, even though the Machlinia imprint calls it Speculum Christiani. Gustaf Holmstedt, in his introduction to his 1971 Early English Text Society edit of Speculum Christiani: A Middle English Religious Treatise of the 14th Century, remarks of our 1513 Paris imprint that it was evidently copied from the 1502 Jean Petit Paris imprint, and that the two editions 'so much resemble each other that they are of exactly the same size, have the same number of lines to the page, and even, as a rule, have the same word beginning a new page.' Yet, he points out, they do not employ the same type. Holmstedt also names Jean Petit as the publisher and Thomas Kees as the printer. (p. cxxxii) The last page of the text contains the following colophon: 'Explicit liber qui vocatur Speculum christianorum impressum per Thomam Kees commorantem in vico carmelitarum in domo Rubea Anno domini Millesimo quingentestimo decimo tercio quarta die mensis Julii.' ('Here ends the book which is called Speculum Christianorum [The Mir