Balthasar, De Porta, Franz Balthasar (de Porta) (Fl 1480-1505)

Canon sacratissime misse : vna cum Expositione eiusde[m]. vbi in primis premittit[ur] pulchra contemplatio ante missam habe[n]da De cristi pulcritudine. Et quo[modo] ipsa in sua passione ab eo omnino fuerat ablata. Qualiteraq[ue] quilibet celebra[n]s debeat esse dispositus

Nuremberg (In Jmperiali ciuitate Nurembergensi): Höltzel, 1503. Wolf Traut, Full-page woodcut on verso of title: an excellent impression showing a beardless St Jerome (with lion!) in the wilderness. First Edition. Bound in blind tooled 19th century calf, very nice. Item #850

Wolf Traut clearly worked closely with several Nuremberg publishers and the names of Johann Weissenburger and Hieronymus Höltzel recur. The earliest woodcuts to be attributed to him are for this volume published in 1503.







Balthasar was a monk in Pforta, was enrolled at the theological faculty in Leipzig in the winter semester of 1483 - probably after studying Artes Liberales. He passed the usual exams (Cursor 1485, Sententiar 1486, Licentiate 1487, Doctor 1496) and was first mentioned on January 13th, 1486 as provisional officer of the Bernhard Kolleg in Leipzig (probably until 1498/99, last mentioned 1496). In 1488 he established a full philosophical chair for the Cistercians in Leipzig, where, in addition to his theological lectures at the Bernhard College, he held lectures on Aristotle as a determinator artium. He wrote, inter alia Canon sacratissime misse one of two explanations of the Mass, interpreting meaning and words, in a lively, structured representation. Between November 18, 1500 and August 19, 1501 he was elected Abbot of Pforta. As such he took part in economic and reform visitations, e.g. Partly by order of Pope Alexander VI., Influence on the life of many Saxon monasteries, especially in Nimbschen, Eisenach, Sonnenfeld, Ichtershausen, Häseler and Leubus. Pforta owes him the renovation of the refectory and the rich increase in the monastery property, primarily through purchases and pledges from Duke Georg of Saxony, with whom Balthazar had a good relationship.

VD16 M 5521; urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb00007866-4; urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10990882-0; urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10990885-6 ; Katalog der Inkunabeln der Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, des ..., Volume 1 p 883

Rare Nurnberg pre-Reformation ed. of the Canon of the Mass, with a commentary.. Capital spaces without guide-letters. Ref. VD-16 M-5521. STCGerman (BL) 510. Not in Adams.

Price: $5,000.00