Iohannes Nider (c. 1380-1438), Praeceptorium Divinae Legis, or Commentary on the Ten Commandments.

Printed at Cologne by Ulrich Zell, not later than 1472.

Zell was Cologne’s first printer, a former associate of Iohann Gutenberg in Mainz, and this book was printed only some 20 years later than the Gutenberg Bible, effectively the first printed book.  Even so, Nider’s unaccountably popular work had already been printed by Koelhoff in Mainz in 1472

As in many printed books before c. 1500 the major initials, paragraph-marks, highlighting and underlining have all been added by hand.  Note also the passage written in red at the foot of the l. h. page.  It translates ‘Towards the purchase of this book Iohann Mewen gave us 40 stuivers of the money of Lord Louis de Bourbon bishop of Liège.  The rest was raised by myself, Brother Henry of Cologne, prior of the convent of St Maria Laach, in the year of Our Lord 1472’.  Maria Laach, still a Benedictine abbey today, is situated on the Laacher See, south of Bonn.

The remains of a contemporary continental binding of oak boards, the spine covered with brown calf.  Formerly kept shut by a strap from a recess in the back board to a pin in the front.  An English binding would have had the strap seated on the front board with the pin at the back.  The book used to have flyleaves made of manuscript fragments, including part of a late 11th-century liturgical book from the diocese of Utrecht.

Cent. RoySoc Rare BV 4655. N53 1472z.  Presented to the Royal Society by Mr Warren of Argyle St. Hobart, July 8 1853.