Old Books before 1600 Incunabula Johannes de Garlandis... Lot n° 337

et penitendi. [Colophon:] Deventer, (Richard Pafraet), 20 December 1488, (25) lvs., first initial letter "P" in blue gouache, 19th-cent. marbled boards w. mor. letterpiece on spine, 20.5 x 15 cm, kept in cloth dropback box by the bindery of St. Matthias in Trier. The first 5 lvs. waterstained and wormholed in upper inner corner, the first leaf with loss of a sm. piece of the blank corner; small central wormholes almost throughout; occas. stains and other sm. defects. Else a good copy, with contemp. manuscript owner's entry above the title: "Codex Mos[na]sterii sancti mathie a[posto]li extra muros Trenensi" (the abbey of St. Matthias in Trier). Below the title is a manuscript list in the same hand, listing 16 works formerly bound with the same work (a vellum tab from a thumb index is still attached to leaf Aii). BMC IX, p. 50; Goff M768; GW. M13789; Proctor 8980. Cf. Troelstra, De toestand der catechese in Nederland gedurende de vóór-reformatorische eeuw, p. 91-92. The first Deventer edition of a popular work on confession and penitence, often attributed to Johannes de Garlandis (John of Garland, c. 1190-c. 1270), or to Petrus Blesensis (Peter of Blois, c. 1130-c. 1211). The work is a handbook in verse for priests who took confession and prescribed penance, offering prayers, questions and lists of sins that could be used as guidelines during confession.