[Golden Legend].

[Single leaf from] Legenda aurea sanctorum, sive Lombardica historia Dat duytsche Passionael.

Cologne: Ludwig von Renchen, 1485.

Single leaf (circa 25mm x 280mm). Rubricated text in two columns on recto and verso, hand-colored woodcut on recto. Age-toned with margins somewhat soiled and some light edge wear. Very good.

§ An attractive single leaf (folio CLI) from a 1485 Cologne edition of the Passionael, a vernacular working in Rhenish Low German of the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine. The leaf contains the end of the legend of Saint Luke and the first part of the entry on Saint Ursula, the "Legend of the Eleven Thousand Virgins," covering the marriage negotiations and the assembly of her legendary company. It is illustrated with a fine hand-colored woodcut anticipating the climax of the story: Saint Ursula's ship arriving at Cologne, where she and her company were massacred by the Huns. The saint is shown flanked by Pope Cyriacus, in his tiara, and Bishop Pantulus of Basel, in his mitre, while an armed Hun on the shore grips a third companion by the hair, sword raised to behead her. ISTC ij00171000. GW M11405. Item #127195

Price: $750.00