Sale 2468 - Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books, March 8, 2018

156 c (MANUSCRIPT.) Gracia Dei, Pedro de. [Blasón General y Nobleza del Universo.] illuminated manuscript in spanish on paper, written in humanistic cursive hand in brown ink with forty - one drawings in color after woodcuts in the 1489 Coria edition. [32] (of [33]) leaves. 184x55 mm, old vellum boards, worn, lacking ties; heavy soiling in lower outer corners throughout, scattered minor stains, some sidenotes cropped. Signature of Fran[cisco] Gomes Pereira. Spain, circa 1500? [3,000/4,000] Contemporary manuscript copy of a substantial portion of the 1489 Coria original edition of the Blasón General by Pedro de Gracia Dei, Herald and King of Arms to Ferdinand and Isabella. One of 2 recorded 15th-century Coria imprints, the Blasón General was the first book on heraldry printed in Spain and one of the earliest Spanish illustrated books; only 4 copies are known to survive. The contents of the manuscript correspond to leaves 27-58 of the printed edition, dealing with the elements of heraldry, the arms of the 12 Tribes of Israel, zodiac figures, planets, etc. The manuscript omits the introductory portion of the original text comprising a general discussion of nobility and related topics, and lacks a leaf with the text and illustration on leaf 33 in the printed book. No sales of either the original printed edition or manuscript copies are listed in RBH or ABPC. [ see also front cover ]