Iacobus de Theramo, Processus Belial (in German); Germany, c. 1450–1470

Title

Iacobus de Theramo, Processus Belial (in German); Germany, c. 1450–1470

Shelfmark

MS. Germ. d. 4

Place of origin

German

Date

15th century, second half, probably before 1470

Language

German

Middle High German (ca. 1050-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

paper. The watermark is Piccard, Krone I 321, produced between 1448 and 1466 (primarily from Dinkelsbühl and Worms, but otherwise found across the northern Hesse/ Westphalia area).

Physical extent

i + 84 + ivleaves

Hands

Two hands, which change on fol. 18ra; both are cursive book hands.

Decoration

Until 12rb, black ink, red initials.

Some rubricated majuscules and Latin phrases underlined in red and black.

Thereafter, no rubrication (though space left for initials); Latin phrases underlined in black alone.

Binding

Contemporary binding: sewn on three double cords and bound in wood boards covered with red-stained leather; five bosses on each cover now missing, as are a pair of clasps and straps (fastening bottom to top) at the fore-edge; the edges of the boards with the remains of metal re-inforcements; the spine with an old paper label inscribed in ink, now mostly covered by a Bodleian label

Acquisition

Bought from Kraus by the Bodleian in 17th March 1936: P. 17. III. 1936 Kraus (fol. 2r))

Provenance

Produced in the second half of 15th century, probably before 1470: watermark and script.

Schleithnersches Archiv, Nordstetten. This archive was held in the ancestral home of the family of the Keller von Schleitheim, the present chateau being built in 1739/40 in place of the castle formerly on the site; Nordstetten is now part of Horb in the Neckar, Baden-Württemberg: an inscription in an 18th-century hand, Schleitheimschen Archiv zu Nordstetten (inside front cover: 'dies inter opera rarissima gezählte Werk. das Gespräch Salomonis mit dem Teufel aus dem Schleitheimschen Archiv zu Nordstetten. giebt dechan (?) Johler der Bibliothek des Kapitels'). The latter are have not been identified.

Unidentified press mark(?) in modern pencil: I. B, 8 (inside front cover).

Antiquariat Ludwig Rosenthal, München: No. 1138 in Ludwig Rosenthal, Katalog 65. Auswahl seltener Werke aus der älteren deutschen Sprache und Literatur. Nebst Anhang: Histor. u. satyr. Flugblätter (Einblattdrucke) mit gereimtem Text, (München [ca. 1889]), p. 113.

Library of Edmund Langer (1855–1932), Braunau (Böhmen), Ms. 5. The library was dissolved in the 1930s and probably sold by the auction house H. Gilhofer & H. Ranschburg AG, Lucerne. See M. Heiles [n.d.], p. 4.

H. P. Kraus.