39. [Book of Hours]. Hortulus Animæ. S.l.n.d. (Nuremberg, F. - Lot 39

39. [Book of Hours]. Hortulus Animæ. S.l.n.d. (Nuremberg, F. Peypus, 1519?). In-8, [12] f., 184 f. (of 199), paperback without binding, protected by reused limp vellum. Remarkable Latin book of hours printed in two inks (red and black), without place or date, due to the lack of a title page and colophon, and whose placement of the engravings corresponds to the description given by Dodgson for the Hortulus Animae printed by Friedrich Peypus in Nuremberg for Korberger, dated 1519. Muther tells us that the Hortus Animae published by Korberger has up to 83 engravings, depending on the edition, and as our copy is incomplete by several leaves, it is risky to identify it more precisely: at the very least, it seems to correspond to the copy preserved in the British museum and identified as Peypus for 1519. Our copy is illustrated with 63 woodcuts (28 in the text and 35 full-page, all fully colored), mostly by Hans Springinklee, who signs with the monogram H.K.S. The German artist Hans Springinklee (c. 1490-c. 1540) was an exceptional wood engraver. A pupil and collaborator of Albrecht Dürer, he contributed to the creation of many of Dürer's engravings, and distinguished himself as an illustrator of bibles published by Johann Korberger. His fantasy lies in the boldness of his depictions and the fine hatching that follows the vanishing lines and reinforces the dense shadow compositions. Although few details of his life are known, his illustrations bear witness to his talent and influence on the art of the time. In this Book of Hours, each page is framed by a frieze of plants and animals, one of which bears the date 1518. The text is decorated with small and large initials. The entire work has been illuminated in the past: the engravings are colored, the capitals painted and the capital letters enhanced with a red line. Lacombe points out that Pope Pius V forbade the acquisition of the Hortus animae, one of several devotional books, and complains that this German production is not better represented at the Bnf. Binding missing, the copy lacks 6 introductory leaves including the title page, 15 leaves of the corpus (ff. 7,, 92, 94, 99, 102, 121, 122, 124, 129, 130, 132, 134, 135, 146 and 151), paper missing on 4 leaves (ff. 58, 59, 60 and 127), the engraving of Saint Michael is missing a small section (f. 85), there are tears on two leaves (ff. 128 and 176), table leaves are missing at the end (the corpus ends on the mandorla), some dust marks and other minor defects. A work with a similar collation appears in the Maisonneuve catalog of 1865 (no. 7579), with just as much difficulty in precisely assigning a press. (Bohatta 63-63; Adams, 559-1006 for the collation of the 1519 ed.; Graësse, III, 373 for the numerous editions; Dodgson, I, 371-2 and following pages for an engraving-by-engraving description; Muther, I, 177).