[INCUNABLE] Quaestiones circa confessionem seu Sacramentum poenitentiae.

[Drophead title]. Rome : Johann Besicken, [c.1493]. Octavo (215 x 145 mm), bound in recent boards (some paper loss at foot of spine); [7] unnumbered leaves, with 33 lines per page; one small woodblock initial; no colophon, as issued; some leaves with light browning or foxing, but a good example.

A scarce incunable concerning the Sacrament of Penance, the text of which is extracted from St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica.

Although the printing had formerly been attributed to Stephan Plannck, the German-Swiss Johann Besicken has more recently been identified as the printer, based on the distinctive design of the woodcut capital on a1.

Goff T325

Johann Besicken was born in Besingheim, Germany, but trained in Basel where he is known to have been active as a printer from around 1480 to 1483. In Rome in 1493 he established a printing press in partnership with Sigismundus Mayr, which produced mainly theological works up until about 1499. He then entered into a brief partnership with Martinus de Amsterdam, before commencing to print independently in 1502, concentrating on secular works. The latest work attributed to him is from 1508.