[INCUNABLE] A bifolium from Bartolus’ Super prima parte Digesti novi

[Venice : Vindelinus de Spira, 1471]. First edition. Pair of conjoined leaves, each page measuring 441 x 298 mm printed double column in black ink recto and verso, 50 lines in Roman type with rubrication in red and blue inks, chapter headings in red ink in upper margin, foliation upper centre. A fine specimen with exceptionally wide margins, framed in museum timber, overall framed measurements 560 x 705 mm.

A fine large-format specimen incunable leaf from the first Venetian press, set up in 1469 by German brothers Vindelinus and Joannes de Spira (aka Johann and Wendelin of Speyer; Vindolino and Giovanni da Spira), just fifteen years after Gutenberg printed his Bible Latina. Their press remained active up until 1477.

‘Bartolus de Saxoferrato (1313 – 13 July 1357) was an Italian law professor and one of the most prominent continental jurists of Medieval Roman Law. He belonged to the school known as the commentators or postglossators. The admiration of later generations of civil lawyers is shown by the adage nemo bonus íurista nisi bartolista — no one is a good jurist unless he is a Bartolist (i.e. a follower of Bartolus).’ – Wikipedia