Ars moriendi.
Contributors: Huntington, Archer Milton, 1870-
Publisher: The De Vinne Press
Published: 1902
Place of publication: [New York
Language: lat
Number of pages: 28
Subjects: Block books.
Notes: Cover.
"This edition of one hundred was printed in facsimile at the De Vinne press from the copy in the Columbine library, in Seville by Archer M. Huntington nineteen hundred and two."--Verso of prelim. leaf (on the recto the dedication to Edward Bierstadt); two blank leaves at the beginning and two at the end of this facsimile edition have been removed in binding this copy.
For a history of this block book, the relation of the manuscripts and the printed editions to each other and to the original woodcuts of the master E.S. see Schreiber, W.L., Manuel de l'amateur de la gravure sur bois au XV. siècle, t. IV, 1902, p. 253-313, and t. VIII (Atlas) plates 98-110.
The Colombina "Ars moriendi" corresponds most nearly to the edition classified by Schreiber as type IV C belonging to the High German group. The detailed description of each block is given on p. 267-313. There are some variations: on p. 7 (woodcut 3) the assassinated man has no wound as described, and on p. 12 there is no horizontal line under the text. Schreiber does not mention the Colombina copy among those of type IV C registered by him. He wrongly places a copy ("Botfield") of the type IV C in the Lenox library, whereas the New York public library copy is the one registered under IV D as no. 236 of the Weigel collection. He cites a copy of the edition IV D as being in the Royal library at Munich.
This edition was printed from the same blocks as IV C, differing only in the two additional woodcuts at the end. A facsimile of this copy (Zwickauer facsimile drucke no. 3) in the Library of Congress shows the same variations as the Huntington facsimile, and also has pages 21 and 23 interchanged, of which Schreiber makes no mention. (In referring to the pages by number, the blank recto at beginning is not counted) The sizes given by Schreiber vary more or less from those in the Huntington facsimile, which may be accounted for by the wetting and shrinking of the paper.
The Colombina copy bears on the first page (also blank) two other manuscript notes. On p. [29] of this facsimile is the printed note: "Manuscript notes in this volume are those of Ferdinand Columbus and refer to his catalogue. See: ʻRegestum, n̓o. 205, my edition in facsimile." This refers to Mr. Huntington's facsimile of the catalogue of Ferdinand Columbus' library, New York, 1905 (no. 18 in the Catalogue of the publications of the Hispanic society of America. The "Ars moriendi" is publication no., 3) In the "Bibliotheca Colombina. Catalogo de sus libros impresos," t. 1, Sevilla, 1888, the Ars moriendi is described at p. 160-161.