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The lyf of the holy [and] blessid vyrgyn saynt Wenefryde.

Accession number
PML 35083
Object title

The lyf of the holy [and] blessid vyrgyn saynt Wenefryde.

Published

[Westminster : William Caxton, 1484]

Description

[16] leaves ; 29 cm (folio)

Credit line
Purchased in 1938.
Notes
Title from incipit (leaf a2r): Here begynneth the lyf of the holy [and] blessid vyrgyn saynt Wenefryde
Imprint based on paper evidence.
Printed in Caxton's type 4:95 (100)B*.
Collation: a-b⁸: 16 leaves, leaf a1 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio
Caxton's translation of an abridged version of the Vita Sanctae Wenefredae of Robert of Shrewsbury (see BMC).
PML copy leaf dimensions: 28.1 x 18.8 cm.
Binding
18th-century deer skin over paper boards (29 x 20 cm), sewn on 6 supports by John Elliott. Plain paper pastedowns and fly leaves; plain endbands. Evidence of previous stab sewing in gutter.
Variant title
The life of the holy and blessed virgin Saint Winifred.
Inscriptions/Markings
Hand decoration: Rubrication unrealized, printed paragraph marks. Annotations: No notations in text.
Provenance
John Randall; William Stanehouse, inscription: William Stanehouse owe this booke which was bought of John Randall and coste iii s[hillings], with a list of payments and money received (by Stanehouse or Randall?), 16th century (leaf a1r); [De Ricci incorrectly identified this copy as Thomas Rawlinson's, see BMC and PML copy of De Ricci]; [Robert Harley (1661-1724), 1st Earl of Oxford, to his son:?] Edward Harley (1689-1741), 2nd Earl of Oxford, the printed books from the Oxford library were sold by his widow, Henrietta Cavendish (1694-1755), in 1743 to: Thomas Osborne, Catalogus bibliothecae Harleianae III, no. 411 and V, no. 1667, and cat. 1748, no. 963, to Brereton; Joseph Brereton (d. 1787), manuscript title (first fly leaf recto); not in his sale, Payne, 1789; William John Tollemache Dysart (1859-1935) Earl of Dysart, probably in the Ham House Library since 18th century; Dysart sale, Sotheby's, 20 June 1938, lot 319, to Quaritch (F.S. Ferguson collation note, 22 June 1938, rear pastedown) for Morgan; Pierpont Morgan Library, purchased in 1938.
Classification
Century
Department