[ANONYME] LE Miroir de la rédemption de l’humain lignage.

BMC, VIII, p. 259 (IB41685, for the 1482 edition); Anatole Claudin, Histoire de l’Imprimerie en France eu XVe et au XVIe siècle, Paris, 1904, tome III; Catalogue des Incunables de la Bibliothèque nationale, II, S-356 — BnF, Réserve des livres rares, A-1241 (BIS), note : http://classes.bnf.fr/livre/grand/472.htm ; Goff, S-662 (edition 1484); Brunet, V, 481; GW, M-43031; Adrian Wilson et Joyce Lancaster Wilson, A Medieval Mirror : Speculum Humanae Salvationis 1324–1500, Berkeley, 1984; Des Livres rares, depuis l’invention de l’imprimerie, Paris, 1998, nos 6, 10 et 109; C. Connochie-Bourgne, in « Miroir ou image… Le choix d’un titre pour un texte didactique », 2003; Frédéric Barbier, Lyon et les livres, Genève, 2006; Gustave Brunet, La France littéraire au XVe siècle, ou, Catalogue raisonné des ouvrages en tout genre imprimés en langue française jusqu’à l’an 1500. Geneva 1967; Dominique Coq, « Les incunables : textes anciens, textes nouveaux », in: H. J. Martin, R. Chartier et J.-P. Vivet (dir.), Le Livre conquérant du Moyen-âge au milieu du XVIIe siècle, Paris, 1983; Geneviève Hasenohr, « La littérature religieuse », in: D. Poirion (dir.), La Littérature française du XIVe et XVe siècles, Heidelberg, 1988; Einar Mar Jonsson, Le miroir : naissance d’un genre littéraire, Paris, 1995.

The first illustrated French book in French language, fourth edition. It is illustrated with 257 woodcuts, “identical to Richel’s edition (Goff, S-664) but with one addition (fo. 99v) and two substitutions (a new woodcut on fo. 95v and a repeat on 151r)” (Bibl. Philosophica et Hermetica).

This is the second edition printed by Mathias Huss. Mathias’s relative, Martin Huss, had established the second press at Lyons with Johannes Siber, and in 1478 issued the first edition of the Speculum in French adorned with woodcuts; that edition was the first illustrated French book. He issued a second edition in 1479.

Martin had procured the woodcuts for both editions from Bernard Richel who had used them in the German edition at Basel two years earlier. They are the same woodcuts used by Mathias in this edition as well. The four or five editions of the Speculum printed between 1478 and 1483 made Lyons a center of the French illustrated book. Based as it is on the Richel edition, this French translation of Julien Macho includes the Epistles and Gospels for Sundays and holy days taken from the Plenarium.

The joining of these two works highlights the Plenarium as a didactic work and the Speculum as a liturgical substitute. Not only are these additional Biblical passages, arranged according to the ecclesiastical calendar, a further aid to the lesser clergy looking for inspiration for sermons, but they lend a practical order to the Speculum, making it more suited to the regularity in meditation and devotion recommended for a heightened spirituality.

Mathias Huss apparently printed two editions of the Speculum in French dated 1483, both of which are usually assigned in the Copinger reference HC 14298. Copinger took his description from the Lyons Public Library copy which matches that in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica. These two copies represent an edition distinct from the only American copies listed in Goff (Rosenwald 383, PML check list, 1569).

Although the page shows a different type-setting, and the colophon of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica / Lyons copies give the year only, while that in the Rosenwald / PML copies give the day and the month (3 March as well). (See Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, no. 175, this copy).

Due to the constant use these devotional books are usually quite worn. This copy has the first leaf in facsimile, all outer margins restored, occasionally touching some letters.