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DÜRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). Epitome in divae parthenices mariae historiam [ The Life of the Virgin ]. Nuremberg: Albrecht Dürer 1511.
DÜRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). Epitome in divae parthenices mariae historiam [ The Life of the Virgin ]. Nuremberg: Albrecht Dürer 1511. Title and 19 full-page woodcuts. Title: 342 x 225mm, woodcuts: 300 x 210mm, final leaf: 416 x 265mm. Latin text on verso of each leaf. Watermark: Triangle with Flower (M. 127), Crowned Tower (M. 259) or none. Woodcuts cut down to plate mark and tipped-in at upper margin on paper. (Title with faint finger-soiling in outer margin, very faint brown mark in upper outer corner of plate 6 ‘Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple’, unobtrusive small stain on plate 17 ‘Christ taking leave from his Mother’.) Unbound, modern cloth portfolio, title label on front cover. Provenance : From the collection of the US diplomat Herbert Claiborne Pell Junior (1884-1961). By descent to his son Claiborne de Borda Pell (1918-2009), US Senator for Rhode Island for 36 years until 1997, best known as sponsor of the Pell Grants, to provide financing to American college students and for his part in drafting the original charter for the United Nations. The woodcuts are as follows: 1. Title-page, woodcut of the Virgin on the Crescent Moon (no watermark) 2. Joachim's offering rejected (watermark: Triangle with Flower, M. 127) 3. The Angel appearing to Joachim (no watermark) 4. Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate (watermark: Triangle with Flower, M. 127) 5. The Birth of the Virgin (no watermark) 6. Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (watermark: Crowned Tower, M. 259) 7. The Betrothal of the Virgin (no watermark) 8. The Annunciation (watermark: Triangle with Flower, M.127) 9. The Visitation (no watermark) 10. The Nativity with the Adoration of the Shepherds (no watermark) 11. The Circumcision of Christ (no watermark) 12. The Adoration of the Magi (watermark: Crowned Tower, M. 259) 13. The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (watermark: Triangle with Flower, M.127) 14. The Flight into Egypt (watermark: Triangle with Flower, M.127) 15. The Rest during the Flight of Egypt (watermark: Triangle with Flower, M.127) 16. Christ teaching the doctors in the Temple (watermark: Crowned Tower, M. 259) 17. Christ taking leave from his Mother (watermark: Crowned Tower, M. 259) 18. The Death of Mary (no watermark) 19. Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin (no watermark) 20. The Glorification of the Virgin (watermark: Crowned Tower, M. 259) AN ATTRACTIVE, FRESH COPY WITH GOOD DARK IMPRESSIONS OF THIS DÜRER MASTERPIECE . This is the book edition, published in 1511 with the woodcut on the title, and the Latin text printed on the verso of the plates. The majority of the twenty plates in the Life of the Virgin date from the years 1502-05. However, it was not until 1510-11 that the final two plates and the title-page were added. The complete book was finally published in 1511 with Latin text by the Benedictine monk Benedictus Chelidonius from Nuremberg. Dürer dedicated it to Caritas Pirckheimer, sister of his great friend Willibald and abbess of the convent of Saint Clara in Nuremberg, and it was probably for the educated and refined women in the religious houses that the book was primarily intended. Meder 188-207; S.M.S. 166-185; Strauss 156.