Both texts are printed on watermarked paper, and the volume is bound in wooden boards covered in tooled (stamped) pigskin with brass clasps. The Fasciculus is printed in single columns using Rolewinck's idiosyncratic horizontal timeline layout and is sparsely illustrated with woodcuts. Except for the first three pages, which are printed in single columns with hand-rubricated initials, the text of the Malleus is printed in double columns in black letter type with no rubrication or illustrations.
The title page of the Fasciculus bears a handwritten ex libris and both texts are filled with marginal notes in a sixteenth-century hand, indicating their contemporary use.
The essays in this section explore these extra-textual elements of the codex and what they reveal about its manufacture and its use.
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Malleus Marginalia: What can be learned from the marginalia in Portland State University's edition of the Malleus maleficarum
Sarah Alderson
In 2018, Portland State University Library Special Collections acquired a second edition Malleus maleficarum, printed by Peter Drach of Speier in 1490, which is bound with a copy of Werner Rolewinck’s Fasciculus temporum (printed by Prüss, Strassbourg).
In this copy, three separate notetakers’ handwriting may be identified. We know this because there are three distinctive scripts present in the margins of the texts, on the title page of the Fasciculus, and on blank folios between the two texts. This paper explains the relevance of the handwriting and the research behind the identification of the scripts.
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The Frontispiece Woodcut in the Fasciculus temporum in Portland State University’s Codex
Amanda Bonilla
The frontispiece image in the PSU codex is in the tradition of ‘the education of the prince,’ a popular choice for early printed works, particularly historical chronicles and similar manuscripts related to ancient times.
A portal with columns provides an entrance into the book, and also encloses and protects its contents. This shape, echoing the triumphal arches of classical antiquity, was a popular motif in renaissance publishing. Along with the king’s crown worn on top of a turban-like head wrap, the columns and arches suggest a connection to classical antiquity. Although most images do not reference an artist, making it nearly impossible to trace the origin of specific woodblocks, this particular image appears in books from at least three other late fifteenth-century publishers.
This image was also used for another highly popular fifteenth-century book: a collection of ancient eastern parables originally written in Sanskrit, and translated into Latin from Hebrew in the twelfth century. The use of identical images in the two texts strongly suggests thematic ties between the two, rendering them worthy of the same opening visual in the minds of their publishers.
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Watermarks in the PSU Codex Fasciculus temporum and the Paper Trade
Christian Graham
Medieval watermarks were introduced into early printed works during the production process of the paper. It is not known exactly when or why they came into common use, but they did come to identify specific paper suppliers.
As the number of paper suppliers grew enormously in concert with the growth of popularity of printed books, identifying the watermarks of specific producers can provide the modern scholar with valuable information about an early printed work, including dating editions and providing insight into trading relationships and connections between paper-makers and printers.
This paper examines some of the watermarks present in the PSU’s edition of Rolewinck's Fasciculus temporum.
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Watermarks in the PSU Malleus Maleficarum
Laura Lindenthal
This paper seeks to connect the watermarks found in PSU’s codex to the printer (or printers) of the included texts, the Malleus maleficarum and the Fasciculus temporum. Specifically, this essay considers three watermarks found on the paper of the Malleus maleficarum, one of which, an ox-head with staff, occurs on a blank page between the Malleus and the Fasciculus temporum, which precedes it in the codex. These watermarks and their common variations are described and their inclusion in several watermark databases is discussed. The three marks found in the Malleus maleficarum may be directly connected to the printer, Peter Drach of Speier.
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Fasciculus temporum: Extra-textual Genealogy
Amanda Swinford
Following the printed text of the Fasciculus temporum in PSU Library's codex is a concise, six-line, handwritten verse genealogy which lists the three husbands and three daughters, all named Mary, of St. Anne, the mother of Mary and maternal grandmother of Jesus.
The source of this addition is the Legenda aurea, a popular compilation of hagiographies, composed in Latin by Jacob Voragine (1230 - c.1298) in approximately 1270. This content was included by the publishers of certain other editions of the Fasciculus temporum, but is not included in the printed portion of the PSU edition.
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Drach, Prüss, and the Fifteenth-Century Book Trade
Jonathan Taylor
The development of the moveable-type press in the mid-fifteenth century led to the rise of a new industry, the manufacture and trade of printed books. Before this, written works existed as handwritten manuscripts individually produced by scribes.
The printing press allowed works such as the Malleus maleficarum and Fasciculus temporum contained within Portland State University’s codex to be produced in a significantly more efficient manner. The printers of the two volumes contained in the codex, Peter Drach and Johann Prüss, successfully avoided the pitfalls facing early printers to become successful in their trade, and may have actively cooperated in the production of the codex.