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 946G Bonaventura (fromerly attributed to)   but  Nicolaus de Hanapis (1225-1291)

 Incipit preclarum opus quod Biblia pauperum appellatur, a domino Bonaventura, Ordinis minorum, perutile omnibus predicatoribus.    

Venice: Explicit opus preclarum domini Bonaventure Biblia pauperum nuncupatum, impressionique Venetiis deditum impensis Johannis de Colonia sociique ejus Johannis Manthen de Gherretzem, anno Domini MCCCCLXXVII.                       $9,500

Quarto 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 Inches ;a-b8, c6, d8 ; This copy is housed in  a highly gilt solander box  with elegant decoration imprinted in gold, with title and date of the work on the front .It is bound in Later paper boards and it is Rubricated throughout in both red and blue with capitals stroked in yellow.  Old ownership notetation on the final leaf.

There are also  five pages with very small notes in the bottom margins. (See Below)

This is the second part only of one of several versions of a text going back to the Virtutum vitiorumque exempla of Nicolaus Hanapus, and generally entitled Exempla sacrae scripturae. The title ‘Biblia pauperum’ and the ascription to St. Bonaventure are both incorrect”.  (V. Scholderer in Gb Jb 1936 pp.61-62, reprinted in Fifty Essays (Amsterdam, 1966) pp.140-41: Version E)

Rather than a ‘Pauper’s Bible’ this book is in actuality a ‘Religious exempla’ (cautionary stories used to aid preaching).   

The book presents thousands of examples drawn exclusively from the Bible that enable preachers to illustrate their teaching on virtues and vices and to help the faithful to behave Christianly in public and private life, The moment of death. It was printed for the first time in Venice in 1477 and attributed to St. Bonaventure . It is frequently reissued under various titles. For example, Summa virtutum and viciorum (Cologne 1544, and Paris 1548), Virtutum vitiorumque exempla ex universo divinae scripture promptuario desumta , Flores biblici , Exempla biblica (Augsburg, 1726), or simply as the ‘Bible of the Poor’ , Probably because these narratives were easily understood, and because the publishers had arranged them in alphabetical order

Goff B858; BMC XII 16; Walsh 1701
(US copies :Folger , HEHL (var), HarvCL Indiana Univ., The Lilly Library (Biblia pauperum only)
LC, SMU, Newberry Library, Univ. of Illinois  (-),Vassar College)

In the work of Nicolaus de Hanapis (or Hanapus): Virtutum vitwrumgvc exempla ex vniverme divinac soripturae promptuario desumpta. The author was  a French Dominican, who became bishop of Acre (1288) and patriarch of Jerusalem, dying at Acre in 1291. For details of his life see Qnetif and Echard, i., p. 422, and HM. Utt. dc la France, xx., pp. 51-78, 785-786. Tho work abounds in MS., and was frequently printed. An elaborate analysis and bibliography of the work may be found in the Hut. Utt. de la France, vol. cit., pp. 64-78. As the title indicates, the work consists of the events of the Scriptures arranged under various headings for convenience of reference. The events are given in the baldest form, and the author seldom adds a remark of his own.

{ Hain registers eight editions before 1500.}