Incunabula and the Keio University Library Collection

This is a Sammelband of three works published in Paris and London around the same time, at the end of the 15th century. The first is a copy of William Lyndwood's Constitutiones provinciales ecclesiae Anglicanae printed by Richard Pynson in London in 1499. The second is a guidebook for reading law books, such as those on canon law, and the third is a manual for conducting the Mass, written by Johannes Heynlin; both the second and third books were published in Paris.

The present binding was probably done in the 19th century, but the name 'Robert Oldred' is repeatedly written in an almost contemporary hand throughout the three books, and so it is quite possible that these three copies were bound not long after publication. It may well have been Oldred who had them bound into one volume. We can surmise that the owner of this book had a great interest in the law, and the presence of both Lyndwood's and Heynlin's works may even indicate that this man was an ecclesiastic.

Considering the inclusion of the manual of English ecclesiastical law and the fact that most contemporary Latin works were imported into England from continental cities, it can be imagined that the two books printed in Paris were sold at a bookshop in London, and then bound with Pynson's edition after purchase. While this is no more than conjecture, it is an interesting example of a Sammelband which may give us some insight into the publication business of the early printing period.

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