Incunabula leaf with woodcut from Vita Christi (Life of Christ)

Zwolle, Netherlands: Peter van Os van Breda, 1495. Disbound. Very good. Vita Christi by Ludolphus de Saxonia. Zwolle, Netherlands: Peter van Os van Breda, 1495. This disbound leaf measures 7" x 9¾". In Dutch. 40 lines in Gothic type with handpainted red majuscule. Dots of rubrication on several smaller capitals. Bright and crisp with some light soiling.

Includes an attractive woodcut illustration (5½" x 3¾") of Mark 2:23-28, Jesus and three disciples in the grainfield responding to criticism by the Pharisees.

Ludolph of Saxony wrote the Life of Christ in 1374. I was not just a simple biography. Rather, it also contained a compilation of commentaries from the Church Fathers, dogmatic and moral dissertations, spiritual instructions, meditations, and prayers. It was so important in its time that it was considered to be a summa evangelica, or "highest evangelical."

Mark 2:23-28 reads

23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"
25 But He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?"
27 And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.". See Goff L-356 (Incunabula in American Libraries) and ISTC (Incunabula Short Title Catalog) il00356000.