Folio, (282 x 198 mm). 67 ff., 13 ff. Eighteenth or late 17th century vellum, spine lettered in ink, ties perished, somewhat soiled and worn. Finger soiling to various leaves, worming throughout, mainly to fore and bottom edge margins, to a few quires entering text causing some minor loss to a few letters, some quires somewhat browned but overall in very good condition.

Up to 1530 the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem had been without a territory to call it’s own, then, following the granting of the Island of Malta by Emperor Charles V and his mother Juana de Castilla, Grand Master Philip de Villiers Lisle-Adam took possession of the Island of Malta; this granting of the Island was approved by Pope Clement VII, this Bull “Bulla del Nuestro muy Sancto Padre Cleme[n]te.VII. Co[n]cessa ala orde[n] de Senor Sant Jua[n]”, is printed in this edition probably for the first time, and is interesting as is a certified copy, completed in manuscript at the time.

The first dated edition of the Stabilimenta appeared in 1495 in Venice, followed by a French translation in Paris and subsequent editions including Caoursin’s edition in 1496 (the first illustrated), neither of these editions, naturally, contained the important Bull of Clement VII that gave the territory of Malta to the Order, which altered the nature and even the name of the Order for the centuries to come.

Latin text in gothic letter, title printed in red and black, with large woodcut arms on recto of Philip de Villiers Lisle-Adam, Grand Master of the Order, and on verso the arms of Didacus of Toledo, Grand Prior of Castile, woodcut capitals, woodcut vignette border on first page of the Papal Bull establishing the Order.

Rare, according to OCLC, we locate copies at Yale, Harvard, Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, and Bibliotheque Saint-Genevieve; additionally to these, according to CCPBE, we locate a further 5 copies in Spain, two of which fragmentary or incomplete: BNE, Palacio Real (2, one in fragmentary form), Universidad de Valencia, and Real Colegiata de S. Isidoro (missing the title page).

Provenance: Baron Amherst, bookplate on front pastedown (his sale, Sotheby’s, 24/03/1909, lot 498); Joseph Galea, bookplate on front pastedown; bookplate of Jacob P. R. Lyell to front pastedown; a pasted paper label on front flyleaf evidently describing the book mostly torn away; Sotheby’s, Catalogue of Printed Books (1967), lot 286.

Palau, 321844. Not in Salva.