Folio, (285 x 195 mm). 254 ff. [1]-108; 1-146, with the first blank leaf included in the foliation. Text in Middle High German, 34 lines and running title, sometimes 33 lines; as described by the BMC, the last line of folio CXLVI was omitted during the printing process and replaced at the time by hand. Contemporary blindtooled calf over boards, decoration attributed to the workshop of the monastery of S. Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg with its particular irons (pomegranate, phylactery), raised bands to spine, one working clasp, the other missing, the decoration of the contemporary binding, entirely untouched (with some overall loss) compares to the former Otto Schäfer copy: in view of the close relationship of the Anton Sorg and the Monastery of SS. Ulrich and Afra and the tools used on this binding, this attribution is almost certain; worn, corners and some bands exposed, one clasp in fragmentary form only, small pieces of calf lost. small chips in the coloring of the full-page engraving on f. 89 with no damage to engraving, dampstain to f. 83 lightly affecting corner of woodcut, occasional stains, thumbing, underlining and marginal tears, a few leaves with damp stains to edges, a few marginal wormholes.

Illustration: all the woodcuts are here in brilliant contemporary coloring, they have been attributed by the Metropolitan Museum (New York) to an Augsburg artist named the Kreuzfahrt Master, the iconography includes 6 woodcuts printed on full page, 7 half page, 2 smaller, and 5 historiated initials. Together they form one of the most recognizable and intriguing iconographic representations of German incunabular artistry.

Considerably rare in the market, we could only trace one copy over the past 70 years at auction (offered twice at Parke Bernet, once in 1949, and again in 1952).

Henri Suso (1296-1366) was the closest disciple of the famous mystic Meister Eckhart (1260-1328). Together with the preacher Johannes Tauler (1300-1361), they were the three founders of the Rhenish Mystical School, whose teaching developed throughout the Rhine Valley, from Switzerland to the Netherlands. Of Rhenish-Flemish mysticism, this current of thought was further intensified by John of Ruisbroeck (1293-1381) and by the Devotio moderna. They were all three Dominicans of the first hour who "at the beginning of the 14th century, knew how to gather the prestigious teaching of Thomas Aquinas in Paris and Albert the Great in Cologne, to combine it with the Augustinian, Dionysian, Jewish and Arab currents, and to erect the most astonishing edifice of speculative mysticism that the Christian tradition has known" (P.-J. Labarrière and G. Jarczyk, op. cit., p. 5).

“Heinrich Seuse was an important medieval German mystic… He was an almost contemporary of Tauler, born in Konstanz or Überlingen, into a patrician family called von Berg, though he adopted his mother's surname. He joined the Dominican Konstanz at the age of thirteen and went to the Studium Generale in Cologne around 1324, where he was instructed by Eckhart. Although the main centre of his life was Konstanz and the area of the Upper Rhine, he also visited Aachen and the Netherlands, and spent his latter years in Ulm. While there is much uncertainty about the concrete details of Seuse’s life, we are copiously informed about the progress of his spiritual life through an autobiography written in the third person, aided (if not actually written) by his spiritual daughter Elsbeth Stagel, a nun at the convent of Töss, near Wingterthur. From this we learn, among other things, about the drastic mortifications that Seuse subjected himself to from the age of eighteen to forty, which included cutting the letters IHS on his breast, as well as other sufferings and slanders that he was exposed in later life… This autobiography, a lengthy document written in Seuse’s later years, opens the collection of his works, Das Buch genannt der Seusse, that was first published in 1482” (David Blamires, The Book of the Perfect Life, Walnut Creek, Altamira Press, p. 17).

Meister Eckhart, condemned by the Church in 1329 and his disciple Suso can be said to have been early architects of a modernity of Christian thought, we can see their influence in different forms in Luther, German idealism, and in Martin Heidegger. Closer to us, we note the place given to women and feminine mysticism in Suso. The changing figure of eternal Wisdom is, for example, sometimes represented in female guise, sometimes in male guise. In the quarrel between the Pope and the Emperor, Suso, in 1338, chose the Pope. He lost his responsibilities in the Dominican convents of Constance, a city dominated by the Emperor. Suso then led a difficult life as a wandering preacher, devoting himself to the popular apostolate that he loved and to the spiritual direction of the Dominican nuns. Elisabeth Stagel (1300-1360), a Dominican nun from the convent of Töss in Switzerland, became Suso's spiritual daughter. She wrote much of his Life; he wrote her the letters that form the last book in this volume. From 1349 on, Suso found himself in Ulm at the Dominican convent, which had been reinstalled in 1348, because it had previously been hostile to the imperial cause. Suso is buried in the convent of the Dominicans of Augsburg. They create a continuous veneration around Suso, which can be witnessed a century later in this work issued by Anton Sorg.

This first edition is based on a 1473 manuscript called the "Cod. Guelf. 78.5 Aug. fol" in the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, from which the textual and visual content is almost identical. This Wolfenbüttel manuscript, dated 1473, most likely comes from the famous Benedictine abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg, to which the binding of the Malle copy is related to (possibly being crafted there). Some twenty years later, in 1512, Johann Otmar reissued the Exemplar in Ausgburg, this time with engravings by Hans Schäufelein, derived from the Sorg edition.

While Suso placed considerable value on images, there is no tangible evidence that he was the sole designer of the iconographic program. “Suso uses these visual and literary discourses to establish Mary and Christ as role models for his readers to view and emulate. By doing so, the reader should gain compassion and wisdom, connecting them to the divine. Suso believed that the act of observing and contemplating an image of the Passion of Christ or the Compassion of the Virgin Mary could physically change the viewer. If this was repeated often enough, the ontological distance between visual subject and visual object grew smaller, to the point that holy persons like St. Francis even received Christ's wounds on their own bodies. This bodily pliability reflected a mental and spiritual pliability - just like the body, the Soul could grow closer to the image of Christ through prayer and meditation on the Passion, and thus become connected to the apophatic divine that Christ, as the truest image of the divine, is a mediator for.” (J. Christian Straubhaar-Jones, op. cit., p. 195). The artist thus needed a deep knowledge of the text. Several passages in the text, however, suggest that images were part of the initial project from the start, in the prologue, Suso mentions the ‘heavenly images that precede and follow’, and drawings are indeed placed before and after the text.

The illustration is comprised of 6 full page woodcuts depicting:

[a5v] Henry Suso, in the black-and-white habit of the Dominicans, holds a book and faces God the Creator, who holds the globe of the world in His right hand. In the four corners are medallions with the faces of David, Solomon, Job, and Aristotle. Eight scrolls contain sayings of Divine Wisdom. The inscriptions illustrate the sacred dialogue between Suso and God, who is described both as “divine darkness” and as the “brightest of all lights.”

[f9v] Suso prays before the Crucified Christ, who is shown upon a rose bush of red roses, while the Christ Child holds a rose. Suso opens his habit to reveal on his chest the image of a rose and the red monogram IHS. Above appears God the Father with three apostles. Angels holding scrolls occupy the four corners. The accompanying text explains the symbolism of the roses: red for patience and suffering, white for purity.

[h5v] Suso is tormented by demons. Other Dominicans surround and harass him, and one offers him a vinegar-soaked sponge on a pole, recalling Christ’s Passion. Above is the closed gate of Heaven. In the foreground dogs fight and devour one another, while another dog bites a garment. This illustrates a passage from Suso’s Life, where he compares himself to the cloth being torn apart by the dog, symbolizing the persecution he suffers from his fellow brethren.

[i5v] Identified by the IHS monogram on his chest, Suso kneels before a crucified Seraph-Christ with six wings, attached to a grapevine, a symbol of sacrifice. A scroll above reads: “Learn from the Passion of Christ, the human King.”

[i9r] God as Eternal Wisdom wears an imperial crown and holds a scepter and orb. His mantle shelters Suso, who bears the IHS emblem, together with three Dominican nuns. One nun, supported by an angel, carries the Scriptures and the sacred monogram. Clerics below pray before the floating monogram. The scroll above reads: “Under my divine protection I keep those who willingly bear my holy name (IHS).”

[l8v] At the top, the Trinity—represented by three identical figures of the Godhead—opens the gate of Paradise. Six women personifying virtues lead souls toward Heaven, while in the lower right a kissing couple is struck down by Death and a winged devil.

Seven half-page woodcuts:

[b4v] Suso sits before an angel and holds Christ, who in turn holds a naked child. The angel, symbolizing Eternal Wisdom, approaches to embrace Suso. Suso wears a crown of roses, symbolizing the mystical marriage between the human soul and Eternal Wisdom.

[d1r] Suso kneels before the Virgin Mary while the Christ Child offers him a small box.

[d8v] An angel leads Suso by the hand while the hand of God points toward him. Marked with the IHS monogram, Suso stands before five other Dominicans.

[i1v] An angel supports Suso as he kneels before the Virgin and Child. In the upper corner, another angel plays a harp.

[i7r] Suso rises from a straw chair and is embraced by an angel, while another Dominican, wearing a dalmatic, is shown with angelic wings.

[i7v] God gives Suso a ring. Angels provide him with clothing, boots, and two shields bearing his emblem. Soldiers also display his mark, while two angels sound trumpets.

[o9r] Before Christ at the Column, Suso sits playing a harp. An angel stands behind him, while two seated women pray or meditate.

Two small engravings (14 lines each): [d9r] An angel leads a kneeling woman by the hand, and [f8v] A woman in prayer inside a fortress. Finally, five large historiated initials (one repeated).

Contents: [a2r]: table of contents: Hie seind geschrieben die capitel des buchs, [a6r]: Das ist der Prologus, [a7v] Book I: The Life of Henri Suso: "Es war ein prediger in teutschem land", [m1r] Book II: The Book of Wisdom ["Das Buch der Weisheit"]: "Hie hebt sich an die Vorrede in das ander Buch", [s4v] Book III: The Little Book of Truth ["Das Buechlein der Wahrheit"]: "Hie hebt an das dritt Buch von inrelicher gelazenheite und von gutem underscheide, der ze habenne is in vernunftikeite" ["Here begins the third book: of the inner abandonment and of the good distinction that one must have in the intellect], [v2v] Book IV: The Little Book of Letters: "Ein Vorrede des vierden Büchlins. ... aus den gemeinen briefen die der diener der ewigen weissheit seiner geistlichen tochter" [... "letters of the servant of eternal Wisdom to his spiritual sisters"], [C8r] colophon: "Gedruckt und vollendet. .. von Antonio Sorg in der keyserlichen stat Augsburg an den nächsten Freitag von sant Jörgen Tag do man zalt nach Christi gespurt tausend vier hundert zwai und achtzig iar".

Provenance: from the collection of Pierre Malle, his bookplate; Bernard Malle.

ISTC is00871000; Goff S-871; BMC II 349; Schäfer 322; Fairfax Murray German II, 404 (incomplete); William Morris, Some German woodcuts of the Fifteenth century, Londres, Kelmscott Press, 1897, n° 18 p. 24 of the “list of the principal books of the fifteenth century containg woodcuts in the library of the late William Morris”; I. Falque et A. Guiderdoni, “Figurata locutio et expérience mystique. Circulation de la pensée figurée d’Henri Suso du

XIVe au XVIe siècle”, Mystique, langage, image : montrer l’invisible. Mystik, Sprache, Bild: Die Visualisierung des Unsichtbaren, Wiesbaden, 2022, pp. 113-136; H. Suso, Petit Livre de la vérité, éd. P.-J. Labarrière et G. Jarczyk, Paris, 2002.