15 Jh./15th century. "De laude scriptorum pulcherimus tractatus". Mainz, Peter von Friedberg, 1494. GW, M47538. - H, 15617. - Goff, T442. 20 leaves. a8, b6, c6. 36 lines per page. Marginal repair in the upper parts of the a4 and a5 leaves, otherwise in very good condition. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. Trithemius' important work is a plea defending the art of writing, specifically the art of handwriting and copying manuscripts. The text was written in 1492 under the title De laude scriptorum manualium and published in Mainz in 1494. Johannes Trithemius (born Johann Heidenberg in Trittenheim, 1462) was a 15th-century humanist, a historian and Kabbalist.
