Had a goodly library,
By which he was discerned
To be one of the learned,
To entertain the queen here,
When last she was seen here.”
It has been stated, that Owlglass also existed as a Miracle Play; but this statement does not seem to refer to more than the Easter Play, to which reference has been made in the Preface.
5. 1532. This year we find the first French edition, stated to be translated from Flemish into French (probably from the Antwerp edition) printed at Paris, the title being as follows:—
Between four flowerets there is first an owl then the word: “Ulenspiegel,” and after it a round glass. Next: “De sa vie de ses oeuures | Et merueilleuses aduentures par luy faictes | et des gran- | des fortunes quil a eux, lequel par milles fallaces ne se lais | sa tromper. Nouuellement translate et corrige de Flamant | en Francoys.” The colophon is thus: “Imprime nouuellement a Paris en l’an Mil*ccccc*xxxii*.” Sheets run to K iiij b in quarto, without pagination, and the type all Gothic. The only known copy exists in the Royal Library at Stuttgart.
6. In the same year, 1532, an edition appeared at Erfurt, printed by Melcher Sachsen. The following is the title: “Von Vlenspiegel eins bau | ren sun (son) des lands Braunschweick, wie | er sein leben volbracht hat, gar mit | seltzamen sachen.” Ten sheets in quarto, leaves in number 84, without pagination; the last being blank. There are 102 stories, with 86 woodcuts, some little merit belonging to the first few—the later ones having been considerably worn. Only four copies, nearly all defective, are known of this edition; one was bought for the private library of the King of Prussia, at the sale of the collection of the Viennese antiquary Matth. Kuppitsch, and presented by his Majesty to the Royal University Library of Berlin. There is another in the Royal Library of München.
7. Another edition, in every respect similar to the Erfurt edition of 1532, was printed between 1533–7; but from the last pages being lost, it is impossible to say by whom, where, or in what year. The copy is at the Royal Library of Berlin. The missing leaves are perfected in manuscript; and it ends with a strange note, to the effect that it was printed at Augsburg by Simon Gymell, and “translated from the old Saxon tongue into good German,” in the year 1498. No such person is known to have existed at Augsburg at that time, and the words between inverted commas, first appear in 1539, in the Cologne edition.