48. MEMORIALE PRO PUERIS. [Paris: Antoine Denidel, c. 1497].

Fifteenth-century books intended expressly for children are extremely rare. This rhyming introduction to Latin grammar, the Memoriale pro pueris (“memory-guide for youths”), closes with the words “pro utilitate juvenum nuper in aliquibus emendatum” (“for the use of boys, newly and thoroughly revised”). Each year successive classes of schoolboys used and re-used such textbooks until they fell apart. Consequently, although the book was printed many times, very few copies survive. Aside from Bridwell Library’s copy, which saw minimal use, only one other copy of this edition is recorded.