1. #945G Eusebius (c. 260-c. 340)

Eusebius Pa[m]phili de eua[n]gelica preparac[i]o[n]e ex greco in latinu[m] translatus Incipit feliciter.

[ Cologne, Ulrich Zel, not after 1473]. $19,000

Folio 29 x21 cm. Signatures:  [a]¹², [b-o]¹⁰, [p]⁸

The copy at the Vienna Schottenstift has rubricator’s date 1473 (Hübl) Ulrich Zel, Cologne’s first printer, learned his craft from Fust and Schoeffer in Mainz. He began printing in Cologne probably in 1465. ,

This is  One of the earliest editions most likely the Second, (editio princeps: Venice 1470). This copy is bound in new quarter calf over original wooden boards. Capitals supplied in Red and Blue. Goff E119; BMC I 194

(U. S: Boston Public Library, Indiana Univ., The Lilly Library (- 2 ff.), YUL);

Eusebius Goff E119; (Boston P.L., Indiana Univ (- 2 ff.) YUL)

https://data.cerl.org/istc/ie00119000. Item #307J 

This edition contains the fifteen books of the “Praeparatio evangelica,” whose purpose is “to justify the Christian in rejecting the religion and philosphy of the Greeks in favor of that of the Hebrews, and then to justify him in not observing the Jewish manner of life […] “The following summary of its contents is taken from Mr. Gifford’s introduction to his translation of the “Praeparitio:

The first three books discuss the threefold system of Pagan Theology: Mythical, Allegorical, and Political.

The next three, IV-VI, give an account of the chief oracles, of the worship of demons, and of the various opinions of Greek Philosophers on the doctrines of Fate and Free Will. Books VII-IX give reasons for preferring the religion of the Hebrews founded chiefly on the testimony of various authors to the excellency of their Scriptures and the truth of their history. In Books X-XII Eusebius argues that the Greeks had borrowed from the older theology and philosphy of the Hebrews, dwelling especially on the supposed dependence of Plato upon Moses. In the the last three books, the comparson of Moses with Plato is continued, and the mutual contradictions of other Greek Philosphers, especially the Peripatetics and Stoics, are exposed and criticized.”

The “Praeparitio” is a gigantic feat of erudition, and according to Harnack (Chronologie, II, p. 120), was, like many of Eusebius’ other works, actually composed during the stress of the persecution. It ranks, with the Chronicle, second only to the Church History in importance, because of its copious extracts from ancient authors, whose works have perished.” (CE)

Istc ie00119000; Goff E119; HC(Add)R 6698; GfT 122; Voull(K) 402; Pell 4641 & 4641A (var); Hillard 780; Fernillot 229; IGI 3755; IBP 2096; Madsen 1525, 1526; Hübl 183; Ernst(Hildesheim) II,III 58; Finger 368, 369; Borm 981; Voull(B) 670; Voull(Trier) 325; Günt(L) 914; Döring-Fuchs E-36, E-37; Bod-inc E-048; Sheppard 678, 679; Rhodes(Oxford Colleges) 745; Pr 891; CIBN E-93; BMC I 194; BSB-Ink E-116.050; GW 9441

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2) #730  LITURGY

[Book of hours [manuscript]

Flanders or Northern France (St. Omer?), ca. 1455–1470,  $22,000

 Bound in its original binding of calf over wooden boards sewn on alum tawed cords. 11 x 8 cm.Many of the pages still have their ‘prick marks” This is a manuscript from c. 1470 in Latin on 123 vellum leaves (and several blank sheets), 17 lines to a page, with 4 large initials in fine penmanship in blue and red (occ. heightened with some gold), many smaller initials in pen and rubricated in red, contemporary leather across wooden boards, ribbed back, remains of clamps, vellum endpapers,

see ¶ Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), fig. 2.

Janet Backhouse, Illumination from Books of Hours (London: British Library, 2004), fig. 7.

Eamon Duffy, Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers 1240-1570 (New Haven: Yale, 2006),
a1(blank) 13 leaves,Calendar with dutch saints The Use of Utrecht. 
 
¶Since each Book of Hours was custom made, the calendar would contain local feast days of importance to the owner of the manuscript. Important liturgical days were written in red which gave rise to the term “red letter days” to denote important holidays or events, even secular ones (Gwara, 2017).

Price: $22,000.00 

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3). #957G Mediavilla, Richard [Middleton],

Commentum super quartem Sententarium. (Incipit tabula excellentissimi doctoris Richardi de media uilla super quarto se[n]tentiarum secundum ordinem distinctionum huius libri.)

Venice: Christophorus Arnoldus, [circa 1476-7]. $20,0000

Folio 31 x 20 cm. Signatures: a-z, [&], [cum], [rum], A¹⁰, B-D⁸. aa⁸, bb¹⁰, cc⁸. 320 leaves . Second edition. see Goff M-424; BMC V 206. (The ISTC shows two US copies…St Louis Univ., Pius XII Memorial Library (-) & YUL – i.e. both defective) add UCLA.  This copy is Rubricated throughout with nicely complicated red initials, It is is bound in an age aproprate binding of full calf over wooden boards wit clasps and catches with quite impressve end bands.

Richard of Middleton [Richard de Mediavilla] was a Franciscan friar, theologian, and philosopher, was born about the middle of the thirteenth century in either England or France. He studied at Paris, where he formed part of the so-called neo-Augustinian movement, defending the philosophy and theology of Augustine against the inroads of Aristotelianism, during the years 1276–87. He probably studied under William of Ware and Matteo d’Acquasparta, usually viewed as principal figures in this movement. Middleton’s Commentary on Peter Lombard’s ‘Sentences’ was probably begun in 1281 and was completed in 1284, when he became regent master of the Franciscan school in Paris, a post he held until 1287. The chief characteristic of his Commentary is its sober assessment of many of the positions of Thomas Aquinas. However, the tone of his eighty Quodlibet Questions, produced during his regency, is much more critical and on many issues shows a strong anti-Thomist reaction. In this they have more in common with his disputed questions, which were argued after the condemnations of 1277 but before his Sentences commentary. The latter commentary has been edited along with his Quodlibet Questions. A small number of his disputed questions have also been edited, as have six of his sermons. ¶ Furthermore; nine questions (23 to 31) in this volume form a veritable treatise on demonology, a rare type in the thirteenth century. Mediavilla’s remark is singular: he is the only thinker who gives autonomy of existence to the demon, in the framework of a rational description. 
Mediavilla focuses on the present of the devil and its modes of action on men. He is the great thinker of the demonic turn of the 1290s. 
This text offers one of the origins of a Western genre, the “novel of Satan”
¶ The questions of volume IV
23. Did the first sin of the angel come from a good principle? 
24. Can the angel at the moment of his creation sin? 
25 . In the first sin of the angel, was the comparison of the creature anterior, according to the order of nature, to the distancing from God? 
26. Was the first sin of the angel pride? 
27 . Did the evil angel repent of his pride? 
28 . In the evil angels, does sin follow another sin without end? 
29. Does the sorrow of the evil angels leave her with a certain joy? 
30 . Would the evil angels not be?
31 . Can bad angels play our sensations? 
¶Middleton’s link to the neo-Augustinian .movement is seen especially in his treatment of the will, even though he does not entirely follow his teachers, Ware and Acquasparta. For Middleton the will is much more noble than the intellect, since it is much more noble to love God than to understand him. Understanding without the corresponding love separates man from God. However, the key to the will’s nobility is its freedom. The intellect is forced by evidence when evidence is given; the will also is forced by its nature to seek the good, but it is free in choosing the means to its predetermined goal. Even if the intellect were prudent enough to show man the best means to his goal, he would not be forced to adopt them. ‘For although the intellect, like a servant with a lamp, points out the way, the will, like the master, makes the decisions and can go in any direction it pleases’ (Stegmüller, 722).

¶ The superiority of the human will over the intellect further manifests itself in Middleton’s conception of the nature of theology. Certainly, the study of the scriptures attempts to clarify human knowledge of both creator and creatures; principally, however, it aims to stimulate man’s affections. Middleton believes that scripture prescribes laws, forbids, threatens, attracts man through promises, and shows him models of behaviour that he should follow or avoid. The study of scripture perfects the soul, moving it toward the good through fear and love. It is more of a practical science than a speculative endeavour. A theology that is speculative is one that models itself on the theology of the metaphysician or philosopher and tends to reduce Christian faith to reason.
¶The influence of Aquinas is more in evidence in Middleton’s theory of knowledge. Middleton rejects the illumination theory of Bonaventure and his more loyal followers. Man’s intellectual knowledge can be explained, he argues, by the abstraction performed by the agent intellect from the singulars experienced by the human senses. In short, human individuals know, and they know by means of their own intellectual efforts, not by some special divine illumination. Unlike those who endorse the illumination theory, Middleton contends that there is no direct knowledge of spiritual beings, including God. God is not the first thing known. He can be known only by starting with creatures and by reasoning about their origins or final end. Middleton died in Rheims on 30 March 1302 or 1303.” [Oxford DNB]

See also Satan the Heretic: The Birth of Demonology in the Medieval West November 15, 2006 by Alain Boureau (Author), Teresa Lavender Fagan (Translator)

ISTC im00422800; Goff M-424; BMC V 206. (The ISTC shows two US copies…St Louis Univ., Pius XII Memorial Library (-) & YUL – i.e. both defective) add UCLA. ; HCR 10985; Pell Ms 10130 (9918); CIBN M-266; IGI 8363; IDL 3912; Gspan-Badalić 439; Kotvan 830; Šimáková-Vrchotka 1282; Pr 4215; BMC V 206; BSB-Ink R-169.050; GW M22505. Item #957G 

Price: $20,000.00 

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4). #277J Orosius, Paulus Orosius (385-420).

Historiae adversus paganos, edited by Aeneas Vulpes. Scias velim humanissime lector: Aeneam Vulpem Vicentinum priorem sanctae crucis adiutore Laurentio Brixiensi Historias Pauli Orosii quae continentur hoc codice:

[Vicenza]: Hermannus Liechtenstein, [c.1475].  $19,000

 

Folio. 285 x 200 mm No signatures: [1-7]⁸ [8]⁶ [9-12]⁸ [13]⁶. 100 leaves unnumbered. 

In this copy there is a large opening initial in green, red, blue, and yellow, with floral extensions in the margin, other initials in red, some in blue, initial spaces, most with guide letters, rubricated. It is bound in full modern vellum of appropriate style.

“As this book is the only one of Liechtenstein’s editions which has no printed signatures it is presumably his earliest work”--British Museum.

This is the Second edition of Orosius’s universal history, written to counter the prevailing belief among non-Christians that disasters which had befallen civilization were the result of the pagan gods, angry with worshippers turning to Christianity. This history is a continuation of the thrust of Augustine’s “City of God. Augustine urged Orosius to write this history to refute Symmachus who in an address to Emperor Valentinianus in 384 C.E. alledged that the Roman Empire was crumbling due to Christianity. Orosius was a Gallaecian Chalcedonian priest, historian and theologian, a student of Augustine of Hippo as well as Saint Jerome. This history begins with the creation and continues to his own day, was an immensely popular and standard work of reference on antiquity throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. Its importance lay in the fact that Orosius was the first Christian author to write not a church history, but rather a history of the secular world interpreted from a Christian perspective. The work treats world history as a concrete proof of the apocalyptic visions of the Bible. This became a kind of textbook of universal history for the Middle Ages; and therefore many manuscripts exist all over Europe. Orosius’s work is crucial for an understanding of early Christian approaches to history, the development of universal history, and the intellectual life of the Middle Ages, for which it was both an important reference work and also a defining model for the writing of history.

ISTC io00097000; Goff O-97; BMC VII 1035; H *12099; GW M28420; Bod-inc O-027; BSB-Ink O-82; Sajó-Soltész 2477; Item #277J

Price: $19,000.00 

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5) #238J. Peregrinus of Opole (1305-12, 1322-27) Jacobus de Voragine (1229-1298) & Nicolaus de Dinkelsbuel (1360-1433)

Peregrinus: Sermones de tempore et de sanctis. Add: Jacobus de Voragine: Quadragesimale. Nicolaus de Dinkelsbuel: Concordantia in passionem dominicamEst autem huius operis ordo talis. Primo ponuntur sermones d[omi]nicales de tempore per anni circulu[m]. Secundo de sanctis, Tercio q[ua]dragesimale Jacobi de Foragine, Q[ua]rto concordantia quatuor euangelista[rum] in passiiones d[omi]nicam a magistro Nicolao Dinckelspubell collectam.”/ At end of leaf m8: “Sermones Peregrini de tempore finiunt.

[Ulm: Johann Zainer, not after 1479] (A copy now in Munich BSB has an ownership inscription dated 1479). $11,000

¶ Folio. 265 x 200 mm Signatures”Pars I (188): a-d⁸, e-k^8/6, l-m⁸, A-C⁸, D-I^8/6, K-N⁸; (N8 blank and removed) “Pars II (50.): a-f^8/6, g⁸;” 3.”Pars III (40.): A-E^8/6 [276 (instead of 278) The two blank leaves are missing. 162 & 188

¶ Peregrinus of Opole, was a Silesian Dominican friar, Prior in Wrocław and Racibórz and Provincial of the PolishEast German Order Province. “The numerous manuscripts and early prints testify to the popularity of his ‘Sermones de tempore et de sanctis'” (LThK VIII, 82). He was twice elected a provincial of his Order and became designated an inquisitor of Wrocław by the pope John XXII. His major literary achievement is this twofold collection of Latin sermons: Sermones de tempore (sermons on the feasts of the liturgical year) and Sermones de sanctis (sermons on feasts of particular saints).

¶ Jacobus de Voragine wrote several series of sermons, The Lenten sermons (Quadragesimale) were written between 1277 and 1286. These sermons were only slightly less popular than his “Legend,” and also known as ‘Golden’ on account of their popularity (there are more than 300 known manuscript copies). The genre of the Sermones quadragesimale did not exist as a distinct genre before the 1260’s This Dominican best-seller author Jacopo da Voragine, and the works of preachers from his own generation, like Peregrinus von Opeln [See above] have a strong sermo modernus structure and contain numerous exempla drawn from the world of nature.

¶Nicolaus de Dinkelsbuel. Magister in 1390, BUT The ascription of the Concordantia to Nicolaus de Dinkelsbühl (c 1360-1433) is mistaken. Although he is known as the author of a passion story ( Collecta et praedicata de passione Christi. 1472). he did not produce a concordance to it, But he is in fact listed as one of the authors cited in the work. (See A Madre, Nicolaus de Dinkelsbühl, Leben und Schriften, 1965, p 310.)

Only two North American copies, both defective.
Harvard University (- ff 189-278)
Bryn Mawr College, (ff 239-278)

ISTC ip00267000.; Goff P267; HC 12581*; C 4407; IGI 7404; IBP 4241; Madsen 3083; Voull(B) 2629,5; Hubay(Augsburg) 1582; Hubay(Eichstätt) 794; Borm 2059; Walsh 909; Rhodes(Oxford Colleges) 1340; BMC II 529; BSB-Ink P-183; GW M30917 – Wegener, Zainer 9 – BSB-Ink P-183 – Proctor 2542

Price: $11,000.00 

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6) ##727  Reuchlin, Johannes Reuchlin

Vocabularius breuiloquus triplici alphabeto diuersis ex autorib[us] necno[n] corpore vtriusq[ue] iuris collectus ad latinu[m] sermone[m] capessendu[m] vtilissimus.

Basel, [Johann Amerbach], 1478.  $7,800

Folio: π⁶ a-r¹⁰ [long s]⁸ s¹⁰ t⁸ u¹⁰ v¹⁰ w¹⁰ x¹⁰ y¹²; 1-5 10, 6-7 8, 8-10 (last leaf blank). Incomplete and manipulated copy, 18 leaves are missing, namely the 6 unsigned sheets at the beginning and the LEAVES- a1-10 and b1-2. The last 8 signature bound in front. This has a complete vocabulary A-Z

  First edition. Restored blind stamped pigskin from the early 16th century over wooden boards with roller-band ornamentation and blind stamped tooling. (back renewed, missing clasps. Rubricated by hand. guide-letters, and a few Greek words; without foliation or catchwords. EDITIO PRINCEPS AND AMERBACH’S FIRST DATED BOOK.

¶ The Vocabularius, a Latin dictionary, is the first work of Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522). This is the first printing, this important humanist published the first time while studying in Basel. – His was the most popular Latin dictionary of the incunable period. Rubricated throughout red. -.
. – In places a little more browned, slightly foxed, partly with wet margins, few finger and ink stains, isolated sheet with small tears in the margins , overall in good condition. – A double page with ms. Old hand annotations. Item #727 

ISTC ir00155000: Goff; R-155; BMC.; III, p. 745 (IB. 37253); BN cat. des incun.; R-101; BSB-Ink.; R-143; Benzing(Reuchlin) 1;
US copies: Harvard, College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia, Indiana State, New York Public , Huntington, U.N.C.


¶Preface and contents on verso of first leaf. The main text is preceded by three short philological texts: Ars diphthongandi (leavesπ2r-3v) by Guarinus and De arte punctandi (leaf π3v) and De accentu (leaves π3v-6v) by Johannes de Lapide. (but “For the attribution of the De arte punctandi to Guillaume Fichet rather than to Johannes de Lapide, see E. Beltran in Scriptorium, 39 (1985) 284-91 (Hillard 1733)” [ISTC]

Price: $7,900.00