“In the second half of the fourteenth and in the fifteenth century there was no more widely read meditation book in the German language.” (CE https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07238c.htm)

573J  Henricus Suso. (1295-1366)

 Horologium aeternae sapientiae.

573J  Henricus Suso. (1295-1366)

 Horologium aeternae sapientiae.

Cologne: Johann Landen, December 1500/1501. $22,000

Octavo, 13.4 x 10cm. Signatures A-Q8. In this copy there are lombard initials in red and blue, one with dog-head decoration, red capital strokes, paragraph marks, and underlining.

A Woodcut appears three times, on title, title verso, and verso of final leaf (margin of f. 2 slightly extended, occasional damp stains at gutter and edges, a few leaves in gathering O stained and one with short closed tear). Bound in modern vellum with manuscript antiphonal leaf reused as pastedowns. 

No copies of this edition are recorded at auction by ABPC or RBH.

 VD16 S 6103; ISTC is00876500; Goldschmidt p. 135. See Ford BPH 177 (first edition) and 178 (fourth edition). [APA citation. McMahon, A. (1910). Blessed Henry Suso. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved April 27, 2022 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07238c.htm%5D

https://data.cerl.org/istc/is00876500

Holdings: GermanyWuppertal StB & Russia Moscow, [Russian State Library] Rossijskaja Gosudarstvennaja Biblioteka (Berlin copy). Number of holding institutions 2.

Last Edit2016-07-13 12:00:00.00.

The German Mystics of the fourteenth century, Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler and Heinrich Suso, seemed to be constantly Willing the ability of Unwillingness. Perhaps Eckhart is the most profoundly speculatively blunt so much so that he was accused of heresy and brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic but died before a verdict. Tauler intern provides neo-platonic richness and logic to this position. Suso’s is to explore the territory through emotion. Suso’s first books , Büchlein der Wahrheit (Little Book of Truth) and Das Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit (The Little Book of Eternal Wisdom) were written in German and structured as instructions and explanations for Beginners as well as a defense and adaptation of Eckharts spiritual views.

Eckhart tells us : “Be willing to be a beginner every single morning”

Likewise Suso writes of himself in his Autobiography “The inward impulse, which he had received 8from God, urged him to turn away entirely from every thing which might be a hindrance to him. The tempter met this with the suggestion:—Bethink thee better. ” (First printed Cologne A.D. 1535.) Suso proceeds to expose the interior to the elements and deals with in good spirit. The Clock of Eternal Wisdom, exhibits not only faith but trust in the unknown, Like Walter Hilton before him, and Thomas à Kempis after him, Suso dwells poetically and thoughtfully on the frustrations and disappointments as well as spiritualising ways of dealing with them by servitude to that which is beyond perception.

Suso Belongs in the Higherarchy of Great books

of internal spiritual quest along with

Boethius, Dante and à Kempis