Usus libri, non lectio prudente ƒacit
[The use, not the reading, of books makes us wise]. Geoffrey Whitney’s Choice of Emblemes (1586)
1) A Heavily annotated copy by a German scholar of a 1497 Juvenal
2) Jacobus de Gruytrode, Lavacrum conciencie. [Leipzig] 1495
3) Orosius, Historiarum adversus paganos. Venedig: Bernardinus de Vitalibus, 12.oct.1500
1‡§*
Heavily annotated copy of a 1497 Juvenal by a German (Rhenish scholar ca 1512)
670J. JUVENAL. (Decimus Junius Juvenalis) with the commentary of Domitius Calderinus, Georgius Valla and Antonius Mancinellus.
IVVENALIS Anton.Manci. Domici(us) Geor. Val. Argumenta Satyrarum Iuuenalis per Antonium Mancinellum. Príma docet Satyræ caufas: formaq libelli:Qui fimulant curios fatyra patuere Secunda.Ex Vrb: umbrítíí digreffum Tertia narrat.Quarta quidem crifpinu odit:caluuq neroné:Ganeo quæ tolerat parafitus Quinta notauit,Sexta hæc infidas mulieres pandit abundeSeptíma demonftrat Romam nil ferre poctísNobilis Octaua propria uirtute uocatur.Turpia qui tollerant Nona carpuntur auariCura hominum Decima rerüq; libido notáturArguit Vndecima uates conuiuia lautaBiffena arguitur fatyra captator auarus.Tertia poft decimam folatur damna dolentesIn decima quarta dant parua exempla parétes;Numina diuerfa ægypti penultima monstratVitíma militiæ fœlicis præmia narrat.
[Colophon:] Nurnberge impressum est hoc Iuuenalis opus cum tribus commentis per Antonium Koberger, MCCCXCVII die vero vi Dece[m]bris. Price $31,000
Folio 30.8 x 21.5 cm. Signatures : A8a–z8&6. This copy is bound in its original * blind stamped half pigskin over wooden boards, lacking clasps.
This copy has been densely annotated by a German humanists circa 1511. This is an important edition with three commentaries from the end of the 15th century by great figures of Italian humanism and following the Venetian edition of Tacuio, 1494/1495-[ISTC ; ij00663000.] Mancinelli; Domizio Calderini and finally, the one by Giorgio Valla, which has a philological importance: reproducing the ancient scholia from a now lost manuscript.
Provenance: 1.German reader, early 1510s. 2. Transfer stamp ” Vend. ex bibl. acad. Rhen.” (“Sold by the Prussian Academy Library,” former library of the University of Bonn, the stamp “Bibliotheca Accademiae Borussicae Rhenanae”, was apparently used in the period 1818-1828. 3. 17th century owner (note on title page with reference to the in-12 Juvenal-Perse published in Amsterdam with Farnabius’ notes in 1631). 4. Marquis Giuseppe Terzi of Bergamo (1790-1819). It does not appear in the catalogs of the sales held in Paris between March 11 and 23, 1861. 5) Joseph Nève, lawyer and bibliophile from Brussels (1857-1940) 6). The book is later in the collection of Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Beaulieu (1905-1995) (ex-libris). 7). It is then in the collection of Jean Stefgen, Joinvillele Pont (1927-2017, bookplate).
A copy profusely annotated (up to satire 6) by a German reader in the first decade of the sixteenth century, as indicated by the diacritical sign above the u’s, its spelling Yason (for Jason), apoptegmata (without ‘h’). This incunabulum is found in its interesting first binding, Rhenish, half pigskin stamped and bound over wooden boards
.****Our German reader most likely annotated the work while it was still in quires and disbound, but maybe sewnindeed, some notes aredeepin the inner margin. The work was probably annotated before being bound, which caused some minimal trimming of the outside marginal notes.****
The sources used by the annotator display a strong knowledge in Rhenish humanism, around 1511. This reader was obviously educated in a circle close to the young Beatus Rhenanus and most likely Jakob Wimpfeling at the crossroads of classical and Christian culture. His reading is indeed a mixture of Italian philological and historical commentaries and works of northern humanism (Reisch, Erasmus). Several notes reveal the use of a series of editions published in Strasbourg in 1511: the Hymni heroici tres of Jean-François Pico de la Mirandole with the annotation of Beatus Rhenanus, the collection of ps. Bérose published by Grüninger (with a text of pseudo Xénophon). Our anonymous reader reads Erasmus’ Adages in an edition by Schürer (c. 1511) and the Praise of Folly, the first editions of which also date from 1511 (Paris, Gilles de Gourmont and then M. Schürer). XXI v.
The annotator also has recourse to contemporary Italian encyclopedias (Enneades by Sabellico, Commentarii by Volaterranus) to which he adds the reading of Reisch’s Margarita philosophica, the jewel of northern humanism (the editio princeps dates from 1504). The annotator refers to a passage of this work (Book VII, chapter VII) where Atlas is presented as the inventor of astronomy (note on f. CXIIIr: “Atlantem caeliferum fuisse negat Lucrecius. Lege, invenies in Margarita ex Plinio, li 7 ca 2” etc). These readings and references to the editions of 1511 make us think that the annotator plausibly followed a university course held in Strasbourg around 1511, always in the close circles frequented by Beatus Rhenanus.
The humanist commentary here focuses on word radicals, lexicon,and context (the annotator mobilizes printed commentaries), with little interest in figures. He shows a predilection for natural history (Pliny and Solinus very much in demand) and Roman history in general (the annotator resorts as well to Suetonius as to modern commentaries such as Philippe Béroalde and Sabellico, (see page 58 of this catalogue) whose Enneads he quotes several times, f. XXIV v for example).
This erudite reader sometimes commits approximations in his references: he confuses for example a title of the pseudo-Xenophon with a collection of the pseudo-Beroses. A long quotation of a passage that he attributes to Philippo Beroaldus (the Elder) on f. XXVIIr comes in fact from the Annotationes centum and not from his commentary on Suetonius (see Anthony Grafton, “On the Scholarship of Politian”, Journal of the Warburg, 1977, p. 166). He recopies from memory (incorrectly) on f. VI a licentious epigram by Martial (book VI, 67) & notes in the margin, still on this verse but this time about eunuchs: “Martialis / Cur tantium eunuchos uxor tua Caelia quaeris / Pannice vult futui (Caelia) non parere.” The annotator also has recourse to the vast Latin poetic heritage: Ovid and Seneca on f. II (Vide Ovidium Transformationum… Vide Senecam in Agammemnone); Horace, Satire VI, I (on f. XVr). Also to some poets of late Latinity like Sidoine Apollinaire through an incunabula edition (1498) with commentary. He also gives some suggestions for corrections to the text: f. LIX r to the lemma “caldum”, he refers to the Attic Nights of Aulu Gelle: “emendatius caldus haud (…) quam calidum apud Gellium caldam saepeponitur li 19 ca 4″.Some other notes are:•A reference to the practice of hunts (venationes) in the circus under Domitian, with an anecdote of a certain Maevia descended the pointrine naked in the arena (f. V r). It reproduces the words of an ancient scholiast of Juvenal: ” Alia indignatio in mulierum impudentiam quae temporibus Domitiani descendebant (?) in venationes et pugnas theatrales ” (words of the scholiast of Juvenal).on the title page, two references to Italian miscellanea from the end of the 15th century.
•On the title page, two references to Italian miscellanea of the end of the 15th century: one to the freedom of poets to slander, which refers to Pietro Crinito’s De honestis disciplinis (lib. 20 ca. IX), and the other to a complicated passage of Juvenal explained in chapter 33 of the Miscellanea of Ange Politien (Expositio hujus carminis Juvenalis scilicet occidit miseros Crambe repetita magistros in Miscellaneis ca. 33) This chapter of the Miscellanea explains the very graphic proverb Occidit miseros Crambe repetita magistros which appears in Juvenal’s Satire VII (v. 154), which can be translated literally by “It is from this cabbage unceasingly re-served that unhappy masters die” to denounce the repetition to which masters are forced.
Hain,; 9711; CIBN,; J-368; IGI,; 5601; IBP,; 3322; Kotvan,; 743; Arnoult,; 938a; Zehnacker,; 1378; Goff,; J664; ISTC (online),; ij00664000; GW,; M15734; BM 15th cent.,; II, 443 (IB 7538); Oates,; 1048; Polain (B),; 2402; Pell Ms,; 6928; Walsh,; 755; Proctor,; 2116
2¶∂ß
448J Jacobus de Gruytrode
Lavacrum conciencie [sic] omnibus sacerdotibus perutile
Lyptzck [Leipzig] : Gregor B.ttiger, 1495. $18,000
ISTC il00099000 Goff L99; IBP 3382; Madsen 2157; Voull(B) 1383; Günt(L) 1205; Hubay(Würzburg) 1187; Pad-Ink 375; Wilhelmi 387; BSB-Ink L-71.050; GW 13880. Not in Hain, BMC, STC et c.
https://data.cerl.org/istc/il00099000
Copies; United States of America : 1) Library of Congress 2) Univ. of California, Law Library.
Theodor Petreius, Bibliotheca Cartusiana (Cologne, 1609), identifies the actual author as Johannes Meskirchius (Messkirch, d. 1511), a monk at the charterhouse of Güterstein near Stuttgart
(for Messkirch see R. Deigendesch, ‘Bücher und ihre Schenker – Die Bücherlisten der Kartause Güterstein in Württemberg’, in S. Lorenz, ed., Bücher, Bibliotheken und Schriftkultur der Kartäuser. Festgabe zum 65. Geburtstag von Edward Potkowski, Stuttgart 2002, pp. 93–115).
This “Soap of the Conscience” is filled with morally instructive stories intended to keep priests faithful to their vows and safe from worldly temptations, lest they suffer the “harshest punishments” of hell. In this work he tries in numerous moral and instructive stories to prove the nullity of worldly joys. Born in Gruitrode ca. 1400-10, Jacobus van Eertwach was a Carthusian monk who served as an abbot of the prior of the Liege from 1440 until his death in 1475, during which time he produced numerous works of spiritual guidance for both clergy and laypersons.
This treatise against immorality, especially the priests, which was first printed by Anton Sorg in 1489. This work also includes short stories and some German proverbs translated into latin.
Although today the work is generally attributed to the Carthusian monk of German origin.
Signs of Usage:
There are written notes and abbreviations through out the book (almost every page), a handful of manicules, and a few signs which look like “( ( ” or rather two backward ‘c’. The ownership on the top of the title page is un -decipherable to me.
R. Deigendesch, ‘Bücher und ihre Schenker – Die Bücherlisten der Kartause Güterstein in Württemberg’, in S. Lorenz, ed., Bücher, Bibliotheken und Schriftkultur der Kartäuser. Festgabe zum 65. Geburtstag von Edward Potkowski, Stuttgart 2002, pp. 93–115
Bloomfield, M. Incipits of Latin Works on the Virtues and Vices: 1100-1500 A.D., Cambridge, 1979.
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526J. Paulus Orosius (385-420).
Pauli Orosii Viri Doctissimi Historiarum initium ad Aurelium Augustinum; Historiarum initium ad Aurelium Augustinum; Historiarum adversus paganos libri VII.
Venedig: Bernardinus de Vitalibus, 12.oct.1500 price $8,000
Folio 30 x 20 cm. Signatures: a-m⁶ n⁸ (a1 blank and present). Capital spaces with guide letters with capitals supplied in Red and Blue . Printer’s device and register at colophon. This is a very largre copy bound in later vellum from an antiphonal leaf.
“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. Orosius argued that the 410 CE sack of Rome by Alaric I, King of the Goths (r. 394-410 CE) had nothing to do with the Roman adoption of Christianity, a claim popularly supported among the pagans of the day.
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. alleged that the Roman Empire was crumbling due to Christianity. “Most scholars agree that Orosius’ history shows signs of being written in haste and perhaps Augustine wanted it finished quickly so that he could use it as a resource in completing City of God. Other theories suggest that Orosius assisted in writing City of God and his history is written quickly because he was working on two pieces at once. All of this is speculation, however, because all that is really known is that Orosius left Hippo and returned with St. Stephen’s relics to Portugal. He then wrote his history and, shortly afterwards, disappeared. “
In Book I, Orosius gives the history of the world from creation to the Great Flood and the early founding of Rome. The second book discusses Roman history up until its sack in 390 BCE by the Gauls and Rome’s interactions with other nations afterwards. In the third and fourth books, Orosius deals with Alexander the Great, the rise and fall of nations, and Rome’s role in the Punic Wars and the destruction of Carthage. The fifth, sixth, and seventh books focus on Rome from the end of the Third Punic War (146 BCE) to Orosius’ time c. 418 CE.”
Orosius and Dante
Orosius’s text had a wide diffusion, and the chief works of Christian historiography in future centuries, down to Dante’s Commedia, were based on it. (Conti Latin Literature A History p. 702-703)
https://dante.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/dante/DispToynbeeByTitOrId.pl?INP_ID=214791
Orosius, to whom Dante was largely indebted, not only for his knowledge of ancient history but also for many of his favourite theories and arguments about the divine institution of the Roman Empire, is mentioned by name seven times in D.’s works, Paulo Orosio, Conv. III. xi. 3; Paulus Orosius, V.E. II. vi. 7; Orosius, Mon. II. iii. 13, Mon. II. viii. 3, Mon. II. viii. 5, Mon. II. x. 4; Quest. 54. He is undoubtedly referred to (notwithstanding the divergence of opinion among the commentators) in the passage, [Par. x. 118-120]:
Ne l’altra piccioletta luce ride
quello avvocato de’ tempi cristiani
del cui latino Augustin si provide.
Thus he is included among the great doctors of the Church (Spiriti sapienti) who are placed in the Heaven of the Sun [Augustino_2: Sole, Cielo del]; the title avvocato de’ tempi cristiani points almost unquestionably to the author of the Historiae adversum Paganos, in which, written as it was to vindicate Christianity, the phrase ‘Christiana tempora’ occurs so frequently as to make the point of D.’s allusion sufficiently obvious. Benvenuto, however, although in his commentary on this passage he speaks of Orosius as ‘defensor temporum Christianorum’ and refers to his book, yet inclines to think that the allusion is to Ambrose; he says:
“Ad evidentiam istius literae est notandum quod litera ista potest verificari tam de Ambrosio quam de Orosio. De Ambrosio quidem, quia fuit magnus advocatus temporum Christianorum, quia tempore suo pullulaverunt multi et magni haeretici; contra quos Ambrosius defensavit ecclesiam Dei, immo et contra Theodosium imperatorem fuit audacissimus; et ad eius praedicationem Augustinus conversus fuit ad fidem, qui fuit validissimus malleus haereticorum. Potest etiam intelligi de Paulo Orosio, qui fuit defensor temporum Christianorum reprobando tempora pagana, sicut evidenter apparet ex eius opere quod intitulatur 0rmesta mundi, quem librum fecit ad petitionem beati Augustini, sicut ipse Orosius testatur in prohemio dicti libri. . . .Et hic nota quod quamvis istud possit intelligi tam de Orosio quam de Ambrosio, et licet forte autor intellexerit de Orosio, cui fuit satis familiaris, ut perpendi ex multis dictis eius, tamen melius est quod intelligatur de Ambrosio, quia licet Orosius fuerit vir valens et utilis, non tamen bene cadit in ista corona inter tam egregios doctores.”
Dante mentions Orosius, together with Frontinus, Pliny, and Livy, as a ‘master of lofty prose’, V.E. II. vi. 7; his authority is quoted for the computation of the period between the reign of Numa Pompilius and the birth of Christ at about 750 years, Conv. III. xi. 3 (ref. to {Orosius. Hist. IV. xii. 9}); his statement that Mt. Atlas is in Africa, Mon. II. iii. 13 ({Orosius. Hist. I. ii. 11}); his account of the reigns of Ninus and Semiramis in Assyria, Mon. II. viii. 3 ({Orosius. Hist. I. iv. 1-8}; {Orosius. Hist. II. iii. 1}); and of the conquests of Vesoges, king of Egypt, and of his repulse by the Scythians, Mon. II. viii. 5 ({Orosius. Hist. I. xiv. 1-4}); Livy’s account of the combat between the Roman Horatii and the Alban Curiatii, confirmed by that of Orosius, Mon. II. x. 4 ({Orosius. Hist. II. iv. 9}); O.’s description of the boundaries of the habitable world, Quest. 54 ({Orosius. Hist. I. ii. 7}, {Orosius. Hist. I. ii. 13}).
Besides the above passages, in which Dante expressly names Orosius as his authority, there are many others in which he was indebted to him; in several instances he wrongly quotes Livy as his authority instead of O. [Livio]. There is little doubt that Orosius was the chief source of D.’s information about the following: Ninus and Semiramis, [Inf. v. 54-60] ({Orosius. Hist. I. iv. 4}; {Hist. II. iii. 1}) [Nino_1: Semiramis]; Alexander the Great, [Inf. xii. 107] ({Orosius. Hist. III. vii. 5}, {Orosius. Hist. III. xviii. 10}, {Orosius. Hist. III. xx. 4}, {Orosius. Hist. III. xx. 5} ff., {Orosius. Hist. III. xxiii. 6}) [Alessandro_2]; Cyrus and Tomyris, [Purg. xii. 55-57]; Mon. II. viii ({Orosius. Hist. II. vi. 12}, {Orosius. Hist. II. vii. 6}) [Ciro: Tamiri]; the persecution of the Christians by Domitian, [Purg. xxii. 83-84] ({Orosius. Hist. VII. x. 1}) [Domiziano]; the victories of Julius Caesar in the Civil War, [Par. vi. 61-72] ({Orosius. Hist. VI. xv. 2-3}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xv. 6}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xv. 18}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xv. 22}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xv. 25}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xv.28-29}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xvi. 3}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xvi.6-7}) [Aquila_1: Cesare_1], Sardanapalus, [Par. xv. 107-108] ({Orosius. Hist. I. xix. 1}) [Sardanapalo]; the defeat of the Romans at Cannae and the production of the heap of gold rings (taken from the bodies of the slain) by Hannibal’s envoy in the senatehouse at Carthage, Conv. IV. v. 19; [Inf. xxviii. 10-11] ({Orosius. Hist. IV. xvi. 5-6}) [Annibale: Canne: Scipione_1].
Dante was evidently also indebted to Orosius for his theories and arguments about Titus, who destroyed Jerusalem, as the avenger of the crucifixion of Christ by the Jews, [Purg. xxi. 82-84]; [Par. vi. 92-93] ({Orosius. Hist. VII. iii. 8} {Orosius. Hist. VII. ix. 9}) [Tito]; the universal peace under Augustus at the time of the birth of Christ, [Par. vi. 80-81]; Conv. IV. v. 8; Mon. I. xvi. 1-2 ({Orosius. Hist. I. i. 6}, {Orosius. Hist. III. viii. 3}, {Orosius. Hist. III. viii. 5}, {Orosius. Hist. III. viii. 7-8}; {Orosius. Hist. VI. xvii. 10}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xx. 1-2}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xxii. 1}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xxii. 5}; {Orosius. Hist. VII. i. 11}, {Orosius. Hist. VII. ii. 15-16}, {Orosius. Hist. VII. iii. 4}) [Augusto_2: Iano]; Christ’s assertion of His human nature by being included in the census under Augustus, whereby He became a Roman citizen, Mon. II. viii. 12-13, Mon. II. xi. 6; Epist. vii. 14, Epist. xi. 3 ({Orosius. Hist. VI. xxii. 6-8}; {Hist. VII. iii. 4}) [Augusto_2: Cristo]. [See P. Toynbee, SR, pp. 121-136.]
Toynbee, Paget. “DANTE’S OBLIGATIONS TO OROSIUS.” Romania, vol. 24, no. 95, 1895, pp. 385–98. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45042616. Accessed 29 Jan. 2024.
OROSIUS and IRELAND
Orosius, Ireland, and Christianity. Donnchadh Ó Corráin †
https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/pdf/10.1484/J.PERIT.5.114565
“Orosius, author of Historiarum Adversum Paganos Libri vii, was a Briton, born at latest c. ad 375. Taken by Irish raiders, he spent years (c. ad 400) as a captive, held by traders, on the south shore of the Shannon estuary. He escaped and probably reached Galicia before ad 405. Ordained priest, he served at Bracara (now Braga in Portugal). He corresponded with St Augustine and moved to Hippo in ad 414. Sent to the East by Augustine, he played an undistinguished role at the councils of Jerusalem and Diospolis (ad 415). He settled at Carthage, where he wrote his main work, originally at the instigation of Augustine. He disappears after a voyage to the Balearic Islands. His is the first textual witness to Christianity in Ireland, observed c. ad 400, written up in ad 416–17.
“Conclusions
Orosius was a Briton, born at the latest c. 375. He was taken by Irish raiders, and spent years as a captive, c. 400, with traders, on the south shore of the Shannon estuary. He escaped and probably reached Galicia before 405. Here he embarked on a clerical scholarly career. He corresponded with St Augustine and moved to Hippo in 414. The rest is well documented.
His is the first contemporary textual witness to Christianity in Ireland, observed c. 400, written up 416–17.
As a writer he is disciplined and spare: he allows himself few and brief personal remarks. Those he permits are very revealing, especially about Ireland and Britain, and deserve the closest scrutiny. The transmission of his work is strongly Insular, at least from the very early seventh century — Irish, British, and latterly English. This important matter is not discussed here. Neither do I discuss how the evidence of Orosius fits with that of Prosper of Aquitaine about Palladius and his mission to Ireland (431). I merely observe that there is no necessary conflict.”
https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/pdf/10.1484/J.PERIT.5.114565
Ó Corráin, Donnchadh. Clavis Litterarum Hibernensium (3 Vols), Brepols. (2017)
Mark, J. J. (2019, April 03). Orosius. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Orosius/
ISTC io00101000., Goff O-101; Hain, L. Repertorium bibliographicum,; 12104*; Copinger, W.A. Supplement to Hain’s Repertorium bibliographicum,; 12104; Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke,; M28413; BMC vol. V, p. 549 (IB. 24354)
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