jamesgray2

Early Printed Books
Spring 2024. Part A

                These 19 books are the authors whose names begin with A  from Fascicule Nº 52

1) 508J Thomas, à Kempis, 1380-1471, attributed name.
The following of Christ. Writen in Latine by Thomas of Kempis Canon regular of the order of St. Augustin. Translated into English and in this last edition, reviewed compared with several former editions. Together with the authors life
London: Printed for M.T. 1686. Price $1,100
Duodecimo; 10.5 x6 cm. A12a12 B-U12X9(10-12 presumed Blank) Bound in original full gilt blue calf, a very lovely copy.
After the Bible, The Imitation of Christ is the all-time favorite book of Catholics throughout the world. à Kempis or whoever the ‘author was’ presents a path to The Imitation of Christ based on a focus on the interior life and withdrawal from the world. The Imitation of Christ first issued in 1418, Thomas entered Mount St. Agnes in 1406. He was not ordained a priest, however, until almost a decade later. He became a prolific copyist and writer. Thomas received Holy Orders in 1413 and was made sub-prior of the monastery in 1429.
Thomas à Kempis provided specific instructions for imitating Christ. His book is perhaps the most widely read Christian devotional work after the Bible. The approach taken by Kempis is characterized by its emphasis on the interior life and withdrawal from the world, as opposed to an active imitation of Christ (including outward preaching) by other friars. The book places a high level of emphasis on the devotion to the Eucharist as key element of spiritual life
Kempis’s 1441 autograph manuscript of The Imitation of Christ is available in the Bibliothèque Royale in Brussels (shelfmark: MS 5455-61)
Wing T953A , ESTC listing :
Copies – N.America 2 copies :Harvard University and University of California, Los Angeles, William Andrews Clark

2) 754J Aeschylus (c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC), Willem Canter 1542-1575.

Αισχύλου τραγῳδίαι Ζ =. Æschyli tragœdiæ VII. In quibus præter infinita menda sublata, carminum omnium ratio, hactenus ignorata, nunc primum proditur; opera Gulielmi Canteri. VLTRAIECTINI.

Antuerpiæ : Ex officina Christophori Plantini, architypographi regij, 1580. Price $ 2,000

Duodecimo 12 x 8.5 cm. Signatures: A-Z⁸ (Z7, Z8 blank) Bound in full blind stamped pig skin over boards clasps lacking. a very sweet copy.

This handy copy of the plays from the father of Tragedy. Aeschylus entered many of these competitions, and various ancient sources attribute between seventy and ninety plays to him. Only these seven tragedies attributed to him have survived intact: The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliants, the trilogy known as The Oresteia (the three tragedies Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides), and Prometheus Bound (whose authorship is disputed). With the exception of this last play – the success of which is uncertain – all of Aeschylus’s extant tragedies are known to have won first prize at the City Dionysia. This is the first canter edition, Willem Canter was a classical scholar from Utrecht. He edited the Eclogues of Stobaeus and the tragedies of Euripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus.

Adams A-270; Voet, L. Plantin Press, 1555-1589,no. 11; Cockx-Indestege, E. Belgica typographica 38; STCV 12920582; Brunet I, 78.

3) 608J Alagona (under the Pseudonyme Petrus Giuvara) Navarrus, w/ Martinus Aspilcueta (Azpilcueta) (1549- 1624)

Compendivm manvalis Navarri, ad commodiorem vsv tvm confessariorvm, tvm poenitentium, confectum, Petro Givvara Petro Giwara, Theologo Avctore. Nunc demum singulari diligentia recognitu[m], omnibusque mendis, quibus scatebat, studiosissimè purgatum.

Coloniæ: InOfficina Birckmannica, sumptibus Arnoldi Mylij, 1591/2. Price $ 1,200

Duodecimo: 13 x 8 cm. signatures A-S12 T 6. This is most likely a second edition. This copy is bound in full contemporary vellum with yapp edges missing ties.

. This copy has a nice early (1706) book plate from the Bibliothecæ S. Elisabethæ. Alagona was born in Syracuse. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1564, taught philosophy and theology, and was Rector of Trapani. He died in Rome. This, and his other first works were published under the family name of his mother, Givarra. Later on he used his own name, Alagona, and is best known for his Compendium of the works of Martin Aspilcueta, who was a doctor of theology in Navarre. Martin Aspilcueta was the uncle of St. Francis Xavier. The Enchiridion, seu Manuale Confessariorum, which was compiled by Alagona, went through at least twenty-three editions. A translation of this book into French by Legard, was condemned by the Parliament of Rouen, 12 February 1762. He also published a compendium of the “Summa”, which ran through twenty-five editions, and a compendium of the whole of Canon Law in two volumes, quarto. In the Jesuit College of Palermo there is also found a treatise by Alagona on Logic and Physics.
Navarrus, Martinus Aspilcueta studied at Alcalá and in France, and became professor of canon law at Toulouse and Cahors. Later, he returned to Spain and occupied the same chair for fourteen years at Salamanca, and for seven years at Coimbra in Portugal. At the age of eighty he went to Rome to defend his friend Bartolomeo Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, accused before the Tribunal of the Inquisition. Though he failed to exculpate the Archbishop, Aspilcueta was highly honoured at Rome by several popes, and was looked on as an oracle of learning and prudence. His humility, disinterestedness, and charity were proverbial.
This Manuale sive Enchiridion Confessariorum et Poenitentium (Rome, 1568) originally written in Spanish and was long a classical text in the schools and in ecclesiastical practice. In his work on the revenues of benefices, first published in Spanish (Salamanca, 1566), translated into Latin (1568), he maintained that beneficed clergymen were free to expend the fruits of their benefices only for their own necessary support and that of the poor. He wrote numerous other works, e.g. on the Breviary, the regulars, ecclesiastical property, the jubilee year, etc. He allegedly invented the mathematical concept of “the time value of money”.
De Backer-Sommervogel vol. I col. 109. ;VD16.; ZV 957; Adams. A- 208.

180 Woodcuts of devotional Catholic Icons. 1584 ROSARY

4) 353J Alberto da Castello (ca. 1460 1522)

Rosario della gloriosa Vergine Maria : con lle sttattiionii & iindullgenttiie delllle chiiese di Roma perr tutto L’’anno.

In Venetia : Presso la compagnia de gli Vniti,1585. Price $ 3,800

Octavo. 15.5 x 10.5 cm. Signatures: A-Z8, Aa-Ii8. A later edition of the first ‘Rosary Book” in Italian.
This book has a wonderful contemporary binding, recently expertly rebacked. It is of red Morocco with gilt center images and borders gilt, with angels. Certainly these books were very popular, that said, very few copies have survived. This edition is represented on OCLC by only two copies worldwide. 1 US copy Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University. (SJU Alcuin Arca Artium Rare BookBX2163 .C37 1585)

The authorship of the work and the pictures are attributable to the Dominican Friar Alberto da Castello, identified as author or editor at the authorizations of the Venecian Inquisition, given 5 April 1521. (Francesco Pisano)
Over 150 woodcuts (including 8 repeats) comprising almost full-page cuts (1 on t.p.) with borders All had previously appeared in earlier editions. Ornamental and pictorial border pieces on almost every page. ( The wood cut on leaf 173v is upside down in the border!) The wood cuts represent the “Mysteries of the Rosary”

The mysteries of the rosary were introduced by Dominic of Prussia sometime between 1410 and 1439. This gave each decade of the rosary a unique quality. Each mystery leads us to ponder very specific events in the lives of Jesus and Mary and the lessons they hold for our own lives today. There were originally three sets of mysteries: the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious Mysteries. Mysteries.
The Joyful Mysteries, The Annunciation, The Visitation, The Birth of Jesus, The Presentation, The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple, The Sorrowful Mysteries, The Agony in the Garden, The Scourging at the Pillar, The Crowning with Thorns, The Carrying of the Cross, The Crucifixion
The Glorious Mysteries, The Resurrection, The Ascension, The Descent of the Holy Spirit, The Assumption, The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth
The Rosary has a ritual aspect that individual prayers lack, and it is highly structured. It entails the recitation of 150 Ave Marias, clustered in groups of ten, preceded by a Pater noster and the proposition of a ‘mystery’ upon which to meditate. This number of 150 Ave Marias seems to be designed to correspond to the 150 psalms in the Davidic psalter, which is why the Rosary is also known as the ‘Virgin’s psalter’. It does not consist only of repetitive prayers, however, but also entails meditations. Indeed, the Rosary created by Dominic of Prussia was a kind of meditation on the life of Christ and Mary. In his Liber experientiarum he ‘explicitly claimed to be the first to have composed a series of fifty points on the life of Christ that were to be meditated on while recit- ing the Ave Marias’. In this book there are one hundred and fifty Hail Marys each having separate picture engraved for it, representing a distinct aspect of the mystery to which it belongs.
Sander 6572-6573. See: Essling 2124

“One of the most influential documents in the history of medieval scientific attitudes toward women”

5) 704J pseudo Albertus Magnus

De secretis mulierum cum commento.

[Venetiis]; [Per Jo. Alvisium de Varisio],1501. Price $ 8,800

Quarto 24 x 14.5 cm. Collation: a–d6.4 e4 f6 g4. Bound in modern paste boards backed in vellum. Some restorations of three small holes to the last leaves covering small parts of the text, uniform, and light browning of the first issue, but a very good, margined and fresh copy. A few maniculæ, notes and passim attention signs.

This book has been called “one of the most influential documents in the history of medieval scientific attitudes toward women” it is a culmination of Hippocratic, Galenic, and Aristotelian theories and discussions on sexuality and reproduction from both a medical and philosophical perspectives. The earliest manuscripts of this text date from the beginning of the fourteenth century (possibly as early as c. 1300). This work exists in many manuscripts from the thirteenth century. It was Printed first in 1481 and there exists 20 printed edition to the turn of the 15th century, all of these are rare, with the greatest part of holdings of any edition being held by the Philadelphia college of Physicians (9) and Nation library of Medicine (9) leaving 22 copies of any edition spread across the country suggesting that this was a popular book and used to the point of scarcity and furthermore that the concepts expressed in this work were of great interest and perhaps influence.

Lynn Thorndike explored the attribution of this work to Albertus Magnus, and concludes that De Secretis and was probably composed by one of his followers during the late 13th or early 14th century. The text is interspersed with commentary also by unknown authorship, there exists two states of commentary and this is known as commentator ‘A’ . It is curious and determinative that the authors all refer to Albertus Magnus in the third person. (studies by Wickersheimer, 1923, Ferckel, 1954 and Thorndike, 1955).

This text might establish itself as scientific and philosophical treatis by the pseudo attribution to Albertus, in order to segregate itself from other works in genera of ‘secret’ texts, including myth, folk lore, magic et c.
This text consists of 13 chapters;

On the Generation of the Embryo On the Formation of the Fetus
Concerning the Influence of the Planets On the Generation of Imperfect Animals On the Exit of the Fetus from the Uterus Concerning Monsters in Nature
On the Signs of Conception
On the Signs of Whether a Male or Female is in the Uterus On the Signs of Corruption of Virginity
On the Signs of Chastity Concerning a Defect of the Womb
Concerning Impediments to Conception On the Generation of the Sperm

As our pseudo author of Albertus Magnus, the treatises’s “believed that the study of nature as perceived through sense experience and then analyzed in a rational manner forms a single discipline through which we come to comprehend the universe in its corporeal aspects. Human reproduction, a main subject of this treatise, is one of these aspects, that nevertheless has repercussions for our understanding of the entire cosmos” (Lemay, p. 3).

To speculate upon the community of reader addressed or the actual rader of this text has come to a point of controversy recently, Thondike suggests this was a text sort of book, while De Secretis was most likely “designed to be used within a religious community as a vehicle for instructing priests in natural philosophy, particularly as it pertains to human generation.”

“A strong subtext of the Secrets, however, is the evil nature of women and the harm they can cause to their innocent victims: young children and their male consorts. Clearly then, another purpose of this treatise is to malign the female sex, a tradition that extends back in Christianity to second-century misogynist writings” (Lemay, p. 16). Among the concepts that the text popularised were the idea that women’s menstrual blood was poisonous, that post-menopausal women (especially those who were poor) were more “venomous” because they could no longer expel the toxins, and that women were inherently lascivious beings with a physiological need to absorb the heat and life force of men. “It is these misogynistic ideas about women’s sexuality that seeded their demonization in the years that followed, as the Secrets served as a direct source for the Malleus Maleficarum. Indeed, the most famous statement from the Malleus explicitly connects witchery with ideas about women’s sexuality rooted in the medieval period: ‘All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable'”

(McLemore, “Medieval Sexuality, Medical Misogyny, and the Makings of the Modern Witch”, blog of the University of Notre Dame’s Medieval Studies Institute, October 30, 2020).

Pseudo- Albertus Magnus (Hillard 55). Adams A-553; , Ferguson, Books of Secrets III,23

6) 564J Albertus of Pauda, with Pseudo-Nicolaus de Dinkelsbühl (1360-1433). (1282-1328)

Albertus, Patavinus: Jncipit solemne opus expositionis Euangeliorum dominicalium tocius anni reuerendi magistri Alberti de Padua ordinis frat[rum] heremitarum sancti Augustini Add: Nicolaus de Dinkelsbuel: Concordantia in passionem dominicam.

           ULM, Johann Zainer 1480                 Price $ 21,000

Chancery Folio, 31.5x 21.5 cm. Signatures a12 b–q8 r6+1 s–z8 A–T8 U10 X Y8 Z aa10. This copy is bound in full contemporary calf over wooden boards with an arabesque or vine decoration, as commonly found on other J. Zainer printed books. There is also a circular stamp of a stag or elk or deer. One metal clasp of two. With the catches which are stamped “AVE” This book has a very early rebacking, and both the front and rear paste downs are leaves from a German incunabule. (Goff S675) Probably bound at the workshop named Zu of Ulm Adler by Schwenke/Schunke feating the tool Blattwerk 511. Binding EBDB s013420, Kyriss 080 (round stamp with Stag.)

In terms of printing history, the work is remarkable for the clearly visible textile impressions on several sheets, which are a consequence of a printing method which makes use of moist textile sheets, a technical specialty which resulted in an improved printing quality, this method was predominantly used by Johann Zainer This copy has several other interesting contemporary particularities: Ca. 4 sheets in a somewhat smaller size and paper quality, (cf. A. Schulte, Über das Feuchten des Papiers mit nassen Tüchern bei Joh. Zainer; in Gutenberg-Jb. 1941, pp. 19-22). Bound in a contemporary ULM binding Kyriss 080
(Round stamp with Stag.) Ave Maria Clasp, with early rebacking.

Furthermore, the Paste downs are made of single side printings of leaves from the Spiegel des Sünders (Goff S675) printed by Johann Zainers brother Günther Zainer in Augsberg (not Ulm) [about 50 mi/82km] There is also a handprint of someone from the time of printing. There are also 4 leaves of a different paper stock in the middle of a quire. This volume has the Provenance “pro Conventu fratrum Minoru(m) Franciscacanoru(m) Reformatoru(M) Bolzanesium” Franciscan convent Bolzano, Tyrol, Italy

Goff A340; Hain: H 574; & (Concordantia only H 11762); Zehnacker 99; Polain(B) 101; IGI 243; SI 65; IBP 175; IBE 215; CCIR A-34; Coll(S) 34; Coll(U) 55; Madsen 101; Šimáková-Vrchotka 48, 49, 50; Martín Abad A-
61; Walsh 904, S-904; Bod-inc A-094; Sheppard 1819; Pr 2523; BMC II 526; BSB-Ink A-133; GW 785.
And the pastedowns; Goff S675, very rare BPL only us copy.

Printers’ handprint?

“pro Conventu fratrum Minoru(m) Franciscacanoru(m) Reformatoru(M) Bolzanesium” Franciscan convent Bolzano, Tyrol, Italy.

7) 690J Sir William Alexander Earl of Stirling. 1567?-1640

Recreations VVith The Mvses. By William Earle of Sterline. [including] Dooms-Day, Or, The Great Day of Ivdgement. By William, Earle of Sterline.

London: Printed by Tho. Harper, 1637. Price $ 1,500

Folio 277 x 177 mm. Signatures A⁶ (A1 blank) B-X⁶ Y⁸, [π]² Aa-Dd⁶ Ee⁸ (Ee8 blank). (The first and last blanks may be the originals, it is unclear.) This copy lacks the portrait frontispiece, which was probably never included, see below.Greg is doubtful that it was printed to accompany the book. ESTC S106640STC (2nd ed.), 347; Greg, III, p. 1010-1; Bound c.19th century sprinkled calf boards, modern rebacking with new morocco spine label lettered in gilt and raised bands. Later (1795) engraved facsimile portrait frontispiece. A tidy copy.

Collected verse of a leading Scottish statesman, courtier, scholar, and poet. Appearing here for the first time is a considerable fragment of a sacred epic called “Jonathan.” The poems of the Earl of Stirling were praised by such contemporaries as Drayton, and were read with care by Milton.
“Although nearly every title included in this collection had been previously published, they are here completely revised, and in some cases practically newly written. Students of philology have found the successive editions of Alexander’s works very useful for this reason that they progressively exhibit a text in which provincialisms and vulgarisms were conscientiously weeded. This edition presents the final revision of all this poet’s work which he wished to survive, as well as the first printing of his ‘Jonathan.’” (Pforzheimer)
“The courtly Scottish poet, Sir William Alexander, afterwards earl of Stirling, […] deferred the publication of his sonneteering experiment— ‘the first fancies of his youth’ —till 1604. Then he issued, under the title ‘Aurora,’ one hundred and six sonnets, interspersed, on the Italian and French pattern, with a few songs and elegies. Alexander is not a poet of deep feeling. But he has gifts of style which raise him above the Elizabethan hacks. Another Scottish poet, whose muse developed in the next generation, William Drummond of Hawthornden, began his literary career as a sonneteer on the Elizabethan pattern just before queen Elizabeth died. [Drummond contributed a short commendatory poem to the ‘Dooms-day.’]” (The Cambridge History of English Literature then goes on to class Alexander and
Drummond with Fulke Greville. Quoted from volume iii, page 304.)

All apart from ‘Jonathan’ had previously been published, but the text has been extensively revised for this handsome folio, which was printed three years before the author’s death. “Broadly, his poems are weighty with thought after the type of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, though scarcely so obscure as his. His tragedies have ‘brave translunary things,’ if laboured and dull as a whole. His ‘Aurora’ and minor pieces are elegant and musical” (DNB). A very few copies of this book are known with a frontispiece portrait by Marshall, but this plate was evidently issued as a separate print, and was not present in the book as first offered for sale; the dedication copy does not have it, and the example in the Pforzheimer copy appears to have been supplied.

STC 347; Pforzheimer #5;. ESTC S106640STC (2nd ed.), 347; Greg, III, p. 1010-1; Arber iv, 371; Huntington C.L., #4; Huth catalogue iv, 1401; Greg, English Printed Drama,III,1010-1011. Hoe catalogue, lot number 3.”,”11/17/97″,”According to Pforzheimer the portrait frontispiece, “by Marshall, of William Alexander, is not frequently met with, we can only trace six other examples, and [it] was apparently not prepared when the book first came from the press for it does not occur in large paper dedication copies.”

8) 586J. Guillermus Altissodorensis, or , c.1150-1231 (sometimes also called William of Beauvai)

Summa aurea in quattuor libros sententiarum : a subtilissimo doctore Magistro Guillermo altissiodore[n]si edita. quam nuper amendis q[uam]plurimis doctissimus sacre theologie professor magister Guillermus de quercu diligenti admodum castigatione emendauit ac tabulam huic pernecessariam edidit

Impressa est Parisiis: Maxima Philippi Pigoucheti cura impensis vero Nicolai vaultier et Durandi gerlier alme vniuersitatis Parisiensis librariorum iuratorum, 3 Apr. 1500. Price $ 20,000

Folio 28 x20 cm. Signatures a–z &,ç8 A–M⁸N¹⁰AB⁶C⁸. First edition. Large woodcut device (Davies 82) on title,

Durand Gerlier’s woodcut device (Davies 119) within 4-part border at end. Gothic types, double column. There are old manuscript marginalia. Bound in contemporary calf over wooden boards.Four Gold illuminated Initials!
First edition of the major work by William of Auxerre. In this commentary on Peter Lombard, William treats creation, natural law, the nature of man, a tripartite God, usury, end the Last Judgment, among other topics. He applies the critical reasoning of classical philosophy to that of scholastic philosophy. He was an Archdeacon of Beauvais before becoming a professor of theology at the university in Paris.

William of Auxerre’s Summa Aurea, contains an ample disquisition on usury and the natural law basis of economic matters. His Summa
Aurea still shows a debt to Peter Lombard, yet it advances his ontological argument, furthermore it shows inovation and an intellectual awareness and insistence on the physical that had not been seen earlier. The “Summa Aurea”, which is not, as it is sometimes described, a mere compendium of the “Books of Sentences” by Lombard.

Both in method and in content it shows a considerable amount of originality, although, like all the Summæ of the early thirteenth century, it is influenced by the manner and method of the Lombard. it discusses many problems neglected by the Lombard and passes over others. It is divided into four books: The One and True God (bk. 1); creation, angels, and man (bk. 2); Christ and the virtues (bk. 3); Sacraments and the four last things (bk. 4). The Summa aurea had extraordinary influence on contemporary authors, such as Alexander of Hales and Hugh of Saint–Cher, and on later scholastics, such as St. Albertus Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Bonaventure. The teacher by whom William was most profoundly influenced was Praepositinus, or Prevostin, of Cremona, Chancellor of the University of Paris from 1206 to 1209.

The names of teacher and pupil are mentioned in the same sentence by St. Thomas: Haec est opinio Praepositini et Autissiodorensis (in I Sent., XV, q. 11). William was, in turn, the teacher of the Dominican, John of Treviso, one of the first theologians of the Order of Preachers. The importance of the “Summa Aurea” is enhanced by the fact that it was one of the first Summæ composed after the introduction of the metaphysical and physical treatises of Aristotle.

William of Auxerre, is considered the first medieval writer to develop a systematic treatise on free will and the natural law. Probably a student of the Parisian canon and humanist Richard of St. Victor, William became a Master in theology and later an administrator at the University of Paris. After a long career at the university, he was commissioned in 1230 to serve as French envoy to Pope Gregory IX to advise Gregory on dissension at the university. William pleaded the cause of the students against the complaints of King Louis IX.

In 1231 William was appointed by Gregory to a three-member council to censor the works of Aristotle included in the university curriculum to make them conform sufficiently to Christian teaching. Contrary to the papal legate Robert of Courçon and other conservatives, who in 1210 condemned Aristotle’s Physics and Metaphysics as corruptive of Christian faith, William saw no intrinsic reason to avoid the rational analysis of Christian revelation. Confident of William’s orthodoxy, Gregory urged the King to restore him to the university faculty so that he and Godfrey of Poitiers might reorganize the plan of studies. William fell ill and died before any of these projects were begun.

William’s emphasis on philosophy as a tool for Christian theology is evidenced by his critique of Plato’s doctrine of a demiurge, or cosmic intelligence, and by his treatment of the theory of knowledge as a means for distinguishing between God and creation. He also analyzed certain moral questions, including the problem of human choice and the nature of virtue. His fame rests largely on the Summa aurea, written between 1215 and 1220 and published many times (Paris, n.d.; 1500; 1518; Venice 1591). Inspired by the Sentences of Peter
Lombard, preceding as he did the Aristotelian revival, William was largely influenced by St. Augustine, St. Anselm of Canterbury, Richard and Hugh of saint–victor, and Avicenna.. (J. Ribaillier, ed., Magistri Guillelmi Altissiodorensis Summa aurea, 7 vols. (Paris 1980–1987). Gilson, History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages (New York 1955) 656–657. P. Glorieux, Répertoire des maîtres en théologie de Paris au XIIIe siècle (Paris 1933–34); C. Ottaviano, Guglielmo d’Auxerre …: La vita, le opere, il pensiero (Rome 1929). r. m. martineau, “Le Plan de la Summa aurea de Guillaume d’Auxerre,” Études et recherches d’Ottawa 1 (1937) 79–114

Goff G718; ISTC: ig00707500; Hain-Copinger 8324; BMC. VIII.122; GW 11861; Polain B1787; Oates 3078;
IGI Fabritius, Bibl. Latina, ed. 1754, III/p. 139). S.T.C. French Books, p. 213. Us copies: Astrik L. Gabriel, Notre Dame IN, Boston Public, Bryn Mawr, Columbia, Huntington, Univ.of Chicago, Univ. of Wisconsin.
|(also see my fascicule XIX, 2019: #1 for another copy of this edition now in private ownership)

563J Thomas Aquinas

Quaestiones circa confessionem seu Sacramentum poenitentiae

[Rome : Johann Besicken, about 1493-94]. Collijn assigns this to Guldinbeck. Price $ 9,800

Octavo 19 x 13.5 cm Signatures : a8 Fol. 8 blank and present. Old bibliographies assigned this to Plannck, later revised to Besicken.

VERY RARE ISTC cites only 9 copies; 1 in the US at Yale.

Besicken worked at Basel in 1483, and at Rome from 1493 until 1510, partly with various partners. Most of the woodcut capitals employed by Besicken and his partners are black ground capitals some with foliage decorations and others with branch-work; all enclosed in a frame line which form squares in the corners. The present incunable has such an example on a1. His imprints are generally rare.

Reference works. Goff T325; R 395; Mich 341; IBE 1729; IGI 3151; IBP 1681; SI 3781; Coll(S) 1410; Martín Abad T-106; Borm 810; GW 7350

https://data.cerl.org/istc/it00325000

566J. Thomas Aquinas Pseudo ; 1225-1274 Erroneously attributed to Aquinas. Compiled from works by Jacobus de Fusignano (ca. 1333) and that attributed to Henricus de Hassia (T.M. Charland, Artes praedicandi, Paris, 1936, p.87)

Tractatulus solennis de arte [et] vero modo p[rae]dicandi. ex diuersis sacro[rum] doctorum scripturis. Et principaliter sacratissimi xp[ist]iane ecclesie doctoris Thome de Aquino. ex p[ar]uo suo quoda[m] tractatulo recollectus. vbi s[ecundu]m modu[m] [et] formam materie presentis procedit. Una cu[m] tractatulo eximij doctoris Henrici de hassia de arte predicandi sequitur vt infra
Bound with.
Tractatulus eximii doctoris Hernici de Hassia de arte predicandi valde utilis

Straßburg Printer of the ‘Casus Breves Decretalium’ (Georg Husner?), ±1493? Or [Köln] Heinrich Quentell, about 1489-92]
Or Deventer [Jacobus de Breda?] Campbell’s ascription, which is followed by Goff and Camp-Kron. But this is rejected by HPT. Price $ 9,000

Quarto 20×14 cm. Signatures: AA-BB⁶ (BB6 blank) & A8 The tract by Heinrich von Langenstein is not a separate printing although Hain catalogues it as such?

ISTC it00272000. CIBN; T-193; HC; 1355 bound with (HC 8397) IG; 2586; GW; M46053; ISTC locates only. one US copy, Huntington.

Internet Access:
https://data.cerl.org/istc/it00272000

731J Arcangelo Romano (fl. 17th cent.)

De infirmitatibus humanæ vitæ, compendium medicinæ. In quo declaratur quid sit unaquaeque infirmitas, unde proveniant ipsae infirmitates, quos effectus producant, & assignantur simplicia, & domestica, quae eis prosunt .

  [Bound with]

Remedii semplici e familiari, utili per l’infirmità dell’humana vita, raccolti … dal M.R.P.D.Archangelo Romano …

Romæ: Apud Franciscum Caballum, 1643
Price $ 900

Duodecimo: 15 x 10.5 cm. Signatures:*⁸A-M⁸./ Bound with] a-k8 l4 Printers Emblem of Roma on title. [Bound together in contemporary vellum with small hole in spine, but solid. First edition.

A Very Fine Sammelband of Six Aristotle Science Textsfrom the sixteenth century.

668J Sammelband of Six Aristotle Science Texts

ARISTOTELES. Physicorum Aristotelis libri. [Of Physics]. Joanne Argyropylo & Francis. Vatablo interprete.
Bound with:
ARISTOTELES. De caelo libri quatuor. [Of Heaven]. I. Argyropylo interprete. 115, [21] pp. Printer’s device. Lyon; A. Vicentium, 1553 (ms. change to 1558).
Bound with:
ARISTOTELES. De generatione et corruptione libri duo. [Of the generation and corruption of books]. F. Vatablo interprete. 67 pp. Printer’s device. Lyon; A. Vicentium, 1553 (ms. changed to 1558).
Bound with:
ARISTOTELES. Meteorologicorum libri quatuor. [Meteorological studies]. 158, [21 pp. Printer’s device and 5 text woodcuts and diagrams. Lyon; A. Vicentium (Excudebat Symphorianus Barbierus), 1558.
Bound with:
ARISTOTELES. De anima libri tres. [From animals]. 106 pp. 1 blank leaf. Printer’s device. Lyon; A. Vicentium, 1558.
Bound with:
ARISTOTELES. De sensu & sensili, de memoria & reminiscentia (etc.). [Memory, senses & reminiscences]. F. Vatablo interprete. 154 pp. (without last blank). Woodcut printer’s device and 1 text woodcut diagram. Lyon; A. Vicentium, 1558.

Lyon: Apud AntoniumVincentium (Excudebat Michael Sylvius), 1558 (colophon: 1553).
Price $5,000

Octavo: 162 x 108 mm. Signatures available (collated and complete) Woodcut printer’s device on title-page. Five early owner’s inscriptions on title-page part crossed out and a Franciscan monastery stamp with another inscription on flyleaf. Early annotations and underlining. The annotations take the form of numbering and underlining in Physicorum, Liber 1-VIII, De CÆLO Liber I-II, De GENERATIONE I&II, De Anima Liber I-III.

Bound in a contemporary blind tooled pigskin over beveled wooden boards with central panel stamp portrait of Jesus on both covers, enclosed within ornamental rolls and fillets. Spine with four raised bands and manuscript title in top compartments, manuscript shelf no. in lower compartment, top & bottom edges stained blue, both original brass clasps present. Apart from a reddish stain on the upper cover and traces of an old repair on lower cover. A truly exceptional original binding from 1558 complete with it’s original metal clasps. Housed in a felt-lined black cloth clamshell case, spine with leather label, lettered in gilt.

Antoine Vincent (1500-1568). aka. Vincentius. A Bookseller of Calvinist confession and the eldest son of the bookseller Simon Vincent. From 1557 in from Lyon, he organized “the largest publishing company of the century”, and the printing and trade of the Reformed Psalter (1562), for which he obtained in December 1561 a privilege for the benefit of his son Antoine II Vincent.

The ambiguity of the name Antoine Vincent seems to have been voluntarily maintained from 1550. In 1559 to 1564, he moved with his family to Geneva, where although living alone he obtained the authorization to operate four presses. Meanwhile, the Lyon trading house was run by his eldest son Barthélemy. In May 1561, he entrusted Antoine II with the organization of his branch in Basel. By Geneva ordinance of June 1563, he was recognized as one of the three most important publishers in the city. He actively participated in the development of the Reformed Church of Lyon. Arrested in 1567, his property was confiscated in 1568. He died between May 2 (date of his will) and June 2, 1568.

284J Aristotle , –Gualtherus Burlaeus. (Walter Burley (c. 1275–1344/5 )

Expositio Gualteri Burlei super decem Libros Ethicorum Aristotelis (Contains the text of Robert Grosseteste’s translation of the Nicomachean Ethic

Venice: Simon de Luere for Andreas Torresanus, 4 September 1500 Price $11,500

Folio, 31 x 22 cm. A8 a6b-x8 y10. Second edition after the first of 1481.

This copy is bound in contemporary 1/4 blind-tooled goatskin over wooden boards with 3 (of 4) metal catches on front cover, rebacked retaining most of original backstrip, conspicuous termite damage on front cover, rear cover replaced with modern board, endpapers renewed; contents washed with residual soiling on opening leaves, worming through much of volume generally not impairing legibility, crude restoration in blank margins at beginning and end.

Ethica Nicomachea, Books 1-10, in the Latin translation of Robertus Grosseteste( 1175-1253) , incipit “[O]Mnis ars et om[n]is doctrina similiter aut[em] [et] actus [et] electio bonum quodda[m] ap=pete[re] videt[ur]. J[de]o b[e]n[e] enunciaueru[n]t bonu[m] q[uo]d omnia appetu[n]t”, b1r- y9v; colophon (Venetijs impresse arte Simonis de Leure: impensis v[ir]o domini Andree Torresani de Asula. Anno M.D. die v[er]o, IIIJ. Septebris.,), y10r; printer’s register, y10r. Wood cut diagrams.

Walter Burley was one of the most prominent logicians and metaphysicians of the Middle Ages

“The first Latin translations of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the Ethica vetus and the Ethica nova, are the object of six commentaries from the first half of
the thirteenth century, presumably written by Parisian arts masters. Typical for these early commentaries is the interpretation of Aristotle’s doctrine in the light of Christian religion. In 1246/1248, Robert Grosseteste achieved a complete translation of the Nicomachean
Ethics. The first to write commentaries on it were Albert the Great (twice) and Thomas Aquinas. Both attempted to interpret Aristotle philosophically; the extent to which Aquinas nevertheless admitted theological views is disputed in scholarship. The commentary of Aquinas was a major source for many other commentaries of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.

Goff; b-1301 ; BMC 15th cent.,; v, 576 (ib. 24667); GW; 5779; ; Hain-Copinger; *4144; Harman, m. incunabula in the University of illinois library at urbana-champaign (1979); 191; ISTC (online);
ib01301000; Proctor; 5269; Pellechet; 3080 lines
df (2002)
Aristotle’s ethics in the italian renaissance (ca. 1300–1650): the universities and the problem of moral education. Brill, Leiden

http://www.gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/docs/M46053.htm
The First German Edition of Secretum Secretorum.

“One of the most widely read texts of the High Middle Ages or even the most-read”. *

6) 659J. Aristotle (pseudo) Tr. Johannes Lorchner. Rāzī, Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā Abū Bakr al- (864?-925?).

Das aller edlest und bewertest Regiment der gesundtheyt, Auch von allen verßorgen Künsten un[d] Königklichen Regimenten Aristotelis. Das er dem Großmechtigen König Alexandro zůgeschrieben hatt. Auß Arabischer Sprach durch Meister Philipsen, dem Bischoff Vonn Valentia, der Stadt Jerapolis, In das latein verwandelt, Nachmals auß dem latein in das Teütsch gebracht, Bey Doctor Johann Lorchner zů Spalt (So beyder Keyser Frydrichs un[d] Maximilians Loeblicher gedechtnuß Rath un[d] Mathematicus gewesen) nach seinem tod geschribe[n] gefunden zůauffenthaltung un[d] Fristung yn gesundtheit menschlichem lebenn zů gůtt, Durch Johann Besolt in Truck verordnet.

[The Place of publication not identified (but most likely Augsburg by H. Steiner] 1530
Price $ 12,500

Quarto: 20 x 15cm. Signatures: A-M⁴ N². This is the First German edition translated by
Johannes Lorchner and edited by Johann Besolt. With large woodcut title Of Aristotle offering Alexander this book. The title page has dense contemporary annotations, first and last few pages somewhat waterstained, large woodcut portrait of Alexander the Great on the back of the title page Woodcut on the title and woodcut portrait by Jörg Breu, and 2 further woodcuts. Bound in Modern half vellum with label on spine (somewhat stained, slightly discolored in the margins).
The Secretum Secretorum is :

“One of the most widely read texts of the High Middle Ages or even the most-read”.

*‘Abd ar-Raḥmān, Badawī (1987). La transmission de la philosophie grecque au monde arabe.”

The Secretum Secretorum like many texts of this period the pseudonymous works which ascribed to Aristotle were taken by medieval readers as authentic and placed this work among Aristotle’s genuine works. Including Roger Bacon. And yet no Greek original exists, though there are claims in the Arabic treatise that it was translated from was Greek then into Syriac and from Syriac into Arabic by a well-known 9th century translator, Yahya ibn al-Bitriq.

The treatise that is usually referred to as the Secretum Secretorum is as a text a rather fluid object and requires more than a bit of investigation to determine what it exactly is.
Much of this text takes the form of a pseudoepigraphical epistle supposedly from Aristotle to Alexander the Great during his campaigns in Persia. The other parts of the text are much like the aphorisms and fragments of the humors is to probe all Western medicine, starting with the ancient physicians Hippocrates and Galen, the Persian Hunayn ibn-Is’haq. Translated from Latin perhaps that of Philip of Tripoli into German by Johann Lorchner. Edited by Besolt.

The Arabic treatise, called “Kitab sirr al-asrar” discusses a wide range of topics, including statecraft, ethics, physiognomy, astrology, alchemy, magic, and medicine. It is preserved in two versions: a longer 10-book version and a shorter version of 7 or 8 books, the latter is preserved in about 50 copies. The first Latin translation of a part of the work was made for the Portuguese queen c. 1120 by the converso John of
Seville. The second translation, this time of the whole work, was done at Antioch c. 1232 by the canon Philip of Tripoli for Bishop Guy of Tripoli. Some 13th-century editions include additional sections.

As of present there are accepted forty genuine Aristotelian works known in Latin or vernacular versions during the Middle Ages. Add to this there were more than a hundred other works attributed to the master at some time during the same centuries. Which are now considered spurious. Of these the Secretum Secretorum.
Exerted immense influence and had the widest dissemination from the tenth century and continued to extend influence medicine in to the seventeenth century.

The first appearance of the work in a published edition of the Secretis Secretorum occurs in the 1501 edition printed by Hector Bononiae.

The Secretum Secretorum, an enormous and enormously influential guidebook cum encyclopedia throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. Of the two main Arabic recensions, the Shorter (and older) recension, a “Mirror for Princes” ostensibly written by Aristotle for Alexander the Great, was “turned into an
encyclopedic manual by the addition of a layer of scientific and occult material” (pp. x-xi).

VD16; A3627; Simon, A.L. Bib. bacchica,; II, 415; Index Aureliensis; 107.911; Riley, L. Aristotle texts and commentaries in Univ. of Pennsylvania Libraries,; 237

15) 552Ji Ars Moriendi [Mateusz,; z Krakowa, Cardinal,; approximately 1330-1410.*]

(Ars moriendi.) – Speculū artis bene moriēdi de temptatōnibus. penis infernalibus interrogatōibus agonisantium et varijs oratōnibus pro illorum salute faciendis.

(Köln, Heinrich Quentell, about 1495). Price $ 8,000

Quarto 20 x 5 cm. Signatures: a⁶ b⁴ c⁶ These two works are bound in early if not contemporary limp vellum with green linen ties and green edges. With a nice Accipies woodcut on the title. The top of the title has been trimed to remove signature or ownership – There is browning and usage staining, many marginal notes by the rubricator (somewhat truncated), title with ownership notes from the 17th century, upper white edge cut off, short pen note, endpaper with monastic ownership stamp.–Bound with the title below., Two works in one volume each are rubricated, with numerous notes on every page! The upper blank margin of the title cut off, monastic stamp to fly leaf. In the Reginaldetus there is wear and some loss to the headline of last eight leaves.

The Ars moriendi, or The art of dying, was intended to instruct the reader on the proper modes of behavior when facing death. The book was one result of the Church’s effort to educate the laity in the fundamentals of Christianity during the late medieval period. Gerson’s Opus tripartitum is the source of much of the work, with other material being drawn from the Bible, liturgies, and devotional and doctrinal literature of the period. Ars moriendi is divided into six parts a selection of quotations on death from authoritative Christian sources; advice to the dying on how to overcome faithlessness, despair, impatience, pride, worldliness, and other temptations; a series of catechetical questions whose correct answers lead to salvation; instructions and prayers for imitating the dying Christ; practical advice for the dying individual; and, prayers to be said by those attending the dying.

Although the author of Ars moriendi is not known, the book is believed to have been written in Southern Germany at the time of the Council of Constance (1414-1418). * Sometimes attributed to Matthaeus de Cracovia or to Albertus Magnus (and in Italian editions to Dominicus Capranica, Cardinal of Fermo); cf. A. Madre, Nikolaus von Dinkelsbühl (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philos. u. Theol. des Mittelalters 40 (1965) p.292-295), and D. Mertens, Iacobus Carthusiensis (Göttingen, 1976) p.181
http://dlib.gnm.de/item/N40
https://data.cerl.org/istc/ia01098000
United States of America: Cornell Univ; Free Library of Philadelphia Indiana Univ., Univ. of Iowa, The Univ. Libraries;Washington, Library of Congress, The Morgan Library; Princeton Univ, Southern Methodist Univ., The Newberry Library; Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

                    Bound with

552Jii Petrus Reginaldetus (15th century)

Speculu[m] finalis retributio[n]is tam bono[rum] operu[m] q[uam] malo[rum]: egregij sacre theologie doctoris: fratris Petri Reginaldeti: de ordine fratru[m] mino[rum]: In quo speculo diffuse elucidat[ur] co[n]templatio pena[rum] et gaudio[rum] eternaium.

Basel, Jackob (Wolff) von Pforzheim, 1499.
Quarto; 20 x 5 cm . Signatures a-k8. 79 of 80Leaves lacking the final leaf with the printers mark. Third edition of the only work by this Franciscan.

Friar Reginaldette, was from Tours: a member of the Order of Friars Minor, he was a peritus at the Council of Basel in 1434 A.D.
The title “ retributionis tam bonorum operum quam malorum” has been added by the translator, but the information is taken from the text which follows.
The Totani family is from L’Aquila in Italy, and perhaps it was the memory and example of St. Bernadine of Sienna, who had died there nearly a half century earlier, that prompted Friar Guillermo to preserve this work of Franciscan preaching, which is so characteristic of the reform in the Order of the Friars Minor, which the Saint had promoted.

II. Goff R-91; BMC III, 778. Walsh 1237; Hain 13774; GW M37420; *; GfT 1008; Pell Ms 10037 (9821); CIBN R-52 Günt(L) 427; Voull(B) 552; Pr 7709; BMC III 778; BSB-Ink R-57.
United States of America : Houghton Library, Columbia University, Free Library of Philadelphia, La Casa del Libro, Library of Congress, Huntington Library, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Univ. of Kentucky.

16). 547Ja. Saint Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, 295-373. Theophylactus de Achrida,; 1055-1126. Richardus de Sancto Victore,; 1110-1173. Ambrogio Traversari 1386-1439. Cristoforo Persona; 1416-1485. Angelo Poliziano; 1454-1494. Nicolas
Béraud; 1473-1550. Desiderius Erasmus; 1496-153

Athanasii Episcopi Alexandrini Sanctissima, Eloqventissimaqve Opera ¶ Commentarij in epistolas Pauli ¶Contra Gentiles Liber vnus ¶De incarnatio[n]e Verbi … ¶Disputatio contra Arrium. ¶In vim Psalmorum opusculum. ¶Exhortatio ad Monachos. ¶De passione
Imaginis domini nostri Libellus.
¶Epistolæ nonnullæ Romanorum Pontificum ad Athanasium, et Atanasij ad eosdem.

¶Que̜ omnia olimia[m] latina facta Christophoro Porsena, Ambrosio Monacho, Angelo Politiano interpretibus, vna cum doctissima Erasmi Roterodani [sic] ad pium lectorem paraclesi.

Bound with

547Jb. Basilius Caesariensis. 330–379 Jacques Lefèvre D’Etaples. c. 1450–1536.

Basilii Magni Caesariensium in Cappadocia Antistitis sanctissimi opera plane diuina, variis e locis sedulo collecta: & accuratio[n]e ac impe[n]sis Iodici Badii Ascensii recognita & coimpressa, quorum index proxima pandetur charta.

Parisiis: Joanne Paruo [i.e., Jean Petit] , [1519]. [bound with]
Paris: Venundantur eidem Ascensio [i.e., Badius Ascensius, 1520]. Price $5,000

Two Folios bound together; leaf size: 32 x 22 cm. Signatures: ad. I) a-z8,&8,A-H8,I6,K8, aaa-ggg6,hhh4,iii6(iii6 is blank & present) ad. II)A¹0, a-x⁸, y⁶, z⁴ Both are first editions of quite influential books.
Bound in Alum-tawed pigskin, elaborately tooled in blind over wooden boards with metal and leather clasps; one clasp perished. Binding with one corner tip broken off; small hole in leather on rear board; dust-soiled. Inside, some early marginalia and underlining in red; narrow arc of old, light water staining to fore-edges of one part. Pages generally very clean. This is a pleasing copy of two substantial books edited and assembled by very notable scholars_ _contemporary to the publications of the works.

St. Athanasius’s text was translated into Latin by three noted Renaissance scholars, and edited by Nicholas Beraldus, and has the added prestige of apparatus by Erasmus. The title-page is printed within a four-piece woodcut border, with the title in red and black, and the page bears the famous Petit printer’s device. The St. Basil is from Badius Ascensius’s press and he acted as the editor, the translators having been Johannes Argyropoulos, Georgius Trapezuntius, and others(see above and below ). The title-page uses the same four-part woodcut title-page border as found on the St. Athanasius, bound in at the front, which makes much sense given the familial relationship between Ascensius and Petit.
Moreau II Nr. 2242m; P. Renouard, Bibliographie des impres (Paris, I908)s II, I46

Athanasius was the greatest champion of Catholic belief of Incarnation that the Church has ever known and in his lifetime earned the characteristic title of “Father of Orthodoxy”, by which he has been distinguished ever since. “Athanasius the Apostolic, was the 20th bishop of Alexandria (as Athanasius I). His intermittent episcopacy spanned 45 years (c. 8 June 328 – _2 May 373), of which over 17
encompassed five exiles, when he was replaced on the order of four different Roman emperors. Athanasius was a Christian theologian, a Church Father, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Coptic Christian (Egyptian) leader of the fourth century. Athanasius’ earliest work, Against the Heathen – _On the Incarnation (written before 319), bears traces of Origenist Alexandrian thought (such as repeatedly quoting Plato and using a definition from Aristotle’s Organon) but in an orthodox way. Athanasius was also familiar with the theories of various philosophical schools, and with the developments of Neo-Platonism. Ultimately, Athanasius would modify the philosophical thought of the School of Alexandria away from the Origenist principles such as the “entirely allegorical interpretation of the text”.
Still, in later works, Athanasius quotes Homer more than once (Hist. Ar. 68, Orat. iv. 29). Athanasius was not a speculative theologian. As he stated in his First Letters to Serapion, he held on to “the tradition, teaching, and faith proclaimed by the apostles and guarded by the fathers.” He held that not only was the Son of God consubstantial with the Father, but so was the Holy Spirit, which had a great deal of influence in the development of later doctrines regarding the Trinity.

Athanasius’ “Letter Concerning the Decrees of the Council of Nicaea” (De Decretis), is an important historical as well as theological account of the proceedings of that council, and another letter from 367 is the first known listing of all those books now accepted as the New Testament.

Moreau II Nr. 2242m; P. Renouard, Bibliographie des impres (Paris, I908)s II, I46

Basil the Great is sapientissimus, potentissimus, sanctissimus, piissimus.

This volume includes the following works: the Hexameron, translated by Argyro- pulos for Sixtus IV; Adversus Eunomium, translated by George of Trebizond at the re- quest of Cardinal Bessarion and sent by him to Eugenius IV; Gregory Nazianzen’s funeral oration on Basil the Great in the translation of Raphael Volaterranus; a large selection of Basil’s sermons and several letters, also translated by Volaterranus; and, finally, the De institutis monarchorum, RuEinus’ trans]ation, adaptation, and fusion of Basil’s two monastic rules, the Regulaefusius tractatae and Regulae brevius tractatae. Texts in Migne, P.G. XXIX, XXX, XXXI and F. Boulenger, Gre’goire de NazEanze. Dis- coursfunebres en l’honneur de sonfrere Ce’saire et de Basile de Cesarete (Paris, I908), pp. S8-23I. Argyropulos’ Hexameron was sent to Badius from Rome by Lefevre (fol. Ir and Badius’ preface: ‘Nuper autem divi Basilii vere magni monumenta aeterna cedro dignissima ab urbe Roma ad nos usque perlata, hinc ad negocia sua profecturus, prelo nostro commisit’). It and the translations of Volaterranus had been printed in Rome by Mazochius in September and December ISIS (Panzer, vm, 255, no. 92 and 256 no. 9S); inJune ISo8 Matthias Schurer had printed Basilfi Oratio de invidia, Nic. Perotfo interprete in Strasbourg (Panzer, VI, 42, no. I3I); the letters on reading the pagan classics and on the solitary life were well known; but Badius’ is the first printing of so important a collection of Basil’s works.

BL STC France (16th cent.); Ind Aur III, 311; Wierda, 2006,; p. 210, nr.
40 p. 42; Moreau 1511-1520: 2246; Imprimeurs et libraires parisiens du 16th sie_̀cle … Bade-438/

17) 454G Saint Augustine, 354-430 Jean de Fécamp (early 11th century). Floyd, John. (1572 – 15 September 1649)

The meditations, soliloquia, and manuall of the glorious doctour S. Augustine. Newly translated into English.

London; Printed for Mathew Turner,1686 Price $1,800

Duodecimo, 14x 7 ½ Cm. Signatures: A-T12 Second Edition (enlarged) of this Translation A very nice copy expertly rebacked. Bound in original calf.

The “Augustine’s Meditations and Manuell” are not by Augustine at all and early on these texts were atributed to the folowing: Pseudo-Augustine; Saint Augustine 354-430; Bernard of Claravallensis 1090-1153; Peter Damian 1007-1072; Saint Anselm of Canterbury, 1033-1109; Vincent Ferrer 1350-1419; Maffeo Vegio 1407-1458; Pope Pius II,(Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini) 1405-1464, As published as early as ca 1480 ( See the second printed edition of these texts in my Fasicule. XL -# 601J.under the title Libellus Meditationum 1498). This text was complied edited or writen by Jean de Fécamp (early 11th century – 22 February 1079). The present English translated by John Floyd who was an English Jesuit, known as a controversialist. He was known both as a preacher and teacher, and was frequently arrested in England. He was born in Cambridgeshire in 1572. After studying in the school of the English Jesuits at Eu, Normandy, he was admitted on 17 March 1588 to the English College, Reims, where he studied humanities and philosophy. Next he went to the English College, Rome, admitted there 9 October 1590, and joined the Society of Jesus on 1 November 1592. On 18 August 1593 Floyd received minor orders at Reims or Douai, and on the 22nd of the same month he was sent back to the English College at Rome with nine companions, where he taught philosophy and theology, and became known as a preacher. In 1609 he became a professed father of the Jesuit order. He worked for a long time on the English mission. Having visited Edward Olscorne in Worcester gaol in 1606, he was detained, and he was unable either by entreaties or bribes to escape Sir John Popham. After a year’s imprisonment he was sent into exile with forty-six other priests, and he spent four years in preaching at St. Omer and composing controversial works. Then he returned to England, where he was often captured, and frequently contrived to pay off the pursuivants. His last years were spent at Leuven, where he was professor of theology. He died suddenly at St. Omer on 15 September 1649.

Clancy 43; (see)Allison & Rogers #306 DeBacker -Sommervogel Vol. 3 Col.814 Nº8

18) 601J.    Pseudo-Augustine; Saint Augustine 354-430; Bernard of Claravallensis 1090-1153; Peter Damian 1007-1072; Saint Anselm of Canterbury, 1033-1109; Vincent Ferrer 1350-1419; Maffeo Vegio 1407-1458; Pope Pius II,(Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini) 1405-1464.

Medtationes divi Augustini episcopi Hyppoensis Soliloquia eivsden Manuale eidsdem Castigaissime.

Brescia: Angelus Britannicus de Pallazolo Biblioteca Virtual del Patrimonio Bibliograìfico. 8 Oct. 1498 Price $ 6,500

Octavo, 14 ½x10 Cm. Signatures: π4, a-n8, o10 [colophon], l8, m12, p8.[o10,m12, p8are blank and present]Second edition. Bound in later full vellum, a large copy with some deckle edges. Woodcut printer’s device C on leaf o9 verso. For Britannicus’s device C, see BM 15th cent., VII, 972 Second edition variations in texts though. Bound in later full vellum, a large copy with some deckle edges.

Title and list of contents π1r; Title page,a1r 1)[Pseudo-] Augustinus [Pseudo- Anselmus; Jean de Fécamp]. Meditationes, caption “Invocatio dei omnipotentis ad morum et vite reparationem”, The invocation of the Almighty God for the reparation of character and life.
2) a2r-e5r; [Pseudo-] Augustinus. Meditationes,
3) e5r-i3r; [Pseudo-] Augustinus. Soliloquia,
4) i3r-kkv [i.e. l1v], Manuale including preface, i3r-v; [Pseudo-Bernardus Claravallensis. [i.e. Hugo de Sancto Victore]. Meditationes de cognitione humanae conditionis,
5) l2r-m8v; [Pseudo-] Bernardus Claravallensis. Epistola de perfectione vitae,
6) n1r-n2r; Petrus Damiani. Sermo unicus [i.e Institutio monialis, chapt. 6],( De Institutione monialis, which had the aim of safeguarding Western Christians from the decadent uses of the East. Notable in this work, among other things, Damiani, then Bishop of Ostia, condemned Maria Argyre’s use of a golden fork to eat. ‘Forks were a new invention at the time.)
7) n2v-n3r; Anselmus Cantuariensis. Meditatio de redemptione generis humani,
8) n3v-n7r; Anselmus Cantuariensis. Orationes ad sanctam Mariam virginem,
9) n7r-o7v; Father N. Laudensis [Maphae9us Vegius? Jacobus Arrigoni Laudensis?]. [Verse], incipit “Mens mea q[ui]d cogitas? Quid tantis / ceca procellis / Sponte tuam credis mox peritura ratem?”, “My mind, what are you thinking? Why are you so blind / blind to the storm / Do you automatically believe that your rate will soon perish?”
10-18) o8r :8, elegiac distichs,; Pius II, Pont. Max. In laudem divi Augustini, o8r-v; Maphaeus Vegius. Epigramma in laudem Monicae, o8v-o9v; colophon, ov; printer’s device, o9v; Vincentius Ferrerius. De vita spirituali [also known as De interiori homine formativus],
19) ²l1r-²m11v;
20) p1r-p7v. [Pseudo-] Bernardus Claravallensis. Sermo de passione domini.
Pseudo-Augustine; Saint Augustine 354-430. [Pseudo- Anselmus; Jean de Fécamp] ; Jean de Fécamp (early 11th century – 22 February 1079) :Writing under the name of famous writers, he wrote the very popular book Meditations of St. Augustine and the book Meditations. He was born near Ravenna and died at Fécamp Normandy, as the Abbot of the Abbey of Fécamp. He was nicknamed ‘Jeannelin’ or ‘Little John’ on account of his diminutive stature. “The fact that John’s work almost entirely circulated under pseudonyms during the medieval period, including Ambrose, Augustine, John Cassian, Alcuin, Anselm and Bernard of Clairvaux, means that it was only in the 20th century that a greater understanding of his own thought was developed. It is only therefore in recent times that it has been acknowledged that until the spread of the Imitation of Christ at the end of the Middle Ages he was one of the most widely read spiritual writers.” “John wrote a first book of prayers, his Confessio Theologica (Theological Confession), in three parts, composed before 1018. This book was then rearranged and reworked to form a second book, Libellus de scripturis et verbis patrum (The Little Book of Writings and Words of the Fathers for the Use especially of Those who are Lovers of the Contemplative Life). This second work, circulating under the title of The Meditations of Saint Augustine, proved very popular in the later medieval period.”
Bernard of Claravallensis1090-1153; [Pseudo-Bernardus Claravallensis [i.e. Hugo de Sancto Victore].
Peter Damian 1007-1072; Dante placed him in one of the highest circles of Paradiso as a great predecessor of Francis of Assisi.
Saint Anselm of Canterbury, 1033-1109;
Vincent Ferrer 1350-1419; Maffeo Vegio 1407-1458; Pope Pius II,(Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini) 1405-1464,

Located Copies
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
London, British Library (IA.31165) (Incomplete. Wanting the first, unsigned quire with title and table, and quire p with the Sermo de passione domini), Cambridge, University , USA: The Walters Art Museum Library, Free Library of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania State Univ,Huntington Library Stanford Univ. Library, The Newberry Library, Yale University, Beinecke Library

Goff A1294; HC(Add) 1951; IGI 1013;Sajó-Soltész 406; IBE 126; IBPort 35; Madsen 442;SchmittII2828,15;Hubay(Eichstätt)110;Oates2628;Pr6998;BMCVII980;BSB- Ink L-136; GW 2972 (Pseudo-Augustinus)

19) 620J Saint Augustine 354-430, Jean de Fécamp (early 11th century). Henricus Sommalius SJ (1534-1619)

Divi Avrelli Avgvstini Hipponensis episcopi Meditationes, Solioquia & Manuale. Meditations B. Anselmi cum tractatu de humani generis redemptione. D. Bernardi Idiotae viri docti, de amore diunio. Omnia ad mss. exemplaria emendata, & in meliorem ordinem distributa, opera ac studio R.P. Henrici Sommalii Societatu Iesv Theologi.

Antverpiæ 1701 (but the printed publication information is Venetiis MDCCXVIII Apud Nicholaum Pezzana) The collation of this volume matches the 1701 edition.
$800

Duodecimo, 12 x 6 cm.. A-Q12 Bound in contemporary calf gilt spine.

Henricus Sommalius had been a member of the Societas Jesu since 1551 , and was the first rector of the Jesuit college in Douay. He edited several editions of works by medieval theologians and church fathers. Among them are Albertus Magnus : Paradisus animae siue de virtutibus libellus , Antverpiae, Plantiniana, 1602; Aurelius Augustine : Confessions , Douay, 1608; the pseudo-Augustinian Soliloquium, Mediationes und Manuale, Douay, 1607. He wrote the famous edition of Thomas von Kempen ‘s Opera omnia (a Kempis), first edition in 1600, Antwerpen with Nutius, where the second edition was also published in 1607 and the third in 1615, which as first complete edition applies. [1]Further reprints then in various places, such as the 7th edition in Cologne in 1680, and finally in Cologne in 1759, published by Eusebius Amort , It seems possible that the curent edition of “Augustine’s Meditatios” was printed in 1701 without printer or place or date and then re-issued to accompany the a’Kempis?

DeBacker’Sommervogel Vol. VII Col.1381 No5.