ANGELI, Alessandro degli.
4to, pp.[xxviii], 351, [33 (index)]; title in red and black with woodcut device, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, woodcut diagrams to pp.250, 259, and 260; some light foxing and toning, a few marginal paperflaws; very good in contemporary limp vellum; some stains and creasing to covers, lacking ties; inscribed at foot of title 'Ex dono Horatii Cardon', old circular ink stamp to margins of title-page and p.1 'Biblioth. chret. pub. et gratuite à Grenoble?.First edition of this thorough attack on astrology by degli Angeli (15421620), head of the Jesuit college at Rome, this copy with a presentation inscription by the Lyons publisher and printer Horace Cardon (15661641). Targeted in particular at Gerolamo Cardano (15011576), In astrologos is divided into five books, the first three of which examine the alleged influence of the heavens on the terrestrial world, on conception and the foetus, and on birth and delivery. Along the way degli Angeli ridicules the attribution of marvellous events or monstrous births to the stars, dismisses the distribution of the parts of the body under the twelve zodiacal signs as mere fable, and argues that the human mind and will are free. In the fourth book 'astrology is attacked through its own tenets De Angelis is indignant that astrologers predict concerning the pope and that Christians listen to them. Indeed, they can deduce nothing from the stars concerning future honors, prosperity and adversity, or life and death' (Thorndike). In the fifth and final book, he cites various Church Fathers and notes dissensions among astrologers themselves. A second edition was published at Rome later the same year.Provenance: Given to an unknown recipient by the printer and publisher Horace Cardon. A native of the Italian city of Lucca, Cardon moved to Lyons as a child with his father, a silk worker. He became a significant figure in both Lyonnais publishing and politics, and was ennobled by Henri IV. With the ink stamp of the 'Christian, public and free library at Grenoble' (trans.), with its motto 'Pharmaca animae' (medicine of the soul), founded in 1818 and operational until c.1830.Sommervogel I, 387; USTC 4022052; Wellcome I, 313. See Thorndike, A History of Magic and experimental Science VI, pp.202204. Language: Latin
DUNS SCOTUS, John.
8vo, ff.118, [1], [1 (blank)]; title-page with woodcut portrait of John Duns Scotus within architectural frame, title and surrounding woodcut putti bearing printer's monogram printed in red, woodcut printer's device at end, text in blackletter in two columns, running titles, shoulder notes; stain to f.38r, trimmed rather close, else a very good, clean copy, in early nineteenth-century stiff vellum, gilt green morocco lettering-piece to spine; early inscription along upper edges, bookplate of Prince Roland Bonaparte (18581924) to front pastedown.Uncommon Pavia-printed edition of Duns Scotus's Quaestiones on Peter Lombard's Sentences, edited by the Padua-based theologian Antonio de Fantis and first published two years earlier.The thirteenth-century Franciscan friar, philosopher and theologian John Duns Scotus was formed and taught at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris. His lectures on Peter Lombard's Sentences earned him Europe-wide renown and was the best-known vehicle for his thought. Although Scotus had prepared his lectures for publication, the work was still unfinished upon his death in 1308. Many of his pupils and followers tackled its completion, ordering material and adding reported versions of his lectures ('reportationes') to varying degrees of reliability. This body of work and the underlying philosophical assumptions became known as Scotism and exerted great influence on late-medieval culture and Scholasticism.This edition was edited by Antonio de Fantis, a pupil of Trombetta at Padua, one of the most effective Scotists of the sixteenth century. His work is significant in bridging Scotus' Scholasticism and, more generally, Aristotelianism through to the height of the humanistic era, and was regarded with admiration by Renaissance thinkers such as Pomponazzi. The printer, Jacob de Paucis Drapis de Burgofranco, or Pocatela in the vernacular, operated in Pavia for two decades, publishing juridical, medical, philosophical, and literary texts. Anna Giulia Cavagna points to the year 1517 as the apex of the mature flourishing of Pocatela's activity.Rare outside Italy: we find only three copies only in the UK (BL, Bodleian, CUL), two in Canada, and none in the US.EDIT16 17866; USTC 827872. See Cavagna, Libri e tipografi a Pavia nel Cinquecento (1981), pp.174ff. Language: Latin
[GRADUAL.]
Extremely large and elaborate initial 'A' (Ad te levavi animam meam), 310 x 183 mm, incorporating clusters of interlace and enclosing in the upper compartment the full-length figure of Christ within a blue mandorla supported by two angels blasting trumpets, in the lower compartment the twelve apostles, their haloes of alternating ochre and burnished gold, and, below them, the Last Judgement with, on the left, the dead rising from their tombs and, on the right, souls burning in Hell, the initial set within a large rectangle bordered in black and with leafy extensions enclosing, in the corners, the symbols of the four Evangelists, the whole painted in shades of blue, pink, lilac, ochre and orange and with burnished gold, the verso with five lines of music on a four-line red stave and of text in two sizes of a rounded gothic script in dark brown and red ink, two initials in blue with elaborate penwork in red; the initial evidently once quite rubbed and with careful but extensive retouching carried out in the early twentieth century (mostly to the blue and pink backgrounds and to the mandorla but also to the draperies and to the two Evangelist symbols at the foot of the initial), two small holes, some staining, remains of old paper hinge on verso.A spectacular initial on the scale of a small panel painting. The verso includes the text '[neque] irrideant me inimici mei [ ] [un]iversi qui te expectant' and the versicle 'Vias tuas domine de[monstras]', indicating that the initial would have introduced the introit 'Ad te levavi animam meam' ('Unto thee I lift up my soul') for the first Sunday in Advent (and thus the very first text of the liturgical year). As for the corresponding text for that day in the Antiphonal ('Aspiciens a longe ', 'Seeing from afar, behold the power of God coming ') the initial 'A' was often given lavish treatment by the illuminators of Italian choirbooks, and in both cases the iconography sometimes combined Christ in glory after the Ascension with the Last Judgment, as here. While the dead rising from their graves are sometimes depicted, our initial is unusual for its inclusion of tormented souls in Hell. The style may be compared to the oeuvres of the First Master of the Gubbio Choir Books and the Master of the Deruta-Salerno Missals. The decorated initials on the verso are characteristic of Umbrian illumination in the last quarter of the thirteenth century. Provenance:1. Old pencil inscription on verso 'Bot [i.e.bought] at Perugia[?] 1876' and certainly in England by 1915 when inscribed on the verso in black ink 'Restored by Edith A.Ibbs June 1915'. Edith Ibbs (18621937) was an English illustrator, illuminator, and calligrapher. She is known to have illustrated two books for the London publishers Seeley & Co.:The Sacred Seasons: Readings for the Sundays and Holy Days of the Christian Year from the Writings of the Right Reverend Handley C.G.Moule, selected by 'F.M.Y.' (1907), andThe Confessions of Saint Augustine(1909). She also designed printed illuminations for two books for Constable & Co.:Songs from the Plays of Shakespeare with illuminated initials and borders, andSonnets by Shakespeare, with illuminated initials and borders by Edith Ibbs, both published in 1913. 2. Sotheby's, 'Important Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures', 2 February 1960, lot 227, bought by Francis Edwards. 3. John Percival Love (18961974), Chairman of Francis Edwards; thence by descent. Language: Latin
BARCLAY, Alexander.
Engraved form printed on vellum (c.340 x 440mm), completed in manuscript, with a large initial incorporating the royal arms, three tax stamps on blue paper at head, signed at the foot by Sir John Evelyn as Commissioner of Customs, and four others, docketed on the verso as entered in the Rolls Office at Philadelphia on 27 October 1749; folded, a little dusty on the blank versos but very good.After a dissolute youth and a period in the army, Alexander Barclay (17111771) had been made Comptroller of Customs at Philadelphia in 1749, a position almost certainly engineered by his father David Barclay (16821769) it required a significant sum (£500) advanced in security. David Barclay, son of the Quaker apologist Robert Barclay, had built up an extremely successful business as a linen draper in Cheapside, especially supplying the American colonies, and had wide influence in the Philadelphia mercantile community. Alexander Barclay seems to have settled down somewhat, marrying twice and holding this post until his death in 1771, and acquiring land on the Susquehanna River. Language: English
SPON, Jacob.
Three vols, 12mo, pp.I: [xxiv], 405, [3 (blank)], II: 417, [13], [2 (blank)], III: 204, '226' (recte228), with a copper-engraved frontispiece portrait in vol.I, 30 plates (many folding), and two folding maps; paperflaws in outer margin of two leaves (vol.I C10 and R6, no loss of text), some occasional very pale marginal foxing, but an excellent set; in contemporary British speckled calf, double fillet frames ruled in blind on covers and in compartments of spines, small blind-stamped floral tool in corners of covers, board-edges ruled in gilt, edges speckled red; lightly rubbed, one corner bumped, headcap of vol.I very slightly chipped.Very rare first edition of 'one of the most important accounts of travels in the Levant, and the first description of Athens which was systematic, detailed, and trustworthy' (Blackmer). 'Spon and Wheler met in Italy in 1675; they travelled together with Francis Vernon to Zakynthos, where the two groups separated. Spon and Wheler continued by sea to Constantinople, and Vernon travelled overland. The great merit of Spon's work is due to its combination of a careful and knowledgeable interest in classical antiquity with an accurate observation of men, manners and topography in modern Greece. The whole of vol.II is devoted to Greece and includes a glossary of Modern Greek words and phrases with instruction on pronunciation. Spon's interest in Greece was longstanding. He had already published Babin's description of Athens, which had been communicated to him by the Abbé Pecoil of Lyon, with his own notes and preface' (ibid.). From Venice, Spon and Wheler's itinerary took them along the Dalmatian coast and the Ionian islands. They set anchor at Zakynthos and later Cythera, visited Delos and eventually reached Istanbul where they visited the French ambassador Charles-François Olier, Marquis de Nointel, who had already visited Athens and was able to give them valuable information about the city. They also visited Bursa and Thyateira in Asia Minor, and stayed in Izmir for some time. On their return journey they crossed over to Patras from Zakynthos, visited Delphi, travelled to Athens and toured the region of Attica. Jacob Spon (16471685), physician, archaeologist, and collector, was the archetypal French 'curieux', like his father before him. He collected medals, manuscripts, and inscriptions with immense enthusiasm, acquiring an entire coin hoard of seven hundred pieces found at Lyons. George Wheler (16521724), who published his own account of their travels in 1682, 'was a man of many interests and practical skills. As a boy he had amused himself with woodwork, constructing a birdcage and a small harpsichord, and had taken an interest in plants; the latter he maintained in Oxford by frequent visits to the physic garden On his travels he displayed keen curiosity and took the opportunity to collect plant specimens He gave to his Oxford college more than thirty Greek manuscripts, acquired mainly in Athens and Constantinople; they included a priceless illuminated typicon, the foundation charter of a convent established in Constantinople about 1300. His plant specimens were given to the Oxford Physic Garden. Wheleroccupies a significant position in the history of botany, since he introduced to Britain some plants hitherto unknown, including St John's wort' (ODNB). Provenance: John Hay, second Marquess of Tweeddale (16451713), MP, and Lord Chancellor of Scotland in 1704-5, with his bookplates (Franks 14192/*566). The purchase note on the front flyleaf of vol.I, 'payd for thes 3 volums 01200' (i.e.12 shillings), is probably his. Weber 405. Blackmer 1586 records the second edition. Language: French
SCHÜBLER, Johann Jacob, et al.
Eight items in one vol., folio (420 x 260 mm), containing a total of 52 engraved plates; some spotting, foxing, and light soiling, some creasing to corners and edges, marginal tears or chips to a few plates, overall good; sewn longstitch in eighteenth-century carta rustica; small tears and losses to spine, marks to covers; pencil sketches inside rear cover.An interesting sammelband containing over fifty handsome engraved plates with late Baroque designs for furniture, monuments, and summerhouses, published at Augsburg by Jeremias Wolff (16631724) and his heirs, and by Joseph Friedrich Leopold (16681727). The first four items comprise four parts taken from Johann Jacob Schübler's twenty-part Ausgab seines vorhabenden Wercks, specifically the supplement to part 1, and parts 3, 6, and 7. A designer and mathematician, Schübler (16891741) published numerous sets of patterns, including furniture designs inspired by late French Baroque which were used all over Europe. Here we find his designs for beds, including folding beds ('Englische Comod-Betten und Französische Feld-Betten', with prefatory explanatory text); funerary monuments and tombs; armchairs and tables, set within handsome rooms; and summerhouses and fountains (all with captions within the plate). Schübler's work is followed by five designs for ornately legged tables by the influential French sculptor and designer Jean-Bernard Toro (or Turreau, 16611731), 'an outstanding draughtsman' (Grove Art Online) known above all for his ornamental designs. 'He was inspired by the art of the Renaissance and one of his favourite themes was that of fantastic beings entangled in foliage, from which their angry or sorrowful heads and their helpless wings emerge' (ibid.) in evidence here. Following this comes a mixed set of plates after designs by Paulus Decker (16771713) depicting, inter alia, funerary monuments, a chimneypiece and a fountain at the Orangery in Erlangen, mirrors, bases for crucifixes, and candlesticks. Six unsigned designs for elaborate cartouches follow, and the volume closes with six plates carrying designs for tables and tableware. Cont ents:SCHÜBLER, Johann Jacob. Beylag zur ersten Ausgab seines vorhabenden Wercks, worinnen vorgestellet wird, wie die neu inventirte Französischen Betten L'aggiunta per la prima edizione dell'opera nella quale vengone presentate le lettiere d'invenzione piu nuova alla Francese Augsburg, heirs of Jeremias Wolff, [1720s?]. Pp.[4], 6 plates. . Dritte Ausgab seines vorhabenden Wercks, welche neue architectonische castra doloris Terza edizione dell'opera d'architettura, contenente dissegni rari di castridolori Augsburg, Jeremias Wolff, [1720s?]. Pp.[2], 6 plates. . Sechste Ausgab seines vorhabenden Wercks, worinnen neu-faconirte Commod- und Schlaff-Sessel Sesta edizione dell'opera nella quale vengono presentate sedie d'inventione piu nuova molto commode da dormire Augsburg, heirs of Jeremias Wolff, [1720s?]. Pp.[2], 6 plates. . Siebende Ausgabe seines vorhabenden Wercks, worinnen vorgestellet werden neu-inventierte Sommer-Häuser Edittione settima dell'opera per la quale si rappresenta le case per la staggione dell'està Augsburg, heirs of Jeremias Wolff, [1720s?]. Pp.[2], 6 plates. TORO, Jean-Bernard. Livre de tables de diverses formes inventé par J.B.Toro Augsburg, Jeremias Wolff, [1710s?]. Pp.[2 (engraved title)], 5 plates. DECKER, Paulus. [Designs after Paulus Decker, engraved by Joseph von Montalegre, Jean Conrad Reiff, and Karl Remshard.] Augsburg, Jeremias Wolff, [1710s?]. 11 plates. WOLFF, Jeremias. [Designs for decorative cartouches.] Augsburg, Jeremias Wolff, [1720s?]. 6 plates. LEOPOLD, Joseph Friedrich. [Designs for decorative tables and tableware.] [Augsburg,] Joseph Friedrich Leopold, 1720. 6 plates. Language: German
VORAGINE, Jacobus de.
Folio (290 x 210 mm), ff.258 (all blanks present); gothic letter in double columns, spaces for initials with guide letters; some light browning, occasional staining, short wormtrack in outer blank margin of c.23 leaves, single wormholes mainly towards beginning and end affecting the odd single letter, neat repairs to tears in D6 and D7 affecting two letters on each verso, small burn on p2 obscuring a two-letter word on the recto, but generally in good condition; scattered marginalia in various different hands throughout; contemporary (probably Nuremberg) blind-stamped calf over wooden boards, top compartment of upper cover stamped 'Lambardica' in gilt in large gothic letters, fragment from an incunable used as the rear pastedown (see below), front pastedown and free endpaper apparently renewed at an early date; some rubbing and wear, loss to head of spine, tears and loosening to tailcap, old worming to boards, lacking clasps.Jacobus de Voragine's influential Legenda Aurea in a contemporary gilt-lettered binding with an incunable fragment used as the rear pastedown. This copy is also notable for its extensive sixteenth century manuscript additions relating to Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg and former ownership by Christoph Pühler (c.15001583), a mathematician, writer, and pupil of Peter Apian (14951552). Printed in Strasbourg but bound in Nuremberg, it found its way to a Hungarian mathematician who may have used it while in Siklos, Vienna, and/or Passau. The volume also appears to have been connected in some way with the monastery of St Florian in Austria.This edition of the Legenda Aurea includes 215 legends, which a sixteenth-century hand has here supplemented with additional hagiographic material relating to Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg (covered in Legend CCVIII) perhaps a saint of local and/or personal significance to the user. Some of the annotations, along with an ownership inscription, indicate an interest in, and indeed connections with, Pannonia, a historical region that now includes western Hungary and parts of eastern Austria: the aforementioned hagiographic material refers to Saint Wolfgang's Christian mission to Pannonia (sig.N8v, lines 28-29), while a marginal note on D3r flags 'pannonia' next to the portion of the text in which Saint Martin's birth place is identified as Sabaria in Pannonia (now Szombathely, Hungary). The Pannonian ownership inscription names the owner of the book as Christopher Collatinus, alias of Christoph Pühler (c.15001583), born in Siklos, Hungary. Pühler was the author of Ein kurtze vnd grundliche anlaytung zu dem rechten verstand Geometriæ [A short and systematic introduction to the right understanding of geometry] which was printed in Dillingen in 1563 and which recent study suggests is a 'pseudo-translation' of Hugh of Saint Victor's Practica geometriae (Morel, 'Bringing Euclid into the mines: classical sources and vernacular knowledge in the development of subterranean geometry', in Translating Early Modern Science (ed. Fransen et al., 2017), pp.154-81, p.162). In this work, Pühler claims to have been taught in Vienna by Peter Apian (14951552), the influential mathematician and astronomer perhaps best known for his visually impressive Astronomicum Caesareum. As Pühler is known to have spent time in Siklos, Vienna, and Passau, the present copy could theoretically have moved with him between any of these places.The rear pastedown comes from a copy of the 1478 edition of Juan de Torquemada's Quaestiones Evangeliorum de tempore et de sanctis printed by Friedrich Creussner of Nuremberg. The appearance of a Creussner fragment in a binding containing a Strasbourg imprint can be readily explained. The binding itself was almost certainly produced in Nuremberg, as there are striking similarities to stamps used by the 'Madonna, Nuremberg' workshop and likenesses to three other roughly contemporary Nuremberg workshops (see below). Given that Creussner himself worked in Nuremberg, it seems that our binder had access to waste material from a local printer.Binding:The decoration was almost certainly completed in Nuremberg, possibly by the 'Madonna, Nuremberg' workshop (active around 14731503). Four of the blind-tooled stamps used are nearly identical to ones used at the 'Madonna, Nuremberg' workshop (Einbanddatenbank workshop 500380w, stamps s014146, s028433, s031049, s014120); compare also the stamps used by three other roughly contemporary Nuremberg workshops (500205w, 501439s, 501448s). The British Library Database of Bookbindings provides another example of a book that was printed in Strasbourg and then bound in Nuremberg (IA1743A).Provenance:1. Handwritten additions of hagiographic material relating to Saint Wolfgang on sigs.1-1r, 1-1v, 2-6r, N8r, and N8v, written in a sixteenth-century cursive script, 40-51 lines to the page, unruled. N8r, N8v, and 1-1r seem to contain a version of the beginning of Othlo's life of St Wolfgang (Bibliotheca hagiographica Latina 8990); cf.Legenda Sancti Wolfgangi (Burgdorf, 1475) ff.1r-5v (ISTC iw00068000). There is also material from a separate hagiography relating to Saint Wolfgang on sigs.1-1v and 2-6r; cf.Acta sanctorvm Novembris II (ed. Carolo de Smedt et al, 1894), pp.549-50. The same hand also appears to be responsible for some of the marginalia.2. Christoph Pühler (c.15001583), with his ownership inscription on N7v: 'Iste liber est Christophori Collatinus Siclas opido pannoniorum inferiorum'.3. There are later indications of monastic provenance, or at least a monastic connection. A note on F5r records the death of a canon regular named Francis Schwab in 1671: 'Franciscus schwab can.Reg.ad s florianum professus duobus et medis Anno in monasterio sancti Nicolai hospes fuit Anno 1671 discessit 12 January deus benedicat' (the text after 'discessit' is in a darker ink, and possibly another hand). St Florian was an Augustinian foundation in Upper Austria famed for its library. In the outer margin of the same leaf, in
GREGORY IX; Charles DUMOULIN, commentator.
4to, pp.[68], 1151, [1 (blank)]; 2 leaves with letterpress and woodcut 'Arbor affinitatis' and 'Arbor consanguinitatis' bound in after p.892; printed in red and black throughout, woodcut Vincent device to title, woodcut initials, text in two columns surrounded by gloss and marginal notes; intermittent dampstaining and browning (mostly marginal), a few small marginal holes from ink corrosion; overall a good copy in contemporary Italian vellum over boards, vestigial ties to fore-edge, 'Decretales' lettered in ink at head of spine and to tail-edge of text block, spine slotted, sewn on 3 tanned thongs laced in; some wear to spine and corners, some staining to covers; sixteenth-century ink inscription at foot of title 'hic liber fuit reuisus et correptus ex co[m]missione d.inquisitoris genuae frater stephanus de fin[ari]o or[din]is prae[dicatorum] inquisitor gen[era]lis genuae manu propria' (see below); censorship (i.e.text crossed through in ink) to marginal notes and commentary on c.325 pp., the initials 'C.M.' to side notes consistently obscured.Lyons edition of the Decretals of Gregory IX with the controversial commentary of the French jurist Charles Dumoulin (15001566), thoroughly censored in manuscript by the inquisitor general of Genoa. Completed in 1234 under the editorship of the Dominican Raymond of Penafort, the collection of canon law known as the Decretals or Liber extra was one of the greatest achievements of the papacy of Gregory IX. It soon attracted numerous glossators, including the renowned canonist Giovanni d'Andrea. Related by descent to Anne Boleyn, Charles Dumoulin (or Molinaeus) was one of the greatest French jurists of the sixteenth century. In 1542 he embraced Calvinism and then Lutheranism, his subsequent attacks on the papacy compelling him to seek refuge in Germany. In 1553-4 his monumental five-volume Corpus juris canonici appeared at Lyons, the first volume being dedicated to Gregory's Decretals and presenting the text and glosses alongside Dumoulin's own marginal commentary. It was this commentary, not infrequently hostile to the pope, which prompted the inclusion of Dumoulin's work on the Index librorum prohibitorum of 1559, the same year in which this edition was published. The inclusion of the work on the Index prompted the Inquisition to issue instructions for the censorship of Dumoulin's notes. In our copy this has been dutifully and painstakingly carried out by the Dominican Stefano Calvisio da Finale, whose manuscript note to the title describes himself as 'inquisitor general of Genoa', and who in fact served as inquisitor to the whole region of Liguria from 1568 to 1571. On over three hundred pages of text, Calvisio has obliterated chunks of Dumoulin's notes with brown ink, in addition to systematically obscuring the initials 'C.M.' in hundreds of instances. USTC 152654; Gültlingen, Bibliographie des livres imprimés à Lyon au seizième siècle XI, p.88: 82. Language: Latin
BERNARD of Clairvaux.
Large folio, ff.[viii], '410' [recte 416], 71, [107]; large woodcut Nivelle device with 5 vignettes to title, large woodcut initials and headpieces; sporadic light marginal dampstaining particularly to upper and outer margins of last few leaves, small wormhole in the inner margin of approx.100 ff.(not affecting text), a few scattered light spots including an inked fingerprint to f.397v, but overall an excellent copy; bound in contemporary Spanish plateresca calf over wooden boards, richly tooled in blind to a panel design with five concentric panels comprised of two portrait medallion rolls, central tool of a pelican in its piety, spine blind-tooled in compartments, cross-hatched at head and foot, vestigial clasps to fore-edge, (later?) brass edging to corners, edges stained red, fore-edge elaborately lettered 'Opera' (within cartouche) and 'Divi Bernardi' in ink with floral decoration, sewn on 5 split tawed thongs laced in, spine lined with manuscript waste; lightly rubbed in places with a few scuffs, short splits to joints, endcaps and headband lost.A rare Parisian edition of the works of Bernard of Clairvaux, beautifully preserved in a contemporary Spanish plateresca binding with elaborate fore-edge lettering.The binding is a characteristic and characterful example of the Spanish plateresca style. Beyond the attractive decoration of the fore-edge, it is striking both for its complex panel design of concentric polygons, and for the construction of hatched fields by the repeated use of a small four-pointed star tool. For another use of the larger portrait medallion roll and one of the hand-tools, in a more restrained panel design, see Library of Congress 2021666855 (Vetus Testamentum, Alcalá, 1514). Rare outside Europe, with no copies traced in the US; we find only two copies in the UK (CUL and York Minster), one in Canada (University of Victoria), and one at the National Library of Australia. Adams B-711. We are grateful to Prof.Nicholas Pickwoad for his advice on the bin ding.
STRABO.
Folio, pp.[lxxxviii], 549, [27]; text printed in Latin and Greek, title within woodcut architectural border, large woodcut initials and ornaments, woodcut printer's devices to title and final page; neat repairs to outer margins of quire a and to inner margins of quires ab, marginal paper flaw with old repair to p.25, some light foxing and toning, occasional marks; overall a very good copy in contemporary Swiss calf over wooden boards, boards roll-tooled in blind to a panel design, two brass catches and clasps to fore-edge (leather renewed), small brass strips to corners (of which three lacking), fore-edge elegantly lettered 'Strabo' in ink in an early Spanish hand with shelf marks and 2 ink sketches (one of a stag, the other of a plumed jousting helm); sympathetically rebacked in calf, first and last quires resewn and pastedowns renewed, a little wear to extremities and a few marks to boards; inscription to title (washed) 'De la libreria de S. Franco. de [?]?.Second edition of Strabo's masterful Geographica in the Latin translation of the German Humanist and friend of Erasmus, Konrad Heresbach (14961576), here found with the first Latin translation of an epitome of Strabo's work by the Basel professor of physic and logic, Hieronymus Gemusaeus (15051543). Likely completed in the early first century AD, Strabo's work was the first attempt at a geographical encyclopaedia embracing the sum of physical, mathematical, political, and historical knowledge. The book is a description of the countries of the Roman Empire, the Middle East, and India, based both on Strabo's own travels and earlier Greek authorities. It contains many interesting ethnological observations: on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, for instance, and the whales of the Persian Gulf; how the Indians capture elephants and long-tailed apes, how the Egyptians feed their sacred crocodiles, and how the Arabs get fresh water out of the sea.Having studied at Cologne, Heresbach worked as a corrector for Johann Froben in Basel before moving to the University of Freiburg to teach Greek. It was here that he undertook his edition of Strabo, first published at Basel by Valentin Curio in 1523, and here published by Johann Walder, who married Curio's widow. Erasmus did much to advance Heresbach's career and they remained in correspondence until the former's death. Heresbach also produced Latin editions of Herodotus and Thucydides.Adams S1904; VD16 S9347. Language: Latin
4to, pp.[xxvii], [1 (blank)], 702, [2 (colophon, register)], Valgrisi serpent device to title-page and verso of last leaf, historiated woodcut initials to the start of each book; marginal damp-staining to last few quires, light foxing and toning throughout, marginal repairs to first and final leaves; a good copy in seventeenth-century vellum over pasteboard, title and calligraphic flourish lettered directly to spine; some staining to upper board, edges gnawed, spine chipped at foot; near-contemporary ownership inscription of Nicandro Petrella to title-page, p.44, p.244, and p.355.[bound after:][RANZO, Carlo.] JANNACONE, Domenico Antonio (compiler). Narrazione di quel servo, che diede lo schiaffo a N.S. Giesu Cristo, che penitenza facci. Et altra Narrazione di un Giudeo errante, il quale si trovò presente alla Passione, e morte di esso. E di qual Padria fu Pilato, e come morì. In Torino per il Guigonio Stamp. del S. Officio. Italy, c.1700.Manuscript on paper, 4to, ff.[6], [1 (blank)], [1]; very neatly written in a seventeenth-century Italian hand in dark brown ink in a single column, 2829 lines to a page; a large dampstain to the first page but nonetheless very well preserved; ownership inscription 'Ex libris Dominici Antonii Jannacone, Terrae Torellae, Philosophiae, Medicinaeque Doctoris' in the same hand to first page.First Italian edition of William of Tyre's (11301186) important account of the first two crusades and of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with the addition of a seventeenth-century manuscript detailing a uniquely Italian rendition of the tale of the Wandering Jew.The Latin editio princeps of William of Tyre's account was first printed in 1549 in Basel and was instrumental in shaping the perception of the Crusades in the Western imagination, serving as the primary historical source of Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata (1581). Preceding the work is a manuscript copy of a curious work by Carlo Ranzo, who had fought at Lepanto in his youth and travelled through the Balkans to Constantinople with Jacopo Soranzo, the Venetian ambassador to Constantinople from 15761581. He kept a journal of his travels, printed in Turin in 1616 as the very rare Relatione di Carlo Ranzo gentil'huomo di Vercelli, d'un viaggio fatto da Venetia in Constantinopoli. In his account (which also appears as an appendix to the the equally scarce La vita di S. Orsola scritta da Sigisberto Monaco gemblacense of the same year), Ranzo describes an account related to him at a meeting of Venetian noblemen by one Penaglio Branza, newly returned from the Holy Land after an interval of ten years, in which a Turk in Jerusalem leads him into a secret chamber containing a servant who had struck Christ during the Passion and was therefore condemned to wander in circles until the Second Coming. This iteration of the tale of the Wandering Jew circulated widely throughout Italy until the nineteenth century and is here followed by histories of the Wandering Jew in Germany and Italy, and a note on Pontius Pilate, as compiled by Giovanni Francesco Alcarotti in 1596. Our manuscript copy of these works, compiled by one Domenico Antonio Iannacone (of Terra Torella, i.e. Torella dei Lombardi in Campania?), is a witness to a seemingly unrecorded edition of these works (Turin, Guigoni, n.d.).Adams W179; BM STC Italian, p.322; EDIT16 22407; USTC 835556. See D'Ancona, 'La leggenda dell'ebreo errante' in Saggi di letteratura popolare (1913), pp.141190; Gallotta ed., Carlo Ranzo: Relatione d'un viaggio fatto da Venezia in Constantinopoli (2017).
4to, ff.[132], [28]; printed in blackletter, commentary printed in smaller font surrounding the text, title printed in red and black with two printer's woodcut devices and large white-on-black woodcut initial, printer's woodcut variant device at end showing Peter and Paul holding the Shroud, woodcut initials and printed marginal indices throughout; extensive sixteenth-century inscriptions and notes on title and final leaf, including an astrological chart, marginal annotations in two early hands to the text, and a brief phrase of musical notation, many other inscriptions carried over on the pastedowns; bound in contemporary German oak boards, brass catchplates to fore-edge (leather clasps perished), the original tanned spine replaced in the seventeenth century with German allum-tawed pigskin, sides roll-tooled in blind, eighteenth-century gilt-lettered red morocco label to spine, pastedowns reusing printed waste from a sixteenth-century canon law text, spine lined with vellum manuscript waste; worming to spine, lower board sometime split and neatly repaired; with much evidence of early ownership (see below).Annotated copy of a scarce edition of Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae edited and commented on by Jocodus Badius Ascensius, with another commentary once attributed to Thomas Aquinas. The annotations, contemporary with the book, are carried out by two hands, one in brown and one (more succinct) in red ink. They pertain to the monastic ownership period of this book, with evidence from inscriptions on the title-page placing it at the Benedictine monastery of Garsten in Austria. The book abounds in evidence of provenance and early ownership. On the title-page, among several notes, an inscription dated January 1516 records the incarceration and trials of one brother Leopoldus; it is followed by the ownership inscription of Benedictine monk Urban Marzin of Garsten Abbey (Austria), who received the book in 1556 from a fellow monk named Michael; a later inscription belongs to one brother Sixtus Laurentius.On the rear free endpaper the evidence suggests the passing of the book into the hands of a married man, who touchingly uses the book to record, in Latin, the salient events in his family life. There is a note of rejoicing and 'supreme praise' that the plague of sterility should have been vanquished, dated 1558; there follow joyful and proud notes of births: 'a daughter named Sibylla was born to me 9 October between 1 and 2 in the afternoon 1559 as Aquarius was growing', 'a daughter called Susanna was born to me between three and four in the morning, 16 May 1561 under Gemini', and the sombre final note 'My wife, my dearest Barbara left earthly things to rejoice in heavenly life, 10 May at 3 in the afternoon', with zodiac signs sketched and named in the upper part of the page; the pastedown records special acts of piety performed by the same person, with dates, including a service of blessing for his then-barren wife. Other scattered inscriptions attest to a lively succession in early ownership of this very successful classic. Library Hub finds a sole copy of this edition in the UK (Cambridge), and OCLC returns a sole copy in the US (Amherst). Gültlingen II, p.18: 16; Pettegree, Walsby, and Wilkinson, 58363; Renouard, Badius II, p.201.
[bound with:]Le formulaire de prieres, et oraisons, et instructio[n]s Chrestie[n]nes et Catholiques co[n]tena[n]t ce que le vray Chrestien doit dire tous les iours. Extraict des saincts escrits des saincts peres et docteurs de l'eglise. Ensemble les prieres et oraisons de P.D.Porte, Abbé de Tiron, qui n'ont esté veues ny imprimées, avec la creance en François. Paris, Gilles Robinot, 1613.Two parts in one vol., 8vo, ff.[xvi], 216; printed in red and black, engraved title vignette of Christ and the Virgin, 12 engraved vignettes to the calendar, 13 full-page engravings (one pasted in); ff.95, [1, blank], engraved arms to title, 3 full-page engravings; some marginal damp-staining and toning, occasional marks, title a little dusty; overall good in contemporary dark brown morocco, spine and borders elaborately gilt à petits fers (gilt mostly gone), two brass clasps and catches, gilt edges; some wear to extremities and marks to covers, upper board partly split at fore-edge, lower board bowed; inscription to rear pastedown 'Ce livre apartien a Pierre Le Riche de la paroisse de Saint Jean de Cheux 1711'; engraved title-pages of Francisci Toleti De instructione sacerdotum (Lyons, 1606) and La cour sainte par le R. P.Nicolas Causin (Rouen, 1651) pasted to front flyleaves.Very rare and handsomely illustrated edition of the Hours of the Virgin for the Use of Rome together with a collection of French prayers, extra-illustrated with two engraved title-pages from seventeenth-century religious works. The illustrative programme is especially appealing. The twelve vignettes to the calendar mostly feature two saints per month: Saints Genevieve and Sebastian in January, for example, and Saints Nicholas and Stephen in December. The sixteen full-page engravings, illustrating scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin, as well as King David and the Tree of Jesse, mostly bear the names of the printer and publisher Jean Messager (15801649) and of the German engraver Léonard Gaultier (15611635?). Others are signed by the Dutch engravers Jaspar Isaac and Jan Swelinck, and by the German Michael Foute.The second part includes morning and evening prayers; prayers for confession and Communion; prayers for the king; a prayer for virtue by Thomas Aquinas; the prayer of Manasseh; and verses on Daniel 3 by the poet and abbé Philippe Desportes.Not on OCLC or Library Hub. CCfr records a single copy of both parts at the Médiathèque de Troyes. Language: French
4to, ff.[76]; woodcut of Christ within border to title, woodcut initials, 2 woodcut 'Piscia' devices to last page; small repaired hole at head of title, foot of title repaired, repairs to lower outer corners of [pi]34, marginal tears to f1 repaired, small wormtrack to inner margins of quire i, some light foxing, light marginal dampstaining to a few leaves; overall good in twentieth-century dark brown morocco, title and imprint in gilt to spine, gilt turn-ins and edges, marbled endpapers; extremities very slightly rubbed.Scarce edition of an anonymous Italian translation of the Imitatio Christi, with a striking woodcut of Christ to the title. One of the most influential works of Christian literature after the Bible, the Imitatio Christi was long attributed to Jean Gerson but is now generally ascribed to the German-Dutch ascetical writer Thomas à Kempis (c.13801471). 'The purpose of this famous manual of spiritual devotion is to instruct the Christian how to seek perfection by following Christ as his model. The book is divided into four parts. The first two contain general counsel for the spiritual life, the third deals with the interior dispositions of the soul, and the fourth with the sacrament of the Holy Communion' (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church).The Imitatio circulated in manuscript from 1418 with the Latin editio princeps being printed at Augsburg by Günther Zainer in 1473. Editions in various vernaculars swiftly followed: in Catalan (1482), German (1486), Spanish (c.1488), and French (1488). An Italian translation was first published in Venice by Johannes Rubeus in 1488, with another version appearing in 1491 in a Florentine edition by Antonio Miscomini. Our Piero Pacini edition is a reprint of that published by Miscomini on 1 July 1494 (ISTC ii00053000).The title-page carries a woodcut showing the crucified and risen Christ with the cross in his left hand and blood falling from his right hand into a cup. The surrounding white-on-black border incorporates the Greek Christogram flanked by two kneeling angels.EDIT16 42816; USTC 800051. Only one copy traced in the UK (BL) and three in the US (Harvard, Library of Congress, Yale). Language: Italian
Two parts in one vol., folio, ff.[1 (blank)], 101 (of 105, bound without table of chapters at beginning); [2], 28; text in double columns, capital spaces with guide letters, first part with full-page woodcut tree of consanguinity to f.48v, woodcut world map to f.68v, and other small woodcuts; blank a1 laid down, small loss to inner margin of f.1, old repairs to gutter margins of quire c, small holes to e10, h10, k10, and A7 (touching a few letters), fore-edges of f67, i56 and C1 excised (remargined, not touching text), some marginal wormholes (partly repaired), occasional ink marks, light foxing; overall a good copy in nineteenth-century quarter calf, marbled paper sides, vellum tips, red edges; spine worn, joints split, some wear to corners and edges; 'Joannis PetriPascutiiBodiani et amicorum ' at head of first page of text (washed), 'J.Henryson' to a1v, bookplates of James Alexander Henryson-Caird (18471921) and Joseph M. Gleason (18691942), number stamped in blue at foot of first page and f.33r; a few marginal annotations (some washed and trimmed), occasional manicules and underlining.Fourth edition of Isidore's enormously influential Etymologiae, here with the third appearance in print of the De summo bono.First published by Günther Zainer at Augsburg in 1472, Isidore's encyclopaedic Etymologiae was read and referred to throughout Europe for centuries, providing medieval and Renaissance scholars with a vast wealth of ancient scientific knowledge and lexicography, and establishing itself as one of the main routes for the transmission of classical learning to the Middle Ages. 'An encyclopedic dictionary is too disconnected to present a scientific world view; but Isidore carefully and quite accurately preserved much of the scientific lore current late in the Roman period, when original work had long since ceased and facility in Greek had perished. If he was no Aristotle, he was a great improvement on Pliny, and his scientific content compares very favorably with that of Lucretius' (DSB). Mathematics, astronomy, geography, meteorology, geology, botany, agriculture, human anatomy, and medicine are amongst the domains explored by Isidore alongside language, law, and the liberal arts, in his pioneering endeavour to produce a single, all-encompassing, and logically accessible source.The remarkable woodcut world map to f.68v, was the first printed map when it appeared in the 1472 edition. It is a simple T-O map, a schema used in manuscripts of the Etymologiae from the eighth century onwards, with the disc of the world divided into three zones separated by a T-shaped Mediterranean Sea, with Asia uppermost, and Europe and Africa in the two lower sections, the whole surrounded by the Mare Oceanum. Besides the impressive tree of consanguinity, the other woodcuts illustrate the phases of the moon, arithmetic, geometry, and the symbols employed in reading and writing, from the asterisk to the rarer forms of obeli.The publisher of this edition, Peter Löslein, hailed from Langenzenn in Bavaria. He worked in Venice, initially with Erhard Ratdolt, and then independen tly.Provenance: with the ownership inscription of Joannes Petrus Pascutius (Giovanni PietroPascoli) author of Artis metricae tractatus (Rome, 1517). A significant collection of his letters, speeches and poems are preserved in a manuscript in the National Széchényi Library, Budapest (Quart. lat. 2281), and other books from his library are known. BMC V 379; Goff I184; Bod-Inc I-038; ISTC ii00184000. Language: Latin
Two parts in one vol., folio, ff.[II]XXXVI (wanting the first leaf, blank except for 'Macrobius'); LXXXVI; roman letter, woodcut initial, half-page woodcut world map (e6r), and 7 woodcut diagrams to first part, capital spaces with guide letters with initials supplied in red and blue in a contemporary hand, some passages in Greek; some browning, occasional light marks and light marginal damp-staining; overall very good in eighteenth-century vellum over boards, yapp fore-edges, manuscript title and imprint on spine, remains of nine earlier fore-edge tabs to text block; marginal annotations in a neat early sixteenth-century hand to c.164pp. and a 15-pp. manuscript index, in double columns, in the same hand, bound in at end.Sixth and last incunable edition of Macrobius, illustrated with a world map, with extensive early marginalia. The volume comprises Macrobius' two principal works, his important Neoplatonist commentary on Cicero's Somnium Scipionis (the otherwise lost sixth book of the De Republica), and his Saturnalia, a significant contribution to Virgilian scholarship.Influenced by Porphyry and Plotinus, Macrobius' commentary on the Somnium 'examines the enigma of the soul and its destiny in the light of Neoplatonism and of the astronomy and mathematics of the day (incidentally covering many topics including music and geography), and tends to reinforce the doctrine of the "Dream", of the immortality and divine quality of the soul, from a pagan standpoint. Macrobius' commentary was attentively studied in the West during the Middle Ages, thereby transmitting much ancient science and Neoplatonic thought' (Oxford Companion to Classical Literature). Framed as conversations at a banquet during the Saturnalia festival, the second work contains much discussion of Virgil, including his power of expression, and his debt to Homer, Ennius and others; 'he is gradually built up to be the unique scholar and poet in a way which foreshadows the medieval view of him as a wonder-working magician' (ibid.). For the woodcut world map, see Shirley's The mapping of the world, no. 13. The present rendering differs slightly from the earlier versions found in the Brescia editions of 1483 and 1485 and the Venice edition of 1492.An early reader of this copy has picked out numerous passages of interest with neat marginal notes, and has added a thorough alphabetical subject index at the end, so neatly executed that it must have been copied from another manuscript or printed source.BMC V 499; Goff M13; Bod-Inc M-005; ISTC im00013000; Essling 1232; Sander 4075. Language: Latin
Two parts in one volume, 4to, pp.[lxiv], 407, [1]; [viii], 250, [6]; a couple of quires a little browned and foxed, but a very good copy in contemporary limp vellum; ownership inscription of Orazio Lombardelli (see below) to the verso of the rear free endpaper, followed by a devotional poem in Latin couplets.First edition, a copy with contemporary provenance, of a major Renaissance rejection of Aristotelian literary aesthetics. Patricius was born in Cres, off the coast of Dalmatia, and is sometimes described as Croatian, sometimes as Italian. 'Francesco Patrizi of Cherso (15291597) was a leading critic of the dominant Aristotelianism of the times. Not to be confused with the earlier humanist and political theoretician, Francesco Patrizi of Siena (14131494), Patrizi of Cherso focused his attention on a wide variety of philosophical, scientific, artistic and literary issues, providing in his "New Philosophy" a major alternative to earlier schools of thought and a model which later thinkers such as Galileo Galilei no doubt found valuable in developing the mathematized physics which would prove the dominant force in the rise of early modern science' (Purnell in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). This treatise on poetics rejects the rules and restrictions that had applied to most genres since Aristotle, in favour of an openness to inspiration. This copy was owned by Orazio Lombardelli (15451608), a man of letters and pedagogue from Siena, author of several works on punctuation, educational primers, and treatises on rhetoric. It is possible that the Latin verse compositions penned on the rear free endpaper are his own inventions. One is a six-line set of couplets of devotional and penitential sentiments beginning 'Da venia Petro, veniam mitissime Iesu', and the other is a single couplet in praise of the Virgin, 'Dum tibi ad Elisabeth '.BM STC Italian, p.493; EDIT16 30129. Language: Italian
8vo, ff.[viii], 184 [i.e. 186], [2]; woodcut device to title, woodcut initials; text block uniformly lightly toned, lower corner of last leaves water-stained; bound in contemporary limp vellum, ink titling on spine and on lower edge; foot of spine restored and book recased in the original vellum; inscription of Giulio Cesare Ballino to title (see below); modern exlibris C.Zuccardi stamped on top margin of title-page.First edition of English jurist and cartographer William Soone's notes on Pomponius Mela's geography, presented in the form of an imaginary dialogue between the two authors. Soone left England for the Continent upon refusing to conform to the Church of England and deciding to continue to profess Catholicism. This commentary on Mela was produced in Cologne. Provenance: This copy comes from the library of the Venetian lawyer Giulio Cesare Ballino (d.c.1592), a friend of Paulus Manutius and Aldus the Younger who acted as a corrector for an Aldine edition of Livy, and the author of De' disegni delle piu illustri citta et fortezze del mondo (Venice, 1569), a notable book of urban design for which the reading of Pomponio Mela's and William Soone's cartography will doubtlessly have been of importance. VD16 2323. Language: Latin
8vo, ff.[12], CCCXC (recte 392); printed in bâtarde type, title-page printed in red and black, criblé woodcut initials throughout; trimmed closely at head in places but with no loss of text; a handsome copy in nineteenth-century French red morocco, spine gilt-ruled in compartments and lettered directly in gilt, turn-ins roll-tooled in gilt, edges stained yellow and speckled red, marbled endpapers; a few scuffs to boards, light wear to joints; armorial bookplate of Arthur Brölemann, numbered '318' in manuscript to front pastedown; eighteenth-century inscription to front flyleaf 'Vendu 16-19s en 1757, Girardot de Préfond, no. 723?.Unrecorded issue of Jean Bouchet's contemplative work of moral theology in prose and verse explicitly intended for a female readership, following the personified Soul in dialogue with several virtues as she attempts to combat the forces of earthly temptation with the power of divine grace. A friend of Rabelais and Louis de Ronsard, Jean Bouchet (1476c.1558) was a solicitor's clerk who obtained the position of procureur for the important La Trémouille family in 1510 and in January 1520 arranged the entry of Francis I into Poitiers. Much inspired by the works of Jean Gerson and St Antoninus of Florence, Les triumphes de la noble et amoureuse dame traces the Soul's journey, beginning with her entry into the world (when she is betrothed to Christ at baptism). Accompanied by Understanding, Will, Memory, Reason (her governess) and Sensuality (her chambermaid), the Soul receives a moral and physical education at the hands of Theology and the four cardinal virtues before encountering challenges in the form of the 'Prince of Pleasure' and the 'Brothel of Obstinacy' in the realm of Youth, and Flesh and the Devil in the land of Old Age. 'The very final section is a discussion between the author and Theology after the Soul has disappeared into the straits of death; it is not revealed to us whether or not the Soul is saved, instead we must be content with the hope and the positive signs that she has probably been saved, and Theology explains predestination, God's prescience, and free will' (Britnell, 'Religious instruction in the work of Jean Bouchet' in Pettegree, The Sixteenth-Century French Religious Book (2017)). Dedicated to Eleanor of Austria (14981558), Queen of France and wife of Francis I, Bouchet's narrative of the Soul's journey addresses a female readership and emphasises the necessity of producing such a work in the vernacular: his primary objective is to distract women from reading the Old and New Testaments in potentially 'dangerous' translations, as well as 'certain short treatises by some German heretics translated from Latin into French, which under the sweetness of the evangelical doctrine there are interposed several errors too scandalous and pernicious to Christianity' (a5v, trans. Kem, Pathologies of Love (2019), p.44). The discourses between the Soul and various virtues touch upon such topics as anatomy, hygiene, dietetics, raising children, chastity, and the relationship between husband and wife. This edition was printed by Etienne Caveiller and distributed by several Parisian booksellers, among them Jean Longis, Denis Janot, Oudin Petit, and Simon Colinet. In all such copies, the colophon (mentioning only Caveiller) remains the same. We have found only one other copy of the 1539 edition distributed by Pierre Sergent at auction. The imprimeur-libraire Pierre Sergent, based at the Sign of St Nicholas, appears to have specialised largely in chivalric romances and published editions of Les triumphes de la noble et amoureuse dame in 1536 and 1545.Provenance: 1. Sold at the Girardot de Préfond sale (De Bure, Catalogue des Livres du Cabinet de Monsieur girardot de Prefond, 1757, lot 723). 'Paul Girardot de Préfond was a timber-merchant who fell into an apathetic state on retiring from active business. His physician, Hyacinthe Baron, was an eminent book-collector, and he advised the patient to take up the task of forming a library. So successful was the prescription that the merchant became renowned during the next half century for his superb bindings, his specimens from Grolier's stores, and the Delphin and Variorum classics which he procured from the library of Gascq de la Lande Some of his rarest books were sold in 1757' (Elton, The Great Book-Collectors, 1893, pp.19899).2. With the bookplate of Arthur Brölemann (18261924), grandson and heir to the library of the prolific manuscript collector Henri-Auguste Brölemann (17751854), who amassed a collection of over four thousand volumes.Neither OCLC nor CCfr find copies printed by Caveiller for Sergent.On the 1539 Caveiller edition distributed by other booksellers, see BM STC French, p.77; USTC 14858. Adams B2583; Brunet I, col.1162; Gay II, p.47; Index Aureliensis V, p.45; Pettegree & Walsby, French Vernacular Books I: 6759; Renouard, Bibliographie des éditions de Simon de Colines, pp.3034 (citing Petit, Janot, Sertenas, and Longis but not Sergent); Tchemerzine II, p.70. Language: French
4to, ff.[vi], 196, [6]; woodcut armorial woodcut to title with Portuguese Royal arms of King João III, woodcut armillary sphere on verso, woodcut initials; occasional light browning, barely noticeable gnawing along the fore-edges in a few quires, but a very good copy on thick paper, bound in seventeenth-century stiff vellum, edges stained blue, remains of paper library shelfmarks on spine; ownership inscription of Giovanni Antonio Delfini (see below) on title, and of Giacomo Soranzo, dated 1724, on the front free endpaper.First edition of Gaspar do Casal's major work of theology, which informed his participation in the Council of Trent, from the library of another participant in the Council. The Augustinian Casal (15101584) Professor of Theology at Coimbra, had been appointed as Royal preacher and preceptor and confessor to the heir by King John III. He distinguished himself for his fine philosophical mind, and was appointed to attend the Council of Trent in the second and third sessions, 1552 and 1561, as bishop and theologian of the King of Portugal. There he expounded especially on the doctrine of the Eucharist and the Real Presence in the Mass. This copy eloquently speaks of the atmosphere of dialogue and reciprocal influence among exponents of Catholic orthodoxy at Trent. It bears the ownership inscription of Giovanni Antonio Delfini (15061561), another prominent friar (Vicar General), professor at Bologna and Inquisitor, who had been invited to the Council in 1545 by Paul III. There 'he attended the opening of the first session, and then participated as a consultant in the preparation of the decrees of the fourth, fifth and sixth sessions, dedicated in particular to the Holy Scripture, definition of the nature of original sin and justification. In Trento [he] spoke on 26 June 1546 on justification and on 27 January 1547 on the Sacraments, reaffirming the thesis of justification through grace, and earning the attention and esteem of all the Council fathers. This is demonstrated, for example, by the fact that, at the close of the first part of the council, in Bologna on 15 May 1548 the pontifical legates granted him a certificate of praise for the work carried out in favour of the cause of the Church. From 1550 to 1558 [he] was regent in the convent of S.Francesco in Bologna, and in this role he always appears present at the congregations of the convent for the period in question. In 1551 he returned to Trento, on the occasion of the reopening of the second part of the council, and on 23 December he spoke on the mass, focusing in particular on the value of the Eucharist' (DBI).The gift of this book may well have been a token of the encounter between the two theologians. Delfini's views, though more pugnaciously anti-Lutheran than Casal's (see his Opus eximium of 1552), were rooted in the same outlook as the one prospected in the Axiomata.The book's illustrious line of ownership continued when it became part of the library of Giacomo Soranzo (16861761), the renowned Venetian bibliophile and statist.Anselmo no.267; USTC 343277; Wilkinson, Iberian Books 2824. Language: Latin
