[Opera.] Divinarum institutionum libri VII. De ira Dei, liber I. De opificio Dei, liber I. Epitome in libros suos liber acephalos. Phoenix. Carmen de dominica resurrectione. Carmen de passione Domini.

LACTANTIUS

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[Basel: Andreas Cratander. 13 February 1521.] [bound with:] SYMMACHUS, [Quintus Aurelius]; Laudivio [ZACCHIA DA VEZZANO]. Epistolae familiares. Item Laudini Eovitis hierosolymitani in epistolas Turci Magni traductio. [Strasbourg: Johann Knobloch [I]. 1511].Two works in one volume, 4to. Sixteenth-century blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards, sewn on 3 cords, borders roll-tooled with pomegranates, two-headed birds flanked by small six-pointed stars, and flowers in pots, two brass clasps and catchplates, spine lined with manuscript waste, seventeenth-century paper spine label; Lactantius: pp. [20], 433, [1 (errata)], final leaf k6 (printer's device, blank) excised; Symmachus: ff. [55], [1 (blank)]; title of Lactantius within elaborate architectural woodcut border by Hans Holbein the Younger, woodcut initials and headpieces; short split to upper joint, lower compartment of spine rubbed and discoloured , pinhole wormholes to upper board, slight wear to corners and extremities, lower corner of rear free endpaper excised; first two quires of first work slightly loose, sporadic light toning to both works, Lactantius with small wormtrack to Book I of Divinae institutiones (touching one or two words per page but not affecting sense) short closed tear to upper corner of i1, small marginal loss to upper corner of i2, sporadic light toning, short closed tear to o3 fore-edge not touching annotations or text; very good copies; early sixteenth-century motto to title of Symmachus, cancelled in mid-sixteenth-century red ink, mid-sixteenth-century initials 'FC' and motto 'sua ?cuique sors ferenda [est]' to both titles, contemporary annotations in red and occasionally dark brown ink to c. 100 pp. of Lactantius in the same hand, partially cancelled ownership 1580 inscription 'Ex Libris Michaelis Rhommeysen' and 1589 reading note 'perlegendo finii' to front pastedown (see below), seventeenth-century ownership inscription 'Collegii Societ[at]is Jesu Fuldae' to title of Lactantius. Handsome first Cratander edition of the works of Lactantius, bound with a very rare Strasbourg edition of fifteenth-century letters spuriously attributed to Sultan Mehmet II, with over one hundred pages of near-contemporary annotation and with the 1589 reading notes of a Catholic canon from Rasdorf; this volume was soon afterwards transferred to the newly established Jesuit college in nearby Fulda, the site of one of the largest witch trials in Germany at the start of the seventeenth century. Cratander (born Andreas Hartmann, c. 1485-c. 1540) published editions of Lactantius' works in 1524, and with Johann Bebel, in 1532. He collaborated on several occasions with Holbein and was particularly notable for his editions of the classics; the ornate woodcut border to the title, employed here for the first time, incorporates putti, Cratander's device, portrait medallions, Salome with the head of St John the Baptist, and Lucretia (Johnson, 'The Title-Borders of Hans Holbein', Basel 9). In his preface, Cratander brings to light his efforts to compare multiple manuscripts to minimise error, at some points in the text arranging 'for another reading to be added: thus, if you have once acquired this single booklet, you can claim that you have obtained many and different copies of Lactantius' (trans. Manuwald), e.g. providing variant readings in the form of printed marginalia on p. 51. Bound with the Lactantius are the letters of the Roman statesman and orator Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, and the Zacchia's purported translation of the letters of Sultan Mehmet II to Turks living in various parts of the Christian world, in fact a literary invention by Zacchia himself. This volume was owned by a mid-sixteenth-century reader (whose initials, F.C., appear on the titles of both works), with over one hundred pages of annotations demonstrating a careful reading of the text, providing lists of relevant philosophers mentioned by Lactantius as well as concise summaries of complex points, the an.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: [Opera.] Divinarum institutionum libri VII. De ira Dei, liber I. De opificio Dei, liber I. Epitome in libros suos liber acephalos. Phoenix. Carmen de dominica resurrectione. Carmen de passione Domini.
• Reliure: Couverture rigide
• Édition: Edition originale