AQUINAS, Thomas.
Super quarto libro Sententiarum (Petri Lombardi).
(Colophon:) Venice, Leonardus Wild, 18 March 1478]. Folio. The text is rubricated throughout. Contemporary blind-tooled calf, sewn on four supports with corresponding raised bands on the spine, and with the author and title lettered in black ink on the front board. Re-backed, with part of the original spine (containing the author, title, and year lettered in gold) laid down in the second compartment, original brass catch- and anchorplates and clasps, with the leather part of the clasp renewed, and red sprinkled edges. [386] ll.
€ 8,500
Second edition of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) commentary on the fourth book of the Sentences by Peter Lombard (ca. 1100-1160), concerning the sacraments of the Church through which divine grace is mediated. Aquinas devotes particular attention to the sacraments of marriage, penance, and the novissima, or the last things: resurrection, judgement, and eternity.
This was the first book printed by Leonardus Wild, a German printer active in Venice between 1478 and 1481, known for producing scholastic and theological works, often in collaboration with other presses.
Peter Lombards Sentences, a vast and systematic synthesis of medieval theology, was the standard theological textbook at the universities of the Middle Ages. Second only to the Bible in authority and influence, it served as the foundation for generations of theological commentary. Nearly every major scholastic thinker, from Bonaventure (1221-1274) to Duns Scotus (ca. 1265-1308), wrote extensive glosses upon it.
The present work represents the third of five incunable printings of Aquinas commentary on Lombards fourth book, and is printed in double columns of 54 lines each.
With multiple ownership inscriptions on the first blank leaf. The first entry on the recto reads: "Ad usum fratris Wilhelmi de Zeelst Canonici B[eata]e Mariae Tongerlens[is] nec non in Rethii curati etc., nunc vero in Rosendale". The two following ownership inscriptions on the recto were made by a certain Frater Genebrardus ... Sylvaducensis (from Bois-le-Duc, i.e. s-Hertogenbosch) and by a certain Frater Henricus. The topographical references to Tongeren, Roosendaal, and s-Hertogenbosch point to friars who lived in the Southern Netherlands. On the verso of the same leaf there is an inscription of moral and devotional phrases in Latin. On the title page, within the rubricated initial M, there is another inscription ("Elib. Guldyec 1840"). The foliation is added in a near-contemporary hand. The binding has been rebacked and the boards are somewhat rubbed, with water-staining affecting only the outer margins of the last few leaves. Otherwise in good condition. BMC V, 264; GfT 325; Goff T169; GW M46397; Hain Copinger 1482; ISTC it00169000; Pellechet 1069; Polain 3733; Proctor 4455; USTC 990501; WorldCat 1260140198; not in IDL.
Related Subjects:
