NAZIANZENUS, Gregorius and Gregorius NYSSENUS.
Orationes novem elegantissimae. Gregorii Nuysseni liber de homine, quae omnia nunc primum, emendatissima, in lucem prodeunt.
[Venice, heirs of Aldus Manuzius and heirs of Andrea Torresano], 1536. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With the Aldine woodcut device on the title page and repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank final leaf. 19th-century elaborately gold-tooled black morocco, with the author, title, publisher, and year lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, gold-tooled tan morocco doublures, pink silk ribbon marker. Bound by François Bozerian (known as Bozerian le Jeune (the Younger), 1765-1826, fl. 1801-1818) and signed in gold lettering by the binder at the foot of the spine: "Rel. P. Bozerian Jeune". 148, "68" [= 76], [4] ll.
€ 4,500
First edition of key Greek texts by two of the most influential Fathers of the Eastern Church, Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390 CE), Archbishop of Constantinople, and his close friend Gregory of Nyssa (335-395 CE). Gregory of Nazianzus, later honoured with the epithet "the Theologian", was celebrated not only for his doctrinal authority but also for the literary brilliance of his prose. His theological orations, 45 of which survive, were admired by Renaissance Humanists for their rare union of Christian piety and classical eloquence. It was precisely this combination that drew Northern Humanists, including Lefèvre dÉtaples, Erasmus, and their circles, to the early Church Fathers, whom they regarded as superior guides to scripture when compared to the arid systems of medieval scholasticism.
The Aldine publication of these Greek texts belongs to the wider humanist revival of patristic literature in the early 16th century. While Aldus Manutius (1449-1515) had already published the Editio princeps of Gregory of Nazianzus poems in 1504, the present work reflects the growing recognition that Gregorys most enduring achievement lay in his theological prose rather than his verse. The work provided a crucial foundation for later Latin and vernacular translations, including those associated with Erasmus and the Froben press in Basel.
The present work is bound in a French binding signed "Rel. P. Bozerian Jeune", the distinctive mark of François Bozerian (1765-1826), one of the most celebrated Parisian bookbinders of the Napoleonic period. Active primarily between circa 1801 and 1818, Bozerian was renowned for the elegance, precision, and restrained classicism of his bindings, many of which were commissioned for important scholarly and aristocratic libraries.
With a bookplate ("Ex Libris Jacques Vieillard") mounted on the verso of the first flyleaf, according to the Cambridge University Library, he was a noted Bordeaux bibliophile. Otherwise in very good condition. Adams G-1160; BL STC Italian 313; EDIT16 21741; EEB (Proquest) ita-bnc-ald-00000134-001; NUKAT xx002357086; Renouard p. 116 no. 5; USTC 834173; cf. see Culot, "Jean-Claude Bozérian" (1979), roulettes, PL. 1.9 (used for the turn-ins).
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