RARE Incunabula - Saint Augustine's "Opus Quaestionum" - First Edition

Description: INCUNABULA OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE’S OPUS QUAESTIONUM PUBLISHED BY JOHANNES TRECHSEL IN LYONS IN 1497 Author: Augustine, Aurelius (also known as Saint Augustine (354-430)). Title: Opus quaestionum (Edited by Augustinus de Ratisbona and Jodocus Badius Ascensius). Format: Incunabula. Published: Lyons: Johannes Trechsel, April 15, 1497. Description: a.) First edition (only edition printed before 1500). b.) Chancery folio (10.675 by 8.25 inches). c.) 268 leaves (of 286, lacking first and last gatherings). d.) Printed guide letters. e.) 18th century gilt calf binding. f.) In good condition with heaving wearing to the binding, especially to the spine, the front and back boards detached, dampstaining and soiling to the pagination, and a few wormholes and chipping to only a few pages. RARE FIRST EDITION OF THIS IMPORTANT WORK BY SAINT AUGUSTINE, THE ONLY EDITION PRINTED BEFORE 1500, AND ONE OF TWO COPIES TO HAVE SOLD AT AUCTION IN NEARLY 50 YEARS Provenance: Contains marginalia with most in Latin and some in Greek, including a very faint inscription on the first leaf dated 1576. In addition, there are several inscriptions from the Methuen family, starting with Thomas Methuen that is dated 1591. Originally from the personal collection and contains the bookplate on the front pastedown endpaper of Thomas Ewart Marston (1905-1984), the Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, and later purchased by C.A. Stonehill circa 1943. ORIGINALLY FROM THE PERSONAL COLLECTION AND CONTAINS THE BOOKPLATE OF THE CURATOR OF MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE LITERATURE AT THE BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY AT YALE UNIVERSITY Notes: Ratisbona, editor of these lesser-studied treatises from the prolific church father, had first approached Johan Amerbach to print them. When Amerbach turned him down, Johannes Trechsel stepped in. Grand plans for further collaboration between the printer and editor were ended by Trechsel’s death not long after. The incomplete Boies Penrose copy is the only other one recorded at auction since the 1980s by Christie’s making the present volume one of two copies to have been made available for purchase in nearly 50 years. Christie’s. Augustine’s Opus quaestionum.

Price: 5000 USD

Location: Spartanburg, South Carolina

End Time: 2024-09-20T00:42:45.000Z

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