Beschreibung:

AUGUSTINUS, Aurelius (354-430, Saint). De civitate Dei - Commentarium Thomae Valois et Nicolai Triveth super libros Augustini De Ciuitate Dei . [Strassburg: Johann Mentelin, not after 1468]. Two parts in one, royal 2 o (388 x 289 mm). Collation : Part I: [1-5 1 0 6 8 7-17 1 0 18 8 19-24 1 0 25-26 8 ]. 252 leaves. Part II: [1-7 1 0 8 8 9 6 ]. 83 leaves (of 84; without final blank 9/6). 47 lines (part I, text) and 57 lines (part II, commentaries), double column. Gothic types 2:112 (text) and 5:92 (commentaries). Part I: twenty-six 6- and 7-line illuminated initials with penwork infill and extensions in green, red and blue; 3-line initials in red with extensions; rubricated two-line incipit, book headings, and 10-line rubricator's note on colophon; paragraph marks and capital strokes in red; rubricated head-line of book numbers, roman numerals in red; shoulder-notes ruled in red. Part II: 8-line illuminated initial on 1/1r in blue with red penwork infill and extensions; 3- to 7-line initials illuminated in red, blue and green with penwork infill and extensions; rubricated 3-line incipit and book headings; paragraph marks and capital strokes in red; rubricated head-line of book numbers, roman numerals in red; shoulder-notes ruled in red. (Some very minor pale spotting, otherwise a large fresh copy, with most original pinholes preserved.) 19th-century blue morocco gilt, edges gilt. Provenance : 15th-century corrector's marginalia and in-text corrections and notations (his note on fo. 252 v dated: "Anno &c lxxvij. di martis penulti[m]a Julij. Eystet." [30 July 1476, Eichstätt])-- Eichstätt, Episcopal Court Library (17th-century inscription on lower margin of fo. 1 r : "Ad Bibl: Aul: Eystettensem") -- Edward Herbert, Earl of Powis (bookplate) -- Estelle Doheny (morocco bookplate; purchased from Rosenbach, 23 October 1942) -- donated to SMS 1942. Begun three years after the sack of Rome in 410, Augustine's De civitate Dei was written in response to pagans who proclaimed the fall of the city was a result of the abolition of heathen worship. The twenty-two books which make up the work were finished in 426. From its composition it became the most popular and influential of all patristic works throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Augustine's work lays out the fundamental contrast between Christianity and the world, and the resulting work stands as the supreme exposition of a Christian philosophy of history. The first dated edition was published in Subiaco by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1467. The second part of the Mentelin edition comprises the commentary of Thomas Waleys and Nicolaus Trivet, which are listed in BMC and Proctor as separate works, but undoubtedly were issued together. BMC I, 52 (IC.513-514); BSB.Ink A-853; GW 2883; H *2056; Harvard/Walsh 50; Pell 1554; Pr 201-202; Goff A-1239.