Beschreibung:

DIONYSIUS AREOPAGITA, pseudo (early 6th century) [Opera:] Caelestis hierarchia. Ecclesiastica hierarchia. Divina nomina. Mystica theologia. Undecim epistolae. – ST IGNATIUS, pseudo (c.35-107). Undecim epistolae. – ST POLYCARPUS (c.69-155). Epistola una, and other texts. Translated by St Ambrose of Camaldoli (1378-1439) and revised by Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (c.1450-1536). (Venice: Joannes Tacuinus, 21 November 1502). Second edition of this compilation of works by the ‘father of most Christian mysticism’ (Kristeller, Renaissance Thought, p.53), to which is joined works by or attributed to Ignatius and Polycarpus. The corpus ascribed to a mysterious Dionysius the Areopagite was a main conduit of Platonic thought in the Middle Ages and Renaissance and influenced men and movements as diverse as Master Eckhart, Nicolas Cusanus and Marsilio Ficino. It circulated widely in manuscript before the first edition, translated from Greek by St Ambrose the Camaldolese, was printed at Bruges in 1479. Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, introduced to the works of the Areopagite by Ficino during his trip to Italy in 1491-92, revised the translation and added the other works for a Paris edition of 1498⁄99; that is reprinted here. Ficino undertook his own translations of just two of the works which were published c. 1496. The two early owners of the volume, lawyers Bartholmaeus ab Aqua Vite and Camillo Buzio, are known to have owned another book – also a mystical work (Heinrich Suso, ISTC is00875000) – still in Brescia at the Biblioteca Queriniana. Adams D-522; Hoffmann II, 87-88. Folio (310 x 209mm). With final blank leaf, title with xylographic author’s name and Tacuino device of St. John the Baptist signed with monogram ‘b M’ [Benedetto Montagna], woodcut initials from several sets, woodcut diagrams, woodcut printer’s device at end. opening text leaf printed in red and black (some light marginal dampstaining, occasional small spot). Contemporary flexible pasteboard with paper spine overlay, authors’ names lettered along spine and lower edges (lightly worn); modern folding case. Provenance: a few contemporary annotations – Bartholomaeus ab Aqua Vite, doctor of laws of Brescia (contemporary inscription and diagram symbolising the eyes and ears of the Lord on front flyleaf) – Camillo Buzio (contemporary inscriptions on flyleaf and title) – Pietro Ghitti, bookseller of Pisogne (19th-century title stamp).