Author: CASSIODORUS ( c. 485 - c. 585) :
Title: In hoc corpore continentur tripertite historie ex Socrate Sozomeno / ex Theodorico in unu[m] collecte et nuper de greco in latinu[m] translate/ libri numero duodecim. ( Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita).
Description: .: Augusta Vindilicorum ( Augsburg ) , Johannes Schüssler, february 1472. Format in-folio (30,9 x 21,7 cm) , typo: 203 x 122 mm, 35 lines per page, printed in gothic type, entirely rubricated, with 2 large initials with red and green penwork. with numerous notes written in red in the large margins. Complete but for the last two blank leaves (193/195 leaves). BINDING: Bound in early 19th c. full gilt calf, covers with gilt double ruled border, gilt spine with 5 raised bands, paste down: marbled paper inside dentelles. All edges gilt. Covers slightly scratched, front cover a bit tanned at top. A very fine rubricated copy with wide margins.and with the look and finish of a manuscript ( as the first western printed books ought to look in those days). PROVENANCE: two handwritten ex-libris on the first page ''Conventus Ratisb(onae) .. S. Augustinum. This monastery in Regensburg was the main intellectual centre of the Augustine Order in Eastern Bavaria. It was closed by Napoleon in 1810. The book was brought to England where it was rebound and it became part of the Virtue & Cahill Library (St. John's Cathedral church Portsmouth). (ex-libris on the paste down). The library was bombed by the German 'Luftwaffe' in 1941 and the books were dispersed. A discouraged bishop ordered the auction of the remaining books (London, Christie's 5 july 1967) (rubber stamped note on the ex-libris). (remarkable how two of Europe's greatest dictators interfered with the fate of this incunable). AUTHOR: This book is the editio princeps of this historical publication by Cassiodorus a former christian Roman statesman serving Theodoric the Great, king of Ostrogoths. In later life he founded the monastary of Vivarium (Southern Italy) where he contributed in an important way to the nascent tradition of copying Western religious manuscripts (e.g. the bible Codex Grandior of Ceolfrith). This incunable is an important source for the early history of the Roman Catholic Church.. (5th c.) Bibliography: GW06164 ; Incunable. S.T.C. ic 00237000. .

Keywords: