Divinarum Institutionum Libri Septem (Institutiones Divinae); Apologeticus
Venice: Aldi et Andreae Soceri Mense (Al Duns; Aldine Press), 1515.
First Edition. Hardcover (Vellum). Near Fine Condition. Item #049717
Early full parchment, gilt lettering piece, marbled page edges, light wear and discoloration to parchment. An attractive and well preserved binding. Some wear to endpapers, pencil notes to blank and pastedown, light soiling and staining to last few pages. Title page has been trimmed, neatly repaired and redacted - probably when rebound, apparently to remove ownership marks (but possibly a cancel). Scattered minor foxing. Ahmanson-Murphy 132. (16), 348 (with some pagination mistakes, 271 repeated twice, 274 once, 276 once, 278, 281, etc), 12 leaves, printer's mark serving as the title page for Tertullianus, (4), 48 leaves.
The first Aldine edition of Lacantius' Divine Institutes along with a selection of Tertullian's apologetics. Lactantius was the first dated book printed in Italy (at the Subiaco commune by Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz). It is famous as the first sustained defense of Christianity against pagan attacks, for the quality of it's prose, Lactantius' shaky grasp of scripture, and a section mocking the idea of a round earth which was specifically mentioned by Copernicus in his introduction to De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ("For it is not unknown that Lactantius, the writer celebrated in other ways but very little in mathematics, spoke somewhat childishly of the shape of the earth when he derided those who declared the earth had the shape of a ball. So it ought not to surprise students if such should laugh at us also.")
Provenance: armorial bookplate of Paui van de Woestijne "Gandavensis" (of Ghent).
Nicola Perrarca (?) early signature to title. Size: Octavo (8vo). Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Inventory No: 049717.
Price: $3,500.00