Ratio seu methodus; Enchiridion; Modus orandi Deum; Gravissimae sacrilegii
Strasbourg, Hagenau: Knobloch; Seltz, 1523–1528. Four works in one volume. In contemporary wooden panels with the traces of leather and a codex leaf on spine. Spine with three raised bands. The original copper clasps are presented. The title pages of the first three works (by Erasmus) with identical architectural borders. Signs on top edge in ink. Old collection stamp on verso of inner front pastedown. Sporadic manuscript marginal notes removed. Occasional underlines in the text throughout. Few stains throughout, some leaves tanned. The title page of the fourth work (Gebwiler) with a tiny loss to the right edge, with no effect on the text. Overall in fine condition.
Erasmus, Desiderius
Ratio seu methodus compendio perveniendi ad veram theologiam. [Ratio verae theologiae.]
Argentorati [Strasbourg]: Ioannes Knoblochus [Knobloch], October 1523. 80 leaves.
[Bound with:]
Erasmus, Desiderius
Enchiridion militis Christiani, saluberrimis praeceptis refertum […].
Argentorati [Strasbourg]: Ioannes Knoblochus [Knobloch], November 1524. 100 leaves.
[Bound with:]
Erasmus, Desiderius
Modus orandi Deum.
Argentorati [Strasbourg]: Ioannes Knoblochus [J. Knobloch], December 1524. [46] leaves.
[Bound with:]
Gebwiler, Hieronymus
Gravissimae sacrilegii, ac contemptae theosebiae ultionis, ethnicorum Hebraeorum et Christianorum verißimis comprobatae exemplis syngramma, […].
Haguenau, [Wilhelm Seltz], 1528. [32] leaves (last blank).
Three sixteenth-century, early Erasmus editions by Knobloch, bound together with Gebwiler’s first edition that contains the earliest printed quote from Hortus deliciarum.
Modus orandi Deum, the third work of this collection is considered as the centerpiece of Erasmus’ teachings on prayer. The present, 1524 December edition is the second, after first edition by Froben in October of the same year. The book became very popular soon after it’s publication and until the end of 1525 ten new impressions were produced by printers all over Europe. USTC lists only eight copies of this edition. (B.Er. I; Mynors 587; Bezzel 1285; Schmidt VII, 284; VD 16 E 3169; USTC 676366; EON 2424)
The first work, Ratio seu methodus (October 1523) is also an early edition. Its editio princeps was issued in Leuven by Thierry Martens in November 1518. Scarce, USTC lists only four copies (Augsburg, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Neuchâtel), not in VD16. (USTC 709423; Muller no. Knobloch 395; Benzing no. 544).
The second, Enchiridion militis Christiani, the Handbook of a Christian Knight is one of Erasmus’ earliest writings, first printed in 1503. Prelims include all four Latin poems by Thomas More which first appeared in the 1520 Mainz edition. This edition is scarce as well, according to USTC only five copies could be found in institutional holdings. (VD 16 E 2774; USTC 650176)
The final book of the compendium is Gravissimae sacrilegii, Jérôme (Hieronymus) Gebwiler’s work. Gebwiler is renowned as the earliest scholar who described Hortus deliciarum (Bischoff, 1973, p. 13.) a manuscript of illuminated encyclopedia compiled by Herrad of Landsberg a twelfth-century nun and abbess of Hohenburg Abbey (Mont St Odile), which has been destroyed in 1870 during the siege of Strasbourg. In this book, Gebwiler quotes Hortus deliciarum’s dedicatory poem which is attributed to Herrad or Relinda (Relindis), the previous abbess of Hohenburg (Griffiths, 2013, p. 231.). (VD 16 G 597; USTC 660780)
Bibliography: Bischoff, C.: L’histoire. In: Green, R. et al.: Herrad von Hohenburg, Hortus deliciarum. London, Leiden: The Warburg Institute, University of Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1979. pp. 9–16.; Griffiths, F.: Herrad of Hohenbourg and the Poetry of the Hortus deliciarum: Cantat tibi cantica. In: Churchill, L. J. et al.: Women Writing Latin. […] Volume 2. Medieval Modern Women Writing Latin. New York, London: Routledge, 2013. pp. 231– 264.
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Price: €7,500.00