Hypognosticon. Divi Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi contra Pelagianos et Felicianos Hypognosticon libri sex by Aurelius Augustinus, Pseudo-Augustinus on Földvári Books

Augustinus, Aurelius [Pseudo-Augustinus]

[Hypognosticon.] Divi Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi contra Pelagianos et Felicianos Hypognosticon libri sex.

[Cologne]: [Hero Alopecius (Hero Fuchs)], [1530]. Third edition. Later marbled paper wrappers. ff. [52]. A few leaves slightly overtrimmed at the upper margin, just touching the running headlines. Otherwise in fine condition.

The rarest edition of Hero Fuchs’ separate Hypognosticon, first printed independently in 1527 and now recorded in only two copies.

The first known separate edition of Hypognosticon was issued by Hero Fuchs in Cologne in 1527. The present 1530 edition is his third and rarest. It differs from the earlier editions in its simplified title page, lacking both the elaborate woodcut border and the printer’s imprint, while otherwise following the earlier printing closely. Only two copies are recorded by the USTC, at the Stiftsbibliothek Aschaffenburg and the Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Jena.

Hero Alopecius (Hero Fuchs, c. 1490–1538) was one of the leading printers of Cologne during the early Reformation. Between about 1520 and 1541 his press produced numerous editions of classical, humanist, and theological works, including Erasmus, Melanchthon, and St Augustine. Beginning in 1527, he undertook a programme of publishing individual Augustinian treatises, of which the present edition forms part.

The Hypognosticon is a theological treatise traditionally attributed to St Augustine but now generally regarded as the work of an anonymous late antique author. Directed against the Pelagians and Felicians, it defends the doctrines of original sin, divine grace, and predestination, and became one of the principal anti-Pelagian texts transmitted under Augustine’s name throughout the Middle Ages.