Albertus Magnus & Thomas Aquinas | Four scarce post-incunable editions of Albert the Great and his greatest pupil, Venice, 1517–1519, 1517, 1507, 1516

Albertus Magnus

Diui Alberti Magni summi in via peripathetica philosophi: theologique profundissimi Naturalia ac supranaturalia opera per Marcum Antonium Zimaram nuper castigata erroribusque purgata: necnon cum marginibus optimis annotationibus ornatis doctrinaque excultis atque fideliter impressis feliciter incipiunt. Que sunt hec. Videlicet. De physico auditu lib. VIII. De celo & mundo lib. IIII. De generatione & corrup. lib. II. De methauris lib. IIII. De mineralibus lib. IIII. De anima lib. III. De intellectu & intelligibili lib. II. De metaphysica lib. XIII. (Venice: Heirs of Octavianus Scotus, 19 February 1517, 29 May 1518, 15 January 1518 [but 1519])

3 parts in one volume, folio (315 x 210 mm). Gothic types, text in two columns, 74 lines plus headline. Collation: [Maltese cross]⁶ a⁶ b–n⁸ o–p⁶: 108 leaves; aa–ff⁸ gg⁶ hh–tt⁸: 150 leaves; A–X⁸ Y⁶: 174 leaves. Woodcut printer’s device on final page of each part, woodcut diagram on cc5r, a profusion of ornamental woodcut initials, a few historiated; short wormtrail in lower margin of A2–C4 never approaching the text. Modern half vellum over gray cloth.

REFERENCES

Adams A529; Edit16 786

[together with:]

Albertus Magnus

Parua naturalia Alberti Magni ... De sensu & sensato. De memoria & reminiscentia. De somno & vigilia. De motibus animalium. De etate sive de juventute & senectute. De spiritu & respiratione. De morte & vita. De nutrimento &nutribili. De natura & origine anime. De unitate intellectus contra Averroem. De intellectu & intelligibili. De natura locorum. De causis & proprietatibus elementorum. De passionibus aeris. De vegetabilibus & plantis. De principiis motus processivi. De causis & processu universitatis a causa prima. Speculum astronomicum de libris licitis & illicitis. (Venice: Heirs of Octavianus Scotus, 10 March 1517)

Folio (310 x 212 mm). Gothic types, text in two columns, 65 lines plus headline. Collation: A⁶ a–z⁸ aa–bb⁸ cc¹⁰: 216) leaves (cc10 blank). Woodcut printer’s device on final page of text, woodcut diagram on cc5r, a profusion of ornamental woodcut initials.

REFERENCES

Edit16 785; not in Adams

[bound with:] 

Thomas Aquinas

In presenti volumine infrascripta inuenies opuscula Aristotelis cum expositionibus sancti Thome ac Petri de Aluernia … recognita. Sanctus Thomas De sensu et sensato. De memoria et reminiscentia. De somno et vigilia ... Petrus de Aluernia De motibus animalium … Egidius Romanus De bona fortuna. (Venice: Bonetus Locatellus for the Heirs of Octavianus Scotus, 13 November 1507)

Folio (310 x 212 mm). Gothic types, text in two columns, lines highly variable, plus headline. Collation: a–k⁸ l⁶: 86 leaves. Woodcut printer’s device on final page of text, a profusion of ornamental woodcut initials.

REFERENCES

Edit16 32898; not in Adams

[and bound with:]

Thomas Aquinas

S. Tho. De celo & mundo. Interpretamenta sanctissimi doctoris Thome Aquinatis in libros De celo et mundo Aristotelis annotationibus textuum & commentorum Auerroys que in alijs voluminibus alias impressis minime habentur in marginibus ornata ac cum additionibus Petri Aluerniatis. Textus Aristotelicus cum duplici translatione: antiqua videlicet et Ioannis Argyropyli que in alijs voluminibus minime habentur. Fratris Hieronymi Sauonarole Ferrariensis tractatus in quo diuiduntur omnes scientie nuperrime in lucem editus. Tabula ordinatissima que continet omnes questiones quas sanctus doctor soluit. (Venice: Luc’Antonio Giunta, 4 December 1516)

Folio (310 x 212 mm). Gothic types, text in two columns, lines variable, plus headline. Collation: [Maltese cross]⁶ A–L⁸ M⁶: 100 leaves. Woodcut printer’s device on final page of text, woodcut illustrations and diagrams, a profusion of ornamental woodcut initials.

REFERENCES

Edit16 29160; not in Adams

Together 3 works in one volume. Title-page of Naturalia ac supranaturalia with long marginal tear, some scattered browning and soiling, a few stray marginal wormholes, very occasionally touching a shoulder-note. Modern half vellum over gray cloth, earlier red edges.

Four early, uncommon, and important post incunables produced during the apex of scholarly printing in Venice, bound in two volumes. Naturalia ac supranaturalia is a significant collection of scientific writings from Albert’s enormous corpus, edited by Marco Antonio Zimara and including works on mineralogy, astronomy, metaphysics, and the intellect. The third part incorporates the fifth edition of De Mineralibus.

Parua Naturalia collects eighteen tractates by Albert, including the first printing of De vegetabilibus & plantis, “a masterpiece for its independence of treatment, its accuracy and range of detailed description, its freedom from myth, and its innovation in systematic classification” (William A. Wallace, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography). Bound with this work are two commentaries on Aristotle by Albert’s student Thomas Aquinas, "who could well attribute the extent of his own vision to the fact that he stood on the shoulders of a giant" (Wallace).