About this Item
[iv], CLVII numbered folios. Small 4to measuring 8" x 5". This is the "de tempore" with 178 leaves. Rubricated Lombard initials throughout and touched with red throughout as well. Binding is probably a 19th century rebinding with leather spine and corners, buff paper boards, the spine with three raised bands and handwritten title and printer, along with a "1498" date -- ISTC dates it to 1495-1500 (ip00099000). Some normal wear to the binding, interior end papers have some oxidizing, light marginal soiling throughout, some scattered dampstaining in the bottom margins, occasional marginalia, one leaf has a tear in the lower margin, another leaf has a marginal restoration, a bit of gutter dampstaining at the rear, but otherwise clean and unmarked, very handsome. 157 short sermons "de tempore." On the last leaf, it says (in Latin) "Prepared sermons for all the seasons of the year, a valuable work if used correctly." The sermons are meant to be useful outlines and include some commentary, biblical and patristic authorities and a number of examples. A preacher could readily expand the material into their own sermon. This anonymous collection of sermons (often incorrectly attributed to "Paratus") is known by the words that open the book, "Paratus de tempore optines en angeli…" (Ready for the time of the hope of the angels…). It was extremely popular in the Middle Ages because of its "exempla", tools then indispensable to the argumentation of a medieval preacher. The Sermones include an exemplum in which a confessor can do nothing for a demon who comes to confession because he is not contrite. (Sermon 2). Beautifully printed by Martin Flach (the elder) who first founded a press in 1469, by 1489 it had become an important imprint in Strassburg specializing in printing for the Roman church. Quite scarce: only one copy in the UK at the British Library and only one in North America. ; 4to 11" - 13" tall; 356 pages. Seller Inventory # 9178
Contact seller
Report this item
