Maruli Marulic Marko (1 results)
Published by Em casa de Frãcisco Correa impressor de liuros, Em Lisboa, 1579
- Hardcover
- First Edition
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First edition. First edition. Eighteenth-century or somewhat later full calf, spine gilt in compartments with raised bands and lettering-piece. ff. [6] 295. Fol. 139 misnumbered 140, 209 as 219, 218 as 228, 219 as 228, 254 as 264, 269 as 260, and 277 as 278. With an additional duplicate gathering G bound after quire C. The first… Portuguese edition of Maruli?'s most influential devotional work and the only sixteenth-century Iberian edition of any of his writings. The first Portuguese edition-and the only work by Marko Maruli? printed on the Iberian Peninsula during the sixteenth century-of one of the most influential devotional books of the European Renaissance. First published at Venice in 1506 as the De institutione bene vivendi per exempla sanctorum, Maruli?'s work rapidly became an international bestseller, passing through dozens of Latin editions and translations into the principal vernacular languages of Europe. Intended as a guide to Christian conduct through the examples of biblical and later saints, it became one of the most widely read devotional manuals of the Counter-Reformation and secured Maruli?'s reputation as one of the foremost lay Christian moralists of the age. Although remembered today as the father of Croatian literature, Maruli? (1450-1524) achieved his greatest European reputation through his Latin devotional writings. A humanist from Split, he combined classical learning with Christian moral instruction, producing works intended for spiritual formation rather than scholarly display. His De institutione bene vivendi per exempla sanctorum became his most widely disseminated work, circulating across Catholic Europe in numerous Latin editions and vernacular translations and establishing him among the most widely read devotional authors of the sixteenth century. The Portuguese version owes much of its importance to its translator, Fr. Marcos de Lisboa (c. 1511-1591), the distinguished Franciscan chronicler, later Bishop of Porto, and one of the leading figures of sixteenth-century Portuguese religious literature. Published only a few years before the appearance of his celebrated Chronica da Ordem dos Frades Menores, the translation belongs to the formative period of his literary career and reflects his broader programme of making influential works of Christian devotion accessible to Portuguese readers in the vernacular. It became the standard Portuguese version of Maruli?'s most celebrated work and represents one of the earliest substantial vernacular devotional books printed in Portugal during the post-Tridentine Catholic renewal. Although Maruli?'s Latin works circulated in Iberian religious and scholarly libraries throughout the sixteenth century, the present volume remained the only printed edition of any of his works produced on the Iberian Peninsula before the mid-seventeenth century. This gives Marcos de Lisboa's translation an exceptional position not only in Portuguese devotional publishing, but also in the wider Iberian reception of Maruli? Two typographical variants of the 1579 edition are known. The present copy belongs to the variant with the architectural title-page border incorporating the SOLI DEO HONOR cartouche, rather than the alternate setting with standing human figures flanking the title. The Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal notes that the two settings differ not only in the title page, but also in the preliminary leaves and the signatures of the first gathering. As in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal copy of this setting, the present copy contains an additional inserted gathering, although here a different gathering is repeated, and concludes with the final unsigned N5 leaf. The edition is of exceptional rarity. USTC records only 3 copies outside Portugal libraries, (Oxford, Harvard, and the Hispanic Society, New York), a comprehensive survey of Maruli? holdings in Spanish libraries additionally identified copies in the Biblioteca Nacional de España and the Monastery of Yuso. Rare Book Hub records the sale of only two copies. . Binding rubbed and scuffed, with wear to the corners, joints, raised bands, and spine ends; larger losses of leather to the foot of the spine and lower portions of the boards; boards firm. Front endpapers partly renewed. Title page shaved at the head, with very slight loss to text on the verso; contemporary ink notes and pen trials in the outer margin. Quires d and e with waterstaining throughout. Quire C trimmed shorter at the head, affecting some running titles, and also shorter at the foot than the surrounding quires. An additional duplicate gathering G bound after quire C. Occasional spotting, ink marks, foxing, and some darker-toned gatherings. A few contemporary or early manuscript annotations in ink (ff. 34, 78, 246, and 278v). Lower outer corners of the final quires with old restoration. Despite these defects, a complete copy of the text, generally sound internally, with good margins throughout, overall in very good condition. Eighteenth-century or somewhat later full calf, spine gilt in compartments with raised bands and lettering-piece.
