[Incunable] Kempis / Gerson / Groote / Bonaventura - Opera - 1494

[Please note that the background setting in some images was created using AI to present the books in a pleasant environment. These background elements do not alter or affect the true representation and condition of the books] 24 ASCETIC AND MYSTICAL WORKS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY IN A SINGLE MONUMENTAL INCUNABULO Splendid rubrication, coeval — binding on wooden boards — provenance Polling–Töpsl Very important Nuremberg incunabulum printed by Caspar Hochfeder on 29 November 1494 and curated by Petrus Danhauser. Not simply a volume of Imitatio Christi, but a true LIBRARY OF MEDIEVAL SPIRITUALITY, contained in a single book: a remarkable collection of 24 different works, treatises, and compilations, attributable to Thomas à Kempis and to other great scholarly traditions, including Johannes Gerson, Geert Groote, and Pseudo-Bonaventura. At the center of the collection lies IMITATIO CHRISTI, one of the most read, translated, reprinted, and influential spiritual books in Western civilization. Around this masterpiece unfolds an exceptional corpus including biographies of the founders of Devotio Moderna, sermons, dialogues, spiritual letters, songs, texts on monastic life, on poverty, on humility, on meditation, on compunction, on the education of youth, and on aid to the poor. Among the titles are De meditatione cordis, Vita magistri Gerardi Magni, Soliloquium animae, De disciplina claustralium, Sermones ad novitios, Dialogus noviciorum, Epistolae, Hortulus rosaum, Vallis liliorum, Consolatio pauperum, Manuale parvulorum, Doctrinale iuvenum and Hospitale pauperum. An impressive synthesis of the spiritual culture of Devotio Moderna on the eve of the Reformation. An exceptionally charming exemplar, extensively rubricated in red, with a large initial finely elaborated right at the beginning of Imitatio Christi and numerous decorative initials at the opening of the individual works. The provenance from the Augustinian monastery of Polling is outstanding, documented by the ex libris “Franciscus Praepositus S. Salvatoris Pollingae,” attributable to the famous provost and bibliophile Franziskus Töpsl. The complete set is complemented by the important ancient pigskin binding stamped in blind on wooden boards. A combination of content, decoration, binding, and provenance hardly replicable on the market. WHY TO BUY 24 OPERAS AND TREATISES IN A SINGLE INCUNABULO! A monumental late-medieval spirituality library gathered in one volume from 1494. IMITATIO CHRISTI! The masterpiece of the collection, one of the most influential and universally circulated spiritual texts in Western history. MORE AUTHORS AND TRADITIONS! Thomas à Kempis alongside Johannes Gerson, Geert Groote, and the pseudo-Bonaventuran tradition. UNIQUE EXAMPLE IN THIS CONFIGURATION! Contemporary rubrication, binding on wooden boards, and prestigious Polling–Töpsl provenance brought together in the same volume. MARKET VALUE €7,500–10,500. The value of this specimen derives not only from the incunabular date of 1494 or the presence of Imitatio Christi, but from the extraordinary concentration of contents and physical characteristics: 24 different works and treatises, plus authorial traditions, Hochfeder second edition, extensive manual rubrication, a large decorated initial at the opening of Imitatio Christi, ancient pigskin binding on wooden boards, and prestigious provenance from the Polling monastery associated with Franziskus Töpsl. The edition is noted in important institutional collections, but encountering in the market a specimen with this combination of textual corpus, decoration, binding, and provenance is practically impossible. PHYSICAL / CONDITION Sixteenth-century binding in pigskin stamped in blind on wooden boards, decorated with wheel ornaments. Spine probably restored in the seventeenth century with pigskin stamped in blind, harmonized with the older boards. Traces of rubbing and normal wear to the binding. Text in Gothic type, mostly arranged in two columns. Splendid and wide red rubrication contemporary. A large initial richly elaborated at the opening of Imitatio Christi; numerous rubricated initials, also large, at the opening of the individual works; running titles and other decorative elements completed with red flourishes. Block trimmed irregularly at the upper margin, more so on the first gatherings. Evidence of worming, halos, and scattered stains, some ancient marks and pencil doodles at the outer margins. Ex libris on the pastedown: “Franciscus Praepositus S. Salvatoris Pollingae.” Condition of the exemplar: (4) + 174 leaves. In old books, with a centuries-long history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. FULL TITLES & AUTHORS Collection of 24 incunabula gathered in a single volume. 1. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Imitatio Christi. The masterpiece of the collection, devoted to imitating Christ’s life, humility, detachment from the world, and interior perfection. 2. JOHANNES GERSON – De meditatione cordis. Treatise on inner meditation and heart gathering. 3. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Vita magistri Gerardi Magni. Life of Geert Groote, spiritual founder of Devotio Moderna. 4. THOMAS À KEMPIS – De humilitate Christi. Treatise on Christ’s humility as model of Christian life. 5. THOMAS À KEMPIS – De discipulis domini Florentii. Testimony on Florens Radewijns’s disciples and the original milieu of Devotio Moderna. 6. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Soliloquium animae. Great meditation in the form of an inner dialogue of the soul. 7. THOMAS À KEMPIS – De disciplina claustralium. Treatise on discipline, virtues, and monastic life. 8. Notabilia de conversatione Thomae a Kempis. Collection of testimonies on Thomas’s life and spiritual conduct. 9. PSEUDO-BONAVENTURA – Alphabetum boni monachi sive Alphabetum religiosorum. Repertory of precepts for the perfection of religious life. 10. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Sermones ad novitios regulares. Sermons for spiritual formation of novices. 11. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Sermones devoti, breves et utiles volentibus Deo servire. Collection of brief sermons for those devoted to religious life. 12. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Dialogus noviciorum. Spiritual and pedagogical dialogue for training young religious. 13. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Cantica spiritualia. Collection of spiritual compositions and songs. 14. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Epistolae. Corpus of spiritual letters on discipline, solitude, temptation, memory of the dead, and religious life. 15. THOMAS À KEMPIS – De paupertate, humilitate et patientia sive De tribus tabernaculis. Treatise on the three great virtues of spiritual life. 16. GEERT GROOTE, TRADITIONAL ATtribution – De vera compunctione cordis. Treatise on true compunction and inner repentance. 17. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Hortulus rosarum. “Garden of Roses,” meditations on ascetic life and spiritual perfection. 18. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Vallis liliorum. “Valley of Lilies,” mystical work devoted to purity, humility, and inner life. 19. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Consolatio pauperum et infirmorum. Consolation text addressed to the poor and the sick. 20. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Epitaphium monachorum. Meditation on death and the monastic condition. 21. VITA BONI MONACHI. Treatise on the ideal figure of the good monk, transmitted in the tradition of works tied to Thomas à Kempis and Devotio Moderna. 22. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Manuale parvulorum. Spiritual manual for the formation of the young. 23. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Doctrinale iuvenum. Pedagogical and spiritual treatise for the young. 24. THOMAS À KEMPIS – Hospitale pauperum. Work devoted to poverty, suffering, and Christian consolation. Curator: Petrus Danhauser. Nuremberg: Caspar Hochfeder, 29 November 1494. BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHORS Thomas à Kempis, born Thomas Hemerken in Kempen around 1380 and died at Agnetenberg near Zwolle in 1471, was a regular canon of Saint Augustine and a central figure of Devotio Moderna. He entered at a very young age into the circle of the Brothers of the Common Life, a spiritual movement around Geert Groote and based on a personal, interiorized, disciplined religiosity oriented toward the concrete imitation of Christ. His name is inextricably linked to Imitatio Christi, one of the greatest successes of world spiritual literature. Johannes Gerson (1363–1429), chancellor of the University of Paris and one of the most important theologians of his time, represents in the volume another fundamental current of late medieval mysticism. Geert Groote (1340–1384) was the founder of Devotio Moderna and the inspirer of the Brothers of the Common Life, a movement from which Thomas’s spiritual formation directly derived. The collection also includes texts from the pseudo-bonaventuran tradition, testimony to the enormous influence of Franciscan mysticism on European religiosity in the late Middle Ages. The volume thus does not merely represent “the works of Thomas à Kempis,” but an authentic anthology of the major currents of northern European spirituality in the fifteenth century. PROVENANCE Prestigious provenance from the Polling Monastery. On the pastedown is the ex libris “Franciscus Praepositus S. Salvatoris Pollingae,” connected to Franziskus Töpsl (1711–1796), provost of the Augustinian monastery of Polling and one of the most important figures of Bavarian Catholic Enlightenment. A theologian, scholar, and great bibliophile, Töpsl transformed Polling into an important intellectual center and greatly augmented the monastery’s library. This provenance gives the volume a second, autonomous collecting dimension: born in the religious culture of the fifteenth century, the book later entered one of the most prestigious monastic collections in Bavaria in the eighteenth century. RARITY The configuration of the present exemplar is exceptional: 24 works and treatises united in the grand corpus of 1494, Imitatio Christi, multiple authorial traditions, extensive contemporary rubrication, a large decorated initial, ancient pigskin binding on wooden boards, and Polling–Töpsl provenance. In the antiquarian market it is extremely difficult to find an exemplar capable of bringing together all these elements at once. It is thus its historical and material individuality that makes it almost unobtainable: not merely an incunabular edition, but a genuine historical artifact that has survived through more than five centuries of religious culture and collecting. HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE This incunabulum constitutes a true encyclopedia of late medieval spirituality. The 24 works and collections allow one to follow almost every aspect of Devotio Moderna: imitation of Christ, inner meditation, the life of the movement’s founders, monastic discipline, the training of novices, preaching, spiritual correspondence, poverty, humility, compunction, suffering, youth education, and aid to the poor. At the center dominates the Imitatio Christi, a text destined to exert enormous influence on European spirituality for the following centuries. The presence in the same volume of works linked to Thomas à Kempis, Johannes Gerson, Geert Groote, and the pseudo-bonaventuran tradition makes the collection far more than a simple edition of a single author’s works: it is the typographic synthesis of an entire spiritual civilization. The splendid rubrication also documents the still-hybrid nature of the incunabulum, produced by the press but completed by hand according to medieval codex conventions. The large rubricated initial opening Imitatio Christi symbolically marks the meeting point between manuscript and print. The provenance from the Polling monastery adds a second extraordinary chapter: from the world of Devotio Moderna in the fifteenth century to the monastic scholarship of Bavarian Catholic Enlightenment. Few books allow such a concrete crossing of more than three centuries of European intellectual and religious history. BIBLIOGRAPHY ISTC it00352000. GW M46672. Goff T-352. Hain-Copinger 9769. Pell 11082. CIBN T-222. Polain(B) 3777. BMC II, p. 475. BSB-Ink T-195. Thomas à Kempis, Opera. Thomas à Kempis, Imitatio Christi. Johannes Gerson, De meditatione cordis. Geert Groote, De vera compunctione cordis. Tradizione dello Pseudo-Bonaventura, Alphabetum boni monachi.

Estimate:$7,297.21

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