Augustine's Opus quaestionum

Johannes Trechsel, 1497

AUGUSTINE, Aurelius (354-430). Opus quaestionum. Edited by Augustinus de Ratisbona, Jodocus Badius Ascensius. [Lyons: Johannes Trechsel, 15 April 1497.]
First edition of newly edited works by Saint Augustine. Ratisbona, editor of these lesser-studied treatises from the prolific church father, had first approached Johan Amerbach to print them; when Amerbach turned him down, Johannes Trechsel stepped in. Grand plans for further collaboration between printer and editor were ended by Trechsel’s death not long after. The also-incomplete Boies Penrose copy is the only one recorded at auction since the 1980s by RBH and ABPC. HC 1965*; GW 2915; BMC VIII 301; BSB-Ink A-894; Bod-inc A-553; Goff A-1297; ISTC ia01297000.
Chancery folio (260 x 186mm). 268 leaves [of 286, lacking first and last gatherings]. Printed guide letters (dampstaining and soiling, some chipping especially at ends, a few wormholes). Later gilt calf (boards detached, spine panel with losses). Provenance: marginalia, mostly in Latin but with some notes in Greek – very faint inscription on first leaf dated 1576 – several inscriptions from the Methuen family, started with Thomas Metheun, dated 1591 – Thomas E. Marston (1905-1984, former curator of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Yale University) – purchased from C.A. Stonehill c.1943.


Collection of Marvin Colker