De Civitate Dei

Two parts bound in 1 folio volume, (335) ll [a-e¹⁰ f⁸ g-r¹⁰ s⁸ t-z10 A¹⁰ B-C⁸ D-K¹⁰ L⁸ M5]. 2 columns, 47 liges (part I : text) and 57 lines (part II : commentary), types 2:112 (text) and 5:92 (commentary).

Jansenist blue morocco on wide boards, ribbed spine with gilt title, triple gilt fillet on edges, gilt edges (Unsigned English binding attributable to Charles Lewis, ca 1835).

390 x 294 mm.

Augustin d’Hippone – Saint Augustin (354-430). De Civitate Dei.

(Comm : Thomas Waleys and Nicolaus Trivet). [Strassburg : Johann Mentelin, not after 1468.]

[Strasbourg, Johann Mentelin, pas après 1468].

First edition with commentary and second edition published a year after that of Sweynheim and Panartz.

H 2056*; Pell 1554 ; Oates 75 ; IGI 975 ; Pr 201, 202 ; BMC I 52 (IC 513-514) ; GW 2883.

Famous and very rare Johann Mentelin edition of The City of God, Saint Augustine’s masterpiece, printed from the year 1468 in Strasbourg, first edition accompanied by the medieval commentary of the English Dominican professors at Oxford Thomas Waleys (1318-1349) and Nicholas Trevet (1297-1334) which is here in the first edition.

The Mentelin's edition was the first to break up the presentation of the table of contents: it placed the summaries of Books XIIIXXXII at the beginning of each of these four books (G. Bardy, Introduction aux Œuvres de Saint Augustin, Desclée de Brouwer, p. 50) and served as the model for subsequent editions of The City of God up to Amerbach's in 1494. Mentelin, who within five years published the other major texts of the Bishop of Hippo—De arte praedicandi in 1466, the editio princeps of the Confessions in 1470, and the Epistolae in 1471—was thus the first major editor of Saint Augustine.

The edition is undated, like most of Mentelin's editions, and the terminus is provided by three copies with a rubrication date of 1468 (including those in Chantilly and the John Rylands Library, rubricated by Bämler in 1468). It is in two parts: the first 252 folios contain the text of the Bishop of Hippo, and the following 84 contain the commentary. Mentelin uses his Type 2b for the text, very close to the typefaces of the 1460 Bible; and smaller type, which appeared in 1463, for the commentary.

Four large capitals painted in bright colors (red and green) open the first four books of Saint Augustine's text.

Part 1 with 26 6- and 7-line illuminated initials with penwork infill and extensions in green, red, and blue; 3-line initials in red with extensions; rubricated 2-line incipit, book headings & 10-line rubricator's note dated 30 July 1476 at Eichstaett. Part 2 with 8-line illuminated initial in blue with red penwork infill & extensions; 3- to 7-line initials illuminated in red, blue & green with penwork infill & extensions; rubricated 3-line incipit & book headings, etc.

Regarding the nature of the work, commentators today agree that it is "not a treatise on political theory, but the expression of a philosophy of history, which strives to discern a divine design in the course of events" (Henry Chadwick). Augustine reveals himself as an exegete, philosopher, and theologian, drawing inspiration in turn from the Bible, Cicero, Varro, and Eusebius, and tracing back to Plato, Porphyry, and Plotinus. He offers a theological vision of the history of humanity, the history of sin and salvation, of happiness and misfortune. The work is described as a "theology of history" by Henri Irénée Marrou, or even more concisely as a "treatise on religion" by Goulven Madec.

The intended audience for The City of God was intellectuals, contemporaries of Augustine, who had not converted to Christianity. Even though the author sometimes gives the impression of relentlessly attacking a "bookish paganism," like a brilliant and verbose rhetorician, Augustine moves from polemic to dogmatic demonstration: after his "demolition of paganism," he sets out to show that only Christianity offers the truth that satisfies both heart and mind, being the path that liberates from evil and misery.

In the Middle Ages, this work was invoked to justify papal primacy (from Gregory VII to Boniface VIII), even though Augustine did not acknowledge theocracy and never stated that imperial power was vested in the Church. He consistently recognized the legitimacy and autonomy of the political sphere. Until recently, however, there were Catholic historians who justified political Augustinianism, asserting, like Arquillière, that "it enabled the popes to save Christendom from the deadly grip of the German sovereigns."

Bossuet, the great theorist of royal absolutism, also defended the tenets of political Augustinianism in his Politics Drawn from Holy Scripture and his Discourse on Universal History. He misled many generations who, partly because of him, misinterpreted The City of God…

Provenance : Marginalia in ink by a 15th-century corrector (cf. his annotation at the bottom of folio 252 dated: "Anno &c Ixxvij. di martis penulti[m]a Julij. Eystet." [July 30, 1476, Eichstatt]); Library of the Prince-Bishopric of Eichstatt (17th-century inscription in the lower margin of the first folio: "Ad Bibl: Aul: Eystettensem"); Edward Herbert, Earl of Powis (bookplate); Estelle Doheny (bookplate; purchased from Rosenbach, October 23, 1942).

Precious Estelle Doheny’s copy sold for $ 103 500 on December 14, 2001, in New York, 25 years ago.