De Fuga Mulierum. De Continentia. De Contemptu Mundi.

In-4 of (24) ff.; complete, minimal paper restorations without affecting the text at the upper corner of eight leaves, rubricated in red. Modern ivory vellum.

210 x 150 mm.

Aurelius Augustinus of Hippo (354-430). On the Flight of Women. On Continence. On the Contempt of the World. Letter to Presbyter Paulinus. Sermon on the Life and Conduct of the Clergy.

Second sermon on the life and conduct of the clergy.

Cologne, Ulrich Zell, c. 1469-1470.

Extremely rare original edition of six sermons of Saint Augustine printed by Ulrich Zell around 1469-1470.

ISTC, Ia01279000 ; GW, 2955 ; Hain HC, 1962 ; Goff, A-1279 ; Pellechet, 1470 ; Proctor, 861 & BSB-Ink C-32 ; CIBN A-733 ; IGI, VI 1000-A ; Oates, 358-9 ; Sheppard, 647-8 ; Rosenthal, 6144 ; Voulliéme, Köln, 212.

Content analysis:

“[a1r] Augustine [pseudo-; Caesarius of Arles]: ‘On the Flight of Women.’ [Also known as On the Honesty of Women] [sermon 41]. PL XXXIX 2301-5. ed. G. Morin, CCSL 103 (1953), 179-84. See CPL 1008 and CPPM 1078. CCSL ascribes to Caesarius of Arles.

[a4r] Augustine [pseudo-; Caesarius of Arles]: [Sermon 43.] ed. G. Morin, CCSL 103 (1953), 189-94. See CPPM 1074.

[a6v] Augustine [pseudo-]: Sermon on the Contempt of the World. PL XL 1215-18. See CPPM 1121.

[b3v] Jerome: Letter to Presbyter Paulinus. Incipit: ‘Obsecrote, Pauline karissime, ut multitudines hominum et salutaciones…

[b5r] Augustine: Sermon on the Life and Conduct of the Clergy [sermon 355]. PL XXXIX 1568-74. See CPL 284.

[c1v] Augustine: Second sermon on the life and conduct of the clergy [sermon 356]. PL XXXIX 1574-81. See CPL 284.”

Several of Saint Augustine’s sermons are among the Church’s most beautiful examples of exegesis.

Among the Church Fathers, Saint Augustine is the one around whom the Christian world has most fiercely disputed: Catholics and Protestants, Jansenists and Jesuits have all invoked his authority to uphold their doctrines. Augustine’s thought itself lent itself to endless interpretations: even the Inquisition claimed his support, due to his detailed definition of the use of torture in religious matters. But the point of his doctrine that has always fueled the most vehement controversies is that of predestination and grace. For Augustine, humanity is so deeply sunk in sin that its very nature forbids all aspiration toward good. Salvation, therefore, can only be the work of God alone. This doctrine has never been fully accepted by Catholicism. Among the Reformers, Luther supported predestination, and on this point Melanchthon parted ways with him, seeing in salvation the result of a cooperation between man and God; Calvin, for his part, formulated the dogma with relentless logic, and from this came innumerable conflicts among the various Reformed sects. It is well known that Jansenius, through his Augustinus, was at the origin of the quarrel that in the seventeenth century set the Port-Royal group and the Jesuits at odds over this issue.

(Michèle Federico Sciacca).

Ulrich Zell appears in 1453 in the university register under the name “Ulrich de Hanauw.” He learned the art of printing in Mainz in the workshop of Peter Schoeffer and Johann Fust, and most likely had to leave the city like many other printers, after the sacking of the city on the night of October 28, 1462, by the troops of Archbishop Adolph of Nassau.

He was the first printer to operate a press in Cologne.

In 1471, he bought the house “Lyskirchen” where he set up his print shop. In 1478, he is mentioned in a Cologne city document as “unse burger,” indicating that he had been received as a citizen of the city.

About 140 works are attributed to Ulrich Zell up to 1502: only nine bear his name in the colophon; the others are identified by the typefaces used; and he most likely printed even more.

He mainly specialized in printing theological books intended for a university audience; he also published classical Latin and a few humanist authors.

In 1499, the anonymous editor of the German Chronicle of Cologne, in the passage devoted to printing—which he attributes to Gutenberg—says: “The beginnings and advances of this art were told to me personally by the honorable man and master Ulrich Zell of Hanau, still a book printer in Cologne in our own time, 1499, by whom this art came to Cologne.”

Precious, very pure copy, with even wider margins (210 x 146 mm) than the beautiful AA. Renouard and Bodleian copies (198 x 135 mm).

Copies: Harv. CL ; HEHL ; LC ; NewL ; PML . UIIIL ; YUL.