Summa Theologiae
The incunable Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) printed on April 10th, 1486 in Venice.
Very beautiful illuminated copy preserved in its contemporary pigskin binding.
Illuminated initial on the first leaf and floral decoration at the foot of the page; smaller initials painted in red and blue in the text, marked paragraphs.
Pigskin stamped over wooden boards of the period, arms cold-stamped on upper cover, Saint Michael slaying the dragon on the lower cover, red edges.Contemporary binding.
296 x 200 mm.
Aquinas, Thomas (c. 1225-1274). Summa Theologiae, Third Part.
Venice, Bernardinus Stagninus de Tridino, 10 April 1486.
Illuminated copy of the third part of Aquinas’s great unfinished work.
HC 1470*; BMC V 364; BSB-Ink T-298; IGI 9602; Goff T-222; ISTC it00222000.
Each part of the Summa has its own history of publication.
This third part, which addresses Christology, was first printed in the 1470s by Wenssler.
Thomas Aquinas devoted more than seven years of work to the Summa Theologiae, and even so, it remains unfinished. Readers are impressed not only by the immense size of the work (about two million words, or fourteen million characters—almost three times the length of the Bible), but also by the intellectual density of each article. Indeed, Thomas sought to condense and assemble in one organized work all theological ideas, objections, and knowledge of his time, along with his own.
He adopted a literary genre already common at the time (Alexander of Hales had already composed a Summa, as had his teacher Albert the Great), but he organized it in an organic way, revealing his originality.
This work is Thomas Aquinas’s final composition, written at the height of his intellectual maturity, and it followed him into posterity.
The Tertia Pars (Third Part) examines 90 questions (+99 questions counting the supplement), ranging from “the fittingness of the Incarnation” to “the parts of penance in general.” It is the study of Christ as mediator and the way to return to God (de Christo mediatore), that is, of the Incarnation, its reasons, the sacraments, the Church, etc.
Very beautiful illuminated copy preserved in its contemporary stamped pigskin binding.
Provenance: Inscription: Metten, Benedictine Abbey of Saint Michael (inscription and binding); Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich (duplicate note on flyleaf).
