The Sixteenth Century Part VIII - Gilhofer & Ranschburg GmbH

The Sixteenth Century
Part VIII

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PART: 8
1. AUBERT, Guillaume (1534?-1601).
Elegie sur le trespas de feu Ioachi. Du
Bellay Ang. 4to. (6) leaves (including one
blank). With the printers device on the title-page.
Half-calf, a fine ruled copy.
Paris, Frédéric Morel, 1560.
FIRST EDITION of this elegy on the death of
Joachim Du Bellay (c. 1522-1560), the most important
poet of the Pléïade after Pierre de Ronsard.
He was born near Liré in Anjou into a family
of diplomats, bishops and soldiers. Because of
his poor health and the loss of his parents, his
early education was neglected. In 1545 he began
low school at Poitiers, but he left his studies after
he was introduced to poetry by Jacques Peletier
du Mans. In 1547 he joined Ronsard and Jean-
Antoine de Baïf at the Collège de Coqueret with
Jean Dorat, an erudite professor of Greek, as
principal. In 1549 he published his manifesto,
Défence et illustration de la langue française, which
called for the renewal and enrichment of French
through the imitation of Greco-Roman and Italian
texts. His sonnet sequence l?Olive (1549-50)
was a landmark in literary history and as a practical
example of the precepts of the Défence. A
change in style occurred during his travel to Rome in 1553. Here he wrote Les regrets, which contain his
most celebrated verses and describe in a poetic ‘journal’ his life in the Eternal City with its many disappointments
and his return journey to France. Distancing himself from the elevated principles of the
Défence and from Ronsard’s more erudite tendencies, Du Bellay turns the sonnet form into a medium
for expressing more personal thoughts and feelings. The elegiac turn, recalling Ovid, blends with the
satirical trains that Du Bellay draws from Horace and from contemporary Italian burlesque poetry (cf.
G.H. Tucker, Joachim du Bellay, poète français et néolatine entre ecile et la patrie, in: “Revue de literature française
et compare”, 3, 1994, pp. 57-63).
Guillaume Aubert, a native of Poitiers, was lawyer at the Parlement de Paris and the author of
several literary works. He translated into French the Twelfth Book of Amadis de Gaula (1555) and his
Oraison de la Paix (1559) made him a forerunner of the League of Nations. In 1569 he edited the collected
French works of his friend Joachim du Bellay. He also left some historical and juridical works
(cf. G. Fagniez, ed., Mémorial juridique et historique de Guillaume Aubert, in: “Mémoires de la Société de
l’histoire de Paris”, XXXI, 1909, pp. 47-82).
Adams A-2117; Index Aureliensis 109.622; A. Cioranesco, Bibliographie de la literature française du
16e siècle, (Paris, 1959), p. 90, no. 2672.
€ 650.- / CHF 800.- / $ 730.-

2. BARBARO, Francesco (1390-1454).
De re uxoria libelli duo. 4to. XXXIII, (1)
leaves (the last is a blank). With the printer's
device on the title-page. Vellum, contemporary
panels with blindstamped center-piece and
the date 1513 (probably added later), marbled
endpapers, upper margins cut a bit
short, occasionally touching the running
title, otherwise a fine copy ruled throughout
and with the large woodcut initials colored
in red, blue, green and gold.
Paris, Josse Bade, June 2, 1514.
REISSUE OF THE FIRST EDITION (October
7, 1513), with the same collation, in which just the
subscription on the bottom of the last leaf was
changed. It was edited by the French jurisconsult
André Tiraqueau (1488-1558), then newly married
to Marie Cailler, as can be read in his dedication to
his father-in-law Arthur Cailler. Tiraqueau had
published in 1513 De legibus connubialibus, in which
he exhibited an alternate definition of the legal
framework of marriage, based on a different perspective
than that proposed by Barbaro.
The De re uxoria became the most influential Renaissance
treatise on marriage and the legal status of
women (it was in fact reprinted numerous times and translated into English, French, German and Italian).
But is was more than simply instructions to wives on their personal and domestic obligations.
Barbaro wanted to extol the family as the basis for the aristocratic polity of his native Venice. Although
written for an aristocratic Florentine friend, the tract provides a fine insight into the values of
the Venetian ruling class. In Book I Barbaro discusses two key topics: the nature of marriage and the
choice of a wife; in Book II, the duties of a wife toward her husband, household, and children. The
two principal wifely duties are seen in the management of the household and rearing of children. In
these spheres Barbaro permitted considerably responsibility. Domestic cares included the training and
overseeing of the servants and the provisioning and daily management of the household. But the rearing,
nursing, and training of children were viewed as even more important duties.
“With his emphasis in the De re uxoria on the family as the basic unit of state and society, and
on the duties of wives in this context, Barbaro created a new literary genre. Aided by his studies of
works from Greek antiquity on similar themes, Barbaro gave the conventional treatise on family life a
new twist. He was to be followed by such famous works as Leon Battista Alberti's Della familia and
Vegio's treatise on the education of children, as well as several tracts on matrimony by humanist
friends, including Guiniforte Barzizza, Poggio Bracciolini, and Giovanni Antonio Campano. But the
De re uxoria stands as a pioneering work on the subject of love, marriage, and family among the aristocratic
classes of Europe in the early modern period” (B.G. Kohl & R.G. Witt., ed., The Earthly Republic.
Italian Humanists on Government and Society, Manchester, 1978, p. 186-187).
Francesco Barbaro, born into a long-established, wealthy Venetian noble family, was raised
after his father's premature death by his widowed mother and later in the household of his elder
brother Zaccaria. The young Barbaro studied Latin literature and rhetoric under Giovanni Conversini
and Gasparino Barzizza. In 1498 he followed his teacher to the University of Padua, where he received
his doctorate in arts in 1412. In Padua he also met the learned Venetian Zaccaria Trevisan, who

instructed him in the rudiments of Greek and provided him with a fine model of the humaniststatesman.
Barbaro never forgot his debt to Trevisan, which he acknowledged several times in the De
re uxoria. Back in Venice he came under the spell of Guarino da Verona, bringing him into his own
household. During a stay in Florence he developed a close friendship with his fellow aristocrat
Lorenzo de' Medici and met other Florentine literati as Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, Ambrogio
Traversari, etc. It was also in Florence that Barbaro conceived of composing the De re uxoria to celebrate
the approaching marriage of Lorenzo and Ginevra Cavalcanti. Although his treatise and his literary
skills were greatly praised by his teacher Guarino and other humanist friends as Poggio Bracciolini
and Pier Paolo Vergerio, Barbaro did not continue his humanist writings. In 1419 he married the
young Venetian noblewoman Maria Loredan and began his career as a Venetian statesman with his
election to membership in the Senate at the exceptionally early age of twenty-nine (cf. P. Gothein,
Francesco Barbaro. Frühhumanismus und Staatskunst in Venedig, Berlin, 1932, pp. 63-71).
Index Aureliensis 112.869; Ph. Renouard, Bibliographie des impressions et des oeuvres de Josse Badius
Ascensius, (Paris, 1908), II, p. 144, no. 2; G. Müller, Bildung und Erziehung im Humanismus der italienischen
Renaissance, (Wiesbaden, 1969), pp. 165, 186; R. Kelso, Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance, (Urbana,
IL, 1956), p. 333, no. 65.
€ 2,200.- / CHF 2,700.- / $ 2,900.-
3. BEUTHER, Abraham (fl. 2 nd half of the 16 th century). �� ��� ���� �����.
���������� � �����������, AD GERMANOS, ��������, et subditos
illustrissimorum Ducum Saxoniae fideles.Gratulatio item ac votum ob natalem et pro
auspicatio in novum annum ingressu Illustrissimi Principis ac Domini, Domini
Frederici, Filioli Principis Christinissimi ac Domini, Domini Friderici Guglielmi, Ducis
Saxoniae, Langravij Thuringiae, & Marchionis Misniae… 4to. (7) leaves (lacking the last
blank). With an allegorical woodcut device on the verso of the title-page. Unbound, very lightly
browned and some light spots on the inner blank margin of one leaf, a good copy.
Dresden, Matthes Stöckel, 1587.
FIRST EDITION of this poem congratulating Frederick William, duke of Saxony, for the birth of his
son Frederick, who, however, died shortly after.
Apparently unrecorded.
€ 350.- /CHF 420.- / $ 460.-
4. BORROMEO, Carlo (1538-1584). Constitutiones et decreta condita in provinciali
synodo Mediolanensi. 12mo. (12) leaves (including one blank), 268 pp., (18) leaves. With
the woodcut arms of Archbishop Carlo Borromeo on the title-page and the printer's device at the end.
Contemporary limp vellum, gilt edges, a fine copy.
Milano, Francesco Serono for Giovanni Battista da Ponte e fratelli, 1566
VERY RARE ORIGINAL 12 mo EDITION (one of two variant editions). The same printer produced
also a quarto-edition. In the same year three octavo editions were published respectively by Paolo
Manuzio at Venice, by Pietro Antonio Alciati at Padua, and by Tommaso Bozzola at Brescia All in all
over six-thousand copies were produced and successively sent to all cardinals and to the main bishoprics
in Italy and abroad (Poland, Germany, France, Spain and Portugal). Since the Da Ponte brothers
were printers to the archbishop of Milan, it has to be assumed that their imprints were certainly the
first.
During the last sessions of the Council of Trent, Borromeo shared the father's emphasis on the

importance of restoring and rebuilding the diocesan organisation. Along with the fathers, Borromeo
believed that the dioceses, led by the bishops, were the foundation on which the church rested.
Though Borromeo was convinced of a bishop's obligation to reside in his diocese, as the council had
decreed, he was detained in Rome in 1564 by the business of the papal confirmation and the initial
execution of the conciliar decrees. Meanwhile he charged a reform-minded vicar-general, Niccolò Ormaneto,
to proceed to Milan, to publish and execute the decrees of Trent, to establish a seminary, to
convoke a diocesan synod, and to reform the religious houses. At that time Milan was the largest archdiocese
in Italy. Within its ecclesiastical boundaries were more than two thousand churches, three
thousand clergy, one hundred and ten monasteries, ninety convents, and over eight hundred thousand
souls. In 1565 Borromeo obtained from pope Pius' IV permission to leave Rome. He resigned all his
curial offices except membership on the new Congregation of the Council and made his solemn entry
into Milan as archbishop on 23 September 1565. From October 10 to November 3, he presided a provincial
council, the first to be held in Milan since 1311. Eleven bishops and their retainers attended
this council and examined all aspects of ecclesiastical life. From the content and execution of the liturgy
to the administration of benefices, from the formation of the clergy to the extent of Episcopal
jurisdiction. There were strong differences of opinion on the subjects of residence, cloister, reorganisation
of the cathedral chapters, and the prohibition of mothers and sisters living in the parish house.
In general, as can be seen from the Constitutiones, however, Borromeo's position on these issues triumphed.
Also the civil authority, the Senate of Milan, showed strong opposition to the publication of
some decrees of the council and attempted to have them modified before publication, finding some of
their provisions detrimental to the prerogatives of lay authority (e.g. the decree obliging physicians and
schoolmasters to profess Catholicism before being able to practice). Borromeo refused to request the
civil authority's approval of his decrees, and he promulgated them on his own authority. The ensuing
struggle between the archbishop and the temporal magistrates continued with greater or lesser intensity
throughout the remainder of his life. However, Borromeo's feverish activity brought reform not
just to the Lombard plain, but to other dioceses as well, even at Rome and in other Catholic countries
(cf. E. Cattaneo, Il primo Concilio provinciale milanese, in: “Il Concilio di Trento e la riforma tridentina.
Atti del convegno storico internazioanle. Trento, 2-6 settembre 1963”, Roma, 1965, pp. 215-275).
Edit 16, CNC 34077; Index Aureliensis 122.509.
€ 450.- / CHF 550.- / $ 590.-
5. BUCHANAN, George (1506-1582). Franciscanus & fratres, Quibus accessere varia
eiusdem & aliorum Poëmata… Eiusdem Psalmos soersim non sine accessione excudit.
8vo. 3 parts. (8) leaves, 319; 176; 143 pp. Vellum, red edges, some very light browning
and spots, old entry of ownership on the title-page, a fine copy.
Basel, Thomas Guarinus, (1568).
FIRST EDITION of this collection edited by Karel Utenhove, containing works already published
but here extant in variant states, and poems here published for the first time. Utenhove was in touch
with the French printer Frederic Morel since 1564 about the publication of Buchanan’s poems,
whereas also some of Buchanan’s friends in Paris had the same plans. Thus the Franciscanus was published
in 1566 (probably at Geneva) and various other poems by Robert Estienne in 1567. Utenhove
had left Paris for London and until 1568 had no communication with Buchanan. His edition therefore
was something of an anticlimax after the appearance of the elegies, silvae and hendecasyllabic poems
in Paris in the previous years. Utenhove was working from manuscripts sources other and earlier than
those used for the Estienne volume. The translations of Medea, Alcestis and his tragedy Jephthes had already
been printed before, but the translation of some of Simonides poems appears here for the first
time. At all events Utenhove’s edition is interesting now mainly on two counts: for the variants which
he offers and for the appearance of poems that had not been printed before: the Fratres poems appear
in a complete set and the important poem to Walter Haddon is included (cf. I.D. McFarlane, George

Buchanan’s Latin poems from script to print: a preliminary
survey, in: “The Library”, Fifth Series, XXIV, 1969,
pp. 277-332).
George Buchanan, the famous Scottish humanist, is
said to have attended Killearn school, but not much
is known about his first education. His father died at
an early age leaving his widow and children in poverty.
In 1520 he was sent to the University of Paris
by his uncle. After his death he returned to Scotland
and graduated from the university of St. Andrews.
Buchanan returned to Paris where he continued his
studies and were he was appointed regent in the college
of Sainte-Barbe. In 1532 he returned to Scotland
with Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis,
whose tutor he was to become. Because of his faith
he was arrested during the persecution of the Lutherans
in 1539, but managed to escape and settled
first at Paris and then at Bordeaux, where he found
a position in the newly founded Collège de
Guyenne. Among his pupils was Michel de Montaigne,
who classed Buchanan in his essay On Presumption
with Jean Dorat, Théodore de Bèze, Michel
de L’Hôpital and Adrien Turnèbe as one of the
foremost Latin poets of his time. At Bordeaux he
also formed a lasting friendship with Julius Caesar
Scaliger. After a short stay in Paris again, he was invited
to lecture in the Portuguese university of
Coimbra (1547). In 1549 he was accused of Lutheran
and Judaist practices, sentenced to abjure and to be imprisoned in the monastery of São Bento
in Lisbon. After his release in 1552 Buchanan returned to Paris as regent of the college of Boncourt.
In 1560 he was obliged to leave France and returned to Scotland as tutor of the young queen Mary. In
1566 he was appointed principal of St. Leonard’s College in St. Andrew’s. In 1570 he became one of
the preceptors of the young king James VI, was for a short time chancery and Lord Privy Seal. His last
years were occupied with two of his most important scholarly works De jure apud Scotos (1579) and Rerum
Scotarum historia, completed shortly before his death and published in 1582 (cf. I.D. McFarlane,
Buchanan, London, 1981, passim).
The importance of Utenhove’s anthology is furthermore stressed by the inclusion of poems by
three other important men: Michel de l’Hôpital (ca. 1503-1573), chancellor of France, Adrien Turnèbe
(1512-1565), whose scholarship was valued by all of the new generation of poets, and for whom access
to the wisdom of the classical past was an absolute necessity, and Jean Dorat (1508?-1588), also a
great classical scholar and tutor of Ronsard. This anthology also shows Utenhove’s and Buchanan’s
connections with many of the leading scholars of the time and their numerous common relationships.
Some of the poems of the first two authors had already been published separately by Frederic Morel
between 1558 and 1560, but are here collected for the first time (cf. Th. Schmitz, L’ode latine pendant la
Renaissance française, in: “Humanistica Lovaniensia”, XLIII, 1994, pp. 173-217).
The third part of the volume consists of the Xenia by Karel Utenhove (1536-1600) and some
verses by George Buchanan, Joachim Du Bellay and Adrien Turnèbe. Utenhove was born in Ghent
and his father was a friend of Erasmus, and a prominent protestant. He was sent to Basel to continue
his studies and lived there in the house of the humanist Thomas Platter. When he came to Paris in
1556 with his father and his brothers, he was soon introduced to Jean de Morel, through whom he
came to know various humanists and members of the Pléïade. He was to pursue his studies under
Adrien Turnèbe and became tutor to Morel’s daughters. He then accompanied the French embassy
headed by Paul de Foix to England and Scotland. In 1568-69 he matriculated at the University of

Basel, where he edited the present anthology. He spent the next ten years mostly in Düsseldorf and
Cologne. In 1589 be returned to Basel as professor of Greek, but settled definitively at Cologne a year
later, where de died in 1600. Utenhove belonged to an interesting and important international group
of humanist poets with many contacts and cross-contacts and with a wide range of friends and acquaintances.
All this is clearly reflected in the Xenia, dedicated to Queen Elisabeth, in which we find
verses addressed to rulers and noblemen such as Emperor Maximilian II., Philip King of Spain, Henri
II, François II, Charles IX, Catherine de’ Medici, Mary Stuart, Emanuel Philibert of Savoy, Marguerite
de France, Anna d’Este, William of Cleves-Jülich, Christoph of Württemberg, Albert of Bavaria,
Hermann of Neuenahr, Robert Dudley, William of Nassau, William Cecil; and to relatives, friends and
acquaintances as Jean de Morel, Camille de Morel, Jacopo Sannazaro, Joachim Du Bellay, Pierre Ronsard,
Jean Dorat, Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Adrien Turnèbe, Rémy Belleau, Pierre de la Ramée, Pierre
Galland, Etienne Jodelle, Johannes Oporinus, Basilius Amerbach, Thomas Guarinus, Gerard Mercator,
Hubert Languet, Felix Platter, Théodore de Bèze, Johann Wier, Hieronymus Wolf, Michel de
Nostredame and Orlando de Lassus (of whom a poem in answer to Utenhove is included). (cf. L.
Forster, Charles Utenhove and Germany, in: “European Context: Studies in the History and Literature of
the Netherlands presented to Theodoor Weevers”, ed. P.K. King, Cambridge, 1971, pp. 60-80).
Inserted in Utenhove’s Xenia are some Latin poems by Camille de Morel (1547-1611), the
learned daughter of Jean de Morel and Antoinette de Loynes, whose house was frequented by all the
major poets of the Pléïade. The lessons of her mother doubtless served as the foundation for her
learning. But before she reached her tenth year, she was confided to the tutorship of Karel Utenhove.
Her brilliance was admired by Joachim Du Bellay, Michel de L’Hôpital, Jean Dorat and George Buchanan,
who had an opportunity to appreciate her accomplishments (I, p. 132). One of her earliest
works probaly was Dialogismus Extemporalis with Du Bellay, in which Camille is saluted as the ‘Tenth
Muse‘ (III, p. 81) (cf. S.F. Will, Camille de Morel: A Prodigy of the Renaissance, in: “Papers of the Modern
Language Association”, 51/1, 1939, pp. 83-119).
Adams, B-3051; VD 16, B-8976 ; J.P. Barbier, Ma Bibliothèque Poétique, IV/3, (Genève, 2002),
pp. 378-379, no. 45; P.G. Bietenholz, Basle and France in the Sixteenth Century, (Genève, 1971), p. 269,
no. 200.
€ 1,600.- / CHF 2,000.- / $ 2,100.-
6. BULLA absolutionis concilii Lateranen. cum decreto expeditionis in Turchos generalis
ac impo­sitione decimarum per triennium lecta in duodecima & ultima sessione
per R.D. patriarcham Aquilegien. 8vo. (4) leaves. With the papal arms on the title-page.
Boards, some light spots and browning, but a fine copy.
Roma, Etienne Guillery, July 28, 1517.
FIRST DATED EDITION (the only other extant variant is without date, but was certainly printed at
Rome by Marcello Silber about the same time, cf. Edit 16, CNCE 13947).
Pope Leo X presided personally over the twelfth and last session of the Fifth Lateran Council
on March 16, 1517. There were eighteen cardinals present, three Latin patriarchs, some eighty
archbishops and bishops, the usual curial officers, and the ambassadors residing in Rome. Cardinal
Carvajal, who had opposed the council so bitterly under Julius II, now celebrated the opening mass,
and Massimo Corvino, bishop of Isernia in southern Italy, preached a pompous sermon, after which a
letter of Emperor Maximilian was read. The emperor acknowledged receipt of a papal brief informing
him of the Sultan Selim’s victory over the Egyptian soldan in Syria and urging him to join the projected
crusade against the Turks. After Andreas Piperario, secretary of the council, had read letters
from Francis I, Charles V, and other rulers pledging similar support for the crusade, other business
was discussed, and Marino Grimani, the new patriarch of Aquileia, read the present bull Constituti juxta
verbum prophetae, which also reviewed the work of the council. Leo’s constitution imposed a three years’
tithe to be levied for the crusade in universo orbe. It was to be paid by churches, monasteries, and hold-

ers of ecclesiastical benefices. With a final
admonition to the princes of Europe to keep
the peace, Leo dismissed the attending fathers
to return to their churches (cf. K.M.
Setton, Pope Leo X and the Turkish Peril, in:
“Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society” 113/6, 1969, pp. 395-396). The
planned crusade against the Turks came
naught, mainly owing to the religious upheaval
in Germany caused by Luther.
“Leo, bishop, servant of the servants of God,
with the approval of the council, for an everlasting
record… Our aim is also to crush the
Turks and other infidels standing firm in the
eastern and southern regions. They treat the
way of true light and salvation with complete
contempt and totally unyielding blindness;
they attack the life-giving cross on which our
Saviour willed to accept death so that by dying
he might destroy death, and by the ineffable
mystery of his most holy life he might
restore life; and they make themselves hateful
enemies of God and most bitter persecutors
of the Christian religion. Strengthened by defences not only spiritual but also temporal, we may be
able, under God's guidance and favour, to oppose the bitter and frequent sallies by which, in wild
rage, they move savagely amidst Christian blood … We decree, with the approval of the sacred council,
that the said campaign against the infidels is to be undertaken and carried through… During a subsequent
period of three years, we imitated them by means of an authorisation from ourselves and our
said brothers for imposing and exacting a tithe on the revenues of churches, monasteries and other
benefices throughout the world and for doing each and every other thing that is necessary and customary
in a campaign of this kind. We continually pour forth holy, humble and earnest prayers to almighty
God that the campaign may have a happy outcome. We order the same to be done by all
Christ's faithful of either sex. We exhort Maximilian, the emperor-elect, and kings, princes and Christian
rulers, whose courage God bids us to rouse, beseeching them by the tender mercy of our God,
Jesus Christ, and appealing to them by his fearful judgment to remember that they shall have to render
an account of their defence and preservation - even by giving their lives - of the church itself, which
has been redeemed by Christ's blood, and to rise up in strength and power for the defence of the
Christian faith, as is incumbent on them as a personal and necessary duty, with all mutual hatred being
set aside and quarrels and conflicts among themselves being committed to everlasting oblivion”
(leaves A2v-A3r) Edit 16, CNCE 52830 (one copy recorded only: University Library, Bologna); C. Göllner,
Turcica, (Bucarest & Baden-Baden, 1968), I, p. 65, no. 88; N.P. Tanner, SJ., ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical
Councils, (London, 1990), p. 653.
€ 950.- / CHF 1,150.- / $ 1,240.-
DEDICATION COPY
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF REFORMATION:
THE SECOND HELVETIC CONFESSION
7. [BULLINGER, Heinrich (1504-1575)]. Confessio et expositio simplex orthodoxae
fidei, & dogmatu(m) Catholicorum synceræ religionis Christianæ, concorditer ab
Ecclesiæ Christi ministris, qui sunt in Helvetia, Tiguri, Bernæ, Scaphusij, Sangalli, Curiæ
Rhetorum & apud confœderatos, Mylhusij item, & Biennæ, quibus adiunxerunt se &

Genevensis Ecclesiæ ministri, edita in hoc, ut universis testentur fidelibus, quòd in
unitate veræ & antiquæ Christi Ecclesiæ, perstent, neq(ue) ulla nova aut erronea
dogmata spargant, atque ideo etiam nihil consortij cum Sectis aut hæresibus habeant:
hoc demum vulgata tempore, qui de ea æstimare pijs omnibus liceat. 4to. (4), 48 leaves.
Zürich, Christopher Froschauer, March 1566. - Bound with:
- - -. Bekanntnuß deß waaren Gloubens, unnd einfalte erlüterung der rächten
allgemeinen Leer un(d) houptartickel der reinen Christlichen Religion, von den Dienern
der kyrchen Christi in der Eydgnoschaft, die da sind zu Zürych, Bern, und Schaffhusen,
in der Statt Sant Gallen, in der Statt Chur, unnd in den dryen Pündten, ouch zu
Müllhusen und Byell, zu welchen sich auch gethon habend, die Diener der kyrchen zu
Genf, einhällig ußgangen yederman zu bezügen, daß sy in der einigkeit der waaren,
uralten, Christlichen kyrchen bestond, unnd keine nüwe irrige leeren, auch gar kein
gemeinsame mit einichen Secten oder Kätzeryen habend: darumb yetzund erst diser zyt
fürgestellt, daß alle gloubige hiervon urteylind. 4to. (4) 68 leaves. Old boards, some light
browning, three small stamps on the blank margins of the first title-page, but a very
fine copy, preserved in a cloth box.
Zürich, Christopher Froschauer, March 1566.
EXTREMELY RARE FIRST EDITIONS (first issues) of both the Latin and German redaction of
the so-called Second Helvetic Confession, Bullinger’s crowning achievement, the most comprehensive and
authoritative Reformed confession of faith. It not only became the international standard of belief for
many of the Reformed churches and a key frame of reference for new doctrinal departures, but also
remains part of the Reformed heritage even today. The Confession consists of thirty chapters, which
cover in natural order all the articles of faith and discipline which then challenged the attention of the
Church (cf. A.C. Cochrane, Reformed Confessions of the Sixteenth Century, Louisville, KY 2003, pp. 220-
223).
The First Helvetic Confession known also as the Second Confession of Basel, was drawn up at that city
in 1536 by Heinrich Bullinger and Leo Jud of Zürich, Kaspar Megander of Bern, Oswald Myconius
and Simon Grynaeus of Basel, Martin Bucer and Wolfgang Capito of Strasbourg, with other representatives
from Schaffhausen, St Gall, Mülhausen and Biel. The first draft was in Latin and the Zürich
delegates objected to its Lutheran phraseology. Leo Jud's German translation was more or less ac-

cepted by all, and after Myconius and
Grynaeus had modified the Latin form,
both versions were agreed to and
adopted on February 26, 1536.
With the time, however, the
Swiss churches had found the First Helvetic
Confession too short and still to Lutheran.
Thus Bullinger started to compose
what became the Second Helvetic
Confession as a private exercise and an
abiding testimony of the faith in which
he had lived and in which he wished to
die. He showed it to Peter Martyr, who
fully consented to it, shortly before his
death (Nov. 12, 1562). Two years later
he elaborated it more fully during the
raging of the pestilence, and added it to
his will, which was to be delivered to
the magistrate of Zurich after his
death, which he then expected every
day. But events in Germany gave it a
public character. The pious Elector of
the Palatinate, Frederick III., being
threatened by the Lutherans with exclusion
from the treaty of peace on account
of his secession to the Reformed
Church and publication of the Heidelberg
Catechism (1563), requested Bullinger
(1565) to prepare a clear and full
exposition of the Reformed faith, that
he might answer the charges of heresy
and dissension so constantly brought
against the same. Bullinger sent him a
manuscript copy of his Confession. The Elector was so much pleased with it that he desired to have it
translated and published in Latin and German before the meeting of the Imperial Diet, which was to
assemble at Augsburg in 1566, to act on his alleged apostasy. But he made such a manly and noble
defense of his faith before the Diet, that even his Lutheran opponents were filled with admiration for
his piety, and thought no longer of impeaching him for heresy.
In the mean time the Swiss felt the need of such a Confession as a closer bond of union. The
First Helvetic Confession was deemed too short, and the Zurich Confession of 1545, the Zurich Consensus
of 1549, and the Geneva Consensus of 1552 touched only the articles of the Lord's Supper and
predestination. Conferences were held, and Théodore de Bèze came in person to Zurich to take part
in the work. Bullinger freely consented to a few changes, and prepared also the German version. Geneva,
Berne, Schaffhausen, Biel, the Grisons, St. Gall, and Mühlhausen expressed their agreement.
Basle alone, which had its own Confession, declined for a long time, but ultimately acceded.
The new Confession appeared at Zurich, March 12, 1566, in both languages, at public expense,
and was forwarded to the Elector and to Philip of Hesse. Glarus, Basle, Appenzell, Neuchâtel (1568),
France (at the Synod of La Rochelle, 1571), Poland (1571 and 1578), Hungary (at the Synod of Debreczin,
1567), and Scotland (1566), approved the Confession. A French translation appeared in 1566
in Geneva under the care of Bèze. Later it was translated not only into English, but also into Dutch,
Magyar, Polish, Italian, Arabic, and Turkish (cf. W. Hildebrand & R. Zimmermann, Bedeutung und
Geschichte des Zweiten Helvetischen Bekenntnisses, Zürich, 1938, pp. 58-60)
Like most of the Confessions of the sixteenth century, the Helvetic Confession is expanded beyond the lim-

its of a popular creed into a lengthy theological treatise. It is the matured fruit of the preceding symbolical
labors of Bullinger and the Swiss Churches. It is in substance a restatement of the First Helvetic
Confession, in the same order of topics, but with great improvements in matter and form. It is scriptural,
wise and judicious, full and elaborate, yet simple and clear, uncompromising towards the errors
of Rome, moderate in its dissent from the Lutheran dogmas. It proceeds on the conviction that the
Reformed faith is in harmony with the true Catholic faith of all ages, especially the ancient Greek and
Latin Church.
Hence it is preceded by the Imperial edict of 380 (from the recognized Justinian code), which
draws the line between orthodoxy and heresy, and excludes as heresies only the departures from the
Apostolic and Nicene faith. It inserts also the brief Trinitarian creed ascribed to the Roman Pope
Damasus (from the writings of Jerome), and referred to in said decree as a standard of orthodoxy. As
in former Confessions, so also in this, Bullinger distinctly recognizes, in the spirit of Christian liberty
and progress, the constant growth in the knowledge of the Word of God, and the consequent right of
improvement in symbolical statements of the Christian faith.
Upon the whole, the Second Helvetic Confession occupies the first rank among the Reformed Confessions.
Already the great Swiss theologian and historian Karl Rudolf Hagenbach in his Kritische
Geschichte der Entstehung und Schicksale der ersten Basler Confession (Basel, 1827, p. 86) wrote: “In ihrer ganzen
Anlage und in der Durchführung einzelner Punkte, namentlich in praktischer Beziehung (in der
Scheidung des Geistlichen and Weltlichen, u.s.w.) ist sie ein wahres dogmatisches Kunstwerk zu nennen”
- See also J. Staedtke, Die historische Bedeutung der ’Confessio Helvetica Posterior’, in: “Vierhundert Jahre
‘Confessio Helvetica Posterior’”, (Bern, 1967), pp. 8-18.
“Es ist erstaunlich, wie rasch und wie Zahlreich sich die Kirchen der Schweiz und des Auslands dem
Zweiten Helvetischen Bekenntnis anschlosssen. Man kann von einem Siegeszug der Helvetica posterior
reden. Dieser Erfolg ist doppelt beachtlich darum, weil es sich dabei um den Zürcher und nicht
um den Genfer Lehrtypus handelt, und weil also mit der Zweiten Helvetischen Konfession nicht die
Theologie des berühmteren Genf, sondern die Zürcher Theologie eine so grosse Verbreitung fand.
Diese Tatsache muss erklärt werden. Die Erklärung liegt in dem einen Namen: Heinrich Bullinger. Es
war die ihm eigentümliche Haltung, die in jedem Zeitpunkt, den richtigen Ton traf, und die der Helvetica
posterior ihre Durchschlagsktaft verlieh” (F. Blanke, Die Entstehung und Bedeutung des Zweiten Helvetischen
Bekenntnisses, in: “Reformatio”, 15, (1966), p. 577)
Heinrich Bullinger was born at Bremgarten (Aargau) the youngest of five sons of the parish
priest there. In 1519 he began his studies at the University of Cologne earning a master of arts early in
1522. The burning of Luther’s books and the ensuing controversy at the university aroused in him an
interest in theology and became an evangelical by the time he returned home in April 1522. In January
1523 he accepted the position of head teacher at the Cistercian monastery at Kappel and also first met
Huldrych Zwingli. He attended the disputations with the Anabaptists in Zürich in 1525 and accompanied
Zwingli in January 1528 to the disputation at Berne, where he met other Swiss reformers. A year
later he replaced his father as pastor in Bremgarten and after the death of Zwingli he accepted the invitation
to replace the latter as Antistes of the Zurich church. He then was instrumental in reaffirming
Zurich’s adhesion to the Reformed faith and renewed all the moral legislations of prior years. During
his first decade of leadership in Zürich, he preached six to eight sermons a week, was director of the
Zürich academy until 1537, after which he continued as professor of theology Bullinger has an influence
throughout Europe because of his letters (of which are extant more than twelve thousand
pieces), his personal ministrations to exiles, and his voluminous publications. He corresponded with
leading French Protestants and had French and Italian exiles in his home from time to time. He corresponded
with Protestants in Poland and Hungary. His works were widely read in the Netherlands. His
influence was especially strong in England, no doubt owing to the many contacts with the English,
including John Hooper, who lived with the Bullinger's from 1547 to 1549. Bullinger unavoidably built
on the Zwinglian foundation, but he also went beyond Zwingli, adding his own genius and leaving a
lasting legacy to the Reformed churches. His most distinctive doctrine was his theology of the covenant,
which was closely connected with his view of the Christian community (cf. F. Büsser, Heinrich
Bullinger, Zürich, 2004/5, passim and T. Kirby, Heinrich Bullinger, 1504-1575: Life-Thought-Influence, in:
“Zwingliana”, 32, 2005, pp. 107-117).

On the bottom of the title-page of the Latin redaction is found the autograph dedication by
Henrich Bullinger to Wilhelm Meyer von Knonau (d. 1570), who was the latter’s pupil in the Zürich
Academy (see the handwritten list of his pupils in the Zürich Staatsarchiv). Wilhelm’s father Gerold
(b. 1509) was Zwingli’s step-son (in fact Anna Reinhart was married with Hans Mayer von Knonau
and after his death in 1517 she married Zwingli in 1522 - see O. Farner, Anna Reinhard, die Gattin Huldrych
Zwinglis, in: “Zwingliana” 3, 1916, pp. 203-204, 244). Gerold died as his step-father in the battle
of Kappel (October 11, 1531). Wilhelm’s mother Anna died in 1538 and it can be presumed that he
then was supported by Heinrich Bullinger. In 1551 Wilhelm became a member of the Zürich Great
Council as ‘Achtzehner von der Constaffel’ and in 1560 treasurer of the chapter of the Zürich Grossmünster
as well as a member of the guild “Zum Schneggen’ (cf. E. Usteri, Die Schildnerschaft zum Schneggen,
Geschichte der Schilde seit 1559, Zürich 1969, p. 13 and on the family see H. Schulthess, Das Junker-
und Gerichtsherrengeschlecht der Meyer von Knonau, in “Kulturbilder aus Zürichs Vergangenheit”, 1, Zürich
1930, pp. 157-163).
VD 16, B-9590 and B-9593; Index Aureliensis 127.433 and 127.432; J. Staedtke, ed. Heinrich
Bullinger Werke. Vol. I: Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der gedruckten Werke von Heinrich Bullinger, (Zürich, 1972),
nos. 433 and 465; M. Vischer, Bibliographie der Zürcher Druckschriften des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts, (Baden-
Baden, 1991), C-768 and C-766; E. Koch, Die Textüberlieferung der Confessio Helvetica Posterior und ihre
Vorgeschichte, in: “Vierhundert Jahre ‘Confessio Helvetica Posterior’”, (Bern, 1967), pp. 12-40; J. Staedtke,
Bibliographie des Zweiten Helvetischen Bekenntnisses, in: “Vierhundert Jahre ‘Confessio Helvetica Posterior’”,
(Bern, 1967), pp. 42, no.1; 45, no. 31.
€ 19’000.- / CHF 23,000.- / $ 25,000.-
8. CALDERINO MIRANI, Cesare (fl. second half of the 16 th century). Dictionarium…
Tùm Latini, tùm Italici sermonis Studiosis apprimè congruens. In quo quidem
omnis Latinorum copia verborum ex Mario Nizolio, Italicorum verò ex Francisci
Alumni aedificio, atque insignores elegantiae suis quibuscumque locis positae ex Latinae
linguae Thesauro excerptae clarè & dilucidè continentur. 4to. (350) leaves (including
one blank). With the printer’s device on the title-page. Contemporarry limp vellum, small hole
in the rear cover, tinted edges, some light browning and spots, but a genuine copy.
Venezia, Felice Valgrisi, 1586.
VERY RARE FIRST EDITION of this bi-lingual dictionary
dedicated to Luigi, son of Giacomo Foscarini, procurator general
and admiral to the Republic of Venice. The Latin section,
as the author states, is based on Mario Nizolio’s Thesaurus ciceronianus
(1535) and (what is not mentioned) on Ambrosio Calepino’s
dictionary (1502). It found its greatest diffusion under
the title Perfectissimus Calepinus parvus in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries (cf. A. Labarre, Bibliographie du
‘Dictionarium’ d’Ambrogio Calepino, Baden-Baden, 1975, pp. 111-
112). The Italian section is mainly based on Francesco
Alunno’s Fabrica del mondo (1548). As a precursor of Calderino’s
Dictionarium could also be seen Orazio Toscanella’s Dictionariolum
latinum (1575) and for the Italian part Ruscelli’s Vocabolario
delle voci latine, although probably ready at an earlier time is was
only printed at Venice in 1588 (cf. G. Tancke, Die italienischen
Wörterbücher von den Anfängen bis zum Erscheinen des ‘Vocabolario
degli Accademici della Crusca’, 1612, Tübingen, 1984, pp. 66-67)
Little is known about Cesare Calderino. He lived in Verona
and is remembered as the editor of the dictionary of legal

terms by Antonio de Nebrija (1581).
Index Aureliensis 129.317; Edit 16, CNCE 8392; Indiana State University Library, Cordell Collection
of Dictionaries, Pre-1901 Holdings, (Terre Haute, 1998), p. 147 (under Mirani - 1587 edition); G.
Tancke, op. cit., p. 240.
€ 900.- / CHF 1,100.- / $ 1,170.-
9. EDER, Georg (1523-1587). Triumphus
D. Ferdinando I. Ro. Imperatori Invictiss.
P.P. Augustiss. Archigymansii Viennensis
nomine pro foelicibus Imperij auspicijs
renunciatus… Ad eunden panegyrica
aliquot doctissimorum hominum
carmina…4to. (76) leaves. Contemporary
limp vellum, ties, new endpapers, some
light dampstains throughout, but a fine
copy.
Wien, Raphael Hofhalter, 1558.
FIRST EDITION. Soon after the death of the
humanist and poet Konrad Celtes in 1508, the
Collegium Poetarum, which was called into being by
him in Vienna and which had the right of conferring
the laureateship, came to an end. Efforts
were made in the middle of the century to restore
the Collegium, especially by some influential imperial
councillors such as Jacob Jonas, Georg Sigmund
Seld, Sigmund von Herberstein and Georg
Eder. It was finally re-established in 1558 under the head of Nathanael Balsmannus, a member of the
Collegium Archiducale. The first important publication of the new Collegium Poetarum was printed on the
occasion of the coronation of Ferdinand as emperor in Frankfurt. His son Maximilian organized him a
pompous reception at Vienna, followed by various festivities. A deputation of the university met the
newly created emperor on sumptuously decorated ships on the Danube near Klosterneuburg and welcomed
him with poetical eulogies. The emperor was then escorted to Vienna and enthusiastically welcomed
in the cathedral of St. Stephen by the inhabitants of Vienna. The following festivities also included
the coronation of several poets, e.g. Hieronymus Lauterbach from Bohemia and Vitus Jacobaeus
from Nuremberg. Not only verses from both the newly created poets laureate are included in
this volume, but also from numerous professors from various faculties of the university such as Georg
Mitkreuc, Petrus a Rotis, Bartholomäus Reisacher, Paul Fabricius, Johannes Sambucus, Johannes
Heber, etc. (cf. J. v. Aschbach, Geschichte der Wiener Universität, III, Wien, pp. 57-62).
Georg Eder was born in Freising (Bavaria) and studied at Cologne and later law at Vienna,
where he hold for several times the position of rector of the university and of the dean of the faculty
of law. He also became a member of the imperial court of justice. His repeated sharp attacks on the
fundamental principles of Lutheranism created some stir even in circles of the imperial court for its
harsh language and caused him the prohibition to publish works on religious matter. His most
important work, however, remains the first history of the University of Vienna (1559).
VD 16, E-550; M. Denis, Wiens Buchdrucker Geschichte bis M.D.LX, (Wien, 1782), pp. 559-561, no.
590; K. Schottenloher, Bibliographie zur deutschen Geschichte im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung 1517-1585, vol.
III, (Stuttgart, 1957), p. 66, no. 28737.
€ 1,200.- / CHF 1,450.- / $ 1,550.-

10. EPÆNESIS GRATULATORIA. Ad
prestantes virtute atque doctrina dominos
candidatos cum Nonis Septembris Anno
M.D. XCIV. In Catholica & florentissima
Ingolstadiensi Academa liberalium artium ac
Philosophiae suprema laurea, Doctoratus
videlicet seu Magisterij gradu publicé
condecorarentur. Scripta a variis auctoribus.
4to. (2) 22, pp. Title within an ornamental border.
Unbound, two small stamps on the titlepage,
but a fine copy.
Ingolstadt, Wolgang Eder, (1594).
FIRST EDITION of this collection of poems published
in occasion of a public ceremony celebrating
the achievement of the doctor’s degree of six students
of the Ingolstadt University: Emeran Schirmbeck,
Georg Kron, Wolfgang Sutor, Johann
Westermair, Eustachius Sedelmair, and Johannes
Riedtmair. The poems are respectively by Stephan
Molitor, Johannes Gregor Haidenbücher, Sebastian
Filinger, Erich Fincker, Kaspar Scheftaller, Gregor
Hagen, Ambrosius Zinck, Joahnnes Bayer, Georg Hundt, Johannes Agricola and Albert Menzel.
VD 16, E-1568; G. Stalla, Bibliographie der Ingolstädter Drucker des 16. Jahrhunderts, (Baden-Baden,
1971-1977), no. 1158.
€ 250.- / CHF 300.- / $ 330.-
11. ERASMUS, Desiderius (1466-1536). Epistolae... familiares, ob singularem
elegantiam adolescentum studiis & captui accomodatae, varijsq(ue) de rebus mentionem
facientes, ex toto Epistolarum libro non sine doctissimorum iudicio excerptae. 8vo. (8)
leaves, 688 pp., (16) leaves.
Basel, Bartholomäus Westheimer, 1541. - Bound with:
- - -. Liber cum primis pius, de præparatione ad mortem. 8vo. 71, (1) pp With the printer’s
device on the title-page. Contemporary vellum over boards, small stamp on the title-page
and fly leaf, a very fine copy.
Paris, Christian Wechel, 1542.
(I) SECOND EDITION of this selection of Erasmus’ letters made from his Opus epistolarum of 1538.
This work, edited by Bartholomäus Westheimer, was first printed also by him in 1538 and is extant
here with many letters by and to Erasmus added. On the other hand the laudatory verses by Glareanus
and Sapidus in the first printing have been replaced by those of Simon Grynaeus and the inscription
on Erasmus’ funerary monument. Added is also a letter to the reader by Westheimer, and the famous
long letter of Erasmus often cited as ‘Apologia pro vita sua’, to Servatius Rogerus, dated from

Hammes Castle near Calais, July 8, 1514 in which he
excuses himself for his failure to return to his home
monastery of Steyn and in which he explains why a monk’s
life was impossible for him (cf. G.S. Facer, Erasmus and His
Times: a Selections from the Letters of Erasmus and his Circle,
Bristol, 1988, p. 66-75, no. 23). At the end is futhermore
added for the first time a choice of sentences also chosen
from Erasmus’ letters. The whole volume is intended for
school boys as a manual of models letters.
VD 16, E-2958; Index Aurelienis 163.109.
(II) TWO EDITIONS of Erasmus’ famous tract were
printed in Paris in 1542: one by Maurice de la Porte and the
present one by Chrétien Wechel.
On June 19, 1533 Thomas Boleyn, earl of Wiltshire
and Ormont, and father of Ann Boleyn, the second wife of
Henry VIII, wrote to Erasmus, asking him to write, as
quick as possible, a short work on the subject of preparing
for death. The dedicatory letter to Boleyn is dated from
Freiburg, December 1533, and the tract De praeparatione ad
mortem appeared in print from the press Froben early in
1534. The work was an immediate success, and in 1534
alone seven editions are recorded. It was translated into
Dutch (1534), German (1534), French (1537), English
(1538) and Spanish (1545) (cf. L.-E. Halkin, Erasme et la
mort, in: “Revue d’histoire des religions”, 200, 1983, pp. 269-291).
Index Aureliensis163.188; Bibliotheca Belgica, E-1173.
€ 700.- / CHF 850.- / $ 910.-
12. EUCLID (fl. ca.300 B.C.). Elementorum
libri XVI. Quibus, cùm ad omnem Mathematicæ
scientiæ partem, tùm ad quamlibet Geometriæ
tractationem, facilis comparatur aditus. 8vo. (14)
leaves, 203 pp. With the printer’s device on the titlepage
and numerous diagrams in the text.
Contemporary limp vellum, wrappers tinted in
red, green edges, ties missing, some light
browning and spots, contemporary entry of
ownwership on the free front fly leaf: “Joannes
Albertus Cellensis S. Ratholdi. Emptus Herbipol.
1591”, old entries of ownership and two small
stamps on the title-page, otherwise a fine
genuine copy.
Köln, Maternus Cholin, 1587.
NICELY PRINTED SCHOOLBOOK EDITION, a
reprint of the translation into Latin done by Jean
Magnien, lecturer of mathematics at the Collège Royale
in Paris. The work was revised after his death (1556) by
his assistent Etienne Legresle (Stephanus Gracilis) and

published by Vascosan in the same year. The demonstrations are not given, except for five
propositions (cf. I. Patin, Teaching Mathematics and Astronomy in France: The Collège Royale, in: “Science &
Education”, 15, (2006), p. 191). Cholin reprinted it for the first time at Cologne in 1564.
VD 16, ZV-5465; M. Steck, Bibliographia Euclideana, (Hildesheim, 1981), p. 81; Ch. Thomas
Stanford, Early Editions of Euclid’s Elements, (San Francisco, CA, 1977), p. 29.
€ 450.- / CHF 550.- / $ 590.-
13. GEORGIUS DE HUNGARIA (d. 1502). Türckei. Chronica, Glaube, Gesatz,
Sittenn, Herkom(m)en, Weiß, und alle Geberden der Türken. Von einem Siebenburger,
so da in Türckei gefencklich gebracht, und vil Jar nachmals darin(n)en gewonet, im
M.CCCC. XXXVI, Jar beschriben. Gar lustig zulesen. Die Zehen Nationen un(d)
Secten der Christenheit. 4to. (18) leaves (the last is a blank). Woodcut on the title-page
(reversed copy of M. Geisberg, Die deutsche Buchillustration in der ersten Hälfte des 16.
Jahrhunderts, München, 1930-31, no, 435: “Die Karawane”). Modern calf, a few light
spots, but an excellent copy.
Strassburg, Christian Egenolph, January 1530.
FIRST EDITION of this anonymous abridged translation of the famous Tractatus de moribus,
condicionibus et nequitia Turcorum, one of the most important first-hand accounts of life in fifteenthcentury
Turkey known to modern scholarship. Although the author does not name himself, he can be
identified as a Dominican priest, Georgius de Hungaria, who died in Rome in 1502. He was born
around 1422 in Romos (Transsylvania), lived in Turkish captivity from 1438 to 1458, and entered the
Dominican order in Rome around the end of the 1470s (R. Klockow, Die Erstausgabe des ‘Tractatus de
moribus, condicionibus et nequitia Turcorum’ des Georg von Ungarn. Prolegomena zu einer kritischen Ausgabe, in:
“Südostforschungen”, 46, 1987, pp. 57–78).
Georgius’ Tractatus is conceived as a work of anti-Islamic polemic, yet it contains a surprisingly
unbiased appraisal of Turkish customs. For some time Georgius seems to have been on the brink of
converting to Islam and experienced forms of mystic visions that confirmed this new belief. But he
eventually returned to Christianity and later, while writing his account, made every attempt to assert
his firm adherence to Christian teachings. As a critical analysis of his treatise demonstrates, however,
his open admiration of Ottoman culture is undeniable, and his sharp criticism of Islam ultimately
proves to be the writer's self-defense against a deep-seated fear of having transgressed traditional
European norms (cf. A. Classen, The world of the Turks described by an eye-witness: Georgius de Hungaria’s
dialectical discourse on the foreign world of the Ottoman Empire, in: “Journal of Early Modern History, 7/3-4,
2003, pp. 257-279).
First printed at Rome, about 1481, when European apprehension in the face of Ottoman
expansion was at its height, the Tractatus was reprinted in numerous editions, and was widely used as a
source by other authors. Luther edited the text in 1530, using the positive account of Turkish customs
and religious observance as a weapon in his polemic against the Roman Catholic Church: if heathens
could perform such exemplary works, who could fail to doubt the efficacy of works as a means of
salvation? Sebastian Franck in his German translation of the Tractatus (Nuremberg, 1530) went
further: replacing Georgius' commentary with his own, he used the text to attack institutional religion
as a whole and to promote his concept of a non-dogmatic, spiritual Church of individuals united with
each other only through their union with God - a Church which was not closed to Moslems or
members of any other creed. This translation or adaptation, the Chronica der Türckey, marks Franck's
decisive break with the Lutheran cause and the beginning of his lonely path as a ‘spiritual
individualist’. Franck reworked his translation of the Tractatus for his major geographical work, the
Weltbuch of 1534.
“Franck's translation is important not only because it gives us an accurate measure of the extent
of his alienation [from Lutheranism], but also because the treatise itself sets forth value judgements

about religious truth which were to become Franck's own” (S.E. Ozment, Mysticism and Dissent:
Religious Ideology and Social Protest in the 16th Century, New Haven, CT, 1973, p. 139).
For the interesting but intricate relationship of the two German translations see S.C. Williams,
op. cit. (below), pp. 114-118 (“there can be no question of straightforward dependence of Cronica on
Türckei, or vice versa... This is clear evidence of 'interference', and shows that Franck must have used
Türckei when preparing his own translation of the Tractatus - or is himself the author of Türckei”).
VD 16, G-1385; Göllner, no. 366; S.C. Williams, ‘Cronica der Turckey’ Sebastian Franck's Translation
of the ‘Tractatus de Moribus, Condicionibus et Nequitia Turcorum’ by Georgius de Hungaria, (thesis, University of
Leeds, 1991, pp. 103 and 427, no. S1.
€ 2,400.- / CHF 2,900.- / $ 3,130.-
14. GIGANTI, Antonio (1535-1598).
Carmina… Exametra, Elegiaca, Lyrica, et
Hendecasyllaba. 4to. (8), 250 pp, 1 blank leaf.
With the printer’s device on the title-page.
Contemporary boards (rebacked), some light
browning, but a fine copy.
Bologna, Giovanni Rossi, 1595.
RARE FIRST EDITION of the of the collected neo-
Latin poetry of Antonio Giganti, a native from
Fossombrone (Marche). He studied under the guide of
his paternal uncle Girolamo and with Lodovico
Panezio da Fano. In 1550 he became secretary to
Lodovico Beccadelli, archbishop of Ragusa, whom he
accompanied first to Ragusa in Dalmatia (1555-1560),
then to Trento and to Prato. During his stay at Ragusa
he became interested in natural history started to collect
curiosities. His collection grew to a veritable museum,
comparable to that of the great naturalist Ulisse
Aldrovandi (cf. G. Fragnito, Compositio memoriae: il museo
di Antonio Giganti, in: “In museo e in villa. Saggi sul
Rinascimento perduto”, Venezia, 1988, pp. 159-214).
At that time he also wrote one of his first
compositions, a poem on fishing at the Dalmatian
coasts, De irrito piscatu in litore Illyrico (pp. 74-75). He
became a member of the Accademia Fiorentina and after Beccadelli’s death entered the services of
Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, in whose residence at Bologna he lived until 1597. During this time he
became a friend of Aldrovandi, who compiled a catalogue of Giganti’s collection.
His collection of neo-Latin poetry also contains several long poems celebrating specific villas,
as well as benefits of villa life more generally. Giganti dedicated several of these poems to some of the
most powerful figures in the Bolognese ecclesiastical circles of the late Cinquecento. While Giganti’s
villa poetry owes a great deal to the classical models such as Horace and Pliny, it also contains some
unmistakably contemporary ingredients. His descriptions of architecture and landscape are at once
infused with new religious messages and filled with scientific references to different species of birds
and fish. These poems not only reflect Giganti’s own interests, but also encapsulate the intertwining
of scientific and religious thought in Gabriele Paleotti’s circle. The volume furthermore contains an
elegy in memory of Girolamo Manuzio, son of Paolo, who died a child in Ragusa, a poem on the
museum of Aldrovandi, various short carmina elegiaca in effigiem to Reginald Pole, Gaspare Contarini,

Pietro Bembo, Giovanni Morone, Carlo Borromeo, Aldo Manuzio, Trifone Gabriele, Girolamo
Mercuriale and many others, as well as a carmen lyricum dedicated to Laura Battiferri and an
epihtalamium celebrating the wedding of Francesco Maria della Rovere with Lucrezia d’Este (cf.
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, LIV, pp. 661-663).
The volume contains also a Latin translation of a sonnet by Michelangelo (cf. M. Buonarotti,
Rime, C. Guasti, ed., Firenze, 1863, p. lxxxi).
Edit 16, CNCE 20970.
€ 900.- / 1,100.- / $ 1,180.-
15. MIRABILIA URBIS ROMAE.
Indulgentie sanctorum reliquie & stationes
urbis ac que(m)admodu(m) ea a Romulo co
(n)dita, ad hec ipsius Romuli vita o(m)niu
(m)que ab eo regu(m) & Cesaru(m) usq(u)e
in Constantinu(m) magnu(m) Imp. qui
romana(m) ecclesia(m) po(n)tefice Silvestro
potavit. 8vo. (40) leaves. With 9 woodcuts (one
on the title-page), printer's device on the recto of
last leaf under the colophon. Modern brown
calf, some very light browning, but an
excellent copy.
Roma, Valerio & Lodovico Dorico, 1548.
RARE EDITION of one of the very first guides to
Rome which, in the Middle Ages, gave a short
overview of its monuments. It was written before
1143 and became, after the invention of printing,
the first editorial phenomenon in the history of the
printed book: the guide book. The first edition was
printed by Adam Rot in Rome around 1472 and
until the end of the century over 120 Latin editions
and translations were published. Since fifteenth-
and sixteenth-century Rome was very different
from the twelfth-century city, writers and
architects, e.g. Andrea Palladio, felt the need to
write new works correcting the large number of factual mistakes contained in the Italian translations
of the Mirabilia. While preserving the overall format of the Mirabilia, already standardised by the
middle of the sixteenth century, Palladio organised his presentation in itineraries, along with printed
images of the most important monuments. Thanks to its formidable capacity to disseminate and
standardise models, the new technology of printing transformed the hallowed Mirabilia urbis Romae
into the archetype of the guidebook, which profoundly changed not only the conception of travel
literature, but also the way of travelling (cf. A. Marshall, Mirabilia urbis Romae. Five Centuries of
Guidebooks and Views, An exhibition held at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto, 2002, p. 6).
The added Indulgentiae, a guide to pilgrimage churches, which started to appear after the First
Jubilee (1300) and they were aimed at the pilgrims who came to the Eternal City to gain indulgences
i.e. the total or partial remission of the time to be spent in Purgatory by their souls or those of their
relatives. They gave information on the indulgences granted in the seven main churches and in some
cases there were references to other churches where holy relics were kept (cf. L. Amato, I ‘Mirabilia
urbis Romae’ tra manoscritti e stampa, in: “Dal libro manoscritto al libro stampato. Atti del Convegno di

studio, Roma, 10-12 dicembre 2009”, O. Merisalo & C. Tristano, Spoleto 2011, pp. 109-132).
The Mirabilia were translated into Italian, German, French, Spanish, English and Dutch.
Edit 16, CNCE 34514 (one copy: Biblioteca Nazionale Roma); N. R. Miedema, Die Mirabilia
Romae, (Tübingen, 1996), p. 203, l-141; S. Rossetti, Rome. A Bibliography from the Invention of Printing
Through 1899: I. The Guide Books, (Firenze, 2000), p. 31, no. G-317; L. Schudt, Le guide di Roma, (Wien,
1930), no. 47.
€ 1,600.- / CHF 2,000.- / $ 2,090.-
THE IDEAL “COLLÈGE ROYALE”
16. MONANTHEUIL, Henri de
(1536-1606). Oratio qua ostenditur quale
esse deberet Collegium Profess. Regiorum,
ut sit perfectum, atque absolutum.
Small 8vo. (8), 63, (1) pp. With the
royal woodcut arms on the title-page and the
printer's device at the end. Boards, some light
browning and dampstains, but a good
copy.
Paris, Fédéric Morel, 1595.
RARE FIRST EDITION of this speech held in
the Collège Royale on December 15, 1595 and
dedicated to Achille de Harley, president of the
Paris Senate. It is an important historical document,
giving comprehensive informations on
the conditions of the royal lecturers and on the
evolution of the Collège. Monantheuil was perhaps
the only scholar of his time, who saw and
clearly expressed how a perfect Collège worthy
of French Renaissance should appear: a noble
building of generous proportions situated in a
quite place, with ample gardens, large welllighted
studies adorned with antique statues and
portraits of learned men of the past (here
Monantheuil quotes a long list of his predecessors
arranged according to their profession of
teaching: for Greek e.g. Jean Cheradame, Pierre
Danès; for Hebrew François Vatable, Jean Cinqarbres;
for Latin Pierre de la Ram‚e, Louis Le
Roy; for oriental languages Guillaume Postel;
for mathematics Oronce Finé, Jean Péna; for
medicine Guido Guidi, Jacques du Bois, etc.).
He also advocates laboratories, a botanical garden, an anatomical theatre and exhaustively discusses
the advantages of incorporating the Royal library to that of the Collège. In his address to Henri IV, he
invites the King to call the most learned men from all over Europe (e.g. Justus Lipsius, cf. La correspondance
de Juste Lipse conservée au Musée Plantin-Moretus, vol. 1, Antwerp, 1964, p. 52) to make
the Collège Royale the most illustrious of its kind (cf. A. Lefranc, Histoire du Collège de France, Paris,
1893, pp. 231-234).
Adams M-1590; F. Buisson, Répertoire des ouvrages pédagogiques du XVI e siècle, (Paris, 1886), p. 449.
€ 600.- / CHF 750.- / $ 1,040.-

A GERMAN MERCHANT PRISONER OF TUR-
KISH PIRATES
17. NARRATIO de colloquio imperatoris
Turcici cum mercatore Germano, mira &
tristis: ab alio Germano mercatore scripta ex
urbe Co(n)stantinopoli, ad quendam amicum:
nuperrimè à literato quodam viro, è
Germanico sermone in Latinum translata.
Epistola de regno Fessano in Africa ad
Christum converso. 8vo. (16) leaves (the last is
a blank). Wrappers, a fine copy.
(N.pl., n.d., Leipzig, 1560?).
VERY RARE FIRST LATIN EDITION of a
German newsletter “Newe zeitunng, welche ein
Teutscher Kaufmann von Constatinopel eynem guten
Freund zugeschrieben hat” printed at Erfurt by
Martin von Dolgen in 1561. This letter written by a
German merchant gives an account of a dialogue between
a colleague, captured by Turkish pirates and
sold as a slave, and Sultan Suleiman I, is dated from Constantinople, October 8, 1560.
The added letter reports of the conversion of eighty thousand Mohammedans in Fez
(Morocco), who were baptized on July 1, 1560. This letter is generally attributed to the Wittenberg
scholar and physician Caspar Peucer (1525-1602) (cf. VD-16, P-2002 for the German version).
C. Göllner, Turcica, (Bucarest & Baden-Baden, 1968), II, pp. 81-82, no. 1013 and III, p. 375.
€ 1,200.- / CHF 1,500.- / $ 1,630.-
18. OPSOPOEUS, Vincentius (i.e. Vinzenz Heidecker, d. 1539). Die biecher…:
von der kunst zutrincken / auß dem latein in unser Teutsch prach transferiert / durch
Gregorium Wickgram Gerichtsschreiber zu Colmar. 4to. (54) leaves. With the printer’s device
on the verso of the last leaf. Old boards, some light browning and spots, but a fine copy.
Freiburg, i.Br., (Johannes Faber), 1537.
EXTREMELY RARE FIRST GERMAN EDITION. This German translation was somtimes attributed
(e.g. Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon, C.L. Lang, ed., Bern & Stuttgart, 1988, vol. 11, p. 694) to the
German, poet, dramatist and novelist Georg Wickram (d. ca. 1562), also a native of Colmar in Alasatia,
who had founded a Meistersinger school there and was the author of the famous Rollwagenbüchlein
(1555)and the novels Der Knabenspiegel (1554), Vom guten und bösen Nachbarn (1556) and Der Goldfaden
(1557). These are regarded as the earliest attempts in German literature to create that modern type of
middle-class fiction which ultimately took the place of the decadent medieval romance of chivalry. But
effectively this translation was done by Gregor Wickram, a second cousin of Georg, and also a cousin
of Vinzenz Obsopoeus. Gregor was a clerk to the court of Colmar and translated Erasmus’ epistle on
the death of Thomas More (1535). His translation of the Ars bibendi is more a German adaptation, an
achieved literary production for it’s own account and has numerous witty marginal glosses by Gregor
Wickram (cf. E. Waldner, Zur Biographie Jörg Wickrams von Colmar, in: “Zeitschrift für die Geschichte
des Oberrheins”, Neue Folge, 46, 1892, p. 328).

Opsopoeus’ long poem in imitation
of Ovid’s Ars amandi was
first printed in 1536. He “called
himself a moderationist but actually,
he was an exuberant
drinker who thought that one
could stay just this side of the
borderline. Of the same ilk was
his translator Gregorius Wickram…
Among the writings on
wine drinking the Ars bibendi of
Obsopoeus occupies a unique
place, not so much as a valuable
historical document of the period,
nor as a literary production,
but rather because of the
character of the poem… Obsopoeus
undertook a task as
hopeful as the quest for the
fountain of youth. He gave
what he thought to be the
means to drink all a man could
want without becoming a habitual
inebriate. That he thought
of himself as a moderationist is
understandable, but it is curious
that historians of literature refer
to him as an exponent of moderation.
What Obsopoeus
meant by the ‘art’ of drinking is
to avoid becoming a sot. In the
first book of the Ars bibendi the
author promises: ‘I will give you fixed bonds for drinking so that mind and feet may perform their
duty’. What these bonds are, remained rather vague. The nearest he came to any rule is: ‘Don’t get intoxicated
or do so to the extent that drives away your cares. The amount that lies between these limits
is harmful’. Occasional gross intoxication did not seem to him to be dangerous: ‘Let a fault which occurs
rarely be excusable. I revile daily intoxication’. The most important measure for achieving this
goal seems to have been, in the view of our lusty philologist, to avoid situations in which a man may
be forced to drink beyond his limits. In order to avoid such situations Obsopoeus advised that scholars
should drink with scholars, merchants with merchants, carpenters with carpenters… In choosing
his company the drinker should not only seek men of similar educational and social level, but should
avoid men of certain personality types. Obsopoeus seems to have sensed on type of alcoholic addict,
the type sometimes referred to nowadays as the ‘conflict drinker’… In the second book Obsopoeus
dwells largely on descriptions of the evils of excess. There are many passages which are illustrative of
the mores of his times and the study of that book is well worth the reader’s time. In the third book
there is more advice on how to keep within reasonable limits and how to avoid intoxication. The
drinker should eat well before drinking; he should eat bitter almonds, radishes, wild cabbage and
chives…” (cf. E.M. Jellinek, Classics of Alcohol Literature. A Specimen of Sixteenth-Century German Drink
Literature: Obsopoeus’ ‘Art of Drinking’, in: “Addiction”, M. & M. Plant, eds., London & New York,
2008, vol. 2, pp. 40-41).
Vincentius Opsopoeus was born in Bavaria as son of a cook. He was first a teacher at the
choir school in Salzburg and continued his studies in Leipzig, Wittenberg and Nürnberg, where he
became a member of the circle around Willibald Pirkheimer. In 1524 he began to edit a series of

Greek authors, partially in Latin translation. These he produced mostly with the Haguenau press of
Johann Setzter, first editions of Polybius (1530), Heliodorus (1531) and Diodorus Siculus (1539) and
translated Lucian’s Hermotimus, and subsequently several more of his works. From 1528 he was rector
of the newly founded Latin school in Ansbach, where he died (cf. A. Jegel, Der Humanist Vinzenz Heidecker
gen. Opsopoeus, in: “Archiv für Kulturgeschichte”, 20, 1940, pp. 27-84).
VD 16, O-812; A. Hauffen, Die Trinkliteratur in Deutschland bis zum Ausgang des 16. Jahrhunderts,
in: ”Vierteljahreschrift für Litteraturgeschichte”, 2/1889, pp. 495-497; H. Kästner, Der Irrgänger im
Schwarzwald. Jörg Wickrams ‘Dialog von der Trunkenheit’ und die literarische Anti-Alkoholismus-Kampagne im 16.
Jahrhundert, in: “Literatur und Kultur im deutschen Südwesten zwischen Renaissance und Aufklärung”,
W. Kühlmann, ed., (Amsterdam & Atlanta, GA, 1995, pp. 94-95.
€ 2,500.- / CHF 3,000.- / $ 3,250.-
19. RICHTER, Johannes (fl. end of the 16 th century). Porta ad gratulandum pietate.
Doctrina, virtute, atque morum integritate ornatissimi iuvenibus… Suis olim Alumnis
carissimis, de insignibus magisterii, quae ipsis in inclita Lipsensium Accademia publice
decernebantur, 4. Cal. Febr. An. M.D.XC… 4to. (8) pp. Title within an ornamental border.
Sewn, some light spots but a fine copy.
Leipzig, Abraham Lamberg, (1590). sFr. 400.-
ORIGINAL EDITION of this collection of verses celebrating seven of the author’s students, who
obtained a master’s degree at the University of Lipsia. After an introductory poem chanting the praises
of the university and its teachers, follow verses dedicated to each of the graduates: Ambrosius Kühn,
Justinus Bertuch, Joahnnes Arnold, Daniel Kaiser, Moritz Hinterneurer, Kaspar Triller and Heinrich
Brotkorb.
Apparently unrecorded. € 300.- / CHF 360.- / $ 390.-
20. SCHMIDT, Nikolaus (fl. middle of the 16th
century). Von den zehen Teuffeln oder Lastern,
Damit die bösen unartigen Weiber besessen sind,
Auch von zehen Tugenden, damit die frommen und
vernünfftigen Weiber gezieret und begabet sind, in
Reimweisegestellt… 8vo. (38) leaves. Modern polished
calf, some light browning and spots, but a fine
copy.
Wittenberg, n.p., 1568.
VERY RARE SECOND EDITION (first Leipzig, 1557).
Among the numerous ‘Devil-books’ published in the sixteenth
century Schmidt concentrates on the vices of married women,
and, although assuring that he has no misogynist feelings, his
verses a full of contempt and scorn (cf. (K.L. Roos, The Devil in
16 th Century German Literature: The Teufelsbücher, Bern & Frankfurt
a.M., 1972, p. 56, and p. 119, no. 6b).
“Different writers provided different lists of vices, the
most common being lascivity, garrulity, vanity, noseyness, indolence,
gluttony, and showing off. What these vices had in

common was a lack of restraint and self-discipline in women supposedly caused by a weak will and
diminished intellect. ‘Satan has an especially easy time with the poor weak female sex. By nature they
tend to pride, and their naive and weak hearts cannot resist temptation’ wrote Nicolaus Schmidt in
1567” (C. Niekus Moore, The Maiden’s Mirror. Reading Material for German Girls in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries, Wiesbaden, 1987, p. 15).
VD 16, S-3140; M.Osborn, Die Teufelliteratur des XVI. Jahrhunderts, (Berlin, 1893), pp. 118-120.
€ 1,200.- / CHF 1,500.- / $ 1,560.-
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