Confessionale seu Libellus Peroptimus, De Modo Confitendi et de Puritate Conscientie. By St. Thomas Aquinas, actually likely Matthew of Krakow or Saint Bonaventura. Paris: Dennis Roce [and Bernard Aubry], 1518.
PROBABLY THE BEST SURVIVING COPY OF THIS VERY RARE EARLY PRINTED THEOLOGICAL WORK PRINTED IN THE POST-INCUNABLE PERIOD CIRCA 1510-1518, ATTRIBUTED TO SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS, BUT ATTRIBUTED TO OTHERS AS MATTHEW OF KRAKOW OR SAINT BONAVENTURA.
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An exceptionally rare edition of a theological treatise addressing sin, confession, and the needs of penitents, printed during a pivotal time in the history of Christianity during the very start of the Protestant reformation.
USTC records only two known copies in existence, one in Belgium and one in France of two different imprints, one of 1510 and ours of 1518, though they share the same printer and collation and seem to perhaps have been printed simultaneously. It is cited in three bibliographies only and is thus an incredibly rare printing of this important theological work which USTC attributes to Saint Thomas Aquinas, as does the title page, though in our copy is attributed to Saint Bonaventura at the head of the title page in an early ink hand. Modern scholars attribute this to the important Polish theologian Matthew of Krakow [Mateusz z Krakowa, Cardinal (c.1355-1410)]. Given the digital scans of the defective extant copies at the BnF it is reasonable to assert that our copy is likely the best surviving copy in existence of this incredibly scarce early printed post-incunable work, though ours is housed in a recent binding. We could not trace any extant copies in contemporary bindings.
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Size: 102 x 139 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[A1-C8]
Modern full cloth with no external identification marks, i.e., no tooled labels, writing, etc. The final three photos show the binding. Externally fine with modern endpapers. Collates as complete though with some mispaginations (C1 signed D1, etc). Early ink inscription to head of title page attributing the work to St. Bonaventura. Title page with large printer's device. Mildly toned throughout with a small stain in the margin of A3, else, very clean throughout, leaves slightly creased, else, near fine.
[USTC 183882; EEB 4992; Pettegree 88477; Moreau II, 1959].
Andrew Pettegree, Malcolm Walsby and Alexander Wilkinson, FB: French Vernacular Books, Books published in the French language before 1601 (Leiden: Brill, 2007)
Brigitte Moreau, Inventaire Chronologique des Éditions Parisiennes du XVIe siècle (Paris: Service des Travaux Historiques de la Ville de Paris, 1972-2010)
