Summa Theologica. Tabula nuper diligenter correcta et Prima Pars. By Saint Antoninus Florentius. Venice: Lazarus de Soardis, 1503, 4to.
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A beautiful copy of parts 1 & 2 of this edition of St. Antoninus' Summa Theologica (not to be confused with St Thomas Aquinas' work of the same title), bound in a 14th century manuscript antiphonal with very large neumes and text indicating this came from an extremely large antiphonal.
This edition is extremely rare in commerce. A defective copy of part one only (tabula...) recently sold at Dominic Winter 15th May 2024 lot 251 realising £552. Here is a much nicer copy, with the second part, in a particularly attractive 14th century manuscript binding. We can trace no better copies having sold, and none complete with all four parts, only single parts.
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Provenance:
Bookplate of Lucrezia Costa Cavina, the widow of Conte Romano Cavina who purchased Cavina Palace in 1814, where this book was presumably held. This is located in Faenza, Italy.
Bookplate with adjacent armorial crests, one of which bears great resemblance to the arms of King John III of Poland, or more generally, of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. The other bears great resemblance to King Filipe V of Spain. There is some handwriting on the verso in a neat hand, illegible.
This copy last sold for £1,800 to the previous owner, and, prior to that, for 1400 EUR, indicating that it has left mainland Europe fairly recently.
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Size: 166 x 220 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[(1), a1-s8, t10, a1-4, 4pp., a5-z8, α8, β8, γ8, aa-ff8, (1)]
14th century antiphonal manuscript binding with huge neumes & text; the parent manuscript must have been monumental. The binding, despite using a 14th century MS, was bound circa the late 18th century to early 19th century. The binding is secure without separation from the page block, very attractive indeed. There is an early inscription to the bottom page edge, illegible, probably a reference to the title of this edition for institutional reference. Two bookplates to front pastedown, an extensive pencil inscription to ffep verso. The text block is generally extremely bright and clean throughout, with some sporadic leaves being toned, such as c3-6 of Tabula. Leaf edges uneven, probably as printed, uncut. γ4 is bound twice (i.e. two copies of the same leaf consecutively, and so there are nine leaves in this quire but only eight are called for). This is two parts only (parts 1-2) of this work.
