Bapstpredigten. In welchen gehandlet und gründlich angezeiget wird Was und Wer der Bapst zu Rom seyl und nich sey, und nicht sey, wie sein gantzes Reich auss Lügen, Mord, Schand und Raub zusammengestücket. In vierzehen unterschiedliche Predigten gebracht durch Georgium Mylium … Jena: durch Tobias Steinmann in verlegung Salomon Grüners Buchhend, 1599. [WITH:] HEILBRUNNER, Phillipp (1546–1616). Der unschuldige Luther: das ist, augenscheinliche Beweisung, dass alles das jenige, so die Iesuiter, in ihren jüngst außgesprengten Lesterschrifften, widerweyland D. MartinLuthers Person ... lauter Betrug sey ... Laugingen: Bey Leonhart Reinmichel, 1599.

Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1599. Hardcover. Very Good+. 2 works in one volume, 4to (192 x 152mm). Pagination: I: [8], 220pp., [10, including register and final blank]; II: [4], 91pp. (or 48 leaves in 12 signatures). Signatures: I: **-**(4 and 4), A-Z(4), Aa-Zz(4), Aaa-Iii(4), register: Kkk-Lll(4), Mmm(2); II: A-M(4). The Bapstpredigten title printed in red and black in German type with ornamental woodcut border of virtues, animals, and figures. 13 woodcut chapter head- and tailpieces containing animal and cherub masks. Printer’s device of Tobias Steinmann on final blank depicting Martin Luther as a 16th-century burgher beside witness stone with inscription from Josh. 24; all within oval frame and Latin motto: Fidentem nescit deseruisse Deus (“He who does not agree with his meaning on God”) on final blank. The Der unschuldige Luther with a woodcut printer’s device of Reinmichel depicting the spear-bearer at the Crucifixion. The title verso (A1v) with a very fine woodcut portrait of Martin Luther (2 x 2 in.) Contemporary vellum with yapped edges, only the first part with red edges and second with blue, four ornamental stamps and handwritten title to spine: “Georg Mylius Papstpredigten und Ph. Heilbrunner Der unshuldige Luther;” (light edgewear, inner hinge slightly starting, title of the Bapstpredigten lightly browned and light intermittent browning throughout, otherwise good, the impressions and devices depicting Luther remain fresh). Front pastedown with early owner’s signature in Latin: probably George Lismann, Augustinian cleric and written in a 17th century hand.

Fine sammelband volume of two highly important Lutheran texts from the Jena press of Tobias Steinmann and the Lauingen press of Leonhard Reinmichel, both issued in 1599. The first, is a first edition of the Bapstpredigten, or “Sermons on the Pope,” written by Georg Mylius and printed in Jena by Tobias Steinmann. Georg Mylius (1548–1603), was a Lutheran preacher from Augsburg who taught at Wittenberg and then at the University of Jena. Divided into fours parts, the Bapstpredigten is a significant collection of his evangelical sermons written in opposition to the papacy “zu Rom.” The title states in part that Mylius’s sermons were given to challenge the “whole empire” for its “lies, murder, shame, and robbery.” In one sermon, Mylius challenged the pope’s views about marriage, which he deemed as “abusive,scandalous, and dishonorable” to the belief of the holy state of matrimony upheld by Lutherans. The publisher Tobias Steinmann (1556–1631) settled in Jena and opened his own office (after his father Johann) in 1585. The Steinmanns utilized variations of theirdistinctive printer’s device depicting Martin Luther. The second, also a first edition of 1599, is the Der unschuldige Luther, or the “Innocence of Luther,” a defense of Martin Luther’s teaching and career written by the Württemberg theologian Phillip Heilbrunner (1546–1616), containing the famous portrait woodcut of Luther. Both books are amazing survivals, epitomizing the intense activity in German centers of the Protestant Reformation. Incredibly rare publications outside of German institutions; these copies joined together for at least three centuries. USTC 613992 & 632654.