Soliloquia di Sancto Augustino Vulgari (Italian). Add: JACOBUS MEDIOLANENSIS. (Stimulus amoris, cap. I) Dieci gradi per equali viene lhuomo a perfectione (Italian).

Florence, (Laurenzo de Morgiani and Johannes Petri of Mainz), 10 November 1(4)91. With a nearly full-page woodcut of St. Augustinus on the title, 1 large woodcut initial. Printed Lombard initials. Roman type. 28 lines. 44 unn. leaves. 4to (205 x 140 mm). Brown morocco with gold-lettered title on spine, richly gilt. In a slipcase. Florence, (Laurenzo de Morgiani and Johannes Petri of Mainz), 10 November 1(4)91. First illustrated edition in Italian of a rare Florentine incunabulum. The only European copies outside Italy are kept in the holdings of the BL London (1 copy) and in the BN Paris (2 copies). The BN copies have no table like this present one, and their 2nd copy otherwise is imperfect. The large title-woodcut shows Saint Augustine writing in his study, surrounded by his accoutrements, his mitre and staff. The illustration is an exceptional example of the outline style of woodcuts of Florentine imprints in the 1490s. This treatise was attributed in the Middle Ages to Saint Augustine. The book has the form of an "inner dialogue" in which questions are posed, discussions take place and answers are provided, leading to self-knowledge. The 4-page text at the end by Jacobus Mediolanensis (fl. 13th c.) describes the "ten grades by which man can reach perfection" and is a summary of his "Stimulus amoris" (the goad or prick of love), one of the most important Franciscan tracts of that time, frequently attributed to Saint Bonaventura. After Johannes Petri (*1441 Langendorf near Hammelburg, Franconia, +1511 Basel) had learned the printing press and type casting in Mainz, where Gutenberg was still alive, he left for Florence at the very beginning of Florentine printing work by Germans. Later Petri printed in Basel, where he became citizen, and his direct successor was his nephew Adam Petri at the "Petrinische Offizin", Founded in 1488 and since 2018 named "Die Medienmacher AG". this the oldest still existing publishing company in the world.- A final bifolium containing the table may have been issued in a few copies only. First leaf with small hole and light soiling, occasional minor mostly marginal soiling, otherwise a fine copy. - HCR 2018*; GW 3017 (Pseudo-Augustinus, 44 ff., also without the table: "Einige Ex. mit einer 2 Bl. umfassenden Tabula am Schluss"); BMC VI, 681; Goff A-1329; IGI 1047; CIBN A-761; Proctor 6351; Pell 1523; Walsh 2995; Bibl. Apost. Vaticana I, A-581; Pollard, Italian Book Illustrations (1894), p. 57; Kristeller, Early Florentine Woodcuts 10a, pl. 20; Hind II, 547. fig. 306; Sander 692 (woodcut); Geldner, Inkunabeldrucker II, p. 100f. INCUNABLES ; FLORENCE ; RELIGION / THEOLOGY ;