Sales catalogue 203: Gilhofer & Ranschburg

Date:
1928
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/34/5
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 203: Gilhofer & Ranschburg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    95/120 page 71
    a eet i tr a Gaudensis, Jacob. Passio magistralis domini nostri christi ex diuersis sanctorum ecclesie doctorum sententiis postillata. Cum glossa interlineari Alberti Magni. Colonie, Henr. Quentell, 1504. 4to, goth. 42 unn. Il. HE vell. 30.— Not in Proctor and Panzer. On title a fine large initial P on black ground, A few under- linings in red; insignificant wormholes and stains, but a good copy. boards, blind stamped; slightly dam. 450.— Schmidt 151. Panzer, Annalen I, 388. Kristeller 99. Fine copy of this rare and richly illustrated edition. ‘The holy fathers, of whom are told the astounding legends which fill this book, are the Monks of the Thebaid, the founder of whose community, if such it may be called, was Saint Anthony, who at a very early age had isolated him- self in the desert near the Egyptian Thebes, and devoted himself to a life of extreme austerity. His reputation for sanctity attracted to him at first a few, and eventually a great number of followers, whom he housed in the monastery of Phanium; as their numbers increased, the desert of the Thebaid was dotted over with the habitations of the ascetics. At the time of Saint Anthony’s death, no less than fifteen thousand persons were living in the Thebaid... The fantastic imagination of the author, himself for long years a dweller in the wilderness has found fullplay in this work, and its absurd narrations seem to have found no less favour with the credulous readers of the fifteenth century tham with the early converts for whom it was written.’ See Reproduction below.
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