GREGORIUS I POPE. Three Incunabula in a volume.
4to. 203x154 mm. 18th century cardboard binding.
1. Eximij doctoris Sancti Gregorij Pape, De viris sanctis [et] miraculis que fueru[n]t facta te[m]poribus suis dyalogoru[m] liber primus incipit.
Venice, Girolamo de Paganini, 1492
Leaves [80]. Signature: A4 a-i8 k4 (the A4v and k4 leaves are blank). Title from incipit printed in red and black (leaf a1r). Colophon on c. k3v “Venetijs : per Hieronymum de paganinis brixiensem, 1492 Idibus nouembris [13.XI.1492])” Gothic type, text in two columns, 37 lines. Capital spaces. At l. A1r woodcut vignette with portrait of St. Peter and text: “Sicut Petrus apostolorum princeps in ecclesia dei prefuit postmodum Gregorius …”
HC 7963*; IGI 4422; BMC V 457; GW 11401; Rhodes, Catalogo del fondo librario antico della Fondazione Giorgio Cini, G29; Goff, F.R. Incunabula in American libraries, G-405.
2. Pastoralis Sancti Gregorij pape.
Venice, Girolamo de Paganini, 1492
Leaves [56]. Signature: A-G8. Title of the half-title on leaf A1r. Title of the explicit “Liber pastoralis sancti Gregorij pape: quem ad Joannem Rauenne archiepiscopum conscripsit: & magnus Anastasius postea de latino in grecum transtulit explicit feliciter.”. Colophon on leaf G7v “Uenetijs : per Hieronymum de Paganinis Brixiensem ... impressus, 1492 idibus decembris [13. XII])”. Gothic type, text in two columns, 37 lines.
Woodworm gallery in the innner margin of the last leaves, which does not affect the text.
IGI 4448; HC 7986; GW 11446; BMC 5.457; Ageno 35
3. Homiliae super Evangeliis.
Venice, Pellegrino Pasquali, 1493
Leaves [110]. Sign: pi2, 2a-2n8 2o4. Blank the leaves [pi]1r and 2o4. At l. pi 1v: “Index primi libri homeliarum beati gregorij pape”. Colophon on the verso of leaf 2°3 “Hic finiunt Homelie xl. sancti gre|gorij pape impresse Venetijs per Peregrinum de pasqualibus, die xiij Marcij 1493”. Gothic type, text in two columns, 37 lines. Capital spaces. Trace of dampstain in the lower margin of the last leaves.
IGI 4438; HC 7951; GW 11422; BMC V 392; Ageno 32; Ageno, Librorum saec. 15..., by Gasparrini Leporace, Firenze, Olschki, 1954, n. 277, 278.
Three very rare incunabula printed in Venice. Three important works by Gregory I, known as Pope Gregory the Great, circa 540 – 604, venerated as a saint and doctor of the Church, are brought together here.
The first concerns the Italic saints of the recent past, narrates the miracles performed by them and deals with the afterlife of the soul. The writing is presented in the form of a long dialogue between Gregory and the deacon Peter, who questions the pontiff about the topics of the work.