Incunabulum. ARISTOTELES - ROMANO. Expositio Egidij romani super libros de anima cum textu.

In-folio. 290x202 mm. Sewing binding. Leaves 86. Collation: a-n6 o8. o8v is blank. Register and printer’s device on leaf o8r. Colophon on leaf o6r: “Venetijs mandato & expensis nobilis viri domini Octauiani Scoti ciuis Modoetiensis, 1496.die ultimo Januarij”. Text on two columns in gothic type, large woodcut initial on the incipit, several animated woodcut initials, large printer’s device at the end. 8 large woodcut diagrams in the text. Handwritten notes of previous owner on the second and last leaf. Slight trace of wear, some stains, overall nice specimen.

Rare illustrated incunabulum. Important commentary on Aristotle's “De Anima”, edited by the philosopher and scholastic theologian Egidio Romano, with the text of the treatise translated from Greek into Latin.

Egidio Romano, ca. 1243 - 1316, belonging to the hermit order of Saint Augustine, studied in Paris and was a student of Thomas Aquinas, and later became a professor at the University: he was one of the most brilliant and influential intellectuals and men of the Church between the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth century, and his commentaries on the works of Aristotle, written while he was in Paris, are particularly important. In this commentary on the Soul he deals with the Aristotelian principle according to which the intellect is originally a "tabula rasa" and the primary source of knowledge is sensory experience. The consequence of this position is the rejection of Platonic innatism.

BMC V 447; Goff A70; GW 7203; H *130; IGI 3078; Pellechet 80; Sander 2048.