steinbach wendelinus editor (1 Ergebnisse)

Hardcover. Zustand: Good. Zustand des Schutzumschlags: No Dust Jacket. [10] 166, [2], 169-293 ff (including last blank, as is normal). Published June 1510. A thick octavo very handsomely bound with contemporary stamped pigskin spine over wooden boards, the boards are half pigskin and half burnished wood. Old hand-lettered spine title. With both original leather clasps (non-working). A very imposing book. This edition is notable for containing two important Sermones Medicinales, or Plague Sermons: Contra Pestilentiam, and De Fuga Pestis on Folios 144-152, in which BIel discusses, among other things, the question of those fleeing family and home in the wake of the plagues. As one contemporary manuscript put it, "Clever doctors have three golden rules to keep us safe from the pestilence: get out quickly, go a long way off, and don't be in a hurry to get back. " Biel thought this was a coward's way out and presents his case in these remarkable and well-thought out sermons, as befitting "the last of the scholastics. " First of all, Biel was not a medieval naif against scientific medical innovation -- he recognized that medicines have their place, particularly with such horrors as the Plague. But in so doing, he made an interesting observation: We use various medications, that is potions, pills, powders, phlebotomy, fumigations and perfumes And these are good for many, but not for everybody. Sometimes those who are most afraid, and most interested in applying such cures, die among the first ones . (Variis medicinalis decoccionibus utimur, scilicet potionibus, pillulis, pulveribus, phlebotomia, suffumigationibus et odoriferis Et quidem multis hec corporaliter prosunt. Sed non omnibus. Nonnunquam qui magis huiusmodi cure intendunt plurimumque timent moriuntur primi. ) He, of course, goes on to offer what is expected, a spiritual answer: But lest this pestiferous contagion does you harm, I offer you some universal medications stemming from the best supplied pharmacy of the most experienced physician; if you decide to use them, I assure you that this plague cannot do you any harm. (Sed ne contagio hec pestifera vos noceat, afferam vobis medicinas quasdam universales, efficacissimas, de opulentissima medici expertissimi apotheca quibus si uti volueritis, certos vos omnes facio, pestem istam vobis nocere omnino non posse. ) [both passages f.144v] Harm, of course, is defined spiritually. Biel develops the expected idea of the Plague as something of a divine punishment, and a goad for spiritual regeneration, but in a more modern way than many previous expositors. He comes firmly against abandoning the ill, particularly for doctors, but does recognize that flight has its place as well, as long as duty is fulfilled. In effect, flight is a form of medicine, too. He thus advises trust in both scientific and spiritual medicine and concludes with a classic rather Stoic attitude, the calm acceptance of what Fate -- or rather God -- has ordained. This is a handsomely printed book, text printed in a gothic typeface in two columns throughout. Pagination (by folios) is continuous throughout. The De Tempore and the De festivitatibus Cristi are usually separated by another set of sermons but this time, they were obviously printed deliberately together and bound as such -- not in WorldCat in this form. Condition is very good. Binding is strong and handsome. Interior has various bibliographic notes, as well as bookplate from the Oblates of St. Charles (at St. Mary Catholic Church, Bayswater, England) and stamps from a library monastery in Wetterau, possibly the Abbey Arnsburg which had a large collection of books up to the late 1700s. There is a clipping from the Collection a vendre de monumens typographiques, Heinemann, MDCCCXL, no. 606a and 607b referring to the two parts of the book. There is an inscription on the first blank in an early hand that we can't decipher and another on the back leaf in a different hand. Some marginalia in different old hands throughout with occasional underlining to go with the margin notes.