Johannes Cassianus, ca. 370 - 435

De institutis coenobiorum

1497

1497

HC 4564*; BMC III 758; Goff C235; Kaplan 149; ISTC ic00235000; GW 6162

Shoults (Special Collections) Swb/1497/C

Basel: Johann Amerbach, 1497

Half-bound calf over marbled boards. Covers detached.

Binding, early title-page with inscriptions, Prefatio page.

Johann Amerbach (c. 1430 1513) was born at Reutlingen in Germany. He studied at the Sorbonne under Johann Heynlin before working in Nuremberg as a press corrector for Anton Koberger. He established a press at Basel about 1481 (1478 has also been suggested), and became its leading printer, issuing some seventy works. He was the first Basel printer to use roman type. At various times, Amerbach was in partnership with Jacob von Pforzheim, Johann Petri, and Johann Froben, and he had continued his association with Anton Koberger at Nuremberg, who acted as his publisher, and with Rusch at Strassburg, to whom he appears to have lent type.

This is a work about monasticism and religious orders in the early church. The first book of De Institutis Coenobiorum deals with the external appearance of the monk; the second, with the order of nocturnal Psalms and prayers; the third, with the order of the daily prayers; the fourth, with renunciation of the world. The eight remaining books are devoted to the eight principal sins.

Paper. [205] leaves, last 15, including colophon wanting; 185 x 135 mm (quarto).
Gothic letter; two columns.
Title-page f.1a
Imprint details from f.1b.
Guide letters, with capital spaces unpainted.
Annotations on title-page.

1. Della Libbrergia el Viorgio (?)
2. Canon William Arderne Shoults
3. Selwyn Collge; Otago University Library