LACTANTIUS, Lucius Coelius Firmianus. De diuinis institutionibus aduersus gentes: Rubricae primi lbri incipiunt.
Venetiis, Theodorus de Ragazonibus, 1490
Folio. 300x215 mm, 18th-century leather, brown quarter leather, and marbled cardboard, gilt title and decorations on the spine, renewed flyleaves. 148 unnumbered leaves, including the first blank leaf, 45 lines and title, Roman and some Greek type, initial spaces with guide letters. Colophon at the end: “Impressum Venetiis per magistrum Theodorum de Ragazonibus de Asula, M.CCC.LXXXX. [i.e. 1490] Vigesimo primo mensis Aprilis.” Ink marginalia, by an old hand. First page slightly stained, folio aii with tear in the outer margin. Overall a good copy.
A rare and precious incunabulum of the works of Lactantius. The volume, edited by the humanist bishop Giovanni Andrea Bussi (1417-1475), includes the seven books of De divinis institutionibus, the first attempt to summarize Christian teaching, followed by De ira Dei, De opificio Dei, the hexameter poem De Phoenice carmina (with quotations from passages on the phoenix from Ovid's Metamorphoses and Dante's Inferno, canto XXIV, 106-111), De resurrectionis dominicae die, and finally the Nephythomon, a compendium of the Institutionibus. It also contains Venantius Fortunatus, Carmen de Pascha.
This is the second edition edited by Giovanni d'Andrea, bishop of Aleria, whose name appears on fol. [9]v, and the tenth edition overall.
Lactantius (c. 250–325), one of the first Christian authors, became an advisor to the Roman Emperor Constantine I and tutor to his son Crispus; his elegant style and detailed sentences earned him the nickname ‘Christian Cicero’ from Renaissance scholars.
BMC V, p. 477; Hain-Copinger 9815; Goff L,10; GKW M 16563.