Details
PETRARCA, Francesco (1304-74). Secretum de contemptu mundi. [Strassburg: R-Press type 1 (Johann Mentelin and/or Adolf Rusch), not after 1473].
2° (285 x 207mm). Collation: [18 28(2+1) 310 4-58 610] (1/1r title heading, text, 6/10v explicit). 53 leaves. 34 lines. Type: 1:103R. 4- and 5-line initials in red, the first with red and brown penwork extension, paragraph marks and initial strokes in red, some printed guide-letters. Some pinholes still visible, one each centered in upper and lower margin. (Lightly washed, affecting some rubrication and marginal annotations, a few fore-edge corners slightly frayed.) 19th-century calf-backed boards, vellum corners, flat spine gilt with 2 lettering-pieces (corners slightly bumped).
FIRST EDITION. In this infuential and intensely personal spiritual work, Petrarch wrestles with the conflicting aspirations for religious salvation and worldly values. It is written in the form of an intimate dialogue with Augustine, for whom Petrarch professed almost a cult; it is Augustine's own Confessions, with their intense and relentless soul-searching, which most influenced De contemptu mundi.
A copy of the De contemptu mundi in Vienna has a contemporary inscription dated 1473 (H *12800). Mentelin/Rusch issued it almost simultaneously with Petrarch's De vita solitaria, printed on the same paper and with the same type and lay-out. BMC I, 61 (IB. 606, 609, 610); H *12800; Polain(B) 3067(I); Goff P-412.
2° (285 x 207mm). Collation: [18 28(2+1) 310 4-58 610] (1/1r title heading, text, 6/10v explicit). 53 leaves. 34 lines. Type: 1:103R. 4- and 5-line initials in red, the first with red and brown penwork extension, paragraph marks and initial strokes in red, some printed guide-letters. Some pinholes still visible, one each centered in upper and lower margin. (Lightly washed, affecting some rubrication and marginal annotations, a few fore-edge corners slightly frayed.) 19th-century calf-backed boards, vellum corners, flat spine gilt with 2 lettering-pieces (corners slightly bumped).
FIRST EDITION. In this infuential and intensely personal spiritual work, Petrarch wrestles with the conflicting aspirations for religious salvation and worldly values. It is written in the form of an intimate dialogue with Augustine, for whom Petrarch professed almost a cult; it is Augustine's own Confessions, with their intense and relentless soul-searching, which most influenced De contemptu mundi.
A copy of the De contemptu mundi in Vienna has a contemporary inscription dated 1473 (H *12800). Mentelin/Rusch issued it almost simultaneously with Petrarch's De vita solitaria, printed on the same paper and with the same type and lay-out. BMC I, 61 (IB. 606, 609, 610); H *12800; Polain(B) 3067(I); Goff P-412.