Details
MELANCHTHON, Philip (1497-1560). Loci Praecipui Theologici. Leipzig: Valentin Babst, 1552.
8° (181 x 114mm). Printed in a handsome roman letter (index in italics), fine white-on-black ornamental woodcut initials with contemporary colouring, painted index tabs. Contemporary (probably Saxon) calf over bevelled wooden boards, elaborately blind-tooled; outer biblical roll of Christ in glory, with legend VDMEI (?Verbum Domini Manet In Eternum), King David (with legend DE FRUCTU), Isaiah, holding a scroll with his name (and with legend SOLIUM, 'throne, dominion'), and John the Baptist (with legend ECCE AGN[US]), all half-figures within foliage; intermediate panel, with (on front cover) gilt-stamped H P M at head and 1552 at foot, other interstices filled with acorns, rosettes, etc, central panel with an oak-leaf roll and a stylised fleur-de-lys, three raised double bands on blind-ruled spine; repoussée brass centre and corner pieces, original brass clasps and catches; in modern box. Provenance: Heinrich Bäcker of Minden (inscription in Greek and Latin).
A FINELY PRESERVED GERMAN RENAISSANCE BINDING FROM AN UNKNOWN ATELIER; the historiated roll is not recorded by Haebler. The first owner has entered his name on the inside front cover (with a motto in Greek): Henricus Artopoeus Mindanus, i.e. Heinrich Bäcker (or Becker) of Minden, in the graecised form of his name (here following Melanchthon, who had graecised his name from Schwartzerd), while on the binding the latinised form (P for Pistor) is used. Melanchthon's Loci theologici, of which this was one of the last editions published in his lifetime, was the first systematised presentation of Lutheran theology, and his most influential work.
8° (181 x 114mm). Printed in a handsome roman letter (index in italics), fine white-on-black ornamental woodcut initials with contemporary colouring, painted index tabs. Contemporary (probably Saxon) calf over bevelled wooden boards, elaborately blind-tooled; outer biblical roll of Christ in glory, with legend VDMEI (?Verbum Domini Manet In Eternum), King David (with legend DE FRUCTU), Isaiah, holding a scroll with his name (and with legend SOLIUM, 'throne, dominion'), and John the Baptist (with legend ECCE AGN[US]), all half-figures within foliage; intermediate panel, with (on front cover) gilt-stamped H P M at head and 1552 at foot, other interstices filled with acorns, rosettes, etc, central panel with an oak-leaf roll and a stylised fleur-de-lys, three raised double bands on blind-ruled spine; repoussée brass centre and corner pieces, original brass clasps and catches; in modern box. Provenance: Heinrich Bäcker of Minden (inscription in Greek and Latin).
A FINELY PRESERVED GERMAN RENAISSANCE BINDING FROM AN UNKNOWN ATELIER; the historiated roll is not recorded by Haebler. The first owner has entered his name on the inside front cover (with a motto in Greek): Henricus Artopoeus Mindanus, i.e. Heinrich Bäcker (or Becker) of Minden, in the graecised form of his name (here following Melanchthon, who had graecised his name from Schwartzerd), while on the binding the latinised form (P for Pistor) is used. Melanchthon's Loci theologici, of which this was one of the last editions published in his lifetime, was the first systematised presentation of Lutheran theology, and his most influential work.