Details
ALBERTUS MAGNUS (ca. 1200-1280). Summa de creaturis. Simon de Luere for Andreas Torresanus, 19 February 1498 - 16 February 1498/99.
Super-chancery 2o (314 x 208 mm). Collation: a2; b-k8 l6 (a1r title, a1v table to Part I, b1r Part I, De quatuour coequeuis, l5v first colophon, l6 blank); n-z8 8 8 8 aa6 (n1r Part II, De homine, aa4v second colophon, aa5r table to Part II, aa6 blank). 198 leaves. 69 lines and headline, double column. Types: 5:130G (title and headings), 6:68G (text). Capital spaces, most with guide letters. (Title-leaf soiled and with small tear affecting a few letters on verso, minor fraying to edges of first few leaves, some mostly marginal dampstaining, 2 marginal wormholes at front.) 19th-century quarter sheep, contemporary manuscript title on lower edge (worn, spine broken). Provenance: a few early marginalia; Father Aloysius Thomasius Perravini (19th-century inscription on title).
FIRST EDITION. An Aristotelian analysis of the Creation and of the nature of man. The first part includes discussions of matter, causation, time, the movement of the spheres, the characteristics of angels, etc. Among the questions considered in the second part are the soul versus the body, the human senses and perceptions, dreams and fantasies, the emotions, the intellect, free will, and the possibility of other worlds. "Albert's early identification as a precursor of modern science undoubtedly stemmed from his empiricist methodology, which he learned from Aristotle but which he practiced with a skill unsurpassed by any Schoolman... He stated that evidence based on sense perception is the most secure and is superior to reasoning without experimentation... On the subject of authority, he pointed out that science consists not in simply believing what one is told but in inquiring into the causes of natural things" (DSB).
H *569; BMC V, 574 (IB.24649); BSB A-166; CIBN A-130; GW 779; Harvard/Walsh 2726; IGI 238; Polain (B) 87; Klebs 27.1; Goff A-334.
Super-chancery 2
FIRST EDITION. An Aristotelian analysis of the Creation and of the nature of man. The first part includes discussions of matter, causation, time, the movement of the spheres, the characteristics of angels, etc. Among the questions considered in the second part are the soul versus the body, the human senses and perceptions, dreams and fantasies, the emotions, the intellect, free will, and the possibility of other worlds. "Albert's early identification as a precursor of modern science undoubtedly stemmed from his empiricist methodology, which he learned from Aristotle but which he practiced with a skill unsurpassed by any Schoolman... He stated that evidence based on sense perception is the most secure and is superior to reasoning without experimentation... On the subject of authority, he pointed out that science consists not in simply believing what one is told but in inquiring into the causes of natural things" (DSB).
H *569; BMC V, 574 (IB.24649); BSB A-166; CIBN A-130; GW 779; Harvard/Walsh 2726; IGI 238; Polain (B) 87; Klebs 27.1; Goff A-334.