The Church -- Mairo (George, editor): Vitae Patrum, cum praefatione d. Martini Lutheri, Wittenberg, [colophon: per Petrum Seitz], 1544, 8vo, title within woodcut border (small adhesive label with shelf mark on title, occasional light soiling), contemporary blind-stamped pigskin (rubbed, clasps lacking) [Knaake 685; Jackson 2038; Benzing 3455] -- Caesarius of Heisterbach: Illustrium Miraculorum et Historiarum Memorabilium Libri XII, Cologne, in officina Birckmannica, 1591, 8vo (title thumbsoiled, some browning of later leaves), contemporary blind-stamped pigskin (rubbed, spine painted over, clasps lacking) [Graesse II, 11] -- Cook (Robert): Censura Quorundam Scriptorum, London, Richard Field, 1623, 4to (title soiled, preliminaries wormed at lower margins), later morocco-backed cloth with 'Bibliotheca Phillips' library label [STC 5470; Phillips Cat. 2388]; and 10 others, published 1524-1674. (13)

Details

The Church -- Mairo (George, editor): Vitae Patrum, cum praefatione d. Martini Lutheri, Wittenberg, [colophon: per Petrum Seitz], 1544, 8vo, title within woodcut border (small adhesive label with shelf mark on title, occasional light soiling), contemporary blind-stamped pigskin (rubbed, clasps lacking) [Knaake 685; Jackson 2038; Benzing 3455] -- Caesarius of Heisterbach: Illustrium Miraculorum et Historiarum Memorabilium Libri XII, Cologne, in officina Birckmannica, 1591, 8vo (title thumbsoiled, some browning of later leaves), contemporary blind-stamped pigskin (rubbed, spine painted over, clasps lacking) [Graesse II, 11] -- Cook (Robert): Censura Quorundam Scriptorum, London, Richard Field, 1623, 4to (title soiled, preliminaries wormed at lower margins), later morocco-backed cloth with 'Bibliotheca Phillips' library label [STC 5470; Phillips Cat. 2388]; and 10 others, published 1524-1674. (13)

Lot Essay

Georg Maior (1502-74), professor in Wittenberg, edited the early medieval Vitae Patrum at the request of Luther who wrote the preface; the lives are those of the early saints, John of Egypt, Appolonius of Thebes, Paul the Hermit, Hilarion, Basil, Pelagius and others. Caesarius (c. 1180-1240), Prior of the Cistercian Monastery of Heisterbach near Cologne, wrote one of the great story books of the middle ages, full of supernatural incident. Robert Cooke (1550-1615), a Protestant divine, was 'singularly well studied' in the works of antiquity.

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