[Hildebert of Lavardin and Marbod of Rennes] Hildeberti Turonensis Opera, tam edita quam inedita. Accesserunt Marbodi Redonensis episcopi Opuscula, ed. Antoine Beaugendre, Paris, apud Laurentium Le Conte, 1708, folio, first edition, 3 engraved headpieces (V2 affected by paper fault), contemporary blind-stamped pigskin with metal clasps (spine worn at head) [Graesse III, 278; Brunet III, 165] -- Veterum Monumentorum Quartenio, ed. Johann George Eccard: I. Agius [monk of Corvey] Vita Hathumodae Abatissae Gandersheimensis Primae, cum Dialogo Poetico de orbitu eiusdem, Leipzig, sumptibus Nicolai Foersteri, 1720, folio (library stamps at foot of title), modern calf-backed boards [Potthast 1382]; and 18 others, 17th and 18th-century, most folio, including works by Cosmas of Prague, Innocent III, Joannes Morinus and Benedetto Averani. (20)

Details

[Hildebert of Lavardin and Marbod of Rennes] Hildeberti Turonensis Opera, tam edita quam inedita. Accesserunt Marbodi Redonensis episcopi Opuscula, ed. Antoine Beaugendre, Paris, apud Laurentium Le Conte, 1708, folio, first edition, 3 engraved headpieces (V2 affected by paper fault), contemporary blind-stamped pigskin with metal clasps (spine worn at head) [Graesse III, 278; Brunet III, 165] -- Veterum Monumentorum Quartenio, ed. Johann George Eccard: I. Agius [monk of Corvey] Vita Hathumodae Abatissae Gandersheimensis Primae, cum Dialogo Poetico de orbitu eiusdem, Leipzig, sumptibus Nicolai Foersteri, 1720, folio (library stamps at foot of title), modern calf-backed boards [Potthast 1382]; and 18 others, 17th and 18th-century, most folio, including works by Cosmas of Prague, Innocent III, Joannes Morinus and Benedetto Averani. (20)

Lot Essay

The first work is the celebrated Benedictine edition, by Antoine Beaugendre of the Congregation of St. Maur, combining the works of Hildebert of Lavardin (1056-1133) and his contemporary Marbod of Rennes (1035-1123), eminent churchmen and at the same time among the greatest poets of the Middle Ages. Hildebert's most famous poems are the Roman Elegy inspired by the sad plight of the Eternal City which had been besieged by Henry IV and then pillaged by the Normnans and Saracens under Robert Guiscard; and his beautiful long poem 'De Exilio Suo'. The life of Hathumod, daughter of Duke Liudulf of Saxony and abbess of the Benedictine monastery of Gadnersheim, who died in 874 in her 34th year, is regarded as a major literary work, 'a biographical monument which in this form is almost unique in the Middle Ages.' Integral to it is the long epical 'Dialogue' on her death, written in metrical distiches, in which Agius consoles her nuns.

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