![WICLIF, John (c.1320- 1384).[Trialogus:] Dialogorum libri quattuor. [Worms: Peter Schoeffer], 7 March 1525.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2002/CKS/2002_CKS_06605_0132_000(045102).jpg?w=1)
Details
WICLIF, John (c.1320- 1384).[Trialogus:] Dialogorum libri quattuor. [Worms: Peter Schoeffer], 7 March 1525.
4° (184 x 142mm). Woodcut title border. (Without final blank, paper flaw in 3 lvs., affecting a few words in one, a few printed marginalia just shaved, light staining in Gg and from Mm.) English 18th-century red morocco gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges (spine lightly faded, slight wear at head of spine). Provenance: a few underlinings and annotations.
FIRST EDITION. The Dialogorum (more usually entitled Trialogus) is the last major philosophical work of John Wiclif, branded a heretic by his own and succeeding generations, but hailed as a great English reformer from the 16th century on. The Trialogus contains his theological summa, presented as a discussion among three allegorical figures (Alithia [Truth], Pseustis [Falsehood], and Phronesis [Wisdom]) on the nature of God, the world, the virtues, vices, salvation, signs and sacraments. It enjoyed a posthumous popularity, despite its repeated condemnation as heretical by the authorities. Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury condemned 18 of its articles in 1397, and petitioned the pope for papal condemnation. In 1412-13 Pope John XXIII duly singled out specific Wiclif books, including the Trialogue, for condemnation, and ordered public burnings of the book. Its fullest condemnation was repeated at the Council of Constance (which also tried and burned Jan Hus, a proponent of Wicliffite writings), and even as late as 1546 Wiclif's English works were prohibited in England by royal proclamation. Wiclif was rehabilitated in the Reformation, praised by Luther as 'a witness set up by God in advance to the truth of reformed doctrine' (Kenny, Wyclif, p.102) and by John Bale and John Foxe, whose Latin Protestant martyrology firmly established Wiclif as the great English precursor of the Reformation.
FIRST APPEARANCE IN PRINT OF ANY OF THE WRITINGS OF JOHN WICLIF, and his only genuine work printed until the 19th century. With the exception of a Psalter published by the Speier printer Peter Drach in 1504 at Worms, Peter Schoeffer the younger was the first printer in that city. At Worms he printed primarily reformation literature. Adams W-271; BLSTC German p.913; Brunet V, 1441; Shirley/Loserth, Cat. of extant Latin works of Wiclif, 17; VD-16 W-4688.
4° (184 x 142mm). Woodcut title border. (Without final blank, paper flaw in 3 lvs., affecting a few words in one, a few printed marginalia just shaved, light staining in Gg and from Mm.) English 18th-century red morocco gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges (spine lightly faded, slight wear at head of spine). Provenance: a few underlinings and annotations.
FIRST EDITION. The Dialogorum (more usually entitled Trialogus) is the last major philosophical work of John Wiclif, branded a heretic by his own and succeeding generations, but hailed as a great English reformer from the 16th century on. The Trialogus contains his theological summa, presented as a discussion among three allegorical figures (Alithia [Truth], Pseustis [Falsehood], and Phronesis [Wisdom]) on the nature of God, the world, the virtues, vices, salvation, signs and sacraments. It enjoyed a posthumous popularity, despite its repeated condemnation as heretical by the authorities. Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury condemned 18 of its articles in 1397, and petitioned the pope for papal condemnation. In 1412-13 Pope John XXIII duly singled out specific Wiclif books, including the Trialogue, for condemnation, and ordered public burnings of the book. Its fullest condemnation was repeated at the Council of Constance (which also tried and burned Jan Hus, a proponent of Wicliffite writings), and even as late as 1546 Wiclif's English works were prohibited in England by royal proclamation. Wiclif was rehabilitated in the Reformation, praised by Luther as 'a witness set up by God in advance to the truth of reformed doctrine' (Kenny, Wyclif, p.102) and by John Bale and John Foxe, whose Latin Protestant martyrology firmly established Wiclif as the great English precursor of the Reformation.
FIRST APPEARANCE IN PRINT OF ANY OF THE WRITINGS OF JOHN WICLIF, and his only genuine work printed until the 19th century. With the exception of a Psalter published by the Speier printer Peter Drach in 1504 at Worms, Peter Schoeffer the younger was the first printer in that city. At Worms he printed primarily reformation literature. Adams W-271; BLSTC German p.913; Brunet V, 1441; Shirley/Loserth, Cat. of extant Latin works of Wiclif, 17; VD-16 W-4688.
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