HoB_Extending the Medieval Tradition

Title Varii sermoni di Santo Agostino

Brief description This object is perhaps most notable not for its content but for the unique publisher’s attributes and notations that can be found in this volume. An unusual fourth edition of the text printed in 1558 (multiple volumes of the second edition printed in 1556 can be found in university collections throughout North America and Europe), this copy was printed by Italian publisher Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari with his distinct colophon on the title page and last page of the book with variations of the same thematic icon of a phoenix. Although little is known about Giolito de Ferrari, it has been identified that he was also known under the pseudonym Bernardino Stagnino . Printed in Italian (not Latin), the book was also personally inscribed with hand-written notations (also in Italian) on the inside cover and opening bank page on the book. Unfortunately, we do not know the author of these notations, nor when they were written in the volume. The script’s ink, a semi-translucent deep-brown, is written in multiple sized lettering but in fairly organized lines and do not appear anywhere else in the book (the body of the text does not have any notations added by the reader). Upon inspection, the body of the text appears extraordinarily recognizable to the modern reader; the neat font provides uninhibited legibility (for those literate in Italian) of Augustine’s prose, and each sermon is methodically structured without notation or glossary. The spacing of the text creates clear delineation of the sermons, each individually identified at the top of its own page, like a chapter or part. Immediately following the title page is an index complete with corresponding paginations of each sermon so that the reader could find the precise text they intended to study. This textual spacing and pagination was intentional; it was an attempt to make the text more readily accessible for purposes of study, instead of including the maximum amount of text and decoration on a page for economic considerations or as an ornamental aesthetic . The gradual democratization of book pricing was one outcome of the less-expensive production of mechanically printed volumes (when contrasted with the prohibitive costs of manuscripts written, illustrated, and bound entirely by hand). This binding of over 400 sermons attributed to St. Augustine published in the mid-16th century is an exquisite example of a volume likely created for personal study/reference. It is not entirely devoid of artistic expression, yet it is a rather spartan example of Medieval printing. One of the most striking elements of Giolito de Ferrari’s print of the Augustine sermons is the title page and colophon (pictured)., . The remainder of its pages are entirely devoid of illustration or illumination. Rather, the words are what are important; the printer clearly wanted the reader’s attention to focus solely on the textual content, and not on artistic renderings that may have been a distraction from the text, or simply too expensive to incorporate into the edition. To attain the greatest value from this book’s content one must contemplate the passages’ eloquence.

Physical description Cover made of vellum boards; bound paper manuscript; leather label on spine with decorative gold-stamp text, border, and fleur-de-lis in each corner with text reading: “S. Agost. Serm. Giolito” (abbreviations of the author, the content, and the printer). All pages bound and stitched into vellum covers with stamped-leather detail. Text completed on a mechanical printing press; folios, or gatherings, were numbered and bound, with the full manuscript stitched together by hand. Printed, bound, stitched together, and assembled in vellum covers What can you tell about the book based on the physical aspects?: Top, side, and bottom edges of pages have a blue stain; the pages from the first fifth of the book appear more worn than latter portions of the text (more visible fading along the edges); hand-written notes are scrawled on the inside front book cover and proceeding black cover page; woodcuts: Giolito’s device on title page (phoenix standing atop a flaming urn, supported by gryphons and cherubs; motto "De la mia morte eterna vita i vivo” on a banner beneath winged putto); variation of this same device is above Giolito’s colophon at the end of the text, dated 1561 (MDLXI): a phoenix above a winged orb with historiated initials (GGF - Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari), glancing up to the blazing sun whose face looks down upon the phoenix); Latin phrase “Semper Eadem” is included on the banner draped behind/around the phoenix and orb.

Content description A collection of over 400 sermons attributed to St. Augustine, printed in Italian; third edition of this compilation of sermons, identical in content to 1556 edition; Bishop Galeazzo’s dedicatory epistle on title page is addressed to Marcello Cervino, cardinal of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome (the selection of this particular collection of sermons may have a strong personal value to the cardinal to warrant a personal recognition); printed in large round Roman type with the index in a slightly smaller italic; the text throughout is crisp, neat, and legible. Precise date unknown (particularly because this volume is an accumulation of sermons whose authorship has been contested; it is unclear if St. Augustine was the sole author of every sermon, or whether he may have appropriated certain elements/themes) but written within the latter portion of his life, once he had converted to Christianity, in the late 4th century. This is a Western text that reprints a collection of over 400 sermons of an early Christian bishop and theologian. St. Augustine was a unique figure in his day, and is recognized for the journey he completed throughout his life, a kind of allegory to Christian enlightenment. He was born into a wealthy family in modern-day Algeria (then the northern African territory of the struggling Roman Empire) before finding faith as an adult. He completed an extensive Classical education, becoming a professor of rhetoric, and did not convert to Christianity (in the Catholic Church) until he was 32, eventually absolving himself of his familial wealth, retaining only his home and small parcel of land which he modified into a small monastic community. This narrative of the traditionally-educated individual who applied a strong study ethic to his faith is an oft-cited source of inspiration for secular (or non-Christian) conversion. Although the basis of a printed text presupposes that there was a literate audience to purchase it, a volume such as this was likely part of an individual’s personal library. While not leather or velvet-bound, it is still a finely crafted book whose vellum cover has proved a sturdy material to have lasted some 450 years so far. The study of religious text was often a solitary and personal meditation, and the notations at the front of this copy suggest it was used as reference by an individual owner. Literate and financially-capable Christians (or those who subscribed to Augustinian dogma); the volume is not particularly large as one might expect for a book to be read by multiple users simultaneously, nor is it compact enough that it would likely be carried around on one’s person for diligent reference. The hand-scribed notations in the front of the book also suggest the book had, at some point in its provenance, individual ownership; however, the notations do not continue anywhere else in the volume as personal/marginal exegesis, a common practice when a personal copy was referenced for study. Likely for personal study, the quality of the print/binding and size suggest that it may have been purchased for a personal collection/library. Not miniaturized like many books of hours that were popular for the ease of carrying on one’s person, rather this book feels almost modern in size, weight, and textual representation. Ascribed to St. Augustine (354-450 CE), an early Christian theologian and classically-trained scholar whose extensive body of work, most notably that on divine grace, was completed throughout his lifetime in the 4th-5th centuries and helped shaped the formation of the Catholic Church. Confessions, De Civitate Dei (City of God), and De Doctrina Christiana (On Christian Doctrine), all by Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo; see also: Saint Augustine, trans. by Edmond Hill. Essential Sermons: The Works of St. Augustine. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2007. Lee Alexander’s Petrarch and St. Augustine: Classical Scholarship, Christian Theology and the Origins of the Renaissance in Italy is a terrific resource to chart the progression of Christian theology from its earliest manifestations towards the end of the Roman Empire into the Italian Renaissance in the work of Petrarch. The writings and sermons of St. Augustine had a profound influence on Petrarch, and Mr. Alexander’s work examines how remnants of Classical practices would be appropriated by humanists, like Petrarch, in the dawn of the Renaissance.

Contributor: Kira Fluor-Scacchi

Contribution date: Winter 2014

Full title: Varii sermoni di Santo Agostino

Date 1558

Location Venice (Vinegia)

Dimensions 6.2 W x 9.5 H x 2.2 D

Technologies of production Letterpress Printing

Additional information While multiple copies of similar texts can be found (collections of Augustinian sermons published by the same Italian printer), none can be located that match the date etched in the publisher’s colophon (other collections boast similar or identical titles but different numerical editions/publication dates). While the text has a matching entry found on Google Books, identically matching both title and author, the text has not yet been digitized either in part or in full. Ten volumes of a second edition of this text from 1556 can be found at UCLA and four other campuses in the United States, three locations in Italy, one in France, and one in Canada. The second manuscript featured in the exhibition of the Rouse collection: “S. Augustine: Sermons and Heremitas 14th cent.- Δ170/22”

ConditionBinding thread visible at the base and top of the spine; vellum cracked on all corners; paper pages warped at edges resulting in undulating pattern; some evidence of water damage that penetrates seven pages beginning on book plate page, resulting in a cluster of stains; the bound manuscript is breaking apart from the spine/covers making the folio binding partially visible; small holes/tears in the parchment have been mended (evidence of damage/repair with small cut paper pasted to cover a small number of larger holes)