Paris, Iehan Petit, Venditur in vico diui Iacobi sub Leone Argenteo, 1507. Small 4to. Bound in a fine full calf pastiche-binding with five raised bands and blindtooled ornamentation to boards. Tile-page with large printers woodcut-device, verso of title-page a large wood-engraving showing the author seated in his study surrounded by books. Three small holes to first leaf, not affecting text, otherwise a good copy. 30 ff.
Uncommon second edition of Bede’s influential treatise on the chronology of the six ages of the world, containing various aspects of chronology and issues regarding the Christian calendar being “the earliest comprehensive treatment of this subject”. Here Bede focuses on calculating the century old problem of the date of Easter. “For more than eight hundred years, Bede’s De temporum ratione was the standard textbook for performing these calculations” (Encyclopaedia Britannica). “For this book helped to establish the custom of counting years from the birth of Christ. When we say that Queen Elisabeth II was born in 1926 (not ‘in the 16th year of the reign of George V’, or ‘in the year 2678 after the foundation of Rome’, or in the year after the 481st Olympiad’), we are indebted to the Venerable Bede.” (PMM p. 16) In Anglo-Saxon England during the mid-7th century, there was a ambition to separate the timing of Easter from the Jewish Passover calendar and to ensure its observance on a Sunday. Following in the footsteps of Christian scholars before him who delved into the issue of determining the correct date for Easter, Bede, in 725, aimed to clarify the ecclesiastical rationale behind the Synod of Whitby's 664-decision, which favored Roman customs over Irish practices. “The Reckoning of Time is about measuring time and constructing a Christian calendar, or what later medieval writers called computus. It is the earliest comprehensive treatment of this subject, for though there was an abundant calendar literature before Bede’s day, it was both fragmentary and partisan in character. (…) Bede’s book is very different in form and content. Although he is also the partisan of one form of Paschal table – the Alexandrian 19-year cycle, as elaborated by Dionysius Exiguus – he sought to establish its credibility by making it the basis of a comprehensive manual of time reckoning. It was a gamble that paid of. So lucid, thorough and well organized was Bede’s exposition, so easy was it to teach from and learn from, that it can be said to have not only guaranteed the ultimate success of Dionysius’ system, but to have made computes into a science, with a coherent body of precept and a technical literature of its own.” (Faith Wallis. Bede the Reckoning of Time).’. The editio princeps was published in 1505.
Coloniae Agrippinae (Köln), Sumptibus Anton. Hierati et Ioan. Gymnici, 1612. Folio. Bound in two contemporary, uniform full vellum bindings with remains of silk-ties on boards. Some traces of use to extremities. Some pages evenly browned, some brownspotted. First two volumes richly illustrated with woodcut diagrams, musical notes, earth- and heaven-maps etc. in the text, numerous woodcut initials throughout, engraved title-page. (10) pp, columns 1-168 (84 pp.), pp. 169 - 322, columns 323 - 452 (65 pp.) + (1) f., 238 pp. + (2) ff., columns 1 - 500 (250 pp.) + (2) ff., columns 1 - 916 (458 pp.) + (1) f., columns 1 - 816 (408 pp) + (1) f., columns 1 - 852 (426 pp.) + (2) ff., columns 1 - 485 (243 pp.) + (2) ff., columns 1 - 968 (484 pp.), 55 ff. (Index).
Very rare, early, and apparently first complete edition of the seminal works by the ""Father of English History"", the venrable Bede. Bede’s most famous work, his ""An Ecclesiastical History of the English People"" (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum)? begins with the invasion of the British Isles by Roman forces and is considered one of the most important historical records documenting Roman rule, Anglo-Saxon settlement and the evolution of the Church on the island. With its focus on Anglo-Saxon history, the work is considered a key foundational text in the forming of a national English identity. The ""Ecclesiastical History"" contains stories that serve as the only source documenting the conversion to Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. It tells the story of Britons from Julius Caesar’s invasion, to the time of Bede himself . He tells the story of battles, conversions and miracles performed by monks and bishops, and details Britain’s early history from the Roman invasion. He furthermore describes the organization and establishment of Christianity in the English church and covers the personal history of ?Holy Ethelwald and miracles of growth within the English church, such as the development of the bishopric. ""Bede’s works fall into three groups: grammatical and “scientific,” scriptural commentary, and historical and biographical. His earliest works included treatises on spelling, hymns, figures of speech, verse, and epigrams. His first treatise on chronology, De temporibus (“On Times”), with a brief chronicle attached, was written in 703. In 725 he completed a greatly amplified version, De temporum ratione (“On the Reckoning of Time”), with a much longer chronicle. Both these books were mainly concerned with the reckoning of Easter. His earliest biblical commentary was probably that on the Revelation to John (703?–709)" in this and many similar works, his aim was to transmit and explain relevant passages from the Fathers of the Church. Although his interpretations were mainly allegorical, treating much of the biblical text as symbolic of deeper meanings, he used some critical judgment and attempted to rationalize discrepancies. Among his most notable are his verse (705–716) and prose (before 721) lives of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne. These works are uncritical and abound with accounts of miracles a more exclusively historical work is Historia abbatum (c. 725" “Lives of the Abbots”). In 731/732 Bede completed his Historia ecclesiastica. Divided into five books, it recorded events in Britain from the raids by Julius Caesar (55–54 BCE) to the arrival in Kent (597 CE) of St. Augustine of Canterbury. For his sources, he claimed the authority of ancient letters, the “traditions of our forefathers,” and his own knowledge of contemporary events. Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica leaves gaps tantalizing to secular historians. Although overloaded with the miraculous, it is the work of a scholar anxious to assess the accuracy of his sources and to record only what he regarded as trustworthy evidence. It remains an indispensable source for some of the facts and much of the feel of early Anglo-Saxon history."" (Encycl. Britt). Only three editions of Bede's Opera Omnia are known before Dr. Giles' edition from 1843 - 44. The first was printed in 1563 and the third in 1688. The 1688-edition constitutes the second edition of the present 1612-edition which is ""According to Dr. Henry, the only complete edition"" (Lowndes I:143). These three editions are also the only ones known to have been printed in folio (though Lowndes mentions the 1688-edition as 4to). The 1612-edition is the rarest. Some of the works contained in this edition are said not to be Bede's own, as some of the many scientific, richly illustrated works on geography, the heavens, the universe, music etc. bear small resemblance to his other works. Lowndes I:143, Brunet 1:731.