Transito Vita Miracoli & morte del glorioso Sancto Hieronymo

Woodcut depicting St Jerome on title page (56 x 63mm), within simple architectural border; two decorative woodcut initials, white on black, beginning the Proemio and first chapter.

8vo (160 x 107mm). CII ff. (lacking final blank).  Marbled paper over pasteboards, rounded spine, quarter-bound in vellum with gilt pattern and simple motif repeated at top and centre, and red and black morocco labels with gilt lettering (some wear, boards slightly bumped).

Venice, Bernardino de Viano de Lexona, 

A very rare edition of the life and works of St Jerome (c.347-419), with an unattributed woodcut depiction on the title page of the saint kneeling in the desert in front of Christ on the cross, surrounded by common associated symbols – the lion, cardinal’s hat and in his hand a stone, with which he was said to beat himself in penance. 

The life and works of St Jerome were reproduced in image and print many times over the course of the sixteenth century; frequently depicted ‘as a model humanist’ (W. J. Burghardt), the life of ’doctore’ Hieronymo proved an exceedingly popular subject, both in learned circles, where his Latin translation of the Old Testament and extensive commentary and correspondence were held in high esteem, and amongst a popular audience. It is to the latter that this work is pitched; aside from a list of his translations, this volume is less concerned with St Jerome’s scholarly output and focuses more on spiritual events in his life and the lessons to be learned from his experiences.  

This work is a good example of the high volume of religious texts printed in Venice around the turn of the sixteenth century, down to the use of (rather crude) woodcut illustration, frequently found in such devotional works (see Chavasse, ‘Latin lay piety’; R. Salzberg, Ephemeral City: Cheap Print and Urban Culture in Renaissance Venice).  Although more sophisticated, the influence of the devotional chapbook, or fogli volanti, popular and widely sold in Venice in the sixteenth century – short, cheaply printed devotional works of 8-24 pages, often illustrated – can clearly be seen here. Thus this work should be understood not only as an example of the product of the fascination, in this period, for this saint and his works, but also for the manner in which the business of printing in Venice in the early sixteenth century straddled the scholarly and popular, the erudite and the ephemeral.

Provenance: Pencil note on rear paste-down indicating that this volume was originally in the British Museum collection. Sparsely annotated; small ellipses in the margin of f. 29v, in brown ink, and three annotations, including name ‘March Renyon’[?], on ff. 41v, 72v-73r, all in the same hand.

A little marginal worming and closed tears (ff. 18, 35, 36 with attempted repair, 38), but no loss of text. Light soiling.

BMSTC (Italian) supplement, 45. (Not in Adams). Not in Sander. Censimento Edit 16 CNCE 71515. R. Chavasse, ‘Latin lay piety and vernacular lay piety in Word and Image, Venice 1471- early 1500s’, Renaissance Studies 10.3, 319-42.

[OCLC: British Library only.]

 

Stock Code: 227280