PRESENTED BY THE AUTHOR
BIANCHINI, Giuseppe.
Enarratio pseudo-Athanasiana in symbolum ante hac inedita, et Vigilii Tapsitani de Trinitate ad Theophilum liber VI nunc primum genuinus … Accedit symbolum Nicaenum, cum Symmachi papae vita …
Verona, Pierantonio Berno, 1732.
4to, pp. [xiv], 108, with copper-engraved frontispiece, and engraved facsimile of 4 lines of manuscript facing p. 1; copper-engraved arms to title, woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces; a few light marks; a very good uncut copy in contemporary carta rustica, spine neatly lettered in ink; inscription to recto of frontispiece ‘Joannis Zanetti / Ex dono Caris:mi Auctoris’ with a similar inscription at foot of verso.
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Enarratio pseudo-Athanasiana in symbolum ante hac inedita, et Vigilii Tapsitani de Trinitate ad Theophilum liber VI nunc primum genuinus … Accedit symbolum Nicaenum, cum Symmachi papae vita …
First edition, presented by the author, of this scarce work on the Apostles’ Creed by the Veronese Oratorian, Biblical and liturgical scholar, and librarian Giuseppe Bianchini (1704–1764), with a delightful frontispiece depicting the city of Verona.
Admired for his learning by Clement XII and Benedict XIV, Bianchini here edits the text of a Latin commentary on the Apostles’ Creed, attributed to St Athanasius, from an early manuscript in the Biblioteca Capitolare at Verona. He prefaces the text with an essay on its authorship, and appends extensive notes culminating with a table presenting the text of four different versions of the Creed in Latin.
Two further texts follow, edited from the same manuscript: a work on the Trinity attributed to the fifth-century bishop Vigilius of Thapsus, and a Latin biography of the fifth/sixth-century Pope Symmachus. Bianchini dedicates the work to Cardinal Angelo Maria Querini (1680–1755), who served as Librarian at the Vatican from 1730 to 1755.
The splendid frontispiece by Ludovico Perini depicts the fourth-century bishop Zeno of Verona fishing at a bend in the River Adige, his arm outstretched towards the city behind him. The cityscape includes its famous amphitheatre, the Arena.
Provenance: given by the author to one Giovanni Zanetti, possibly the Paduan doctor of this name who served as professor of medicine at the University of Pisa.
OCLC records two copies in the US (Columbia and Rice) and three in the UK (Bodley, CUL, and Durham).
