LANDSBERG, Johannes Justus.
Iohannis Iusti Lanspergii Bavari Carthusiani omnium epistolarum ac evangeliorum dominicalium totius anni enarrationes, et sermones veterem illum atq[ue] germanum orthodoxorum patrum sensum pietatemq[ue] referentes. Omnia haud sine parvo labore denuo revisa …
Cologne, Melchior von Neuss, 1548.
Folio, ff. [12], CCCVIII; text in double columns, woodcut device to title (partly hand-coloured), woodcut initials; some marginal dampstaining, some wormholes at beginning and end, a few closed tears to lower margins, some leaves browned, occasional marks; otherwise good in contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, bevelled edges, covers tooled to a panel design with rolls featuring St Paul, St Peter, St John, and Christ, four raised bands to spine, two brass catches, one remaining brass clasp; some discolouring to spine and part of covers, some wear to corners and worming to boards and endpapers, covers rubbed; two small illuminated fragments from a small fifteenth-century devotional manuscript, one to front pastedown and one to rear cover; near contemporary marginal annotations to two hands to 20 pp., some underlining in red ink, inscription and ink stamp to title of ‘Bibliotheca Capucinorum Burghusii'.
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Iohannis Iusti Lanspergii Bavari Carthusiani omnium epistolarum ac evangeliorum dominicalium totius anni enarrationes, et sermones veterem illum atq[ue] germanum orthodoxorum patrum sensum pietatemq[ue] referentes. Omnia haud sine parvo labore denuo revisa …
Later edition (first 1539) of paraphrases, exegeses, and sermons by the Carthusian ascetic and mystic Johannes Landsberg (c. 1490–1539).
Landsberg studied philosophy and theology in Cologne before entering the charterhouse of St Barbara there. In 1530 he became prior of the charterhouse of Vogelsang near Jülich and also acted as preacher and confessor to the court of John III, Duke of Cleves. Owing to ill health, in 1535 he renounced all his offices and retired to the St Barbara charterhouse. His works share with the devotio moderna movement an intense contemplation of the life of Christ. ‘The chief feature of his writings is a deep, ardent, and tender piety … One thing particularly worthy of mark is the frequency with which he speaks of the Heart of Christ, and pressingly exhorts every Christian to take the Sacred Heart as an object of special love, veneration, and imitation’ (Catholic Encyclopaedia).
The subject matter here ranges widely, encompassing, among other subjects, the apostles, charity, Christ and the Passion, death, the Devil, fasting, grace, heresy, the Holy Spirit, humility, justice, laziness, love, Lutheranism, penance, prayer, prelates, sin, and wealth. The few neat contemporary annotations display an interest in parables and pride.
The binding is unusual in having two small cuttings from a pocket-sized fifteenth-century devotional manuscript employed as repairs: one to the fore-edge of the front pastedown (with an initial ‘C’ and bar border in blue, pink, and gold), the other covering a tear to the lower cover (also with a bar border).
Adams L163; USTC 668035; VD16 J 1210. Only two copies in the US on OCLC (Columbia, Newberry); Library Hub records three copies in the UK (CUL, Ushaw College, Winchester Cathedral).
