[LANSPERGER, Johannes Justus;] Serafino ACETI DE’ PORTI, translator.
Pharetra divini amoris, tradotto in volgare per Don Seraphino da Bologna canonico regolare, et ultimamente stampato, et con diligentia rivisto et emendato, con molte salutifere cose aggio[n]te, et gran numero di orationi latine divotissime, contiene in se documenti, regole et instruttioni utili et necessarie ... Venice, Paolo Gherardo [(colophon:) Comin da Trino], 1549.
8vo, ff. [12], 323, [1], 324–545, [6]; title within composite woodcut border with woodcut vignette of the Crucifixion, woodcut initials, ten large woodcuts in the text (one repeat); closed tear to title-page neatly repaired, marginal paper-flaws to ff. 323 and 375, neat marginal repairs to last two leaves, occasional light marks, a little creasing to some corners, otherwise a very good copy; contemporary brown morocco over wooden boards, boards panelled in blind and gilt, gilt centrepieces and fleur-de-lys cornerpieces, two brass catches to fore-edge (clasps perished), spine tooled in gilt and blind, edges gilt and gauffered, front pastedown and spine lining of fourteenth-century manuscript waste on vellum; a little worn at extremities with small losses to spine, rear joint cracked at head, some minor worming, rear pastedown removed; seventeenth-century ownership inscriptions to front endpapers ‘S. Salvatoris Contis […]’ and ‘Marianna Luigia Cislago’, a few early annotations to first leaves.
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Pharetra divini amoris, tradotto in volgare per Don Seraphino da Bologna canonico regolare, et ultimamente stampato, et con diligentia rivisto et emendato, con molte salutifere cose aggio[n]te, et gran numero di orationi latine divotissime, contiene in se documenti, regole et instruttioni utili et necessarie ...
Third Italian edition, considerably enlarged, of this important devotional compendium, with a series of fine woodcuts illustrating Christ’s Passion.
Johannes Lansperger (1489–1539) was a Carthusian monk at Cologne, who had studied philosophy and theology. 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 charterhouse of St Barbara. Lansperger’s writings share with the devotio moderna movement an intense contemplation of the life of Christ. His Pharetra divini amoris (‘Quiver of divine love’) was first published in the original Latin in 1532, with a fuller edition following the next year. This Italian translation by the Canon Regular of the Lateran, Serafino Aceti de’ Porti (1496–1540), first appeared in 1547, from the Venetian press of Paolo Gherardo; such was its success that Gherardo issued an enlarged edition the following year, and then this edition, even larger still, in 1549.
The first two parts here comprise extensive advice and rules on the spiritual life. Then comes a section on Christ’s Passion, illustrated with a series of striking woodcuts depicting the entry into Jerusalem (f. 364r); the Last Supper (f. 395v); Christ washing the disciples’ feet (f. 399v); the agony in the garden (f. 409v); the betrayal (f. 416v); the flagellation (f. 427v); Christ falling with the cross (f. 433r, a repeat of the woodcut to f. 324r); the Crucifixion (f. 436v); and the Pietà (f. 449r). The final part comprises a long selection of prayers. The attractive title-page includes depictions of the Crucifixion and of five saints, including St Lawrence and St Sebastian.
OCLC records only three copies in the US, all incomplete (Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Chicago, Wisconsin-Madison); Library Hub finds only two in the UK (BL, Rylands).
EDIT16 CNCE 47795; USTC 837309.