Celebrated Sermoniser
MAILLARD, Olivier.
Sermones de sanctis reverendi patris fratris Oliverii Maillardi ordinis fratru[m] minoru[m] de observa[n]tia prop[ri]a manu scripti aut exami[n]ati. Denuo diligenter revisi. Cologne, Cornelius von Zierickzee, 30 October 1507.
4to, ff. [1], lxviii, [1]; title in red, devotional woodcuts to title, title verso, and last page, text in two columns; small marginal wormhole to first few quires, occasional light marks, some staining to last page; a very good copy in nineteenth-century half calf, speckled paper boards, remains of gilt-lettered spine label; some wear to extremities and abrasions to covers; contemporary inscription at head of title ‘Liber iste est canonicor[um] regularu[m] in Langenzen Herbipolensis diocesis’, contemporary annotations to ff. xiiiir, lxvir, and lxviir, old oval stamp ‘Ex bibliotheca Acad. Georgiae Augustae’ (i.e. University of Göttingen) and deaccession stamp dated 1955 to title verso (touching woodcut, some offsetting to facing page), modern bookplate of J. Hönscheid to front pastedown, typescript bookseller’s description in German to rear pastedown.
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Sermones de sanctis reverendi patris fratris Oliverii Maillardi ordinis fratru[m] minoru[m] de observa[n]tia prop[ri]a manu scripti aut exami[n]ati. Denuo diligenter revisi.
Very rare edition of a collection of sermons by the celebrated Breton preacher and Franciscan Olivier Maillard (c. 1430–1502), illustrated with devotional woodcuts. The text collects thirty-one sermons delivered by Maillard on various feast days throughout the liturgical year, beginning with St Andrew’s (30 November) and running through to All Saints’ (1 November).
Maillard ‘is specially celebrated as a forceful, popular preacher, who preached inspiriting and profitable Lenten sermons in both churches and public places. His manner and style were indeed often rather bluntly plebeian, but by no means so rough as the later classicists have proclaimed them to be. Of a fearless nature, he did not abstain from well-merited attacks upon the abuses of his time, and upon the crimes of those in high places (e.g. the cruelties of Louis XI) … Of his works, nearly all of which are sermons, there is no complete collection; they appeared in detached fashion, many in various editions and in both French and Latin’ (Catholic Encyclopedia). Several incunable editions appeared in Paris and Lyon.
The title-page here is illustrated with a central woodcut of the Virgin and Child (repeated on the title verso), while the surrounding woodcut border incorporates scenes of a praying friar, Christ and Moses, the burning of heretics, and kings and queens. The handsome woodcut to the final page depicts the Pentecost (Mary, the Apostles, and Pentecostal dove), with scenes of Christ’s Baptism and Temptation below.
Provenance:
The Augustinian Canons of the medieval monastery at Langenzenn in Bavaria, Germany, not far from Nuremberg. The annotations, no doubt by one of the Canons, show an interest in St John’s relationship with Christ and the feast of All Saints’.
No copies of this edition traced in the US, and only one in the UK (Ushaw College). A variant exists with ‘prop[ri]o’ in the title, a copy of which is at the British Library.
USTC 693702; VD16 M 244.