A READER IN RENAISSANCE THOMISM
THOMAS AQUINAS; Antonius PIZAMANUS, editor.
Opuscula [with a life of St Thomas].
Venice, Hermannus Liechtenstein, 7 September 1490.
4to, ff. [436]; aa12 a–v8 x12 A–Z AA–GG8 HH12 (quire Z misbound); gothic letter, text in two columns, initials supplied in red and blue; first leaf somewhat soiled, lower margins of aa2 and a1 excised, inscription erased from foot of aa3, quire aa and final quire becoming loose, aa12 slightly torn in gutter, final leaf reinforced at upper corner and becoming detached; nevertheless a good copy; bound in later vellum with calf spine, spine lettered directly in gilt; binding somewhat stained and rubbed spine with a few small wormholes, a few small ink stains to edges of textblock, paper label to foot of upper cover; a few neat manuscript annotations to c. 30 pp. in a seventeenth-century hand, later manuscript foliation, a few sections provided with manuscript chapter numbering, various manicules and vertical lines in ink marking specific passages, ink stamps of Stonyhurst College to first leaf and penultimate verso.
First collected edition of seventy-one shorter works by Thomas Aquinas.
Although a Dominican theologian by training, Aquinas viewed Aristotelian doctrine as central to his theology. He wrote numerous works on philosophy, including commentaries on Boethius (items 69 and 70 in this edition) and a polemical refutation of Averroes’ stance on Aristotle (item 16); this edition is provided with a full and numbered listing of contents on the verso of the first leaf.
This publication can be placed at the centre of Renaissance Thomism at the University of Padua. It was edited by Antonio Pizzamano (1462–1512), a Venetian nobleman, scholar, friend of Pico della Mirandola and Poliziano, and later bishop of Feltre. Pico della Mirandola – along with Marsilio Ficino and (later) Pietro Pomponazzi – was influenced by Aquinas and other Dominican Thomists; in the later fifteenth century the University of Padua had set up chairs in theology and metaphysics ‘in via S. Thomae’ which then enabled discussion and exchange between natural philosophy (through the texts of Plato) and Christian faith. The first Paduan professor of Thomist theology, Ludovico da Valenza, took up his post in 1490, the year of publication; the collection was subsequently reprinted in 1498.
The annotations partly repeat significant words and phrases from the text and sometimes refer to passages in other works by Thomas Aquinas; one longer annotation on 2B8v contains a quotation from Henricus de Herp.
HC 1541*; BMC V 338; GW M46029; Goff T258; BSB-Ink T-236; Bod-Inc T-140; ISTC it00258000.
