Augustinus, Aurelius, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Opus quaestionum

1497

1497

HC 1965*; BMC VIII 301; Goff A1297; Kaplan 48; ISTC ia01297000; GW 2915

Shoults (Special Collections) Gc/ 1519/ H

Lyons: Johannes Trechsel, 25 April 1497

Rebacked; wooden boards with ornate stamped covers. One brass clasp remaining. Small fragment of spine label present.

First page of text proper, binding, printers device and colophon, bibliographical inscription.

The earliest printings in Lyons are some Latin devotional tracts by Pope Innocent III on 17 September 1473. The printer's name Guillaume Le Roy 'an expert in this typographic art' appears in the colophon. The German-born Johannes Trechsel was an important printer-cum-publisher in Lyons. He was a fellow countryman of Nicolaus Philippi and had presumably been his foreman, as after the latter's death, Trechsel married the widow and soon came into possession of the printing office. His first known book was Caracciolus's Lenten sermons 'de peccatis', printed 4th February 1488/89. Trechsel prided himself on accuracy, clearness of type, and handiness of format. It worked; there was always a steady demand for his productions. Unlike other Lyonnesse presses, he stuck to Latin works, avoiding the vernacular. The scholar-printer Joducus Bodius Ascensius joined him in 1492. One result of this 'partnership' was an illustrated edition of Terence in August 1493, which is Trechsel's best-known work. He died in 1498; his successor was Johannes Clein. Trechsel's print device is present below the colophon.

This work contains a collection of theological questions by St Augustine, one of the Church Fathers. First edition, the only one published in the fifteenth century.

Paper. [286] leaves ; 270 x 190 mm (fol.).
Gothic type; two columns per page.
F.1a Title: Opus questionu diui Augustini.
F.285b Colophon: Impssum est aut hoc op. Lugduni: opa et Impensis. M. Ioanis Trechsel alemaaano salutis nostre Millesimo quadringentesimo nonagesimoseptimo. Vij. Kalen. Maias. [Device].
Edited by Augustinus de Ratisbona and Jodocus Badius Ascensius.
Last leaf wanting.

1. Canon William Ardene Shoults
2. Selwyn College; Otago University Library