Pietro dell'Aquila (a.k.a., Pietro dell'Aquilla)

Magister Petrus de Aquila...super quatuor libros magistri Sententiarum

      [colophon: Venetiis: Per Simonem de Luere, 1501]. Binding as above; library rubber-stamps, including on title- and last (blank) page. Light waterstaining throughout. a1-8 with chipping or bumping on corners, more obvious on the lower inner and outer corners, not touching print. Title-page very lightly soiled with a few spots of staining. Two inked ownership inscriptions on title-page; some terse marginalia; inked title on fore-edge.. 4to (22.5 cm, 8.875"). [8], 244 ff. Peter of Aquila (1275-1361) was a Franciscan and bishop of Angelo whose theological acumen earned him the title of "doctor sufficiens," the able doctor, while his devotion to Duns Scotus earned him the cognomen "Scotellus." The present work is a commentary on the sentences of Peter Lombard (ca. 1095-1160), which present "the whole of Christian doctrine in one brief volume on the basis of Scripture, the Fathers, and the Doctors" (NCE). This handsome edition is printed in a round Italian gothic typeface of the sort used for theological works. Guide letters have been printed for initials (unaccomplished); the title-page gives the title above a poem in praise of Peter of Aquila. A table of the questions precedes the text, and at the end is a simply printed register and colophon, with a cipher SL as the printer's mark. The editio princeps of this work was published in 1480, and two other incunable editions preceded this, the first 16th-century edition. This edition is uncommon: we were able to trace only three copies in the U.S.#11; Binding: Deep walnut full calf old style: Round spine with raised bands, accented in gilt and with blind-tooled devices in compartments, and with oxblood leather labels, gilt-lettered; fillets extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils and covers framed in blind double fillets.