PERALDUS, GUILLELMUS & JOHANNES NIDER. [SAMMELBAND]

SUMMA DE VIRTUTIBUS.COLOGNE: HEINRICH QUENTELL, 1479.[BOUND WITH]NIDER. CONSOLATORIUM TIMORATE CONSCIENTIAE.[AUGUSBURG: ANTON SORG, C1484.]

      Folio. 2 works in 1 volume. 283 x 223mm. Peraldus: a8,b-k10, l8, m6, n-v10, x8, A-E10, F8, G6, H-O10, P12, Q-X10, Z8, (r)10, (c)8.Nider:a-g10, h8, i6. Peraldus 432ff. Nider 84ff. Contemp. German elaborately blind-stamped pigskin backed wood boards, double-bands, title in later hand, lacks clasps but has the catches intact, wormholes in covers, old Jesuit owner�s label, booklabel and stamp of the EBibl. Prov. Germ. Inf. C. SS. R., old inscription removed from t.p.causing stain. wormholes (mostly marginal, one in text with a few letters touched) through g5 of first work and at end of second work; paper flaw on g5 of Paraldus, leaf a2 has small tear (no text loss); owner�s names crossed out on last text leaf of Nider with ink stain of facing page. Nider is lightly and evenly toned. Early marginalia throughout.A fine copy with wide margins. Both works are rubricated with Lombard initials and paragraph marks. Peraldus: 34 lines. Types. I:102G; 2:150G. Over 6,500 medieval treatises on the virtues and vices were listed by M.W. Bloomfield and his collaborators in 1979 (Incipits of Latin Works on the Virtues and Vices). The present text by the Lyon Dominican, Gullielmus Peraldus, or Guillaume PAErault, is probably the most famous and influential of them all. The author�s learning and sources were enormous, including many of the classical Stoics, such as Cicero, Seneca and Macrobius. The text was circulated widely and was used by Dante, Chaucer and many other writers. Gerson is said to have remarked that if all the books in the world were suddenly to disappear and only the Summa of Peraldus were to survive, the loss would be tolerable. Guillaume Peyraut (Guillelmus Peraldus, ca. 1200-1271?), a Dominican preacher from Lyon, composed the 'Summa de virtutibus' as a counterpart of his 'Summa de vitiis' (ca. 1236); by 1250 both summae often circulated together, so that they are sometimes mentioned as a single work, by medieval readers as well as by modern bibliographers. It is important to note that the 'Summa de virtutibus' is not a specimen of speculative theology or philosophy. There are few references to Aristotle or other Greek philosophers; Peraldus rather uses the Latin Stoics (Cicero, Seneca, Macrobius) and otherwise clings to the Christian tradition, from the Bible and patristic writings to Bernard of Clairvaux. One may characterise his summae as compendia for preachers and confessors, adapted to their instructional needs and emphasising more the concrete actions of common believers than human psychology or morality in general. Their rhetoric and structure suit these pragmatic needs: the works include a large amount of illustrative material (quotations, anecdotes, exempla), which were to facilitate the moral instruction of the congregation from the pulpit. Moreover, rubrics were introduced into the text to stimulate the use of the summae as works of reference. The influence of the 'Summa de virtutibus' can hardly be overestimated. The work has been preserved in over 300 manuscripts (against 500 for the 'Summa de vitiis'), many of these originating in Dominican and Franciscan environments, and a few dozen early printed editions. For many Latin and vernacular treatises dealing with the virtues, the 'Summa' has functioned as a leading or exclusive model (which has caused many of these works to be mistakenly attributed to Peraldus). Moreover, several shorter versions of the work have been composed, some of which have been diffused in considerable numbers in their turn; some chapters have been transmitted as separate writings.E"John Nider, Theologian, b. 1380 in Swabia; d. 13 August, 1438, at Colmar. He entered the Order of Preachers at Colmar and after profession was sent to Vienna for his philosophical studies, which he finished at Cologne where he was ordained. He gained a wide reputation in Germany as a preacher and was active at the Council of Constance. After making a study of the convents of his order of strict observance in Italy