GERARDUS Zerbolt van Zutphen

One of the core texts of the Dutch Devotio Moderna. Tractatus de spiritualibus ascensionibus.

      (Basel, Johannes Amerbach & Johannes Petri, 1488 or 1489).. Sm.8vo. Modern vellum, title written on spine. All initials supplied by hand in red or blue, rubricated throughout. (68) lvs. Collation: a-h8, i4.. Probably the third edition of this famous mystical and devotional work by Gerardus Zerbolt van Zutphen (1367-1398), one of the most well-known pupils of Geert Grote, the father of the Dutch 'Moderne Devotie' (Devotia Moderna). The first edition was printed in Deventer, together with Zutphen, the birthplace of Gerardus Zerbolt, in the center of the homeland of the Dutch Devotio Moderna. First attributed to the printer Jacob van Breda, the edition is now in the name of Richard Paffraet and is dated 1483-85. The second edition was published in Cologne by Ulrich Zell, ca. 1488. Our edition is dated 'not after 1489' and so the edition Strassburg, Johann Prüss, ca. 1488 may be earlier than our edition.The treatise De spiritualibus ascensionibus is a very popular devotional work, the most important van Gerard's works, and printed many times until well into the 16th century. It describes in 70 chapters the various steps one has to go to rise from this vale of tears to a mental state of paradisical innocence, at lenght treated by Van Rooij in his interesting thesis. On the last 4 pages is added a text "De quatuor in quibus incipientes deo servire debent esse cauti si perficere volunt", which is the first chapter of book II of David van Augsburg's Profectus a well-known manual for novices, sometimes regarded as the last chapter of Gerard's work. The text is finely printed in a small "lettre batarde", with 30 lines to a page, and with all initials most carefully and professionally supplied by hand in red and blue, rubricated in red and in blue throughout. Fine copy, with ample margins. Hain-Copinger 16296; Proctor 7638; GW 10689; Van der Haegen 16,45; Goff G 177; BMC III, p.752; IGI 4234; Pellechet 5116; Polain (B) 1584; Vouillieme ( Berlin ) 481; IDL 1927; J. v. Rooij, Gerard Zerbolt van Zutphen , p. 124-65 and 364-5.