OROSIUS PAULUS.

HISTORIAE.

      [Vicenza]: Hermannus Liechtenstein, ca. 1475 - The Broxbourne Library Copy of Liechtenstein'sFirst Book with Beautiful Illuminated Capitals [100] leaves. Single column roman type 39 lines to a page. Second Printing, First Printing of this Edition. Modern stiff vellum flat spine brown morocco spine label. Paragraph marks in red or blue 4 two-line 23 three-line and 128 four-line initials in burnished gold on a ground of blue magenta or green enlivened by ornamental painted scrollwork in a contrasting color first leaf of text with an armorial crest of the Caroli family of Bologna at the bottom (three gold stars surrounded by a laurel wreath) and SEVEN BEAUTIFUL HAND-PAINTED WHITE-VINE INITIALS IN SEVERAL COLORS AND BURNISHED GOLD THE ONE ON THE FIRST PAGE OF TEXT 15 LINES TALL (the others: three seven-line two six-line and one four-line). Front pastedown with the armorial bookplate of Albert Ehrman rear pastedown with the bookplate of the Broxbourne Library (containing the initials of his son John Ehrman [J. P. W. E.] and ex dono A. & R. E. indicating that the book came to him from his father and mother). Upper corner of front cover rather bumped but the binding solid clean and otherwise in excellent condition. First 40 leaves with a half dozen small round skillfully filled-in wormholes all in the fore margin except one (which affects text only minimally) frequent but always light foxing minor occasional thumbing else IN EXCELLENT CONDITION INTERNALLY especially fresh and bright and THE FINE GILT AND PAINTED INITIALS BEAUTIFULLY PRESERVED. Goff O-97; BMC VII, 1035. This is an important early Christian book offered here in a beautifully illuminated copy from an edition with a noteworthy place in printing history as well as with fine modern provenance. Written in the wake of the Visigoths' sack of Rome in 410 Orosius' Histories is in Britannica's words a pragmatical chronicle of the calamities that have happened to mankind from the Fall down to the Gothic period the first attempt to write the history of the world as a history of God guiding humanity. Its purpose gave it value in the eyes of the orthodox and it remained influential for centuries. Orosius a priest from Roman Spain came to Hippo in North Africa in 413 to sit before St. Augustine at whose suggestion the history was undertaken and to whom it is dedicated. Like Augustine in his great City of God Orosius attempts to counter the prevailing view among the pagans that their divinities had permitted the sack to punish the Romans for abandoning traditional worship in favor of Christianity. Through his narrative Orosius demonstrates that the history of humankind has always been abundantly provided with a variety of horrors shows that the dawn of the new religion did not measurably increase such catastrophes and proffers the theme of a beleaguered Christianity triumphant an emphasis that made the book understandably popular. Our second printing of Orosius (the original edition was issued in Vienna in 1471) is believed to be the first work produced at the press in Vicenza of Hermann Liechtenstein. BMC draws this conclusion because ours is the only Liechtenstein volume printed without signed gatherings a feature that became less and less typical as the incunabular period progressed. Our editor Aeneas Vulpes of Vicenza describes himself as prior of Holy Cross and subsequent printings relied on his edition. Liechtenstein who came from Cologne printed 12 books in Vicenza between 1475 and 1480. The Orosius is rare and the present copy is particularly lovely because of its hand-illuminated initials done in the white-vine style characteristic of Italian 15th century decoration. The gold for the initials is lavishly laid on and the white vines embrace the letters in intricate loops subtending a patchwork of blue red and green areas sowed with white dots clustered in threes. This copy comes from the celebrated Broxbourne library of Albert Ehrman (1890-1969) a diamond merchant who gathered a fine collection of books at his home at Brox [Attributes: First Edition; Signed Copy; Hard Cover]