HUGH OF ST. VICTOR.

De sacramentis Christianae fidei.

      Strasbourg, [printer of the 1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg (Georg Husner)], 30 July 1485. 1483 - Folio, 159 (of 160) leaves, complete with the blank leaves ff. 70 and 71, but without the final blank; gothic letter, capital spaces with guide-letters; an excellent copy in English early seventeenth-century vellum, old library stamp of Warrington Museum at beginning. First edition, described by David Knowles in The Evolution of Medieval Thought, as "the first attempt on the grand scale - for Abelard’s almost contemporary Theologia is a scantier outline - to give a really comprehensive view of theology in all its branches".Probably from Saxony or Flanders originally, Hugh (d.1141) came to Paris at an early age and joined the canons regular of the abbey of St. Victor. He lectured on theology in the famous school attached to this monastery, and was its greatest representative. He wrote a very large number of exegetical, philosophical, and theological works which exercised a profound influence on the scholasticism of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The De sacramentis is the most important: "Joined to the different approach of Abelard, it became the grandmother of all the Summae of the following hundred years. It is also important as being an extension of the Anselmian rather than of the Abelardian use of dialectic. Hugh employs logic and speculation to penetrate and to establish the doctrine rather than to build up an edifice of ingenious conclusions and deductions . The Victorine element in Aquinas is indeed very large" (ibid.).Contemporary English ownership inscription on first leaf, "Ad Joannem (?)modun clericum attinet .". Some contemporary MS annotations in the text in an English hand. Later seventeenth-century signature "Ph. Mainwaringe". Sir Philip Mainwaring (1589-1661) trained as a lawyer and for much of his life sat as a Member of Parliament for various constituencies. In 1634 he was knighted at Dublin and for the next sixteen years served as secretary for Ireland. As a result of his imprisonment by Cromwell he died almost a pauper.HC 9025*; IGI 4940; BMC I 133; Goff H535.