Johannes de Fonte, attrib. [Aristotle, Seneca, Boethius, ...

      Venice: [Georgius Arrivabene,] [c1490.] 4to. a-e8,f4. 44 folios. Rebound in early limp vellum , some spotting, some minor restorations of wormholes (mostly marginal: a1, a2, & b5 have minimal losses), trimmed into running title and foliation marks on a few leaves. Johannes de Fonte was a Franciscan of Montpellier who is most famous for his “Conclusiones” on the Sentences. This popular Florilegium, known as Auctoritates Aristotelis was composed around the end of the thirteenth century by Johannes de Fonte [who was identified by Jacqueline Hamesse, in her ‘Les auctoritates Aristotlelis’ Louvain & Paris, 1974]“Yet another way that scholars encountered the S(ecretis) [S(ecretorum) was through a florilegium or compendium (i.e. a collection of brief extracts) of Aristotle’s books. These provided an easy way to access Aristotle’s philosophy as well as to dress up a written composition or a sermon with quotations from his work. Several compendia containing the SS were already available in the thirteenth and early fourteenth century, the most popular and well known of which was the Parvi flores. This is a large collection of sententiae of which was the Parvi flores. This is a large collection of sententiae taken from school texts that was put together in its current form in the years on either side of 1300 by a Franciscan, Johannes de Fonte, during his tenure as lector in theology in his order’s convent in Montpellier. John states in his prologue that his work is intended to provide assistance “as much for preaching to the people as study of the arts.” Judging by the wide circulation enjoyed by his work, his wish was nore than fulfilled.”[Steven J. Williams, The Secret of Secrets...2003] Goff A1202. GW 2836 (Berlin only). Reichling 822. Klebs 121.4. Polain(B) 4170. IGI 949. IBP 5792. Schmitt II 4115,5. IBE 630. VB 41155. ISTC 1a01202000.