OSIANDER, Andreas the elder.

Ain schöne Sermon, geprediget zu Nüremberg ... am Sontag misericordia domini auff d(a)s Eva(n)geliu(m) Johan(n)es Secundo. &c.[Augsburg], [Melchior Ramminger], 1523. 4to. With the title in an architectural woodcut frame with 9 putti and the coats of arms of the Holy Roman Empire and the city of Wurzburg, and a pointing hand in the margin of one page. With one page struck through in ink by a censor for deletion, but still present and completely readable. Modern half cloth.

      . (14) pp. BMC STC German, p. 665; VD-16, O-1099 (9 copies); not in Adams; for Osiander: ADB XXIV, pp. 473-483. First and only edition of the first publication written by the mystic Reformation theologian Andreas Osiander (1498-1552), appointed priest to the St Lorentz church in Nürnberg in 1522, on the Gospel according to Saint John, chapter 2. Osiander was to become a leading Reformation theologian (though sometimes at odds with Luther and Melanchthon) and in 1543 he oversaw publication of Copernicus's De Revolutionibus . Ramminger at Augsburg issued the sermon anonymously and without the author's consent or knowledge. On the title-page, the compositor accidentally turned the n of "Ain" on its head, so that it is sometimes mistranscribed "Aiu."Already in this first work from his pen (not counting his editorial contribution to a Bible in 1522) he fell afoul of the authorities, for in the present copy a censor has marked the text of one page for deletion. With a water stain at the head of the first quire, a small ink stain on the woodcut frame, and a small worm hole in the last few leaves. First publication written by a Reformation mystic, with a censor's deletion mark..