AUGUSTINUS, AURELIUS.

DE LA CITA DI DIO (DE CIVITATE DEI, IN ITALIAN). (VENICE (OR FLORENCE), ANTONIO DI BARTOLOMEO DA BOLOGNA (MISCOMINI), CA. 1478; NOT AFTER 1483).

      Folio. Eighteenth or early nineteenth-century light brown calf, triple and double gilt filets along the borders of both sides with gilt corner pieces in between, spine gilt in compartments with title lettered in gold, marbled endpapers. Printed in two columns, 47 lines, 3-6 lines initial spaces left blank (not rubricated), Type: 4: 78 (80)R. 324 leaves; collation: a12 (including first blank, sign. beginning on fol. 2 (= a1, etc.)), a-z, A-G10, H12 (including last blank). Beautiful copy with wide margins (paper: 288 x 202 mm) of this first Italian translation of one of the main works by St. Augustine (354-430): his famous De civitate Dei, the City of God, also known as De Civitate Dei contra Paganos (The City of God against the Pagans). It is a book written in Latin in the early fifth century, dealing with issues concerning God, martyrdom, Jews, and other Christian philosophies. Augustine wrote the treatise to explain Christianity's relationship with competing religions and philosophies, and to the Roman government with which it was increasingly intertwined. It was written soon after Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410. This event left Romans in a deep state of shock, and many saw it as punishment for abandoning their Roman religion. It was in this atmosphere that Augustine set out to provide a consolation of Christianity, writing that, even if the earthly rule of the empire was imperilled, it was the City of God that would ultimately triumph.This magnificent incunable contains the first translation into Italian by an anonymous author, although the translation has been attributed to Brother Jacopo Passavarti in an inscription on H11v of a copy of this edition now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The same copy has an ownership's entry dated 1483, the reason why most bibliographies date the edition as 'not after 1483'. It is 'The only well authenticated early edition' of the Italian translation (BMC)Our edition was assigned to Miscomini's Florentine press by Proctor who identified Antonio di Bartolomeo with Antonio Miscomini who started his Florentine press in 1481.BMC, however, attributes it to his press in Venice because "(1) of the numerous watermarks several (scales in circle, large oxhead with shaft ending in cross and rosette, etc.) are characteristically Venetian but none characteristically Florentine; (2) the heavy a with head curled to left which is occasionally found elsewhere only in the Venetian Virgil of 1486." BMC provides further evidence for Venetian origin on the basis of several copies known in contemporary Venetian bindings. They note, however, "on the other hand, the frequent combination of the article with its substantive in one word is rather a Florentine characteristic." GW assigns the book to Florence, BSB-Ink., IDL and others to Venice. So, it is not completely clear whether this edition was printed at Antonio di Bartolommeo's (Miscomini's) Venetian press in the late 1470s or at his Florentine press in the early 1480s Very good clean copy with wide margins, and with both often lacking blanks at the beginning and end.- (Re-backed, back cover slightly scratched, some insign. wormholes). Hain-Copinger 2071=2072; Proctor 6145; GK 2892; Goff A-1248; BMC VII, 1136, V, pp. xvi-xvii, and VI, p. xv; Polain (B) 370; Pell. 1564 (calls for Florence, F. Bonaccorsius, 1475); Oates 2339, IGI 982; IBH (Hungary) 380; IDL 500.