PAULUS VENETUS NICOLETTI [1368-1428].

Logica

      1474 - Milan: Christophorus Valdarfer, 14 Dec. 1474. 4º. 76 leaves: a10, b6, c10, d6, e10, f6, g-i8, k6. With the initial blank. Gothic letters, two columns. Contemporary annotations. Handsome retrospective blind-stamped calf by Bayntun. Mostly marginal worming in some leaves, marginal stains, some leaves remargined not touching the text, the colophon leaf restored with three letters in fine pen. The rare second edition, existing in only sixteen complete institutional copies [of which only one is in N. America], published two years after the first, existing in only two institutional copies. The paucity of surviving copies well proves Pollard's remark of a century ago: "There were some dozens of books, large, unreadable, picked from the literature of the three preceding centuries, without which no monastic library felt itself complete, and the German printers made their profit by turning out numerous editions of these, many copies of which have come down to us in a preservation so excellent as to suggest that they were very little read". Edited by Boninus or Bonino Mombritius. Paul of Venice or Paulus Venetus was a Roman Catholic theologian and logician. He studied in Oxford around 1390 and brought back Oxford logic to Italy, lecturing at Padua and influencing the development of philosphy in the Renaissance. He became the most widely read author on the subject of the time. There are more than 80 manuscripts extant and some 25 editions. His writings show a wide knowledge and interest in the scientific problems of his time. This is his major work, the Logica parva et logica magna, also known as Logica Duplex. There are numerous incunable printings of which this is the first obtainable edition of this important text, regularly discussed today amongst historians and religious philosophers. Hain 12500; Goff P220 ; HR 12500 ; Pell Ms 9096 (8937) ; CIBN P-86 ; IGI 7349 ; Bod-inc P-062 ; Sheppard 4885 ; Rhodes(Oxford Colleges) 1334 ; Pr 5876