Eck, Johann

Der viert tail Christenlicher Predigen von den siben H. Sacramente[n] nach aussweysung Christlicher Kirchen vn grund Byblischer gschrifft den alten frummen Christen zu gut, durch Johann von Eck.

      [colophon: Augspurg getruckt durch Alexander weyssenhorn, in verlegung D. Iohan Ecken zu Ingelstat]1534 Folio (31.5 cm; 12.25"). [6], 158, [1] ff. (lacks final blank). Eck (1486-1543) was a forceful and often convincing voice for Catholicism during the first quarter century of the Reformation; he would also become, specifically, Luther's "most indefatigable and important opponent" (Encyclopaedia Britannica). It is impossible to study the Protestant Reformation without also studying Eck and his fellow responders to and critics of Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, and Calvin. Present here are 76 sermons, being vol. 4 of Eck's Christliche Auslegung der Evangelien. The volumes were all issued separately over the course of several years, by different publishers, and all are treated as stand-alone productions by VD16 and all bibliographies as well as library catalogues. The work is printed in gothic type (as one would expect) and is illustrated with ten nice-sized (9 x 6.5 cm; 3.5" x 2.5") woodcut illustrations, including the woodcut of The Crucifixion that occupies the otherwise blank verso of the next to last leaf. The title-page is printed in black and red, the printing contained within a single-element woodcut border; this is composed of 14 shields and has at the center top a bishop's hat and tassels.  Provenance: Ownership signature of Joannes Bintengerber (1579); unidentified 16th- or early 17th-century ownership mark in ink on top edge of volume (resembling a brand mark); Howard Osgood (late 19th-, early 20th-century collector and Baptist minister and teacher); later in collection of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (deaccessioned, with their old circular pressure-stamp partially discernable on title-page). Evidence of readership: Scattered marginalia (e.g. 68r, 96v, 97r, 120r, 137r, 140v, 155v), usually short but not always. Rare: Via OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 we trace only 4 copies in U.S. libraries. VD16 E288. Full modern calf old style: Round spine with raised bands, accented with gilt rules; red leather title label; rules in blind extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils with blind double fillets beyond. Title-leaf with repairs to foremargin and to small losses in five places at or within the borders; same instances affect four places in the text on the verso. Foremargins of some other early and late leaves a little tattered and irregular, with some repair; endpapers smoke-soiled and some other leaves with instances of same soil to outer margins/edges (though often only a sliver); leaf A6 repaired in inner margin. Pin-hole type worming, not serious, in the text at times; waterstain in inner margin of some leaves; outer corners, especially upper ones, bumped/creased in first part. Ownership inscriptions and marginalia as noted. Despite flaws that must be recounted, a sound and still handsome book.