CYRIL, Saint, Patriarch of Alexandria (c. 376-444).

      First edition of all three parts; edited by Josse Clichtove. The last part - the homilies on Leviticus - is attributed to Cyril, though it is actually by Origen. The parts are sometimes found separately, but it is clear from their uniform typographic appearance that they were intended to form a collected whole. They were reissued in 1521 (see Mortimer, French Books, no. 162).The translator, George Trapezuntius, was one of the earlier refugees to introduce the study of Greek into Italy; he was born in Crete, 1396, died in Rome, 1486, and was a prolific author of translations, including some Plato and Aristotle. He also had a reputation for cantankerousness and once came to blows with the scholar and papal secretary, Poggio Bracciolini. See N.G. Wilson, From Byzantium to Italy, ch. 10.The full-page woodcut at the end of the second and third parts looks like an illustration from a Parisian Book of Hours of the period but is the device of the Cologne (and London) bookseller Franz Birckmann for whom the printer Hopyl worked. At the top is an Adoration of the Magi, in the middle is a figure of St. Ursula with the 11,000 virgins, and below this is the cauldron containing the seven Maccabean youths with their mother. In the top corners are shields with the arms of Cologne and Birckmann's mark, and Birckmann's motto is cut on a banderole behind St. Ursula in the second scene. It constitutes one of the largest and most intricate devices of the period, and we cannot trace an earlier example of its use. It is reproduced by Heitz (Die Kölner Büchermarken bis Anfang des xvii. Jahrhunderts, Strasbourg, 1898, pl. xiii, no. 37) from a Cologne missal printed by Hopyl for Birckmann in 1520.Adams, C-3177, C-3178, C-3172. The first part is found in two states, with or without the annotations of John Chrysostom and Augustine to Cyril's missing books V to VII. Our copy has the annotations.