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.