Augustine 1473

AUGUSTINUS, Aurelius, Saint (354–430 CE).
De civitate dei.
Commentaries by Thomas Waleys and Nicolaus Trivet.
Mainz: Peter Schoeffer, 5 September 1473. (06062)

Schoeffer’s edition of De civitate dei (The City of God) was the sixth to appear in a seven year period, beginning with the first edition printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz at Subiaco in 1467. A profoundly influential vindication of the early Christian church, it was printed seventeen times during the fifteenth century. All seventeen fifteenth-century Latin editions are owned by Bridwell Library, as well as the first Italian translation.

Schoeffer’s edition was the second to be printed with the fourteenth-century commentary by the Oxford Dominicans Nicolaus Trivet and Thomas Waleys, which appeared first in Mentelin’s Strasbourg edition, c. 1468. The commentary was printed separately in smaller type, after Augustine’s text and the first colophon.

Although the style of illumination is consistent with Mainz production, an early ink ownership inscription, “Inscriptus catalogus monasterij Wittovien.,” appears at the top of the first leaf. The Praemonstratensian Abbey of Wittow was located on the Baltic peninsula of Rügen, Germany.