Cyril of Jerusalem. c. 313-386.

[Greek title] Catecheses.

Paris, G. Morel 1564.

8vo (172 x 108 mm.). [iv], 226, [2 blank]p. Greek type (roman and italic on the title), fine open woodcut initials, woodcut device of the Royal Printer of Greek on the title.

Contemporary gilt-ruled vellum over flexible paper boards, evidence of four ties, authors and titles gilt-lettered in a gilt compartment in the middle of the spine.

With: Athenagoras.         c. 133-c.190.
            [Greek title] apologia pro Christianis.  [Geneva], H. II Estienne 1557. 8vo. 208p. Greek, roman and italic type, woodcut initials, an Estienne title device. 

          Ad I-II: AN ELEGANT VOLUME WITH LANDMARK TREATISES BY TWO EARLY GREEK THEOLOGIANS — the first from a Catholic and the second from a Protestant press. Signed on the first title page by Antoine-Joseph-Amable Feydeau (1659-1741), prior general of the Carmelite Order, who corrected the Greek text of the first work in manuscript and noted that the printer and editor were “damned heretics” (tr.) in the second: readers “beware!” (tr.). Both volumes are in very good condition, from the library of T.K. Brooker.
            Ad I: THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF ANY PORTION OF THE ORIGINAL GREEK TEXT OF THE CATECHETICAL LECTURES. Based on a manuscript owned by collector Henri de Mesmes (now BnF ms. Grec 954), this edition has seven (nos. 4, 6, 8-11 and 18) of the original eighteen lectures for the catechumens of Jerusalem. The Greek text for all eighteen did not appear for nearly half a century. The five Mystagogic Catecheses, variously attributed to Cyril or his successor John II of Jerusalem, follow. These prepared the newly baptized for first communion and provide some of the earliest detailed evidence of liturgical practices in the Eastern church. Small rust hole touching a few letters, deleted inscriptions of the Carmelites of ?Angoulême.
¶Hoffmann, Bibliographisches Lexicon der gesammten Litteratur der Griechen I: 495; Index Aureliensis 149.194; BP16_114497.
            Ad II: EDITIO PRINCEPS OF EMBASSY FOR THE CHRISTIANS. An ex-Platonist Church Father, Athenagoras makes the philosophical case for Christianity to the famously intellectual emperor Marcus Aurelius, and defends the religion against accusations of cannibalism, promiscuity and atheism. CONRAD GESSNER PROVIDED THE GREEK TEXT FROM A NOW LOST MANUSCRIPT FAMILY  and added his own Latin translation. This edition also includes Athenagoras’ On the Resurrection of the Dead, edited and translated by Pieter Nannick (1496-1557), and philological notes by both Estienne and Gessner. A nineteenth-century reader penned nearly 1000 words on alternate readings (largely from BnF ms. Grec 174), theological concepts and extracts of other authorities.
¶Pouderon, “Les Éditions d’Athénagore imprimées aux XVI^e et XVII^e siècles” in Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 52 (1990) 5; Pouderon, “L’Utilisation des manuscrits grecs dans les éditions et traductions d’Athénagore au XVI^e siècle” in Revue d’histoire des textes 23 (1993) 31-56; Wellisch, Conrad Gessner: a Bio-Bibliography 44.1; Schreiber, The Estiennes 140; Renouard, Annales…des Estienne 115; Hoffmann I: 399.

Item #12258

Price: $5,500.00