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 title device of the Royal Printer of Greek.

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

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, woodcut Estienne title device. 

            Ad I-II:  AN ELEGANT VOLUME WITH LANDMARK TREATISES BY TWO EARLY GREEK THEOLOGIANS  — one from a Catholic press and the other from a Protestant press: both in the famous Grecs du Roi types.
            THIS COPY WAS ANNOTATED BY TWO SCHOLARS. Antoine-Joseph-Amable Feydeau (1659-1741), prior general of the Carmelite Order, corrected the Greek text of the first work and noted that the printer and editor were “damned heretics” (tr.). In the second work, a 19th-century reader penned nearly one thousand words with alternate readings (largely from BnF ms. Grec 174), theological concepts and extracts of other authorities. Both books are in very nice condition; from the library of T.K. Brooker.
            Ad I: THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF ANY PORTION OF THE ORIGINAL GREEK TEXT OF CYRIL’S CATECHETICAL LECTURES. Based on a manuscript owned by collector Henri de Mesmes (now BnF ms. Grec 954), this edition has seven of the eighteen lectures for the catechumens of Jerusalem. (The complete Greek text did not appear for nearly half a century.) Variously attributed to Cyril or his successor, John II of Jerusalem (c. 356-417), the Mystagogic Catecheses follows. Together, these prepared the newly baptized for first communion and provide some of the earliest details 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; BP16 114497.
            Ad II: EDITIO PRINCEPS of the 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 new religion against accusations of cannibalism, promiscuity and atheism. Conrad Gessner (1516-65) edited the Greek text, and translated it into Latin, from a now lost manuscript family. This edition closes with Athenagoras’ On the Resurrection of the Dead, edited and translated by Dutch humanist P. Nannick (1496-1557), and philological notes by both Estienne and Gessner.
¶Pouderon, “Les Éditions d’Athénagore imprimées aux XVI^e et XVII^e siècles” in Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 52 (1990) 5; Wellisch, Conrad Gessner: a Bio-Bibliography 44.1; Schreiber, The Estiennes 140; Renouard, Annales…des Estienne 115; Hoffmann I: 399; GLN-2020.

Item #12258

Price: $5,500.00