Lot 391
Aquinas, Thomas, Saint
Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographss | 10 May 2007
Description
Prima [prima secunda, secunda secundae, tertia pars] operum [i.e. the Summa theological]. Lyons: [excudebat Joannes Crispinus, 1540-41]. 4 volumes, folio, titlepages in red and black within woodcut borders, woodcut portrait of the angelic doctor as a vignette, woodcut initials, Black Letter, text in two columns surrounded by commentary, later mottled calf, red morocco lettering pieces, heads, tails and edges rubbed, some scuff marks, some marginalia in an early hand, paper generally slightly discoloured and with some water staining, repair to lower margin of f. 87 in the Prima secunda, dedication to Pope Adrian VI mounted on the verso of the title to the tertia pars (4)
Footnote
Note: Not in Adams or the BL. With the commentaries of Cardinal Tommaso de Vio Gaetani Cajetan (1469-1534). "In theology Cajetan is justly ranked as one of the foremost defenders and exponents of the Thomistic school. His commentaries on the "Summa Theologica", the first in that extensive field, begun in 1507 and finished in 1522, are his greatest work and were speedily recognized as a classic in Scholastic literature. The work is primarily a defence of St. Thomas against the attacks of Scotus. In the third part it reviews the aberrations of the Reformers, especially Luther. The important relation between Cajetan and the Angelic Doctor was emphasized by Leo XIII, when by his Pontifical Letters of 15 October, 1879, he ordered the former's commentaries and those of Ferrariensis to be incorporated with the text of the "Summa" in the official Leonine edition of the complete works of St. Thomas." (Cath. Encyc.)