[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]. Opera ... [with:] Vincentii Galli. Pro Catholicæ.... Paris, 1569. ...

Description

[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]. S. Dionysii Areopagitæ. [Ambrosii Florentini (Ambrogio Traversari), translator]. Opera, cum epistolis S S. Ignatii Policarpi et Martialis Apostoli. [bound with:] Vincentii Lirinensis Galli. Pro Catholicæ Fidei Antiquitate et veritate... Paris: Michel Julian, 1569.

Twelvemo. Decorated initials and tail-pieces. Printer's device on second title page. Ink ruled borders to text. Binding worn. Library ink stamps. Dionysius was the mystical theologian whose Neo-Platonic writings form one of the core works of medieval and renaissance mystical theology. Very good. From the Krown & Spellman Collection.

a8, e8, A-028, A-L8. (16), 296, 57, (31) leaves. Contemporary calf binding gilt borders and gilt armorial crest on front and back boards, rebacked spine. Binding rubbed, scuffed, boards chipped and lightly crazed; previous owners' signature on front pastedown "Nicolas Landry", small holograph pencil bookseller's numbers on endpapers, first title page clipped at bottom (no loss to text), a4 clipped and H3 with cuts along running titles (no text loss), library ink stamp on first title page and verso of L8, contemporary holograph ink notes on second title page, pages lightly age toned, some creases, very minor soiling; else in very good condition.   

Dionysius (circa 500 CE) probably from Syria, was the mystical theologian whose Neo-Platonic writings form one of the core works of medieval and renaissance mystical theology. Their aim was to achieve a synthesis between Christian dogma and the neo-platonism of Proclus et al.

"In the Eastern Churches his works were regarded almost as a 'Summa Theologica'...In the Western the approval of St. Gregory the Great and Martin I, and esp. that of the Lateran Council of 649...established the Pseudo-Dionysian writings as an uncontested doctrinal authority." - ODCC.

"Ambrogio Traversari, St. Ambrose of Camaldoli, (circa 1386-1439) was an Italian humanist . A scholar of refined taste, he was fired by his possession of a splendid collection of Greek patristic MSS. to translate many of the Greek Fathers into Latin." - ODCC.

Index Aureliensis XII: 184, Not in BM STC or Adams.