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Tag Archives: God

Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment: “Who is this who comes forth arising like morning…”

15 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Tags

antiphon, antiphonal, Apocalypse, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, benedictus, bifolia, Blessed Virgin Mary, Book of Esther, chant, Elizabeth Peterson, Esth .2:17, Esther, God, Holy Scripture, Israel, James T. Svensen, Jerusalem Bible, Latin, lauds, medieval, Old Testament, Portugal, Song of Songs, Spain, The University of Utah, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Vashi, wine, Yahweh


(Guttur tuum sicut vinum optimum)
Dignu(m) dilecto meo ad pota(n)dum
Q(ua)e est ista q(uae) progreditur
q(ua)si aurora consurge(n)s
pulchra ut luna e-(lecta)

(and your mouth like an exquisite wine)
worthy for drinking (may it go) to my beloved…
Who is this who comes forth rising like
morning, beautiful like the moon,


lecta ut sol terribilis ut castroru(m) acies
ordinata Cantan Ps(almum)
Et ideo amavit eam(,m) rex plusq(ua)m (omnes mulieres)

resplendent
like the sun, terrible like an army arrayed for battle?
And therefore he loved her more than (all the other women)

This folio, like several others in the collection, is devoted to the celebration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15th. It was the antiphon sung at the Benedictus for lauds early in the morning and urged the faithful to rejoice: “gaudete et exultate…qui hodie Maria Virgo cum Christo regnat per eternum. Alleluja” (“Rejoice and exult…because today the Virgin Mary reigns with Christ in heaven forever. Alleluia!”) The first selection on the recto is from the Song of Songs, a series of love poems in which lover and beloved, bridegroom and bride, are united, divided and united again. Often the series is interpreted allegorically: the relationship signifies a true human relationship sanctified by marriage or it signifies the relationship between Yahweh and Israel. In the text the bridegroom introduces the metaphor of wine, and the bride responds with similarly: “your speaking, superlative wine/wine flowing straight to my Beloved” (Jerusalem Bible). The text continues with the Bridegroom’s question: “Why is this arising like the dawn, fair as the moon, resplendent as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?” (Jerusalem Bible). Here more specifically the relationship seems to be the relationship between God and the Blessed Virgin Mary with God questioning who she is as she is assumed into heaven. Note that the simile “quasi aurora consugens” is highly appropriate, and some other later texts emend “progreditur” to “ascendit” to heighten the upward momentum for the “rising” Mary. Thus the bride of the allegory is not only Israel, the Church or individual soul but also the Blessed Virgin Mary as queen of heaven and arrayed for the battle against evil, perhaps even as the woman of the Apocalypse. This is the reason Holy Scripture refers to Our Lady as “terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata,” as terrible as an army set in battle array.” The Church also says that it is she alone who smashes all heresies. To celebrate this fact, in statues of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady is crushing the head of the evil serpent.

At the bottom of the verso the text alludes to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of the Old Testament and the Book of Esther: “And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti” (Esth.2:17). In a figural reading the king’s love for Esther is a type prefiguring God’s love for Mary above all others. It also prefigures her immaculate conception as virgin and establishes her place as queen of heaven, a fitting allusion on the Feast of the Assumption.

~Transcription, translation, and commentary by James T. Svendsen, associate professor emeritus, World Languages and Cultures, The University of Utah

MS chant frag. 4 — Part of a parchment bifolia from an Antiphonal, 16th c. Spain/Portugal.

~Description by Elizabeth Peterson, associate professor, Dept. of Art & Art History, The University of Utah, from Paging Through Medieval Lives, a catalog for an exhibition held November 2, 1997 through January 4, 1998 at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

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Book of the Week — Athanasii Kircheri Societatis Iesu Magnes; sive, de arte magnetica

05 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Tags

animals, arrows, Athanasius Kircher, electromagnetism, Emperor, engravings, F. Valentini, Ferdinando IV, God, Greek, Hapsburg, hydraulics, Jesuit, lodestone, longitude, love, magnet, magnetism, Mars, Martin Martini, medicine, music, plants, rare books, Roman Catholic, symbol, tides, toys, universe, woodcuts, zodiac

QC751-K58-1654-title
““The highest mountain, the oldest books, the strangest people, there you will find the stone.” — Attributed to Athanasius Kircher

Athanasii Kircheri Societatis Iesu Magnes; sive, de arte magnetica
Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680)
Romae: sumptibus Blasii Deuersin, & Zanobii Masotti Bibliopolarum typis Vitalis Mascarditypis V. Mascardi, MDCLIV (1654)
Third and final edition
QC751 K58 1654

Athanasius Kircher learned Greek and Hebrew at the Jesuit school in Fulda. He continued his scientific studies at Paderborn, Cologne, and Koblenz, taking orders in 1628 as a Jesuit priest. He traveled to Paris, fleeing fighting in Germany, and settled in Rome in 1634. His rigorous scientific curiosity was girded by a mystical conception of natural laws and forces. His methodology ranged from scholastic to hands-on experimentation. He once had himself lowered into the crater of Vesuvius to observe its features soon after an eruption. He was a prolific writer, publishing forty-four books. More than 2,000 of his manuscripts and letters survive. He assembled one of the first natural history collections, housed in a museum after his name in Rome, and later dispersed throughout various institutions.

The third edition of Magnes sive de arte magnetica is the first to appear in folio format. It is virtually a new work, rewritten and expanded from the first edition (1641). This edition is Athanasius Kircher’s largest, most complete, and definitive treatise on magnetism and electromagnetism (a term coined by Kircher in this work), which he conceived as a universal force of nature. Kircher compiled measurements of magnetic declination from several places around the world as reported by Jesuit scholars. One of these, Martin Martini, suggested to Kircher the possibility of determining longitudes by the declination of a magnetic needle, a possibility which Kircher then introduced to the scientific community.

In this work Kircher included discussions about the magnetism of the earth and heavenly bodies, the tides, the attraction and repulsion in animals and plants, and the magnetic attraction of music and love. He addressed the practical applications of magnetism in medicine, hydraulics, the construction of scientific instruments, and toys. Above it all, God remained the central magnet of the universe.

QC751-K58-1654-Obelisk
Glass spheres contain wax figures incorporating magnets, which can be affected by the large magnet in the base of the obelisk. On the globes are letters and signs of the Zodiac to which the figures point. By manipulating the handle in front of the table skirt, the operator could rotate the central magnet and cause the figures to answer questions or spell out words. The Greek inscription on the ribbon at the top of the obelisk is the Hermetic axiom, “Nature rejoices in Nature.” — p. 275

Illustrated with thirty-two full-page engraved plates and more than one hundred and fifty ornamental woodcuts throughout the text. Title-page printed in red and black. Rare Books copy has odd little hand-inked drawings by a past owner throughout.

QC751-K58-1654-Portrait
The portrait of Ferdinando IV, reigning Hapsburg Emperor, to whom Magnes sive de arte magnetica is dedicated, contains magnetic needles in the shape of arrows, a lodestone, the eye of God, the orb and cross corresponding to the ancient symbol for Mars, and other, even more esoteric, symbols. This engraving embodies the doctrine of Roman Catholic monarchy as a divine institution, and the emperor and his empire as the microcosmic reflections of God and his universe. Ferdinando IV died the year this edition was published, at the age of 21. — Engraving by F. Valentini

QC751-K58-1654-Sunflower
Sundial in the form of a sunflower — p. 508

QC751-K58-1654-pg593
In southern Italy, most commonly in Apulia, dancing the Tarantella cured the tarantulla bite. — p. 593

Recommended reading:

Glassie, John. A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change. New York: Riverhead Books, 2013
CT1098 K46 G53 2013, General Collection, L2

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Book of the Week — Opera

25 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Africa, Archbishop of Canterbury, Asia Minor, astrology, astronomy, atonement, Basel, calendars, Caucasus, celestial motion, Christian, Cur Deus Homo, cycles, De imagine mundi, Easter, Egypt, Egyptians, equinox, Europe, geography, God, Gothic type, Greeks, Hebrews, India, islands, Johann Amerbach, Jupiter, lunar, marginalia, Mesopotamia, Monologion, moon, Nuremberg, oceans, Palestine, Parthia, Proslogion, Roman type, Romans, Saint Anselm, seas, solar, solstice, St Augustine, sun, Syria, theology, Thomas More, tides, time, University of Utah, vellum, water, zodiac

TitlepageIndexSpreadSpread1Spread2

“…let my mind meditate upon it; let my tongue speak of it. Let my heart love it; let my mouth talk of it. Let my soul hunger for it; let my flesh thirst for it; let my whole being desire it…”

OPERA
Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury (ca. 1033-1109)
Basel: Johann Amerbach, not after 1497
Second, enlarged edition

The first edition of the collected works of St Anselm was printed in Nuremberg in 1491. After St Augustine and Thomas More, St Anselm was one of the most widely read of Christian theological writers in western Europe. His influence was far-reaching. This collection includes his three most famous works: the Cur Deus Homo, a treatise on the atonement; the Proslogion, which contains his argument for the existence of God; and the Monologion. The last thirty pages of this volume is a two-part geographical astronomical/astrological compendium, “De imagine mundi,” dating from about 1100, containing chapters on India, Parthia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, the Caucasus, Asia Minor, Europe, Africa and sections on islands and water (seas, oceans, tides). There are a few articles on the zodiac, and more on astronomy. Anselm describes celestial motions of the sun, moon and Jupiter, with reference to the solar and lunar cycles and the importance of their measurement for calculating time. Anselm notes different divisions of time as reckoned by the ancient Hebrews, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. He addresses various calendars and the cycles and divisions on which they were based. He notes the practical importance of their use for calculating astronomical events such as the equinox and solstice, and the sacred importance of calculating Easter. Printer Johann Amerbach (ca. 1440-1513) was the first printer of Basel to use a Roman type as well as Gothic. Printed in two columns of fifty lines each in Gothic type. University of Utah copy bound in 18th century vellum over boards; brown stain on cover. An early ownership inscription is inked out, and a stamp erased from the title-page. Some contemporary marginalia.

 

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Book of the Week — Paradise Lost

16 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Bernard Lens, Christian, engravings, God, Henry Aldrich, Index Librorum Prohibitorum, John Baptista de Medina, John Dryden, John Milton, Miles Flesher, Oliver Cromwell, pagan, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regain'd, Richard Bentley, Robert White, Roman Catholic Church, Satan, The University of Utah


PARADISE LOST. A POEM IN TWELVE BOOKS…
John Milton (1608-1674)
Printed by Miles Flesher, for Richard Bentley, at the Post-Office in Russell-street, 1688
First illustrated edition
PR3560 1688

John Milton’s Paradise Lost was first printed in 1667, in part, perhaps as a reaction to the defeat of Oliver Cromwell’s revolution and the restoration of the monarchy. Milton attempted to reconcile elements of pagan and Christian tradition, portraying Satan as an unlikable but sympathetic character who defied a tyrannical God and waged unsuccessful war against him. In spite of this, the Roman Catholic Church did not place the work on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum until 1758. This a copy from the first illustrated edition of Paradise Lost. It is also the first edition of the work in folio. University of Utah copy bound with Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV. Books. To which is added Samson Agonistes…(1688). An engraved portrait of Milton by Robert White is bound in opposite to the title page. The portrait includes an epitaph for Milton by John Dryden. Twelve full-paged engravings accompany the text, one at the beginning of each of the twelve books. All of the engravings are tipped in. The illustrations for books III, V, VI, VII, IX, X, XI are by John Baptista de Medina, engraved by M. Burghers. Book IV was illustrated by Bernard Lens, engraved by P.P. Bouche. Book XII was illustrated by Henry Aldrich, engraved by Burghers. The illustrations for Books I and II are engraved by Burghers. The illustrator for these is uncertain.

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A Donation Makes Poly Poly’s

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by rarebooks in Donations

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

agriculture, alphabet, Amsterdam, anatomy, Antonio Blado, Antwerp, architecture, astrology, astronomy, Barbara Chavira, Basel, Bible, Bonaventura Elzevir, bookbinders, booksellers, celibacy, censored, Christianity, Christopher Plantin, commerce, creation, Daniel Elzevir, Elizabeth Isengrin, England, English, engraved, Ethiopian Church, Europe, expurgated, fable, festivals, French, frontispiece, German, God, Greek, Hebrew, heresy, hunting, Index of Forbidden Books, indulgences, initials, Italian, italic, Judaism, King Arthur, Latin, law, Leonhart Fuchs, libraries, Louis Elzevir, Lucovico Arrighi, Lyons, magic, Martin Luther, mathematics, medicine, Michael Isengrin, minerology, monks, music, navigation, paganism, painting, pharmacology, physics, Polydore Vergil, Pope Gregory XIII, priest, printer, printing, Protestant, Rare Books Division, Reformation, religion, Roman, Roman Catholic Church, Rome, Salt Lake City Public Library, Shakespeare, Spanish, sports, theater, Thomas Guarin, Tournai, trade, typography, Utrecht, vellum, vignettes, weaponry, winemaking, writing

The Salt Lake City Public Library donated a sixteenth century book to the Rare Books Division, thanks to the well-trained eye of City Library staffer Barbara Chavira. Barbara worked part-time in the Rare Books Division for many years. Her passion for the art of books, in all forms and over the centuries, brought us this important and welcome addition to the rare book collections. Thank you, Barbara ! Thank you, City Library !

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-a4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POLYDORI VIRGILII VRBINATIS DE RERVM INVENTORIBVS…
Romae, apud haeredes antonij, Bladij, Impressores Camerales: Anno. M.D. LXXVI (1576)

Polydore Vergil (ca. 1470-1555), an Italian priest, spent much of his life in England. He is recognized for his history of England, a work that Shakespeare is known to have used as one of his sources. Vergil used critical analysis in his narration of historical events. His thesis that King Arthur was little more than fable, for instance, shocked contemporary readers.

It is his second published work, however, for which he was best known in his time. First printed in 1499, De rerum inventoribus (On Discovery), was a work unlike anything that had been published before. An inventory of historical “firsts,” it combined a wide array of subjects in an attempt to determine which individual or culture first invented things such as the alphabet, astronomy, magic, printing, libraries, hunting, festivals, writing, painting, weaponry and religion. Vergil culled much of his work from a wide range of ancient and contemporary writers. He focused on the genius of man in the origin or invention of all things – heretical thinking at the time.

In Book I he investigated the creation of the world, the origin of religion, the origin of the concepts of “god” and the word “God.” He suggested that much of Christianity had been adapted from Judaism or Roman paganism. Books II and III were studies of a wide-range of topics, mostly concerning the practical and mechanical arts including anatomy, astrology, law, medicine, commerce, mathematics, mineralogy, music, pharmacology, physics, trade, agriculture, architecture, sports, theater, navigation, and winemaking. The work was translated into French in 1521, German in 1537, English in 1546, and Spanish in 1551.

In 1521, more than two decades after he wrote the first three books, and at the dawn of Martin Luther’s protestant reformation, Vergil added five more books concentrating on Christianity. Vergil reworked his discussion of Christianity in deference to the Roman Catholic Church, which objected to Vergil’s reference to religion as a matter of scientific investigation. In spite of this concession, Vergil anticipated the scientific approach to religion that would become the norm a century later. The intended salve to the church failed when Vergil criticized monks, priestly celibacy, and indulgences. In 1564 the work was declared heretical and all editions were added to the Index of Forbidden Books. However, the work was so popular that two censored editions were printed after the ban.

This 1576 expurgated edition was sanctioned by Pope Gregory XIII in its front matter.

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-a2

PA8585-V4-D4-1570-CaGlorius

It is significant that this edition was printed by the heirs of Antonio Blado’s shop.

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-titlepage

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-regestvm

Blado worked in Rome from 1515 to 1567 as a printer in the service of the papacy. He was well-known for his scholarly works in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; and a 1549 document in Ethiopic type for the Ethiopian Church. Blado is also known for his use of an early italic type created by Ludovico Arrighi. The Rare Books Division holds five books printed by Antonio Blado.

This 1576 edition of Vergil joins an edition from 1570 and another from 1671, already in the rare book collections.

PA8585-V4-D4-1570-titlepagePA8585-V4-D4-1570-colophon

POLYDORI VERGILII VRBINATIS, DE RERUM INVENTORIBUS…
Polydore Vergil (1470? – 1555)
Basilea: 1570

Printer Thomas Guarin (1529-1592) was born in Tournai. He worked in Lyons as a bookseller, but by 1557 was in Basel, where he married Elizabeth Isengrin, the daughter of a printer. Guarin took over his father-in-law’s small press at Michael Isengrin’s death. Michael Isengrin had printed one of the many editions of De rerum inventoribus to be published in Vergil’s lifetime. Each of these editions contained significant variations. Isengrin printed Leonhart Fuchs’s sumptuous De Historia stirpivm. Along with the reprint of classical works, Guarin issued several editions of the Bible, published in both Latin and German, and one in Spanish. His printer’s device was a palm tree.

PA8585-V4-D4-1570-printersdevice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PA8585-V4-D4-1671-frontispiece

POLYDORI VERGILII URBINATIS, DE INVENTORIBUS RERUM…
Polydore Vergil (1470?-1555)
Amstelodami: apud Danielem Elzebirius, 1671

Daniel Elzevir came from a distinguished family of booksellers, bookbinders, printers and publishers. Louis Elzevir (1546-1617), a Protestant émigré, began the business in Antwerp in about 1565, after he left a job with Christopher Plantin’s print shop. The Elzevir enterprise became one of Europe’s largest printing houses. Louis’s sons expanded the business with branches in The Hague, Utrecht, and Amsterdam. The Amsterdam branch was established in 1638 by Louis III. His partner was Daniel Elzevir, son of Bonaventura Elzevir, son of Louis. Daniel continued the family reputation for fine typography and design work. This edition of De Rerum inventoribus also contains another of Vergil’s works, Prodigiis, written in 1526 but not printed until 1531. The engraved frontispiece for this edition includes the invention of printing as one of its main themes. Numerous carved initials and vignettes. Bound in contemporary vellum.

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.

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