[Greek title:] Epistolarum amplius mille ducentarum libri tres...accessit Latina...Iacobi Billii...Eiusdem Billii Sacrarum Observationum libri duo
by Isidorus Pelusiota, Saint
- Used
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Narberth, Pennsylvania, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
EDITIO PRINCEPS of two thirds of Isidore of Pelusium's letters, among the largest epistolary collections of early monasticism. The remaining letters were published in two supplements, twenty and forty years later, respectively. Isidore addressed Emperor Theodosius II about tax relief and was on a first-name basis with bishops, local monks, common soldiers and professionally literary elites. This correspondence treats Greek authors, rhetoric, Scriptural commentary, government, women, disease, Jews, sex and seduction, predestination, heretics - in short "the vicissitudes of ecclesiastical, monastic, civic and intellectual life in a newly Christianized Roman Empire" (Larsen). It is a major source for early 5th-century social customs and political and church affairs. Isidore was educated in Alexandria, taught, became a monk, and, in 408, definitively retired to the desert outside Pelusium.
A specialist in Church Fathers, Jacques de Billy (1535-81) edited the volume and supplied the Latin translation. He relied on three manuscripts, foremostly the 13th-century codex, then in the possession of Catherine de' Medici (Medic. Reg. 2357 = Parisinus gr. 832), which preserves the first twelve hundred thirteen of Isidore's nearly two thousand letters. He also used a copy, lent by Card. Sirleto, based on the oldest surviving manuscript (Ottoboni gr. 341, dated c. 985) and a truncated version of the text given him by Maillé de Brézé. The volume's second part, forty-seven short essays on the Greek Church Fathers, secured Billy's scholarly fame.
In good condition, (one blank margin repaired, some minor browning), from the distinguished collections of J.A. de Thou (Catalogus 34), J.J. Charron marquis de Ménars, A.-G. Rohan, Chas. de Rohan prince de Soubise (Catalogue (1788) 834), J. & J.H. Thorold (Syston Park...Catalogue (1884) 1025), Lord Amherst (Hand-List 599), Michael Tomkinson (1841-1921) and the Loverdos Library with their markings.
¶Larsen, "The Letter Collection of Isidore of Pelusium" in Late Antique Letter Collections edd. Sogno et al. 286-99; Isidorus Pelusiota, Lettres ed. & tr. Évieux I: 9-18, 50-119; Choat, "The Epistolary Culture of Monasticism between Literature and Papyri" in Cistercian Studies Quarterly 48 (2013) 227-37; Hoffmann, Bibliographisches Lexicon der gesammten Litteratur der Griechen II: 469; Cioranesco 4021.
Details
- Bookseller
- Bruce McKittrick Rare Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 11853
- Title
- [Greek title:] Epistolarum amplius mille ducentarum libri tres...accessit Latina...Iacobi Billii...Eiusdem Billii Sacrarum Observationum libri duo
- Author
- Isidorus Pelusiota, Saint
- Format/Binding
- Contemporary olive gilt-ruled morocco (corners bumped, light scuffs, faded) WITH THE BACHELOR ARMS OF JACQUES AUGUSTE DE THOU an
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- G. Chaudière
- Place of Publication
- Paris
- Date Published
- 1585
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About the Seller
Bruce McKittrick Rare Books
About Bruce McKittrick Rare Books
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Morocco
- Morocco is a style of leather book binding that is usually made with goatskin, as it is durable and easy to dye. (see also...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- G
- Good describes the average used and worn book that has all pages or leaves present. Any defects must be noted. (as defined by AB...