Augustinus HipponensisDe civitate dei [French] De la cite de dieu.
Part I.
Analysis of content:
a2r ‘La table du premier liure.’
a3r Raoul de Presles: [Prologue addressed to] Charles V, King of France. A. de Laborde, Les manuscrits à peintures de la Cité de Dieu de Saint Augustin, I (Paris, 1909), 63-7.
a5r Raoul de Presles: [Second prologue addressed to the reader.] ‘Autre prologue du translateur.’ Incipit: ‘[N]ecessaire chose est ou au moins tres proffitable a la declaracion de ce liure . . .’
a5v Augustinus: ‘Sentence du liure des retractationes . . . et en fait son premier prologue.’ Translated by Raoul de Presles. Incipit: ‘[P]endant ce que Romme fut assaillie, prinse, trebuchee . . .’
a6r Raoul de Presles: ‘Le translateur.’ Incipit: ‘Si comme dit Ysodore ou liure des ethimologies Gothie est une partie de Europe pres de Dace . . .’
a7r Augustinus: [Prologue to La cite de dieu.] ‘Prologue.’ Translated by Raoul de Presles. Incipit: ‘[M]on tres chier filz Marcellin, en ceste euure que i'ay ordonnee a faire . . .’
a7r Raoul de Presles: ‘Exposicion de ce prologue.’ Incipit: ‘[C]e Marcellin ouquel il adresse son liure et la parole . . .’
a7r Augustinus: De civitate dei (in French), book I chapter 1. Translated by Raoul de Presles. Incipit: ‘[D]e celle cite sont les ennemie contre lesquez la cite de dieu est . . .’ On the translation see Laborde I 41-71; on the commentary see also S. D. Smith, ‘New Themes for the City of God around 1400', Scriptorium, 36 (1982), 68-82, especially 68-70. Each chapter, apart from the first, is followed by a commentary.
a8r Raoul de Presles: [Commentary on De civitate dei, book I chapter 2.] ‘Exposicion.’ Incipit: ‘[E]n ce second chapitre monseigneur saint Augustin veust prouuer ce qui est dit . . .’ The commentary follows each chapter.
S6r [Colophon.] Part II.
a2r ‘La table des rubriches del xi.liure.’
a3r [Augustinus]: [Preface to De civitate dei.] Incipit: ‘Combien que au commencement de ceste translation . . .’
a3v [Augustinus]: De civitate dei, book XI on. Incipit: ‘Nous disons la cite de dieu de laquelle lescripture est tesmoing . . .’
a4r Raoul de Presles: [Commentary on De civitate dei.] ‘Exposition sur ce chapitre.’ Incipit: ‘Apres ce que je me suis despechie . . .’
G9r [Colophon.]
Imprint:
Abbeville: Pierre Gérard and Jean Du Pré, 1486/7. Folio.
In two parts, dated: (I) 24 Nov. 1486; (II) 12 Apr. 1486/7.
Collation:
Part I: a–r [2-shaped r] ſ s–y8 z6 [et]8 [us]6 A–C8 D6 E8 F6 G H8 I6 K L8 M6 N8 O6 P8 Q–S6; part II: a–n8 o6 p–r8 s6 t–z8 [et]6 [us] [ā] [ē] [ī]8 AA BB8 CC6 DD–FF8 GG10 aa–dd8 ee6 F8 G10. Leaf2 a1 is unsigned, a2 is signed ai etc. Woodcuts at the beginning of each book; see BMC VIII 402.
A-533(1)
First copy
Wanting the blank leaf a1 and M3.4 in vol. 1, and the blank leaves a1 and G10 in vol. 2.
In two volumes. In vol. 2, g1r, 15 lines of type from g8r; g7v, col. 1, l. 1-15 here used as bearers, have been inked in error.
Binding: Nineteenth-century gold-tooled diced russia; marbled pastedowns; gilt edges; bound by P. Bozérian the younger.
Size: Vol. 1: 392 × 280 × 70 mm; vol. 2: 392 × 280 × 65 mm.
Size of leaf: 367–376 × 257–262 mm.
Some pen-trials.
Partial rubrication: in vol. 1 only, initials are supplied in red or blue, or occasionally in interlocked red and blue. Paragraph marks are supplied in red or blue. Woodcuts coloured in yellow and red.
Provenance: Probably Payne and Foss (1830), no. 115 ‘in russia, gilt leaves', priced £10. 10. 0, rather than Antoine Augustin Renouard (1765-1853); sale (1830), lot 202, although marked in the Bodleian copy of the sale catalogue.
Payne and Foss's 1830 catalogue is dated Feb. 1830, the Renouard sale 26 April 1830, so the items in the Payne and Foss catalogue cannot be items bought for stock from the Renouard sale.
Purchased for £10. 10. 0; see Library Bills (1829-32), nos 190-1, and Books Purchased (1830), 2.
Former Bodleian shelfmarks: Auct. P 2.17; Auct. P inf. 6.
SHELFMARK: Auct. 7Q 1.17-18.
A-533(2)
Second copy
Vol. 1: wanting the blank leaf a1; vol. 2: wanting the blank leaf a1, DD7 and the blank leaf G10.
Vol. 1: a8 reversed. Leaves g1-2 are signed in black ink over printed signature. Wanting woodcut on k1v, at beginning of book XV. On s4r the impression of a piece of type that fell on to the forme. Leaves in gathering G in vol. 2 repaired.
Binding: Eighteenth-century gold-tooled brown morocco; marbled pastedowns. Two later engravings pasted into vol. 1, ‘Ludovicus Vives Valentinus' inside the upper cover, and ‘Augustine' on verso of front flyleaf.
Size: Vol. 1: 385 × 280 × 65 mm; vol. 2: 385 × 280 × 60 mm.
Size of leaf: 368–370 × 246–253 mm.
Notes by Douce on recto of front flyleaf. Some underlining in black ink. In vol. 2, in lower margin of x6r in a contemporary hand: ‘Frater Petrus . . . Schebbe | custodivit infirmariu[m] | et detentus est infirmitate'; EE5r contemporary musical notation in black ink; occasional pen-trials in black ink.
At the beginning of most of the twenty-one books is a five-line initial supplied in interlocked red and blue. Other initials and paragraph marks are supplied in red or blue. Some capital strokes in yellow.
Provenance: St Omer, convent of Recollect Franciscans, 1673; inscription on a2r of vol. 2.
Francis Douce (1757-1834); armorial book-plate.
Bequeathed in 1834.
SHELFMARK: Douce 274-5.