Carmina / In evangelium … paraphrasis

1.) Gregorii Nazanzeni … graeca quaedam & sancta carmina. Cum Latina Ioannis Langi Silesij interpretatione. Et eiusdem Ioan. Langi poemata aliquot christiana. [In Greek & Latin]. — Basileae, per Ioannem Oporinum, [colophon:] Januario 1561 [Basel, Oporinus]. Bound with:

2.) Νόννου Ποιητοῦ Πανοπολίτου μεταβολὴ κατὰ Ιωάννην ἁγίου εὐαγγελίου. — Parisiis, apud Martinum Iuvenem, 1556 [Paris, Martin Le Jeune]. Bound with:

3.) Nonni poetae Panopolitani, in evangelium sancti Ioannis paraphrasis graeca, a Christophoro Hegendorphino latina facta … — Parisiis, Exemplaria prostant apud Iacobum Bogardum … 1542 [Paris, Jacques Bogard].

8vo (157 x 101 mm). Upper corner of leaves a bit wrinkled.

Binding: Contemporary blind-stamped pigskin over boards. Bound by Georg Kirsten, Wittenberg. Both covers with a central plate showing the annunciation and the Holy Family on the upper, the baptism of Christ and the Good Samaritan on the lower cover, surrounded on both covers by a rol of Fides, Charitas, Spes. The initials GK of Georg Kirsten on both plates. (Goldschmidt I no. 225; Haebler I 225f.).

Provenance:

1.) The initials of the first owner G I F, dated 1564 on the upper cover. This seems to be Georgius Ingolstadius (Ingolstetter?) from Frankfurt/Oder. He is co-author of Carmina in Honorem … Benedicti Mulleri, Berlin 1588. His stamp Georgius Ingolstadius F on first title-page. His(?) inscription on the third title-page: Francofordia cis Viadrum, i. e. Frankfurt a. d. Oder.

2.) Ms. inscription on front free endpaper of Henricus Schwalenberg (1556-1618), professor of Hebrew at Leipzig University, author and editor of a number of books about Hebrew and similar subjects.

3.) Small stamp on the first title-page: Ex Biblioth. Gymn. Pal. Sedan.

4.) Inscription on title-page: … vi. Kal. Septemb. ante merid.[iem] mdccxxvii … [27th Aug. 1723 before noon (!)]; repeated on the title-pages of the second and third part of the Sammelband. In the same hand Continentur in hoc libello … on paste-down.

5.) Ms. notes on verso of title and recto of a₂. Marginal annotations in different hands.

1.) a-p⁸: 240 pp. Not in Adams; VD 16 G 3090; Hoffmann II 174.

The translation into Latin is by Johannes Lange (1503-1567), poet, theologian and politician from Silesia. For his translation and edition of Gregory he received a gift of 500 ducats from Emperor Ferdinand I.

The translation is followed by Poemata quaedam Christiana by Lange, two refutations of the attacks of  Friedrich Staphylus (1512-1564), a German protestant theologian, who converted to Catholicism in 1553; a poem dedicated to the physician Johannes Antonius Cracoviensis Iohannes Baptista decollatus; a poem De vita beata Christianorum, dedicated to Johannes Cerasinus (1507-1561), a judge in Cracow, who pleaded for the abolition of torture. In the end translations from Jesaia, Hesiodus and Solon about De corruptis iudiciis, dedicated to the Emperor Ferdinand I.

2.) a-k⁸ l⁴: 168 pp. Adams B 1899; Hoffmann II 645.

3.) A-H⁸ I⁴: 67 leaves, the last blank. Not in Adams; Hoffmann II 645. Translation into prose by Christoph Hegendorf of Nonnos‘ hexameters.