Introductio ad sapientiam … — Leuven 1524

Introductio ad sapientiam… Satellitium sive Symbola… Epistolae duae de ratione studii puerilis. — Lovanii apud Petrum Martinum Alostensem. An. M.D.XXIIII. [Leuven, Thierry Martens, 1524].

First edition

8vo (155 x 104 mm). a-s⁴: (72) leaves. Contemporary long-stitch half-vellum, upper cover gone. In a modern half-leather box.

Leuven Exhibition catalogue 1993, p. 125ff., no. 36: “The only known complete copy” – but there are another two complete copies: Edinburg and S. Petersburg. The copy in Bruxelles (KB) has only 56ff of 72. Nijhoff-Kronenberg 2168 (the incomplete Bruxelles copy only); Adam & Vanautgaerden, Thierry Martens, p. 235. Not in Estelrich, Adams, BL/STC. 

¶ A very successful book: nearly 30 editions were published during the 16th century. Following Noreña (Vives, 1970) it shows that in Vives‘ thought „Christian morality coincides fully with the essentials of natural ethics …“ and that the „amazing expression of naturalism in the first half of the sixteenth century is obviously a highly significant fact in the intellectual history of Europe. Leaving aside the individualistic supernaturalism of Luther and the institutionalized Christianity of Trent, Vives‘ thought forecasts and prepares for the main stream of secularized humanism which carries the thought of Bovillus, Du Vair, Montaigne, Grotius, Lipsius, and Pierre Charron.“ (207) The title Introductio ad sapientiam reminds one of a long lost and forgotten task of philosophy.

census:

Edinburgh Nat. L.

Leuven UL

S. Petersburg

Bruxelles KB (56 of 72 ff. only)