Scriptum super Esaiam prophetam … — Venice 1517

Scriptum super Esaiam prophetam … — [Colophon:] Impressum per Lazarum de Soardis. 1517. Die 27. Junij.

(Venice, de Soardis, 27 June 1517).

First edition

4to (205 x 152 mm). aa⁸ bb-qq⁴: (8), 59, (1) leaves. Woodcut illustrations. – Adams J-210; Edit16 32012; ustc 800293.

¶ Super Prophetas, as David A. Morris entitles our book instead of Super Esaiam Prophetam, thus following most of the manuscripts, „may well have been compiled over a period of multiple decades, and possibly by multiple Florensian authors, starting with the Praemissiones … and reaching a more or less final form by 1268″.

Morris stresses the importance of the pseudo-Joachite works, which „are vital to understanding Joachim’s legacy, especially as they were believed to be genuine form the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century … Super Esaiam Prophetam“ as it is called, is striking because it was one of the earliest of Joachim’s works to be sent to the printer’s press and … it is the only major pseudo-Joachite work of the thirteenth century to contain numerous striking immages, commonly called „figurae“ …

As presented in the 1517 imprint, Super Esaiam Prophetam is a composite work, consisting of four distinct, but interrelated texts. These include:

A figure collection know to the literature as the Praemissiones …

An imcomplete Isaiah commentary that breaks off at chapter 11 …

A sprawling work that encompasses the largest share of the complex, from folios 11r to 51r in the Venice edition, bearing a running title, „De oneribus Sexti Temporis“… What follows is an extended sequence of diagrams, running from folios 13r to 28r in the Venice imprint, which list all the cities and regions of the known world, accompanied by relevant prophecies … This geographic sequence then gives way to a lengthy explication of other prophetic burdens, running from folios 28v to 49v, with the incipit, „Ecce in provinciis istis“…

A short treatise, running from folios 49v to 59v, on the seven ages of the Church and their relationship to the seven churches and the seven seales of the Apocalypse …“ (D. A. Morris, In Search of Pseudo-Joachim of Fiore: Understanding the so-called Isaiah Commentary, Franciscan Studies vol. 73, pp. 255-274

The figurae:

aa6r: Three entwined circles representing the ages of Joachim’s teleology (2nd photo)

aa6v: Mysterium Ecclesiae (3rd photo)

aa7r: Three circels, representing the time before the law, under the law, and the time under grace (3rd photo)

below: Modus tubae, symbolizing the transition form Adam to Christ (3rd photo)

below: Seven seals of the Apocalypse (3rd photo)

aa7v: The seven-head beast, each head showing one enemy of the church (4th photo)

aa8r: A tower: The dispensation before Christ, and one after Christ (4th photo)

aa8v: The wheels of Ezechiel (5th photo)

dd1v: Diagram of concentric circles that highlights the onera, or burdens, foretold by Isaiah and the minor prophets (6th photo)

ee1,2: Two of the geographic diagrams (7th photo)

oo2v: The seven ages of the Church, symbolized by the Old Testament tabernacle (8th photo)