Abbas Ioachim - Magnus Propheta - 1516

The Illustrated Apocalypse of Gioachino: Angels and Demons in the Rare Princeps Edition
Volume illustrated with 76 woodcuts of Venetian origin, many of which depict clashes between angels and demons, popes and antipopes, ecclesiastical assemblies and scenes of eschatological conflict.
A beautiful representation of the Dragon with seven heads arranged in a spiral, accompanied by Latin texts that describe it in relation to the Books of Job and Revelation.
The text describes the dragon as "large and red", associating it with the Antichrist and cruelty. Its scales are likened to "shields pressed against one another". The dragon is depicted as treacherous due to its multifaceted cunning.
"Gifted with prophetic spirit." Joachim of Fiore is described thus by Dante Alighieri, who places him in Paradise, among the wise spirits of the Divine Comedy.
Abbas Ioachim Magnus Prophet, printed in Venice in 1516, is the EDITIO PRINCEPS of one of the most famous and unsettling prophetic bodies of the Joachimite tradition and marks a crucial moment in the transformation of medieval prophecy into a printed book object. A post-incunable work of exceptional symbolic power, the volume fuses text, apocalyptic exegesis, and image into a coherent system, conceived as a tool of revelation and interpretation of sacred history. Attributed on the title page to Joachim of Fiore, a key figure of medieval eschatology, the work is in fact a layered and composite construction that gathers late-medieval texts grounded in his prophetic authority. The publication in the form of EDITIO PRINCEPS in Venice in 1516 testifies to the persistent timeliness of Joachimite prophecies on the eve of the Reformation, in the midst of a climate of religious tension, millennial anticipation, and crisis of the ecclesiastical institution.
Market value
In the international antiquarian market this rare Venetian EDITIO PRINCEPS of 1516, illustrated and with a strong iconographic impact, is generally placed in a value range between 5,000 and 8,000 euros. Fluctuations depend on the completeness of the leaves, on the full presence of the woodcuts, on the quality of the impression, and on the condition of the binding. The fact that the prophetic corpus is a first-edition printed edition, along with its rich figurative content and the historical significance of the text, sustains a steady demand among collectors of apocalyptic, prophetic, and esoteric-religious books from the early sixteenth century.

Physical description and condition
Binding in half parchment with boards of antique cardboard, rebound and a bit stiff. Title page with a woodcut vignette depicting Joachim of Fiore, with underlinings and antique colorings; presence of ex libris and an ancient ownership note. Illustrated volume with 76 woodcuts of Venetian origin, many of which depict clashes between angels and demons, popes and antipopes, ecclesiastical assemblies and scenes of eschatological conflict; some bear the engraver's initial "M". Page 41 reproduced on contemporaneous paper. Marginal notes and handwritten underlinings in black ink. Some browning, a copy a little worn but of great charm. In old books, with a centuries-long history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. pp. 156.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHORS
Abbot Joachim, a great prophet.
Venice, by Bernardinum Benalium, 1516.
Gioacchino da Fiore; Rusticiano; Telesforo di Cusentia; Ubertino da Casali; Jean de Paris.

Context and Significance
The seven-headed dragon and its tail synthesize the visions of the Apocalypse of Joachim of Fiore. 'It is the first image in which the abbot inserts signs of evil,' explains Giuseppe Riccardo Succurro, president of the International Center for Gioachimite Studies. 'Joachim studies the Apocalypse of the Sacred Scriptures,' Succurro clarifies, 'and he depicts the persecutors of the Church and of humanity in his Expositio super Apocalypsim.'

The work constitutes a true and proper figurative and systematic apocalypse, in which the Joachimite tradition is fixed for the first time in organic printed form. The EDITIO PRINCEPS of 1516 translates into typographic language a prophetic corpus born in the manuscript sphere, based on the vision of history as a succession of ages and states of the Church. The Venetian woodcuts do not serve a merely illustrative function, but operate as exegetical devices: they visualize the eschatological struggle, the crisis of ecclesiastical authority, the clash between good and evil, and the anticipation of spiritual regeneration. The volume includes the Tractatus de Antichristo by Jean de Paris, the prophecies of the Eritrean Sibyl, the Rota and the Turcicum Oraculum, broadening the apocalyptic dimension toward a political and geopolitical reading of the present. The first printed edition of this textual collection marks the definitive shift of Joachimite prophecy from monastic and manuscript culture to the public sphere of the Renaissance book."

“The seven-headed dragon appears in the Bible, – recalls Tagliapietra – sits facing the Virgin Mother as she is about to give birth in order to devour the child. It represents the clash between good and evil, life and death, an emblem of all the conflicts of history. The tablets of the Liber Figurarum by Joachim of Fiore draw some aspects of the apocalypse told in the Sacred Scriptures. The heads refer to historically significant figures: Herod because he tried to kill Jesus in the massacre of the innocents; Nero for having persecuted Christians as did Costanzo; Muhammad because he founded the Muslim religion; Mesemoto as an adversary of the Church; Saladin was a contemporary of Joachim and in 1184 was advancing militarily in the conquest of Jerusalem. The seventh king, defined as the Antichrist, is not known. Joachim died in 1202 and thought that in 1260 the third age would begin. The prophecies in the Middle Ages were used as propaganda; Frederick II of Swabia is thus named the Antichrist by his enemies.”

Biography of the Author
Gioacchino da Fiore was born in Celico, in Calabria, around 1130–1135 and died in 1202. An abbot and theologian, he founded the Florentine abbey and developed a prophetic vision of history based on the symbolic interpretation of the Apocalypse. Between 1182 and 1184 he met Pope Lucius III, who granted him the licentia scribendi, encouraging him to compose his major works, including the Concord between the Old and the New Testament and the Exposition of the Apocalypse. His doctrines, though subject to suspicions and censures, exerted a profound influence on medieval and Renaissance thought; Dante Alighieri places him in Paradiso (Paradiso XII, 139–141), consecrating him as a figure of inspired prophecy.

Printing history and circulation
This Editio Princeps of 1516 was formally printed in Venice by Bernardino Benali, accused by Dennis E. Rhodes of having "stolen" it from the workshop of Lazzaro de’ Soardi, who in the same year published a substantially identical edition. This overlap testifies to Venetian editorial practices characterized by collaborations, circulation of matrices, and, at times, typographical appropriations. The dissemination of the work was significant in religious, prophetic, and reformist circles, where text and images were used as tools of meditation, interpretation of the present, and symbolic reading of the crisis of the Church.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Rhodes, Dennis E., Typographic Annals of Lazzaro De’ Soardi, p. 76, no. 111.
Adams, H.M., Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe 1501–1600, T-208.
Essling, Victor Masséna, The Books with Venetian Figures, no. 1896.
ICCU / EDIT16, No. 32569.
Sander, Max, The Italian book with figures, no. 3607 (cf. also no. 3606).
Isaac, Frank, Bibliographic Directory of Illustrated Books, No. 12586.
Caillet, Albert, Bibliographic Manual of the Psychic or Occult Sciences, no. 5540.
Reeves, Marjorie, The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages.