[Incunable] - Eusebius / Beda - Historia Ecclesiastica [Bound w:] Historia Gentis Anglorum - 1500

2 INCUNABOLA FONDATIVI - THE FIRST HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, AND ENGLISH HISTORY OF BEDA
Important incunable edition of the monumental Historia Ecclesiastica by Eusebius of Caesarea, in the Latin translation and continuation by Rufinus of Aquileia, published together with the famous Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum by Bede the Venerable. Printed in Strasbourg in 1500 by Georg Husner, the work brings together the two fundamental texts of western ecclesiastical historiography, offering an extraordinary synthesis of the Church’s history from the origins to the Christianization of England. The specimen preserves the prestigious contemporaneous full leather binding stamped with flat spine on oak boards with original clasps.

WHY TO BUY
The Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius constitutes the founding text of Christian historiography. Without this work, much of the history of the first Christian communities, the persecutions, and the early councils would be lost today. The addition of the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum by Bede makes this volume one of the most important historical compendia of medieval and Renaissance Christianity. Specimens preserved in their original binding with wooden boards and clasps are increasingly rare and highly valued by collectors and libraries.

MARKET VALUE
Fifteenth-century editions of the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius are sought after for their fundamental role in the transmission of Church history. Complete specimens, preserved in contemporaneous bindings and with original elements such as clasps and wooden boards, are particularly appreciated by the international antiquarian market.
Market value: 5,000 - 7,000 Euro.

PHYSICAL
Contemporaneous full leather binding stamped in dry-stamping on oak boards, with front-cut clasps preserved; traces of the paper label on the back. Front endpapers resewn with printed papers from an earlier edition. Frontispiece historically restored with reintegration of the lower half and repair of the title; slight mottling along the top margin of the volume; handwritten title at the lower cut. Text in two columns of 50 lines in Gothic type. Papers with some browning and physiological foxing. As with all old volumes, slight defects or restorations not expressly mentioned may be present.
Collation:
[*]⁶ = 6 leaves
a⁸ = 8 leaves
b–n⁶ = 72 leaves (12 quires × 6 leaves)
o⁸ = 8 leaves
p–z⁶ = 54 leaves (9 quires × 6 leaves)
A–B⁶ = 12 leaves (2 quires × 6 leaves)
Total:
160 unnumbered leaves
320 pages

FULL TITLE
Historia Ecclesiastica. Tyrannius Rufinus. Historia Ecclesiastica. Beda Venerabilis. Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum.
Strassburg, Georg Husner, 1500.
Eusebius Caesariensis.

CONTEXT
Compounded in the 4th century, Eusebius’s Historia Ecclesiastica recounts the birth and development of Christianity from apostolic origins to the era of Emperor Constantine. The work preserves hundreds of documents, letters, and testimonies now lost, representing the principal source on the primitive Church. Rufinus of Aquileia translated the text into Latin and continued it up to 395. Three centuries later, Bede the Venerable applied the same historical method to the conversion and history of the English Church, giving rise to one of the masterpieces of medieval historiography. The joint publication of the two texts offered Renaissance readers a continuous history of the ancient Church and the expansion of Christianity in western Europe.

BIOGRAPHY
Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260–339), bishop, theologian, and historian, is universally regarded as the father of ecclesiastical history. Rufinus of Aquileia (c. 345–411), monk and translator, made the work accessible to the Latin-speaking world and continued its narrative. Bede the Venerable (673–735), Benedictine monk of Wearmouth-Jarrow, was the leading historian of early medieval England and one of the most authoritative scholars of the Carolingian era in Europe.

PRINTING
The edition was printed in Strasbourg by Georg Husner on March 14, 1500, in the final months of the incunabula era. The text is set in elegant Gothic types in two columns, in keeping with German printing tradition. The preservation of the original leather binding stamped with dry-press on wooden boards and clasps gives the specimen special historical value, documenting the book’s material appearance at the beginning of the 16th century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
ISTC ie00107000.
GW 9430.
Goff E-107.
HC 6710.
BMC I.
Bod-Inc E-048.
IGI 3748.
Adams, E-1022.