Lancellotti - Il Bartimeo Cieco - 1626

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THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO AS A SPIRITUAL ALLEGORY: RARE PRACTICAL TRANSCENDENCE OPUS
A rare religious tract from the early 17th century devoted to the evangelic figure of Bartimaeus, the blind man of Jericho cured by Christ, published in Perugia in 1626 by Angelo Bartoli, Episcopal Printer. According to Lancellotti, an Olivetine abbot and Perugian scholar, it uses the gospel episode as a starting point for moral and spiritual reflection on human blindness, faith, and salvation. The short text fully belongs to the post-Tridentine devotional and homiletic culture, in which gospel episodes are interpreted not only in their narrative dimension but as allegories of the Christian interior state. The elegant layout, the woodcut mark on the title page, the headers, the initial letters, and two small woodcuts in the text give the tract a pleasant editorial character. A genuine exemplar, preserved in its simple contemporaneous rustic cover.

WHY TO BUY
• RARE PERUGINAN PRINT – Brief tract of originally limited circulation, today not commonly available.
• ACCORDING TO LANCELLOTTI – Work of the erudite Olivetan scholar and polemicist, a protagonist of the academic culture of the early 17th century.
• BAROQUE SPIRITUALITY – Interesting interweaving of gospel content, moral interpretation, and 17th-century devotion.
• GENUINE EXEMPLAR – Small woodcuts and rustic contemporaneous copy preserve the character of Central Italian typographic production.

MARKET VALUE
Rare, niche 17th-century tract, interesting especially for Perugian printing, the author, the devotional theme, and its preservation in rustic contemporaneous format. Overall good conditions constitute a favorable element. Price: €200–300.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Mute contemporaneous rustic cardboard. Woodcut mark on the title page; title pages and initial letters woodcut; two small woodcuts in the text. Light browning of the pages, normal minimal signs of time. In old books with a centuries-long history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. 32.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Il Bartimeo cieco.
In Perugia, appresso Angelo Bartoli Stampatore Episcopale, 1626.
Secondo Lancellotti.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The figure of Bartimaeus, told in the Gospels as the blind man who recognizes Jesus as the Son of David and regains sight thanks to his own faith, was particularly suitable for the moral preaching of the early modern era. Physical blindness becomes a symbol of the soul’s blindness, while the healing represents the transition from confusion to knowledge and from the state of sin to the light of faith. In the climate after the Council of Trent, short texts of this kind fulfilled a function that was devotional, catechetical, and rhetorical. The biblical episode is developed through images, parallels, and spiritual interpretations capable of engaging the reader and turning the Gospel narrative into a meditation exercise. The local character of the printing is equally meaningful. Perugia was a lively religious and cultural center, and the presence of an episcopal printer shows the direct relationship between book production and the city’s ecclesiastical institutions. The work thus constitutes a testimony to the diffusion of religious literature destined for an educated but not necessarily specialized audience.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
According to Lancellotti, or Lancillotti, he was born in Perugia in the 16th century and belonged to the Monte Oliveto Benedictine Congregation. He was abbot, scholar, and writer, and actively participated in the cultural life of his time. The frontispiece recalls him as a member of the Academy of the Insensate and the Academy of the Trusted, testimony to his integration into the literary and academic circuits of Italy between the 15th and 17th centuries.
Lancellotti was the author of religious, erudite, and polemical works and showed a particular inclination for critical discussion and paradox. In his writings one repeatedly encounters ecclesiastical culture, historical erudition, and the Baroque literary taste. In Bartimeo cieco di Gerico this culture is applied to a biblically simple theme, transformed into material for moral interpretation and spiritual meditation.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Il Bartimeo cieco di Gerico was printed in Perugia in 1626 by Angelo Bartoli, identified as Episcopal Printer. The extremely brief nature of the work, only 31 pages, suggests a publication intended for a circumscribed circulation and probably connected to religious, academic, or devotional circles.
It is precisely such tracts that often had survival far inferior to major treatises: practical use, modest material, and small format favored dispersal and losses. The preservation of a copy still in the simple contemporaneous rustic binding is therefore a significant element. The woodcut apparatus, although modest, demonstrates typographic care superior to that of a mere occasional print and gives the volume an interest also for the history of Perugian publishing in the early 17th century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Secondo Lancellotti, Il Bartimeo cieco di Gerico, Perugia, Angelo Bartoli, 1626.
Bibliographic repertories of Secondo Lancellotti’s works.
Studies on the Congregation of Monte Oliveto and on Olivetan literary production.
Repertories on Perugian printing of the 17th century and on Angelo Bartoli’s activity.
Studies on devotional, homiletic, and allegorical literature of the period.