Sant’Agostino - Confessioni - 1620

MEMORIA, PECCATO E CONVERSIONE - SAINT AUGUSTINE, THE THIRTEEN BOOKS OF THE CONFESSIONS
Beautiful Milanese sixteenth-seventeenth edition of the Confessions by Saint Augustine, one of the most influential autobiographical, philosophical, and spiritual texts of Western civilization, in the Italian translation by the noble Brescia-born Giulio Mazzini. Published in Milan in 1620 by Giovanni Battista Bidelli, the volume offers the lay reader the thirteen books in which Augustine recounts his restless youth, his adherence to Manichaeism, the search for truth, the meeting with Ambrose, and the famous conversion to Christianity, before developing some of the deepest ancient reflections on memory, time, creation, and the relationship between man and God. The edition belongs to the post-Tridentine Italian reception of a work that, beyond its religious dimension, represents one of the first and most powerful literary explorations of interiority. A specimen preserved in contemporary flexible parchment, with a characteristic manuscript title in antiquity at the bottom edge, a particularly fascinating bibliographic detail.

REASONS FOR COLLECTING
* UNIVERSAL MASTERPIECE – The Confessions are one of the foundational texts of Western literature, philosophy, and spirituality.
* ITALIAN EDITION 1620 – An interesting testimony to the vernacular diffusion of Saint Augustine in early Seicento Italy.
* HISTORY OF INTERIORITY – Conversion, memory, time, and consciousness make the work one of the great archetypes of European autobiography.
* COEVAL PARCHMENT – A genuine specimen with a manuscript title at the lower cut, a typical library practice of ancient libraries.

MARKET VALUE
A commercially very interesting work due to the universal notoriety of the author and the title. The Confessions command a much broader collecting audience than ordinary Seicento religious treatises, intertwining the history of Christianity, philosophy, autobiography, literature, and classical culture. The Milanese edition of 1620 gains particular charm as an ancient Italian translation, while the contemporaneous flexible parchment and the manuscript title on the lower cut confer a genuinely seventeenth-century character to the specimen. However, valuation must take into account the historical diffusion of the work: the merit lies primarily in the antiquity of the edition, in the Italian language, in its original preservation, and in the strong bibliographic recognizability of the text. 700-800 euros.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Milanese edition of 1620 printed at Giovanni Battista Bidelli. Frontispiece with a large woodcut mark depicting a cat crouching within a medallion, set in an elaborately ornamental frame. Full contemporary flexible parchment, with natural signs of use and aging. Particularly interesting is the title written in antiquity at the lower cut, still clearly visible: evidence of the ancient practice of placing volumes on shelves with the cut facing outward, using it as a surface for identifying the book. Leaves with slight and diffuse time marks and occasional foxing; frontispiece overall well preserved with a clear impression. A genuine specimen, especially attractive for the preservation of the original binding and the ancient titling at the cut. Pp. 458

FULL TITLE
The thirteen books of the Confessions of Aurelius Augustine, holy, bishop of Hippo, translated from Latin into Italian by Mr. Giulio Mazzini, noble Brestrian.
In Milan, at Gio. Battista Bidelli, 1620.

AUTHOR
Aurelius Augustinus, Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430). Italian translation by Giulio Mazzini, noble Brescia.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The Confessions were composed by Augustine between the late 4th and early 5th centuries, shortly after his episcopal ordination. The work arises from the interweaving of autobiography and theological reflection: Augustine reconstructs his past not merely as personal memory but as a journey of consciousness toward truth. From childhood and rhetorical studies he passes through youthful passions, Manichaeism, skepticism, and Neoplatonic philosophy, until his meeting with Ambrose in Milan and his conversion. In Catholic Seicento, the Confessions held particular significance: they offered a powerful model of personal conversion, confession of sin, and inner discipline, perfectly coherent with the spirituality of the Counter-Reformation.

LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE
The Confessions are considered one of the foundational texts of Western autobiography. Augustine’s radical focus on his inner world transfigures personal narration into a universal inquiry into memory, desire, evil, free will, and time. Fame is given to the pages on the death of a friend, the conversion in the garden of Milan, his mother Monica, and especially the XI book’s meditations on the nature of time, which would influence philosophers and writers for more than a millennium. The thirteen-book structure progressively transcends simple autobiography and culminates in the interpretation of Genesis, showing how the search for personal truth drives Augustine toward a cosmological and theological reflection of universal scope.

PRINTING HISTORY AND RARITY
The Confessions enjoyed a vast manuscript tradition and were among the most frequently printed patristic works since the dawn of printing. Vernacular translations played a decisive role in spreading the work to non-Latin readers. The Milanese edition of 1620, printed by Giovanni Battista Bidelli in Giulio Mazzini’s version, belongs to the phase of the full Seicento fortune of the text in Italy. While the work cannot be considered rare in absolute terms, single Italian printings from the early seventeenth century retain specific bibliographic interest, especially when preserved in contemporary bindings. The manuscript title on the lower cut is also a material testimony of the ancient system of book preservation: in 16th- and 17th-century libraries volumes could be placed with the cut facing the reader, and the title was written directly on the edge of the sheets.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
ICCU – Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Universale delle biblioteche italiane e per le informazioni bibliografiche; SBN, catalog of Italian early editions of the Confessions of Saint Augustine and translations attributed to Giulio Mazzini.
ICCU – SBN, authority files Aurelius Augustinus and Giulio Mazzini, for forms of authority and the Italian bibliographic tradition.
USTC – Universal Short Title Catalogue, for the history of European editions of the Confessions and early seventeenth-century book production.
CERL – Consortium of European Research Libraries, Heritage of the Printed Book Database, for census and international localization of early editions of the work.
CERL Thesaurus – Aurelius Augustinus; Giovanni Battista Bidelli, for onomastic variants and the Milanese typographic-editorial activity.
WorldCat – OCLC, international catalog, for seventeenth-century editions of the Confessions in major European and American libraries.
Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Milan, catalogs of ancient holdings, particularly relevant to Milanese seventeenth-century book production.
Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, catalogs of ancient and patristic collections, for the editorial fortune and cultural impact of Saint Augustine in the Milanese milieu.
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, catalogs of patristic works and ancient Augustine editions.
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, catalogs of ancient holdings, for the Italian editions of the Confessions and the tradition of vernacular translations.
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, catalogs of ancient Italian editions and patristic works.
British Library, catalog of ancient editions of Aurelius Augustinus, for comparison with Europe-wide diffusion of the Confessions.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Catalogue général, for the European editorial tradition of Saint Augustine.
Brunet, Jacques-Charles, Manuel du libraire et de l’amateur de livres, entry Augustin, for the bibliographic and collectible fortune of ancient Augustine editions.
Graesse, Johann Georg Theodor, Trésor de livres rares et précieux, entry Augustinus, historical repertory of editions and their reception in antiquarian contexts.
Possidio, Vita Augustini, fundamental ancient source for Augustine’s biography.
Brown, Peter, Augustine of Hippo, essential modern study on Augustine’s life, thought, and historical context.
O’Donnell, James J., Augustine: Confessions, annotated edition and fundamental modern reference for the textual tradition of the work.
Courcelle, Pierre, Recherches sur les Confessions de saint Augustin, essential study on composition and philosophical sources of the Confessions.