Ioannis Chrysostomi - Operum + Index - 1588

Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople

The Constantinopolitan Works, Volume I. Paris, printed by Denis Duval for the Société Parisienne, 1588.

In folio (42.5 x 28 cm at binding). Modern binding in ivory-colored cloth.

First volume complete with the important Index with its own title page (also dated 1588 and bearing the same typographic mark of the ship “Lutetia”).

Pages: (100) + Index ([8], 96) + 1341 [i.e. 1342], [2] columns.

Text in Latin, two columns, with numerous initials and woodcut ornaments. Frontispieces printed in red and black, with the beautiful large woodcut vignette of the Parisian ship “Lutetia” (mark of the Société Parisienne).

First part of the complete works of Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), Archbishop of Constantinople and Doctor of the Church, one of the most eminent figures of Greek patristics. The volume includes the homilies, treatises, dialogues on the Saint’s life (including the famous dialogue of Palladius) and other works, accompanied by analytical indices and places of Scripture.

Paris edition of 1588, printed by Denis Duval for the Société Parisienne with royal privilege. This is one of the important sixteenth-century collections of Chrysostom’s works, fundamental for patristic studies and for the diffusion of the “golden-mouthed” thinker’s thought in Catholic Europe during the Counter-Reformation.

Copies complete with Volume I and the independent Index are rather rare on the antiquarian market.

Solid modern binding. Wear along the lower margins of the final leaves of the volume, of the first and last leaves of the Index (including the Index title page) and scattered foxing. Overall a good specimen of this imposing edition.

A work of notable interest for collectors of sixteenth-century theological and patristic writings.