Innocentii III - Opera - Pontificis Maximi - 1578

Divi Innocentii Pontificis Maximi eius nominis III. Viri Eruditissimi simul atque grauissimi Opera… Venetijs, M.D.LXXVIII (Venice, from the workshop of the Typographers' Society / Compagnia dei Tipografi, 1578; colophon of the first volume 1576).

Venetian edition in folio (measures 212 × 165 mm when bound) of the Works of Pope Innocent III (Lotario dei Conti di Segni, 1160/61-1216), gathered, collated from ancient exemplars and enriched.

Frontispiece with the woodcut printer’s mark (an eagle seizing a deer, motto «Virtute parta non sibi tantum»), text in two columns with ornate initials.

Pp. (32), 483, (2). Tomo Primo. Contains, after the author’s life and the catalog of the works, the Sermons (de tempore and de sanctis), spiritual and theological treatises (including De miseria humanae conditionis), orations, De mysteriis Missae (Libri sex misteriorum Evangelicae legis ac Sacramenti Eucharistiae) and the extensive Index sententiarum et rerum.

Contemporary full parchment binding (title handwritten on the spine); signs of worming that only rarely affect the text; pages generally fresh and legible.

Innocent III is one of the most influential popes of the Middle Ages: theorist of papal power, promoter of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), author of decretals, sermons and ascetic works of wide diffusion. This Venetian edition collects for the first time in organic and correct form the works then available, constituting a reference point for theology, canon law and preaching of the Cinquecento.

Complete copies of Volume One in contemporary binding are not common on the antiquarian market and are sought after by collectors of Venetian cinquecentine and ecclesiastical literature.