Sancti Cypriani - Sancti Cæcilii Cypriani Opera
 - 1666

Sancti Cæcilii Cypriani Opera
Paris, Ioannes du Puys (sub signo Coronæ aureæ), 1666.

Edition edited by Nicolas Rigault (Nic. Rigaltii I.C.), with his complete annotations and those of Pamelius and of other commentators.

The volume brings together the complete works of Saint Cyprian of Carthage, corrected “ad vetustissimorum exemplarium fidem,” and adds to it, for the first time in this collection:
• Marci Minucii Felicis Octavius (De Idolorum vanitate);
• Arnobii Afri Adversus Gentes libri VII;
• Iulii Firmici Materni De Errore Profanarum Religionum;
• Commodiani Instructiones adversus Gentium Deos (first edition printed, edited by Rigault).

Format: folio (cm 34 × 25).
Collation: pp. 38 [i.e. 83], [1], 453, [11], 36, [16], 108, [32], 60.

Frontispiece in red and black with a large printer’s mark (the golden crown upheld by two putti), half-titles, initial capital letters and wood-engraved tailpieces.

Contemporary binding in full leather, spine with raised bands and gilded ornaments and title (“SCYPRIA. OPERA”), boards smooth.
Conditions
Loose, headbands somewhat worn (see photo), cut on the rear board.

This is the so-called “Priorian” edition (named after Philippe Le Prieur/Priorius who contributed to it), based on the critical text of Nicolas Rigault (1577-1654), one of the most complete and philologically accurate of the seventeenth century.

It brings together in a single volume the works of Saint Cyprian of Carthage (Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, ca. 200-258), bishop and martyr, one of the most influential Latin Fathers of the Church. Cyprian, converted from paganism and ordained bishop of Carthage around 248-249, faced the great crises of the African Church: the persecutions under Decius and the problem of lapsi (Christians who had abjured), the question of baptizing heretics, and the unity of the Church.

Among his principal works contained here:
• De Catholicae Ecclesiae Unitate (fundamental for the theology of unity and primacy);
• De Lapsis;
• De Dominica Oratione;
• De Mortalite;
• De Opere et Eleemosynis;
• De Bono Patientiae;
• De Zelo et Livore;
• the numerous Epistles (over 80);
• and the spurious or traditionally doubtful writings attributed to him (including Sodoma and others).

The volume is enriched by four important apologetic texts of early Christianity, which make it a corpus of great value:
1. Minucius Felix – Octavius
One of the most elegant Latin dialogue-appeals of the II-III centuries, in which the Christian Octavius refutes the pagan accusations of superstition and immorality.
2. Arnobius of Sicca – Adversus Gentes (books VII)
Vigorous refutation of paganism, written around 300 by an African rhetorist who converted.
3. Iulian Firmicus Maternius – De Errore Profanarum Religionum
A work of the IV century addressed to emperors Constantius and Constans, attacking pagan mysteries and urging their complete destruction.
4. Commodian – Instructiones adversus Gentium Deos
A collection of 80 acrostics (first and second parts) by a Christian poet of the III century (perhaps African or Gazaene).

The text, long unpublished, constitutes one of the earliest testimonies of Christian Latin poetry in acrostic form.

Rigault’s critical apparatus (with his Observationes) and Pamelius’s notes (Jacobus Pamelius, 1536-1587) and other commentators render this edition still a reference point for patristic studies today.

Complete copies in contemporary bindings are quite sought after on the antiquarian market.