Ioannis Chrysostomi - Operum + Index - 1588

Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop

Constantinopolitan Works, Volume I.
Paris: printed by Dionysius Duvallius at the expense of the Société Parisienne, 1588.

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

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

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

Latin text, two columns, with numerous initials and woodcut borders. 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 homilies, treatises, dialogues on the Saint’s life (including Palladio’s famous dialogue) and other works, accompanied by analytic indices and references to Scripture.

Parisian 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” thought in Catholic Europe during the Counter-Reformation.

Complete copies of Volume I with the autonomous Index are rather rare on the antiquarian market.

Modern sturdy 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 works.