Desiderius Erasmus - Originis Adamanantii Operum pars secunda - 1536

Origenis Adamantii Operum pars secunda. Basileae in Officina Frobeniana Anno MDXXXVI. 780 [52] pages. Volume 2 complete. Contemporary leather binding with corner repairs and old rebacking. Loss of lower right corner in the margin of page 503 without any loss of text. Old paper repair of lower left corner of colophon without affecting text.

Origenis Adamantii Operum is a two-volume edition of the works of the early Christian theologian Origen of Alexandria, compiled and edited by the Renaissance humanist Desiderius Erasmus. Published posthumously in 1536, it was one of Erasmus's final projects, featuring his prefaces where he praised Origen for his learning and eloquence.

Origen of Alexandria[a] (c. 185 – c. 253),also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Alexandria. He was a prolific writer who wrote roughly 2,000 treatises in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, homiletics, and spirituality. He was one of the most influential and controversial figures in early Christian theology, apologetics, and asceticism.

The most prominent advocate of Origen during the Renaissance was the Dutch humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus, who regarded Origen as the greatest of all Christian authors. Erasmus especially admired Origen for his lack of rhetorical flourishes, which were so common in the writings of other Patristic authors. Erasmus borrowed heavily from Origen's defense of free will in On First Principles in his 1524 treatise On Free Will, now considered his most important theological work.

In 1527, Erasmus translated and published the portion of Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew that survived only in Greek and in 1536, he published the most complete edition of Origen's writings that had ever been published at that time.