Zutphania, Gerardus de Zutphania (1367-1398)

[ De spiritualibus ascensionibus.] Tractatus de spiritualibus ascensionibus Add: David de Augusta: De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione Lib. II, 1 (De quatuor in quibus incipientes deo servire debent esse cauti)

Basel : Johann Amerbach and Johann Petri de Langendorff, not after 1489]. 1489. Lacking a1 (blank) & a2 title. Rubricated in red, initials painted in red, blue and green. Contemporary binding in full calf, with blind tool. Zerbolt was born in 1367 into a wealthy burgher family in Zutphen, then in the Duchy of Guelders. He was first education in his hometown, and after attending one or more Latin schools elsewhere, between 1383 and 1385 he joined the Brothers of the Common Life's at St. Lebwin school in nearby Deventer.

¶Even in the Brothers of the Common Life's community of "plain living and high thinking" Gerard was remarkable for his absorption in the sacred sciences and his utter oblivion of all matters of merely earthly interest. He held the office of librarian, and his deep learning in moral theology and canon law did the brothers good service, in helping them to meet the prejudice and opposition which their manner of life at first aroused.

In June 1398, the plague drove most of the Brethren, including Zerbolt, from Deventer. They found refuge in Amersfoort until November. Here the legality of the Brotherhood was attacked regularly by the local clergy. Soon after his return to Deventer, Zerbolt traveled to the Benedictine monastery at Dikninge in Drente to confer with its learned abbot Arnold about the attacks. On his way home on December 3, Zerbolt and his companion stopped for the night at Windesheim, a small village just south of Zwolle. He felt mortally ill and died within a few hours, at the age of 31. Because of his heralded status, the Windesheim canons buried him quickly in an honored spot in their own chapel, before the Brethren from Deventer could collect the body ¶ This is the inaugural treatise by Gerard Zerbolt of Zütphen, described by Post (in "The Modern Devotion") as "the most fertile and the most successful writer the Brothers [of the Common Life] ever produced." (Cath. Ency.)
¶This work of mystic theology was a major influence upon Saint Ignatius Lyola and the founding of the Jesuits Here, Zerbolt outlines how one can redeem the soul from its fallen state, moving to higher and higher levels through "self-knowledge, repentance, combat of sin, mortification, the practice of humility and obedience." (Post)

The "Devotio Moderna" helped pave the way for the religious reform movements of the 15th and 16th centuries, in particular with its emphasis on the importance of every person developing a personal relationship with God, as Zerbolt details here. According to Pollard, our printer Amerbach (1430-1513) issued his first book from a Basel establishment in 1478, and in his career printed about 100 incunabula. .

Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "". Catholic Encyclopedia. The Spiritual Ascent: A Devotional Treatise by Zerbolt, Gerard, 1367-1398; Thomas, à Kempis, ca. 1380-1471. G. H. Gerrits "Inter Timorem Et Spem: A Study of the Theological Thought of Gerard Zerbolt", BRILL publisher, 1986. Marguerin de la Bigne, Bibliotheca Patrum, XXVI. >Karl Ullmann, Reformatoren vor der Reformation; and K. Hirsche in Herzog's Realencyklopädie, 2nd ed. Material Evidence in Incunabula,; 02019755
¶ Goff,; G177;ISTC,; ig00177000; Oates,; 2803; Bod-inc,; G-081; Pr,; 7638; BMC,; III:752; BSB-Ink,; G-127; GW,; 10689

United States of America:

Boston Public Library Bryn Mawr College, Free Library of Philadelphia, Library of Congress, Ohio State Univ Huntington Library (2), Newberry Library,Univ. of Houston,Yale (2)

. Item #246J
ISBN: 246J

Price: $9,000.00