Horologium aeternae sapientiae.
Cologne: Johann Landen, 1500/1501. In this copy there are lombard initials in red and blue, one with dog-head decoration, red capital strokes, paragraph marks, and underlining. In this edition A Woodcut appears three times, on title, title verso, and verso of final leaf (margin of f. 2 slightly extended, occasional damp stains at gutter and edges, a few leaves in gathering O stained and one with short closed tear). Bound in modern vellum with manuscript antiphonal leaf reused as pastedowns. The German Mystics of the fourteenth century, Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler and Heinrich Suso, seemed to be constantly Willing the ability of Unwillingness. Perhaps Eckhart is the most profoundly speculatively blunt so much so that he was accused of heresy and brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic but died before a verdict. Tauler intern provides neo-platonic richness and logic to this position. Suso's is to explore the territory through emotion. Suso's first books , Büchlein der Wahrheit (Little Book of Truth) and Das Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit (The Little Book of Eternal Wisdom) were written in German and structured as instructions and explanations for Beginners as well as a defense and adaptation of Eckharts spiritual views. A very nice copy A Woodcut appears three times, on title, title verso, and verso of final leaf (margin of f. 2 slightly extended, occasional damp stains at gutter and edges, a few leaves in gathering O stained and one with short closed tear). Item #861
NO US COPY> No copies of this edition are recorded at auction by ABPC or RBH.
VD16 S 6103; ISTC is00876500; Goldschmidt p. 135. See Ford BPH 177 (first edition) and 178 (fourth edition).
Holdings: GermanyWuppertal StB & RussiaMoscow, [Russian State Library] Rossijskaja Gosudarstvennaja Biblioteka (Berlin copy). Number of holding institutions 2.
Price: $22,000.00