ID 794361
Lot 123 | THOMAS AQUINAS (c.1225-1274)
Estimate value
£ 6 000 – 8 000
Summa contra gentiles, sive De veritate Catholicae fidei. [Strasbourg: Printer of Henricus Ariminensis (Georg Reyser?), not after 1474].
First edition of Aquinas’s defence of Christianity. Once thought to have been written for the use of Dominican missionaries at the request of St Raymond of Penafort to assist them in converting Muslims and Jews in Spain to Christianity, the Summa contra gentiles explores the ways that both reason and revelation can lead towards Christian faith. Books printed with the first type of the anonymous Ariminensis press may be the work of Heinrich Eggestein rather than Georg Reyser (see Christie’s, Doheny sale, 22 October 1987, lot 19). This work was once bound with the following lot, with which it shares illumination, decoration and index tabs; the two works (the present Summa and the third edition of Aquinas’s Quaestiones de duodecim quodlibet [Goff T-184]) were also bound together at an early date in a copy sold at Christie’s, 1 December 2016, lot 94. H 1385*; BMC I 77; BSB-Ink T-269; Bod-inc T-160; Goff T-190; ISTC it00190000.
Royal folio (398 x 273mm). 248 leaves, with the final blank. Contemporary south German decoration: each of 4 books opening with an illuminated initial with extensions, rubricated in blue and red (first leaf a little defective and repaired, minor marginal repairs in first 4 leaves, small stain at a few extreme upper margins, decoration just shaved). Modern calf, early index tabs. Provenance: ?stamp erased from 4⁄10r.
Special notice
No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.
Artist: | Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274) |
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Place of origin: | Western Europe, France, Europe |
Auction house category: | Printed books |
Artist: | Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274) |
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Place of origin: | Western Europe, France, Europe |
Auction house category: | Printed books |
Address of auction |
CHRISTIE'S 8 King Street, St. James's SW1Y 6QT London United Kingdom | |
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Phone | +44 (0)20 7839 9060 | |
Buyer Premium | see on Website | |
Conditions of purchase | Conditions of purchase |
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