SPECULU[M] DIVINI AMORIS, RITHMICO CARMINE INSTAR DIALOGI DULCISSIME DECURRE[N]S. quo pius Lector miru[m] in modu[m]ad heroicas excitatur virtutes. Ad diuinum lectorem sapphiculon hic pius, doctus, celebris, benignus hic & argutus Cithare magister pulsitat gnarus digitis canoris celica plecta.

(Cologne: In domo Que[n]tell i[m]presssum, 1505). 8vo (14 cm). A-K8. (159) pp. [verso of final leaf blank, here filled with annotations in an early hand). Printed in Roman type. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was a French Benedictine abbot of the Cistercian order who played an important role in church politics in 12th century France. Engraved bookplate of George Kloss, M.D., of Frankfurt am Main on front pastedown; Kloss (1787-1854), who studied medicine at Heidelberg and Gottingen, assembled a large collection of manuscripts (obtaining many from monasteries) and books, especially relating to Freemasonry; he eventually published histories of Freemasonry devoted to various European countries. Sotheby's, in London, had a sale of books from the Kloss collection in 1835, advertising many as having notes by Philip Melancthon; in fact, they did not, and this may well be one of those books, with an old dealer's catalogue description tipped in, touting "From Melancthon's library [and with his] marginal notes and one entire page in Melancthon's handwriting." Final blank verso annotated in an early hand and with several other marginal notes and markings. VD16 B-1963. Not in Adams. Janauschek Bibliographia bernardina 327. OCLC locates two copies in the United States (Princeton, Chicago). Small round wormholes to lower margin throughout, in-filled in places; title darkened, final two gatherings with damp mark to the upper and lower margins, but a very good copy of a scarce edition of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux's work "On Loving God". 19th-century marbled boards (rebacked, with a portion of the original spine laid down, edges bumped). (11164). Item #64898

Price: $3,750.00

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