[Rarebooks] FS: Pope Gregory I commentary of Job, in its original tooled pigskin binding

[Kenneth Karmiole]

(INCUNABULA) Gregorious I, Pope. MORALIA, SIVE EXPOSITO IN JOB. (Basel: Nicolaus Kesler. 1496). Folio. 361 (of 364) leaves, complete but for the 3 blank leaves (2 blanks after the Index at front, and a blank before the final section, "Tabula Auctoritatum Biblie." Double column. Rubricated throughout in red & blue. The decorative two line title is printed from a woodcut. Some occasional staining. Pin hole worming, moderate at front and back sections, but mostly absent in the middle portion. No loss of text or readability. Bound in contemporary full pigskin over oak boards. Covers with ornately blind tooled panels and floral tooling. With the original engraved brass bosses to all corners (8) and centers (2) of both covers. Brass catches, but lacking the fore-edge clasps. Spine with 4 ruled raised bands. Cont. manuscript notes on front pastedown. Some contemporary text marginalia. Evidence front & back of a vellum medieval manuscript leaf used as binder's waste.    $6,500.00 (trade discount allowed)
Gregory's (Pope 590-604) moral homilies on Job, one of his greatest works. These homilies are a "summa" of Christian doctrine and served as a source book for the great Christian teachers of the middle ages; Hugh of St. Victor, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventura and many others.
Although this copy has some worming and lacks the blank leaves, it is a particularly good example of a 15th century book for teaching purposes, being an impressive folio in its original binding, still with almost all of its brass fittings, with text marginalia, and vellum manuscript binder's waste evidence. Goff G432; BMC III, p. 772; HC 7934; ISTC ig0043200.

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