An attractive copy of this scarce, early edition of Gregory the Great's Dialogi in Italian; this, Dominican friar and theologian Domenico Cavalca's (1270-1342) translation was first printed in Venice in 1475. The final portion of the volume is an abridged version of Paul the Deacon's life of Gregory. We have found only three copies outside Europe.
Arranged into four books, each opening with an index of contents, the first contains accounts of Italian holy men and priests contemporary to Pope Gregory; the second the life of St Benedict; the third, further lives of Italian priests and saints; and the final book on the soul after death, including anecdotes (how Benedict's disciple Gregory witnessed the soul of a German priest leave his body; how an abbot's disciples saw a dove issue from his mouth; how singing was heard coming from the bodies of two monks, hanged; and so on).
Provenance: Exlibris of Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), painter, collector, protegée and member of the Pre-Raphaelite and Arts & Crafts movements. He spent ten years in Italy between 1872 and 1882, presumably where he purchased this volume. This copy no.824 in Catalogo dei libri posseduti da Charles Fairfax Murray (London (i.e. Rome), Officina poligrafica romana, 1899).
Some foxing, stain to upper blank corner of title page.
EDIT 16, CNCE 21711; Sander 3272; Gamba 323; Kristeller 213.
OCLC: US: Kansas. Australia: Catholic Institute of Sydney. UK: John Rylands.
