A lovely example of the rare, pocket edition of the pseudo-Augustinian Sermones ad fratres in eremo, printed here in vernacular Italian and distinctive type by innovative Venetian printer Alessandro Paganino (1511-38) and from the library of the hermits of the Eremo di San Girolamo in Umbria, with the purchase inscription of one of their number, Antonio Dosema on the title page. We have found only two copies outside Italy, at UCLA and Folger.
Early attributed to St Augustine, but in fact the work of one or multiple authors over the course of several centuries up to the fourteenth, the Sermones ad heremitas were immensely influential in the early modern period, enjoying 'a popularity equal to, if not greater than, some genuine Augustinian works' (Augustine, p.530). Influential in particular amongst religious orders, they were wielded by the Augustinian Hermits in the fourteenth century as evidence of the age and primacy of their order, their proximity to St Augustine and precedence over the Augustinian Canons.
The present volume is typical of the innovation and printing practices of Alessandro Paganini. The text is Italian, rather than Latin; while this was not the first printing of these sermons in the vernacular - three editions had already been printed in Florence by 1500 - Paganini emphasises the choice of language both in the dedication at the beginning and the address to readers at the end, writing that it renders the text more useful, particularly 'a quelli non sanno latino', to those who do not know Latin. This utility is emphasised elsewhere, with Paganini highlighting that this is a book intended for everyday use to aid daily striving towards a better Christian life; the size of this volume, and clear printing in Paganini's distinctive and handsome type, makes it a portable and compact accompaniment to daily life and everyday, personal devotion.
This volume issued from Paganini's presses at a crucial time for the printer. Two months earlier he had embarked on his ambitious and groundbreaking project of printing a collection of works in 24mo format, the first printer to print in that size, which required a complete redesign of type to fit on the page. He makes reference to it here: in the dedicatory preface, Paganini exhorts those reading to pray for him 'alle comenciate imprese delle opere mie', as he begins to print his own works. As Angela Nuovo notes, he had been printing on his own since 1511, so his request for intercession on his behalf likely refers to the start of his ambitious printing project, than the start of his career as a printer overall (Nuovo, 13).
Sporadic notes and titles in margins and foliation throughout, in sixteenth-century hand of Fr. Antonio Dosema (see below); in the same hand is written a prayer on the verso of the title page.
Provenance: Sixteenth-century purchase inscription on title page in Italian, in neat humanist hand: 'questo libro sie de frate Anto. Dosema, alia heremita de santo gironimo', likely the Eremo di San Girolamo on the slopes of Monte Cucco, near Gubbio, Umbria, 'formalised' as a hermitage in 1521 by Paolo Giustiniani with the permission of Pope Leo X. The order initiated by Giustiniani and housed at the Eremo di San Girolamo - one of three houses in Italy - was a reformed branch of the Camaldolese order, the Congregazione degli Eremiti Camaldolesi di Monte Corona; accordingly the inscription at the foot of the title page in a later hand gives their name, Cog. Eremit. S.ti Romualdi Camald. ord. The hermitage had its own library.
CNCE 28191. Adams A2220.
OCLC: UCLA, Folger only..
