Transito Vita Miracoli & morte del glorioso Sancto Hieronymo

£1,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A very rare edition of the life and works of St Jerome (c.347-419), with an unattributed woodcut depiction on the title page of the saint kneeling in the desert in front of Christ on the cross, surrounded by common associated symbols – the lion, cardinal’s hat and in his hand a stone, with which he was said to beat himself in penance. The life and works of St Jerome were reproduced in image and print many times over the course of the sixteenth century; frequently depicted ‘as a model humanist’ (W. J. Burghardt), the life of ’doctore’ Hieronymo proved an exceedingly popular subject, both in learned circles, where his Latin translation of the Old Testament and extensive commentary and correspondence were held in high esteem, and amongst a popular audience. It is to the latter that this work is pitched; aside from a list of his translations, this volume is less concerned with St Jerome’s scholarly output and focuses more on spiritual events in his life and the lessons to be learned from his experiences. This work is a good example of the high volume of religious texts printed in Venice around the turn of the sixteenth century, down to the use of (rather crude) woodcut illustration, frequently found in such devotional works (see Chavasse, ‘Latin lay piety’; R. Salzberg, Ephemeral City: Cheap Print and Urban Culture in Renaissance Venice ). Although more sophisticated, the influence of the devotional chapbook, or fogli volanti, popular and widely sold in Venice in the sixteenth ce

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