Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Prooemium in Logicam Aristotelis [MANUSCRIPT: 17th-CENTURY ARISTOTELIAN SCHOOL CURRICULUM WITH ELABORATE CALLIGRAPHIC INITIALS]

Maes, Petrus

Louvain: P. Maes, 1632. Hardcover. Twelve parts, quarto (20.5 by 15 cm). Dated manuscript on paper, 571 leaves; ca. 30 lines per page. Manuscript title in red on blank oval within engraved leaf with historiated borders. Neat cursive text in dark brown or black ink; red ink and elaborate calligraphic initials employed for the main sectional titles and further subdivisions. Contemporary calf (expertly rebacked), lettered in gilt, with stamped vignettes (dated 1632) at both boards. Green silk ties partially preserved. Occasional mild soiling. Leaves 17/18 and 259/260 partially stuck together due to offsetting of the titles; leaves 565-570 separated with some paper damage and minimal obscuring of the text. Overall, text about fine, composed in a neat hand on good quality paper, crisp and clean.

Early seventeenth-century manuscript interpretation of lectures in Aristotelian logic given at the Falcon College of Louvain University, penned by Petrus Maes, originally from the Brabant village of Zichem. Relatively few such manuscripts survive from this era; the universities of Leiden and Louvain have mangaged to acquire collections numbering several dozen.

Leaf 7 - Commentarius in Isagogen Porphirii - De Ar[istote]li Partib[us] Logicae.
Leaf 72 - Liber praedicamentorum prooemium.
Leaf 152 - Liber postpraedicamentorum
Leaf 184 - Liber primus priorum prooemium
Leaf 242 - Liber secundus priorum analiticorum
Leaf 250 - Liber primus posteriorum analiticorum prooemium
Leaf 293 - Praefatio in librum pro di dogmatum
Leaf 358 - Prooemium in libros periermenias
Leaf 432 - Liber secundus periermenias
Leaf 446 - Liber primus topicorum
Leaf 485 - Prooemium in reliquos libros topicorum
Leaf 550 - Prooemium in libros elenchorum.

The engraved leaf, which provides a blank oval for lettering, depicts at the top a coat of arms with crowned falcon, surrounded by two angels, and above two scholars or sages, each holding a book, at the bottom. The iconography refers to the Pedagogie De Valk. (Falcon College).

Final Leaf 571 contains the chronogram: FIneM totIVs LI/bris posVIt DIVI/IgnatI VIgILIa. Nearly Fine. Item #48965

Price: $9,500.00