A Wittenberg law professor's Ars moriendi

Beust, Joachim von. Enchiridion de arte bene moriendi. Conscriptum per Ioachimum à Beust, in Planitz IC. aetatis suae 75.

Leipzig, (Franz Schnellboltz, typis haeredum Beyeri) impensis Bartholomaeus Voigt, 1599.

12mo. (2), 127 (but: 126), (4) ff. Title-page printed in red and black. With hand-coloured woodcut border and vignette to title-page, repeated hand-coloured woodcut vignette on verso of title, and a full-page woodcut coat of arms. 18th century half calf with sparsely gilt spine.

 950.00

Rare, pocket-sized ascetico-mystical manual in the Ars moriendi tradition: one of the several theological works by the German law professor Joachim von Beust (1522-97), who is hailed as the founder of Protestant marriage law in Saxony (1586). An early Lutheran, Beust taught at Wittenberg, but in 1580 bought an estate in Planitz (today part of Zwickau), where he retired in 1593 and also died. He is said to have been buried with a copy of his "Enchiridion de arte bene moriendi" (cf. Jöcher).

One of two variants printed in the same year (VD 16 ZV 1430 is erroneously dated "1590" on the title-page).

Somewhat browned throughout due to paper stock. A pretty copy, hand-coloured on both sides of the title.

References

VD 16, B 2396. IA 118.407. Jöcher I, 1063.