Editio princeps, in the original Gothic binding

Bernardino de Siena. De contractibus et usuris.

[Strasbourg, printer of Henricus Ariminensis (Georg Reyser?), not after 1474].

Folio (210 x 310 mm). (7), CLX (instead of CLXII) ff.

Bound with (II): Stör, Nikolaus. Officii missae sacrique canonis expositio. [Ibid., not after 1473]. (182) ff. Rubricated in places; some red Lombardic initials. Full calf over wooden boards, blind-tooled with brass corners, two clasps and 6 (of formerly 10) brass bosses.

 25,000.00

Editio princeps and the only incunabular edition of this pioneering treatise on the law of contracts and usury prepared by Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444), the first theologian after Peter John Olivi to devote an entire systematic work to Scholastic economics. Only two other copies in their contemporary bindings are traceable in auction records.

The work addresses the ethics of trade, the determination of value and price, and the justification of private property. Bernardino followed the earlier Scholastic philosophers Anselm of Canterbury and Thomas Aquinas (who quotes Aristotle) in condemning the practice of usury, which they defined as charging interest on a loan. Scholastic analysis of usury, based in part on Roman law, was both complex and, in some instances, seemingly contradictory: interest on delayed payment was deemed valid, as it was considered compensation for damages suffered by the creditor being deprived of his property. Usury was one of the principal objects of Bernardino's attacks, and he did much to prepare the way for the establishment of the beneficial loan societies known as Monti di Pietà.

II: Bound with the first edition of a liturgical commentary, sometimes ascribed to Vincentius Gruner, like Nikolaus Stör a co-founder of the University of Leipzig. One of the earliest books produced by the prominent Strasbourg printer.

Preserved in a pretty Gothic calf binding manufactured by a small, presumably monastic, Lübeck bookbindery, blind-tooled exhibiting a fleur-de-lys, a griffin, a double-headed eagle, and a small rosetta. Schunke notes two similar bindings, presumably from the same bindery, showing the same fleur-de-lys and griffin tools. The double-headed eagle and the rosetta, however, set this binding apart.

Provenance

Near-contemporary monogrammed ownership to first folio. Later in the collection of the Lübeck municipal library, with their ownership and deaccession stamp to first page.

Condition

Missing folios LIX and LXIV in Bernardino's work are supplied in facsimile. Some waterstaining to lower margin of first gathering, otherwise hardly any staining or browning.

References

I: HC 2835*. Goff B-345. GW 3881. BSB-Ink B-302. BMC I, 78. Proctor 317. Bod-inc B-164. ISTC ib00345000. Kress, Suppl. 1473-1848, S. 2.

II: Goff E-165. GW M44069. BSB-Ink S-593. BMC I, 76. Proctor 301. ISTC ie00165000.

Schunke, Lübeck, Lilie heraldisch (Greif 41b, Lilie 167, 291a).