[PSEUDO-AUGUSTINUS.] Sermones Sancti Augustini ad heremitas.

Rare Incunable Edition of a Notorious Monastic Forgery

[PSEUDO-AUGUSTINUS.] Sermones Sancti Augustini ad heremitas. [(Colophon:) Venice: Simon Bevilacqua. 4 November 1495.]

Small 8vo. Recased in the original sixteenth-century vellum, spine lettered ‘Sermon[es]’ in ink, ties wanting; ff. [112]; a-o8; gothic letter, text in two columns, woodcut initial to f. a3r; a few marks to covers, spine restored at head, endpapers renewed; small wormhole to inner margin of ff. [a1]–f4 (slightly touching a few letters), light dampstaining to lower outer corner, quires c, f, and o somewhat browned; overall a very good copy; early annotations to e5 and sidelining to 5 ff., old library stamps ‘Bibl. SS Apostolorum Neapolis’ to first and last leaves (see below); twentieth-century notes pencilled to flyleaves.

Rare Bevilacqua edition of the pseudo-Augustinian Sermones, a bestselling collection of sermons falsely attributed to Augustine of Hippo, supporting the Augustinian Hermits’ priority in their controversy with the Augustinian Canons over the Order of Saint Augustine.

The Sermones ad heremitas, also known as Sermones ad fratres in eremo, were first published in Modena in 1477 by Balthasar de Struciis. The collection was forged in the context of a medieval debate over which branch of the Augustinian Order held greater precedence – the Augustinian Hermits or the Augustinian Canons. The sermons’ purpose was to support the historically questionable claim that Augustine himself had established the Hermits in Hippo before the Canons.

The work was reprinted at least twelve times during the fifteenth century, including the 1494 edition by Johann Amerbach and this Venetian edition by Simon Bevilacqua (fl. 1485–1518). The sermons’ authenticity, however, was eventually rejected by the Maurists (a congregation of Benedictine monks) in the seventeenth century. Once attributed to the twelfth-century preacher Geoffroy Babion, it is now widely accepted that the Sermones were composed by different authors at different times, between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. The importance of the Sermones lies in the fact that, although spurious, they were widely accepted as genuine. Consequently, they were instrumental in contributing to the historical understanding of Augustine and revealing the late medieval experience of the saint, which was a foundational component of Augustinianism (see Saak, pp. 81–138).

The printer Simon Gabi (after 1450–1518), known as ‘Bevilacqua’, produced numerous editions across a wide range of subjects, many of which were of significant cultural value. His publications, however, frequently suffered from insufficient proofreading, leading to numerous errors caused by hurried and poorly revised typesetting. The nickname ‘Bevilacqua’ (literally ‘water-drinker’) was likely given to him ironically, suggesting that Simon was far from abstemious. This is evidenced by an invective from Bishop Pietro Bruto (d. 1493), printed at the end of one of his works as an apology for the many printing errors: ‘Est impressorum lector nova culpa malorum / turbida sunt quorum corda sepulta mero’ (‘Reader, the fault of printers is new among evils / their hearts are clouded, buried in wine’, DBI). Our copy bears sixteenth marginal annotations to ff. e5r–e5v, seemingly correcting such errors in the text.

Provenance: From the library of the Theatines at Santi Apostoli in Naples. The church and monastery of Santi Apostoli served as the headquarters for the Theatine order from 1574 until the order’s suppression in the early nineteenth century, when the library was likely dispersed.

ISTC shows six copies in the UK and thirteen copies in the US.

Goff A1319; HC 2005; IGI 1038; Proctor 5395; BSB-Ink A-925; GW 3007; ISTC ia01319000. See Saak, Creating Augustine: Interpreting Augustine and Augustinianism in the Later Middle Ages (2012); not in Freeman, Bibliotheca Fictiva.

Provenance: From the library of the Theatines at Santi Apostoli in Naples. The church and monastery of Santi Apostoli served as the headquarters for the Theatine order from 1574 until the order’s suppression in the early nineteenth century. The library at Santi Apostoli was likely dispersed around that time.

ISTC shows 6 copies in the UK and 13 copies in the US.

Goff A1319; IGI 1038; ISTC ia01319000. See Eric Saak, Creating Augustine: Interpreting Augustine and Augustinianism in the Later Middle Ages.

SKU: 2115425