127 - THOMAS AQUINAS (Saint). SUMMA THEOLOGICA: “Prima pars” – “Prima secunde” – “Secunda secunde” – “Tertia pars.” Venice, heirs of Ottaviano Scoto and associates, 1513–1522. Four parts bound in two small folio volumes in brown calfskin on wooden boards, with fillet borders and diamond-shaped compartments adorned with cold-stamped fleurons on the covers, ribbed spine, blind-stamped panels, metal clasps, and corners reinforced with metal strips; paper title labels and old library call numbers on the spine (contemporary binding). Volume 1: Prima pars, October 15, 1516, (14), 148 ff.; Prima secunde, March 20, 1522, (4), 138 ff. — Volume 2: Secunda secunde, September 30, 1513, (6), 200 numbered folios [i.e., 198 folios; folios 193 and 194 are missing, with no gaps]; Tertia pars, November 26, 1516, 225, (1) folios, the last one blank. Binding defects: one metal clasp and the leather fastening straps are missing; cap bands torn off; two jaws split or partially split; spine of the second volume partially detached; previous restorations- Defects in the book blocks: often very faint water stains on the upper margin without damage to the text; wormholes on the title page of the first part; a hole that widens (from 4 mm to approximately 1 cm wide) on the last 7 ff. of the second part with loss of a few letters and words, minor worm damage without affecting the text in the lower right corner of the first 15 ff. of the third part (a pinhead-sized hole on the last 4 ff.), ff. 216–220 are creased; there is a brown streak a few millimeters long and small tears at the top of f. 220 of the last part; partially unbound. Old inscriptions on the title pages and endpapers; old handwritten Latin annotations in the margins, more prominent in the last part. A VERY RARE COMPLETE SET OF THE FOUR PARTS OF THE “SUMMA THEOLOGICA” BY SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS, IN EARLY 16TH-CENTURY VENETIAN EDITIONS AND UNIFORM BINDING FOR THE 2 VOLUMES. Gothic type in Latin, in two columns of 65 lines each, with three-column tables of contents, ornamental initials, and the printer’s woodcut marks. It brings together the four parts of the work in separate editions within a uniform binding. LARGE TYPOGRAPHIC MARK OF THE HEIRS OF OCTAVIEN SCOT at the end of each part: a cross surmounting a circle inscribed with the initials “O·S·M,” standing for Octavianus Scotus Modoetiensis. A native of Monza, Octavian Scot founded one of the leading publishing houses in Venice specializing in philosophical, theological, and legal texts; his business was continued after his death by his heirs. A STUNNING COPY OF ONE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL TEXTS OF WESTERN MORAL THEOLOGY, PRESERVED IN ITS PERIOD COLD-STAMPED BINDING, characteristic of study or convent library bindings from the first half of the 16th century; the text block is for the most part perfectly preserved. ¶ Provenance: Blue-ink seals of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, bearing the inscriptions “Domus studiorum” and “Prov. Gallica,” on the title page of the 1st and 3rd parts; the first is crossed out in pencil—Bibliography: USTC, 859413 (“Prima pars,” 1516), five copies recorded, including four in Italy and one in Spain; USTC, 859431 (“Prima secunde,” 1522), seven copies recorded, including five in Italy, one in Spain, and one at the BnF; USTC, 859424 (“Tertia pars,” 1516), six copies recorded, including five in Italy and one at the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon. Regarding the “Secunda secunde” of 1513: edition not found in the USTC at the time of consultation. Compare with the 1506 Scoto edition, USTC, 859396, which has an identical collation; the 1518 Scoto edition referenced by the USTC has a different collation. The four prints gathered here have not been identified in Brunet or in Graesse.