174 - LAURENT JUSTINIEN. D. Laurentii Justiniani, Protopatriarch of Venice, Works and Most Pious Life: with a double index, more carefully revised.

LAURENT JUSTINIEN. D. Laurentii Justiniani, Protopatriarch of Venice, Works and Most Pious Life: with a double index, more carefully revised. Rare first French edition in Latin, printed by Josse Bade, in a large folio format typical of the Renaissance. Remarkable monastic provenance from Lorraine, spanning four centuries. S.l. [Paris], Josse Bade, 1524. Folio, full brown grained calfskin, ribbed spine with gilt title and a diamond-shaped mark scraped into the leather at the top, red-speckled edges. In Latin. 8 unnumbered folios, CCCCCXXVII folios, 1 blank folio, initials. Tears at the caps with a small loss of leather at the top, faded gilt title, slight scuffing at the edges, rounded corners. A few faint water stains on the margins, rare foxing spots. First French edition published in Latin by Josse Bade based on the revised text by Girolamo Cavalli. A superb folio volume adorned on the title page with the monumental mark of the famous Flemish printer who founded his workshop in Paris in 1503. The first Patriarch of Venice and a major figure in Italian spirituality, Saint Lawrence Justinian (1381–1456) was canonized for his rigorous asceticism and his role as a reformer of religious orders. His writings, which blend profound mysticism with a keen sense of ecclesiastical discipline, make him one of the great pioneering theorists of the Catholic Reformation of the Renaissance. As indicated by the notation “castigatius reposita” on the title page, the text of this edition was entirely revised by the Venetian scholar Girolamo Cavalli, who purged the author’s treatises of earlier medieval “corruptions” to offer a stylistically refined version. On the title page, a handwritten bookplate reads: “Ex monasterio sancti Naboris Congregationis Sanctorum vitoni et hydulphi,” from the Abbey of Saint-Nabor (located in Saint-Avold, Lorraine). In the 17th century, the abbey had joined the famous reformed Benedictine congregation of Saint-Vanne and Saint-Hydulphe. Two stamped bookplates: one from the Library of the Saint-Symphorien Seminary in Metz and a circular library stamp in black ink with German Gothic script (probably dating from the Annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, 1871–1918). The diamond-shaped indentation, deliberately scraped into the leather at the top of the spine, may correspond either to an area prepared for affixing a mark or to the erasure of a mark upon checkout from the library—the most likely hypothesis, as both wet stamps had been crossed out with graphite. Numerous handwritten marginal notes in brown ink in 16th-century cursive script, concentrated on folios CCCXCI through CCCCV, corresponding to the author’s major theological and political treatise: “De Institutione et Regimine Prælatorum.” These study notes, focused on the morality of the clergy, are likely those of a monk from Saint-Nabor. The woodcut initials and Roman numeral page numbers at the top of the page were originally highlighted in yellow pencil by the reader to serve as reference points when consulting the text. A fine library copy, well preserved.