Maggs Bros.

A rare survival of a 17th century book bound in decorated paper boards. From the renowned library of the noble Auersperg family, which by the 19th century was housed in Laybach, better known in modern times as the Slovenian capital city of Ljubljana. The Auersperg family were in service to the Habsburg Empire, with Wolfgang Engelbert raised to be Duke of Carnolia (Krain in German, Kranjska in Slovene), now a region of Slovenia.

The only edition of this theological work dedicated to Pope Gregory XV by the Dominican Sixtus Carcanus (d. 1627), auxiliary bishop of Gurk in Austria and titular bishop of Germanicia (Marash, Turkey). In July 1614 he had became titular bishop of Germanicia and, at the request of Bishop Johann Jakob von Lamberg of Gurk, also auxiliary bishop in Gurk. He left the diocese in 1621 but remained nominally auxiliary bishop until his death.

Provenance: Inscription on title-page of Wolfgang Engelbert IV of Auersperg (d. 1696), Count of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Great Carniola; a previous inscription below ruled out. 19th century armorial bookplate inside front cover of the Princes of Auersperg ‘Fuerstich Auerspergsche Fideicommisbibliothek zu Laybach’. Descendants of the Auersperg family sold a major part of the collection at Sotheby’s 14/15 June 1982 & 26/27 May 1983; on the Auersperg books now at Harvard following the dispersal, see: Roger Stoddard, Harvard Library Bulletin 4, Winter 1993-94, pp. 19-29.

OPAC SBN IT\ICCU\BVEE\046276