This early Wittenberg edition by Rhau, the printer of the authorised first edition, contains the German translation of the Augsburg Confession, signed by the seven protestant Princes during the Diet of Augsburg and the representatives of the imperial cities of Nuremberg and Reuttlingen, followed by the Apologia, here in the authorised German translation of Justus Jonas (1493-1555), Luther and Melanchthon’s regular translator.
The Rhau edition of 1531 was the first German edition of the original statement of the Lutheran protestant faith as presented to Charles V during the Diet.
“The Confession is in two parts, the first an epitome of essential Lutheran doctrine (the Trinity, the dual nature of Christ, faith and good works, etc.), the second dealing with abuses proposed to be remedied (denial of the cup to the laity, clerical celibacy, compulsory confession, etc.). Charles submitted the document to a commission of Roman Catholic theologians, who predictably sought to refute it at every point. As a reply to their confutation Melanchthon composed his Apologia Confessionis, which was printed as part of the first edition (in Latin) of the Augsburg Confession in 1531.” (Harvard, Luther Exhibition Catalogue, 1983, no. 34).
Provenance: foot of title-page with oval stamp of “Ex Bibliotheka H. Doering” (probably Heinrich Döring 1789-1962, German writer, theologian and mineralogist). Stamp of “Hermann Funke” on verso of title-page, Hermann Funke (1938-2015) was a German classical scholar and philologist, at the universities of Bonn and Mannheim, he was also a visiting researcher at the Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard.
Title-page lightly browned and stained.
VD16 C4751. Neuser 23.
