The first of the well-known Zetzner editions of the Opera of philosopher and polymath Ramon Lull (1232-1316), an edition central to the dissemination of Lull and Giordano Bruno in Northern Europe at the beginning of the 17th century.
The Strasbourg firm of Lazarus Zetzner had published Lull’s best-known work, Ars magna, generalis et ultima in 1596; after the present edition of the Opera, which became a standard text, an enlarged edition was published in 1609, and another in 1617. As well as Lullian texts, the volume also includes texts by Giordano Bruno (De lulliano specierum scrutinio and De lampada combinatoria lulliana) and Heinrich Agrippa’s commentary on Lull In artem brevem commentarius.
This edition contains three volvelles, interactive, material calculators which were trademark features of Lull’s philosophy and writing – he is credited with inventing the form for his Ars Magna, a 1302 manuscript now housed in the BL (see Karr, p.103). Constructed from three concentric circles, the smaller, upper two are loose, printed on separate pieces of paper and then attached, here by a neat stitch of blue thread, to allow their rotation. ‘When properly used, the triple layer of combinations of nine letters – which, as in the Cabala, signified the names of God – answered questions about all creation and even the future, as well as inquiries intended to settle religious disputes’ (Karr, 103). Karr calls the volvelle form ‘revolutionary’; ‘with it, [Lull] produced a tool that freed the intellect from remembering how to remember […] the volvelle’s user became capable of asking questions and discovering new knowledge rather than merely reiterating the old’ (Karr, p.106).
Provenance: title with several partially crossed-out ownership entries as well as a duplicate stamp of the Leipzig University Library.
Title lightly soiled, reattached at inner margin and with small cut out backed with old paper, one movable part loose. A few small wormholes towards the end, mostly marginal.
VD16 R155. Duveen 371. Palau 143.675. E. Rogent & E. Duran*. Bibliografia de les impressions lullianes* no. 144 *.*S. Karr, ‘Constructions both sacred and profane: serpents, angels, and pointing fingers in Renaissance books with moving parts’, Yale University Library Gazette, 78.3/4, 2004 pp.101-27.
