A fine early Augsburg printing by Anton Sorg of the Dominican Johannes Nider’s influential treatise on moral theology; a large copy, signed by the rubricator, and with evidence of early ink quiring at lower outer corners.
This is the second book from the press of Anton Sorg found in the same types as the Speculum Historiale of Vincent de Beauvais, printed in 1474 at the monastery of SS. Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg; it was here that Sorg (along with Günther Zainer) had begun printing, and it is likely that his earliest productions were all arranged by Melchior von Stammheim, the abbot of the monastery.
Composed around 1438 and first published in Cologne in 1472, Nider’s work proved to be one of the most popular books of the 15th century. Formulated as an aid to preachers it is arranged according to the Ten Commandments; there are many interesting passages relating to witchcraft, sorcery and superstition (see chapters 9-11 of the First Commandment) in which the author expresses his own and earlier opinions on these matters. Bailey describes Nider as “by far the most important single authority to treat the subject of witchcraft in the early fifteenth century, in respect to both the amount of material he produced and the influence his writings would have. Taking up this notion at almost the very moment it first appeared in Western Europe, he played a key role in its construction, codification, and spread… His writings also served as an important source of information for what is today the most infamous of all late medieval treatises on witchcraft and witch-hunting, the Malleus maleficarum or ‘Hammer of the Witches’.”
Bailey also notes that in the present work Nider explains his views on women and witchcraft as he asks the question, “ ‘why it appears that women often are found [involved] in superstition and witchcraft in a greater number than men.’ Here he presented his readers with three arguments based on women’s moral, physical, and mental inferiority. First, women were weak in faith and therefore more open to the deceits and seductions of demons. Second, their weaker physical nature made them more susceptible than men to visions and delusions. Third, they were far more loquacious than men, and thus quickly spread the evil arts among themselves.“
Other interesting topics include dreams, duelling, fraudulent trade practices, contracts, drunkenness and gluttony.
Johannes Nider (1380-1438) was well-known in his day as a theologian and a reformer. He taught at the University of Vienna and was appointed prior of the Dominican convents at Nuremberg and Basle as well as attending the Councils of Constance (1414-18) and Basel (1431-49), the latter as an intermediary between the Church and the Hussites, whom he made several attempts to reform. He returned to Vienna and was twice elected Dean of the university. His writings are significant for their themes of reform, and he was in the forefront of the pressing theological issues of his day such as heresy, lay spirituality, convent reform, witchcraft, and even the relationship between commerce and religious life. “As reformer he was foremost in Germany and welcomed as such both by his own order and by the Fathers of the Council of Basle. As a theologian his adherence to the principles of St. Thomas and his practical methods made him distinguished among his contemporaries.” Catholic Encyclopaedia. His other major works were the Formicarius (Ant Hill) on the persecution of witches, which he refers to here, and De Contractibus Mercatorum (On the Contracts of Merchants), an early work on business ethics.
The excellent binding may be from the same bindery as F. Geldner, Bucheinbande aus elf Jahrhunderten, Abb. 43 (a manuscript from the Augustinians of Ranshofen in Upper Austria now at the BSB in Munich).
Provenance: from the library of the Order of Minims in Munich (printed book-label and 17th-century inscription across inner margin of first leaf). Also a duplicate from the Royal Library in Munich with shelf-mark: ‘Inc. Typ. No. 2060’.
Morocco book-label of Estelle Doheny (1875-1858), bibliophile, philanthropist and Papal Countess, purchased by her in 1930 and sold at Christie’s New York, 22 October 1987, lot 42, the sale that included her copy of the Gutenberg Bible.
A large copy with evidence of early ink quiring at lower outer corners, which apart from minor stains and a few at beginning and end, and a tear at upper corner of 24/8 just touching headline, is in excellent condition.
ISTC in00199000. Hain 11789*. BMC II, p. 342. Oates, no. 920. Goff N199.
Michael D. Bailey, Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy and Reform in the Late Middle Ages (2003). G. Oberlé, Les Fastes de Bacchus et de Comus, Paris, 1989 (1481 ed).
