Catalogue of the William Loring Andrews Collection of Early Books in the Library of Yale University

by Addison Van Name

Bound with No. 5. Gregorii Homiliæ.

7. MODUS PERVENIENDI AD SUMMAM SAPIENTIAM. [Augsburg, Günther Zainer, c. 1473.]

Fol. 1a: [S]Entite de domino in bonitate et in simplicitate cordis quaerite illum. Fol. 2a: Explicit prologus Incipit modus ad summam perveniendi sapienciam. Fol. 24a, l. 33, End: sibi sparso diuinitus in ipsum ardentissime se extendit etc. Fol. 24b, blank.

Folio. Quires [1-210, 34], 24 leaves, 33 lines to the page, gothic letter, without signatures, catchwords or pagination, place, printer's name or date. Two- to four-line spaces left for capitals, which are supplied in red. Initial-strokes in red. Hain *11490. Brit. Mus. 15th cent., II, p. 320 (IB. 5531).

Bound with No. 5. Gregorii Homiliae.

8. HUGO de SANCTO VICTORE. Soliloquium de arrha animae. [Augsburg, Günther Zainer.] 12 October, 1473.

Fol. 1a: Incipit soliloquium beatissimi Augustini episcopi yponensi (sic) de arra anime. Fol. 7b, End: Raptus est finis huius tractatus Augustini de arra anime. feria tercia post festum sancti Dyonisy Anno domini lxxiij etc. Fol. 8, blank.

Folio. 8 leaves, the last blank, 33 lines to the page, gothic letter, without place or printer's name. Three-line space for first initial and initial-strokes supplied in red. Blank last leaf wanting. Hain *2021. Pellechet 1525. Brit. Mus. 15th cent., p. 319 (IB. 5451).

The author of the work here directly ascribed to St. Augustine was the mystic theologian Hugo de Sancto Victore (1097-1140), member of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine and head of the abbey school of St. Victor, near Paris. From his familiarity with the writings of Augustine and likeness to his spirit, he was styled Alter Augustinus, a title which furnishes a plausible but not wholly satisfactory explanation of the confusion in the present case. For among the spurious writings which have been put under Augustine's name more than one has been borrowed from this author. For example, chapters 5-10 of the Liber de diligendo Deo are taken almost word for word from the present treatise.

In the present edition of this soliloquy cast in the form of a dialogue the interlocutors are Augustinus and Anima (both names always printed in capitals); in a Strassburg edition of about the same date, Hugo and anima sua; in the collected edition of Hugo's works, homo and anima.