| Record ID | cp013441 |
| Voet reference number | 579 |
| Museum Plantin-Moretus | |
| Author | ARIAS MONTANUS (MONTANO) Benedictus |
| Title page transcription | Bened. Ariæ Montani Hispal. ‖ DE OPTIMO ‖ IMPERIO, ‖ SIVE ‖ IN LIB. IOSVAE ‖ Commentarium. ‖ ⊕ 33 ‖ ANTVERPIÆ, ‖ Ex officina Christophori Plantini. ‖ M.D.LXXXIII. |
| Collation | 4⁰ [165]: *⁴, A-Z⁴, a-z⁴, Aa-Zz⁴, AA-XX⁴; pages [1-8], 1-713, [714-720] (Errors: 3 not numbered, 73 for 74, 74 for 75, 76-77 for 78-79, 256-247-248-249-250-251…-262-273-274, 648 for 666) |
| Fingerprint | 158304 - # a1 *2 s$c : # a2 *3 is$ - # b1 A a : # b2 2X to, |
| Number of sheets | 91 |
| Pages | [1]: Title [2]: Blank [3-8]: S.C. Romanae ecclesiae eiusque summo pontifici, et caeteris sacris ministris omnibus, Bened. Arias Montanus… 1-713: Text (italic type, parts and marginals in roman type) [714-717]: Iesu Christo salutari votum (italic type, marginals in roman type) [718]: Arias Montanus entrusts his book to the judgement of the censors [719-720]: Blank |
| Edition information | |
| Illustrations | 1) Small woodcut with a mathematical-geographical representation on page 410 2) Printed lines and letters giving a mathematical-geographical representation, on page 409 3) Two mathematical representations (a combination of lines and letters), printed as marginals on page 435 |
| Copies | KBR Royal Library of Belgium - II 8327British Library London - 3089. ee. 25 [2]Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinCambridgeGöttingen State and University LibraryTown Hall Library, LeicesterBiblioteca Nacional de EspañaBayerische StaatsbibliothekBodleian LibrariesBiblioteca Nazionale Centrale di RomaUniversity Library Santiago de CompostelaVatican Apolstolic LibraryStaatsbibliothek, ViennaUNamur- Rés.8C.12 |
| Bibliographical references | Ruelens-de Backer, page 253 (1583, no. 4) Morales, no. 47 Palau y Dulcet, 1, page 474, no. 16493Cockx-Indestege, E. Belgica typographica 154 |
| Online bibliographical references | STCV c:stcv:12923654USTC 406627 |
| Note 1 | Explanation of the book of Joshua: each sentence or part of a sentence (printed in roman type) of the Bible-text is followed by a large comment (in italic type). At the end the author states that he began his comments two years before at Madrid, at the admonition of Jacobus Simancas, at that time Bishop of Badajoz, now [in 1581] Bishop of Zamora, and finished them at Aracena, in August 1581. |
| Note 2 | Plantin told on 7 January 1581 a correspondent that Arias was preparing a 'commentarium in Josue' (Correspondance de C. Plantin, VI, no. 902). Some 9 months later the printer could write to Arias that he had received in good order part of the comments on Joshua (letter of 15-18 September 1581; Correspondance de C. Plantin, VI, no. 947). |
| Note 3 | The book was finished early in 1583 or even late in 1582 as Arias Montanus in Spain had already received a copy in September 1583 (letter of Arias, 22 September 1583: Correspondance de C. Plantin, VII, no. 1011). In this letter the author makes some pertinent remarks: he misses the approbatio of a learned and not suspect Catholic theologian he had asked for (instead, Plantin had only reproduced a note by the author submitting the book to the judgement of the Catholic censors: 'Benedicti Arias Montanus Commentaria in Lib. Josuae, a se conscripta, legitimorum S.C. Romanae ecclesiae censorum sapienti iudicio committit' [page 718]). He guesses that the 'professors at Salamanca and others' would not tolerate the distribution in Spain of a work without an approbatio, even if they appreciate the text ('…nam miror potuisse pati nostros Salmanticos et caeteros librum sine censura distrahi quern illi ut audio diligenter legerunt et vel inviti laudeant exceptis quibusdam quae magnum tibi risum moveant et candidis hominibus'). The fact was, however, that at that time Antwerp was controlled by the Calvinists: Plantin had no competent Catholic theologian in his neighbourhood, and, even if he had found one, he might have risked difficulties in printing his approbatio. But even worse, Arias continues, not all references to and quotations from the Scriptures were noted in margin and an index was also lacking ('Sed illa graviora ipsis [= the 'Salmantici et ceteri'] visam [= sic] non citari in margine omnia loca sacrorum librorum que inter commentandum indicantur sive exponuntur. Nec enim aiunt lectores omnes concordantias in manibus habent. Nullum esse indicem rerum et verborum, cum Masii commentaria quinque indicibus instructa sint'). |
| Note 4 | Arias wished also to add two maps of the Holy Land as published in the treatise on Chanaan in the Polyglot Bible ('Ego vero duas illas tabellas geographicas quas in apparatu sacra ponebamus terrae Chanaan ante adventum filiorum Israel et terrae jam in tribus divisae ad hujus commentarii calcem assutas vellem quia passim a me citatae lucem legentibus et inspicientibus afferent'). The demand was reiterated later, and, finally, in the copies sold from April 1586 on, Plantin added the two maps of the Holy Land, in all probability in the form of hors-texte plates, lose or pasted in (cf. Correspondance de C. Plantin, VII, nos. 1071 [Arias Montanus to Plantin, 1 February 1586] and 1086 [Plantin to Arias Montanus, 1 April 1586]). |
| Note 5 | After Antwerp's capitulation to the Spanish King (August 1585), Plantin had some difficulties with the Louvain theologian, Henricus Gravius, about works printed during the Calvinist period, including the De optimo imperio. He sent a copy of the De optimo imperio on 13 April 1586 to Gravius, promising, when ordered, to postpone the distribution until the theologian had found time to make up his mind (Correspondance de C. Plantin, VII, no. 1091). The affair seems, finally, to have been shelved (for more details, see under Commentaria in duodecim prophetas, 1583: no. 578). |
| Note 6 | Listed in M 296, folio 11 verso (De opt[imo] imperio in lib. Josue 4⁰, f[euilles] 89, [price:] stuivers 30), and M 321 (under 1583). |
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