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Homiliae super Ezechielem
Printer: Brothers of the Common Life (Fratres Vitae Communis)
Author: Gregorius Magnus (Pope Gregory I) (Italian)
Author: Gregory I, Pope (Italian, ca. 540-604)
Date: late 15th century
Dimensions:
Page: 11 1/2 x 8 1/8 in. (29.2 x 20.6 cm)
Place of Origin: Brussels, Belgium
Classification: Books
Credit Line: Mrs. George W. Stevens Fund
Object number: 1986.47
Label Text:This is a fine example of one of the earliest books printed in present day Belgium. The brothers of the Common Life were the founders of the first printing press in Brussels around 1475. It was appropriate that a fifteenth-century religious brotherhood, which as a learned organization produced manuscripts, would have established a press to print important religious texts, sermons and discourses. In the history of printed books, this press exemplifies a key transition between the monastic tradition of copying scriptures and ecclesiastical words by hand, and the actual printing of such texts with movable type. The typeface used for this text deliberately imitates hand-written calligraphy. As the Brothers of the Common Life only printed books for ten years or so, in addition to doing their other fraternal duties, the output was not large. Thus the relatively small number of books that have survived to our own day are regarded as exceedingly rare.
DescriptionRubrication in contemporary manuscript
Not on view
In Collection(s)