De Civitate dei

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De Civitate dei

Publisher Ottaviano Scotto, Venice (Italian)

Printer Bonetus Locatellus, Italain

Author St Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus)

Place of OriginItaly (Venice)

Date1489

Dimensions12 × 8 1/8 × 2 in. (30.5 × 20.6 × 5.1 cm)

ClassificationBooks

Object number

1940.1

Not on View

Label TextA full-page illustration for the frontispiece and illuminated initials in gold and color decorate this early edition of De Civitate by St. Augustine, printed at Venice in 1489. Although the museum has this same text published by Peter Schoffer in Mainz in 1473 (exhibited nearby), it is interesting that the demand for St. Augustine's writings make it worthwhile for another press to publish another edition. The frontispiece illustration in this Venetian edition was based on a slightly earlier Basel (Switzerland) edition. Instead of simple outlines in the woodcut, as was typical in Venetians publicians, the figures in this image were shaded to more closely approximate the look of its northern model. However an attempt was made to idealize and realistically proportion the architecture and figures. The printed type and the lay-out of text follows the German model; the typesetter left space for rubrication and initial illumination so that the page would look more like a medieval manuscript.