Homiliae super Ezechielem

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Homiliae super Ezechielem

Printer Brothers of the Common Life (Fratres Vitae Communis)

Author Pope Gregory I (Italian)

Author Gregory I (Italian, ca. 540-604)

Place of OriginBrussels, Belgium

Datelate 15th century

DimensionsPage: 11 1/2 x 8 1/8 in. (29.2 x 20.6 cm)

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineMrs. George W. Stevens Fund

Object number

1986.47

Not on View

DescriptionRubrication in contemporary manuscript

Label TextThis 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.