< prev | index | next >

Cathena aurea Angelici Thome Aquinatis in quatuor euangelia ex receptissimis ecclesie doctoribus miro artificio concinnata (Lyon: Antoine Blanchard for Jacopo and Francesco Giunta, 1530) .

Jacopo Giunta of Florence (see catalogue n° 63 and n° 70) was the nephew of Luc'antonio Giunta, who established the family's business in Venice (active 1489-1538), and Filippo Giunta, who established it in Florence (active 1497-1517). Since the offices in these cities were passed on to his uncles' sons, Jacopo went to Lyon, where he founded the family business in 1519 or 1520 (active until ca. 1548).

The Catena aurea by Thomas Aquinas was one of the first books he published, with his father Francesco and the printer Guillaume Huyon in 1520 (Baudrier 6: 107-8). This volume, which he again published with his father and with the printer Antoine Blanchard (active 1532-1535), is his second edition of the work. The very thick octavo volume (708 fols.), which may yet be held in one's hand, is printed in two columns of tight gothic script. (Its format may be contrasted with the folio library volume of the Catena described in catalogue n° 59.) Each of Thomas's running commentaries on the four Gospels, which weave together comments of the fathers, is separately foliated: Matthew (248 fols.), Mark (80 fols.), Luke (195 fols.), John (166 fols.). Each commentary is preceded by a Registrum or Repertorium alphabeticum sententiarum illustrium (unnumbered fols.). Moreover, each commentary is signed with the same colophon on its last side and begins with the identical title page.

The title pages of this volume display a border and triangular etiquette for the title information that Jacopo used in many of his books. He then filled the upper compartment with an appropriate engraving, in this instance the figure of Thomas Aquinas holding a chalice and host, in another instance, for example, the figure of John Duns Scotus writing at a desk (Baudrier 6: 101). Thus, in the style of presentation if not the content of doctrine Jacopo fabricated a certain "concordance" between the great theologians of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders.

References: Ascarelli 272-73, 328-29 (the Italian Giuntas); Baudrier 6: 77-97, 98 fig. 2, 132-33; IA 3/3: 314, 378 (Blanchard and Huyon).

< prev | index | next >