L. Coelii Lactantii Firmiana Opera, quae quidem extant omnia.....accesserunt Xysti Betuleii Augustini oia ac erudita commentario, nunc primium in luceni edita by Lactantius - 1563

Basle: Henricum Petri, 1563. Quarto, pp [22], 559, (21), the title page with an engraved woodut printer's device is slightly creased and is lightly marked and toned with two slight rust stains and the remains of two small labels - the one on the recto in red and partially removed, the second probably on the verso and completely removed but both have left the paper very thin at these points; otherwise the text is remarkably clean and without any major marks or stains. The date appears on the printer's colophon at the rear, and the verso has another version of the woodcut printer's device. Recently bound in full panelled speckled calf, with simple gilt decoration, the spine with plain raised bands and a morocco label, plain endpapers. RARE. [Lucius Caecilius Firmianus signo Lactantius (c. 250 - c. 325) was an early North African Christian author who became an advisor to Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his Christian religious policy in its initial stages of emergence, and a tutor to his son Crispus. His most important work is the Institutiones Divinae ("The Divine Institutes"), an apologetic treatise intended to establish the reasonableness and truth of Christianity to pagan critics. He is best known for his apologetic works, widely read during the Renaissance by humanists who called Lactantius the "Christian Cicero". The Basle printer Henricus Petrus was responsible for the publication of very important works, including an early edition of Copernicus and Munster's Cosmographia. He printed this Latin and Greek edition of Lactantius' work in a mixture of roman single column, italic double column with the indices in triple column and with a few woodut initials. This is the first appearance of of the commentary by Xystus Betuleius who composed German and Latin didactic dramas, this commentary and also another on Cicero; and a concordance of the Greek New Testament. An associate of Erasmus, he was a witness to Erasmus' first will, in 1527.]. Full Leather. Good.