Beschreibung:

Perez de Valentia's Commentaria in psalmos Alfonso Fernández de Córdoba, 1484 PEREZ DE VALENTIA, Jacobus (1408-1490). Commentaria in psalmos. Valencia: [Alfonso Fernández de Córdoba,] 6 September 1484. First edition of a commentary on the Psalms from the first press at Valencia, in a contemporary Spanish binding. Jacob Perez of Valencia was an Augustinian theologian who wrote several commentaries on books of the Bible; this one engages both with Christian sources and rabbinical literature on the Psalms. The present text includes “the first outright recognition of the clash between the physics of the Aristotelian scholastics and the mathematical geography of Ptolemy derived from astronomy” (Mayer and Haase)—defending the rationality of the Ptolemaic model in light of discoveries by explorers and navigators. Perez’s discussion of the world of the Psalms blends Biblical citations with Ptolemaic geography to explain the locations of places like the Garden of Eden in light of scientific knowledge. This copy is the issue printed entirely by Cordoba, matching the BMC collation. HR 12597; BMC X 17; IBE 4416; Goff P-276; ISTC ip00276000. See Reinhold Meyer and Wolfgang Haase, European Images of the Americas and the Classical Tradition (2011), pp.41-3. Two volumes, median folio (336 x 235mm). 397 leaves (of 400, blank x5 present only as stub, without final two blanks). Woodcut initials (some dampstaining and spotting mostly at ends, some worming in text, a repaired tear affecting text on one leaf). Contemporary Spanish brown blindstamped morocco, clasps and brass catchplates, edges saffron, remains of paper label on spine, formerly chained (lacking one clasp, worming and scrapes to boards, corners chipped, one spine panel gone).