De temporibus sive de sex aetatibus huius seculi liber incipit. Venice: Giovanni da Tridino, 1509: THE DIVISIONS OF TIME, LUNATION, THE PRINCIPLES FOR DETERMINING THE DATE OF EASTER AND A CHRONICLE OF THE SIX AGES OF THE WORLD

Third rare edition

The divisions of time, lunation, the principles for determining the date of Easter and a chronicle of the six ages of the world

Bede the Venerable, De temporibus sive de sex aetatibus huius seculi liber incipit. Venice: Giovanni da Tridino, 1509.

8vo (188 x 135mm), modern binding reusing vellum from an antique antiphonary, ff. [50], signature A-L⁴ M⁶ large woodcut initial on A3r, smaller woodcut initials.

Bede's text is followed by De regionibus Urbis Rome, the catalogue of buildings and thoroughfares in ancient Rome

Third rare edition del De Temporibus, composed in 703 and focused on the divisions of time, lunation, on the principles for determining the date of Easter according to the Roman custom adopted by the Synod of Whitby (664), with a chronicle of the six ages of the world taken from Saint Isidore. Bede's text is followed by De regionibus Urbis Rome the catalogue of buildings and thoroughfares in ancient Rome spuriously attributed to Publius Victor.

Bede the Venerable (c. 673 - May 26, 735) was an Anglo-Saxon Christian monk and historian who lived in the Benedictine monastery of St Peter and St Paul in Wearmouth (now part of Sunderland), England, and at Jarrow, Northumberland; he is buried in Durham Cathedral.

With Isidore of Seville he is considered the most important scholar of the Middle Ages. His works on grammar (De Metrica arte, De Schematibus et tropis, De Orthographia) and on ecclesiastical and monastic history (Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Historia sanctorum abbatum monasterii in Wiremutha et Gyrnum, De Vita Cudbercti) were well known in medieval culture. Even more widespread are the works in which he defines criteria and methods of chronology (De Temporibus, De Ratione temporum), and astronomy and cosmography (De Natura rerum).

Bede also made an approximate calculation of the age of the Earth and began dividing the years into before Christ and after Christ.

He was declared a saint and doctor of the Church by the Catholic Church and is mentioned by Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy.

The motto reported in the coat of arms of Pope Francis, Miserando atque eligendo, is taken from a passage from the Homilies of Bede the Venerable.

Conditions: some soiling, title and first leaf with slight abrasions and repaired tears to inner margin, tiny wormholes to inner margin of the central leaves that touch some letters.

Provenance: I. Ownership inscription Julius Solinus on titlepage. II. Private collection stamp Jaco Caller Graja on front inside board.

References: Sarton I, 510-11; Shaaber B405, Cicognara 3910.