ST THOMAS AQUINAS, DE ARTICULIS FIDEI. [Mainz: Johann Gutenberg, First Impression, 36 Lines, ca. 1459]

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In the early 1450s Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, papal legate to Germany, travelled through many dioceses encouraging clerical reforms. Among his reforms, he enjoined upon all clergy an obligation to read and understand Aquinas’s brief tract against heresies, De articulis fidei. The first edition thus had a direct, prepared clerical audience. Type-pages were assembled in 36 lines, that is 18 two-line strips; the entire text was contained on 12 leaves. The paper stock of the Aquinas tract is found in dated documents of 1457-1460. Seven copies survive, none in America. When De articulis fidei was reprinted, a year after Gutenberg’s death, the two-line strips were assembled into type-pages of 34 lines, that is 17 two-line strips per page. This extended the length of the pamphlet to 13 leaves. The paper stocks of this edition are found in documents dated 1468-1470. Many more copies survive of the second impression than of the first. A significant number of these are bound with Cologne quarto editions of the late 1460s, suggesting that they were on the market at the same time. The Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth

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