Lactantius (240-320)
Two bifolia from the Divinae Institutiones, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Italy, mid-15th century].
Four leaves from a humanist copy of the most important of Lactantius’s works, the Divinae Institutiones, a systematic work that endeavours to ‘point out the futility of pagan beliefs and to establish the reasonableness and truth of Christianity’

c.275 × 205mm. 42 lines, ruled very faintly in plummet, written in a humanistic cursive script, with contemporary annotations in margins; running headers, rubrics and initials in red the text comprising Divinae Institutiones I.XVII-I.XXII, from ‘[Quid] sibi vult hec tam diligens tam sollicita cura[ti]o’ to ‘qui cum praetor esset, tamen lictoribus [...]’ (marginal staining and smudging, the third and fourth leaves cropped, along the bottom margin and wormholed).

Provenance:
Colker MS 334; acquired in 1985 from Quaritch.

The Divinae Institutiones were written between 303 and 311 and represented the first attempt at a systematic exposition of Christian theology in Latin. The chapters in the present leaves deal with the consecration of gods, false deities, and the gods peculiar to Rome and their sacred rites.

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