THOMAS AQUINAS (c.1225-1274). Summa theologiae. [PARS TERTIA only]. Basel: [Michael Wenssler,] 1485.

Part 3 only of Wenssler's edition of the Summa.Wenssler's 1485 edition of the Summa was the first printing of all three parts of Thomas Aquina's great work, but now it is most often encountered in individual parts. Art historian Erwin Panofsky famously compared the Summa to a Gothic cathedral, both of which embody "the whole of Christian knowledge, theological, moral, natural, and historical, with everything in its place and that which no longer found its place suppressed" and are arranged "according to a system of homologous parts and parts of parts." Goff T-194; Bod-inc T-163; BMC III 729; BSB-Ink T-278; ISTC it00194000.

Part three only, royal folio (387 x 270mm). Part III: 158 leaves [of 160, without initial blank and with most of blank S10 cut away]. Large flourished initial on first leaf in blue and red, decorated with blue and red penwork; smaller red and blue initials throughout, some with reserved decoration or remains of silver, red paragraph marks and capital strokes (some toning, final gathering dustsoiled with a few marginal wormtracks). Modern half calf over wooden boards (both boards split apart).