Gregory's Dialogues
Gregory I, c.1484
GREGORY I (c.540-604). Dialogorum libri quattuor. [Louvain:] Johannes de Westfalia, [c.1484].

Rare incunable edition of Gregory’s Dialogues, published by the first printer in the Low Countries. Pope Gregory I’s wildly popular Dialogues recount the lives and miracles of the early saints—a genre which would reach its culmination with the Golden Legend. Book II is devoted to the life of Saint Benedict, providing the most important early source for the life of the father of Christian monasticism in Western Europe. The printer, Johannes de Westfalia, came to Louvain in 1474 where he printed mostly textbooks for the local university. No copies held by American institutions. ISTC ig00404500; GW 11399.

Quarto (209 x 145mm). 130 leaves (of 130) (inner margins of a few bifolia repaired, some marginal dampstaining, repaired closed tear in blank lower area of final leaf). 19th-century half sheep over marbled boards (spine perished; upper board, flyleaf, and first blank detached). Provenance: early marginalia on several leaves – Georg Kloss (bookplate, his sale lot 1870) – Hyatt Sale, sold to: – Lewis H. Machen (? pencil note; by descent to:) – Elizabeth Machen Palmer (1926-2008, inventory listing).