William of Ockham Dialogorum libri septem adversos haereticos

William of Ockham Dialogorum libri septem adversos haereticos
Johannes Trechsel, not before 1494 and 1495
OCKAM, Guilielmus (c.1287-1347). Dialogorum libri septem adversos haereticos. Tractatus de dogmatibus Johannis XXII. [Lyons:] Johannes Trechsel [not before 12 September 1494]. [Bound with:] –Opus nonaginta dierum et dialogi. Edited by Augustinus de Ratisbona. Lyons: Johannes Trechsel, 16 July 1495.

First and second editions of two banned works by English philosopher William of Ockham. Apparently unfinished, the Dialogues express Ockham's view that the authority of the Holy See is subordinate to imperial authority. This is related to the ongoing dispute with the papacy on the issue of Franciscan poverty, which had come to a head in 1328. Ockham accused the Pope of being a heretic and ultimately was forced to flee to Bavaria. He remained in exile at the court of Emperor Ludwig IV for the rest of his life. In the "Compendium of the Errors of Pope John XXII,” also included here and which he may have intended to integrate into the Dialogues, Ockham lists 70 points of error and seven heresies for which he held the Pope responsible. Trechsel's edition here reprints the first, published at Paris in 1476 by the eponymous "Printer of Ockam.” The preface by Josse Bade includes a panegyric of printing. It is here bound with the first edition of Ockham’s defense of Franciscan poverty against Pope John XXII. Unsurprisingly, both works were placed on the Index librorum prohibitorum. Only one copy of the first text is recorded at auction by RBH and ABPC (Henry VIII’s copy), and no other copies of the second. HC 11938*, 11946*, 11935*; GW 11908, 11910; BMC VIII 296, 297; BSB-Ink G-502, G-504; Bod-inc G-313, G-314; Goff O-9, O-13; ISTC io00009000 and io00013000.

Chancery folio (275 x 190mm). First work: 298 leaves; second work: 152 leaves. Woodcut of scriptorium, first several headlines written over with red ink, one red initial (some light dampstaining, some leaved browned). 17th-century calf with gilt spine (rebacked and restored, preserving some of original spine). Provenance: early marginalia at beginning of the first work (trimmed).