Item #54764 [LIFE AND MIRACLES OF ST. JEROME – ONLY ONE COPY IN NORTH AMERICA] La vita, el transito e gli miraracoli [sic!] del beatissimo Sancto Hieronymo Doctore Excellentissimo [The life, passing and miracles of most blessed Saint Hieronymus the Most Excellent Teacher]. Pseudo-Eusebius of Cremona.

Pseudo-Eusebius of Cremona, et al.

[LIFE AND MIRACLES OF ST. JEROME – ONLY ONE COPY IN NORTH AMERICA] La vita, el transito e gli miraracoli [sic!] del beatissimo Sancto Hieronymo Doctore Excellentissimo [The life, passing and miracles of most blessed Saint Hieronymus the Most Excellent Teacher].

Venice: Guglielmo Fo[n]taneto da Mo[n]ferrato, 1519. Quarto (20.8 × 14.8 cm). Early twentieth-century full parchment; [84] leaves. Title page with a large woodcut portrait of the saint together with the lion (15.5 × 9.8 cm). Text printed in two columns in large type, with decorative woodcut initials, some up to 2.6 × 2.6 cm in size. Boards very lightly distended; first three leaves lightly finger-soiled; faint traces of old red coloration to title; small old bookseller label to front pastedown; still about very good. Item #54764

Early edition of the Italian translation of a volume of hagiographical works about Saint Jerome, printed in large letters and likely the first edition to feature the striking unattributed large-format woodcut portrait of the saint in prayer, with the lion at his side and other customary iconographic attributes. The volume combines the unattributed vita (10 pp.) with three longer epistles about the saint purportedly by his contemporaries, St. Eusebius of Cremona, Saint Augustine of Hippo, and St. Cyril of Jerusalem. This configuration of texts was common; usually titled "Vita et transitus Hieronymi," it circulated in Latin first in manuscript and, from at least 1471, in various printed editions, and was also translated into a range of local languages.

The main texts are titled: "La vita de sancto Hieronymo," "La epistola del beato Eusebio la quale mando al beato Damasio Vescovo portuense & a Theodonio senatore di Roma de la morte del beatissimo Hieronymo...," "La epistola del beato Augustino [...] che lui mando al venerabile Cirillo [...] delle magnificentie e laude del glorioso Hieronymo e come sancto Hieronymo apparue a sancto Augustino," and "La epistola del Venerabile Cirillo [...] che mando a sancto Augustino degli miracoli de Sancto Hieronymo." It is now typically assumed that the letters are falsely attributed, but were written much later, possibly after his remains were transferred to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in the twelfth century, which led to a vigorous cult of the saint in Italy. If he is known today primarily for his translation of the Bible into Latin and his biblical commentary, these texts establish his record as a devout and prayerful ascetic. The last and longest of the epistles is most interesting in this regard, as it details many visions of Saint Jerome as well as numerous miracles that are said to have occured both before and after his death.

In its typography, the edition resembles another edition printed by Augustino de Zani da Portese (Venice, 1511), however, the text has been set anew entirely and the 1511 edition features a different title page, with only a small vignette of the saint.

Essling 127. Sander (Le livre à figures italien) 3401. EDIT16 (Edizioni Italiane del XVI Secolo) 37334.

As of April 2025, KVK, OCLC show only two copies outside Italy, at Mannheim and Cambridge. We can also trace a copy at the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection (Library of Congress).