Getty Museum

Pantheologia Volume Two

Date

1474

Medium

Printing ink and tempera colors

Culture

German

Department

Books

Institution

Getty Museum

The *Pantheologia* by the Italian Dominican friar Rainerius of Pisa (d. about 1348) was one of the longest texts written in late medieval Europe. With an alternative title, *Summa universae theologiae* ("Summary of Universal Theology"), it is organized alphabetically as a dictionary of important Catholic theological concepts. In 1474, the publication house of Anton Koberger in Nuremberg produced a printed edition of the text. Koberger was one of the most successful and prolific publishers in the medium of print, which had been invented some two decades prior. The Getty's copy demonstrates that the earliest printed books were often laid out like manuscripts, with illuminators producing decorated initials with elaborate patterns and ornamentation. Copied in two volumes, this *Pantheologia* was originally owned by the Benedictine monks from the Monastery of St. Maximin in Trier, Germany, who had parchment [leaves from a ninth-century Carolingian Bible Ms. Ludwig I 1][1], repurposed as binding for the book. By the last quarter of the fifteenth century, many European libraries were discarding manuscripts, as they acquired new printed copies of texts. Yet often the older parchment leaves were valued for their strength and durability, and hence suitable for binding expensive but fragile printed books. [1]: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/105SVV

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