Very attractive post-incunable edition of Savonarola's theological masterpiece! (First printed in Florence, circa 1496 by Bartolommeo di Libri.)
RARE! (No other copies of this edition currently offered for sale. WorldCat locates only 7 copies of this edition in the US. )

The "Triumph of the Cross" (De triumphus crucis) is, perhaps, THE MOST POPULAR AND INFLUENTIAL SPIRITUAL WORK OF SAVONAROLA. Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), Florentine Dominican preacher, reformer, and martyr, renowned for his struggle with tyrannical rulers and a corrupt clergy, was of one of the most colorful and controversial figures of Italian Renaissance!

"Savonarola gives In ["The Triumph of the Cross"] with great analytical power and by a scientific process that was entirely new at the period, a complete exposition of the Catholic faith, stripped of the scholasticism that had hitherto been essential to every theological work. In his desire to bring the subject as much as possible within the comprehension of the people, this monk of the fifteenth century had the glory of inaugurating the the noble school afterwards made illustrious by the names of Bossuet and Leibnitz...

The object proposed by Savonarola in his "Triumph of the Cross" was to investigate and expound the truths of religion by means of natural reason: "Not that faith, the spontaneous gift of God, can be acquired through reason, but because reason is a useful weapon with which to combat unbelievers or open to them the way of salvation; to arouse the lukewarm and give strength to the faithful...

"Reason," he tells us, "proceeds from the seen to the unseen; inasmuch as all our knowledge is derived from the senses, which are only cognizant of outer things ; intellect, on the contrary, pierces to the substance of things, and from the knowledge of matter rises to the knowledge of the unseen and of God. Now, even as the philosophers seek God in the marvelous and visible works of nature, so we seek and find in the visible Church the invisible Church, and her supreme head, Jesus Christ."

"The philosophers made a tabulated arrangement of all created works and beings, the better to study them as a whole and appreciate their Divine origin. In the same way, we would gather up all the visible works of Christ and His Church into a single image; so that the splendour of their divinity might be more easily apparent." This image is the same scene so often described by Savonarola in his sermons. There is a mystic chariot traversing the world in triumph. It bears Christ the conqueror, crowned with thorns, with bleeding wounds, and illumined by a celestial light from on high. His right hand grasps the Old and New Testaments, His left the Cross and the other emblems of the Passion; at His feet lie the chalice, the Host, and all the sacramental symbols; the Virgin Mary is seated beside Him, and near her stand the urns containing the ashes of martyrs. The car is drawn by the apostles, preachers, and prophets, and followed by the multitude of the faithful and the martyrs; while behind these, are infidels, unbelievers, and enemies of Christ, with their idols shattered, their books burnt, and their altars overthrown. Thus the car of Christ passes through the world, ever victorious, and crushing every obstacle in its path. "This car," said Savonarola, " shall be as a new world, and shall endow us with a new philosophy..."

Numerous editions of "The Triumph of the Cross" appeared both in Italian and Latin, and it was even reprinted by the Office of the Propaganda Fide, whose publications are intended for missionary use; while by expert theologians it has always been estimated as one of the best of religious tractates as regards its matter, and of the most original in its manner of exposition. [...] The finer qualities of [Savonarola's] intellect are all displayed in this work, and we are enabled to appreciate the extent of his learning, embracing nearly the whole philosophic and religious knowledge of his time; for in this work scholastic and mystic theology, Aristotelian and Neo-Platonic philosophy are all handled with equal mastery, and without any of the extravagances by which they were afterwards debased". (Pasquale Villari, Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola, vol.II, pp.230-1, 241)

Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98) was born at Ferrara on Sept. 21, 1452, the son of Niccolo Savonarola and of Elena Bonaccorsi. He was educated by his paternal grandfather, Michele, a celebrated doctor and a man of rigid moral and religious principles. From this elderly scholar, whose own education was of the 14th century, Savonarola may perhaps have received certain medieval influences. On April 24, 1475, he left his father's house and his medical studies, which he had embarked on after taking a degree in the liberal arts, to enter the Dominican order at Bologna.

Returning to Ferrara four years later he taught scripture in the Convento degli Angeli. Scripture together with the works of Thomas Aquinas had always been his great passion. In 1482 Savonarola was sent to Florence to take up the post of lecturer in the Dominican convent of San Marco, where he gained a great reputation for his learning and asceticism, for his eloquent sermons, in which he attacked the vice and worldliness of the city, as well as for his predictions (several of which, including the death date of Innocent VIII, turned out to be true). At San Gimignano in Lent 1485 and 1486 he put forward his famous propositions: the church needed reforming: it would be scourged and then renewed. In 1491 he became prior of San Marco, and after the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, who was his enemy, and the subsequent exile of the Medici (1494) he became the real spiritual ruler of the city.

"He was uncompromisingly severe in his condemnation of what he considered the paganism of the times and called for a regeneration of spiritual and moral values and a devotion to asceticism. When Charles VIII of France invaded Italy in 1494 (as Savonarola had predicted), Savonarola supported him, hoping that Charles would lead the way to the establishment of a democratic government in Florence and to the reform of the scandalously corrupt court of Pope Alexander VI. Alexander, understandably infuriated, ordered Savonarola to refrain from preaching; however, he continued to preach, and the pope excommunicated him for disobedience in 1497. Savonarola now declared Alexander no true pope, being elected by simony. The people of Florence, who had for a time staunchly supported Savonarola, tired of his rigid demands. Hostility toward him grew, led especially by local Franciscans, and in Mar., 1498, the government, threatened by a papal interdict, asked him to stop preaching.

His ruin came suddenly when one of his disciples accepted an ordeal by fire to prove Savonarola's holiness. Rain prevented the event. Nevertheless, there were riots, and Savonarola and two disciples were arrested by the city. Under torture he confessed to being a false prophet, or so it was announced. The three were hanged for schism and heresy; papal commissioners had passed on the sentence, which was assured by Alexander's vindictiveness." (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition)

"Few authors have received greater honour for their works, or endured severer calamities on account of them, than the famous Florentine preacher Savonarola. Endowed with a marvelous eloquence, imbued with a spirit of enthusiastic patriotism and intense devotion, he inveighed against the vices of the age, the worldliness of the clergy, the selfish ease of the wealthy while the poor were crying for bread in want and sickness. The good citizens of Florence believed that he was an angel from heaven, that he had miraculous powers, could speak with God and foretell the future; and while the women of Florence cast their jewels and finery into the flames of the "bonfire of vanities," the men, inspired by the preacher's dreams of freedom, were preparing to throw off the yoke of the Medicis and proclaim a grand Florentine Republic. The revolution was accomplished, and for three years Savonarola was practically the ruler of the new state. [...]

The austerity of his teaching excited some hostility against him, especially on the part of the monks who did not belong to his order--that of the Dominicans. He had poured such bitter invective both in his books and in his sermons upon the vices of the Popes and the Cardinals, that they too formed a powerful party in league against him. In addition the friends of the Medicis resented the overthrow of their power, and the populace, ever fickle in their affections, required fresh wonders and signs to keep them faithful to their leader. The opportunity of his enemies came when Charles VIII. of France retired from Florence. They accused Savonarola of all kinds of wickedness. He was cast into prison, tortured, and condemned to death as a heretic. In what his heresy consisted it were hard to discover. It was true that when his poor, shattered, sensitive frame was being torn and rent by the cruel engines of torture, he assented to many things which his persecutors strove to wring from him. The real cause of his destruction was not so much the charges of heresy which were brought against his books and sermons, as the fact that he was a person inconvenient to Pope Alexander VI. On the 23rd of May, 1498, he met his doom in the great piazza at Florence where in happier days he had held the multitude spell-bound by his burning eloquence. There sentence was passed upon him. Stripped of his black Dominican robe and long white tunic, he was bound to a gibbet, strangled by a halter, and his dead body consumed by fire, his ashes being thrown into the river Arno. Such was the miserable end of the great Florentine preacher, whose strange and complex character has been so often discussed, and whose remarkable career has furnished a theme for poets and romance-writers..." (P. H. Ditchfield, Books Fatal to Their Authors, Ch.1)

The title page of this rare edition is embellished with an elegant woodcut (cf. Essling 1452) showing Savonarola in monastic garb (hooded) in his cell: he is sitting at his desk, writing with two pens; there is a large crucifix in front of him and several books lying around. This woodcut appears to be derived from the one illustrating the 1496 Florence edition of Savonarola's De simplicitate Christianae Vitae (cf. A.Hind, "An Introduction to a History of Woodcut", vol. II, Fig.308).

The large fine printer's device of Alessandro Bindoni (see Kristeller 194) on verso of the colophon leaf (O3v) represents Justice as a crowned woman seated on a throne between two lions with a sword and balance, with a snake and a pear above, and the monogram 'AB' below.

Bibliographic references:

Adams S- 521; Olschki, Bibliotheca Savonaroliana, 16.

Physical description:

Octavo. Text block measures 155 mm x 107 mm.
Bound in early 16th century (possibly original) limp vellum, with 2 pairs of (renewed) leather ties. Manuscript title on spine and (in a different hand) on top of rear cover. Rubricated printed leaves from an early incunabulum (probably 1474 Augsburg edition of Speculum historiale) used as endpapers.

Foliated: 107, [1] leaves (forming 216 pages).

Signature collation: A-N⁸ O⁴ (0₄ blank, present). COMPLETE!

Printed in Gothic type in single column. Numerous decorative and historiated initials. including a 8-line floriated 'G' on A₃r with an angel blowing a trumpet; and a striking 10-line 'O' represented as the Crown of Thorns (with two crossed hands inside) at the beginning of Book I on A₄r.

Woodcut on title-page showing Savonarola in his cell writing. Bindoni's large woodcut printer's device on verso of leaf O₃.
Colophon on O₃ recto.

Provenance:

A 17th century MS inscription "Conventus S. Caroli ad q[uattor] fontes", indicating that the book formerly belonged to the Convent of Saint Charles at the Four Fountains (San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane) in Rome, Italy.

Condition:

Very Good antiquarian condition. Binding rubbed and slightly soiled, with a very minor repair at foot of spine.Ties renewed. Binding tight. Light damp-stain to outer margin of first three leaves. Some leaves lightly browned. An early manuscript ownership inscriptions at bottom of title-page and on front blank; another possession note in early hand on recto of front blank, and a marginal note to fol.65 recto. Otherwise very clean, wide-margined authentic exemplar.