RIMBERTINUS, Bartholomaeus (1402-1466). De deliciis sensibilibus Paradisi. [And:] HENRICUS DE FRIMARIA (c.1245-1345). De quattuor instinctibus. Venice: Jacobus Pentius, de Leuco, for Lazarus de Soardis, de Saviliano, 25 October 1498.

First edition of a treatise on the sensory aesthetics of Heaven. Rimbertinus, Bishop of Cortona, here "distinguishes three kinds of improvement on our mortal visual experience: a greater beauty in the things seen, a greater keenness in the sense of sight, and an infinite variety of objects for vision. The greater beauty lies in three particulars: more intense light, clearer color, and better proportion" (Baxandall). His text is an adaptation of that of Johannes de Tambaco on the same subject, and part of a genre of understudied treatises on the theology of the senses with important implications for the understanding of how Renaissance people experienced art and music (the blessed, of course, sing in polyphony in Heaven). The author ended his career at the Florentine monastery of San Marco, and Savonarola seems to have been aware of his work. The text is here joined by a popular work by the Augustinian theologian Henry of Freimar on the discernment of spirits.

Rare at auction; only four copies are recorded by RBH, including the Fairfax Murray copy. This is the issue with title woodcut as in Essling; the BMC copy contains a different cut and assumes Essling is mistaken, but it seems there are two separate settings of the title. The woodcut here appears in other works by Soardis, including lot 28 in this sale. Goff R-198; Essling 1176; Bod-inc R-071; BMC XII 40; BSB-Ink R-189; GW M-38185. See also Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy. A Primer and Social History of Pictorial Style (1988).

Octavo (158 x 105mm). 72 leaves. Woodcut on title and woodcut printer's device at end. 19th-century green morocco gilt by Riviere.