Information
104 DISPUTATIONS BY SPIRITUAL FATHER OF REMONSTRANTS
ARMINIUS, Jacobus. Disputationes Magnam Partem S. Theologiæ Complectentes, Publicæ & Privatæ. Priores cum accessione aliqua, & correctiores, nunc xxv numero. Altera vero totæ novæ, & lxxix numero. Quarum index epist. dedicatoriam sequitur.
Leiden, Joannes Paedts, Thomas Basson, 1610. 8vo. With Basson's woodcut music-book publisher's device, a woodcut arabesque tailpiece and a few woodcut decorative initials (2 series). Including a biographical sketch by Petrus BERTIUS and a commendatory verse by C[aspar?] B[ARLAEUS?].Contemporary limp vellum with manuscript spine title. With an early gift inscription from from C. Williams to Johannis Mitchell, and Williams's earlier purchase inscription.
| Orders and Information | € 750 |
First edition of the complete collected disputations by Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), issued in the year following his death, with XXV public and LXXIX private numbered disputations, giving 104 in total. The preliminaries include a 16-page biographical sketch by Petrus Bertius, a 7-page dedication to the Leiden authorities by Arminius's family and a 2-page commendator verse by "C.B." (Caspar Barlaeus?). The public disputations were made in responce to Abraham Appart (d. 1655), one of the preachers who were named at the Synod of Dordrecht in 1618-1619 as a capable Bible translator, Peter Cunaeus (1586-1638), literator and lawyer, Casper Wiltens (1584-1619), first preacher from Amsterdam sent to Indonesia, and preachers Dionysius Spranckhuysen (died 1650), Engelbert Sibelius, and many others. The private disputations cover several theological subjects, such as the nature of God, God's will, predestination, baptism, etc. Arminius (and his followers, known as Remonstrants after they submitted a remonstrance to the authorities in 1610) held less absolute views on predestination than the Calvanistic Gomarists, and the disputes between the two groups reached a head with the suppression of the Remonstrants at the Synod of Dort in 1618/19. They nevertheless remained a powerful minority voice in Dutch religious and political affairs, making a permanent contribution to Dutch society. Arminius is still admired for his calm, carefully argued and progressive ideas and his calls for a measure of religious tolerance, but his opponents considered him and his followers dangerous and sometimes even suspected them of being crypto-Catholics.
The owners' names John Mitchell and C. Williams suggest an English provenance, but they are too common for a certain identification. With the sewing of one quire loose and with an occasional minor stain, but otherwise in fine condition. The simple vellum binding, with a flat back and no headbands, has only traces of its ties, one corner is detached from the book block, and the paste-downs show some wrinkles and tears, but it is also generally in fine condition.
