The last of six incunable editions, all in the original Latin, of a collection of about 70 sermons by the celebrated Italian Franciscan bishop and preacher, Roberto Caracciolo da Lecce (ca 1425-1495), published together with Dominico Bollanis treatise (also in the form of a sermon) defending the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, as usual in the early editions, the whole probably first published at Venice late in 1474 (Bollani dedicated his treatise to the Doge of Venice, Niccolò Marcello, who died on 1 December 1474). Caracciolo, a popular preacher and theologian, was appointed Bishop of Aquino (and later of his native Lecce, both in the Kingdom of Naples). Caracciolo, one of the most famous preachers of his time, earned the nicknames "the second Paul" and "the prince of preachers". His sermons, enlivened when he delivered them in public by his great skill as a mimic, unleashed the enthusiasm not only of the crowds but also of popes (Nicholas V, Callixtus III, Sixtus IV) and sovereigns (Cosimo de Medici, Francesco Sforza, Ferdinand II of Aragon). Fifty years of preaching earned him the reputation as a model popular pulpit orator, so that his temperamental, sometimes trivial way of preaching found many imitators. His several published collections of sermons, the first at Venice in 1472, quickly caught on with the book-buying audience of Early Modern Europe. All together they went through 80 editions from 1472 to ca. 1500: his catchy writing style made him the most printed Italian preacher of the 15th century and a best-selling author.
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With contemporary marginal manuscript notes, most extensively in the Bollani. Although the binding workshop is said to have been active for a decade before the publication of the present edition, it bound editions of 1498 and 1500, and the present book seems likely to have been used unbound or in a temporary binding for a few years, because the binder shaved some of the manuscript notes at the head and fore-edge. The title-leaf a1 has stains at the head, and creases and tears in its gutter margin, where it has been reinforced with a paper slip. Further with occasional minor marginal wormholes, not affecting the text. Otherwise in very good condition (most leaves fine), clean and only slightly trimmed, leaving generous margins. Two or three holes in the pigskin covering the boards were probably defects already present at the time of binding and perhaps also three cuts in that of the back board. The tooling on the spine is difficult to see, but that on the boards is crisply impressed and generally in good condition. BMC p. 95; Borm, Incunabula Guelferbytana 690; BSB-Ink C113; Catalogo general de incunables en bibliotecas espanolas 1446; Collijn Katalog der Inkunabeln der Kgl. Universitäts-Bibliothek zu Uppsala 407; Goff Incunabula in American libraries³ C-142 and Suppl.; GW 6050 (87 copies); Hain 4471; Incunabula quae in bibliothecis Poloniae asservantur 1407; ISTC ic00142000; Madsen Katalog over det Kongelige Biblioteks inkunabler 1018-1020; Oates, A catalogue of the fifteenth-century printed books in the University Library Cambride 169; Ohly-Sack Inkunabelkatalog der Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek und anderer öffentlicher Sammlungen in Frankfurt am Main 784-786; Polain Catalogue des livres imprimés au quinzième siècle des bibliothèque de Belgique 995; Proctor 405; Sack Die Inkunabeln der Universitätsbibliothek und anderer öffentlicher Sammlungen in Freiburg im Breisgau und Umgebung 914; Sajó. Soltész Catalogus incunabulorum quae in bibliothecis publicis Hungariae asservantur 906; Thienen Incunabula in Dutch libraries 1129; Voulliéme Die Inkunabeln der öffentlichen Bibliothek und der kleineren Büchersammlungen der Stadt Trier Trier 1380; Voulliéme, Die Inkunabeln der Königlichen Bibliothek und der anderen Berliner Sammlungen 2243. 2243.2; Walsh: Harvard A catalogue of the fifteenth-century printed books in the Harvard University Library 147; Yukishima Incunabula in Japanese Libraries 120; Zehnacker Catalogues régionaux des incunables des bibliothèques publiques de France XIII 620.