Scarce early edition of an influential manual on preaching. It was one of the last major works which Erasmus produced and is considered one of his most significant treatises on theology. The work was incredibly popular in his own time, as Erasmus had been pressured for many years to write it. The present edition, which is the first by Montanus and the third authorised edition, is relatively scarce, however, with only two other copies recorded in sales records of the 21st century.
"The Ecclesiastes is really a collection of three works: a theological treatise on the importance of preaching and the role of the preacher in the church (Book I), a textbook on homiletics and hermeneutics which provides the preacher with the basic tools necessary for both the interpretation of scripture and the construction and delivery of sermons based on biblical terms (Books II and III), and a list of sermon topics with an explanation of how some of them should be developed. From this organization it is clear that Erasmus attempted to provide his contemporaries with both a theology of preaching and clear and precise advice on the art of preaching" (Kleinhans).
With 18th-century annotations on the front pastedown and in the margins of some of the leaves, several portions of text are underlined. The edges and corners of the boards are somewhat scuffed, the vellum is somewhat soiled and stained. The work is somewhat browned throughout, with brown ink stains on a few leaves, affecting a few words, minor loss of material in the lower margin of a7 and a8, without affecting the text. Otherwise in good condition. Adams E-631; De Reuck 179; Erasmus Online 1682; Nijhoff & Kronenberg 2923; STCV 12926615; USTC 440876; Vander Haeghen I, 78; not in Bezzel; cf. Kleinhans, R.G., "Erasmus Ecclesiastes and the Church of England", in Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 39 (3), 1970, pp. 307-14; Rouzet, Dictionnaire des imprimeurs belges, p. 153.