First and only edition of Wessel Gansforts collected works, in which many of his letters and several of his ascetic works were published for the first time. Gansfort, often considered a forerunner of the Reformation, emphasised the importance of Scripture as a main source and authority in religious matters, rather than Church traditions and hierarchies. Although he had been a devout Catholic during his lifetime, his work resonated with Protestant thinkers and was placed on the Index. The present edition was produced with the goal to preserve his writings, as many of them had previously circulated only in manuscript form, making it a significant monument to early reformist thought in the Low Countries.
The present edition contains all of Gansfort's writings, and a biographical sketch by the protestant preacher Albert Hardenberg. It starts with De oration et modo orandi (on prayer and the manner of praying); followed by the Tractatus de cohibendis cogitationibus ... qui Scala Meditationis vocatur (Treatise on keeping thoughts in check and the manner of constructing meditations, not published before); De causis incarnationis. De magnitudine & amaritudine Dominis Passionis (on the causes of the incarnation); and De Sacramento Eucharistiae et audienda Missa (on the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the hearing of the Mass). A collection of several treatises follows under the title Farrago theologicarum, which are important for Wessels personal ideas, quoting from classical authors as Proclus and Plato. At the end are his letters, partly published here for the first time.
A selection from his writings, the Farrago, was issued at Zwolle in 1521 (reprint Wittenberg, 1522 and Basle, 1522 containing a commendatory preface by Luther). Shortly after 1521, De oratione et modo orandi and De Sacramento Eucharistiae were published in Zwolle. Gansfort's works were placed on the Index in the 1520s and not published again until the present edition.
With the library stamp of the "Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente te Amsterdam" on the title page, and contemporary annotations on the verso of the first and last free flyleaf. The vellum is slightly soiled and bumped, the front hinge is somewhat weakened, but the structural integrity of the binding is still intact. The title page is somewhat soiled, occasional foxing, a water stain in the lower corner on some of the leaves and in the upper margin throughout, not affecting any text. Otherwise in good condition. STCN 822940884; USTC 1026128; cf. Akkerman, Huisman & Venderjagt (eds.), Wessel Gansfort and Northern Humanism (1993); NNBW, V, cols.195-197; Post, The Modern Devotion (1963), pp. 476-487; Van Rhijn, Wessel Gansfort (1917).