Rare early edition of one of the most substantial works by the Dutch Catholic humanist and controversialist Albertus Pighius (ca. 1490-1542), a native of Kampen, The Netherlands, and one of the most learned defenders of Roman orthodoxy in the first generation of the Reformation. The work discusses in detail the theological disputes addressed at the Colloquy of Regensburg (1541), which convened in a final attempt to reconcile Catholic and Protestant theologians within the Holy Roman Empire.
Originally published in separate parts printed at Ingolstadt and Venice, the text was subsequently enlarged and republished in more complete form, as in the present edition. It appeared during the final year of Pighiuss life, shortly before his death in Utrecht in December 1542. His arguments provoked vigorous responses from leading Protestant reformers, including Johannes Calvijn (1509-1564), who later wrote extensively against Pighiuss defence of free will.
The present work was produced by the Renaissance printer Jacques Gazeau, active on the Rue Saint-Jean-de-Latran and associated with the scholarly milieu of the Collège Royal. Gazeaus press published a relatively small but significant body of humanist and theological works during the 1540s.
The upper corners of the boards are bumped, the boards are somewhat rubbed, with some loss of material. The title page is slightly soiled. Otherwise in very good condition. Bietenholz, Contemporaries of Erasmus III, pp. 84-85; EEB (Proquest) fra-bnf-phs-00001806-001; USTC 140361 (7 copies); WorldCat 715630857 (2 copies); not in Adams; BM STC French; NUC.