Heroidu[m] Christianarum Epistolae. opus Novitium nuper aeditum. Anno M.D.xiiij. Colophon: Impressum Lipczk, p[er] Melchiarem Lotter [dedication copy]

DEDICATION COPY

4to (190x133 mm). x, cvi, [2] leaves. Collation: A-T⁶ V⁴. Title page printed in red and black. Colophon and errata on l. V4r. Late 19^th-century German marbled cardboards, lettering piece on spine, red edges (somewhat worn and rubbed). Pale browning, upper margin cut short, overall a good copy.

Provenance. On the front flyleaves late 19^th-century manuscript notes, bookplate of Georgius Klosz, M.D. Francofurti ad Moenum, bookplate and stamp of the Stinnecke Maryland Episcopal Library (the stamp, dated 1879, is repeated on the title page). The Stinnecke Maryland Episcopal Library was a significant collection of liturgical works, hymnals, and books of private devotion donated to the Diocese of Maryland in 1879 by Bishop William Whittingham (1805-1879) (cf. A Catalogue of the liturgies, liturgical works, books of private devotion, hymnals and collections of hymns, in the Stinnecke Maryland Episcopal Library the legacy of the Rt. Rev. W.R. Whittingham, D.D., L.L.D. Bishop of Maryland, to his diocese, 1879, privately printed in 1881). As of 2011, a remnant of this library is in the collection of the General Theological Seminary (NY).

On the title page autograph dedication by the author to Heinrich Kobolt from Ulm (1490-1521): “Erudito Henrico Cobaltino Ulmeñ Arbori suo sublissimo Eobanus Hessus cum Amore dd. 1521”. Above is a later ownership entry “Collegii Beybergj”.

First edition, dedicated to Job von Dobeneck (ca. 1450-1521), bishop of Pomesania, of Eobanus Hessus' best work of poetry, a most original volume with the title Heroides Christianae in imitation of Ovid, consisting of fictitious letters from holy women, from the Virgin Mary down to Kunigunde, wife of the Emperor Henry II. By replacing mythological characters with Christian saints and holy women and by focusing on themes of virginity and faith, it was a key work in the Renaissance “Christianization” of this classical genre. The work, which was reprinted in 1532 and 1546, brought Hessus general recognition as Germany's leading Latin poet. In 1518, when Eobanus, who revered Erasmus, made the journey from Erfurt to Louvain to see him in person, Erasmus complimented him as an ‘Ovidius Christianus' (H. Vredeveld, Traces of Erasmus' poetry in the work of Helius Eobanus Hessus, in: “Humanistica Lovaniensia”, vol. 35, 1986, p. 48).

“Eobanus' Heroidum Christianarum Epistolae, published in 1514 and reedited in 1535, is a collection of elegiac letters ostensibly written by twenty-two female figures drawn from the New Testament and other Christian documents. Each character is given the opportunity not only to express her own emotional responses to her circumstances but also to demonstrate the significance of her story within the Christian tradition itself. By dramatizing doctrine, Eobanus maximizes the effectiveness of his heroines' stories. By developing the historical and traditional background circumstances related to each of his heroines, Eobanus provides a very moving means to educate readers in background data to each narrative. The poet undertakes a codification of Christian lore, collecting and poeticizing it into a canonic Christian paideia. Eobanus' goal of canonizing Christian doctrine through the use of classical poetic genres is not original with him, for other humanist poets used the classics – particularly Ovid – for similar purposes. However, that Eobanus is intent upon developing the pedagogical potential of the Heroides in a particularly Lutheran direction becomes apparent in his restructuring of the work for the second edition of 1535. Lutheran educators, intent upon harnessing the pedagogical potential of the classical authors, develop characteristic means of institutionalizing them; Eobanuss second edition of the Heroides is consonant with these trends” (D.L. Johnson, The Heroides of Eobanus Hessus (1488-1540): Toward an Evangelical Paideia, online).

The work comprises a total of 24 letters, including the initial letter from Jesus to Mary and the concluding letter addressed to posterity by Eobanus: Emmanuel to Mary; Mary to Emmanuel; Mary Magdalene to Jesus Christ; Catherine, Costus' Daughter, to her Bridegroom Christ; Elizabeth to her Husband Ludwig; Helen to Constantine; Sabina to Alexius; Cunegund to Henry; Monica to Augustine; Barbara to Origen; Thais to Paphnutius; Alcyone to George; Anna to Joachim; Mary of Egypt to Zosimas; Pelagia to Nonius; Mary to John; Ursula to Ethereus; Anastasia to Chrysogonus; Thecla to Paul; Elizabeth to Zechariah; Paula to Jerome; Martha to Maximinus; Dorothy to Theophilus; Eobanus to Posterity. The preliminary leaves feature celebratory poems by Karl Schenk von Limburg, Paul von Schwarzenberg, Veit Werler and Gregorius Coelius Aubanus (Gergely Gyöngyösi). The volume concludes with a poem dedicated to Veit Werler by Hessus (cf. H. Vredeveld, The Poetic Works of Helius Eobanus Hessus. Vol. 2. Journeyman Years, 1509-1514, Tempe AZ, 2008, pp. 101-432; see also A. Suerbaum, “Ovidius christianus”: Helius Eobanus Hessus in der Tradition der “Heroides”-Rezeption seit dem Mittelalter, in: “Humanismus in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit: XVIII. Anglo-German Colloquium Hofgeismar 2003”, N. McLelland, H.-J. Schiewer and S. Schmitt, eds., Berlin-New York, 2008, pp. 89-104).

Eobanus Koch (Coccius) was born at Halgehausen, near Frankenberg (Hassia), the son of a peasant in the service of the Cistercian abbey of Haina, north of Marburg. He adopted his first name Helius on account of being born on a Sunday. He was educated at first by Abbot Dietmar of Haina and subsequently by Johann Mebes in the Latin school of Gmünden, which he attended until 1502. After further schooling at Frankenberg under Jakob Horle he registered at the University of Erfurt, where he was introduced to Latin poetry by Maternus Pistoris. The humanist Crotus Rubeanus took an affectionate interest in him from the time of his arrival. A feud in 1505 between the artisans of Erfurt and the students offered Eobanus the opportunity of publishing his first work, De pugna studentium erphordiensium (1506). After graduating in September 1506, he was appointed headmaster of the school of St. Severus in Erfurt. In 1508 he published De amantium infoelicitate and a year later his Bucolicon, and was recognized at once by Mutianus Rufus and Ulrich von Hutten to be unrivalled among the Latin poets of Germany. In autumn of 1509 Eobanus entered the service of a former pupil, Job von Dobeneck, who had since become bishop of Pomesiana in East Prussia and resided in the latter's residence at Riesenburg. In 1514 were published at Leipzig his Sylvae, a collection of local, historical and military poems, idylls, epigrams and occasional pieces he wrote in the preceding years in Prussia. After his return to Erfurt in July 1514, he was soon the center of a circles of humanists. Jointly with Mutianus, Crotus and Johannes Petrejus he spoke out in support of Reuchlin. He sympathized with the patriotic goals of Ulrich von Hutten, and enthusiastically adopted Erasmus' program of learning and religious reform. He also lent a hand in the composition of the famous Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1515). With his appointment as professor of poetry in July 1518, he came to occupy a secure and influential position in the university. When Luther passed through Erfurt in April 1521, Eobanus greeted him with a speech on behalf of the university and later also composed poetry in praise and support of Luther. His faithful adherence to the Lutheran movement did not, however, prevent the continuation of his sincere friendship and correspondence with Erasmus. In 1523 Eobanus took up the study of medicine, hoping to alleviate his increasing financial hardship. Although he did not gain a medical degree, his efforts produced a very successful and widely read didactic poem on dietetics, Bonae valetudinis conservandae praecepta (1524). Through the influence of Joachim Camerarius and Melanchthon, he obtained a post at Nuremberg in 1526. Together with Camerarius he taught until 1533 at the Gymnasium of St. Aegidius which had recently be founded by Melanchthon. But, finding a regular life distasteful, he again went back to Erfurt in 1533. He found the intellectual climate there deteriorated to such a degree, that he was glad to accept a position at the University of Marburg. Here he was elected rector in 1538 and completed his verse paraphrase of the Psalms, which was highly praised by Luther and reprinted more than fifty times. He also produced the only Latin version of the Iliad ever to be published (1540). When he died at Marburg in October 1540, Eobanus was considered the foremost Latin poet of his age (cf. I. Grässer Eberbach, Helius Eobanus Hessus: der Poet des Erfurter Humanistenkreises, Erfurt, 1993, passim; see also P.G. Bietenholz, ed., Contemporaries of Erasmus, Toronto-Buffalo-London, 1985, I, pp. 434-436).

VD16, E-1506; H. Vredeveld, ed., Helii Eobani Hessi Heroidum libri tres, Princeton, 1970; Index Aureliensis, 161.053; C. Krause, Helius Eobanus Hessus. Sein Leben und seine Werke, Gotha, 1879, I, pp. 124-131.

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