Aquinas (Thomas, Saint) Summa contra gentiles, sive De veritate Catholicae fidei, collation: [*⁶a-z A-E¹⁰], double column, 286 ff., the last blank, mostly 42 or 43 lines, Gothic type, opening initial in blue and red and with marginal flourish, the others and paragraph-marks in red or blue, contemporary ink foliation and occasional marginalia, *^1&6 strengthened at inner gutter, some spotting or foxing and staining, vellum fragments from a ?14^th century choir book used in binding, contemporary wooden boards, rebacked in later (but to style) calf in compartments, metal clasps (one a modern replacement), upper corners chipped, wormholes, rubbed, 4to (207 x 155mm.), Venice, Franciscus Renner, de Heilbronn, and Nicolaus de Frankfordia, [not after 1476].

⁂ Rare copy at auction of the third edition. The work was composed at the behest of Raymond de Pennefort as a philosophical exposition and defence of Christian theology for use in the conversion of the Moors and Jews of Spain. The editio princeps was published in Strasbourg not after 1474 by the Printer of Henricus Ariminensis.

Provenance: Fr. Benedicto Peregrino of Verona, 1505 (ink ownership inscriptions); Covent of St. Anastasius, Verona (ink ownership inscription, which includes a warning of divine indignation at any theft of the book); notes of times of completion of readings for 1479, 1493 and 1503 below colophon.

Literature: BMC V, 193; Goff T-192; H 1386*; Bod-inc T-162; BSB-Ink T-270; GW M46560; ISTC it00192000.