One of the great monuments of early Christian literature, and paradoxically also the richest surviving source for the Gnostic imagination. This is the 1734 Venetian edition of St. Irenaeus’s Contra Haereses, five books systematically refuting the teachings of the Gnostics and other heterodox groups. Printed by Franciscus Pitteri, this edition reflects the flowering of patristic scholarship in the early 18th century and remains a cornerstone for both theology and the history of esotericism.
While polemical in purpose, Contra Haereses is invaluable to modern readers precisely because it preserves the cosmologies, emanations, and rituals of the Gnostics that would otherwise be lost. In this sense, the book becomes a kind of double mirror: an orthodox denunciation that simultaneously safeguards the “secret teachings” it sought to eradicate. For collectors of the esoteric, it remains indispensable: a heresiology that doubles as an occult archive.
Sancti Irenæi Episcopi Lugdunensis et Martyris. Detectionis et Eversionis Falso Cognominatæ Agnitionis, sive Contra Haereses Libri Quinque. Venice: Franciscus Pitteri. Folio. Two volumes. vI [1] main text 385. Fragmenta 101. Bacchini 12. [1]. v2 [1] 428 [1]. Title in red and black with engraved vignette; ornamental head- and tailpieces throughout. Scholarly edition prepared with critical apparatus and fragments, drawing on manuscripts and patristic testimonia. Contemporary full vellum, two volumes, folio. Spines with gilt-ruled compartments, early red morocco lettering-pieces (chipped, with partial loss of lettering but still legible: IREN. OPERA). Boards with expected soiling and age-toning; corners slightly bumped. Bindings sound, unrestored, with a handsome and authentic shelf presence. Text generally clean, with light toning and minor marks consistent with age. Engraved vignette on title crisp. A solid and pleasing set, complete in two volumes.
One of the great monuments of early Christian literature, and paradoxically also the richest surviving source for the Gnostic imagination. This is the 1734 Venetian edition of St. Irenaeus’s Contra Haereses, five books systematically refuting the teachings of the Gnostics and other heterodox groups. Printed by Franciscus Pitteri, this edition reflects the flowering of patristic scholarship in the early 18th century and remains a cornerstone for both theology and the history of esotericism.
While polemical in purpose, Contra Haereses is invaluable to modern readers precisely because it preserves the cosmologies, emanations, and rituals of the Gnostics that would otherwise be lost. In this sense, the book becomes a kind of double mirror: an orthodox denunciation that simultaneously safeguards the “secret teachings” it sought to eradicate. For collectors of the esoteric, it remains indispensable: a heresiology that doubles as an occult archive.
Sancti Irenæi Episcopi Lugdunensis et Martyris. Detectionis et Eversionis Falso Cognominatæ Agnitionis, sive Contra Haereses Libri Quinque. Venice: Franciscus Pitteri. Folio. Two volumes. vI [1] main text 385. Fragmenta 101. Bacchini 12. [1]. v2 [1] 428 [1]. Title in red and black with engraved vignette; ornamental head- and tailpieces throughout. Scholarly edition prepared with critical apparatus and fragments, drawing on manuscripts and patristic testimonia. Contemporary full vellum, two volumes, folio. Spines with gilt-ruled compartments, early red morocco lettering-pieces (chipped, with partial loss of lettering but still legible: IREN. OPERA). Boards with expected soiling and age-toning; corners slightly bumped. Bindings sound, unrestored, with a handsome and authentic shelf presence. Text generally clean, with light toning and minor marks consistent with age. Engraved vignette on title crisp. A solid and pleasing set, complete in two volumes.
