The Works of Origen, printed by Jean Petit and Josse Badius
The earliest volume in the acquisition is the two volume Works of Origen Adamantius. It was printed in Paris in 1512 by Jean Petit and Josse Badius. The two printers often collaborated on editions of various works, especially early in Badius's career. Petit had established himself as a bookseller around 1492, and Badius began his career around 1503.
Evidence of their collaboration is found in the combination of Petit's printer's mark with the architectural frontispiece frame associated with Badius.
As this is the post-incunabula period, books have only just started to 'look' like what we expect them to look like today. Title pages and indexes were introduced around this period, as standards for what was included within a printed book started to be established.
This frame, and similar iterations of it, can be found within many of Josse Badius' books along with works by other Paris printers, including the next book in the acquisition (Josephus). Woodcuts were often made in sections, as it was easier to adapt a frame for what a printer needed. This frame was likely printed using four woodcuts, the head and foot being smaller pieces that cap off the two side pieces of the body.
This is an early iteration of Petit's printer's mark, which varied throughout his career. It features a shield bearing his initials connected by a cord knotted like a fleur-de-lys and suspended from a tree. The shield is flanked and supported by a lion on the left and a leopard on the right. In the top corners, two cherubs frighten away two birds and an owl from the branches of the tree. Below the scene is Petit's name using the Old French spelling and Latin convention of using an I for a J.
The binding of the book suggests that it likely once belonged to an institutional library. It is bound in speckled calf and the front and back covers of both volumes are blind embossed with an unidentified ecclesiastical crest.
The blazon is described as a plain field party per cross between upright keys in saltire in the first and fourth position, and six-pointed mullets in the second and third position surmounted by a mitre.
On the bottom of the spine, there are two shelfmarks noting the book's presence in possibly two earlier libraries. The shelfmark below the title on the first volume has been covered at some point, but it likely matched the 45 inscribed on the second volume.
Origen is considered by some to be one of the Church Fathers. He wrote hundreds of homilies covering almost the entirety of the Bible. He significantly contributed to the development of the concept of the Trinity, and was most famous for his influence on Christian Neoplatonism.
Origen's writings were often viewed as controversial, however, and there are two known instances of Origenist crises happening in the fourth and sixth centuries. These controversies arose over discussions of his works that some viewed as heretical. The first crisis concluded with a condemnation of Origen's incorporeal, non-anthropomorphic conception of God, also known in the Trinity as the Spirit. The second crisis is less well documented and seems to have focused more on the ideas of groups influenced by Origen, rather than his writings specifically. This controversy possibly concluded with the Second Council of Constantinople in 533 AD issuing an anathema against Origen, however, scholars debate if this occurred as a result of the dispute or later.