Concordance of the Bible (4)

Ornamental illuminated initials at the beginning of the Preface and the letter of the first printed edition
Inc.O.A.2.1[63]
Dominicans of St Jacques Paris, Concordantiae Bibliorum
Strasbourg, ca 1474

The ca 1474 Strasbourg edition of the Concordance, the first printed, has a few additions to the text of the two manuscripts but is substantially identical. No date is given in the printed text but a ca 1474 date has been argued for its production. There is much controversy as to where and when the thirteenth-century text was edited with some changes, and further research is needed to clarify how this happened. This copy raises the problem of the possible involvment of a certain Conrad of Halberstadt, one of two of that name who belonged to the Dominican Province of Saxony in the first half of the fourteenth century. At the end of this copy in the University Library are the words Expliciunt concordancie fratris conradi de allemania. Only a few years later in the early sixteenth century Johannes Trithemius equated Conrad of Germany with Conrad of Halberstadt as its author. The preface, however, is identical to that in the two English manuscripts previously described, and this ascribes the concordance to St Jacques (Paris), and there is no doubt that was the ultimate source of the text of the 1474 printed edition. To date no explanation has been given for the possible involvment of Conrad in revising the text.

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