1594 MARTIN LUTHER Sayings COMMONPLACES Loci Communes LUTHERAN REFORMATION Devil MAGDEBURG - RARE 1ST EDITION * Compiled by T. FABRICIUS

Printed in Magdeburg by Andreas Gehne for Ambrosius Kirchner, 1594. FIRST EDITION. Five parts in one volume. Text mainly in Latin, with some passages in German (and a few words in Greek). RARE. WorldCat locates only 16 copies worldwide, almost all in Germany; 4 copies only in the US!

Offered here is a complete and well-preserved example of the rare 1st edition of "Martin Luther’s Commonplaces", an extensive selection of Luther’s opinions, thoughts and sayings on a very broad range of theological, ethical and other topics, extracted from his writings , and compiled by Theodosius Fabricius (1560-1597), a German Lutheran theologian from Göttingen. 

This Latin edition was followed by a German edition printed in 1597 (also in Magdeburg). The Latin version was later reprinted in London by William Wells in 1651 .

The work was intended primarily as a pastoral reference , in which excerpts from Luther’s writings are organized topically and divided into five parts :

• Deus;
• Homo;
• Christianus;
• Hierarchize;
• Diabolus (including chapters on the Devil; Antichrist and his reign; criticism of Islam and Judaism, as expressed in Koran and Talmud, respectively; various heresies; criticism of astrology, divination, magical invocations and other occult activities, omens and prodigies, end of the World, Hell, etc.)

"Fabricius's collection was as much a resource for homiletical citation as it was for extensive learning of theology from Luther's pen. […] Fabricius did not intend his Loci communes Lutheri to be read from beginning to end. Nor did he gather his materials in the form of a textbook of Christian teaching, as had Corvinus, Kirchner, and Walther. Instead, his work offered a handy reference in which pastors could find words from Luther on any and every topic which they might want to address in preaching and teaching. […] Fabricius also conformed to the structure imposed by the Melanchthonian loci . His contemporaries apparently found most useful those works that employed Melanchthon's method purely and simply, that is, expositions of Lutheran teaching that used Philip's rhetorical and dialectical tools to analyze biblical materials. […] In the Loci communes Lutheri the citations are long enough to permit the Reformer's voice to be heard quite clearly ." (Robert Kolb, Martin Luther as Prophet, Teacher, and Hero , Chap.7)

In putting together this compilation, "Fabricius followed the model of Neander in providing his readers with short selections from Luther's writings, somewhat longer than Neander's aphorisms to be sure, but seldom more than a paragraph. Demonstrating a broad and thorough knowledge of Luther's works, he relied very heavily on Luther's expositions of the Scripture in lecture, commentary, and sermon. Fabricius COVERED A BROADER RANGE OF SUBJECTS THAN DID ANY OF HIS PREDECESSORS. His Loci communes Lutheri reflects both the changing situation of German Lutheranism in the closing decades of the sixteenth century and the convictions of his father’s circle of Gnesio-Lutheran pastors a generation earlier. 

"Fabricius's Luther conformed to the theology of the Formula of Concord. [...] He devoted eight pages of his Latin loci to holding high "the dignity, necessity, and utility" of the proper distinction of law and gospel. He followed the model of the Syntagma by turning next to predestination, providing his readers with brief but clear expressions of Luther's comfort for those who struggled with this teaching as well as the comfort which God's election of his own brings. Fabricius also cited Luther's warning against unseemly curiosity regarding the hidden will of God.

"In the second section of Fabricius's collection baptism receives a relatively long treatment . It includes both a defense of infant baptism and an application of God’s promise in baptism to daily life. [...] Fabricius drew extensively on Luther's polemic against the Sacramentarians in order to support the Lutheran understanding of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper. He did not ignore, however, the application of the gospel of the sacrament to the daily life of the Christian. His treatment of the "benefits and power" of the Lord's Supper was drawn largely from Luther's sermons but also from some of his polemical writings .

"Fabricius's third section, which concerns the Christian life, begins with a long treatment of faith. He very effectively catches Luther's manner of grounding the believer's daily life in trust in Christ, and then moves on to show how faith produces a life of love for the neighbor. […] In a faithful synopsis of the basis of Luther's piety Fabricius collects a variety of Luther's observations on prayer, persecution, spiritual tribulations, on Christian joy, the mortification of the flesh, and struggles with weakness of faith. This section then treats a long series of virtues and provides words of comfort for the suffering and dying . 

"The fourth section of Fabricius's Loci communes Lutheri reviews Luther's teaching on the three estates of human society , with attention given to the Christian's calling in the home, the church, and the state. After introductory comments on God's establishment of the three estates, Fabricius treats the struggles of believers in carrying out their callings in face of the ingratitude of the world and the enmity of Satan. Fabricius cites Luther's admonition to people of high and low estate to fulfill their godly callings in humility and fear of God, recognizing and using the gifts which God has given them. 

"Fabricius's collection concludes by treating every evil imaginable. The fifth section [titled Diabolus ] gives extensive coverage to Satan's kingdom and to Satan himself and then quickly surveys Luther's critiques of papists, Turks, Jews, Anabaptists, Sacramentarians and Zwinglians, and antinomians. Tyrants and other governmental officials who persecute God's church are also criticized. Every kind of vice which Luther had condemned is reviewed. And just as the third section concludes its treatment of the Christian life with eschatological topics including the resurrection of the pious to glory and life everlasting, so the fifth section concludes the entire work with the locus 'Hell'." (ibid)

Martin Luther (1483 – 1546), was a German theologian and a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation.   Luther came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. He strongly disputed the Catholic view on indulgences and proposed an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His refusal to renounce his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the Pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Emperor.  Luther taught that salvation and, consequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds but are received only as the free gift of God's grace through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin. His theology challenged the authority and office of the Pope by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge from God and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood. His translation of the Bible into the vernacular (instead of Latin) made it more accessible to the laity, an event that had a tremendous impact on both the church and German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the writing of an English translation, the Tyndale Bible. His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches. His marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry.  In two of his later works, Luther expressed antagonistic views towards Jews, writing that Jewish homes and synagogues should be destroyed, their money confiscated, and liberty curtailed. Condemned by virtually every Lutheran denomination, these statements and their influence on antisemitism have contributed to his controversial status

VD16 L-3587; Ballerstedt, et al., Magdeburger Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts, p.151: no.24.

Quarto, text block measures 188 mm x 152 mm; bound in attractive 20th-century full brown calf (in 17th-century style) with boards ruled in blind, spine with raised bands, lettered in gilt and with black morocco gilt-lettered label. Edges marbled.

Pagination: [24], 125, [3], 153, [7], 206 (i.e. 204), [4], 88 (i.e. 124), [4], 152, [80] pages. Signatures: ):(-3):(4 A-Z4 AA-ZZ4 AAA-QQQ4 a-z4 aa-yy4. Collated and COMPLETE.

Main title-page with an elaborate historiated woodcut border. All five parts have individual divisional title-pages printed within woodcut borders and with large woodcut vignettes; numerous woodcut decorative initials, head- and tail-pieces in text. Text printed chiefly in roman letter, with marginalia printed in italic; some passages in German, printed in gothic (Fraktur), and with occasional use of Greek type .

Preliminaries include a long dedicatory preface by Theodosius Fabricius, dated 25 June 1593 ; laudatory verses to Fabricius by Basilius Michaelis, a note on the methodology of this compilation, and an Index of Luther’s writings used in this collection. Some of the individual parts also have their own prefaces. Extensive general indexes are included at the end of the volume.

Very Good antiquarian condition. Complete. Title-page with some soiling, with a small handwritten initial 'g' in an early hand, to the left of the imprint, and an old embossed (blind) stamp to bottom outer corner; blank verso with a small ink-mark. Interior with a light, harmless water-stain to outer corners; occasional light soiling and some minor spotting. A thin marginal worm-trail to 7 leaves at the beginning of Part V (in the bottom margin), occasionally touching a single letter, but without loss of legibility; also 9 leaves at the end of the Index with a small marginal worm-trail to top outer corner (without loss of legibility). An (?)18th-century ink signature of an (unidentified) English owner to outer margin of p. 55 of Part II. In all, an attractive, solid, well-margined example of this rare Magdeburg imprint, very clean and bright, remarkably, almost free of browning (so characteristic to German imprints of this period).