Quatuor concilia generalia

Bookplate of Cardinal Wolsey pasted in the copy of Tomus primus quatuor conciliorum generalium held in the Bodleian Library

The Quatuor concilia generalia (Tomus primus quatuor Conciliorum generalium & Tomus secundus quatuor Conciliorum generalium) was a two volume book published in 1524 in Paris. It was edited by Jacques Merlin, printed by Jean Cornilleau and published by Galliot du Pré.[1] It concerns four Ecumenical councils: the Third Council of Constantinople (Sixth Ecumenical Council 680–681), the controversial Second Council of Nicaea (Seventh Ecumenical Council 787), the Council of Constance (sixteenth Ecumenical Council 1414-18) and the dramatic Council of Basel (seventeenth Ecumenical Council 1431–1449).[2]

Known copies

There are very few known extant copies:[3]

Library	Provenance
Harvard Library	Cuthbert Turner, Pusey House, Library[4]
University of St Andrews Library
Bodleian Library	Cardinal Wolsey[1]
Royal Library of the Netherlands
Bibliothèque nationale de France
University of Deusto
Biblioteca Nacional de España
Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (online)
Universitat de Barcelona	Convent of Sant Francesc d'Assís (Barcelona)[2]
British Library[5]

In volume one (Tomus primus) of the copy in the Bodleian there is the first example of an English bookplate[6] David Pearson has suggested that the bookplate – painted on paper rather than printed – may have been put there by someone donating the book to Wolsey. Such a bookplate is not to be found in the second volume.[7]

Digital copy

• Tomus primus quatuor Conciliorum vol. 1

References

1. "Primus (-secundus) tomus quatuor conciliorum generalium. Paris, Jean Cornilleau für Galliot du Pré, 1524". www.vialibri.net. viaLibri. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
2. "Catàleg de les biblioteques de la UB / All Locations". cataleg.ub.edu. University of Barcelona. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
3. Cornicularius, Ioannes; Du Pré, Galliot; Merlinus, Jacobus (1524). Tomus primus quatuor Conciliorum generalium (in Latin). OCLC 1025032262. Retrieved 19 September 2020 – via World Cat.
4. "Tomus primus quatuor conciliorum generalium". hollis.harvard.edu. Harvard University. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
5. British Library copy; Jisc library hub Discover
6. Blatchly, John (2010). "The Earliest Bookplate". The Bookplate Journal (8): 133–5.
7. Pearson, David (2019). "What is the First English Bookplate?". The Library: The Transactions of the Bibliographical Society. 20 (4, 13 December 2019): 527–532. doi:10.1093/library/20.4.527. ISSN 1744-8581.