1594 Das Kleine Corpus Doctrinae... Catechismus, Matthew Richter. Lutheran Reformation catechisms (education).

A 1594 edition of Matthew Judex Richter's Das Kleine Corpus Doctrinae..., prepared as a catechism tool for the German Lutherans.

"Luther's catechisms were not the only expositions of the chief articles of the faith available to late sixteenth century Lutheran pastors… Other Lutherans developed more detailed… Scriptural teaching, facilitating what Luther himself had envisioned in the preface of the Small Catechism: the use of more advanced treatises for those who would master the basics which he was setting forth. Still others expanded on the text of Luther's Small Catechism in sermonic form or with extended questions and answers. One of the more frequently published examples of the latter genre was the Small Corpus Doctrinae of Matthaeus Judex (1528-1564). composed shortly before his death. Judex had studied under Luther and Melanchthon, helped compile the Magdeburg Centuries, and served as pastor and as professor at Jena. Planned as an exercise book for catechetical instruction in school or home, Judex's work followed a simple format. Questions on topics ranging from God, creation, angels, sin, law, God's Word, gospel, justification, etc. through the Antichrist, adiaphora, offense, the cross, marriage, death, and the resurrection were answered very briefly. Next, the reader of the catechism was instructed to say, "Recite a passage on this," and a suitable Scripture reference was provided. The section concluded then with the question, "Where is this doctrine to be found in the catechism?" and the answer was given, directing attention to one or more of the chief parts or specific elements therein. The Small Corpus Doctrinae concluded with suitable catechetical references for opposing the heresies of the "papists, sacramentarians, Anabaptists, interimists, Osiandirans, Majorists," and others. Judex provided pastors and lay people with a finely honed tool for building upon catechetical knowledge and introducing the young to the Scriptural basis of the doctrine stated and implied in the catechism itself." - Luther's Catechisms, Scaer and Preus, 1979, page 17

About the Printer -

The Oberursel printer Nicolaus Henricus prepared this work. The website, Ursellis.de, presents an interesting argument that Henricus only partially operated out of Uburursel and what the press there succeeded in achieving was allowing some Frankfurt Lutheran's to print without a Frankfurt license, using the Oberursel press as their printer's mark/privilege. The chief argument is that Oberursel did not have the facilities to match their output, and many of their works were nearly identical to others printed in Frankfurt, save the printer's device.

With a 1594 date (last printed page), this book would have been near the end of Henricus' printing (1597).

Also, of interest, the book had grown by 1594. Catalogue records of Henricus printings (catalogued in Worldcat) state that the 1571 edition had 31 leaves (627574), the 1575 edition had 38 leaves (627575), the 1579 edition had 39 leaves (627573) and this 1594 edition has 48 leaves (not catalogued).

Neither Worldcat, or the Universal Short Title Catalogue has record of this 1594 edition. The other editions are sparse too, with one or two copies being recorded for the various catalog entries.

About Matthew Judex Richter -

“A German theologian, and one of the principal writers of the Centuries of Magdeburg, was born at Dippoldsforest, in Saxony, September 22, 1528. He was educated at Wittenberg University, where he took his master's degree in Oct. 1549. Shortly after he became minister of the church of St. Ulric, at Magdeburg, and left this position in 1559 to become professor of divinity at the University at Jena; but only eighteen months later he was ousted from the chair by order of the duke of Saxony, on account of his opposition to the Synergists, who were in great favor at court. As a cause for his removal the authorities assigned his publication of De fuga Papatus. He then removed to Magdeburg, but, like the other authors of the Centuries, he had to endure persecution. He was finally obliged to quit Magdeburg, and spent the remainder of his life at Wismar. He died May 15, 1564.” - Biblical Cyclopedia

Bibliographic Details -

See earlier notes on the printer, where the Worldcat entries were listed. Reprinted often in the latter half of the 16th century.

Robert Kolb, in Lutheran Ecclesiastical Culture, writes, "Judex's (catechism) appeared in at least seventy-seven printings, including editions in Latin, Low German, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, Greek and Hebrew." (2008, page 174)

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 10 x 15 x 1 cm. Signed in 8 (octavo). Leather binding. Boards with a frame of blind single fillet. Spine with five raised bands; compartments tooled with a blind wave-like tool.

Pages - 48 unnumbered leaves

Collation - A-F8

Condition -

See pictures. Fresh binding, with the lightest rubbing and ring marks. Pastedown and endpapers richly annotated with bibliographic notes. Text block toned throughout with some rust spots; not printed on high-end paper; the book was for the lay people. Title page with provenance names, page edge chips, ink drops, manuscript year, and mounted at the gutter (strip of tissue on verso gutter). Throughout there is a moisture mark at the bottom edge, sometimes extending farther up the page into text; this moisture mark is sometimes greyish, I think at one time the book might have had hints of mold but then it was cleaned/repaired and rebound. At the end of Richter's dedication, someone erroneously corrected his "1564" to "1594", the date of publishing. Some dog-eared pages. Some other occasional graphite correction marks.