(Theology, Philosophy, Medicine; Illustrated; Bindings) GREGORIUS NYSSENUS (335 c. -394 c.), JOHANNES LEUNCLAVIUS (1533?-1593 or 1594) Opus admirandum Gregorii Nysseni Antistitis, de Hominis opificio: interprete Iohanne Levvenelaio: Annotationibus etiam necessarijs additis. Liber Medicinae, Philosophiae, Sacrarum q. litterarum studiosis perutilis. Basilaeae, Per Ioannem Oporinum (1567) (colophon) § 8vo (12 x 18,5 x3 cm.); 366, [14] pp., signature: A-Z1-8, A1-6. Parallel text Greek / Latin; woodcut on title page, woodcut initials, some woodcut illustrations. Ownership signature on free leaf, dated 1837; old handwritten annotations on title page and throughout. Contemporary vellum, handwritten title on spine. On front cover initials and date (C. B. C. 1601). Saint Gregory of Nyssa was a “philosophical theologian and mystic, leader of the orthodox party in the 4th-century Christian controversies over the doctrine of the Trinity. Primarily a scholar, he wrote many theological, mystical, and monastic works in which he balanced Platonic and Christian traditions.” (Hardy). In his work De Hominis opificio (On the making of Man), which can be considered as a systhematic anthropological treatise, the author tackles the problem of how the human mind, created as image of God, can exist within the limits of the physical body. Gregory did not accept the dualistic theory, of Platonic origin, of an imperfect union between the spiritual and physical components of Man but he thought neither that the human mind is totally subjected to physical conditions of the body. An exhaustive study of the medical literature of his time, Galen in particular, as well as of Plato phylosophy, that he studied through Plotinus and Origen, brought him to take an intermediate position, concluding that the intelligible mind do exhist and interacts with the physical body, without being limited by the latter. “Against those who place this faculty (the reasoning faculty) in the brain, Gregory argued that certain mental states and afflictions were due to physical conditionssuffered by the body and, therefore, had nothing to do with the reasoning faculty being confined to the brain. ... Gregory’s selective use of the anatomical investigations of Galen and the Greek medical writers helped him construct an unified theory of the human person in which the intelligible activity of minf both interacted freely with the physical body and depended upon the body funcioning naturally for the complete expression of its divine rationality.” (Wessel, p. 2). “There is, nevertheless, an imposing unity about Gregory of Nyssa’s thought on man and on the dignity of human nature. Spirit, soul and body are one in man. ... The creational body itself does not disturb Gregory’s vision of God’s plans for man and the universe, ... it is beautiful and mrvelously adapted to the mind: it has remained a work of God who obviously did not consider bodies valueless if He created them” (Ladner, p. 93). Joannes Leonclavius, also known as Hans Lewenklaw or Löwenklau, added his annotations at the and of the work. A German historian and orientalist, he was an expert in Turkish history; he republished and annotated Ottoman sources and edited Xenophon, Cassius Dio, and other classical authors.  EDWARD R. HARDY Saint Gregory of Nyssa In: Encyclopedia Britannica; SUSAN WESSEL The Reception of Greek Science in Gregory of Nyssa’s De Hominis Opificio In: Vigiliae Christianae 63, 2009, pp. 24-46; GERHART B. LADNER The Philosophical Anthropology of Saint Gregory of Nyssa In: Dumbarton Oaks Papers 1958, Vol. 12, pp. 59-94