A Catholic Voice in Marian Oxford: Hoffmeister’s Loci Communes (1552) in an early Contemporary Oxford Binding (Gibson Roll 20)

A Catholic Voice in Marian Oxford: Hoffmeister’s Loci Communes (1552) in an early Contemporary Oxford Binding (Gibson Roll 20)

"Loci Communes Rerum Theologicarum"

-Johann Hoffmeister (1509–1547)

-Antwerp: Joannes Grapheus, in aedibus Joannis Steelsii, 1552

-Collation [16] 280 (of 286 + [2]) - Lacking the final 8 leaves

Small Octavo - Binding worn and loosening with crude old rebacking to front board.  - Fair condition overall. Lacking ties, crude repair to upper centre board. Corners bumped. Manuscript endpapers removed (with some minor remnants of the manuscript waste). Front page loosening. Old ink stain to centre front edge which bleeds onto text block.

-USTC 404195 – 7 recorded copies worldwide with 1 only in the USA (Illinois)

An important anti-Reformation Catholic tract, Loci Communes is a theological counter to the emerging Protestant reformation, especially that of Melanchthon. Johann Hoffmeister (1509–1547), an Augustinian Hermit and Prior in Colmar from 1533, was a prominent defender of Catholicism. He played a key role in major religious centres at Regensburg, Worms, and Hagenau in an attempt to keep the Catholic church united.

The volume is bound in an interesting contemporary Oxford binding, decorated with a roll-tool identified as Gibson, Plate 39, No. 20 (Early Oxford Bindings). This particular roll was in active use c.1550–1560 and is found on books held in the Bodleian Library and at Magdalen College, Oxford. Notably, the same roll was reused—damaged—by Dominique Pinart around 1610.

The presence of this Oxford binding on a pro-Catholic work printed in 1552 suggests it was acquired and bound in Oxford during the Marian restoration (1553–1558). This aligns with Mary I’s efforts to re-establish Catholicism in England, particularly within the universities. Being a Catholic tract, Hoffmeister’s Loci Communes explored ways of countering protestant ideas, making it especially relevant at the time.

This copy likely belonged to someone within Oxford’s clerical or academic community who maintained Catholic sympathies during Mary’s reign. Unlike many Oxford bindings of the period, which bind Protestant or institutional texts and often survive in college libraries, this volume's absence from an Oxford library catalogue is fascinating. As it is Catholic in content, it is unlikely to have been retained by a university institution after Elizabeth I’s accession in 1558. The Book of Common Prayer Act of 1559 mandated conformity to the Anglican ways, and many Catholic books were removed, destroyed, or passed into private hands. This survivor, in its original Oxford binding, suggests that it was owned by a Marian sympathiser within the university—likely a fellow or student with recusant leanings who chose (or was forced) to remove it from public view. 

Binding: Although Oxford Bindings from the 1600s do appear on the market, Oxford bindings from the 1550s and earlier are more uncommon. Of note, these earlier Oxford bindings do not have the characteristic diagonal hatching on the spine which is prevalent on Oxford bindings from 1580s to the 1640s.

Comparable bindings using the same roll-tool include in the Bodleain:

1. C.4.19 – a volume by Stöffler

2. C.15.2 Th. – Operum divi Cyrilli