St. Augustine:  The Classic Text: Traditions and Interpretations


Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self.  (De Civitate Dei, XIV, 28)

Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.
The Confessions of St. Augustine. Ipswitch: Printed for the members of The Limited Editions Club by W. S. Cowell, Ltd., 1962.
Call Number: (SPL) BR 65 .A6 E5 1962
Gift of Loryn Romadka, from the collection of Austin F. Lutter.
Special Collections, Golda Meir Library

128k
St. Augustine Image
143k
St. Augustine Text

Writer and editor, George N. Shuster summarizes the timelessness of this work in the introduction to this edition:

More than fifteen hundred years have passed since this book was written by a Roman, but it has lost none of its freshness and appeal. Here a Christian saint who has influenced the thought and feeling of the West as perhaps no other man has, tells the story of his life with the utmost candor and pertinence of phrase. He considers himself a brand saved from the burning through the goodness of God, to whom he pays tribute. The book is, indeed, above all an act of thanksgiving. But no doubt it was also written because Augustine hoped he could outline a goal for many young men and women of his time who were going nowhere in particular.

This edition contains twenty-four illustrations by Edy Legrand, a noted book illustrator of the mid-twentieth century. This is his ninth book illustrated for the Limited Editions Club. Legrand wrote of his illustrations:

I have meant this book to be grand and mysterious. I hope that you will not find my interpretation too far away from the terrestrial and the picturesque. I have endeavored to effect a transcription of St. Augustine's colloquy with God. It would have been easy to draw stadiums, theatres, cities, but the real problem was elsewhere -- the inner story of a soul.

This edition is limited to 1,500 copies, signed by the artist.


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URL: http://www.uwm.edu/Library/special/exhibits/clastext/clspg063.htm
Last edited on Tuesday, December 11, 2001.
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