This commentary on the biblical Book of Job is based on lectures that were given by Pope Gregory I to his peers while he was in Constantinople during the 580s. They were later expanded in writing upon solicitation of Leander, Bishop of Seville. Dwelling on moral issues such as why an all-powerful God permits evil in the world, Gregory first interprets the text literally, then allegorically, to morally educate his reader. Gregory's intended audience was composed of monks and priests, but his work gradually attained a much larger readership, and by the end of the fourteenth century it had been translated into Old German, Spanish, and Italian. The many hundreds of manuscript copies that have survived attest to such popularity. 

This copy is the fourth printed edition. Its printer, Conrad Winters de Homborch, was the first one to establish a press in Cologne, and is thought to have trained the Englishman William Caxton in the art of printing.

Binding description
George III armorial binding in full diced calf leather. Covers decorated with gilt fillets to form a border with gilt tools at the corners; royal arms as centrepiece; gilt fillets on board edges and gilt roll on turn-ins. Spine with five raised bands with five decorative false bands, decorated with gilt fillets, tools and titling; sewn double headbands. Textblock gilted and gauffered. Marbled endpapers.