Wittenberg, Crato, 1573.
4to. Contemporary full blindstamped pigskin over wooden boards. Four raised bands to spine. Brass clasps to boards. Handwritten title to spine and small white paper label pasted on to upper part of spine. Richly ornamented blindstamped borders to boards, with scenes from the bible in the centre of front and back board. Corners and extremities a bit worn and miscoloured, but binding overall in good condition. Front blank leaf detached and previous owner's name to title-page in contemporary hand. A few leaves with underlignings in text. Last 50 ff. with worm-tract in margin, not affecting text, otherwise in very good condition. (16), 910 pp.
A fine copy of the first edition of Moller’s commentaries on the psamls of David, published the same year as he was awarded the rectorship in the Wittenberg Academy. Moller was drawn to theological studies; he was listed as a theologian as early as 1561 and read about the minor prophets from the original text of the Bible. When in 1574 at the state parliament convened in Torgau the disputes between Philippists and Gnesiolutherans were decided in favor of the latter through the Torgau Articles, Moller and other Philippists refused to sign. He was then imprisoned in Wittenberg, Torgau and Leipzig and finally expelled from Electoral Saxony. On August 8, 1574, he returned to Hamburg and pursued both theological and medical studies. This enabled him to work as a doctor, which he continued until his death from a stroke. Not in Adams.
After initially receiving school education in his birthplace, he enrolled at the University of Wittenberg on June 14, 1546. He came into contact with Philipp Melanchthon, who primarily guided him in his preferred studies of oriental languages. The following year he enrolled at the University of Rostock. Back in Wittenberg, he acquired the academic degree of Master of Philosophy on February 24, 1551 and was accepted into the teaching staff of the philosophical faculty on July 7, 1554. At Melanchthon's efforts, after Paul Eber resigned from his professorship of Hebrew at the philosophy faculty, Moller received the position of professor of the Hebrew language at the University of Wittenberg. At the philosophical faculty he took over the deanship in 1562 and held the rectorship of the academy in 1573 and the equivalent vice-rectorate in 1565. He also became an assessor at the Wittenberg consistory in 1573.
Order-nr.: 60619