2023 First Black Letter Press Edtn Signed & Inscribed by PSY THE MARTYRDOM OF SAINT CYPRIAN By Aelia Eudocia Augusta, Trans. Paul Summers Young

2023 First Black Letter Press Edition Signed & Inscribed by PSY

THE MARTYRDOM OF SAINT CYPRIAN
By Aelia Eudocia Augusta, Trans. Paul Summers Young

KEY DETAILS
Condition: Fine
Format: Hardcover, duodecimo or twelvemo (12mo 5 × 7 3⁄8 in 127 × 187 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Published By: Black Letter Press, Obernkirchen, Germany, 2023
Language: English
Provenance: / Signing
Collation: pp. 83
Dust Jacket: None, as issued, No Jacket
SKU: BTETM0002392
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 2Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request

DESCRIPTION
The Martyrdom of Saint Cyprian
Signed & Inscribed by the Translator By Aelia Eudocia Augusta Translated and Introduced by Paul Summers Young An especially appealing signed and inscribed first edition of Aelia Eudocia Augusta’s The Martyrdom of Saint Cyprian, published by Black Letter Press in 2023 and translated and introduced by Paul Summers Young. This copy is one of only two copies of the title signed by Paul Summers Young for Books That Expand The Mind. The signing was personally witnessed by the proprietor of BTETM. Young has signed and dated the title page in Roman numerals, “iii.i.mmxxiv” [3 January 2024], and has additionally inscribed the volume with the highly appropriate Latin phrase: “Non timebis a timore nocturno” — “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night,” from Psalm 90:5 in the Vulgate tradition. The inscription is particularly resonant in the context of Saint Cyprian, whose legend centres upon magic, demonic agency, spiritual protection, conversion and the ultimate defeat of sorcery through Christian faith. Together with the dated signature, it gives this copy considerably greater individual character than a conventionally flat-signed example. A handsome modern Black Letter Press production, bound in brown buckram with striking black and gilt decoration to the upper board, coloured endpapers, sewn book block and ribbon marker. The compact format and strongly symbolic binding are particularly suited to this important survival of Late Antique religious and magical literature.

PROVENANCE
/ Signing One of two copies of The Martyrdom of Saint Cyprian signed by Paul Summers Young specifically for Books That Expand The Mind. The signing of both copies was personally witnessed by the proprietor of BTETM. No claim is made that these are the only signed copies in existence; the limitation stated here relates specifically to the two copies signed for Books That Expand The Mind.

CONDITION, COLLATION & COPY NOTES
A particularly clean and attractive copy showing little evidence of handling or use. Brown buckram binding remains bright and crisp, with the black and gilt decoration to the upper board well preserved. Corners and extremities appear sharp, with no significant rubbing or wear evident from inspection. Endpapers are clean and fresh. Internally the volume presents extremely well, with clean, bright leaves and no notable spotting, staining or annotation observed other than the translator’s signature, date and inscription. Paul Summers Young has signed the title page and dated it iii.i.mmxxiv [3 January 2024]. A separate inscription reads “Non timebis a timore nocturno”, followed by Young’s initials/signature. An unusually attractive signed and inscribed example of the first edition. Please see Photos as part of condition report.

REFERENCES
Ludwich, A. (ed.) Eudociae Augustae, Proclii Lycii, Claudiani carminum graecorum reliquae. Leipzig, 1897. Bevegni, C. “Eudociae Augustae Martyrium S. Cypriani I 1–99,” Prometheus, Vol. 8 (1982), pp. 249–262. Bevegni, C. (ed.) Eudocia Augusta: Storia di San Cipriano. Milan: Adelphi, 2006. ISBN 9788845920752. Bailey, R. The Acts of Saint Cyprian of Antioch: Critical Editions, Translations, and Commentary. McGill University, 2017. Praticò, D. “Odyssean Mediations in Eudocia’s Martyrdom of St Cyprian,” The Cambridge Classical Journal, 2023. The present Black Letter Press translation by Paul Summers Young is based upon the modern Italian textual tradition represented by Claudio Bevegni’s edition.

SYNOPSIS
In the fifth century, Aelia Eudocia Augusta, Empress of Byzantium, composed an epic poetic account of the crimes, conversion and salvation of Cyprian of Antioch: a professional magician portrayed as having attained virtually everything that the ancient world believed a sorcerer might know. Cyprian is drawn into the story when his magical abilities are sought against Justina, a devout young Christian woman. His successive attempts to overcome her through sorcery and demonic intervention fail before her faith, confronting the magician with powers that his own arts cannot master. What follows is at once a conversion narrative, a work of Christian hagiography and an extraordinary glimpse into the religious imagination of Late Antiquity. Eudocia evokes a world populated by magicians, demons, pagan divinities, mystery cults and the rapidly expanding Christian faith — a landscape in which one religious and intellectual order was gradually giving way to another. Cyprian himself is especially compelling. Learned in magical practice and allied with demonic powers, he anticipates in striking ways the later literary figure of Faust: the scholar-magician whose pursuit of forbidden knowledge brings him into direct relationship with the Devil. Young’s translation presents Eudocia’s poem in a deliberately immediate modern style, retaining its mixture of spiritual drama, dark humour and the atmosphere of life in the Late Roman Levant. For collectors of Saint Cyprian, grimoires, magic, demonology, Late Antique religion, Christian esotericism and the history of Western occultism, the work occupies an unusual position between ancient literary culture and the later European magical tradition.

AUTHOR BIO
Aelia Eudocia Augusta (c. 401–460) was a fifth-century Byzantine empress, poet and author, renowned for combining classical Greek literary culture with Christian subject matter. Born in Athens and highly educated in Greek rhetoric and literature, she became the wife of the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II. Her surviving literary work occupies a distinctive position at the meeting point of the classical and Christian worlds of Late Antiquity. In The Martyrdom of Saint Cyprian, Eudocia recast the legendary life, magical career and conversion of Cyprian of Antioch into epic verse, producing an extraordinary literary treatment of pagan magic, demonic powers, Christian faith and religious transformation. Translator Bio Paul Summers Young is a translator, editor and writer whose work with Black Letter Press has concentrated particularly on the magical, philosophical and esoteric literature of Europe. His projects for the press include the four-volume English edition of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s De Occulta Philosophia, Giambattista della Porta’s Natural Magick, Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, The Black Pullet, The Red Dragon, Ars Goetia and other works in the Western magical tradition. For The Martyrdom of Saint Cyprian, Young produced a modern English translation intended to preserve the immediacy and vitality of Eudocia’s account while making this remarkable Late Antique text accessible to a contemporary readership.