Tommmaso De Vio - Summula Caietani - 1601

Summula Caietani. Saint Xistus Cardinal, Illustrious of the Order of Preachers. Very learned, concisely resolved, and according to the Sacred Ecumenical and General Council of Trent, and the canons, and the most severe chapters. Added (as they are called) Summaries and a copious index of the principal matters.

Venice, at the Minim Friars, 1601. In 12mo, (30) pp., 606, frontispiece with printer’s mark (unapproved) depicting a bird holding a branch with leaves, with an initial capital at the start of each small paragraph, bound in original parchment, worn, with remains of closing ties. In this manual for confessors (written in 1523 and placed on the Index in 1559; first and second editions printed in Venice by Nicolinium, respectively in 1571 and 1584; Venice edition also that of Bindonum, always 1571; many later editions), the author enumerates innumerable sins alphabetically, and ranks them according to gravity. Among the cases treated: abortion, adultery, intercourse with animals, mortal sin because a carnal union with an imperfect being, since “ambulat manibus et pedibus,” incest, prostitution, sodomy, apostasy, schism, excessive cruelty (only judges can decide whether to kill or mutilate criminals; mutilation on one’s own initiative is generally a sin), issuing defamatory libels, irony, mountebanks, if they make sport of Faith or of the Law; alchemy is not always “vicious,” not “illegal,” if “sine fraude”; Divination, Aruspicium, Auspicium, however, are always mortal, because they require invocation and the aid of demons, as do Enchantment, Malefices, and Sorceries. About a dozen pages are devoted to Usury, to the various possible cases and to the persons who practice it. Another five pages concern exclusively Mons Genuensis or Monte Genovese, a Monte di Pietà founded in Genoa for humanitarian purposes, to spare the weakest social strata from usury. Recent stamp of private ownership and an ancient note on the first blank page, parchment worn and with a persistent film of dirt, the edges of the pages dirty, the interior sound and legible despite certain humidity stains.