Tommmaso De Vio - Summula Caietani - 1601

Summa Caietani. Of Saint Xistus Cardinal, of the most illustrious order of Preachers. Most learned, concisely resolved, and in accordance with the Sacred Ecumenical & General Council of Trent, with its canons and chapters most rigorously corrected. Added (as they call them) Summaries and a copious index of the principal matters.

Venice, at the Minims’ Society, 1601. In 12mo, (30) pages, 606, frontispiece with a typographic mark depicting a bird holding a branch with leaves, initial capitals at the start of each little paragraph, bound in original full parchment with a worn strap attachment remains. In this manual for confessors (written in 1523 and placed on the Index in 1559; first and second editions issued in Venice by Nicolinus, respectively in 1571 and 1584; that of Bindonum, always 1571, is Venetian as well; many later editions), the Author enumerates innumerable sins alphabetically and ranks them according to gravity. Among the cases treated: abortion, adultery, coitus with animals, mortal sin by carnal union with an imperfect being, since “he walks with hands and feet,” incest, whoredom, sodomy, apostasy, schism, excessively cruel punishment (only judges may decide whether to kill or mutilate criminals; mutilation on one’s own initiative is generally a sin), emission of defamatory libels, irony, players/performers, if they mock Faith or Law; Alchemy is not always “vicious,” not “illicit,” if “without deceit”; Divination, Auspice, Augury, on the other hand, are always mortal, because they require the invocation and aid of demons, as do Enchantment, Maleficia and Sorceries. About a dozen pages are devoted to Usury, to the various cases that may arise and to the figures who practice it. Another five pages concern exclusively Mons Genuensis or Monte Genovese, the Monte di Pietà founded in Genoa for humanitarian purposes to relieve the weaker social classes from usury. Recent private ownership stamp and an old notation on the first white page, parchment worn and with a persistent film of dirt, page edges dirty; the interior is sound and legible despite some damp spots."} Virginia