B.de Merbes - SUMMA CHRISTIANA seu ORTHODOXA Morum Disciplina - 1683

SUMMA CHRISTIANA or Orthodox Moral Discipline
Faithfully excerpted from Sacred Scripture, the monuments of the Fathers, the Oracles of Councils, and finally the Decrees of the Popes
By the work and study of M. Boni Merbesii Mondiderini, priest of the Diocese of Amiens, preacher and Doctor of Theology.
Paris, at the presses of Antonio Dezallier, rue Jacob, under the sign of the Golden Crown, (1683).
With Approbation and Privilege for twenty years.

Two volumes in folio (30 × 27 cm).
Pp. (24), 682, (2), 120; (22), 121-518, 508.
Two-column text, titles in red and black with a fine engraved printer’s mark (a royal crown supported by two cherubs, motto “Nisi qui legitime certaverit,” signed Landry), dedication to Charles-Maurice Le Tellier (Archbishop of Reims), initials, drop-caps and tailpieces in wood engraving.

Contemporary binding in full brown leather, spines with five raised bands richly decorated in gold with floral and geometric borders, gilt titles and tome numbers within compartments (“SUMMA CHRISTIANA TOM. I / II”). Plain boards, brushed edges.

Monumental treatise of Catholic moral theology (summa of orthodox discipline of manners), divided into three parts.
• First and Second Part: rules of moral discipline, virtue and vice, precepts, with a broad index of questions.
• Third Part: systematic treatment of the seven Sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, Matrimony) through dissertations and questions, based on Scripture, the Fathers, Councils, and papal decrees.

Work by Bon de Merbes (Montdidier 1616-1684), French theologian, doctor and preacher, tied to the rigorist French milieu of the second half of the seventeenth century. Dedicated to Archbishop Le Tellier, it was regarded in the eighteenth century as one of the foundational texts of theological rigorism.

First edition (the only seventeenth-century edition) of a work of great scope, now quite rare complete and in contemporary binding. Present in major European libraries (BnF, BNCF, etc.), but scarce on the antiquarian market in good overall condition.

Complete copy, with the beautiful original typographic and copper-engraved illustrations.

General condition good for its age: bindings with wear and flaking on boards and spines (typical of sixteenth/seventeenth-century leather), interiors overall fresh, with some stains and light browning, paper sturdy.