F.D. Serio - Esercizj di Missione - 1760

Mission Exercises of Father M. Fra Domenico Serio of the Order of Preachers
Venice, Remondini Press, 1760.
Fifth edition, enriched by the author with nine Sermons for the evening (in the time of discipline) and many Night Sentiments.

In-4° (mm 247 × 185). Pp. XVI, 360.
Contemporary binding in parchment, spine with two leather life (brown and black) and gold-tooled edges: «SERIO / MISSIONI» and «VOL. UNICO».

Contents
Practical manual destined for missionaries, preachers, parish priests and confessors, composed by the Dominican Fra Domenico Serio (former Vicar General of the Province of the Two Calabries, synodical Examiner and Consultor of the Holy Office).

The work is divided into two parts:
• First part: Sermons of matter (main discourses of the Mission: opening and importance of the Mission, Hell, Death of the soul, Fruit of the Mission, etc.).
• Second part: Catechism and eight Discourses for the Clergy, with lessons on fundamental themes (Sacrament of Confession, precepts of the Church, scandals of the clergy, etc.).

In this present fifth edition the author has added nine Sermons for the evening (destined to the time of discipline) and numerous «Night Sentiments». Completing the volume are a dedication to the Virgin Mary, an Invitation to the Preachers to undertake the Missions, and a rich Index of the most notable things.

Typically missionary text of the full eighteenth century, characterized by a direct, dramatic and popular style, rich in scriptural and patristic citations, designed for concrete use in popular missions, especially in the Mezzogiorno.

Importance and rarity
A work of considerable interest for the history of preaching and popular missions in eighteenth-century Italy. The author, a Calabria-born Dominican of high rank in the Order, provides a complete operational tool (sermons, catechism, discourses for the clergy, evening sermons and nighttime meditations) intended for those who had to “reform life and register the conscience.”
The 1760 fifth edition testifies to the success and diffusion of the text. The Remondini press of Venice (later Bassano) was at the time one of the major European publishers of popular religious literature, capable of large print runs and a widespread commercial network.

Copies of this edition are today relatively rare on the antiquarian market, especially in original bindings and complete. The volume offers a vivid and direct testimony of Dominican missionary spirituality and practice in the midst of the Italian Catholic Enlightenment.

Conditions: original binding with wear and signs of age; pages generally fresh, with the usual stains and browning typical of period paper; complete.

Ideal for collectors of antique religious books, the history of missions and eighteenth-century Venetian typography.