ZONARAS, Joannes; HAEDUUS, Joannes Quintinus, ed. [with] GRATIANUS.

£2,250 · Offered by Sokol Books

.A most interesting combination of very good copies, handsomely printed with wide margins, of two major works on the historic ecclesiastical regulations on the conduct and duties of the clergy. Attributed to Joannes Zonaras (fl. 12thC), a Byzantine historian and theologian, Canones Apostolorum reproduces, in Greek and Latin, the 85 rules of the early Christian Church, allegedly authorised by the Apostles, as well as those approved by the acknowledged ecclesiastical councils, each followed by a short explanation. First published in Mainz in 1525, in the context of anti-Lutheran debates, they are concerned with the duties and countenance of bishops, presbyters and deacons (e.g., concubinage, demeanour during sacraments, food and drink), the administration of religious life and the sacraments. The editor, the French canonist Johannes Quintinus Haeduus (d.1561), provides in the preface a most interesting description of the original Greek ms in the Royal Library reproduced here for the first time: Magnificent is the very elegant script, written on splendid paper. The royal codex is bound. The second work, here in the very scarce second edition (after that of 1556), is a compendium on the same subject drawn from the Decretum by the C12 jurist Gratian, only superseded as a canon law authority by Gregory IX s Decretales (1324). Edited by Haeduus, it includes excerpts from 25 distinctiones , alternating scriptural and patristic passages, and explanations from Part I of the Decretum .

• Binding: Hardcover

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