[VITELLESCHI, Mutio?].

£1,250 · Offered by Sokol Books

Good copies of these forged editions of three major Jesuit works probably compiled by Mutio Vitelleschi (1563-1645). He was the Sixth Superior General of the Society of Jesus, and professor of theology, philosophy and logic at Roman Collegia. These three works gathered together important texts for the continuing education of Jesuits worldwide, as reliable, approved reference manuals. Directorium is an introduction to the meaning, purpose and techniques for undertaking St Ignatius s spiritual exercises and meditation, spanning the course of a four-week retreat, on Christ s life and suffering. The Epistolae is a collection of letters from major figures of the Order (St Ignatius, Aquaviva, Mercuriano, Borgia, Laines and Vitelleschi) to superiors and members on theology and the Jesuits spiritual mission. The third work, a detailed Index generalis of the Institutiones , reveals the original context of these works, part of a 16-volume series called Corpus institutionum societatis Jesu . Separately printed, they were found as stand-alone or bound, as in this case, in a sammelband of two or three. Whilst the first edition of the Corpus was published by Jan Meurs in 1635, the present copies were published two to three decades later by Jan Schipper in Amsterdam, without the license of the Society of Jesus. A distinction is the spelling Joannem with a J on the t-ps of the first and second, as well as the woodcut vignette of St Ignatius with the Latin motto on all three. Two theories hav

• Binding: Hardcover

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