Constitutiones Cum earum Declarationibus.Rome, In Collegio eiusdem Societatis,

SIGNED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE JESUITS IN ROME, A CORRESPONDENT OF PLANTIN'S

Engraved architectural title page, occasional 5-line woodcut initials, typographic ornament. 

8vo (180 x 125mm). 309, [35]pp, with additional [10]ff bound at end. Contemporary lace-cased limp vellum binding, sewn on two supports, spine with manuscript title at head, initial 'B', remnants of manuscript inscription to head of upper cover (small hole repaired on upper cover with modern vellum, spine reinforced at head and foot with slips of modern vellum, endpapers renewed, lacking ties).

Rome, In Collegio eiusdem Societatis,

The final, authoritative version of the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, prepared during the third and fourth General Congregations. This Latin version was compiled under the direction of the third congregation and subjected to the minute scrutiny of the fourth, with the help of the original Spanish manuscript, preserved in the Society's archives. The "Declarations" are found here as marginal glosses, printed in italic.

The Constitutions is one of the fundamental texts of the Society of Jesus, written by the founder, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, and his companions, notably his secretary Juan de Polanco. It was originally written in Spanish and published as a manuscript in 1553; the first Latin translation was printed in 1559. 

Bound in at the end of this volume are 10ff. (numbered pp. 223-240, [1] f.) extracted from another work published by the Society in the following year, giving Pope Gregory XIII's official confirmation of the revised Constitutiones, signed on the colophon by Secretary of the Jesuits in Rome, Jacobus Ximenez (Diego Jimenez, 1530-96) with a label from the order.

Ximenez was directly involved in the posthumous publication of his mentor, and one of Ignatius of Loyola's first companions, Jerónimo Nadal's hugely significant Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia (1595). “The first major publishing venture of the Society of Jesus” (Vacalebre) the Adnotationes was a lavishly illustrated guide to the Gospels, in which illustration and its interaction with the text, was crucial. Ximenez was an instrumental force behind its publication, writing to Christopher Plantin himself, in Antwerp, to task him with the printing; he would also, later, set up an enquiry to look into the extortionate cost of the printing, in particular, the production of the engravings (executed by the Wierix brothers). "The congenital unpredictability of the Wierix brothers cost the Society about 4,000 scudi-moneta – a third more than the estimated expenditure – as well as a considerable delay in printing the work; indeed, the three engravers abandoned work on the project shortly after starting it, and only resumed their labors after more than a year’s delay" (Vacalebre). 

Provenance: From the collection of Roberto Severino (b. 1940), professor emeritus of Italian at Georgetown University, scholar of Italian literature and language, and poet. 

Edit16 20779. Sommervogel V, 77. Not in Adams.

N. Vacalebre, “Se Vee Clara Y Cierta La ruina” in Je révise Les images (Rome: Publications de l’École française de Rome, 2023).

Stock Code: 253396