< prev | index | next >

[1] Opvscvla omnia Thomae de Vio Caietani, Cardinalis titvli sancti Xysti, In tres distincta Tomos;
[2] Divi Thomae Aqvinatis Doctoris Angelici Qvaestiones Qvodlibetales Duodecim;
[3] Avg[vstini] Hvnnæi De sacramentis ecclesiae Christi Axiomata;
[4] Qvaestiones dvae S. Thomae de Aqvino nuper repertae, ac in lucem editae. Vna De principio individvationis, altera vero De motoribvs coelestium corporum. Qvae repertae fvervnt Florentiae in Bibliotheca D. Marci;
[5] Sex copiosissimi Indices diu multumque hactenus ab omnibus desiderati Svmmae theologiae D. Thomae Aqvinatis;
[6] Elvcidationes formales, totivs Svmmae theologicae sancti Thomae de Aqvino, Almi ordinis Praedicatorum . . . Per F. Seraphinum Caponi à Porrecta, eiusdem ordinis (Venice: Filippo and Jacopo Giunta, 1588) .

This volume binds together six separate items, each with its own title page, all printed in Venice in 1588 by Filippo and Jacopo Giunta. Although the texts in this volume are interrelated and were sold and bound together as here, each book came from the press in a disposable paper cover, so that buyers could make whatever arrangement they wished of the printers' wares. It is likely, therefore, that bibliographers will find one or some of these items separately in other existing volumes. The title pages to Thomas Aquinas's quodlibetal questions (vol. 2), the six indices to his Summa (vol. 5), and Serafino Capponi's comments on the Summa (vol 6) display an engraved bust of Thomas enclosed in a classical architectural frame (see catlogue n° 67).

These volumes are clearly related to the edition of Jeanne Giunta and Thibault Ancelin produced in Lyon (catalogue n° 63). The first volume contains the Opuscula of Cajetan with their index, which is the same as that printed in the earlier Lyon edition. Likewise, the second volume contains Thomas Aquinas's twelve quodlibetal questions and their index as printed in Lyon.

The third, slender book offers a new item: schematic diagrams, compiled by Augustine Huens (Hunnaeus) of Louvain (1521-1578), which summarize Thomas Aquinas's teaching on the sacraments in the third part of the Summa theologiae and in its Supplement. This section also contains a Brevissimus Catechismus Catholicus by Huens, with its own title page. Huens participated in the edition of Thomas's Summa produced by Plantin in 1569 (see catalogue n° 62). His Axiomata, first published in Antwerp in 1570, appeared in many subsequent editions of the Summa (see, e.g., catalogue n° 67). His diagrammatic abridgments, Huens claims, reduce the "prolixity" of the Summa itself, making its doctrine easier to remember.

The fourth book contains two philosophic questions on the principle of individuation and on the movement of the heavenly bodies, which are here ascribed to Thomas Aquinas. Thomas Buoninsegni of Siena, O.P. (†1609), "illustrious professor" in the University of Florence, found these questions in fifteenth-century manuscripts in the library of S. Marco, and claimed that they had now "come to light" for the first time. He strove to promote a civic celebration for his discovery; unfortunately, while the questions are ad mentem Thomae, they are spurious.
The fifth volume presents the "six most copious indices" to the Summa theologiae of Thomas Aquinas and the "Catalogue of theologians, philosophers, etc." as printed in the earlier Lyon editions (catalogue n° 63). As printed by the Venetian Giuntas, these indices as well as the schematic diagrams by Huens could be purchased separately by students of Thomas's teaching and attached to other volumes or used as study-aids.

The sixth volume begins with an "Index of heresies and errors and their authors" that are refuted by "natural reason" in the writings of Thomas Aquinas. This global index did not appear in the Lyon editions. Finally, the volume presents the first edition of the Elucidationes of Thomas's Summae theologiae by Serafino Capponi della Porreta, O.P. (1536-1614; see catalogue n° 67). Brother Serafino professed in Bologna. Besides these "formal elucidations" of Thomas's Summa, he wrote annotations to Scripture, compendia of philosophy, and scholia to the Compendium theologicae veritatis, a summary of theology that was extremely popular in the Middle Ages. The work was commonly attributed to Albert the Great (as it was by Serafino), but it was actually written by one of Albert's students (see catalogue n° 42), Hugh Ripelin of Strassburg, O.P. (†1268).

References: Ascarelli 273-74; Kaeppeli no 1982 (Hugh Ripelin); Quétif-Échard 2/1: 370a-71a (Buoninsegni), 392b-94a (Serafino); Zappella, Il ritratto, 228 and fig. 340 (engraving).

Catalogue No. 66
Call Number: Rare Books BX 1750 V795      Catalog Record

< prev | index | next >