 |
[FLORENCE, SYNOD 1517]
Statuta Concilii Florentini.
Florence: Bartolomeo Sermartelli, 1564.
£2250.00
|
|
4to, pp. [xxiv] 126 [ii]. Roman and Gothic letter. Woodcut device with Medici arms and putti on title, decrees printed in red and commentary in black throughout. A little light soiling to lower outer corner of title page, light foxing to a few pages, generally clean and fresh on thick paper, a very nice copy in slightly later Italian vellum over pasteboard, titled in brown ink on spine, red speckled edges. Inscription of Philippus ?Franciscus ?Civisatnovis, 'publius Florenti. Archepiscopalis Curia scribe' on recto of final leaf; another early clerical ownership inscription below; 18th-century cardinal's engraved armorial bookplate and another, later, on upper pastedown. Second edition of the decrees of the Synod of Florence in 1517 (the first was Giunta 1518), dedicated to Leo X and Cardinal Giulio de Medici (later Pope Clement VII). The Medici had returned to Florence only five years earlier, with Spanish backing, but their fortunes were greatly enhanced by the creation of Giovanni di Medici Pope Leo X. Divided into 34 main subject headings, the decrees cover the punishments for a variety of sexual or financial transgressions, including a multitude of carnal sins by priests (even mentioning incest), sodomy and the prostitution of boys, blasphemy, apostasy, simony, usury, and the law relating to wills, money lending, trade, judicial proceedings etc, with one condemning printers in the city who publish without licence. It also discusses the status of provincial synods and their acts, as well as the form they were to follow, and mentions the acts of the tenth session of Lateran V (1512-1517), which relate to their regulation. The scope of the pronouncements of a Diocesan synod were limited to the preservation of faith or discipline. Nonetheless, all the clergy and laity of the Diocese were bound by its acts, following their promulgation (either by reading the acts at the synod itself, or through their publication, as in this case). This synod concentrated on issues of local importance, such as the moral state of the 'very unobservant' population of Florence. A number of its sanctions take the form of fines, which the Church itself could presumably enforce. The enumerations of the sins of the Florentine populace in the pronouncements of the Synod give a lively picture of the timbre of life in the city at the turn of the sixteenth century, and the moral state of the clergy, above all. BM STC It. p. 269; Adams F-619; Graesse Vi, p. 487; not in Brunet.
|
|
|