FIRST ITALIAN EDITION OF AN IMPORTANT COLLECTION OF MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE DECISIONS

Tribunale della Sacra Rota romana. Sacrosanctae decisiones canonicae ab excellentissimi viris, i.c. clarissimis, iisdemque Sacri Palatii auditoribus collectae. Aegidio Bellamera, Capella Tolosana, Gulielmo Cassiodoro, Petro de Benintendis. Nunc demum hac postrema editione diligentius recognitae, ac summariis auctae, ab innumerisque quibus scatebant, erroribus emendatae, addito insuper rerum indice locupletissimo. Venetiis : apud Hieronymum Scotum, 1572 (Venetiis : apud Hieronymum Scotum, 1571)

4to, 220x158 mm, contemporary stiff parchment binding with three bands at spine (strong signs of use, many repairs at spine and at back board), calligraphic title at spine, pp. [96], 1254 (i.e. 1154), [2]; errors in page-numbering (p. 899 is followed by p. 1000, skipping 100 pp.); title-page with black and red characters; two different woodcut printer devices, one at title-page (Griffin in profile supporting with a claw a table which in its turn is supporting by a chain a winged globe, symbol of the world, in a figured frame) and one at colophon (winged Fame blowing a horn, holding a shield with the initials OSM and stands with one foot on a prisoner, with motto: Famam extendere factis est virtutis opus).

First Italian edition (followed by two other Venetian editions, always by Scoto, on 1599 and 1613; the first in absolute had been published in Lyon by Giunta on 1567) of an important collection of decisiones placeable between the second half of the fourteenth century and the mid-sixteenth century, attributed to four of the main proponents of the Sacra Rota of that time (Gilles de Bellemère, Pietro Benintendi, Guillaume Cassador and Etienne Aufreri).

Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Sacred Rota: is the highest appellate tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church, with respect to both Latin-rite members and the eastern-rite members and is, with respect to judicial trials conducted in the Catholic Church, the highest ecclesiastical court constituted by the Holy See. The court is named Rota (wheel) because the judges, called auditors, originally met in a round room to hear cases. The Rota was established in the 13th century. It was set up to receive judgments in second and further instances from any other regional and diocesan tribunal; it was composed of auditors and chaired by the dean.

Gilles de Bellemère (1337-1407), often italianized in Egidio de Bellamera, was a French Catholic bishop. Auditor of the Roman Rota at Avignon and auditor litterarum contradictarum from 1376. This work contains 755 Conclusiones spanning the entire legal universe and for the period 1374-78.

Pietro Benintendi (active in the mid-sixteenth century, from Cesena), was a judge of the Rota in Bologna; just refer to this activity the 98 Conclusionesof the Sacra Rota of Bologna, written by Benintendi between 1540 and 1545.

Guillaume Cassador (Gulielmus Cassiodorus, 1477-1527) was a canonist, bishop of Barcelona and Alghero and chancellor of the Sacred Council of the kingdom of Catalonia; his decisiones were the most notable for his prudence and value of the doctrine.

Archdiocese of Toulouse: the decisiones taken by this Archbishop's seat (Decisiones capellae Tholosanae) were collected by Etienne Aufreri (14??-1511), a Toulouse jurist, who was the author of a famous collection of 501 quaestiones, developed after 1483 and all on the Toulouse Archbishop's seat.

References: IT\ICCU\URBE\014956. OCLC, 78511026 (1 copy in USA at the Columbia University Libraries, New York, and 1 copy in Israel at the Jewish National Library, Jerusalem).

Signs of use, water stains, some little worm-holes not affecting the text. A fair copy.