HANDWRITTEN TREATISE OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ABOUT CANONICAL INSTITUTIONS

Anonymous. Institutiones Canonicae dividuntur in quatuor libros. 1.us liber agit de personij ecclesiasticij. 2.us de rebus ecclesiasticis. 3.us de judicijs civilibus. 4.us de judicijs criminalibus et nos addimus quintus librum in quo agemus de vitys et peccatis de [...] Ecclesiae.

[together with] :

Liber Secundus. Institutionum Canonicarum ex volumine decretorum summorum Pontificum ad causam 17 quest [...]. De immunitate et libertate ecclesiastica ad sextum canone [...].

Manuscript on paper, 194x136 mm, contemporary limp vellum binding, with handwritten title at spine [not easy readable]; 2 vols; pp. 411, [3 b.]; 360, [1 b.]. A hand drawn illustration at p. 390 of the first v., with the motto Memento Mori ["Remember you will die"] in a double rulers frame. Text in Latin, divided in books and chapters, with marginal notes. Presence of corrections, erasures and underlining of the text.
Half title at first v.: Vesperi I; half title at second v.: Vesperi II.
The acronym A.M.D.G. is written at the begging and in other points of the text; it is the abbreviation of the Latin motto ad maiorem Dei gloriam, which means "for the greater glory of God."
The calligraphy used in the text changes several times; probably the work was written under dictation by several scribes.

The Author (or the Authors) is anonymous, but quite for sure, he was a highly educated priest, a theologian and a jurist, who lived in the eighteenth century.

The work has no date, but it should have been written towards 1750-1780, under Pope Benedict XIV; it is probably deducible by a free piece of paper left in the second volume (torn, but now repaired) which is the receipt of the money given to the Earl Domenico Adami on 6 Sept. 1780 in Fermo [Ascoli Piceno - Marche Region] by a certain Romeo Vittorangeli.

Provenance : Ex libris Antonij Bevilacqua at front paste-downs of both volumes. Bevilacqua is a noble family from Verona of the thirteenth century that branched out also in Cremona, Ferrara, Bologna and Modena. The Earl Bevilacqua were also present in Mantua from 1653 to 1777.

Very light traces of use, presence of occasional ink spots. Overall, a fine set of volumes in their unsophisticated limp vellum bindings.