An appealing copy in unrestored condition, of the constitutions and decrees resulting from a synod held in the Tuscan city of Volterra in May, 1590 by its bishop, Guido Servidio (1575-98) for the priests of the city’s diocese.
The diocese of Volterra, much like the city’s politics, was ‘very much tied up with more powerful neighbouring states, especially Pisa and Florence. The bishops of Volterra were, like many other bishops in Tuscan dioceses in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, often Florentine’ (Comerford, p.79) though the bishop presiding here, Servidio, was a native Volterran who had attended the Council of Trent.
The Constitutiones here records the proceedings of the synod and the topics addressed over the course of the three-day meeting on 8-10 May, including the rules guiding the lifestyle of the clergy - ‘the arms of the clergy are tears, prayers and fasting, not weapons of iron’ - the administration of the sacraments, as well as reforms and rules established or updated at the Council of Trent. On p.48, for example, is reproduced the decree from the Council of Trent on clandestine marriages within the clergy (in Italian). Alongside material from Trent, passages in vernacular Italian often appear to be those that relate to Volterra in particular e.g. the celebration of feast days in the city and so on.
The waste vellum used here is a fittingly durable, inexpensive binding for what was likely intended as a functional volume, a handy summary of updated rules and regulations for the clergy of Volterra and surrounding areas. However functional, however, it is handsomely printed by Sermartelli, ‘one of the most active and accomplished of printers in sixteenth-century Florence’ (Scinto, p.315).
Minor wear to fore edges, first few leaves well-thumbed, occasional staining but otherwise an attractive copy, untouched and in good condition.
OCLC: Just one copy outside continental Europe, at Cambridge.
CNCE 33918. K. Comerford, Reforming Priests and Parishes: Tuscan Dioceses in the First Century of Seminary Education (Brill: 2006). J. E. Scinto, ‘The Cover Design: Bartolomeo Sermartelli’, The Library Quarterly 78.3 (2008), pp.315-317.
