Council of Trent, Canones et decreta, Rome, 1564, folio, later morocco, printed on vellum

Council of Trent. Canones et Decreta Sacrosancti ocumenici et generalis concilii tridentini sub Paulo III, Pio, Pontificibus Max. Rome: Paolo Manuzio, 1564

Printed on vellum. The first edition, with the privilege on the verso of the title undated, Roman numeration, and with the incorrect catchword (“fedis”) on page LXVIII erased (as with paper copies of the same printing).

This is the first printing of the Tridentine decrees, which redefined the basic doctrines of Catholicism, and clarified for the Protestants their own religious identify: the lines of demarcation were now sharply drawn.

The clerical assembly known as the Council of Trent was opened by Paul III on 13 December 1545 and lasted, with long interruptions, to 4 December 1563. During those eighteen years many doctrinal decisions were promulgated by the fathers of the council, and these were ratified by Pope Pius IV in the bull of confirmation “Benedictus Deus” (26 January 1564). Paolo Manuzio, who had contracted with the Camera Apostolica in 1561 to establish a publishing house in Rome in the service solely of the Catholic Church, was now charged with printing the “Tridentine” books – the Canones et decreta, a Catechism, a Breviary, and a revised Index of Prohibited Books.

According to Renouard’s tabulation, Paolo Manuzio published three editions of the Canones et decreta in folio format, one quarto, and six octavos. This folio edition, the earliest in the series, was completed by 18 March 1564, and issued under a general privilege granted to Paolo Manuzio in 1562, which protected all books published by him in Rome for five years. A statement of “Concordia cum originalibus” is printed after the decrees, attesting their accuracy and authority. In some copies, a handwritten declaration by the secretary of the Council, Angelo Massarelli, and two fellow-notaries, Marco Antonio Peregrino and Cinzio Pamphili. appears on the final leaf, a guarantee of the authenticity of that very copy (Renouard supposed that only 12 or 30 copies received this additional, autograph certification). The edition also carried a printed declaration by the vice-chancellor, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, reporting Pius IV’s oral approval of the decrees – although the bull of confirmation “Benedictus Deus” had been drafted, it was not yet confirmed. About a month later a second folio edition was printed, augmented by two indices (Index dogmatum et reformationis breviter collectus), and on 1 July 1564 the third folio edition was printed, with addition of the text of the “Benedictus Deus” finally confirmed on 30 June.

Folio (358 × 245 mm). collation: A-V⁶: 120 leaves (but 118, lacks title AI and A6, these two leaves supplied in facsimile on vellum). (Preliminary leaves with a few repairs to minor defects, small marginal hole in leaf KS, brown staining at extreme upper margin of leaves V3-V6.)

binding: Late nineteenth-century morocco (375 x 257 mm), blind-tooled to a sixteenth-century pattern. In a modern purple morocco pull-off case by W. K. Conley.

provenance: probably J. Pearson & Co., Catalogue of a highly important collection of books printed entirely upon vellum produced in England or on the continent of Europe between the years 1500 and 1878 (London, [1917?]), item 14 (£180) — Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia (their Five centuries of bookmaking. An exhibition of great examples from the invention of printing to the present time, November 30, 1931 to January 16, 1932, Philadelphia, 1931, p.20; and A book hunter’s treasury; rare volumes and important manuscripts, Philadelphia & New York, 1940, item 85 ($450) — Estelle Doheny (morocco bookplate, given to St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo, CA, sale Christie’s New York, Part IV, 17 October 1988, lot 1034, bought by:) — H.P. Kraus, New York. acquisition: Hartung & Hartung, Auktion 100: Jubiläums Auktion, Munich, 15 May 2001, lot 186. references: UCLA 720; Edit16 77060; Adams C2797; Renouard 190/4; G. Scott Clemons & H. George Fletcher, Aldus Manutius: A legacy more lasting than bronze, 97