Council of Trent, Canones et decreta, Rome, 1564, second edition, folio, morocco by Ebeleben Binder

Council of Trent. Canones, et Decreta, Sacrosancti Oecumenici et Generalis Concilii Tridentini sub Paulo III, Iulio III, Pio IIII, Pontificibus Max. Index Dogmatum & Reformationis. Rome: Paolo Manuzio (In Aedibus Populi Romani), 1564

The second folio edition of the Canones et decreta. The previous edition, published just a month before, had been issued under the blanket privilege granted by the Pope in 1562 for all of Paolo Manuzio’s Roman publications. This second edition, enhanced by useful indices of dogmas and reforms, appears under a papal privilege specially promulgated for it (and any subsequent) editions. The Curia had swiftly recognized that wide distribution of the Council’s decrees could never be achieved by a single publishing house. The new privilege permitted publishers outside of Rome to print the Canones et decreta, so long as they did not depart from the text of Paolo Manuzio’s edition. A flood of editions ensued, more than fifty in the Italian peninsula alone, of which ten were printed at Venice by Paolo Manuzio himself.

Some copies of the first and second editions contain on the verso of p.CCXXIX, as a further certification of authenticity, a handwritten statement, with the signatures of Angelo Massarelli, Bishop of Telese, Secretary to the Council, and two fellow- notaries, Marco Antonio Peregrino and Cinzio Pamphili. It begins: "Nos sacri oecumenici, et generalis Concilii Tridentini Secretarius, et Notari infrascripti decreta ipsius sacri Concilii…" Such copies were presumably inscribed and attested before they left the publishing house, and were destined for dignitaries. Renouard believed (p.191) that few existed (he supposed 12 or 30).

This is an attested copy, and – although there is no evidence – Anthony Hobson believed that it “almost certainly” was bound for Gabriele Paleotti (1522-1597), legal advisor to the Council of Trent, a member of a committee closely supervising publication of the Canones et decreta, in which capacity he was in regular contact with Paolo Manuzio. Paleotti had studied and afterwards taught law in Bologna, and in consideration for his help to the Council, was created cardinal in the consistory of 12 March 1565, and elected bishop of Bologna in 1566. Hobson credits the binding to the shop of the “Pflug & Ebeleben Binder”, the preeminent supplier of fine bindings in Bologna. Two copies of this second edition, both printed on vellum, are also associated with Paleotti.

Folio (312 x 224 mm). Roman type, 36 lines. collation: A-V⁶ X⁶: 126 leaves. (Some dampstaining and spotting.)

binding: Bolognese binding (320 x 223 mm), ca. 1564, by the Pflug & Ebeleben Binder, dark brown goatskin, richly gilt, interlacing fillets forming geometrical compartments, filled with solid tools, in center on upper cover “SES | DECRETA | SACRI | CONSILII | TRIDENI/NI” and on lower “SES | DECRETA | SACRI | CONSILII | TRIDEN | TIN”, wormholes in spine, slightly rubbed, traces of 4 pairs of blue silk ties, edges gilt and gauffered. (Some light wear to ends of spine and corners, spine bands slightly rubbed.) In a morocco case with perspex window.

provenance: Possibly Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti (1522-1597) — possibly Biblioteca Arcivescovile, Bologna to whom Paleotti bequeathed his library for the use of the Archbishop of Bologna: Catalogus librorum qui reliqui inventi sunt in Bibliotheca archiepiscopali Bononiae: cum ad eandem ecclesiam regendam accessit anno MDCCXXXI ([Bologna? 1738?]), p.47 (“Jus Canonicum. In Folio … Concilium Tridentinum. Romae ap. Paulum Manutium in Ædibus Populi Romani 1564”) — Paolo Borghese, principe di Sulmona (1845-1920, green armorial bookplate; Vincenzo Menozzi, Bibliothèque de S.E.D. Paolo Borghese, Prince de Sulmona. Première partie, Rome, 16 May-7 June 1892, lot 4507) — Lucien Gougy, Paris — René Boisgirard, Henri Baudoin & Albert Besombes with Auguste Blaizot and Librairie Giraud-Badin, Bibliothèque de M. Lucien Gougy, ancien libraire. Première partie, Paris, 5-8 March 1934, lot 78, FF 5000 — “Monsieur Picard”, perhaps the bookseller Henri Picard (1872-1959, président du SLAM 1931-1934) — Jean-Paul Bezançon & Lucien Lefèvre with Claude Guérin, Manuscrits à peintures et livres anciens, rares et précieux, Paris, 18 May 1965, lot 13. acquisition: Purchased from Librairie Paul Jammes, Paris, 1975. references: UCLA 723; Edit16 12990; Renouard 190/4; Anthony Hobson & Leonardo Quaquarelli, Legature bolognesi del rinascimento (Bologna 1998), p.26