< Back

Presentation copy by the author: the highest representative of the Roman Catholic Church in the protestant Dutch Republic

ROVENIUS, Philippus.
Reipublicae Christianae libri duo, tractantes de variis hominum statibus, gradibus, officiis, & functionibus in ecclesia Christi, & quae in singuils (sic) amplectenda, quae fugienda sint. ... Accessit ejusdem auctoris tractatus de missionibus instituendis.

Title printed in red and black, with French title.

Title printed in red and black, with French title.



Antwerp, Arnold à Brakel, 1668 (=1648). 4to. Contemporary full parchment, spine lettered in ink. Title printed in red and black, with French title. (48), 587, 62 (=52) pp.

The original and only edition of this most important work of the famous Philippus Rovenius (1574-1651). Rovenius has donated the present copy to the Zwolle priest and vicar of the provinces of Overijssel, Groningen and Friesland, Volkert Herkinge (1586-1662) who was called to Zwolle in 1618 to be the parish priest there by Rovenius in his capacity of Apostolic vicar - the highest representative of the pope and the Roman Catholic church in the Northern Netherlands. Rovenius was appointed the Apostolic vicar in the Northern Netherlands by the well-known Sasbout Vosmeer in 1614; Rovenius became archbishop 'of Philippi' in 1620 (it was of course impossible to chose him as the 'archbishop of Utrecht' in these times) and he has played a very important role during the very difficult times for the Roman Catholic faith in the Dutch seventeenth century protestant Republic. In the 40's Herkinge was named as the candidate for the co-adjutorship of Rovenius, who donated our copy to him with the formula 'Admodum Rdo. Domino M. Volkero Herkinge Pastori Swollensi S. Theol. Licentiato Author donum dedit', written on the French title. The difficulty with this donation formula is that Rovenius as well as Herkinge were already dead in 1668, the date on the title and the year of publication of this so-called 'second edition'. There are two possible solutions for this problem: (1) the 1668 edition is a re-issue with another title page and the original 1648 title has been replaced in our copy by the dubble-leaf containing the new 1668 title, or (2) the only difference between the '1648' and the '1668' edition being the date on the title-page ('MDCLXVIII' instead of 'MDCXLVIII'), this date is only a misprint, corrected in a number of copies. That the latter solution is indeed correct, is confirmed by the fact that there are more copies of this '1668 edition' which are donated by Rovenius, in one of them Rovenius has even changed the date on the title '1668' in '1648'. As a consequence it can be assumed that a second, or even a third edition of Rovenius' work never have existed, as the bibliographies claim.The work in fact is a doctrine or theory regarding the social positions of men, or a doctrine of religious and social duties establishing a complete Christian moral. At the same time it is an interesting encyclopaedia of juridical, theological and ascetical peculiarities relating to the Christian duties.The first book deals extensively with the religious and social position and duties of priests, clerics, monks, devout virgins and the many religious orders, as well as with exorcism, the abuses of simony, benefices and prebends and the differences between Roman Catholicism and the Reformation; the second with laymen: from kings and monarchs to the citizens, from rich to poor; with education, including the professors and universities, medical care, sins and crimes, superstition and sorcery. The added treatise on missionary work, that had first appeared in 1625, is here in its third edition: the fruits yielded by his many years' experience in this field in the Calvinistic Northern Netherlands, especially during his years in Oldenzaal.
Good copy.- (Some waterstaining in the first quires; binding slightly damaged, front cover and quire of fly-leaves half loose).
NNBW 2 (1912), cols. 567-8 and 4 (1918), cols. 1172-8; J. Visser, Rovenius und seine Werke (1966), p. 60-76.

Related Subjects: Church History  Mission  Religion  Rome 

Add to Shopping cart
€ 4.250,00

Prices in EUROS (€), shipping and BTW/VAT extra.

< Back

Terms of sale

All items are offered subject to prior sale. Prices are nett and in (€) EURO. VAT/BTW, postage, and insurance are not included. 

Free shipping for orders over € 2,500.  EU customers: if applicable, please quote your VAT number when placing orders.

Preferred mode of payment: by credit card through our secure online payment service, which is facilitated by Ogone. If you wish to make other arrangements, please contact us. Terms of sale

E-mail this to a friend







This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots. (see: www.captcha.net)

Type the characters that you see in the box (5 characters). The code can include characters 0..9 and A..F.*

  


Antiquariaat FORUM B.V.
Tuurdijk 16
3997 MS t Goy-Houten,
The Netherlands
Phone: (+31) (0)30 601 1955
Fax: (+31) (0)30 601 1813
E-mail: info@forumrarebooks.com
Web: http://www.forumrarebooks.com