[Instructiones et constitutiones Mimatensis diocesis].

[Mende, France?] : [publisher not identified], [1520-1530??]

clxiij, 1 unnumbered leaf ; 18 cm (quarto)

Title from colophon, clxiiia: Expliciunt instructiones & constitutiones mimateñ. diocesis.
Text begins, ija: Ad honorẽ sctẽ & ĩdiuidue trinitatis p̃ris & filij & spũssctĩ & gloriose vgĩs marie atq[ue] btĩ priuati martir[is] & oĩu[m] scõ[rum]. Nos guillerm[us] sola dei patiẽtia ẽps mimatñ. cupiẽtes subiectos ñros ĩ his ̃q ad salutẽ aĩa[rum] ptinè[re] noscũtur felicit[er] gubernari ĩfrascriptas ĩstructões & [con]stitutões ĩ pñtiar[um] ducim[us] p[ro]mulgãdas.
Signatures: a-u⁸ x⁴ (a1, x4 blank).
Gothic type, 21 lines of text.
The "Instructiones et constitutiones Mimatensis diocesis" has been attributed variously to Guillaume Durand the elder, the "Speculator," or to his less famous nephew with the same name, both of whom served in turn as bishop of Mende. These attributions were considered erroneous by authorities such as Schulte; however, the attribution to the elder Durand has been established since the discovery, in 1894, of a ms. contemporary with Durand, publ. as Instructions et constitutions de Guillaume Durand le spéculateur, ed. Jos. Berthelé and M. Valmary (Montpellier, 1900). The additions to Berthelé and Valmary's text, noted below, perhaps consist in whole or in part of the later contributions sometimes attributed to Durand the younger. Cf. G. Mollat, "Duranti, William, the Younger," New Catholic Encyclopedia, IV, p. 1118, "Bibliography").
This work is of an extreme scarcity in the print era. An undated ed., presumed to be an incunable, is listed by Pettegree (French books III & IV, 67909) with publ. date of 1499, held in the Bibliothèque Lamartine in Mende (catalog, Inc D-40, bar code 00195000769800, listed as Duranti, Guillelmus. Statuts synodaux). The latter catalog in its very detailed entry gives only "fin XV s.?" for the publication date; Pettegree's date of 1499 therefore is evidently conjectural, perhaps based on an earlier, brief listing. The justification for considering this ed. an incunable thus remains unclear. The Law Library copy, printed in quarto with 21 lines of text, cannot be identified with this ed., in 8vo with 20 lines (among other differences), nor therefore with the early ed. (printed "à la fin de l'époque gothique") known to Berthelé (op. cit, p. 7), found by him in the library of the Société d'agriculture de la Lozère, at Mende. This, probably, is the same copy as that now held by the Bibliothèque Lamartine. Berthelé comments that neither this nor any other printed ed. of the work was known to leading bibliographers.
The present edition appears to have been printed some time in the early 16th cent., possibly at Mende by a local or itinerant printer. Notably, while the text printed by Berthelé and Valmary ends with the section "De diversis constitutionibus," the present edition continues with the following sections: Constitutiones assummate (cxljb); Constitutiones usurariae (cxlvija); Constitutiones penales (clvb). This cataloger has been unable to trace this edition, or indeed any others apart from those mentioned above, in any bibliographic source.

Originally classed as: BQV390.M441 1500.
Binding: contemporary blind-tooled calf, patched on front cover.
Provenance: Ex bibliotheca Vallispriuata[e?], Vaulpriuas (inscription).

RARE

KBR4188.M46 A3 1520

Latin