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Rosellis, Antonius de. Monarchia, sive de potestate imperatoris ac papae. Venice, Hermann Liechtenstein, 23 June 1487. Folio. [3] + 110 numbered leaves. Without last blank leaf. Gothic letter. Text in 2 columns. 67 lines to a page. Initial spaces. Contemporary calf over wooden boards with richly roll-tooled multiple borders and with the arms of the Dominican Order stamped in centre of covers between ornamental devices; edges painted in red; Dominican cross gauffered onto centre of top book block; remains of clasps; worn; corners of back cover damaged; ends of spine scuffed; general wear and rubbing. The authoritative late mediaeval treatise on political law defining the powers of the emperor and the pope and the papal relationship with the conciliar movement. Its author, Antonio Roselli (1381-1466), professor of canonical and civil law at Bologna, Siena, and Florence, was a prominent lawyer and consistorial mediator during the 2nd Council of Constance which ended the Great Schism by electing Pope Martin V in 1417. In this his main work, the author examines the extent of papal primacy, conciliarism versus monarchy, and the concept of universalist ideology. Although upholding papal authority, he argues it might be limited by a General Council under certain circumstances. This conciliatory theory, accepted as a compromise at Constance, was rejected by the next Pope, Eugenius IV, in his long struggle for supremacy with the Council of Basel (1431-1439) which deposed him. Roselli left Rome in 1438, as his political stance had become controversial, but continued to teach canon law at Padua. His treatise was finally condemned as an anti-papal tract and it became the first book to be prohibited by the Church in 1491, when Nicolò Franco, papal legate at Venice, ordered all copies to be burnt in St Mark s Square. Roselli was consulted by both Pope Martin V and Pope Eugenius IV. Tailend margins of first and last quire with traces of usage and isolated worming, outer edges of blank margins of first and last few leaves lightly waterstained, some crinkling of blank edges, otherwise a very good copy with contemporary manuscript ink ownership entries of Brother Thomas Roma of the Dominican Convent at La Plata, Upper Peru, on verso of first leaf and on blank recto of first leaf and at end; other contemporary manuscript notes on recto of first leaf. The Dominican Convent at La Plata in Upper Peru, was founded by Bishop Domingo de Santo Tomás (1499-1570) who came as a missionary in 1560 and wrote the first Quechua grammar. BMC V,p 357; (ISTC no +00327000); Goff R-327; Hain *13974; Harvard-Walsh 2050; Polain B, 3400; Proctor 4789. Cf : J.A.F.Thomson, Papalism and conciliarism in Antonio Roselli s Monarchia , in Medieval Studies 37 (1975), pp 445-458; M.Watanabe, Authority and consent in church government: Panormitanus, Aeneas Sylvius, Cusanus , in Journal of the History of Ideas 33 (1972), pp 217-236; Johann Friedrich v.Schulte, Die Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des kanonischen Rechts von Gratian bis auf die Gegenwart (1875-1880), II, 302 p. Offered with a biograpy and portrait of the author: Flori, Mario. Notizie istoriche della vita di Antonio Roselli d'Arezzo. 1754. 8vo. 14p. Seller Inventory # ABE-6068824701
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