Institutio et Regula Novitiorum Pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum Piarum.
[Central Europe], 1701.
8vo (160 x 94 mm.). [ii blank = front pastedown], [ii blank], [i], [v blank], [46], [10 blank]p. In a single small cursive hand.
Contemporary pastepaper over boards (worn, hinge cracked), edges sprinkled red.
With: Piarists.
Constitutio Congregationis Pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum piarum. [Central Europe] 1701-1703.
8vo. [ii], [81], [1 blank], [4], [16 blank], [2 blank = rear pastedown]p. In a second small cursive hand; corrections and additions by the first hand.
Ad I-II: The oldest religious order dedicated to education, the Piarists opened the first free European public schools in 1597 to help poor Christian boys acquire a trade.
These handbooks belonged to Eugenius a Matre Dei, who signed both titles. He owned the Rules, when he entered the order in late 1701 and acquired the Constitutions mid-1703. Likely soon after, the two were bound together.
Ad I: Apparently never printed, the first work governs the daily life of novitiates — hand washing, avoiding eye contact with students (and especially their mothers), posture, private reading, public confession, unfolding a tablecloth, etc.
Ad II: The Constitutions treat admissions (no murderers or bastards), religious practice, liturgical books, officers’ duties, care of the sick and punishments (foot kissing to whipping). The articles ban books, clocks and relics in cells and regulate teachers, administrators and school operations. The severely truncated first edition appeared at Rome in 1698. eugene’s copy gives the full text of the constitutions, which was not printed until 1781. In good condition (slightly browned, ink spot on three leaves, small oil stain in some inner margins), shelfmark “?Cronpacteri. 3X”.
¶See Grendler’s Schooling in Renaissance Italy 381-90.
Price: $2,150.00