Földvári Books

Important Treatise on Sacerdotal Celibacy

Boussard, Geoffroy; [Traut, Wolf]

De continentia sacerdotum. Sub hac questione nova. Utrum Papa possit cum sacerdote dispensare ut nubat. / De co[n]tinentia sacerdotu[m]. Sub hac questione noua. Vtru[m] Papa possit cu[m] sacerdote dispensare vt nubat.

Nürnberg (Nürmbergen): Johann Weißenburger (Joannem Weyssenburger), June 18, 1510. Woodcut on title by Wolf Traut, coloured by contemporary hand. First edition in German speaking territories, second in general (first in 1505, Paris, MarchantLaliseau). Papered spine. (32) p. a–b6, c4. Few old notes by two different hands in pen and pencil. Pages numbered in ink. Underlines in red ink. Large margins. A water-stain to lower marginal. Few stains throughout with no effect on legibility. Traces of amateur restoration to upper margin of b4. Overall in very good condition.

Rare and controversial tract on sacerdotal celibacy, arguing that the Pope possesses the authority to dispense priests from celibacy and permit marriage.

Geoffroy Boussard (1439–1522) was a French theologian of the College of Navarre, chancellor of the Church and the University of Paris, and later Dean of the Faculty of Theology. This treatise is generally regarded as his most significant work. Boussard argues that marriage was universally permitted to the clergy until the pontificate of Pope Siricius (384–399), who prohibited it through the decretal Directa in 385. On this historical basis, Boussard contends that the regulation of clerical marriage lies within papal authority, including the determination of which categories of clergy may be permitted to marry.

The work appears to have aligned with contemporary views at the University of Paris: Boussard formally submitted the tract to the university, and its tacit approval may be inferred from his subsequent elevation to the chancellorship and his appointment as a university delegate to the Conciliabulum of Pisa in 1511 (Lea, 1907).

The finely executed title-page woodcut—depicting the Virgin and St. Anne holding the Christ Child, with two angels suspending a brocade curtain behind—was designed by Wolf Traut (1486?–1520), the Nürnberg painter and printmaker associated with the workshop of Albrecht Dürer.

VD 16 B 6863; USTC 629387

[Bibl.: Lea, H. Ch.: The History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church. New York, Macmillan Co., 1907. pp 14–15.; Du Pin, L. E.: A new history of ecclesiastical writers. London: Swalle and Childe, 1710. pp. 359–360.]

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Price: €2,500.00