Trithemius [Tritheim], Johannes

Institutio Vite Sacerdotalis Div(Ine) Joannis Tritemii Abbatis Spanhemensis Ordinis Divi Patris Benedicti Mogu(N)Tinensis Diocesis Ad Nicolaum Presbyteru(M) Mernicenisem Treverensis Diocesis

      [Peter von Friedberg, ], [After 22 October, 1494. ]. 4to. A8, B-C6. Modern full brown morocco, minor stains. Fine copy. Rubricated with intial Lombard letters in blue and red inks. First edition (one of three issues). "The work in question is the Institutio viatae sacerdotalis, addressed to Trithemius' close friend and conscholarius during his former Heildelberg student days currently living in the neighborhood of Trier, Nicolaus de Merneck. Proposing to instruct the prospective scholar (as distict from regular) cleric in the performance of his office, the Institutio grew out of the first epistle of a series of letters from Trithemius to the novice priest Merneck begining April 1, 1486. Of the various dangers of the clerical vocation which Trithemius chose to warn his friend at that early moment in both their careers--for at the age of 24 Trithemius himself was barely past his novitiate--none is more predominantly at the front of his concerns in the Institutio than horrid acedia...And of course Trithemius' favorite remedy of the study of letters to help counteract aceia is also again close at hand...'Withdraw from the company of those who reject knowledge...that is, those who neglect the reading of Scriptures and despise study! ' Such ignorant seducers of young clerical novices 'are priests in name but asses in behavior...' Trithemius did not wish to save the cleric from illiteracy only to have him come to no less disasterous ruin on the rockpile of the opposite stte, vain curiosity in matters detrimental to the lofty responsibilities of his office..." [Noel L. Brann, The Abbot Trithemius (1462-1516) The Renaissance of Monastic Humanism. Brill, 1981] Goff T439; Hain 15621*; Aquilon 654; Polain(B) 3809; Voull(Trier) 952; Voull(B) 1584; Ohly-Sack 2807, 2808; Pad-Ink 656; Proctor 174; BMC I 46; BSB-Ink T-466. ISTC it00439000.