[CANON LAW].

Modus vacandi et acceptandi beneficiorum.

      [Rome, Printer of the Mercuriales Quaestiones = Theobaldus Shencbecher, c. 1472]. 4to., 4 leaves, roman letter, capital space at opening of text, a few contemporary underlinings in ink; some lines on verso of first leaf lightly strengthened in ink in a contemporary hand (possibly in the printing shop); unwashed, in red leather boards, gilt ruled border. A legal handbook for beneficed clerics, specifying the terms of a benefice, its acceptance, and the reasons for the termination of an incumbent’s tenure (thus creating a vacancy, whence the modus vacandi of the title). There are 32 reasons in all: “It is provided in the law that in the event of certain acts vacancy shall occur ipso facto; as when the incumbent marries or attempts marriage, when he takes solemn vows in a religious order, when he violates the canon forbidding plurality, when he fails to receive within the prescribed time the necessary ordination, when he obtains episcopal consecration, when he is guilty of any crime to which penalty of deprivation is expressly attached. In other cases deprivation follows a judicial process, instituted in virtue of laws authorizing the bishop to punish certain offences in this manner. Moreover a cleric has the right to resign his benefice provided the resignation be offered freely and for just reasons …” – Catholic Encyclopaedia.

This is a very early edition (possibly preceded only by an edition of Rome, Ulrich Han, c. 1470-71) of an essential canon law text which was virtually the exclusive property of Rome printers and which went through over 30 recorded editions before 1501, many known by only one or two copies, and some no doubt lost.

Of the present edition no copy is known outside the Vatican (Sheehan, Incunabula BAV, 1997, M-328 = Inc. Ross. 1951).