Rare Jesuit Histories Given to Libraries |
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April 2007--A rare 1596 edition of Historia Iesuitici Ordinis has been given to the Libraries by an anonymous donor. The newest addition to the Libraries' rare book collection will join over 30 previous gifts from the same donor. The gifts form one of the largest collections of rare books donated to the Marquette Libraries by an individual donor. The 1596 Historia was written by Elias Hasenmüller, a former Jesuit scholastic who became a Lutheran. While Hasenmüller's writings were anti-Jesuit in nature, the book is useful for studying early hostility against the Society of Jesus. The pigskin-bound volume contains a pen and ink drawing of St. Ignatius of Loyola and the embossed cover portrays Martin Luther. The Libraries' collection includes only nine other volumes of Jesuitica published prior to 1600, so this is a special donation. The donor, who attended a Jesuit university, said "I owe my education, academic and spiritual, to the Company. A few years ago I started a little quest of rounding up lost Jesuit books to return them to the Jesuits, one book at a time." The donor further explained that a focus on the 16th and 17th centuries developed because "at that time the Jesuit scholars were engaging the Reformation head on, and by doing so, left us a wonderful legacy of Catholic knowledge...The books that have gone through my hands have taught me much, receiving a lot more than the little I have given." |
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| Other notable works in this gift collection include: Robert Bellarmine's 1577 first edition of
his defense of the papacy, Disputationes de
Controversiis Christianae Fidei; Hermann Busenbaum's 1676 Medulla Theologiae Moralis; and the first Latin
edition (1621) of Alphonso Rodriguez's Exercitium
de Perfectione et Virtutibus Christianis, a doctrinal work widely translated and used well into the
20th century. According to Rev. John Patrick Donnelly, S.J., Professor of History, "some of
these works are very early editions of famous works. Some have rich, but little studied
engravings. The 1687 edition of Virgil's
works has special interest--it was edited by a Jesuit [Charles de La Rue] at the command of Louis
XIV for the use of his eldest son."
A description of the 6000+ rare book collection may be found on Special Collections' Web site, along with descriptions of other recent gifts and an online exhibit of special incunabula (pre-1500) holdings. For more information please contact Matt Blessing, Department of Special Collections and Archives, at (414) 288-5901 or Matt.Blessing@marquette.edu |
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