776J. Claudio Acquaviva (1543-1615) 

Ratio Atqve Institvtio Stvdiorvm Societatis Iesv Avctoritate Septimæ Congregationis Generalis aucta.

Antwerpiæ: Apud Ioannem Mevrsivm 1635 Price $1,100

Octavo 15 x 10 cm. Signatures A-N8. Later edition* Bound in original limp vellum, with title in hand on spine “RATIO Stud” 

“The term “Ratio Studiorum” is commonly used to designate the educational system of the Jesuits; it is an abbreviation of the official title, “Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Jesu”, i.e. “Method and System of the Studies of the Society of Jesus”. The Constitutions of the Society from the beginning enumerated among the primary objects of the Society: teaching catechism to children and the ignorant, instructing youth in schools and colleges, and lecturing on philosophy and theology in the universities. Education occupied so prominent a place that the Society could rightly be styled a teaching order. Even during the lifetime of the founder, St. Ignatius, colleges were opened in various countries, at Messina, Palermo, Naples, Gandia, Salamanca, Alcalà, Valladolid, Lisbon, Billom, and Vienna; many more were added soon after his death, foremost among them being Ingolstadt, Cologne, Munich, Prague, Innsbruck, Douai, Bruges, Antwerp, Liège, and others. In the fourth part of the Constitutions general directions had been laid down concerning studies, but there was as yet no defininte, detailed, and universal system of education, the plans of study drawn up by Fathers Nadal, Ledesma, and others being only private works. With the increase of the number of colleges the want of a uniform system was felt more and more. During the generalate of Claudius Acquaviva (1581-1614), the educational methods of the Society were finally formulated. In 1584 six experienced schoolmen, selected from different nationalities and provinces, were called to Rome, where for a year they studied pedagogical works, examined regulations of colleges and universities, and weighed the observations and suggestions made by prominent Jesuit educators. The report drawn up by this committee was sent to the various provinces in 1586 to be examined by at least five experienced men in every province. The remarks, censures, and suggestions of these men were utilized in the drawing up of a second plan, which, after careful revision, was printed in 1591 as the “Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum”. Reports on the practical working of this plan were again sent to Rome, and in 1599 the final plan appeared, the “Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Jesu”, usually quoted as “Ratio Studiorum”. Every possible effort had been made to produce a practical system of education; theory and practice alike had been consulted, suggestions solicited from every part of the Catholic world, and all advisable modifications adopted. The Ratio Studiorum must be looked upon as the work not of individuals, but of the whole Society.” (https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12654a.htm) Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Ratio Studiorum.

DeBacker-Sommervogel [S.J.] vol.I, col.488 .

‡

#2. 608J Alagona (under the Pseudonyme Petrus Giuvara) Navarrus, w/ Martinus Aspilcueta (Azpilcueta) (1549- 1624)

Compendivm manvalis Navarri, ad commodiorem vsv tvm confessariorvm, tvm poenitentium, confectum, Petro Givvara Petro Giwara, Theologo Avctore. Nunc demum singulari diligentia recognitu[m], omnibusque mendis, quibus scatebat, studiosissimè purgatum.

Coloniæ: InOfficina Birckmannica, sumptibus Arnoldi Mylij, 1591/2. Price $ 900

Duodecimo: 13 x 8 cm. signatures A-S12 T 6. This is most likely a second edition. This copy is bound in full contemporary vellum with yapp edges missing ties.

. This copy has a nice early (1706) book plate from the Bibliothecæ S. Elisabethæ. Alagona was born in Syracuse. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1564, taught philosophy and theology, and was Rector of Trapani. He died in Rome. This, and his other first works were published under the family name of his mother, Givarra. Later on he used his own name, Alagona, and is best known for his Compendium of the works of Martin Aspilcueta, who was a doctor of theology in Navarre. Martin Aspilcueta was the uncle of St. Francis Xavier. The Enchiridion, seu Manuale Confessariorum, which was compiled by Alagona, went through at least twenty-three editions. A translation of this book into French by Legard, was condemned by the Parliament of Rouen, 12 February 1762. He also published a compendium of the “Summa”, which ran through twenty-five editions, and a compendium of the whole of Canon Law in two volumes, quarto. In the Jesuit College of Palermo there is also found a treatise by Alagona on Logic and Physics.
Navarrus, Martinus Aspilcueta studied at Alcalá and in France, and became professor of canon law at Toulouse and Cahors. Later, he returned to Spain and occupied the same chair for fourteen years at Salamanca, and for seven years at Coimbra in Portugal. At the age of eighty he went to Rome to defend his friend Bartolomeo Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, accused before the Tribunal of the Inquisition. Though he failed to exculpate the Archbishop, Aspilcueta was highly honoured at Rome by several popes, and was looked on as an oracle of learning and prudence. His humility, disinterestedness, and charity were proverbial.
This Manuale sive Enchiridion Confessariorum et Poenitentium (Rome, 1568) originally written in Spanish and was long a classical text in the schools and in ecclesiastical practice. In his work on the revenues of benefices, first published in Spanish (Salamanca, 1566), translated into Latin (1568), he maintained that beneficed clergymen were free to expend the fruits of their benefices only for their own necessary support and that of the poor. He wrote numerous other works, e.g. on the Breviary, the regulars, ecclesiastical property, the jubilee year, etc. He allegedly invented the mathematical concept of “the time value of money”.
DeBacker-Sommervogel vol. I col. 109. ;VD16.; ZV 957; Adams. A- 208.