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913J Maurisperg, Anton, 1679-1748

This book begins with a Suite of 48 engravings preceded by separate title page: Vita B. Aloysij Gonzagae Societatis Jesu religiosi, iconibus illustrata, graecij [primùm  1691, nunc Viennae in lucem data anno 1716.]  The engravings first appeared in Speculum Innocentiae, by the Hungarian Jesuit Gabriel Hevenesi, published in 1691 and again in 1699.

     Bound next is 

CaLaMVs ALoysIo DeVotVs: sive Epistolae illustrium personarum ad Sanctam Romanam, et apostolicam sedam, pro B. Aloysio Gonzaga, juvene angelico, ex Sac. Rom. Imp. principe, et Marchione Castillionis, Societatis Jesu religioso, in album sanctorum referendo.

     Bound with 

Fructus Viennensis Sive Vita S. Stanislai Kostka Viennensis Studiosi Dein Societatis Jesu Tironis A R.P. Francisco Sacchino

Viennæ in lucem data anno 1716.]  

        With 

[Vienna] : Typis Joannis Jacobi Kürner, procerum typographi,1710.

      With

Viennæ : Simonis Schmid,  Universitat Typogr 1715                            

                                                             Price $4,900

Octavo  13 x 8cm. Signatures: [[8], 56, [2] pp] Second edition  Bound in a Viennese or South-German binding ca. 1716–1725, in brown calf over boards, with an elaborate gilt panel design: Central tool of a double-headed imperial eagle surmounted by a crown — an unmistakable Habsburg emblem, directly linking the book to its Austrian Jesuit provenance and the Imperial court’s sponsorship of the Gonzaga canonization campaign.  The borders of the binding employ rococo arabesque corner pieces with urns, tendrils, and palmettes, framed by a double fillet and dentelle roll.  The spine compartments carry similar gilt floral tools, with raised bands; the headcap is chipped, but the tooling remains crisp and bright. Probably executed by a Jesuit-affiliated or imperial binder (possibly the workshop attached to the Collegium Caesareo-Societatis Jesu.?  The second section, Vita B. Aloysii Gonzagae Societatis Jesu Religiosi Iconibus Illustrata, is a suite of 48 finely engraved plates, first published in 1691 by the Hungarian Jesuit Gabriel Hevenesi in his Speculum Innocentiae, here reissued for the Viennese campaign of 1716. The plates narrate Gonzaga’s life through emblematic tableaux — meditative compositions combining sacred narrative and moral allegory.

Calamvs Aloisio Devotvs

Anton Maurisperg was born in Cilli (Cilli, German name for Celje, Slovenian town; County of Cilli, a medieval county in Slovenia) on the 4th of March, 1678.  In 1692, aged 15, Maurisperg entered the Jesuit order. He then devoted himself to the study of philosophy and then theology, achieved his doctorate and then became a teacher. As teacher in the humanities class, he taught the subjects poetics and rhetoric, first in Graz and then in Vienna, where he also became prefect of the Viennese ‘Professhaus’ and historiographer of the province for several years. From Vienna, Maurisperg returned to Graz as dean and worked as praeses. He then became ‘regens’ at the seminary of Leoben. He also worked in several other colleges in various functions. Anton Maurisperg died on 12. December 1748 in Vienna, leaving behind him a considerable number of publications, mostly in Latin, but also including one in German (a treatise about the miracles of Saint Francis de Hieronymo from the Jesuit order). {The emblematic mode and the sermon: Tüskés, Gábor& Knapp, Éva •  Emblematics in Hungary: a study of the history of symbolic representation in Renaissance and Baroque literature; 2003.

ABOUT GONZAGA AND THE IMAGES

As mentioned above , Suite of 48 engravings preceded by separate title page: Vita B. Aloysij Gonzagae Societatis Jesu religiosi, iconibus illustrata, graecij [primùm  1691, nunc Viennae in lucem data anno 1716.]  The engravings first appeared in Speculum Innocentiae, by the Hungarian Jesuit Gabriel Hevenesi, published in 1691 and again in 1699. The images are very made engravings wit text in Latin and German they are intermitenly numbered 1-227, no doubt corresponding to the earlier usage. 

Francesco Sacchini (1570–1625) was an Italian Jesuit historian, pedagogue, and humanist born in Paciano, Umbria. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1588 and, after studies in philosophy and theology, taught rhetoric in Florence and later at the Collegio Romano. Following the death of Niccolò Orlandini, he succeeded him as the official historian of the Society, continuing the Historia Societatis Iesu with exemplary erudition and fidelity to Jesuit sources. His historical narrative, extending through the late sixteenth century, became a cornerstone of the order’s institutional memory and was marked by moral clarity and chronological precision. In addition to his historical duties, Sacchini served as secretary of the Society, overseeing its archives and correspondence at a time when the order was consolidating its global identity and educational mission.

Among Sacchini’s most admired literary works is the Fructus Viennensis, sive Vita S. Stanislai Kostka Viennensis studiosi, dein Societatis Iesu tironis (Rome, 1604), a life of the young Polish Jesuit novice Stanislaus Kostka. Written with the moral elegance and emotional restraint characteristic of early Jesuit hagiography, the Fructus Viennensis became one of the most widely read devotional biographies of the early seventeenth century, shaping the cult of Kostka as an exemplar of youthful sanctity and obedience. Together with his pedagogical treatises such as De ratione libros cum profectu legendiand his Protrepticon ad magistros scholarium inferiorum, the Fructus Viennensis reveals Sacchini’s dual vocation as historian and educator—his prose designed not merely to inform but to form, uniting historical truth, spiritual instruction, and literary grace within the evolving humanist spirituality of the early Society of Jesus.

“Ad maiora natus sum “ Stanislaus Kostka (1550–1568) was born into a Polish noble family at Rostkowo and educated by the Jesuits at Vienna, where he soon showed an ardent desire for religious life. Against the will of his father, he fled the city in 1567 and, after an arduous journey on foot through Germany and Italy, was received in Rome as a novice by St. Francis Borgia, then Superior General of the Society of Jesus. His piety, obedience, and mystical fervor made a deep impression on his companions, but his health failed quickly, and he died on August 15, 1568, at only seventeen years of age. His youthful sanctity became a model of Jesuit formation, and his simple declaration—Ad maiora natus sum (“I was born for greater things”)—was later taken as his spiritual motto.

He was beatified by Pope Paul V in 1605 and canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726. St. Francis de Sales, writing of him in admiration, called Kostka a “youth of angelic candor,” whose brief life revealed the perfection of obedience and love attainable even in adolescence. Today, he is venerated as the patron saint of students, youth, and Jesuit novices, a figure whose serenity and resolve embody the very heart of Ignatian aspiration toward the maiora.

DeBacker-Sommervogel vol V, col.763 nº6 (not mentioning earlier editions?) 

   And 

DeBacker-Sommervogel vol VII , col. 363 nº3 

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