956J William Stanihurst 1601-1663

 Dei Immortalis in Corpore Mortali Patientis Historia, Moralis Doctrinae Placitis & commentarionibus Illustrata Avctore R.P. Guilielmo Stanihurſto è Societate Iesu Guilielmo Stanihurſto è Societate Iesu

 Antverpiæ, Apud Viduam & Hæredes Joannis Cnobbarii. M.DC.LX. (1660).   Price $ 950

Octavo 18 x ll cm. Signatures: *–2*⁸ A–Z 2C⁸  With engraved title page; half-title:  With engraved title page; half-title: Bound in contemporary limp vellum binding, centrally tooled in gilt with an oval armorial device featuring a cross-bearing shield surmounted by a celestial orb and cross — iconography suggestive of ecclesiastical or missionary ownership within the Catholic Low Countries.

The central charge on the shield has been identified by my colleague Antonello Privitera as a cross bifida (also described in heraldic terminology as a cross moline recercelée / sarcelly). This form—characterized by forked arms whose terminals curve in opposing directions—has historical associations with the so-called “Templar” cross which was the Emblem of the Military Order of Templars. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cross_Templar.svg After the dispersion of the Order, this Cross was used by the counts of Bad Pyrmont.
I am grateful to Antonello for his careful identification of the specific cross type, which refines the earlier description and narrows the heraldic field of comparison.

William Stanihurst though of distinguished Dublin Old English lineage, Stanihurst was born in Brussels in 1601, a child of the Irish Catholic exile community in the Spanish Netherlands. He was a moral theologian, and professor at Leuven. His works — devotional meditations, moral theology, sacred drama — belong to the intellectual world of the Irish Catholic diaspora following the Flight of the Earls. Antwerp served as a major printing center for English and Irish Jesuits, and this 1660 edition reflects the Society’s effort to circulate polished Latin devotional literature to an international audience of seminarians, confessors, and educated clergy.

The work is structured as a sequential Passion harmony divided into paragraph-length loci, each framed with explicit moral headings. The index reveals a systematic progression from Gethsemane through the Crucifixion, integrating narrative, affective theology, Marian devotion, and practical moral application. The subdivision into numbered paragraphs renders the text readily extractable for preaching and confessional use.

Intended primarily for Jesuit scholastics and preachers in formation, the work presents a chronologically ordered Passion harmony divided into extractable moral loci, rendering it a practical instrument for sermon preparation and moral instruction The printed marginalia reinforce its didactic use.

De Backer – Sommervogel Vol VII, Col1484/5;No 10

Large gilt oval centrepiece impressed on contemporary limp vellum. The device is enclosed within a double-line oval frame. At the centre is a heater-shaped shield bearing a  cross moline with recercelée (sarcelly/cercelée) terminals, each arm ending in a fork whose tips curve in opposing directions. The shield is otherwise plain., the arms flaring slightly and terminating in rounded ends.

Above the shield is a tilting helm shown in profile, with visor slits visible. From the helm descends mantling arranged in symmetrical scrolling foliage extending to both sides of the oval.

Resting above the helm is a terrestrial globe marked with meridian and parallel lines, surmounted by a small Latin cross serving as crest.

The entire composition is contained within the oval border and integrates shield, helm, mantling, globe, and cross into a single continuous design.

The central charge on the shield has been identified by my colleague Antonello Privitera as a cross bifida (also described in heraldic terminology as a cross moline recercelée / sarcelly). This form—characterized by forked arms whose terminals curve in opposing directions—has historical associations with the so-called “Templar” cross in later heraldic tradition and was subsequently adopted in various European armorial contexts, including by the Counts of Bad Pyrmont.

I am grateful to Antonello for his careful identification of the specific cross type, which refines the earlier description and narrows the heraldic field of comparison.

JAMESGRAY2@ME.COM