Descrizione

4to (223x168 mm). i + [1] leaf with a calligraphic title page, [1] leaf with the name of the author and owner of the book “Joseph Antonius Venere”, [1] engraved folding plate depicting St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552) being brought to Heaven with a printed dedication to him by the same Joseph Antonius Venere below (“S.to Francisco Xaverio Indiarum Apostolo Ioseph Antonius Venere se, suasque Theses D.D.D.”), [322] leaves including 6 blank + i. With an engraved folding plate containing 6 illustrations of scientific experiments bound between ll. [86] and [87]. Also with 2 drawings of a scale and an irrigation tool in the text and repeated in two loosely inserted leaflets placed respectively between ll. [93]/[94] and [97]/[98]. Written in an elegant and clear cursive hand with several penwork embellishments throughout. From l. [305] to the end the manuscript is written in a slightly different hand. Contemporary calf, gilt spine with five raised bands and trace of lettering piece, sprinkled edges (worn and rubbed, spine faded). Very well preserved internally.
Although there is no record of a Jesuit named Giuseppe Antonio Venere, it seems plausible to assume that Venere was a pupil of the Jesuit theologian Gregorio Ghesio (1657-1700), otherswise known only for being the author of a work on the virtues of a woman from Mondovì named Cecilia Magliana, which was printed in Mondovì in 1694 (cf. De Backer-Sommervogel, III, col. 1368). The present manuscript, divided into two parts (De Methaphysica and De anima), appears in fact to contain the Aristotelian-Thomistic theses passed on by Ghesio to Venere, who was himself a theologian. The latter appears to have been an abbot and, since 1747, vicar of the parish church of Cavoretto near Turin, and in 1759 he is recorded to have allocated funds for the construction of a grain bank (cf. E. Lurgo, Carità barocca. Opere pie e luoghi pii nello Stato sabaudo fra XVII e XVIII secolo, Turin, 2016, p. 215; and P. Caffaro, Notizie e documenti della Chiesa pinerolese, Pinerolo, 1896, II, p. 266).
Interesting and elegant manuscript, probably intended for private use, which is structured according to the traditional Aristotelian-Thomistic method of question, argumenation and conclusion, and covers not only theological problems, but also scientific issues in physics, biology and anatomy. We were not able to trace any printed or manuscript copies of this or any other work by Venere or Ghesio. We were also unable to trace the folding plate bearing Venere's dedication to Francis Xavier; in all likelihhod it seems to have been engraved or adapted specifically for this manuscript.