[CAMPOS, Jeronimo]

A remarkably well-preserved copy of this very scarce, lavishly illustrated pocket devotional manual in Castilian for the use of Spanish and Italian soldiers. ‘Rarisimo libro’ (‘Ciudad’, 47); USTC records only 1 copy of the 1574 edition (440438) and 9 of this second, though archival documents suggest there was also a 1573 edition. The little we know about Fray Hieronymo Campos comes from documents of the Inquisition which, in 1588, prohibited his ‘Manual de exercicios spirituales’. A note added that Campos—priest for the armies in Zealand and Brabant—translated these prayers from Latin into Castilian for the use of Spanish and Italian soldiers, and that this work was on sale for 3 reales. It was reprinted numerous times in Madrid and Bilbao (Perez Pastor 253), and is present in the ‘Index’ of 1612, though approved by the Dominicans in 1577. It begins with a calendar of movable feasts and how to calculate them, as well as saints’ days, followed by preparatory sections on the nature of and reasons for praying, and one’s physical and spiritual bearing during prayer. The spiritual exercises are organised by circumstance: e.g., upon getting up or going to bed, at confession, for moments of study at school or at home, in memory of holy events (e.g., crucifixion), before and during Mass, to request protection (with prayers to over 30 saints, illustrated with small woodcuts), litanies, prayers for penitence and forgiveness, for resisting the temptations of the flesh, for drought or floods, for one’s parents, and for a good death. Considering the intense practical use of these pocket books intended as devotional instruments during military campaigns, and easily discarded, this is a remarkable survival, in surprisingly good condition.

This copy was in the library of Jean Baptiste Maes (c.1667), Sieur de Laecken, near Brussels, knight of the Order of St Jacques, councillor and commissary for the royal territories and finance in the Low Countries, and gentleman of the Archduke’s Chamber (‘Nobiliaire des Pays-Bas’, 1269). Sarah G. de la Cuesta is recorded in Pennsylvania c.1894, when she donated money to local episcopal churches and missions (‘The Living Church’, 1894, 877).