MAJOR [or MAIR], John
In quartu[m] sente[n]tiarum quaestiones.
[Paris], in chalcographia Jodoci Badii Ascensii, 1516.£2,850.00
FIRST EDITION thus. Folio in sixes. ll. (xii) 290 (iii) [i]. Gothic letter, double column. Title within ornately decorative woodcut border, famous image of the working of a printing press at centre, woodcut printer’s device and initials. Contemp. blindstamped calf, central panel of three different roll-tolls, two floriated, the third a distinctive tool with vases, outer border of larger ‘pineapple’ roll tool, corners rubbed with loss, some loss from lower board, C17 reback, spine gilt (worn), vellum ms. stubs. and red morocco label. Contemp. 2-line and 4-line ms. Latin inscriptions to front pastedown (notes on the text) signed Desiderio à Belin, his inscription to t-p, ‘Su[m] desiderii A Belin thesaurarii Sancti Victorii Virdu[n]en[sis],’ i.e. treasurer of the church of St. Victor, Verdun, occasional annotations to text in the same hand, C17th or C18th inscriptions to t-p, ‘S[anc]ti Mauritii de Belloloco,’ covering further inscriptions relating to Saint-Victor. Mostly light waterstain to lower corner throughout, heavier at beginning and end, some discolouration to lower margin in first 3 gatherings, occasional light waterstain to outer margin and upper margin of t-p, otherwise a good copy.
Second edition of the Scottish philosopher and theologian John Mair’s commentaries on the fourth book of the Sentences of Peter Lombard. An earlier issue of Mair’s commentary on the fourth book of the Sentences appeared in 1509, but a great deal of material appears here for the first time, including on on baptisms, the Eucharist (including the question: if you have a wet dream (in somno pollutus) should you be able to take the sacrament?), usury and financial contracts, confession, excommunication, indulgences, simony, marriage, and the question of whether Christians can use non-Christians as mercenaries against other Christians in war.
Also newly added here are several questions on the ‘sin’ of theft, including whether those who take another’s ‘property’ by theft (as opposed to stealing people or kidnapping, which was the strict biblical interpretation) are considered to have sinned at all. The answer may seem obvious, but Mair in the Quaestiones was frequently concerned with uniting divine law – as revealed by God to mankind in the Decalogue, for example (‘you shall not steal’) – and natural law, i.e. a pre-existing, rational set of innate human laws. Mair believed that most of the laws in the Decalogue were in fact examples of natural law, even those that prescribed belief in God, whom mankind should naturally obey (see Sarah Mortimer, Reformation, Resistance, and Reason of State (Oxford, 2021), p. 54).
Mair’s argument that property was governed by both natural and divine law emphasised the responsibility of temporal rulers to the people, who consented to be ruled, as opposed to simply advancing the divine right of rulers over their given property or dominium. Mair clearly occupied a ‘conciliarist’ position, i.e. that the ‘general council’ of the Catholic church had more collective authority than the pope, who ruled by consent of the universal church. ‘Both the consent of the community and the responsibilities of the ruler had to be understood within a framework of law which was both natural and divine … this enabled Mair to circumscribe the actions not only of earthly kings but also of the Papacy. Legitimate political power existed for the sake of the community as a whole, and if the ruler – king or pope – threatened the community’s survival, then it would need to take action to prevent him’ (Mortimer, pp. 54-55).
A very curious binding. The basic structure, i.e. bands, blind rules, thickness of leather appear to be English but the roll tools, although very closely related to some in Oldham, are very fine and more likely Parisian. Were they super-imposed at a later date?
Renouard, Badius Ascensius, III, D.1. Adams M 252. BM STC Fr., p. 298. Not in Brunet.