Rare books, manuscripts and ephemera from five centuries

A 40-member confraternity 

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[BOLOGNA]. STATUTI, E REGOLE DELLA DIVOTA CONGREGAZIONE delli quaranta secolari Sotto l’Augustissimo Nome di Maria, e di S. Caterina da Bologna. Eretta in onore delle mille Salutazione Angeliche, che detta Santa fu solita recitare nella Notte del Santissimo Natale. Coretti, e Risptampati d’Anno 1726. In Bologna:, 1726. £315

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4to, pp. 24; printer’s device on title-page, woodcut initials and tail-piece; some foxing and staining in places; unbound as issued.

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Very rare set of statutes and rules governing the Congregazione dei quaranta secolari, a Bolognese confraternity established in 1703 by Giuseppe Mariani, a priest ‘di tutta esemplarità, e bontà di vita’, under the patronage of St Catherine of Bologna.

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Inspired by the devotion of forty Hail Marys devised by St Catherine, as part of the Rosary of 1000 Hail Marys, the confraternity was made up of forty ‘persone secolari’, all of whom are listed at the end of the Statuti. The ten chapters deal with the aim and calling of the confraternity, the election and roles of the prior and sub-prior, the number of members, their obligations and those of the confraternity as a whole, the necessity of alms-giving, the election and role of the secretary, visiting the sick, and more.

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The Statuti were first printed in 1706, and here appear in corrected form. Further chapters were added in 1763 and 1769, and a new edition appeared in 1842. We have located only one example of the 1706 printing. 

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Not in OCLC; SBN records copies at San Giorgio in Poggiale (which also holds the 1706 printing) and the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome. 

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