1472. GERSON, Johannes
De cognitione castitatis et de pollutionibus diurnis. Forma absolutionis sacramentalis.
[Cologne, Printer of Dares (Johannes Solidi (Schilling)), about 1472]. Early incunable edition, recently bound in an original handwritten vellum leaf dating from the earlier fifteenth century (containing a fragment of the commentary by the Venerable Beda on the Gospel of St. Luke, chapter XIX, with some lines of music). 16 leaves (complete).Latin text. Many ligatures and abbreviations. Rubricated and with decorative initials with simple extensions. Several marginal reader's remarks plus a drawing of a cross, some underlining. Professional paper repairs to blank upper margins. Eleven editions were published between 1467 and 1490. The first was issued in Cologne (1467); this is the fourth, printed anonymously by Johann Schilling - whose name was latinized as Solidi. Excellent condition. 26 copies of this edition in public institutions, none in Belgium or the Netherlands. Goff G197. ISTC ig00197000. 'On the knowledge of chastity and pollutions in the daytime. The form of sacramental absolution'. A short essay, written about 1412, about chastity and involuntary discharge of semen during the day (as opposed to pollutions in sleep, about which Gerson wrote another essay). In Gerson's eyes, both men and women can produce body fluids ('humores') when they are sexually stimulated, even without wanting to. Among other things, the text is about the question of whether a priest is unclean after a pollution and whether he may then still perform sacred acts. A priest who goes to a parishioner on horseback may become excited by the ride and thus come to emission. According to Gerson, this is not a mortal sin, as long as he does not focus on the sexual pleasure. More information in our Catalogue 89.

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