Parrochiale curatorum prestantissimi sacre theologie, necno[n] iuris po[n]tificij doctoris et artius m[a]g[ist]ri ac ecclesie Patavie[n]sis canonici domi[ni] Michaelis Lochmaier felicit incipit [Parochiale curatorum]

by Michael Lochmaier

Leipzig: Conrad Kachelofen, 1497

[126] of [126] leaves | 4to | A-C^6 D^4 E-F^6 G^4 H-I^6 K^4 L-M^6 N^4 O-P^6 Q^4 R-S^6 T^4 V-X^6 Y^4 Z^8 | 195 x 149 mm

Probably the second edition of the Passau canon’s pastoral manual, following that of Friedrich Creussner (not before 1493), and followed by several more through 1521. Pastoral manuals proliferated during the late Middle Ages, an expansive genre that offered guidance to clergy tasked with the daily care of parish souls. “This great concern for the reform of pastoral care/teaching…is best understood against the backdrop of a widespread lack of care of souls among the higher clergy. The notion of pastoral care had so declined amongst the bishops that many of the prelates lived according to the ideals of secular lords, possessing tyrannical power and pursuing the enjoyment of life” (Posset). ¶ Scholars commonly underscore Lochmaier’s focus on the legal aspects of parish life, tithes and marriage law among them, which the title indeed indicates (necno[n] iuris po[n]tificij). But this should hardly suggest that he fails to cover the great breadth of pastoral responsibilities—see the 20-page index—or that his guidance fails to illuminate the everyday lives of the priest and his parishioners. His ten chapters cover the individual sacraments, various blessings, different aspects of Mass, and much more. His coverage of marriage touches on consummation, he provides much guidance on confession, and he even discusses the sale of holy water. His publication at all was an achievement, given the relatively long odds living authors faced in the 15th century (he’s thought to have died in 1499), competing with a long roster of familiar and long-accepted authorities. In the absence of pagination or foliation, the extensive index points to lettered sections within each chapter, a practice likely descended from Stephen Langton’s 13th-century method of dividing Bible chapters into sections labeled A through G. ¶ In truth, we find the book much more compelling for its printer: Konrad Kachelofen was a tavernkeeper. Better than most, this Leipzig entrepreneur, who took up the business in 1485 (or arguably 1480), underscores just how new the printing profession was. “Professional scribes were probably raised to their craft from earliest youth and need never have had any other (or earlier) career. But, in the infancy of printing, each printer to be had to forsake some trade, profitable or otherwise, to embark on a venturesome and unpredictable future” (Bühler). By the late 15th century, some had certainly grown up in the trade. “But a delightfully variegated background comes to light when we study the biographies of the early printers.” Bühler notes Andreas Frisner, a university rector, and Heinrich Wirtzburg, a monk, “all the way to a publican and a barber-surgeon,” these Kachelofen and Hans Folz. (What we wouldn’t give for a Folz imprint!) Eventually our printer “turned his press over to his son-in-law and spent most of his time running the Kachelofen tavern” (Cole). ¶ But his tavern was no hole in the wall, and his son-in-law was none other than Melchior Lotter, champion of the Reformation press. During the high-stakes Leipzig Debate of 1519 between Martin Luther and Johann Eck, Kachelofen’s tavern even functioned as Luther’s headquarters. Maybe this shouldn’t surprise us, for "across early modern Germany and Switzerland, inns and taverns were sites of potential resistance to both political and religious authority”—perhaps a natural byproduct of their pivotal role in everyday life, situated at the crossroads of business and culture, functioning not simply as local watering holes, but as centers of economic activity, entertainment venues, seats of information exchange, and even storage spaces (Spierling). ¶ We locate no copies in North America.

PROVENANCE: Ownership inscription on title of Dr. H.A. Minkenberg, 1893. Later illustrated bookplate of Dutch medievalist Dr. Gerardus Johannes Jaspers (b. 1932), and perhaps from his library most recently. Old Jesuit ink stamp removed from the title verso. ¶ A handful of contemporary marginalia of the nota bene variety, largely confined to leaves Z5 and Z6, which govern priests’ receipt of payment for services. A manicule in red ink on X3v.

CONDITION: Half parchment and textured black paper over boards of the 20th or late 19th century; edges sprinkled red. Original blank leaves B6 and Z8 present. Kachelofen’s very agreeable device at end, a (smiling?) bearded man holding the Leipzig arms and his own mark. Rubricated throughout, with some initials supplied in a rather amateur fashion. Subtle impression of bearer type in the blank leaves, a large display type deployed at the head and tail to maintain even pressure while printing. ¶ Lower margin dampstained, undetectable to moderate, never reaching more than four lines into the text area; title and last leaf a bit dusty and soiled; smudge on R1v. The current binding’s front fly-leaf removed, with the remnant of an earlier one also removed; title label removed from the spine; small tear in the paper covering the front board.

REFERENCES: ISTC il00267500; USTC 746731; Ludwig Hain, Repertorium Bibliographicum (1831), v. 2, pt. 1, p. 276, #10168 ¶ Text: Franz Posset, The Front-Runner of the Catholic Reformation: The Life and Works of Johann von Staupitz (Taylor & Francis, 2017), ch. 1 (citing Lochmaier’s manual as an example); Anne T. Thayer and Katharine J. Lualdi, Introduction to Guido of Monte Rochen’s Handbook for Curates (Catholic University of America, 2011), p. xxiii-xxiv (covering “topics such as tithes and first fruits owed to churches and the cases in which second marriages may be blessed, devoting far less attention to routine sacramental or catechetical practice”); Anne T. Thayer, “Selections in a World of Multiple Options: The Witness of Thomas Swalwell, OSB,” Religious Orders and Religious Identity Formation, ca. 1420-1620 (Brill, 2016), p. 112 (“Michael Lochmaier’s Parochiale curatorum offered guidance on legal and administrative issues such as tithes, first fruits, and the blessing of second marriages”); Bart Wauters and Marco de Benito, The History of Law in Europe: An Introduction (Elgar, 2017), p. 3 (on the fundamental everyday value of law: “The law, in effect, mirrors cultural and intellectual trends, and is never impervious to social, economic, and political processes. But this should not lead us to forget that law also possesses great autonomy, evolves according to its own internal dynamics, and is an active agent in shaping all the aforementioned areas.”); Andrew Pettegree, “Printing in the Low Countries in the Early Sixteenth Century,” The Book Triumphant: Print in Transition in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Brill, 2011), p. 24 (“A recurring feature of the European book world in the first century of print is the difficulty facing living authors in having their works published…The enduring popularity of the established authorities, and the instinctive conservatism of publishers, meant there were at first meagre pickings for the new generation of scholars”); Ann M. Blair, Too Much to Know (Yale University, 2010), p. 39 (on sections lettered in the margin) ¶ Printer: Curt F. Bühler, The Fifteenth-Century Book (University of Pennsylvania, 1960), p. 48-49; Richard G. Cole, “Reformation Printers: Unsung Heroes,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 15.3 (Autumn 1984), p. 333; Beat Kümin and B. Ann Tlusty, The World of the Tavern (Routledge, 2017), p. 11 (“As businesses and service institutions exposed to conflicting pressures from publicans, patrons and authorities, they [taverns] mirror nearly all tensions of their time”); Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century Now in the British Museum (1913), v. 3, p. xxix (on Kachelofen, “whose press was the most important in Leipzig”); Karen E. Spierling, "The Complexity of Community in Reformation Geneva: The Case of the Lullin Family," Defining Community in Early Modern Europe (Ashgate, 2008), p. 81

Item #367