AQUINAS, Thomas. Secunda Secundae of the Summa Theologica. Venice: Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis, 9 August 1496, folio.
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Aquinas structures the Secunda Secundae according to the hierarchy of the virtues, beginning with the theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity), which unite man directly to God. In the Treatise on Faith he explores the act of believing, its intellectual and volitional dimensions, and the vices opposed to it, including unbelief, heresy, and blasphemy. The Treatise on Hope analyses the soul’s orientation toward the future vision of God, contrasting the sins of despair and presumption. The Treatise on Charity, the longest of the three, defines love of God and neighbour as the form of all the virtues, the perfection of human action, and the principle of friendship between God and man.
From these supernatural virtues Aquinas proceeds to the moral virtues, by which the rational soul governs its passions and actions in accordance with reason. He begins with Prudence, the virtue of right practical reasoning, and then devotes an immense portion of the work to Justice, whose scope extends from the dealings of individuals to the order of society itself. Here Aquinas discusses truthfulness, gratitude, obedience, piety, religion, and the manifold obligations binding men to God and to one another. Within this framework appear his famous reflections on property, the just price, and usury, an early formulation of the principles that underlie much of later economic thought. While condemning the exaction of interest as contrary to natural law, Aquinas simultaneously defends the legitimacy of private ownership, the necessity of trade, and the social benefits of the division of labour.
Following Justice come the treatises on Fortitude and Temperance, in which Aquinas examines courage, magnanimity, patience, chastity, humility, modesty, and the host of moral virtues by which the passions are moderated and the soul strengthened. Each virtue is paired with its opposing vices (cowardice, rashness, lust, pride), producing a systematic map of human moral experience seen through the lens of Christian perfection. The final portion of the Secunda Secundae turns to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Beatitudes, and the states of life. Here Aquinas discusses the contemplative and active vocations, the nature of religious vows, the perfection of monastic life, and the pastoral duties of bishops. The whole work culminates in the ideal of a life ordered by grace, reason, and charity, the full realisation of man’s likeness to God in both private virtue and social harmony.
As a whole, the Secunda Secundae is the most complete and balanced exposition of Christian moral philosophy ever produced in the Middle Ages. It unites Aristotelian ethics with Christian theology, harmonising natural law and divine revelation into a single moral vision. For centuries it served as the intellectual and doctrinal foundation of Catholic teaching on virtue, conscience, law, and society. Every later Catholic manual of moral theology descends, directly or indirectly, from the structure Aquinas set down here.
Quite notably, this part circulated independently from the rest of the Summa Theologica, and it was the first portion of it to be printed, by Johannes Mentelin circa 1463 and then Peter Schoeffer in 1467. Indeed, the Summa was not printed together until the late 1485, and then was only printed together three times in the 15th century (1485, 1495, 1496), but was printed a huge number of times in the separate parts (approx. 27). This Venetian incunable of 1496 belongs to the early wave of Renaissance scholastic printing that disseminated Aquinas’ mature moral teaching to universities and religious houses across Europe. This is a foundational exposition of virtue, conscience, law, and Christian life, and one of the most important works of Western ethical thought, and is a notably fresh and clean copy, including neat early marginalia.
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Size: 220 x 309 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[aa6, a-y8, z7]
Textually collates as complete, lacking just the final blank (z8), 189 of 190 leaves. 19th century quarter calf over paper backed boards, rubbed, shelf and edge wear. Both boards are securely attached and the binding is secure, hinges reinforced. Worming to title leaf, continuing through to quire b, but decreasing in extent rapidly. Mild dampstaining in top blank marginal space, else exceptionally bright and clean throughout the text block. Some marginalia throughout in multiple distinct hands. An excellent copy.
[ISTC it00218000; Goff T218; Pell 1056; Pr 5143; BMC V, 419; GW M46496].
