THE FIRST PUBLISHED CRITICAL EDITION OF

CONSTITUTIONS FOR THE CLERGY (1542)
  BY GIAN MATTEO GIBERTI

edited by Roberto Pasquali

 

Gian Matteo Giberti (1495-1543) is still celebrated as one of the most important Italian exponents of the catholic reformation between the official beginning of the protestant movement and the opening of the council of Trento: someone has even defined him as “the first great shepherd of souls of modern times”(H. Jedin). 

During the nineteen years he spent as bishop in the diocese of Verona (1524-1543) he committed himself to the thorough and often agonisingly difficult radical work on the moral and disciplinary reforms of the clergy and christians under his care.

He was a man of  irreproachable and exemplary behaviour guided by a deep evangelic inspiration and a constructive pastoral mind , which was much unique at that time. 

 Among the prestigeous assignments given by three successive popes, he was appointed to set-up the council of Trento but, due to serious illness, he was forced to return to Verona where he died on 30 December 1543. 

The year before his death, Giberti published the book which made him universally and rightly famous, “Constitutions for the clergy”, a juridical-pastoral work which contains 252 regulations divided into ten sections: this represents at best his exemplary life and his remarkable reform work which not only had a considerable effect on both the church and the society of the sixteenth century, but also over the Italian borders. 

 The contents of that book, rather plentiful and heterogeneous, is about the following aspects related to the presbyterial ministry: the clothing of the clergy, the duty of irreproachable moral behaviour, the relationship with the laymen, regulations about the sacraments celebration, the sermons, the pastoral duties of the priests to heal the souls, regulations about the confession sacrament and excommunications, the marriage, the directives about the ecclesiastical properties, the various penalties to inflict on transgressors and the interpretative criteria of the constitutions themselves. 

 

  From the sixteenth century the gibertin regulation represented an irreplaceable pillar of the Veronese church being printed twice over two centuries and valid on the Scaligera diocese throughout the nineteenth century: a best-seller and long-seller at the same time! This has been a work which influenced enormously not only the Italian church (we do not forget that among the most renowned admirers of the Veronese bishop, Carlo Borromeo was one of those), but also the Church worldwide. 

  “It is well known and has been proved just how intensively the Fathers used the Gibertine constitutions during the council of Trento when referring to the matter of reformation“, says a famous historian. Along the same line are the opinions of Von Pastor and Hubert Jedin. 

  The only manuscript of  this work is the Vatican latin no. 6338 (a compound code) and therefore it is preserved  in the Vatican apostolic library. For the first time, after 458 years from the first printed version, a critical edition about this work has been published, only as a result of hard research that lasted almost 20 years, which has obtained the approval of the specialists on this matter (see below). 

  The edition allows us to reconstruct the origin and evolution of this work based on its three constitution phases. First: the manuscript printed in Verona and sent to Rome in order to obtain the necessary and prestigeous approval of the Pope. Second: the examination by the theologian of the pontifician  court. Third: the first printed edition by the bishop of Verona. For the first time 35 chapters, which had been suppressed during the roman revision, were published as appendix together with the indexes of the original manuscript. Further to the latin version, there is also the Italian translation: both these works are completed with many critical and erudite notes with the indication of the sources quoted and enclosed. The rich presentation by the editor is preceded by two introductory essays, the first by Gabriele de Rosa and the second by Adriano Prosperi. 

 

                               VALUTATIONS AND APPRECIATIONS OF THIS WORK

  • “Eccellent text for the erudition and the quality of its presentation” (Jacques Le Goff). 

  • "A great service for the historians which gives us back the real Giberti” (Jean Delumeau). 

  • “A perfect edition carried out with careful diligence” (M. Fois, “Civiltà cattolica”, no. 3621, 5 May 2001, p. 311). 

  • “A  really patient job, realised with critical and penetrative diligence” (G. Concetti, “Osservatore  Romano”, 14 June 2000, p.10). 

  • “Many difficulties have been faced to release this edition but all of them have been conquered by the editor” (Gabriele de Rosa). 

  • “An accurate and patient job, a modern edition, critically controlled, annotated and also translated” (Adriano Prosperi).

  • “I am really impressed by this beautiful work” (Franco Cardini). 

  • “A marvellous volume which fills an unquestionable gap in the knowledge of the religion during the fifteenth century and the catholic reformation”(Giuseppe Alberigo). 

  • “It is a perfect philological work and I am impressed with it” (Paolo Prodi). 

  • “An excellent work carried out with great patience and competence. I hope it will find the deserved approval” (card. Edmond Szoka). 

 

Each copy of the volume:  52 euro or 60$, mailing expences extra. 

To require a copy, please apply directly to the author: Roberto Pasquali – via Strà, 106 – 37030 Colognola ai Colli – Verona – Italy;  ph.: 0039 045 7650070; fax: 0039 045 6170835; e-mail : ro.pas@tiscali.it