Ignatius Loyola, from the Spritual Exercises

Creator

Preview

Creation Date

1606

Description

Title vignette found in Ignatius of Loyola, Exercitia Spiritvalia, Rome, in Collegio Rom. eiusdê Societat, 1606.

This is the title page of an early edition of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. The first printed edition of the Exercises was a Latin edition of 1548. The copy owned by John Carroll is a Latin edition printed in Rome in 1606. While recovering from battle wounds suffered in 1521, Ignatius underwent a conversion. He began writing about his experiences to "converse about the things of God," and this was the origin of the Exercises. The work is a design for prayer, meditation, and insight. Bound with the copy at John Carroll is another work, the Directorium (also 1606) by Claudio Aquaviva. The Directorium is a guide for the Exercises.

The copy of the Exercises at John Carroll is the same copy that three Jesuit missionaries took to Vietnam to establish a mission there in 1614. At the base of the title page, the book is identified as belonging to the Jesuit Society in Hue, Vietnam.