Johannes Trithemius. De observantia Burszfeldensi: Sermonum ad monachos libri duo, Liber Penthicus super ruina ordinis D. Benedicti [in Germania] (Two Books of Sermons on the Bursfeld Observance, Book of Mourning about the Decline of the Order of St. Benedict in Germany).
Florence: Georgio Marescotti, 1577.

4to.  [16] + 310 + [14] pages. 215 x 150 mm. Parchment binding.

The first work, commonly known as the “Exhortations to Monks” (Exhortationes ad monachos), was Trithemius’ review of the perils of monastic life, especially the bored listlessness known as accidie (he also calls it simply Klosterkrankheit: “Cloister-sickness”) and its opposite, misdirected zeal. He prescribes the copying of sacred books in the monastic scriptorium as the best cure for both. Completed in 1486, this was one of Trithemius’ earliest works.

The title of the Liber Penthicus (Book of Mourning) is a tip-off: Trithemius contrasts the “golden centuries” when Benedictines provided intellectual and ecclesiastical leadership with the mediocre state of monasticism in his own time. He wrote this treatise in 1493 while compiling his great bibliography of ecclesiastical authors; confronted by the evidence of former Benedictine glory, Trithemius was moved to lamentation.