Two commentaries (disputations) on two essential doctrinal points of the Christian faith by the Jesuit Vincenzo Aranea (1588-1652) from L'Aquila. According to the title page of volume 1, the work was held in the Jesuit College of the city of L'Aquila: "Tractatus ... In Almae Urbis Collegio explanatus ... 1640". Later, Aranea lectured on philosophy and moral theology at the famous Collegium Romanum, founded in Rome in 1551 by Ignace of Loyola, and was rector of the Jesuits in Florence and Perugia.
Volume 1 is on the "Praecepta Decalogi", the Ten Commandments, which are divided into the first three commandments, those which make up the "First table of the Decalogi" pertaining to the true worship of God, and the seven last commandments, the "Second table of the Decalogi", dealing with the love of the neighbour.
Volume 2 is on the Seven Sacraments used by the Church received from Jesus Christ (the Sacraments "Novae Legis", of the New Testament). They consist of the rites which possess the power of producing grace. The dogmas regarding the Sacraments have been developed during the 12th and 13th centuries: the Scholastic theology of the Sacraments by Abelard, Hugo of St. Victor and Petrus Lombard. They are, in order: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, [De Sacrificio], Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, Matrimony. The first Disputatio concerns the "De Sacramentis in genere" on pp. 1-106. The disputations are very important for the history of the views of the Jesuits on these fundamental articles of the Christian religion in the 17th century. They were never published. A third volume "De censuris" is mentioned on the last fly leaf of volume 1, but is not present.
The front hinge of volume 1 is broken and partially loose, the spine is damaged, the front board spotted, the bookblock of volume 2 is loose in its binding. The text is in very good condition. Backer-Sommervogel, I, p. 504: A = Mss. 1642-44, 3 vols. 4to.: In praecepta decalogi. - De Sacramentis novae legis. - De Censuris. (Catal. Bocca, de Rome, 1889); Rosenthal, Bibl. Catholico-theologica, no. 2236 (seul exemplaire connu dun manuscript pas encore publié); P. Pourrrat, Theology of the Sacraments. A study in positive theology (1910).