Libro muy prouechosso para todo fiel christiano. : Intitulado Sermonario quadragessimal medicinal / compuesto por ... Gabriel Uaca ...

A collection of medically-themed Lenten sermons intended for delivery throughout the period of Lent. The title page features a woodcut overprinted in red depicting a bed-bound person appealing to Christ on the cross, with the phrase 'infirmus sum sana me domine' (Ps. 6:3, 'Heal me Lord, I am weak', with words transposed). The First Wednesday sermon (fol.ix) bears a small woodcut within the letter 'D' showing Joseph fleeing Potiphar's wife, a symbol of the temptations of moral sin in Christian iconography. Also features a small woodcut of the crucifixion with the Virgin & St. John, on fol. [2] with motto 'Michi absit gloriari nisi in cruce domini nostri Iesu Christi' [St. Paul. Letter to the Galatians 6.14], and a large woodcut device (featuring a putti) on verso of last leaf with motto from St. Paul [To the Philippians 2, 10 - At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow ?]. The author, Gabriel Vaca was a Franciscan friar. Throughout the sermon he draws parallels between the treatment and well-being of the soul - through prayer, contemplation and devotion - and that of the physical body. Physiological ailments and practical medical procedures are detailed and encapsulate traditional, humoral understandings of the body sat alongside emerging, empirical approaches to medical science typical of the period. This type of medical sermon was known as a quadragessimal medicinal, i.e. a sermon delivered on the last Sunday of Lent, or during the Lent period - Quadragesima means 'Lent' - the Lenten fast consisted of or lasted for 40 days, a period of reflection on human frailty. The sermons here are to be delivered throughout Lent on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday and begin with that for Ash Wednesday. The last sermon is that for the Resurrection (beginning on fol. 140v), following a lengthy sermon on the Stations of the Cross. Adapted from description by Dr Hazel Tubman, Maggs Bros.