Usura Contractus Trini Dissertationibus Historico-Theologicis emonstrata Adversus mollioris Ethices Casuistas, & Nicolaum Broedersen Authore F. Daniele Concina Ordinis Praedicatorum. Accedunt Appendices duae ad Commentarium Authoris adversus Usuram. Editio Secunda

Romae: Ex Typographia Palladis Apud Nicolaum et Marcum Palearinos Superiorum Facultate. MDCCXLVIII [1748]. . 4t0, 228 x 178, pp. xx, 288, contemporary vellum, remains of cords at fore-edge, most of front free end-paper removed, front hinge cracked with interior of spine visible; with a late 20th century inscription on front paste-down end-paper: "1 Jan 77/A Rare book/ for rare friends/ Douglas Todd" Born in Clauzetto in Italy, Daniel or Daniello Concina (1687-1756) was an early and influential Dominican preacher, author, and theologian. This work, Usura Contractus Trini, was written on the history of usury and in it Concina vigorously disputed the work by Nicolaus Broedersen of Delft. Broedersen is believed to have been born around 1690, and to have died in either 1762 or 1772. The book Concina took as the target of his criticism was Broedersen's De Usuris Licitis et Illicitis from 1743, whose publication some regarded as outright scandalous. The first edition of Concina's Usura Contractus Trini came out in 1746, and this second came out in 1748. Both editions are so rare that COPAC finds no physical copy of either. In stark contrast to the rarity of this work in the English-speaking world is Concina's central place in eighteenth-century European theological thinking: Peter O'Brien, Professor of Moral Theology, reminds us that Concina was the "leader of antiprobabilists in 18th century", and that while "teaching philosophy to Dominican students at Forli, he prepared for the preaching career in which he achieved much popularity in Rome and northern Italy. His sermons were aimed at renewing the ancient Christian spirit of heroic self-denial, penance, and uncompromising separation from worldly contamination … . He was a prolific writer, mainly on the moral questions in controversy in his day: the vow of poverty, the Lenten fast, usury, the theater, and especially probabilism. … . Concina's greatest work, the 12-volume Theologia Christiana dogmatico-moralis [Rome (Venice) 1749–51, 1755], brought the 18th-century phase of the probabilist controversy to a climax. The author conceived it as a definitive exposition of sound Christian moral theology. It was accepted and used as such by many seminaries and schools of theology, either in the principal edition or in a two-volume compendium (Venice 1760). The Jesuits petitioned the pope to condemn it for its errors and anti-Jesuit bias. The pope, after examining Concina's reply to these charges, personally dictated a declaration in Italian that closely follows the language of Concina's reply. The pope requested that this declaration be translated into Latin, and it appeared in a subsequent edition. Few changes were made in the text of this new edition, but the author added a chapter to its preface expressing high esteem for the Society of Jesus, declaring his intention was not to attack persons but opinions that he judged perniciously lax, and professing willingness to retract any error in his doctrine and to right any wrong unwittingly done to anyone. Concina, in all his controversies, had the encouraging support of Benedict XIV and other illustrious personages" (Encyclopedia.com).