Artist Unknown
Leaves from Summa de vitiis
- Ink on vellum
- France
- Gift of William A Sutton, 1978
- 334 x 240mm
- 78/26
Location: Burdon Family Gallery
Tags: Christianity, manuscripts (document genre), text (layout feature), words
Summa de vitiis (Summary of the Vices) is an influential Latin treatise by medieval French theologian Peraldus, or William Perault (c. 1190–1271), written to encourage virtuous living. This page belongs to a section addressing sloth, which is described as a sin of omission – neglecting good through occupying a state of physical and spiritual lethargy.
(Out of Time, 23 September 2023 – 28 April 2024)
Read more about the Peraldus project.
Exhibition History
![Andreas Cellarius Hypothesis Ptolemaica Sive Communis Planetarum Motus Per Eccentricos Et Epicyclos Demonstrans [The Ptolemaic Hypothesis or Common Representation Demonstrating the Planetary Motions through Eccentrics and Epicycles] 1661. Hand-coloured engraving. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, William A. Sutton bequest, 2000](/media/cache/05/97/05970cdff0f6b3264062d69bf2aa90f5.jpg)
Four pages from a manuscript edition of Summa de vitiis by Peraldus.
The Summa de vitiis by the French Dominican William Perault, (c. 1190 – 1271), whose name is conventionally Latinized as Peraldus, is a Latin treatise written before 1250 and very probably intended for use in preaching and pastoral care. It consists of nine tracts that deal successively with: vices in general, gluttony, lechery, avarice, acedia or sloth, pride, envy, wrath, and the sins of the tongue.
These pages are from part ii, chapter 9 of Tract V (De Acedia) which considers the vice of sloth.
The text corresponds to page 201 and following of the edition printed in Lyon in 1668.
We are grateful to Professors Siegfried Wenzel at the University of North Carolina and Richard Newhauser at Arizona State University for their assistance in interpreting this item.
