Peter Bichsel   Fine Books

Catharina von Siena. Dialogus Seraphice ac Dive Catharine de Senis cum no(n)nullis aliis orationibus.

Text printed in 2 cols. except leaves 185v to 186v. 40 lines. Text printed in a very small type. With few initials in red. (192) leaves, last blank. Small 8vo. Blind-tooled armorial full vellum over wooden boards with 1 (of 2) brass clasps. Paste-downs with illuminated 14th-century manuscript on vellum. – Brescia, Bernardinus de Misintis, 15. April 1496.

First Latin edition of of Saint Catherine’s of Siena (1347–1380) main spiritual work, the “Book of the Divine Doctrine” (“Libro della divina dottrina“), dictated in 1377 and divided in six „tractatus“. The Latin version goes back to the Dominican Raimundus Capuanus (de Vineis, 1330-1399) and was edited here by Marcus Civilis from Brescia. The edition contains as well a selection of 22 „orationes” by Catherine, also in Latin translation and is concluded by an epistle about Catherine and a poem in praise of the Saint, both by Pope Pius II (i.e. Enea Silvio Piccolomini). – Bound in a sixteenth-century binding from the studio of Jakob Krause and Caspar Meuser with the arms of the Duke Elector Christian I of Saxony and his wife Sofie of Brandenburg. Later provenenca from the Indersdorf Augustiner Chorherrenstift with ms. entry “FF. B.M.V. in Undenstorff”, dated 1656, on title leaf recto. – HC 4693; BMC VII, 990; GW 6226; Goff C-285; BSB-Ink C-194; Bodleian C-123; IA 31.244. – A very handsome, mostly clean and wide-margined copy with only minor worm punctures through the first leaves and some white margins. Few old ms. entries on last blank leaf. Spine restored. – Best.-Nr. 7651