Beschreibung:

BIRGITTA (1302/03-1373, Saint). Revelationes . Translated from Swedish into Latin by Petrus Olavi. Foreword by Matthias de Suecia. - Johannes de TURRECREMATA (1388-1468). Defensiorum super Revelationes caelestes sanctae Birgittae [extract]. - Vita abbreviata S. Birgittae . - Hymnus ad Beatam Birgittam . Edited by Florian Waldauf von Waldenstein (ca. 1450-1510). Nuremberg: Anton Koberger at the instigation of Maximilian I, 21st September 1500. Chancery 2 o (311 x 218 mm). Collation : [1 6 2 8 ] (1/1r title with full-page woodcut, 1/1v editor's preface, 1/2r full-page woodcut arms of Maximilian I, 1/2v full-page woodcut arms of Florian Waldauf, 1/3r Turrecremata, 1/6r Bull of Birgitta's canonization by Pope Boniface IX on 7 October 1391, 2/2v confirmation of the canonization by Pope Martin V on 7 January 1419, 2/5r-2/6r prayers with woodcuts, 2/6v prologue by Matthias de Suecia, 2/8r list of contents, 2/8v prayer with woodcuts); a-z A-F 8 G-H 6 (a1r text, H5v colophon, H6 blank); 2 a-f 8 g 6 ( 2 a alphabetical subject index, 2 g5v explicit, 2 g6 blank). 312 leaves. 57 lines and headline, double column. Gothic types 130:14 (title, head-lines) 82 b :25 (text) 64 a (71):19 (table). 7 full-page woodcuts, including 2 portraits of St. Bridget and two armorial cuts, plus 51 smaller cuts assembled to form 10 more full-page illustrations. 11-line and smaller initial spaces, most with printed guide-letters. Rubricated: in alternate red and blue. (A few wormholes in first few quires occasionally catching letters, old marginal repair on e1, some occasional browning and staining.) Binding : Contemporary Italian blind-tooled goatskin over wooden boards, sides divided into panels by quadruple fillets, borders with historiated and small floral tools, titled in manuscript across lower margins, some deckle edges preserved (recased with the endpapers renewed, but preserving the original vellum manuscript pastedowns from a ?12th-century Italian liturgical manuscript, one corner chipped); quarter morocco folding case. Provenance : purchased from Hamill & Barker, Chicago, 7 January 1974. A TALL COPY IN A FINE CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN BINDING of the second Latin edition and first Koberger edition of the visions of the motherly Swedish saint. As the young wife of a Swedish nobleman Bridget had studied Latin with her sons under Nicholas of Linköping. After the death in 1344 of her husband, who had retired to a Cistercian monastery in Spain, she began to experience visions, and undertook the study of theology with Magister Matthias (who himself had studied under Nicholas of Lyra in Paris). In this work she recorded the visions and prophecies given her by Christ and the Virgin Mary. Including both instructions for the betterment of human life and terrifying visions of divine punishment, her visions prompted her to urge the Pope's return to Rome from Avignon and to found a new religious order. Bridget's confessor Petrus Olavi, priest of Alvestra, translated her massive work into Latin. He was also the author of a Vita S. Birgittae , the source of the Vita abbreviata in the printed editions. The affective spirituality of Bridget's teachings, which paid particular attention to the Virgin, won her great popularity in the late Middle Ages. The first Latin and first complete edition, used by Koberger as copy-text for this edition, was printed at Lübeck by Bartholomaeus Ghotan for the use of the Bridgetine Cloister at Vadstena in 1492 (GW 4391). Emperor Maximilian's secretary Florian Waldauf, who had a special affection for St. Bridget and her order, persuaded Maximilian to commission from Koberger both a Latin edition and a High German translation (published in 1502 and illustrated with the same woodcuts), in order to make the saint's visions accessible to a South German audience. The Koberger woodblocks were copied from the cuts of the 1492 edition, thought to have been designed by the lay brother Gerhardus. Long attributed to Albrecht Dürer today only the t