Details

Subjects:

Catherine, of Alexandria, Saint -- Prayers and devotions.
Catherine, of Alexandria, Saint.
Monasticism and religious orders for women -- Early works to 1800.
Monasticism and religious orders for women.

Form/Genre:

Codices (bound manuscripts)
Illuminations (painting)
Poetry.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.
Prayers and devotions.
Prayers.
Devotional literature.

Language:

Latin, with the final poem in Italian (f. 16v).

Summary:

Preface on holiness in nuns and poems attributed to Denis (Dionysus) Faucher on religious life precede a printed edition of Hendrik Herp's Speculum perfectionis (Venice: Sabio, 1524). The printed material ends with a woodcut of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and the following manuscript material begins with a hymn to Saint Catherine (f. 9r-10r), followed by additional poems on religious life. Most of the poems by Faucher are a addressed to a nun in the scholasticate (period following novitiate), except for one addressed to Antonius Rorincus (f. 8v).

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Paper, 16 manuscript leaves; [1-8] (at beginning of volume), [9-16] (at end of volume), modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto.
Layout: Written in 17-20 long lines or lines of verse, with the first line of text above the line; frame-ruled in lead.
Script: Written in a humanistic script, with the last poem written in a humanistic cursive or italic script (f. 16v).
Decoration: Full-page illumination of a nun on the cross above a 4-line verse titled Ad scholasticam (f. 1r) and an illumination of a skull surrounded by bones and flowers (f. 3r), both surrounded by text passages on scrolls; rubrication in red; paragraph marks in red or blue and 1- or 2-line initials in red or blue.
Binding: 17th- or 18th-century morocco, gilt spine.
Origin: Written in Italy (Zacour-Hirsch) after 1524, the date of the printed edition; probably between 1530 and 1550 (Zacour-Hirsch).
Printed edition is cataloged separately under the title Speculum perfectionis vene[rabilis] Fr[ater] Henrici Hierp ...

Penn Provenance:

Possible ownership inscriptions on first printed leaf: F. Franciscus pradice [?]; Ballesdens.
Sold by Lathrop C. Harper (New York), 1962.
Transferred from Culture Class collection, University of Pennsylvania, 2012.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 42 (Ms. Latin 179).

Publications about:

Cruz González, Cristina. "Beyond the Bride of Christ: The Crucified Abbess in Mexico and Spain." The Art Bulletin 99, no. 4 (2017): 102-32, at 113-15, ill. at 114.
Herman, Nicholas. Making the Renaissance Manuscript: Discoveries from Philadelphia Libraries (exh. cat.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Libraries, 2020. 41, 124-27 (cat. 29).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1620

Contains:

Herp, Hendrik, approximately 1400-1477. Speculum perfectionis.

OCLC:

775118875