Epistole deuotissime de Sancta Catharina da Siena

Resource Information

The instance Epistole deuotissime de Sancta Catharina da Siena represents a material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in UCLA Library.

Label

Epistole deuotissime de Sancta Catharina da Siena

Instantiates

• Epistole deuotissime de Sancta Catharina da Siena

Publication

• Stampato in la inclita cita de Venetia, In casa de Aldo Manutio Romano, a di xv. Septembrio M.ccccc 15 Sept. 1500

Note

• Issued without title page; title from caption title on leaf *1r above printing privilege
• Imprint from colophon
• Printing privilege identifies editor: "....queste Epistole che essendo state adunate insemi con grandissima diligentia & faticha per spatio di circa uinti anni per il uenerabile seruo di Dio frate Bartholomeo da Alzano da Bergamo del ordine de la obseruantia de li frati Predicatori, & essendo stampate diligentissimamente & con grande spesa...."
• Signatures: *10 a-y8 A-G8 H10 I-N8 O10 P-Z8 2A-2F8
• Woodcuts: large (9-line) and small ornamental initials in different styles (strapwork, foliated, white-on-black); full page woodcut of Saint Catherine on verso of leaf *10; in her outstretched hands she holds a book and the sacred heart of Jesus, each containing lines of text in the Aldine italic, the first known use of this italic. In some first issue copies, the book and heart are blank, lacking the italic text. The woodcut was probably executed by the Paduan illuminator and designer Benedetto Bordone, who also did the woodcuts for Aldus' Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of 1499, a masterpiece of Venetian book illustration. Many details link this woodcut to Bordone, including the composition and the balanced blank spaces, the shaded style in the design of the mantle, the figure type, and the resemblance of Catherine's features with that of the Virgin designed by Bordone for the initial "S" in the "Introit for the Pentecost" in the Giunta Graduale romanum of 1499-1500. For additional information, see L. Armstrong, "Benedetto Bordon, miniator, and cartography in early sixteenth-century Venice," Imago mundi 48 (1996): 65-92; and D. Casagrande and A. Scarsella, Verso il Polifilo 1499-1999 (Venice, 1998), pages 171-183
• Text printed in large roman type

Dimensions

33 cm (folio)

Extent

[10], ccccxiiii [i.e. 411], [1] leaves

Note

• Spec. Coll. copy 1: imperfect, first two leaves repaired; several small holes mended with letters in facsimile, restoring text on leaf [1b]. Thick paper copy. Bound in modern dark green morocco boards; two concentric panels bordered in gilt; gilt corner-pieces; gold-stamped title on upper board: "Epistole de S. Catherina. Aldo. Venetia. 1500;" small gilt ornaments in spine panels; vellum endpapers; all edges gilt; in matching green and red marbled paper slipcase. Red oval ownership inkstamp on first page, featuring a Lorraine cross and unidentified initials; manuscript note on front pastedown identifying Sir George Lindsay Holford as former owner; book label of Templeton Crocker on front endleaf.
• Spec. Coll. copy 2: this copy is first issue, one of a few known copies lacking the italic type in the woodcut on verso of leaf *10. Bound in late 16th-century vellum over pasteboards, reinforced along the upper spine with a strip of early vellum manuscript waste, with Latin text in a very small fine hand in red and brown; three large raised bands on spine. Ownership inscriptions "Di Gian Batta. Giacobini" and "ossia di Suor Caterina Angela Cappuccina" on recto of first leaf; note on ownership in a 19th-century hand on leaf a1r, dated April 1872 that reads: "Lettere di S. Caterina da Siena scritte da lei medesima, donate dal sotto scritto fratello a Suor Catarina Angela Cappuccina in Fabriano nel cadere di April 1872," [signed] "Giovanni Giacobini;" earlier ownership inscription "Questo libro e di me Carlo Venuti" on recto of final leaf. Purchase, Forum Auctions, Nov. 2016.

Other physical details

1 illustration (woodcut)

Record ID

967987

System control number

• (OCoLC)09526051
• ucoclc9526051