Collection ID: 0002 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Life of the Virgin Mary, together with two poems on the Passion and Resurrection of Christ

Other related names

• Suchier, Hermann, 1848-1914, former owner

Call number

Ms. Codex 312
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206., University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9915809293503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122584784
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/1580929

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Language

Italian

Origin

Date

1473

Place

Italy

Summary

Three religious/devotional works: a prose life of the Virgin Mary, together with two poems on the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. The two poems on the Passion and Resurrection actually form two halves of a single long work. The first part (on the Passion) consists of 2208 lines of verse arranged in 276 eight-line stanzas; the second (on the Resurrection) consists of 1976 lines of verse arranged in 247 eight-line stanzas. Folio 2 is blank and there is a lacuna in the text there (possibly the original f. 2 was lost and the present one is a replacement).

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Spine title: Vita del S. V. Maria.
   
• Title of first work taken from heading (f. 1r); titles of second and third works taken from explicits (f. 97r and 142r).
   
• Incipit of first work (f. 1r): La beata Vergine Maria la quale fu madre di Christo ...
   
• Incipit of second work (f. 51r): O increata maesta di dio / o infinita eterna potenza / ...
   
• Incipit of third work (f. 101r): Volendo della resurexion [sic] santa / parlare chiamo Yhesu che re del cielo / ...
   
• In the heading, incipits and explicits, the name Christo is written Xpo.
   
• The text appears to have been composed in Tuscany, and it is likely that the manuscript was written there as well. The Virgin's cintola was preserved in Prato (near Florence), and many of the miracles described in the first work take place in Tuscany.
   
• Various stains and smudges.
   
• These texts do not appear ever to have been published.
   
• The following items are on file in the Library: two typed pages of notes on the manuscript, presumably by Bernard Rosenthal; three photographs of folios of the manuscript, which appear to have been clipped from a dealer's catalog; and a letter from Bodo Richter (Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania) to Rudolf Hirsch (University of Pennsylvania Library) concerning the manuscript and its value. The analysis by Bernard Rosenthal is the source for much of the descriptive information in this record.
   

Extent

142 leaves : 213 x 142 (152 x 90) mm. bound to 220 x 145 mm

Foliation

Paper, i (modern paper) + 142 + i (modern paper); 1-142; near contemporary foliation in ink, upper right recto.

Support

Paper

Binding

Vellum, somewhat later than the text.

Decoration

4-line initial and foliate border decorated in gold, pink, green, blue, and white (f. 1r); blue initials with red penwork ornamentation; red initials with brown penwork ornamentation; rubricated headings and capitals.

Script

Written in a 15th-century book script by a single hand.

Provenance

• Formerly owned by Hermann Suchier (bookplate, inside front cover).
   
• Appears in Bernard M. Rosenthal's catalog 9 (1959), no. 44.
   
• Sold by Rosenthal, 1959.
   

Subjects topical

• Catholic Church--Doctrines
• Christian hagiography--Early works to 1800
• Christian saints in literature--Early works to 1800
• Devotional literature, Italian--Early works to 1800
• Hagiography in literature--Early works to 1800
• Spirituality--Catholic Church

Genres

• Hagiographies
• Codices
• Manuscripts, Italian--15th century
• Manuscripts, Renaissance

Keywords

• 15th century
• Saint's Life
• Christian
• Italy
• Paper
• Devotion
• Italian

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Ms. Codex 312: Life of the Virgin Mary, together with two poems on the Passion and Resurrection of Christ are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  Metadata is © and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — Life of the Virgin Mary, f. 1r
• fol. 51r — Passion of Christ, f. 51r
• fol. 101r — Resurrection of Christ, f. 101r

Decorations

• fol. 1r — Illuminated initial, Initial L, f. 1r
• fol. 1v — Decorated initial, Initial L, f. 1v
• fol. 3v — Decorated initial, Initial Q, f. 3v
• fol. 4r — Decorated initial, Initial Q, f. 4r
• fol. 5r — Decorated initial, Initial R, f. 5r
• fol. 6v — Decorated initial, Initial N, f. 6v
• fol. 7v — Decorated initial, Initial E, f. 7v
• fol. 8r — Decorated initial, Initial E, f. 8r
• fol. 9v — Decorated initial, Initial O, f. 9v
• fol. 10r — Decorated initial, Initial E, f. 10r
• fol. 11v — Decorated initial, Initial P, f. 11v
• fol. 13r — Decorated initial, Initial P, f. 13r
• fol. 13v — Decorated initial, Initial E, f. 13v
• fol. 17r — Decorated initial, Initial U, f. 17r
• fol. 19r — Decorated initial, Initial U, f. 19r
• fol. 20r — Decorated initial, Initial E, f. 20r
• fol. 21r — Decorated initial, Initial A, f. 21r
• fol. 22r — Decorated initial, Initial U, f. 22r
• fol. 23r — Decorated initial, Initial E, f. 23r
• fol. 23v — Decorated initial, Initial U, f. 23v
• fol. 24r — Decorated initial, Initial U, f. 24r
• fol. 25r — Decorated initial, Initial U, f. 25r
• fol. 26r — Decorated initial, Initial E, f. 26r
• fol. 27v — Decorated initial, Initial E, f. 27v
• fol. 28v — Decorated initial, Initial A, f. 28v
• fol. 30r — Decorated initial, Initial E, f. 30r
• fol. 30v — Decorated initial, Initial I, f. 30v
• fol. 31r — Decorated initial, Initial U, f. 31r
• fol. 31v — Decorated initial, Initial E, f. 31v
• fol. 32r — Decorated initial, Initial U, f. 32r
• fol. 33v — Decorated initial, Initial L, f. 33v
• fol. 34r — Decorated initial, Initial L, f. 34r
• fol. 34v — Decorated initial, Initial I, f. 34v
• fol. 35v — Decorated initial, Initial E, f. 35v
• fol. 36v — Decorated initial, Initial A, f. 36v
• fol. 37r — Decorated initial, Initial N, f. 37r
• fol. 39v — Decorated initial, Initial L, f. 39v
• fol. 43r — Decorated initial, Initial N, f. 43r
• fol. 44v — Decorated initial, Initial A, f. 44v
• fol. 45v — Decorated initial, Initial A, f. 45v
• fol. 51r — Decorated initial, Initial O, f. 51r
• fol. 101r — Decorated initial, Initial U, f. 101r