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

Title

Miracoli e leggende

Other related names

• Suchier, Hermann, 1848-1914, former owner
• Martini, Giuseppe, 1870-1914, former owner

Call number

Oversize Ms. Codex 331
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206., University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9915809303503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122492341
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/1580930

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Language

Italian, in the Tuscan dialect

Origin

Date

between 1425 and 1450

Place

Tuscany?

Summary

Collection of miracle stories and lives of the saints told in the style of contemporary novels, with the intention of making the average reader realize the punishment for sinful actions and the reward for virtuous life. Includes paraphrases of miraculous stories and legends of the Virgin and of the saints. Many of the latter category are based on early Christian literature, such as the Lives of the Fathers, which in many cases are cited as the source. The individual stories appear to be unpublished, except for the story of the childless queen. Appears to be incomplete, with one or more folios missing at the end.

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title supplied by cataloger (Zacour-Hirsch).
   
• Titles of individual items from headings, and from Zacour-Hirsch.
   
• Paper stained and fragile. Some smudges. Edges of leaves frayed and worn; a few tears. Evidence of later repairs to the edges of some leaves. A few wormholes. Binding solid; cover shows only slight wear.
   
• On file in the Library: three leaves of notes in the hand of G. Martini; bookseller's description on the stationery of H. P. Kraus (used in part for the item description in the present record).
   

Watermark

Similar to Briquet, Lettre T 9127 (Naples, 1444).

Extent

61 leaves : 281 x 195 (203 x 155) mm. bound to 290 x 200 mm

Collation

Paper, i (modern) + 61 + i (modern); 1-6¹⁰ followed by the first leaf of a missing quire; early foliation in ink, 12-72, upper center recto; modern foliation in pencil, 1-61, upper right recto. Horizontal catchwords in ink, lower center last verso. References in this record are to modern foliation.

Support

Paper

Binding

Modern marbled paper over boards.

Layout

Written in 2 columns of 36 lines; royal quarto format.

Decoration

Red and blue initials. First initial (f. 1r) has red pen-drawn filigree ornamentation. Red used for headings.

Script

Written in mercantesca script, probably by a single hand.

Provenance

• Formerly owned by Hermann Suchier (in Halle; bookplate, inside front cover), and Giuseppe Martini.
   
• Purchased by H. P. Kraus from the Martini collection, ca. 1948.
   
• Appears in Kraus's list 189 (1956), no. 127.
   
• Sold by Kraus, 1960[?].
   

Subjects topical

• Catholic Church--Doctrines
• Christian hagiography
• Christian saints in literature
• Devotional literature, Italian
• Hagiography in literature
• Italian literature--To 1400
• Italian literature--15th century

Genres

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

Keywords

• Anthology
• 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 Oversize Ms. Codex 331: Miracoli e leggende 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

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Inside front cover
• fol. 1r — Decorated initial, Initial U, f. 1r