Cloth
1891, 1892
1891, 1892. Cloth. Very Good. Idiosyncratic, religion-tinged manuscript with wonderful folk art-ish ornamentation and illustrations rendered in watercolors, along with some highly decorative calligraphy. Elephantine Folio. 44.5 by 34 cm. Unpaginated, 22 pages (with content -- both verse and watercolored decoration). The manuscript is predominantly in Italian, with some Latin, and a few lines of Greek. The Catholic poetry includes a tribute to St. Catherine of Siena, and a dialogue between Dante and St. Thomas. The poetry is uncredited, and we believe, largely, if not all, original. The title page, or perhaps more accurately described as a dedication page, is the true knock-out of the manuscript, with paintings of an adult angel, or perhaps a winged Jesus, holding up a scroll, a friar or monk working on a manuscript to the side, a round inset of the Virgin with her infant, and an escutcheon and crown adding to the thick decorative fabric of the whole. Other illustrations are of a haloed saint, an upright Jesus, St. Catherine, St. Peters Square, Dante and St. Thomas, an angel holding a harp. Floral decoration abounds.
(Inventory #: 006051)