![BIRGITTA (1302/03-1373, Saint). Revelationes. Translated from Swedish into Latin by Petrus Olavi. Foreword by Matthias de Suecia. -- Johannes de TURRECREMATA (1388-1468). Defensiorum super Revelationes caelestes sanctae Birgittae [extract]. -- Vita abbreviata S. Birgittae. -- Hymnus ad Beatam Birgittam. Edited by Florian Waldauf von Waldenstein (ca 1450-1510). Nuremberg: Anton Koberger at the request of Maximilian I, 21st September 1500.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/NYR/2013_NYR_02706_0120_000(birgitta_revelationes_translated_from_swedish_into_latin_by_petrus_ola090400).jpg?w=1)
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BIRGITTA (1302/03-1373, Saint). Revelationes. Translated from Swedish into Latin by Petrus Olavi. Foreword by Matthias de Suecia. -- Johannes de TURRECREMATA (1388-1468). Defensiorum super Revelationes caelestes sanctae Birgittae [extract]. -- Vita abbreviata S. Birgittae. -- Hymnus ad Beatam Birgittam. Edited by Florian Waldauf von Waldenstein (ca 1450-1510). Nuremberg: Anton Koberger at the request of Maximilian I, 21st September 1500.
Chancery 2o (311 x 212 mm). Collation: [16 28] (1/1r title with full-page woodcut (supplied from a shorter copy, remargined), 1/1v editor's preface, 1/2r full-page woodcut arms of Maximilian I, 1/2v full-page woodcut arms of Florian Waldauf, 1/3r Turrecremata, 1/6r Bull of Birgitta's canonization by Pope Boniface IX on 7 October 1391, 2/2v confirmation of the canonization by Pope Martin V on 7 January 1419, 2/5r-2/6r prayers with woodcuts, 2/6v prologue by Matthias de Suecia, 2/8r list of contents, 2/8v prayer with woodcuts); a-z A-F8 G-H6 (a1r text, H5v colophon, H6 blank); 2a-f8 g6 (2a alphabetical subject index, 2g5v explicit, 2g6 blank). 312 leaves. 57 lines and headline, double column. Gothic types 130:14 (title, head-lines) 82b:25 (text) 64a (71):19 (table). 7 full-page woodcuts, including 2 portraits of St. Bridget and two armorial cuts, plus 51 smaller cuts assembled to form 10 more full-page illustrations. Finely rubricated with one 11-line blue and green flourished Lombard initial in red penwork ground, 9 5-7 line initials in blue with reserved decoration, alternating red and blue Lombard initials, capital strokes and paragraph marks in red. (Some light dampstaining.) Contemporary South-German blind-tooled calf over heavy wooden boards, upper cover with straight intersecting fillets, edged on two sides with Kopfstempel, central panel filled with a curved leafy stems the interstices filled with rosette, dragon and pomegranate tool, lower cover ruled with intersecting double fillet central panel forming a cross of St. Andrews, each of the four resulting triangles stamped with alternating rosette or pomegranate tool, remains of one central clasp, metal bosses removed (spine ends repaired, some rubbing); quarter brown morocco folding case. Provenance: Montpellier, Franciscan Minorites (17th-century ownership inscription on supplied title); Trier city library (stamp on flyleaf); acquired from Goodspeed's Book Shop, 1958.
The second Latin edition and first Koberger edition of the visions of the motherly Swedish saint. As the young wife of a Swedish nobleman, Bridget had studied Latin with her sons under Nicholas of Linköping. After the death in 1344 of her husband, who had retired to a Cistercian monastery in Spain, she began to experience visions, and undertook the study of theology with Magister Matthias (who himself had studied under Nicholas of Lyra in Paris). In this work she recorded the visions and prophecies given her by Christ and the Virgin Mary. Including both instructions for the betterment of human life and terrifying visions of divine punishment, her visions prompted her to urge the Pope's return to Rome from Avignon and to found a new religious order. Bridget's confessor Petrus Olavi, priest of Alvestra, translated her massive work into Latin. He was also the author of a Vita S. Birgittae, the source of the Vita abbreviata in the printed editions. The effective spirituality of Bridget's teachings, which paid particular attention to the Virgin, won her great popularity in the late Middle Ages.
The first Latin and first complete edition, used by Koberger as copy-text for this edition, was printed at Lübeck by Bartholomaeus Ghotan for the use of the Bridgetine Cloister at Vadstena in 1492 (GW 4391). Emperor Maximilian's secretary Florian Waldauf, who had a special affection for St. Bridget and her order, persuaded Maximilian to commission from Koberger both a Latin edition and a High German translation (published in 1502 and illustrated with the same woodcuts), in order to make the saint's visions accessible to a South German audience. The Koberger woodblocks reminiscent of Dürer's style, were freely adapted from the cuts of the 1492 edition, thought to have been designed by the lay brother Gerhardus. Long attributed to Albrecht Dürer, today only the two armorial cuts are considered his work, the remainder having been reassigned to the Dürer workshop, possibly after the master's sketches. HC 3205; BMC II, 445 (IB.7558); BSB-Ink. B-531; CIBN B-480; Fairfax Murray German 73; Goff B-688; Harvard/Walsh 763; Muther 426; Schreiber 3504.
Chancery 2o (311 x 212 mm). Collation: [16 28] (1/1r title with full-page woodcut (supplied from a shorter copy, remargined), 1/1v editor's preface, 1/2r full-page woodcut arms of Maximilian I, 1/2v full-page woodcut arms of Florian Waldauf, 1/3r Turrecremata, 1/6r Bull of Birgitta's canonization by Pope Boniface IX on 7 October 1391, 2/2v confirmation of the canonization by Pope Martin V on 7 January 1419, 2/5r-2/6r prayers with woodcuts, 2/6v prologue by Matthias de Suecia, 2/8r list of contents, 2/8v prayer with woodcuts); a-z A-F8 G-H6 (a1r text, H5v colophon, H6 blank); 2a-f8 g6 (2a alphabetical subject index, 2g5v explicit, 2g6 blank). 312 leaves. 57 lines and headline, double column. Gothic types 130:14 (title, head-lines) 82b:25 (text) 64a (71):19 (table). 7 full-page woodcuts, including 2 portraits of St. Bridget and two armorial cuts, plus 51 smaller cuts assembled to form 10 more full-page illustrations. Finely rubricated with one 11-line blue and green flourished Lombard initial in red penwork ground, 9 5-7 line initials in blue with reserved decoration, alternating red and blue Lombard initials, capital strokes and paragraph marks in red. (Some light dampstaining.) Contemporary South-German blind-tooled calf over heavy wooden boards, upper cover with straight intersecting fillets, edged on two sides with Kopfstempel, central panel filled with a curved leafy stems the interstices filled with rosette, dragon and pomegranate tool, lower cover ruled with intersecting double fillet central panel forming a cross of St. Andrews, each of the four resulting triangles stamped with alternating rosette or pomegranate tool, remains of one central clasp, metal bosses removed (spine ends repaired, some rubbing); quarter brown morocco folding case. Provenance: Montpellier, Franciscan Minorites (17th-century ownership inscription on supplied title); Trier city library (stamp on flyleaf); acquired from Goodspeed's Book Shop, 1958.
The second Latin edition and first Koberger edition of the visions of the motherly Swedish saint. As the young wife of a Swedish nobleman, Bridget had studied Latin with her sons under Nicholas of Linköping. After the death in 1344 of her husband, who had retired to a Cistercian monastery in Spain, she began to experience visions, and undertook the study of theology with Magister Matthias (who himself had studied under Nicholas of Lyra in Paris). In this work she recorded the visions and prophecies given her by Christ and the Virgin Mary. Including both instructions for the betterment of human life and terrifying visions of divine punishment, her visions prompted her to urge the Pope's return to Rome from Avignon and to found a new religious order. Bridget's confessor Petrus Olavi, priest of Alvestra, translated her massive work into Latin. He was also the author of a Vita S. Birgittae, the source of the Vita abbreviata in the printed editions. The effective spirituality of Bridget's teachings, which paid particular attention to the Virgin, won her great popularity in the late Middle Ages.
The first Latin and first complete edition, used by Koberger as copy-text for this edition, was printed at Lübeck by Bartholomaeus Ghotan for the use of the Bridgetine Cloister at Vadstena in 1492 (GW 4391). Emperor Maximilian's secretary Florian Waldauf, who had a special affection for St. Bridget and her order, persuaded Maximilian to commission from Koberger both a Latin edition and a High German translation (published in 1502 and illustrated with the same woodcuts), in order to make the saint's visions accessible to a South German audience. The Koberger woodblocks reminiscent of Dürer's style, were freely adapted from the cuts of the 1492 edition, thought to have been designed by the lay brother Gerhardus. Long attributed to Albrecht Dürer, today only the two armorial cuts are considered his work, the remainder having been reassigned to the Dürer workshop, possibly after the master's sketches. HC 3205; BMC II, 445 (IB.7558); BSB-Ink. B-531; CIBN B-480; Fairfax Murray German 73; Goff B-688; Harvard/Walsh 763; Muther 426; Schreiber 3504.