Object details
Object number
2.c.3.23
Creator(s)
Title
Devotional Letters of Saint Catharine of Siena [Epistole devotissime de Sancta Catharina da Siena]
Date
1500
Medium
Printed ink on paper
Language
Italian
Publication Place
Venice
Binding Description
Light brown calf; gilt-tooled covers, marbled pastedowns, red-speckled edges, spine tooled 'Lettere di S. Caterina da Siena' (Italian, 18th century)
Description
1 Vol. (422 leaves) : ill. ; 31.5 cm. (folio)
Dimensions
31.5 x 21.5 x 7 cm (12 3/8 x 8 7/16 x 2 3/4 in.)
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Inscribed on self-adhesive label (over another label; front pastedown, upper left): "Nicola di Mariano de Romanis Negoziante di Libri Antichi e Moderni in Roma Corso No. 246." [collector's mark]
Watermarks (e.g. on 2F7): unidentified
Affixed (verso of front flyleaf): Isabella Stewart Gardner's book plate
Inscribed in pencil (verso of front flyleaf): "10385"
Inscribed in pen (recto of back flyleaf): "0220"
Enclosed: typed bibliographic description
Enclosed: photocopy of typed bibliographic description
Enclosed: paper strip, inscribed in pencil: "1550"
Enclosed: photocopy of excerpt of a poem
Provenance
Collection of the Roman author and bookseller Nicola Mariano De Romanis (1710-1789).
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the bookseller and library agent Benjamin Franklin Stevens (1833-1902), London on 22 December 1892 for £6 14s 2d.
Commentary
St. Catherine's letters, first published in 1492, are famous for their literary beauty as well as for their religious devotion. This publication is the first in Italian by Aldus Manutius, the famous Venetian publisher who made his reputation in outstanding editions of the Latin and Greek classics. This book contains a woodcut of St. Catherine by the artist who illustrated the Hypnerotomachia Polyphili for Aldus the year before.
Novelist, critic, and bibliophile Vernon Lee (the penname for Violet Paget) encouraged Mrs. Gardner, who was looking for a copy of the Epistole to read, to find a fine one. This volume is the result of their search.
Bibliography
Isabella Stewart Gardner. A Choice of Books from the Library of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fenway Court (Boston, 1906), p. 2.
Isabella Stewart Gardner. A Choice of Manuscripts and Bookbindings from the Library of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fenway Court (Boston, 1922), p. 77. (as Italian binding)
Rebecca Karo. Short-Title Catalogue of Highlights from the Book Collection in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Unpublished manuscript. (Boston, 1970s), no. 3.
Frederick Richmond Goff. Incunabula in American libraries; a third census of fifteenth-century books recorded in North American collections (New York, 1964), no. C281.
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, no. 06222, accessed 9 September 2016. http://www.gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/docs/GW06222.htm
British Library. Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, no. ic00281000, accessed 15 September 2016. http://istc.bl.uk/search/search.html?operation=record&rsid=552772&q=0#
Anne-Marie Eze in Jeffery F. Hamburger et al. Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Newton: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; Cambridge: Houghton Library, Harvard University, 2016), pp. 55, 303-304, no. 241, ill.
Nina Wutrich, "Isabella's Bookworm Friendship with Veronon Lee," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 7 June 2022, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/isabellas-bookworm-friendship-vernon-lee
Gallery
Long Gallery
Case
Dante Case
Rights and reproductions
The use of images, text, and all other media found on this website is limited. Please review Rights and Reproductions for details.
