The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
St. Catherine of Bologna (1413-1463), also known as Catherine de' Vigr, was an Italian nun from the order of the Poor Clares. She was born to a fairly wealthy family and spent time as a young woman at the court of Niccolò III d'Este (1383-1441), the Marquess of Ferrara. Catherine became jaded with court life after Niccolò had his wife Parisina executed for adultery in 1425. In In 1455 she left Ferrara to become the abbess of a new convent, Corpus Domini in Bologna. Her most famous work is Seven Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare (Le Sette Armi Spirituali), which she wrote in 1438, then edited between 1450 and 1456. The text encourages the reader to take up the cross as a kind of spiritual arms. According to the colophon on fol. 62r-v, the Walters copy was written in 1466 at the monastery of Corpus Christi in Ferrara by the nun Beata Illuminata Bembo, a companion of St. Catherine. It was copied from St. Catherine's own manuscript found in her cell at the time of her death in 1463 by Father Batista da Modena. Especially wonderful is the sensitively painted portrait of St. Catherine on fol. 1v, which was created in her memory shortly after her death by her friend Beata, and which may therefore offer a lovingly personalized portrait of the saint by someone who knew her well.
Written in Italian Gothic script; the spiritual chant that begins on fol. 63v is written in another hand
Principal cataloger: Berlin, Nicole
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Damon, Elena
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 844, no. 497.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Ferrara, Italy
Dated 1466 CE
book
Non-original Binding
Original wooden boards covered in a nineteenth- or twentieth-century red silk corded cloth; strap stub on the upper cover and brass catch plate on the lower are both perhaps original; the edges in full gilt with gauffering, likely modern; front pastedown and endleaf a parchment bifolium
The primary language in this manuscript is Italian.
Written in 1466 at the monastery of Corpus Christi in Ferrara, Italy by Sister Beata Illuminata Bembo
Leo S. Olschki, bookseller, Florence
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Leo S. Olschki; inventory number 17917 written in ink on bookplate that reads "Ex Libris Leonis S. Olschki" on inside of upper board
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Ferrara, Italy
Dated 1466 CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Italian.
Written in 1466 at the monastery of Corpus Christi in Ferrara, Italy by Sister Beata Illuminata Bembo
Leo S. Olschki, bookseller, Florence
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Leo S. Olschki; inventory number 17917 written in ink on bookplate that reads "Ex Libris Leonis S. Olschki" on inside of upper board
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
St. Catherine of Bologna (1413-1463), also known as Catherine de' Vigr, was an Italian nun from the order of the Poor Clares. She was born to a fairly wealthy family and spent time as a young woman at the court of Niccolò III d'Este (1383-1441), the Marquess of Ferrara. Catherine became jaded with court life after Niccolò had his wife Parisina executed for adultery in 1425. In In 1455 she left Ferrara to become the abbess of a new convent, Corpus Domini in Bologna. Her most famous work is Seven Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare (Le Sette Armi Spirituali), which she wrote in 1438, then edited between 1450 and 1456. The text encourages the reader to take up the cross as a kind of spiritual arms. According to the colophon on fol. 62r-v, the Walters copy was written in 1466 at the monastery of Corpus Christi in Ferrara by the nun Beata Illuminata Bembo, a companion of St. Catherine. It was copied from St. Catherine's own manuscript found in her cell at the time of her death in 1463 by Father Batista da Modena. Especially wonderful is the sensitively painted portrait of St. Catherine on fol. 1v, which was created in her memory shortly after her death by her friend Beata, and which may therefore offer a lovingly personalized portrait of the saint by someone who knew her well.
Written in Italian Gothic script; the spiritual chant that begins on fol. 63v is written in another hand
Principal cataloger: Berlin, Nicole
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Damon, Elena
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 844, no. 497.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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