Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

MS. 18
Letters of Catherine of Siena, Ugo Panziera, and Feo Belcari
Contents:
  1. Letters
  2. Trattato spirituale IV
  3. Trattato spirituale XIII
  4. Trattato spirituale XIV
  5. Lauda di Santa Caterina da Siena
  6. Dei rimedi contra la tentazione
  7. Letters
Date of origin:After 1460.
Place of origin: Florence, Italy

Support: Paper codex with watermarks: ladders (Briquet 5910) in quires 1-5, hats (Briquet 3370 or 3373) in quires 6-10 and eagles (Briquet 82) in quire 11.
Foliation: Foliation is in lead in a modern hand in the top-right corner of each recto. F. 71r is not numbered, so from marked f. 71 to f. 101, the foliation is one less than the actual count. The paginator then skips number 102, going from 101 to 103, thus making folia numbers 103-108 correct. F. 109 is numbered, but it is clearly an endpaper (parallels the fly-leaf at the front of the codex) and bears a different watermark than the eagle that maintains throughout the folia of the last quire. The folium appears to have to been inserted at the same time as the pastedown on the back inside cover.
Dimensions:210mm x 140mm (leaves), 133mm x 85mm (ruled space)
Collation:i 1-310 42 5-910 1014 1112 i. There are no catchwords or signatures for any quire. Quire 4 appears to be two folia tipped in.
Script:Written in a neat humanist cursive hand. Hand #1 begins the manuscript and continues through f. 35v. Hand #2 enters on f. 36r and begins to write in the shifted text column noted under "layout" in this description.

Binding:Binding is of limp parchment. On the spine is written "Santa Caterina--Epistola--Mss. Volg. Sec. XV" with the capitals S, C, and E of "Santa Caterina Epistola" written in Gothic letters in red ink. The back flyleaf contains a watermark, the top half of the "bell" icon.
Provenance: The manuscript was in the collection of Giuseppe Martini and bears his bookplate on the front pastedown. There is also written in lead above the bookplate a shorthand that reads "Coll. compl./ E. Martin"; a note "$350--"; and another date: "Vt 3/2/27".