Bod-Inc: B-348
Birgitta
Revelationes.
Analysis of Content
a1v [Declaration of authenticity.] ‘Epigramma libri presentis'.’ The volume was edited by Petrus Ingemari and the lay brother Gerardus on behalf of the Brigittine monastery in Vadstena. Incipit: ‘[B]enedictus deus, a quo hoc liber inspiratus est . . .’ See Collijn, Bibliografi, I 122-3.
a1v ‘Phares voluminis infrascripti'. Incipit: ‘Diuide sic numen subscriptum, siue volumen'; 5 hexameters, a mnemonic poem listing the works of the volume.
a2r Turrecremata, Johannes de: ‘Epistola . . . ad omnes christifideles'. Incipit: ‘[I]ohannes miseracione diuina sacrosancte Romane ecclesie tituli . . . Rogati deuota cum instancia per venerabiles et religiosos fratres . . .’ Authentication of the ‘Defensorium'; not found in Kaeppeli III 24-42.
a2v Turrecremata, Johannes de: Defensorium super revelationes caelestes S. Birgittae. Incipit: ‘ “[D]ixerunt Iudith, Ozias et presbiteri, Omnia quae locuta es vera sunt. Iudith c viijo ” [Idt 8,28] . . . Ista quippe verba quæ secundum sensum litteralem . . .’ The prologue and the first six chapters only; chapter 5 also contains Bonifatius IX, [Bulla, Ab origine mundi, 7 Oct. 1391]; MBR IV (Turin, 1859), 616-24; and Martinus V, [Bulla, Excellentum principum, 1 July 1419]; not in MBR. See Collijn, Bibliografi, I 121; not found in Kaeppeli III 24-42.
a11r Johannes de Castello: ‘Littera testimonialis'.’ Incipit: ‘[V]niuersis et singulis christifidelibus . . . Ludouicus de Garsis vtriusque iuris doctor . . .’
a12r Jacobus: ‘Instrumentum notarii'.’ Incipit: ‘[I]n nomine indiuidue trinitatis . . . Ego Jacobus, domini diui de Callio publicus apostolica et imperiali autoritatibus notarius . . .’
a12v Three pages of woodcuts with revelatory texts. Incipit: ‘Ego sum deus tuus qui tecum loqui volo . . .’ The first leaf contains four, the others three woodblocks.
b2r Matthias de Suecia: Prologus. Birgitta, Revelaciones lib. I cum prologo Magistri Mathie, book I, ed. C.-G. Undhagen (Stockholm, 1977), 229-40.
b5r Revelationes i–vii. Sancta Birgitta, Revelaciones I, ed. Undhagen; Revelaciones IV, ed. H. Aili (Stockholm, 1992); Revelaciones V–VII, ed. B. Bergh (Stockholm, 1967-91). On this edition see also Elizabeth Andersen, 'Birgitta of Sweden in Northern Germany: Translation, Transmission and Reception', in A Companion to Mysticism and Devotion in Northern Germany in the Late Middle Ages, ed. Elizabeth Andersen et al, Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition, 44 (Leiden, 2014), 205-30. Each book is preceded by a page of woodcuts, some containing revelatory texts.
¶10v One page of woodcuts with revelatory texts. Incipit: ‘Ego sum similis carpentario . . .’
aa1r Alphonsus, Bishop of Jaén: Epistola Solitarii ad reges. Arne Jönsson, Alfonso of Jaén: His Life and Works with Critical Editions of the Epistola Solitarii, the Informaciones and the Epistola Servi Christi, Studia Graeca et Latina Lundensia, 1 (Lund, 1989).
bb1r Birgitta: Revelationes viii; Liber celestis imperatoris. Incipit: ‘[V]idi palacium grande, incomprehensibile magnitudine . . .’
dd3r Birgitta: Regula saluatoris. Opera minora. I. Regula salvatoris ed. S. Eklund (Stockholm, 1975), ‘ Πtradition' 100-73.
ee1r ‘Prologus in Sermonem angelicum . . .’ Opera minora. II. Sermo angelicus, ed. S. Eklund (Stockholm, 1972), 75-6.
ee1v Birgitta: Sermo angelicus. Opera minora. II. Sermo angelicus, ed. Eklund, 77-137.
ff4r [Prohemium in orationes.] Opera minora. III. Quatuor oraciones, ed. S. Eklund (Stockholm, 1991), 65.
ff4r Birgitta: Orationes. Opera minora. III. Quatuor oraciones, ed. Eklund, Δ-text, 66-92.
A1r [Prologus in reuelationes celestes.] Revelaciones extravagantes, ed. L. Hollman (Stockholm, 1956), 113-14.
A1r Birgitta: Revelationes extravagantes. Revelaciones extravagantes, ed. Hollman, 115-232.
C6v ‘Vita abbreuiata . . . sancte Birgitte'. Incipit: ‘[B]enedictus sit Deus, pater et filius et spiritus sanctus. De cuius priuilegiata familiaritate . . .’
C10v [Editorial statement on pseudographic texts.] Incipit: ‘Finit diuinum uolumen omnium celestium Reuelationum preelecte sponse Christi . . .’
C10v [Colophon.] Incipit: ‘Mille quadringenti nonaginta duo simul anni'; 8 hexameters.
[a1r] [Tabula.]
[h8r] ‘Oratio deuota ad Sanctam Birgittam'. Incipit: ‘[O] Birgitta mater bona, dulcis ductrix et partona'; a rhythmic poem.
Imprint
Imprint: [Lübeck]: Bartholomaeus Ghotan [for Vadstena Monastery, before 25 Nov.] 1492. Folio.
Collation
Collation: a12 b–l10 m8 n–p10 q8 r–z10 [et]8 t̄ ¶ aa–ee10 ff8 A–C [2a]10 b–g10 h8.
Illustrations: The woodcuts and woodcut initials are discussed in Collijn, Bibliografi, I 124-6.
References
ISTC: ib00687000
GW: GW 4391
Hain: H 3204*;
Goff: Goff B‑687;
BMC: BMC II 554;
Proctor: Pr 2625;
Others: BSB‑Ink B‑530; Collijn, Bibliografi, I 117-28; Rhodes 377; Schramm XII p. 11; Schreiber V 3502; Sheppard 1903-4.
LCN: 13984337
Copies
Copy number: B-348(1)
Wanting n8 which bears on the verso a full page cut of the crucifixion.
Binding: Contemporary Dutch(?) blind-tooled calf over wooden boards; red edges. Two catches, and two metal corner-pieces at the tail of each cover, the two others lost. Two leather straps with metal fastening on the spine; remains of two clasps; five bosses on each cover lost. Triple fillets form a double frame. In three sections of the outer frame a small open rosette stamp, along the back a small open fleur-de-lis stamp. On the upper cover: in the inner frame an open undulating arch stamp and a small open floral stamp. The inner rectangle is divided by triple fillets into lozenge-shaped compartments. On the lower cover: no stamps in the frame, but another small rosette stamp at the points where the intersecting fillets meet the inner frame. Upper cover detached from text-block, and now supported by two straps attached to each cover. Two-thirds of the spine cover is wanting.
Size: 335 × 240 × 110 mm.
Size of leaf: 320 × 230 mm.
Front pastedown, now raised, from a parchment manuscript endleaf containing the legal decision of a court held at S. Maria Novella, Florence 23 Feb. 1442, relating to a disputed canonry in the church of St John the Evangelist, 's Hertogenbosch.
Occasional annotations and 'nota' marks.
The woodcuts and principal initials painted in gold and colours (probably decoration carried out in the Low Countries?); a few other initials are supplied, some printed initials painted in red or blue ink, headings and rubrics underlined, printed paragraph marks touched with red, and capital strokes.
Provenance: Francis Douce (1757-1834); armorial book-plate. Bequeathed in 1834.
SHELFMARK: Douce 291.
Copy number: B-348(2)
Printed on parchment.
Binding: Eighteenth/nineteenth-century English diced calf with gilt edges, for the Bodleian Library (possibly a remboîtage?); the gold stamp of the Bodleian on both covers; boards detached; bound by Louis Cordavau/Cordeval (fl. 1799), 57 Chandos Street, London; oxydised orange binder's ticket (similar to those used by Christian Samuel Kalthoeber); see Charles Ramsden, London Bookbinders 1780-1840 (London, 1956), 53.
Size: 340 × 230 × 125 mm.
Size of leaf: 325 × 210 mm.
Occasional early annotations referring to other chapters; some underlining in black ink; occasional scribbles.
Woodcuts and principal initials are painted in gold and colours. A six-line initial on a6v is partly painted in gold.
Provenance: Edward Rowse (sixteenth century); inscription on ¶10v: ‘Edward Rowce would owe this book'; and on e9v verses written by Rowse: ‘Possidet aut vellet codicem qui scribit in illo | nunc in illo Rowsus candida multa legens'. William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1573-1645): ‘Liber Guilielmi Laud. Archiepi[scopi] et Cancelarij Vniuersitatis Oxon̄ 1635'. Donated by Laud in 1635; see Coxe, Laudian MSS, p. xxxv; SC 1421, with shelfmark Auct. 1Q 1.10.
SHELFMARK: Auct 1Q 1.6.
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