BRIDGET OF SWEDEN, Saint.
Revelationes celestes.
Nuremberg, Friedrich Peypus for Johannes Koberger, 15 November 1517.£4,950.00
Folio. ff. 132 (lii [index]). Gothic letter, double column. T-p within elegant woodcut border attr. Hans Springinklee, formerly Dürer (BM), depicting scenes from Revelation, Christ’s baptism flanked by angels with instruments of the Passion, and emblematical scenes of death. 2 full-page woodcut arms of Maximilian I as King of the Romans and Florian Waldauf. Divisional t-p to index. Woodcut initials, one historiated. A few small light stains to blank gutter and upper outer edge of first quire, intermittent waterstain to upper blank edge and outer corner, just touching edge of text in quire g, index with light waterstain to blank lower margin and fore edge, darker in index quire f. A good, clean copy in C18 quarter calf over marbled boards, rubbed and faded, losses from corners, joints and head and foot of spine. 10 contemp. coloured knotted leather placemarkers affixed to edges, 2 missing with small loss to blank margin of C6, 3 smaller leather tabs, occasional slight losses from adjoining leaves, marginal tear to x6 partly repaired (no loss), small marginal tear to blank margin of g4 (index). c.1900 bookplate to front pastedown.
Third Latin edition of the Revelations of Saint Bridget of Sweden, first published 1492, and the second to be printed by Koberger, preceded by the edition of 1500. St. Bridget was a fourteenth-century Catholic mystic and founder of the Bridgettine order. She is the principal saint of Sweden. She experienced visions from a young age, including of Christ’s Passion and Nativity, and Purgatory. Her vision of the Christ child emitting light had a profound effect on the depiction of the Nativity in Western art, and her revelation of the sufferings of Christ during the Passion led to the immensely popular set of prayers, the ‘Fifteen O’s’ of St. Bridget.
The Revelations contains letters from Cardinal Juan de Torquemada relating to the veracity of Bridget’s revelations, and the bull of canonization passed by Boniface IX, as well as a prayer to Bridget. There follow eight books of revelations, which include the mystical visions and visionary dialogues between God, Christ, the Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist, and angels and the devil, along with her prophecies and occasional criticism of the clergy. Bridget’s graphic, bodily descriptions of the Passion occur in Books I-II. She then returned to the subject when recounting her pilgrimages to Rome and the Holy Land in Book VII, which also includes the single most influential description of Christ’s Nativity, which emphasised the Virgin’s role and depicted the Christ child emitting a supernatural light. The eighth book is a set of prophecies to kings, princes and rulers, functioning as a set of instructions for good rule and containing an admonition to protect but not dominate the church. Also included here are additional revelations, the rule of the Bridgettines, Bridget’s sermon on the Virgin Mary, and a brief life.
The first edition was illustrated with a number of cuts, sometime attributed to Dürer. These had obviously worn out by 1517, since only the two large woodcut arms re-appeared in this edition and were newly recut. Hans Springinklee (fl. 1512-27) was a pupil of Albrecht Dürer and occasionally his ‘slavish imitator.’ He lived with Dürer and was involved in numerous of his commissions, including the Triumphal Arch of Maximilian, his contributions being often rejected in favour of his master’s superior efforts. ‘Very little of his work is signed, but over 200 woodcuts of varying merit have been attributed to him. The majority are book illustrations published by Koberger in Nuremberg and Lyons’ (BM).
VD16 B 5594. Adams B2834. BM STC Ger., p. 153. Brunet I.1259. Graesse I.430. Fairfax Murray Ger. I.74.In stock
