Catherine of Siena, Epistole et orationi, Venice, Torresano, 1548, later vellum

Catherine of Siena, Saint. Epistole et orationi della seraphica vergine santa Catharina da Siena, nella quali manifestamente si dechiara l'ardentissimo amore dell'eterno padre verso l'humana generatione, & il grandissimo frutto del pretioso sangue del Signor nostro Iesu Christo. Vi è aggionta la vita et canonizatione della detta santa, con alcuni capitoli in sua laude, novamente reviste, & con somma diligentia ristampate. Con la sua tavola. Venice: (Pietro Nicolini da Sabbio for) Federico Torresano, 1548

The woodcut is a close copy of the one in the 1500 Aldine edition (lot 263). The dedicatee of this edition, Suor Paola Sinistra of the convent of Santa Croce on the Giudecca, is thought to be a relative of Federico Torresano.

4to (201 x 148 mm). Roman type, double column, 50 lines plus headline. collation: +⁸ A-Z⁸ 2A-2O⁸ 2P¹⁰: 314 leaves. Title within woodcut border, full-page woodcut of St Catherine opposite start of text, woodcut initials, woodcut Torresano device on final leaf (otherwise blank). (Occasional light foxing or damp-staining, title-page slightly frayed, cut slightly close.)

binding: Old vellum (207 x 159 mm). (Binding slightly soiled, a few small wormholes in binding, upper hinge broken.)

provenance: Cardinal Mario Compagnoni Marefoschi (1714-1780), armorial bookplate with manuscript shelfmarks, sale, Rome, Monaldini, 1787, lot 911, price 1 scudo — Sotheby Parke Bernet, London, 1-2 December 1975, lot 142, £110, to Maggs Bros. acquisition: Purchased from Maggs, London, 1976. references: [not included in UCLA, though there is a copy in their library]; Cataldi Palau 172; Edit16 10271; Renouard 144/9