Vaticinia Pontificum

(pseud-) Gioacchino da Fiore

Published by Illustrated manuscript on grey-blue paper, in Italian. Italy, end of the sixteenth century

About this Item

266x211 mm. 20 leaves. Complete. Five quires. Collation: 14+1, 24, 34+1, 44,52. Blanks fols. 1/5r and 5/2. Modern pencilled foliation (used here). Written in brown ink, in a unique hand. On the first leaf beneath the title ('Prophetia dello Abbate Ioachino circa li Pontifici e RE'), Christ's monogram 'HIS' within an elaborate cartouche. Thirty-two wash drawings in brown ink heightened in white chalk biacca. On fol. 18r a folding tab pasted to the outer corner bearing the text 'Leo XII. quem Deus sospitem diutissime servet'. Eighteenth-century brown morocco, covers within an elaborate gilt frame, cornerpieces. Smooth spine richly gilt. Marbled edges. Lower joint damaged at the extremities. Preserved in a cloth box with morocco lettering-piece on spine. Manuscript in good condition, the ink has corroded several lines of text, paper eroded in places; all holes have been skilfully repaired.Illustration Fol. 1r: title and elaborate cartouche; fol. 1v: a friar at a lectern – evidently Joachim of Fiore – preaching to his confreres; fol. 4v: monk with a halo giving books to four monks and four nuns; fol. 5r: Onorius IV ('Dure fatiche sustinerą del corpo'); fol. 5v: Celestinus IV ('La voce vulpina perderą il principato'); fol. 6r: Alexander V ('La confusione et errore sera uitiato'); fol. 6v: Iohannes XXIII ('Elatione'); fol. 7r: Benedictus XIII ('Li homini forti sara orbati de la Inuidia'); fol. 7v: Clemens V ('Mobile, et immobile se fara, et assai mati guastata'); fol. 8r: Innocentius VII ('Le decime seranno dissipate in la effusione del sangue'); fol. 8v: Gregorius XII ('La penitentia, tenera le vestigie de Simon Mago'); fol. 9r: Niccolo III ('Le stelle congregara accioche luceno nel firmamento del cielo'): fol. 9v: Martinus IV ('Con le chiaue serara et non aprira'); fol. 10r: Nicolaus IV ('Loriente beuera del Calice de lira de Dio'); fol. 10v: Bonifacius VIII ('Fraudolentemente sei intrato potentemente hai regnato, tu morirai gemendo'); fol. 11r: Iohannes XXII ('Contra la Columba questa imagine brutissima de Chierici pugnata'); fol. 11v: Benedictus XII ('Sei Planeti lucidata et finalmente uno excedera il fulgore di quelle'); fol. 12r: Clemens VI ('La Stola sua delbara nel sangue de l'agnello'); fol. 12v: Innocentius VI ('Il lupo habitata con lo agnello, et parimente cibaransi'); fol. 13r: Urbanus V ('Questo sole aprira il libro scritto con il dito de Dio viuo'); fol. 13v: Gregorius XI ('Li fiori rossi laqua odorifera distillarano'); fol. 14r: Urbanus VI, the Antichrist ('Tu sei terribile, che fara resistentia a te'); fol. 14v: Bonifacius IX ('Lo occisione del figliolo de Balael seguirano'); fol. 15r: Martinus V ('La incisione hipocresi sera ne labominatione'); fol. 15v: Eugenius IV ('La occisione del figliol de Balael seguirano'); fol. 16r: view of a city ('Sangue'); fol. 16v: a pope with a fox and flagstaffs ('Con bona gratia cessara la Symonia'); fol. 17r: view of a city ('La potestate sera unitate'); fol. 17v: the naked pope ('La bona oratione altramente operatione Thesauro a li poueri sera erogato'); fol. 18r: a pope as a pastor ('Bona intentione'); fol. 18v: a pope being crowned by an angel ('Pro honoratione'); fol. 19r: a pope enthroned and surrounded by angels ('Occisione bona'); fol. 19v: a pope with Nabuchodonosor as a monstrous creature ('Reuerentia'). An interesting manuscript on grey-blue paper containing the earliest translation in Italian vernacular – made by the Dominican Leandro Alberti – of the Vaticinia pontificum, the mystical prophecies traditionally attributed to the Calabrian abbot Joachim of Fiore (ca. 1132-1202). The Vaticinia may have had Byzantine origins, but by the late thirteenth century the prophecies were being disseminated by Joachimite disciples and were associated with his authorship. It is the most important apocalyptic work of the Middle Ages, and the manuscript was widely circulated. The text of the Vaticinia pontificum was produced in two stages. The older set consists o. Seller Inventory # 0000000007971

Bibliographic Details

Title: Vaticinia Pontificum

Publisher: Illustrated manuscript on grey-blue paper, in Italian. Italy, end of the sixteenth century

Binding: Hardcover

Book Type: Book