Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
96 folios on paper, watermark, Greek cross in a circle, Briquet 5575, Rome 1456 and 1463-5, Naples 1457-68, Udine, 1460, Graz 1461, early, likely original, foliation in red Arabic numerals, some trimmed 26-69 (beginning on present f. 2, through f. 45) and 1-51 (ff. 46-96), modern foliation in pencil top outer corner recto 1-96, missing 24 leaves at the beginning (collation i-v8 vi8 [lacking three leaves, 6-8, cancelled with no loss of text] vii-xii8 xiii3 [original structure uncertain, but text is complete]), horizontal catchwords center lower margin, no signatures, lightly frame ruled in lead with full-length vertical bounding lines (justification 165-160 x 105-103 mm.), written by several scribes in 39-43 long lines, ff. 1-45, in a small noting script influenced by humanistic minuscule, ff. 46-48v, 52v-55v, 58v-59v, 62-65v, 71-73 in a small gothic cursive script without loops in 41 long lines, ff. 49-52,55v-58v, 60-62, 66-71, perhaps another hand, in a quicker less disciplined cursive, and then a fourth hand (possibly scribe 1), ff. 73-92, and finally, ff. 92v-96v, in a similar script but possible another hand, red rubrics, red paraphs, majuscules stroked with red, simple 2-line red initials with decorative blank space in the initials, first leaf backed with paper obscuring first page of text, ff. 41-43 and 95-96 reinforced with paper strips inner margin, last few leaves edges tattered at edges, some worming (occasional with loss of a few letters of text), damp staining ff. 92-end (text remains legible), corners rounded later. Bound in a later stiff paper longstitch binding, a few threads loose on the spine, lower sections of leaves are loose near the end. Dimensions 215 x 144 mm.
Sermons offer an underappreciated window into everyday life in the Middle Ages, their often colorful language intended to have crowd appeal. Designed to aid friars to fulfill their role as preachers, this unpublished manuscript is signed and dated by one of the scribes. The first unpublished text is organized by topics, replete with exempla (moral tales) and short aphorism (prayer is compared to a white rose, foolishness to an empty wallet). The present manuscript is the only copy of the text that identifies the author. This is also a new witness to the sermons of St. James of the Marches, copied during the life of the author, who died in Naples in 1476. Both texts are rare on the market (no sales recorded in the Schoenberg Database).
1. Copied in Italy in Naples c. 1467-1469 and signed by a Franciscan scribe, Joannes de Ripis; it includes a colophon at the bottom of the page f. 44v, which is copied in a different script and ink than the remainder of the text; this date and place of origin is also supported by the watermark evidence and the date ‘1467’ in red added on f. 39: “Ego frater Joannes de Ripis scripsit hunc dum <cem?> Bacc[alaureatus] in conuentu Neapolino M cccc 69 et ad finemusque eduxi deo fauente in octaua patris nostri francisci” (I brother John of Ripa wrote this while studying for my Baccalaureate at the convent in Naples in 1469 and was led to complete it by God’s will on the octave of our father Francis).
Our fifteenth-century scribe shares a name with the fourteenth-century Franciscan theologian, John of Ripa (fl. 1357-1368), and may have also been associated with the Franciscan convent of Ripatransone in the Marche of Ascoli near Piceno. Tellingly, the author of the first text in this manuscript is brother Matthew of Ripanensis (or Ripa?), likely from the same convent. It is also possible that our scribe edited Aegidius Romanus, De corpore Christi theoremata published in Bologna by Balthasar de Ruberia in 1481 (ia00077000, GW 7208). Another Johannes de Ripis, OESA, prior of the convent of St. James in Bologna, in 1489 the Discretus of the Province, and in 1505, the Definitor (Online Resources) can be discounted, since our scribe almost certainly was a Franciscan.
On f. 39, following the closing rubric states the first text was completed in 1455 (i.e., the date of the composition of this text), followed by the date 1467 in red, which must refer to the date the scribe finished copying this first text.
2. Private Collection, Europe.
ff. 1-39, [f. 1, glued to a blank flyleaf, obscuring the recto which is seems to be blank], f. 1v, De caritate, incipit, “Cortina aurea. Caritas est que circumdat thalamum christy de qua, Ambrosius. … Prima quia caritas est arma contra dyabolum … Secundo quia caritas est via qua itur ad deum …. Tertio quia caritas est deum constrinxit et traxit de celo ad teram …; f. 2rv, De invidia, incipit, “Sagena dyaboli est invidia quia sicut sagena piscatores capiunt pissces .... ; ff. 2v-3, Deiectio, incipit, “Mensam de linarum tibi preparo. Mensam scilicet detectionis …; f. 3v, De vana gloria, …; f. 4v, De Remissione in iure, incipit, “Civitas sancta ierusalem … [on “Peace”]; f. 6rv, De discordia, incipit, “Ciuitas reprobus. Ciuitas babillonem esse ciuitatis discordie …”; … f. 18rv, De paupertate, incipit, “Stratum de Rosus et florabus est voluntaria paupertas. Que facti. Redolere. Et …”; f. 39, …, Explicit liber qui vocatur speculum admonitionis anime ad corpus per me fratrem Matheum Ripanensem 1455 die nonam decembris. [in red, 1467];
Speculum admonitionis anime ad corpus by Matheus Ripanensis, now beginning imperfectly (lacking the first 19 chapters); on f. 30, the scribe began copying Duodecim pene inferni, continuing to f. 30v, but left f. 31 blank; the text resumes with no break on f. 31v. The title and author are specified in the closing rubric, which also states that the work was completed in 1455. The manuscript was copied later, as indicated by date in red (1467) after this rubric, and the colophon on f. 44v (see Provenance, above). To our knowledge, this text has never appeared in print, nor has it been studied.
The table of contents on f. 45 was copied when this manuscript was complete, includes the missing topics. The text originally began with a series of 18 chapters on various topics including, for example, “The ten patrons (patron saints?) who prevail with the Lord for the living,” “On the contempt of world,” “On the name of Jesus,” and “On the love of God.” Following this missing section there are more straightforward virtues and vices, (19-46); among the final chapters (47-60) are the twelve punishments of hell, the ten commandments, and the sacraments. Most of the topics are in pairs, contrasting the positive and negative, for example, obedience and disobedience, poverty and riches, purity and the stain of sin, and so forth; they include: f. 6v, De deigectione; f. 7v, De odio; f. 9v, De non confitentibus; f. 10, De materatione carnis; f. 11v, De nutritoribus carnis; f. 12, De obedientia; f. 13, De inobedientia; f. 14v. De otio; f. 15, De feruore; f. 16, De negligentia; f. 16v, De silentio; f. 18, De paupertate; f. 18v, De divitiis; f. 19v, De puritate; f. 20, De macula peccati; f. 20v, De Sapientia; f. 21v, De stultitia; f. 22v, Temptatio demonum; f. 23, De resistentia temptationum; f. 23v, De fide et veritate; f. 24v, De errore; f. 25, De oratione; f. 25v, De devotione; f. 26v, De amore dei; f. 27v, De timore dei; f. 28v, De seruitio dei; f. 29, De perseverantia; f. 30, Duodecim pene inferni; f. 32v, De gloria electorum; f. 35, De decem preceptis; f. 37, De sacramentis.
The text was certainly a useful one for preachers, somewhat analogous to a distinction collection (texts that discussed the various senses of words in the Bible), but here expanded beyond the Bible and with additional material. It is lively, personal, and promises great fun for any scholar who chooses to study it in detail. Each chapter begins with a saying tied to the topic. For example, “On envy,” begins, “The net of the devil is envy. Just as the nets of fishermen capture fish, so through envy demons trap the souls of men.” The author then sets forth three examples of the consequences of envy, the first from Isidore, the second and third from the Bible, and then discusses what each of these teach us in turn. The connection between the topic and the opening words is often inventive, and sometimes moving, “The golden curtain. Charity”; “Foolishness is an empty wallet”; “Prayer is the white rose which I give to you.” Each division is supported by quotations various sources, often Patristic (often Isidore or Augustine), or from the Bible, and illustrated by exemplum (moral tales) – drawn from other authors or contemporary sources – and with moral aphorisms.
Further research is needed to determine the relationship between our manuscript and Vicenza, Biblioteca civica Bertoliana, MS 356, copied in 1457, probably in Villaverla, prov. Vicenza. This manuscript is described in Cassandro, et al., 2000, p. 65, no. 28, where the authors state that the same text is found in Padua, Biblioteca Antoniana, MS 500, with the title Speculum admonitionis anime ad corpus (this manuscript listed briefly in Spitzel, 1668, p. 233), and cite Bloomfield, 1979, no. 3539, listing a manuscript in Brussels, BR, MS II-2095 (Van den Gheyn, cat. 2245), with the same opening words. Our manuscript and the manuscript in Padua clearly have the same title, and its topics are similar to those in the Brussels manuscript. If it does turn out that our text is the same as the text in these three other manuscripts, our manuscript will be key for any further study since it includes the name of the author and date of composition.
Nothing is known of this author, although his name suggests he was from Ripanensis, dicocese in Ascoli Piceno, Central Italy, now called Ripatransone. He identifies himself as “frater,” and given the contents of this text, with its chapter on voluntary poverty, it seems most fairly certain that he was a Franciscan, but he is not listed by Heijden and Roest (Online Resources; the Matteo Ripa in their repertory lived in the 18th century).
ff. 39-40v, [Unidentified sermon], De Assumptione, incpit, “Multe filia congregauerunt diuninas in supergressus …”;
ff. 40v-43, [Unidentified sermon], Omnium sanctorum, incpit, “Festivitas omnium sanctorum quatuor de causis instituta fuisse uidelicet, primo propter …”;
ff. 43-44, De corpore christi, incipit, “Circa bonitatem sacramenti corporis christi. Occurunt quatuor considerationes …”;
ff. 44rv, [On the twelve sibblys], De sibbilis, incipit, “Duodecim Sibille prophetantes de aduentu christy …”;
f. 44v, Duodecim domine prophetisse, incipit, “Duodecim domine …, Prima sara dicit visitavit dominus …, 12. Domina yahel benedicta tu inter mulieres. Uxor haber benedicta in tabernaculo tuo, Iudi. 5”;
Twelve female prophets from the Old Testament: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, the mother of Moses (her name not specified), Ruth, Anna, Esther, and so forth.
f. 44v, [Scribal colophon, added in a different ink and script; see provenance above], “Ego frater Joannes de Ripis scripsit hunc dum <cem?> Bacc[alaureatus] in conuentu Neapolino M cccc 69 et ad finemusque eduxi deo fauente in octaua patris nostri francisci”;
f. 45, Incipit tabula precedentium, incipt, “Decem patrocinia que apud deum valent pro viventibus, 1; Decem patrocinia que apud deum valent pro defunctis, … De duodecim prophetisse; [f. 45v, blank];
ff. 46-49, [Unidentified sermon; top margin, “feria 6. 40 de pace”], incipit, “Diligite inimicos vestros, benefacite hiis qui oderunt vos, et orate pro persequentibus et calumniantibus vos. Mt 5:[44]. In quo sacro euangelia tria lumina ipse …. Primo proponit preceptum …”;
Pacetti, 1953, p. 306, reports this sermon is included in Rome, Angelica, MS 187, but does not accept it as a sermon by James of Marchia; not included in Hödl and Koch, 1999.
ff. 49-86v, Fourteen sermons by St. Jacobus de Marchia, OFM:
ff. 49-52, In die palmarum uel sabato ante de pace, incipit, “Recordare quod steterim … et averterem indignationem tuam ab eis. Jer. 18[:20]. Non enim est consuetudo christi benedicti suas misericordias …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999, Jacobus de Marchia, 346. T23/Sabb, Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, MS 187; cf. no. 650, Vatican City, BAV, MS Vat. lat. 7642.
ff. 52v-54, De caritate, incpit, “Nunc autem manent fides spes caritas tria hec maior autem horum est caritas, 1 Cor. 13:[13]. In <autem?> sacra epistola odierna dicimus apostolus ostendit excellentiam caritatis quo omnem virtute transit …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999, Jacobus de Marchia, 569, T18, MS Vat. lat. 7642.
ff. 54-56v, Feria secunda dominice secunde de peccato, incipit, “Si enim non credideritis quia ego sum moriemini in peccato vestro Jo. 8:[24]. Et in evangelia hodierno quia hoc mane deuotionibus nostris locuti fuimus de 7 peccatis mortalibus …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999, Jacobus de Marchia, 296, T20/2, Rome, Angel., MS 187; cf. no 598, MS Vat. lat. 7642.
ff. 56v-58v, De mortuis, incipit, “Queretis me et in peccato vestro moriemini Jo. 8:[21]. In hoc sacro evangelio quilibet debet nimis timere cum ostendat salvator …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999, Jacobus de Marchia, 295, T20/2, Rome, Angel., MS 187; cf. no. 597, MS Vat. lat. 7642.
ff. 58v-62, Dominica de paxione. De ludo, incipit, “Tulerunt ergo lapides ut jacerent in eum yhesus autem abscondit se et exivit de templo Jo. 8:[59], <Secundum?> ueritatem et experimenta nullum peccatorum genus tam mortalitatem …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999, Jacobus de Marchia, 334, T23, Rom, Angel., MS 187; cf. no 638, MS Vat. lat. 7642.
ff. 62-65, De maria mahdalen [sic]. De amor, incipit, “Hec autem lacrimis rigauit pedes meos et capillis suis terssit. Luc 7:[44]. Quilibet enim peccator fervescere ad penitentiam debet cum hoc sacrum evangelium …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999, Jacobus de Marchia 341, T23/5, Rome, Angel., MS 187; cf. no. 645.
65-76, Dominica secunda de Nomine Yhesu, incipit, “Multi crediderunt in nomine yhesu. Videntes signa que faciebat, Jo. 2:[23], Vnde sic legitur Luc 20 quod in virtute huius sacratissimi nominis demones …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999, Jacobus de Marchia 626, T22/2, MS Vat. lat. 7642
ff. 67-71, De nomine Yhesu, incipit, “In nomine yhesu omne yhesu [sic] flectatur celestium terrestrium et infernorum et omnis, etc. ad phi. 2 [1 Philippians 2:10]. Tantum enim fuit crudele et nequissimum peccatum …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999, Jacobus de Marchia 347, Rome, Angel., MS 187; cf. no. 651, MS Vat. lat. 7642.
ff. 71-73, De confexione et eius prudentia, incipit, “Dixi confitebor aduersum me etiam iniustitiam meam domino et tu remissisti impietatem peccati mei Ps. 31[:5]. Tanto enim exemplarie[?] digna est confessio peccatorum …”;
Cf. Hödl and Koch, 1999; Jacobus de Marchia 461, with the same theme but apparently a different text (Dixi: Confitebor adversum (Ps 31,5), Sicut experientia docet, fere totus mundus pro corpore et acquirendo cum multis periculis animae et corporis …; Monteprandone, MS 42 f. 214v-17v).
ff.. 73v-77, Feria 2 post <?>onem. De anima, incipit, “Nonne hec oportuit pati christum et ita intrare in gloriam suam Luc 24:[26]. Si humana mens diligenter consideram potest …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999, Jacobus de marchia 666, T28/2, MS Vat. lat. 7642.
ff. 77-79, Feria 2 dominice secunde. De peccato, incipit, “Si non credidis [sic] quia ego sum moriemini in peccato uestro Jo. 8:[24]. Quia hoc mane reverentiis vestris locuturus scilicet de 7 peccastis mortalibus …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999, Jacobus de Marchia 598, T20/2, MS Vat. lat. 7642; cf. no. 296, Rome, Angel., MS 187.
ff. 79-83v, [this entire sermon has been crossed out with red lines drawn through the text], De sectem [sic] peccatis moralibus, incipit, “Queritis me et in peccato uestro moriemini Jo. 8:[21], In hoc sacro euangelio quilibet debet nimis timere cum ostendat …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999. Jacobus de Marcha 597, T20/2, MS Vat. lat. 7642; cf. no 295, Rome, Angel., MS 187.
ff. 83v-86v, De partialite, incipit, “Omne regnum in seipsum divisum desolabitur, et domus supra domum cadet, Luc 11[:17]. Quante clementie erat salvator …”;
Hödl and Koch, 1999, Jacobus de Marchia 308, Rome, Angel., MS 187 cf. no. 610, MS Vatican lat. 7642.
Fourteen sermons from the Sermons for Lent (Sermones quadragesimales) by Jacobus de Marchia, identified in Hödl and Koch, 1999; they are unedited, and indeed, have never appeared in print. Lasić, 1974, pp. 184-186, lists three principal manuscripts of this collection: Vatican City, BAV, MS Vat. Lat. 7642 (123 sermons); Foligno, Biblioteca Comunale, MS II (C.A.IX.i.ii; 103 sermons); and Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, MS 187 (80 sermons). Other manuscripts with smaller numbers of the sermons, ranging from 19 to just a few, include: Naples, Naz., MS VII.G.7, ff. 218r-253v (19 quadragesimale sermons); Barcelona, Bibl. Central, MS 641, ff. 122r-176v; Vatican City, BAV, MS Vat. Lat. 1239 ff. 38-48, 85v-87v; BAV, MS Vat. Lat. 7488, ff. 116-158; Venice, Bibl. Monastery of St. Michael, MS 324. See also Heijden and Roest, Online Resources; and Roest, 2004, pp. 150-158, discussing manuscripts of the Quadragesimale sermons, note 147, beginning on p. 152. Our manuscript is a new, yet unstudied witness to these sermons, copied while their author was still living, perhaps at the very Franciscan convent in Naples where St. James spent his final years (there were two Franciscan convents in Naples, Moorman, 1983, pp. 333-334).
St. Jacobus de Marchia (1393-1476), known in English as St. James of the Marches, was one of the most prominent Franciscan preacher of the Observant Movement. After entering the Franciscan order in 1416, he spent the next fifty years preaching throughout Italy and in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and Bosnia, concluding his last preaching mission in 1467, although he may have continued to preach locally after that. He spent his last years from 1472 in Naples where he died in 1476. His sermons, inspired by those of St. Bernardino da Siena, are vivid and include numerous exempla. They are focused on the need for reform in the face of of the sins of his day (see the discussions in Karris, 2205, and Roest, Online Resources).
ff. 86v-88, De gratia, incipit, “Tres conclusiones. Prima est de gratia diffinitio, secunda de sua diuisione, .. Prima est quod gratia … Et spirituali cibo et solatio cibat. Hic per gratiam. Amen”;
ff. 88v-92, De peccato, incipit, “Peccatum meum contra me est semper. Sic hominem primum sua sugestione antiquus serpens … omnes ligati cadunt quia etc.”;
ff. 92v-96v, [no rubric; unidentified sermon on faith], incipit, “Non inueni tantam fidem in ierusalem, Mt 8[:10]. Pater Augustinus ad propositionum nostrum … que forma es tut est christus dominus.”
This manuscript is a quintessential example of a Franciscan manuscript designed to aid friars to fulfill their role as preachers. The first text, perhaps known in just four manuscripts including this one, is complemented by a series of sermons, including fourteen which represent a new witness to the sermons of St. James of the Marches, and four unidentified sermons, which should be seen in the context of the Franciscan Observance and the pastoral activities of its protagonists, a movement which began with the “revival” of preaching by Bernardino da Siena (1380-1444). Shorter texts on the twelve sibylls and (more unusually) the female prophets of the Old Testament reflect the importance of prophecy in Franciscan thought. Every text in this unstudied miscellany offers opportunities for signficant new research.
Bloomfield, Morton W. Incipits of Latin works on the Virtues and Vices,1100-1500 A.D., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1979.
Cassandro, C., et al. I manoscritti datati della provincia di Vicenza e della Biblioteca Antoniana di Padova. Florence, 2000, cat. 28.
Delcorno, C. “Medieval Preaching in Italy (1200-1500),” in The Sermon, ed. by Beverly Kienzle, Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental 81-83, Turnhout, Belgium, 2000, pp. 449-560.
Hödl, L and W. Koch. ed. Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Spatmittelalters 1350 bis 1500. Münster, Aschendorff, 1999 [CD-ROM]. [Chronological sequel to J.-B. Schneyer, Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones].
Karris, Robert J. “Giacomo della Marca’s Sunday Sermon 52 On the Ineffable Mercy Of God,” Franciscan Studies, vol. 63, 2005, pp. 443-60.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41975356
Lasić, Dionysius. De vita et operibus S. Jacobi de Marchia ; studium et recensio quorundam textuum, Biblioteca Francescana, 1974.
Lasić, Dionysius. “Sermones S. Iacobi de Marchia in cod. Vat.lat. 7780 et 7642 asservati,” Archivum franciscanum historicum 63 (1970), 476-565 (516-565).
Lioi, R. “I ‘Sermones Quadragesimales’ di S. G. della Marca in un codice della Biblioteca comunale di Foligno,” Annali del Pontificio Istituto Superiore Scienze e Lettere S. Chiara 10 (1960), 37-137.
Moorman, John. Medieval Franciscan Houses, St. Bonaventure, New York, 1983.
Pacetti, D. “I sermoni quaeresimali di S. G. della Marca contenuti nel codice 187 della Bibl. Angelica di Roma,” Archivum franciscanum historicum 46 (1953), pp. 302-340.
Pacetti, D. “Le prediche autografe di s. Giacomo della Marca (1393-1476),” AFH 45 (1942) 309- 27.
Roest, B. Franciscan Literature of Religious Instruction before the Council of Trent, Leiden and Boston, E.J. Brill, 2004.
Spitzel, Gottlieb. Sacra bibliothecarum illustrium arcana retecta, sive mss. theologicorum ... designatio. Augusta Vindelicorum, 1668, p. 233.
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=4SVKAAAAcAAJ&rdid=book-4SVKAAAAcAAJ&rdot=1
Van de Gheyn, J. Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Brussels, 1901-1909, vol. 3, Théologi (nos 1534-2491), p. 377, 2245 (II. 2095).
Wenzel, Siegfried. “Sermon Collections and their Taxonomy,” in The Whole Book: Cultural Perspectives on the Medieval Miscellany, ed. Stephen G. Nichols and Siegfried Wenzel, Ann Arbor, 1996, pp. 7-22.
Orbis latinus
https://www.bavarikon.de/object/bav:BSB-MDZ-00000BSB00050914?cq=%22orbis+latinus%22&p=1&lang=en
“Johannes de Ripis,” Katalog Der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
https://d-nb.info/gnd/129064645
Maarten van der Heijden and Bert Roest, “Franciscan Authors, 13th-18th Century: A Catalogue In Progress”
https://applejack.science.ru.nl/franciscanauthors/
C. Casagrande, “Giacomo della Marca,” 2000
https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giacomo-della-marca-santo_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/
Incunabula Short Title Catalogue
ISTC (Incunabula Shorttitle Catalogue) (cerl.org)
“Una raccolta di sermoni per la Quaresima di san Giacomo,” March 2, 2021
https://www.centrostudisangiacomo.it/2021/03/02/una-raccolta-di-sermoni-per-la-quaresima-di-san-giacomo/
TM 1017
