Beschreibung:

Augustine (Saint, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.). Soliloquia animae ad deum, Italian, 15th century, manuscript in brown and red ink on vellum, 67 leaves (plus 2 vellum end leaves at both front and rear), COMPLETE, collation, 1–610, 710-3 (last 3 cancelled); written in an Italian rotunda script of the 15th century, single column with 22 lines per page, 36 two-line (the first being four-line) floriated initials in alternate red and blue, and blue and red, a ten-line illuminated letter ‘O’ in gold and colours laid in (from a different manuscript) to first leaf of text, and with illuminated border decoration of foliate motifs, stars and a shield at foot, burgundy morocco gilt bookplate of W. A. Foyle, Beeleigh Abbey to recto of first blank vellum leaf, and a folded page of typewritten description of the manuscript in German tipped in, late 19th or early 20th-century Italian full brown morocco with elaborate and rich impressed decoration in green, dark brown and light brown, the upper inside cover with large impressed stamp of Ernesto Pagnoni of Milan, and his initials in shields forming an outer frame, separated from binding along front inner hinge, short splits to head of upper and lower joints, 8vo (178 x 125 mm) (Quantity: 1) Provenance: It may be possible to determine the original patron of the book: above the first rubric is an erasure that appears to begin ‘Iste liber’ and include the name ‘Raimundi’(?); in the lower margin a shield of arms has been overpainted with gesso and gold, but traces of a blue ground survive, and from the back of the leaf a diagonal (bend) can be discerned; Ernesto Pagnoni, Vaprio d’Adda, near Milan. Though his dates of birth and death are unknown, Pagnoni was active as a collector of manuscripts at the beginning of the twentieth century. Part of his collection was sold in Amsterdam by the famous dealer R. W. P. de Vries on the 2nd and 3rd of December 1908. His bookplate was designed by Sigmund Lipinsky in 1912. Other manuscripts once part of Pagnoni’s collection include Yale University, Beinecke Library, Marston MS 235, Lectura super libros sententiarum by Alfonso de Vargas y Toledo, and University of Pennsylvania, MS Codex 717, Ascetic miscellany, 1470-1499. Many manuscripts owned by Pagnoni are housed in modern bindings signed by C. Glingler, bookbinder in Rome; W. A. Foyle, Beeleigh Abbey (bookplate). This text contains the Soliloquies of Saint Augustine of Hippo, an inner dialogue on the matter of the soul, thought in the Middle Ages and Renaissance to be by Saint Augustine, but now doubted. Folio 65 verso and folios 66 and 67 at the end of the volume have additional texts added in several different hands, beginning on folio 65 verso with the Hymn to Saint Michael 'Christiane vir fidelis, qui regnare vis in coelis', (Chevalier, Repertorium Hymnologicum III (1904), 24515) and the Hymn to Saint Christopher 'martir Christoforo pro Salvatoris honore' (Chevalier, Repertorium Hymnologicum III (1904), 29471), followed by other various prayers.