Hours Well Spent by the Nun. No U.S. copies.

[Nuns] / Paolo Botti. L’hore dalla monaca ben spese, e documenti a ciò necessarj. In Padova: Per Giacomo Cadorin, 1671. 12mo [12.5 x 7.0 cm], [12] ff., 270, [2] ff., [1] f. integral blank, with woodcut initials. Bound in contemporary speckled cartone, blue mottled edges. Some chipping, edge wear and toning to binding. Two early inscriptions on front free endpaper, pale water staining in the preliminary leaves, occasional spotting. Very genuine. 
 
 
Very rare (no U.S. examples and only three worldwide) first edition of this Italian handbook for nuns (Hours Well Spent by the Nun) intended to help them regulate their days. The work is by Paolo Botti (c. 1620-1696), a Theatine from Cremona.
 
In addition to the expected topics of hourly prayers, Mass, confession & communion, chapters treat getting out of bed, behavior at meals, periods of silence, speaking (or not speaking) with laypersons in the parlor, etc.
 
Exempla cited are overwhelmingly from the ‘Lives’ and writings of female saints, e.g., Rose of Lima, Lutgarda, Maddalena de’ Pazzi, Anna Giuliani Gonzaga, Catherine of Siena, Pudenzia Zagnoni, Elisabetta Bonsi Capponi, Orsola Benincasa, Teresa of Ávila, Jane Frances de Chantal, etc., etc.
 
This copy of L’hore dalla monaca ben spese seems to have found its target audience: Inscriptions show that it was used by a nun and later formed part of the convent library of the Vistandines of Brescia (“Per uso di Maria Candida Rosa Lamberti” and “questo libro è del Mon.ro della Vis. S.a M.a di Brescia).
 
 
OCLC, KVK, and OPAC/SBN/ICCU locate copies at the University of Toronto, Biblioteca statale di Cremona, and Biblioteca statale del Monumento nazionale di S. Scolastica (Subiaco).
 
*IT\ICCU\BVEE\098100.