Margarita da Cortona (1247-97): Published to celebrate her canonization.

Tommaso Felice Danti / [Nuns] / [Margaret of Cortona]. Compendio della Vita, Virtù, Morte e de’ Miracoli di S. Margarita di Cortona del Terz’ Ordine di S. Francesco. Data in luce dal P. Tommaso Felice Danti, Minore Osservante, Lettore Giubilato, e Predicator Quaresimale in Araceli di Roma in quest’ Anno 1728, in Occasione della di Lei Solenne Canonizzazione fatta da Nostro Signore Papa Benedetto XIII. Nella prima Festa di Pentecoste di questo medesimo anno. In Roma: Nella Stamperia di S. Michele a Ripa, 1728. 8vo [15.5 x 10.1 cm], [16] ff., 151 [i.e. 167; numeration of pp. 49-64 repeats], [1] p., with woodcut head-pieces, initials, and tail-pieces. Bound in contemporary vellum, title in manuscript on spine. Some rubbing and staining to binding, some cracking and losses to pastedowns. Edge wear and marginal dustiness to first few leaves, occasional toning, early ownership inscriptions, some of which are effaced, to verso of half-tile, title, and lower pastedown.

Rare (2 U.S. copies: Illinois and St. Bonaventure) first edition of this Vita of Margarita da Cortona (1247-97), penitent of the Third Order of Saint Francis. The work was written by Father Tommaso Felice Danti, a priest at S. Maria in Aracoeli in Rome, to celebrate the Margarita’s canonization by Benedict XIII “in this year, 1728.”

The Compendio della Vita, Virtù, Morte e de’ Miracoli di S. Margarita di Cortona tells of her early dissolute life (she has a son out of wedlock), her conversion to the Third Order, her ecstasies, visions & miracles, her struggle with the Devil, etc. Margarita is perhaps best remembered today for her efforts to make peace between the Guelphs and Ghibellines and for establishing a hospital (for the homeless, impoverished and imprisoned) and to staff it a congregation of nurses known as the Tertiary Sisters, or Le poverelle.

OCLC and KVK locate U.S. copies at Illinois and St. Bonaventure.

*IT\ICCU\RLZE\015414; Joanna Cannon & André Vauchez, Margherita of Cortona and the Lorenzetti Sienese: Art and the Cult of a Holy Woman in Medieval Tuscany.