Vienna Baroness becomes nun “Anna Francisca Theresia of the Holy Three Kings.”

[Nuns] / Wilhelm Angerer. Die Erniedrigung des Bergs. Vorgestellet: Als die Wohl-Ehrwürdige in Gott Gesitliche Chor-Schwester Anna Francisca Theresia von Heiligen Drey Königen, Gebohrne Freyin von Blumenthal auf Grünberg, [et]c., [et]c., Ihre Heilige Ihre Profession in dem Hoch-Löblichen Jungfrauen-Closter des Dritten Ordens S. Francisci zu S. Elisabeth bey Wien auf der Landstraß den 24. Tag Aprilis Anno 1737. solenniter abgelegt. Wien: gedruckt bey Leopold Johann Kaliwoda, Universitäts Buchdruckern, [1737]. Folio [30.1 x 19.5 cm], [9] ff., with woodcut head-piece, initial, and tail-piece. Spine covered with painted paper, red sprinkled edges. Some spotting and toning to first and last leaves.

Very rare (1 U.S. copy: Johns Hopkins) first and only edition of this item from the 1737 profession ceremony of a certain Baroness von Blumenthal of Grünberg, who was entering the Franciscan Convent of St. Elizabeth in Vienna under her (rather colorful) new name “Anna Francisca Theresia of the Holy Three Kings” (Anna Francisca Theresia von Heiligen Drey Königen). Her birth name is not given.

The text—printed, rather unusually for such ephemeral material, in folio format—presents a sermon by Wilhelm Angerer, preacher at the Vienna Pfarrkirche of St. Rochus und Sebastian, in which he (greatly) extends a geographical metaphor punning on name of Blumenthal auf Grünberg (“Flower Valley on Green Mountain”). The work’s title, Die Erniedrigung des Bergs, might be translated “The Valley-ing of the Mountain.”

The Franciscan Tertiaries at St. Elisabeth in Vienna were Hospitaller nuns known as Elisabethinen, i.e., members of the Ordo Sorores Hospitalariae Sanctae Elisabethae, who served sick women at the hospital on Landstraße.

OCLC and KVK locate only 1 U.S. copy (Johns Hopkins) of this work, which is also very rare in European census.