Early ephemeral item from the Holy House of Loreto. Unrecorded.

[Loreto] / [Holy House]. Visitavit hanc Almam Domum Lauretanam, & Sacramentum Poenitentiae suscepit [Laurentis Strel Leodiensis] Die [8] Mens [Sept.] An. [1676] Ita est. [Quintin Quenisset] Societatis IESV, & Almae Domus Poeniteniarius. S.l. [Loreto]: s.n., signed 1676. [18.8 x 13.3 cm], [1] f. letterpress form completed in manuscript, with woodcut of Madonna di Loreto, typographical borders, and two early stamps. Backed with contemporary wastepaper, folded and wrinkled, marginal losses, toned, ink from one stamp smudged.
 
 
Unrecorded 17th-century form used to certify that a pilgrim had visited the Holy House of Loreto and made a confession there. Ephemeral material from 18th- and 19th-century Loreto is often encountered today, but it is rare to find earlier material.
 
The form—which is headed with a charmingly vernacular woodcut depicting the Black Madonna of statue venerated at the sanctuary—was filled out by the Jesuit confessor Quintin Quenisset. He certifed that a certain Laurent Strel of Liège “visited the Nourishing House of Loreto and took the sacrament of penance” in September of 1676. 
 
The story of the Santa Casa ranks among the more unusual legends from the Middle Ages. The house in Nazareth—where the Virgin was born and Jesus later was conceived through the Holy Spirit—was carried in 1291 by angels to Tersatto (now Trsat, Croatia). In 1294, angels carried the House across the Adriatic to a grove near Ancona. It then was removed in 1295 to a hill near Recanati and then less than a year later to nearby Monte Prodo, not far from Loreto. In 1296 the Santa Casa was at last moved to its present location. It became one of the most popular pilgrimages sites in Christendom. 
 
 
OCLC, OPAC/ICCU, and KVK do not locate this print, nor have I seen it reproduced in the literature on the Santa Casa di Loreto.
 
*Karin Vélez, The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto: Spreading Catholicism in the Early Modern World; Federico Bellini, ed., La basilica della Santa Casa di Loreto: La storia per immagini nell’età digitale.