The mortified nun. With an engraving of her crucifixion. Rare.
[Nuns] / [Self-Mortification] / Manuel de Espinosa. La religiosa mortificada. Explicacion del quadro que la presenta con sus inscripciones tomadas de la Sagrada Escritura: Á que se añade el manual del alma religiosa, Que es un compendio de sus mas principales obligaciones... Madrid: En la Imprenta Real, por D. Pedro Julian Pereyra, impresor de Camara de S.M., 1799. 4to [20.6 x 13.8 cm], [1] f. full-page engraving, [4] ff., 291 pp., [1] f. blank verso. Bound in contemporary marbled calf, gold-stamped red morocco lettering piece laid to spine, gold-tooled spine and board borders and board edges, marbled endpapers. Rubbing and edge wear to spine and boards. Early ownership inscription on back of engraving (“en uso de sor Maria Jacinta y de su Hermana Sor Josefa Teresa”), occasional pale generally marginal damp staining which is more pronounce in quire N, the occasional other minor stain, occasional minor toning.
Rare (2 U.S. copies: Johns Hopkins & Princeton) first edition of this late 18th-century treatise on the devotional self-mortification of nuns. La religiosa mortificada, written by the Franciscan Manuel de Espinosa, (supposedly) takes its inspiration from “the painting in the chapter room of the Convent of the Discalced Señoras of Madrid and that of the Capuchin nuns of the Desierto de Penitencia of Granada,” as we read at the foot of its (quite shocking) full-page engraving of these paintings depicting a crucified nun.
Issuing from the various body parts of the crucified nun are inscriptions alluding to how that part would benefit from self-mortification.
Manuel de Espinosa claims that one of the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Madrid saw the painting and asked him for his help in deciphering and explaining the inscriptions. The relevant passage can be translated, “The painting of the crucified Capuchin having come into the hands of a nun of the Royal Discalced Señoras of this Court, just as it was intended for meditation by the nuns of the Convent of Jesus María Desiert to de Penitencia de Granada, she begged me, for the consolation of her soul and to encourage her in fulfilling what she had promised to God through her solemn profession, to provide her with an explanation of each of the inscriptions or letters that are respectively distributed on the painting. I gladly undertook this task, which seemed to me a matter of few words. But once engaged in it, I realized that many words would be necessary to explain with due dignity and appropriate detail the passages from Sacred Scripture that the image presents to the nun, and that I would necessarily have to elaborate more than I had initially thought, producing a book, albeit a handbook, from what I believed could be contained in a small notebook. I have not regretted having yielded to the nun’s good wishes, for I have an obligation to contribute, as much as I can, to her spiritual advancement. I hope, with the grace of the Lord, that this present treatise will serve this purpose” (“Prologo”).
Passages are devoted to the crucified nun’s head, eyes, ears, mouth, both hands and both feet, both sides, her breast, and the orb upon which she stands.
Manuel de Espinosa then added an extensive Manual del alma religiosa providing spiritual and practical advice to nuns (vows, profession, aspects of convent life, the ‘Rule,’ etc.).
An inscription on the back of the engraving confirms that the book was, in fact, read by nuns. It reads: “en uso de sor Maria Jacinta y de su Hermana Sor Josefa Teresa” (“for the use of Sor Maria Jacinta and her sister Sor Josefa Teresa”).
OCLC and KVK locate U.S. copies at Johns Hopkins & Princeton.
*Francisco Aguilar Piñal, Bibliografía de autores españoles del siglo XVIII, no 1498.