Vaticinia

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Accession number:

MS M.272

Title:

Vaticinia

Created:

Lombardy, Italy, ca. 1465.

Binding:

20th-century rose morocco, blind tooled by Marguerite Duprez Lahey; in tan case.

Credit:

Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1907.

Description:

12 leaves, bound : vellum, ill. ; 317 x 220 mm

Provenance:

Oddi collection, Perugia; purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) from Olschki in 1907; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943).

Notes:

Ms. of images of the popes and their symbols; written and illustrated in Lombardy, Italy, ca. 1465.
Above each drawing is the name of the Pope, from Honorius IV (1285-1287) to Calixtus III (1455-1458), and below is the text of the Ascende Calve or the Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus (beginning at fol. 7v), the papal prophecies, and the Pope's motto.
The Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus was augmented in the 14th century with further prophecies and with the incipit Ascende Calve written in imitative continuation of the earlier set, but with more propagandist aims. By the time of the Council of Constance (1414-1418), both series were united as the Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus and misattributed to the Calabrian mystic Joachim of Floris (or Pseudo-Joachim of Floris) and another Anselm, Bishop of Marsico Nuovo.
The accepted authority for the interpretations is Paolo dalla Scalla, Marquis of Verona (Scaliger) in his "Primi tomi Miscellaneorum de rerum, caussis... effigies..., nimirum vaticiniorum et imaginum Joachim Abbatis Florencis et Anselmi Episcopi Marischani" (Cologne: 1570).
Decoration: 24 full-page wash drawings of the popes and their symbols.

Variant Title:

Prophetiae et imagines summorum pontificum

Script:

perhaps textura

Language:

Latin

Resources:

Description/Bibliography

Century:

15th century

Genres:

Manuscripts