Four-Tiered Heaven
ACETI DE’ PORTI, Serafino.
Novo paradiso di delitie spirituali, nel quale si contiene la vita del salvator nostro Giesu Christo. Con alcune bellissime instruttioni, documenti, & orationi della Madonna, & d’altri santi utilissime alle anime …
Bologna, Giovanni Rossi, 1563.
8vo, pp. [32], 368; large woodcut depicting heaven to title, initials; small marginal hole to title, small marginal wormhole to first few leaves, small hole to pp. 277-278 touching a few letters, some light foxing and marks; good in 18th-century vellum over boards, edges sprinkled red; upper joint split at foot, some wear to corners and worming, endpapers renewed; ‘Concett.ne d’Albano’ inscribed to title, ‘01’ stamped in ink to title margin.
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Novo paradiso di delitie spirituali, nel quale si contiene la vita del salvator nostro Giesu Christo. Con alcune bellissime instruttioni, documenti, & orationi della Madonna, & d’altri santi utilissime alle anime …
Rare first edition of this devotional work by Serafino Aceti de’ Porti (1496–1540), a Canon Regular of the Lateran, encompassing episodes from the life of Christ, passages on love for God and on charity, prayers to the Virgin Mary, and spiritual advice by St Bridget.
The remarkable woodcut to the title-page depicts a four-tiered heaven, with God surrounded by angels at the top; Christ crowning the Virgin Mary below, flanked by Biblical figures including Moses, King David, and Noah with his ark; the Four Evangelists and other saints below them, including Saints Peter, Lawrence, and Simon the Zealot; and the laity and clergy at the bottom, among whom appear kings, the pope, and bishops. The Novo paradiso followed Serafino’s Il paradiso di delitie spirituali che contiene la vita della Madonna published the previous year.
Provenance: the inscription to the title would suggest ownership by the cloistered Poor Clares of the convent of the Immaculate Conception at Albano Laziale.
EDIT16 CNCE 47794; USTC 807695. No copies traced in the UK or US.
