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Vesperae quae cantantur solemniter a clericis regularibus S. Pauli, in ecclesia SS. Blasii et Caroli de urbe. D. Augustinus A.D. 1693 Lagettus F[ecit].

[Rome, 1693 and later].

Manuscript on paper, in Latin, folio (330 x 225 mm), pp. [2], 12, [2], 13-18, [2], 19-20 + blanks; neatly written in brown and red ink in one principal hand and two later hands, two columns per page; title within elaborate architectural frame in green, pink, blue, and gold with Barnabite device, decorative initials and tailpieces in gold, red and green, headings in green heightened with gold; old repair at foot of p. 12, textblock split between pp. 16 and 17, some foxing and marginal dampstaining and soiling, a few small wax drops; otherwise good in contemporary brown morocco, covers richly gilt with Barnabite device to centre and corners, gilt edges, marbled pastedowns; some wear to spine, corners, and edges, a little rubbing to covers.

£2750

Approximately:
US $3741€3188

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Vesperae quae cantantur solemniter a clericis regularibus S. Pauli, in ecclesia SS. Blasii et Caroli de urbe. D. Augustinus A.D. 1693 Lagettus F[ecit].

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A finely executed manuscript comprising texts to be sung at vespers by the Clerics Regular of Saint Paul – better known as the Barnabites – in the church of Santi Biagio e Carlo ai Catinari in Rome, bearing signs of adapted use over time.

The Barnabites were founded at Milan in 1530 by Antonio Maria Zaccaria, taking their name from their church of St Barnabas. Their rule provided for the study of St Paul’s epistles and for educational and missionary work. A church dedicated to St Blasius (Armenian bishop and physician martyred in the early fourth century) and to St Charles Borromeo (Archbishop of Milan, canonised in 1610) was commissioned by the Barnabites and funded by the Milanese community in Rome, construction beginning in 1611. It is one of a number of great seventeenth-century preaching churches built by Counter-Reformation orders in the Italian capital.

The services found in our manuscript, are, in order of appearance: Christmas Day (25 December); the Circumcision of Christ (1 January); Epiphany (6 January); Easter Sunday; the feast of the Ascension; Pentecost; Corpus Christi; the feast of the Conversion of St Paul (25 January); the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June); the Commemoration of St Paul (30 June); the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (15 August); All Saints (1 November); the feast of St Charles Borromeo (4 November); St Cecilia’s day (22 November); the beatification of Alexander Sauli (23 April); the feast of St Fidelis of Sigmaringen (24 April); the feast of St Anne (26 July); and the feast of St Blasius (3 February).

Most notable here is the insertion of a leaf for St Alexander Sauli (1534–1592), known as the ‘Apostle of Corsica’, who was beatified in 1742 (and later canonised in 1904). Sauli joined the Barnabites at an early age, becoming the order’s provost-general, and taught at the university of Pavia. He served with distinction as bishop of Aleria in Corsica. A later hand has added a prayer on the same page to the German Capuchin friar St Fidelis of Sigmaringen (1577–1622), canonised in 1746. Other indications of our manuscript being updated over time include a slip pasted at the foot of p. 19, over a tailpiece, carrying a prayer to the fourteenth-century Carmelite Andrea Corsini.

The title-page features a remarkable architectural border incorporating caryatids and cherubs. It is dated 1693 and signed by one ‘Augustinus Lagettus’, who was clearly responsible for the decoration of the manuscript, and probably also for the calligraphy.

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