CAPUCHIN CERTIFICATE
[CAPUCHINS.]
Diploma conferring ‘privilegium maximum’.
‘Bojonii’, 22 October 1779.
Single sheet (30 x 43 cm), recto with 10 lines of engraved text, completed with 5 lines in manuscript, surrounded by an elaborate engraved border with Capuchin seal embossed in blind within cartouche at foot, verso blank except for a few faint contemporary ink notes; a little soiling and creasing otherwise good; small label with monogram ‘VM’ pasted to bottom right corner of recto.
An attractive diploma issued by Erhard von Radkersburg (1714–1798) in his capacity as Minister General of the Capuchins to one Nicolas Homont and his family, granting them the spiritual benefits of the devotions and good works undertaken by the order.
The diploma entitles Homont – as well as his mother, brothers and sisters (‘Matri nec non Fratribus et Sororibus’) – to the spiritual fruits accruing from Masses, prayers, vigils, penances, pilgrimages, meditations, and charitable works undertaken by the Capuchin order, in accordance with powers granted to this effect to the Franciscans by the fourteenth-century Pope Urban V. The document was issued by Radkersburg – an Austrian who served as Capuchin Minister General between 1773 and 1789 – during one of his general visitations in October 1779.
The remarkable engraved border depicts St Francis of Assisi, with stigmata, kneeling before the Virgin, along with several other Franciscan friars.
